Elevation of Labor

Record of
Theodore Roosevelt

(Ftom tfye Congressional Record)

Elevation of Labor
Record of Theodore Roosevelt
(From tfye Speech of Hon. Crazies H. Qrosvenor, in the House of ^Representatives,
Match 28, 1904)

The Republican party cannot be otherwise than the friend of labor.
It has fought for free labor during its entire existence. It freed the
slave; it furnished employment for labor; it lifted up the laboring
man, and its last splendid achievement was when it transplanted
labor from starvation, as it found it in 1897, and made it possible
that it should attain the flourishing position it now occupies. But,
catering to the taste of people to examine personal records to ascer
tain the acts of individuals, I shall furnish here to-day the record
of the gentleman who will be the Republican candidate for President.
It will furnish good reading for the campaign into which we are so
rapidly moving. It will give our Democratic friends food for thought,
and it will inspire the toiling man of the country with the pleasant
consciousness that the old Republican party, the party of liincoln, of
Grant, of McKinley, of Hanna, is offering for the Presidency a man, a
worthy successor to them all and who stands invincible in his record
of fealty to the best interests of the laboring man of the United States.
Labor Record of Theodore Roosevelt.
The most vital problem with which this country, and, for that matter, the
whole civilized world, has to deal —
Said President Roosevelt in his first message to Congress —
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."
Epitome of Theodore Roosevelt's Favorable Action on Labor
Legislation
As Member of Assembly in New York he voted for bills —
Abolishing tenement house cigar making in New York City.
Restricting child labor in factories and workshops.
3

Regulating the labor hours of minors and women in manufac
turing establishments.
Safeguarding the lives and limbs of factory operatives.
Regulating wage rates of laborers employed by municipalities.
Making employees preferred creditors.
Providing for building mechanics' liens.
Prescribing the lien rights of working women.
Protecting mechanics and laborers engaged in sinking oil or gas
wells. Abolishing contract child labor in reformatory institutions.
Creating a commission to examine into the operation of the con
tract system of employing convicts.
Establishing the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To promote industrial peace.
For a 5-cent fare on the New York City elevated railroad.
Incorporating the New York City Free Circulating Library.
For free public baths in New York City.
As Governor of New York he approved these measures:
Creating a Tenement House Commission.
Regulating sweat shop labor.
Empowering the factory inspector to enforce the scaffolding law.
Directing the factory inspector to enforce the act regulating labor
hours on railroads.
Making the eight-hour and prevailing rate of wages laws effective.
Amending the factory act —
1. Protecting employees at work on buildings.
2. Regulating the working time of female employees.
3. Providing that stairways shall be properly lighted.
4. Prohibiting the operation of dangerous machinery by children.
5. Prohibiting women and minors working on polishing or buffing
wheels. 6. Providing for seats for waitresses in hotels and restaurants.
Shortening the working hours of drug clerks.
Increasing the salaries of New York City school teachers.
Extending to other engineers the law licensing New York City
engineers and making it a misdemeanor for violating the same.
Licensing stationary engineers in Buffalo.
Providing for the examination and registration of horseshoers in
cities. Registration of laborers for municipal employment.
Relating to air brakes on freight trains.
Providing means for the issuance of quarterly bulletins by the
Bureau pf Labor Statistics.

In addition to the foregoing, while Governor of New York he rec
ommended legislation (which the Legislature failed to pass) in re
gard to —
Employers' liability.
State control of employment offices.
State ownership of printing plant.
Devising means whereby free mechanics shall not be brought into
competition with prison labor.
As President of the United States he has signed bills —
Renewing the Chinese exclusion act and extending its provisions
to the island territory of the United States*
Prohibiting the employment of Mongolian labor on irrigation works
and providing that eight hours shall constitute a day's labor on such
projects. •Abolishing slavery and involuntary servitude in the Philippine
Islands, violation of the act being punishable by forfeiture of con
tracts and a fine of not less than $10,000.
Protecting the lives of employees in coal mines in Territories by
regulating the amount of ventilation and providing that entries, &c.,
shall be kept well dampened with water to cause coal dust, to settle.
Exempting from taxation in the District of Columbia household
belongings to the value of $1,000, wearing apparel, libraries, school-
books, family portraits and heirlooms.
Requiring proprietors of employment offices in the District of
Columbia to pay a license tax of $10 per year.
Creating the Department of Commerce and Labor and making its
head a Cabinet officer.
Improving the act relating to safety appliances on railways.
Increasing the restrictions upon the immigration of cheap foreign
labor and prohibiting the landing of alien anarchists.
Theodore Roosevelt ever will be remembered as an official whose
interest in the weal of the plain people never diminished from the day
that he commenced his public career as Member of Assembly of the
State of New York up to the present time. The principles of justice
that governed his course in advocating the enactment of labor and
reform legislation when he took part in the legislative proceedings at
Albany in 1882, 1883 and 1884 were unswervingly maintained while
he was Governor of New York in 1899 and 1900, and have been con
scientiously adhered to during his incumbency as President of the
United States. By comparing the first important event connected with
his life work with one of more recent date it will be readily observed
how unvarying have been his views on matters of moment affecting
the general community. 5

As Member of the New York Assembly.
New York State has developed an extensive system of labor and
reform legislation. The movement that eventually brought about the
enactment of these laws commenced in the fore part of the eighties,
and Theodore Roosevelt helped to lay its foundation, being among the
few eminent publicists who co-operated in that early effort to place
upon the statute books the numerous acts that have since proved to
be of so much benefit to wage workers.
In 1882 he entered public life as Member of Assembly, and he also
served in that capacity in 1883 and 1884. A student of economics, he
had familiarized himself with the various phases of the labor ques
tion, and he was firm in the belief that the abuses which at that time
existed in many employments could be eradicated by suitable enact
ments. With this end in view, he cast his influence on the sidejsf
public spirited citizens and trade unionists who during that period
undertook to solve some of the social problems through legislative
measures calculated to correct prevalent evils. Sweat shop labor was
a subject that received considerable attention in those days, while the
restriction of child labor, the regulation of working hours of minors
and women, the protection of life and limb, prison labor under the
contract system, the better security of mechanics and laborers em
ployed in the building industry and the promotion of industrial peace
were topics that occasioned serious deliberation on the part of the
men who interested themselves in the welfare of the masses.
Abolition of Tenement House Cigar Factories.
The first important measure in which Assemblyman Roosevelt be
came interested was introduced in the Legislature of 1882. Its pur
pose was to improve the public health of New York City by prohibit
ing the manufacture of cigars or the preparation of tobacco in any
form in rooms or apartments of tenement houses. The bill was pre
sented at the request of the cigar makers' unions in the State, and
was also indorsed by the State Workingmen's Assembly. It was
contended by the labor organizations, " first, that these tenement
house cigar factories are a public nuisance; second, that they are
detrimental to the educational interests of the State ; third, that they
are demoralizing in their influence on the community; fourth, that
they are an illegitimate interference with a legitimate trade."
In the Assembly the bill was referred to the Committee on Cities,
which gave a hearing on the subject, and as a result a subcommittee
consisting of five Assemblymen, Mr. Roosevelt being among the num
ber, was selected to investigate the tenement house cigar factories in

New York City. Many of these house shups were found to be in a fiithy
and insanitary condition, and this inquiry so thoroughly convinced
Theodore Roosevelt that the system was a menace to the public
health that he became an enthusiastic supporter of the measure to
abolish it. It, however, was held up by the Cities Committee, and, on
a motion that that committee be discharged from further consideration
of the bill, the same to be placed on general orders, he voted in the
affirmative. While the motion was carried, the bill did not pass at
the session of 1882, but early in 1883 it was again considered and
passed by both houses. Assemblyman Roosevelt spoke and voted in
its favor. In his remarks advocating the abolition of the tenement
house shop he declared :
I have visited these pest holes personally, and I can assure you if smokers
could only see how these cigars are made we would not need any legislative
action against this system at all.
The " Cigar Makers' Official Journal,'' published by the Cigar
Makers' International Union, in its issue for February, 1883, printed
the following editorial comment under the caption " Condemned by
the Legislature " :
The representatives of the people, both in the Assembly and in the Senate,
have decided by overwhelming majorities that tenement house cigar factories
are a public nuisance, dangerous to the sanitary, moral, educational and
economic welfare of the Commonwealth. So conclusive were the arguments
and evidence brought forward by Assemblymen George Francis Eoesch and
Theodore Roosevelt that the opposition was completely routed and defeated.
The working classes and cigar makers in particular owe a. debt of gratitude
to those Assemblymen and Senators who have successfully fought for a great
sanitary reform. Their names will go down to posterity as the friends of
labor, as the promoters of a great improvement in the sanitary condition of
the working classes.
So deeply interested in the matter was Mr. Roosevelt that he in
voked the Governor to approve the measure. Referring to the argu
ment before that official, the " Cigar Makers' Official Journal " for
March, 1883, contained this statement:
Tuesday, March 8, was the day which the Governor had assigned for hear
ing the arguments of the opponents as well as of the friends of the bill, which
aims at the prohibition of the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses used
for dwelling purposes. . . . Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, the representative
of the brownstone district of New York, was the first speaker in favor of the
bill. He said that his district was not influenced by any trades unions. . . .
but this bill was an exception to the rule. During the last session of the
Legislature he was appointed on a committee to investigate the tenement
house cigar factories.
At the start he was opposed to the bill, but the investigation convinced
him that it was a good one. The houses, with hardly a single exception, were
in a most filthy condition. Children were crawling on stripped tobacco. Old
men and women were crowded together in small, ill-ventilated rooms. He

appealed to the Governor to sign the bill. Tke representatives of the labof
organizations, after a. short deliberation, concluded not to speak on the sub
ject, inasmuch as the whole ground had beeii ably covered and it was iihwise'
to detain the Governor any longer.
The bill was signed, but certain parts of the act were declared
unconstitutional, and in 1884 a measure intended to meet the ob=
jections of the courts was introduced in the Legislature. This was
also favored by Mr. Roosevelt. As Qovernor of New York.
While Governor of New York, in 1899 and 1900, Theodore Roose
velt pursued the same consistent course in regard to the enactment
of suitable labor legislation that he so persistently followed during
his three years' career as Member of Assembly. Not only did he
recommend the passage of new laws in the interest of the mass of
the people, but he urged the necessity of amending existent labor
statutes so as to make them more efficacious, and suggested the adop
tion of improved methods in order to insure their proper enforcement.
The development in extent and variety of industries has necessitated legis
lation in the interest of labor —
He wrote in his annual message to the Legislature of 1899.
This legislation is not necessarily against the interest of capital ; on the
contrary, if wisely devised, it is for the benefit of both laborers and employ
ers. We have very wisely passed many laws for the benefit of labor, in
themselves good and for the time being sufficient, but experience has shown
that the full benefit of these laws is not obtained, through the lack of proper
means of enforcing them and the failure to make any one department re
sponsible for their enforcement. In order that the desire of the people, defi
nitely expressed in this wholesome legislation, shall be made effective, I rec
ommend that the enforcement of the entire body of legislation relating to
labor be placed under the Board of Factory Inspectors. This would simplify
the whole question of labor legislation and place the responsibility for its en
forcement where it properly belongs and would also give the maximum
efficiency of service with the minimum cost to the State. With a slight in
crease in the general force of factory inspectors this work can be done for
the whole State and the object of the legislation be satisfactorily secured to
the people.
Additional Factory Inspectors Recommended and Provided.
Governor Roosevelt thereupon recommended " that the Legislature
provide for additional factory inspectors so as to bring the total num
ber up to fifty." This suggestion was favorably considered by the
Legislature, and the number of deputy factory inspectors was in
creased from thirty-six to fifty. 8

Empowering the Factory Inspector to Enforce the Provisions of
the Scaffolding Law.
In the same message Governor Roosevelt said :
Another important statute of this character relates to providing secure
scaffolding in the erection of new buildings. The law on this subject is all
that could be desired, but its enforcement is left to the city police, and as a
matter of fact practically no provision is made for carrying it into effect.
In New York City, where this law is most needed, police officers are unac
quainted with the character and requirements of the law. Most of them,
indeed, are not aware that the enforcement of this law is any part of their
duty. This recommendation resulted in the passage of an amendment
to Section 19 of the labor law, relating to the inspection of scaffolding,
or slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, stays, braces, ladders, iron, or
ropes of any swinging or stationary scaffolding used in the construc
tion, alteration, repairing, painting, cleaning or pointing of buildings
within the limits of a city, transferring the power of enforcing its
provisions from the municipal police authorities to the factory in
spector.
Directing the Factory Inspector to Enforce the Act Regulating
Hours of Labor on Railroads.
The message of Governor Roosevelt in 1899 also contained the
following suggestion:
The law regulating the hours of labor on surface railroads is also an excel
lent provision against the tendency to work the men an almost unlimited
number of hours. The enforcement of this law is left to the railroad com
missioners. As they have no active force to use for such n purpose the law
fails by default, except when individual citizens undertake the prosecutions.
The employee himself will rarely or never complain for fear of being dis
charged. In accordance with this recommendation authority to enforce the
sections of the act relative to the hours of labor on steam, street, sur
face and elevated railroads was conferred upon the factory inspector.
An Eight-Hour Day at Prevailing Rates of Wages.
The law requiring an eight-hour day and a prevailing rate of wages for
State employees —
Said Governor Roosevelt in his 1899 message to the Legislature —
is not intrusted to any authority for enforcement. If this law is to remain
on the statute books it should be enforced, and therefore the Legislature
should make it the particular business of somebody to enforce it.
Conformably with the wishes of the executive, the factory inspec
tion department was vested with the power to enforce this act, which
was further amended so as to provide that —
9

Each contract to which the State or a municipal corporation is a party
which may involve the employment of laborers, workmen, or mechanics shall
contain a stipulation that no laborer, workman or mechanic in the employ
of the contractor, subcontractor or other person doing or contracting to do
the whole or a part of the work contemplated by the contractor, shall be per
mitted or required to work more than eight hours in any one calendar day,
except in cases of extraordinary emergency caused by fire, flood, or danger
to life or property.
"Each contract for such public work hereafter made shall contain a provi
sion that the same shall be void and of no effect unless the person or corpora
tion making or performing the same shall comply with the provisions of this
section, and no such person or corporation shall be entitled to receive any
sum, nor shall any officer, agent or employee of the State or a municipal cor
poration pay the same or authorize its payment from the funds under his
charge or control to any such person or corporation for work done upon any
contract which in its form or manner of performance violates the provision
of this section.
Uneconomic, Unwholesome, and Un-American Sweat-Shop
System.
Governor Roosevelt's opinion concerning the evils of sweat shop
labor, that he formed when Member of Assembly as a result of his
searching inquiry into the unhealthful tenement house system of man
ufacturing cigars, did not undergo a change during the seventeen
years that intervened between 1882, when the investigation was made,
and 1899. In truth his views on the subject in the latter year, when
he urged the Legislature to adopt radical measure to suppress the
harmful system, were even more pronounced than those to which he
gave utterance while serving as an Assemblyman.
Though the Governor's ideas were not embodied in their entirety
in the law that ensued, it contained the essential features recom
mended by him. Its provisions made it unlawful to manufacture,
alter, repair, or finish articles of clothing, feathers, artificial flowers,
cigarettes, cigars, or umbrellas in a room or apartment in any tene
ment or dwelling house, or in a building situated in the rear of a
tenement or dwelling house, without a license from the factory in
spection department. Amendments to the Factory Act.
The following amendments to the factory act were approved by
Governor Roosevelt in 1899 :
Protecting employees at work on buildings. — When hoisting appa
ratus is used within a building in course of construction, contractors
or owners shall cause the shafts or openings in each floor to be in
closed by a barrier at least 8 feet in height ; and if a building be five
stories or more in height, no lumber nor timber shall be hoisted on the
outside of such building. 10

Regulating working time of females. — No female shall be employed
in a factory before 6 a.m. and after 9 p.m., nor be required to work
more than sixty hours per week.
Stairways to be properly lighted. — Stairways leading to work
rooms shall be properly lighted, such lights to be independent of the
motive power of a factory.
Prohibiting the operation of dangerous machinery by children. —
Children under 16 years of age shall not be permitted to operate or
assist in operating dangerous machines of any kind.
Women and male minors not permitted to work on polishing or
buffing wheels. — No male child under 18 years of age nor any female
shall be employed in operating polishing or buffing wheels.
Boiler inspection. — Directing the factory inspector to inspect boil
ers in factories in localities where no local laws prevail on the subject.
Tenement House Reform.
Tenement house conditions in the congested districts of New York
City had become so dreadful that Governor Roosevelt felt impelled
in 1900 to appeal to the Legislature to take action toward remedying
the evil effects of the system and in the interest of the dwellers in
the dark and poorly ventilated rooms of these houses, in which the
health of the occupants was also menaced by foul cellars, airshafts
and courts, arising from the accumulation of filth. He dwelt as fol
lows upon the subject in his annual message :
I urge that the Legislature give particular attention to the need of reform
in the laws governing the tenement houses. The Tenement House Commission
of 1894 declared that, in its opinion, the tenement house laws needed to be re
vised as often as once in five years, and I am confident that the improvements
in building materials and construction of tenements and the advance in sani
tary legislation all demand further modification of existing laws. Probably
the best course to follow would be to appoint a commission to present a re
vised code of tenement house laws.
As a consequence of the foregoing recommendation a bill to create
a tenement house commission was introduced.
The bill passed, and Governor Roosevelt appointed representative
citizens on the commission, which included sociologists, philan
thropists, architects, builders, real estate owners and agents, a promi
nent labor leader in the building trades, and men who had been con
nected with the New York City health, building and fire depart
ments. The commission's report, which was submitted in 1901, accom
panied by a bill proposing important changes in the methods of tene
ment house construction, was a valuable document covering all sides
of the housing problem. It reported that the worst feature of the
New York tenement house was lack of air and light, which was direct-
U

ly responsible for the undue prevalence of tuberculosis, medical ex
perts having testified that the number of deaths from that disease
reached 8,000 annually and that one-third of these lives might be
saved by providing a type of tenement house with sufficient light and
ventilation. Another constant source of danger was the narrow air
shaft, which acted as a flue in the spread of tenement house fires and
contagious diseases; and as most of the bedroom windows opened
upon these air shafts, it was impossible to preserve privacy in a
family which occupied rooms opposite those of another family.
Professional vice was found to exist in many tenements, being
largely due to the irresponsibility of landlords. The findings of the
commission impressed practical legislators, who succeeded in having
the major part of their recommendations enacted into law. This act
provides for the establishment of a tenement house department in
New York City, to which shall be submitted all plans for tenement
houses, and whose approval must be obtained before such buildings
can be occupied after completion, and also requires the appointment
of a large corps of inspectors so that existing dwellings may be kept
under surveillance.
Increasing the Salaries of New York City Public School Teachers.
So deep was the interest manifested by the New York City public
school teachers in the bill to regulate and increase their salaries that
on March 14, 1900, Governor Roosevelt sent to the Legislature a mes
sage certifying to the necessity of the immediate passage of the meas
ure. It met with the approval of both houses and was signed by the
Governor, who filed with the act a memorandum pointing out that —
Its general purpose is admirable, and the best educators — the men most in
terested in seeing the public schools of the greater New York put upon a
thoroughly efficient basis — . . most earnestly favor the measure.
The law gave the department of education power to adopt by-laws
to establish a uniform schedule of salaries for the teaching staff
throughout all the boroughs and prescribed an equal annual incre
ment of salary- It provided that a kindergartner or female teacher
of a girls' class other than those teaching grades of the last two years
in elementary schools shall, after sixteen years of service, receive not
less than $1,240 per annum, and that a female teacher of a girls' class
of the grades of the last two years shall, after fifteen years of service,
receive not less than $1,320 per annum ; that a female teacher of a
girls' graduating class, female first assistant, or female vice-principal
shall, after ten years of service, receive not less than $1,440 per an
num ; that a female teacher of a boys' or mixed class shall receive not
less than $60 per annum more than a female teacher of a girls' class
12

of corresponding grade and of years of service, and that a female
teacher in elementary schools shall receive not less than $600 per an
num, nor shall her annual increment be less than $40 ; that a male
teacher of a class of the grades of the last two years shall, after
twelve years' service, receive not less than $2,160 per annum ; that a
male teacher of a graduating class, male first assistant, or male vice-
principal shall, after ten years' service, receive not less than $2,400
per year ; that a male teacher shall receive not less than $900 a year,
nor shall his annual increment be less than $105.
Municipal Ownership of Rapid Transit Railways.
There is now before your body a measure looking toward the securing of
rapid transit for the city of New York. I deem it of very great importance
that a scheme providing for rapid transit in the city should be passed at the
earliest practicable moment. But it is even more important that this scheme
should be one which will work for the ultimate benefit of the city. It does
not seem to me wise that a franchise of this nature should be given in per
petuity. It would, of course,, be best to have it owned by the municipality,
although I would point out to the advocates of municipal ownership that It
is doubly incumbent upon them to take the most efficient means of rebuking
municipal corruption, and of insisting upon a high standard of continuous
fidelity to duty among municipal employees. Only if the government of the
municipality is honest will it be possible ever to justify fully the working!
of municipal ownership.
These sentiments were expressed by Governor Roosevelt in a
special message to the Legislature, and in 1900 that body passed an
amendatory measure, which received the Governor's signature, ex
tending the system of municipal construction of rapid transit rail
ways to any city of over 1,000,000 inhabitants formed by the consolida
tion of one or more cities and other territory. This amended act also
made it lawful for the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners
to locate the route of a railroad by tunnel under any river or waters,
thus making possible the present extension of the rapid transit sys
tem from the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, under the East
River to and through a large part of the Borough of Brooklyn. The
project will, when completed, afford considerable relief to people in
the latter borough who live long distances from the centers of com
merce and industry, carrying them to and from their homes, far re
moved from the densely crowded portions of the city, in comfort and
in much less time than under the existing inadequate method of con
veyance, besides encouraging many who now reside in the congested
districts to seek dwelling places in less densely settled sections near
the Brooklyn terminal of the new railway.
13

The President and Trades-Unionism.
While intelligence and character still count as essential elements
of success in individuals, there remains room for associated action in
large enterprises where the individual is swallowed up in the multi
tude and personal contact of employer and employee is no longer
possible. One of 5,000 wage workers employed in a factory could
never hope to induce the employers to reduce his hours of work from
fourteen or sixteen to ten a day, but if all of the 5,000 workmen unite
in such a request they may accomplish their object and effect a change
so momentous in the lives of workingmen. The fact is that in large
scale production the workman is at a hopeless disadvantage in making
an individual bargain with the employer. His only salvation lies in
joining his fellow workmen and making a collective bargain with the
employer regarding wages and the conditions under which they shall
work. In forming a union and choosing their officers and representa
tives the workmen are simply following the example of capitalists,
who form a corporation and delegate their powers to directors or
trustees. The Necessity of Trades Unions.
This fact is fully recognized by President Roosevelt in common
with the political economists and other leaders of thought at the pres
ent time. Thus in his address at Sioux Falls, S. D., April 6, 1903, he
declared that " much can be done by organization, combination —
union among the wage workers," and went on to explain the change
that has come about in modern industry, as follows :
The wage workers In our cities, like the capitalists In our cities, face to
tally changed conditions. The development of machinery and the extraordi
nary changes in business conditions have rendered the employment of cap
ital and of persons in large aggregations not merely profitable, but often
necessary for success, and have specialized the labor of the wage worker at
the same time that they have brought great aggregations of wage workers
together. More and more in our great industrial centers men have come to
realize that they cannot live as independently of one another as In the old
days was the case everywhere and as is now the case in the country districts.
Of course, fundamentally, each man will yet find that the chief factor in de
termining his success or failure in life is the sum of his own individual quali
ties. He cannot afford to lose his individual limitation — his individual will
and power, but he can best use that power if for certain objects he unites
with his fellows.
Similarly, in his first message to Congress, in 1901, the President
declared that " very great good has been and will be accomplished by
associations of wage workers when managed with forethought, and
H

when they combine insistence upon their own rights with iaw 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."
Elected to Honorary Membership by the Brotherhood of Loco
motive Firemen.
In September, 1902, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen,
assembled in annual convention at Chattanooga, Tenn., conferred
upon President Roosevelt the degree of grand honorary membership,
as indicated in the following report of the proceedings :
John F. McNorrell, of Columbus, Ohio, one of the grand officers, and a
Democratic member of the Legislature, moved that the degree of grand hon
orary membership be conferred upon President Roosevelt. The motion was
referred to the Committee on Constitution and By-Laws, whose recommenda
tion was unanimous that the motion be adopted. The report of the commit
tee was adopted by a unanimous rising vote amid great cheers.
The President thanked the convention for the compliment paid him, and
Grand Master Sargent then gave him a pass which admits him to all meet
ings of the Brotherhood.
The President, in addressing the convention, declared that " organization
Is one of the laws of our social and economic development at this time. I be
lieve emphatically in organized labor."
Union Labor in Government Work.
In his first message to Congress, in 1901, President Roosevelt rec
ommended that " provision be made to render the enforcement of the
eight-hour law easy and certain," and also that the Government should
provide in its contracts that all work for it should be done under
" fair " conditions.
By this expression it is understood that the President meant that
no contract should be given or no contractor employed by the Govern
ment who would not agree to pay the union scale of wages ; in other
words, no contractor should, in any way, be allowed to obtain a con
tract from the Government by lessening the price paid the employees
for their labor to a point less than the " fair " or union scale of wages
or by working more than the usual number of hours per day which
had been fixed for the trade.
While thus favoring the union standard of wages and hours in
Government work the President recognizes the illegality of any dis
crimination for or against members of a union. Thus in the case of
William A. Miller, who complained that he was removed from his
position of assistant foreman in the Government Printing Office, in
violation of the civil service law, because he had been expelled from
Local Union No. 4 of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders,
15

the President ordered Miller's reinstatement and explained the rule
governing public employment in the following communication to Sec
retary Cortelyou, in whose charge the President placed the investiga
tion: Oyster Bat, N. Y., July 13, 1903.
My Deae Secretary Cortelyou : In accordance with the letter of the
Civil Service Commission of July 6, the Public Printer will reinstate Mr
W. A. Miller in his position. Meanwhile I will withhold my final decision of
the whole case until I have received the report of the investigation on Miller s
second communication, which you notify me has been begun to-day, July 13.
On the face of the papers presented, Miller would appear to have been re
moved in violation of law. There is no objection to the employees of the
Government Printing Office constituting themselves into a union if they so
desire, but no rules or resolutions of that union can be permitted to override
the laws of the United States, which it is my sworn duty to enforce.
Please communicate a copy of this letter to the Public Printer for his in
formation and that of his subordinates.
Very truly, yours, Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. George B. Cortelyou,
Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
Oyster Bay, N. Y., July 14, 1903.
My Dear Mr. Cortelyou : In connection with my letter of yesterday, I
call attention to this judgment and award by the Anthracite Coal Strike Com
mission in its report to me of March 18 last :
" It is adjudged and awarded that no person shall be refused employment
or in any way discriminated against on account of membership or nonmem-
bership in any labor organization, and that there shall be no discrimination
against or interference with any employee who is not a member of any labor
organization by members of such organization."
I heartily approve of this award and judgment by the commission ap
pointed by me, which itself included a member of a labor union. This com
mission was dealing with labor organizations working for private employers.
It is, of course, mere elementary decency to require that all the Government
Departments shall be handled in accordance with the principle thus clearly
and fearlessly enunciated.
Please furnish a copy of this letter both to Mr. Palmer and to the Civil
Service Commission for their guidance.
Sincerely, yours, Theodore Roosevelt.
Hon. George B. Cortelyou,
Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
Mr. Palmer, the Public Printer, on Wednesday, July 16, notified
Mr. Miller that he had been reinstated and might report for duty any
day. On September 29, 1903, the President gave a hearing to members of
the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor on the
subject of pending labor legislation, at which he announced his final
decision in the Miller case and at the same time explained his prefer
ence for the " union shop " in private employment. The president of
the American Federation of Labor in an address, issued on the suc
ceeding day, to organized labor of America thus described President
Roosevelt's attitude:
Replying to statements on the subject, President Roosevelt set forth that
in his decision he had nothing in mind but a strict compliance with Federal,
Including civil service, law and that he recognized a difference between em
ployment by the Government, circumscribed by those laws, and any other
form of employment, and that his decision in the Miller case should not be
understood to have any other effect or influence than affecting direct em
ployment by the Government in accordance therewith. He furthermore
16

ftiade plain that in any form of employment excepting that so circumscribed
he believed the full employment of union men was preferable either to non
union or open shops.
Following is the official account of the hearing :
September 29, 1903.
r, ^¦Pur.s,uant^t2 the re(luest °t Samuel Gompers, president of the American
Federation of Labor, the President granted an interview this evening to the
following members of the Executive Council of that body : Mr. Samuel Gom
pers, Mr James Duncan, Mr. John Mitchell, Mr. James O'Connell, and Mr.
Frank Morrison, at which various subjects of legislation in the interests of
!?,•?,?' as.wSi!.„as Executlve action, were discussed. Concerning the case of
William A. Miller, the President made the following statement :
" I thank you and your committee for your courtesy, 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 tho laws of the land, which I am sworn to administer, and which differ
entiate any case in which the Government of the United States is a party
from all other cases whatsoever. These laws are enacted for the benefit of
the whole people, and cannot and must not be construed as permitting dis
crimination against some of the people. I am President of all the people of
the United States, without regard to creed, color, birthplace, 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 Government service I can no
more recognize the fact that a man does or does not belong to a union, as
being for or against him, than I can recognize the fact that he is a Protestant
or a Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being for or against him.
" In the communications sent me by various labor organizations protest
ing against the retention of Miller in the Government Printing Office the
grounds alleged are twofold : First, that he is a nonunion man ; second, that
he is not personally fit. The question of his personal fitness is one to be set
tled in the routine of administrative detail, and cannot be allowed to conflict
with or to complicate the larger question of governmental discrimination
for or against him or any other man because he is or is not a member of a
union. This is the only question now before me for decision, and as to this
my decision is final."
In the foregoing statement of policy President Roosevelt merely
reiterated his well-known conviction that the law must be admin
istered with absolutely no discrimination. Thus, in his address at
Butte, Mont., May 27, 1903, he declared that—
The law is no respecter of persons. The law is to be administered neither
for the rich man nor for the poor man as such. It is to be administered for
every man, rich or poor, if he is an honest and law abiding citizen, and it is
to be invoked against any man, rich or poor, who violates it, without regard
to which end of the social scale he may stand, without regard to whether his
offense takes the form of greed and cunning or the form of physical violence.
In either ease, if he violates the law, the law is to be invoked against him,
and in so invoking it I have the right to challenge the support of all good citi
zens and to demand the acquiescence of every good man. I hope I shall have
it; but. once for all, I wish it understood that even if I did not have it. I
would enforce the law anyhow.
Cunning as well as Force Must be Shackled.
In his recognition of unsocial and illegal action through cunning.
President Roosevelt differs from those critics of workingmen who see
crime in every act of intimidation or physical violence that occurs in
the course of a strike or lockout, but fail to recognize the lawlessness
of the men who obtain special privileges from legislatures and munici
pal councils or evade the payment of their just taxes. Thus, in an
17

address at the Buffalo Independent Club, May 0, 1899, Governor
Roosevelt declared that —
The rich man who gets a privilege through the legislature by bribery and
corruption for any corporation is committing an offense against the commu
nity which it is possible may some day have to be condoned in blood and
destruction, not by him, not by his sons, but by you and your sons.
And while the lawlessness of greed and cunning may lead to
anarchy as surely as lawless physical violence, " it is far more difficult
to deal with, but the effort to deal with it must be steadily made,''
as the President said in his Sioux Falls address, April 6, 1903.
But while fearlessly pointing out the lawless acts committed by a
few rich men &nd by a few poor men, President Roosevelt does not
join in the lamentations of those who despair of government by the
people. On the contrary, he deprecates the fostering of hostility be
tween classes. The President and the Coal Strike of 1902.
The appointment of this commission, which resulted in the termi
nation of the great coal strike of 1902, is perhaps President Roose
velt's most widely known and generally appreciated contribution
toward the improvement of industrial relations. When the efforts of
all other peacemakers had come to naught and the coal famine re
mained unbroken at the near approach of winter, Mr. Roosevelt, as a
representative American citizen, pleaded with the operators and min
ers to terminate their dispute and resume the mining of coal. Pub
lic opinion supported his action so strongly that both sides to the
dispute agreed to resume work and leave to a commission to be ap
pointed by the President the determination of the conditions of em
ployment concerning which they had been unable to agree. The
President's commission not only adjusted the dispute in the coal
regions, but in so doing formulated principles of very general appli
cation to the organization of industry at the present time. The im
mediate effect of the commission's appointment was, as the President
has himself stated, " of vast and incalculable benefit to the nation,
but the ultimate effect will be even better if capitalist, wage worker
and lawmaker alike will take to heart and act upon the lessons set
forth in the report " of the commission. The coal industry is typical
of all the great industries of to-day that are organized on the prin
ciple of large scale production, and its treatment of the labor problem
is therefore highly illuminative. Origin of the Strike.
Under the influence of a vast stream of immigration of Poles, Hun
garians and Slavs into the coal regions during the last two or three
18

decades wages had steadily declined. The American miners saw
their own standard of living threatened by the lower standards
brought from central Europe unless they could induce these newcom
ers to unite with them in an effort to put an end to the incessant un
derbidding for employment. In 1897 they brought their organization,
the United Mine Workers, to such a state of perfection that it domi
nated the labor situation in the bituminous regions and met the em
ployers' associations on an equality in the annual settlement of the
terms of employment. In 1899 the organization spread to the anthra
cite regions, and the next year was able to secure a 10 per cent, ad
vance in wages, after a comparatively short strike that was supported
as heartily by the miners outside the union as by the minority at that
time in the union.
As a consequence of this triumph a vast majority of the miners
joined the organization, which thereupon sought to represent the
miners in making terms with the employers' agents at annual con
ferences such as were held with the bituminous operators. The
denial of this request by the officers of the mining corporations near
ly brought on another strike in 1901, and when early in 1902 a similar
request, accompanied with a demand for an advance in wages, etc.,
was once more denied, industrial peace could no longer be preserved.
The operators even refused the union's offer to submit its demands to
the arbitration of the National Civic Federation or other arbitrators,
and a week later a delegate convention of the anthracite mine work
ers voted to continue the strike ordered on May 12. In obedience to
this decision, says the commission, " nearly the entire body of mine
workers, which numbers about 147,000, abandoned their employment
and remained idle until the strike was called off by another conven
tion,"— that is, until October 23, 1902.
Action of the President.
With the progress of summer and the failure of all mediatory
efforts to adjust the differences between the miners and the operators
the scarcity of fuel made itself felt. Many factories that were de
pendent upon anthracite had to shut down, throwing large numbers
of working people out of employment, and the famine prices at which
coal was sold almost prohibited its use for domestic purposes by the
poorer families. As cold weather approached the President felt him
self virtually compelled to act in order to avert unexampled distress
throughout all eastern communities that depended upon anthracite
coal for domestic heating purposes. On October 1 he telegraphed an
invitation to the presidents of the five coal railroad companies, a
prominent individual operator, and the president of the miners' organ-
1?

ization to confer with him " in regard to the failure of the coal sup
ply, which had become a matter of vital concern to the whole nation."
To these seven persons, who met the President at the White House
on October 3, Mr. Roosevelt said:
I wish to call your attention to the fact that there are three parties affect
ed by the situation in the anthracite trade — the operators, the miners, and
the general public. I speak for neither the operators nor the miners, but for
the general public. The questions at issue which led to the situation affect
immediately the parties concerned — the operators and the miners — but the
situation itself vitally affects the public. As long as there seemed to be a
reasonable hope that these matters could be adjusted between the parties, it
did not seem proper to me to intervene in any way. I disclaim any right or
duty to intervene in this way upon legal grounds or upon any official rela
tion that I bear to the situation, but the urgency and the terrible nature of
the catastrophe impending over a large portion of our people "in the shape of
a winter fuel famine impel me, after much anxious thought, to believe that
my duty requires me to use whatever influence I personally can to bring to
an end a situation which has become literally intolerable. I wish to empha
size the character of the situation and to say that its gravity is such that I
am constrained urgently to insist that each one of you realize the heavy bur
den of responsibility upon him.
We are upon the threshold of winter, with an already existing coal famine,
the future terrors of which we can hardly yet appreciate. The evil possibili
ties are so far-reaching, so appalling, that it seems to me that you are not
only justified in sinking, but required to sink for the time being, any tenacity
as to your respective claims in the matter at issue between you. In my judg
ment the situation imperatively requires that you meet upon the common
plane of the necessities of the public. With all the earnestness there is in
me, I ask that there be an immediate resumption of operations in the coal
mines in some such way as will without a day's unnecessary delay meet the
crying needs of the people.
I do not invite a discussion of your respective claims and positions. I ap
peal to your patriotism, to the spirit that sinks personal considerations and
makes individual sacrifices for the general good.
At the conclusion of the President's remarks Mr. Mitchell replied
as follows :
Mr. President, I am much impressed with what you say. I am impressed
with the gravity of the situation. We feel that we are not responsible for
this terrible state of affairs. We are willing to meet the gentlemen repre
senting the coal operators to try to adjust our differences among ourselves.
If we cannot adjust them that way, Mr. President, we are willing that you
shall name a tribunal who shall determine the issues that have resulted in
this strike ; and if the gentlemen representing the operators will accept the
award or decision of such a tribunal, the miners will willingly accept it, even
if it is against their claims.
The President : Before considering what ought to be done I think it only
juBt to both of you — both sides — and desirable from my standpoint, that you
should have time to consider what I have stated as to the reasons for my get
ting you together, and I shall trespass so far upon your good nature as to ask
that this interview cease now and that you come back at 3 o'clock. I should
like you to think over what I have stated, not to decide now, but give it care
ful thought, and return at 3 o'clock.
The conference then adjourned until 3 o'clock.
The President then put an end to the interview and asked both
parties to think over what he had stated and return in the after
noon. Upon reassembling the operators made long statements of
their side of the case ; but in reply to the President's inquiry whether
they would accept Mr. Mitchell's proposition they answered " No."
In response to a further question from the President they stated that
they would have no dealings whatever with Mr. Mitchell looking to-
20

ward a settlement of the question at issue and that they had no other
proposition to make, save what was contained in the statement of Mr.
Baer, which, in effect, was that if any man chose to resume work and
had a difficulty with his employer, both should leave the settlement of
the question to the judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the dis
trict in which the mine was located.
In view of the growing public demand for the resumption of coal
mining, however, the operators reconsidered their refusal to arbitrate
their dispute with the miners, and a few days later proposed that it
be settled by a commission of five, to be appointed by the President,
and to be composed of an officer of the. army or navy, an expert min
ing engineer, a United States Circuit Court judge '.om Pennsylvania,
a sociologist and a man who had been in the coal business. As the
last mentioned member would come from the ranks of the employers,
the miners naturally demanded a modification of the operators' propo
sition, which should allow them a representative on the commission.
When the commission was appointed on October 16 it therefore
consisted of six members, and by the subsequent addition of the
United States Commissioner of Labor its final composition was as
follows : Brig.-Gen. John M. Wilson, Edward M. Parker of the United
States Geological Survey, Judge George Gray of the United States
Circuit Court of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, Bishop John
L. Spaulding of the Catholic Church, Thomas H. Watkins, a retired
coal operator; Edgar E. Clark, chief of the Order of Railway Con
ductors, and Hon. Carroll D. Wright. On October 21 a convention of
the miners voted to submit all the questions at issue to this com
mission and to resume work on October 23. The presidents of the
anthracite coal roads agreed to abide by the decision of the com
mission, and in the course of its proceedings the leading independent
operators and the nonunion miners also became parties to the arbi
tration agreement, so that the board's awards, when announced on
March 18, 1903, covered virtually the entire anthracite mining in
dustry. The Increase of Wages.
The four demands of the miners were for an increase of 20 per
cent, in the piece rates paid to contract miners, the rates to be based
on weight of the coal instead of the carload, a reduction of 20 per
cent, (from ten to eight hours a day) in the hours of labor of work
men employed by the day, and the recognition of the union by the
establishment of a joint trade agreement between the representatives
of employers and employed. The commission compromised on the
matter of wages by awarding an increase of 10 per cent., with addi
tional increases under a sliding scale system when the market price
21

of coal rose above the existing level ; a reduction in hours from ten
to nine; the establishment of a joint board of conciliation, repre
senting employers and employed, to decide disputed questions during
the life of the award (to March 31, 1906). The advance in wage
rates took effect November 1, 1902.
Recognition of the Union.
Notwithstanding the importance of the wages question, tne really
fundamental point at issue was the recognition of the right of col
lective bargaining — that is, the right of the workingmen to combine
and choose representatives to make an annual bargain or contract
with the company officials (the representatives of the stockholders or
employers) concerning the conditions of employment, as is the prac
tice in the bituminous trade, on the great railway systems, and in
large scale manufacturing. While denying in terms the miners' de
mand for " the incorporation in an agreement between the United
Mine Workers and the anthracite coal companies of the wages which
shall be paid and the conditions of employment which shall obtain,
together with satisfactory methods for the adjustment of grievances,"
the commission in effect sustained the miners by upholding the prin
ciple of collective bargaining and by establishing a joint board of
arbitration, on which the representatives of the employees must in
evitably be officers of the union.
The commission stated its belief that with certain changes in its
constitution the mine workers' organization would merit recognition
by the employers. At present the boys in the union constitute about
20 per cent, of the membership, and the presence of this immature
element might readily lead to trouble by carrying a vote for a strike
when the more conservative and experienced members might be op
posed to it. The commission also believes that instead of a majority
vote there should be required at least a two-thirds vote of all the
delegates in a convention in order to begin a strike. Finally, the
commission expresses a hope that —
When under the award the parties have faithfully obeyed its terms and
thus learned to deal with each other, a trade agreement between operators
and an anthracite mine workers' organization may commend itself to both
sides. We believe this, especially when it is considered that in other direc
tions and in other industries such agreements have been made and adhered to
for terms of years, completely avoiding strikes and labor controversies gen
erally. Of course here and there in the bituminous regions these agreements
may not have worked with perfect satisfaction to both parties, and In some
districts they have been abandoned after a brief trial. But, on the whole the
experience under them- in this country and in England testifies to their great
usefulness in preserving peace and harmony.
Meanwhile, during the life of the award, disputes arising between
employers and employees are to be adjusted by a permanent joint
committee or board of conciliation composed of three representatives
22

of the operators and the same number of representatives of the min
ers. When this committee is unable to decide any question sub
mitted, such question is to be referred to an umpire appointed by a
judge of the United States Circuit Court. As the miners' representa
tives in each of the three districts are to be selected by the union
whenever its membership comprises a majority of the mine workers
in that district, the award is tantamount to the recognition of the
union during the three years of its life.
The Right to Strike and the Right to Work.
Having thus vindicated the principles of unionism, the commission
ruled that no operator should discriminate against union men in the
matter of employment. It likewise ruled that union men should not
discriminate against or interfere with nonunionists, pointing out that
such discrimination on the part of either employer or employed con
stitutes a serious menace to the discipline of the miner, which, on ac
count of the hazardous nature of the work, should be as nearly per
fect as possible.
The right to strike the commission firmly upholds, but this does
not include the right to persecute men who choose to work.
The commission censured both operators and miners for the dis
order, violence and lawlessness that accompanied the strike and culmi
nated in three murders. It deprecated the employment by the min
ing companies of coal and iron policemen as militating against the
very purpose for which they are employed — that of preserving peace
and protecting property. While as a body they were men of good char
acter, the commission found that there was a sufficient number of bad
characters to discredit the efforts of the whole body. On the other
hand, the strikers had permitted intimidation, riot and bloodshed;
men who chose to be employed or who remained at work were assailed
and threatened, and they and their families terrorized and intimi
dated. While "the leaders of the union, and notably its president,
condemned all violence and exhorted their followers to sobriety and
moderation . . . the subordinate local organizations and their
leaders were not so amenable to such counsels as to prevent the re
grettable occurrences. It is in the power of a minority of the less
responsible men and boys, together with the idle and vicious, unless
properly restrained, to destroy the peace and order of any community,
and absence of protection and of active resistance on the part of the
better element means encouragement and license to this class."
The President and Property Rights.
President Roosevelt's successful intervention in the coal strike met
with the almost unanimous approval of the people, irrespective of
28

their political affiliations. It was not until the commission's award
had been made, and thought of the great disturbance nearly banished
from the minds of the people, that criticism of his conduct, arising out
of the resentment of the coal mine presidents and the desire to make
political capital, began to appear, based on the allegation that his
interference amounted to a modification of property rights. But the
criticism was hushed almost as soon as it appeared by the declaration
of Judge Gray, a member of the political party opposed to the Presi
dent, that " the President's action, so far from interfering with or
infringing upon property rights, tended to conserve them."
Judge Cray's Statement:
Judge Gray's statement, which appeared in a New York City news
paper September 1, 1903, was as follows:
I have no hesitation in saying that the President of the United States was
confronted in October, 1902,. by the existence of a crisis more grave and
threatening than any that had occurred since the Civil War. I mean that the
cessation of mining in the anthracite coal country, brought about by the dis
pute between the miners and those who controlled the greatest natural
monopoly in this country and perhaps in the world, had brought upon more
than one-half of the American people a condition of deprivation of one of the
necessaries of life, and the probable continuance of the dispute threatened
not only the comfort and health, but the safety and good order of the nation.
He was without legal or constitutional power to interfere, but his position as
President of the United States gave him an influence, a leadership, as first
citizen of the Republic, that enabled him to appeal to the patriotism and
good sense of the parties to the controversy and to place upon them the
moral coercion of public opinion to agree to an arbitrament of the strike
then existing and threatening consequences so direful to the whole country.
He acted promptly and courageously, and in so doing averted the dangers to
which I have alluded.
So far from interfering or infringing upon property rights, the President's
action tended to conserve them. The peculiar situation as regards the an
thracite coal interest was that they controlled a natural monopoly of a prod
uct necessary to the comfort and to the very life of a large portion of the
people. A prolonged deprivation of the enjoyment of this necessary of life
would have tended to precipitate an attack upon these property rights of
which you speak, for, after all, it is vain to deny that this property, so pecul
iar in Its conditions, and which is properly spoken of as " a natural monop
oly," is affected with a public interest.
I do not think that any President ever acted more wisely, courageously or
promptly in a national crisis. Mr. Roosevelt deserves unstinted praise for
what he did.

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