310 Presidential Addresses 



ommended, with my cordial and hearty approval, 

 the enactment of a strong employers'-liability law 

 in the navy yards of the Nation. It should be ex 

 tended to similar branches of the Government work. 

 Again, sometimes such laws can be enacted as an 

 incident to the Nation's control over interstate com 

 merce. In my last annual Message to Congress I 

 advocated the passage of a law in reference to car 

 couplings to strengthen the features of the one 

 already on the statute books so as to minimize the 

 exposure to death and maiming of railway em 

 ployees. Much opposition had to be overcome. In 

 the end an admirable law was passed "to promote 

 the safety of employees and travelers upon railroads 

 by compelling common carriers engaged in inter 

 state commerce to equip their cars with automatic 

 couplers and continuous brakes and their locomo 

 tives with driving-wheel brakes." This law re 

 ceived my signature a couple of days before Con 

 gress adjourned. It represents a real and substantial 

 advance in an admirable kind of legislation. 



AT FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, APRIL 7, 1903 



My Fellow-Citizens: 



The Northwest, whose sons in the Civil War 

 added such brilliant pages to the honor roll of the 

 Republic, likewise bore a full share in the struggle 

 of which the war with Spain was the beginning; a 

 struggle slight indeed when compared with the gi 

 gantic death wrestle which for four years stamped 



