The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1884-06-12
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
Remarks Of the Hon. L. H. Weller, Of Iowa, on
the BID to Establish Bureau of
Labor Statistics.

One Of the great troubles that labor has
had to contend with has been the want of
reliable and pertinent statistics by which to
show the causes that have led to the disas-
irons condition Of labor being placed under
the heel OF aggravated money capital III tie
hands Of monopolies. / wish to say that
labor will never get a redress of its great
and just grievances either at the hands of
this Congress or any other unless they are
/ permitted and properly assisted to get pos
session Of all the facts by statistics that will
| he OF advantage to lalor to show the real
rauses that produce the conditions Of which
| they 80 justly complain
| Statistics in abundance have already been
obtained on many matters Of importance to
labor, but too often they have been obtained
by those who have had an interest in the
suppression of vital facts, facts positively
essential to a correct understanding of and
solution Of the labor problem. The inter.
| est Of those engaged in the taking of sncl,
| statistics, or OF those employing such sta
tisticians, has been inimical to the true vel
fare of labor, aud in my honest Judgment
has sought to hide from the masses the real
causes that have and do lead to q depression
of labor and placing 1t under the iron heel
IF aggregated capital and by reason Of such
lack If information bold labor in the bond
age Of theirpower. This amendment seeks
to place mt the head Of such bureau a man
chosen by the Legislative Committee Of the
Federation of Labor Unions and Knights
of Labor of the District of Columbia
man of acknowledged ability, who will sat
| isfy the labor element of the country. one
in whom they have confidence
believe. sir. that can better attend to
4 hf1cinaAg In. which L haya n cnaosffa and
| well defined interest myself than to have at
tention paid to that interest by some
person who may he opposed to IL, md
| whose views would be inmical in all partic-
ulars and policies with reference to its ulti-
mate success.
There can be no reason in the world why
this bureau thus being amended by my
colleague Mr.. kasson| instead of depart
ment-ths bureau should not be presided
over bya person selected by the very men
who are demanding at the hands of this
Congress measures to assist in n redress of
the grievances of which they now complain
and have been complaining for, 10. these
many years, without q single, solitary
beneficial result except such MS has come
from organization and agitation. 1t is
about time. indeed it is high time, that
they We're heard
| Why, sir, they tell US here that oyerpro-
| duction is the great and increasing evil of
| the day in which we now live; and yet Mr..
Chairman, presented to the House the
other day for its consideration series of
| resolutions, certified to by high authority,
| that the Government employees have been
| forced ofttimes in defiance of existing law
to labor by direction Of their superior off,
cials ten hours day, but only granted pay
for eight hours. Now. if oyefproduction il
| the real trouble ana is the true and only
cause of the evils complained of, why do
they force men to work beyond the limits of
the law, thus increasing oyerproduction
while refusing to pay for overwolk?
| | want to say as matter Of fact that over
production i'll the great aggregate of the prod
ucts Of labor in this country never really
and truly existed. The statement is an err
ror on the facts. That which is denomi-
mated oyerproduction is simply undercon-
sumption. That is all there is Of ii. Talk
Of oyerproduction in this country when
thousands upon thousands are going with
out food, while begging for leave to toll to
earn their bread: who go without proper
clothing, without homes. without proper
shelter, without the thousand and one things
that would adorn and beautify that home
md help to make of it haven Of rest to the
weary and toil-wom limbs of labor, now
shackled to the gilded Jnggernaut of purse
proud aristocmcies---to the monopolies that
grind labor to conditions where life is but a
hell Of hopes crushed and withered. pros
poets blighted, ending in certain pauperism,
then indifference to good order and law.
thence to conditions that breed crime, sui
eide, and insanity, rs surely as cause in
operation produces and results in effect.
1t is worse than folly. 1t is crime
against humanity to talk of oyerproduction
rs the cause of starvation prices to ill fed,
| ill-claa, and worse sheltered toiling men,
women. aud children. 1t is n qualification
of the boasted Christian civilization of this
the nineteenth century, as well as against
the intelligence of the common people, to
proclaim. rs has been done on this floor,
that hard times and consequent poverty
come as the result of overproduction. The
panic of 1873 to 1879 was due to causes that
the laboring masses failed to comprehend
that the aristoeratic and monopolistie classes
desired they might never comprehend. fol
the reason that if labor should once know
the real and true causes, and with it know
the proper and only true remedy. and then
find out that they had a clear constitutional
right to apply the true remedy, and should
once as a great body taste and know and
| tHiiS itdllZE the BiGSStu ITultS III tile iIHt,
great, and only remedy in operation rs
national policy, they, the industrial classes
would not be slow to strike off the shaekle
that binds now the limbs of labor to the
rock of oppression and want that unchris-
tan, inhuman, yoacious greed Of corporate
monopolies has dashed them and now hold,
them TO.
am clearly of the opinion that there are
three questions of supreme paramount im-
portance that ought to engage the attention
Of this Congress, and receive such ey.
haustiye discussion and analysis as the
history and experiences of the past. coupled
with the wisdom of demonstrations in the
present make possible. The three aues.
tons to which l allude are--and / namt
them in the order of their importance ms
comprehend: First. finance in oil it.
phases. constitutional, practical, and other.
wise; second. tariff; third, taxation.
In my Judgment, if these three questions
We're wisely and periodically settled ac.
cording to the genius of our peculiar form
Of government and the letter and spirit o.
the Declaration of Independence and OH
United States Constitution labor would III
longer complain of the outrageous wrongs
perpetrated daily against it, which have led
are leading, and will continue ia create
!
riots, ineenaiarism, suicides, insanity
murder, burglary, robbery, and every ethe
crime known to the catalogue of outrage
and horrors accounts of which to- a,
blacken the pages of our country and met
ropolitan daily and weekly sheets Of news
want to repeat there never will be
redress of the grievances of which labor s.
justly and properly complains, unless tn
financial questions Of this country be frs
thoroughly understood in all phases of mp
plications and influences on the cuisines
and labor interests of our producing an
distributing classes, and when so under
stood, wisely, humanely, and patriotieall
applied
We have Government, sir, that i pe
culiar iii its. form and character. III
genius Of it. a given 10 ms by the fathers
was government of, by. and for the pee
, pie; not as now, government Of eorpor,
L, a H.