resident upon the capitalists whom he met at these interviews in
which the way was prepared for a settlement of the anthracite coal strike.
Mr. Roosevelt made it clear that he was no respecter of persons by reason
of the incidental power any one might possess, but was only a respecter
and admirer of manhood.

The second of the executive opportunities came when a demand was made that
none but a member of the labor organization should be employed in one of
the government departments. The President's reply was emphatic. The
government as a government could not, he said, recognize either labor
organizations as against an individual or an individual as against a labor
organization. At one meeting between Mr. Roosevelt and some of those who
were of the labor world, he declared that no combination, whether of
capital, or of credit, or any wherein the bond of union is a common kind
of labor, can in the long run prosper if it forgets the rights of the
individual. He has over and over again inculcated the doctrine of
individual right of judgment, deeming that to contain the very spirit of
American institutions.

The Enjoyment in Labor.

The President is quoted by his friends as having recently expressed his
confident belief that the labor organizations are coming to see the wisdom
of the view that the right to exercise individual judgment must not be
forgotten or ignored. He has no doubt that ultimately, if wisely and
justly handled, they will give the fullest opportunity for the perfection
of the individual morally, intellectually, and physically.

The time, he thinks, is not far distant when the sense of individuality
may be sufficient to teach the lesson that in every kind of labor the
laborer may find enjoyment--the florist and the harvester in the mystery
of the growth and coloring of the products of the field, the
granite-worker in the tracings of geology, the carpenter in the beauty of
geometry and in the fine penciling which nature has left in the native
wood. Work undertaken in this spirit is no longer mere mercenary drudgery,
but partakes of the inspiration that follows high appeal to the
intellectual and moral faculty of the worker.

To give a final summing up of President Roosevelt's view of trade-unions
and labor organizations, it may be said that he believes in them because
he sees in such combinations the greater opportunity for each individual
to develop the best that is in him.

A Descent Into the M