Valdez daily prospector., 1915-10-23
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2s, 1915
THE HARM OF TT.


 in the direction of the so-called pro- gressive legislation, it is well to stop and think before such measures are enacted into law. If the country had given to the destructive La Toilette Seaman's Act, when it was before Congress, the same attention it has given since its passage, the obnoxious measure would never have been pass ed. Minimum wage legislation cov- CTS as many traps as the La Toilette law and is another case in point. For everyone to have work, and for ev- eryone to receive wage sufficient to maintain one in health and comfort is very desirable and very necessary. It does not follow, however, that one individual can be forced to supply an- other indi-idual those things simply because there is relation between them of employer and employe. In an article in Case and Comment upon "The Statutory Minimum Wage" MT. Rome G. Brown of the Minneapolis bar brings this out as the strongest argument against the constitutionali- ty of minimum wage legislation. He says:
 "If the employer can by statute be compelled to supply in full this indi- vidual need because the one to be benefited happens to be on his pay roll, then there is no limit to which the property of the employed can be taken to supply this and other needs, which are purely individual. He could be compelled to provide old age benefits for the employe and his family. He could as we'll be com pelled to submit to a further divi- sion of his property with those who are or have been on his payroll. Int workman who hires a carpenter to build him house would be liable for his employees health, every branch of trade would be affected, and be- cause some legislative body has chos- en to view such legislation favorably and conducive to the public well fare.'"
 There are many other objections to the minimum wage which cannot be set aside. It places an embargo on home industries. Manufacturers and merchants in state where such statute exists are forced into com petion with other states which have no such law. In the second place, it drives out of employment the in- efficient worker, whose latter state then becomes worse than the first. In every employment there are those who are not and never have been worth a minimum wage.
 This is no academic argument for such has actually been the result in places where the minimum wage has been tried. For example, brush making concern in Massachusetts dis charged over one hundred of it's en- ployes when the minimum wage law went into effect. It then so reorgan- ized it's working force as to carry on us output at wage IcuuCIlOH ol @fV- 900 year. Other concerns in the same industry had to drop their un- skilled help, and an investigation six months later showed that two-thirds of these had not been able to get and hold work at any price, while others had gotten positions where the stat nte did not apply. at wages less than when discharged from the brush fac tories.
 Wherever the statutory minimum wage has Geen tried it has proved a failure, and has worked hardship on the inefficient workman, while not benefting the skilled workman in any particular.
 How implicitly Belgium trusted
 hN