YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS

POLITICAL
ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS

SPEECHES DELIVERED BETWEEN
AUGUST, 1908, AND FEBRUARY, 1909
BY
WILLIAM H. TAFT

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1909

ALL EIGHTS BESEEVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TBANSLATION
INTO rOEEIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COFYEIGHT, IQOp, BY DOUBLEDAY PAGE & COMPANY
FCBLISHED, OCTOBER, 1909

CONTENTS
NUUBEK PAGE
1. The Federal Courts .... 3
( Homestead Hotel, Hot Springs, Va., Aug. 6, 1908.)
2. The Present Issues of the Two Great Parties 20
(Hot Springs, Aug. 21, 1908.)
/3. The Republican View of Labor . . • 36
(Taft Club, Athens, Ohio, Aug. 29, 1908.)
4. Mr. Bryan's Claim to the Roosevelt Policies 52
( Sandusky, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1908.)
5. The Future of the Negro ... - 66
(Alien Temple, Cincinnati, Sept. 15, 1908.)
6. In Defense of the Philippine Policy . . 74
(Sinton Hotel, Norwood, Ohio, Sept. 19, 1908.)
7. The Republican Party : What It Has Done 87
(Music Hall, Cincinnati, Sept. 22, 1908.)
8. The Railroads and the Courts . . . 110
( Orchestra Hall, Chicago, Sept. 23, 1908.)
9. A Pledge of Tariff Reform .... 130
(Milwaukee, Sept. 24, 1908.)
10. Postal Savings Banks and the Guaranty of
Bank Deposits  141
( St. Paul, Sept. 28, 1908.)
11. Labor and the Writ of Injunction . . . 161
( Auditorium, Topeka, Kan., Oct. 3, 1908.)

vi POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
NUMBER PAGE
12. The Debate of Lincoln and Douglass : A Look
Backward  166
(Galesburg, III., Oct. 7, 1908.)
13. The Solid South and Its Political Past . . 176
( Chattanooga, Oct. 16, 1908.)
14. Party Plans and Principles .... 188
( Newark, Oct. 19, 1908.)
15. Mr. Gompers, the Courts and Labor . . 203
( Cooper Union, New York, Oct. 28, 1908.)
16. A Few Words to Southern Democrats . . 225
(Augusta, Ga., Jan. 14, 1909.)
17. The Winning of the South . . . .230
(Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 15, 1909.)
18. Hopeful Views of Negro Difficulties . . 240
(Big Bethel Church, Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 16, 1909.)
19. The Young Men's Christian Association . . 245
(Tabernacle Baptist Church, Augusta, Ga., Jan. 17,
1909.)
20. The Outlook of Negro Education . . .261
(Augusta, Ga., Jan. 19, 1909.)
21. The Uniting of Whites and Negroes . . 268
(PeUcan Park, New Orleans, Feb. 12, 1909.)
22. The Learned Professions and Political Govern
ment  275
( University of Pennsylvania, Feb. 22, 1909.)
23. A Cheerful Review of Negro Activities . . 291
( Carnegie Hall, New York, Feb. 23, 1909.)

POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS

Political Issues and Outlooks

THE FEDERAL COURTS
(delivered BEFOHE THB VIBGINIA BAR ASSOCIATION, AT
THE HOMESTEAD HOTEL, HOT SPRINGS, VA.,
AUGUST 6, 1908)
THE chief reason why the State devotes so much time and
effort in the administration of justice is to promote the
cause of peace and tranquillity in the community. Speaking
theoretically and ideally, of course, our aim is to secure equal
and exact justice; but practically, the object sought is peace.
The most recent instance of this was set forth most suc
cinctly and forcibly in the able report of Governor Montague
as to the progress in the establishment of a permanent tri
bunal at The Hague to settle international difficulties. While
in theory this is to secure exact justice between the nations,
practically its purpose is to avoid war.
In a Republic like ours, under popular control, with the
dual form of government between the States and the United
States, politico-legal questions which might tend to bring
on conflict between parties and factions among the people
were: first, the distribution of power under the Federal con
stitution between the National Government and the State
governments; second, the division between the executive.

4 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the legislative and the judicial branches of the Government;
and, third, the limitations upon governmental action either
through the National Government or the State Government,
in respect to the rights of individuals. Under our funda
mental compact and its subsequent construction by the
judicial branch, there was introduced a new and most
effective instrument for the promotion of the peaceable settle
ment of those great governmental political controversies.
The decisions in the cases of Marbury v. Madison and Cohen
V. Virginia, which in their personal aspect took on the phase
of a fundamental difference of opinion between two great
Virginians, established the principle in this country, which
has never been departed from, that the ultimate arbiter in
respect to such great political and legal issues was and is the
Supreme Court of the United States. It is true that this
unique feature did not save us from the greatest civil war of
modern times; but no one at all familiar with the history of
the country can deny that this function of the Supreme
Court of the United States, and a similar one within the sphere
of their jurisdiction, of the Supreme Courts of the States,
ultimately to decide upon the limitations of legislative and
executive power, have greatly contributed to the peace and
tranquillity of our community. This peculiar power of
courts with us has carried their usefulness for the peaceful
settlement of controversies beyond anything attempted in
other countries. Of course, the exercise of this power must
rest on the existence of a written constitution. Without it,
there would be no guide for the courts except indefinite tra
ditions that could hardly be made the basis for judicial
decision. The power of the courts to declare invalid laws
of the Legislature we know was not adopted without very bitter

THE FEDERAL COURTS 5
opposition; but I think the controversy was settled now so
long ago that we generally agree that it has much contrib
uted to the smooth working of our Constitution and to the
supremacy of law and order in our community and offers
great advantages over the methods of settling a similar class
of questions in other countries.
While we may properly felicitate ourselves on this widened
function of our courts, enabling us to avoid less peaceable
methods of settling important politico-legal questions, have
we the right to say that our present administration of justice
generally insures continued popular satisfaction with its
results ? I think not. It may be true that down to the pres
ent time it has supplied a means of settling controversies
between individuals and of bringing to punishment those
who offend against the criminal laws sufficient to prevent a
general disturbance of the peace and to keep the dissatisfied
from violent manifestation against the Government and our
present social system.
There are, however, abundant evidences that the prose
cution of criminals has not been certain and thorough to
the point of preventing popular protest. The existence
of lynching in many parts of the country is directly trace
able to this lack of uniformity and thoroughness in
the enforcement of our criminal laws. This is a defect
which must be remedied or it will ultimately destroy the
Republic. I shall not delay you this morning, however, with a dis
cussion as, to the reforms which ought to be adopted in the
criminal branch of our jurisprudence. I have attempted this
in an address on another occasion. I wish to confine myself
to the delays and inequalities in the administration of justice

6 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
in controversies between private persons, including, of course,
corporations. The present is a time when all our institutions are being
subjected to close scrutiny with a view to the determination
whether we have not now tried the institutions upon which
modern society rests to the point of proving that some of
them should be radically changed. The chief attack is on
the institution of private property and is based upon the
inequalities in the distribution of wealth and of human hap
piness that are apparent in our present system. As I have
had occasion in other places to say frequently, I believe that,
among human institutions, that of private property, next
to personal liberty, has had most to do with the uplifting and
the physical and moral improvement of the whole human race,
but that it is not inconsistent with the rights of private prop
erty to impose limitations upon its uses for unlawful pur
poses, and that this is the remedy for reform rather than the
abolition of the institution itself. But this scrutiny of our
institutions, this increasing disposition to try experiments,
to see whether there is not some method by which human
happiness may be more equally distributed than it is, ought
to make those of us who really believe in our institutions as
essential to further progress, anxious to remove real and just
ground for criticism in our present system.
I venture to think that one evil which has not attracted
the attention of the community at large, but which is likely
to grow in importance as the inequality between the poor and
the rich in our civilization is studied, is in the delays in
the administration of justice between individuals. As
between two wealthy corporations, or two wealthy individual
litigants, and where the subject-matter of the litigation reaches

THE FEDERAL COURTS 7
to tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars, where each
party litigant is able to pay the expenses of litigation, large
fees to counsel, and to undergo for the time being the loss
of interest on the capital involved, our present system, while
not perfect, is not so far from proper results as to call for
anxiety. The judges of the country, both State and National,
are good men. Venality in our judges is very rare; and while
the standard of judicial ability and learning may not always
be as high as we should like to see it, the provisions for review
and for free and impartial hearing are such as generally to
give just final judgments. The inequality that exists in our
present administration of justice, and that sooner or later
is certain to rise and trouble us, and to call for popular con
demnation and reform, is the unequal burden which the
delays and expense of litigation under our system imposes
on the poor litigant. In some communities I know, delays in
litigation have induced merchants and commercial men to
avoid courts altogether and to settle their controversies by
arbitration, and to this extent the courts have been relieved;
but such boards of arbitration are only possible as between
those litigants that are members of the same commercial
body and are in a sense associates. They offer no relief
to the litigant of little means who finds himself engaged in a
controversy with a wealthy opponent, whether individual or
corporation. The reform, if it is to come, must be reached through the
improvement in our judicial procedure. In the first place,
the codes of procedure are generally much too elaborate.
It is possible to have a code of procedure simple and effective.
This is shown by the present procedure in the English courts,
most of which is framed by rules of court. The code of

8 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the State of New York is staggering in the number of its sec
tions. A similar defect exists in some civil-law countries.
The elaborate Spanish code of procedure that we found in
the Philippines when we first went there could be used by
a dilatory defendant to keep the plaintiff stamping in the
vestibule of justice until time had made justice impossible.
Every additional technicality, every additional rule of pro
cedure adds to the expense of litigation. It is inevitable that
with an elaborate code the expense of a suit involving a small
sum is in proportion far greater than that involving a
large sum. Hence it results that the cost of justice to the poor
is always greater than it is to the rich, assuming that the
poor are more often interested in small cases than the rich
in large ones — a fairly reasonable assumption.
I listened with much pleasure to the discussion yesterday
in respect to the proposed amendment to your procedure in
Virginia, and I was reminded of a discussion of the same
subject by that great lawyer, Mr. James C. Carter, of New
York. He was the leader of the opposition to the New York
code, and had to meet Mr. David Dudley Field, who was its
chief supporter. Mr. Carter impressed me with having in
that particular discussion the better side, for he showed that
under the Massachusetts procedure, which is, I fancy, not
unlike yours in Virginia, to wit, a retention of the common
law forms of action, together with the division between law
and equity, with modifications to dispense with the old
technical niceties of common law and equity pleading, the
decisions on questions of practice and pleading in Massa
chusetts were not one-tenth of those arising under the code
of New York, and his argument was a fairly strong one in
support of the contention which I heard here yesterday, that

THE FEDERAL COURTS 9
it was better to retain the old system and avoid its evils by
amendment than to attempt a complete reform. However,
it is to be said that a study of the English system consisting
of a few general principles laid down in the practice act, and
supplemented by rules of court to be adopted by the high
court of judicature, has worked with great benefit to the
litigant, and has secured much expedition in the settlement
of controversies and has practically eliminated the discussion
of points of practice and pleading in the appellate courts.
My impression is that if the judges of the court of last resort
were charged with the responsibility within general lines
defined by the Legislature for providing a system in which the
hearings on appeal should be solely with respect to the merits
and not with respect to procedure, and which should make
for expedition, they are about as well qualified to do this as
anybody to whom the matter can be delegated.
This system of delegating questions of procedure to courts
has a precedent of long standing in the Supreme Court of
the United States, for under the Federal statutes that court
has to frame the rules of equity to govern procedure in equity
in the Federal courts of first instance. I may say, incidentally,
that with deference to that great court, it has not given par
ticular attention to the simplification of equity procedure
and to the speeding of litigation in Federal courts which
might well be brought about by a radical change in the rules
of equity prescribed by it. It may be and probably is the
fact that under the constitutional provision. Congress could
not do away with the separation of law and equity cases as
has been done in the codes of many of the States. I regret
this because such a change makes for simplicity and expedi
tion in the settlement of judicial controversies. It is clear,

10 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
however, that the old equity practice could be greatly simpli
fied. It has been done in England, and it ought to be done
in the Federal courts.
One reason for delay in the lower courts is the disposition
of judges to wait an undue length of time in the vmting of
their opinions or judgments. I speak with confidence on
this point, for I have been one of the sinners myself. In
English courts the ordinary practice is for the judge to deliver
judgment immediately upon the close of the argument, and
this is the practice that ought to be enforced as far as possible
in our courts of first instance. It is of almost as much
importance that the court of first instance should decide
promptly as that it should decide right. If judges had to do
so, they would become much more attentive to the argument
during its presentation and much more likely on the whole j
to decide right when the evidence and arguments are fresh in
their minds. In the Philippines we have adopted the system
of refusing a judge his regular monthly stipend unless he can
file a certificate, with his receipt for his salary, in which he
certifies on honour that he has disposed of all the business
submitted to him within the previous sixty days. This has
had a marvelously good effect in keeping the dockets of the
court clear.
It may be asserted as a general proposition, to which many
legislatures seem to be oblivious, that everything which tends
to prolong or delay litigation between individuals, or between
individuals and corporations, is a great advantage for that
litigant who has the longer purse. The man whose all is
involved in the decision of the lawsuit is much prejudiced in
a fight through the courts, if his opponent is able, by reason
of his means, to prolong the litigation and keep him for

THE FEDERAL COURTS 11
years out of what really belongs to him. The wealthy defend
ant can almost always secure a compromise or yielding of
lawful rights because of the necessities of the poor plaintiff.
Many people who give the subject hasty consideration regard
the system of appeals, by which a suit can be brought in a
justice of the peace court and carried through the other courts
to the Supreme Court, as the acme of human wisdom. The
question is asked : " Shall the poor man be denied the oppor
tunity to have his case re-examined in the highest tribunal
in the land ? " Generally the argument has been successful.
In truth, there is nothing which is so detrimental to the
interests of the poor man as the right which, if given to him,
must be given to the other and wealthier party, of carrying
the litigation to the court of last resort, which generally means
two, three and four years of litigation. Could any greater
opportunity be put in the hands of powerful corporations to
fight off just claims, to defeat, injure or modify the legal
rights of poor litigants, than to hold these litigants off from
what is their just due by a lawsuit for such a period, with all
the legal expenses incident to such a controversy? Every
change of procedure that limits the right of appeal works for
the benefit in the end of the poor litigant and puts him more
on an equality with a wealthy opponent. It is probably
true that the disposition of the litigation in the end is more
likely to be just when three tribunals have passed upon it
than when only one or two have settled it; but the injustice
which meantime has been done by the delay to the party origi
nally entitled to the judgment generally exceeds the advant
age that he has had in ultimately winning the case. Gener
ally in every system of courts there is a court of first instance,
an intermediate court of appeals and a court of last resort.

12 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
The court of first instance and the intermediate appellate
court should be for the purpose of finally disposing in a just
and prompt way all controversies between litigants. So
far as the litigant is concerned, one appeal is all that he
should be entitled to. The community at large is not inter
ested in his having more than one. The function of the
court of last resort should not primarily be for the purpose
of securing a second review or appeal to the particular litigants
whose case is carried to that court. It is true that the court
can only act in concrete cases between particular litigants,
and so incidentally it does furnish another review to the liti
gants, in that case; but the real reason for granting the
review should be to enable the Supreme Court to lay down
general principles of law for the benefit and guidance of the
community at large. Therefore, the appellate jurisdiction
of the court of last resort should be limited to those cases
which are typical and which give to it in its judgment an
opportunity to cover the whole field of the law. This may
be done by limiting the cases within its cognizance to those
involving a large sum of money, or to the construction of the
Constitution of the United States or the States or their
statutes. The great body of the litigation which it is impor
tant to dispose of, to end the particular controversies, should
be confined to the courts of first instance and the intermediate
appellate courts. It is better that the cases be all decided
promptly, even if a few are wrongly decided.
In our supreme courts the business is disposed of with
perhaps as great promptness as is consistent with the purposes
of their jurisdiction. The criticism that courts of last resort
are too much given to technicahty has, I believe, some merit
in it. Codes might be drawn, however, giving the courts of

THE FEDERAL COURTS 13
review more discretion in this matter than they now do by
requiring the party complaining of an error in the trial court
to show affirmatively that the result would have been different
if the error had not been committed. The difference in
importance between an error in the hurly-burly of the actual
trial and in the calm of a court review under the urgent
argument of counsel for plaintiff in error and the microscopic
vision of an analytical but technical mind on the Supreme
Bench is very great.
The complaints that the courts are made for the rich and
not for the poor have no foundation in fact in the attitude
of the courts upon the merits of any controversy which may
come before them, for the judges of this country are as free
from prejudice in this respect as it is possible to be. But the
inevitable effect of the delays incident to the machinery now
required in the settlement of controversies in judicial tribunals
is to opppress and put at a disadvantage the poor litigant
and give great advantage to his wealthy opponent. I do not
mean to say that it is possible, humanly speaking, to put them
on an exact equality in regard to litigation ; but it is certainly
possible to reduce greatly the disadvantage under which the
man of little means labours in vindicating or defending his
rights in court under the existing system, and courts and
legislatures could devote themselves to no higher purpose
than the elimination from the present system of those of its
provisions which tend to prolong the time in which judicial
controversies are disposed of.
The shortening of the time will reduce the expense, because,
first, the fees of the lawyers must be less if the time taken is
not so great. Second, the incidental court fees and costs
would be less.

14 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Again, I believe that a great reform might be effected,
certainly in the Federal courts, and I think too in the State
courts, by a mandatory reduction of the court costs and fees.
In the interest of public economy we have generally adopted
a fee system by which the officers of the courts are paid.
Human nature has operated as it might have been expected
to operate, and the court officers, the clerk and the marshal,
have not failed, especially in the Federal courts, to make
the litigation as expensive as possible, with a view to making
certain the earning of a sufficient amount to pay their salaries,
The compensation of the officers of the court and the fees
charged ought to be entirely separate considerations. The
losses which the Government may have to suffer through the
lack of energy in the collection of costs and fees should be
remedied in some other way. The salaries of the court officers
should be fixed and should be paid out of the treasury of the
county. State or National government, as the case may be, and
fees should be reduced to as low a figure as possible consistent
with a reasonable discouragement of groundless and unneces
sary litigation. I believe it is sufficiently in the interest of
the public at large to promote equality between litigants, to
take upon the Government much more than has already
been done, the burden of private litigation. What I have
said has peculiar application to the Federal courts. The
feeling with respect to their jurisdiction has been that, limited
as it is now to cases involving not less than $2,000, the litiga
tion must, of course, be between men better able to undergo
its expense than in causes involving a less amount, and there
fore that high fees and costs are not so objectionable in those
courts as in the State courts. I think this has been a very
unfortunate view and has been one of the several grounds

THE FEDERAL COURTS 15
for creating the prejudice that has undoubtedly existed in
popular estimation against the Federal courts as rich men's
courts. In those courts suits for damages for personal injury,
of which many are there by removal of defendant, are gener
ally brought by poor persons. Then the expense of litigation
in patent cases is almost prohibitive for a poor inventor. It
forces him into contracts that largely deprive him of the
benefit of his invention. In respect to patent cases much
might be done by the Supreme Courts reforming the equity
procedure and the bill of costs.
I think another step in the direction of the dispatch of
litigation would be the requirement of higher qualifications
for those judges who sit to hear the cases involving a small
pecuniary amount. The system by which the justices of
the peace who have to do with smaller cases and who are non
professional men and not apt in the disposition of business,
is hardly a wise feature of the present system. The poor
should have the benefit of as acute and able judges as the
rich, and the money saved in the smaller salaries of the judges
of the inferior courts is not an economy in the interest of the
public. Under able, educated and well-paid judges who
understand the purpose of the law in creating them, I am
quite sure that the people's courts, as they are called, could be
made much more effective than they are for the final settle
ment of controversies.
Another method by which the irritation at the inequalities
in our administration of justice may be reduced is by the
introduction of a system for settling of damage suits brought
by employees against public service corporations through
official arbitration and without resort to jury trials. Such
a system is working in England, as I am informed. Under

16 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the statute limitations are imposed upon the recovery of the
employee or his representatives proportioned to his earning
capacity. The hearing is prompt and the payment of the
award equally prompt, and in this way a large mass of litiga
tion that now blocks our courts would be taken out of our
judicial tribunals, and be settled with dispatch. Of course
it would not be proper or possible to prevent the plaintiff
litigant from resorting to a jury trial if he chooses, but I
believe that the result would be very largely to reduce the
character of such litigation. The truth is that these suits
for damages for injuries to employees and passengers and to
trespassers and licensees have grown to be such a very large
part of the litigation in each court, both in courts of first
instance and in courts of appeal, and involve so much time
because of the necessity for a jury trial, that they may be
properly treated as a class, and special statutory provision
for their settlement by arbitration or otherwise be made.
These are the cases which create most irritation against the
courts among the poor. This is peculiarly true in such cases
in the Federal courts.
No one can have sat upon the Federal Bench as I did for
eight or nine years and not realize how defective the admin
istration of justice in these cases must have seemed to the
defeated plaintiff, whether he was the legless or armless
employee himself or his personal representative. A non
resident railway corporation had removed the case which
had been brought in the local court of the county in
which the injured employee lived, to the Federal court, held,
it may be, at a town forty or one hundred miles away. To
this place at great expense the plaintiff was obliged to carry his
witnesses. The case came on for trial, the evidence was pro-

THE FEDERAL COURTS 17
duced and under the strict Federal rule as to contributory
negligence or as to non-liability for the negligence of fellow-
servants, the judge was obliged to direct the jury to return
a verdict for the defendant. Then the plaintiff's lawyer had
to explain to him that if he had been able to remain in the
State court, a different rule of liability of the company would
have obtained, and he would have recovered a verdict.
How could a litigant thus defeated, after incurring the heavy
expenses incident to litigation in the Federal court, with
nothing to show for it, have any other feeling than that the
Federal courts were instruments of injustice and not justice,
and that they were organized to defend corporations and not
to help the poor to their rights. I am glad to be able to say
that under the Interstate Commerce Employers' Liability
Act much of this occasion for bitterness against the Federal
courts and their administration of justice will be removed,
and I believe it would greatly add to the popular confidence
in the Federal courts if a Federal statute were enacted, by
which, under proper limitations, official arbitration could be
provided for settling the awards to employees in such cases
arising in the carrying on of interstate commerce. We can
not, of course, dispense with the jury system. It is that
which makes the people a part of the administration of justice
and prevents the possibility of government oppression, but
every means by which in civil cases litigants may be induced
voluntarily to avoid the expense, delay and burden of jury
trials ought to be encouraged, because in this way the general
administration of justice can be greatly facilitated and the
expense incident to delay in litigation can be greatly reduced.
I listened with professional pride yesterday, as every lawyer
must have done, to the deserved encomiums which Senator

18 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Lindsay paid to the members of our profession and theii
willing sacrifices in every crisis in our country's history,
Certainly no one has a profounder admiration than I have
for the important part which the members of our profession
must play in making a permanent success of self-government,
I venture to suggest, however, that in respect to these detaOs
of our profession, these technicalities out of which can grow
real abuses, there is sometimes a disposition on the part of
the members of our profession to treat litigants as made for
the courts and the lawyers, and not the courts and lawyers
as made for litigants. As it is lawyers who in judicial com
mittees of the legislature draft the codes of procedure, there
is not as strong an impelling force as there ought to be to
make the final disposition of cases as short as possible.
There is a story among the traditions of our Ohio Bar that
a Mr. Nash, who had written a book generally used to aid
practitioners in Ohio before the adoption of the code of pro
cedure in 1851, was very indignant at the enactment of that
new measure, and he severely condemned it. He said that the
code was a barbarous arrangement under which a suit
could be brought against one man, judgment taken against
another and an execution issued upon that judgment against
any good man in the State of Ohio. Now our profession is
naturally conservative. It is our natural disposition to have
things done in an orderly way and to believe that the way in
which things have been done should not be departed from i
until we clearly see an opportunity for improvement. I do
not object to this spirit. Especially in this country, I think
there will be progressive movements sufficient to prevent
such conservatism from being a real obstruction to our general
progress. I venture to think, however, that in the matter of

THE FEDERAL COURTS 19
procedure and in the adoption of special methods and systems
for the settling of classes of controversies, we ought to be
careful that this professional conservatism does not keep
us, with the power that we necessarily exercise in respect to
technical legal legislation, from adopting the reforms which
are in the interest of equalizing the administration of justice
as far as possible between the rich and the poor.

II
THE PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO GREAT
PARTIES
(delivered at hot springs, VA., AUGUST 21, 1908)
Fellow-Republicans, Citizens of Virginia,
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I CAME into this beautiful country after a strenuous year,
in order that I might have rest and exercise and thereby
gain health and strength. I had not intended to bring politics
into this neighborhood. I had hoped that all that might
be postponed until I reached my home in Cincinnati; but
I have yielded to the kindly and pressing invitation of the
local Republican leaders that I meet the earnest and enthusi
astic members of the party in the neighboring mountain
counties of Virginia and say something to them in a summary
and general way of the present issues between the two great
parties. The last Democratic Administration entered upon its
labors in March, 1893, and gave up power, under the man
date of the people, in March, 1897. During this period, it
repealed the McKinley Tariff Bill, passed in 1890, and
enacted the Gorman-Wilson Tariff Bill of 1893. With the
prospect of a Democratic tariff for revenue and under
the operation of the Gorman- Wilson Tariff Bill subsequently
passed, a period of industrial depression set in, which con-
20

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 21
tinued through the next Presidential campaign of 1896.
The remedy for this depression as proposed by the Demo
cratic party under its present leadership was a change from
the gold standard of currency and values, which was the
measure of all pecuniary obligations, to a silver standard —
a change which would have scaled the debts of all by quite
50 per cent., and would have produced a financial crash in
which the business disaster would only have been exceeded
by the injury to our national financial honor.
As soon as the Republican party came into power in 1897,
it repealed the Gorman- Wilson Tariff Bill, and enacted the
present Dingley Tariff Bill. The maintenance of the
financial honor of this country, the assurance of an honest
monetary standard,' and the operation of the new tariff led
to such confidence in the business community and encouraged
so widely the investment of capital, that from 1897 to 1907
there followed a period of business expansion and a pros
perity never before known in the history of the world . Wages
were never higher and the average standard of living of the
wage earners, of the farmers and of the business men, in
point of comfort and enjoyment of life, was advanced beyond
precedent. Incident to this tremendous material progress,
however, there crept in abuses growing out of the fallibility
of human nature, of the dishonesty of some prominent men
entrusted with the management of the business of others and
of a greed of financial power of some stimulated by the enor
mous successes incident to the combination of capital in
large corporations. The abuses chiefly took the form of the
violation of the Antitrust Law directed against monopolies of
interstate commerce and of the granting of rebates and
discriminations by railways to large shippers. The extent

22 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
to which these evils had grown was not brought home to the
people, whose attention had been absorbed in the prosperity
of the country and in the problems arising in the Spanish
War and in the new responsibilities which followed it, until
early in the present Administration, when revelations, the
result of official investigations by State and National authority,
showed them that a condition had arisen which called
for a halt and for the adoption of some method of super
vising interstate commerce carried on by railroads and
great industrial corporations which should keep these
instrumentalities within the law. It was then that Theodore
Roosevelt, who had been elected President in 1904, invoked
the attention of Congress and the public to these abuses and
asked for remedial legislation, and by exercise of the executive
power took prompt steps himself to secure a more thorough
enforcement of the laws then on the statute books than up
to that time had been achieved. The Republican party
had enacted the Antitrust Law as far back as 1890; but the
law was general in its terms and needed the slow course of
judicial construction to make effective its mandate' and to
enable both prosecuting officers and persons within its opera
tion to understand the exact limitations that it imposed. It
had enacted the Interstate Commerce Law and its amendment
by the Elkins Bill, to make more efficient the prosecutions of
railway rebates and discriminations, but successful prosecu
tions had not yet been had under them.
It is true that from time to time the platforms of both
parties had invited attention to the danger from the misuse
and abuse of the combinations of capital in maintaining illegal
monopolies. It was not, however, until Mr. Roosevelt,
realizing to the full the danger to which our society was

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 23
^exposed, unless the offending corporations, railway and
industrial, were made to obey and fear the law, took vigor-
:ous action in the recommendation of new legislation and in
the enforcement of the old, that anything very effective was
,done to check the growing evil. He directed many prosecu
tions both under the Antitrust Law and the Interstate Com-
imerce Law, and extended investigation by the Departments of
Commerce and Labor, and of Justice, into the cooperation
of railways and industrial combinations in the maintenance
of secret rebates and discriminations. He developed the
fact that the chief instrument for the maintenance of illegal
industrial monopolies was the rebate system. He called on
the Republican Congress, which had been elected with him
in 1904, and nobly did that Congress respond. It made a
record for remedial legislation along the lines recommended
by him which, as he has himself said, has never been equaled
,in our time. The Railway Rate Bill, the bill creating the Bur
eau of Corporations, the Pure Food Bill, the Meat Inspection
Bill, were all measures framed for the purpose of stamping
put the abuses which had grown up in the conduct of business
Jjy some corporations that were flouting the law and the
interests of the public. Most of these measures were
considered in the last session of the Congress elected in 1902,
and encountering the open, bitter opposition of all the cor
porations affected by them, failed of passage. They were
introduced in the next Congress, and in spite of the con
tinued opposition, in spite of the influence which it was
charged such corporations must have because of alleged
campaign contributions to the Republican party, the meas
ures were triumphantly adopted. What has been the result
of this legislation and executive action ? Secret rebates and

24 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
unlawful discriminations have been actually abolished. No
monopoly of business in any line is now maintained by a secret
reduction of freight rates to it which is denied to competitors.
All combinations are diligently consulting the law. The fear
of the statute and its penalties has been put in the hearts of
its former violators. A great step has been taken and,
despite the opposition of corporate interests, the moral
awakening of the people has found expression in the adoption
of great legislative measures and the vigorous execution of
them by a Republican Congress and a Republican President
The people have ruled through the Republican party. Not
only have the Republican President and Congress thus
struck a staggering blow to the abuses to which I have referred
and taken a long step toward their reform, but they have also,
in the face of corporate opposition, passed measures of the
utmost importance in putting the employees of capital invested
in interstate commerce on a level in respect to the liabilities
growing out of the contract of employment. I have no
hesitation in saying that not since the beginning of the
Government has any other national administration done so
much for the cause of labor by the enactment of remedial
legislation as Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican
Congresses elected and sitting during his terms of office.
It is true that additional legislation is needed to perfect
the machinery for enforcing the principles laid down by Mi.
Roosevelt and declared in the remedial statutes already
passed so as to clinch the progress already made and to insure
further progress. It is also true that Mr. Roosevelt has
made recommendations for some of such needed legislation
which has not been enacted by the present Congress into
law. The present Congress has furnished the money for

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 25
the enforcement of the remedial statutes of the previous
Congress and has provided an increase of civil servants needed
to execute them and in so doing has drawn down upon it the
denunciation of the Democratic platform. This Congress
has reenacted the Employers' Liability Act, has strengthened
the Safety Appliance Acts, has passed the Government
Employees' Compensation Act, has directed investigation into
mine disasters and has passed a model Child Labor Bill.
It has not amended the Interstate Commerce Law so as to
prevent over-issue of stocks and bonds on interstate railroads
and it has not amended the Antitrust Law as suggested by
Mr. Roosevelt. The failure of Congress at once to adopt
executive recommendations on such a subject is not justi
fiable ground for supposing that either the same Congress,
or a succeeding one under the same party control, will not in
due course adopt some proper legislative remedies for the
defects in existing legislation. The failure of the rate bill
in one Republican Congress was followed by its passage in
a much more drastic and effective form by the next one.
As Mr. Roosevelt himself has said, "Congress must take
account not of one national need but of many and widely
different national needs. . . . No Congress can do
everything; still less can it in one session meet every need."
The abuses to which I have referred, due to the misuse of
combinations of capital, are a development in our body
politic and social requiring a limitation upon the use of
property and capital such as to prevent the evils described
on the one hand and to interfere with the institution of
private property and the maintenance of a motive for individ
ualism and thrift as little as possible on the other. The
evil to be avoided is not one which yields to hastily formed

26 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
or vaguely described statutes suggested in the hurry of a
political campaign or approved for the purpose of catching
votes. It involves a careful study of the operation of detailed
provisions of law; it involves a knowledge of the difficulties
of criminal prosecution under our present system; it requires
a consideration of the line between National and State juris
diction and also of the extent of the Federal power under the
interstate commerce clause of the Constitution; and it
will doubtless require, before the reform is sufficiently broad
and effective, a series of amendments suggested by actual
experience of earnest men engaged in a sincere effort to
reach the real guilty without involving the punishment of the
innocent, of striking down the abuses of the law-defying
wealthy and at the same time preserving to thrift and indus
trial enterprise the rewards essential to continued material
progress. The fact that the Democratic party had but little recent
experience in the responsibilities of power and but little
training in actual legislation, makes the party and its dis
tinguished leader oblivious of the necessity for care and
caution in the enactment of statutes which are to accomplish
changes in our social and business relations. They seem to
have an impression that an evil which is very insidious,
and which is elusive in its character when definite legal
description is to be given of it and heavy penalty is to be pre
scribed for it, may be safely met by a statutory denunciation
hastily prepared in a day or a week or a short period. We
have seen within the four short years of the present Adminis
tration, such measures as government ownership of railways,
election of Federal judges and National initiative and referen
dum proposed as remedies for our existing evils and now

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 27
withdrawn under assurances that they will not be again
suggested. May we, therefore, not regard the inaction of
one session of Congress as deliberation in a matter requiring
it rather than as a basis for the claim that the Legislature
wishes to defeat the will of the people ? The truth is we are
dealing with an incident of human progress and with some
unfavorable condition produced by the operation of individ
ualism and the institution of private property which it will
require all the practical common sense of the American people
exercised in the passage of statute after statute properly
to meet without placing obstacles in the way of true progress.
The suggestion that they ought to be fully met and com
pletely corrected by an administration in a short four years
could come from no one who has a full appreciation of the
difficulty of permanently stamping out such evils by statutory
law and its enforcement.
The claim is now made that the Republican party is respon
sible for the abuses I have described and that with its control
of the Government for the last twelve years, its failure to
remedy them requires its deposition from power. The evils
were due to the fallibility of human nature and the willing
ness of ambitious and unscrupulous men to turn an instru
mentality necessary in human progress to a vicious purpose.
A party is responsible for evils thus arising only when it fails
to correct them after they become known. I have already
pointed out that the Republican party long ago passed the
Antitrust Law and is vigorously enforcing it. I have already
stated that it passed the Interstate Commerce Law and its
amendments, the Elkins Law and the Rate Bill, and is vigor
ously enforcing them. I have already dwelt on the great
change for the better that has thus been brought about by

28 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
this Administration. I have said that the extent of the
abuses was not known or realized during the time when the
burden of the Spanish War and its consequences had to be
met, or until revelations were made early in this Administra
tion when the work of remedying them was at once begun.
If these abuses were always well known, as now claimed,
and the necessity for their radical and drastic reform was
clear to all and especially to the Democratic party under
its present leadership, it would seem that of all the possible
agencies for reform, the Democratic party is the one least
entitled to any credit. For while the resolutions of its plat
forms in 1896, 1900 and 1904 denounced the abuses of cor
porate wealth, they never proposed feasible plans, or made
the prominent and chief issue of any campaign the carrying
out of what have now become known, and properly known,
as the Roosevelt policies. On the contrary, in 1896, the party
made the chief issue a disastrous financial experiment which
would have retarded the progress of this country a quarter
of a century and sullied its financial honor. In 1900 the
party reiterated its adherence to this suicidal policy of repudia^
tion of National and private debts and obligations, and
then advanced as the paramount issue of the campaign, not
the trusts, not corporate weaUh and abuses, but rather the
repudiation of all our international responsibilities growing
out of the Spanish War and the destruction of what they called
the growing cancer of imperialism in the policy of this
country. Again in 1904, instead of selecting the abuses and
evils for which they now seek to make the Republican party
responsible, as the main issue of the campaign, the burden
of their contention was the usurpation of the powers of the
executive office by President Roosevelt, including his settle-

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 29
ment of the anthracite coal strike and the violation of the
Federal constitutional limitations by the Republican party,
while the extent of the trust evil was minimized by the state
ment of the then party candidate that the common law fur
nished sufficient remedy to suppress it and by the general
party declaration that nothing but safe and sane policies were
to be adopted under the Administration which should follow
its success in the election. The people, in 1896, by a sub
stantial majority, rejected the plan of repudiation of the
Democratic party. In 1900 the people again by even a
greater majority rejected the plan of the Democratic party
to repudiate the National responsibilities; and in 1904 they
again rejected the same party which had temporarily assumed
its ancient character as a preserver of the Constitution.
This is the record of the party whose policies it is claimed Mr.
Roosevelt and the Republican party have stolen, in the
actual abolition of railway rebates and discriminations, in
the active enforcement of the Antitrust Law, in the passage
of a pure food law, in the passage of a meat inspection law,
and in the actual demonstration that corporate interests and
influences do not control the passage of laws or the enforce
ment of them under the present Republican Administration.
But it is said that the people do not rule in this country.
My impression has always been that the election of Mr.
McKinley and a Republican Congress, in 1896, was one of
the most intelligent and effective expressions of popular will
ever manifested to the world, and that the maintenance of the
gold standard and a protective tariff by his Administration
was a correct interpretation of the people's will. This was
conclusively shown to be so by even a greater majority for
Mr. McKinley in 1900. When Theodore Roosevelt was

30 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
chosen in 1904, a still greater majority was returned, and the
inference that he and the Republican Congress under him
had again carried out the people's will was indisputable.
We may well submit to the country whether his present
Administration has not expressed the will of the people
in the Roosevelt policies.
It is suggested that the popular will is to be suppressed
because the Speaker of the House of Representatives will be
given certain powers in the procedure of the House if Repub
lican. I do not intend to enter into a discussion of the wisdom
of such procedure. Suffice it to say, that at one end of the
Capitol we have the example of a body that has no rule for
the previous question, and in which the ability of the minor
ity to defeat or delay legislation favored by the majority
has been made the subject of criticism on the ground that this
defeated the will of the people. The House of Representa
tives is a much larger body in which no business at all could
be done unless the rules in some way secure control to the
majority over the business to be done, and stricter rules of
procedure have been adopted. The rules cannot be adopted
or amended except by a majority of the people's chosen
representatives. Whether such rules might well be modified
or not, it suffices to meet the criticism of our Democratic
friends to say that the rules complained of, which were
originally adopted under Speaker Reed for the purpose of
doing business in the House, were subsequently adopted by a
Democratic House for the same purpose.
But whatever may be thought of the House procedure,
there is not the slightest doubt that after the present campaign,
after the declaration by the Republican National Convention
that the Roosevelt policies are to be followed, after the

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 31
specific promise made by the National Convention to render
more effective the provisions of the Anti-trust Law, and the
Interstate Commerce Law, by restricting the overissue of
stocks and bonds on interstate railroads, that a Republican
Congress when elected can be counted on to take up and, with
due consideration of the form and details of the proposed
measures, adopt the remedies promised with the same loyalty
to the popular will as the Republican Congress elected with
Mr. Roosevelt manifested in the enactment of the most
important statutes that have been placed upon the statute
books in our time for the suppression of economic evils.
I wish to speak for a little while upon the Republican and
Democratic parties in the South. The situation with respect
to the present national issue in the South is most peculiar.
It is not too much to affirm that a great number of Demo
crats are opposed to the Democratic party under its present
leadership. Of these, many will vote for the nominee of the
party; many of them will not vote at all, and a considerable
number will vote for the Republican nominee. Yet none of
them will be disappointed if the Democratic ticket is defeated.
Everyone having the interest of the country at heart, as
an abstract proposition, would rejoice to have the Solid South
as a Democratic asset in every National campaign broken up.
It would be better for the States themselves; it would be
better for the country. The Republican party is not the
sectional party which the fact that the South always supports
the Democratic party would indicate. The Republican
party has improved the waterways, is building the Panama
Canal, and has started the movement for the reclamation of
swamp lands, the conservation of forest and water resources,
and is taking many other steps that are for the development

32 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
of the South. The growth and success of the mining and iron
industries in the South are directly due to laws enacted by
the Republican party. In our dependencies when offices
have had to be filled in the Philippines, Porto Rico and Cuba,
no attention has been paid to the partisan proclivities of the
appointees, and there are to-day in the Philippines as many
Democrats among the Americans as Republicans serving
the Government there.
Leading Democrats from the South have complained, and
with much ground, that the leading men of the South have
but little influence in the executive branch of the Govern
ment at Washington, and as the executive branch is always in
action, is always on guard, and has much to do with framing
the [foreign and domestic policies of the country, this makes
the South feel that it is not exercising its share of national
government control. The reason is that the South has always
been considered by the Democracy, and especially the
Northern Democracy, as a part of the country certain to
support the Democratic ticket, and therefore when the
Republican party is in power, it is not either natural or to
be expected that it should summon to its Executive the
leading men from the opposing party in the South. The
only way by which the South can cure this matter is by
independence of action and the support of the Republican
ticket. I know the South is a conservative portion of the country.
By tradition, its attachment to the Democratic party is firm;
but a party represents principles, and when the principles
change, though the name of the party remain the same, it
would seem that after a while the traditional attachment to
party would rest lightly on an intelligent community. Still

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 33
there is a political habit, a political association which a con
servative people hesitates to throw off.
Many independent Democrats in the South agree with the
Republican party in all its main economic doctrines. Since
1890 the manufacturing interests of the South have exceeded
her agricultural interests; the industrial expansion of the
South exceeds that of any other part of this country, and is
really the marvel of the world. Its cotton manufactures, its
iron manufactures have grown enormously, and the South
is today in its cotton factories, in its iron factories and in the
sugar culture of Louisiana more dependent for its business
prosperity on the maintenance of a reasonable protective
tariff than any other community in the country. It is vitally
interested that the coming revision of the tariff shall be made
upon protective principles and not with a view to the adop
tion of a revenue tariff.
The Spanish War led to the entering of the flower of the
young men of the South into the army of the United States
in order to uphold the country's cause. This did much to
remove sectional feeling lingering after the Civil War and
served to unite in a common brotherhood the blue and the
gray. Many of the Southern Democrats have taken an active
interest in promoting our present Philippine policy and more
are in sympathy with it. They are opposed to the policy of
scuttling out of the Philippines; they generally believe that
we have a problem of national responsibility there of aiding
those people to stand upon their own feet, and that we ought
not to leave the islands until we have fully completed our
work. They rejoice in the missionary character of what we
are doing, and in the spread of Christian civilization that we
are helping on by our policy in the Philippines.

34 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
So, too, they have not the slightest sympathy with that spirit
of the Democratic platform favoring a destruction of certain
industrial interests for the purpose of stamping out the evil
in their conduct rather than their regulation, with a view
to bringing them within the law. They know and under
stand the threat against the prosperity of the country involved
in placing in power the Democratic party under its present
leadership. We hear much of Jeffersonian Democracy and the adher
ence by the present regime of the Democratic party to the
principles of Thomas Jefferson. I venture to say that if
Jefferson were to return to life, he would not recognize his
reputed political descendants. While there is a good deal of
declaration in the Denver platform against centralization of
power, the propositions contained in the Democratic platform
are even more Federalistic in their tendency than those in
the Republican platform. The Republican party has always
been in favor of a liberal construction of the Constitution
to maintain the national power, and its attitude in this regard
might in times past have justified a Southern Democrat in
assuming that there was at least one principle left of the old
Democracy to which he might adhere by voting the Demo
cratic ticket; but that resource in the present Denver plat
form has been completely eliminated and propositions are
there made which the most Federalistic statesman might find
it very difficult to work out under the Federal Constitution,
It is the duty of the Republicans of the South to take
advantage of this mental attitude I have described on the
part of many independent Democrats. How can they take
such advantage ? They can do so by thorough organizatioi
of their party and an effort to secure votes in November for

PRESENT ISSUES OF THE TWO PARTIES 35
the National, Congressional and State tickets. They should
put forward for office good men, men of high character, and
by their energy in the election contest avoid the criticism that
the Republican party in the South is organized merely for
the purpose of receiving Federal patronage. They should
show that it is a real political party, determined to discuss the
issues and to attract into its ranks the men who sympathize
with the fight they are making, but who are as yet, because of
tradition, reluctant to join them openly in the fight. This
fight should be made without regard to whether we can gain
the electoral vote of any Southern State. The present is
an opportunity that ought not to be lost, for if it is improved,
if the Republicans of the South by active organization, and
with the sympathy of many independent Democrats, can
increase their votes this year substantially, it means a great
step toward the subsequent relief of the Southern States from
the political thraldom of the past. I know what a burden
Southern Republicans have had to carry. I know the courage
it has taken for them to remain Republicans when their cause
seemed hopeless. But I believe a change is coming.
I congratulate you Republicans of Virginia on the aus
picious beginning of this campaign. I congratulate you that
within your own boundaries are many Democrats who are
looking forward with the hope that you may succeed, and I
beg of you, in your methods and in the men that you put up
|for office, to demonstrate that there is in this State a reput
able Republican party with which independent Democrats
-may be glad to ally themselves. The presence here of so
many intelligent, earnest and enthusiastic Republicans itself
furnishes such a demonstration.

m
THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR
(delivered before the TAFT CLUB OF ATHENS, OHIO,
AUGUST 29, 1908)
My Friends :
WHEN I say that it is an unexpected pleasure for me to
address you I think you will believe me. I had hoped
that I might go through Ohio with a single speech at Athens, a
speech appreciative of the soldiers' reunion here, without
going into politics or a general discussion at all. The truth
is, I am not much of a politician. I haven't had a great deal
of experience in it, and I feel very deeply the responsibility:
that I have upon me now as the candidate of a great party,
lest I may not fill the measure that the members of that party
are entitled to have filled by one who proposes to hold their
banner temporarily and to lead them on to victory, and I
am from time to time oppressed with the sense that I am
not the man who ought to have been selected, and yet, my
friends, I am not going to decline.
We are in a four years' campaign. The question is
whether the mandate of power shall be given again to the
Republican party, or shall be turned over to the Demo
cratic party; to the Republican party now led by Theodore
Roosevelt as President of the United States, or to the Dem
ocratic party led by Mr. Bryan, who has twice before been
86

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 37
a candidate of that party before the people of the United
States. In making a selection of your servants, your agents,
of those who are to do your work, you ordinarily test the
question whom you shall select by what they have done
in the past, and if there be a party in power that has specif
ically met with efficiency and success the problems to be
solved, the conclusion you will come to is that that party
ought to be continued, rather than that another party
should be put in power, whose policy you may be uncertain
about, and whose efficiency in the administration of any
policy you may still be more uncertain about. I venture
)'to say that never in the history of the country has there
ibeen an Administration which has had more problems
ito meet, that has met them with more certainty and
^efficiency than the Administration under the Republican
[party by Theodore Roosevelt, and previously under William
McKinley with the same party.
E The Spanish War was met and fought under the control
;of William McKinley, and with the majority of the Repub-
ilican party in both Houses of Congress. The questions
Iwith respect to the Philippines and Cuba which followed
that war were met again by that party, and I ask you,
gentlemen, whether any scandal, whether any charge of
jinefficiency has been established in the discharge of the
new responsibilities that the Republican party was obliged
to assume under William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt ?
t Then there came the question whether we should build
jthe Isthmian canal and unite the two great oceans. Mr.
(Roosevelt, in his anxiety to further that great measure,
[negotiated a treaty with Columbia, by which we were to
be given the right to build the canal, and then Columbia

38 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
rejected the treaty, and the residents of the Isthmus revolted
— Panama revolted against Columbia and established a
new government. Then very promptly — our Democratic
friends said too promptly — but I do not think too promptly,
because it was necessary to act in order that we should
secure the right — we negotiated a treaty with Panama
which gave us the right and power to build that canal.
And now, under the Administration of Theodore Roosevelt,
we have gone ahead and are building that canal.
Then, too, we had to meet the question of arid lands in
the West, the reclamation of those lands. We had to meet
a great many other questions : the pure food question, the
meat inspection question, all of which enlarged the function
of government, requiring the employment of many more
civil servants, and extended the operations of the National
Government, increasing the risk of efficiency in govern
ment. And yet I ask you, my fellow-citizens, whether
there is a single stain upon the escutcheon of the Republican
party under Theodore Roosevelt in meeting all these new
problems ? Not only that, but with respect to our foreign
affairs, never in the history of the Nation has the standard
of the United States been higher before the nations of the
world than it is to-day.
My dear friends, you can recollect — I can distinctly—?
that four years ago we were told that if Theodore Roose
velt was put in power he would go around this country
with a chip on his shoulder and involve us in war; that he
was waiting for somebody to tread on the tail of his coat
in order that he might have a fight. What was the result?
It is not necessary for me to detail it, only to state that
never before in the history of the world has a President

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 39
* of the United States and an administration, or any emperor
^'or monarch, done more to preserve the peace of the world
«than has Theodore Roosevelt at the head of this Admin-
C istration. Under those circumstances, gentlemen, I ask
syou what is the part of a wise people? Is it to select the
2 agency which met all these new problems, has met them
twithout scandal, without corruption, and with efficiency,
)• which has carried the name of this nation to the head of
nations, or to select a party which has opposed everything
Ethat was attempted to be done by the Administration in
Jithese matters ? Gentlemen, I think there is but one answer
nto that question.
I Now I come to another series of issues. The Dingley
Bill was passed in 1897. Under that Dingley Bill we went
ifahead to a prosperity never before known in this country
sand indeed never before known in the world. The invest-
tment of capital and the expansion of business went on;
Itwages were increased, and the standard of living of the
: wage-earners, of the business man and of the farmer was
fimproved beyond precedent. But we found in the business
iworld that we had expanded ourselves a little too far; that
Icapital had become fixed in enterprises that did not make
the return sufficient to induce further investment. Capital
{became frightened, and now we have had a halt in that
iprosperity. Capital is necessary, if we are going on and
;not embrace socialism; capital is necessary to be invested
iin order that business may go on, in order that wage-
earners may be paid, in order that business men may
icarn an income, in order that farmers may have a mar-
|ket; and anything that is done to frighten invested
icapital, anything which leads invested capital to doubt

40 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the question whether a fair return will be paid, affects
injuriously the wage-earner and the capitalist and the
farmer. Now what I say is that the introduction into power
of the Democratic party under its present leadership will
create doubt of the future in the minds of the people, in
the minds of those who will invest capital. These are not
all millionaires. The capitalists of this country largely
are the men who contribute to the savings banks, who
contribute to make up in many small amounts the great
fund that is subsequently invested in plants. Look at
the list — the thirteen billions of deposits in the banks,
and think how many millions of people contribute to that,
and every one of them who contributes is a capitalist, and
every one of them is affected by the question whether he
is going to get his return on that little deposit he puts
in. Now unless you assure capital a return, unless yon
can bring about that confidence in what is to be done,
you may be certain that the return to prosperity which
is now gradually assuming a definite form, will halt again,
and I ask you in your hearts, whether you believe that
the return of the Republican party to power under its
leadership, or the return of the Democratic party under
its leadership is the more likely to give confidence to the
investment of capital in the future so that this prosperity
that we have had may return to us again in full measure.
In this great development of wealth, this magnificent stride
onward and expansion of material prosperity there crept in
abuses — abuses growing out of the greed and unscrupulous
character of some of the prominent men engaged in business.
They violated the Antitrust Law and they violated the
Rebate Law,and the railroads extended to the larger shippers,

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 41
the so-called " trusts, " a means by which they could drive
their competitors out of business by secret rebates. All
this was revealed early in this Administration, and Mr.
Roosevelt and the Republican party took hold with a
determination to stamp it out. Now, I ask you, gentlemen,
heart to heart, whether the action which Mr. Roosevelt
took, whether the Rate Bill which the Republican party
passed, whether the Pure Food Bill and the Meat Inspection
Bill, and all those great measures of a Republican Congress
were not an indication and a following of the moral awak
ening among the people in order to make the corporations
understand that they must obey the law ? To-day rebates
are abolished; the railroads have voluntarily acquiesced
in that requirement; the trusts are engaged now in having
lawyers consult the law to see how they may comply with
it and avoid prosecution, and what we need now is a mere
perfection of the machinery so as to keep and regulate the
railroads and the trusts and keep them within the law.
We don't wish to destroy these great organizations that
have a large wage fund when they are prosperous and
that add greatly to the prosperity of the country, but what
we wish to do is to keep them within the law. That is the
proposition of Mr. Roosevelt which he is responsible for
before the country. That is what the Republican party
stands for, and that is what the Republican party intends
to do, if you give them an opportunity by your mandate
to take the power.
But I am asked, " What is the relation of the Republican
party to labor?" I want to make one statement first:
that never in the history of this country has there been an
Administration that has passed more measures directly in

42 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the interest of the laboring classes than the present Repub
lican Administration.
Take the Employers' Liability Act. Of course. Congress
is limited in what it can do to things that effect the Federal
jurisdiction. Congress has passed a law now by which
railroad men engaged in interstate railroads shall be put
on a level with the corporation in dealing with it in respect
to the damages that they sustain growing out of their employ
ment. It used to be that when a man sued a railroad
that was organized as a corporation and the railroad removed
the suit to the Federal Court, he would find that the rule
of law laid down in the Federal Court with reference to
the defense of such suits was a great deal stricter against
the employee than it would have been if tried in the State
court under the Ohio law. In other words, that the fellow-
servant rule was more strictly applied in the Federal courts
under Supreme Court decision than it was in the State courts,
and so too with the rule of contributory negligence, so
that if there was the slightest evidence of any contributory
negligence he forfeited his entire claim under the Employers'
Liability Act. What is the law now ? It is that it makes
no difference whether a man is injured through the negli
gence of this co-employee or through the negligence of a
superior officer of the company, the company is equally
liable in both cases. So, too, if the man has been guilty of
a slight contributory negligence, his recovery is a question
that is left to the jury to apportion the damages as the
expression is; that is, to reduce the damages to the ratio
contributory negligence may bear to the negligence of the
company or of the employee that led to the injury. This
is a measure which, for a technicality, was thrown out by

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 43
the Supreme Court, but has been re-passed in lawful form by
the present Congress. Then there are all the safety appliance
acts which I hope will tend to reduce the awful sacrifice
of life and limb among the employees of the railroad com
panies. Then, too, there are other measures, the Govern
ment Employees' Compensation for Injuries Act, which
requires interstate commerce employees to serve only a
certain number of hours and forbids their service longer,
and I would like to go on and mention other acts, the Fire
Pan Act, and the act for the purpose of investigating the
causes of those awful mine disasters that have killed so
many people, without explanation of how the killing has
been done. So I think if you will review the statutes,
you will find that no Congress and no Administration has
done as much to put the laboring man on a level in dealing
with the company with reference to his employment as
has the Republican Administration now which will end
on the fourth of March next. ,
Now I come to the questiori of injunction. In the first
place, I understand that my own personal attitude toward
labor has been represented as a man who thinks and says
that a dollar a day is enough for any man. Well, there
is one short way of meeting that statement, and that is
that it is a lie! I never said so, and I don't think that it
argues intelligence in any man who believes the statement,
for what under heave nwould induce me or any one else
to say so ? In the second place, they say I am the " father
of injunctions in labor cases." I have issued injunctions
in labor cases, there is no doubt about that, and I have
done it because the rights of the plaintiff entitled him to
an injunction, and when I am on the Bench and enforcing

44 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the law, I enforce it, and I don't make any apologies for it.
It has been my lot to sit in labor cases, to sit in antitrust
cases. When I am a Judge of the Bench, in so far as I
can, I decide cases according to the law and the facts, no
matter whom it hurts, because I believe that to be my
sworn duty. Now it has been my lot to lay down the rules
with respect to the rights of labor in two or three cases,
and I refer to those cases as a full statement of what I
believe the rights of labor to be with reference to its employ
ment. Labor has the right to unite in organizations for
the purpose of looking after the united interest of labor
in its controversy with capital, because if it did not unite
and was not permitted to unite, then it would lie hopeless.
Laborers have the right not only to unite but to contribute
funds which in times when they wish to leave the employ
of their employer when they do not like his terms, may
support their fellow-members. They have the right to
appoint officers who shall control their action if they choose.
They have the right to invite all other laborers to unite I
with them in their controversy, and to withdraw if they
choose from association with their employer. But they
have not the right to injure their employer's property;
they have not the right by what is called a "secondary
boycott" to invite a third person into the controversy who
wishes to keep out, by threatening a boycott with him,
unless he assists them in the fight. In this fight between
employer and the employee, or the united employees, they
must fight it out between themselves, and they must not
involve the rest of the community in it by a system of duress.
This law, I believe, is a fair law, and being a fair law, when
I was on the Bench I attempted to enforce it. With refer-

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 45
ence to injunctions, the question has been raised as to
notice, whether an injunction ought to issue without notice.
It is a fundamental principle of law that no man ought to
be effected to his detriment in a judicial action without
notice and hearing, and therefore, the ordinary rule was,
in the United States Court, in the Judiciary Act years ago,
that no temporary injunction could issue without notice;
but there arose a few cases, as for instance where a man
was in charge of property and was cutting down a
tree, and the owner of the property wanted to save the tree,
and unless he got his injunction served upon that man
before the tree was cut down, he could not save the tree.
He could get damages, but the damages did not compensate
him at all for the tree. So in such a case an exception was
introduced and it is a very rare case. Now, generally, I
think in labor cases the character of the damage done by
those workingmen who are lawless is not of that character
which is like the cutting down of a tree, but the damage
done arises from a constant nagging and a constant repeti
tion, and generally in such cases there is no reason why
notice should not be given before a restraining order shall
be issued. So I have said, as President Roosevelt has
said in the past, that it seemed to me that we might get
back to the old practice according to the United States
Court rules. But the Republican Convention felt that it
was better not to go quite so far, but to put into operation
by a statute carefully stating the law and specifying which
injunctions might issue without notice, making them as
rare as they ought to bet Under this Republican plank
the statute may and should provide that an injunction
issued without notice shall last only twenty-four or forty-

46 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
eight hours, and then shall cease to be operative, unless
the person enjoined, unless the defendant comes in
and asks that the hearing be postponed. If the plaintiff
who gets the injunction shall not come in for a hearing
before the twenty-four or forty-eight hours, as the case
may be, has expired, then the injunction expires by its
own motion. That is the proposition under the Repub
lican platform. Under the Democratic platform I do not
know what the proposition is. It says nothing about
notice. What the Democratic platform says is this;
That injunctions ought not to issue in labor cases where
they would not issue on other cases. Certainly they
ought not. I do not know who ever said they ought to,
but the impression sought to be given apparently is
that they ought not to issue in labor cases at all, but
that is not what the platform says. It says that they
should not issue in labor cases if they do not issue in
other cases.
It is said I introduced the injunction first in labor cases,
That gives me too much credit for ingenuity and too great
honor as an inventor of judicial proceedings. If you will
examine authorities, you will find that there are a number
of cases before I issued any injunction at all, and that 1
merely followed precedent in doing so. I am not apolo
gizing for that. I am merely telling you the fact. What
I believe, gentlemen, is that there ought to be no favored
class in litigation at all, that a man who has property and
a man who has labor to sell shall stand on an equality
in court, and that every man shall be entitled to be protected
by all the writs and remedies that the law affords, by an
impartial judiciary, and that whether he be a laborer or

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 47
business man or the owner of property, he is entitled to
have his rights protected by all the writs that the law
affords. Now, gentlemen,) this theory that if you weaken the courts
by taking away the power of injunction in certain cases,
you are going to help the workingman, is utterly unfounded.
The person who is going to take advantage of the weakened
power of the courts is the man who has wealth enough
to enable him to employ acute lawyers to know what the
technicalities are that he can take advantage of, and to
know the weakness in the armor of the court that he can
pierce, to know when he can escape the object of the law
in the punishment of the really guilty persony The truth
is, gentlemen, as we are now engaged in enforcing these
great statutes which seek to punish and fine and imprison
wealthy violators of the law, we begin to realize that the
administration of our criminal law is quite defective, and
that the great remedy that we need in this country is such
facility and expedition in the trial of cases that the poor
man shall not be at a disadvantage in court with the wealthy
man. It is expedition that helps the poor man, because
he cannot afford to have his case delayed.
And now, gentlemen, the final question is whether we
shall have a jury trial in contempt proceedings. I say no,
and I say no because we never have had a jury trial in
such proceedings since the foundation of English and
American jurisprudence, because if you introduced a jury
trial between the enforcement of a court's order and the
turning over to the man of what he is entitled to under
that order, you only make another step in the delay of the
court that denies justice. Now you know what the jury

48 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
trial is. We have to have and ought to have jury trials
in the cases fixed by the Constitution, but not in the enforce
ment of the court's order. This rule in the Democratic
platform applies not only to preliminary injunction, not
only to perpetual injunction, but to all other judgments
of the court in which the defendant is required to do any
thing or not to do anything. Before that judgment of
the court can be enforced, if the defendant chooses to hold
himself aloof and ignore it, there must be a jury trial. Why,
there must be a jury trial if a witness is subpoenaed, and
the witness does not come into court, to determine whether
the witness received the subpoena. If you summon a
juryman and he does not come into court, you must have
a jury to determine whether he got the summons. That
is the effect of the provisions in the Democratic platform,
and I say with great respect that such a provision strikes
at the power of the courts. The civilization of our country
depends on our making the courts more effective and in
giving them power which shall enable them to do their
business more quickly, which shall require them to do their
work more quickly, so that justice may not drag on, one,
two or three years. I am sure that the intelligent work
ingmen of this country, when they come to face the question
whether they wish the tribunals for the administration of
justice weakened to the point so that the people may laugh
at it, or whether they wish them to be sustained, will forget
their particular and especial interest in a class of cases and,
like patriots as they are, will rise to the point of saying that
the administration of the courts must be held high, that
the power of the courts must be held up, so that they can
enforce their own orders.

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 49
Now, gentlemen, I have talked to you as frankly as
possible. I am here to show you that I have an interest
and sympathy with the laboring man. I have attempted
to lay down what his rights are, just as I did lay down
what his rights are in judicial decisions, which I do not
wish to discuss because, having been a Judge on the Bench,
it is hardly proper for me to refer to those decisions and
discuss them in detail. They speak for themselves. All
I ask is that when the question is up for consideration,
whether I have done such things as ought to condemn
me and ought to condemn the party that I represent, you
shall read the whole evidence and tell me whether they
are not in accordance with the square deal and fairness
in the administration of justice.
We really have no classes in this country in the old -country
sense. We have a lot of millionaires and multi-millionaires,
and we are apt to consider them a class. As a matter of
fact, their children and their children's children may be
without any money at all. The truth is that we are all
in the same boat. When the country is prosperous we
are all in a comfortable condition. When the country
is not prosperous, wage-earners and business men and
farmers are likely to suffer. It is true that the man who
is ahead is the millionaire and he is able to live on without
investing his capital, and the investment of capital is not
nearly so necessary to him as it is to the wage-earner and
the ordinary business man and the farmer. Therefore,
what we are all interested in is the investment of capital
by those who have it, and those who have it are not only
millionaires but also the wage-earners and the saving and
the thrifty among us who keep depositing the money in

50 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the savings banks and elsewhere, which is amassed in
large funds and then used to create these plants to make
a wage fund that brings the wages and creates business.
Now then, our interest is all the same in having a fair deal
to capital and a fair deal to the railroads and a fair deal to
shippers and to the corporations engaged in industrial
enterprises. Whenever they violate the law, then they
are to be prosecuted to the end, and to be restrained by
injunction; but when they keep within the law, then we
are all happy if they are prosperous, because their prosperity
adds to our prosperity. In other words, we are all in
the same boat. It is not possible to have a condition of
things by which wage-earners shall earn large wages, business
men shall earn large profits from their business, farmers
large profits from the selling of their products, and the
man who has the money, who is investing it, gets no profit
at all. That is not possible. Some think it would be well
if it could be so, but it cannot be that way, and therefore
what we wish is fair treatment to all in order that the boat
may sail on and give comfort and the enjoyment of happiness
to all classes, wage-earners, business men, farmers and
capitalists alike.
Now, gentlemen, there is only one issue between the
wage-earner and the employer and that is as to the terms
of employment, the size of the wages and length of the
hours of the day, but that aside, the interest of the wage-
earner is even greater than the interest of the capitalist
in having capital earn a good reward, because when it does
earn a good reward, you can count on the continued and
progressive investment of capital, and that means a greater
demand for labor; that means greater wages for labor,

THE REPUBLICAN VIEW OF LABOR 51
and it means therefore greater comfort and pleasure and
enjoyment for all of us.
Now I have said something about the organization of
labor. I am in favor of the organization of labor, because
I believe that in that single controversy that arises between
capital and labor, the organization of labor has enabled
them to prevent the reduction of wages too quickly under
a falling market. The employer naturally looks around
for economics and finds that he can make some saving
by reducing the wages. They can hold back and retard
him in reducing the wages, then on a rising market, when
profits are increasing, they can hasten the increase in wages.
To that extent the organization of labor is most useful to
the laboring people. More than that, it is most useful
in facilitating the passage of such laws as we have seen
in the last Congress — the Child Labor Law, the law with
respect to the employers' liability, the compensation to
government employees acts, the safety appliance laws and
all those things move when the labor organizations get
together and ask Congress to have them passed, and there
fore it is wise that they should organize. That gives them
great power and they must exercise that power within the
law exactly as combinations of capital exercise their power
within the law, and those of us, the middlemen between
them, have the right to insist that both combinations shall
keep within the law, and that we shall have courts with
sufficient power and sufficient support from the public at
large to see that both combinations do keep within the law.

IV
MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM TO THE ROOSEVELT
POLICIES
(delivered AT SANDUSKY, OHIO, SEPTEMBER 8. 1908)
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen
and FeUow-citizens of Ohio:
1FEEL like apologizing for calling you out in the middle
of the day from your occupations which have a higher
claim, possibly, than anything that those of us who stand
upon the stage can say to you. But it is not likely that I
am going to have an opportunity of coming to Sandusky
again during the campaign, and I seize this occasion, there
fore, to say something in reference to one of the issues
that are presented. Before coming to that, hpwever, I
would like to take up the suggestion of the last speaker
with reference to the present condition of business and
the present condition with respect to industrial matters.
Last year there was a financial panic and there has fol
lowed it a financial depression. For twelve years we had
been going on at such a speed of expansion that we got
too far spread out. Projects in which money had been
invested did not pay and we had, therefore, what follows
from action and reaction in the history of all countries —
a lack of confidence on the part of those who invest capital,
who declined to continue to invest in order that the plants
6%

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 53
which had been created might go on and continue the indus
tries as they had been conducted for the last four or five
years. Confidence is a plant of slow growth, and the
result was that industries stopped. There became a great
many unemployed, and no one would advance money.
Now all of us, whether we are wage-earners, professional
men, farmers or business men, are in one boat with respect
to prosperity. We are all interested in having the men
who have money, whether that money comes from the
savings banks or the laborer, from the day-worker or the
business man, or whether it comes from the pocket of
the multi-millionaire, or the man of moderate means, we
are all interested that those who invest money shall continue
to invest it, and we all know that they will not invest it
unless they are going to have a fair profit out of it. There
fore, it is to the interest of all of us that capital, whether
it is in the pocket of the workingman who may deposit it in
the savings bank, or in the pocket of the millionaire, that
we should believe that when we invest it it is going to bring
a fair return. In other words, confidence in the business
future of the country is necessary if we are to have a re
turn of prosperity.
I will not go into a discussion of reasons, but I state this
proposition, and I state it to men who know it in their hearts,
to men and women — for we want the influence of the
women in this campaign — we know that the election of
the Democratic party, with Mr. Bryan in the Presidency,
is a menace to the confidence of the business community
in the future. I am not going to state the reason but I'll
state the fact, and that fact, therefore, ought to influence
all who desire the unemployed to become employed, who

54 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
desire business to become good, who desire that we shall
have a return of the prosperity that we enjoyed for tbe
last twelve years — will influence all of them to vote
against the party and the leadership that does constitute
a menace to our future prosperity.
I am going to take up another phase of the campaign.
Mr. Bryan says that he is not only the heir of Theo
dore Roosevelt, with respect to the policies which jTheodore
Roosevelt has made honored the country through, but
that he is also the parent of those policies. So that in
default of an heir (because he says I am not an heir) as
parent under the Ohio statutes or common law, he would
take as heir by ascent. Now it is well to investigate that
statement. Let us see what the Roosevelt policies are.
Let us see what has been done by Mr. Roosevelt under
those policies. Let us see what Mr. Bryan proposes
to do, and I submit that if Mr. Bryan proposes remedies
and policies which the man whose name is attached
to those policies does not recognize but condemns, we
show that this claim of heirship has no foundation what
ever. One of the things that is wise in this campaign and
indeed, in any campaign, is to get at the facts, to know what
it is we are talking about. Now what are the Roosevelt
policies? First, why was it necessary that there should be
such policies? In twelve years of the marvelous business
expansion that we had, from 1896 down to 1907, there
necessarily crept in abuses growing out of the greed and
unscrupulous character of some of the men engaged in
carrying on that expansive prosperity. Human nature
is the same yesterday, to-day and to-morrow, and there
were men who took advantage of the situation and created

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 55
evils and were unscrupulous in the methods which they
pursued. Now, they were men who were governed by a
desire for success, by a greed of financial power, and the
principle that Mr. Roosevelt laid down was this: That
in so far as those men violated the law, moral or statutory,
they ought to be restrained, and in so far as the moral law
was not covered by the statutes, that statutes ought to be
created to cover it, so that the men who were wealthy and
powerful should be subjected to the law and its punishment,
its penalties, exactly as the men without influence and with
out means. Those are the Roosevelt policies as applied
to the evils growing out of this period of expansion of twelve
years. Now, what were those evils ? The evil was, speaking
technically, the violation of the Antitrust Law in inter
state commerce. It was the aggregation of wealth in
plants so great the owners of it were able, by cunningly
devised means, to stifle competition, to control prices of
goods and shove them up above what the cost of production
would justify. We admit — everybody with any reason
admits — that the combination of capital is absolutely
essential so that we should progress. It is just exactly
the same as the combination of the parts of a machine
in order that we may make things more easily than we
make things by hand, and more cheaply. It inures to the
benefit of the public by reducing the price of a product.
And so the combination of capital in creating these large
plants reduces the cost of production to the public, but
if the men who unite those plants and create those com
binations, though they reduce the cost of production, at
the same time are able by those methods to maintain the

56 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
prices, then they are deriving all the benefits and the public
is deriving none. Now, it is that immoral and illegal use
of combination toward which Mr. Roosevelt is directing
his attention.
What were the means by which these combinations
were able to suppress competition ? The chief, the greatest
one, was by obtaining from railroads secret rebates and
unlawful discrimination in favor of those large combinations
and to the disadvantage of the smaller competitors of those
combinations. When you consider the enormous output
of one of those great combinations you can see that the
reduction of a cent a ton would be a very heavy profit or
a very heavy advantage in favor of a great combination
and against the smaller competitor. These secret rebates
greatly exceeded a cent a ton, and I do not hesitate to say
that the chief method by which these great illegal monopolies
and trusts were fostered and maintained, was through the
obtaining from the railroads of this secret discrimination
in their favor. So, Mr. Roosevelt said that the first thing
we have got to do (the Antitrust Law having been passed
in 1890, as I shall hereafter point out) is to take hold of
the railroads in such a way as to abolish this unlavrful
discrimination and these unlawful rebates. And so he did.
Before he was elected, in the term succeeding Mr. Mc
Kinley, Congress passed what was called the Elkins Bill
against rebates, and subsequently, in the first two years
of his second term, they passed what was called the Rate
Bill. Those two bills placed the railroads under the close
supervision of the Government and made their proceedings
so public, or at least, so well known to the Government officers,
as to make it well-nigh impossible for them to continue

I MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 57
the system of rebates. But the railroads did not wait.
They became themselves convinced that it was necessary
in order to save themselves from radical measures, in order
that their business might again become honest, in order
that they might conduct the business within the law, that
this whole system should be abandoned, and it was aban
doned and rebates to-day substantially have been abolished
and that means by which unlawful combinations can be
built up has been wiped out.
But let us examine some of the other methods. The
Antitrust Law was passed in 1890. It was passed by a
Republican Congress, the first Congress under Mr. Harrison.
A Democratic Congress — I do not like to be hard on
my Democratic friends but the truth in history has to be
stated — a Democratic Congress had been in power or a
Democratic house had been elected and had sat on this
trust question for a full two years with a great committee
that was going to solve the whole question. And what
did they do? They took volumes of testimony so thick
that it would discourage any one from reading it, and then
they resolved at the end of the last session, just before a
Republican Congress was coming in, that they would make
no recommendation with respect to the trusts and the evil
of trusts and the method of suppressing them, because
there was such a difference of opinion in the committee
that they could not make any recommendation, and so
they turned it all over to the next Republican Congress
that came in.
Now, what follows? And this is perfectly typical of
the difference between the two parties. Mr. Bryan says
that the trusts control the Republican party, therefore.

58 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
what can we hope from the Republican party, built up
by trusts, or the tariff and otherwise? What does history
show? It shows that the Democratic party when it had
the power said : "We cannot agree as to a method." And
the Republicans passed the only law that has been put
on the statute books to suppress trusts, to wit: in 1890
the Sherman Antitrust Law, and that is the law that Theo
dore Roosevelt has been enforcing in the last seven years
in a way that it had never been enforced before. Let
us examine that Antitrust Law, because I like to get down
to the statutes and words and facts. I am not an orator.
I cannot dwell in the fountains of the cerulean blue. I
have got to take facts. What are they?
The first section of the Antitrust Law is against com
bination in restraint of trade, the second section denounces
illegal monopolies, and the two sections classify those entities
which have been guilty of violating the law. Under the
first, which is rather the easiest to deal with, one corpor
ation here, another corporation there, another corporation
there and a fourth corporation here, would unite together,
not their whole business, but they would just enter into an
agreement by which they would maintain prices, would
restrict output and would divide between them what the
profits were. That is, they would keep up the prices by
this agreement and controlling as they did a large part
of the output, they were able to carry out their conspiracy
against the freedom of trade.
Well, several questions arose. The first one was whether
an industrial corporation that gathered together manufac
turing plants in various States could be restrained from
buying those plants on the ground that it was violating

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 59
the Antitrust Law. The Supreme Court of the United
States said it could not. That was what was known as the
"sugar trust case." It is said the mere purchase of plants
was a question for State control and not for National control.
And so, after that decision, Mr. Olney, the Attorney-general
of Mr. Cleveland, gave it as his opinion that the Federal
Government was without power to do anything to suppress
this evil.
But they went ahead with other cases and finally they
got a case like this, in which perhaps fifteen or twenty
cast-iron pipe companies united together and distributed
the business through the different territories, agreed on
prices that they were to charge, divided up the business,
and then a stenographer of the president or the manager
of the whole concern, not getting what he thought he ought
to out of this conspiracy, betrayed the combination and
the stenographic notes were opened, the case was prose
cuted, an injunction was issued, the case came before the
court, and it was held that as it showed a conspiracy to
control interstate commerce between the States in cast
iron pipe, the Federal Government had the right to impose
a penalty for that kind of thing, that it was within the
function of the United States courts to punish it under
the criminal law of the United States, and that it was within
the function of the Government to provide that an injunction
might issue to prevent the carrying on of such a conspiracy.
That was what was known as the Addyston pipe case
that went from the Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme
Court and was upheld. That case, I think, is probably
the most important case in determining what the power
of a national government is in respect to them. But then,

60 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
just as soon as they began to direct their attention to cor
porations, then the corporations united in one corporation
and they said: "We have not made any agreement with
anybody; we are a legal entity, recognized by law; we just
agree with ourselves and that agreement certainly is not
in violation of law." But what they were attempting
to do was to monopolize the business in particular lines
and the question was whether they were not using illegal
methods to accomplish that purpose.
Now, what are those illegal methods? They consist
generally in the use of some kind of duress growing out
of the fact that they are able to control a large part of the
plants engaged in the business. For instance, they will
make a contract with their customers excluding the patron
age of their customers with anybody else, saying : " We will
sell you goods at a certain price and we will give you a rebate
on those goods if you don't patronize our competitors."
Or they go into one part of the country where they have
a small competitor and they will undersell him so as to drive
him out of business, in the meantime charging exorbitant
prices in other parts of the country. Those are badges
of duress, badges of fraud, and it is that character of things
that makes the aggregation of capital for the purpose of
monopoly illegal. That it is a monopoly and therefore illegal,
appears by reason of these methods thus pursued, because
you must bear in mind that the mere aggregation of capital
for economic purposes — to wit : to reduce the cost of pro
duction — is not illegal. It is the use of a great amount of
aggregate plant not for the purpose of reducing the cost
of production but for the purpose of driving others out of
business by the methods that I have detailed, that is a viola-

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 61
tion of the statutes. What we want is the large plants;
we need them, they give an enormous wage fund, they
reduce the cost of production, they make a large part of
the prosperity of the country and we don't want to drive
those men out of business, providing they keep within
the laws.
Now, Mr. Roosevelt went ahead, as I have said, and
instigated more prosecutions — and he is continuing to do
so to-day — than in all administrations which have preceded
him. There came early in this Administration a revela
tion with respect to the extent to which these illegal monop
olies had taken their hold on business and there was an
awakening of the conscience of the people, and Mr. Roose
velt interpreted that conscience and put into force what
the people with their aroused conscience demanded, and
that is the reason why they call those policies the Roosevelt
policies. Now what remains to be done ? I believe that a tremendous
step forward has been made in restricting these evils, that
the greatest instrumentality by which these trusts may
have been built up — these illegal trusts — has been the
rebates of the railroads, and those are utterly abolished.
Then, too, the prosecutions of these great companies have
made them consult lawyers, have made them feel the fear
of penalty in their hearts and they are keeping on generally
within the law.
Now, what is it we need ? What we need is to increase
the machinery of government, to increase the supervision
of these combinations that have the temptation to violate
the law so that under the eye of government agents it can
be seen easily whether they are keeping within the law

62 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
and that the departments at Washington shall have assist
ance enough and organization enough so that these prosecu
tions can be carried on with great rapidity, that when a
man is charged with violating the law he can find out quickly
what the law is and how far he can go, how far legitimate
business methods will go and then we shall have a condition
where he will keep within the law and not destroy the busi
ness that is necessary to continue the prosperity of the
country. If I am elected I propose to devote all the ability that
is in me to the constructive work of suggesting to Congress
a means by which the Roosevelt policies shall be clinched,
but that is to be done, not with a turn of the hand, not,
as Governor Harris said at Youngstown, by a magician's
wand ; it is to be done by men who understand the operation
of the statutes, who know what the law means, who under
stand its practical workings and with a consciousness that
reforms of this kind are not to be brought about by the mere
passage of a statute, but also by its earnest enforcement,
step by step, until the public and those who are likely to
violate it, shall understand that the penalty will be theirs
if they do.
Let us see what Mr. Bryan's methods are, in order to
know whether this heirship of Mr. Roosevelt's, that he
desires, has any foundation whatever. He proposes, first,
to take off the duty on every article which is manufactured
by trusts and controlled by them. Well, now let us see
what Mr. Roosevelt thinks about that. He has had four
years and if you will examine his letter of acceptance four
years ago you will find he took up that proposed remedy
and said it was not only utterly impracticable but it was

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 63
utterly unjust. He said it was not only impracticable
because you cannot tell who is to determine what is a trust
controlled article and what is not and, on the other hand,
the remedy means the destruction not only of the illegal
trusts but it means the destruction of every honest and lawful
competitor of that trust, because the business of the one is
just as dependent upon a protective tariff as the business
of the other, and, therefore, you are going to involve in
that remedy the destruction of the innocent with the guilty.
So, too, it is proposed to change from the protective
tariff to the revenue tariff in order to avoid trusts. Well,
they have trusts in countries that never had a revenue
tariff. Therefore, while it may be true that a protected
industry might be more easily monopolized than
one that is not protected, because you have to include
the whole, the question which we have to decide is whether
it is not better to attack the evil itself than to sacrifice all
our industries dependent upon a protective system, in order
to stamp out evils in a comparatively few of them. Now,
that, I say, is the difference between Mr. Roosevelt and
Mr. Bryan, and when Mr. Bryan says that he is the heir
of the Roosevelt policies, he means that he is going to carry
on an attack on the evils which Mr. Roosevelt directed
his attention against, and against which he has made most
substantial progress, by remedies which are disapproved
by Mr. Roosevelt and remedies which instead of commend
ing themselves to the people, will involve us all in disaster,
because it will be punishing the innocent with the guilty.
I have talked as far as I have a right to hold your atten
tion to-day. I have taken up merely the Roosevelt policies.
There is one more important question which, if I am elected.

64 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
I expect to devote as much time to as possible to bring
about a proper solution of, and that is the question of the
overissue of the stocks and bonds of interstate railways,
and that is part of the Roosevelt policies and it becomes
a part in this wise : that this overissue of bonds and stocks
upon the real value of the railroads puts in the power of
the monopolies a means of getting stocks and bonds which
they sell on the market and then buy other railroads. The
history of the Chicago & Alton and other railways will
show that that was the way by which the one man in control
of the first company concentrated power and control over
many other companies, and so it produces a concentra
tion and control of railways that does not make for the
public good.
The question is whether the Federal Government can
pass a law effecting that purpose, because interstate rail
ways though they may be doing an interstate commerce
business and running across State lines, yet they are State
corporations. The question is whether you can have a
Federal government interfering with the bonds and stocks
of State corporations. My judgment is that it is possible
to do so with respect to interstate railways, on the theory
that the overissue of stocks and bonds of such a railway
is so likely to interfere with the efficient operation of that
railway for the public benefit, that the United States may
step in and say, "Here, you must not weigh down your
railroad and prevent its improvement by proper construc
tion and re-construction, by issuing obligations which will
consume your entire income in paying the interest on those
obligations, and not using that income for the construction
and proper repair of your railways, and the efficient dis-

MR. BRYAN'S CLAIM 65
charge of your duty as an interstate common carrier."
This is cited in the Republican platform as one of the meas
ures that are needed to carry on the work that Mr. Roose
velt has so well begun and carried on to such an encouraging
point of progress.
There are other measures to which I could refer, but I
have gone over this matter of the Roosevelt policies in order
to point out to you that Mr. Bryan has no more right to
say that he is the heir of the Roosevelt policies, in view of
what he proposes to do if he gets into power, considering
Mr. Roosevelt's own view as to what ought to be done,
than the Tichborne claimant had to the Tichborne estates.
You will remember that Mr. Arthur Orton appeared as
the Tichborne heir and the result was very disastrous to
him personally before he got through, for while he pointed
out a great many reasons why he was the heir, it was found
after a discussion of all those reasons, and the intro
duction of evidence, that he was only a distant friend of
the real heir.
Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your attention.
I apologize for taking up your time at this time of the day,
but I had no other time in which I could direct my remarks.

V
THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO
(delivered AT ALLEN TEMPLE, CINCINNATI,
SEPTEMBER 15, 1908)
My Friends:
I AM glad to meet this audience in Allen Temple. I have
been here before, and I have long known members of this
congregation. One of the prominent pillars of the church,
James A. S. Clark, was for a long time a client of my father
and of me. I am glad to meet the representatives of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church, because I know that
they exercise a wide influence among the colored peoples
and especially among those of their church.
I am not here to-night to talk politics. At the invitation
of the presiding elder I am here to give you greeting and to
express my sympathy with your race in the struggle that it is
making for better things. It is a sympathy which I have
had from the time I was a small boy, for I inherited it from
my father, Alphonso Taft, than whom the colored race
never had a better friend.
My interest in the race and the problems that its progress
presents has been stimulated by my experience in the Philip
pines, for there I had to deal with a brown race that, like the
colored race in this country, is engaged in a struggle upward,
and has to meet in its onward course the prejudice of race
66

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 67
feeling and the burden of a condition of ignorance and
almost slavery, from which it is, with the aid of our Govern
ment, now seeking to rid itself. While in the Philippines,
I had to give much attention to the question of education,
and to the best kind of education for the improvement of a
people. The helpless condition of the Negro when he received his
freedom at the close of the War was such that his progress
in the forty-three years that have elapsed since that time is
very remarkable. He had shown during the War a remark
able fidelity to the families of those who held him in bondage,
and who were fighting to make his slavery perpetual, and at
the same time he manifested the most tenacious courage in
assisting the soldiers of the North wherever opportunity
offered. He had the benefit of the association with educated
people in a generally refined and Christian community, and
although densely ignorant, this association placed him at a
great advantage when it became necessary for him to take
his position as a freeman in society. His experience and his
tastes were agricultural generally. Farming is what the great
majority of the race have taken up since the War. That
they have made a success of it is apparent from the statistics
of the number of farms rented by them, of the number of
farms owned by them, of the total agricultural products of
the South produced by Negro farmers, and by the wealth
accumulated by Negroes through such farming. They
have been handicapped in the matter of education for lack
of sufficient school facilities. The South was very poor after
the War, and .had but little money to expend for the education
even of the whites, and although much was attempted by
private beneficence, there still remains a great deal to be done

68 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
throughout all the States of the South in this matter. The
literacy of the race has nevertheless been increased from
5 per cent, to 50 per cent, in forty years, and the cause of
Negro education is making most substantial headway. The
character of the education which he needs is the primary
education, the three R's, that enable him to read, write and
cipher, so that he may know how much com or cotton he has
put in, how much he ought to realize from the crop, and at
what prices he ought to sell. Then he should be taught the
process of good farming. He should have an industrial
education, added to the primary education. If he becomes
a carpenter, or blacksmith, or machinist or adopts any other
trade, he ought to be given the education that will fit him to
discharge its duties. " I am convinced from my experience in
the Philippines, and also from the investigations that I have
made since my return, into the condition of the Negro, that
the secret of the success of the race is largely dependent on
the spread of industrial education. It will be greatly easier
for him to secure his civil and political rights when he becomes
useful to the community and a source of profit to many
members of it. Prejudice against the race fades away most
rapidly when there are pecuniary reasons for its disap
pearance. The hope of the Negro race in this country, in
my judgment, is the extension to every part of the country
of institutions like those of Hampton and Tuskegee; and it
is very gratifying to know how many schools of this kind
are being instituted in the States where the Negroes are most
numerous. But, while I advocate with all the energy and confidence
possible the spread of primary and industrial education, I
am far from minimizing the importance or opportunity for

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 69
higher education of the Negro. The race needs leaders, and
the leaders need as complete education as possible. Of
course, comparatively few will have either the means or taste
to spend the time necessary in acquiring a complete academic
and professional education; but the leaders of the race —
those who expect to point the way of progress — ¦ ought to
have this opportunity.
Ten millions of colored people in this country offer a
magnificent chance for work in the four great professions.
First of all, the Negro is not as careful of his health as he
should be. The ignorant among them do not understand
the laws of hygiene, and when they are ill they are quite
likely not to receive proper medical attention. Especially
is this the case in the remote rural districts. Such a lack can
be remedied by the proper education of many colored phy
sicians. I have been interested when in the South to inquire
of colored doctors of education and experience what has
been their success professionally, and invariably the report
was that they were making a most comfortable living, and
that often their practice was much more valuable than that
of their white colleagues.
Again, the Negro is naturally religious and emotional
in his religion. His minister exercises a great deal of
control over him, as he ought to. It is of the highest
importance that men who exercise such a great influence
on the race should have an education and a training
enabling them to advise their parishioners not only in
religion, but in respect to all the trying problems that
must arise in their lives.
As the colored men acquire property, they are likely to
need the advice of lawyers, and I see no reason why

70 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
there is not a wide field among them, not so wide as
that of medicine or the ministry — for members of the
legal profession.
The fourth profession which needs the higher education is
that of teaching, and there is no one of them more important
than this. I believe that this profession is better filled among
the Negroes probably than any other, and I am glad that it
is so. It probably explains the very marked improvement
in the literacy of the race.
Now these doctors, ministers, lawyers and teachers, should
have as the basis of their professional education a sound
academic education, and they cannot get it unless there is an
opportunity for them to attend good colleges. I don't
think the number of colleges is as great as it should be, and
I am hopeful that they will increase in time. Fisk Umversity,
Atlanta University, Wilberforce University and others there
are. There is full opportunity at Oberlin for the education
of the Negro, and where a colored man has means permitting
it, he can get through Harvard or Yale. I have not always
thought that higher education among the Negroes should
be encouraged, but after a full consideration of the needs
of the race, I am convinced that I was in error; and as
I have had occasion to say before at Fisk University, the
proper educational system for the Negro must be likened
to a pyramid in which the broad foundation is that of
the primary education and the next layer industrial, and
the next secondary, and the next academic, and finally the
capstone — professional. The number receiving the higher
education, of course, in the nature of things, must be small
as compared with those who ought to have the benefit
of the training, knowledge and experience necessary for

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 71
them to succeed in farming, as mechanics, or any other
industrial pursuit.
As the colored people grow more intelligent, as they have
a better defined society, as their leaders increase in number,
intelligence and influence, it is inevitable that the race bitter
ness becomes harder for them to bear and their sense of its
injustice increases. I don't know that the race bitterness is
any stronger to-day than it ever was. For a length of time
it seems to be altogether abated, and then there will be an
outbreak, a mob will be formed, developing the most fiendish
cruelty, manifesting itself in the blindest and most unreason
able assaults upon perfectly innocent people, simply because
of their color. It is only fair to say that such brutish
exhibitions are not confined to any one section. It is impos
sible to read accounts of this sort without having one's blood
boil with indignation that there can reside in the human breast
such a savage and beastly impulse and motive. But we must
remember two things: first, that in spite of our education
and refinement and progress toward Christian ideals, we still
retain in our nature a great deal of the original animal; and
second, that the spirit of a mob seems to be a different
spirit from that of the individuals making it up, and to
disclose a more insensate and inhuman state of impulses
than it would be possible to find in any one of its
members. The best remedy, and the necessary one, is an
improvement in the administration of our criminal laws
and the holding to strict account the officers of the law
who do not use all possible means to prevent and suppress
such outbreaks.
I cannot too strongly condemn the attitude of those public
men who in their discussions of the Negro question use

72 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
language calculated to arouse in the ignorant a deep contempt
for the Negro race and an altogether unfriendly attitude
toward it. They must be held responsible for much of the
feeling that manifests itself in the contumely heaped upon
the Negro at times and the actual cruelty exhibited toward
him. On the other hand, I believe sincerely that all through
the South a very much better feeling is growing among many
classes of citizens toward the Negro. They know that he is
a most important element in their industrial progress. They
know that the proposition to eliminate him from their civiliza
tion is fatuous, that this is the only country he has, and this
is the only flag he can live under, and they have finally come
to see that the best thing possible, morally, pecuniarily,
industrially and politically, is that the Negro should be
encouraged to add to his intelligence and to his independence
as an industrial factor in society.
I am fully alive to the heart pangs that a colored man
endures when suffering from the contemptuous insults of
white men not at all his equal either in point of intelligence
or devotion to duty. I know the sense of injustice that has
oftentimes burned itself into his breast when he realizes that
his rights have been trampled upon, and his claim to fair
treatment rejected solely because of his skin. But in spite of
all, he should be of good cheer — the future is brighter for
him and is more in his hands than ever. While the Negro
is the ward of the nation, in the sense that the nation brought
him here against his will, and must now deal with the prob
lems that his presence presents and solve them justly, fairly
and charitably, he is not thereby relieved from the burden of
responsibility that he must assume to win his way in the com
munity by industry and thrift, to a place in which he becomes

THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO 73
too valuable a part of society for his depredators to ignore
his rights and well-earned position.
I thank you for the opportunity of meeting you and of
expressing my sympathy with the work which you are all
doing, and my hope of continued progress on the part
of your people toward higher things.

VI
IN DEFENSE OF THE PHILIPPINE POLICY
(addressed to the CITIZENS OF NORWOOD, OHIO, AT THE
SINTON HOTEL, SEPTEMBER 19, 1908)
My Friends from Norwood:
1AM very much obliged to you for coming to greet me
to-night. You are my neighbors, and I am glad to talk
to you. I have selected for a subject for discussion one very
near to my heart, and that is the Philippine Islands. They
are an issue in this campaign.
The Democratic party has declared in its platform that
as soon as a stable government is established in the Islands
we should leave them. A stable government is established,
so that this is equivalent to a resolution in favor of immediate
withdrawal. The Republican party has declared in favor
of continuing its present policy which is that of continuing a
government in which popular control by the Filipinos is
being from time to time enlarged, in which every effort is
being made to give the people of the Islands education and
also experience in self-government, in order that ultimately
the time may come, in one generation or two, when it will
be safe for the people of the Islands to give them complete
control over the Government.
When the Spanish War ended, and we were in potential
control of the Archipelago, there was only one of three courses
74

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 75
for us to pursue : either to turn the islands back to Spain, to
turn them over to Aguinaldo and his army, or to take them
under our sovereignty. The first course would have been
unfair to the Filipinos, who with us engaged in a war to drive
Spain out of the islands, and as allies they were entitled to an
arrangement which should not bring them again within the
control of Spain. We could not turn the islands over to
Aguinaldo, because he had attempted to govern them for
eight or nine months under our observation, and the Govern
ment had miserably failed. The tyranny and corruption of
it quite exceeded that of the Spanish Government, of which
so much complaint was made by the Filipinos. There was
nothing for us to do, therefore, but to assume responsibility
ourselves, take over the Government and to enter upon the
altruistic policy of educating the people in every way pos
sible, giving them practice in governing themselves, so that
step by step they might be advanced toward the ideal of a
self-governing people.
The people were suspicious and did not believe in the
announcement of the McKinley policy of attraction, and a
war of insurrection against the United States was begun by
Aguinaldo and his supporters which it became necessary, for
the tranquillity of the Government, for theUnitedStates to put
down. An army was raised and the war was put down. Tran
quillity was restored by the use of the army and also by the
carrying out of the policy of attraction by establishing auton
omy in the municipalities, partial autonomy in the provinces
and by giving Filipinos representatives in the Commission
conducting the central government. This was done before
the insurrection was ended, and was largely the cause of
its complete cessation.

76 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
In adopting this policy Mr. McKinley met the bitter oppo
sition of the leaders of the Democratic party, and most prom
inent among them was Mr. Bryan. In 1900, in the first
presidential campaign after the close of the Spanish war,
Mr. Bryan announced that the paramount issue was anti-
imperialism. He and those who supported him in that cam
paign, and who had indicated their policy even before the
campaign came on, condemned the course of McKinley with
so much vehemence as to convince the Filipinos that it was
wise for them to continue in open insurrection, and Mr.
Bryan and his followers were responsible for the cost and
suffering and loss of life on both sides which arose during the
unnecessary year of war. Since 1900 we have been engaged,
first, in restoring tranquillity; second, in maintaining justice;
third, in spreading education; fourth, in the construction of
public improvements in the Islands; fifth, in the settlement
of the church questions growing out of the transfer from a
government in which the Church and State were inextricably
united to one in which they must be completely separate;
sixth, in promoting the hygiene of the Islands by the establish
ment of efficient quarantine and a general health department
throughout the Archipelago.
We supplemented the army by the establishment of an
Island constabulary force of natives, officered by Americans
in part, which reached in number about 5,000, and which was
distributed through the various provinces of the Islands in
such a way as to assist the native governors elected to preside
over the destinies of their provinces, to preserve peace and
suppress ladronism.
We established a system of courts of first instance with jur
isdiction embracing the entire Archipelago, together with a

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 77
Supreme Court. We filled the court partly with Filipinos
and partly with Americans, and the administration of justice
has been fearless and effective. Some poor appointments
have been made, but generally the system has worked well.
Ninety per cent, of the people of the Philippine Islands are
densely ignorant. It is this state of ignorance which unfits
them for popular self-government. Education is their first
need. We sent for one thousand American school-teachers
to begin the work. We decided to teach the youth of the
Islands English, because it is the language of free institu
tions; it is the language which most of the people desire
their children to learn; it is the business language of the
Orient, and it is the language of the country which is assisting
the Filipinos to their feet. By earnest effort, the one
thousand teachers brought over have taught English to six
or seven thousand Filipino teachers, and they in turn are
carrying on the primary schools of the Islands, under the
supervision of American superintendents. There are to-day
in the schools of the Islands upward of 500,000 children
reading, writing and reciting in English. The system is
not extensive enough, but we are limited by our means. If
the United States were to give us three or four millions of
dollars a year, we could use it economically and carry on a
school system which would probably make room for all the
youth of school age in the Islands.
We have completed the construction of a harbor at Manila,
at a cost of some $4,000,000, which makes Manila one of the
best harbors in the Orient, and we are engaged in similar
work at Iloilo and Cebu. Many wagon roads have been
constructed in the Islands, and the system is now being
worked out by which the people shall have a motive for taking

78 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
care of the roads. This problem is most difficult in a
place like the Philippines, where the rains are so heavy
in the wet season as to wash out any known material in
the roads.
Among the roads in the Islands which were constructed was
the Benguet road. This road led from the lowlands up the
gorge of the Bued River some twenty odd miles, and involved
us in a cost of $2,000,000. Had we known in advance that
the cost would have been so great we never should have under
taken the task, but now that it is done it has brought about
such a change in the Islands that the improvement is worth all
it cost. The road leads from the lowlands to a rolling plateau
5,500 feet high, in which the temperature varies within the
limits of 40 degrees and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. With the
exception of the rainy month of August the climate in Benguet
is as fine as any in the world. The plateau is covered with
pine trees and grass, and makes a most delightful summer
climate. Criticism was at first heard that this road was built
merely for the purpose of enabling American officials to get
away in the summer, but lots have been sold from the Govern
ment reservation under a law providing for advertisement
and many Filipinos have bought; all the churches have
bought, and most of them are establishing houses to which
they can send persons for a month or two to recuperate.
Schools and sanatoriums are being established, and it is the
great health resort of the Archipelago. It is hardly too much
to say that Benguet has become as popular and as useful
among the Filipinos as among the Americans. There is
every reason to expect that the National Assembly will meet
there next year.
The greatest need in the material development of the

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 79
Islands is the construction of railways. Under the organic act
of 1902, Congress gave us authority to grant railway fran
chises, but try as we would, we were not able to enlist capital
ists in the enterprise except in the construction of two small
lines, branches of the old road. In 1905, Congress passed a
law enabling us to guarantee the interest on the bonds of
any new railway to the extent of 4 per cent, for thirty years,
the amounts paid to be a second lien on the railroad payable
after thirty years. By this means we have secured the con
struction of 100 miles of railroad in each of the three leadina:
islands of Negros, Cebu and Panay. In Luzon, we secured the
construction of 400 miles of additional railway without any
guaranty. It was secured in this wise: The Manila and
Dagupan road had been built under a Spanish franchise
creating a partnership in the railroad between the Govern
ment and the company and having among its many terms a
guaranty of a fixed income to the company during the life of
the franchise for eighty-eight years. Under the advice of the
Attorney-general of the United States that the provisions of
the charter, and especially the guaranty, were not binding
on the United States, the military government before I became
Governor had declined to pay the income when demanded,
and repudiated the obligations of the charter. This left the
franchise in a most indeterminate condition. In subsequent
negotiation we secured a contract with the company to con
struct 400 additional miles in Luzon under a perpetual
franchise, by bringing the old railroad under the same fran
chise. All the railroad franchises authorized by the present
government in the Philippines are perpetual just as they
are in this country. They all contain the provision,
however, that they are subject to amendment or repeal by

80 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Congress. The arrangement made was greatly for the
public benefit.
This is the part of my record in the Philippines to which
I suppose Mr. Bryan means to call my attention. He speaks
of the Benguet railroad franchise. There is no Benguet
railroad. I wish there was. I presume he refers to this
Manila and Dagupan railroad franchise. It was fully des
cribed in an elaborate report I made to Congress in 1906. It
was approved by the President and the Cabinet after full
consideration. Mr. Bryan is the first person, so far as I
know, to question its wisdom or propriety.
Next we bought the friars' lands and paid $7,000,000 for
them. This was done to save a new insurrection by the
60,000 tenants on the land who refused to pay rent to the
friars. The friars had good title to the lands, but they had
become unpopular with the people and the tenants refused to
recognize their title, claiming that Aguinaldo's government
had passed a law nationalizing these lands and that therefore
they would not recognize the friars as their lawful owners.
The purchase rid the Government of the necessity of enforc
ing at the instance of the friars judgments in the courts for
the ejection of 60,000 tenants, and thus averted a new war.
And not only in the matter of the friars' lands but in the mat
ter of many charitable trusts, we have effected a compromise
by which the church takes over some charitable trusts, and
we take over others. All the church questions are settled,
well settled and fairly settled. Meantime the influence for
good of the Catholic Church in the Philippines has been
increased by the substitution of an American hierarchy for
the Spanish hierarchy. Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian
and Baptist churches have been established there, and a great

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 81
improvement has come over thelslands with respect to religion
and morality, after the demoralization of four years' war and
desolation. We have organized a comprehensive health department,
very necessary in a country so much exposed to infectious
diseases as the Philippines are. The diseases are not con
fined to human beings, but the rhinderpest and the surra
have destroyed 75 per cent, of the cattle and 50 per cent, of
the horses. We have had to resist an epidemic of plague
and an epidemic of cholera, and to be constantly working to
suppress the cattle and horse diseases that I have mentioned.
We first gave the Filipinos autonomy in their municipal
governments, so that those eligible to vote were limited ta
persons who could read and write Spanish, read and write
English, or who paid a tax of $7.50 a year, or who had for
merly filled office in municipalities. Secondly, we gave
partial autonomy in the provinces by providing for the elec
tion of a Governor, and third we gave representation in the
legislative body, the Commission, to three Filipinos out of
eight. Then we increased the autonomous character of the
provincial governments by providing for the election of two
out of three of the controlling provincial board, and leaving
only the provincial treasurer to be appointed by the central
government. Under the act of Congress for framing the
government of the Philippines, provision was made for a
National Assembly to be selected in districts distributed
through the Christian part of the Philippine Islands by the
voters under the rules above stated. This National Assembly
was established last year, and while a majority of them are
so-called "Independistas" and favor in their party
immediate independence, they have cooperated with the

82 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Government in such a way as to show that the Assembly
was a step forward and a good thing both for the purpose of
following public opinion and by practically instructing the
people of the Philippines in self-government.
In an interview I said that even the Independistas — that
is, those in favor of immediate independence in the Islands
— prefer Republican victory to Mr. Bryan's promises. Mr.
Bryan now responds with a cable from Alberto Barretto deny
ing this on behalf of certain authorities in the Independista
party. I relied for my statement on a conversation I had
last month with Senor Quezon, who is the leader of the
Independistas in the National Assembly, in which he told
me that although the Independistas liked Mr. Bryan's plat
form they preferred my election as a friend of the Filipino to
Mr. Bryan's promises. This statement Senor Quezon sub
sequently repeated in a published interview. There is
evidently a difference of opinion among the Independistas.
The helpful work of the schools and churches in the Islands
is carried on apace. The spirit of Christian emulation has
been infused into the community among the churches, and
with the spread of education there is no reason why the
progress already made may not continue. I speak of the
churches in the Philippines from the standpoint of one inter
ested especially in the governmental and political welfare of
the Islands. The Filipino people are naturally a religious
people, and therefore their churches are to be made a most
efficient instrumentality in their uplifting, and the wise
legislator and the wise statesman in their interest cannot but
encourage all church environment. My conviction upon
the Philippine question is that we are in the Islands for an
altruistic purpose; that the fortune of war and fate and

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 83
Providence sent us to the Philippines; that the Islands came
into our hands in such a way that we were, under the inter
national obligation, forced to keep peace in the Islands, and
to see to it that foreign interests there did not suffer; that the
delivery from the Spanish power at our instance thrust the
Islands, in so far as their people were concerned, upon this
country, and made it our duty to look after the welfare of all
the people, and especially the welfare of the 90 per cent, of
densely ignorant who did not know and could not know what
their interests were; that to turn them over to Aguinaldo
and his generals for government, as shown by the experiment
actually tried, was to turn the Islands over to chaos and a
condition of continual warfare between the factions in the
Islands which would lay waste the Islands and retard them
many decades in their growth. As a great rich nation in the
family of nations, whenever fate shall thrust a poor, unfortu
nate people upon our hands, it is our duty, exactly as it is the
duty of the fortunate in a community, to aid the unfortunate,
and we cannot escape by international agreements or other
wise the direct responsibility that we now have to the Filipino
people. In my judgment, it would be a cowardly policy for us to
give up our work in the Philippines when so much remains
to be done in order to secure the permanent effect of our policy.
By making free trade between the Islands and the United
States, as recommended by the Republican platform, we
shall bring advantage to both countries, and we shall see a
prosperity in the Islands that will make their trade worth
having. I do not advocate this policy merely to benefit the
United States. I am more interested in it really for the bene
fit of the Philippines, because the United States is such a great

84 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
prosperous country that it can afford to get along without
additional Philippine trade. Nevertheless, the result of our
altruistic policy, the result of our dealing with the Philippines
for the benefit of the Filipinos only, in the end will turn out
to be the best possible course for the betterment of our Ameri
can trade with the Islands.
Mr. Bryan says that we have adopted his policy in the
Philippines; that he has desired to give the Philippines
independence and that we propose to give them independence.
Let us examine the facts in respect to this statement of Mr.
Bryan and see whether he fairly states the whole truth.
Mr. Bryan's method of giving them independence was to
release them at once, immediately after the Treaty of Paris,
and let them make the best way they could, through bloody
faction and chaos, to decent self-government. And his fur
ther method was to interfere as much as possible, by agitation
in this country and vehement denunciation of our policy,
with the efforts which we were making to bring tranquillity
and peace to the Islands. We have always contended that
the immediate independence which Mr. Bryan wishes to give
the Philippines would result in the utmost misery to the inhab
itants of the Islands. We thought that the best method
of procedure was to take over the Islands, to give them a good
government, to educate the ignorant, to practise the people
in partial self-government until they should be fit to take over
the government themselves, and then, if they desired it, to
turn it over to them. We felt and still feel that it would be
unwise definitely to promise independence to the Filipinos
for the reason that it encourages constant agitation and a
construction of the promise to mean independence in the near
future, whereas there is the strongest probability that the

IN DEFENSE OF PHILIPPINE POLICY 85
people of the Islands will not be fit for complete self-
government under two generations, and when they are, it is
further probable that, rather than have a complete separation
from the United States and independence, they will prefer to
enjoy the benefit of an association with the United States
like that which Australia or Canada has with Great Britain.
I submit there is not the slightest resemblance between
our policy and that which Mr. Bryan proposes. It is true
that eight years of our rule in the Philippines have produced
tranquillity and brought about a good government of the
Islands, and that the people are as happy as they could
be under untoward conditions arising from natural causes,
and therefore, that although Mr. Bryan in 1900 declared that
the paramount issue was that of anti-imperialism, he has with
his accustomed dexterity and liberality in the matter of
paramount issues, passed from anti-imperialism to something
which he regards as more attractive to the people.
The truth is that our treatment of the Philippines, our
recognition of the rights of the people there, our attempt to
teach them practical self-government, our exaltation of the
individual, have had an excellent effect throughout the
Orient. It is felt in China; it is felt in India. We are pion
eers in spreading the Western civilization in the East. Our
course in the Philippines has been denounced by Mr. Bryan
and the Democratic party as a departure from the princi
ples of the Declaration of Independence and with humiliation
to the real lovers of liberty in this country. Mr. Bryan in
1900 went so far as to say that unless he were elected on the
issue of anti-imperialism and the course of Mr. McKinley
rebuked, we might as well hold no more Fourth of July cele
brations for real patriotism would have departed from among

86 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
us. Instead of this, by our course in the Archipelago we
have spread liberty — not suppressed it. What our fore
fathers in the Declaration of Independence meant by liberty
was liberty recommended by law, liberty with peace and
tranquillity; liberty where the rights of the individual were
respected — not license, not chaos, not freedom to cut each
others' throats, but liberty under wise and enlightened govern
ment, of protected right to pursue happiness; the impartial
administration of justice; the education of the people, and
teaching them what their rights are. How can liberty be
given to a people so dense in ignorance that they don't under
stand what liberty is ? They must be taught. Our real
wards are not the really educated wealthy people of the
Philippines, numbering but 5 or 10 per cent, of the
population; they are the ignorant 90 per cent., and we shall
not discharge our plighted duty to them until we can be sure
that the government which is to be established over them will
secure to them their rights and not maintain them in a peima-
nent state of darkest ignorance. Hence I say, my fellow-
citizens and neighbors, that one of the great reasons for
keeping Mr. Bryan out of the Presidency and his party out of
the control of Congress is that they are pledged to abandon
the Islands, to adopt the policy of scuttle, to rid this Govern
ment of the burden which it has assumed with respect to this
people and to halt the spread of civilization in that part of
the Orient.

VII
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: WHAT IT HAS DONE
(delivered before the NATIONAL LEAGUE OF REPUBLICAN
CLUBS, AT THE MUSIC HALL, CINCINNATI,
SEPTEMBER 22, 1908)
Gentlemen of the National League of Republican Clubs:
YOUR enthusiasm and your numbers are a good augury of
the result in the present election. You are here because
you believe in the Republican party; because you believe that
it keeps its promises; because you believe the party is one
that has cohesive power enough and governmental experience
and statesmanship enough to do things; because you believe
that it has in it the moral force to resist selfish influences that
attempt to turn it from its purpose, and to pursue a course
consistent with the public interest.
The party has been in power for eleven years just past and
for forty years in the last forty-eight years. The record of
its achievements, however, is so long that in a single speech,
and in the time in which I can properly allot myself here, there
is really no opportunity to go back to the days of Lincoln
and Grant and Hayes and Garfield and Arthur and Harrison,
although that period was rich in arduous deeds done by the
party. Confining ourselves to the last twelve years, we find a
marvelous list of accomplishments. In the first place, through
87

88 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the instrumentality of the party, we defeated free silver,
maintaining the gold standard, and stamped on repudiation.
In the second place, in the interest of the freedom of Cuba,
we fought the Spanish War, and brought it in a short but
eventful struggle to glorious victory. In the next place, we
accepted the responsibilities and the consequences of that war,
and took over, under our care, not only Cuba but Porto Rico
and the Philippines. The situation was one of the greatest
difficulty. We encountered in the policies pursued the
bitter opposition of the Democratic party, and this produced
an embarrassment most costly both in life and blood. We
passed the Dingley Tariff Bill, and substituted it for the
Gorman- Wilson Bill which had laid waste the industries of
this country and had stopped the fires and the wheels of trade
and had thrown out of employment a greater percentage of
the wage-earners than ever before in the history of the world;
and by the establishment of our currency on a sound, honest
basis, and the re-adoption of the protective system, we brought
about a prosperity which has never been exceeded in the
history of this country or any other. Negotiations had been
pending and efforts had been making for years and years
looking to the construction of the Panama Canal that might
unite the two oceans, that might double the efficiency of our
Navy, and that might add greatly to the cause of civilization
and the commerce of the world. Pressing this question to a
conclusion with Colombia resulted in a revolution in Panama,
the establishment of an independent republic, the prompt
closing with the Republic of a contract by which we acquired
the necessary dominion and the necessary control of a strip
fifty miles long by ten miles wide, through which we are now
building the canal with an organization of machinery and

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 89
men under competent engineers, insuring its completion
within the next six years. Against Democratic opposition,
and in the face of insurrection, inspired by their attitude,
we have produced tranquillity in the Philippines, established
a good government and are engaged in the greatest altruistic
work that any nation ever undertook in uplifting eight millions
of an Oriental people to a level of intelligence and self-
restraint, enabling them to govern themselves. Cuba, that
we once put on her feet, became involved in a revolution which
by our intervention we succeeded in composing through the
temporary assumption of control under our treaty rights with
that island, and before this administration closes, Cuba will
be returned to the government of the people.
The Republican party has pursued the consistent policy
of maintaining an adequate army and navy to secure proper
national defense and to give adequate weight to our voice
in the international councils for international peace. We
seek no conquest of other nations. We wish to avoid war in
every honorable way, but we are not content to put ourselves
in a position where we may be exposed to national humiliation
and insult without the means of enforcing our honor and our
rights. We are a great nation. The world has not reached a
millennium. Other nations are armed and have great naval
and land forces at their command. If we would maintain
national prestige, if we would have the influence to which
a nation of our standing, population and wealth is en
titled, we must maintain a reasonably large navy and
we must have an army so organized as to form an efficient
skeleton of a much larger army to be called into requisition
in times of danger.

90 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
We have now an army of about 65,000 men. This is a very
small army as compared with our population. It is smaller
than the army was in the time of Washington or of Jefferson.
The charge that the Army has been increased for the purpose
of use in the suppression of domestic riots is utterly
unfounded. The large camps are being established away
from large cities where we can get an expanse of territory
in order to permit of the modern drill and modern
manoeuvres. Our coast defenses have not yet been completed. Our
Army is not sufficiently large to permit the equipment of more
than two-thirds of the batteries now ready for use upon our
coasts. Clearly, if we have guns, we must have men to mount
them. The Navy is being gradually increased and the bluejackets
and marines necessary for its equipment are being added to
its enlisted force. The whole nation is in favour of an
adequate military establishment. The Republican party
is willing to pay the price. The Democratic party, as we
shall see hereafter, is in favor of an adequate navy, but is
opposed to paying for it.
Through the prestige obtained by the Spanish War, by the
extension of our influence throughout the East and by our
general foreign policy, we acquired influence sufficient to
permit our President, Theodore Roosevelt, to act as the peace
maker of the world and bring the Russian-Japanese War to
an end. In Santo Domingo, in Central America and South
America, we have successfully bent our energies to bring into
closer union, in interest and in sympathy with the United
States, the Latin-American countries to the south of us. In
China we have established the open door policy, by which we

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 91
enjoy equal opportunities with other countries in dealing with
that great empire.
By the system of irrigation of arid lands, we are reclaiming
valuable portions of our Western government estate for the
use of farmers. Through the Agricultural Department and
through the Post-office Department we have greatly improved
the condition of the farming community, enabling them by the
scientific investigations of the Agricultural Department to
economize the methods and to increase the product and the
profits of the farm. Through the Post-office Department
we have extended to the farmers of the community the rural
free delivery, which brings them close into touch with urban
communities, and which, with the suburban electric road
and the telephone, have much ameliorated the hard conditions
of farm life. We have increased the efficiency of the Army.
We have added to the strength of the Navy. Steps are being
taken under the active energy of the present Administration
to a conservation of those natural resources, the forests, the
water and the mining wealth of the country, so that they
shall not be wantonly exhausted, but shall be preserved for
the rational use of generations to come.
We as a party in State and nation have enacted more legisla
tion for the special benefit and the relief of labor during the
past two decades than any party in the history of the country.
In President Harrison's day we adopted the safety appliance
requirements for interstate railroads to reduce if possible the
shocking loss of life and limb to the employees of those great
arteries of commerce. We adopted the eight-hour law for
Government workingmen, with the effect of giving an impetus
to the reduction of hours of labor in all branches of industry,
and in the present administration of Mr. Roosevelt we have

92 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
added to the safety appliances required upon the railroads, vve
have shortened the hours during which railroad employees can
be kept at work; we have passed an employers' liability act for
interstate railroads which abolished the defense of fellow-
servant and the forfeiture of all rights of the employee to
recover because of slight contributory negligence. We have
adopted a model child labor bill for the District of Colum
bia, with a view of arousing the States to similar action. We
have appropriated large sums of money to make the investiga
tions into the cause of mining disasters. We have adopted the
arbitration plan for settling the disputes between interstate
railroads and their employees, and we have finally adopted a
law recognizing the liability of the Government to make
compensation for the injuries sustained by its employees in
its service.
In the course of the prosperity of the last twelve years
when expansion was going on so rapidly and a great many
people were made rich quickly, it was natural that abuses
should creep in, and they did creep in. Corporations with
enormous wealth desired political influence to further their
ends, and did not hesitate to use every means to command it.
Trustees in the management of great financial funds proved
in some instances to have been recreant to the trust. Revela
tions came, showing that the railroads of the country had
fallen into a state of habitual lawlessness with respect to the :
granting of undue discriminations and rebates, and these j
rebates and undue discriminations were granted to the mon
opolizing trusts, and were the chief means of enabling them to
destroy and cripple competition.
In this condition of affairs the Republican party through
Theodore Roosevelt stepped into the breach to give expres-

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 93
sion to the moral awakening that such revelations had caused
among .the people. Legislation was introduced in the form
of the Rate Bill, which, taken with the previous bill called the
Elkins Bill, brought the railroads much more completely
under the supervision and power of the Interstate Commerce
Commission. Prosecutions under the Antitrust Law, which
by the way, had been passed by a previous Republican admin
istration, were begun with so much vigor that in one year
there were more prosecutions under Theodore Roosevelt
than in all the time since the act was passed in 1890. Not
only was there a moral awakening among the people, but the
legislation I referred to, the executive action, all had the
effect to put fear in the hearts of the violators of the law and
to bring about a condition with respect to the railroads in
which to-day rebates and unlavsrful discriminations are prac
tically abolished and a condition in which those combinations
and corporations charged with being unlawful monopolies
and obnoxious trusts are consulting the law with a view to
keeping within its provisions.
The abolition of rebates and the prosecution of the trusts
have so restrained their violation of law that competition is
springing up where there was no competition before, and the
great combinations of capital are keeping within their proper
function, that of manufacturing, of carrying on the industries
of the country, of distributing a very large wage fund, and of
avoiding the use of those cunning devices which, taken with
large aggregation of capital, have heretofore been used in the
suppression of competition.
This condition has been brought about largely by the stand
of Theodore Roosevelt and the action of the Republican
Congress under his recommendation. The first Congress of

94 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
his Administration passed more laws of a remedial and bene
ficial character than any Congress since the War. The Meat
Inspection Bill, the Pure Food Bill, the Rate Bill, in addition
to the labor legislation already referred to, make up a roll
of efficient legislation that may well make proud the party
responsible for it.
It is true that in the first session of the present Congress
so much remedial legislation was not passed, and this has
been made the basis for an assumption that in the next Con
gress there will be similar deliberation and hesitation. It
must be remembered that legislation of this character does
not pass all at once, but should have careful and minute con
sideration. The Rate Bill and the other measures which
passed in the first Congress of the present administration were
introduced in a previous Congress and had there failed. We
must know that Congressmen are now going back to their
constituents to receive a new mandate. We must know that
they are going back to a constituency imbued with enthusiasm
for the Roosevelt policies and filled with the determination
that they shall prevail. Hence, we may take the declaration
of the Republican platform in Chicago that the party approves
the Roosevelt policies and insists upon their support in good
faith by the representatives in Congress and the Executive,
as an evidence that in the party itself there is that stern loyalty
to the principles laid down by Theodore Roosevelt that will
insure within the next Administration, if it is Republican,
further steps onward toward the goal which he has set up for
the American people.
The question of what additional legislation shall be
adopted is, of course, a difficult one. We are certain that one
of the evils from which this country has suffered in the past

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 95
and which must be restricted is in the power of the managers
of railroads to issue bonds and stocks under State corporations
without proper supervision and without regard to the actual
value of the property upon which they are secured. There
fore we are all agreed, and the Republican party so declared
in convention assembled, that there must be Federal legislation
placing under the control of some tribunal — probably the
Interstate Commerce Tribunal — the issue of stocks and bonds
by interstate railways to such an amount as is justified by
the value of the property upon which the securities are to be
issued. Then there is a proposition to amend the Antitrust Law
so as to make it more effective. The amendment which has
struck the President with favor is an amendment by which
all corporations which register and submit their books and
business to the close supervision of the Department of Com
merce and Labor shall be immune from prosecution for
reasonable restraint of interstate trade. This, it is thought,
will induce all corporations likely to violate the Antitrust
Law to register.
The Democratic platform suggests the remedy that all
companies manufacturing more than 25 per cent, of any
product shall be required to take out a Federal license and
thus be brought within the supervision of the Federal Govern
ment. I think this method is impracticable. It would be
difficult to tell what such a statute meant, whether it would
refer to a class of products or to particular articles, and it
would make subject to license a great many small corporations
that manufacture special articles, or patented articles that
are not within the class of trusts and do not need supervision,
because their output is so small and the business they do is

96 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
negligible in the general business of the country. It is of
the highest importance that we should limit the supervision
and the necessity for examination to the corporations that
have a temptation to violate the Antitrust Law. To impose
the burden of a license or of close Federal supervision upon
all the corporations that do interstate commerce business
would be a burden so great as to disgust the public with the
law. My own impression is that an examination into the
statistics of the large manufacturing corporations, together
with all their subsidiary corporations, will show it possible
to fix a classification by the amount of capital invested in the
business. For instance, that all corporations and combina
tions of corporations having a capital of more than a certain
amount and doing an interstate commerce business should be
required to submit reports of the business done by them,
and to subject their books to frequent examination by govern
ment agents.
The machinery of the Government for the purpose of super
vising such enterprises is inadequate. The bureaus in the
Department of Commerce and Labor and in that of Justice
should be enlarged. The jurisdiction of the Interstate Com
merce Commission should be reduced so far as the railroads
are concerned, so that the Commission shall exercise no
administrative and prosecuting functions, but shall only act
as the quasi-judicial tribunal upon the complaints made either
by private individuals or by the Department of Commerce
and Labor. Their jurisdiction might be further enlarged
as a quasi-judicial tribunal to make orders for, and direct
prosecutions of interstate corporations coming within the
classification above named for violations of the Antitrust
Law. Of course, if decisions of administrative tribunals are

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 97
not acquiesced in, the courts are the final resort; but my own
judgment from observation is that in most controversies,
where there is a full understanding of the determination of
the Government to be rigid, earnest and active in its policy
of enforcing the law, it is quite possible to settle nearly all
disputes by acquiescence of both parties in the judgment of
administrative tribunals.
The Democratic platform recommends that all corporations
manufacturing more than 50 per cent, of any product shall be
required to cut down its plant, so that the product shall
not exceed 50 per cent, of the total product of the country.
This provision, easy to state, is most difficult to execute, for
the same reason as the 25 per cent, limitation, because no one
would know whether the limitation applied to one article or
a class of articles. Men engaged in the business could not
tell whether they were manufacturing more or less than 50
per cent, of the product, because it is necessarily dependent
on the question of what others are manufacturing. Plants can
not be cut down as trees are by measuring 50 per cent, of the
trunk from the ground to the top; and the whole proposition
savors of that academic, impracticable character which
is evidence that the proposition was inserted in the platform
not for actual economic operation but merely to satisfy the
demand for some specific remedy in an argument on the
stump. No one can deny who is at all familiar with the happenings
of the last four years that this Administration has grappled
the question of monopolies and railroad abuses as it has never
been grappled before, and that this has been done with the
assistance of a Republican Congress. Now that it has been
done Mr. Bryan and the Democratic party step forward to

98 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
say that it is in accordance with their previous recommenda
tions, and that they and not Mr. Roosevelt and the Republi
can party are entitled to the credit for it. This is a character
istic difference between the parties. One party does the thing,
the other party claims it because it talked about it.
Another thing the Republican party pledges itself to do,
fixes the date when it will do, and tells you how it will do, is
the revision of the tariff. The Dingley Tariff has served the
country well, but its rates have become generally excessive.
They have become excessive because conditions have changed
since its passage in 1896. Some of the rates are probably too
low, due also to a change of conditions. But on the whole,
the tariff ought to be lowered, in accordance with the Repub
lican principles and the policy that it has always upheld of
protection of our industries. That is, every schedule ought to
be arranged so that the tariff on the products of the factory,
farm and mine shall be equal to the difference between the
cost of their production in this country and the cost of their
production abroad. This cost of production is made up by
the cost of materials, the cost of labor and the manufacturer's
interest and profit. It is not an easy thing, of course, to
reach this difference. The examination to be made should
be fair and impartial between the manufacturer and the
consumer. Now, Mr. Bryan is greatly concerned, and says that no such
tariff revision can be made in view of the fact that the pro
tected industries control the Republican party. I deny this.
If there are protected industries that are enjoying too great
profits under the present tariff, they would have opposed
revision altogether. The movement in favor of revision
has arisen within the Republican party, and is pressed for-

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 99
ward by members of the Republican party. The revision
which they desire is a revision which shall reduce excessive
rates and at the same time preserve the industries of the
country. It took some time, as it always does in a party,
to crystallize this sentiment. It has been crystallized, and
the party is determined to see that this revision shall go
on by fixing the date when it is to begin and prescribing
the rule by which it is to be carried on. I wish there
to be no doubt in respect to the revision of the tariff.
I am a tariff revisionist and have been one since the
question has been mooted. The members of Congress
who are elected this time are to be elected by constituencies
that, we may infer from the action of the Republican
Convention, are strongly in favor of a re-examination and
a revision of the tariff.
Under those circumstances, we have the right to say that
the resivion will be made upon just and fair lines, and that the
plighted faith of the party will be carried out as formulated
in the platform. I do not mean to say that manufacturing
interests will not, of course, try to use their influence with
respect to the tariff. They can and ought to. From them
we must get evidence as to what the cost of production is.
But evidence must be taken from other sources, so that we
shall have a fair and impartial hearing.
I am convinced that the whole Republican party is in earn
est about this, and I do not hesitate to say that, as President
of the United States, if I be elected, I shall use all the influence
which I can legitimately use to bring about a full and perfect
performance of the pledge.
Mr. Bryan and the Democratic platform propose a revision
on tariff revenue lines. Mr. Bryan says, and the platform

100 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
says, this shall be gradual. They thus prescribe no definite
rule and leave it wholly to their discretion after the election,
should they be chosen. Mr. Bryan cannot deny that sub
stituting a revenue tariff for a protective tariff — a tariff
for revenue, whether the change be gradual or not — neces
sarily wipes out some industries, and the course proposed
therefore is, as Governor Hughes correctly said, a series of
tariff tinkerings, step by step, lopping off the branches of
industry one by one, keeping the country in a continued state
of agitation, and paralyzing all enterprise and business. It
is idle to suppose that in fixing a tariff for revenue there will
not be some anxious interest by those whose business will be
affected by the change, to prevent injury to one industry and
to secure benefit to another.
Mr. Bryan attacks the Republican party for its extrava
gance and quotes from the Democratic platform to sustain
his view. In the first place, taking the whole expenditure of
the Government, and comparing it with the amount of
wealth per capita, the percentage of cost of the Federal
Government is less to-day than it ever was. In this respect,
the Federal Government expenditures differ from the expen
ditures of counties, towns and cities, for as to them, the
percentage of cost per wealth per capita has increased from
year to year and from decade to decade. The answer to the
complaint of a billion-dollar total of appropriations is that
this is a biUion-dollar country. The Federal Government
has been called upon to enlarge its usefulness by spending
money for many things which in times past were either not
done at all or were left to the initiative of the States. We
are spending $10,000,000 in the Agricultural Department
alone to aid the farmer in knowledge of better agriculture.

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 101
We are spending $37,000,000 for rural free delivery to make
his lot more comfortable. We are enlarging the health
departments of the United States. We are increasing the
activities of the Government by the Pure Food Law, by the
Meat Inspection Law, by the Rate Bill, by the prosecutions
under the Antitrust Law. We are increasing the expendi
tures for waterways and intend to do still more in this way.
We are increasing our Navy and are perfecting and equipping
our coast defenses with men and guns. Now, we find the
Democracy and Mr. Bryan occupying a characteristic
attitude toward these expenditures. In order to please the
Pacific Coast, he departed from the position he took in other
campaigns in denouncing an imperialistic navy, and in order
to get votes on the Pacific Coast he permitted a plank in favor
of an "adequate" navy; but now he objects to the naval
expenditures. In other words, he wants a navy enough to
angle for votes with a plank in its favor, but he objects to
paying for it.
But let us examine the specifications as to extravagance.
The Democratic platform denounces the Administration for
increasing the offices 23,000 at a cost of $20,000,000 last year.
As a matter of fact, the net increase in the offices was less than
half, or 10,682, and the cost was $9,087,987. And what did
the increase chiefly consist of ? It was of about 7,000 enlisted
men in the Navy to man our new ships and 3,000 in the Post-
office Department to permit the expansion of that Depart
ment to meet the wants of the country in rural free delivery
and other service. But the Democratic platform goes further.
It says that in six years we have increased the civil service by
99,319 offices at a cost of $70,000,000. Let us see what
the facts are. The net increase of offices in that time, instead

102 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
of being what they say, was only 51,416, at a cost of
$37,000,000. This increase was made up of 6,439 officers
and men for coast defenses, 19,364 for the Navy, and about
20,000 in the Post-office Department. Certainly, we need
our coast defenses properly equipped with men. As it is,
we have not enough by 33 per cent, to equip our existing coast
defense batteries with one shift of men. The increase in
the Navy was not enough to man our ships, and a number
had to go out of commission. The increase in the post-office
service was necessary to meet the growth of business and was
paid for by increased earnings.
This is all the Democratic attack amounts to. Their
figures are too large by half, and when we examine the other
half we find it to have been in directions to which even the
Democrats do not object.
I have thus reviewed what the Republican party has done,
and what in effect it promises to do. With respect to those
policies known as Roosevelt policies, involving a closer super
vision of the railways, a closer supervision of the large cor
porations engaged in interstate commerce, and a continu
ance of the prosecutions for violation of law, all I have to say
is that, as President of the United States, it will not only be
my purpose, but it will be my pride, to clinch the Roosevelt
policies by energetic executive action, and by the earnest
recommendation to Congress of such constructive measures
as may make the supervision of these great business interests
of the country effective to prevent abuses; to furnish guidance
for honest and legitimate business managers, and to disturb
legitimate business as little as possible. If ever the party
earned the verdict of " well done " by the record of the last
seven years, and the reward of a renewed mandate of power,

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 103
it is the Republican party under Theodore Roosevelt, and I
do not hesitate to ask for that mandate under my leadership
because my association with Mr. Roosevelt, my participation
in much of his Administration as his adviser, and as his
agent, have enabled me to know what the task is, enabled me
to understand the principles that have governed him in his
course, and given me something of the enthusiasm and joy of
accomplishment that has made him such a matchless leader
in these reforms.
Turning now to the other picture, what is it that we have
to expect from Mr. Bryan ? Have we anything to expect but
what he promises ? Have we anything to expect but what is
based upon his eloquence and his adroitness as a public
critic ? Has he ever given any practical demonstration of his
ability to meet problems and solve them ? Has he ever done
anything but formulate propositions in his closet of an utterly
impracticable character, largely with a view of attracting
votes by their plausibility, and very little with a view of their
actual operation? "By their fruits ye shall know them."
What is the history of Mr. Bryan ? It is from beginning to
end a record of failures on public questions^ We find him
first in Congress, in the second administration of Mr. Cleve
land, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, and
most active in formulating the provisions of the Gorman-
Wilson Tariff Bill. After five months' debate, it passed both
Houses and came to Mr. Cleveland in such a shape that he
denounced it as a piece of perfidy. It levelled the industries
of this country to the ground. It threw out of employment
millions of wage-earners. It destroyed all business profit.
Farm products for lack of a market fell to a point never so
low in forty years. Coxey's army marched from the West to

104 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Washington to protest against a government under which
such things were possible.
And then, after having assisted in this suicidal policy, after
the country was nearly dead, after the farmers and wage-
earners were staggering under debt and mortgage, penury
and almost starvation, Mr. Bryan defeats the efforts of the
only really great Democrat that they have had in the party
for many years, Grover Cleveland, and hurls at him billings
gate denunciation, for what reason? Because he opposes
Mr. Bryan's pet hobby, that of the free coinage of silver,
without the consent of any other nation. Mr. Bryan
announced that the gold standard had slain its tens of thou
sands, where protection had slain its thousands, and so he
abandoned the issue of protection and free trade, of tariff
for revenue, which now so attracts him, and he went into the
business of trying to persuade the people of this country to
resort to the dishonest method of paying off their debts by
issuing a debased money which would be equivalent to the
payment of what the nation and the people owe at the rate
of fifty cents on the dollar. Repudiation always has an attrac
tion for those who are laboring under debt. Never in
the history of the country was there a time when that per
nicious proposition could have appealed to the people as it did
in 1896. It was pressed home by all forms of specious argu
ment, and the temptation was dangled under the noses of
the good people of this country to wipe off their honest obli
gations, not by payment in the coin in which they were con
tracted, but by legislative act. Fortunately the honor and
the good sense of the American people revolted. Fortunately
the laboring man saw the payment of his debts with the
fifty-cent dollar was only one side of the picture, and that when

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 105
it meant that his hard-earned wages were to be paid in the
same kind of coin, he was the creditor, and that the repudia
tion was against him and not in his favor.
In that campaign Mr. Bryan prophesied that the continu
ation of the gold standard meant uncertainty in employment
of labor and hardship to the wage-earner; that it would
send down the price of farm products — wheat below fifty
cents, corn below twenty cents, and oats to five cents. He
did not have to live two years to see every prophecy that he
made in that campaign refuted by the fact.
Then there came on the campaign of 1900. In that cam
paign he still adhered to his free-silver fallacy, and still went
about the country trying to explain why it was that the continu
ation of the gold standard had not resulted in the disasters he
had prophesied. But lest the issue of free silver had become
a little shopworn, he brought out as a paramount issue that of
anti-imperialism. He announced that if he were not elected
in the next election, patriotism would have ceased to be in
this country, the celebration of the Fourth of July would
become but a memory, and that liberty would die. His
agitation of this question continued the war in the Philip
pines against the authority of the United States for nearly
two years longer, and many a poor fellow who lost his life
in the service of his country in those far-distant islands owes
it directly to the inspiration which the opposition of the
Democracy under Mr. Bryan made to the policy of Mr.
McKinley in the Philippines. He was beaten on these issues,
and we continue to celebrate the Fourth of July with fervor.
At the end of the next four years Mr. Parker was nominated.
Mr. Bryan still insisted on inserting in the platform a clause
in favor of free silver, but it was left out. He then joined

106 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
with Mr. Parker in making the paramount issue the tyranny
of Theodore Roosevelt, executive usurpation and militarism.
He denounced Mr. Roosevelt as completely subject to cor
porate interests, and held up to the country the dangers
of war to which it would be subject under a Roosevelt admin
istration. Although the same policy was being pursued in
the Philippines as before, imperialism had ceased to be then a
paramount issue.
The prophecy which Mr. Bryan made with reference to
the warlike tendencies of Mr. Roosevelt and to his subjection
to corporate influence, he had only to wait, as he had had to
wait in previous instances when he made a prophecy, some
two years to find them utterly refuted. For never in the
history of the world has any chief executive had such a tri
umph in making peace as Theodore Roosevelt in the Russian-
Japanese War, in Central America, in Santo Domingo and in
Cuba; and never in the history of the country has there been
such a complete triumph over corporate influences as that
which the courage, the honesty and the persistence of
Theodore Roosevelt have wrought during the present
Administration. In the campaign of 1904, and in previous campaigns, Mr.
Bryan had denounced militarism and imperialism, but this
year he was advised that the visit of our Navy to the Pacific
Coast had aroused such an interest in the Navy, had made it
so popular on that coast that his Pacific friends persuaded
him to approve a plank in the platform for an adequate navy
for the protection of the Pacific Coast. Just what he means
by this it is a little difficult to tell. What the Republican
party means by it is clear. It means an increase in the present
forces of the Navy, and yet with characteristic inconsistency

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 107
Mr. Bryan, as already said, attacks the Republican party
for making suitable appropriations for the increase of our
naval force.
In 1906 Mr. Bryan went around the world, and his return
was heralded with the statement that in his visit around the
world he had so gained information and knowledge that he
had become safe and sane, that he was a conservative, and
all the Democratic party awaited his coming with great inter
est. Immediately upon his arrival he dispelled this erroneous
impression by declaring that he was convinced that the only
solution of the railroad problem ultimately would be govern
ment ownership. He has previously declared in favor of a
national initiative and referendum and also in favor of the
election of Federal judges. All these most radical proposi
tions have now been excluded from the Democratic Platform.
They do not meet such popular approval as to justify their
being brought forward as a means of acquiring office in this
campaign, but they illustrate the character of the man who
proposes them, they show the instability and variability of
his views, and they justify the fear that so many people of
this country have in respect to the danger to which the
public weal may be exposed should he be put at the helm
as the pilot.
And now, with this record of promises and prophecies
unfulfilled for a period of twelve years, with this record
of a hunt for an issue upon which to achieve the Presidency,
with this record of repudiation, of negation and of running
away from national responsibilities, Mr. Bryan comes for
ward and asks that the people now give him an opportunity
to put into operation new reforms in respect to trusts and in
respect to guaranty of bank deposits, wholly untried, wholly

108 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
theoretical, and on their face bearing evidence of their imprac
ticability and of having been devised by the ready brain of
one looking for plausible arguments rather than real reforms.
He only in a qualified way approves the postal savings banks
recommended by the Republican platform, which is a tried
and proved means of encouraging the wage-earner and small
farmer to make deposits in a bank absolutely secure; but
much prefers a system which takes a man's money to pay
another man's default and which, instead of strengthening our
banking system, will break it down by destroying the value of
banking character and experience and capital, and offering
inducement to reckless and speculative bankers without
character or capital.
Last fall we had a panic. I think that there is a consensus
of conservative opinion as to the cause of it. It is that we
had expended in every business direction and had increased
the amount of capital in fixed investments to such a point
as to almost exhaust the sources of supply of further capital.
The profits from the investments were not sufficient to make
new capital as rapidly as it was required, and it became
impossible to borrow money even on the best security for
new enterprises. In addition to this, the revelations of the
bad management of certain of our corporations, of the lawless
conduct of others, and of the lack of proper supervision and
control of many financial enterprises, together with the feeling
properly aroused against great corporations that had abused
their privileges and sought to obtain undue advantage through
political control, frightened those who had capital to invest.
There came a stringency, a panic, and a subsequent depres
sion. The panic differed from previous panics in that the
farmers continue to be prosperous; their products are selling

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 109
at a very high price, and nothing is wanting but a restoration
of confidence and the investment of capital to bring about the
old prosperous conditions.
The record of Mr. Bryan and his character, as it is under
stood by a twelve years' acquaintance with him, have
impressed the business community of this country and those
whose judgments determine whether or not capital shall be
invested that he is not a safe man with whom to try experi
ments in government; that he loves financial theories that are
full of sophistry and are impractical; that he advances
propositions with but little sense of responsibility as to how
they may be carried out in practice, and that he gives but
little attention to the welfare of the conservative business
community in his suggestions of reform. Certainly his record
justifies this judgment of him by the business men. If he
were to be elected, unquestionably because of his record,
however much now he may seek to pose as a conservative —
because of his record, because of the failure of the theories
which he has proposed for the last twelve years, his election
will mean a paralysis in business, a halt and hesitation until
it is known what he is going to do with the power to be
entrusted to him, and a consequent permanent continuance
of the depression with which the country has been afflicted
for now nearly a year. The present gradual advance toward
prosperity would cease, and we should have a recurrence of
the disastrous business condition of the last Democratic
administration.

vni
THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS
(delivered at ORCHESTRA HALL, CHICAGO,
SEPTEMBER 28, 1908)
My FeUow-citizens:
I AM glad to meet so many members of organized raihoad
labor. I think it is generally conceded that railroad
orders, or "brotherhoods" as they are called, have been
conducted with marked ability and with the greatest useful
ness, not only to their members but to the community at
large, including their employers, the railroads; and I have
accepted this opportunity to address an audience of members
of the brotherhoods in order that I may take up a question
which has been given great prominence in this campaign,
and in which I must say that every effort has been made
unjustly to arouse the prejudice of organized labor against
the Republican party and its candidate.
In the first place, I wish to affiirm, without fear of con
tradiction, that the Republican party has done vastly
more than the Democratic party, both in State and National
legislation, for the protection and in the interest of labour.
It passed in General Harrison's administration the eight-
hour law for government workmen and gave an impetu?
to a reduction of hours in other employments. The Safety
Appliance Act, by which railroads engaged in interstate
110

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 111
commerce were required to make provision for the safety
of their employees, and thus to reduce the shocking loss of
life and limb among railroad employees, was passed in
the same Administration. Amendments to this act making
more detailed specifications for improvements in safety
appliances, including especially the fire pan, have been
passed in the present Administration. An act for the pro
motion of arbitration between the railways and their employees
in interstate commerce is also one of those acts of benef
icence to both employer and employee. Under the common
law, as declared by the Supreme Court of the United States,
if an employee was injured in the service of a railway com
pany, and the injury arose from the negligence of a fellow-
servant, he could not recover damages. Again, if he was
guilty of the slightest negligence contributing to the accident,
his suit failed. The last Congress enacted a law which
was declared unconstitutional, and then in its second session
reenacted the law to avoid the constitutional objections.
By this act a railway employee who brings suit for damages
against the company cannot now be defeated on the ground
that the negligence was the negligence of a fellow-servant.
If he is shown to be guilty of negligence himself in a slight
degree, he does not forfeit his right of action, but it is left
to the jury to apportion the damages and reduce them as
equity shall justify.
In addition to this, a law limiting the hours of labor
of interstate railway employees has been passed as well
as a model child labor law in the District of Columbia;
and money has been appropriated for the purpose of making
investigation into the cause of the dreadful mining injuries.
Heretofore all persons working for the Government have

112 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
been denied any right to compensation for injuries received
in the Government employ, no matter through whose negli
gence. A bill was passed by the last session of Congress
providing for compensation to Government employees in
such cases. It is an inadequate law and will doubtless be
improved by coming Congresses, but the principle that the
Government will not pay compensation for injuries received
in its employ has now been abrogated, and we may look
ultimately for exactly the same compensation in govern
ment cases as where the employer is an individual or a
corporation. The record of the Republican party, therefore, I think
may be looked to with confidence as a conclusive proof
that that party has always been friendly to labor, and has
never failed in its duty when called upon to enact suitable
and protective laws.
An issue, however, has arisen as to the attitude of the
two parties on the subject of injunctions in labor disputes.
I propose now to take up first my personal relation to
this question. It fell to my lot to be a Judge of the
Superior Court of Cincinnati for three years and a Judge
of the United States Circuit Court for the Sixth District,
including Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, for
eight years, and during that time I had to consider a number
of important cases involving the rights of labor and the
rights of the employer, as well as the practice in equity
with reference to the issuing of injunctions in such cases.
The first case was not an injunction suit at all. A boss
bricklayer quarreled with the union, and their members
who were in his employ struck. In order to embarrass
him the union notffied all the local dealers in materials

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 113
that they would boycott any firm which furnished him
with material. Moores & Co. had a contract to deliver
to this boss bricklayer a lot of lime. In order to avoid
trouble they secured from him a release from the contract;
but he sent his wagon to the freight station and bought
lime out of the car where Moores & Co. sold lime to any
one who applied. The walking delegate of the union dis
covered it, and a boycott was begun.
Moores & Co. were prevented from selling to their
usual customers any lime or other material for a great number
of months, and suffered a severe financial loss to their busi
ness. They sued for damages and the case was tried before
a jury. The jury returned a verdict for $2,500. Now,
gentlemen, in that case I held and decided with two col
leagues that a secondary boycott was an unlawful injury,
and that whether it was perpetrated by laboring men or
otherwise. That is the law to-day and, my friends, it
ought to be the law. I understand that the railway orders,
generally, acquiesce in the proposition that it is not wise
to use such a secondary boycott as an instrument in indus
trial disputes. I know that this is not the view of Mr.
Gompers, but I am glad to know that there is a difference
in organized labor upon this question. Certainly no more
cruel instrument of tyranny was ever adopted than this
secondary boycott.
Now, what was the second case in 1903 ? In that case
the Toledo & Ann Arbor Railroad was in a dispute with
its employees, who were members of the Brotherhood of
Locomotive Engineers, and a strike by the engineers followed.
It was understood by the Toledo & Ann Arbor road that
the brotherhood engineers on the Lake Shore road were

114 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
going to refuse to haul their cars, and that the Lake Shore
road for that reason would acquiesce in this action. Accord
ingly the Toledo & Ann Arbor road applied to Judge Ricks
to enjoin the Lake Shore Railroad Company, its officers
and employees, from refusing to haul Toledo & Ann Arbor
cars. He did so in accordance with the interstate com
merce law, which requires one railroad engaged in inter
state commerce to haul the cars of another railroad delivered
to it, and imposes this duty not only on the railroad itself
but upon the officers and employees. There was no order
issued which required engineers to stay in the employ of the
Lake Shore road. The order only required them, so long as
they remained on their engines and in the employ of the Lake
Shore road, to comply with the law and haul Toledo & Ann
Arbor cars. After this, Mr. Arthur, the head of the Brother
hood of Locomotive Engineers, complying with a secret rule,
No. 12, then in force in the order, which forbade the engineers
on one road, members of the order, to haul the cars of another
road when the order had a strike on the latter road, issued
a notice to the engineers of the Lake Shore that the strike
on the Toledo & Ann Arbor was approved as required by
the rules of the order, and that they should proceed to
enforce rule No. 12, which meant that they should refuse
to haul the cars of the Toledo & Ann Arbor road. In
other words, this order which he issued by telegram was
a direct order to them to violate the Federal statute and
to compel the Lake Shore road as a third person not inter
ested in the controversy between the Toledo & Ann Arbor
road and its former employees to assist their employees in
their fight with that road. It was a secondary boycott,
and it was a direct violation of the Federal statute which

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 115
imposed a punishment by fine and imprisonment for its
violation. I required Mr. Arthur to withdraw the telegram
which he had issued to his men in respect to rule No. 12,
and within a very short period I gave him a hearing. Mr.
Arthur had promptly complied with my order and never
did disobey it. My own impression always was that Mr.
Arthur was glad to have it decided that such a rule as rule
12 was illegal. At all events, the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers then repealed the rule and it has never been
enforced so far as I know.
I submit that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers,
in repealing rule No. 12 and condemning the use of the
secondary boycott in such cases, justifies and vindicates
fully the conclusion that I reached in that case, on the action
that I took. The repeal of rule 12 brought the Brother
hood completely within the law and instead of being law
breakers they became its conservators.
The third case was the Phelan case. It grew out of the
attempt of the American Railway Union and Eugene Debs
to starve the country by stopping all the railroads and thus
compel the Pullman Company to pay higher wages to its
employees. Neither the starving country nor the railroads
had control over Mr. Pullman. They had no power to
control him in any way or to compel him to change the
terms upon which he employed his labor. Some railroads
had contracts with him for carrying his cars. They were
not justified in breaking those contracts. In other words,
the action against the railroad companies by Debs and his
lieutenant, Phelan, was a secondary boycott. At this time
the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, 336 miles from Cincinnati
to Chattanooga, was being operated by a receiver under

116 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
my orders as United States Circuit Judge. Phelan knew
this and was warned of it. He held meetings of the Cin
cinnati Southern Railroad employees, and advised them to
strike and tie up the road, and by hints and winks and
side remarks, he instigated them to violence, and to attack
the men who stayed upon the engines and who worked
the trains, and who refused to obey his call to leave the
railway. You may remember that in that strike the reg
ular Brotherhood did not join, because they did not believe
in a sympathetic and aimless strike of that character. Never
theless the strikers, acting under the instigation of Phelan,
broke the heads of members of the Brotherhood locomotive
engineers and firemen who stuck to their engines and
attempted to carry on the business of the railroad. The
chief residence of the employees was Ludlow, Kentucky,
and it became untirely unsafe for the Brotherhood engineers
and firemen of the receivers to go from the railway to their
houses in Ludlow. On an affidavit charging him with
contempt in attempting by such methods to defeat the
order of court directing the receiver to run the road, he
was brought into court. At the same time he was enjoined
from continuing his obstruction and the time for hearing
of the contempt proceedings was set in accordance with
his desire. He employed counsel and for ten or twelve
days I tried the case. Meantime, during the trial he con
tinued his course. The evidence clearly established his
guilt. His defiance of the court's order during the trial
was fiagrant and deliberate and tended to destroy the court's
authority. I, therefore, sentenced him to jail for six months.
It was necessary that this man who was inflicting loss not
only upon the stockholders of the road but also upon the

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 117
public, who was subjecting to lawless violence the Brother
hood engineers and firemen of the road, and who was hold
ing the administration of justice up to contempt, should be
punished in an orderly way.
I can understand how a man like Debs, a socialist tending
to anarchy, who believes that modern society is established
on a thoroughly wrong basis, that property ought to be
divided equally, that everything ought to be run by the
Government, should be in favor of such a disturbance as
that which he created by bringing about the strikes and
tying up the railroads as he did; but I cannot understand
how intelligent and law-abiding members of the railroad
orders entertaining the views which I am told they do enter
tain with reference to the boycott and with reference to
violations of law in industrial disputes, can object to the
course which was taken by me in these cases in employing
all the lawful authority I had to prevent the injuries which
were threatened and to bring about a lawful state of affairs.
There was one more injunction suit to which I made
reference but in which the operation of the injunction was
not against laboring people but against a combination of
iron pipe manufacturers who, residing in some eleven States,
divided up the territory, and by their agreements main
tained the prices of iron pipe at an exorbitant figure, monop
olized the whole production within those States, and divided
the profits of this arrangement between the members of
the combination. A suit was brought in the Circuit Court,
and an application made by the United States for an injunc
tion to enjoin the combination from proceeding and to break
it up. The Circuit Judge held that there was no power
to issue such an injunction and no jurisdiction in the court

118 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
to grant such a remedy. I sat in the Court of Appeals
to entertain an appeal by the Government from the decision
of the Circuit Court and rendered the opinion of the Circuit
Court of Appeals. We there decided that an injunction
would issue; the injunction did issue and the combination
was broken up. The case was subsequently carried to the
Supreme Court of the United States, and the judgment
was affirmed. I merely instance this to show that the
injunction works both ways, and that it is useful both in
keeping lawless laboring men and lawless capitalists within
the law.
The principles laid down in this case, known as the
Addyston Pipe case, are the principles upon which the
Antitrust Law is now being enforced under the present
Administration. The law laid down in each of the labor cases I have
referred to is in accordance with the policy now pursued
by the railroad orders. Mr. Bryan says I am the father
of injunctions in industrial causes. This is not true. The
use of the injunction was in accordance with precedent
in a number of cases which I cited, both in the Arthur
case and in the Phelan case. I am not apologizing for
what I did in these cases, for they were in accordance
with my duty as a judge. I have merely gone into
them to explain to you what they were in order to
ask you whether they make a basis for the claim that
I am hostile to labor organizations and opposed to the
laboring men.
In these cases, I attempted to state with as great fulness
as possible the rights and wrongs of employer and employee
in these labor disputes; that men had the right to strike;

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 119
that they had the right and duty to unite in order that they
might present a solid front against their employer and deal
with him on a level and not be subject to the disadvantage
to which one laborer would be put in dealing with a power
ful employer; that they had the right to select their officers
and accept their advice with reference to what they should
do; that they had the right to accumulate funds in order
to support those of their number who had withdrawn from
the employ of the employer; that they could withdraw
from the association with their employer and have all their
colleagues do the same thing, but they might not injure
the property of their employer, and they might not
injure his business by the secondary boycott.
Another point which I distinctly decided in these cases
was that no temporary restraining order or injunction could
issue to prevent a man's leaving the employ of a railway,
and therefore that no injunctions could issue to restrain
men from acting in concert and going on a strike
The statement of the law in these labor decisions was
used and cited on behalf of labor organizations in the
case before Judge Adams against the Gould roads, in which
the Gould lines attempted to enjoin the Order of Railway
Conductors and the other railway orders from agreeing
to strike and following the orders of their officers. Judge
Adams first issued the injunction, and then on the authority
of the principles laid down by me in the Phelan and Arthur
cases, he dissolved the injunction and the strike was won
by the railway orders. I only instance this to show that
the principles that I laid down were not antagonistic to
labor, and they were used by labor to defend its rights
in a subsequent controversy.

120 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Objection is made to the use of the injunction in such
disputes. All I have to say on that point is that precedent
justifies it, and that the man whose business is injured by
unlawful action of former employees frequently has no other
remedy which is at all adequate. He is just as much entitled
to that remedy against striking laborers as he would be
against any other members of the community who inflict
similar injury. The character of the injury inflicted upon
his business, which consists in constant interference with
his customers until the customers are frightened or driven
away, is the basis for resorting to injunction. A suit for
damages or a criminal prosecution for one of such acts
would be utterly lacking in efficacy. The owner of the
business, whether railroad business or any other, is entitled
to be protected in his pursuit of it and to immunity from
unlavpful injury to it. To take away from him the remedy
by injunction which has always been his, merely because it
sometimes leads to the punishment of those who violate the
injunction without a trial by jury is to introduce into the
law class legislation in favor of employees and laboring
men, and it is to take them out of the ordinary operation
of civil remedies because they are laborers. I say that
that kind of class legislation is pernicious; that laborers
themselves oUght not to wish it; that it weakens the powers of
the court which are just as necessary to the preservation
of the rights of laborers as of other persons, and that it
is a short-sighted policy. The weakening of the power
of the courts will not be taken advantage of so much by
the laboring men as by the rich violator of the law, because
he can employ cunning and astute counsel to enable him
to take advantage of every such weakness.

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 121
Objection is made to the issuing of injunctions without
notice. There is opportunity for abuse in such a practice,
though there are cases when no other remedy seems adequate.
I have been willing, nevertheless, to adopt a rule by which
notice shall be required before the issuing of any injunction,
temporary or otherwise. The Republican Convention, how
ever, thought it wiser that the best present practice should
be embodied in a statute in order to bring the matter to
the attention of the court, and that in that way future abuses
could be avoided. I hope and believe that this is true.
Under the Republican platform a statute can pass and ought
to pass which shall not allow a temporary restraining order
to issue and have effect for more than forty-eight hours unless
a hearing can be had during that forty-eight hours extend
ing the operation of the injunction.
The Democratic platform does not give any remedy with
respect to notice. It merely resolves that injunctions ought
not to issue in industrial disputes where they would not
issue in other disputes. This is either meaningless or
deceitful. If by it is meant that they ought not to issue
in industrial disputes at all, then it recommends class legis
lation. If it means that they ought only to issue in industrial
disputes on the same principle and under the same circum
stances governing their issue in other disputes, then every one
concurs. No one ever contended otherwise.
The provision in the Democratic platform, that a trial
by jury shall be allowed in all cases in which a charge of
contempt is made for violation of the orders of court out
side of the presence of the judge, would greatly weaken
the power of the court. A witness subpoenaed could not
be punished for failure to respond to the subpoena until a

122 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
jury was summoned to find that he had received the sub
poena and nad disobeyed it. A juror summoned and failing
to respond could not be punished for failing to respond
until a jury met to determine whether he had received the
summons and whether he had not responded. A final
judgment requiring the defendant to do something or not
to do something, if the defendant declined to do either,
could not be enforced without summoning a jury to deter
mine all the facts of the case. In other words, after the
case had been taken through all the courts to the Supreme
Court, and the principles affirmed and then sent down
for execution against a recalcitrant defendant, judgment
could not be enforced except after the uncertainties of a
trial by jury. Thus to introduce a jury trial between a
final order and its enforcement and between the routine
orders bringing witnesses and jurors into court would so
hamper the administration of justice as to make the courts
a laughing-stock. It may be popular to suggest such a
change. It may attract the support and approval of those
who do not understand its real effect; but so long as I have
power of expression and without regard to how it may
affect me politically, I shall lift my voice in protest against
such a destructive step in our judicial procedure.
Mr. Bryan says that this proposed amendment by which
a jury trial is to be introduced in contempt cases was approved
by Senator Sherman of Ohio, Senator Allison of Iowa,
Senator Hale of Maine, Senator Hawley of Connecticut,
Senator Morrill of Vermont and Senator Nelson of Minne
sota. I deny it, and I challenge Mr. Bryan to produce
the proof of it. The fact is that the bill, as originally pro
posed, left the question of trial by jury in the discretion of

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 123
the court. Senator Butler introduced the amendment by
which it was made mandatory to have such a trial, and the
bill and the amendment were opposed by Senator Piatt
of Connecticut, who was senior Republican member of
the Judiciary Committee, and in whose opinion it is reason
able to infer that the Senators named by Mr. Bryan con
curred, for he was of course Republican leader in judicial
matters. The bill was passed by a viva voce vote without
a roll call in a Democratic Senate, and there is nothing in
the record to show the fact to be as Mr. Bryan states it.
I have been considering and discussing in your presence
the decisions which I have rendered as a judge, in which
I was bound by the law as I understood it and in which I
was called upon to decide impartially on the facts presented
to me. It has been sought to give the impression that
this record of mine as a judge shows that I am unfriendly
to labor. Nothing could be further from the fact. No
one that I know has more sympathy with the laboring
man, no one that I know is more anxious for legislation
which will enable the wage-earner to maintain himself in
the struggle for a livelihood and in his relations with a
powerful employer. My relations to labor have not been
confined to decisions upon the bench. As the executive
in charge of the work on the Panama Canal I have had
under me for four years upwards of thirty thousand laborers.
It has given me pleasure to devote a great deal of time
to the consideration of the welfare, as well as of the pay
of the men employed under the Government in that great
enterprise. When I had charge of the matter, I spared no effort to
see to it that the complaints of the men were thoroughly

124 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
investigated, and, where they were well founded, that the
ground of the complaint should be removed. I had there
to consider the question of wages, had there to consider
the questions of accommodations of laborers' quarters,
and of all those details that in a labor colony necessarily
come up for decision. And I have not the slightest hesita
tion in inviting the attention of the laboring men of the
country to the recent report of a commission appointed
by President Roosevelt as to the favorable conditions that
have prevailed with respect to the employees of the Govern
ment on the Isthmus.
I have had occasion in the Philippines to deal with labor
questions there, and I feel very confident that no one at
all cognizant of the situation will charge that in my admin
istration of the office of Governor of the Islands I was not
fully alive to the interests of the laboring man, anxious
to support the dignity of labor, and ready to extend the
helping hand of the Government whenever it was possible
to relieve the burden of the wage-earner, to stimulate his
ambition to accomplish more, and to make him a respected
and influential member of the community.
Should I be elected President, it will be one of my pleasant
est duties to give attention to legislation needed in the interest
of labor, as I have done during the present Administration
as an advisor of the President.
The number of injunctions that have been issued in the
case of railroad strikes can be counted on the fingers of
one hand, and I venture to say that there are very few within
the sound of my voice who have any practical knowledge
of the operation of injunctions. The number issued against
railroads and other corporations to restrain them from

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 125
violations of law are much more numerous. The question
which organized railroad labor men have to answer is
whether, for what is to-day an academic reason, and one
which really affects their relations to their employer in
no substantial way at all, they propose to put in power a
political party with a leader whose election will be regarded
by all business men as a menace to their interests and
a threat against returning prosperity. Now that this is a
fact there is not the slightest doubt. You may ascertain
it by inquiry, and the reason for the fact is not far to find.
Mr. Bryan's public career began as a member of Congress
in the sessions from '92 to '96. In the first session of his
service was enacted the Gorman-Wilson Tariff Bill, and
he was very prominent in urging its adoption and very
jubilant over its passage. The result of the Gorman-
Wilson Tariff Bill was to prostrate the industries of the
country, and we had a four years' depression lasting up
to 1897, the like of which has not been seen for years in this
country. Wages went down, strikes followed, and an indus
trial depression that led to great suffering, especially on
the part of the wage-earner. Mr. Bryan then came forward
and announced that while protection had killed its thousands,
the gold standard had killed its tens of thousands, and
proposed that we should depart from the gold standard
and adopt a silver dollar, which would enable us tO pay
all our debts in just half the amount in which they were
contracted. The direct effect of this would have been to cut
wages one-half, and in the general disaster and paralysis fol
lowing there would have been a constant conflict on the part
of labor with employers in order to restore wages to a proper
equivalent under the gold standard. Mr. Bryan prophesied

126 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
that if we continued on the gold standard and did not adopt
the free coinage of silver, it would result in the greatest
injury to labor. His prophesies were entirely refuted.
There came on after the adoption of the gold standard,
after the repeal of the Gorman- Wilson Bill, and the passage
of the Dingley Bill, such a period of prosperity for twelve
years as had never been seen in the world before. Wages
and the standard of living of the laboring man were never
so high. At the end of another four years Mr. Bryan came
forward again proposing free coinage of silver in the face
of the refutation, by the facts, which had been brought to
his previous theories. Mr. Bryan proposed to substitute
for the present protective policy, upon which the whole
business of the country is based, a revenue tariff to be reached
gradually by steps. I do not propose to stop to discuss
the benefit of protection. For forty years the country has
been on a protective system. Every well-sustained threat
to depart from that system has brought financial disaster,
and such a change is the main part of Mr. Bryan's platform
in this campaign. In 1906, when Mr. Bryan came back
from Europe and many of his party received him with
the hope that he had acquired conservatism by his travels,
he made the announcement that he was in favor of govern
ment ownership of railroads and was convinced that this
must be the ultimate settlement of the railroad question.
It was received by many of his party with disapproval,
and so far for the time being he has postponed it as a political
issue, but that he believes it is evidenced by what he said
at the time, and no one can doubt that the whole tendency
of his economic and political views is in that direction. I
do not know how the railroad employees would like govern-

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 127
ment ownership. I should think that they would view
such a suggestion with great alarm. I am unalterably
opposed to it. It would place too vast a power in the control
of the President. It would lead to a management of rail
roads not nearly so effective as that which we have under
private ownership, and it would involve the Government
in an enormous debt. It would make railroad employees
Government servants and would subject them to the dangers
of political supervision in a way that certainly would be
most inimical to their interests. It would revolutionize the
whole vast railroad system of the country.
I submit that a gentleman whose record and whose propo
sitions are thus shown to have been so actually inimical
to the interests of labor and whose economic views are
so utterly out of keeping with the sound and conservative
principles of business, may well be considered by all business
men and all workingmen, if he is elevated to the Presidency,
a menace to the restoration of prosperity. We are all in
the same boat, business men, workingmen, capitalists
and professional men. We are all dependent upon the
confidence which in the future will induce those who have
capital to invest it, if we are to have a return to prosperity.
The whole country is dependent upon the prosperity
of the railroads. The railroads need money to keep their
lines in proper repair, to make necessary reconstruction
and to continue the new construction to meet the demands
of business. Unless they can borrow money for recon
struction there is not the demand for the manufacture of
railway supplies that is necessary to keep business good
in the country. The truth is that the railroads are the
greatest single market that we have for manufactured

128 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
products. We are all interested, therefore, that the credit
of the railroads should be such as to enable them to borrow
the money with which to carry on this constructive work.
We are interested that legislation against the railroads
should be just and only properly restrictive. We are inter
ested that there should not be unjust and drastic legislation
preventing their earning proper income. We are all inter
ested, of course, that they should charge only proper rates,
but we are also interested that they should not be made
to do business on less than just rates. I have noticed with
a great deal of interest that the railroad laboring men
are beginning to realize that the prosperity of the railroads
is as much in their interest as it is in the interest of the
stockholders and the officers of the road, and that they
propose hereafter to be heard upon the political issue as
to the character of the legislation that shall be passed with
reference to the regulation of railroads. With this direct
interest that railroad laboring men have in the prosperity
of railroads, can they not see that it is of the utmost impor
tance to prevent the election of the man whose record will
make returning confidence and prosperity impossible?
We have passed through a financial panic and industrial
depression. It differs from most panics which have occurred
in the history of the country in that the farmers are in a
most prosperous condition, and nothing seems lacking to
the coming of good business within a few months after the
panic but a restoration of confidence. Is it not apparent
to you, therefore, that the election of Mr. Bryan to the
powerful office of President, with his unstable financial
theories and his uncertain economic propositions, will con
vince every one having capital to invest that the business

THE RAILROADS AND THE COURTS 129
future of the country is uncertain and that it is safer to
withhold his money? Mr. Bryan says that this cry of
the full dinner pail has been worked overtime. It was
worked to great advantage in the previous campaigns,
and properly so. The event justified the claim of the
Republican party, for prosperity and a full dinner pail
followed each election of a Republican President against
the contention of Mr. Bryan. The present panic thus far
has been a short one and there is not the slightest reason
why, if the Republican party is continued in power, it will
not lose its severity. I submit to those most interested,
to this intelligent audience, that this is the issue of the full
dinner pail that ought to make them for a third time reject
Mr. Bryan's claim to be elected to the Presidency as a
helpful friend of the workingman.

IX
A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM
(delivered at MILWAUKEE, SEPTEMBER 24, 1908)
I AGREE with Mr. Bryan that one important issue in this
campaign is the revision of the tariff. Both parties concur
in the view that it must be done, and the question is, "How
shall it be done ? " When it is settled how it shall be done,
' it is easy from the platforms of the parties to determine
which party ought to do it. The Republican party since
its birth has constantly been an advocate of the pro
tective system. The Democratic party, not so consistently,
but still on the whole, has been an advocate of a system
of tariff for revenue only.
The principle of protection as upheld by the Republican
party is that in raising the revenues of the Government from
the customs it is proper to encourage and maintain diversified
industries in this country instead of limiting the occupations
and business to a few branches in which this country has the
advantage over other countries and instead of being depend
ent on other countries for the purchase of goods which they
can manufacture at less price than we do.
The measure of the protection to be offered by the tariff
has usually been stated to be the difference between the cost
of production abroad and in this country. The system of
protection as developed here has resulted in a very high
130

A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM 131
standard of wages, as compared with the wages of other
countries, and a corresponding high standard of living among
the laboring people. In this country too there is a different
rate of interest on investments in active business to be treated
in the manufacturing business as normal manufacturing
profit. The manufacturer's profit necessarily differs in this
country from what it is abroad. So, too, the raw materials
which enter into the manufacture of the product differ in
cost here and abroad. The measure of protection is the
difference between the cost of production here and abroad,
including the difference in the cost of material, the difference
in the standard of wages, and the difference in the manu
facturer's profit.
I cannot state what protection means more effectively
than to quote from a speech by Congressman Hill of Con
necticut, a member of the Ways and Means Committee of
the House. He says:
" Protection assumes that it is better for this nation to add
its labor and brains to its own raw materials and sell the
finished product rather than to exhaust its natural resources
to furnish employment to the labor and brains of other
nations. It believes that a variety of industries utilizing all
kinds of skill and all grades of labor is more beneficial to the
nation as a whole than a few primitive pursuits which would
draw the masses to a common level. It realizes that every
step taken in the process of the development of a raw product,
is a step forward in the progress of the nation, and this nation
has learned in its own experience that economic self-reliance
is its surest defense in war and its best asset in times of
peace." I do not intend to go into an argument as to the advantage
of the protective system over the free trade or revenue tariff

132 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
system, because it seems to me that the action of the country
in the last forty-eight years has sufficiently demonstrated the
correctness of our position as stated by Mr. Hill. The
Democratic policy is to put a low tax on everything imported
and encourage large purchases abroad, throwing open the
home market to a world-wide competition, not only in the
finished product, but in the wages of labor, the standard of
living and every other item of cost. They propose also in
order to destroy the trusts to put all trust-made articles on the
free list. This was a provision in the Gorman- Wilson Tariff
Bill, and had necessarily the result, if enforced, of destroying
not only the trusts but the entire competing American
industry. The normal operation of a protective tariff and the proper
competition among those who enjoy its benefits, is the reduc
tion of the cost of production. The encouragement which
the industry receives leads to the investment of capital in
it, to the training of labor, to the exercise of the inventive
faculty of which the American has so much, and in practically
every case in which adequate protection has been given, the
price of the article has fallen, the difference in the cost of
producing the article abroad and here has been reduced, and
the necessity for maintaining the tariff at the former rate has
ceased. In the case of steel rails, for instance, we began their
manufacture in 1867 with a duty of $75 per ton. The selling
price was $166 per ton. Four times since then the duty has
been reduced until now it is $7.84 per ton. The present price
is $28. Last year we made over three million tons, and are
selling them all over the world. Again, take tin plate. In
the manufacture of this we were completely dependent upon
foreign nations until, in the McKinley Bill, a duty of 2 2-10

A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM 133
cents per pound was put upon the plate and a domestic indus
try was begun. The duty is now 1| cents per pound. In
1906 we made 1,300,000,000 pounds, and the price is less
than the price we paid to foreign countries.
In the last forty-eight years, we have been under a pro
tective tariff except for four years during the second Cleveland
Administration, when the Gorman- Wilson Tariff Bill was in
force. The certainty that such a bill was to be passed so
disturbed the business of the country as to produce a panic
even before the Gorman- Wilson Bill was substituted for
the McKinley Bill, and during the four years when the
Gorman-Wilson Bill was given full operation, the disaster
to the business interests of the country, to the farmer,
and to the wage-earner was greater than ever in the
history of the Government. It is impossible to attribute
the conditions during that four years to any other influence
than that of the tariff. Immediately upon the accession
of the McKinley Administration, the Dingley Bill was
passed, and under the operation of that bill we have had
twelve years of great prosperity.
The impulse given to investment was so great that our
business plants were expanded too far. Liquid capital was
exhausted. The large corporations found it impossible to
borrow. In addition to this there came revelations as to the
mismanagement of large corporations and the infidelity of
trustees, together with the lawless methods of railroads and
of great corporations engaged in interstate commerce. This
led to more rigid regulation on the part of the Federal
Government and to drastic and in many cases ill-advised
legislation on the part of the States. All these things tended
to frighten capital, and to withhold it from application to

134 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the railroads and those industries whose normal progress
required good credit. A panic finally succeeded, due to
over-investment, which has had but few of the symptoms of
previous panics. Farmers were never more prosperous,
their farm products never sold at a higher price. Business
is slowly resuming.
All that is necessary, therefore, to restore a prosperous
condition is to restore confidence. The moral awakening
of the people, due to the revelations, has made much more
rigid and correct railroad methods and business methods;
the injustice and confiscatory character of some State legis
lation has been corrected by the courts; the investing public
are beginning to feel that business conducted on legitimate
lines have nothing to fear, and we are just on the threshold of
a resumption of good business if the confidence continues
to grow.
It hardly needs any argument to demonstrate that the
introduction into power of Mr. Bryan's party, with Mr.
Bryan at its head, determined to put in operation a tariff
which shall not protect the industries of the country, but
which shall be adjusted for the purpose of securing the most
revenue, must delay the restoration of confidence and must
therefore obstruct the return of prosperity. It is true that
Mr. Bryan proposes that the change and transition from the
protective system to a revenue tariff system shall be gradual,
but this is left to the indefinite discretion of the Democratic
party, should it be put in power, and the length of the step, the
extent of the change, is wholly uncertain and is impossible
to define, and some industries must certainly be injured in this
gradual change. As Governor Hughes of New York has
said, the proposition means a series of tariff tinkerings

A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM 135
which cannot but keep the entire business community in
a constant agitation and alarm at the changes which are
to be made.
The business community have knowledge that the changes
to be made by the Republican party will be made on the
principle that no domestic industry will be injured or
destroyed by the reduction in the tariff. They do not know
this with the Democratic changes, but are advised that
necessarily some of the industries each time the tariff is
changed toward a revenue business must be sacrificed to carry
out the principle. If the history of the tariff has shown any
thing it is that the threat of a revenue tariff in a business
community dependent on a protective tariff means business
disaster. But it is asked. Why is it necessary to change the Dingley
tariff ? The Dingley tariff has been in operation now more
than ten years. That is a period longer, I think, than the
operation of any other protective tariff that we have had. It is
intended under the protective system by judicious encourage
ment to build up industries as the natural conditions of the
country justify to a point where they can stand alone and
fight their own battles in the competition of the world.
Improved machinery and training due to our inventive
genius, together with an extending home market, certainly
reduce the cost of production. Treasury and court decisions
have given constructions to the tariff different from those
intended by its authors. There are many articles in common
use to-day which were unknown when the Dingley Tariff Bill
was enacted. Conditions with respect to the cost of articles
abroad have changed just as they have changed in this coun
try, so that the difference between the cost of production at

136 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
home and abroad ten years ago was in many instances dif
ferent and less than it is to-day.
I shall not stop to give the statistics of the enormous
growth of the industries of this country under the Dingley
Bill, the increase in the exportation of manufactures and of
farm products, the steady increase in the wages of labor,
the increase in the savings bank deposits, the improvement
in the standard of living among the wage-earners. It is said,
and truly said, that the cost of living has increased. So it
has, but that, too, is ordinarily an accompaniment of good
times. The question is whether the cost of labor has
increased more than the cost of living, and until the panic
came in 1907, there is not the slightest doubt, for the statistics
show it beyond question, that the percentage advance in
wages was very considerably greater than the percentage
advance in the cost of living. The truth is that when we had
the lowest prices in farm products and ip^a-ll^the othej, things
that enter into the cost of living, we h^' the lowest price ip
wages, and there was greater suffering, and a greater per
centage of unemployed than ever in.the history of the country.
Wheat went down to 50 cents a bushel, corn to 21 cents a
bushel, and oats to 18 cents a bushel, while potatoes went
down to 27 cents a bushel. The farmers were in debt,
the mortgages were being foreclosed, and their condition was
truly deplorable. Now they are prosperous, their products
are selling at a high rate, their market is a good one, and
this is all under the protective tariff. The classes in the
community that are suffering are the business men and
the wage-earners, and what they are suffering from is
a lack of capital. This they can secure by a restoration
of confidence.

A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM 137
Much criticism has been made of the Dingley tariff and
the operation of business under it, because of the fact that
in some of the protected industries the product is sold abroad
and in foreign markets at a lower price than that at which it is
sold here. At first this seems a conclusive argument to show
that the tariff is too high and that the manufacturer is
deriving a greater benefit than he should on the proper
principle of the protective system; but then we learn that it
is a common practice in free trade countries, as well as in
protection countries, to sell at lower prices abroad than at
home, and that this is due to a desire to dispose in bulk of a
surplus product, or to the competition in a new field of trade
and to the desire to keep up the business organization and
maintain a going concern even when the product sold abroad
is sold without profit, or even at less than cost. Still it must
be admitted that such a practice, if it is constant through all
seasons, suggests that the tariff may be properly reduced, and
that the tariff is greater than the difference between the cost
of production at home and abroad, and that it should therefore
be reduced.
Mr. Bryan is concerned because he thinks that the Republi
can party is unable to carry out its promise of revising the
tariff in accordance with the principle stated. He says that
the protected interests are so necessary to the success of the
Republican party that they will control it and prevent a
revision on proper lines, and that there has been no indication
that the revision may not be upward rather than downward.
Mr. Bryan expresses the fear that contributions to the cam
paign fund of the Republican party will be so extensive from
the protected interests that the party will be unable to rise
above those interests in the formation of the tariff, and will.

138 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
therefore, control it, to the exclusion of the interests of the
consumer. I deny this. In the first place, I am able to
say, on information of a somewhat accurate character, that
the Republican campaign fund from every source is not now
and is not to be large enough to debauch or demoralize any
party, much less the people and the Congressional Repre
sentatives of that party. In the second place, the formation
of a protective tariff it not the only kind of a tariff that is
affected by persons having a pecuniary interest in its opera
tion. A revenue tariff may be varied to suit certain parts
and to operate as a protection for some people, and in the
Gorman- Wilson Tariff Bill we had the example of how a
revenue tariff bill could be framed with a view to protecting
certain parts of the country, and leaving unprotected the busi
ness in other parts.
In response to Mr. Bryan's fears, I wish to say thathe
Republican party in its platform is pledged to a genuine
revision, and as the temporary head of that party, and Presi
dent of the United States, if it be successful in November, I
expect to use all the influence that I have by calling immedi
ately a special session and by recommendation to Congress,
to secure a genuine and honest revision of the tariff in accord
ance with the principle of protection laid down in the plat
form, based upon the examination of appropriate evidence
and impartial as between the consumer and the manufacturer.;
I do not for a moment dispute that the protected manufactur
ers will make every effort, as they ought, to maintain tariff at
such a rate as will secure them in their business, and that in
this matter they will be interested parties; but there is also
a large element in the Republican party representing
the consumer, through whom the demand for a revision

A PLEDGE OF TARIFF REFORM 139
of the tariff on conservative protective lines to reduce
excessive rates has crystallized into the definite pledge
to revise the tariff. This element too should be given
a hearing. The rank and file of the Republican party are in favor of
this revision, but insist that it shall be in accordance with the
time-proven policy of the party of protection. Under these
circumstances, there can be no doubt that the representatives
elected by the party will come to Congress imbued with the
necessity for honorably and strictly carrying out the plighted
faith of the party to make a new tariff on the principle stated.
The Republican party has given in the past seven years
of the present administration an example of how it can rise
above corporate influence, and has enacted laws and directed
an executive policy that were bitterly resisted by the many
corporations affected. The moral awakening which took form
under Theodore Roosevelt continues to-day and is gaining
strength, not only in the country at large, but with the leaders
and the rank and file of the Republican party. I have every
reason to believe that the returning Congress, if it be
Republican, will come there anxious and earnest to treat
the tariff question fairly and energetically, but with a
due regard to the maintenance of the protection principles
on the one hand and to the interests of the consuming
public on the other.
It is my judgment, as it is that of many Republicans, that
there are many schedules of the tariff, in which the rates are
excessive, and there are a few in which the rates are not suf
ficient to fill the measure of conservative protection. It is
my judgment that a revision of the tariff in accordance with
the pledge of the Republican platform will be on the whole a

140 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
substantial revision downward, though there probably will
be a few exceptions in this regard. As the temporarj-
leader of the party, I do not hesitate to say with all the
emphasis of which I am capable that if the party is given
the mandate of power in November, it will perform its
promises in good faith.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS AND THE GUAR
ANTY OF BANK DEPOSITS
(delivered at BT. PAUL, SEPTEMBER 28, 1908)
Fellow-citizens :
I WISH to call your attention to-day to a plank in the
Republican platform and to a plank in the Democratic
platform which involve important though not controlling
issues in this campaign. POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS
I refer first to the plank in the Republican platform that
recommends the adoption of postal savings banks. The
Republican Convention doubtless had in mind the bill which
had been introduced in the Senate and reported by the Senate
Committee for passage, authorizing and directing the Post
master-General to receive savings deposits at every money-
order office, and at such other offices as he may designate,
in sums of $1.00 or more, and multiples of ten cents after
the first dollar. The bill provides that no one may deposit
more than $200 in a month, and no one may have more than
one account; that no one shall deposit in total more than
$1,000 and that the interest which the Postmaster-General
is required to pay on deposits, at the rate of 2 per cent, per
annum, payable quarterly, shall not be paid on a larger
deposit than $500 to any one person. The bill further pro-
141

142 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
vides that the money deposited shall be invested by the Post
master-General, with the assistance of the Attorney-General
and the Secretary of the Treasury, in a national bank in the
same place in which is the money-order office at which the
deposit is received, and that if there be no national bank at
that place, then in the national bank nearest to the office in
the neighborhood. The provision is that not less than 2J
per cent, shall be received as interest on such deposits from
the national banks, and that if an investment of this sort
becomes impracticable, then the three cabinet officers shall
invest the money in the town, county or State bonds where
the post-office is situated.
The objection has been made that this is paternalism and
socialism and is introducing the Government into the banking
business. The objection is without weight. The laissez
faire school of political economists and the supporters of
individualism in society have had their theories very much
modified by practical demands of society, and the principle
embodied in the modification may be stated as follows : That
where a general service to the public cannot be well dis
charged by private enterprise, and can be very effectively and
economically discharged by the Government, the Govern
ment should undertake it. The postal savings bank comes
exactly within this principley If there were savings banks
in all the country as numerous and as easy of access as they
are in Massachusetts, in the New England States and in New
York, it might be said that the postal savings bank was an
invasion of territory properly occupied by private enterprises,
although even then it could be pointed out, as the experience
in other countries shows, that the function performed by the
postal savings banks is much more comprehensive than that

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 143
of the ordinary savings banks. But when it is considered
that in only eleven of forty-five States are there savings bank
facilities, when it is known that in the Middle West, east of the
Rocky Mountains, the average distance from any post-office
to a bank of any kind is thirty-three miles, and west of the
Rockies is fifty-five miles, it readily can be understood that
private enterprise does not supply the need of savings banks
which, in order to furnish a motive and opportunity for thrift
and saving, should be easy of access to the class whose welfare
it is sought thereby to improve. Of the $3,500,000,000
deposits in savings banks, 33 per cent, is in New England,
38 per cent, in New York, 21 per cent, in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Illinois, Iowa and California, leaving but 8 per cent, of
the total in other States.
The system was introduced first in England, in 1861, and has
had unusual success. It was first proposed in 1807, and was
vigorously condemned by all the banking interests, and
it took more than fifty years to overcome the opposition. It
was feared that it would injure the savings and other banks.
Instead of this, it seems to have furnished an opportunity for
the deposit of savings that found their way to no bank at all,
and to-day the amount of deposits in the postal savings banks
of England is $600,000,000, with an average deposit of $75.
Similar systems have been introduced in France and Austria
and most of the European countries except Germany, where
they have a system of municipal savings banks that supplies
the place of the postal savings banks. In all the English
colonial possessions, the postal savings banks have been
introduced, and I am glad to say that we have introduced it
also in the Philippines, and that it is slowly making successful
headway there.

144 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
We should not deny to our people throughout the vast
extent of thirty-five States opportunity to make the small
deposits with the security of the Government's promise to
pay principal and interest. Such a system will add greatly
to the money savings of the country. No private banking
enterprise could possibly afford to establish savings banks
throughout the thirty-five States where they have none, equal
in number to the number of money order offices; and it has
been demonstrated that the increase in the executive force of
the post-office and the added cost due to the maintenance
of such a system would be exceedingly small. These are all
reasons for making it a Government matter.
The fear by any class of banks that this would interfere
with their business the experience in other countries has
shown to be utterly unfounded. Where savings banks are
established they pay a higher rate of interest than the Govern
ment will pay for deposits in the postal savings banks, and
confer privileges on their depositors which it would be impos
sible to grant under a Government system. It has been feared
that the postal savings bank would gather up local capital
and send it to Wall Street. Under the provisions of the law
I have already stated, and in so far as it is practicable, the
money would be retained in the neighborhood of the office
in which it was deposited ; but if the exigencies of business lead
to its transfer by the depositaries to other parts of the country
in search of greater profit, this is only the normal operation
of business that would have a similar effect upon all capital
deposited in banks, whether State or National.
I cannot conceive of a greater incentive to thrift among
the people where it does not now exist than would be presented
by the establishment of such savings banks. We have been

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 145
slow in adopting a system which has commended itself so
strongly to other countries by actual experience, and the
need for which has been shown in this country in a peculiarly
significant way. At many money-order post-offices, orders
are drawn and the time for payment expires long before
presentation, indicating that the drawer of the order merely
put the money in the post-office for the purpose of depositing
it, and not for the purpose of transferring it. In two cities
in Montana the amount of such money orders in one year
reached the sum of $300,000, and in other Western States a
similar result was observed. Ninety-two millions of dollars
were transmitted to European countries by wage-earners in
this country, and there is reason to believe that a very large
part of that money was deposited in savings banks abroad,
and that had there been postal savings bank facilities in this
country a good part of this enormous fund would have been
retained here. The familiarity of the foreign immigrant
with the postal savings system shows that it would be readily
adopted here by him, and that much of the capital which goes
abroad in this form would remain here for useful purposes.
A very significant fact in connection with the postal savings
banks of the countries where they had been most successful,
to show the money saved in addition to that now deposited
in banks, is that one-third of the depositors of the postal
savings banks abroad are miners and two-thirds of them are
workingmen. This shows the useful function that such
institutions conducted by the Government discharge.
The postal savings banks would perform a most useful
function in case of panics because the fact that they are
Government institutions with the whole credit of the Govern
ment behind them would attract the deposits of those small

146 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
depositors whose runs in panic times upon the banks produce
such disastrous consequences. The deposit of this money
in Government offices and the power of the Government to
re-deposit that money in the national banks in the neighbor
hood would furnish a means of meeting an exigency that no
other system proposed has thus far offered.
DEMOCRATIC GUARANTY OF DEPOSITS
This postal savings bank system, however, does not meet
the unqualified approval of the Democratic party. It has
not the vote-catching quality and involves only the old-
fashioned gradual movement toward better things by
means of industry and thrift and saving. The party
under its present leadership must have something which
offers a short cut to reform at the cost of the honest and the
industrious. The Democratic platform pledges the party
to the support of a system by which all the national banks of
the country are required to guarantee the deposits to the
depositors in every bank, and this guarantee is to be per
formed by a tax upon each bank in proportion to its deposits,
the proceeds of the tax to constitute a fund from which the
depositors of any failing bank are to be paid; and if the
amount of the tax is not sufficient to raise the fund required,
then it is to be raised by subsequent assessment on all the
banks of the country, and State banks are to be allowed to
come in and get the benefit of the same guaranty under
conditions to be imposed by law. TMiile the Democratic
platform does not elaborate the system, it is to be inferred
from the fact that the precedent in Oklahoma is relied upon,
that the provisions are to be like the Oklahoma law, and
that those are as above stated.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 147
No one can dispute the importance of making the deposits
in every national bank as secure as possible, provided the
remedy adopted is not itself worse than the evil to be cured.
The Government has imposed certain limitations upon
national banks which have greatly tended to reduce the
losses of depositors. The first of these provisions is that
every stockholder shall be responsible for the debts of the
banks, after the assets and resources of the bank have been
exhausted, in a sum equal to the par value of his stock. This
is what is sometimes called the double liability of national
bank stockholders. In addition to this, there are rules
imposed by statute governing the investment of the assets
of the bank. The bank is not permitted to invest in real
estate. It may not receive more than 8 per cent, interest.
It way not lend more than one- tenth of its capital to any
director, and it is subject to periodical examinations by
national bank examiners who are paid by the bank for the
service rendered.
The result has been to introduce into national banks, a
class of men of high character and great business and banking
ability, and the losses in the last forty years to depositors in
national banks have been reduced to an average annual loss
of one twenty-sixth of 1 per cent, of total deposits. In
other words, the national bank deposits are about
$5,000,000,000, and the actual loss arising from failures of
national banks does not exceed in the entire country, and
in the more than 6,800 national banks, a total of $2,000,000.
This seems a very small sum as compared with the deposits
made, and shows a conservatism and care in the banking
business that speaks well for the present system.
If the loss, even though small, could be avoided, it would

148 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
undoubtedly be of great benefit and should be brought about,
for while the percentage of loss is very small, the individuals
upon whom the loss falls of course may be heavy sufferers.
The question is whether we are to bring about an avoidance
of this loss by the proposed Democratic remedy, or reach it
in a more conservative and gradual way by perfecting the
examination of banks, by rigid prosecution of all those who
violate the banking laws, and by making certain rules laid
down in the banking laws mandatory rather than directory,
so that a violation of them shall subject the law-breaker
to punishment.
Let us now analyze the remedy proposed by Mr. Bryan
and the Democratic party. It certainly proposes to make
the conservative banker pay for the negligence, carelessness,
lack of confidence or dishonesty of the failing banker. It
takes from one man without fault on his part money to pay
for the default of another. That, I submit, is socialistic in
the extreme, and so violates all equitable principles that the
remedy should be condemned for this reason. If the fault or
misfortune of one banker is to be paid for by his colleague
who is without fault, there is not the slightest reason why all
insurance companies, life and fire, should not be compelled
to guarantee the losses of all companies, and it is difficult in
principle to distinguish between such a proposition and a
proposition that all the farmers of the country should guaran
tee each other's crops so as to save each farmer from the
drought or blight that may come to his particular district in
the vicissitudes of farming.
(fTo say,2as Mr. Bryan does,jthat the postal savings bank
system is^more(socialisticyhan^is^ to give a very curious
definition to socialism. Postal savings banks take no man's

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 149
money to make up for the default of another. They merely
use an arm of the Government, fully organized and well
adapted to the purpose, to perform a much-needed business
function which is not and cannot be discharged by private
enterprises^ Whereas the enforced guaranty plan takes out
of one man's pocket engaged in the business of banking money
to pay for another man's default. That is pure socialism.
Mr. Bryan suggests the expenses connected with the
examination of banks is an imposition of a burden on one
man for the default of another. There is no analogy what
ever between the reasonable requirements for the examination
of all banks and the taking out of one man's pocket money
to pay for the ascertained fault of another. If there were but
one banker and he a man of known probity and of the highest
character, public policy would require an examination of his
bank as thorough as that of any other bank. Trustees and
public officers, no matter how pure their character or well-
known their honesty, when they are subjected to the auditor's
examination, have the burden on them to establish their
honesty and correct business methods. So that it is entirely
fallacious to assume that the provision for the examination
of banks is a burden imposed upon the more conservative
bankers in order to prevent dishonesty in the less conservative.
It is a reasonable imposition upon all banks that their
accounts should be examined, and that their methods of
doing business should be constantly under public supervision,
and it is reasoning, erroneous as it is refined, to make the pro
rata cost of a general bank examination a precedent for taking
money out of one man's pocket for another man's default.
Mr. Hill of Connecticut has shown that the effect of a
guaranty law like the one proposed, if it had been in force in

150 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Connecticut during the last ten years, and the tax was only
one-eighth of 1 per cent., would have been the payment out
of more than $4,000,000, and the receipt back of but $31,000.
This illustrates the unjust, inequitable and socialistic charac
ter of a compulsory system most completely. The tax
would, of course, ultimately fall on the depositors and not
the stockholders — indeed, in the commoner forms of savings
banks there are no stockholders; they are all depositors.
But let us pass the socialistic aud inequitable feature of
this system and come to the question whether it will really
help matters. It is permissible under the national banking
act for banks to organize with a capital of $25,000. The
security which banks offer to depositors depends upon three
things: first, the amount of capital; second, the amount of
surplus accumulated from its earnings and kept on deposit
in the bank and undistributed as dividends; and third, the
personal confidence which the public has in the officers
who manage the bank. Under the proposed system,
a bank with a capital of $25,000 and no surplus, and
with officers of little banking experience and with indif
ferent reputation, can offer to the public exactly the same
security for the payment of deposits as a bank of half a
million dollars, with $250,000 surplus, with officers known
to be honest and able by thirty years' test. Depositors,
therefore, in so far as the security of deposits is concerned,
are just as likely to make their deposits in the $25,000 bank
as in the bank with a half-million dollar capital.
It is proposed to introduce into the law a limitation as to
the amount of interest which under the system can be offered
and paid on deposits, and this, it is said, will prevent banks
from offering excessive rates of interest to obtain deposits.

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 151
What this limitation will be is not stated. In Oklahoma
it is 3 per cent. A limitation of this sort is very difficult
to fix, because conditions vary so much in different parts of
the country. That which would be high interest for deposits
in one part of the country would be low in another, and that
which would be high interest at one season and under existing
m®netary conditions would be low at another time. Hence,
whatever limitation is imposed, except when the normal
interest is highest, there must always be an opportunity for
those inviting deposits to pay a higher rate than that which
conservative bankers would pay.
The officers and stockholders of the $25,000 bank, there
fore, are able to say to the depositing public: "Come and put
your money in our bank. It is just as secure as the half-
million dollar bank up the street; indeed, their assets are in
fact security for our deposits. We will give you the highest
rate of interest, and we will extend to you many other accom
modations in the way of banking facilities and exchange.
We will grant you loans when you need them, and we will do
everything to make your stay in our bank comfortable. We
shall not be too particular as to the security we exact." By
use of leg muscle, by advertising, by pulling of many social
and political strings which hang out for those who know
in a community, it would be entirely possible for the enter
prising officers of the $25,000 bank to secure as large deposits
as those of the half-million dollar bank. This possibility
suggests the motive for any band of speculators, desiring to
promote some particular scheme, to organize a bank and
obtain the credit which it is possible to obtain in the way
described. It is said that the larger capital will attract those who wish

152 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
larger loans, but if by dint of using the means I have described
the deposit of the bank is increased to half a million dollars,
there is no reason why the accommodations of the $25,000
bank may not be as large as those of the half-million dollar
bank. If the amount of the capital of the bank, the amount
of the surplus, and the personal and banking character of the
officials of a bank cease to operate as a motive for the public
to make deposits with the bank, why may we not — indeed,
why must we not — look for a complete change in the banking
system of the country, for a reduction of the capital in bank
ing, for a cutting down of all surplus, by the immediate dis
tribution of dividends and by the withdrawal from such a
system of all who find that neither capital nor character gives
them advantage over bankers without either? It neces
sarily will level down the character of those engaged in bank
ing. On the other hand, it will attract men of a speculative
turn who, even if they are not dishonest, will exercise much
less care than at present in respect to the character of their
loans, because the risk of loss which they run, to wit, the loss
of their stock, $25,000, is no such restraint upon them as
bankers now have under a system in which the deposits are
in some degree proportioned to the capital and surplus of the
bank available for the payment of its creditors.
If the losses were limited to one twenty-sixth of 1 per cent.
the amount of the tax on the deposit, of course, would be small,
and each bank could readily pay it, although the principle
would be an entire departure from equity; but the effect of the
guaranty system on the character of banking would be such
that the losses arising from stimulated recklessness would
greatly increase, and the tax must increase to meet the losses
on every bank in proportion. Instead of loss equal to one

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 153
twenty-sixth of 1 per cent, annually it would rapidly increase
in every financial stringency.
The history of the banking system in the State of New
York furnishes a precedent of great significance in this matter.
The Legislature authorized certain banks to issue currency
and required them to contribute to what was called a safety
fund, to secure their redemption. The contribution was 3 per
cent, on the capital of the banks. The system worked satis
factorily until the court decided, to the great surprise of the
State authorities and the banking community, that under
the peculiar and unfortunate language of the statute the
safety fund was liable not only for the circulating notes of the
banks but also for their deposits. Within two years after the
decision six banks failed. The safety fund was utterly
insufficient to pay the losses. The law was then at once
amended so as not to make the safety fund liable for deposits.
Now, I am quite willing to admit that the New York case was
not a test of the operation of the proposed system, so far as
providing adequate security was concerned; but it is a most
significant precedent in showing what the effect of such a
guaranty of deposits is likely to have on bank management
and the increase of losses. Mr. Knox, the standard authority
on banking, says: "When it was found that all the debts of
every description were to be paid from it {i. e., the safety
fund) a fictitious credit seems to have been given to the
chartered institutions which was used by some of them in
recklessly contracting debts for their managers." This is
exactly what might have been expected and what may be
expected in the proposed guaranty system. It gives to
every banker, however inexperienced and reckless, and
however small his capital, a credit without any adequate

154 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
limitation or restraint, and is certain to lead to speculation
and disaster in instances enough greatly to increase bank
failures and losses.
Two objections are made to the conclusion that such an
enforced guaranty system would lead to recklessness and
disaster in banking. One is that the Government examina
tions would prevent, and the other is that it is an insult to
the banking community to assume that the national bankers
of this country, in view of their present high character, would
yield to the temptation to recklessness presented by the
system. I answer to the first objection that the Government
examination does not prevent failing banks now; that it is
quite difficult for a bank examiner to discover the unwise
recklessness and speculative loans, and that often such loans
are made between Government examinations, and then the
evil is done and cannot be remedied by strict supervision.
Government examination is a good thing, but where there
would be such a temptation to recklessness it could not
furnish a protection against it. Second, while I fully con
cede the general high character of the bankers throughout this
country, my point is that the opportunity to obtain deposits
and invest them on very little capital afforded by the guaran
teed security will attract into the banking business men of
no experience and of speculative tendencies and will distinctly
lower the tone of the banking business.
It has been said by Mr. Bryan that the Republicans of the
State of Kansas, by adopting a plank in favor of a kind of
guaranty of deposits, rebuked me for my opposition to the
plan outlined in the Democratic platform. This is entirely
inaccurate. The Republicans of Kansas have recommended
the passage of a law which is in effect an enabling act under

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 155
which State banks are authorized to guarantee each other's
deposits. That is, banks, if they choose, enter into an
arrangement with other banks by which they shall all be
subject to an assessment to pay the loss to the depositors in
any bank in the agreement. It is the voluntary feature of
the Kansas proposal that makes the radical difference between
it and that of the Democratic platform. It is entirely con
ceivable that banks in the same neighborhood and within the
observation of each other may profitably and safely accept
and guarantee the security of all for the benefit of each,
especially when they can select their partners. It is not
necessary for me to approve or disapprove such a system.
This is a national campaign, and the action of the State is
not a proper subject for consideration or discussion. It is
sufficient to meet the argument of Mr. Bryan to point out that
the Kansas proposition is entirely different from that of the
National Democratic platform, and that the arguments which
I am attempting to state against the Democratic proposition
do not have application to the Kansas plan.
One of the great merits claimed for the enforced gua anty
of deposits is that it will prevent panics, and as panics
frequently precipitate financial depression, it would be an
excellent result. It is sufficient to say that the plan proposed
cannot prevent panics. A panic is not stayed by the promise
that money will ultimately be forthcoming. It can only be
stayed by the production of the money itself. When a
financial stringency is on, it is the cash the man needs, and to
say that he will get it next week certainly does not assist him.
No one who has heard that his bank was going to fail will
delay in immediately applying for his money and drawing
out his account merely because some time in the future he is

156 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
assured that he will get it. Therefore, the system could not
stay panics unless the fund were large enough to enable
the banks run upon to pay all their depositors at the time of
the run. Assuming that the banks have 25 per cent, reserve
in their vaults, it would require to meet the obligations, there
fore, 75 per cent, of all their deposits. Now, the tax is pro
portioned only to the loss sustained after liquidation and
payment, so that the fund would be utterly inadequate to
meet the demand for ready money which would prevent a
panic. The total deposits of the national banks are
$5,000,000,000. One-half of 1 per cent, upon that (and
this is a much larger percentage than proposed) would make
a fund of $25,000,000. The amount of money that was
needed to stay the late panic in New York banks alone was
many times this sum, so that it would be utterly inadequate.
In other words, the cash needed to stay a panic, when the
panic is on, it is impossible to accumulate in any other way
except by such emergency measure as is provided in the
Aldrich- Vreeland Bill, in which banks are given an opportun
ity upon proper security to issue $500,000,000 to meet such
an emergency and are prevented from overissuing by the
imposition of a heavy tax of 5 per cent.
The proposed guaranty plan also invites the cooperation
of State banks, and proposes that they shall have an oppor
tunity to come into the same guaranty. The practical
objections and difficulties do not frighten Mr. Bryan at all.
He pays no attention to the difference that there is between
State banks and national banks, or to the fact that State
banks and trust companies and savings banks are all of them
authorized to lend money on real estate, whereas the national
banks are wholly prevented from so doing. The difference

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 157
in the business and the tying up of assets between the systems
is radical. It would be impossible to bring in the State banks
without making the supervision of them quite as strict as of
the national banks, and if that supervision is to be strict,
it must be under national auspices; therefore they must in
effect become national banks. This will entirely destroy the
system of State banks, and will introduce trust com
panies and savings banks into the national banking system.
I am quite aware of the attractiveness of the proposition.
I am quite aware that every one who has lost anything by a
bank failure welcomes the suggestion of greater security and
when the proposition is advanced he naturally seizes upon it
with the avidity of one who has found what he seeks. The
comparative smallness of the losses arising under the present
system suggests to him how easy it is to meet those losses by
a small tax upon the total deposits. He does not at first con
sider the general effect that it will have upon the character of
banking and the necessary increase in the losses which will
follow. Mr. Bryan says that, as the Government has security for
deposits in the banks, why should not the individual depositor
have security. The Government's deposits are usually not
a commercial matter, and they are usually passive deposits
that are not checked out every day but are allowed to lie a
long time in the banks. The Government is rich enough and
strong enough not to give deposits to the bank if it does not
choose to, and may keep them with entire security in a safe
of its own. It only makes the deposits for the purpose of
releasing the proceeds of taxes which are not immediately
necessary for the use of the Government, and which it is in
the public interest to have deposited, in order that the money

158 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
may go back into trade; but as the Government generally
makes nothing out of the loan, except the benefit to the public
just stated, and as the Government would be greatly embar
rassed by inability to secure its money when it needs it, and
as the money is the money of all the people, the statutes
require such security, and the advantage to the bank in getting
the money and the prestige are such as to make it worth while
for the bank to give security; but if a bank were required to
give security for all its deposits, it would require the invest
ment of all the capital in securities, and banking would cease
to be attractive to any one. But the example of the security
for deposits does not justify the proposed system, because the
Government gets its security from the bank that receives
the deposit. It does not get its security from all the other
banks in the community, and they are not required to furnish
security for that which they do not control or have custody of,
which is the system proposed by the Democratic platform.
I think I have shown that the tendency of the system pro
posed would be to destroy the high character of the present
banking system. This is not, however, to be taken as an argu
ment that the security of deposits is not a good thing and is
not to be brought about as fully and perfectly as possible. It
is only to show that the method here suggested is a plausible
but sophistical method that will not accomplish the purpose,
but will ultimately increase the losses from bank failures.
The case of Oklahoma has been cited as an instance to
justify the Democratic platform. The system has been in
operation in Oklahoma only since March of this year. No
panic or other financial disturbance has tested its efficiency.
The statement is made that the public has so much con
fidence in the banks that the deposits in the unsecured banks

POSTAL SAVINGS BANKS 159
are running down and the deposits in the secured banks are
running up. If my correspondents in Oklahoma can be
credited, this increase of deposits was due to the fact that
$3,500,000 of the State money received from the Government
for public school lands was removed from the national banks
and put in the State banks operating under the guaranty,
which would explain nearly all the increase in deposits. I
do not think the matter important, however, for I am entirely
willing to assume in the discussion that the promise of
security of such a system would attract depositors. But it is
interesting to note how the Democratic authorities of Okla
homa are anxious to make evidence in favor of the system
by use of the State funds.
My information with respect to the Oklahoma system is
that it is developing as might be expected. I have a corres
pondent who is intimately acquainted with the conditions in
Oklahoma. In a letter of September 22, 1908, in speaking
of the effect of the Guaranty of Deposits Law, he uses the
following language:
"Conditions in Oklahoma are growing worse than was
expected on account of the recent decision there whereby
it was decided that the Bank Commissioner has no right to
refuse to grant a charter to parties proposing to organize a
bank. As an instance, in a town of less than 500 people as
many as four banks have been organized. Application is
now in for the organization of the fourth bank in one town
of only 470 population.
" Men whose past records proved them to be incompetent
are engaging in the banking business and getting in control
of banking institutions. I have knowledge of one instance
where a man was engaged in business some years ago and
failed. He went to another town and engaged in the same

160 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
line of business in his wife's name, but conducted her affairs
in such an unbusinesslike way that she failed. Some time
afterward he went to Oklahoma Territory and started a small
State bank, but found he could not succeed and sold to other
parties and left the territory. A few months ago, however, he
returned and started another State bank, advertising that the
depositors are secured under the State guaranty law, and
after sixty days' operation he now has over $100,000 deposits.
I have it from the best authority that he now proposes to
start fifteen new State banks throughout the State, two of
which have already been organized and one now doing
business." I began my address by describing the benefits to be derived
from the postal savings bank system. This has the feature
of a guaranty by the Government under circumstances which
justify it, because it receives and husbands the deposits.
The guaranty will, of course, attract deposits, but the
interest fund is so low that the usual customers of savings
banks will not be dravrn away, as experience in all other
countries show. The Democratic platform proposes, if
the guaranty system cannot be put in force, then to adopt the
postal savings banks, as if the guaranty system supplied the
needs met by the postal savings banks. This is entirely
untrue. No enforced guaranty system will supply what the
postal savings bank will supply.

XI
LABOR AND THE WRIT OF INJUNCTION
(extract FROM AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE AUDI
TORIUM, TOPEKA, KANSAS, OCTOBER 3, 1908)
IT IS said that I have decided against labor; that I have
issued injunctions in labor suits. I have. I was a
a judge on the Bench, and according to old-fashioned notions
when I was on the Bench — of course, since I have been
running for the Presidency those notions may have faded out
some — I was required by my oath to decide the case as the
law and the evidence required, and to furnish to the man who
was injured or threatened to be injured, all the remedies that
the law justified me in giving him and that the law justi
fied him in having, and when I issued an order in his favor
that he was entitled to have, I saw to it that it was enforced,
and anybody that got in the way of it got hurt, and I am
not apologizing for that at all. But what I want to tell
you about is those cases. I want to show you what is a
fact; that, while it happened that generally in those cases
I had to decide against the lawless workingmen who were
attempting to do something that the law did not permit,
I laid down the principle of law defining the rights
of the workingmen and the corresponding rights of the
employers, and that those principles obtain to-day and that
they are the principles upon which the trades unions and
161

162 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
labor organizations have built themselves up as lawful
organizations within this community and have exercised
the healthful and lawful influence that they do to-day.
Let us see what the first decision was : A boss bricklayer
got into trouble with his men and they struck. They
belonged to the Bricklayers' Union. The Bricklayers'
Union notified every material man in Cincinnati that if
he furnished any material to that boss bricklayer they would
declare a boycott against him. Moores and Company were
lime dealers. They went to the boss bricklayer, with whom
they had a contract, and they said: "We don't want any
trouble with the Bricklayers' Union. You have got a
contract with us, but we would like to have you release
it." He said: "All right, I will get my lime; you do what
you please." The way he got his lime was to send a man
down to the yard where there was a freight car from which
Moores and Company sold lime to anybody that came for
it. The walking delegate of the Bricklayers' Union saw
this done. He reported it to the union and they declared
a boycott against Moores and Company, the lime dealers,
and broke up their business. Moores and Company brought
suit against the Bricklayers' Union on the ground that
this was an unlawful secondary boycott and they were
entitled to recover damages. The case came before a jury.
The jury rendered a verdict for $2,500 in favor of Moores
and Company. The case came up to the general term
where I sat with two other judges, and we decided, and
I wrote the opinion, th' a secondary boycott, by which
a third person, not interested in the controversy, was drawn
into it by one or the other and threatened by the boycott
and thus made to come into the controversy by duress or to

LABOR AND THE WRIT OF INJUNCTION 163
stay out under penalty of boycott, was tyrannous, un-Amer
ican, un-Republican, was against common law and ought
not to be the law and was not the law, and that the person
who instituted the boycott was liable in damages to the
person who suffered on account of it. The jury, as I say,
returned a verdict, and it shows how full of efficacy such
a remedy was in that Moores and Company have still
upon their books that judgment for $2,500 without a cent
recovered on it.
The next case: I didn't think I was going to be foolish
enough to run for the Presidency when I was on the Bench.
I don't know whether I could have avoided getting into
these cases or not, but nothing ever happened in the way
of a labor controversy within a hundred miles of me that
I did not fiounder into it; so that when the Toledo & Ann
Arbor road got into a strike with the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers and it began to be rumored that the
engineers of the Lake Shore would not haul the cars of the
Toledo & Ann Arbor road, which was its chief connection,
the Toledo & Ann Arbor road brought an injunction suit
against the Lake Shore, in which they averred the intention
of the Lake Shore to refuse to haul their cars, and not only
against the Lake Shore road but against the officers and
employees, and they got an injunction, commanding the
Lake Shore, its officers and employees to haul those cars,
and the employees were notified, the officers were notified
and the corporation was notified. P. M. Arthur was the
leading labor leader of those days. He was at the head
of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers — of course,
in my judicial experience I had to run up against the biggest
of them — that was my luck. They came to me to tell me, and

164 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
showed it by affidavits and otherwise that P. M. Arthur had
notified the engineers of the Lake Shore road that they were
not to haul the cars of the Toledo & Ann Arbor road; and
that in spite of the injunction that had been laid upon them
and in spite of a specific statute of theUnited States that made
it an offense punishable by fine and imprisonment for those
employees, while on their engines and acting as employees, to
refuse to haul those cars. I notified Mr. Arthur that he must
withdraw his order to his engineers to obey that secret rule
No. 12 not to haul those cars of the Toledo & Ann Arbor road.
Mr. Arthur was a law-abiding citizen and he withdrew that
order, the case was heard, the injunction against him was
sustained and the engineers of the Lake Shore road con
tinued to haul the cars. The Toledo & Ann Arbor strike
went on and I do not know how it resulted.
Now, when that was done there was a tremendous out
cry. I wrote the labor opinion. I don't think anybody
read the opinion except possibly the reporters and some
gentlemen who were seeking legal literature, but I do know
that I was condemned by the railroad orders from one
end of the country to the other for having done an act that
Was tyrannical and that was to revolutionize everything
and enslave the railroad order men. I was talking the
other day to a leader of one of the orders and he said just
that to me, "but," he said, "we had this experience afterward.
We got into a row with the Gould roads and Judge Adams
of St. Louis issued an order of injunction preventing our
chiefs from ordering us to strike or from negotiating on
our behalf, on the ground that they had no right to interfere
or advise, that sort of a thing." Well, that was a pretty
broad injunction, one that could not be sustained, and they

LABOR AND THE WRIT OF INJUNCTION 165
had the good sense to hire a good lawyer and to go into court
and to ask Judge Adams to withdraw that injunction, and
then the chiefs of the orders concluded that they would
read my opinion, written some four or five years before,
and to their surprise they found that I had there laid down
the rights of railway and other labor organizations in such
a way that the order of Judge Adams was entirely wrong,
and that if he followed me as authority he must withdraw
the injunction. They submitted that opinion to him, he
examined it, and he withdrew his injunction, and they went
ahead with the strike and won it. The same thing occurred
just six months ago in Judge Thompson's court with the
Typographical Union. In those cases I laid down this
principle : that laboring men not only had the right but that
they ought to unite in their own interest, in order that they
should meet on a level with the more powerful capitalist
employers; that they had the right to elect officers who
should represent them in these industrial pursuits ; that they
had the right by assessment to accumulate funds in order
to support those of their members who were in a strike ; that
they had the right to withdraw from association with their
employers and to withdraw all their friends from such associ
ation, but that they did not have the right to injure their
employer's property or to initiate against him a secondary boy
cott. I also laid down the rule that no injunction should issue
to prevent a man from striking if he would, or all the men
striking if they would, because that would be slavery.
Those are the principles I laid down, and I say that upon
those principles has been guided every labor organization
since that time, and they have kept within the law. If you
will read my opinion you will find the principles there stated.

XII
THE DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS: A
LOOK BACKWARD
(delivered at GALESBURG, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 7, 1908)
THE debate between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglass,
which took place at this spot, was one of seven historic
discussions between them in Illinois. Neither speaker rep
resented the extreme view of some of his party. The con
troversy related to the status of slavery in the territories
of the United States and its succeeding status in States to
be formed out of that territory. Judge Douglass's position
was that the question whether slavery should be made lawful
and should be protected in a territory was to be determined
by the people resident in a territory. That was the doctrine
of squatter sovereignty. The extremists among the pro-
slavery advocates in the South maintained that it was the
duty of Congress by legislation to protect slave property
in the territories, and that to live, slavery must expand, and
therefore that the admission of slave States must be favored
rather than free States, and additional territory of the United
States should be acquired for the purpose. Mr. Lincoln's
position was that slavery was wrong, that a majority of
those who framed the Constitution and founded the Govern
ment believed it to be wrong, and hoped for its gradual
and ultimate extinction; but that pending this change,
166

DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS 167
they provided for the protection of slaves as property in
the Constitution by directing Congress to pass a fugitive
slave law, and made it impossible for the Federal Govern
ment to abolish slavery in the States in which it was recog
nized as valid by law. Mr. Lincoln, therefore, while he
deplored the existence of slavery, believed that as a sworn
legislator it was his duty to vote to provide a fugitive slave
law and such other protection to slave property as was
required by the Constitution. He insisted, however, that
slavery was wrong, and that it was the duty of Congress
to forbid slavery in all territory of the United States where
it did not exist. He pointed out that the founders of the
Constitution and early legislators had demonstrated by
Federal statutes which they enacted on the subject, that
they believed Congress to have the power to forbid slavery
in any of the territory of the United States, including the
District of Columbia. The extreme party on the side of
Mr. Lincoln were the abolitionists, who believed that slavery
was wrong, who denied any obligation because they claimed
it was an immoral one, to pass a fugitive slave law, and
who relied upon the higher law as justifying a violation
of the Constitution in so far as it made provision for the
preservation of property in man.
We thus had, at the time of this dispute, four parties,
the extreme Southern pro-slavery party, the squatter sover
eignty party, the Republican party determined to oppose
the extension of slavery, but willing to admit its legal status
and the obligation to protect it as far as it existed, and the
abolitionists who recognized no obligation to protect it at
all. This peculiar condition in respect to the controversy
led the contestants into a statement of nice distinctions

168 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
which separated them from the extremists on their own
side and relieved them from the embarrassment of their
position. Judge Douglass was not only a candidate for the Senate
from Illinois, but he was a candidate for the Presidency.
Mr. Lincoln put him questions which compelled him to
make clear the difference between his view and that of the
pro-slavery Southerner. As Mr. Lincoln anticipated. Judge
Douglass lost forever the possibility of support by that ultra
pro-slavery wing of his party. That was the most compact
and unyielding faction of the Democracy. Judge Douglass's
nomination for the Presidency by a united party therefore
became impossible.
The abolitionists and extremists on Mr. Lincoln's side
did not occupy the same position of influence in the Repub
lican party as the extreme pro-slavery wing did in the Demo
cratic party. Hence Mr. Lincoln's position of recognizing
the obligation to give to slavery all the protection required
by the Constitution and no more, while it angered the abo
litionists did not seriously interfere with his becoming the
Republican nominee. The acuteness and political fore
sight of Mr. Lincoln in this regard were shown by his proph
ecy that while the answers which Judge Douglass would
make to his questions might reelect him Senator from
Illinois, it would defeat him for the Presidency. That is
exactly what it did, and it did more, and probably Mr.
Lincoln had that too in mind ; for it not only defeated Judge
Douglass for the Presidency, but it divided his party in such
a way as to require two tickets and thus to make the election
of the Republican candidate a certainty.
A reading of the debates marks a clear distinction between

DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS 169
the two men. Judge Douglass was a masterful, fluent,
forcible debater, not above resort to appeals to partisan
prejudice and entirely willing to deny or ignore perfectly
logical distinctions which Mr. Lincoln made in his state
ment of principles and of his position. Judge Douglass
at times lost his temper, and resorted to epithet and denunci
ation. Mr. Lincoln never lost his temper and but rarely
used a word of opprobrium which might better have been
omitted. Much of the debate is taken up with a discussion
of the record of each debater, and with an attempt to point
out inconsistency between their present respective positions
and those occupied by them in previous controversies in
Congress and elsewhere. This is somewhat lacking in
interest and presents a contrast to those parts of the debate
that are devoted to a general discussion of the political
and constitutional status of slavery, and to prophetic utter
ances as to its continuance or extinction which have an
intense interest in the light of subsequent events.
It is perfectly clear that Mr. Lincoln had given years
of thought to working out a consistent position with refer
ence to the wrong of slavery. It was as revolting to him
as to any abolitionist, but he was a lawyer and a statesman
and a man of peace, and he recognized it as an evil which
the founders of the Constitution had recognized in the same
way, and he knew no course to pursue but that of abiding
by the obligations of the Constitution and limiting the
extension of the evil so far as that Constitution would permit.
He and those with him must have suffered excruciating
pain in the decision of the Dred Scott case which laid down
the principle that Congress could pass no legislation inter
fering with the property in slaves in the territory of the

170 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
United States, and the character of the decision by a divided
court and placed on different grounds by the different
judges doubtless justified him in his hope for a reversal
if another case could be again presented. With the skill
of the accomplished debater, while he protested against
the correctness of the decision, he used it to embarrass his
adversary by pointing out its logical consequence which
was that if Congress could not forbid slavery in the territories,
then the people acting under its authority could not forbid it.
This suited the extremists of the pro-slavery type,
but it was the last thing which Judge Douglass was willing
to admit, and therefore he was obliged to take what seemed
an absurd position, that while Congress could not forbid
slavery in the United States territory, the people of the
territory themselves might avoid the passing of laws to
protect it, and thus avoid the Constitutional obligation by
its evasive violation. This did not strengthen Judge Doug
lass's position.
The circumstances focused the attention of the country
upon this debate in Illinois and gave it supremely national
importance. Slavery was the issue upon which had cen
tered for fifty years all other political controversies, and
now there was fought out, as in an arena, with the people
of the entire country as onlookers, this discussion. Lincoln
put into the debate his whole heart and soul and mind.
He had reasoned with himself since his appearance in Con
gress in '46, where he supported the bill to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia, and he had a clearly defined
position in his mind on all the questions arising out of
slavery. No man in the entire country could have been
selected so well calculated to meet, with the clearest logical

DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS 171
force, with apt illustration and with an earnestness and
convincing honesty of statement, the representative of the
Democracy on these issues. It is not too much to say
that Lincoln in his discussion settled the attitude of the
Republican party, that his debates made the platform,
and that, although down to the time of the debate he was
by no means prominent in a national way or the foremost
man in his party, he then became so by the demonstration
of his fitness to lead in the part which he took in the debate.
It is true that in subsequent speeches, notably the Cooper
Union speech and the others which he delivered in the
East, he clinched and drove home the popular impression
of his greatness as a political leader and debater, but it
was in the actual heat of the controversy, when millions
hung upon the words of each contestant, that his nomination
for the Presidency became a probable and natural result.
In this debate, of course, no one whispered the probability
of war or conflict between sections. Each champion dis
claimed the slightest sympathy with violent methods or
the pursuit of any other method than that purely within
the law, and while Lincoln expressed the hope that slavery
might ultimately be extinguished, he pointed to no method
by which this might be accomplished, and did not even
favor it as a policy with respect to the District of Columbia,
where he contended that the United States had complete
control. He was as much opposed to the bitterness of
feeling growing out of the question of slavery as were the
supporters of the other side, who constantly complained
of the agitation, but he set his face like flint, and in this
he had the Republican party behind him, against the acqui
sition of any new territory or the bringing into the Union

172 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
as slave States of any States in which slavery did not then
exist. He said slavery must be kept where it was.
The debate clarified the minds of many people and drew
the issues more sharply than ever on the advance or retro
gression of slavery. It was an epoch-making event, and
brought about the election of Lincoln, the War, and all that
followed. It is exceedingly appropriate that the fiftieth
anniversary of this series of debates should be celebrated
in fitting manner, for it is doubtful if any purely unofficial
function ever had such important historical consequences
attaching to it as this campaign for the Senate.
A study of the debates is also a study of the character
of Lincoln, and one cannot leave the subject without attempt
ing to point out the great qualities of the greatest American,
the most typical of his kind.
Lincoln's origin was humble, and so affected by the poverty
and straitened circumstances of his parents as to be almost
miserable. His father was a rolling stone, illiterate and
unstable. His mother, Nancy Hanks, died in Lincoln's
youth, and he was brought up by his stepmother, who
taught his father and himself to read and write. The
privations of his early life it is hard to credit as we read a
description of them. His mother must have been a woman
of strength of mind and character — nothing else explains
the development of Lincoln. The chief application of his
life was the ascertainment of truth, the determination of
a basis of right on which to build his conclusions with respect
to life and business and politics. His mind was strongly
analytical and in every issue which he had to solve, he was
straining to reduce the propositions as they were advanced
to their lowest terms, in order that by comparison he might

DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS 173
settle the weight of each. He loved stories — he had a wonder
ful memory for them — but the inexorable logic of his mind
did not permit him to use any story or any illustration that
was not apt to explain and make clear his meaning. His
mind was not a mind given to partisan advocacy. He
would have made a great judge. His method of stating
his case in an argument was fair and with none of the cheaper
arts of the stump speaker. His style, reflecting his method
of reasoning and the simplicity of the propositions to which
he wished to reduce everything, was clear, lucid, forcible,
but simple. It is impossible to read the debates between
him and Douglass without noting the difference in the judi
cial quality of the two, and without having it impressed
upon one that the strength of Lincoln's arguments was
in the fairness with which he stated his opponent's position
iand the candor with which he dealt with points in respect
to which he had a doubt. He united in a most wonderful
way a shrewdness and skill in the presentation of his position
with a judicial consideration of the arguments of the other
side that has hardly been equaled among our great debaters.
The strength of his argument, of course, and the earnestness
with which he pressed it were intensified by the moral foun
dation upon which he stood. Slavery was wrong and freedom
was right, but slavery was a necessary evil which had come
for historic reasons and which we must deal with and keep
within its present limits.
It seems to me, as I study the life of Lincoln, that there
is more inspiration in his development and the position
that he attained of heroism and usefulness to the country
than in the Iffe of any other one man in history. He had
his weaknesses like others. His education was faulty. His

174 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
ambition for political preferment was strong, and he some
times avoided expressions of his real opinion at times when
they might have injured his political career, but with the
sure development of a moral issue of slavery, the part which
he took in it, his character and intellect seemed to grow
with the intense earnestness that the controversy developed.
By a certain sort of intellectual discipline, by self-education,
he clarified his methods of thought and expression so that
he was able to meet every problem presented in the con
troversy by a solution as simple as it was effective. He
was as hard with himself in testing by the fullest logic the
correctness of his conclusions as he was with his antagonists.
The hardships of his early life, his association with all
sorts of people, made him understand the motives and the
limitations of the plain people as no other public man of
our period. He had a zest for politics and with his under
standing of human motives he was able generally to check
mate his antagonist without an open rupture. The respon
sibility which he had to assume when he came to the
Presidency was awful to contemplate, and the proverbial
sadness of his features it is easy to understand. The criti
cism and abuse to which he was subjected in the crises of
the Civil War it makes one ashamed to review as a matter
of history. And yet it is of the utmost value in the encour
agement of others engaged in the public service that they
may not be borne down by the weight of hostile and per
sistent criticism in their efforts to serve their country with
an eye single to the public interest. Mr. Lincoln's biographer
and partner. Judge Herndon, raises a question as to whether
love made up a part of Lincoln's nature. He suggests
that his consideration and charity resulted rather from his

DEBATE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS 175
sense of justice which compelled fair treatment of every one
and made him considerate to every one, and that his char
itable attitude of mind was rather the result of reasoning
from the basis of right than from the soft heart. I do not
know that such a discussion is profitable. Certain it is
that we never have had a man in public life whose sense
of duty was stronger, whose bearing toward those with
whom he came in contact, whether his friends or political
opponents, was characterized by a greater sense of fairness
than Abraham Lincoln.
We have never had a man in public life who took upon
himself uncomplainingly the woes of the nation and suffered
in his soul from the weight of them as he did. We have
never had a man in our history who had such a mixture
of far-sightedness, understanding of people, common
sense, high sense of duty, power of inexorable logic and
confidence in the goodness of God in working out a
righteous result, as this great product of the soil of our
country. One cannot read of him without loving him.
One cannot think of his struggles, of his life and its tragic
end, without weeping. One cannot study his efforts, his
conscience, his heroism, and his patriotism and the burdens
of bitter attack and calumny under which he suffered, and
think of the place he now occupies in the history of this
country, without a moral inspiration of the most stirring
and intense character.

XIII
THE SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST
(delivered at CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE,
OCTOBER 16, 1908)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
IT IS very gratifying to meet such an intelligent audience
so early in the morning. There are especial reasons why
I am glad to meet the people of Chattanooga. From my
earliest boyhood I can recollect the interest that my father
took in trying to bring about the construction of a rail
way which should unite the North and the South by a line
from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. He was one of the trustees
engaged in the construction of that work, and he was the
counsel engaged in defending the constitutionality of the act
by which Cincinnati was able to spend $20,000,000 in order
to make this iron bond between the North and the South.
Subsequently it fell to my lot, first as a Judge of the Superior
Court, to appoint Cincinnati Southern trustees, and subse
quently for seven years as a Judge upon the Bench, to exercise
control over the receiver that had charge of the railroad.
Therefore, I can not feel as if Chattanooga were very far
south. I can not feel as if it were very far from Cincinnati,
and I do not feel, therefore, a stranger with the people
here, although I happened to be in the city o^ Chattanooga
very little. 176

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 177
Then there is another reason why Chattanooga interests
me greatly; that is, that with the assistance of your Congress
men, with the assistance of your business men, with the
assistance of those interested in this part of the country, we
have been trying to induce Congress to buy a large tract of
land between here and Chickamauga which shall be used as
a great army post. We want 50,000 or 60,000 acres, and if
we can only make Congress a little liberal, we can do a great
thing for the army on the one hand, and, incidentally, possibly
to some people of Chattanooga on the other.
Now, my friends, it was my good fortune for six or eight
years to exercise the jurisdiction of United States Circuit
Judge in a circuit that included Michigan and Ohio on one
side of the Ohio River, and Kentucky and Tennessee on the
other side, and during that time I had to visit and become
acquainted with the lawyers of both sections. I had to
become more or less aware of the conditions that prevailed
in the four States and to compare them. No one need tell me
that the only danger there arose to me from my association
with the South and the exercise of jurisdiction therein was
that of over-hospitality. There was something about my
appearance that suggested the propriety of a dinner every
time I came. The only reason I dreaded coming down here
was the excess of hospitality. The warmth of feeling, the
cordial reception that I had, awakened in me a deep sympathy
and a great admiration for this Southern country, and an
earnest desire to put myself as far as I could in the place of
the Southern men and women and understand them, and
understand their point of view. Hence it is that I am here.
When I knew you before, I was engaged in the respectable
business of trying to administer justice. I have fallen from

178 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
that state now, and am engaged in running for the Presidency;
and it seemed to me that with the interest I have always
had in the South, it was only proper that I should come here,
and as a candidate for the Presidency on the Republican
ticket express, by my presence and by what I might
say here, my interest in bringing about such a result as will
more closely unite the two sections than they have been
united. It is quite possible that we may not get a single
electoral vote in the South. I think we will get enough
without it; but nothing would gratify me more than if I could
enter the Presidential chair with the feeling that in the elec
toral vote that put me there were the votes of Tennessee and
Kentucky. We all know the history of the country, and we
know the natural results of the War. We know how the South
was ranged on the side of the Democratic party. We know its
natural conservative tendency. We know the homogeneous
character of its people, the preservation of traditions in the
family. Why, I remember when I went to Nashville, Tenn
essee, and got into the families of some of the lawyers there,
they were telling and enjoying the jokes, the forensic jokes and
repartees and forcible arguments that had been uttered fifty,
sixty and seventy years ago by the leaders of the bar. That
would not be possible north of the Ohio River, because we
have changed so that our family recollections do not go back
that far. So it is entirely natural that even after all reasons
have disappeared, the intelligent Southern people should vote
the Democratic ticket and go on voting it just to preserve the
historic traditions. I am here to see if we cannot make a
beginning of disturbing that tradition and relegating it to the
place where useless traditions ought to be.
The enormous industrial expansion of the South which

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 179
has taken place since 1895, and largely under the auspices of
Republican administration ought, it seems to me, to demon
strate to the thoughtful men of the South that their logical
position is in the party which makes such prosperity possible.
Right here in the centre of the manufacturing industries of
the South, does it need an argument to convince you that the
protective system is absolutely necessary to the continuance
and maintenance of your prosperity ? I know how that thing
is adjusted. The Congressmen that represent each district
are in favor of free trade for every other State but they are
in favor of protection for this particular spot. A Demo
cratic Congressman down in the southwestern part of Mis
souri feels that they need a little protection for zinc and is in
favor of the protection of zinc against Mexico, but for free
trade in everything else. I think you ought to come over to
the party that is in favor of distributing the favors of
protection all over the country in order to maintain all the
industries of the country as they have been maintained on the
system of protection. There are a great many men in the
South, and doubtless many within the sound of my voice,
who are strictly Democrats. They are to be divided into three
classes. The first class are going to vote for me. The second
class are not going to vote at all. And the third class are
going to vote for my opponent and hope that I will be elected.
I think, my friends, that you know, as I know, that that is
a fair statement. So I have come here to see if I cannot
convince the two latter classes that what they ought to
do ia to come right out and just take their first cold bath
in leaving historic tradition that naturally is dear to their
hearts and come right into the party whose principles they
approve.

180 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
I should like to go into some of the other issues of the cam
paign. One of the things that brought the North and the
South closely together was the Spanish War. There, for
the first time after the Civil War, we were able to
demonstrate how close our hearts were across the Ohio
River and the Mason and Dixon line by a rush to
uphold the flag of our country in freeing Cuba and in
maintaining the authority of that flag the country over.
Perhaps I have misconstrued the people of the South, but
my feeling always has been that the sympathies and the
interest of the South were largely with the Republican policy
in regard to Cuba, in regard to Porto Rico and in regard to the
Philippines. My personal experience in the Philippines makes
me think that there was as great an interest in the success of
that experiment in the South as there was in the North. It is
true that there was a good deal of eloquence hurled at us from
the floor of the Senate and from the floor of the House as to
the awful things we were doing in the Philippines and the
liberty we were sacrificing, but when we called upon
the South to furnish her quota of men who were to fight the
country's battles over there, who were to make part of the
efficient government over there, we did not find the South
wanting, and I am glad to be able to say that in the service
of the Philippines and in the selection of men to represent
America there in that government we never paid the slightest
heed to State lines. We have as many Democrats in the
Philippine service to-day as we have Republicans, and
we have as many Southern men as we have Northern men.
Your own General Wright of Tennessee was Governor and
made a fine Govenor there. The present Governor Smith is
a Democrat from California. Governor Ide and I are on the

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 181
other side and are Republicans, but we did not know any dif
ference out there and the pleasure of dealing with a govern
ment in which there was no difference and in which no
sectional lines were recognized is what makes me long for a
similar condition in this country.
I am not going this morning, into a discussion of the tariff
other than to say what I have already said with respect to it.
I feel certain that the business men of the South, certainly a
great majority of them, had no sympathy at all with the free
coinage of silver idea which was upheld by the Democratic
party in 1896 and 1900. Certainly they haven't any now.
I feel certain that Theodore Roosevelt by his courageous
attitude with respect to corporations and corporation abuses
has won the confidence and won the approval of the South,
Democrats and Republicans, and now the question arises,
What are you going to do in the South in this next election ?
Are you going to vote the same way that you have heretofore,
and pray for Republican success, or are you going to assume
some sort of responsibility with reference to the National
government? [Voice: "Vote for Taft !"] That isan inter
ruption that somehow doesn't ruffle me.
Senator Daniels and Senator Bacon, both distinguished
Senators on the floor of that body, deplored the fact that the
South has had no influence in the last twenty or thirty years
in the councils of the Government. Well, I think that is
true, and I join with them in deploring it, but perhaps we
might differ as to the reason for it. I think it can be demon
strated that the reason for it is that heretofore the South has
insisted on voting one way and praying the other, and then
making itself an instrument of the Northern Democracy, no
matter to what excess in economic doctrine that Democracy

182 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
may go. They have been the tail of the Northern Demo
cratic kite, and when you are carried in the pocket of a man
and make no uncomfortable disturbance in that pocket you
are not going to exercise very much influence with the gentle
man that carries you. Furnishing no electoral votes and
substantially but little Congressional support to a Republican
administration, it is not human nature that your leading men
should have influence with the Republican Administrations.
What I am hopeful of is that these gentlemen who really
sympathize with us will come over, will swell the present
Republican party to a size that shall give us the electoral
vote, and that then the Republicans of the South as Republi
cans shall come into the Administration and have that influ
ence and power that the South is entitled to have by reason of
her intelligence.
I want to close with a mere statement of a business proposi
tion. We had a panic. We had a financial depression. I
suppose it has reached you here. There are parts of the
country to which it has not reached, in the West and among
the farmers; but among the business men and the manu
facturing men, the railroad men, both managers and
laborers, the fact that we have had a panic is known. We
are gradually struggling away from the financial depression
that followed it. It came because we had got too far stretched
out in our investment of capital, and the profits on it did not
come in rapidly enough to furnish liquid capital to carry on
the business of the country. There was a stringency. Then,
too, the revelations with respect to corporate mismanagement,
to lawlessness and threats of drastic legislation from the
States, all frightened those who control the capital there wasto
invest, and nobody was able to borrow any money. The

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 183
railroads of this country furnish a very large part of the
demand for manufactured products. When they were
utterly unable to buy, it so reduced the demand as to inter
fere with our great manufacturing interests, but our farmers
were in a prosperous condition, everything was ready to
resume prosperity if we could only get the money and the
confidence with which to resume it, and that is the condition
to-day. We are gradually forcing ourselves back to a level
of prosperity equal to that we have had for ten years past.
We are all in the same boat generally, whether we are busi
ness men, wage-earners, farmers or railroad men. We must
have capital invested in order that the wheels shall go round,
in order that the wage-earners shall be paid, in order that the
farmers shall have a market in which they can sell their prod
uct. Therefore, we are all dependent upon the investment
of capital. I know that proposition doesn't strike those
gentlemen who follow Mr. Debs, because they don't believe in
the institution of private property and they don't believe
in having any capital at all, but just let the Government do
it all; but we are rather more old-fashioned now, and we are
depending upon the investment of money in business in order
that business shall go on. We are therefore depending on
the confidence that those who control investments shall have,
and they live in Europe and they live in this country. They
are those who control savings banks, and so control the capital
of the humblest capitalist there is who deposits his money
in the savings banks or other banks. Those men will not
invest money unless they are sure of a business future, and
the question I want to put to you is whether you think that
by the installation of the Democratic party, under its present
leadership, you are likely to restore confidence to anybody

184 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
in the business future of this country. The gentleman who
heads the party, after the disastrous years under the Gorman-
Wilson Bill, recommended to us as a panacea and one that
was going to help us out of the ditch in which we were, a
plan which he called the free coinage of silver, but which
ought to have been called the repudiation of 50 per cent, of
our debts by statutory fiat.
Now, this was an alluring bait to farmers struggling under
mortgages, an alluring bait to business men with their busi
ness prostrated. Just how it came to be so alluring to the
wage-earning class, when it cut down their wages half in
producing power, I never could understand, but the oratorical
play and the poetic fancy reaches far,- and there were many,
even of that class, who favored the free coinage of silver.
There was something tyrannical, there was something awful
about the gold standard. "Protection," as the father of free
coinage said, "protection has slain its thousands, but the
gold standard has slain its tens of thousands." Now, that
same gentleman, leading the Democratic party in 1900,
although in that four years the fallacies of the theory had
been laid bare and exposed, still brought forward that issue, a
little bit shop-worn, and so he introduced another issue which
was the paramount issue, of anti-imperialism, and he advised
you and me that if he was not elected on that paramount issue
liberty would depart from our hearts and we should not
celebrate the Fourth of July any longer. Well, we may not
have liberty in our hearts, but we have gone ahead celebrat
ing the Fourth of July. Then, in 1904, he insisted on putting
the same plank in the Democratic platform, but the Demo
cratic party for the time revolted, and it didn't go in in any
form. Then Mr. Roosevelt was denounced as subject to cor-

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 185
porate influences and as being guilty of executive usurpation
and as upholding militarism to a point where he was going
around the world with a chip on his shoulder, waiting for
some nation to tread on the tail of his coat and then we would
have a fight. What happened in the next two years ? Theo
dore Roosevelt exercised a greater substantial influence for
peace in this world than had ever been exercised by any mon
arch or any chief ruler of the world before. He brought to
an end the Russo-Japanese War; be brought to an end the
Central American War; he helped Santo Domingo upon her
feet so that the European nations could not interfere; he went
into Cuba and saved Cuba from a revolution, and, as I say, he
made a record for peace preservation that no other man in the
world has ever made. Then corporate influences came for
ward, and if there has been a President in the history of the
United States who has shown himself freer from control
of those influences, who has taken by the throat the abuses of
corporations, I don't know one equal to Theodore Roosevelt.
Mr. Bryan went around the world and his Democratic
friends said (for they have been as severe with Mr. Bryan as
those of us in the Republican party at times), with his obser
vation of world nations he is coming home. We have heard
in advance conservative statements from him, and he is com
ing home to be safe and sane. Mr. Bryan seemed to resent
that statement. He thought it did him an injustice, and he
'proceeded to demonstrate that injustice that he had been
'done by advocating ownership of interstate railroads by the
(Central Government and of all the other railroads by the
'States. ' Then he helped in the organization of the Oklahoma Con-
Istitution and presented that fearfully and wonderfully made

186 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
instrument to the world as the greatest fundamental instru
ment that had ever been struck from the brain of man. I
have not time to go into the wonderful intricacies of that
instrument, but if you are interested in the labyrinthian thread
that you have to follow in going through that Constitution I
commend it to you as an evidence of what is possible for the
leader of the Democracy to think.
Mr. Bryan's idea of dealing with the trusts is to stamp them
out altogether. The idea of Mr. Roosevelt and of the Repub
lican administration and of the Republican party is that they
ought to be regulated so as to keep them within the law, but
that when kept within the law they are a part of our great
prosperity, that the wage fund supports millions of wage-
earners, and no remedy ought to be adopted, such as that
suggested by Mr. Bryan, by which we are going to destroy
not only the guilty but wipe out the innocent as well.
Then we have another theory that is so characteristic of
Mr. Bryan that I will refer to it for a moment. The tendency
of Mr. Bryan's mind is toward a theory that addresses itself
at once to the approval of an audience, not one that fits into
the drafting of a statute to accomplish anything. What he
proposes is that we should make all banks safe to depositors
by requiring every honest banker, every safe and careful
banker, to endorse the obligations of every banker that is not
safe and that is not honest. That is the proposition. If there
ever was a more socialistic proposition than that, I do not
know it. It might well come from Mr. Debs, but how it can
come from a conservative Democrat I do not understand.
The effect of it, leaving out the injustice and the inequality
of it, would be to drive out of the banking business every one
who relies, in that business, upon his capital and his reputa-

SOLID SOUTH AND ITS POLITICAL PAST 187
tion for banking ability and banking conservatism. It is
inevitable that that is the result. Indeed, it is sp in Okla
homa already. I read a speech at the Bankers' Convention
by a man who had looked into the matter, and he said
they were organizing banks down there with a capital of
$10,000, and that they were receiving deposits of $100,000;
that any one could organize a bank, it didn't matter whether
his credit was good or not, if he only exercised his leg muscles.
He is a gentleman who, to use the colloquial expression, has
the glad hand for everybody, and he says to the depositors:
"Come in and put your money here. We will pay you a higher
rate of interest, and if you need to borrow money we will not
be particular about the security you give." "But," the
depositor says, "you have only $10,000 capital." "Oh," he
says, "that doesn't make any difference; this million dollar
bank up here is security that you will get your deposits
back." Now isn't that a Bryanesque arrangement ?
I leave it to you if the putting in power of a gentleman with
those economic theories that sound so well from the platform
when put forth with the force of oratory he has, who is able
to convince himself and persuade himself of the soundness
of such fallacies, is going to restore the confidence that we
need in order to bring back prosperity,

xrv
PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES
(delivered at NEWARK, OCTOBER 19, 1908)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Citizens of New Jersey:
IT is a great pleasure for me to speak in Newark. I have a
recollection of speaking in Newark a number of times, and
I have always had a most cordial reception. To find so many
Democrats and Republicans, for I suppose they are both here,
up so early Monday morning, indicates an interest in the
coming Presidential election that speaks well for the solution
of the questions which we will have in November.
The issues are set out in a great many different ways, but
it always has seemed to me from the beginning that the real
issue was whether you think that the Republican party, by
what it has done in the last twelve years, is entitled to your
confidence, or whether it has done something that ought to
put it out of power. That is not the only question either,
because I concede that even if the Republican party had
done something that made you feel a little angiy at it, which
of course I cannot admit, it is much to be preferred to the
Democratic party under any circumstances, considering the
history of that party during the last twelve or sixteen years and
considering the peculiarities, to use no more offensive expres
sion, of the leadership of that party.
The first thing that the Republican party did in the last
188

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 189
twelve years entitling it to gratitude was to take a decided
position in favor of the gold standard, and in the fight of
'96, to carry government and business honesty forward and
establish business on an honest basis. It is a short time to
look back to an issue like that and find that there is nobody
now willing to avow himself in favor of free silver, con
sidering the bitter discussion that we had in '96 and in 1900.
Then the Republican party substituted for the Gorman-
Wilson Bill, under which we certainly had not had prosperity,
the Dingley Bill, and under that our industries have thriven
to a point making our prosperity in the last ten years greater
than any other country in the history of the world.
Then we had to fight the Spanish War. We fought it
promptly and well. That war brought upon us, as most wars
do, very unexpected burdens. We had first to take up the
question of Cuba, which was the cause of the war, and settle
the government of that Island. We put the Cubans on their
feet, as we supposed, and they staid there for three years,
and then they fell on their knees, and we had to go and help
them again onto their feet, and in February we expect to
make them an independent people again.
Again in Porto Rico, that Island came over to us, a small
rich island, with a million people, but an island that had
labored with other West India islands in a prostration of
agriculture and a general business suffering the recollection
of which makes a million people rejoice every night and every
day, and thank God that they are under the prosperity that
the Stars and Stripes have given.
Then we took up the Philippines. That was the hardest
problem of the sequelae of the Spanish War that we had to
solve, and at every point, except when we had the treaty

190 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
of peace which put the Philippines on us, we met the bitter
opposition of Mr. Bryan and the Democratic party. In
spite of that opposition we have gone on, have given them a
good government there and have given them an honest
administration of justice. We imported one thousand
American school-teachers who taught 7,000 Filipino teachers
how to teach English, and to-day we have half a million
Filipino school children reading, writing and reciting in
English every morning.
We have given them a partial control over the central
government, full control over the provincial government
and full control over the municipal government, and they are
striding on, teaching themselves by practice and by the aid
of the American agents there, how gradually to build up a
complete self-government. All these problems were new.
We had to pioneer. The Executive frequently had not even
the aid of Congress, but when Congress came on it stood by
the Executive. There were problems that had not been
solved in the platforms of the party, and I may stop to invite
attention to the fact that when the American people select a
party to exercise the responsibility of government, one of the
things that it ought to take into consideration is the efficiency
and cohesiveness of the party. The Republican party has
a sense of governmental responsibility and therefore the
members are willing to yield their individual opinions on
non-essential matters in order that the Government may go
on, and that explains the efficiency of the Republican party;
whereas the Democratic party has no cohesion except that
of opposition to the Republican party, and when they get into
power their sense of responsibility is not strong enough to
carry them on to a consistent, courageous, efficient policy.

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 191
Then we took up the Panama Canal, which, for four hun
dred years, since the time of Charles the Fifth, had been the
subject of discussion. We made a treaty with Colombia,
buying the right to build the canal, and then the Colombian
Senate thought they could squeeze a few more millions out of
us, and rejected the treaty. Then the Panamanians revolted
and established a separate republic, and within due time, not
too long, not too short, we recognized that republic, made a
treaty with it, and acquired a proper dominion over the forty-
mile strip ten miles wide through which we are now building
that canal. Under the present Administration there has been
an organization of the brains, the machinery and the hands in
such a way that in the course of five or six years any one who
knows about the work can promise you its completion so that
your Navy will sail from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific.
I mention these things — they are not spectacular — but
I mention them for the purpose of showing you that the
Republican party does things and in the long run the party
that does things is the party that makes progress in the
country. In the enormous expansion of business, in the prosperity
that seemed to overwhelm us and carry us all along in the
hunt for the mighty dollar, abuses crept in, mismanagement
of corporations was revealed, lawlessness on the part of rail
roads and other corporations, so that there was a quickening
of the American conscience, and a demand that these evils
should be remedied, and the Republican Administration
through Theodore Roosevelt took hold of it. You would
think from the statements of Mr. Bryan that no progress
had been made in the country, but when you consider what
has been done, when you consider what the real evil was,

192 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the progress that has been made to better business methods,
to better railroad methods, seems remarkable and hard
to believe. Through the instrumentality of rebates and
unlawful discriminations great corporations have been able
to build themselves into monopolies and to stifle competition.
By the passage of the Rate Bill and by the awakening through
the country of the determination to have equal laws and
equal application of them, the railroads themselves, only too
anxious to get out of the unlawful condition of business in
which they found themselves, have abandoned rebates, have
abandoned unlawful discriminations, and have taken away
the chief instrumentality by which illegal trusts and mon
opolies have been maintained. The combination of capital
is just as essential to our progress as the combination of the
parts of a machine, and the fact that the capital is great and
the number of plants needed are many is no reason for
denouncing them as illegal unless they are used for an illegal
purpose. The normal, legal purpose of such combination is
to reduce the cost of production by inducing economy in the
management of the capital. It is only when undue means are
taken to stifle competition that they cross the line of legality
and that they ought to be restrained and punished. There
fore, Mr. Roosevelt and the Republican Administration
have directed their attention to prosecuting the exact evil,
which is the attempt to monopolize. Mr. Bryan, on the
other hand, proposes to take steps which shall destroy the
entire business. He proposes that we shall abolish the tariff
on what are called trust-made articles. The result of the
abolition of rebates has been the establishment all over
the country of independent competitors of these large
corporations. If you are going to take off the tariff on trust-

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 193
made articles you are going to destroy the trusts all right;
there will be no difficulty about that, and you are going
to throw out of employment the millions of men engaged as
wage-earners in those great businesses, and you are also
going to destroy the independent competitors of the trusts,
for they are just as dependent on the tariff, indeed more so,
than the trusts themselves. In other words, the proposition
is like burning down the house, as the Chinaman did, to get
roast pig.
Again, Mr. Bryan proposes to cut off the trusts as you cut
a tree off, at 50 per cent, of its height. He is going to have
an arrangement by which the production of every factory
shall be limited to 50 per cent, of the total production in the
country, and if that line is overstepped, then the man who
oversteps it is to be sent to jail. I submit that this is an
utterly impractical and destructive method. It is not the
fact that a man makes 60 per cent, of a product that gives
him control of the business; it is the question whether he
gets undue advantage over his fellows in such a way as to
stifle competition. If he takes contracts with his customers
by which he gives them a rebate at the end of the year for
exclusive privileges, or if he undersells them in one part of
the country and sells at an exorbitant price at another part,
that is an evidence of a desire to drive out competition and
is an attempt to monopolize, and men who resort to those
methods, or to secure rebates from the railroads, which is the
chief method, are guilty of violating the Antitrust Law, and
it is that evil that we, the Republican party, believe all
efforts ought to be directed to stamp out, and that any
indirect method by which you limit the amount of the output
is not only unjust but impracticable, because you unite In your

194 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
condemnation and punishment the innocent with the guilty.
How is a man going to tell whether he manufactures 50 per
cent, or more, and how is he going to separate his plant,
because one plant may make 60 per cent, of one kind of article
and 40 per cent, of another and 30 per cent, of another?
How is he going to tell In advance what his competitors are
going to do? In other words, when you come to embody
the principle in a statute it fails utterly to work. It Is only
useful for platform and campaign and anti-election purposes.
It won't work out in a statute.
We are going to revise the tariff, but the question Is how it
ought to be revised. The Republican party Is In favor of and
Is pledged to a thorough and genuine revision of the tariff
on a well-understood principle, and that Is that every indus
try, every product of the farm, the mine or the factory in this
country shall be protected against foreign competition by a
customs duty equal to the difference in the cost of production
here and the cost of production abroad. That Includes
three elements and perhaps more, but three certainly — the
cost of material, the cost of labor and the manufacturer's
profit or the interest on capital. You take those three
elements abroad and add them and those three elements
here and add them, and take the difference, and that measures
what the customs duty ought to be.
The normal operation of a tariff by reason of the competi
tion behind the tariff wall, by reason of the inventive genius
of the Americans, by reason of the business ability of Ameri
can business men, is actually to reduce the cost of production
in this country and so naturally to reduce the price to the
American people behind the tariff wall. That has been the
history of the tariff, and so, the Dingley Bill having been in

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 195
force ten or twelve years — longer, I think, than any other pro
tective tariff in existence— the time has come, or so the Repub
lican party believes, to reexamine and reduce where reduction
Is necessary, and probably that will be in the majority of
cases, because the normal operation will be to reduce the
tariff so that It shall continue to be the difference between the
cost of production abroad and the cost of production here,
but so that no legitimate industry in this country shall suffer;
and where peculiar circumstances have prevented that
reduction In the cost of production here, there the tariff
shall be revised and elevated, if need be, In order to make
the same measure of protection. But, as I say, the general
result will probably be a revision downward.
That is essential to the prosperity of New Jersey. If there
is a State that Is a hive of industry and is dependent on the
tariff. It Is the State of New Jersey. I want to ask the voters
of New Jersey whether they prefer that system to the one
proposed by Mr. Bryan and the Democratic party; that Is,
what he calls a gradual transition from the protective system
to that of tariff for revenue only. A tariff for revenue only
means that they propose to address their attention only to
the collection of revenue. That means, even if they do It
gradually, that they have got to cut off some Industries that
are now protected until they have cut them all off and reduced
everything to a tariff for revenue only basis. I ask you what
effect on the business of the country It Is going to have to
cut off part of the Industries at one time and part at another
and part at another, one leg to-day, one leg next year, an arm
the following year, and so on ? Will it not produce a lack
of tranquillity In the business situation that will make pros
perity absolutely impossible? But, Mr. Bryan says, of

196 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
course you can try it and then If you do not like it at the end
of two years, you can take it back. Of course you can do
that, and that is perhaps what would happen, but why permit
him to try it at all if you are satisfied with the other system
and if, as the people of New Jersey know, their prosperity is
largely dependent on the preservation of a system that the
Republican party has maintained for forty-eight years?
But, Mr. Bryan says, we are not going to have a real and
honest revision. Well, if we are not, and the protected inter
ests can prevent, why didn't they prevent it in the Chicago
Convention ? The truth is the whole Republican party had
crystallized sentiment In favor of that revision. The
whole Republican party is obliged to give an honest and
thorough revision, and it will be made before the people at
large, and when the Republican party pledges itself the
Republican party can be trusted. But, it is said that the
protected interests own the party by contributions to the
campaign fund, and therefore that the Republican party does
not dare give us an honest and thorough revision. Well,
I am somewhat familiar with the total of the campaign fund,
and I am able to advise every one that there Is not enough
there to debauch either a party of the people or a very small
body of persons, and that if anybody is aching to contribute
to something that needs support he has the opportunity by
sending it to the campaign fund. It is not true. The
Republican party in the last administration has shown itself
able, after full deliberation and discussion, to pass any law
in the face of any corporate opposition, when the law
addresses itself to the justice and to the honor of the
Republican party.
Now, I wanted to say something about labor. I cannot

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 197
finish that subject in the time I have. I am only going to
discuss the question of the business future of this country
from the present standpoint. We are suffering from a panic.
The tremendous prosperity that we had led us on to Invest
ments that did not bring back a fair return at once.
Liquid capital became exhausted. There was a stringency
the world around. It was impossible for the railroads that
make the best single market for our manufactured products
to borrow any money at all. Under those circumstances,
with the demand reduced, manufactured products fell off,
and the difficulty of obtaining money finally brought about a
panic. I ought to add that, in addition to this gradual
exhaustion of liquid capital, there came revelations as to
business mismanagement in this country, as to the lawlessness
of railroads, and then, on the other hand, a reactionary threat
of drastic legislation in the States that frightened those who
controlled the capital that might have been investel. The
result was a panic. Then there came a financial depression,
but it had certain peculiarities. It was a panic In spots.
It was a depression in spots. You go west of the Mississippi
River and talk to them about a panic, and they do not know
what you are talking about. The farmers are in a condition
of prosperity never before enjoyed. Their farm products
are high, their crops are good, and they are In a condition of
comfort. All that is necessary, therefore, to put us back on a
good business basis, because we can gradually feel the uplift,
we can gradually feel a return to better times, is the restora
tion of confidence to those persons who control the Investment
of money for new enterprises. Now that Includes European
investors; that includes American investors; it includes those
trustees and financial agents that control money that has

198 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
contributed to savings banks and other banks and trust
companies, for we are all, those of us who save, in a sense
capitalists. It means that we must restore confidence on
their part as to the business future before we can assure our
selves of a return of prosperity.
Now, I am only going to occupy you long enough to point
out that the last thing that you ought to do in order to restore
that prosperity is to put In power the Democratic party with
Mr. Bryan at its head, for I want to submit to you, if you had
control of the investment of funds, and wanted to be sure of a
fair return, would you take a gentleman who In times of
business disaster, in '96, recommended as a panacea for
every ill the adoption of a law permitting the free coinage
of silver, which should by legislative fiat pay off our debts
by fifty cents on the dollar ? Would you take a man who
was In favor of reducing wages by half under such a pro
vision? Would you take a man who, after that had been
demonstrated not to be the correct method, finally urged
that if you retained the gold standard it would lead to
disaster, and who in the four years of McKinley's adminis
tration was shown to be a false prophet, nevertheless forced
into the Democratic platform, in 1900, an approval of the
same document? Not only that, but introduced a para
mount issue of anti-imperialism, and who said that unless
he was elected on that paramount issue, patriotism and love
of liberty would depart from the hearts of the people, and that
we should not celebrate again the Fourth of July? Well,
we have been celebrating it, and it seems to me that our
hearts beat with the same throbs of love of liberty.
Then came on 1904, and he sought to put In the platform
of 1904 an approval of the doctrine of free coinage of silver.

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 199
Then he went around the vorld, and his Democratic friends
In this neighborhood said, to use their own expression : "He
has become safe and sane from an observation of the nations
of the world." Mr. Bryan resented that imputation, and
he proceeded to demonstrate its injustice by coming home
and proposing — what ? He, a Jeffersonian Democrat, pro
posed a centralization. He said that there was no solution of
the railway problem except that the Government should buy
all the interstate railways, and that the States should buy all
the Interstate railways, a centralization of power which makes,
it seems to me, any patriot and any friend of this country
tremble at the thought of what power it might put In a man
down at Washington controlling such an enormous amount
of property.
In the course of his political life he approved the Oklahoma
Constitution which had initiative and referendum from bot
tom to top, and was only a basis of the proposition on his
part to have a national initiative and referendum, and In
that constitution there was this provision, which he said was
the greatest work that had ever been struck from the brain
of man: that when a court had Its authority defied, and an
Indirect contempt was committed, a jury should intervene
before the punishment of the person committing the con
tempt. That has since been introduced into the Demo
cratic platform, and I can't discuss what I regard as its
pernicious effect in weakening the power of the courts, but
they had one peculiar provision In that Constitution which
sets out their view of things. They had a corporation com
mission which should get evidence from any corporation,
railway or otherwise, in the State, and If the agents did not
answer, then the corporation commission was to turn Itself

200 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
into a court and was to sentence to fine and imprisonment,
or rather fine with the imprisonment necessarily following,
any one who should refuse to answer. In other words, they
were going to impose the power on an executive commission
to punish for contempt without a jury, but when it came to
a court they made the jury intervene between the order of
the court and the court's enforcement of that order. I don't
exaggerate. That occurs In the Constitution of Oklahoma,
and it is a perfect zoological garden of Bryan ideas. But
It attracted the attention of Mr. Bryan because of its novel
ties, I suppose, finally In this campaign.
In addition to the proposition of the destructive methods
of dealing with these larger corporations, so-called
trusts, to have them keep within the lawful lines — he
has another panacea. Mr. Bryan Is going to save
us all from the loss of our deposits In banks, and how
is he going to do it ? Presumably by the Oklahoma plan,
because he points to the Oklahoma plan as a vindication of
the proposed remedy, and that is that when a bank fails in
Oklahoma, its depositors are to be paid by assessment on
all the other banks, and they are to create a fund of 1 per cent.
to pay that off, and then If the fund Is not large enough they
are to keep on assessing until the debt is paid. Let us see
how that works. Of course, the plausible side of it Is this:
The loss arising to depositors In national banks for the last
forty years in this country does not exceed one twenty-sixth
of 1 per cent. The deposits amount to about five billions.
That means about two millions a year loss; so Mr. Bryan says
If you will only raise a fund a little larger than that by a
small assessment on each bank you will prevent anybody from
losing anything. Well, will you ? If the loss would remain

PARTY PLANS AND PRINCIPLES 201
at that sum undoubtedly you would, but let us see how it
works — and we have the testimony of gentlemen In Okla
homa as to just how it does work and how you might expect
It to work. In Oklahoma they can have a bank with a
capital of $10,000. In the United States it requires $25,000.
But let us take the Oklahoma system. They say that men who
have failed in banking have now come back to go into the
business again. They have raised a fund of $10,000 by scrap
ing around, then they go to their friends and neighbors, by
political pull and otherwise, and they ask them to deposit
money In their bank. "But," the answer is, "you have
only got $10,000. Your reputation is not very good anyhow.
You have got a cashier who is threatened with Indictment
for embezzlement" — that was an actual case — -"and I
don't propose to have my money in that bank." "But,"
the urgent and active banker says, "you don't seem to under
stand the operation of the new law. You know Robinson,
the old skinflint banker up the street here; he has a capital
of $500,000, with a surplus of $250,000, and he has the repu
tation that nobody can get any money out of him." "But
what has that got to do with It ? " "Why," he says, "don't
you understand ? The Robinson bank is responsible for my
deposits." Well, that is so, that is just the system; I am not
exaggerating It; I am stating it exactly. How long do you
think Brother Robinson is going to stay in the banking busi
ness if his $250,000 surplus Is responsible for the $100,000
deposits of this gentleman with the shady reputation that
has established a bank with $10,000 capital ? How long do
you think he is going to keep his $500,000 in ? Can't you see
that the result of that is going to destroy the personnel of
your banking fraternity ? It is going to put into the banking

202 POLITICAL ISSUES AND, OUTLOOKS
business all the exploiters, all the speculative men, all the
men of dishonesty, who desire to use somebody else's money
for their own speculative purposes, and that Is the last pana-
acea that we have from Mr. Bryan.
I ask you, my friends, in all candor, if you had control of
the capital of the country and wished to put It into business,
would you venture It if you knew that a gentleman of such
unstable economic theories, so easily fooled himself as to their
virtue, were to be put into the Presidential chair ?

XV
MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR
(delivered at COOPER UNION, NEW YORK CITY, OCTOBER
28, 1908)
Fellow-citizens: I AM glad to have an opportunity to come face to face
with representatives of labor unions, and to discuss with
them the issues which have been raised in this campaign
In respect to the attitude that organized labor should occupy
toward the two leading political parties.
In the first place, Mr. Samuel Gompers, at the head of
the American Federation of Labor, has attempted to
deliver the entire organized union labor vote, and possibly
the unorganized labor vote, to Mr. Bryan as the leader
of the Democracy, and if this grant and delivery were
complete, perhaps It would be useless for me to address
you on the subject. But I venture to assume that the
laboring men of this country, and especially those who
are organized, are too intelligent and far-sighted and too
Independent and courageous in thought to allow themselves
to be delivered as political factors by any leader from one
party to another. I assume that laborers, like other men,
differ In their political principles, that there are Republican
labor men and Democratic labor men, and that It Is not
too late, even after Mr. Gompers' action, to argue out
203

204 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the question which party should be supported upon ground
appealing to reason.
The record of the Republican party in Congress In its
limited jurisdiction has been most remarkable in the number
of valuable statutes which have been enacted In the Interest
of labor: the Eight Hour Law, the Sixteen Hour Law,
the Model Child Labor Law, the Interstate Railway
Arbitration Act, the Interstate Railway Employers' Lia
bility Act, the Government Employees' Compensation
Act, the safety appliance acts, some two or three In number,
the appropriation investigating the cause of mining disasters
— are all especially directed to the interest of laborers
employed either by the Government, by the interstate
railways, or at work within the District of Columbia, In
the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. This Is a record
of which any party may well be proud, and It is a record
In which the Democratic party has no part. Not a single
line of labor legislation was put upon the Federal statute
book during the encumbency of the Democratic adminis
trations of eight years out of the last forty-eight. Under
those circumstances, it is difficult to see how any judicial-
minded person can attribute to the Democratic party that
active sympathy with labor in doing things for Its Interest
that entitles it to the support of labor. In their platforms
and in their declarations they are full of sympathy for the
laboring man, but in statutes passed. In work accomplished,
their record is nothing.
But It is said that the attitude of the Republican party
toward labor in the matter of injunctions In industrial
disputes Is hostile. The representatives of labor have
contended that the power of injunctions has been some-

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 205
times abused, in that the injunctions preventing freedom
of action in Industrial disputes by striking employees and
the officers of labor organizations have been much too
wide in their scope. In a number of Instances, this Is
true, and the Republican Convention, for the purpose of
calling the attention of judges to the necessity for greater
care In this matter. Inserted a plank In the platform requiring
that the best approved practice in the matter of injunctions
should be embodied in a mandatory statute. Under this
plank It is possible to adopt a statute which shall specify
the few Instances In which injunctions without notice can
be issued, and which shall provide that injunctions issued
without notice shall not last more than a certain and a
short time, and thereafter shall cease to be operative unless
meantime a hearing by both parties Is had before the court.
In this way it is thought that the abuses In the matter of
injunctions of too wide scope can be avoided. I have
been willing myself to provide that no injunctions should
be issued without notice, but It was thought too drastic
a reform to take away all remedy in certain cases where,
unless Injunctions could be issued without notice, no remedy
would exist at all.
The Democratic platform resolved that Injunctions
ought not to Issue in industrial disputes in cases in which
they would not issue in other disputes. This plank Is
meaningless If read literally, because no one ever contended
that the fact that a dispute was Industrial was a ground
for issuing an injunction In equity. If It was intended
to mean more than this, then It Is deceitful. We may infer
from the recently issued circular by Mr. Samuel Gompers
that It was Intended to mean more than this, and that it

206 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
was intended to accomplish the purposes declared in a bill
introduced at Mr. Gompers' Instance, and which he says
embodies the demands of labor. This bill contains
two sections; the first section forbids the Issuing of an
Injunction in Industrial disputes in all cases except where
an Injury to property Is threatened, and it provides specifi
cally that an Injury to a man's business Is not an Injury
to his property right. In other words, it forbids the issuing
of injunctions to prevent the Injury or destruction of a
man's business. Mr. Gompers has contended that the
rules of equity did not permit the issuing of Injunction
to protect a man's business from injury. He is utterly
wrong in this contention, and the decision of the Supreme
Court of the United States, and of all other courts of any
standing in the community, is contrary to his position,
and we may well submit to laymen whether a business
built up by hard work, attention to customers, In which
a good will has been earned such that It can be sold at
auction, is not a right of property or pecuniary nature,
such as ought to be protected by the usual remedies of
law and equity. It is just as valuable and sacred as the
ovsTiershlp of a house, or of the stock of goods on the shelf,
and to remove it from protection of an equity right in
Industrial disputes is class legislation of the most pernicious
character. Of all things not beneficial to the laboring
man Is legislation which operates on him as a class and
seeks to give him privilege or immunity that Is not enjoyed
by other members of the community, and that is exactly
what this provision as interpreted by Mr. Gompers and
as understood by Mr. Bryan Is to mean when It Is to be
acted upon in the National Congress.

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 207
The President, in a very apt letter, has asked Mr. Bryan
to state his position, whether the platform as he reads it
does favor the position of Mr. Gompers as stated by him
in his bill, or whether it means nothing, as it would seem
to mean when literally read. We have as yet had no answer
from Mr. Bryan on this subject.
But it Is said that the attitude of the Republican candidate
for the Presidency is hostile to labor. I deny this. There
is no man in public life who has greater sympathy with
the lawful purposes of labor in organizing for its own
protection and in seeking to maintain the rate of wages
and other favorable terms of employment than I have.
It is true that in a number of cases I have had to decide
against labor, just as in a number of cases I have had
to decide against combinations of capital. The questions
turn on the particular set of circumstances and evidence
and the law as applied to them, and if as a judge I had
manifested any bias one way or the other, I should not
now be entitled to the support of the people at large for
the Presidency; but I am sure it will be found, upon
examination of my opinions, that I laid down the law
with impartiality, without fear or favor, and without
regard to the question whether plaintiffs or defendants
were corporations, laboring men, business men, or pro
fessional men.
It is now charged by Mr. Bryan that my desire to oppress
labor Is shown because in one instance during the very
hard times of 1894-95 I declined to modify an order of the
receiver appointed by my court reducing the wages of
employees of a railway company 10 per cent. That is
true. But it was because the order had only been made

208 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
in the extremity presented by the deplorable business
conditions of that time, and the peculiar circumstances
under which the road was being operated. The roadbed
was owned by the city of Cincinnati, which had leased
the road to the Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific
Railway Company at a rental of $83,000 a month. The
railway company had no property except leasehold, and
it was necessary. In order that any property should be
left at all, lest a complete forfeiture take place, that the
rent should be paid under the leasehold. The payment
of the rent was the only means by which the property of
the company could be preserved. The net receipts In the
previous two months had fallen as low as $43,000 a month,
leaving a constantly growing deficit, which the receiver
was unable to meet by borrowing more money. He had
exhausted all credit. All sorts of economies had been
resorted to until the point of actual safety In the operation
of the road was reached, and it became necessary, therefore,
as a last resort to reduce the wages of the men 10 per cent.
Such a reduction had been put In force a considerable period
before, by all other railroads centering In Cincinnati and
this reduction was adopted by the receiver as a last resort.
It was impossible for the receiver to borrow money because
he had only the leasehold to pledge as security and no
capitalist would lend more money upon that. Under
these circumstances, most reluctantly the court was obliged
to refuse to modify the order of the receiver reducing the
wages. As this was a time when substantially all other
railroads in the country had made a similar reduction, it
was impossible to avoid It and save the property. It is
said that the men were not given a hearing. This is entirely

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 209
untrue. They were given a full hearing with evidence
and argument In their behalf by able counsel and this though
precedents did not justify that course.
It is pointed out that Judge Caldwell In another case
refused to permit such a reduction, but In the case of Judge
Caldwell, he had in his court jurisdiction over the whole
body of the road upon which money could be borrowed
by receiver's certificates with a priority of lien, In order
to continue its operation, whereas no such condition existed
In the case in which I made the ruling. It was a case upon
which I passed judicially. I called in another judge to
assist me. The evidence taken was extensive, and the
argument by counsel on both sides was at great length,
and the result reached was the only one consistent with
the continued operation of the road.
I am not apologizing for the action but only explaining
it, and pointing out that no other course could have been
taken by me conscientiously as a judge. It was not followed
by a strike, for the men acquiesced In the result, recognizing
it as one of absolute necessity.
In the matter of wages, it has come to me officially to
determine the question of the proper wages of employees
when I was acting in an executive capacity at the head of
the Panama Canal construction, and It will be found that
I have generally approved the fixing of wages satisfactory
to the men employed on that great work, with proper allow
ances for the difference between the conditions existing
on the Isthmus and those surrounding similar employment
at home, and that I have always opposed a limitation upon
the discretion of the War Department In the matter of
fixing wages, and that this fact has been recognized gratefully

210 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
by the Steam Shovelers' Union in a resolution making
me an honorary member of that body. I approved the
advance of the wages of locomotive engineers, of locomotive
firemen, of steam shovelmen and of cranemen.
The second case was Moores and Company against the
Bricklayers' Union. Moores and Company were lime
dealers. The Bricklayers' Union had a fight and a strike
with a boss bricklayer. It notified every material man
in Cincinnati that It would boycott any material man who
sold materials to the boss bricklayer. Moores and Company
unconsciously did so, and a walking delegate found it out.
A boycott was declared against Moores and Company. Their
business was destroyed — a valuable one. They brought
suit before a jury, and I was the judge that charged the
jury, and I told them that that was a secondary boycott;
that It was an attempt to Involve a third person in an
industrial controversy by duress, in respect to which he
had no normal relation, and that any injury that grew out
of that the person injured might recover for In a suit for
damages against the person instituting the boycott. That
was the law then; it is the law now; it is so decided by
every Supreme Court in the United States and the Supreme
Court of the United States, and it ought to be the law.
Not only that, but the best labor unions to-day recognize
that the use of a secondary boycott in industrial disputes
is very bad policy. It is the use of an un-American and
un-Republican Instrument of tryanny, and It ought to be
stamped out, Mr. Samuel Gompers to the contrary not
withstanding. He Is asking Congress, and has been for
the last five years, to pass an act legalizing boycotts, and
until Mr. Bryan answers Mr. Roosevelt's questions, we

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 211
must assume that he also favors the legality of secondary
boycotts. Now the third case was this: Mr. P. M. Arthur was
the chief of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
He was one of the greatest labor leaders they ever had
In this country, and his brotherhood has always been one
of the most useful and one of the most intelligently con
ducted and one of the most successful. But they made
one mistake. They had what they called "Secret Rule No.
12," and under that rule the engineers on a connecting
line were directed not to haul the cars of a line with which
the Brotherhood had a strike.
The Toledo & Ann Arbor road had a strike with the
brotherhood. I heard that the Lake Shore was going to
refuse to haul the cars of that line because of the difference
with their engineers. It filed a bill for an injunction to
compel the Lake Shore, its officers and employees, to
haul the cars. The injunction was Issued by Judge Ricks.
Subsequently Mr. Arthur issued a telegram to the engineers
of the Lake Shore, calling their attention to Rule No. 12,
and In effect directing them as engineers to refuse to haul
the cars.
The statute of the United States provides, in the Inter
state Commerce Law, that any railway corporation, any
officer or any employee of a railway corporation refusing
to haul the cars of a connecting line shall be subject to
fine and Imprisonment. I was notified In a proper form
by petition that Mr. Arthur had issued that telegram
to his engineers on the Lake Shore road, and I Issued an
order to him requiring him to recall that telegram. He
did recall the telegram. He was a law-abiding man. And

212 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the case was then heard at length and the order sustained.
It never has been reversed to this day. There was a right
of appeal if anybody had desired to take it.
I have been criticised for language used in the opinion
concerning the Rule No. 12, the enforcement of which was a
violation of the statute of the United States already referred
to. The language which I used was this:
"We have thus considered with some care the criminal
character of Rule No. 12 and its enforcement, not only be
cause, as will presently be seen, it assists In determining the
civil liabilities which grow out of them, but also because we
wish to make plain, if we can, to the intelligent and generally
law-abiding men who compose the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Engineers, as well as to their usually conservative
chief officer, what we cannot believe they appreciate, that,
notwithstanding their perfect organization, and their charit
able, temperance, and other elevating and most useful pur
poses, the existence and enforcement of Rule No. 12, under
their organic law, make the whole brotherhood a criminal
conspiracy against the laws of their country."
The effect of this statement was to Induce the Brotherhood,
as was hoped, to abolish Rule No. 12. I was nevertheless
held up to execration as a judge who had violated all the
laws, and had oppressed trades unionism and made It Impos
sible to exist. It was represented that I had enjoined a
man to continue In the service, and had prevented him
from striking. Now, as a matter of fact, I wrote a very
carefully prepared opinion — I suppose It was too long;
It must have been or Mr. Bryan would have read it. It
must have been or else the chiefs of the orders would have
read It. The truth Is, If it had not been so long I would
not be here engaged in the somewhat unusual business of

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 213
expounding my own decisions. But in that case I laid
down these principles which I think had never been collated
and stated in this way before, athough they were the
existing law.
The first was this: That any employee may absolutely
leave the employment of his employer without question,
whether he breaks a contract or not and no Injunction will
lie to prevent; that he may associate with his fellow-
employees and bring about what Is called a strike, and
no Injunction will issue to prevent that; that he may
organize his fellow-employees into associations, who shall
appoint officers, and they may refer these Industrial disputes
to their officers to abide by their decision, and may give
to the officers the power of exclusion from the association
for disobedience; that they may by assessment collect
a fund to support strikers, if strikes are thought necessary;
that they may withdraw from association with their em
ployers, and withdraw those who sympathize with them
from such association ; but that they may not injure the
property or unlawfully Injure the business of their em
ployers, and they may not institute a secondary boycott
in such a dispute.
Now I was not running for office. I had a life position,
and I could afford to wait to be vindicated. About six
or eight years afterward these same orders got Into difficulty
with the Missouri Pacific road. The conductors, engineers
and trainmen all thought that they were not paid enough
by Mr. Gould. Accordingly the chiefs met in St. Louis,
and after conducting negotiations, were unable to reach
a conclusion and ordered a strike. The railroad company
employed a lawyer, who went Into court with a bill in equity

214 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
to enjoin those chiefs from Intermeddling between the
railway company and their employees, on the ground that
they were persuading them to break contracts and to do
all sorts of things. That injunction was issued, and then
these chiefs followed a course which It might be well
for a good many labor organizations to follow — they
employed a good lav^yer, not a lawyer who thought it
his business to abuse the courts, but a lawyer who knew
the law and who tried to help the courts in reaching a just
and legal conclusion. They consulted him and he said:
"This injunction is too broad. I can get it modified."
They said: "We are glad of it." "Yes," he said, "I
have a case, the authority of which settles it." They said:
"What case is that?" He said: "It is the case of P. M.
Arthur, the one decided by Judge Taft." Well, one of
the chiefs who was there told me this about a month ago.
They said: "Is there anything in that case that helps us
in any other ?" "Yes," he said, "it lays down the principles
upon which your association is conducted, if it is conducted
legally." So, as he said to me: "We thought your decision
was pretty stiff but I did not read It at the time — I did
not read it until we found that it helped us, and then when
I did read it I found that you had laid down the law which
is the Magna Charta upon which all trade organizations
of this country stand."
Now Mr. Gompers says that I have said that he has
misrepresented me. I have said so. He has misrepresented
me as being hostile to labor and an enemy of labor.
What I say Is that trades unionism has flourished, has
become useful to Its members, and to society, and has
become powerful under the rules of law that I laid down

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 215
more than a decade ago, and that Instead of being denounced
as hostile and unfair to labor, I am entitled, in so far as
a judge Is entitled who lays down the law as he believes
It, to be regarded as the benefactor of trades unionism
and labor.
There was another case, the Phelan case, which grew
out of the Debs insurrection. Mr. Eugene V. Debs, with
whom I am running for the Presidency, was at the head of
the American Railway Union, and he conceived the idea
that it was a proper thing to regulate the wages paid by
Mr. Pullman to his employees by tying up every railroad
in the country, starving the babies and families until the
country should take Mr. Pullman by the neck, so to speak,
and compel him to pay the wages to his employees that
Mr. Debs thought he ought to pay them. That was a
secondary boycott on an enormous scale, and Mr. Debs
carried it further than anybody thought it was possible
when he began. He sent Mr. Phelan down to Cincinnati.
Mr. Phelan learned that one railroad there was In the
hands of a receiver whom' I had appointed. He called
the employees of the receiver together, and he sought to
persuade them to go out. Most of them would not go
out. He called in men of other railroads and he told them
to persuade those men of the receiver to go out and, if they
would not be persuaded, to kick them out. They were
members of the old orders, and as they would not go out
the result was that their heads were broken by brickbats
thrown at them. They were also assaulted on their way
home to Ludlow, Kentucky, and nearly beaten to death.
I had to station constables and marshals upon those
engines, and when this condition was brought to my attention

216 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
properly, I sent for Mr. Phelan with a warrant of arrest,
and I brought him into court and enjoined him from con
tinuing that conduct, which continued for not less than
two weeks during which I was trying him. At the end
of two weeks I convicted him on overwhelming evidence,
and I sent him to jail for six months as he richly deserved.
I did not send him to jail for the crimes or offense against
the law that he had committed. Those were matters for
consideration by the grand jury. I sent him to jail for
his flagrant violation of the authority of the court. Being
under injunction to discontinue that unlawful conduct, he
nevertheless held up to contempt the authority of the court
for the Southern District of Ohio. Now I am not here to
apologize for anything that I have done In that connection.
The authority of the courts must be upheld. If they are
not, we might as well go out of the governing business.
Combinations of capital are to be encouraged so long as
they keep within the law, and combinations of workmen
are to be encouraged so long as they keep within the law.
When you permit them to exist, you permit in your com
munity a tremendous power to be exercised necessarily
by a few men, and you have got to make your courts powerful
in order to keep them both within the law.
In order to show that I have no bias against employees
of railroads, I may cite two cases in which I decided with
them, and which subsequently became noteworthy as
having been sustained rather by statutory action than by
subsequent judicial action. A railway employee sued
for damages for the loss of a leg where his foot was caught
In an unblocked frog. The statute of Ohio required the
railroad to block the frog and to be subject to a penalty

MR. GOMPERS. THE COURTS AND LABOR 217
for not doing so. The railroad company set up as a defense
that the plaintiff knew that the frog was not blocked and
that the employee assumed the risk as soon as he knew It.
We held that this principle of assumption of risk actually
defeated the purposes of the statute which was to save
the lives of the men, and that there was no assumption of
risk, and that such an assumption of risk would not con
stitute a defense. This principle, although contrary to the
general weight of authority In the United States has since
been adopted by Congress in its statutes affecting relations
between interstate railways and employees.
Again, a railway express messenger signed a contract
exempting a railway company from liability for damages
Incurred by the negligence of the railway company. I held
that the contract was void and contrary to public policy
and this decision was taken to the Supreme Court and
reversed by that court, but I am glad to say that Congress,
In its Employers' Liability Act, has made a special provision
that such a contract shall be regarded as void. I cite these
instances to show that there was not the slightest bias on
my part toward employees. On the contrary, I was anxious
that justice should be done, and that the disadvantage
under which they labored in dealing with their employers
should be recognized in law, and should be regarded as
a reason for avoiding strict construction against them.
I have not always been on the Bench, and my relations
have not been confined to judicial decisions. When I was
Governor of the Philippines, I took occasion to encourage,
as far as possible, the organization of labor unions on
proper principles, and to bring about a condition of law
there equivalent to that which now exists in America. The

218 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
head of the American Federation of Labor sent a Mr.
Rosenberg, the head of the Miners' Union, to investigate,
and he made a report favorable to the attitude of the Civil
Governor of the Islands toward trades unionism.
Again, while I was in charge of the Panama Canal and
its construction for four years, I had much to do with labor,
and, as already said, I had to fix wages and agree upon
the terms of employment when an appeal was taken to me
by the men. The report of the Labor Investigating Com
mission and the action of the Steam Shovelers' Union in
making me a member of their organization, already
referred to, would seem to indicate that I had not been
unfair to labor there.
And now Mr. Fuller, representing the railway train
men, comes forward and charges me with attempting to
abrogate the Eight Hour Law. What I did was to recom
mend that the Eight Hour Law be not applied to alien
workmen. The reasons for the Eight Hour Law in the
United States have no application whatever to the working
of the West Indian negroes, and the foreign labor in the
Torrid Zone, and can have no effect upon the principle
underlying that act. This was the view of President Roose
velt, emphatically expressed to Mr. Gompers, and was the
view taken by the Republican party, and I am quite content
to abide by that position.
I was Secretary of War for four years, and the War
Department probably employs more labor under contract
than any other department, or private corporation, and this
brought me into contact especially with workmen engaged
in dredging, and in river and harbor work. I have had
conferences with respect to the Eight Hour Law and in

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 219
respect to other matters with the heads of unions, and
have) always reached a satisfactory conclusion, so much
so that Mr. Daniel Keefe, who is a member of the Executive
Council of the American Federation of Labor, an associate
of Mr. Gompers, has thought it consistent with his duty
to announce his support of me for the Presidency and to
certify that he always found me fair to labor.
Were this a contest in which my individual Interests
were alone concerned, I should hesitate to discuss my
opinions and judicial acts and executive acts, and should
prefer to let them stand or fall by the written explanation
given in the opinion or in the executive decision, but as there
is a disposition on the part of my opponents to decline to
read anything on the subject, and as I should feel very
much disappointed to have acts of mine misconstrued
and injure the cause of Republicanism, I have thought
it necessary to go into a full explanation of all the acts of
mine which were made the basis of criticism. I am not
apologizing for any of the decisions rendered or any of
the executive acts performed. I am merely stating them
and avoiding the misconstruction and false charges In
regard to them made by partisans in this campaign.
Mr. Gompers' announcement as to his agreement with
the Democratic party and Mr. Bryan is that they propose
to interject a jury trial between an order of the court and
its enforcement for all contempts committed outside the
presence of the court, and the argument is that if a convicted
thief, if charged a second time, must be tried by a jury, why
should not a man who violates the order of the court ? The
reason is that it is of the highest importance to preserve
the power of the court to enforce its own orders. Now,

220 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
why do they make a distinction between indirect contempts
and direct contempts — that is, why do they distinguish
between contempts committed in the presence of the court
and those committed outside ? The reason for the exception
that they will give at once will be that it is in order to preserve
the authority of the courts. Is there any more reason why a
man who raises a row in court and is sentenced to jail for
thirty days should not have a trial, than a man who violates
an order of the court? In each case the reason why he
should not have a jury trial is the same. It is to preserve
the authority of the court, and the very fact that they have
an opportunity to send a man to jail without a jury trial
for contempts committed in the presence of the courts
gives the whole case away. It shows that there Is a
reason why we should not have a jury trial in some cases
where those cases are necessary to sustain the authority
of the court.
Now, let me explain to you the operation of the proposed
change. An indirect contempt Is the violation of a subpoena
by a witness. One of your Federal judges here issues
a subpoena to John Smith, and John Smith for some reason
or other does not want to come to court to testify. So he
does not come that day, and the next day he is sent for.
The marshal is sent for him and he is brought into court.
The judge says : " The marshal says he served the subpoena
on you personally. Why were you not here?" "Excuse
me, Judge, I am familiar with the recently enacted Dem
ocratic statute, and I decline to answer. You will have
to summon twelve men in a box here to determine first
whether your marshal tells the truth — I decline to answer.
Perhaps your marshal tells the truth, perhaps he does

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 221
not, but these twelve men have got to settle It befo/e you
can act on it."
Suppose you issue a summons to a juror. The juror
wants to go fishing, and he relies on this Democratic statute.
He is finally brought in in a day or two, and he is asked
If he did not get the juror summons. He says: "Excuse
me. Judge. I am familiar with the statutes. You will
have to summon another jury to determine whether I was
properly summoned as a juryman." That shows the utter
absurdity of the law. It shows how far men will go in
weakening fatally the power of the courts in order to achieve
some partisan purpose. But that is not all. The worst
of it Is in the adjudicated orders of the court that have
been fully considered. Take this case. An inventor of
note, like most inventors, with very little money, after working
hard, gets a patent. A wealthy corporation tries to buy
it from him and they cannot agree on terms. So they
consult an astute patent lawyer, and he tells them he hopes
he can get them out of it and they go ahead and infringe
the patent. The inventor scrapes together $5,000 or $10,000
and he fights that case, as they have to fight It In such a
case two or three years. Finally he gets a decree affirming
the validity of his patent and its value as an invention, and
the fact that the defendant Infringes it. Then the defendant
corporation takes the case up, and the Inventor Is kept
dancing in the courthouse another year, and it costs him
$3,000 or $4,000 more. Then there is a decree affirming
the decree of the court below, and then by some hook or
crook they move for a certiori in the Supreme Court of
the United States, and they carry it up there, and it costs
him $2,500 more; but finally he gets a decree in the Supreme

222 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Court of the United States, and a mandate that is sent
down to the court below to enforce that judgment. The
counsel for the infringing company have studied this Dem
ocratic statute, and they advise their clients that there is
still a way out, and that they may go ahead with their infringe
ment. So they go ahead with their infringement, and
then this inventor who has labored and borrowed all
the money he could, and starved himself during these four
or five years, comes into court and asks the Judge to punish
them for attempting to violate an order which has passed
through three courts and been confirmed. The Judge
says: "I would be glad to, for this is a flagrant case, but
the Democratic statute, with which you are familiar, requires
me now on your charge to secure a jury to determine whether
this company is actually infringing your patent which has
been declared to be valid and which three courts have
declared that that company is infringing, but you still
have got to subject that nice, delicate question to the
uncertainties of twelve laymen that are to sit in the box
and pass on the case."
I submit to any honest-mmded man, whether to put
in a provision of that sort thus holding up to ridicule and
weakening the solemn orders of three courts, reached with
all the deliberation possible, is not laying the axe at the
foot of the tree of justice and destroying the authority of
the courts. I do not care what Its effect is on my political
future. As long as I have the strength to do so, I shall
protest against any weakening of the power of the courts,
and especially in this day of human progress when we have
to depend more on the courts and their power and the
purity of justice and its strength than ever before in the

MR. GOMPERS, THE COURTS AND LABOR 223
history of the world. There is not an issue in this campaign
comparable in importance to the attack on the courts —
the insidious attack on the courts that is being made by Mr.
Samuel Gompers and his partner, Mr. William Jennings
Bryan. Before the wage-earner finally makes up his mind as to
the party which he should support, he ought In the interest
of himself and his family to consider the more general
reasons why the Democratic party and its policies
should be defeated in this election. This is because
the election of a Democrat and a Democratic Congress
would mean business disaster to the country. The
Introduction of the tariff for revenue system in substition
of the tariff for protection would Inevitably involve us In
a similar business disaster as that which we had In '93,
'94, '95 and '96, whereas the election of the Republican
ticket will insure a thorough, genuine revision of the tariff
on the protective principle, and will not destroy our
industries. We have had a panic, followed by an Industrial depression,
from which we are just recovering. Mr. Bryan says that
it is a Republican panic that It occurred during a Repub
lican administration. That Is true, but it followed a period
of immense prosperity, and was brought about by undue
confidence in the business situation which led to over
investment and the engaging of liquid capital In many
enterprises that proved not to be lucrative or profitable.
The liquid capital of the world was largely absorbed by
the losses of war and by this over-investment. The rev
elations concerning corporate mismanagement, corporate
lawlessness in this country, and infidelity of financial trust

224 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
obligations on the part of some prominent men, created
a lack of confidence especially In Europe, the liquid capital
was absorbed and hoarded, railroads were unable to borrow
money. Finally the crash came, and a depression has
followed which has been felt in business and manufacturing
circles. The panic Is not a general panic, but only one
dependent on Its existence for the peculiar conditions I
have mentioned. It will not settle down Into a general
panic unless the result of the next election destroys the
confidence which is gradually returning, and with It the
prosperity of two years ago. The election of Mr. Biyan
will destroy this confidence, and be a menace to prosperity.
It could not be otherwise In view of his record, the Instability
of his economic views, his persistent recommendation of
the policy of repudiation Involved in the free coinage of
silver for three successive campaigns, his favoring the
government ownership of railroads as the only means by
which the railroads can be properly regulated and controlled,
his guarantee of bank deposits, which Involves the socialistic
taxation of a good banker to pay the debts of a poor, dis
honest or negligent banker. All such nostrums and
panaceas, which will never work a cure, have made all
conservative persons in the country distrust Mr. Bryan
and the accuracy and safety of his economic views. Hence
his election will destroy confidence and will continue the
present depression. Every person interested In a restoration
of prosperity should vote against him.

XVI
A FEW WORDS TO SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS
(delivered at AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, JANUARY 14. 1909, IN
REPLY TO A SPEECH OF WELCOME TO THE SOUTH AND AN
invitation TO VISIT SOUTH CAROLINA AND THE
CITY OF ANDERSON)
Mr. Mayor and Citizens of Anderson:
THE first proposition I am going to make to you Is to put
on your hats. I do not want to be responsible for
any pneumonia; I do not want to be limited in my remarks
by the feeling that possibly their extension might cause
such a misfortune.
I am very grateful to you for this substantial evidence of
your welcome of me to the South. The presence here of so
many successful and prominent citizens of a town like
Anderson, which I believe has sometimes been called the
Lowell of the South, where time means money, where time
Is important to you all, I should like to have you know I deeply
appreciate. Coming so far and in such numbers and under
these circumstances, I value much the expression of your
hospitable welcome. Your description of Anderson squares
with the description which I presume may be given to quite
a number of towns, not all of them perhaps so fortunately
situated throughout the South, In which there is to-day that
spirit of civic pride, that determination to make the towns
225

226 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
go forward that characterizes, and has for the last ten years,
characterized, the civilization and the people of the South.
They have come to share the prosperity of the Nation In such
a way that they have enjoyed rather more of the prosperity
than those of us In the North, and I am glad that it is so.
Under conditions which, for a time, seemed to make per
manent the disastrous effects of the War, it was Impossible to
have the traces of that division between us wiped out entirely.
But when we are all prosperous, when we are all making
money, when we are all able to educate our children and to
give our wives and our families comfortable homes, and when
we think that we are successful and are accomplishing every
thing In the world and are doing things, we become philo
sophical, we become willing to let bygones be bygones, and to
forget everything of the past that we ought to forget, and
to remember only the brotherhood that exists and ought to
exist between all the citizens under the starry flag.
Now, you have said you were Democrats. Well, I suppose
you are, most of you. Democrats; but I haven't got any
thing against you on that ground. We must have parties
in this country. It is not possible to have eighty millions
of people, with sixteen million voters, carry on a government
unless we do have parties which shall form a machine, so to
speak, for reducing the varying views of sixteen million of the
electorate, or a majority of that electorate, to a resultant force
which shall effect and carry out the public will. We have
got to subordinate a good many of our views In order to make
a common view which shall be manifest in the carrying on of
the Government. We wish to avoid as far as we can that
division Into little groups which is seen in many of the Euro
pean countries where they attempt constitutional govern-

WORDS TO SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS 227
ment, and which results in a lack of a consistent policy
because there Is no majority responsible to carry on the
Government. We have avoided that thus far In this country,
and I hope that we may.
All that we can hope for, all that we ought to ask Is that
the people of all sections shall make up their minds In an
Independent way, and then vote for the principles that they
favor. The result is all that any patriotic citizen can ask.
Whether It brings about the success of one party or of another,
we can generally count on the Intelligence, the patriotism,
and the foresight of the majority of the American people,
whichever party tag they bear, as a party to carry on a good
government, a government in which we shall uphold the
institutions left to us by our fathers, maintaining freedom
and liberty and the institutions of private property, and those
other guaranties contained in our Constitution.
We, In a sense, are the most conservative people In the
world. That Is because we know a good thing when we see
it, and we propose to keep it. There may be changes and
amendments necessary In the law to effect reforms that have
Impressed their necessity on us during the last ten years.
Doubtless there are. But I think, certainly in the South
and generally through the country, we do not wish to des
troy that government or so change it as to make It different
from that which our fathers and forefathers contemplated in
the formation and maintenance of the Constitution, entered
upon In 1789.
I know that sometimes the Constitution seems to be in the
way of direct effectiveness. The division under our system
by which the central government is limited to certain things
and the state governments carry on other things, sometimes

228 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
seems to work against the rapid carrying out of some of the
reforms, as for instance, the conservation of our natural
resources, and, perhaps, the regulation of railroads and the
suppression of those abuses which have crept In with our
marvelous progress in the combinations of capital. And
yet, gentlemen, that Constitution, simple, clear and com
prehensive, has in the past been capable of such fair con
struction as to meet in a marvelous way the developments
and emergencies of our country which could not have been
anticipated by those who framed it, and I am very certain
that the same Constitution will meet the emergencies which
may come in the future.
What we look to in the South Is to have the support of
those institutions from the people who believe in them and
are willing to maintain them, and to fight for them. If It be
necessary. Now, my friends, I cannot fail to express to you the feel
ing that bubbles up in me, of gratitude for the very cordial
reception that I have had since I came south of Mason and
Dixon's line; and at no meeting have I found It more em
phatic than at this one; In no reception have the circum
stances made It any more impressive than in this one, which
you have been good enough to tender me, of the citizens of
Anderson, South Carolina.
I congratulate Anderson on her prosperity. I have no
doubt that when I come again into the South the statistics
will be added to. I have no doubt If I were to institute a
search into the pockets of the gentlemen here, I should find,
as I have found in some other parts of the country, papers
containing statistics on the subject of the growth of Anderson.
I am glad that this is so. I am glad that It is written in

WORDS TO SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS 229
the heart and mind of every citizen that he feels pride In the
town In which he lives. I sincerely hope that that pride
manifests Itself, as doubtless It does, in the maintenance of
a good government there, in control of men who are honest,
who believe In civic righteousness, and who are giving you
a city In which you are proud to live and of which you are
proud to be citizens.

XVII
THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH
(delivered AT ATLANTA, GEORGIA, JAKTUARY 15, 1909)
Mr. Chairman, Gentlemen of Atlanta, and Atlanta's Guests:
I CAME South to Augusta to obtain rest from a nervous
strain due to a campaign of public speaking. This was the
avowed and the real purpose of my visit to Summervllle, that
suburb of Augusta upon the sand hills, whence It Is possible
to look over into the promised land of the dispensary. Before
I left Washington and in the hurry of that capital, I was
honored by a visit from a committee of eloquent, mellifluous
and sweet-spoken gentlemen headed by your distinguished,
handsome and Impressive Governor, who secured from me a
promise to visit that city which they said was more fully
representative of the energy, enterprise, business courage
and modesty of the South than any other. No sooner had
I accepted the Invitation than I began to realize that Atlanta
was the place of all others for a man in search of rest to
avoid. Rising from Its own ashes some forty years ago, this
city and its inhabitants have led the strenuous life in the mar
velous growth and development of the city, and no man
could expect a rest so long as he was In its custody and under
its control. Only three cities suggest the spirit of civic energy
and enterprise which one finds here. Those are Chicago,
Kansas City and Seattle, and I say this with hesitation, lest
230

THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH 231
there be some among those who hear me who will object to
the comparison as unjust and uncomplimentary.
I have referred to the late Presidential campaign In which
it fell to my lot to make some four hundred speeches and to
make some of them In the neighboring states of Tennessee
and North Carolina. I did not come as far as Atlanta and
I am sorry that time did not permit. I am proud to have
been the first Republican candidate for the Presidency who,
in the course of his campaign, visited states south of Mason
and Dixon's line, for, however little its effect upon the elec
toral college, it is an indication of progress of political Inde
pendence and political tolerance.
After the election I had gotten so in the habit of making
political speeches that when I was Invited to address the
Society of North Carolina in New York, I ventured to make
some remarks on the advantages that might arise from a
change in the political complexion of some of the Southern
states. I pointed out the common ground which, in view
of the causes which had led to the political solidarity of
the Southern states, might now justify many Southerners
to change their political associations and vote with the Repub
lican party. I do not intend to-night to go Into this subject
In a partisan way. In the presence of Democrats and Repub
licans here at a non-partisan banquet expressing the welcome
of the whole community, it would be neither courteous nor
appropriate for me to do so.
I can only refer to the fact with gratification and con
gratulation that to-day the expression of any political view
In the South is possible without Involving social ostracism
or any of the penalties with which It might have been visited
in earlier time. Ten years have made a great difference in

232 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the attitude which the controlling people of the South occupy
toward the North and the Government. The need of our
common country at the time of the war with Spain and the
call for troops aroused the martial, patriotic spirit in the
South even more than In the North, and seizing that moment
with his unerring judgment of men and times, William
McKinley made manifest to the people of the South his
earnest desire to bring them closer Into the Union and to
make them more completely a part of the country. With
the tact and the real sweetness and lovableness of his char
acter, he was able to instill in the Southern people a con
viction of his desire to win them and their confidence and
to banish from their minds that hostile and suspicious atti
tude which previous events had seemed to make permanent
in the Southern states.
There were three circumstances that contributed to this
result: The first one was that in the Presidential election
he stood for a monetary policy that commended itself to the
business men of the South, while his opponent advocated a
change which these same business men regarded as dis
astrous, unsound and nationally dishonest. The second
circumstance was that which I have mentioned — the
rousing of the patriotism of the South to the support
of the flag of the country In a war for the freedom of
Cuba and the suppression of the international scandal
involved in her previous government. And the third
was the personal characteristics of McKinley, his natur
ally conciliatory disposition, and his marvelous power of
winning confidence.
His second campaign, involving as It did the question of
expansion — a policy which naturally awakened the synt"

THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH 233
pathy of all the South with its Anglo-Saxon descent — added
further to the success of his efforts to mitigate the traditional
feeling of the South that the central government under Repub
lican auspices was an alien government.
The succession of Mr. Roosevelt, whose mother was born
in Georgia and who takes many of his characteristics from
that strain, did not diminish but only increased the force of
the movement toward a spirit of friendliness between the
North and the South.
Then came between the Spanish War and the present time,
such a material development in the states of the South as
never before has been equalled in any part of the country.
Wealth accumulated, farming became most profitable, the
manufactures of the South increased by leaps and bounds,
and the conditions were brought about which served to ren
der the Southern people forgetful of the poverty and strait
ened circumstances which they had to endure for a long time
after the War. The man who Is prosperous and successful
loves law and order and peace, forgets his traditional enmities,
and causes of bitterness, and yields easily to the conciliatory
advances of his neighbors.
Then, too, the course of Theodore Roosevelt in becoming
the exponent of the moral awakening among the people and
in formulating their demand that the abuses which had crept
in with our enormous m,aterial development should be
stamped out and the business of corporations, railway and
industrial, should be carried on within the law and on
higher moral plane, found as hearty support In the South as
It did in the North. The truth is that the South to-day con
tains more of the Puritan religious feeling than any other
part of the country, and it responded to the Roosevelt poli-

234 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
cies with as much emphasis and fervor as there was any
where In the Union.
The result of all this is to promote independence of thought
and independence of political action, and tolerance of both in
the South, and no matter what one's political proclivities are,
this result he must accept. If a reasonable man, as one devoutly
to be wished.
I am a Republican, but I concede fully the great advan
tages to the country In having a Democratic party sufficiently
powerful sometimes to win the Presidential elections and
always to put the Republican party when in control In fear
of a possible or probable defeat. And so In the South, no
one can deny the advantage that will arise in local and state
governments when there is a substantial and Intelligent
minority which may become a successful majority In punish
ment of the abuses that are likely to grow out of the long-
continued and undisputed control of one party. Added to
that, the uncertainty which may attend the result of national
elections In a state is certain to give it additional importance
in the councils of the Nation.
I have not come down here for political purposes, and I
am not here to preach a political propaganda, nor If I were>
would I expect a political revolution in any of the states of
the South. A political change, if It comes, in my judgment
must come by a continuance of the present movement; to
wit: the development of Indepenj^jence of political thought
and action on the part of a conlparatively small minority,
which shall slowly attain the proportions of respectable oppo
sition in each state to the controlling party. The South and
the Southern people are conservative and they do not change
In a mercurial way. With them, traditions are respected,

THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH 235
and are strong motives of action. And if one were affected
by purely partisan motives he must regard the effort to create
a successful opposition in the South to the present controlling
party In such a way as to secure electoral votes in a national
campaign, as a waste of strength and energy. Occasionally
a member of Congress may be secured, but this Is not enough
to warrant the attention that ought to be paid to encouraging
the movement for political Independence and action In the
South. The motive for that must be the earnest desire
of all patriotic men to make parties non-sectional and to unite
and knit more closely those parts of the country which a
bloody war once divided, but which now ought to be, and
certainly will be in the progress of events, one in feeling,
sympathy and aspiration.
I observe that among some prominent members of Con
gress, there is a disposition to charge me with an attempt to
win the South over to Republicanism and a somewhat con
temptuous expression of opinion that this is utterly impos
sible. To them I would say that I am not hopeful of win
ning the South over as they say, but that the South has suc
ceeded in winning me. For never have I had a more cordial
reception in any part of the country or the world than during
my present visit to Georgia, and as it is entirely without respon
sibility for making Georgia different politically from what she
is, and as I am on a vacation in which I have little to do but
to enjoy myself and make a Cabinet, I am not in the slightest
degree worried over the prophecies of failure which I see
occasionally in Interviews with prominent Southerners, and
this Is because there Is no room for failure in my visit to this
country. I came here for rest and recreation and I have had
both, and I have found a warm and cordial reception and

236 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
patriotic respect for the office into which I am soon to be in
ducted. Indeed, while Mr. Roosevelt Is laboring in
Washington under the responsibilities of his great office, I
am enjoying the respect, attention and hospitality that patri
otic Americans extend to the office, without at present
carrying Its burdens. A walk of four miles around eigh
teen holes of golf Is all that I need to keep the Presidential
body in good condition, whereas Mr. Roosevelt In his
anxious desire to nerve the army up to what its members
should be able to do under stress, must ride ninety miles in .
fourteen or fifteen hours.
Hence I take Issue with my friends from the South In Con
gress who in various Interviews ascribe failure to my coming,
because I think it has been a great success. If my coining
had been partisan, no such meeting as this to-night would have
been possible, and so I may say of all the receptions and
expressions of good-will and welcome that I have received
from point to point throughout this Southern country. The
very success of my trip, the very reason why It gives me so
much satisfaction is the pronounced non-partisan character
of the welcome which has been so kindly extended to me.
Now, if this indirectly makes, not for a partisan advan
tage, but for a continuance of the movement in favor of
Independence of speech and action and political tolerance
its result is one that all citizens of whatever political party
must rejoice to have brought afrJ^it. The relation of the
National Administration to a selT^h like this, in the distant
past, has been that almost of an alien government or at least
of a government like that of a home government to a colony.
The direct local effect of a national administration upon the
South Is chiefly through Its local officials, appointed and

THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH 237
exercising their functions through the section, and there
fore the expression of the Administration toward the South
ern people takes its colour In the character of those officials,
and, therefore, the Administration may be properly held
accountable and its policy determined by the qualifications,
fitness and standing of the men appointed to represent it in
the districts and states of the section. I realize, therefore,
that expressions of sympathy with the South and an earnest
desire to bring It closer to the central government in thought
and action and feeling will have comparatively little weight
unless this expression Is accompanied by such appointments
in the South as shall prove this sympathy to be real and sub
stantial. The difficulty of making proper selections in a
part of the country where the sensibilities of the people are
different from those of one's own section, where conditions of
society differ so radically, and where there are no accredited
representatives selected by the people of the same party
as the Administration, is very great indeed. It Is a ques
tion of evidence and of evidence difficult to get, and when
secured, hard to weigh, because it Is only judgment and
estimate and generally not a mere statement of a concrete
fact. All I can say with reference to the future policy of the
Administration in the South on this subject is that I expect
to spare no effort to find out the facts In respect to the char
acter of the proposed appointees, and so far as in me lies
to select those whose character and reputation and standing
in the community commend them to their fellow-citizens
as persons qualified and able to discharge their duties well,
and whose presence in important positions will remove, if
any such thing exists, the sense of alienism in the Government
which they represent.

238 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
The work of the next Administration is to be a work of
creation and construction, to furnish the machinery withwhich
the great principles announced and carried forward to success
ful establishment by Theodore Roosevelt are to be clinched
and maintained. The legislation affecting the great rail
way and industrial corporations needs amendment, not so
much to change its principle or object, as to facilitate Its en
forcement and make Its violation less easy and advisable.
Of course, the immediate great work of the Administration
must be the revision of the tariff. In that work the South
Is quite as much interested as the North, and would have
an honest genuine revision such as has been promised by
the party In power.
The continuance of our Philippine policy, with the Im
provement in the commercial relations between the Islands
and the United States we may reasonably anticipate, and in
that commercial improvement there is no section of the
country more Interested than the South.
The great field of diplomatic care, attention and activity
for the next thirty or forty years, so far as this country is con
cerned. Is likely to be In the far Orient. The oriental trade
which Involves so much sale of metal products and of cotton
products most nearly concerns the welfare of the South. All
these policies, therefore, may well call for the close scrutiny
of those who are leaders of Industry in Atlanta and other
cities and ought to awaken on their part a desire to exercise
the legitimate influence that such a section as this ought to
exercise In respect to the phases of the policies to be pur
sued. All I can do is to assure the Southern people that no
interest of the South, whether it share that Interest with the
North, or whether it has a peculiar Interest of Its own, will be

THE WINNING OF THE SOUTH 239
neglected In the conduct of the Government, In so far as that
conduct shall be under the control of its Chief Executive.
I am glad that I came to Atlanta. I am glad to meet this
most cordial, and graceful hospitality and welcome extended to
me as the coming President. I beg those of my hearers who
differ from me politically not to suppose that their cordial
and courteous reception are misunderstood by me. I know
that they spring from an earnest and patriotic desire to pay
proper respect to the great office to which I have been
elected, and that they grow out of a sincere wish and proper
assumption that, having been elected to the Chief Magis
tracy, I shall become the President not of a party but of a
whole united people.

xvin
HOPEFUL VIEWS OF NEGRO DIFFICULTIES
(delivered in BIG BETHEL CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGU,
JANUARY 16, 1909)
Bishop Gaines, Professor Matthews, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I AM very glad to be here in this presence. Had circum
stances prevented me from having an opportunity of
meeting my colored fellow-citizens in my visit to Georgia, I
should have thought It a great misfortune for me. I should
have regarded my visit to Georgia as not complete in falling
to meet a part of the citizenship of this section In whose
development, in whose progress. In whose prosperity I have
the profoundest Interest, and with whose efforts to uplift
themselves I have the deepest sympathy. It is true that in
your history and In the consideration of what has happened
In the past, and possibly what will happen in the future,
It is difficult to exclude political conditions and to avoid
discussing your present and your future political Issues. But
you will understand me, I am sure, when I say to you that
here as the coming President, should the Lord permit me to
live until the 4th of March, I must stand as the representa
tive of all the people and avoid In every way partisan and
political discussion ; butI can conceive that the President of the
United States can have no more sacred function than to offer
words of encouragement, of suggestion, and of hope to those
240

VIEWS OF NEGRO DIFFICULTIES 241
to whom fate in the past has not been kind and with respect to
whom the whole American people has the highest obligation
of trusteeship and guardianship. Now we know a great deal
more to-day than we knew thirty years ago, all of us,
whether on one side or the other. We know that we were
not always right In every particular ourselves, and that the
other side, who differed from us, was not always wrong in
every particular, and we can afford, in the progress that has
been made, to rejoice that the progress makes assurance of
further progress and further prosperity for all of us. One
of the things that the past teaches us, one of the things that
it Impresses on every man who gives earnest consideration
to the working out of the providence of God, is that in the
man himself must he find the seeds of his progress. I say
to you colored men and colored women of this country
that, hard as your lot has been, and hard as the road Is likely
to be onward and upward, if you will abide by the judgment
of your conscience, by those very ideals that lead to self-
restraint, to honest effort, to providence, you will attain a
condition In the future that you hardly dream of to-day.
Look back to what you were forty years ago. Your people
were not, 5 per cent, of them, able to read or write, and
to-day you have reached nearly the figure of 50 per cent, of
literacy among you, and you must consider the conditions
and the hard conditions, under which that Improvement
has been made. Brought here against your will, put here
in a condition of slavery for years and years, and then made
the subject of a bloody war, this country, to which your for
tunes must always be attached, reduced to a condition of
poverty and straitened circumstances so that it was almost
impossible for the white owners of property to live, much

242 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
less those who had no property and no education, yet^
under those circumstances, you have gone on so that to-day
a large part of the farming — I could give you the statistics —
is In the hands of the colored people of the South and dotted
over the South are model places which show to you what can
be done when you approach your problems with common
sense and a determination to recognize the facts that stand
before you, and to meet those facts with courage and bravery.
I do not Intend to discuss race feeling and race prejudice, be
cause the discussion of It and the argument of it never did any
body good. You must recognize facts, and in the face of those
facts, because they cannot keep you down, you can go on
to a brighter and brighter future. Every one of you knows
in his heart, because every one knows noble, earnest, sym
pathetic white men In the South, that your greatest aid and
your greatest hope Is In the sjrmpathy and the help of those
white men who are your neighbors; and I thank God that
in the South there is developing fast evidence of a stronger
and stronger sympathy with the effort to uplift the race
among the white men of the South, who feel themselves
responsible for the whole Southern civilization. Your
people have faults that grow out of your history and your
training, but the first step and indication in an Improvement
of faults Is the knowledge that you have them, and when
you read In the sermons of your own people, In the lectures
of your own people, the cold — I won't call it cold, because
It Is not cold — but the sympathetic truth In respect to
yourselves and the necessities that present themselves
to you in your path upward, one of the greatest steps
possible has been achieved. You have among you men
who do credit to the entire American manhood. No

VIEWS OF NEGRO DIFFICULTIES 243
one can read the life of Booker Washington and know what
he has done, without being proud that our country has pro
duced such a man, and I say it without Invidious distinction,
because there are, doubtless, others that deserve similar
tribute; but it has come to me personally to know him and to
be associated with him, and to understand the marvelous
perception that he has into the future of your race and the
necessities that are presented to you in winning a higher place
in life. Of course, the first thing is education. The first
thing is to give every man who is to enjoy civil rights knowl
edge enough to know what these rights are, and how he can
protect himself in them. Of course, it Is a great mistake
either among white men or colored men, to think that
because a man gets a university education, therefore he is
better than other people or In a better condition. Whether
the university education does him good or not depends upon
the foundation of character that he has. You need among
you, as the white men need among them, university education
for the leaders, your ministers who control so much of your
opinion, your physicians, and there ought to be a great many
more of them well educated, in order to teach the race the
rules of hygiene that In the country are so often widely
departed from. And you need in all branches of the pro
fession, because you must have leaders among them, the
opportunity for giving them the best education that the
world affords, but that is a comparatively small number.
The great body of the race are those who are to be the
workers, the manual workers, and what Is needed for the
great body of your race Is primary and industrial education,
so that you shall commend yourselves to the community
in which you live as absolutely Indispensable to its proper

244 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
and future growth and prosperity; that when you have car
penters they shall be honest carpenters who know their craft;
that your blacksmiths, your machinists and all those who
engage in manual labor, skilled or unskilled, shall have
the Intelligence and the knowledge to make them as good
as possible In rendering the service for which they are to
receive a just compensation.
Now, my friends, I did not come here prepared to make a
speech. And I always come before an audience of your
race with a great deal of hesitation because your race Is a
musical race and it is an oratorical race, and I am neither
musical nor oratorical. But I did want to come here because
I know the hardships In your road; I know every once in a
while that you fall on your knees and pray to God to relieve
you from your burdens that you have, and I believe that the
expression of sympathy is the one that helps people along; it
helps me along, but in that expression of my sympathy I
would not have you for a moment abate the thought of
the duty Imposed on every one of you of making as much of
the talent that the Lord gives you as you can.

XIX
THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
(delivered under THE AUSPICES OF THE COLORED
Y. M. C. A., AT THE TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH,
AUGUSTA, GA., JANUARY 17, 1909)
My Fellow-citizens:
I AM glad to be here. I should have been better satisfied
If I could have sat for an hour and heard the eloquence
of your Dr. Walker, whose reputation as a minister of the
Gospel and as a man who speaks not only eloquence but
sense, has reached into the far North.
I always come before an audience like this with a great
deal of hesitation, because you know what eloquence is,
and I haven't any to give you. I know the wide Influence
for good Dr. Walker exercises in this community. I was
glad to hear him speak of the good feeling that exists between
the white and the colored races In this community, and I
doubt not that his words, his leadership and his common
sense have greatly contributed to that end so devoutly to
be wished.
This is a Young Men's Christian Association meeting.
I find myself here under circumstances that require an
explanation why I am here. Until I went to the Philippines,
I knew of the Young Men's Christian Association gener
ally, knew something of its work, but had no close associa-
245

246 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
tion with it and no personal knowledge of Its exellent oper
ation and work. When I came back from the Philippines,
fortunately or unfortunately — perhaps you will think unfor.
tunately before I get through — I was Invited by chance
to make an address on the Young Men's Christian Associ
ation, in Dayton, Ohio. Now, there are lines of wireless
telegraphy between all Young Men's Christian Associations
in the world, I think, because I never have stopped over
Sunday in any place on the globe that I haven't been invited
to deliver an address on the Young Men's Christian Associ
ation; and so it has fallen to my lot to speak to that Associa
tion in Omaha, in Seattle, in Springfield, Massachusetts,
in Minneapolis, in Manila, in Shanghai, in Hongkong, and
I don't know how many other places.
The object of the Association, as I understand it, is to
be an adjunct to all churches, for it knows no difference
among them, in filling the leisure time of young men with
rational amusement and offering to them the means of
spending that time so that they need not yield to the tempta
tions of vice and depart from the path of virtue. That is
the object of the Association. It has many others, but
that is the principal object; to occupy the leisure of the
young man in a city where his steps are beset by temptations
to waste his money, if nothing worse — but generally to
spend his money in drinking, gambling and other vices
that finally lead him to the gutter. You will find that the
men who have built up the city are the men who have
come to it as boys from the country. They come to the
city and their time — much of it — is their own. If they
are lawyers, from personal experience I can say their days
are largely their own for several years. And so it is with

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 247
doctors; not of course with ministers, because they don't
need the Young Men's Christian Association; but the clerks,
the men who are striving to earn a living, have many hours
of leisure which, if they can put in In a Christian club where
all the Influences surrounding them are such as to make
them think of better things, and certainly not of worse things,
the Young Men's Christian Association is of a value to
them which can not be overestimated ; it is the best material
we have to build up our citizenship, and that thing Is as
true of the colored people as it is of the white people.
One thing about the Young Men's Christian Association
that has always commended itself to me is the very business
like method that the Association pursues. There is in
Springfield a school for the education of Young Men's
Christian Association secretaries, and It is about the secre
tary that every thing in the Association moves. He spends
the money as he ought to spend it. He arranges the enter
tainments; he buys the periodicals; he sees to the various
games that are permitted to be played. In other words,
he applies to that very necessary thing, the common sense
that he has and the experience that has come down to him
from years of trial, as to what it Is that is most likely to
occupy the attention of young men under those circumstances
and do them the most good and claim their closest attention.
Trained as those secretaries are, you can be very sure that
that money goes as far as it can go economically to accom
plish the purposes.
It furnishes, therefore, a great opportunity to those men
who have more money than they know what to do with,
to spend It In such a way as to do good for their fellow-men.
It furnishes opportunity for them to put the money where

248 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
it will do the most good. I don't know how it strikes you.
I presume you never had a million dollars to give to some
body else or to do good with; I never had it; but if you
could put yourselves in the place of a man who had a mllhon
dollars to spend for the good of his fellow-men, I thinh
you would find that it is about as difficult to spend that
money so that it will reach the result that you desire and
really help your fellow-men, as it was for the man In the
first place to make it. Therefore, when we have an oppor
tunity — that is, when you and I become millionaires —
and those who now have that opportunity ought to realize
it — to spend the money for the benefit of one's fellow-
men, the Young Men's Christian Association offers a good
place to put as much money in as can be put in the way
of doing good to our fellow-men at a time in the lives of
our young fellow-men when it is most important.
Then there is another thing about the Young Men's
Christian Association that I greatly admire. It recognizes
no race, color or creed, but it takes everybody In to assist
them. It has introduced into this country more tolerance
between religious denominations than any other institution
that we have had. Now I want to give you an example
of the tolerance that we have reached.
Well, first I think It is a pretty good example that I am
elected President of the United States, but I had another
thing in my mind, and that is this: when we went to the
Philippines we found there a Government that for three
hundred years under the Spanish regime had been so united
with the Roman Catholic Church that it was very difficult
to separate the two. Their interests were so inextricably
mixed up that it was most difficult to tell what was the

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 249
Church's function and what was the civil function of the
Government. Now, under the treaty of Paris, all that
which really belonged to the Crown of Spain in a civil sense
passed to the Government of the United States, but that
which belonged to the Roman Catholic Church in that
union remained with the Church, and there were presented
a great many difficulties of the nicest character, that required
all the acumen of the civilian and the canonical lawyers
to solve the question where in that separation this particular
Interest was to fall and that particular interest was to fall.
Then in the history of that country the so-called " friars," the
monastic orders, had three hundred years before made it
a Christian country, for they arrived just about two or three
years before the Mohammedans. If they had not, the
Islands would have been Mohammedan. As it was, they
found Mohammedan tracts there when they went there
three hundred years ago, but they found people in such
condition that they readily accepted the Christian faith
and Christianity spread over those Islands, so that there
are now seven million Christians there and they are largely —
almost wholly — Christians through the efforts of those
monastic orders ; and when I say that, I want to emphasize it
by pointing out more than that: that the Filipinos are the
only people in the Orient who as a people are Christians.
Hence the obligation we are all under to those monastic
orders for what was done. They went ahead and educated
the people in simple arts of agriculture, and they exercised
over them a guardianship that kept them as Christians
for three hundred years until to-day. But In the last one
hundred years, when the Spaniards came in more freely
In the Islands through the Suez Canal, and even before

250 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
that, when the natives themselves began to have ambitions
to become priests, when the question who was to get the
best parishes had to be decided, and then when the seeds
of Republicanism or a more liberal Government than the
Spaniards offered came on, the power that those monks
In their parishes exerted was used by the Spanish Govern
ment as a sort of police Instrumentality for suppressing
what they regarded as seditious movements among the
people, and that brought about a condition of hatred on
the part of the people of these Spanish monastic orders
whose predecessors for centuries had been close friends
and almost fathers of the people. In the course of those
two or three hundred years, the Spanish orders had accu
mulated by purchase and otherwise, chiefiy by purchase,
upwards of 400,000 acres of the best lands in the Islands,
and 250,000 of those acres were distributed in the Immediate
neighborhood of Manila, in the neighboring provinces where
it was easy to carry the products of the lands into the markets
in Manila. Those lands were occupied by tenants number
ing with their families perhaps 60,000 or more. When
Aguinaldo carried on a Government for a month or two
in the Islands, they called a so-called constitutional conven
tion, and one of the things they did was to nationalize these
lands. That sounds well, but what it means is that they
confiscated them and appropriated them to the so-called
Filipino Government without paying anything for them.
They were the lands the title to which was the least disputed
In the Islands. When we went in there and took possession
and organized a government and finally brought about
tranquillity, and established courts with partly native and
partly American judges, these monastic orders under the

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 251
pledge and covenant of the Treaty of Paris, if for no other
reason, were able to go into our courts and say, "Here,
we own these lands; for six years we have had no rental
for them, and we ask that these tenants be made to pay
for this rent or get out." We had the courts there. If
courts were to be courts they were entitled to their rights,
and yet it meant 60,000 eviction suits. I do not need to tell
you, my friends, what that meant. These lands were situ
ated in the Tagalog provinces generally, where most of the
sedition had crept in in Spanish times, and where the resist
ance to our Government between 1900 and 1902 was most
bitter, and It meant for us, if we allowed this thing to go
on, to have these courts issue the orders of eviction which
must be Issued under the titles that they had; it meant
another revolution. It meant another Insurrection. It
meant that we should lose of our soldiers thousands of lives
and expend millions and millions of dollars in suppressing
another insurrection. Something had to be done. They
recognized the title of the Filipino Republic under this nation
alization, as they called it. They would not pay to the
friars but they were logically driven to a recognition of
the governmental ownership of the land, so the question
was, therefore, whether if we bought the land for our Gov
ernment and then made easy terms with them we could
not bring about a peaceful result. Now, in order to do that,
we could not deal with anybody in the Islands. The friars
and the heads of the friars were very much prejudiced on
the subject, and then they said they did not have the author
ity — that the authority was with the Pope at Rome. The
question was, "What were we to do?" The ordinary,
plain method, the American way of doing things would

252 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
be to go to the head of the Church. But the trouble was
that he was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and
it was contrary to our traditions to recognize him as a world
power, and all the other denominations might naturally
object to introducing diplomatic relations between the
United States and the Roman Catholic Church at Rome.
So what was done ?
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Root sent for all the leading
preachers of all denominations, and they submitted, not
in one conference, but from time to time, these questions
to those ministers, and said, "Now, what would you do?
We do not want to defeat our administration by doing some
thing that shall shock the sense of the Protestant denomi
nations of this country, but we believe that if the thing is
explained to them they will understand that this is the only
thing to do and that it does not involve diplomatic relations
with a church, but that it is only a plain common sense
settlement of an ordinary real estate transaction with such
accompaniments as the peculiar circumstances require."
The result of those conferences was that those ministers said,
" Go ahead, we will stand by you; that Is the plain, business
way to do things"; and we went ahead.
I went to Rome representing the Government and had
conferences with the Pope, with the Cardinals having the
authority to deal with this subject, and then they sent an
Apostolic delegate to the Islands and for more than a year
we were conducting negotiations and finally we bought
those lands for $7,000,000, paid for in the bonds of the Phil
ippine Government, and we held off the law suits until
that was done, and we avoided a revolution and all the dis
asters which would have followed a series of 60,000 evictions-

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 253
What I say is this, that forty years ago In this country that
would have been impossible; that there would have arisen
among the denominations an objection to it on the ground
that it was a recognition of the Roman Catholic Church,
which was contrary to our traditions. But to-day, under
the growing influence of toleration, it was smoothly carried
through, and we took a long step toward permanent tran
quillity in the Philippines.
I only Instance that to say how something has been at
work to bring about tolerance between the denominations,
to promote the fatherhood of God and the common brother
hood of man, and I believe that the Young Men's Christian
Association has been as strong an influence in that direction
as any that I know.
It is perhaps wise to refer to the material and business
advantage that arises from the Young Men's Christian Associ
ation, and it is a lesson that I think we ought to keep
before us. Every well regulated railroad in this country
has a Young Men's Christian Association connected with
It. Now do you think that that arises because of the over
flowing Christian spirit of that corporation ? I do not mean
to deny to the various directors a charitable disposition.
Doubtless each one of them has it, but when they meet
together in a board of directors, with an anxiety for dividends,
and with a sense of responsibility to their stockholders,
that charity disappears. It Is a little bit like that story that
doubtless you have heard, of the man who wanted to borrow
some money at the bank. He went in and saw the president,
and the president said, "Well, I might let you have it."
Then he saw the cashier, and the cashier hesitated a little
bit. He finally said, "Well, I think you might have it.

254 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
but I would like to speak to the directors." Then the
proposed borrower went and saw each director, and each
director thought he might have it. Then he went back
to the bank and he was presented with a resolution from
the whole directorate refusing application for a loan. He
turned to them and said, " I have no criticism to make; I
believe each one of you is a truthful man, but united you are
the worst set of liars I have ever met."
A railroad corporation, therefore, is not going to spend
its money in establishing a Young Men's Christian Associ
ation if it does not inure to the benefit of the railroad; and
it does, it inures in a business way, because it offers to the
railway employee a means of spending his leisure time in
elevating, moral amusements, in recreation, in study, and
it makes him a better railway employee, and enables him
to render better and more thorough and more patient and
more faithful service to the company.
You could not have a stronger illustration of the benefit
of the Young Men's Christian Association from a material
and business standpoint than that action of the railroads
all over the country.
And so, too, Congress does not appropriate money merely
for charitable causes. It is carrying on a great govern
ment, and when It runs an army, it does the best It can to
make that army efficient. Congress has provided that the
Young Men's Christian Association shall be permitted to
have to-day what they call the "post exchange" in every
post in the army.
But my attention to the association was called most
emphatically in the tropics and in our colonies. Dr. Walker
said that some of you had been in Cuba and some of you

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 255
in the Philippines. If so, you will bear me out in this
statement: that you get up in the morning after a good night's
rest and you work hard during the day, and you think,
"Well, this climate is not any worse than at home; my
surroundings are all right and my appetite is good." You
seem to be able to do as much work as in a colder country.
But after you get through your day's work there comes a
time when the vitality seems to lower, when you feel as if
you needed some sort of stimulant, and that is the time
when the great remedy of the tropics and the Orient Is pro
duced in the shape of a bottle, and you are invited to take
a little Scotch and soda. Now, you take it and it has the
desired effect. The evening is long and there is nothing
else to do, and one good turn deserves another, and there
is a strong temptation to take a second.
Many a man — I have seen it and I know what I am
talking about — who at home would have passed through
those moments of temptation without the slightest yielding,
there, ten thousand miles away from home, with a sense of
distance, and a kind of depression and freedom from the
observation and supervision of his neighbors and a sort of
lack of responsibility, is led on; and if he yields, as he too
frequently does, he embraces all the vices of the Orient, and
lands in the gutter either to be a helpless invalid or to die.
There more than at home, more than in any American
city, the Young Men's Christian Association offers a means
of resisting that temptation. The good effect of it cannot
be exaggerated. We have now in Manila, erecting and
nearly completed, a Young Men's Christian Association,
through the generosity of some one, who contributed, I
think, $120,000 if $60,000 or $70,000 was raised among

£56 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the merchants of Manila. The American merchants are not
a large body there, and they have had a pretty poor picking
in the way of business too, but they were able to raise that
amount and they raised that sum in ten days because
they knew that that institution would contribute more
directly to the uplifting and the maintenance of the good
character of the men whom they had in their employ and
possibly even of themselves than any other instrumentality
they could have in that community.
So, too, on the Isthmus, where the weather and the cir
cumstances are not unlike those in the Philippines, there
is the same temptation, much stronger than it is here. They
have the disease which is called " nostalgia," which literally
interpreted means "homesickness." It is something more.
It is a feeling, " I must get out of this — these beautiful
sunsets, these long, warm days, this lazy feeling, this far
away from home — I cannot stand it. My nerves are giving
away and I must have some means of meeting this." You
long for anything. You long for a strap in a street car
just to hold yourself up, to make you feel that you are
in somebody else's way or that somebody else is in
your way. In that kind of desperation you feel so far
away from home.
There is nothing like the influence of the Young Men's
Christian Association in giving you the means of exercise,
tennis courts, billiard tables, bowling alleys, periodicals
full of uplifting articles, bathing facilities and everything
that goes to make up a decent Christian life under decent
Christian auspices. Now on the Isthmus we have estab
lished four great clubs, having all these facilities that I have
described, and we have paid for them out of the funds

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 257
for the construction of the canal. We have done it not
that we have special authority to do so, but we have done
it because we believed we could not take a step more effect
ive in giving us good workmen, in keeping our workmen
In a condition where their work would be worth while than
by assuring them that during their hours of leisure the time
would be passed in such a way as not to interfere with
their effectiveness In working the next day.
We pay the salaries of the secretaries that we have drawn
from the Young Men's Christian Association in this country,
because they are experts in carrying on such institutions
and we are going to found two or three more. We pay the
ministers on the Isthmus. I think there are some ten or
a dozen in our pay, and we keep churches going. It is
possible that we will be charged with having filched that
money from the public treasury, but if we have, we have
accomplished a good work, and I think it can be defended
on strictly legal grounds that where you enter a country
like the Isthmus of Panama and introduce into it 50,000
souls, some 10,000 or 12,000 whites, some 30,000 or 40,000
colored men and women, unless you take especial pains
to have their morality looked after, unless you furnish min
isters and churches and Christian clubs, you are going to
have such a Saturnalia of vice, such demoralization, that
you will never build your canal. Hence, if we are to be
impeached for spending that money, it will be In a good
cause. Now, my friends, I have gone over this general discus
sion of the Young Men's Christian Association and I have
come now to its application to this audience, and to the
colored people of the South. I am delighted to know that

258 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
It has taken root here, and I do not know any particular
place where that millionaire that you and I spoke of some
time ago might put his million any better than In colored
Christian associations In the South.
I have the honor to be a member of the Board of Trustees
in the distribution of the income of the Jeanes fund for the
improvement of rural colored schools in the South, and
that is a great work. The schools are not what they ought
to be. Doubtless In the cities, I am glad to know from what
you say, they are effective, but in the country the terms
of instruction, for both white and black, are too short. The
salaries paid the teachers are not enough. You have been
and so the South has been through a tremendous trial. After
the War there was not money enough to furnish schools for
anybody. The taxable property was not sufficient. Now you
are getting rich in the South, and it seems to me that
you are getting more generous in your appropriations for
educational purposes, but there is room for great improve
ment, and anybody that does not want to give money to
the Young Men's Christian Association might add to that
Jeanes fund. That Is another means of distributing wealth
in a place where it will do good.
I am deeply sympathetic with the struggle of your race
to uplift themselves. I listened with a great deal of interest
to what Dr. Walker said with respect to the progress that you
have made in Georgia. I had occasion to address the colored
people at Bethel Church in Atlanta yesterday, and I ven
tured to say to them, as I do to you here, that you have your
own destiny to carve out. I do not mean to say tha' you
Aave not obstacles before you, and I deeply sympathize
with your feelings with reference to the injustices that arise

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 259
from prejudice and race feeling, from thoughtless and wicked
men. I know how it cuts to the quick, but on the other
hand, you know In your hearts, as indeed Dr. Walker has
said from this pulpit, that there are in the South many noble
white men who believe that the uplifting of the South is
largely In the uplifting of the Negro, and he is the chief
instrument himself to bring that about.
When you make yourselves indespensable to a community
from a material standpoint, there is likely to be a modification
of unjust prejudice. The idea that the South can afford to
have the Negroes transplanted to some other country
always sounded to me like a joke. They tried that down here
In Mississippi, and they were only going to move them,
not out of the country to Africa, but across the river; and
they had a riot. So, of course, that is absurd.
But if the Negro would be respected he must make himself
worthy of respect. He must cultivate those virtues of prov
idence, of industry, of thrift, which will make him respected
as a laborer, as a farmer, as a skilled mechanic, as a man
contributing to the wealth of the community in which he
lives and without whose aid the accumulation of that wealth
is impossible.
Now, my friends, I have said all I ought to say. I only
want to add what I always want to add before a colored
audience: that you are Americans. The idea of trans
planting you Is absurd. The only flag you know is the
flag of the Stars and Stripes, and you are of a race which
has given up its life and moistened the ground with its
blood in defense of that flag, and will continue to do so.
Therefore, as the President of the United States to be, if
the Lord spares me until the fourth of March, I must feel

260 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
that I had not discharged my duty In coming into this coun
try if I spoke at all, without speaking to the colored people
as an important part of the South, and as Americans entitled
to the same earnest concern that I hope the Lord may give
me to manifest with respect to a whole united people.

XX
THE OUTLOOK OF NEGRO EDUCATION
(delivered at THE HAINES NORMAL AND INDUSTRIAL
SCHOOL, AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, JANUARY 19, 1909)
Bishop Williams, Colonel Lyons, Ladies and Gentlemen:
YOU have me at a great disadvantage. I have had to talk
on the same subject in a good many different places,
and a man, if he tells the truth, cannot vary a great deal
in what he says. One of the very encouraging and delight
ful, for I mean, in the strongest sense, signs or facts that I
find here Is the good mutual feeling between the white and
black races in this community. I heard It from the lips
of Dr. Walker on Sunday, and I see evidence of it every
where, and especially in conversation with leading white
citizens with whom it has been my pleasure to talk.
Now the thing that Impresses me in this meeting Is the
Illustration that It gives of that maxim, which is as true
to-day as it ever was, that "The Lord helps them that
help themselves." That a colored woman could have
constructed this great Institution of learning and brought
it to the point of usefulness that it has to-day, speaks volumes
for the capacity of the colored race. You and I don't
have to be told or have a history of what she has gone through
in the last twenty-five years. We know the hard obstacles
she has had to overcome. Of course we know that from
261

POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
time to time, good people lent their aid and gave generously,
but the construction of a great Institution like this Is not
done In a day and Is not overcome by one act of generosity,
but it means a continuous life of hard work, of disinterested
unselfishness, of tact, of patience, of willingness to submit
at times to humiliating failure, and of confidence in the
aid of God in the ultimate result; and, therefore, I shall
go out of this meeting, and In spite of the distinguished
presence of a great many people here — the Bishop of
Georgia, Dr. Walker, the great preacher of your city,
Robert C. Ogden, who has done more In the cause of
Southern education than any other one man, and others — I
shall carry in my memory only the figure of that woman
who has been able to create all of this. She must, even
in her moments of trial and tribulation, derive immense
joy from looking back over the history of her triumph,
what she has overcome and what she has accomplished,
and when she meets those whom she has sent forth to do
the missionary work that they are taught to do, she has
the intense satisfaction of receiving In her heart and
conscience the verdict to herself of "Well done, thou good
and faithful servant."
I do not come into a presence like this without a bursting
desire to tell those who hear me of my intense sympathy
with a race that is struggling against many obstacles to
uplift Itself to a higher level, to educate Its members
and achieve a higher standard of morality and living. I
suppose that comes to me more strongly because of the
responsibilities that I had in the Philippine Islands for
the four years that I was there, and the four years that I
subsequently exercised some authority over those Islands,

THE OUTLOOK OF NEGRO EDUCATION 263
in aiding another race in the far-distant Philippines to
lift themselves to a higher standard than that which they
had then attained, and to make themselves ultimately
worthy of complete self-government. In that expression
of sympathy that I wish to give here, I do not feel It inap
propriate to refer to some of the expressions that fall from
the lips of men prominent In political life that are utterly
lacking In any sympathy of that kind, and that are cruel
and abrupt in their meaning, If they really are to be given
the meaning that the words naturally bear. I refer, for
instance, to those gentlemen who deem It necessary to
affirm that In the interest of this country the negro race
should have no education. I am glad to know and believe
that even those men in their hearts do not believe that; that
it comes rather from a striking desire to say something
that shall have a sensational effect than it does from a real
spirit of — I had almost said — cruelty toward a race that
deserves from those of us that are white all the aid and
all the assistance and all the sympathy that we can pos
sibly give them, considering the circumstances under which
they came here. And I know, and you know, that those
expressions do not represent the feeling of the great Intel
ligent body of white men In the South.
Now, I do not for one minute mean to say that education
is everything; that a dishonest man who has no character
is not more dangerous with a university education than
if he did not have it. You have got to have a foundation
of character in order to make education useful. Nor do
I mean to say that speaking generally university education
ought to be given to everybody. The State could not
stand It, There is not enough money to bring It about,

264 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
and if it were so, there would be a tendency, which frequently
breaks up companies, of a desire for everybody to be a
general. The great body of the negro race must always
look forward, as, indeed, the great majority of the white race
must always look forward, to hard manual labor as the
means of livelihood, and I do not look upon that as a hard task
to look forward to, either. When you work every day with
your hands, you usually have a good digestion. That
suggestion may not strike you as very important, but
if you had to eat at as many banquets as I do you would
appreciate it. Happiness is not in the luxuries of life after
all. Real happiness is in the. consciousness of having
done the best you could with the material that the Lord
has furnished you to work with; with having brought up
your families in the best way you could; with having
instilled In your children principles of morality, and with
going down to your death with a reputation and a character
that your families are proud of. Therefore, when one
says that a majority of the negro race and a majority of
the white race are destined to earn their livelihood in the
sweat of their brow, one does not say that happiness Is to
be unevenly distributed. I guess if we had two or three
millions of dollars and had the burden of taking care of it,
and knowing where to give it In order that it might do
good, we would conclude that there are some responsibilities
that seem light to us, now that we do not have them, that
might not be so easy if we had to discharge them. Perhaps
the office of President of the United States might not seem
quite [so pleasant to you if I could take you aside and
tell you some of the burdens connected with It. In
other words, happiness is relative. It is comparative,

THE OUTLOOK OF NEGRO EDUCATION 265
but generally — I do not mean to say that there are not
instances of sorrow, of Illness and of unhappiness that
seem to be thrust on men that make an exception —
the happiness of a man is largely in himself. In his adopt
ing proper methods of life and in his following the philosophy
and the rules that his conscience teach him. In other
words, we come back to the proposition that the Lord
helps them that help themselves.
Of course, the education which you most need in this
country, as indeed we need it in the North, is thorough
primary and industrial education for everybody. I know
enough about statistics to know that figures do lie; that
it is easy to make a showing with respect to educational
institutions and the spread of education that, when one
investigates, the facts are not found justified. All through
the Southern States, and. Indeed, the Northern States —
more in the South perhaps than in the North, because of
the great poverty that visited the South immediately after
the War — there is room for tremendous improvement
in the system of education, especially in the rural districts.
We have had occasion to look into the matter as trustees
of the Jeanes fund of a million dollars, and I hope con
siderably more than that, the income of which is to be used
to Increase the salaries and the character of the teaching,
and to increase the length of the time of the colored rural
public schools in the South. We do not expect that that
million dollars is going to aid a great number of little negroes,
but what we hope to do is to make such investigations,
to make such reports and to make such progress where
we do spend the money as to furnish an opportunity for
public authorities who are anxious to help on the cause

266 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
of education, to ascertain the defects in the present system
and the places where money can be spent to elevate and
make that system better.
Such a school as this is an inspiration. This school,
Hampton School, and the school at Tuskegee, are all
instances of what one man or one woman can effect; that
at Hampton, General Armstrong, a white man; that at
Tuskegee, Booker Washington, a colored man; here,
Miss Laney, a colored woman. Of course, public edd-
cation must ultimately depend upon taxation. There
are school funds on a private foundation, many of them,
and amounting to many millions of dollars, but ultimately
a system of education, to be generally effective, must rest
on taxation, and therefore you must depend on what your
State and local governments ultimately shall give you.
Now, I verily believe tbat among those who are exercising
authority in all the Southern States, there has been an
agitation and a stirring up of the question of better education
in such a way as to work for the benefit of the colored
man and the white man. The truth is that there is a great
improvement possible in the education of the white children
of the South. The colored people are not the only ones
who are suffering from insufficient education in that way;
and perhaps the white people of the South have some reason
to complain that those of us of the North devote especial
attention to the colored children; but in the end we are
all working for the same purpose — that is, we are working
to make and create better individual character. You
cannot improve a race en masse. You cannot take 25,000
negroes and make them better by a decree, or by shoving
them through some sort of a mold. You have got to make

THE OUTLOOK OF NEGRO EDUCATION 267
them better by training each individual mind and soul
in that 25,000. Those of us who have had political respon
sibilities sometimes feel and realize that.
The advance of the colored race depends upon the
development of the individual, and the great encourage
ment that one finds here in this meeting to-day and In
similar meetings in similar institutions is that we find the
shining and needed example in the very person whose
work this institution Is.

XXI
THE UNITING OF WHITES AND NEGROES
(delivered at pelican park, new ORLEANS, FEBRUARY
12, 1909)
Mr. Jones and My Colored Fellow-citizens:
I THANK the Committee of Arrangements, of which Mr.
Werlein, who has already addressed you, was one of the
chiefs, for giving me an opportunity to meet you this morning.
I should not feel that I had performed my duty in coming
into a community in which the colored people form so
important a part unless I had an opportunity to meet them
and speak to them.
I wish, first, to apologize for my tardiness. That Is one
of those rare blessings. Not to be tardy, but to be prompt,
is one of those small virtues that, nevertheless, enter into
the success of life, and I do not wish by my example to Inter
fere with the progress of anybody else by encouraging that
sin, but if you had a Committee of the Progressive Union
arranging a good many things for you to do, and if you
were trying to form a Cabinet, to prepare an inaugural
address, and to get over the effects of sitting up pretty
late at night as the result of New Orleans hospitality, perhaps
you would be willing to forgive me.
I am glad to be here under the auspices of the colored
Young Men's Christian Association, for I believe that
268

UJMTING OF WHITES AND NEGROES 269
Association, colored and white, to be one of the great
instrumentalities in our civic community for helping young
men in the path of rectitude and virtue. And those of
us who have been young men know that we cannot have
too many instrumentalities of that sort. I should go on
at some length and discuss the great results accomplished
by that Association, not only in the cities of America and
Europe, but in those dependencies in which we are greatly
Interested, in the far-distant islands in the Pacific, in Cuba,
Porto Rico and on the Isthmus of Panama; but I have
some other things to say this morning, and I close my
reference to that Association by expressing my profound
sympathy with its objects, and my desire, whenever occasion
offers, to aid it in the great work in which it is engaged.
Now, I am going to make you a non-political talk this
morning. I hope that I am to be the President of the
people, and I hope that nothing that I shall say while a
guest of a State and city, under non-political ausp ces,
will be construed into a party or political reference. But
there are certain propositions upon which members of
different parties agree, and I am glad to know that from
the speeches of this morning. In the first place, you are
in America as a part of the American people. As the
Reverend Mr. Walker, of your race, said in my presence
in Augusta: "We feel very happy in the South, and there
isn't any place between this and glory to which we wish
to go from here."
Now, a reference was made in the very clear, lucid and
beautiful address of welcome which we heard this morning
to religion as an element in uplifting your race. I agree
that It is a most important element. I agree, too, that

270 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
your race is very subject to that influence. You are an
emotional race. But I want to point out a difference
between an emotional religion and a religion which
stays. A man who loses himself in ecstasy In a prayer
to God at night and the next morning spends all the family
earnings at a saloon, possesses the kind of religion that
does not work. I believe In work; faith is right, but works
are necessary. And I believe, too, as you do, In the respon
sibility of the individual. I quite agree that, in our human
eyes, the difference In burdens and In obstacles that individ
uals have to encounter, is very great, and that the man of
wealth or the man born to luxury, ease and comfort, seems
to have a great deal easier time than the man who has
every temptation to steal and get along in any way because
of the difficulties that are presented to him in life. Take
the instance of the young man of wealth; how many young
men who had a competence when they came to be twenty-
one, do you know, who have accomplished anything In
life? There are some, but you can count them on the
fingers of your hand. Well, why is that ? It is because
It is so much easier to do nothing when you do not
have to do anything that a man remains In a con
dition of no grovpth and stagnation, and as friction
produces heat, it Is obstacles overcome that make character.
As for me, I would a good deal rather believe in the
religious character of the man who saves his week's earnings
and goes to church regularly than the man who is unctous
and talks loudly at prayer-meeting and yet lets his children
go without comforts. Now, I am saying this because
I believe that the virtues of thrift, economy and Industry
are the virtues that are going to rescue your race and put

UNITING OF WHITES AND NEGROES 271
you on a level with progress and success. I believe that
you have your own future to work out.
Now, with reference to the race question and race feeling
in the South, I have this conviction: that we have made
great progress in forty years. The work to this point has
been hard and heartrending; and, at times, the agony
of spirit has been very hard to bear, but as you look back
over the last fifty years, as any one looks back over your
history during that period, the progress that has been made
is marked. Now, I say that not to make you conceited, not
to swell your heads, but merely to give you encouragement,
for I believe in encouragement.
Of course, a race of people, as an individual, can lessen
its usefulness by getting an Impression of Individual impor
tance, of individual ability, and by the fact that he Is the
only one in the community, but I have discovered in the
history of your race that you have not been lacking in candid
friends to tell you the latent defects of the race. That
sort of candor can be overdone, and what you need is a
clear, truthful statement of how you can work out your
future by the practice of thrift and industry, by making
yourselves useful In your community, and by that very
usefulness compelling the respect you desire; and, on the
other hand, not looking about for people to help you on
with something you have not done. My own judgment
is that we are reaching a point that, to those of us who
believe the question can be settled, should be a great
encouragement. What we of the North must avoid doing
is to give the impression that we are In any way attempting
to force a settlement. What we are to do Is to stand by
and encourage the movement of friendliness and mutual

272 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
interest between the whites and the blacks. I do not like
to criticize people. That is easy, but It does not help. But
you can differ from people without criticizing them. One
of the things that always strikes me with a little bit of amuse
ment Is the solemn consideration of difficult questions by
people who offer a solution with tremendous earnestness
by a proposal that no man, when he sits down to think
it over, can regard as practical or possible. The proposition
to which I refer is that the white and colored people cannot
live together In the same community, and therefore we
have got to move the colored people Into a far distant
land. Now, do you believe anybody, when he sits down
and thinks about it, will regard that solution as possible?
Well, of course he won't. You are here, ten million
people, and where are we going to move you; how are
we going to do It? And if we attempted to move you,
the first persons who would protest are the people with
whom It is said you cannot live in peace. It does not do
any good to say that the race question Is Insoluble; that
the two races cannot live together in the same community,
because you are doing it. And we are getting along, and
that Is the problem we are to settle. There isn't any other
problem before us. In other words, I would like to get
down to hard tack and practical business in this matter,
and that business I believe to be, as the gentleman who
delivered the address of welcome said, the elevation of the
individual; In his education and In his training and in
those hardy virtues that tell of the standing of a people
in a community. Now, advanced education Is necessary
in order to teach a comparatively few leaders of the race
— professional men — but, of course, the great education

UNITING OF WHITES AND NEGROES 273
that is needed for the colored people, as is needed for
other people. Is the practical education and the industrial
education that shall fit their hands to progress, thrift, success
and well-to-do character In the community.
I have been told in the address of welcome, and only
want to comment and reiterate, that you are here in this
community with the white man. That he has largely
the wealth and largely the advantage of you in education.
That you are necessary to him and he is necessary to you.
It gave me great pleasure to hear the Mayor of your
city say that you are a law-abiding population. I believe
the conditions prevailing between the two races in the
South to-day and the earnest interest that the white man
in the South is taking In your development are the great
grounds for thinking that the race question Is in process
of settlement. You have got to know that you cannot,
as a people, stand behind criminal lawlessness of any sort
and receive the sympathy of the white people in the North
or the white people In the South. You must condemn your
own criminals with the same severity that you condemn
white criminals. Now, I agree that that Is difficult, because
you have a history In which injustice has been shown to
you, and you are naturally suspicious, when a man Is con
demned, that there may be race prejudice entering Into the
condemnation. That is an element of difficulty to eliminate,
and yet you must eliminate it, and you must, if you would
be American citizens, side with law and order against your
own people as well as against a white ruffian. In other
words, if you want a "square deal," you have got to give it.
You cannot ask for justice on the one hand and then say
you ought to be released from its enforcement on the other.

274 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Now, my friends, I want to extend to you my earnest
feeling of sympathy in your struggle onward and upward.
I am greatly encouraged by the presence of such an audience
as this, and of the school children, but, for the interest of
your race, do not encourage them to believe that there
Is anything in the way of honest Industry that is above
them. Let them understand that labor is honorable;
and that it does not make any difference how humble the
character of labor, it dignifies the laborer; that If a boy
has a high school education and cannot get any other work,
it is honorable for him to go down in a ditch and work.
My friends, I tell you when a man comes to preach
and sermonize, it is a little dangerous, and I am afraid, if
I went on, I should continue In the same strain, when you
might think I ought to change the subject- I only want
to say again that It gratifies me to have had the opportunity,
under the auspices of Dr. Jones, your chairman, whom
I have known for years and value most highly, to be here;
to have this talk with you and to give you encouragement,
so far as I can give you encouragement, and I believe I
can, in saying that the problem is working out in the South
(there are theorists who say that it will never work out),
and that It is working out by the cultivation of mutual
good feeling and interest between the races in the South,
and that we in the North are glad to stand by and help
when we can, but we do not want to come In here and, by
a process of action that shall arouse feeling against the
object which we have in view, to mix up matters and deal
with things that are better understood here. I thank you.

xxn
THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS AND POLITICAL
GOVERNMENT
(delivered at the university of PENNSYL
VANIA, FEBRUARY 22, 1909)
Ladies and Gentlemen:
IT IS the duty of every citizen, no matter what his profes
sion, business or trade, to give as much attention as he
can to the public weal, and to take as much interest as he
can in political matters. Americans generally have recognized
these duties, and the result Is that we find active In political
life, prominent in the legislative and executive councils of the
Government, men representing all professions, all branches
of business and all trades. Perhaps the expression "repre
senting" Is not fortunate, because they are not elected by
guilds, or professions or crafts, and they do not represent
their fellows in the sense of being required to look after
their peculiar interests. What I mean Is that among public
men who enact laws and enforce them may be found those
who In early life at least have had experience In every busi
ness, every craft and every profession.
Nevertheless, as political and governmental necessities
change, they have a tendency to Increase the number taken
from one profession or another for reasons that can be
distinctly traced ; and I propose this morning to invite your
275

276 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
attention to the present relation of each of the learned pro
fessions to politics and government. It seems to me that
such a subject may well have interest for those who have
finished an academic career and are looking about to select
a profession for themselves.
The first profession Is that of the ministry. Time was
in New England, and In every other part of the country
under the Influence of its traditions, when the minister of
the Congregational Church, in addition to that of his sacred
office, exercised a most powerful infiuence which was of a
distinctly political character. His views on the issues of the
day were considered of the greatest weight In the commu
nity in which he lived, and he ranked every one as its first
citizen. This was in the days when New England might almost be
called a "theocracy," when It was deemed wise and politically
proper to regulate by law, to the minutest detail, the manner
of life of men, and as these laws were understood to be framed
in accord with moral and religious requirements, the min
ister of the community was the highest authority as to what
the law should be and how It ought to be enforced.
Great changes have come over our methods of life since
that day. Then the ministry, because of the rewards in
the way of Influence, power and prominence, attracted the
ablest of educated minds, and the ability and force of char
acter were where power and influence resided. But the
spread of education and independent thinking, the wide
diffusion of knowledge and news by the press, the enormous
material development of the country, the vast Increase in
wealth, the Increase In rewards and influence of other voca
tions, the disappearance of the simple village life, have all

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 277
contributed to change radically the position and influence
of the ministry in the community.
To-day it is not true that that profession attracts the ablest
young men, and this, I think. Is a distinct loss to our society,
for it Is of the utmost Importance that the profession whose
peculiar duty It is to maintain high moral standards and
to arouse the best that there is in man, to stir him to higher
aspirations, should have the genius and brilliancy with which
successfully to carry out this function.
Of course, the profession of ministry Is supposed to have
to do largely with the kingdom of the next world rather than
with this, and many people expect to find in the representa
tives of the profession only another worldllness and no
thought of this. This is, of course, the narrowest view of
the profession. Whatever the next world, we are certainly
under the highest obligation to make the best of this, and
the ministers should be the chief instruments In making
this world morally and religiously better. It is utterly
Impossible to separate politics from the lives of the com
munity, and there cannot be general, personal and social
business morality and political Immorality at the same time.
The latter will ultimately debauch the whole community.
During the administration of Mr. Roosevelt, and under
the Influence of certain revelations of business immorality,
the conscience of the whole country was shocked and then
nerved to the point of demanding that a better order
of affairs be Introduced. In this movement the ministers of
the various churches have recognized the call upon them
to assist, and they have been heard the country over In
accents much more effective than ever before In half a
century. They have not always been discreet. They have

278 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
sometimes attempted to make the moral reforms by law
wider than practical experience would justify. Indeed, the
tendency of some ministers In taking part In politics and
seeking governmental reform is to demand too close a real
ization of their Ideals, and an unwillingness to give up the
accomplishment of some for decided progress toward others.
This Is a limitation upon their usefulness.
In two ways the minister Is becoming more closely in
touch with politics and governmental affairs. In the first
place,/ the modern tendency of government is paternal.
Individualism Is not dead, but the laissez faire school does
not have Its earnest and consistently rigid adherents now
as It did years ago. We all recognize, I think, or at least
most of us do, that there Is certain aid, there is certain pro
tection that the Government is In duty bound, acting for
all the people, to extend to a smaller number of the people
whose circumstances and condition forbid their looking out
for themselves^
Thus In the enforcement of health regulations, in the
passage of tenement laws, child labor laws, establishment
of orphan asylums and places of refuge for waifs, and in
many other ways, the work of the minister In home missions
brings him in contact with necessity for Government action,
and he Is heard, and is entitled to be heard, upon the policies
of the Government in these regards.
So, too, In the matter of foreign missions. The greatest
agency to-day In keeping us advised of the conditions among
Oriental races, who, however old their traditions and their
civilizations, are now tending toward occidental ideals, is
the establishment of foreign missions as the outposts of the
advance guard of Christian civilization. These missions

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 279
have the duty of representing the ideal of Western Christian
progress, and through them such progress Is to be commended
to the races whom It Is hoped we may Induce to accept that
same civilization.
The leaders of these missionary branches of the churches
are now becoming some of our most learned statesmen in
respect to our proper Oriental policies, and they are to be
reckoned with by the men more immediately charged with
the responsibility of initiating and carrying on such policies.
The next profession Is that of the teacher. Of course,
the great number of teachers are engaged In primary
and secondary instruction and in industrial or vocational
work. Their relation to politics and government is of
the utmost importance, though indirect. It Is and ought
to be their highest duty to Instil in the minds of the
young girls and boys patriotism and love of country,
because the boy Is father to the man and the patriotism
of the extreme youth of the country may well determine
that of the grown man.
The effect of an intense patriotism which thrills
through the nerves of the boys of a country Is illustrated
In the Immense strength which Japan derives from It. No
one who visits that interesting country or comes Into con
tact with the Japanese can avoid seeing its effect. The term
"bushido" Is a kind of apotheosis of patriotism. The
joy with which the Japanese give up their lives In defense
of their country has its foundation in a real religious feeling,
and is most inspiring to all who come to know It. It should
be full of significance to those of the teaching profession
who become responsible for the thoughts and Ideals of the
young.

280 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Another way In which the professional teacher may exer
cise great Indirect political influence is In the encouragement
that he ought to give to the young man of college age and
life in the study and pursuit of politics. Every curriculum
of every academic institution now includes the study of
political economy, the study of sociology, the study of gov
ernment and often the study of constitutional law. These,
taken together with the political history of England and the
United States, cannot but arouse in the minds of most
American students an interest In the government of their
country, and In the present-day politics, to the point of taking
part in them when opportunity offers.
It Is most encouraging to know the great attention that
is given to-day in all the universities to the encouragement
of political and economical discussion among the students,
and the eagerness with which they read and listen to those
problems the solution of which is giving the men In actual
political power anxiety and labor.
A third profession which exercises some of the functions
of the ministry and some of those of the teacher is that of the
writer. His profession may be literature and embrace
the poet; the historian, the novelist, the critic, or may be
journalism, and Include the editor, correspondent and the
news-gatherer or city reporter. In many aspects writing
is a profession; In others, when it is reduced merely to the
purveying and sale of news, it Is a business. When con
ducted on the highest plane. It exerts as much Influence for
good as the ministry and has a wider range, and, indeed,
has probably robbed the profession of part of its usefulness
because It has become a substitute for it with many persons
and in many families. Its power of public Instruction is

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 281
very great, but when It panders to the vulgarest taste for
sensationalism and becomes entirely irresponsible in respect
to Its influence for good and Its statement of the truth, Its
pernicious tendency Is obviated only by the power of the
people to protect themselves against it by a safe discrimination
and a healthy skepticism and a clear understanding of Its
recklessness and baser motive.
I The close relation between journalism and politics and
the carrying on of a government, no one who has been in
the slightest degree familiar with the course of a popular
government can ignore. The people demand to know what
their servants In the Legislature, in the Executive and on
the Bench are doing, and the chief, if not the only, method
by which they are made aware of the character of the service
rendered to them Is through the press./ The unjust color
sometimes given through jaundiced editors and correspon
dents has an injurious effect, but fortunately In the number
of newspapers and in the variety of motives that affect
those who furnish the news, such injustice Is generally
remedied. The great body of the people who have discrim
inating common sense are enabled to reach with considerable
accuracy the truthful verdict and judgment In respect to
political affairs.
The next profession for consideration In Its relation to
Governmental matters is that of medicine. Until very
recently its influence has been practically nothing in a pro
fessional way. There have been physicians who have given
up their practice and gone Into politics; but there was some
trait of theirs adapted to success In politics that had little
or nothing to do with the practice of their profession.
They have become more Interested in government of

282 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
late years because the functions of government have widened,
and now embrace in a real and substantial way the preser
vation of the health of all the people. The effect which
imperfect drainage, bad water, impure food, ill-ventilated
houses and a failure to isolate contagion have in killing
people has become more and more apparent with the study
which great sanitary authorities have given to the matter
and has imposed much more distinctly and unequivocally
the burden upon municipal, State and Federal Government
of looking after the public health. The expansion of our
Government Into the tropics, the necessity for maintaining
our armies and navies there and of supporting a great force
of workmen In the construction of such an enterprise as
that of the Panama Canal, have greatly exalted the impor
tance of the discoveries of the medical profession In respect
to the prevention and cure of human disease and of diseases
of domestic animals.
The triumph which has been reached in the name of the
medical profession in the discovery as to the real causes of
yellow fever and malaria, and the suppression of those dis
eases by killing or preventing the propagation or the Infection
of the mosquito Is one of the wonders of human progress. It
has made the construction of the Panama Canal possible.
It has rendered life In the tropics for immigrants from the
temperate zone consistent with health and reasonable length
of life, and It has opened possibilities In the improvement
of the health and strength of tropical races themselves under
governmental teaching, assistance and supervision that were
unthought of two decades ago.
Sanitary engineering, with Its proper treatment of water
making it wholesome and harmless with its removal of the

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 283
filth and sewage and its conversion of what was noxious
Into most useful agencies, confirms the governmental
Importance of the professions of medicine and the kindred
technical professions of chemistry, engineering and all
branches of physical research.
So marked has been this increase In the importance
of the medical profession In governmental agencies that
the doctors themselves have organized a movement for the
unification of all agencies in the Federal Government used
to promote the public health In one bureau or department,
at the head of which they wish to put a man of their own
or kindred branch of science.
How near this movement will come In accomplishing
the complete purpose of its promoters only the National
Legislature can tell. Certainly the economy of the union
of all health agencies of the National Government In one
bureau or department is wise. Whether at the head of
that department should be put a doctor of medicine or some
other person must depend on the individual and not on his
technical professional learning or skill. It Is the capacity
to organize, coordinate and execute that is needed at the
head of a department and not so much deep or broad tech
nical and professional skill. It is the ability to judge whether
others have such technical or professional skill that the head
of the department who makes the selection of the members
of his department should be endowed with.
However this may be. It is becoming more and more clear
that the extending of governmental duties into a territory
covered by the profession of medicine is bringing physicians
more and more Into political and governmental relation,
and we may expect that In the next decade they will play a

284 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
far greater part than they have heretofore; and it Is proper
that they should.
I may stop here and mention other technical professions,
like those of the chemist, soil expert, botanist, horticulturist,
forester, meteorologist and the student of general agricul
tural science, all of whom must be consulted and have been
consulted in the improvement of our agriculture, and in
that movement generally characterized as a conservation of
our natural resources. The waste which Is going on to-day
in our forest, water and soil supplies has been brought to
the attention of the public in startling statistics by the Presi
dent and the commission whose report he has transmitted
to Congress, and such conservation may well be considered
with conservation of human life, in the progress of govern
mental sanitation, hygiene and the preventives and cure of
disease by quarantine and health regulations.
We must look in the future to great development In all
these branches and to prominence In political power and
authority of those who shall succeed In effecting a reduction
in the loss of human life from preventable disease and a
saving of the national resources.
The Department cf Agriculture is expanding In Its use
fulness and in the scope of Its functions, and exercises a
power directly beneficial to the production and sale of farm
products and the profit of the farmer that no one could have
anticipated at the time of its creation and organization.
This will bring even more into political prominence than
heretofore the scientific farmer generally familiar with the
needs of agriculture throughout the country and able to
understand the Intricacies of the policy of foreign govern
ments In the admission and exclusion of our farm products.

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 285
We come finally to the profession of the law. With the excep
tion, perhaps, of the profession of arms, law has always been
in all countries most prominent in political and governmental
matters. This Is so because In a wide sense the profession
of the law is the profession of government, or at least it is
the profession in the course of which agencies of the Govern
ment are always used, and In which the principles applied
are those which effect either the relations between indi
viduals or the relation between the Government and
Individuals, and all of which are defined by what, for the
want of a better term, is called "municipal law."
6 It is natural that those whose business it is to construe laws,
and whose profession It is to know what existing law Is,
should be called upon In the framing of new laws, to act an
Important partj It was natural that the framers of the Con
stitution, which was to be the fundamental law of the land,
and to embody the limitations upon the central Government,
deemed necessary in favor of the separate States, should be
those who knew the laws of the separate States and who
had the professional capacity of drafting written laws.
The creative function of the lawyer, as distinguished
from his analytical function, Is to put in written and legal
form the intention of the person or persons which he wishes
to make effective; if it be that of a people, through the
Legislature, then In the form of a statute; If It be that of
an aereement of Individuals, then In the form of a written
contract; If it be the desire of the executive, then In the form
of an executive order. He must analyze the purpose of those
for whom he acts and then be the careful draftsman of the
instrument which shall correctly and truly embody that
purpose.

286 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Thus It has been that In all conventions, in all legislatures,
in the great majority of public offices we find the lawyers
to have been selected to carry on governmental work, and
this has not been alone due to their knowledge of the law
and their training In the drafting and forming of legal
expression of the public will, but also in the fact that the
necessities of their profession require them constantly to
practise the temporary acquisition of technical knowledge
of all other professions and all other businesses in order
that they may properly present In forensic controversies
the issues Involved, or In negotiations involving technical
matters may be sufficiently advised of the general principles
of other professions and business to enable them correctly
to interpret and embody the result of the negotiation In
language that shall express the meaning of the parties.
To put it In a different way, the business of the lawyer is
not only to fight lawsuits, but It is to tell the people who
desire to accomplish certain results how such results can
legally be accomplished, and by writing and instruction to
bring about such results under the forms of law. This is
executive. In other words, this executive faculty Is a very marked
necessity in the successful practice of the modem lawyer.
With him the power of Imitation and of devising the
methods of accomplishment are frequently the secret of his
professional success.
Of course, a great advocate is a great lawyer. In the
presentation of the case of the controversy to court, there
is called out his power of lucid statement, of analysis and
of forceful presentation of the arguments In favor of his
client, and the great judge Is ordinarily the great analyst,

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 287
who with common sense and the judicial quality has the
proper sense of proportion, which enables him to weigh
and decide in favor of the better reason.
But the lawyer, and especially the modern lawyer, whose
business is in organizing corporations and partnerships,
in the setting going of enterprises, has the counterpart of
these functions to perform, and that Is the power of initia
tion, of drawing contracts and of drafting statutes to effect
the purpose either of his client or the people as his duty
may be.
Now, I am far from being blind to the defects and weak
nesses of the profession of the law, of which I once had the
honor to be a member. Lawyers are frequently a conserv
ative class. They adhere to the things that are, simply
because they are, and reluctantly admit the necessity for
change. When the business community yields to temptation and
goes into practices that have an evil tendency, members of
the profession are always found who, for professional com
pensation, can be induced to promote the success of such
business methods; and the combinations to regulate the output
and control of prices of various classes of merchandise,
and to stifle competition by methods which have had statu
tory denunciation, and which it has been the purpose of the
National Administration to restrain, repress and stamp out,
could only have been as powerful and successful as they
have been through the manipulation, acuteness and creative
faculty of members of the legal profession.
But on the other hand, when statutory reforms are to be
effected, especially In business methods and by Introducing
limitations upon the use of private property, so as to stamp

288 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
out the evil Involved in combinations of capital, and at the
same time not destroy that enormous benefit inuring to the
public and insuring commercial progress of such combina
tions, the work of drafting the statutes and enforcing
them, so as to secure higher and better business methods
without impairing the means of business progress, must
ultimately fall to the members of the legal profession.
It Is members of that profession In the Supreme Court
who are to determine whether such limitations are within
the constitutional power of Congress. It Is the members
of the legal profession In the trial courts and the Supreme
Courts that are to construe the statutes and enforce the
ultimate penalties for their violation. It must be, not wholly,
but chiefly, members of the legal profession that shall draft
the amendments to the Federal and State statutes which
shall give such organization and efficiency to government
machinery on the one hand and such clear definition of the
limitations of the combinations of capital on the other,
that shall uphold legitimate business progress on the one
hand and strike down vicious abuses on the other. Hence
It is to-day, no less than at the foundation of our Government,
the profession of the law Is the most important in its relation
to politics and political government.
It Is said that business men have more executive capacity,
and, being at the head of large business concerns, have had
more experience In dealing with large transactions and In
directing the movements of many men. This Is doubtless
true in a sense. The real executive faculty Is so rare that It
makes Itself conspicuous in whatever profession or business
it may appear. But I must think that the practice of
the law, especially in what I have previously described as the

THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS 28S
creative part of the practice, brings a lawyer into relation
with other men In such a directing and instructing way
that he is himself a constant cultivator of the executive
faculty. More than this, business men carry on their business
according to their own rules. Great government depart
ments have to be carried on under statutes and legal regula
tions with many detailed sections and provisions, and every
departmental head must study and analyze the statutes and
regulations which control it with care In order not to be a
violator of the law. This necessity for analysis of the rules
governing the conduct of a department makes its adminis
tration much easier for a lav^yer than for a business man
or a member of any other profession.
In what I have said I have not argued that the lawyer
Is necessarily the leader In public opinion, the exponent
of great reform, or that he is likely to fix the standards of
public opinion in a moral awakening and an uplift of business
Integrity. Such leaders and exponents of great moral reforms
are essential to our progress. They come from every pro
fession and walk in life. They are born leaders of men.
The mercantile spirit, the effect of luxurious living, the
greed of financial power, the inertia produced by present
comfort, all have a tendency to blind us to abuses and evils
that creep into our business, governmental and social life,
and It needs some great, strong, courageous spirit to paint,
in not too delicate color and with no fear of hurting people's
feelings, the truth, and to stir up the people to demand In
tones that cannot be denied a reform of the abuses.
After it is settled by popular decree that such reforms
must take place, it Is for the members of the legal profession,

290 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
clearly advised as to the necessities of the case, having a
nice and accurate knowledge of the operation of proposed
statutes and clearly perceiving the practical difficulties in
their enforcement which must be obviated by special pro
vision, to furnish the legal means of making such reforms
permanent and effective.
National exigency seems to call forth, as if by aid of a
special providence, the men peculiarly fitted to meet the
requirements of the situation. Such were Lincoln and Grant
during the great Civil War. Such In the Revolution was
Washington, the anniversary of whose birthday this Univer
sity appropriately makes its festal day.
He was not a lawyer or a doctor or a minister. He was
a surveyor and farmer; as a student of military science only
in the hard school of experience, his profession may be said
to have been that of arms. Not brilliant, not facile, not
eloquent, he had those qualities which placed him far above
the brilliant, facile, able and learned men who were gather
ed about him In the struggle for American independence.
He was a leader of men. His pure, disinterested patriotism,
his freedom from small jealousies, his marvelous common
sense, his indomitable perseverance and patience and his
serenity and calm under the most trying circumstances,
gave him the victory — a victory which could be traced not
to brilliant genius or professional training, but to that which
of all things is the most to be pursued and desired — to his
high character as a man.

XXIII
A CHEERFUL REVIEW OF NEGRO ACTIVITIES
(delivered, under the AUSPICES OF THE ARMSTRONG
ASSOCIATION AND IN AID OF HAMPTON INSTITUTE, AT
CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 23, 1909)
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
WE HAVE ten millions of Negroes In the United States
and of that ten million I suppose nine millions live in
the Southern States. Now, If you read the Congressional
Record — I remember one distinguished Senator wanted to
compel the public to read it — and there Is a great deal of very
useful learning in It — there is a great deal you can sympathize
with In It and a great deal of truth and a good deal of humor;
that is, it awakens your humor, sometimes in sympathy,
and sometimes at it.
Now If you study the Congressional Record you will see
that there are some statesmen that say It Is impossible for
the Negro and the white races to live together; that the
solution is beyond the hope of human effort. Well, the
ten millions are here and what are you going to do about
it? There are some who propose that we should move
them bodily out of the country. They do not say where, they
do not say how and they do not when, but out of the coun
try they are to go. And when there is an attempt to move
five hundred of them out of the State in which it is said
291

292 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
their relations to the whites are most inharmonious, you
have a riot the minute you propose to move them, on the
part of and by the very men with whom they cannot live.
It seems to me that that Is the reductio ad absurdum with
reference to a suggestion that expatriation is a solution of
this question. The solemn, scientific statement of a man
that the races cannot live together, even though It appear
In a Congressional Record, ought not to occupy our minds
for a moment, because they are living together and they
have lived together for over a hundred years. Now, the
question is whether we or they or all of us together can
make that living together better for both races. It is a
problem that is set before us and It does not help us to
say that you cannot work it out, because we have got to
work it out.
A race feeling, a race prejudice Is a fact and a man who
does not recognize it is just exactly as illogical as the man
who says that ten millions of people now in the country
cannot live with the other seventy millions that are here,
when they are living there. It is a race feeling, and you
cannot dispose of it by saying that it ought not to exist.
It does exist, and that Is part of the problem.
Now, how are you going to wipe It out to the extent of
making it so that it shall not produce injustice and a lack of
harmony between the races? Well, I think you are going
to work It out. I believe in my heart that you are going
to work it out by making it to the advantage and profit
of both races to see that it is not to the advantage of either
to allow that race feeling to continue between them to the
extent of making it difficult for them to live together.
The Negro is absolutely essential to the development of

A REVIEW OF NEGRO ACTIVITIES 293
the South. His labor the South needs, and the more you
instruct that labor the more valuable he becomes to the
South. Hence it Is that the work of Hampton Institute
has Its intrinsic importance. It is the solution of the race
question. I do not believe, and I do not think most men
believe In too many crutches for people that are trying
to learn to walk. But If you furnish them just enough
education to know how to use their minds and their
hands and their legs In productive occupations you
give them the Instrument by which they can help them
selves, and then if they are a race that has the spirit to
help themselves the future Is before them and the
opportunity Is theirs.
I do not profess to know as much about the Negro
question — of course not — as these gentlemen who have
spoken before me, but I have given a good deal of attention
to the matter; I have studied the statistics of the growth
of the race; I have studied the amount of property that the
race has accumulated, the reduction in the percentage of
illiteracy, the amount of products brought forth under the
hand of the Negro laborer and the Negro farmer In
the South; and I say that no unprejudiced person can read
those statistics without marveling that the Negro race has
made the progress that It has made In the last fifty years
under the burdens and obstacles that It has had to meet.
They show self-initiation; they show self-help. Why, a
race that produces a Booker Washington in a century ought
to feel confident that it can do miracles in time.
I have been South recently. If you credit Brother Wash
ington's story you will think I have made some sort of an
impression there. I do not remember that particular auntie

294 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
but I know they have aunties In that country who know
how to attract one to regular meals.
There were a number of things that were brought
home to me with much more emphasis on account of my
visit than they ever had been before. One afternoon I
drove out with a Southern lady and gentleman who said that
they wanted to show me the Inside of what I had seen in
riding about the country: the Shiloh Orphanage — printed
in letters that indicated that the man who had handled the
brush was not an artist. We went in there and we found a
colored man, I should think about sixty years of age, the
perfect image of Uncle Tom in Uncle Tom's Cabin, and
he and his wife had taken an old farm with a lot of outbuild
ings on it and had gathered in there all the little Negro
waifs of the tovra of Augusta and he was bringing them up
to useful jobs, trusting from week to week to get enough
to feed those children and to clothe them. He took us
Into a room that would not have met the requirements of the
modern school superintendent with reference to cubic feet
of air or ventilation, but there he gathered his thirty or forty
nondescript Negro children, boys and girls of different ages,
and he had them repeat the Twenty-third Psalm and then
recite. Then he told them to "get up and be polite" and
they got up and all bowed to us and said they were glad lo
see us — in unison — and I asked him how he got along.
Well, he said, it was pretty hard work sometimes but they
raised their own chickens and they had some cows and they
sold milk and they sold eggs and they did what they could
and the neighbors helped some. It was really a most pathetic
scene. I tried to be as dignified as I could but I did need
my handkerchief before I got through.

A REVIEW OF NEGRO ACTIVITIES 295
Some of those who were there sent small checks to
help the old man along; and the old man thought I was
a little more useful than for merely three meals a day and
he circulated the report that we had contributed something
to his aid, and I just got a telegram to-day saying that
he raised on the faith of that publication some three
thousand dollars to pay off the mortgage on the old place
and that he was going on with his useful work saving
those waifs.
I Instance that to show the spirit of initiation, the spirit
of anxiety to do something for themselves that I saw among
the Negroes in the South.
Then another time I had the privilege of going to an
institution founded by a Miss Lucy Laney, a Negro woman,
I should say now of some forty-five years. She has, I think,
some flve or six hundred students. They began with the
wrong Idea as to education, but now they have come to
adopt the Hampton and the Tuskegee system and are teach
ing the girls who are there useful knowledge. I found
myself on the platform with Mr. Robert C. Ogden and then
I knew I was In the right place.
Now that woman, I think, was a graduate of Hampton,
but I am not sure — [Mr. Washington : Of Atlanta Univer
sity] — Atlanta University, and she has this great institution
that she Is carrying on, deriving money from some generous
supporters in the North, but there Is an instance of initiation,
of self-help In the race that Indicates that they are In favor
of doing something themselves and they are not waiting to
be helped along with crutches.
On the other hand, I rejoiced to find that that work had

296 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
the sjrmpathy of the Southern people of education and
refinement and common sense.
It Is very difficult to speak In parliamentary language
of the advocacy of the doctrine that we are to keep the
Negroes in Ignorance. I think the statement refutes itself —
and it does not awaken the sympathy of the Intelligent
South. One of the difficulties In the South Is that It Is not
the Negroes only that need education; and I mean that
literally. The number of ignorant among the whites is
enough to call properly for the attention of our citizeas to
reduce the illiteracy and increase by Industrial and other
education their ability to be good citizens In the community.
Now we sometimes get Information and aid from sources
that we would hardly expect. I think the history of the
improvement of the civil service of England is that it came
by way of India. And the history of the Improvement in
practical education In this country, in industrial education,
Is that it came through Hampton, through General Arm
strong, In teaching the colored students and the Indians,
and that now we all over the North and the South are
profiting by the thousands that he taught in that Institute.
General Armstrong was a great man and the generations
will rise and call him blessed. He taught the secret that will
solve the race question In the South. The truth Is that the
success of Hampton and of Tuskegee Is doing great good
for the Ignorant Southern white children.
I remember Mr. Dillard at the North CaroHna dinner
told this story: He said that they were introducing some
Italians Into the South and an old darkey inquired who
those immigrants were, and they said that they were Italians
that were coming there. He shook his head and said,

A REVIEW OF NEGRO ACTIVITIES 297
"Well, I don't know how that will be, we's niggers has
hard enough time to support the whites that are here."
Now, I do not agree with that authority. I think that
It will help the South to have immigration. I believe In
competition In labor as In everything else, and we have
found on the Isthmus of Panama that our West Indian
Negroes work a great deal better and do a great deal more
satisfactory work, now that we have introduced Spaniards,
Italians and Greeks, and I do not think It would hurt at
all. — There is room enough in the South for all of them. —
The resources of the South are only scratched and If they
go there it will help the Negro.
I think it is pretty hard to appeal always to a New York
audience and a Boston audience for charitable contributions.
I think the West ought to pay part of this work that is done
for the benefit of the whole country and I hope that meetings
of this kind may be held In Cincinnati and Chicago and
other places and that such pictures as we have had to-night
may be presented to those audiences in order to make them
be generous and just.
It is true that the ancestors of the Negroes to-day were
brought here against their will. They are Americans; they
afe entitled to our aid and sympathy. This is the only
country and the only home they know. Ours Is the only flag
they can live under and it is a flag they have shown them
selves willing to die for.
I should feel very much discouraged If I did not believe
that the Negro was going to work out his own salvation.
I believe It from what I have already said and I have had
the pleasure of addressing a number of Negro audiences
in the South. I remember one audience, a Young Men's

298 POLITICAL ISSUES AND OUTLOOKS
Christian Association audience, where Rev. Dr. Walker, one
of the most eloquent men, black or white, testified to the
harmony that existed between the two races. He said we
are happy here. He said, "This Is the only place we want
to live in until we go to Glory," and, said he, "we propose
to stay here until we do go to Glory."
Now the great aid, the man who is able to assist more
than we can, even though we contribute our money. Is the
Southern white man, and as it Is to his profit and as he
grows more Intelligent to see what the good of the country
Is he will certainly see that it Is to his advantage to have
the Negro Increase In intelligence. In providence and in
industry — I do not see why we may not reasonably take
courage and believe that the elements are there in the South
together to work out this problem and to uplift this race
to a moral and to a spiritual plane that will insure Its
happiness. No man can conceive the humiliation and the agony of
spirit that the Negroes have to suffer in their struggle upward
when they encounter the race feeling and the injustices to
which It leads. But it may help them, I hope it will, to
give them stronger character, and there is a future before
them that, if they overcome these obstacles, is well worth
the effort. Personally, I think It is one of the great problems
that we have before us In this country. I believe in the
ultimate justice of all the American people. I believe also
in their good sense, and when a policy involves justice
and good sense I think the American people can be trusted
to urge that policy and to carry It on to its ultimate conclu
sion. One of the things that a man who hasn't any money

A REVIEW OF NEGRO ACTIVITIES 299
is able to do is to advise the man who has, what to do with
it. I know that, changing the situation somewhat, a man
who has not to appoint a Cabinet certainly knows how
to appoint it, for I have had a great deal of advice on
that subject; but I do think that there is nothing that
offers such an opportunity for the men of this country
who have money and do not know what to do with it as the
cause of the Negro industrial education in the South, and
I agree with the last speaker that it does not speak well
for the Intelligence of those who have had money to dis
tribute that Hampton is now seeking two millions of dollars
as an endowment and that Tuskegee needs as much more,
when both institutions have demonstrated their usefulness
and have shown that they offer the only remedy for the solu
tion of one of the greatest questions that has ever presented
itself to the American people. I thank you.

THE END