522 Presidential Addresses 



following members of the executive council of that 

 body: Mr. Samuel Gompers, Mr. James Duncan, 

 Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. James O'Connell and Mr. 

 Frank Morrison, at which various subjects of legis- 

 lation in the interest of labor, as well as executive 

 action, were discussed. Concerning the case of Wil- 

 liam A. Miller the President made the following 

 statement : 



I thank you and your committee for your cour- 

 tesy, and I appreciate the opportunity to meet with 

 you. It will always be a pleasure to see you or any 

 representatives of your organizations or of your 

 Federation as a whole. 



As regards the Miller case, I have little to add to 

 what I have already said. In dealing with it I ask 

 you to remember that I am dealing purely with the 

 relation of the Government to its employees. I 

 must govern my action by the laws of the land, 

 which I am sworn to administer, and which dif- 

 ferentiate any case in which the Government of the 

 United States is a party from all other cases what- 

 soever. These laws are enacted for the benefit of 

 the whole people, and can not and must not be 

 construed as permitting discrimination against some 

 of the people. I am President of all the people of the 

 United States, without regard to creed, color, birth- 

 place, occupation, or social condition. My aim is to 

 do equal and exact justice as among them all. In 

 the employment and dismissal of men in the Gov- 

 ernment service I can no more recognize the fact that 

 a man does or does not belong to a union as being 



