The Washington times., 1913-05-05
WORKS ADVOCATES
WAGE REGULATION
California Senator Prescribes
Remedy for Greed, Poverty,
and Vice of Nation.

National and State regulation of the
wages to be paid and the prices to be
charged by business men was the remedy
for greed. poverty, and vice prescribed
p BY Senator Works of California to6ay
in a speech on the trust problem. He
deplored the growth of classes-the rich
and the poor-and said that the respon-
sibility for popular unrest lay upon the
lawmakers, who allowed the masses to
remain in misery.
''The ruling class In this country is
the moneyed class" he declared.
Wealth and power and position are ar
rayed against the men and women who
toll for a livelihood. They look upon
themselves as superior to what they call
the lower classes
The effective way to overcome this
evil is to elevate the station of the
Wage-earners and curb the power OF
the employer class No better way &C.
ours to my mind to accomplish this
result, SO far as the making Of laws Is
concerned, than regulation of prices,
wages. and hours of labor"
Attacks Fortunes.
Abiding. to the Sherman antitrust
law as having failed to maintain COM
petition in trade" and giving as the
reason for such failure the fact of
greed and heartlessness in industrial
life" Senator Works scored the meth
DDS by which great fortunes had been
secured.
'The accumulation of the millions of
dollars now resting in the hands Of
comparatively few people in this coun-
try" he said, has, in the main, Deen
accomplished through the toll of the
many underpaid employees who are still
struggling for a mere existence The
evidence tends to show that in this
and children employees in the large
cities does not exceed s. a week. This
aIplies to the department stores"
In support of his statement that the
charities of the day have become com
mercialized." and doing, perhaps, more
than any other thing to make this ma
ton country Of mendicants and beg
gars." he assailed Andrew Carnegie and
libraries he remarked: ANY self-respect-
ing community should be ashamed to
accept charity of this kind or from this
source. AS matter of simple justice
the money belongs not to the dispenser
en- and children, whose underpaid toll
accumulated the fund"
Rockefeller Foundation.
OF the Rockefeller Foundation, the
California Senator said:
I'VE are asked to enact a law that
will to a great extent vest in this great
corporation the power to educate and
direct the sentiment Of the people OF
this country, as 1t may see fit, with
money accumulated by criminal means.
We do not want our children to profit
by gold that should blister the fingers
OF the man who has accumulated 1t by
extortion, oppression, and crime, nor to
become the, receivers of stolen goods
under the guise Of charity"
Senator Works instanced various
methods used by the big commercial
corporations in crushing competition,
and urged that the violation of anti
trust laws be made a felony, with no
alternative Of payment of fines. He sug-
gested further that the full protective
tariff should be collected from all en-
ployers hiring immigrant workers at a
European scale Of wages to manufacture
goods In America He would empower
the Interstate Commerce Commission to
pass judgment and enforce the penalty
in such cases