Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-28
JUDGE TAFT,S ADDRESS.

He Speaks in Defense of the Federal
Judiciary.
DETROIT, Mich, August 2S.-The fea-
ture of today's session of the meeting of
the American Bar Association was the an
nual address, which was delivered this
morning by William H. Taft of Ohio, Judge
of the United States circuit court of 3D.
peals.
Judge Taft referred to the fact that with
in the past four years the governors of sew
eral states had officially declared that the
federal courts mad seized Jurisdiction not
rightly theirs, and had exercised it to the
detriment of the republic and had. urged
their respective legislatures to petition Con-
gress for remedial legislation to prevent I'D
ture usurpation, the principal charges
against the federal courts being undue pro-
lection Of corporations and oppression of
the power Of organized labor.
Since all members of the Bar Association
bear the same relation to the federal jul
dicial system, the speaker believed these
criticisms to be proper subject of discus
sion before them, although he deprecated
airy suggestion that his words might be re-
garded as in the nature either Of personal
defense or as of a quasi official character.
Judge Taft admitted that non-professional
criticism is by no means without its uses,
and in the case of judges having a life
ter ure, their very independence made the
right to comment on their decisions an i'm
q
people.
Beginning as arbiters in n political con-
fiict, and welding similar powers until to-
day. the federal judiciary never enjoyed i'm
munity from unjust attack upon their con-
duct or motives, because of the character
of their Jurisdiction. The rapid increase of
corporations and their freedom, in some
cases, from moral restraints. resulted. at
times, in the use of money for political
corruption, and in various other acts which
justly gave rise to popular distrust of their
methods.
"In spite of these well-known evils" said
the Judge, nothing can be clearer to a
calm, intelligent thinker than that under
conditions of modern society. corporations
are indispensable. both to the material pro-
gress of this country and to the mainte-
mace Of that we have.
"The evils must be remedied, but not by
destroying one of the greatest instruments
for good that social man has devised. While
socialism has not obtained much Of a foot
hold in this country, schemes which are
socialistic in nature are accepted az planks
in the platform of a large political party,
their underlying principle being that 1T is
the duty of the government to equalize the
inequalities which the rights of free con-
tract and private property have brought
about, and to afford occupation and sus-
tenance to the poor by an outlay, derived,
as far as possible, from the rich
Under the fourteenth amendment the
question whether legislation and state ac-
ton deprive any person OF his property
without due process of law has become
a federal one. Prejudice against corpora
lions has led to much legislation hostile
to corporations 1t takes the form of dis
eliminating taxation, regulation of rates
to be charged by those companies in
quasi public business, and sometimes of
the direct deprivation of vested rights"
In speaking of the weight of evidence.
he referred to the Judge as a mere moder-
ator, the slightest scintilla of evidence
requiring a submission of the case to a
jury.
make it necessary, at times, for the Just
interests Of corporations of other states,
to take such cases into other courts where
juries are not friends of either of the con-
tending parties and where power is given
to the judge to take case from a jury
and direct a verdict where evidence for
either party is SO slight that q contrary
verdict would be against the weight of
evidence.
1.-The real abuses, however, find their
chief cause in political corruption. which
is wholly beyond the power of federal
courts to prevent or eradicate. Too fire.
quently the popular impulse is to remedy
or permit the evil by giving Judgment
against the corporation in every case, no
matter what the particular facts are, on
the ground that the corporation has prob-
ably increased its capital or attained sue
cess by corrupt methods"
He referred in detail to the relation of
federal courts to organized labor, especial
ly to their action in issuing injunctions
In the American Railway Union strike
In this connection he strongly criticised
the attitude of Governor Altgeld of Illinois
IN maintaining that conspiracy described
In the Debs case was not unlawful
Said he: "a public nuisance more COM
plete than that in which Debs ct al. were
engaged in furthering cannot be mag
ined."
In closing. the speaker hoped that from
an impartial observance of the conduct of
FEDERAL judges 1t would be seen that thew
have not greatly lacked in the two essen
uais OF Judicial moral character, and a
sincere desire to reach right conc,nsions
accompanied by frmness to enforca thar,s