The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-16
TAFT ADDRESSES
 CIVIC FEDERATION

New York. December 15,-Charman l Wilcox of tne public service commission, l as head of the welfare department of the Civic federation. opened the second days session of the annual convention of that i body, in the Hotel Astor, in a speech in l which he outlined the object of his de- 1 partment broadly as the improvement of 1 the working and living conditions of workingmen He said the need of, trained 1 welfare workers is to be met by the opening shortly of class in connection with the Teachers College of Columbia university Chairman Wilcox introduced Louis D. Brandeis of Boston, who spoke briefly.
 i Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, presided at the afternoon session, and the speak CTS included John Mitchell who discussed i the question of responsibility for indus 1 trial accidents Among other things he said:
 'I believe that every employer should be made to pay toward the expenses of industrial accidents. Then, and then only, l to my mind. will you reduce the number ] Of accidents"
 1 The following officers were unanimous 1 ly chosen: President, Seth Low; vice ] presidents. Samuel Fompers, Nahum J. Bachelder, Ellison A. Smyth and Ben 1 jamin Ide Wheeler; treasurer, Isaac N. Selgman; statistician, Ralph D. Falk- 1 Ter; secretary, D. l.. Crease.
 1 The session closed tonight with ban i ouet, at which President elect Taft spoke.
 Notable Gathering.
 The notable throng of men and women l brought together by the federation led | MT Taft, wlo was the principal speaker of the evening, to remark that he hao i been sitting with company with which 1t l would hardly have been well for him to associate prior to the election. He then 1 declared, amid cheers, that all that had 1 happened before the election was closed 1 book to him, and he would be the presl- dent of all the people.
 MT Taft was the last of eight speakers. 1 Those who preceded him were MT. Low' l who acted as toastmaster, and Messrs Mitchell. Gompers, Carnegie. Belmont Ingalls, an1 Garretson. MT Taft spoke entirely extemporaneously and briefly.
 Much had been said during the evening | concerning the problem of the twilight zone," where state jurisdiction ends ana federal authority begins.
 The Sherman antitrust law also had been attacked by Melville D. Stone, who 1 | which should be entirely driven from the l statute books Mr Taft came to the res cue of the Sherman law, and said that while he believed with others that certain | amendments were necessary, he would De opposed to any attempt at it's repeal.
 Equal Rights of All.
 MT. Taft declared that he believed la | borers of the one hand and capitalists | on the other have equal rights of or ganization for the protection of their in- | terests He believed that in this way ana through these organizations they could meet on level grounds, neither at arm length, nor one at the mercy or the | other.
 .There have been problems in the past | which seemed as difficult as that of the twilight zone and the proper apportion- | ment of state and federal power, but they have been solved" said MT. Taft And think now that we can depend upon the acumen the patriotism and the ability of the members of the supreme court or the United States to recognize the neces- sity that from time to time arise in our progress to so construe the constitution as to enable us to carry out the reforms that are needed as the nation advances giving to the government the power oi dealing broadly with the greater prob lems and the states the power of dealing with the lesser ones.
 By this l do not mean at all that the constitution is to be perverted. But when we examine that wonderful instrument we find that the men who made it made it short, comprehensive and simple, that 1t might be open for us to carry out what the future had in it's womb-prob- lems of which they could see only the haZy outlines.
 Stick to Old Laws.
 Having thus acknowledged fealty tc the constitution I want to say that am quite ready either to part with the antitrust or Sherman law. will agree that they probably need amendment, but I do not think the amendments should be too extensive. It is more important to enforce that law than to reepal it.
 "To me one of the most important questions Is as to an employers liabll- ity act. In my judgment one of our greatest dangers lies in the delays in the administration of justice, civil and crim- inal. 4-y a reasonable employers lia- bilty act in both federal and state gov ernments we could remove from the courts nine-tenths of the suits for dam ages growing out of personal injuries and have just awards rendered by quasi judicial tribunals.
 "This would help the injured laborer to | a quick recovery and would unclog the courts and enable them to carry on other legal business, for our trouble is not so much with wrong decisions as with the delay in reaching right decisions"
 MT. Taft was urged to continue. but he closed his address by thanking all of the speakers for the kind words they had | spoken of him.
 'T am glad to get the praise now,' he l concluded, flor you remember the fel- low who went in with majority and