Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1903 — CANAL IS THE ISSUE. [ARTICLE]

CANAL IS THE ISSUE.

■ ' * . .. « - , -<■ f . - ■ MADE THE LEADING FEATURE ‘ OF PRESIDENTS MESSAGE. President Declares Policy of United States Is Far from Conquest—Other Features Are Capital and Labor« Including. Status of Trust Legislation. Washington correspondence: President Roosevelt’s annual message -to---Congress- is a long document and discusses with great detail the questions of government which the executive has considered during the last twelve months. Most of his subjects have reached an acute Stage during bis own administration, and the President is able to discuss them from an ipside point of view in every case. The- Panama canal and the labor and trust topics furnish the chief executive an abundance of material on which to advise Congress as to the general conditiQn of the country. The most interesting thing in the message is the treatment of the isthmian caual question, which was forced on the administration Nov. 3 by the revolution in Panama. The President follows the line of the statement given out by Secretary Hay at the time, showing that the United States took not a single step on the isthmus beyond the line marked out for it by its treaty obligations. The President justifies his course and the policy of the administration. The United States net only had obligations to perform under the treaty of New Grenada in keeping peace on the isthmus nnd providing for open and uninterrupted traffic across the nec-k of land, Mr. Roosevelt says, but it had a greater duty, qn the higher ground that this government is the trustee of the world for the isthmus. Greater than any other question is that of the construction of the canal, which has been in contemplation for centuries and which not only the national interests of the United States require, but which the world demands. The President’s message is couched in language which leaves no doubt that he regards what has happened as final, and there is no suggestion of retracing the steps which have been taken. The President endeavors to show that this government was not particeps crirninis to the revolution on the isthmus. Cnpital and Labor. The events of the last year bearing on the right of labor to boycott and intimidate, and the right, of corporations to annul laws on the statute books, give the President an excellent opportunity to discuss questions which are uppermost in the minds of every business man and every labor leader in the United States. The treatment of this great subject forms a large part of the message. - In the--direction of the relations between capital and labor, the President has a good deal to report to Congress, part of which is official and part of which is only incidental to the work of the President." Since the last message to Congress was written the coal strike lias been completely settled by an arbitration set on foot by the President himself and agreed to by the owners and miners alike. This gives the President an opportunity not only to congratulate the country on “the termination of this serious condition of affairs but to point out this case as an evidence that the principle of arbitration can he applied successfully to the gravest kind“bf disputes between cnpital and labor, oven those involving the interests of the entire country. In the message there is further reference to the suits instituted against the Northern Securities Company for the purpose of testing the anti-trust laws. It is shown, also, that under the emergency legislation by the last Congress, which provided for expediting such cases, the issue now has been -carried direct to the Supreme Court, so that a decision on this great question as to the power of corporations may soon he decided.

No Discrimination Allowed. Then, again, the President laid down in the dispute which arose in the bindery of the goyernnjent printing office the principle that while labor organizations had a right to exist among government employes, those organizations had no right to put their rules above the laws of the land, and that no man could be excluded from the government service because lie did or did not belong to a labor union. In addition to all this the Department of Commerce and Labor has been created and has been preparing to go into the large economic questions much more fully than ever was attempted before. „ All these things make it fitting that the President should state his position, which, it is claimed, is not one of hostility to either business or industry, but rather of friendliness to both classes, so long as they work within the law and' treat each other fairly and lawfully. Suggestions which have been made as to legislation are very earefullg guarded. The President recommends no radical legislation regarding the trusts, buF there is laid before Congress a full statement ns to the condition of State and federal laws. As no effort has yet been made to obtain from corporations the secrets of their business and capitnliza-" tlon the President asks for no change in the law crenting the new department. Financial legislation is not specifically recommended. The subject is compiended to with a view to arriving at some agreement ns to the needs of the hanks and the business world. The postal frauds nre only touched on in a general way, the President’s comment on the Bristow report having covered the ground so far as the situation at this time seemed to warrnnt. The recommendation Q f Messrs. Bonaparte and Conrad as to extending the statute of limitations to fire years, however, ia made to Congress. .Pmlm for tbe Army. The great worjt which Secretary Root has performed in placing the army on its present footing, bo that, to use the words of one of the best-known military experts of the country, “We have an army in time of peace of 00,000 men, and an army in time of war of 170,000, which can be increased to 300.000 with the right sort of machinery behind it/' comes ip for a word of praise from the Fresident There is also a recommendation for , a further and steady increase of the fight* ing strength of the navy. > .