Social sciences; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
¶Whenever either corporation, labor union, or individual disregards the
law or acts in a spirit of arbitrary and tyrannous interference with the
rights of others, whether corporations or individuals, then, where the
Federal Government has jurisdiction, it will see to it that the
misconduct is stopped, paying not the slightest heed to the position or
power of the corporation, the union, or the individual, but only to one
vital fact—that is, the question whether or not the conduct of the
individual or aggregate of individuals is in accordance with the law of
the land. Every man must be guaranteed his liberty and his right to do
as he likes with his property or his labor, so long as he does not
infringe the rights of others. No man is above the law and no man is
below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey
it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a right; not asked as a
favor.[10]
A Square Deal
and
Labor Unions
I believe emphatically in organized labor. I believe in organizations of
wage-workers. Organization is one of the laws of our social and economic
development at this time. But I feel that we must always keep before our
minds the fact that there is nothing sacred in the name itself. To call
an organization an organization does not make it a good one. The worth
of an organization depends upon its being handled with the courage, the
skill, the wisdom, the spirit of fair-dealing as between man and man.[8]
¶It is no easy matter to work out a system or rule of conduct, whether
with or without the help of the lawgiver, which shall minimize that
jarring and clashing of interests in the industrial world which causes
so much individual irritation and suffering at the present day, and
which at times threatens baleful consequences to large portions of the
body politic. But the importance of the problem can not be
overestimated, and it deserves to receive the careful thought of all
men. There should be no yielding to wrong; but there should most
certainly be not only desire to do right, but a willingness each to try
to understand the view-point of his fellow, with whom, for weal or for
woe, his own fortunes are indissolubly bound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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