Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-10-26
DECLARES TAFT
 ASSISTED LABOR
President Answers Note of
 Trainman.
lITES NARRAMORE CASE.

lR Letter Roosevelt States That Can. didats "ln the Matter of Injunetiens
 Was Absolutely Rish~ and That
 "Prinoiplss He Laid Down" Have
 Since Been Accepted by Union Lead
 srs and Embodied In Practices of
 Present Day Brothsrheods.
 Washington, Oct. 26 = President Roosevelt has written letter to P. Fl, Grace of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. Part of the letter reads as follows:
 T need hardly say that take a pe- culiar interest in the men who work on the railroads in this country, and prize as one of the honors of which 1 am most proud the fact that I am an honorary member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Bremen.
 Tn the matter of the injunctions MT. Taft issued he was absolutely right, and the principles he laid down In those injunctions have since then been accepted by every worthy leader of labor, and they. are embodied in the principles and practices of all the rail soad brotherhoods at the present day.
 Cites the Narranors Case.
 "While on the bench MT. Taft rem dered service to labor so great that 1t can hardly be overestimated. This was In the Narramore case against the C., C., c. and St. Louis railroad. The plaintiff while working in the employ of the company had been hurt because the company had not provided the pro- lection which the statute required 1t to furnish It's employees. He got a. verdict from the jury. The railroad appealed, and it's counsel, Mir. Judson Harmon, argued that the verdict should be set aside because the em- ployee had kept at work, although he knew the railroad had violated the law and that therefore he had really contracted to take all the chances of being hurt. This conclusion, to my mind cruelty iniquitous conclusion, had up tc that time been sustained by most of the courts, including the New York state court of appeals. Neverthe- less Judge Taft refused to follow the New York case, stating that the mani fest legislative purpose was to protect the employee by positive law, for the very reason that 1t had proved impos- sible for him to protect himself by contract and that the entire purpose of the law would be defeated if the employee was allowed by any form of contract to exempt the railroad com pany from the consequences of its failure to observe the law.
 The Panama Canal.
 "This case has been cited all over the United States by counsel for work men injured through the failure of their employers to furnish the protec- tion required by statute for their safe ty.t Judge Taft's decision, was that when law is made applying to dan gerous business in which 4,000 men are killed and 65,00O men are injured every year the intention is that the railroads shall obey the law and that it shall not be nullified by judicial construction.
 ..The Panama canal has come spe- cially under the direction and control of MT. Taft as secretary of war. He has taken a peculiar interest in the men who are digging that canal. He has made a special study of all that confronts them. A special committee which I have appointed to look into the conditions of labor on the isthmus, which included upon it Mir. Samuel B. Donnelly, labor representative, for meriy the president of the Information al Typographical union, has reported to me in effect that Uncle Sam has shown himself to be model employer on the isthmus, so that, thanks to Mfr. Taft and the care and supervision which he has exercised, the men who work for the government on the isth- mus are on the whole better paid, bet ter protected and better cared for than in any private industrial enterprise in the United States"