Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-12
TAFT AND UN|ON|SM
Preparations Made to Fight
Him by A. F. of L.
LETTER FROM c. J. FRENCH
Recalls the Secretarys Attitude
When a Judge.
MENACE TO LABOR MOVEMENT
Appeal to All Organizations of
Workers to Join in Helping to
Defeat His Candidacy.
LETTER FROM C. J. FRENCH
MENACE TO LABOR MOVEMENT

! War on the Taft candidacy is declared
| in a letter issued by Charles j. French,
! president OF the New Hampshire branch
of the American Federation Of Labor The
letter sent to other state unions and
various organizations recalls Secretary
! Taft's attitude on strikers and inJunc-
| tions when he was a federal Judge, and
urges his defeat on that ground. The let
ter is as follows:
| Address to Workers.
| The gravest and most momentous sit
uation that has ever confronted the work
| ingpeople of this country is now upon
| us Every labor-unionist, every wage
Garner. every sympathZer with our cause.
should rise as one man in his might to
meet the imepnding crisis. Our very eX-
istence as q vital element of the social.
educational and industrial fabric of the
republic will be broken and scattered I'M
| less we arouse and assert ourselves IN
! full realization of the imminent and ur-
gent conditions with which we are as
sailed Action consistent. action persist
emit action inSstent is the watchWord
and demand. the dire necessity OF the
hour Three hundred accredited represent
atives' of the national and international
unions and farmers associations OF
| America have invoked the President and
! the Congress for relief through lesisla-
| ton. and the cooperation OF labor
unionists and wage-earners everywhere
should Immediately be enlisted in the mo-
mentous movement to preserve and safe
guard our rights. our power and our use
| fulness.
Secretary of War William TT. Taft
now an eager aspirant for the presidency
! of the United States. while sitting for
merly as a judge on the federal bench
became the unfortunate exponent OF four
nota BILE. pivotal labor decisions. involving
! the boycott the injunction, the strike. the
| commitment for contempt of court, etc
| which significant judicial utterances. with
| their accompanying eXpositionS and con-
| structions of law. laid the foundation and
| formed the general basis and chief legal
! precedent for such formidable embarrass-
ment and perilous complications as now
beset our fraternal and personal welfare
! and progress
at is urged in defense of Judge Taft
| that he did only what he thought to be
| his judicial duty as a living oracle of the
| law as he interpreted and construed 1t
! from adjudged analogy and accredited
| repositories; but, on the contrary. it is
| argued with force and plausibility that
! much unwritten and non-Statutory law is
| conceded to be what is styled Judge
made: that the data and conceptions
| upon which Judge Taft founded his ad-
Vanced and positive conclusions did not
! warrant the extremity to which he went :
that his commanding and scholarly grasp
of obsolete erroneous and hitherto in
nocuouS doctrines so forcibly marsh aled
and declared by him in application to re-
cent eaactments and conditions, was ar
bitrary. illogical and unnecessary: not
COMFORTING with the current trend of jul
dicial authority. nor. in the last analy
in harmony with the more enlightened
popular sentiment now manifest in recog-
milton of and concern for the prerogatives
and privileges of labor unionists and
other deserving workers.
Affront to Labor
However this may he. the important
fact remains that Judge Taft--now Can
didate Taft-became the primary cause
the initial instrumentality. of our present
threatened dissolution, and. however gra-
ciOus his personality or innocent his In
tention. he is unavoidably the principal
point of issue upon which remedial legis-
lation in our amelioration is now de-
manded. even by the sagacious President
Roosevelt himself in his interchangeable zeal
for his political prOtege Judge Taft. rich
aristocTatic and Independent himself. and
possibly not wholly unmindful of the
prestige OF big financial trusts and other
! aggresations OF corporate wealth. may
not, at that time. have given the most
cautious consideration to the logical eff
| fectS and conclusions of his judicial dec
| aratiOnS: and it is fair and generous to
assume that he did not then anticipate
| that President Roosevelt would require
| his services as popular candidate, as
| heir apparent. 'residuary legatee' to
| the White House. Yet Judge Taft still
| disbeleveS in strikes denounces the boy
| colt as "a cruel instrument admits that
arbitration is solution of the labor
| problem. and prefers the remedy by in
| junction. characteriZing the writ as one
| of the most beneficial remedies known to
law
without attempting to hold Candidate
Taft wholly responsible for Judge Taft
wholly accountable for the dangerous
straits unto which the cause of labor has
been forced-the millions of wage workers.
organized and unorganized. throughout the
country have 10 eScap or recourse of &C
ton except to hold Candidate Taft as the
one present objective point of their self de
Tense His prominent picket attitude as the
typical representative and embodiment
of dangerous hostility to the essential in
terests Of the workers becomes all the
more pronounced because of the exceed
ingly objectionable and reprehensible
methods and tactics adopted in his politi-
cal furtherance. with uncomforta BILE re-
cent rumorS of unholy alliance and COM
pact with Wall street magnates. The
persistent enforcement OF his candidacy
by federal officeholders and dilettante
local politicians has become so odious to