The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-12-09

eaTeIy l1m1t1uE n hours of labor 70
railroad employees in train service up
on railroads engaged in interstate com
merce and providing that only trained
and experienced persons be employed
In positions Of responsibility connected
with the operation Of trains.
h safety appliance law, as amend
ed by the act IF March 2, 1908, has
proved beneficial to railway employees
and in order that it's provisions may be
properly carried out the force of i'll
spectors provided for by appropriation
should be largely increased. This cry
Ice has passed the experimental stage
and should receive generous recogni-
ton by the congress-.
In government Ofices.
There is no objection to employees of
the government forming or belonging
to unions, but the government can nei-
ther discriminate for nor discriminate
against nonunion men who are in it's
employment or who seek to be en-
ployed under it. Moreover, it is a very
grave improperly for government en-
ployees to band themselves together
for the purpose of eXtorting improperly
high salaries from the government.
Especially is this true of those within
the classified service. The letter car
r1ers, both municipal and rural, are as
q whole an excellent body of public
servants. They should be amply paid.
But their payment must be obtained
by arguing their claims fairly and hon
orably before the congress and not by
banding together for the defeat Of
those congressman who refuse to give
promises which they cannot in con
science give. The administration has
taken steps to prevent and punish
abuses of this nature, but it will be
wise for the congress to supplement
this action by legislation.
Bureau Of Labor.
Much can be done by the government
IN labor matters merely by giving pub
ucity to certain conditions. The bureau
of labor has done excellent work of
this kind in many different directions.
I shall shortly lay before you in a spe-
cial message the full report of the in
vestigatiOn of the bureau of labor into
the Colorado mining strike, as this is a
strike in which certain very evil forces.
which are more or less at work every
where under the conditions of modern
industrialism, became startlingly prom
inent. 1t is greatly to be wished that
the department of commerce and Ia
Dor, through the labor bureau, should
compile and arrange for the congress
list Of the labor laws Of the various
states and should be given the means
to investigate and report to the CON-
gress upon the labor conditions in the
manufacturing and mining regions
throughout the country. both as to
wages. as to hours Of labor, as to
the labor of women and children and
as to the effect in the various labor
centers Of immigration from abroad.
In this investigation especial attention
should be paid to the conditions of
child labor and child labor legislation
in the several states. .
Corporations.
When we come to deal with great
corporations the need for the govern
ment to act directly is far greater than
in the ease of labor, because great cor
porations can become such only by en-
gaging in interstate commerce, and In
terstate is peculiarly the
field of the general government. 1t Is
an absurdity to expect to eliminate the
abuses in great corporations by state
action. 1t is difficult to be patient with
an argument that such matters should
be left to the states, because more than
one state pursues the policy Of Great
ing on easy terms corporations which
are never operated within that state
at all, but in other states whose laws
they ignore. The national government:
alone can deal adequately with these
great corporations. To try to deal
with them in an Incorporate, destruc-
tive or demagogic spirit would in all
probability mean that nothing what
ever would be accomplished, and with
absolute certainty that il anything
were accomplished it would be Of a
harmful nature. The American peo-
pie need to continue to show the very
qualities that they have shown-that is
moderation, good sense, the earnest
desire to avoid doing any damage and
yet the quiet determination to proceed
step by step. without halt and without
hurry, in eliminating or at least in
minimizing whatever of mischief or OF
evil there is to interstate commerce
in the conduct of great corporations
They are acting in no spirit of hostility
to wealth, either individual or cor
porate. They are not against the ricl
man any more than against the poo
man. On the contrary. they are friend
ly alike toward rich man and toward
poor man, provided only that each act:
in a spirit of justice and decency to
ward his fellows. Great corporation:
are necessary. and only men of grea'
and singular mental power can man
age such corporations successfully
and such men must have great re
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