River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-05-11
RURAL MEMBERS
OPPOSE MEASURE
Child Labor Act Is e-Referred in
the Assembly.
MILWAUKEE, RETAINS FAIR
BY a Close Vote of Forty-Eight to
Forty-Two 1t Was Decided That
the Wisconsin Exhibit Will
Not Move to Oshkosh.

Not Move to Oshkosh.
Madison.-Child labor came up in
the assembly and after several mem
bers had struck at it on various
points it was taken by the hand and
again led gently into the care of the
committee on welfare of women and
children.
The bill which came up is the work
Of students of the problem, including
chiefly Prof. John r. Commons of the
University of Wisconsin and Alexan-
der Fleischer, who has had actual ex-
perience in Milwaukee and Chicago
in dealing with the question.
The chief opponents of the bill ap-
pear to be the members from rural
communities, who know little of the
problem in the big workshops and
factories of the city. Mr.. Roessler
and Mr.. Spoor, when the bill came
up, brought up the arguments that
have been used for more than a dec
ade: That the child should be encour-
aged to work and to take on habits of
industry. They did not go into the
phase of stunted growth, i'll health
and low morality brought on by lack
of education and factory work at a
tender age. Mr.. Roessler urged that
the bill be amended so as to restore
to county judges the right to issue
work permits to children between
fourteen and sixteen. This clause was
in hA h - re
abuse by the judges. Assemblyman
Stevens took a determined stand
against the bill wherein it limited the
work hours to not more than eight
day. He said that he believed in
granting the privilege to put in more
hours a day. Mr.. Spoor said he
thought it good thing to teach the
child to work at an early age.
The defendants of the bill were
Messrs. Golf and Gilbertson, both of
whom have made a deep study of the
child labor question. When it became
apparent to Mr.. Gilbertson that the
bill was in immediate danger he
moved lis preference to committee,
and the motion prevailed There is
still another child labor bill recon-
mended by Milwaukeeans and drawn
by Mr.. Stern that may be argued in
connection with the present measure.
BY vote of Al to "a the assembly
refused to reconsider the Hull bill,
which seeks to prohibit granting of
saloon licenses within one mile of a
dry" district. 1t also refused to re-
consider the bill providing for milk
commissions. Strouf moved reconsid-
GRAFTON, but was the only one favor
ing it, the assembly as body voting
him down. Because of the great num-
Der Of amendments offered, the Gettle
initiative and referendum resolution
was sent back to committee.
The supreme court did not fare
well, bills raising the salaries of mem
bers to $4,000 and providing for a
modified pension system being voted
down by big majorities. In the course
of the debate the Social Democrats
took occasion to take filings at the
court, and Mcconnell and others were
as staunch in their support of the
q,
motions were made for reconsidera-
ton and the fight will be renewed
later.
The sterilization bill, which seeks
to make impossible the propagation by
insane people, was killed, 40 to 27,
after Hansen had embarrassed the as
sembly and galleries with a speech.
The Social Democrats managed by
clever maneuvering to put through a
rebuke for the judiciary committee.
The point came up on the Vint bill,
which would require jury to deter
mine whether a street car company
or the injured person had exercised
ordinary care to prevent an injury
This law now is in effect as regards
steam railroads. The bill had been
reported out for indefinite postpone
ment, but Vint and his colleagues
made brave fight for it, and man
aged to have 1t advanced, despite the
objections of the judiciary committee
members.
Among the important bills advanced
was the Roycraft bill for non-partisan
elections of judges and school boards
throughout the state.
BY the close vote of 40 to AZ,
Milwaukee escaped having the
state fair moved to Oshkosh. There
is strong sentiment among the far
mers that it ought to be located far
Their north and the debate on the bill
by T. J. Mahon to remove the annual
exhibit was long and spirited. The
assembly first killed the Dennhardt
bill moving the fair to Oshkosh, and
then took up the Mahon bill moving