=The Labor Question.=—­On the labor question, then pressing to the front in public interest, President Roosevelt took advanced ground for his time.  He declared that the working-man, single-handed and empty-handed, threatened with starvation if unemployed, was no match for the employer who was able to bargain and wait.  This led him, accordingly, to accept the principle of the trade union; namely, that only by collective bargaining can labor be put on a footing to measure its strength equally with capital.  While he severely arraigned labor leaders who advocated violence and destructive doctrines, he held that “the organization of labor into trade unions and federations is necessary, is beneficent, and is one of the greatest possible agencies in the attainment of a true industrial, as well as a true political, democracy in the United States.”  The last resort of trade unions in labor disputes, the strike, he approved in case negotiations failed to secure “a fair deal.”

He thought, however, that labor organizations, even if wisely managed, could not solve all the pressing social questions of the time.  The aid of the government at many points he believed to be necessary to eliminate undeserved poverty, industrial diseases, unemployment, and the unfortunate consequences of industrial accidents.  In his first message of 1901, for instance, he urged that workers injured in industry should have certain and ample compensation.  From time to time he advocated other legislation to obtain what he called “a larger measure of social and industrial justice.”

=Great Riches and Taxation.=—­Even the challenge of the radicals, such as the Populists, who alleged that “the toil of millions is boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few”—­challenges which his predecessors did not consider worthy of notice—­President Roosevelt refused to let pass without an answer.  In his first message he denied the truth of the common saying that the rich were growing richer and the poor were growing poorer.  He asserted that, on the contrary, the average man, wage worker, farmer, and small business man, was better off than ever before in the history of our country.  That there had been abuses in the accumulation of wealth he did not pretend to ignore, but he believed that even immense fortunes, on the whole, represented positive benefits conferred upon the country.  Nevertheless he felt that grave dangers to the safety and the happiness of the people lurked in great inequalities of wealth.  In 1906 he wrote that he wished it were in his power to prevent the heaping up of enormous fortunes.  The next year, to the astonishment of many leaders in his own party, he boldly announced in a message to Congress that he approved both income and inheritance taxes, then generally viewed as Populist or Democratic measures.  He even took the stand that such taxes should be laid in order to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth and greater equality of opportunity among citizens.