If I were a factory employee, a workman on the railroads or a wage-earner of any sort, I would undoubtedly join the union of my trade.  If I disapproved of its policy, I would join in order to fight that policy; if the union leaders were dishonest, I would join in order to put them out.  I believe in the union and I believe that all men who are benefited by the union are morally bound to help to the extent of their power in the common interests advanced by the union.  Nevertheless, irrespective of whether a man should or should not, and does or does not, join the union of his trade, all the rights, privileges and immunities of that man as an American and as a citizen should be safeguarded and upheld by the law.  We dare not make an outlaw of any individual or any group, whatever his or its opinions or professions.  The non-unionist, like the unionist, must be protected in all his legal rights by the full weight and power of the law.

This question came up before me in the shape of the right of a non-union printer named Miller to hold his position in the Government Printing Office.  As I said before, I believe in trade unions.  I always prefer to see a union shop.  But any private preferences cannot control my public actions.  The Government can recognize neither union men nor non-union men as such, and is bound to treat both exactly alike.  In the Government Printing Office not many months prior to the opening of the Presidential campaign of 1904, when I was up for reelection, I discovered that a man had been dismissed because he did not belong to the union.  I reinstated him.  Mr. Gompers, the President of the American Federation of Labor, with various members of the executive council of that body, called upon me to protest on September 29, 1903, and I answered them as follows: 

“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 representative 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 the laws of the land, which I am sworn to administer, and which differentiate 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 the 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.