resources and yet not jeopard or dissipate them, I for one have no
doubt; and it can be done on lines of regulation which need be no less
acceptable to the people and governments of the States concerned than to
the people and Government of the Nation at large, whose heritage these
resources are. We must bend our counsels to this end. A common purpose
ought to make agreement easy.

Three or four matters of special importance and significance I beg that
you will permit me to mention in closing.

Our Bureau of Mines ought to be equipped and empowered to render even
more effectual service than it renders now in improving the conditions
of mine labor and making the mines more economically productive as well
as more safe. This is an all-important part of the work of
conservation; and the conservation of human life and energy lies even
nearer to our interest than the preservation from waste of our material
resources.

We owe it, in mere justice to the railway employees of the country, to
provide for them a fair and effective employers' liability act; and a
law that we can stand by in this matter will be no less to the advantage
of those who administer the railroads of the country than to the
advantage of those whom they employ. The experience of a large number of
the States abundantly proves that.

We ought to devote ourselves to meeting pressing demands of plain
justice like this as earnestly as to the accomplishment of political and
economic reforms. Social justice comes first. Law is the machinery for
its realization and is vital only as it expresses and embodies it.