New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1916-11-03

eoH Din wal onc OF we SredteSt:
National HumiIiations to Which
Our Country Has Even Been Sub
jeeted.
Declaring that the campaign of 1916
Is ms important rs the campaign Of
1896 and resembles that campaign in
that the Democratic party and Its
candidate are seeking a vote of power
for d~isingenuOus, %unsound, but allur-
ing reason, William III. Taft, former
President of the United States, deliy-
cred the opening address of the New
Jersey Republican state campaign at
Trenton.
Mr.. Taft said, in part:
"Thc great public advantage In or
gani2ntiOn and combination of cap
ital and of wagc-caruers we all recog-
nlzc. The power they acquire may.
however, become So great as to tempt
to serious abuse aud 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 enecting 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 me
mOrandums attached to an appropria-
ton bill avowed his opposition to such
class legislation, he united with the
Democratic Congress in passing, at
the demand of the unions, the Clay
ton Act, which, the labor leaders
claim, takes unions. out of the limita-
tons of the Trust Act.
"Unwise subserviency to the de-
mands of leaders of organized labor
finds its browning instance, however,
in Mr.. Wilson's dealing with the
threatened strike Of the Railway Or:
ders of conductors, engineers, train
men and switchmen. The orders
claim to control 100000 men, who run
the freight and passenger trains Of
the country, which constitute the
arterial circulation Of commerce., and
are necessary not only to the busi-;
ness but to the health and life Of the;
people. We're these men able to tie !
up the railways of the country, as
they said they could and would. 1t
would mea m loss In busi-
ness, and great deprivation and suffer;
ing to the public. 1t would mean that
many millions of other workmen
would be thrown out of employment,
and lose the high wages they are
now receiving, because without com
merce local industries cannot pro-
coed. The Railway unions said to
the railway president "We wish an
eight-hour day, with ten hours pay,
and If we work more than eight hours,
we demand so 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 re-
fused the demand. but offered to SUBJ
init it to arbitration. They said Ii
would increase their cost of operation
SG0,000,0 900, and that this would have
to come out of the pockets of the rail-
way stockholders, by a reduction or
profits, or out of the shipping public
by an increase of rates. The labor
leaders said they had had arbitration
in the past and that it was not salts
factory that now unless their de-
mands were fully granted, no power
under heaven could prevent the strike,
N-itL, Ire tisast-orts nnlnnunnRn1
Under the duress of the threat, tho
President of the United States and
Congress of the United States sue
cumbed. 1t was one of the greatest
national humiliations to which the
people Of this country have eve been
subjected. 1t struck most a blow at
the principle of arbitration for the
settlement of industrial disputes.
"Mr. Wilson rs Il puhlicist, STACKED
the enactment of a federal child labor
law as an absurd extravaganza, and a
departure from constitutional limita-
tons, and now within the last sixty
days he has personally visited Con
gress to urge the adoption Of exactly
such a measure.
"For the purpose Of evading RESPONSE
bility for present conditions. il is ad-
vanced in behalf of Mr.. Wilson and
the Democratic Administration that
the conditions in Mexico were an in
hcritance from the last NlminiStra-
ton. The last Administration did
nothing to complicate Mr.. Wilson's
problems. Huerta had been twelve
DAYS IN power when Mr.. Wilson came
In. Up to that time nothing had been
done committing the government to
one policy or another. Had the Re-
publican administration been contin-
ued. IIuerta would have been recog-
nizcd, but with only twelve days be
fore the coming in of a new Admins
tration, it would have been entirely
improper and in~conSiderate for the
outgoing Administrators to commit the
incoming 10 any policy on the subject.
Mr.. Wilson cannot shift the blame
for his blunders in Mexico. He had
a clean slate upon which to write
when he came in.