The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-08-20

AAo"oAu 1dlt last nBnJ delivered what
was regarded as his platform in his
candidacy for President.
Not once did he mention the name of
Joseph Benson Foraker. but he made
emphatic responses to the attacks
made by the latter on the Hepburn law.
tariff revision and other subjects. But
he did not stop there. He first took
up abuses in railway discrimination
and told why the President lac recon-
mended that the powers of the Inter-
state Commerce Commission should be
enlarged. Senator Foraker, in his
Ohio speeches this summer. a de-
clared that the Hepburn law was un-
wise, unconstitutional and unneces-
sary.
Coming out as a staunch upholder of
the Presidents policies, Secretary Taft
declared himself in unmistakable terms
in favor of tariff revision after the next
Presidential campaign. suggesting a
pledge from the Republican party in its
platform to bring this about.
The review of the Presidents policies
took up a large part of the speech. AL
luding to the work of the President,
Secretary Taft said:
1 am glad to express my complete,
III HRNtH Ath
and admiration for, the great conserv-
ing and conservative movement which
he has with wonderful success initiated
and carried SO far against bitter OPP
position. to remedy the evils of our
prosperity and preserve to us the In
stitutions inherited from our fathers"
To those who would cry socialism,
Secretary Taft declared the so-called
Roosevelt policies had been framed to
defeat socialism. There was nothing
either radical or severe in them, he
held.
Referring to the recent slump in the
value of securities. Secretary Taft in
sisted that the President should not be
held as responsible for this, and pointed
to the fact that there had also been a
slump abroad as well as a condition of
stringency in the money market to ac-
count possibly for some of 1t.
"If the prosecution of dishonest and
Illegal practises Is to injure prices"
he said. 'then this would he charged
not to the President, but to the viO-
Iators of the law whose pursuit of
criminal methods has been SO success
fur and far-reaching as to make their
prosecution a serious threat against
the stability of the market"
Secretary Taft, after expressing APP
rrovai of the ratelaw and endeavoring
to answer its critics. expressed his APP
prevail of the plan to amend it by re-
curing a certificate from the Inter-
state Commerce Commission for all is
sizes of securities as a remedy against
oyer-capitalization. He also said that
he was in favor of another amendment
limiting stock ownership and referred
to the Hartman Investigation as re-
vealing a dangerous tendency which,
If not stopped, would lead to the abb
sorption of all the railroads in the
country into one hand
Evidently replying to the criticism of
the centralizing policy here disclosed,
he said that the constitutional limits of
Federal action should not be blurred
out or the Federal power expanded
by doubtful construction TO interfere
with States rights. But the right of
Congress to take such action to con-
troll Interstate commerce, he said, could
not be denied.
In regard to trusts Mr.. Taft declared
it to be his belief that rigorous prose-
cution of existing laws against illegal
combinations and equal and just OPP
Grafton of the railways would restrain
the great corporations" within the
bounds of legitimate and useful busi-
ness.
Mr.. Taft came out in approval of leg
islation against fortunes due to re-
batting or some form of monopoly or
over-capitalization. Such legislation,
he declared, properly belonged to the
States. He advocated a Federal gradu-
ated inheritance tax and an income
tax att such times as the government
revenue needed addition Oh readjust-
ment.
Mr.. Taft began by %alluding to the
great prosperity. general comfort and
even luxury" of the present period and
the increase of wages to the highest
point ever known, due to the demand
for labor. He continued:
The compensation of skilled labor now
frequently exceeds that of certain profes-
sions, like teaching and the ministry.
Wealth has accumulated enormously in the
hands of individuals and never before nave
rich men given so freely OF their fortunes
conditions are apt to dim and dull the eye
and the ear of the people to abuses ana
dishonesty in the body politic and social
1t was such periods in the history OF
ancient republics when their foundations
were Slapped and their fall ultimately
brought about. Prophets of evil have fore.
LOAA Iho bdlAlG 4aLOF AAAAC R00AC -E~0.
have been refuted. In spite OF the general
comfort, there have been made manifest
by signs not to be misunderstood a quick
ening of the public conscience and u de-
mand for the remedy of abuses, the out
growth of this prosperity and for a higher
standard OF business integrity.
The first, and possibly the greatest,
abuse has been In the management of the
arterial system of the country which the
interstate railroads form. Any unjust dis
elimination in the terms upon which trans
portation of freight or passengers is at
forded an Individual or a locality, paral-
Yves and withers the business of the in
dividual or the locality exactly as the
binding of the arteries and veins leading
to a member of the human body destroys
its life. |
The Secretary then took up the old
interstate commerce Law of 1887 and
pointed out its failure and the causes.
Thence he came to the recommendation
of the new rate bill by President
Roosevelt and it's enactment as a aw
in June, 1906, and went on to show how
the new act enables the commission to
fix rates and gives efficacy to all of its
orders by providing that they shall go
into effect thirty days after they are
made, unless suspended by an order of
court, failure to comply with which
orders of the commission is punishable
by a fine of $4,000 a day during the de-
linquency.
Continuing, the speaker took up the