The President and the Labor Unions
By L. A. S.
The reply of President Roosevelt to the demand of the labor unions for the expulsion of foreman Miller from the government printing plant has been given, and as was to be expected by those acquainted with the character of the president, he refuses absolutely to reverse or modify his former decision. To the representatives of the labor unions he says:— 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 can not and must not be construed as permitting discrimination 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 protesting against the retention of Miller in the government printing office, the grounds alleged are twofold: first, that he is a non-union man; second, that he is not personally fit. The question of his personal fitness is one to be settled in the routine of administrative detail, and can not 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. It is stated by representatives of the Central Labor Union in Washington that the labor federations will not oppose the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt in the national political convention, and that they will make no fight against his election to the presidency. At the same time it is declared by some of them that the president has by his decision in favor of an open shop, “set back union organization twenty-five years.” Further developments in the matter are to be expected.