Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-05
THE RELIEF OF LABOR.
A New York Coagressman's Lack Of
Faith in Legislation.
The Pressure On Labor ccmmi!ee-0ur Pres
Ell Chaotic financial Condition.

proposition TO coin the Ssls5HIprd5c udr
created a vast amount of i'll feeling and
some auimosities which bid fair to be per
manent, and has probably laid the foun-
dation for more personal explanations and
questions of privilege than any debate for
years. 1t has also also put the chairmen
Of several committees in a fretfui mood on
account of the delay Of the work which
they had laid out. The committee on cleo
tioEs led expected to get the contest OF
O'Ncill versus Joy settled so long ago that
the heated debate over it would be forgot
ten by this time. II is true, there was no
occasion for their worrying, as such things
go by n strict party vote anyhow, but just
the same they have worried.
Mr.. Hatch also expected to get his ia
yo-i.e antioption bill and other measures
III src.I shape that the farmers would al
ready be celebrating their deliverance.
And the committee on appropriations,
which less than one month ago was con
f,ratulgtiug itself on its splendid and rapid
work, nos, begins to think that it Will be
as long getting its bill through the ho;:se
as any former committee. the pressure
on the committee ON labor also increases,
and thost. Of tho members who VIII talk
freely frankly admit that nothing Of value
cen be done soon
Failure Ia Distribution.
In fact, says Mr.. Ryan of the. Sixteenth
New YORK district, "the more | look into
such questions, the more / am satisfied
that legislation cannot do anything for
the immediate relief OF labor. In fact, it
cauuot give immediate relief at any time
i..,, tot Mon fin.
the relief OF labor take effect so slowly that
what we DO here this term may be years
In showing what it amounts to. ! have a
kind of an IDEA that poverty, in so far as
it is not the result OF proiligacy, IMPROVE
dcnee uad the like, is due to Il certain fail
ure in distribution which is not yet well
undcrstood-not at all understood, in fact.
IL tried to say something like that in
nv remarks, but it is hard to get it into
such shape that it is clear to those who
hear it and read it. The amount of it,
though, is about like this For 60 years
now we have been improving the machin-
cry of production with the most amazing
rapidity, and yet the machinery of getting
the product generally distributed among
the people is not one bit better than it was
go yeats ago. American laborers have had
such great atural advantages that they
have en- loved a good deal of tle gain in pro
duction. but now that the country is get
ting full of laborers and natural opportu-
mites are less it looks to me very much as
if we must have some radical change tc
keep them from falling into the same con
GitiOn us in the old countries. | haven I
got it INFO shape, but there must be some
better way of distributing the products OF
labor among the laborers.
The 1Eachine and Labor.
eve have so far con5i Tered only two OF
tllrce minor measures. As chairman OF
the subcommittee [ have reported favora-
bly, on the bill TO make Labor day a ma
tionai holiday, rs i5 is now holiday in
81 states | wauld have preferred later
date than the first Monday in September,
but IA that is already established by the
states it must stand. We also have res
oIution instructing our committee TO make
an inquiry on the effect OF machinery upon
the wages of labor, and that inquiry we
shall Elallc very thorough in all probabili-
ty II there is anything in the talk that
machinery is HOW in juring labor, we want
to know it, of course. But in general
way it ought To be known and considered
that anything we do can have practically
no effect upon the condition of labor now
or in the near future. 1t takes a very long
time to do such things, and very often the
improvement comes about in way that
nobody had expected and lawmakers had
not even thought of. "
Under pressure of Mr., Somers of Wiscon-
sin and others, investigation will proba-
bly, he pushed in regard to the various rul-
ings affecting the rights of laborers on
railroads which are in the hands of receiv-
ers, especially the recent ruling of Judge
Jenkins, the decision of Judge Kicks in
the Ann Arbor cases and perhaps one or
two others. All this, of course, as soon as
the financial questions and the pressing
appropriation bills can be got out of the
way. Speaking of personal explanations
in regard to silver, it is noticeab BILE that all
those who were formerly silver men and
vet voted for the Wilson bill to repeal the
Sherman act have finally got together and
give substantially the same reasons.
Good Bimetailists.
One Of them puts it in these words: ''We
have been ut war with circumstances and
have been beaten out of sight. The world
is against US, and it is folly for us to fight
any longer. We stood up TO silver till all
the rest OF the civilized world had gone
back on us. and the loads too heavy for
us to carry alone. We must have interna-
tiunGl agreement or no more silver" On
this basis such men as General Grosvenor
of Ohio and Mr.. Walker of Massachusetts
proclaim themselves as good bimetallsts.
The latter said to your correspondent:
'There is no other country, civilized or
( uncivilized, that has got its finances into
such chaotic state as we have, and the
reason of it is that there is none ia which
the currency is party question. They
recognize that it is a scientific question,
I to be- settled by reasoning on experience
+ and not by the alternating hopes and fears
: or dread and wishes of debtors and credit
ors or any OF this nonsense about debtor
and creditor sections. Now. if they will
I put it on any kind of a sensible scientific
/ basis. they will find us as good bimetal-
! lists rs themselves,
In all this there is nothing that has not
+ been said many times on the floors of con
4 Iress and read by the people. Still it is
worth noting that men of that class stick
TO tncir opinions, while Il great many OF
1 The otaer class have practically come over
TO their views. 1t is also worthnoting that
ell predictions on the Democratic side OF
The house that the Wilson bill would &c
through the senate with u whirl are with.
drawn The sulnr n v of free talks with