Bisbee daily review., 1909-04-02
FROM TAFT, PRESIDENT, ID
 TAFT, JUDGE
Samuel Gompers, in An Edito- rial, Calls Attention to Some Salient Points in Presidents Public UtteranceS

In the April number Of the Ameri- can Federationist Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labor and editor-in-chief of the magaz ne, devotes several pages to an editorial with the caption, President Taft Consistent with Judge Taft
 Afr. Gompers quotes what Presi- dent Taft. in his inaugural address, said about labor injunctions.
 "Of course, any statement which a man of Mir. Tafts standing may make is entitled to more than passing no tice. and particularly is this so when he is also president. Then let us ask: Would labor's efforts to secure relief by law from the adm tied abuse of the injunction writ makes the working men privileged class of wrongdoers, in the sense that they would be privileged to comm crimes or unlawful acts without punishment? Let us see. What does labor ask at the hands of the lawmakers?
 What Labor Demands.
 Labor asks and demands that. the courts shall treat every citizen alike.
 That inasmuch as an injunction is never issued to enjoin other citi- zens from the exerc SC of their per sonal rights. there personal freedom, It should never be issued to enjoin or deny the personal liberty, the per sonal freedom of working men.
 Just before Judge Taft, in 1897, left the United States on his trip to the Philippines, he. as an avowed aspirant for the nomination for the presidency, at a public function at Seattle, gave his views as to the claims which labor makes regarding the abuse of the injunction writ. The utterance was entirely unexpected and apparently unnecessary.
 President Roosevelt announced that Judge Taft was the man who should succeed h'm as president.
 Judge Taft, while proclaiming that he would follow the Roosevelt poll cies,' at once took the opportunity to give the corporations, trusts and employers hostile to labor a broad hint as to where he might be found.
 Prom the time Mir. Taft made that speech at Seattle there was not the slightest doubt among observing men that his nom nation for the pres idency was a foregone conclusion. He was duly nominated and elected, and his first utterance as president in his inaugural address, he repeated his assurance to the interests He made good to them.
 Tsft's Seattle Address.
 Tn his Seattle address, among oth- CT things, Judge Taft sa d in sub stance that any limitation on the power of the courts to grant and en- force writs of injunction would be bad and dangerous. That the injunc- ton is one of the most valuable. be- neficent and essential instruments, that labor's purpose was to create for themselves a privileged class of wrongdoers.' and concluded by adding that the remedy proposed n laboT>s (Pearre) bin to regulate and limit injunction and thereby secure equal rights of the workers with all others was most dangerous measure, add ing:
 "'So you see Mir Gompers' propo- sition lacks justice at the foundation. See what the effect would be. It would make a favored class of wrong doers among the work ng men
 
 he repeats the same sentiments.
 ''The president does not seem to be aware that the supreme court has rendered a decision by which the vol untary associations of wage-earners, the labor unions, may now be pro ceeded against as combinations in illegal restraint of trade, mulcted in thTeefold damages, the unions dis solved. and each member sentenced to a $5,000 fine and a years 'mpris- onment. Can it be possible that the president does not know of this de cision? If he does, are not the work CTS rights and interests entitled to the presidents consideration as re quiring relief at the hands of con- gress as well as the trusts and bus;- ness corporations?
 A "MessIy crumb."
 'The only hopeful suggestion in President Taft's Inaugural address regarding labor Is that congress should pass a law that the govern ment should become liable for ac- cidents to its employees. A proposi- ton, of course, in the right direction, but it is only a erumb, and, oh, what measly crumb it isi
 Some of the greatest statesmen of the world have declared that they had no pr de or consistency. But when a judge has attained lame by rendering a decision or decree, new in character, and far-reaching in it's effects, and particularly when it is quoted as the best authority. no mat ter how it invades the guaranteed rights and l'berties of the people, it is almost too much to expect that such judge shall subsequently favor legislation rendering void his deci- sion and his standing as an 'authori ty.' A statesman, a business man, a workman, a scient' 'st-each and all of them may make a mistake and cor