if the order was given he would take possession of the mines, and would
guarantee to open them and run them without permitting any interference
either by the owners or by the strikers or by any one else, so long as
the President told him to stay. Fortunately Roosevelt's efforts to bring
about arbitration were ultimately successful and recourse to the novel
expedient of having the army operate the coal mines proved unnecessary.
No one was more pleased than Roosevelt himself at the harmonious
adjustment of the trouble, for, as he said, "It is never well to take
drastic action if the result can be achieved with equal efficiency in
less drastic fashion." But there can be no question that the drastic
action would have followed if the coal operators had not seen the light
when they did.

In other phases of national life Roosevelt made his influence equally
felt. As President he found that there was little which the Federal
Government could do directly for the practical betterment of living and
working conditions among the mass of the people compared with what the
State Governments could do. He determined, however, to strive to make
the National Government an ideal employer. He hoped to make the Federal
employee feel, just as much as did the Cabinet officer, that he was one
of the partners engaged in the service of the public, proud of his work,
eager to do it efficiently, and confident of just treatment. The Federal
Government could act in relation to laboring conditions only in the
Territories, in the District of Columbia, and in connection with
interstate commerce. But in those fields it accomplished much.

The eight-hour law for workers in the executive departments had become
a mere farce and was continually violated by officials who made their
subordinates work longer hours than the law stipulated. This condition
the President remedied by executive action, at the same time seeing
to it that the shirk and the dawdler received no mercy. A good law
protecting the lives and health of miners in the Territories was passed;
and laws were enacted for the District of Columbia, providing for the
supervision of employment agencies, for safeguarding workers 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