Speech 59 
THE SPIRIT IN WHICH NEW PROBLEMS MUST BE FACED

FROM     AN    ADDRESS    DELIVERED    IN    CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, OCTOBER   19,   1905
IN civil life each generation has its problems.  The tremendous industrial development of the past half century, the very development which has produced cities such as this, has brought great problems with it; problems connected with corporations; problems connected with labor; problems connected with both the accumulation and the distribution of wealth.  The problems are new, but the spirit in which we must approach their solution is old.  We must face the work we have to do as our fathers faced their work, if we wish to be successful.  This is an age of organization, the organization of capital, the organization of labor.  Each type of organization should be welcomed when it does good, and fearlessly opposed when it does evil.  Our aim should be to strive to keep the reign of justice alive in this country so that we shall above all things avoid the chance of ever dividing on the lines that separate one class from another, one occupation from another.  The man who would preach to either wage worker or capitalist that the other was his foe is a bad citizen and faithless American.  We can afford to divide along lines that represent honest difference of opinion, but we can not afford to divide on the fundamental lines of cleavage that separate good citizens from bad citizens.  We must remember, if we intend to keep this Republic in its position of headship among the nations of mankind, that we can never afford to deviate from the old American doctrine of treating each man on his worth as a man, of paying heed, not to whether he is rich or poor, but only to whether he acts as a decent citizen.