Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-08-20
WHERE TAFTSTANDS
Secretary Gives His Views on
 National Issues. Y
MAKES SPEECH 1T COLUMBUS, Q.
He Denounces Railroad Abuses and Wicked Trusts-Praises President Roosevelt and Favors Revi-
 sion of Tarin In 1900.

mu 0chUunCcS AaiAxvao AUuSUs 1Mss
 Wicked Trusts-Praiscs President
 Roosevelt and Favors Revi-
 sion of Tarin In 1900.
 COLUMBUS, O., Aug. 20.-Secretary of War William H. Taft speaking be. fore the Buckeye Republican club, made the long awaited announcement of his views on the political issues now confronting the nation. This speech is regarded as the opening gun of Mir. Taft's campaign for the presidential nomination.
 Secretary Taft said in part:
 'srhe present is period of the great est prosperity, general comfort and even luxury. Throughout this country the demand for labor has increased wages to higher point than ever known before. The compensation of skilled labor now frequently exceeds that of certain professions, like teach ing and the ministry. Wealth has ac- cumulated enormously in the hands of individuals, and never before have rich men given so freely of their fortunes to educational and charitable objects. Such conditions are apt to dim and dull the eye and ear of the people to abuses and dishonesty in the body polite and social It was such periods in the history of ancient republics when their foundations were sapped and their fall ultimately brought about. Prophets of evil have foretold the same fate for this republic. .~hey have been refuted. In spite of the gen. eral comfort, there have been made manifest by signs not to be misunder- stood quickening of the public con science and demand for the remedy of abuses the outgrowth of this pros- perity and for higher standard of business integrity. Every lover of his country should have feeling of pride and exaltation in this evidence that our society is still sound at the core.
 T have been invited by your body to discuss the national issues. Some of these involve the abuses over which the public conscience has been aroused and the proper remedies for their re- moval. The first and possibly the great est abuse has been in the management of the arterial system of the country which the interstate railroads form. Any unjust discrimination in the terms upon which transportation of freight or passengers is afforded an in diyidual or locality paralyzes and withers the business of the individual or the locality exactly as the binding of the arteries and veins leading to a member of the human body destroys its life.
 'The result of twenty years opera tion under the interstate commerce act of 1887, passed to restrain abuses of unjust discrimination and unreason- ableness of rates, was that the rail- roads came to regard the action of the commission 1t created as of no impor- tance. Made aware of the moribund condition of railway regulation under the old law and of the widespread abuses which prevailed in railway management, President Roosevelt in his message of 1904 recommended that the powers of the commission be large ly increased. first, by enabling the commission to fix rates and. second, by making its order effective against the carriers without resort to courts to compel performance. He asked that 1t be made an administrative tri- bunal with real power. This was done by the passage of the rate bill in June. 1906.
 "The rate law has not been in opera tion year. and the beneficial results from his operations. though clear. are not ready to be presented in statistical array. The immediate effect of the act has certainly been to compel railroads to regard the commission now as the important tribunal whose views they must follow. They are manifesting every outward disposition strictly to comply with the law and to avoid prosecution or complaint. The time has gone by in which the action of the commission can be ignored or laughed at. With the large powers for correcting evils which the com mission now has, we may reasonably expect marked improvement in the conduct of the railways of the coun- try.
 'The rate law, however, does not go far enough. The practice under 1t has already disclosed the necessity for new ahendments and will doubtless sug- gebt more. Such is the true method thu empirical and tentative method of occurring proper remedies for new evq. The classification of merchandise for transportation is q most important matter in rate fixing. for by a transfer froh one class to another the rate Is changed and may work injustice. With thepower of rate fixing, 1t would seem. shotld go the power in the commission to 3assify and to prescribe rules for unifbrm classification by all railroads.
 "Hcent revelations have emphasized the bernicious effect of the SO called over4apifaliEation of railroads which aids pnscrupulous stock manipulatcrs in dllposlng of railway securities at unreaionably high prices to innocent buyert This evil would not of itself justify federal restraint or control be- cause tuch stock and bonds are usual. ly iss3ed under stats charters. The praeticb. however. has q tendency to divert the money paid by the public for tha stock and bonds which ought to be ekpended in improving the road