The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-30
ASK TAFT TOCREATE LABOR COMMISSION Social Workers Call on the
 President TAFT IS IMPRESSED Desire Proposed Commission Have Powers Co-extensive With Those
 of Interstate Commerce
 Commission
TAFT IS IMPRESSED

Washington, December 29.-Using the McNamara case as an illustration of
 what might be expected again in this
 country if labor conditions are not improved, a delegation of social work
 CTS today urged President Taft to cre- ate a labor commission"
 Such a commission, the delegation
 told the President, should have powers
 CO., extensive with those of the inter state commerce commission and should | be able to compel testimony. It should | investigate and make preliminary re- port in six months of the conditions | of labor in the structural iron trade | in the last six years; "guage the break down of our machinery of industrial government, the economic and social cost of strikes to employees, to work men and to the public" and inyesti- gate rules and records of unions II should also examine the legal status
 of the labor union and study the prac- 1 ticability of "schemes of economic gov
 ernment such as the trade legisla-
 ture in the cloak, suit and skirt in- dustry," and similar. boards.
 PresIuent Taft was greatly interested and proposed to do all possible to
 create such a commission. It was said
 tonight that he might incorporate a
 suggestion for labor commission in
 one of his post-holiday messages.
 Rabbi Steven S Wise of New York
 read the petition to the President. Miss Jane Addams of Chicago and other prom
 inent social workers went to the White
 House with him. Among the signers of the petition were Lyman Abbott George l.. Barnett Louis D. Brandies
 Irving Fisher, Paul U. Kellogg, Samuel McCunne Lindsay, owen k. aLovejoy,
 Henry Morgenthau, S. N. Patten. George
 Foster Peabody, James B. Reynolds, ! Edwin k. A. Seligman and w. F. Will cox.
 l "A house divided against itself cannot stand" said Rabbi Wise. we have yet
 to solve the problem of democracy in it's industrial relationships and to solve them along democratic lines.
 Tn order to arrive at the workers point Of view it is necessary only to re-
 view the long list of occupational diseases,
 the failure of both employees and the
 state to prevent them, or mitigate their
 efforts, the lack of employers liability
 laws. the failure to provide adequate safe ! guards against accidents in dangerous vo- | cations the attacks upon the constitution | ality of laws to shorten the hours or
 women and of workers in certain trades, | the reluctance of legislatures to abolish | child labor-it is necessary only to con | trast this dead center of the social ma l chine with the speed with which it acts to prevent picketing and rioting during | strikes.
 "The workingman sees the club of the
 officer, the bayonet of the militia directed | against him in the defense of property | and he believes that the hand of the law, i strong in the protection. of property. often drops lstless whenever measures are pro- | posed to tighten labor's heavy burden.
 "There is profound restlessness among | large groups of labor who feels that there | are no organic ways open through which | they can act collectively with respect to 1 the things that most concern them, that | they are thwarted when they get together | for common strength and when, not as | mutual benefit societies, but as aggrega-
 tions of men, they set out to mind their | business"