The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-15
MINORITY URGED
 TO BECOME GOOD
 LOSERS BY TAFT
Proposed Limitation of Su- preme Court Powers De-
 cried By Speaker.
Former President Attacks Trades Unions For Cam
 paign Against Laws.

Cambridge, Mass, June 15-The unabridged exercise of the limitations upon hasty action of a majority of the electorate now interposed by the vest ed prerogatives of the supreme court of the United States and by the ma ch4nery for amending the constitution, was defended by former President Will liam Howard Taft in an oration before members of the Phi Beta Kappa fra ternity of Harvard University at San der's theater today. The subject or of the United States and Popular Self Government.'
 Mr. Taft's defence of these limitations had immediate reference to changes urged by certain political leaders to qualify existing personal and property rights and increase governmental con- troI over the individual He attack ed the recall of judicial decisions and the proposal that the judgment of the supreme court in construing and en- forcing the constitution may be sub ject to a reversal by a plurality vote at any biennial election.
 Easing his argument that the con- stitutionaI and Judicial Instructions to impulsive action at the polls were not inconsistent with popular government, upon English governmental develop ment, MT Taft said:
 me enduring CudEdCLST or the E1lE~ fish government and of the govern ments that have been derived from it, like our own, is to be traced in this training of the minority to be good losers. But the quality Of being good losers will not persist in minorities unless rnajorities exercise their power with fairness
 Consideration for the rights of prop. erty holders was urged by MT. Taft, who said that they may not always be non-r@sistant and always in favor of law and order, as, if their right of property is seriously impaired. they may change their conservatism to re- bellious spirit like Ulster.
 Speaking of the militant suffragettes as an illustration of the tendency he described, he said:
 They use force and, with modern explosives and the freedom of modern life, they are able to do public and private damage utterly out of pro- portion to their numerical strength
 In this connection MT. Taft attacked the trades unions for their champion ing of the Clayton bill ending before operation of the. Sherman antitrust law and for their support of the strik- CTS in Colorado.
 eve fnd,'' he said, many labor or ganizations insisting that the arm of the courts be awakened so that law
 
 effective instrumentaIitv to gain their industrial ends Indeed we find ac- tuaI rebellion against state authority maintained by certain trades unions and supported by contributions openly solicited from their sympathizers the country over.'
 MT. Taft met the rais d objection to the machinery for amendment of the federal constitution as very difficult by saying the amendments which do not arouse sectional differences can not easily be defeated.
 The superiority of procedure of con struction of the country's laws with the help of the supreme court rather than at a biennial election, ---- urged by the speaker and the need for some such tribunal grew greater, not less. he said. in the developing of society in it's modern form.
 Attacks on the supreme court have been made often before, said MT. Taft, when there was a forcefuI man in po- litica1 leadership who commanded an earnest, enthusiastic following and de- nounced Instructions to the peoples will
 ttIn a transition period,' he sconcIud- ed, I've need tlfe supreme court, not to prevent reform by the exercise of pop ular will but to prevent change by popular whim.'