Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-08-06
CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRY
Into the Labor TrOubIes-Tilt between
Hastings and HeWitt-RObb says
that God will Hold the
Committee Re-
spOnsible
For Every Hungry Belly and Naked
Back in the Land-GOOd Advice,
Reduce the Tariff and Stop
Sectional Legislation.

NEW YORK, August 5.-At the meeting Of
| the congressional labor committee to-day,
| Hastings had tilt with Hewitt. He would
| cot make his statements specific, and was
tod 10 stand aside. He then charged Hewitt
| with being hostile to him, and said his treat
ment was not just. Mr.. Hewitt took occa-
SION to say, IN view Of the allegation of Hast
| lngs, that ne (pewitt) was not a shareholder
| IN any bank, and did not import any foreign
goods.
MIR. Robb read long statement, setting
forth the importance of the questions under
consideration. He said God would hold the
committee responsible for every hungry
stomach and naked back in the land. God
says, 'Ye shall not sell the land forever"
No man has a right to give a title to land.
We have violated the laws of God, and fraud
and perjury prevail everywhere.
There was great deal more of this kind
OF talk, interpreted with questions by the
committee, and the auditors were amused.
J. L. OGrady, who represented the dry
goods statesmen and shoe trade, desired to
read statement, but the committee declined
TO hear him, as IL would take too long, and
O'Grady declined to submit his brief state
ment, which would take two hours to read.
Maurice Cohen, formerly a manufacturer
OF silk cloaks, said the large manufacturers
had crowded him out, and we're crowding out
all the small dealers, and he requested the
committee to attend TO these matters.
Mr.. Graham, secretary of the Working
mems union, held that we do not desire the
outlaws of the old world to come here and
upset our government. He did not intend to
denounce capital when honestly accumulated,
out he denounced railroad monopolies and
the raising OF the prices of provisions, etc.,
by stock Jobbing and speculation. Reduce
the tariff, and stop sectional legislation; stop
railroad Jobs and give the country the bene-
1T. Our shipping has been driven off the
seas by foreign steamers; | would tax the
steamers in favor of freight.
Here Mr.. Hewitt asked Mr.. Marshall,
large ship-owner, to give his views. He did
not want any protection against steamers.
He thought the removal of taxes as much as
possible consistent with the revenue necessi-
ties would revive trade, and the abolition of
the prohibitoIy law preventing Americans
from buying their vessels abroad would re-
vive the shipping trade. Mr.. Graham then
continued. and said that he believed the large
unemployed population in the cities ought to
be sent to the prairie-lands and settled there
on by private enterprise.
Hofatlo d. Shepherd, of the National re-
form association, attributed the present de-
preston to the mistakes on the currency ques-
tion-too much initiation and not enough tax
alton.
The president of the Cigar makers union
spoke of the cause Of the depression in the
cigar trade only. He said that while the
number Of cigars manufactured steadily in
creased, the condition of the cigar makers
got worse. In one month there were four
suicides in New York of cigar-mak for
want of employment The trouble has been
caused by the general government, by sys-
tenn of taxation which throws the business in
to the hands of large manufacturers. The
first cause was the introduction
of three thousand coolies into
the trade in the city of San Francisco,
and in New York the tenement-house system
caused rum. The system is a shame and
disgrace. The whole iauIly-man, woman
and children-work day and night, from four
teen to eighteen hours, and still only make
enough to live, or, rather starve on, and
when the cigar makers stIrck for wages, the
landlords, who were also the manufacturers,
turned one thousand wretehed, starving
families into the street. In tenement
houses people get, say tobacco for one thou
sand cigars and make eleven hundred out of
it, and they trade off the extra one hundred
to the butcher, the grocer and the baker, and
pay no revenue on them. He asked that the
tenement-house system be abolished, and
that cigars be allowed to be made
only in factories. He was not OPP
posed to Cinnamon as a rule,
but he was opposed to the importation Of
Chinese or any other labor under such a sys-
tenn. He did not care how many Cinnamon
came to this country, or what wages they
worked for, provided they were not imported
as coolies He was opposed to the inporta-
tiou of all labor by contract.
There were other and interesting address,
es, and the committee adjourned till to-mor-