Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-23
Labor Bills in Congress-
The Senate Passes the Depart.
 ment of Agriculture Bill.

AsAO SOAAeIC Z eSSCS SAA@ D~PoAs ment of Agriculture Bill.
 ABOUT CONVICT MADE GOODS. A Measure Prohibiting Their Sale Out
 side the Producing State Creates Some Lively Discussion in the House-Some Very Emphatic Speeches.
 WASHINGTON, May 23.-The principal feat ure in the house yesterday was the discussion on the bill to prohibit the sale of convict labor goods outside of the state wherein they are produced. The conference report on the bill to bridge the Black, Northeast and Cape Fear rivers in North Carolina was agreed to. Yesterday having been set apart for the consideration of bills from the committee on labor, MT. O'Neil called up the bill to con- fine the sale of products of convict labor to the state in which they are produced. MT. O'Neill said the measure was the result of a visit to Washington of manufacturers from New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, Philadel- phia and other cities, who appeared before the committee declaring that absolute ruin would result to them from competition of convict labor; that in each case where such labor attacked an industry lower rates of wages to employees followed. Labor organ izations throughout the country, he said, had | urged upon the committee the necessity for the passage of the bill.
 MT. Plumb, of Illinois, opposed the bill on constitutional grounds He said 1t interfered with interstate commerce, and that proper investigation of the subject had not been made. The committee had based its action upon petitions of manufacturers, who in many cases sold in this country the products of English prisons He contended that prison labor was necessary to the reformation of | convicts.
 MT. Rogers argued that congress had not the power to lay an embargo and pass a law which provided for non-intercourse between the states of the Union.
 Mr. Butterworth, of Ohio, said this was not the first time when, in the name of labor, labor had been outraged upon this floor. The highest interest of the house was | to promote the well being of all, and the man | who intimated that any one on this floor was unfriendly to labor was dunce, knave or an unabridged ass The main packers of the | bill were not the laboring men. This was | the first time he had ever known monopoly | to join hands with labor in order to make the l criminals of the country gentlemen of ele- | gant leisure.
 l In answer to Mr. O'Neill as to what labor the gentleman had sought to support in his | tariff speech" Mir. Butterworth replied that | he was trying to protect American labor against foreign labor. He was not attempt l ing to tax laborers at home in order to sup port laborers on the other side in idIeness. MT. Butterworth maintained that there was not a well ordered business establishment that could not compete with prison labor, to which assertion MT. Brumm took exception .-
 Messrs. Wilson, of Minnesota, and Adams, of Illinois. argued against the bill as uncon- stitutional
 MT. Cannon, of Illinois, was unwilling that the bill should be passed, unless there was a provision incorporated in it prohibiting the importation of foreign goods manufactured l i,, rUhnla ir, fea-. hy- oouvfCJ IaDor.
 After further debate by Messrs. Outhwaite, of Ohio, and Blount, of Georgia, in opposi- l tion, and by Messrs Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Bound, of Pennsylvania, in advocacy of the measure, the previous question on the en- grossment and third reading of the bill was ordered, and the house adjourned.
 The rejection ill secret session of the Rid | dleberger resolution to consider the fisheries treaty in open session and the discussion and passage in regular session of the bill to create a department of labor were the features in the senate yesterday.
 | Mr. Reagan secured the floor and opposed the bill to establish department of agricul- ture. He said the laboring men had many | grounds of complaint, but he had never heard that they demanded mere change in the l manner of collecting information about labor as being sufficient to satisfy their complaints Their complaint was that the government had been for many years past lever since the Republican party had had control of it) run in the interest of various corporations, bond holders and capitalists and extravagantly | protected manufacturers
 | When labor asked for bread he would not consent to give 1t stone, as the pending bill proposed. Mr. Reagan moved as a substi- ute a bill creating department of indus try, but after yea and nay vote-there be- | ing but nine votes in its favor-the substitute | was withdrawn.
 The bill was then passed, and a conference committee ordered. Messrs Blair, Wilson l Qa.) and George were subsequently, ap- pointed conferees on the part of the senate.
 The following bills were then passed: Sem ate bill appropriating S125, 900 for a public building at Paterson, N. J.; senate bill in creasing the annual appropriation for the militia to S60000O.
 Senators say that tho defeat of the Riddle berger resolution to consider the fisheries treaty with open doors was due to Senator Hale's voting with the Democrats against it. The friends of the resolution contend that it | WOulQ nave been auOpUeu nau lC not been Tor fear that it would prove the beginning of the abolition of the secret session and star chamber practices. A hard fight was made by the advocates of open sessions for the Riddleberger resolution, and the author of the proposition says he does not intend to stop his warfare on the present system by this defeat, but will renew it in some other | form.
 To Form a National Bar Association
 WASHINGTON, May 2s.-A hundred lead
 ing lawyers, representing most of the states
 of the Union, assembled at the Universalist church here to form National Bar associa-
 tion. Mir. A. S. Worthington, prominent
 member of the district bar, called the assem- bly, to order. The thing that was most
 necessary, he said, was to bring about a uni formity of laws. He believed that existing
 evils could be corrected by forming a central
 association. Col James O. Broadhead, of St. Louis, was chosen chairman of the con.