The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-12
TAFT AT BARBEClJ
UNrrnrArNrD ON A oEOnGIA
 PLANTATION.
Goes Back. te Augusta at Night te Eat esPessnn ana rraterss With
 the Leeal Dar Asss-

a e1nt1om.
 Augusta. Ga, Jan. 1i.--Auspicious Feeding was the principal occupation today. of the President-eiect.
 He did full justice this afternoon to the most famous of the widely -reputed barbecuss of Charles 6. Bohler. given on his extensive cotton plantation about ten miles from town. and to- night he faced spread of 'posum and 'taters. besides a menu of heavy al. mansions, as the guest of the local Bar Association.
 Mr. Taft had to divide the honora At the barbecue he distinguished him self by eating, while tt the banauet he went noticeabiy light on the food, but came in strong on the oratory. The barbecue party consisted or about thirty distinguished guests from Augusta, including c. F. Taft. his wife and daughter. Mrs. ". H. Taft, MT. and Mrs. John Hays Hammond, Frank H. Hitchcock and others. There were barbecued chickens. lambs and pigs stuffed potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. salads and hash and buildings. all served in the open. with the weather like June days of the North.
 It was nearly banquet time when Mir. Taft got back from his heavily laden board, and he remarked with some feeling that sleep was really what nature craved. However, always ease among lawyers, his after-dinner speech was a medley of interesting comments on law and the legal profess sion. He described the attractions of the lawyers life, and of the life of the Judge. and expressed his regret on leaving that life. He spoke of the frn- rcrtance of the lawyer to the commu- nity In which he lived, the necessity of enforcing the law and of the dire results of a iaxness in this direction.
 It was Mir. Taft's remarks on the Supreme Court of the United States, however, that attracted the keenest attention. He descrtbed this body and the weight, and importance which att tach to Its decisions, as. a, new element : in civilization. The United States, he said. was the, originator of a court of last resort. whose mediation and set clement of. Fundamental disputes was accepted as final. It's benefits were apparent. and its usefulness. was a growing one, particularly in the set. tlement of constitutional questions. It was true, he said, that we had gone to war once through ignoring this tribunal. s
 The unique position Mfr Taft found himself in during the recent campaign of having to defend himself on the stump for decisions he had rendered on the. bench, was a subject he dis cussed with no little interest. This, he believed. was the first Instance of the kind on record.
 MT. Taft paid . feeling tribute to the South, as he has found it on his present visit, with its preponderance of hospitality and good fellowship, all of which he has enjoyed to the ut- most. s., s-s5s a
 Other speakers of the evening were Judge Emery Speer of the Federal Judiciary, Judge B. IT. Hill of the State judiciary, and Judge Henry c. Ham, mond of the local State Judiciary.
 In his speech, Mir. Taftassertedg that fhe supreme test of. our present and the two succeeding decades in the form of the survival or destruction of ehe right of private property. He re- garded this right as essential to civil tzation as the right of liberty, and said the tests of the lawyers and courts would come on this question
 We have reached the time when we must recognize certain Limitations ," Mir. Taft coptfnued. s@wi1ieh previous conditions did not require assertion of an, the form of statutory law, upon the use of private property wherever 1t is represented in Combinations of capi- tal- We must >recognize today that those combinations may be hurtful, and 1t must fall to our, profession, with arguments in courts by lawyers and by the judges themselves. by the argu-. ments of lawyers in the Legislatures, to lay down the line of limitation which shall interfere as little as pos- sible with the individual freedom of property on the one hand, and shall stay the progress toward injurious combination and injurious monopoly on the other.
 '..I" believe this to be lawyers question and problem that must le worked out, not through contentious, not through mere rhetoric or eloquence, but by the careful consideration of the limitation as 1t shall be settled in the statute and interpreted by the court.
 This problem, is now on, and, there fore, I state it with considerable sol- efnnity and seriousness, we have got to work 1t out more or less by experi- ment, but in that working out we have got to depend upon the cIear-headed lawyer, both at the bar, on the bench and in the Legislature. to reach 8 suc- cessful conclusion. And have no doubt 1t will be done"
 MT. Taft spoke at some length re- garding his complete happiness fin his legal work and expressed regret that he had to give 1t all up Ito become a mere execntive.'' He mentioned fho responsibility he should feel as the incumbent of the White House in the appointment of Federal judges.
 In this connection he gave what he considered the qualifications required of men for the bench, mentioning the quality to hear both sides of a case impartially and to make this desire apparent, "for," he added, ''the appear ance of justice Is almost as necessary in these days when courts are attack ed--I don't know why, these days dif- fer from other days in that respect but the appearance of justice is only justice"