The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1907-12-03


for some of it there is warrant. I
earnestly commend to the attention of
the congress this matter, so that some
way may be devised which will limit
the abuse of injunctions and protect
those rights which from time to time
t unwarrantably invades. / refrain
from discussion of this question as l
am informed that it will soon receive
Accidents.
The loss of life and limb from rail.
road accidents in this country has be-
come appalling. 1t is subject of which
the national government should take
supervision. 1t might be we'll to begin
by providing for a federal inspection
of interstate railroads somewhat along
the lines of federal inspection of steam
boats, although not going so far; per-
haps at first all that it would be ne
cessary to have would be some officer
whose duty would be to investigate all
accidents on interstate railroads and
report, in detail the causes thereof.
Employers Liability.
Congress should adopt legislation
providing limited but definite COM
pensation for accidents to all work
men within the scope Of the federal
power. sncluding employees Of navy
yards and arsenals. The number of ac-
cijents TO wage workers, including
those that are preventable and those
that are not. has become appalling in
the mechanical, manufacturing, and
transportation operations of the day.
Eight Hour Law.
The congress should consider the
extension of the eight-hour law. The
Of the present law
has recently been called into question,
and the supreme court has decided that
the existing legislation. is unques:ion-
ably within the powers of the congress.
The general introduction of the eight
hour day should be the goal toward
which we should steadily tend, and the
should set fthe example in
this respect.
Capital and Labor.
Where an immense and complex
business, especially iL those branches
relating to manufacture and transport
tation, is transacted by a large num-
Der Of capitalists who employ a very
much larger number of wage earners,
the former tend more and more to
combine into corporations and the lat
ter into unions. The relations of the
capitalist and wage-worker to one an
other, and of each to the general pub
lie, are not always easy to adjust; and
to put them and keep them on a salts
factory basis is one of the most i'm
portant and one of the most delicate
tasks before our whole civilization. It
is important to remember that without
good laws. it is also impossible to reach
the proper solution. 1t is idle to hold
that without good laws evils such as
women, as the failure to protect en-
ployees from loss of life Or limb, can
be effectively reached, any more than
the evils of rebates and stock watering
can be reached without good laws. To
fail to stop these practices by legisla-
ton means to force honest men into
them, because otherwise the dishonest
who surely will take advantage of
them will have everything their own
way.
While honesty by itself will not
solve the problem, yet the insistence
upon honesty-not :. merely technical
honesty, but honesty In purpose and
Spirits an essential element in ar
irving at a right conclusion. The pub
lie and the representatives Of the pub
tic, the high officials, whether on the
beLch or in executive or legislative po-
sitions, need to remember that often
the most dangerous criminals, SO far as
the life of the nation is concerned, are
not those who commit the crimes
known to and condemned by the pop
lar conscience for centuries, but those
who commit crimes only rendered pos
sible by the complex conditions of our
modern industrial life.
Farmers and Wage Workers.
The two citizens whose welfare is
in the aggregate most vital to the well
fare of the nation. and therefore to the
welfare of all other citizens, are the
wage worker who. does manuai labor
and the tiller of the soil, the farmer.
In any community with the solid.
healthy qualities which make up a
really great nation the bulk of the peo-
pie should do work which calls for the
exercise of both body ard mind. Our
school system is gravely defective in
so far as it puts a premium upon mere
literary training and tends therefore to
train the boy away from the farm and
the workshop.
8 1t should be one of our prime objects
to put both the farmer and the me-
chanic on a higher plane of efficiency
and reward, so as to increase their eff
fectiveness in the economic world ard
therefore the dignity, the remuneration.
and the power of their positions in the
social world
The department of agriculture and