CONGRESS. (THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



143 



American wage-workers work with their heads 

 as well as their hands. Moreover, they take a 

 keen pride in what they are doing; so that, inde- 

 pendent of the reward, they wish to turn out a 

 perfect job. This is the great secret of our suc- 

 cess in competition with the labor of foreign 

 countries. 



The most vital problem with which this coun- 

 try, and for that matter the whole civilized world, 

 has to deal, is the problem which has for one 

 side the betterment of social conditions, moral 

 and physical, in large cities, and for another side 

 the effort to deal with that tangle of far-reaching 

 questions which we group together when we 

 speak of " labor." The chief factor in the suc- 

 cess of each man wage-worker, farmer, and capi- 

 talist alike must ever be the sum total of his 

 own individual qualities and abilities. Second 

 only to this comes the power of acting in com- 

 bination or association with others. Very great 

 good has been and will be accomplished by asso- 

 ciations or unions of wage-workers, when man- 

 aged with forethought, and when they combine 

 insistence upon their own rights with law-abiding 

 respect for the rights of others. The display of 

 these qualities in such bodies is a duty to the 

 nation no less than to the associations them- 

 selves. Finally, there must also in many cases be 

 action by the Government in order to safeguard 

 the rights and interests of all. Under our Con- 

 stitution there is much more scope for such ac- 

 tion by the State and the municipality than by 

 the nation. But on points such as those touched 

 on above the National Government can act. 



When all is said and done, the rule of brother- 

 hood remains as the indispensable prerequisite to 

 success in the kind of national life for which w r e 

 strive. Each man must work for himself, and 

 unless he so works no outside help can avail 

 him; but each man much remember also that he 

 is indeed his brother's keeper, and that while 

 no man who refuses to walk can be carried with 

 advantage to himself or any one else, yet "that 

 each at times stumbles or halts, that each at 

 times needs to have the helping hand out- 

 stretched to him. To be permanently effective, 

 aid must always take the form of helping a man 

 to help himself; and we can all best help our- 

 selves by joining together in the work that is of 

 common interest to all. 



Our present immigration laws are unsatisfac- 

 tory. We need every honest and efficient immi- 

 grant fitted to become an American citizen, every 

 immigrant who comes here to stay, who brings 

 here a x strong body, a stout heart, a good head, and 

 a resolute purpose to do his duty well in every 

 way and to bring up his children as law-abiding 

 and God-fearing members of the community. 

 But there should be a comprehensive law en- 

 acted with the object of working a threefold im- 

 provement over our present system. First, we 

 should aim to exclude absolutely not only all 

 persons who are known to be believers in an- 

 archistic principles or members of anarchistic so- 

 cieties, but also all persons who are of a low 

 moral tendency or of unsavory reputation. This 

 means that we should require a more thorough 

 system of inspection abroad and a more rigid 

 system of examination at our immigration ports, 

 the former being especially necessary. 



The second object of a proper immigration law 

 ought to be to secure by a careful and not 

 merely perfunctory educational test some intelli- 

 gent capacity to appreciate American institutions 

 and act sanely as American citizens. This would 

 not keep out all anarchists, for many of them 

 belong to the intelligent criminal class. But it 



would do what is also in point, that is, tend to 

 decrease the sum of ignorance, so potent in pro- 

 ducing the envy, suspicion, malignant passion, 

 and hatred of order, out of which anarchistic 

 sentiment inevitably springs. Finally, all per- 

 sons should be excluded who are below a certain 

 standard of economic fitness to enter our indus- 

 trial field as competitors with American labor. 

 There should be proper proof of personal capa- 

 city to earn an American living and enough 

 money to insure a decent start under American 

 conditions. This would stop the influx of cheap 

 labor, and the resulting competition which gives 

 rise to so much of bitterness in American indus- 

 trial life; and it would dry up the springs of the 

 pestilential social conditions in our great cities, 

 where anarchistic organizations have their great- 

 est possibility of growth. 



Both the educational and economic tests in a 

 wise immigration law should be designed to pro- 

 tect and elevate the general body politic and so- 

 cial. A very close supervision should be exer- 

 cised over the steamship companies which mainly 

 bring over the immigrants, and they should be 

 held to a strict accountability for any infraction 

 of the law. 



There is general acquiescence in our present, 

 tariff system as a national policy. The first 

 requisite to our prosperity is the continuity and 

 stability of this economic policy. Nothing could 

 be more unwise than to disturb the business in- 

 terests of the country by any general tariff 

 change at this time. Doubt, apprehension, un- 

 certainty are exactly what we most wish to- 

 avoid in the interest of our commercial and 

 material well-being. Our experience in the past 

 has shown that sweeping revisions of the tariff 

 are apt to produce conditions closely approach- 

 ing panic in the business world. Yet it is not 

 only possible, but eminently desirable, to com- 

 bine with the stability of our economic system 

 a supplementary system of reciprocal benefit and 

 obligation with other nations. Such reciprocity 

 is an incident and result of the firm establish- 

 ment and preservation of our present economic 

 policy. It was specially provided for in the pres- 

 ent tariff law. 



Reciprocity must be treated as the handmaiden 

 of protection. Our first duty is to see that the 

 protection granted by the tariff in every case 

 where it is needed is maintained, and that reci- 

 procity be sought for so far as it can safely be 

 done without injuiy to our home industries. Just 

 how far this is must be determined according to 

 the individual case, remembering always that 

 every application of our tariff policy to meet 

 our shifting national needs must be conditioned 

 upon the cardinal fact that the duties must 

 never be reduced below the point that will cover 

 the difference between the labor cost here and 

 abroad. The well-being of the wage-worker is 

 a prime consideration of our entire policy of 

 economic legislation. 



Subject to this proviso of the proper protection 

 necessary to our industrial well-being at home, 

 the principle of reciprocity must command our 

 hearty support. The phenomenal growth of our 

 export trade emphasizes the urgency of the need 

 for wider markets and for a liberal policy in deal- 

 ing with foreign nations. Whatever is merely 

 petty and vexatious in the way of trade restric- 

 tions should be avoided. The customers to whom 

 we dispose of our surplus products in the long 

 run, directly or indirectly, purchase those sur- 

 plus products by giving us something in return. 

 Their ability to purchase our products should as 

 far as possible be secured by so arranging our 



