against accidents, and for the restriction of child labor. A
workmen's compensation law for government employees, inadequate
but at least a beginning, was put on the statute books. A similar
law for workers on interstate railways was declared
unconstitutional by the courts; but a second law was passed and
stood the test.

It was chiefly in the field of executive action, however, that
Roosevelt was able to put his theories into practice. There he
did not have to deal with recalcitrant, stupid, or
medieval-minded politicians, as he so often did in matters of
legislation. One case which confronted him found him on the side
against the labor unions, but, being sure that he was right, he
did not let that fact disturb him. A printer in the Government
Printing Office, named Miller, had been discharged because he was
a non-union man. The President immediately ordered him
reinstated.

Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor,
with several members of its Executive Council, called upon him to
protest. The President was courteous but inflexible. He answered
their protest by declaring that, in the employment and dismissal
of men in the Government service, he could no more recognize the
fact that a man did or did not belong to a union as being for or
against him, than he could recognize the fact that he was a
Protestant or a Catholic, a Jew or a Gentile, as being for or
against him. He declared his belief in trade unions and said that
if he were a worker himself he would unquestionably join a union.
He always preferred to see a union shop. But he could not allow
his personal preferences to control his public actions. The