33 2 Presidential Addresses 



among the clouds; he faced facts; he endeavored 

 to get the best results he could out of the warring 

 forces with which he had to deal. When he could 

 not get the best he was forced to content himself, 

 and did content himself, with the best possible. 

 What he did in his day we must do in ours. It is 

 not possible to lay down any rule of conduct so 

 specific that it will enable us to meet each particu 

 lar issue as it arises. All that can be done is to lay 

 down certain general rules, and then to try, each 

 man for himself, to apply those general rules to the 

 specific cases that come up. 



Our complex industrial civilization has not only 

 been productive of much benefit, but has also brought 

 us face to face with many puzzling problems ; prob 

 lems that are puzzling, partly because there are men 

 that are wicked, partly because there are good men 

 who are foolish or short-sighted. There are many 

 such to-day the problems of labor and capital, the 

 problems which we group together rather vaguely 

 when we speak of the problems of the trusts, the 

 problems affecting the farmers on the one hand, the 

 railroads on the other. It would not be possible in 

 any one place to deal with the particular shapes 

 which these problems take at that time and in that 

 place. And yet, there are certain general rules 

 which can be laid down for dealing with them, and 

 those rules are the immutable rules of justice, of 

 sanity, of courage, of common-sense. Six months 

 ago it fell to niy lot to appoint a commission to in 

 vestigate into and conclude about matters connected 



