The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-09-08
PRESIDENT DISCUSSES SUBJECT
BEFORE NATIONAL BAR
ASSOCIATION.
Reviews Treaties With Great Bril-
tain and France and Makes Plain
His Opinion That Objections So
Far Made Are Invalid-Would Re
form Court Rules.

disputes between nations is coming
slowly but surely" said President
dent Taft, in his address before the
American Bar Association, which
concluded it's thirty-fourth annual
convention in this city. The presi-
dent briefly reviewed the proposed
general arbitration treaties with
Great Britain and France and made
| it plain that in his opinion the OBJ
jections made to the treaties were
invalid.
! President Taft declared emphati-
cally that there was room for inn
provement in procedure in the fed
eral courts, and upon us, he said,
fell the burden of initiating reform
in that respect.
The chief justice of the supreme
court of the United States, ne said,
had taken that matter in hand with
his associates and the district judges
and had called for a conference in
Washington where they would form
ulate new rules of procedure.
The president declared this to be
a great step in the direction of prac-
tical reform. He said that there was
need of increasing judicial salaries
so that "the best men of the bar
might be engaged for the various
| courts.
The president motored from Bev-
erly and when he appeared in the
convention hall he was welcomed
with a hearty cheer. No formal in
| PRODUCTION was spoken. President
Edgar H. Farrar of the bar associa-
ton, one of the largest men at the
convention, merely expressed his
purpose to retire in favor of man
who was bigger than he in all di-
mansions.
Mrs. Taft Waits Outside
| Mrs. Taft came with the president
on the twenty-mile ride through the
rain, but stayed in the White House
automobile outside Huntington hall
and did not char the speech. Imme-
diately after the address they motor
ed back to Beverly.
The president aimed his argument
| for the arbitration treaties at the
senate foreign relations committee
which, he said, took exceptions to
the part which provides that the
joint high commission determine
whether a question is ''justiceable'
and therefore one to be settled by
arbitration. The committee held
this part of the treaty delegation
of powers by the senate, the presi-
dent said, and therefore it objected.
There were not" he said, any
more powers conferred by the con-
stitution on the senate than there
were conferred by the costitution
on the executive.
81 think this is pretty plain, be-
cause the executive has to initiate
and the senate has to agree to the
treaties before they go into force.
Now my proposition is this:
''That if the senate has power to
ratify an agreement which shall bind
it and the government, or rather
which shall bind the government,
and therefore bind it to consent to
the adjudication of any class of ques-
lions arising in the future by board
of arbitration, then it necessarily
follows that it has the right to con-
sent to this treaty.
Referring to his hope that the
senate would not modify the treaties,
the president compared the nation to
a sick Indian.
Nation Like Sick Indian.
| "You know they say the Indians
when they are sick don't like any
medicine except something that
bites, something that is bad to take, I
said the president. 81 don't think
i THAT we shall really get ahead with
this arbitration business unless we
are willing to assume an obligation
4 u eAcCuI0 JuuSul0ut that may 49,
and may be bad for us to take.
: IF we are going to take the po-
sition that we will wait until the
question arises and then conclude
(because we don't think we can win
in the arbitration case that It is mol
a justiceable question, then we have
made agreements that dissolve nm
: der the test of experience. AS re-
suit, instead Of promoting the cause
lof arbitration, we will have inter
lfered with it, obstructed It and made
it the laughing stock with all ma
tions."
Would Reform Rules-
Before turning to arbitration the
president spoke Of the efforts the 81.
( preme court is making to reform ms
} rules Of equity procedure IN the fed'
: Iera1 courts and declared that the al
iarina NJ circu3f iuf3goR should De In