A NEGATIVE GOVERNMENT
Upon assuming charge of the affairs of the Republic, the Administrator
had largely retained the judiciary as it was then constituted, and he
also made but few changes in the personnel of State and Federal
officials, therefore there had, as yet, been no confusion in the
public's business. Everything seemed about as usual, further than there
were no legislative bodies sitting, and the function of law making was
confined to one individual, the Administrator himself.
Before putting the proposed laws into force, he wished them thoroughly
worked out and digested. In the meantime, however, he was constantly
placing before his Cabinet and Commissioners suggestions looking to the
betterment of conditions, and he directed that these suggestions should
be molded into law. In order that the people might know what further
measures he had in mind for their welfare, other than those already
announced, he issued the following address:
"It is my purpose," said he, "not to give to you any radical or
ill-digested laws. I wish rather to cull that which is best from the other
nations of the earth, and let you have the benefit of their thought and
experience. One of the most enlightened foreign students of our
Government has rightly said that _'America is the most undemocratic of
democratic countries.'_ We have been living under a Government of
negation, a Government with an executive with more power than any
monarch, a Government having a Supreme Court, clothed with greater
authority than any similar body on earth; therefore, we have lagged
behind other nations in democracy. Our Government is, perhaps, less
responsive to the will of the people than that of almost any of the
civilized nations. Our Constitution and our laws served us well for the
first hundred years of our existence, but under the conditions of to-day
they are not only obsolete, but even grotesque. It is nearly
impossible for the desires of our people to find expression into law.
In the latter part of the last century many will remember that an
income tax was wanted. After many vicissitudes, a measure embodying
that idea was passed by both Houses of Congress and was signed by the
Executive. But that did not give to us an income tax. The Supreme Court
found the law unconstitutional, and we have been vainly struggling since
to obtain relief.
"If a well-defined majority of the people of England, of France, of
Italy or of Germany had wanted such a law they could have gotten it with
reasonable celerity. Our House of Representatives is supposed to be our
popular law-making body, and yet its members do not convene until a year
and one month from the time they are elected. No matter how pressing the
issue upon which a majority of them are chosen, more than a year must
elapse before they may begin their endeavors to carry out the will of
the people. When a bill covering the question at issue is finally
introduced in the House, it is referred to a committee, and that body
may hold it at its pleasure.
"If, in the end, the House should pass the bill, that probably becomes
the end of it, for the Senate may kill it.
"If the measure passes the Senate it is only after it has again been
referred to a committee and then back to a conference committee of both
Senate and House, and returned to each for final passage.
"When all this is accomplished at a single session, it is unusually
expeditious, for measures, no matter how important, are often carried
over for another year.
"If it should at last pass both House and Senate there is the Executive
veto to be considered. If, however, the President signs the bill and it
becomes a law, it is perhaps but short-lived, for the Supreme Court is
ever present with its Damoclean sword.
"These barriers and interminable delays have caused the demand for the
initiative, referendum and recall. That clumsy weapon was devised in
some States largely because the people were becoming restless and
wanted a more responsive Government.
"I am sure that I shall be able to meet your wishes in a much simpler
way, and yet throw sufficient safeguards around the new system to keep
it from proving hurtful, should an attack of political hysteria overtake
you.
"However, there has never been a time in our history when a majority of
our people have not thought right on the public questions that came
before them, and there is no reason to believe that they will think
wrong now.
"The interests want a Government hedged with restrictions, such as we
have been living under, and it is easy to know why, with the example of
the last administration fresh in the minds of all.
"A very distinguished lawyer, once Ambassador to Great Britain, is
reported as saying on Lincoln's birthday: 'The Constitution is an
instrument designedly drawn by the founders of this Government
providing safeguards to prevent any inroads by popular excitement or
frenzy of the moment.' And later in the speech he says: 'But I have
faith in the sober judgment of the American people, that they will
reject these radical changes, etc.'
"If he had faith in the sober judgment of the American people, why not
trust them to a measurable extent with the conduct of their own
affairs?
"The English people, for a century or more, have had such direction as I
now propose that you shall have, and for more than half a century the
French people have had like power. They have in no way abused it, and
yet the English and French Electorate surely are not more intelligent,
or have better self-control, or more sober judgment than the American
citizenship.
"Another thing to which I desire your attention called is the dangerous
power possessed by the President in the past, but of which the new
Constitution will rob him.
"The framers of the old Constitution lived in an atmosphere of autocracy
and they could not know, as we do now, the danger of placing in one
man's hands such enormous power, and have him so far from the reach of
the people, that before they could dispossess him he might, if
conditions were favorable, establish a dynasty.
"It is astounding that we have allowed a century and a half go by
without limiting both his term and his power.
"In addition to giving you a new Constitution and laws that will meet
existing needs, there are many other things to be done, some of which I
shall briefly outline. I have arranged to have a survey made of the
swamp lands throughout the United States. From reliable data which I
have gathered, I am confident that an area as large as the State of
Ohio can be reclaimed, and at a cost that will enable the Government to
sell it to home-seekers for less than one-fourth what they would have to
pay elsewhere for similar land.
"Under my personal direction, I am having prepared an old-age pension
law and also a laborers' insurance law, covering loss in cases of
illness, incapacity and death.
"I have a commission working on an efficient cooperative system of
marketing the products of small farms and factories. The small producers
throughout America are not getting a sufficient return for their
products, largely because they lack the facilities for marketing them
properly. By cooperation they will be placed upon an equal footing with
the large producers and small investments that heretofore have given
but a meager return will become profitable.
"I am also planning to inaugurate cooperative loan societies in every
part of the Union, and I have appointed a commissioner to instruct the
people as to their formation and conduct and to explain their beneficent
results.
"In many parts of Europe such societies have reached very high
proficiency, and have been the means of bringing prosperity to
communities that before their establishment had gone into decay.
"Many hundred millions of dollars have been loaned through these
societies and, while only a fractional part of their members would be
considered good for even the smallest amount at a bank, the losses to
the societies on loans to their members have been almost negligible;
less indeed than regular bankers could show on loans to their clients.
And yet it enables those that are almost totally without capital to make
a fair living for themselves and families.
"It is my purpose to establish bureaus through the congested portions of
the United States where men and women in search of employment can
register and be supplied with information as to where and what kind of
work is obtainable. And if no work is to be had, I shall arrange that
every indigent person that is honest and industrious _shall be given
employment by the Federal, State, County or Municipal Government as the
case may be._ Furthermore, it shall in the future be unlawful for
any employer of labor to require more than eight hours work a day, and
then only for six days a week. Conditions as are now found in the great
manufacturing centers where employés are worked twelve hours a day,
seven days in the week, and receive wages inadequate for even an eight
hour day shall be no longer possible.
"If an attempt is made to reduce wages because of shorter hours or for
any other cause, the employé shall have the right to go before a
magistrate and demand that the amount of wage be adjusted there, either
by the magistrate himself or by a jury if demanded by either party.
"Where there are a large number of employés affected, they can act
through their unions or societies, if needs be, and each party at issue
may select an arbitrator and the two so chosen may agree upon a third,
or they may use the courts and juries, as may be preferred.
"This law shall be applicable to women as well as to men, and to every
kind of labor. I desire to make it clear that the policy of this
Government is that every man or woman who desires work shall have it,
even if the Government has to give it, and I wish it also understood
that an adequate wage must be paid for labor.
"Labor is no longer to be classed as an inert commodity to be bought and
sold by the law of supply and demand, but the _human equation shall
hereafter be the commanding force in all agreements between man and
capital_.
"There is another matter to which I shall give my earnest attention and
that is the reformation of the study and practice of medicine. It is
well known that we are far behind England, Germany and France in the
protection of our people from incompetent physicians and quackery.
There is no more competent, no more intelligent or advanced men in the
world than our American physicians and surgeons of the first class.
"But the incompetent men measurably drag down the high standing of the
profession. A large part of our medical schools and colleges are
entirely unfit for the purposes intended, and each year they grant
diplomas to hundreds of ignorant young men and women and license them to
prey upon a more or less helpless people.
"The number of physicians per inhabitant is already ridiculously large,
many times more than is needful, or than other countries where the
average of the professions ranks higher, deem necessary.
"I feel sure that the death list in the United States from the mistakes
of these incompetents is simply appalling.
"I shall create a board of five eminent men, two of whom shall be
physicians, one shall be a surgeon, one a scientist and the other shall
be a great educator, and to this board I shall give the task of
formulating a plan by which the spurious medical colleges and medical
men can be eradicated from our midst.
"I shall call the board's attention to the fact that it is of as much
importance to have men of fine natural ability as it is to give them
good training, and, if it is practicable, I shall ask them to require
some sort of adequate mental examination that will measurably determine
this.
"I have a profound admiration for the courage, the nobility and
philanthropy of the profession as a whole, and I do not want its honor
tarnished by those who are mercenary and unworthy.
"In conclusion I want to announce that pensions will be given to those
who fought on either side in the late war without distinction or
reservation. However, it is henceforth to be the policy of this
Government, so far as I may be able to shape it, that only those in
actual need of financial aid shall receive pensions and to them it shall
be given, whether they have or have not been disabled in consequence of
their services to the nation. But to offer financial aid to the rich and
well to do, is to offer an insult, for it questions their patriotism.
Although the first civil war was ended over sixty years ago, yet that
pension roll still draws heavily upon the revenue of the Nation. Its
history has been a rank injustice to the noble armies of Grant and his
lieutenants, the glory of whose achievements is now the common heritage
of a United Country."