Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-02

'Ai 90 INVITING Jul the rlBnI OIL the
sed the West Virginia strike as a
nciples of corporation regulation.
NEWPORT, r. l., July 2.-The de-
mand made in the first national plat
form OF the Progressive party for
regulation of corporations and COM
binations to insure their doing JUS
tice to their rivals, TO their customers
and to their employees" has been
emphasized, Theodore Roosevelt de-
clared this afternoon at the clambake
which opened the national conference
of the Progressive party, by what has
occurred since election In the West
Virginia bituminousl coal fields.
In opening his speech, Colonel
Roosevelt pointed to the Progressive
platform upon which he ran for the
presidency last fall as a document
which upholders of social and indus
trial justice in the future will recog-
nize as one of the great documents of
American political history. From it he
cited two demands-the first that the
national government undertake on
a gigantic scale the york of harness.
ing the flood waters of the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, using for that pur-
pose the outfit that has been used in
the construction of the Panama canal.
The second demand already referred
to. Colonel Roosevelt dwelt upon at
considerable length.
He quoted from court decisions and
1nr1o nd hof he rfeln he
make the men of property understand
that in fighting such decisions and
such conditions as in West Virginia
he was fighting against anarchy In
favor of law and order and for prop
erty.
THE utter futility of the plan of
action, or rather non-action, adWo-
Gated in both the Republican and
Democratic platforms last year. and
christened by President Wilson with
magniloquent vagueness The New
Freedom has been strikingly shown
by what has thus occurred in West
Virginia - Colonel Roosevelt declared.
" The New Freedom is nothing
whatever but the right of the strong
to prey on the weak. of the big men
to crush the little men, and to shield
their inquiry beneath the cry that
they are exercising freedom" He
said:
"A careful study of the articles that
have appeared by President Wilson
dealing with this subject since he
was President has left me somewhat
puzzled as to what he really does
Al. a
there must be meaning, and if this
assumption is warranted then The
New Freedom means nothing what
ever but the old license translated
into terms of pleasant rhetoric.
There is but one way to interfere
with freedom to inf1ict slavery on
others, and that is by invoking the
supervisory. the regulatory, the con-
trolling and directing power of the
government precisely as the Pro-
gressives last year demanded in their
platform, and as I and others like
me demanded in our speeches"
Dealing with the regulation of cor
porations and combinations and using
the West Virginia strike as the basis
for his arguments for the adoption of
Progressive principles, Colonel Roose-
welt said in part:
What lis needed is the thorough
rooting-out of the conditions which
brought about the dreadful state of
affairs in the West Virginia bitumi-
nous fields. In that region we see in
actual operation the over competi-
tive conditions to which the advo-
.
us return under the impression that
they offer a panacea for all our ills.
Under the pressure of an unen-
lightened capitalistic opinion, the
West Virgianian courts have rem
dered decisions--in strict accordance
with the principles of the new free
dom'-which themselves serve as the
most striking object lessons of the
need of the widespread application of
Progressive principles. In the district
where the rioting has occurred the
employing operators have endeavored
to keep the miners in a state of prac-
teal serfage by the use of the COM
pany stores. This fact has been rec
ognized and the practise forbidden in
most civilized countries; in England.
lOT ltBlSldllOil was PdSSCu
forbidding. this practise more than
seventy years ago.
The West Virginia Legislature did
its duty by passing laws requiring
the cash payment of wages and pro-
hibiting persons and corporations en-
gagged in mining and manufacture from
selling any merchandise or supplies
from stores to their employees at a
greater percentage of profit than to
outsiders These laws were contested
in the courts as unconstitutional
"As a whole the West Virginia court
has declared that they were in
effective, as In contravention of the
constitution. The court explicitly
states that a contract for labor is
property, thereby putting the life
blood of men, women and children on
a level with the commodities they
produce. The court explicitly re-
pudiated the notion that the miners
are entitled to be paid in cash or can
by law be secured such a right, or
that the mine owners can be pro-
hibited by law from selling to the
laborers at a higher price than to out
siders. The court stated that these
laws represented unjust interference
with private contracts and business
and that they were an insulting at
tempt to put the laborer under legis-
lative tutelage,' which was degrading
to his manhood and 'suppressfve of
his rights as citizen of the United
States
II wish l could make the men of
in the country, the big bust