Albuquerque citizen., 1908-06-15

W Heron, of Cincinnati They have
three children, Robert Alphonso, a
student at Yale. Helen. a student OF
Bryn Mawr. and Charles Phelps, I'd,
who attends the public schools in
Washington.
His Judicial Career Begun.
His appointment as judge of the
superior court was the beginning OF
the judicial career which was Tafts
ambition, and for which he was so
eminently fitted. He made such a
record as a Judge that at the close of
his appointed term he was triumph
antly elected for another term. But
already he had attracted attention
outside his state, and he had served
but two years of the five years for
which he had been elected when
President Harrison asked him to take
the difficult post of solicitor general
of the United States. This was an
office of the utmost Importance, in
volving not only wide learning and
tremendous application but the pow
er of clear and forceful presentation
of argument. Two of the cases which
he conducted as solicitor general in
volved questions of vital Importance
to the entire country. The first grew
out of the seal fisheries controversy
with Great Britain. Mr. Taft won
against such eminent counsel as Jo-
seph II. Choate, who is widely rec
ognized as a leader of the American
bar. The other was a tariff case in
which the law was attacked on the
ground that Speaker Reed had count
ed a quorum when the bill passed the
House. That, too, he won. 1t was dur
ing his term as solicitor general that
Mr.. Taft met Theodore Roosevelt,
then civil service commissioner, and
began the friendship which has con-
tinued and grown ever since and
which has had such far-reaching in
fiuence upon the lives of both men.
On the Federal Bench.
Mr.. Tafts record as solicitor gem
eral SO clearly proved his fitness for
the bench that after three years in
Washington he was sent back to Ohio
as judge of the Sixth federal circuit,
a post generally recognized as a pre-
liminary step to the supreme court.
which was then the goal of his am
bition.
1t was during his seven years on
the federal bench that Mr. Taft's
qualities as a judge became known
throughout the country. He was call
ed upon then to decide some of the
most important cases that have ever
been tried in the federal courts, in
the conduct of which he established
an enviable reputation for learning.
courage and fairness-three essential
attributes of a great jurist. His pow
er of application and his ability to
turn off enormous masses of work re-
ceived ample demonstration during
this time. 1t was in this period of his
service that he rendered the labor
decisions which have made him IA
nous as an upright and fearless
judge. In his treatment Of both labor
and capital he showed that here was
a Judge who knew no distinction of
parties when they appeared as liti-
gants before him. He voiced the law
as he knew 1t and the right as he saw
ii, no matter where the blow fell or
whom it struck. If sometimes the de-
cisions went against what organized
la Dor at that time believed to be its
cause, 1t must not be forgotten that
no clearer or broader statement of
the true rights of labor has ever been
made than in some of his judicial ut
terances. Lawyers conducting liti-
cation in other courts on behalf of
la Dor unions have often cited these
decisions of Judge Taft in support of
their contentious Neither should 1t
be forgotten that one Of the most inn
portant and far reaching of all his
judgments was that against the Ad-
dystone Pipe company, in which for
the first time the sherman antitrust
law was made a living vital force
for the curbing and punishment of
monopoly. When this case reached
the supreme court, Mr.. Taft received
the distinguished and unusual honor
of having his decision quoted in full
and handed down az part OF the
opinions of he high court which sus-
tanned him at every point.
Pioneering the Roosevelt Policy.
This Addystone Pipe decision mark
ed the beginning of the struggle for
federal control Of interstate corpora
tions which In the later years has
come to be known as the Roosevelt
policy" Mr.. Taft in an address to the
-
in the summer of 1895. had enunciat-
eu the principle on which President
Roosevelt has made his great fight
for the abolition Of special privilege.
Thus Mr.. Taft pioneered the way for
the Roosevelt policy"
Blazing the Philippine Trail
Since the settlement of the recon
struction questions no more delicate
or fateful problem has confronted
American Statesmanship than that of
he Philippines. The sudden pitching
# over-sea territory into our possess
sion as result OF the war with Spain
created a situation not only unexpect-
ed but entirely without precedenD,
There was no guide for our statesmen.
The path had to be hewed out new
from the beginning. There was no
crystalizaton of opinion among the
American people as t. what should
be done with the Philippines. con-
siderable element was vigorously OPP
ICse1 10 retaining them hut The vas