New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-01-12
TEST OF CIVILIZATION
TAFT ON PRIV4TE PROP
ERTY RIGHTS.
Problem Is to Maintain Them WhiIe
Checking Injurious Comdna-
tons and Mon0polies.

Augusta, Ga. Jen. lin his speech TO the
Augusta Bar Association tonight President
elect Taft asserted that the supreme test of civ
iization was TO come IN the present and the two
succeeding decades in the form of the survival
or destruction of the rights of private property
He regarded these as essential to civilization as
the right of liberty and said that the tests of
the lawyers and the courts would come on this
question.
1--WE have reached the time when we must
recognize certain limitations" Me Taft contin-
ued, which previous conditions did not require
assertion of in the form Of statutory law upon
the use OF private property wherever it is rep
resented in combinations Of capital. We must
recognize to-day that those combinations may
be hurtfu. and It must fall TO profession
with arguments In the courts, by the judges
themselves. by the arguments of lawyers in the
legislatures. TO lay down the line OF limitation
which shall interfere little possible with
the individual freedom of property on the one
hand and shall stay the progress toward in
furious combination and injurious monopoly, on
the other
Il believe this to be a lawyers question and
problem that must be worked out, not through
contentious not through mere rhetoric or elo-
Quence but by the careful consideration OF the
Limitation 1t shall be settled in the statute
and interpreted by the courts.
This problem Is now on, and therefore
state 1t with considerable solemnity and seri-
BUSINESS. We have got to work it out more or
less by experiment, but in that working out
have got to depend upon the clear headed. both
at the bar, the bench and in the Legislature
to reach a solution And I have no doubt it
will be done"
Mr. Taft spoke at some length regarding his
complete happiness in his legal work and ex-
pressed regret that he had 10 give It all up ito
become mere executive" He mentioned the
responsibility he should feel as the incumbent
of the White House in tie appointment of fed
erai judges. He gave what he considered the
qualifications required of men for the bench.
mentioning the ability - hear both sides of a
impartial:y and Il make this apparent
for" he added, the appearance OF justice IS
almost necessary in these days when courts
ara attacked. I don't know whether these days
differ from other days in that respect. but the
appearance Of justice is only less important
than the degree Of actual justice"
MI Taft's remarks on the United States Su-
prene Court attracted much attention He de-
scribed this body and the weight and impor-
tance which attach TO its decisions as n new
element in civilization. The United States. he
said, was the originator OF a court OF last re-
sort whose mediation and settlement OF funda-
mental disputes were accepted final. Its
benefits were apparent and its usefulness was
growing. particularly in the settlement OF con-
stitutional questions. The country, he said had
gone to through ignoring this tribunal
The novel position Mr.. Taft found himself in
during the campaign OF having to explain on
the stump the decisions he had rendered on the
bench he discussed with interest. This he be-
lieved. the first instance of the kind on
record