The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-01-17
TAFT IN new YORK
Capital and Labor and Their Com.
mon Interests, the Subject
Discussed.
CROWD OVERLOOKED HALL
The Dependence of One Upon the
Other Was Pointed Out and a
Conciliative Policy Sug-
gested to Both.

New York, Jan. 1l.-For the 1rSt
time since he became a recognized
candidate for the republican presi-
Dental nomination, Secretary of War
William H. Taft Friday night faced
a New York audience set forth in de-
tail his stand on the pertinent ques-
tion of the relative interests and rights
of labor and capital, and in turn SUBJ
mitted to a rapid fire attack from the
audience which quizzed him keenly
and in somewhat controversial
spirit, according to the practice of the
Peoples institute, whose guest he was.
The secretary proved equally effective
in attack and defense and his prompt
and forcible replies and occasional wit
ty sallies evoked the same demonstra-
ton of applause as greeted the salient
points of his address proper.
Not less than two thousand per
sons, its capacity had crowded into
Copper Union when police reserves
were summoned to clear the walks in
front of the building where thou
sand or more, disappointed in not
having gained entrance, had congre-
gated.
In his prepared address the secre-
tary pointed out the dependence, one
upon the other, of capital and labor
He declared that great aggregations of
wealth properly employed widened the
field of labor and were to be well
comed while wealth improperly used
was to be condemned.
Labor needs capital to secure the
best production" said Mr.. Taft
while capital needs labor in produc.
ing anything The share of each
laborer in the joint product is affect
ed not exactly, but in a general way
by the amount of capital in use as
compared with the number of those
who labor. The more capital in use,
the more work there is to do, and the
more there is to do, the more laborers
are need Manifestly, it is in the d.
rect interest of the laborer that capt.
tai shall increase faster than the
number of those who work. Nothing
is so likely to make wealth idle as
insecurity of invested capital and
property. 1t follows, as a necessary
conclusion that to destroy, the guar
antics of property is a direct blow at
the interest of the working man.
What has been said should not be
misunderstood. The men who have by
economic organization of capital at
the same time increased the amount
of the country's capital, increased
the demand and price for labor and re-
duced the cost of necessities are not
philanthropists. Their sole motive
has been one of gain, and with the
destruction of private property that
motive will disappear and so would
the progress of society.
On the question of legal right of
the labor union to strike Secretary
Taft said:
Men have the right to leave the
employ of their employer in body in
order to impose on him as great an
inconvenience as possible to induce
him to come to their terms. They
have the right in their labor unions
to delegate to their leaders the power
to say when to strike. They have the
right in advance to accumulate by
contributions from all members of the
labor unions fund which shall en-
able them to live during the tendency
of the strike. They have the right
to use persuasion with all other
laborers who are invited to take their
places, in order to convince them of
the advantage to labor of united
action. 1t is the business of courts
and of the police to respect these
rights with the same degree of care
that they respect the right of owners
of capital to the protection of their
property and business"
He added. however, that "a resort
to violence, or other form of lawless-
ness, on behalf of labor union, prop
erly merits and receives the sharpest
condemnation from the public and is
quite likely to lose the cause of labor
its support in the particular contro
versy.