The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-26
To REGULATE THE
HOURS OF LABOR
Laws Should be Passed by
State Legislatures.
AS TO LABOR BY CHILDREN
None Under Fourteen Should Work in
None Under Fourteen Should Work in
Mines and Factories.
A WORKING DAY SHOULD Be EIGHT HOURS
This in All Public Employment. Among Other
Things the Industrial Commission Thinks
Issuring Ipjunctons Against Work.
ingmen Should be Discouraged.
(By the Associated Press.)

Washington, May 23.-The Industrial!
Commission in its. report to Congress on
labor legislation. recommends improved
legislation to the State Legislatures
rather than to Congress directly.
THE subject of greatest public inter
est today says the report, ''is perhaps
that of the regulation of the hours of
labor permitted in industrial occupations
and especially in factories
AS Congress has no power TO legislate
directly in this matter the commission
recommends that simple statute be en-
acted by all the States regulating the
length OF the working day for all persons
between the ages of II and Il years who
work in factories.
The report says in brief:
THE employment of children below
the age OF II should be prohibited in fac
tories The length of the working day in
all public employment should be fixed
at eight hours. The same time should
be fixed for workmen in underground
mines except in cases of emergency. En-
ployment in mines of children less than
II years of age and of all women and
girls should be forbidden. Congress might
be employed as telegraph operator upon
railroads and that all engineers and
switchmen should submit to an examina-
tion for color blindness; also that it be
made misdemeanor for an engineer or
switchman to be intoxicated while on
duty. / simple and liberal law regulating
the payment of labor should be adopted
by all the States, providing that all la
borers shall be paid in cash orders with
out discount not in goods or due bills
and that 70 compulsion. direct or indirect
should be used to make them purchase
goods at any particular store Provisions
for The fair weighing Of coal at mines
before passing over a screen should be
adopted and the miners should have the
privilege of employing a check weighman
at their own expense. The question of
the enforcement of the labor contract by
injunction or contempt in equity process
is a very difficult one, mainly made so
by the abuses which have arisen from
injunctions carelessly issued. 1t is sug-
geSted that it might be well to limit pun
ishment for contempt to Imprisonment for
q brief period but equity courts must
not be deprived of the power to pro-
tect themselves and to make their de-
crees respected. The practice of award
ing blanket injunctions against all the
world, or against unnamed defendants. as
well as the practice of indirectly en-
forcing the contract for personal service
by enjoining employees from quitting work
should be discouraged not only by popu-
lar sentiment, but by intelligent judicial
opinion. Congress should adopt a con-
sistent code Of laws regulating all mat
ters concerning railroad employment
such as hours of employment, limitation
of continuous runs by engineers or con-
tiDuous service by telegraph operators or
switchmen: the enactment of a consist
ent employers liability code: the liability
or the employer or corporation for de-
fectivc appliances, etc. The statutes al
ready adopted in the several States, dts
eliminating as between union and non
union labor by making it penal offense
Tor an employer to exclude union labor
only, seem to the commission to be un-
constitutional, being class legislation.
The statute, should apply to non union as
well as union labor alike, if it is to be
enacted at all. The right to be en-
ployed and protected without belonging
TO a union should be preserved; but
every facility should be given labor to
organize if it desires. and the last vestige
of the notion that trade unions are a
criminal conspiracy should be swept
away. The use of private police detec-
tives or other hired bodies OF men to be
used in connection with labor troubles
has aroused considerable attention and
Congress probably has the power to en-.
act reasonable legislation to prevent
abuses in this direction"
In a general way the commission re-
ports that Cancellation laws have been
found effective but that strict arbitra-
tion machinery works we'll. 1t is recon-
mended that labor bureaus or commits
sions be established in all the States
Commissioners e. A. Smyth and C. ].
Harris, unite in minority report in
which they express the opinion that it
would be both unjust and impracticable
to attempt any uniform laws regulating
labor in all the States. if labor and capt.
tai are TO have full development They
say the right of private contract should
be allowed to both laborer and employer
and therefore the limitation of hours of
labor would be fraught with danger. Com
missioner (Senator) John w Daniel, in
a separate minority report concurs in the
spirit of the views expressed by Com
missioners Smyth and Harris.