Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-17

CHICAGO. September 17.-Labor and
the courts were subjects discussed by
President Taft in his address In Orchestra
Hall last night. The President, at the
end Of day of sightseeing, of baseball,
of receptions and dining, received an up
roarious greeting when he reached the
hall to make the only set speech Of his
stay in Chicago
The President devoted the entire first
part of his speech to the subject of labor
and said he intended to recommend to
Congress In his first message legislation
| to carry out the platform promise as to
in1unctions-tnat no injunction or reA
stra1ning orGer should be issued without
notice. except where irreparable injury
| would result from delay, in which case a
speedy hearing should be granted
Taking up next the subject of the
courts, the President asserted with ear
| nest emphasis that the administration of
criminal law today is disgrace to Amer
lean civilization.
He declared that no question before the
American people today is more important
| than the Improvement of the administra-
ton of justice and announced his inten-
ton OF recommending to Congress the
appointment of a commission to take I'D
the question of the laws delay in the
| federal courts.
Believes in Labor Organization.
| Il know there is an element among en-
ployers of labor and investors. of capital
which Is utterly opposed to the organiza-
ton of labor remarked the President
Il cannot sympathize with this element
| In the slightest degree.
II think it is wise course for laborers
to unite to defend their interests. 1t is
wise course for them to provide a fund
by which, should occasion arise and
| strikes or lockouts follow, those who lose
their places may be supported pending
an adjustment of the difficulties l think
| the employer who declines to deal with
organized labor and to recognize it as
proper element in the settlement of wage
controversies is behind the times. There
had remained unorganized wages would
be very much lower 1t is true that in
| the end they would probably be fixed by
the law of supply and demand but gen.
orally before this law manifeSts itself
there is period in which labor, If or
ganized and acting together, can compel
the employer promptly to recognize the
change of conditions and advance wages
to meet rising market and an increase
| In profits, and, on the other hand can
delay the too quick impulse of the en-
ployer facing less prosperous future to
| economic by reducing wages.
There is higher standard Of living
| among American laborers than in any
country in the world, and while there
have doubtless been a good many other
| reasons for this. certainly the effect of
| the organization of labor has been to
maintain steady and high rate of
| wages, making such a standard of living
possible.
Rights Of Non-Union Men.
Nothing I have said or shall say should
be construed into an attitude Of criticism
against or unfriendliness to those work.
ingmen who for any reason do not join
unions. Their right to labor for such
wages as they choose to accept is sacred
and any lawless invasion of that right
cannot be too severely condemned. All
advantages Of trades unionism, great as
| they are. cannot weigh a feather in the
| scale against the right of any man law
fully seeking employment to work for
whom and at what price he will.
| And l say this with all the emphasis
possible. even though the fact is that
| If l were a workingman should prob
| ably deem 1t wise to join a union for
the reasons given.
| The effect of organized labor upon
such abuses as the employment of child
| labor. as the exposure of laborers to
70 the continuance Of unjust rules of
law exempting employers from liability
FOR accidents to laborers, has been di-
rect, immediate and useful. and such
reforms in these matters as have taken
place would probably be long DELAYED
but for the energetic agitation of the
| questions by the representatives of
organized labor OF course, when or
ganlzed labor permits itself to sympa-
thize with violent methods. with
breaches of the law, with bovcotts and
| other methods of undue duress n is
not entitled to our sympathy. But it is
not to be expected that such organiza
| lions shall be perfect, and thai thnv
may not at times and in particuiar
cases show defective tendencies that
| ought to be corrected.
"One notable defect which has beeo
pointed out has been in the disposition
of the majority of members in labor
unions to reduce the compensation of
all men engaged in a particular trade
! to dead level and to fail to recOr-
nize the difference between the highly
skilled and very Industrious workman
and the one less skilled and less
Industrious. I think that there is a
movement among trades unions them
selves to correct this leveling tendency,
ment more than the adoption of some
plan by which there should remain
among union workmen the impetus and
motive to be found in the greater re-
ward for greater skill and greater In
dustry.
Unions Against Socialism.
There is one thing to be said In re-
spect to American trades unionism that
it's critics are not generally alive to. In
France the trades unions are entirely So
cialstic. Indeed. in some of the late
difficulties IT was plain that there was a
strong anarchistic feeling among them
and they opposed all authority of any
kind. 1t Is also plain that the tendency
toward socialism in England and Eng