The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-20
 He Speaks to the Buck eye Club. EARNEST DEFENSE
 OF ROOSEVELT POLICY Dwells on Elkins Law and Its
 Clauses. Thinks Tariff Should be Left Alone Untn After Pfesidentiai Elec- tion---suggestions For
 control Of Rail-
 roads.


 Columbus, O., Aug. 19--william H. Taft made what he was pleased to term his political confession of faith" at Memorial Hall tonight. The audito- rum, which has seating capacity of over 5000. was packed to the doors, and several thousand people who came to hear the Secretary speak, were un- able to gain admittance.
 The Secretary spoke under the au- spices of the Buckeye Republican Club and the address was notable from the fact that 1t is regarded as the platform upon which he will make his campaign for the Republican nomination for President. MT. Taft made no formal announcement of his candidacy, but he was introduced by Governor Harris as the next President of the United States, which was the signal for pro- longed outburst of applause.
 Special interest was manifested in Secretary Taft's utterances on the tar if. He reiterated his previous declar- ations in favor of revision. and de- clared that 1t would be both unwise and unsafe for the Republican party to fail to pledge itself to revise the Dingley tariff as soon after the next Presidential election as possible.
 MT. Taft also declared in favor of Imprisonment of individuals responsi- ble for violations of the antitrust law. His defense of President Roosevelt's policies evoked enthusiastic applause. Secretary Taft spoke as follows:
 Members of the Buckeye Republican
 Club and Feliow-citizens of Ohio;
 The present Is period, of the greatest prosperity, general comfort country, the demand for labor has in- ever known before. The compensa- tion of skilled labor now. frequently exceeds that of certain professions, has has ssasn acsunuisted I s snermoasly e h 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 the ear of the eggpds gdv to sSa soes % such periods in the, history of ancient sbont ana hsr fa of e9 hsgs foretold the same fate for this Re- public. They have been refuted. In spite of the general coIo hY Tsns sheGe eoe to be misunderstood, quickening of the public conscience and a demand for the remedy or aDuses. me se oatgriN%ssr gigsar standard of business integrity. Every lover of his country should have a evidence that our society Is still sound at the core.
 Railway DIscriminations.
 "I 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, r and the Rroper remedies for their re- es3! The nsa rS 5 beaG aaG RosibbSy tbs mans sne agement 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 arorded an individual or a 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
 aThe result of twenty years opera ton under the interstate commerce act of 1887, passed to restrain abuses of unjust discrimination and unrea- condolences of rates, was that the rail- roads came to regard the action of the commission it created as of no im- costly of resorting to the courts tc try out the merits of every order Of the commission. before 1t became eneetive, G ,., 3 shipper or locality so slow and burden some that in contested cases, 1t was no remedy at all. The commission was
  fix reasonable rates. It could only say that particular rate was unrea- sonable and order a railroad to change its rate and make 1t reasonable. The railroad might fix new rate at any thing less than the rate declared to be unreasonable, and If the reduction had to be brought to decide. that the new rate was also unreasonable.
 The New Rate Bill.
 Made aware of the moribund condi- oF nnnaF old law and of the widespread abuses which prevailed in railway manage ment, President Roosevelt, in his mes sage of 1904, recommended that the powers of the commission be largely Increased first by enabling the com maki9g it's orders effective against the carriers without resort to courts to compel performance. He asked unaI with real power. This was done by the passage of the Rate Bill, in june. ls66. The new act enables the leacy to all of it's orders by. providing that they shall go into eHect thlrty days after they are made unless sus- ure to comply with them is punish able by a fine of $5,000 a day during the delinquency. Express Companies, sleep ing car companies, and oil-plpe line companies are brought under the Ju- rlsdiction of the commission as com mon carriers.
 The act gives the commission pow CT to fix the rates for the various in- cidental services performed by rail- ways at terminals and on the journey and to require them to be performed for every shipper By withholding such services from one. and extending them to another. and by imposing va Tying charges for them, companies have been able in the past to make them a convenient instrument for dis crimination. The new law requires the publication of rates charged for such incidental services. Railroads are compelled to furnish cars without discrimination for the movement oi fined in their business strictly toNtrans- portation by. provision forbiddine them, after that date. to transport for themselves, anything but what is in tended for their use as common car riers.
 "Experience has shown that the rail