Page images
PDF
EPUB

noon; and it was "What's the matter with Bryan?" repeated over and over again by the same people and around the same platform, a very short time later. It was "Do just what you want to, Teddy," when the one spoke; and "Anything you do is all right," when the other spoke. Both had to fight their way behind policemen when they came to the stand, both were nearly pulled off the stand entirely before they began to speak, by the people who wanted to get as near them as possible, and both had to run a gauntlet of outstretched hands and smiling faces before they escaped from the park and made their way to the trains that were to take them to the opening of their campaign tours. The two leaders sat side by side earlier in the day on the reviewing stand in the Auditorium Hotel balcony, while they watched the ranks of organized labor file past, when they had taken luncheon together in the hotel, as guests of the labor organizations, accompanied by Yates and Alschuler, the candidates of their two parties for the Governorship of Illinois, and by some of their political lieutenants.

At Electric Park, half a dozen miles from the hotel, the crowds of laboring men had been gathering long before the two leaders were ready even to begin their luncheon. They filled all the seats, not reserved for guests, under the awning, and sat patiently waiting for the speakers to come. They crowded around the speaking stand, they stood up on every railing in sight; and men by the dozen climbed the surrounding trees and hung onto swaying branches, unmindful of the sun in their eyes. It was 1:45 o'clock, however, over an hour late, before Governor Roosevelt's carriage was sighted coming along the driveway. The big cheer that greeted him was enough to have driven all the birds in the neighborhood across the Chicago river. With Graeme Stewart he made his way to the stand and got more cheers.

When the Governor spoke it was to give his hearers such an analysis of the progress of labor, the development of labor legislation and the power of the laboring men in harmonious work with the rest of society for the welfare of society, as sank deep into the thoughts of all his auditors.

"We have," he said, "exactly the same right to regulate the conditions of life and work in factories and tenement houses that we have to regulate fire escapes and the like in other houses. In certain communities the existence of a thoroughly efficient department of factory inspection is just as essential as the establishment of a fire department. How far we shall go in regulating the hours of labor, or the liabilities of employers, is a matter of expediency, and each case must be determined on its own merits, exactly as it is a matter of expediency to determine what so-called 'public utilities' the community shall itself own, and what ones it shall leave to private or corporate ownership, securing to itself merely the right to regulate. Sometimes one course is expedient, sometimes the other.

"In my own State during the last half dozen years we have made a number of notable strides in labor legislation, and, with very few exceptions, the laws have worked well. This is, of course, partly because we have not tried to do too much and have proceeded cautiously, feeling our way; and, while always advancing, and taking each step in advance only when we were satisfied that the step already taken was in the right direction. To invite reaction by unregulated zeal is never wise, and is sometimes fatal.

"In New York our action has been along two lines. In the first place we determined that as an employer of labor the State should set a good example to other employers. We do not intend to permit the people's money to be squandered or to tolerate any work that is not the best. But we think that while rigidly insisting upon good work, we should see that there is fair play in return. Accordingly, we have adopted an eight-hour law for the State employees and for all contractors who do State work, and we have also adopted a law requiring that the fair market rate of wages shall be given. I am glad to say that both measures have so far, on the whole, worked well. Of course, there have been individual difficulties, mostly where the work is intermittent, as, for instance, among lock tenders on the canals, where it is very difficult to define what eight hours' work means. But on the whole, the result has been good. The practical experiment of working men for eight hours has been advantageous to the State. Poor work is always dear, whether poorly paid or not, and good work is always well worth having; and it is a mere question of expediency, aside even from the question of humanity, we find that we can obtain the best work by paying fair wages and permitting the work to go on only for a reasonable time.

"The other side of our labor legislation has been that affecting the wage workers who do not work for the State. Here we have acted in three different ways. Through the Bureau of Labor Statistics, through the Board of Mediation and Arbitration, and through the Department of Factory Inspection.

"During the last two years the Board of Mediation and Arbitration has been especially successful. Not only have they succeeded in settling many strikes after they were started, but they have succeeded in preventing a much larger number of strikes before they got fairly under way. Where possible, it is always better to mediate before the strike begins than to try to arbitrate when the fight is on and both sides have grown stubborn and bitter.

"The Bureau of Labor Statistics has done more than merely gather the statistics; for by keeping in close touch with all the leading labor interests it has kept them informed on countless matters that were really of vital concern to them. Incidentally, one pleasing feature of the work of this bureau has been the steady upward tendency shown during the last four years both in amount of wages received and in the quantity and steadiness of employment. No other

man has been benefited so much as the wage worker by the growth in prosperity during these years.

"Work in itself, so far from being any hardship, is a great blessing, provided, always, it is carried on under conditions which preserve a man's selfrespect and which allow him to develop his own character and rear his children so that he and they, as well as the whole community of which he and they are part, may steadily move onward and upward. The idler, rich or poor, is at best a useless and is generally a noxious member of the community. To whom much has been given, from him much is rightfully expected, and a heavy burden of responsibility rests upon the man of means to justify by his actions the social conditions which have rendered it possible for him or his forefathers to accumulate and to keep the property he enjoys. He is not to be excused if he does not render full measure of service to the State and to the community at large. There are many ways in which this service can be rendered; in art, in literature, in philanthropy; as a statesman, as a soldier; but in some way he is in honor bound to render it; so that benefit may accrue to his brethren who have been less favored by fortune than he has been. In short, he must work, and work not only for himself, but for others. If he does not work, he fails not only in his duty to the rest of the community, but he fails signally in his duty to himself. There is no need of envying the idle. Ordinarily, we can afford to treat them with impatient contempt; for when they fail to do their duty, they fail to get from life the highest and keenest pleasures that life can give.

"Before us loom industrial problems, vast in their importance and their complexity. The last half century has been one of extraordinary social and industrial development. The changes have been far-reaching; some of them for good and some of them for evil. It is not given to the wisest of us to see into the future with absolute clearness. No man can be certain that he has found the entire solution of this infinitely great and intricate problem, and yet each man of us, if he would do his duty, must strive manfully so far as in him lies to help bring about that solution. It is not as yet possible to say what shall be the exact limit of influence allowed the State or what limit shall be set to that right of individual initiative so dear to the hearts of the American people. All we can say is that the need has been shown on the one hand for action by the people in their collective capacity through the State, in many matters; that in other matters much can be done by associations of different groups of individuals, as in trades unions and similar organizations; and that in other matters it remains now as true as ever that final success will be for the man who trusts in the struggle only to his cool head, his brave heart, and his strong right arm. There are spheres in which the State can properly act, and spheres in which a comparatively free field must be given to individual initiative.

"Though conditions of life have grown so puzzling in their complexity, though the changes have been so vast, yet we may remain absolutely sure of one thing; that now, as ever in the past, and as it ever will be in the future, there can be no substitute for the elemental virtues, for the elemental qualities to which we allude when we speak of a man as not only a good man, but as emphatically a man. We can build up the standard of individual citizenship and individual well being, we can raise the national standard and make it what it can and shall be made, only by each of us steadfastly keeping in mind that there can be no substitute for the world-old, humdrum, commonplace qualities of truth, justice and courage, thrift, industry, common sense and genuine sympathy with and fellow feeling for others."

CHAPTER XV.

PRESIDENT'S POLICY OF PROBLEMS.

A Study of Governor Roosevelt's Message to the Legislature of New York Covering the Latest and Greatest Modern Questions,-Taxation, Restraint of Trusts, All Phases of Labor Issues-Corporations, Municipal Ownership, the Boxing Law.

A

LMOST as great an impression was made on the public by the coincidence in time and sentiment of the Pan-American Exposition speech of President McKinley, destined to be his last formal address-and the Labor Day speech of Vice-President Roosevelt earlier in the same week, as by the few words spoken by the Vice-President before taking the oath prescribed for the President. The unity of opinion and purpose between the President called away and his successor, was most satisfactory, and while the comfort of the people was aided at home, the credit of the country was confirmed and strengthened away from home.

Well as the people knew Roosevelt, they were not acquainted as they desired with his views of the later questions arisen in our country; but he had, in his first message as Governor of New York, defined his position in one of the most forcible and clean-cut communications, an officer high in responsibility ever wrote for the general public. The greater of Roosevelt's messages to his State foreshadowed his first Presidential message, except in relation to the September tragedy and dealing with the anarchists. The date of the Governor's message was, Albany, January 3, 1900. The Governor began by paying this compliment to the State Government preceding:

"It is a very genuine pleasure to congratulate the Legislature upon the substantial sum of achievement in legislation and administration of the past year. Laws of the utmost usefulness to the community have been enacted, and there has been a steady betterment throughout the year in the methods and results of the administration of the Government."

The first subject was that of the canals. It would not have been the way of Roosevelt if any other question than that of the canals had taken first place, for that was the one that was "burning." There was a Canal Commission at work but it had not completed its labors and the subject was so vast and vital it was evident the Commissioners would not have time to consider the canal prob

« PreviousContinue »