There are many matters affecting labor and the status of the
wage-worker to which I should like to draw your attention, but an
exhaustive discussion of the problem in all its aspects is not now
necessary. This administration is nearing its end; and, moreover, under
our form of government the solution of the problem depends upon the
action of the States as much as upon the action of the Nation.
Nevertheless, there are certain considerations which I wish to set
before you, because I hope that our people will more and more keep them
in mind. A blind and ignorant resistance to every effort for the reform
of abuses and for the readjustment of society to modern industrial
conditions represents not true conservatism, but an incitement to the
wildest radicalism; for wise radicalism and wise conservatism go hand
in hand, one bent on progress, the other bent on seeing that no change
is made unless in the right direction. I believe in a steady effort, or
perhaps it would be more accurate to say in steady efforts in many
different directions, to bring about a condition of affairs under which
the men who work with hand or with brain, the laborers, the
superintendents, the men who produce for the market and the men who
find a market for the articles produced, shall own a far greater share
than at present of the wealth they produce, and be enabled to invest it
in the tools and instruments by which all work is carried on. As far as
possible I hope to see a frank recognition of the advantages conferred
by machinery, organization, and division of labor, accompanied by an
effort to bring about a larger share in the ownership by wage-worker of
railway, mill and factory. In farming, this simply means that we wish
to see the farmer own his own land; we do not wish to see the farms so
large that they become the property of absentee landlords who farm them
by tenants, nor yet so small that the farmer becomes like a European
peasant. Again, the depositors in our savings banks now number over
one-tenth of our entire population. These are all capitalists, who
through the savings banks loan their money to the workers--that is, in
many cases to themselves--to carry on their various industries. The
more we increase their number, the more we introduce the principles of
cooperation into our industry. Every increase in the number of small
stockholders in corporations is a good thing, for the same reasons; and
where the employees are the stockholders the result is particularly
good. Very much of this movement must be outside of anything that can
be accomplished by legislation; but legislation can do a good deal.
Postal savings banks will make it easy for the poorest to keep their
savings in absolute safety. The regulation of the national highways
must be such that they shall serve all people with equal justice.
Corporate finances must be supervised so as to make it far safer than
at present for the man of small means to invest his money in stocks.
There must be prohibition of child labor, diminution of woman labor,
shortening of hours of all mechanical labor; stock watering should be
prohibited, and stock gambling so far as is possible discouraged. There
should be a progressive inheritance tax on large fortunes. Industrial
education should be encouraged. As far as possible we should lighten
the burden of taxation on the small man. We should put a premium upon
thrift, hard work, and business energy; but these qualities cease to be
the main factors in accumulating a fortune long before that fortune
reaches a point where it would be seriously affected by any inheritance
tax such as I propose. It is eminently right that the Nation should fix
the terms upon which the great fortunes are inherited. They rarely do
good and they often do harm to those who inherit them in their
entirety.