Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1916-10-25
TAFT EXCOR|ATES
;. HIS SUCCESSOR
Asserts the Democratic Party
and Its Candidate Are Seek
ing a Vote to Power by
Disingenuous and
Unsound Pleas.
LEFT CLEAN SLATE FOR
WRITING MEXICAN POLICY

Former President Declared That the
Passage Under Duress Of the Adam
son Bill Was One Of the Greatest
National Humiliations to Which Our
Country Has Ever Been Subjected.
tsS
Declaring that the campaign Of 1916
Is as important as the campaign OF
1895 and resembles that campaign In
that the Democratic party and Its can
didate are seeking vote Of power for
disingenuous. unsound, but alluring req
sons, William 81. Taft, former President
Of the United States. delivered the
opening address of the New Jersey Re-
publican state campaign at Trenton.
Mr.. Taft said, In part:
The great public advantage In or
ganization and combination Of cap
ital and Of wage-earners we all recog-
niZe. The power they acquire may.
however, become so great as to tempt
to serious abuse and public injury.
and they have done so. Hence, we
have had the antitrust law and the
interstate commerce law, directed
chiefly against combinations of cap
ital but effecting in some measure
combinations Of labor. Labor leaders
have sought exemption from such laws
as a privileged class, and in some cases
they have been successful. While Mr.
Wilson in one of his memorandum at
tached to an appropriation bill avowed
his opposition to such class legislation.
he united with the Democratic Con-
gress in passing, at the demand of the
unions, the Clayton Act, which, the la
Dor leaders claim, takes unions out of
the limitations of the Trust Act.
Unwise subserviency to the demands
Of leaders of organized labor finds it's
GROWING instance, however, in Mr..
Wilson's dealing with the threatened
strike of the Railway Orders Of con-
ductors, engineers, trainmen and switch
men. The Orders claim to control 400
900 men, who run the freight and pas
senger trains Of the country, which
constitute the arterial circulation of
commerce, and are necessary not only
to the business but to the health and
life of the people. Were these men
able to tie up the railways Of the
country, as they said they could and
would, it would mean enormous loss
In business, and great deprivation and
suffering to the public. It would mean
that many millions Of other workmer
would be thrown out Of employment
and lose the high wages they are now
receiving, because without commerce
local industries cannot proceed. The
Railway unions said to the railway
president: I'VE wish an eight-hour day
with ten hours pay, and If we work
more than eight hours, we demand 81
per cent. more an hour for the extra
hours. If you do not give US this, We
will not only injure you, but We will
bring disaster to the country" The
railway managers refused the demand
but offered to submit it to arbitration
They said it would increase their cos
of operation $6OOOO,OOO, and that thi
would have to come out Of the pocket
of the railway stockholders, by a re
ductiOn Of profits, or out Of the ship
ping public by an increase Of rates
The labor leaders said they had hat
arbitration in the past and that it wa
not satisfactory, that now unless thei
demands We're fully granted, no powe
under heaven could prevent the strike
with its disastrous consequences. Un
der the duress of the threat, the Presi
dent Of the United States and Con
gress Of the United States succumbeG
1t was one Of the greatest national hu
Mutations to which the people of thi
country have ever been subjected. |
struck most blow at the principle O
arbitration for the settlement of IL
dustrial disputes.
Mr.. Wilson as a publicist attacke
the enactment of a federal child labc
law as an absurd extravaganza, and
departure from constitutional limit.
tons, and now within the last sixt
days he has personally visited Coz
gress to urge the adoption of exact
such a measure.
For the purpose Of evading respons
bility for present conditions, it is a.
vanced in behalf of Mr. Wilson an
the conditions in Mexico were an i
heritance from the last Administratio
The last Administration did nothi1
to complicate Mr.. Wilson's problem
Huerta had been twelve days In 20,
er when Mr.. Wilson came in. Up
that time nothing had been done col
hitting the government to one poll,
or another. Had the Republican A
ministration been continued, Huer
would have been recognized, but wi
only twelve days before the comm
In Of a new Administration it wou
have been entirely improper and i
considerate for the outgoing Admin
tration to commit the incoming to al
policy On the subject Mr.. Wilson c,
not shift the blame for his blunde