The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1871-12-14

Congress Yesterday = Tho international
Society in tho House and OmriaI Cor
ruption In the Senate.
The House was engaged yesterday on
subject of great interest, the debate on which
will attract attention in Europe as well as
in this country. The question concerned is
that which is looming up in giant proportions
on both hemispheres, and threatening the
upheaval of society as at present organized
the relations between labor and capital. The
proposition which brought this ominous ques-
| ton before the House was a bill, reported by
Mr.. Hoar, of Massachusetts, from the Commit
tee on Education and Labor. 1t is simple and
innocent in its character, and yet 1t brings up
the whole subject for discussion and considera-
ton. 1t merely proposes the appointment, by
| the President, of three commissioners, whose
duty it shall be to investigate the subject of the
| wages and hours of labor, and of the division
Of the joint profits of labor and capital be-
| tween the laborers and the capitalists, and the
social educational and sanitary condition Of
| the laboring classes of this country, and how
the same are affected by existing laws regu-
lating commerce, finance and currency. 1t Is,
according to Mr.. Hears statement to the
House, q measure that emanates from the
labor party of Massachusetts,, and that has the
approval and support of the great lnterna-
tional Society Of Workmen in Europe and
America, as expressed through council Of
that body held in London In October last The
very name of the International, as the foster
parent of this proposition, invests 1t with
prestige and character which its own terms
would fail to lend to 1t. 1t drapes
1t in the terrible garb of French Com
munism, free love and atheism, and brings
to the Imagination the frightful picture Of
Paris given over to flames, pillage and mas
sacre. We do not mean to say that the mea-
sure itself contains anything which is not
proper, or at least defensibie; but we do
think that it would have occupied better
position before the country and the world If it
had stood on its own merits and without the
questionable aid and support given to it by
the International Mr.. Hoar even went out
Of his way to pronounce something like q
eulogium on the herosm Of the young men
and young women of Paris who went to their
deaths for the principles of the Commune as
cheerfully as ever bridegroom went to the
bridal feast. Perhaps Mr.. Hoar is disciple
of Fourier or perhaps he is only an aspirant
for the Presidency, and makes this bid for the
support of that class of the community which,
according to him, Is 80 powerful in this
country that it may safely apply to
itself the famous expression Of the Grand
Monarch, "L'etat c'est moi" But, considering
the State which he represents, the high social
position which he fills and the fact that he has
never been, like his fellow-citizen, Wendell
Phillips, an agitator and doctrinaire, the
speech that he made yesterday and the bill
that he reported and advocated are remark
able, as indicating the readiness Of our public
men to adapt themselves to every change Of
opinion and to seek personal position and
power at whatever risk to the Commonwealth.
far from being actuated by any mere selfish or
unworthy motive, is simply Influenced by the
prognostics OF impending dangers and by a
statesmanlike desire to forestall and avert
them. In that view of the case his bill is
even the more important.
Or course such a measure could not be
launched upon the House without melting dis
cussion. 1t had come up, however, only as
the business Of the morning hour, and no
longer time could be given for debate. Mr..
Hoar was entitled to the whole hour for him.
self, but he yielded portions of it to his col
league, Mr.. Dawes, Mr.. Shanks, of Indiana,
and Mr.. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. The first
| Immediately set to work to make political
capital out of it by expressing satrical regret
that any opposition should be made to such q
measure by democrats like Mr.. Fernando
Wood, who had objected to its being made q
special order, and Mr.. Kerr, of Indiana, who
had moved to lay the bill on the table. Mr..
Shanks supported the bill in lukewarm man.
ner, preferring to 1t one which he had himself
introduced last Monday, to establish labor
bureau. Mr.. Kelley, however, went in
for the measure with all his might
and main, declaring that it was for
the want Of just such thing
that England had lost her national prestige
and was preparing for herself another revolu-
ton that France had seen the fires of the
Commune kindled In Paris, and that Germ any
was training her young men in hostility to
Church and throne. People less clairvoyant
than the pig-iron mem Der from Pennsylvania
might be inclined to attribute these national
pecnliarities rather to too much than to too
little latitude enjoyed by the working classes !;
but then who would think of gainsaying such
an authority? Strangely enough, he seemed
to be impervious to the conviction that the
first and chiefest step in the revolutionary
movement Of labor against capital would be
to brush away all his cherished cobwebs Of