Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-08-29
ROOSEVELTS CONFESSION OF
FAITH"
(Third Installment.N

! especially challenge the attention
of the people to the need of dealing
in far-reaching fashion with our hui
man resources, and therefore our la
Dor power. In century and quar-
ter as nation the American people
have subdued and settled the vast
reaches of a continent; ahead lies
the greater task of building upon this
foundation, by themselves, for them
selves, and with themselves, an
American commonwealth which in its
social and economic structure shall
be four square with democracy.
With England striving to make good
the human wreckage to which a
scrapheap scheme of industrialism
has relegated her, with Germany put
ting the painstaking resources of an
empire at the work of developing her
crafts and industrial sciences, with
the far east placing in the hands of
its millions the tools invented and
fashioned by western civilization, it
behooves Americans to keep abreast
of the great industrial changes and
TO show that the people themselves,
through popular \ self-government,
dom and strength.
In the last twenty years an in
creasing percentage of our people
have come to depend on industry for
their livelihood, so that today the
wage~workers in industry rank in
Importance side by side with the till
ers of the soil. AS a people we can
not afford to let any group of citi-
zens or any individual citizen live or
labor under conditions which are in
furious to the common welfare. In
dustry, therefore, must submit to
such public regulation as will make
it a means of life and health, not of
death or inefficiency. We must pro-
tect the crushable elements at the
base of our present industrial struc-
ture.
The first charge on the industrial
craftsmanship of the day is to pre-
vent human waste. The dead weight
of orphanage and depleted crafts
manship, of crippled workers and
workers suffering from trade dis
eases, of casual labor, of insecure old
age, and of household depletion due
to industrial conditions, are, like our
depleted soils, our gashed mountain
sides and flooded river bottoms, so
many strains upon the national struc-
ture, draining the reserve strength
of all industries and showing beyond
all peradventure the public element
and public concern in industrial
health.
TOOl-Users to Become TOOl-Owners.
Ultimately we desire to use the
government to aid, as far as can safe
ly be done, in helping the industrial
tool-users to become in part tool
owners, just as our farmers now are.
Ultimately the government may have
to join more efficiently than at pres
ent in strengthening the hands of the
workingmen who already stand at a
high level, industrially and socially,
and who are by joint action to save
themselves. But the most pressing
and Immediate need is to deal with
the cases of those who are on the
level, and who are not only in need
themselves, but, because of their
need, tend to jeopardize the welfare
of those who are better off. We
hold that under no industrial order,
in no commonwealth, in no trade,
and in no establishment should in
dustry be carried on under conditions
inimical to the social welfare. The
abnormal, ruthless, spendthrift in
dustry or establishment tends to drag
down all to the level of the least con-
siderate.
Here the sovereign responsibility
OF the people as whole should be
oII 4 ;c
pute.
The public needs have been well
summarized as follows:
L. We hold that the public has a
right to complete knowledge of the
facts of work.
2. On the basis of these facts and
with the recent discoveries of ply
sicians and neurologists, engineers
and economists, the public can form
ulate minimum occupational stand
ards below which, demonstrably
work can be prosecuted only at a
human deficit.
3. In the third place, we hold
that all industrial conditions which
fall below such standards should
come within the scope of government
tai action and control in the same
way that abnormal sanitary condi-
tons are subject to public regulation
and for the same reason-because
they threaten the general welfare.
Industrial Data Required.
To the first end, we hold that the
constituted authorities should be EN-
powered to require all employers tC
file with them for pubic purposes
such wage scales and other data a.