Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-09-05
NOTTINGHAM FOR
ERRORS COURT IS
sOMMER'S PLAN
Discusses Labor Evils and REM
edial Measures Before Unions
at Electric Park.

hts address before the throng of union
men at Electric Park yesterday after
noon had for his topic why, with
general agreement on the evils of ex-
listing industrial conditions. does dec
ade after decade pass without the
adoption of adequate remedial meas
ures2"
Mr.. sommer went into a review of
the situation and in concluding his
speech called upon Governor Wilson to
appoint as a lay member of h Court
of Errors and Appeals a direct repre-
sentative of the laboring classes.
Mr.. Sommer's address in part was as
follows:
.tThe question that | purpose adj
dressing myself to is, Why, with gen
eral agreement on the evils of existing
Industrial conditions. does decade after
decade pass without the adoption of
adequate remedial measures
Two situations Arise.
q take up, because of the limita-
tons of time. two situations only.
First, turn to the problem presented
by the employment of child labor in the
Industrial establishments, mines and
sweatshops,
The accounts of the evil and its de-
vastating -equen furnished by
the report of the investigators of the
American Federation of Labor; the
stories retold in Spargo's Bitter Cry
of the Children" and in Kelly's Some
Ethical Gains Through legislation (all
supported by solemn OATH, sufficed to
stir, first with shame. then with indig-
nation. then to earnest and continued
remonstrance. even the most stolid and
self-centred among us.
That the effect of these revelations
has been to produce general accord in
the demand; that the evil be wiped
out, is made clear by the resolutions
coming from all quarters and stamping
with approval in 1907 the efforts of Mr..
Beveridge to secure favorable action by
the Senate of the United States upon
his measure to. exclude from interstate
products the result of the
draining of child life.
Employment of Women.
Next, turn to the problem presented
by the employment of women in con-
tinuous service for unlimited hours in
the industries.
VIII you gainsay that among our
medical men and mons the people
there is not almost universal agreement
that existing conditions bode ill to the
nation and to it's future citizenship
Is there among you dissent from the
proposition that a citizenship that has
it's root in motherhood denied leisure;
mentally stanch and bodily i'll, as the
result of unlimited hours of industrial
work, cannot be looked to successfully
to solve present-day problems, much
less the problems of the days to come
problems which require in their solu-
ton a sound mind, housed in a sound
bdoy?
If there is general agreement as to
the evils of these conditions then why
is our progress toward bringing them
to an end so slow? Though decade
after decade your organization and
others have knocked at the doors of the
halls of legislation in national and
state in asking for remedial measures.
The response has been inadequate; it
has marked progress, but complete
victory seems yet far off.
Property Qualifications Swept Away.
I'm the early lays of the nation the
electorate was confined to those pos
sessed of property. and the holding of
property was a prerequisite to the hold
ing of office.
Long ago these qualifications were
swept away. In those days representa-
tiv, as was to be anticipated, repre-
sented those in whose hands their Sc
lection rested in the property-qualiled
class; they were the people
THE PASSING from property suff-
rage to manhood suffrage" might
we'll have been expected to result in
complete change, but as we scan the
story of legislation the conviction
comes upon u. that the influence of the
old order of things is slow to pass
away; Rat our representatives still.
to a great extent, hesitate, palter and
falte- when so-called rights of property
and human rights come into conflict
on - field of legislation.
How, then, can we put an end to
the influence of the old order of things
among our representatives; how strike
the shac- les from them; how make
them Gctiye agents in the representa-
ton of the people in the new sense
that the term has taken on since the
substitution Of manhood suffrage for
property suffrage.
Initiative md referendum.
Il find the answer in the Inaugural
ton through constitutional amendment
"a oASNN lnllldliOn Oh |
the '~tiatiye and referendum.
Above legislative bodies towers the
Judiciary in exercising the uncon-
trolled power to declare legislation I'M
constitutional. Declaring solemnly that
in case of reasonable doubt the doubt
must be resolved in favor of the con-
s~titutionality of acts of legislation, II
has by seriously divided courts de-
clared unconstitutional acts limiting
the hours of work of women In the
industries and workmen's eompensa-
ton acts, when adopted by legislative
bodies in compliance with general rec
ognition of the fact hat social welfare
demanded such legislation,
II repeat my assertion that these adj
publications arc due to restrictive and
narrowing adherence to preeedents; to
a failure to give to the fundamental
principles of the law that logically
expanding force which ii has possessed
to meet the needs of changing times,
changing conditions.
Il would meet the situation by re-
quiring the vote of more than a bare
majority of the court to declare an act
unconstitutional
Wants Labor Man as Judge.