Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-07-03

form apon which he ran for the pres
idencY. last fan as a document which
! npholders of social and industrial jus
| tee in the future viii recognize as
one Of The great documents of Ameri-
can political history. From it he cited
j two demands the first that the nation
! al government undertake on gigantic
scale the work of Harvesting the flood
waters OF the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, using for that purpose the out
! fit that has been used in the construc-
| ton of the Panama Canal. The second
demand already referred to, Colonel
| Roosevelt dWelt upon at considerable
| length. He quoted from court decis-
| ions and declared that he wished he
could make the men Of property I'M
derstand that in fighting such aecis-
| ions and such conditions as in West
Virginia he was fighting against anar-
chY, in favor Of law and order and for
property.
THE utter futility of the plan of ac-
| ton, or rather nun-action. advocated
in both the Republican and Democra-
tie platforms last year, and christened
by President Wilson with magnilo-
qnent vagueness The New Freedom.
has been strikiugiy shown by what has
, thus occurred in West Virginia" Col
onel 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 lit
tie men. and to shield their iniquity
beneath the cry that they are exer-
cisng freedom.
Colonel Rooseyeltss speech this af-
tcTnoon sounded like the keynote of
the Progressive policies and opened the
discussion of party ideals and IDEAS
that will continue two days. Refer
ring again to President Wilson's arti-
Gle on The New Freedom" Colonel
Roosevelt 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 puz-
zled as to what he really does mean, but
Of course | assume that there must be
meaning, and if this assumption is
warranted then The New Freedom
means nothing whatever but the old
license translated into terms of pleas
ant rhetoric.
with freedom to infiiet slavery on 9TH
ers, and that is by invoking the SUI
perVisory, the regulatory, the control
ling and directing power of the gov
eminent precisely as the Progressives
last year demanded in their platform
and | and others like me demanded
| in our speeches.
! Dealing With the regulation OF
| corporations and combinations and us
ing the West Virginia strike as the
| basis for his arguments fer the adop-
| tinn of Progressive principles, Colonel
| Roosevelt said in part:
What is needed is the thorough
| roofing out of tie conditions which
brought about the dreadful state of af-
| fairs i'm the West Virginia bituminous
fields. In that region we see in actual
,operation the oyer-eompetitive condi-
tons to which the advocates of the
new freedom would have us return
under the impression that they offer a
panacea for all our ills.
Under the pressure of an uuen-
,ightened capitalistic opinion. the West
Virginian courts have rendered decis-
ions-in strict accordance with the
~ INV prs VI lllG new 1ItfuOin WHICH
themselves serve as the most striking
object lessons of the need of the
widespread application of Progressive
principles. In the district where the
ffoting has occurred the employing OPP
orators nave endeayored TO keep the
miners in state of practical
serfage by the use of the com
pany stores. This fact has been
recognized and the practice for
hidden in most civilized countries; in
England, for instance legislation was
passed forbidding this practice more
than seventy years ago. The West
Virginia Legislature did its duty by
passing laws requiring the cash pay
ment of wages. and prohibiting per-
sons and corporations engaged in
mining and manufacture from selling
any merchandise or supplies from
stores to their employees 1T a greater
percentage of profit than to outsiders.
These laws We're 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
PROSTITUTION. 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.
I'm SO West Virginia 179 and 1SS, the
court explicitly repudiated 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 prohibited by law from selling to
the laborers at a higher price than to
outsiders. The court stated that these
laws represented unjust interference
with private contracts and business,
and that they We're an insulting at
tempt to put the laborer under legis-
lative tutelage,' which was degrading
to his manhood and 'suppressive of
his rights as a citizen of the United
States
These opinions put the case of the
new freedom coneisely. They say
that the laborer has the freedom, or as
they phrase it the right to sell his
labor ms he thinks best, and that any
law controlling this right is unconsti-
tutional. Literally and exactly this
decision stands ON n. par with one
which i'm the mama of freedom should