But this desired result can not be secured if combinations of capital, which produce the necessaries of life cheaper and better, are assailed as the enemies of mankind.  There is always a mean between those who seek only a fair recompense and return for that which they produce and those who seek undue advantages for the few at the expense of the many.  The laws which have been enacted, if properly executed, are sufficient in their force and effort to encourage the one and to punish the other, but in our condemnation let us not forget that with the expansion that has come to our country an expansion of our business relations is also necessary.

This growth has brought us into intimate contact with the markets of the world, and in the struggle that is always before us the competition of trade, if we are to hold our own among the world’s producers, we should encourage, not hinder, those who, by their energy, their capital, and their labor, have banded together for the purpose of meeting these new conditions—­problems which our individual efforts alone can not solve, but which require the concentrated force and genius of both capital and labor.

Incentive for good citizenship would indeed be lacking if these were taken from us—­the opportunities for development, the opportunities for the young man to follow in the footsteps of those who have written their names in the history of our country as the great captains of industry.

Success will always follow perseverance and genius.  Every heresy, every doctrine which would teach the young man of this country differently, is an insult to the intelligence of our people, and is in the direction of building up a dangerous element in American society which in time would threaten not only the peace and prosperity we enjoy, but our very institutions themselves.

When you have placed before the young man all of his possibilities, you have made it impossible to make of our Republic a plutocracy controlled by the few at the expense of the many.  The individual should count for as much as the aggregation of individuals, because an injury to the one will lead to the destruction of the many.

The question of adjusting and harmonizing the relations of capital and labor is the problem before us to-day, and is one which will become more urgent in the future.  Its solution must be along those lines of constitutional right which every citizen has been guaranteed.

Every man is entitled, in the prosecution of his work, to the broadest possible liberty of action and the protection of law—­of that law which is the outgrowth of necessity and which seeks to encourage and not to oppress.  Such recognition can always be secured if there is a determination upon the part of those charged with the responsibility of government to have it.  And who is not?