The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-03-25
Again Calling Attention te
Legislation That Is Needed.
THERE'S TIME ENOUGH
He Says, to Attend to These
Matters Before Adjournment.
Child Labor, Employers Liabii-
ity and Labor IniunctiOns
Among the Things Which De-
mand Prompt Attention.

mduU prompt AGGOuUlUHs
Washington, March 25.-A special
message from the president was read
IN both houses of congress soon after
convening today and in both it was
closely followed. In the house the
declaration that the time had come for
a revision of the tariff elected hand
clapping on the part of the Demo-
cratic members. Democratic approval
also was given by way of pounding of
desks to the suggestion that congress
could with advantage forthwith re-
move the tariff on wood pulp. with a.
corresponding reduction upon paper
made from wood pulp. The Republ1-
cans waited and confined their ap-
plause to the message as whole.
In the senate the message was re-
ceived without comment of any kind.
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
L call your attention to certain
measures as to which 1 think there
should be action by the congress be-
fore the close of the present session
There is ample time for their consid-
GRAFTON. As regards most, II not all,
of the matters, bills have been intro
duced into one or the other of the two
house es and it is not too much to hope
that action will be taken one way or
the other on those bills at the present
session. In my message at the open
ing of the present session, and, indeed,
in various messages to previous con-
crosses, 1 have repeatedly suggested
action on most of these measures.
Child labor should be prohibited
throughout the nation. AT least a
model child labor bill should be passed
for the District of Columbia. 1t is un-
fortunate that in the one place solely
dependent upon congress for its legfs-
lation there should be no law whatever
to protect children by forbidding or
regulating their labor.
1 renew my recommendation for the
immediate re-enactment of an en-
ployers' liability law, drawn to con-
form to the recent decision Of the SUI
preme court Within the limits indi-
Gated by the court the law should be
made thorough and comprehensive,
and the protection it affords should
embrace every class of employe to
which the power of the congress can
extend
In addition to liability law protect
ing the employees of common carriers
the government should show its good
faith by enacting a further law giving
compensation to its own employees for
injury or death incurred in its service.
1t is a reproach to US as a nation that
in both federal and state legislation
we have afforded less protection to
public and private employees than any
other industrial country of the world.
Labor Injunctions.
1 also urge that action be taken
along the line of the lamentations
] have already made concerning in
functions in labor disputes. No tenn
porary restraining order should be is
sued by any court without notice, and
the petition for a permanent injunc-
ton upon which such temporary re-
straining order has been issued should
be heard by the court issuing the same
within a reasonable time-Say not to
exceed a week or thereabouts, from the
date when the order was issued. 1t is
worth considering whether it would
not give greater popular confidence in
the impartiality of sentences for con-
should be decided by another judge
than the one issuing the injunction,
except where the contempt is COM
mitted in the presence of the court.
or in other case of urgency.
/ again call attention to the urgent
need of amending the interstate com
merce law and especially the anti
trust law along the lines indicated in
my last message. The interstate COM
merce law should be amended so as to
give railroads the right to make traffic
agreements, subject to these agree
ments being approved by the inter-
state commerce commission and pub
lished in all of their details. The COM
mission should also be given the power
to make public and to pass upon the
issuance of all securities hereafter
issued by railroads doing an interstate
commerce business.
law should be passed providing in
effect that when a federal court deter
mines to place common carrier or
other public utility concern under the
control of a receivership, the attorney
general should have the right to nomi-
nate at least one of the receivers; or
else in some other wav the interests
of the stockholders should be consult
ed, so that the management may not
be wholly redelivered to the man or
men the failure of whose policy may
have necessitated the creation of the
receivership. Receiverships should be
used, not to operate roads, but as
speedily as possible to pay their debts
and return them to the proper owners.
Antitrust Law.
In addition to the reasons 1 have al
ready urged on your attention, it has
now become important that there
should be an amendment of the anti
trust law because of the uncertainty
as to how this law affects combina-
tions among labor men and farmers, if
the combination has any tendency to
restrict interstate commerce. All of
these combinations, If and while ex-
tion of innocent and proper purposes,
should be recognized as legal. AS
have repeatedly pointed out, this anti
trust law was most unWiSely drawn
statute. It was perhaps inevitable that
in feeling after the right remedy the
first attempts to provide such should
be crude; and it was absolutely i'm
perative that some legislation should
be passed to control, in the interest
of the public, the business use of the
wealth that are SO marked a feature
nnlv too well the kind of legislation