The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-12-31

isfactorily constructed under an eight
hour day. The contractors claim 1t can
not be done within a reasonable period OF
time OF within hundreds of thousands or
dollars of the contract price of the Louis
lana"
One great advantage which tho Navy
Department has over the private contract
ors. however. is that 40 matter how
much the Connecticut costs, or how long
it takes to construct her, or how far in
ferior 1t may be in speed, or how unsat-
isfactory its general performance-the
government is bound to accept her as 1t Is
building her in its own yards. The expert
ment reyiyes memories Of the Inflated
Texas, which gave the Navy Department
so much trouble, and which finally stood
still in the only battle in which 1t ever
took part, the battle of Santiago, while
the Oregon, built by private contractors,
on the Pacific Coast, plowed between u
and the Brooklyn, leaving the Texas, as
Car. ain Clark of the Oregon expressed 1t,
.'as though she were standing STILL" The
Brooklyn and the other vessels which
played prominent parts in this battle
were also constructed by private con-
tractors, the majority of them by the
Cramps, who have testified that II the
eight hour system had been in force when
they were contracted for they would
never have been constructed. The Con-
necticut and the Louisiana will be re-
uuired to make eighteen knots, and should
the speed fall below seventeen and one
half knots the Secretary of the Navy
Is at liberty to reject the Louisiana, and
all payments made are to be refunded.
With the Connecticut it Is different.
And so, the battle between the labor
unions and the private contractors Will
soon be on. Union labor finds no place in
the yards Of the Newport Shipbuilding
Company any more than 1t does in those
of the Cramps, or in the armor plate
mills at Homestead. The experience OF
the Cramps with the labor unions when
| they were rushing the completion OF the
| battleship Alabama, and of the Newport
News Company under similar circum-
stances with the batteship Illinois, has
caused them to declare tnat never again
will they recognize union labor. which in
those instances attempted to interfere
with the completion of the United States
| battleship to further the ends of the Inter-
national Association OF Machinists. The
charge of tampering with the transport
| Thomas made by representatives of the
Cramps before the Senate Committee on
Labor was vehemently denied by Presi-
| dent Gompers of the American Fedora
| ton of Labor and President o Council of
| the INTERNATIONAL Association OF MdCnlH-
| lists. But 1t Is significant that the charges
| relative to the Alabama and the Illinois
have never been denied. nor have the ac-
cused labor leaders demanded an official
investigation Of the charges.
| 1T appears to me, said one Of the
most prominent members of the Senate
| today, that a common sens eway of do
! iEg business would be for Congress to
| await the outcome of the test of the eight
| hour a day scheme as applied to ship
building. which is to be conducted by the
Secretary of he Navy under the author
ity of Congress, In a most thorough and
businesslike manner, before undertaking
| to pass any such blanket law as the pro-
posed eight hour bill now before the Sem
| ate.' This Senator, as well as others,
sees In the movement behind the eight
hour bill the ultimate object the dream
Of all labor leaders, first. of universal
eight hour day. and, secondly. of the
government ownership of all public works
and utilities, and are prepared to resist
this tendency to the end.