Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1916-10-19
TAFT EXCORIATES
HIS SUCCESSOR
Asserts the Democratic Party and
Its Candidate Are Seeking
Vot to Power by UnsOund
Pleas


1916 is as important as the campaign
of 1896 and resembles that campaign
in that the Democratic party and its
candidate are seeking vote Of power
for disingenuous, unsound, but allur-
ing reason, William H. Taft, former
President of the United States, deliv-
cred the opering address of the New
Jersey Republican 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 combination 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 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-
lions of the Trust Act.
Unwise subserviency to the de-
mands of leaders of organized labor
finds its GROWING 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 400 900 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 bust
ness and great deprivation and suffer-
people. Were these men able to tie
up the railways of the country, as
they said they could and would, II
would mean enormous loss in bust
ness and g reatdeprivation 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 can not pro-
coed. The Railway unions said to
the railway president: 1--WE wish an
eight-hour day, with ten hours pay,
and IL we work more than eight hours
we demand so per cent, more an hour
for the extra hours. II 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 sub
nit Ii to arbitration. They said il
would increase their cost of operation
$50, 100000 and that this would have
to come out of the pockets of the rail-
way stockholders, by a reduction of
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
with its disastrous consequences.
Under the duress of the threat, the
iColuCht VI INC ohllSu otdlcS anu
Congress of the United States sue
cumbed 1t was one of the greatest
national humiliations to which the
people OF this country have ever been
subjected. 1t struck most a blow at
the principle of arbitration for the
settlement of industrial disputes.
Mr.. Wilson as a publicist attacked
the enactment of federal child labor
law as an absurd extravaganza, and a
departure fromconstitutional limita-
tions, 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 res
possibility for present conditions, 1t is
advanced in behalf of Mr.. Wilson and
the Democratic Administration that
the conditions in Mexico were an in
heritance from the last Administra-
tion. 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 govern
ment to one policy or another. Had
the Republican administration been
continued, Huerta would have been
recognized, but with only twelve days
before the coming in of a new Ad-
ministration, 1t would have been en-
tirely improper and inconsiderate for
the outgoing Administration to COM
NIT the incoming to any policy on the
subject. Mr.. Wilson can not shift
the blame for his blunder in Mexico.
He had a clean slate upon which to