Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
of nervous anxiety because I met the labor leaders to discuss it. It
would have been a great misfortune if I had not met them; and it would
have been an even greater misfortune if after meeting them I had yielded
to their protests in the matter.
"You say in your letter that you know that I am 'on record' as opposed
to violence. Pardon my saying that this seems to me not the right way to
put the matter, if by 'record' you mean utterance and not action. Aside
from what happened when I was Governor in connection, for instance with
the Croton dam strike riots, all you have to do is to turn back to what
took place last June in Arizona--and you can find out about it from
[Mr. X] of New York. The miners struck, violence followed, and the
Arizona Territorial authorities notified me they could not grapple with
the situation. Within twenty minutes of the receipt of the telegram,
orders were issued to the nearest available troops, and twenty-four
hours afterwards General Baldwin and his regulars were on the ground,
and twenty-four hours later every vestige of disorder had disappeared.
The Miners' Federation in their meeting, I think at Denver, a short
while afterwards, passed resolutions denouncing me. I do not know
whether the _Mining and Engineering Journal_ paid any heed to this
incident or know of it. If the _Journal_ did, I suppose it can hardly
have failed to understand that to put an immediate stop to rioting by
the use of the United States army is a fact of importance beside which
the criticism of my having 'labor leaders' to lunch, shrinks into the
same insignificance as the criticism in a different type of paper about
my having 'trust magnates' to lunch. While I am President I wish the
labor man to feel that he has the same right of access to me that the
capitalist has; that the doors swing open as easily to the wage-worker
as to the head of a big corporation--_and no easier_. Anything else
seems to be not only un-American, but as symptomatic of an attitude
which will cost grave trouble if persevered in. To discriminate against
labor men from Butte because there is reason to believe that rioting has
been excited in other districts by certain labor unions, or individuals
in labor unions in Butte, would be to adopt precisely the attitude of
those who desire me to discriminate against all capitalists in Wall
street because there are plenty of capitalists in Wall Street who
have been guilty of bad financial practices and who have endeavored to
override or evade the laws of the land. In my judgment, the only safe
attitude for a private citizen, and still more for a public servant, to
assume, is that he will draw the line on conduct, discriminating against
neither corporation nor union as such, nor in favor of either as such,
but endeavoring to make the decent member of the union and the upright
capitalists alike feel that they are bound, not only by self-interest,
but by every consideration of principle and duty to stand together on
the matters of most moment to the nation."
On another of the various occasions when I had labor leaders to dine
at the White House, my critics were rather shocked because I had John
Morley to meet them. The labor leaders in question included the heads
of the various railroad brotherhoods, men like Mr. Morrissey, in
whose sound judgment and high standard of citizenship I had peculiar
confidence; and I asked Mr. Morley to meet them because they represented
the exact type of American citizen with whom I thought he ought to be
brought in contact.
One of the devices sometimes used by big corporations to break down the
law was to treat the passage of laws as an excuse for action on their
part which they knew would be resented by the public, it being their
purpose to turn this resentment against the law instead of against
themselves. The heads of the Louisville and Nashville road were bitter
opponents of everything done by the Government toward securing good
treatment for their employees. In February, 1908, they and various
other railways announced that they intended to reduce the wages of
their employees. A general strike, with all the attendant disorder and
trouble, was threatened in consequence. I accordingly sent the following
open letter to the Inter-State Commerce Commission:
February 16, 1908.
"To the Inter-State Commerce Commission:
"I am informed that a number of railroad companies have served notice
of a proposed reduction of wages of their employees. One of them, the
Louisville and Nashville, in announcing the reduction, states that 'the
drastic laws inimical to the interests of the railroads that have in the
past year or two been enacted by Congress and the State Legislatures'
are largely or chiefly responsible for the conditions requiring the
reduction.
"Under such circumstances it is possible that the public may soon be
confronted by serious industrial disputes, and the law provides that in
such case either party may demand the services of your Chairman and
of the Commissioner of Labor as a Board of Mediation and Conciliation.
These reductions in wages may be warranted, or they may not. As to this
the public, which is a vitally interested party, can form no judgment
without a more complete knowledge of the essential facts and real merits
of the case than it now has or than it can possibly obtain from the
special pleadings, certain to be put forth by each side in case their
dispute should bring about serious interruption to traffic. If the
reduction in wages is due to natural causes, the loss of business being
such that the burden should be and is, equitably distributed between
capitalist and wage-worker, the public should know it. If it is caused
by legislation, the public, and Congress, should know it; and if it is
caused by misconduct in the past financial or other operations of any
railroad, then everybody should know it, especially if the excuse of
unfriendly legislation is advanced as a method of covering up past
business misconduct by the railroad managers, or as a justification for
failure to treat fairly the wage-earning employees of the company.
"Moreover, an industrial conflict between a railroad corporation and
its employees offers peculiar opportunities to any small number of
evil-disposed persons to destroy life and property and foment public
disorder. Of course, if life, property, and public order are endangered,
prompt and drastic measures for their protection become the first plain
duty. All other issues then become subordinate to the preservation of
the public peace, and the real merits of the original controversy are
necessarily lost from view. This vital consideration should be ever
kept in mind by all law-abiding and far-sighted members of labor
organizations.
"It is sincerely to be hoped, therefore, that any wage controversy that
may arise between the railroads and their employees may find a peaceful
solution through the methods of conciliation and arbitration already
provided by Congress, which have proven so effective during the past
year. To this end the Commission should be in a position to have
available for any Board of Conciliation or Arbitration relevant data
pertaining to such carriers as may become involved in industrial
disputes. Should conciliation fail to effect a settlement and
arbitration be rejected, accurate information should be available in
order to develop a properly informed public opinion.
"I therefore ask you to make such investigation, both of your records
and by any other means at your command, as will enable you to furnish
data concerning such conditions obtaining on the Louisville and
Nashville and any other roads, as may relate, directly or indirectly, to
the real merits of the possibly impending controversy.
"THEODORE ROOSEVELT."
This letter achieved its purpose, and the threatened reduction of
wages was not made. It was an instance of what could be accomplished
by governmental action. Let me add, however, with all the emphasis I
possess, that this does not mean any failure on my part to recognize the
fact that if governmental action places too heavy burdens on railways,
it will be impossible for them to operate without doing injustice to
somebody. Railways cannot pay proper wages and render proper service
unless they make money. The investors must get a reasonable profit or
they will not invest, and the public cannot be well served unless the
investors are making reasonable profits. There is every reason why rates
should not be too high, but they must be sufficiently high to allow
the railways to pay good wages. Moreover, when laws like workmen's
compensation laws, and the like are passed, it must always be kept in
mind by the Legislature that the purpose is to distribute over the whole
community a burden that should not be borne only by those least able
to bear it--that is, by the injured man or the widow and orphans of the
dead man. If the railway is already receiving a disproportionate return
from the public, then the burden may, with propriety, bear purely on the
railway; but if it is not earning a disproportionate return, then the
public must bear its share of the burden of the increased service the
railway is rendering. Dividends and wages should go up together; and the
relation of rates to them should never be forgotten. This of course does
not apply to dividends based on water; nor does it mean that if foolish
people have built a road that renders no service, the public must
nevertheless in some way guarantee a return on the investment; but it
does mean that the interests of the honest investor are entitled to
the same protection as the interests of the honest manager, the honest
shipper and the honest wage-earner. All these conflicting considerations
should be carefully considered by Legislatures before passing laws. One
of the great objects in creating commissions should be the provision of
disinterested, fair-minded experts who will really and wisely consider
all these matters, and will shape their actions accordingly. This is one
reason why such matters as the regulation of rates, the provision for
full crews on roads and the like should be left for treatment by railway
commissions, and not be settled off hand by direct legislative action.
APPENDIX
SOCIALISM
As regards what I have said in this chapter concerning Socialism, I
wish to call especial attention to the admirable book on "Marxism versus
Socialism," which has just been published by Vladimir D. Simkhovitch.
What I have, here and elsewhere, merely pointed out in rough and
ready fashion from actual observation of the facts of life around me,
Professor Simkhovitch in his book has discussed with keen practical
insight, with profundity of learning, and with a wealth of applied
philosophy. Crude thinkers in the United States, and moreover honest and
intelligent men who are not crude thinkers, but who are oppressed by
the sight of the misery around them and have not deeply studied what has
been done elsewhere, are very apt to adopt as their own the theories
of European Marxian Socialists of half a century ago, ignorant that the
course of events has so completely falsified the prophecies contained
in these theories that they have been abandoned even by the authors
themselves. With quiet humor Professor Simkhovitch now and then makes
an allusion which shows that he appreciates to perfection this rather
curious quality of some of our fellow countrymen; as for example when
he says that "A Socialist State with the farmer outside of it is a
conception that can rest comfortably only in the head of an American
Socialist," or as when he speaks of Marx and Engels as men "to whom
thinking was not an irrelevant foreign tradition." Too many thoroughly
well-meaning men and women in the America of to-day glibly repeat and