The San Francisco call., 1897-01-19

dav of each month furnish to the Commits
! sioner of the Department of Labor writ
| ten ststeueut from said book or set of books
plainly setting forth said facts upon a blank
| form to be furnished by said Commissioner
Sec 7. The Commissioner of the Depart
ment of Labor shall, during business hours,
! have free access to all offices used by any en-
ployment agent or agen Is, and shall be per-
! mitted to post therein copies of any laws or
notices concerning the conduct of the busi-
ness of the said employment agent or other
! information concerning labor. The said copies
| of laws or notices shall be conspicuously
posted and shall not be hidden, removed or
defaced.
This act would allow the Labor Com
missioner to walk into any employment
Office and post up notice asking for 500
men for certain WORK which they could
have by applying to him." added the
speaker. ''The effect of the law, IN
connection with another bill before the
Assembly, would be to erect throne in
the State Capitol and seat upon it La
Dor Commissioner Fitzgerald as king
The speaker called attention to the
power and influence that would be welded
by the Labor Com mmissioner if employ
| ment agents were driven out of business
by the law. The bill gave the Labor Com
missioner too much power and influence.
1t was party measure, he argued.
at may be good politics, but it is not
good morals or common sense. This bill
would throw all persons seeking employ
ment into the hands OF one man, and it
would be conferring upon him greater
power than that possessed by the Gov
ernor of this State or the President of the
- ooid ba eraalrar
Senator Morehouse said that the bill
had been framed for the purpose of doing
away with serious evil like that which
! happened a short time ago, when 500 men,
! in answer 10 an advertisement went to
Fresno and found that they hai been
duped. The speaker called attention to a
| bill prepared by employment agents and
already read in the Assembly requiring of
all agents a penal bond In the sum of
$4,000.
Mr.. Macarthur followed for the Labor
| Commissioner and the workingmen and
repudiated the idea that there was any or
! ganizahon behind the bill except the or
| ganized workingmen of the State. With
reference to Mr.. Morganstern's contention
that the bill was uncon nstitutioual MI Nc
Arthur argued that 1t was mans consti-
| tutional right to earn his daily bread, and
that whoever attempted to prevent a man
from getting employment violated that
mans constitutional right.
The Speaker read from the Revised
Statutes of the United States the law pro-
hlblung any one except shipping COM
missioner from receiving or demanding a
fee from seaman for obtaining employ
ment for him. Here the United States
had legislated against the right of sea-
man to make a contract, because he is
usually without resources or friends, and
the Federal Government steps in to save
him from the exactions of the crimps.
If the Federal Government has a right
! to legisIate against the sesmen making a
contract, why should not the State have
right TO Iegislate on behalf of the working
men, be asked. No reputable employ
ment agent should object to the bill. Its
object was to protect the working people
from being swindled by dishonest agents.
1t has happened too often that an en-
ployment agent has sent an applicant to
work in the country. This applicant has
paid the agent two or three dollars. At
the end of two or three days the man is
| discharged and the agent sends another
! nan NllO AdS pau lWO Vi luI6S QOlldIS,
and so on as-long as the game will last,
the mployer and the agent dividing the
money received from the victims.
"1here is only one clause In the BILL
continued Mr.. Macarthur, that the en-
ployment agents object to and that is the
5 per cent clause, but per cent is a pretty
good fee. 1t IS a matter of notoriety that
| employment agents as class are swim
! dlers, that they trade upon the necessities
! of the poor; In many instances they
! take money and don't give any return for
it, and when they do give a return in
most instances it is inadequate. If this
law will not permit EN- ployment agents to
do business in their own way let them give
up the business and 90 TO work at some
thing else. Massachusetts has a similar
law and it was working we'll"
Mr. Macarthur closed by saying that the
problem of the day was to put men and
women to work.
r. N. Fitzgerald, brother of the Labor
Commissioner, followed ON behalf of the
bill. He recalled the time when, two
years ago, an effort was made in the Legis-
lature to abolish the Labor Bureau, and
he had had considerable difficulty in con-
vinclng the legislators that if the bureau
was properly conducted it would be of
m uch good to workingmen and women.
Mr.. Fitzgerald read the deposition OF
Robert H. Murray, stating that while act
ing as employment agent he had paid to
Hogan & Burns, contractors, to B. Gala
CHER, foreman of the stone quarry at No
vato, and to Mr.. Carey of Harbor View so
cents for each person furnished them by
Murray. This was common practice
among employment agents, added Mr..
Murrays deposition.
Mr.. Fitzgerald read several instances in
which Charles MiIler's ranch at Liver
more figured in the advertisement, and 10
which poor men had been sent by uE-
scrupulous agents only to find that they
had been duped out of the fees paid by
them to the agents. The speaker went on
to show that the State, which fixed the
fees of doctors, the rates of car fare, and
SO forth, could also fix the fees and COM
missions of employment agents.
California was not the first or the only
State TO legislate against dishonest en-
ployment agents or to establish free
public employment offices. He
showed by official reports that
wherever public offices were established
the private employment Offices ceased to
exist. There was nothing in the bill, he
said, to which an honest employment