The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-31
X coNvENrrNT MrMoRY.

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 A CONVENIENT MEMORY.
 f Itisstaking up rather too much edi- torial space. but we give room to the following editorial from recent issue Acf The New Orleans ftems
 President Gampers, of the American bered. made an appeal to Congress at the outset of the recent Congress rela- tive to applying the efsfit hour rule to all labor under the government. Speak CT Cannon turned the cold shoulder will probably suffer at the forthcom- itg congressionaf elections. Gompers has since then scored a victory by sR oa ns has assesssn Sss l0 ths s statue book fourteen years, and has been totally disregardeds by govern- ineflt contractors The resuscitation or la p a and as sse assEasd rss viii s tSst the contract system will be discarded and all gevernnent work lbe conducted by consulted with c6mmissioner of La- bor MeNeifl who admitted that in all Sss ss ci5ss S ps,stss the rSs law 900 Connecticut avekusf bridge has been working his men ten hours day. It Is said the President had no knowI. NA8FNA Qt LtlEAfAASt SttltA& HQt NlQlhliOA Ot tine eight hour law until his, attention was directed tos 1t by Gomphra It Is not pleasant to make an issue with the President ass toS thiss matter: At the contended that if government labor were coufiHed to- eight hours 1t would delay the preparation for ships and fs t Eas p then aras Fsss ana tha apsn snss tse scient duahtisys to n meet the government demands. and hence the eight hour rule point it was argued that the rates pre- scrfbed by the labor unions were de- trimental to the service, inasmuch as the most skilled labor was put upon the same level as the worst and that q man with a large family and who needed pay for ten hours received no more compensation. than the single maa wq had af that fay e aEes Tas Pusc ear force was known toF the government and wilfuIly violated The excuse not be irupeded, but that excuse did not exist after the war with Spain President Roosevelt orders Commits siisii no longer be vioiated. This or. der, coming on the eve of the con gressionai elections. is regarded by
 sy ma as sss, tub snTew to the Tnsis ss dent Is acting from assense of duty. The closing words of the above may be taken with al large degree of al- lowance. because The Item does not Know any better than The Advertiser does what motive rfmpels the President ot suddehiy become sos anxious to favs this resurrsetedr law enforced. but we beg to suggest a. plansibIe explanation of his sudden zeal It has been pretty seietafTy understood of late that union labor Is going extensively into politics this year. The Congressional elections sare cBnangs off ana upon tlsee result may depend the chntr6r of the next Congress. Union labor in some of the close dsstrictss may be' strong enough to decadss the resuzs for or against the Republican candfdates hence the tuR to the whale.
 Leaving an thfss out however. and giving the administration credit for good motives in suddenly remembering atiaAw which 1t could not havs forgot ten. thet country may as wei1 make up its mind that the canal work Is going to cost largely more than it should It would dbnDtlessf have been bad enough if all the work had been let out by private contract. for there, has aIready Been ample eeidehee thaty one Of the things the contractors out there do Is to hold up the government for all they can make out of it. Get all you can and dc as little for 1t as you can.% seems to have been the principle governing those who have held govern rnenf jobs on the canal.
 But if. as The Item says. the con- tract system Is to be abandoned en- tireiy and the work done by the gov- efnment itself we see no. reason to be- lieve that anything Is to De gained. In the first place. each laborer will expect and recieverten hours wage for eight hours work. which of itself is gross Imposition on the government, but that is not all The whole Busi- ness will be governed by the unions, and iReompetsnts. If they belong to the union. as we presume they will must be paid as much as competent men receive IL will simply be a hold up. and the President and his advisers would better have continued to forget law which they couldn't remember until there arose a political necessity for calling it up- Gompers has the govefnmerit by the nose,. beyond & doubt.