466 Presidential Addresses 



AT THE STATE FAIR, SYRACUSE, N. Y., SEP- 

 TEMBER 7, 1903 



Governor Higgins; my Fellow-Citizens: 



In speaking on Labor Day at the annual fair of 

 the New York State Agricultural Association, it 

 is natural to keep especially in mind the two bodies 

 who compose the majority of our people and upon 

 whose welfare depends the welfare of the entire 

 State. If circumstances are such that thrift, energy, 

 industry, and forethought enable the farmer, the 

 tiller of the soil, on the one hand, and the wage- 

 worker, on the other, to keep themselves, their wives, 

 and their children in reasonable comfort, then the 

 State is well off, and we can be assured that the 

 other classes in the community will likewise prosper. 

 On the other hand, if there is in the long run a lack 

 of prosperity among the two classes named, then all 

 other prosperity is sure to be more seeming than real. 

 It has been our profound good fortune as a Nation 

 that hitherto, disregarding exceptional periods of de- 

 pression and the normal and inevitable fluctuations, 

 there has been on the whole from the beginning of 

 our government to the present day a progressive bet- 

 terment alike in the condition of the tiller of the soil 

 and in the condition of the man who, by his manual 

 skill and labor, supports himself and his family, and 



