Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-03
COMMITTEE ON LABOR.
Rights and Wrongs Of Toilers a
Seen by Congress.
How the cemmitiss is made Up-Ce@Pesso
Of labersrs and Farmers.

WASHINGTON, March B. (SpeclA.J
The promoters of legislation on laDor anu
incidentally the house labor committee
which said promoters are bombarolng'
are in something like a state of mind over
the various resolutions and promised pu'
DELAYED action on the rulings OF Judge
Jenkins in regard to the rights OF laborers
on the Northern Pacific railroad Inc SO
rallied McGann resolution, when first IN
troduced to the committee, set forth IN
language more vigorous than parliament
tary the wickedness, impolicy and general
illegality Of the jenkins ruling. 1t was
modified considerably, introduced into
the house and referred to the Judiciary
committee, which modified it very much
more and made several attempts to get II
before the house by unanimous consent
Objection was always made, however, ana
like everything else it had to wait until
the Bland seighiorage bill was out OF the
wav. Labor reformers are proverblaiiy
suspicious of our national lawmakers, and
they find all these delays irritating. Mr.
McCleary of Minnesota says of the resolu-
ton and the labor committees action:
They Can Resign.
"We considered that the matter belong
ed more properly to the judiciary commit
tee, while our duty was to investigate ana
second their demand for action. The whole
thing has an appearance rs of a reaction
from paternalism. You see, if Judge jen-
kins' ruling is correct, all the employees
of all the roads are quasi officials, and If
the United States is to take charge OF all
the railroads it will not be easy to escape
the conclusions that every railroader from
superintendent to train boy is govern
ment official. There is one happy thought,
however. There is no law or no clause In
the constitution against any officials re-
signing. Anybody in the employ of the
United States can quit whenever he wants
to. No: that isn't exactly correct either.
don't suppose Il military man could re-
sign Just on the eve of battle, though
some of them came very near it. But in a
general way officials can resign at will.
They very seldom do, but they can. Now,
why wouldn't this be happy solution OF
the trouble about strikers on railroads
or make them officials and let them resign
whenever they were dissatisfied"
The Labor Committee.
Incidentally it may be added that the
committee on labor is really Il laborers'
committee in broad sense of the word
that is, it has in its membership two Irish
laborers, one German laborer and several
farmers and there is about the committee
room IA decidedly suggestive appearance
of the ''horny handed" etc. MIR. McGann,
the chairman, is a native of Ireland and a
shoemaker Mr. Ryan is also an Irishman
and farmer. Mr.. Kiefer, the German,
began life as IL laborer and private soldier,
and so on around the table, with one
teacher and n lawyer. merchant and man
ufacturer put in 10 even the thing up. In
cidentally it may interest some people to
know that it IS very much a northern COM
mittee, having but one southern member,
the irrepressible Talbert of South Carolina
Senator Stewart. the ''pessimistic Dru
i'd as he is sometimes called from his
general appearance and very particular
views, when consulted on the subject,
broke out thus: ooh, what pity they
won study the thing which really affects
them. The blight on labor is the decreas-
ing volume and consequently increasing
power of the basis of the civilized worlds
currency John Sherman has already kill
ed more men than Were killed in the war.
Why, look at the last census. See what
an enormous decline there was in the rate
of natural increase. In fact, nothing but
the biggest immigration ever known in
history twice as big as was ever known
before, brought the rate of general increase
up to what it was when money was plenty
"But wait till you see the census of
1900 You will find that natural increase
has ceased entirely 1t has fallen off a
great deal more than half among the poor
est people. You can see that by the decline
among the colored people. They are the
poorest. and as they are counted apart
from the res. you can see how it is affect
ing labor. Why, it is plain to my mind
that if the present policy is continued the
population OF the civilized world will soon
show decrease. In fact, it has always
been the way hen the money volume de-
creased. The misery of the laboring classes
becomes so great that their numbers stead
lily decline. It's an awful way of curing
the evil Oh. it is all waste of time for
them to talk the way they do about rem
edes. What the country needs is n broad
coin basis. And that's what all the civil
LIKED world needs and what it has got to
have, or civilization will stop and popula-
ton decrease.
Despite this distressing prospect it is a
pleasure to add that Mr.. Stewart is in ex-
cellent health for all his G6 years, and
though beard and hair are white as snow
he looks in other respects as well as when
he entered the senate the first time-30
years ago.
Light on the Wilson Bill.
When the late blizzard struck Washing
ton, everybody said it would create much
sickness and cause terrible distress among
the poor, but so far rs can yet be observed
the doors Of odd jobs seem to have found
it bonanza, and in the midst of it the
president and secretary of state went off
on shooting trip, making no secret of
the fact that they were as happy to get
away from congress for few days as wea-
ried schoolooys are to get away from
frowning pedagogues.
In the midst of the elemental distress