"It is not possible to lay down a hard-and-fast rule, logically perfect, as to when the State shall interfere, and when the individual must be left unhampered and unhelped. We have exactly the same right to regulate the conditions of life and work in factories and tenement-houses that we have to regulate the fire-escapes and the like in other houses. In certain communities the existence of a thoroughly efficient department of factory inspection is just as essential as the establishment of a fire department. How far we shall go in regulating the hours of labor, or the liabilities of employers, is a matter of expediency, and each case must be determined on its own merits, exactly as it is a matter of expediency to determine what so called ‘’public utilities’’ the community shall itself own and what ones shall leave to private or corporate ownership, securing to itself merely the right to regulate. Sometimes one course is expedient, sometimes the other."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Strenuous_Life%3A_Essays_and_Addresses
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses
177 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses →
Related Quotes
"If we stand idly by, if we seek merely swollen, slothful ease and ignoble peace, if we shrink from the hard contests …"
"When a partizan political organization becomes merely an association for purposes of plunder and patronage, it may be…"
"We must see that there is civic honesty, civic cleanliness, civic good sense in our home administration of city, Stat…"
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with…"
"We cannot, if we would, play the part of China, and be content to rot by inches in ignoble ease within our borders, t…"
"We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill."
"We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution, there is, of course, always danger that we may not so…"
"No country can long endure if its foundations are not laid deep in the material prosperity which comes from thrift, f…"
"Let us, as we value our own self-respect, face the responsibilities with proper seriousness, courage, and high resolv…"
"Cowardice does not promote peace."