Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/477

 454 FAMOUS LIVING AMERICANS of greater honors, President McBonley returned him to his native state as judge of the Sixth Federal Circuit, comprising the states of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It was an important appointment and at once made Mr. Taft known to all the people of the country. It takes big men to grasp and to handle successfully big questions — men of large vision, of independent character, of strong determination to do the right though criticism and un- popularity follow. Rarely have so many important affairs been placed in one man's hands for solution as have come to Mr. Taft. All his life he seems to have been making history. All his life he seems to have been placed in positions where he was compelled to decide questions of great moment. The United States judicial office was no exception. Here he was confronted with grave problems, the solution of which meant praise or blame according to the tenor of the decision. "With rare courage and fairness he grappled every problem and in- terpreted the law according to his conscience. At least three precedent-making cases came before him as federal judge. His decisions in these have established stand- ards for our courts. The one granting an injunction against interference on the part of representatives or employees, with the reasonable and equal interchange of traffic between inter- state carriers was the first to define thus the relations be- tween railroads and their employees. It was at the time un- popular with the labor unions, as was also his decision pun- ishing the chief ringleader in a boycott of a railroad, then in the hands of a receiver, who had definitely disobeyed the or- ders of a court. Judge Taft served notice upon all concerned that the business of that particular road must not be inter- fered with, and that the army would be called upon, if neces- sary, to keep the trains running. As soon as the turmoil following this stem decree subsided Judge Taft showed his fairness by asking the receiver to take back all the strikers as rapidly as places could be found for them. No clearer or broader statements as to the rights of labor have ever been made than those given in these decisions.