The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-02-14
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONS
REPORT.

The third part of the Industrial Com
missions final report was made public
Monday. 1t treats of labor, immigration,
taxation and irrigation. Regarding labor
the following recommendations are
made:
Congress having no power to legislate
directly upon the subject, it is recommend
ed that the several States establish uni.
form hours of labor and also specially
regulate the hours of employment of
persons between the ages of IA and 81.
The working day of all public employ
ment, the report says, should be eight
hours, in the hope that it would bring
private employment to the same stan
dard The period of work in under
ground mines should be eight hours day.
1t is recommended that Congress, under
its powers as to interstate commerce,
prevent any person under Is years being
employed as telegraph operator on rail-
roads; that all engineers and switchmen
should submit to an examination for
color blindess; that it should be misde-
meanor for an engineer or switchman to
be intoxicated while on duty.
The report says the States should adopt
law providing that labor should be
paid in cash orders without discount,
and net in goods or due bills, and that
company stores should not be allowed.
Provision should be made for fair weig-
ing at mines.
Regarding injunctions, the commission
says:
The question of the enforcement of
labor contract by Injunction or CONTEMPT
in equity process is very difficult one,
mainly so made by the abuses which have
arisen from Injunction carelessly issued
BY the learned judges or by the unlearn
ed judges of inferior courts in States
which confuse chancery and common
law jurisdiction. The injunction is a
high p1erogative writ and should be
awarded only after the most careful ex-
animation by tribunal thoroughly COM
petent."
A statute to prevent intimidation at
Federal elections is recommended. Con-
gress, the report says, should legislatc to
prevent the importation and sale of con-
vict made goods from one State into
another without the cor sent of the State
into which the goods are imported or
where they are sold.
On the subject of railway labor, which
the report says, is undoubtedly covered
by the interstate powers of Congress, the
commission believes Congress should
adopt consistent code of law regulating
all matters concerning employment in
that industry. Commissioners Smyth
and Harris do not concur in the recon-
mendations of the majority.
The recommendations of the COM
mission on the subject of immigration
are:
General revision and codification of tie
immigration laws, including such verbal
changes as are necessary to make the
existing principles of legislation effective.
Increasing the head tax from 81 to So.
Effective inspection along the Canadian
and Mexican borders to be secured through
establishment of designated frontier ports
of entry by the Secretary of the Treasury.
Exclusion and deportation of anarchists.
Renewal and continuance of the Chinese
exclusion laws and the introduction of
administrative amendments in order to
render these laws less liable to evasion;
but framing restrictive Legislation so as
not to hinder or seriously interfere with
commerce with China.
The period of deportation, it is recon-
mended, should be extended to five years,
the expenses during the first year to be
paid by the steamship company for all
aliens uniawfully landed.
A number of recommend ations relative
to the deportation and more careful in
spection of immigrants also are made.
Penalties are recommended to be i'm
posed upon steamship companies for aliens
affected with loathsome or contagious dis
eases brought to American ports.
Commissioners Penrose, Bard, Gardner,
Bell, Often, Lorimer, Farquhar, Kennedy
and Litchman dissents from the quali6ca-
ton on the restriction of Chinese immi-
grafton and deprecate legislation which
would make easier Chinese immigration
under the guise of encouraging commerce.
As to taxation, the commission recon-
mends:
That the States abandon the general
property tax and raise their revenues by
taxes upon corporations, inheritances and
incomes, supplemented when necessary
by indirect taxation.
That corporations, public service and
others, be taxed by State boards at lases
fixed by legislation, upon the value of
their franchises, assessed according to the
actual value of their stocks and bonded
debts, less the value of their real estate as
assessed locally, and that the real estate
owned by them be taxed locally as other
real estate is taxed.
That the system of levying graduated
taxes upon inheritances be adopted by
those States which do not now employ it
and that it be abandoned by the Federal
Government.
That taxes upon corporations, iuherit-
ances, ETC., be supplemented by "a gradu-
ated tax upon incomes, to be levied and
collected by the State.
That notes, mortgages and other like
property be taxed by the State at full
value, but at low, fixed rates, through APP
propriate listing and recording systems.
Commissioners Harris, Tompkins and
Gardner dissent from some of the above
| conclusions.
Regarding irrigation, the Commission
| recommends that Congress enact laws:
To provide for national control of
sources of water supply upon which two
| or more States may depend for irrigation
To provide for further comprehensive
surveys of the arid lands of the United