The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-07

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"Could nothing induce you to change
your mind about it3' Mr. Hitchcock
persisted.
Nothing but direct request from
President Theodore Roosevelt, - replied
Mr.. Shay with some heat, thinking that
his reply was a elincher
think it over a while, - Mr. Hitch,
! cock finally said, and see if you can I
stand with us A half hour later a
messenger boy stood at the entrance to
the committee on resolutions, asking if
George Shay was there. He found his
man and to him delivered telegram
Imagine Mr.. Shay's surprise as he tore
the yellow envelope open to find that
he had a telegram from Theodore
| Roosevelt. 1t urged him in most posi-
tive terms to stand by the anti-injunc-
ton plank as originally written. Then
Mr.. Shay, like the historic possum, came
down out of the tree. He announced,
very quietly, that he was ready to vote
with the administration men in the
committee. While Mr.. Shay made lit
tie noise about it, the word quickly
spread
Whether the plank would have been
eliminated had the matter ever came to
direct vote will never be known.
Speaker Cannon and his coworkers
claimed they had a majority of the
committee-some 80 or 81 members of
a committee of So. Acknowledgement
Wade Ellis, of Ohio, and Senator
Chester I. Long, of Kansas, who were
the two leading champions of the ad-
ministration in the committee, claimed
that their opponents had but twenty
votes. The big. fight was over the
adoption of the following language,
which President Roosevelt and Secre-
tary Taft had written or approved in
Washington:
eve declare for such amendments of
the statutes of procedure in the Federal
courts with respect to the use of the
writ of injunction as will, on the one
hand, prevent the summary issue Of
such orders without proper considera-
ton, and, on the other, viii preserve
undiminished the power of the courts
to enforce their processes to the end
that Justice may be done at all times
to all parties. -
But the vote was never taken on
this in committee because Speaker
Cannon, after comforting late at night,
or more correctly in the early morning
hours of Thursday, with Senator Crane
of Massachusetts, and Representatives
Payne of New York, and Dalzeu Of
Pennsylvania, assented to a compromise,
1t was conditioned upon the elimination
from a recommendation for the amend
ment of the Sherman law, the legali-
zation of the boycott. This clause
made an exception, declaring that
amendments by Congress should be
made in that law so as not to Inter
fere with the operations of such asso,
Citations among business men. farmers
and wage earners as result in a positive
benefit to the public.
The compromise was finally accepted,
the Objectionable words in the Sher-
man antitrust law plank We're elimina-
ted and the Resolutions Committee ac,
cepted this anti-iniunction plank:
1.-The Republican party will uphold
at all times the authority and the in
tegrity of the courts, state and federal.
and viii ever insist that their powers
to enforce their processes and to pro-
tect life, liberty and property shall be
preserved inviOlare. We believe, how.
ever that the rules of procedure III the
federal courts with respect to the IS
suance Of the writ Of Injunction should
be more accurately defined by statute
and that no injunction or temporary
restraining order. should be issued with
out notice, except where irreparable IN.
jury would result from delay. in which
case speedy hearing thereafter should
be granted -
So much for what was the great fight
of the Chicago convention. even though
1t may be difficult for the average citi-
zen not learned in the law, to compre-
bend why there should have been such
a tremendous fuss about it. But the
pith of the matter is that there is fear
the unions of organized labor viii not
support Secretary Taft as the Repubii-
can nominee. because they regard him
as the father Of injunction. = His
decisions against labor unions when
he was on the bench as United States
Circuit Judge are likely to prove
tremendous weakness. He and the
President were anxious to do every.
thing they could do in the platform to
assure laboring men that. as the Repub-
lean standard bearer. he could be trust
ed TO do the laboring men full Justice
Both sides to the fight-the Cannon
men and the Taft men-expressed salts
faction with the outcome Senator
Long. when the fight was on in earnest,
had declared that the Secretary would
not go before the convention as a can.
didate, if the anti-iniunctfon plank was
The convention -goers were
hardly willing to credit that but the
statement was probably made seriously
and was intended at least to indicate
how determined the administration was.