The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-28
Big Stick Is Yielded Rather Lightly by the President in
 Asking for New Laws
ANTITRUST LAW MUST
 BE CHANGED FOR BETTER
Message is Sent to House and Senate Very Late and Receives Scant At tention from the Members
 Before Adjournment.

Washington, April 27.-conditions. both in the Senate and the House, were such that the special message of the President further outlining his views as to legisla- tion which was sent to Congress today, received but scant attention. The mes sage arrived late in the day and the House was so tied up under its new rules that it could not officially receive the message, while the Senate was in the midst of the consideration of the naval appropriation bill under the ten minute rule, when the document reached that body.
 Unlike the House, the Senate permitted the formal presentation of the message, but 1t could not at that time be laid be- fore the Senate, and by the time the naval bill had been disposed of, the hour was so late and the attendance so small that no attempt was made to read the docu- ment. The first few lines only had been pronounced by the clerk when it was sug gested that the further reading should be postponed until tomorrow. This sug- gestion was adopted and the Senate ad- journed.
 The message is as follows:
 To the Senate and House of Representa- tives:
 In my message to the Congress of March 25 1908, 1 outlined certain measures which l believe the majority of our coun- trymen desire to have enacted into law at this time. These measures do not 9ep~ resent by any means all that would like to see done if l thought it possible, but they do represent what l believe can be done if an earnest effort toward this end is made.
 Since l wrote this message an employ CTS liability law has been enacted which, it is true, comes short of what ought to have been done, but which does represent a real advance. Apparently there is good ground to hope that there will be further legislation providing for recompensinS all employees who suffer injury while engaged in the public service; that there will be a child labor law enacted for the District of Columbia; that the waterways com mission will be continued with sufficient financial support to increase the effective ness of its preparatory work; that steps will be taken to provide for such in- Vestigaton into tariff conditions, by the appropriate committee of the House Of Representatives by government experts in the executive service, as will secure the full information necessary for immediate action in revising the tariff at the hands of the Congress elected next fall and finally, that financial legislation will be enacted providing for temporary measures for meeting any trouble that may arise in the next year or two, and Tor com mission of experts who shall thoroughly investigate the whole matter, both here and in the great commercial countries abroad so as to be able to recommend legislation which will put our financial off basis. It is much to be wished that one feature of the financial legislation of this session should be the establishment or postal saVnigs banks. Ample appropria- tion should be made to enable the inter- state commerce commission to carry out the very important feature of the Hepburn law which gives to the commission super vision and control over the accounting systems of the railways. Failure to pro- vide means which will enable the com- mission to examine the books of the rail- ways would amount to an attack on the law at it's most vital point, and would benefit, as nothing else could benefit, those railways which are corruptly or in- competently managed. Forest reserves should be established throughout the Ap- palachan mountain region wherever it can be shown that they will have d direct and real connection with the con- servation and improvement of navigable rivers.
 There seems, however, much doubt about two of the measures have recom- mended: the measure to do away with abuse of the power of injunction and the measure or group of measures to strengthen and render both more efficient and more wise the control of the national government over the great corporations doing an interstate business.
 Power of Injunction.
 First as to the power of injunction and of punishment for contempt. In contempt cases, save where immediate action is imperative, the trial should be before another judge. As regards injunc- tions, some such legislation as that 1 have previously recommended should be enacted. They are blind who fail to realize the extreme bitterness caused among large bodies of worthy citizens by the use that has been repeatedly made of the power of injunction in labor disputes. Those in whose Judgment we have most right to trust are of the opin- ion that while much of the complaint against the use of the injunction is un- warranted yet that 1t is unquestionably true that in number of cases this power has been used to the grave injury of the rights of laboring men, l ask that it be limited in some such way as that 1 have already pointed out in my previous mes sages, for the very reason that do not wish to see an embitterd effort made to destroy it. It is unwise stubbornly 10 refuse to provide against repetition of the abuses which have caused the present unrest In democracy like ours it Is idle to expect permanently to thwart the determination of the great body of our citizens. It may be and often is the highest duty of a court, legislature. or an executive, to resist and defy a gust of popular passion; and most certainly TO public servant, whatever may be the consequences to himself, should yield to what he thinks wrong. But in question
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