The Washington herald., 1913-06-08
Sixth Installment.
A LEGISLATURE OF
THE LAST GENERATION


In the Legislature the problems with
which I dealt were mainly problems
of honesty and decency and Of legisla-
tive and administrative efficiency. They
represented the effort, the wise, the
vitality necessary effort, to get efficient
and honest government. But as yet l
understood little of the effort which
was already beginning, for the most
part under very bad leadership, to Sc
cure a more genuine social and indus
trial justice. Nor was l especially 10
blame for this. The good citizens 1
then knew best. even when themselves
men of limited means-men like my
colleague, Billy sO'Neill. and my back
woods friends. Sewall and Dow-were
no more awake than l was to the
changing needs the changing times
were bringing. Their outlook was as
narrow as my own, and, within its
limits, as fundamentally sound.
1 wish to dwell on the soundness OF
our outlook on life, even though as yet
II was not broad enough. We were no
respeotors of persons. Where our
vision was developed TO degree that
enabled us TO see crookedness, we OPP
posed It whether in great or small. As
a matter OF fact, we found that II
needed much more courage to stand
up openly against labor men when
talists when they were wrong. The
sins against labor are usually COM
mitted, and the improper services to
capitalists are usually rendered, behind
closed doors. Very often the man with
the moral courage to speak in the open
against labor when ii is wrong is the
only man anxious to Go effective Work
for labor when labor is right.
sham Reform.
esty which are permanently useful to
good institutions anywhere are those
shown by men who decide all cases with
impartial Justice on grounds of conduct
and not on grounds of class. We found
that in the long run the men who in
public bIatantly insisted that labor was
never wrong were the very men who IN
private could not be trusted to stand for
labor when il was right. We grew heart
lily to distrust the reformer who never
denounced wickedness unless it was en-
bodied in a rich man. Human nature
does not change; and that type OF re-
former is as noXious now as he ever
was. The loud-mouthed upholder OF
popular rights who attacks wickedness
only when it is allied with wealth. and
who never publicly assails any misdeed.
no matter how fragrant, if committed
nominally in the interest of labor, has
either a warped mind or a tainted soul,
and should be trusted by no honest man.
II was largely the indignant and con-
temptuous dislike aroused in our minds
by the demagogues of this class which
then prevented those of us whose IN
stincts at bottom were sound from 60
ing as far as we ought to have gone
along the lines of governmental control
of corporations and governmental inter-
ference on behalf Of labor.
Practical Reform.
did, however, have one exceedingly
useful experience. A bill was introduced
by the Cigarmakers' Union TO prohibit
the manufacture of cigars in tenement
houses. l was appointed one of COM
lnittee of three to investigate conditions
in the tenement houses and see II leg
isIation should be had. OF my two col
leagues on the committee, one TOOK no
interest in the measure and privately
said he did not think it was right, but
that he had to vote for it because the
labor unions were strong in his district
and he was pledged TO support the Dill |
The other. a sporting Tammany man, |
who afterward abandoned politics for
the race track, was very good 1elloW. |
He told me frankly that he had to be |
against the bill because certain inter- |
,sts, which were all-powerful, and with |
which he had dealings, required him 10 |
be against il. but that l was Tree |
agent and that if ! would look into the |
matter he believed l would look into the |
legislation As a matter of fact, | had |
supposed l would be against the legisIa- |
ton, and I rather think l was put on |
the committee with that idea for the re-
spectacle people knew were against H. |
IL was contrary TO the principles OF |
political economy Of the laissez fare |
kind; and the business men who spoke |
to me about il shook their heads and |
said II was designed to prevent a man |
doing as he wished and as he had a !
right 10 do with what was his own.
However. my first visits to the tene- |
ment house districts in question made me |
feel that. whatever the theories might be, !
as a matter of practical common sense, l |
could not ConsCientiously vote for the |
continuance Ct the conditions which l |
saw These conditions rendered it impos-
sIUle for the families of the tenement |
house workers 10 live so that the children |
might grow up fitted for the eXacting |
duties of American citizenship. ! visited |
the tenement houses once with my col |
leagues Of the committee. once with some |
of the labor union representatives, and /
once or twice by myself. In few of the |
tenement houses there were suites of
rooms ample in number where the work
on the tobacco was lone in rooms not oc-
cupied for cooking or sleeping or living.
In the overwhelming majority of cases,
however, there were one, two, or three
room apartments, and the work of manu-
featuring the tobacco by men, women,
and children went on day and night in
the eating. living, and sleeping rooms
sometimes in one room. 1 have always
remembered one room in which two fam
lilies were living. On my inquiry to
who the third adult male was, / was tod
that he was a boarder with one of the
families. There were several children,
three men, and two women in this room.
The tobacco was slowed about every
where, alongside the foul bedding, and
in the corner where there were scraps Of
food. The men, women. and children in
this room worked by day and far on into
the evening, and they slept and ate there.
They were Bohemians. unable to speak
English, except that one of the children
knew enough to act as interpreter.
Legalism and Life.
Instead of opposing the bill ardently
championed il. It was a poorly drawn
measure and the Governor, Grover
Cleveland, was at first doubtful about |
signing il. The Cigarmakers' Union
then asked me to appear before the
Governor and argue for it. I according
ly did so, acting as spokesman for the
battered, understood foreigners who rep
resented the union and the workers. The
Governor signed the bill. Afterwards
this tenement-house cigar legislation
was declared invalid by the Court of
Appeals in the Jacobs decision. Jacobs
was one of the rare tenement-house !
Af rr-h1 id