The Richfield recorder., 1916-11-03


recent legislation. and about whicl
perhaps some of the people of Poca
tello are as much interested as an
other of the people whom | have tn
honor In part to represent. / am goin
to discuss with you what Is known a
the wage BILL or eight-hour law, whicl
was passed in the closing days of thi
session. AS you perhaps know, with
out my telling you. l voted against tn
passage of that measure. l am no
here simply to justify my vote, be
cause | am not candidate before th
people of the state, and do not know
that | will ever be, but | do want t
discuss with you the merits and de
merits of that measure, and see, If pos
sible, what 1t is advertised to be, anC
what it's consequences may be, no
only to the country but l want par
ticularly to discuss 1t as to its effec
upon the laboring men whom 1t is sup
posed to have served.
Now, my friends, in the first place
If you will permit personal reference
had the honor to put through the
eight-hour bill for all public works
carried on or constructed by the United
States government, or for which the
United States government contracted
When l went into the Senate l had the
honor to be appointed chairman of the
committee on education and labor, and
urged the bill providing for an eight
hour daylight hours to constitute a
days work for all men employed upon
any work in which the United States
government was interested, whether II
was public works. such as putting up
a building, or whether it was contract
work wherein the government employ
ed the United States Steel Company,
we will say, or any other construction
company, to construct a certain piece
of machinery. Under that bill any one
working for the government under
contract could only employ their labor
for eight hours. That bill was pass
ed, as the working men of the country
know, and became law
Now I refer to it for this reason.
that bill provided a penalty or ? pun
ishment for the individual who en-
ployed men or permitted men to work
over eight hours. If men actually
worked more than eight hours, the
man who had the contract was penal
lied for permitting them to do So and
that is an eight-hour law. In other
words. it limits the actual hours work
to the number of eight, and you can
not work beyond that.
And you know this bill does not linn
1t the hours of work, and man may
work ten hours or may work longer.
1t is simply basis of estimating the
wages.
1t may be, my friends, that these
men-and there is no finer class of
men than those who handle our trains
were entitled to higher wages, but /
did not know so. There was not a
scintilla of evidence before me, offered
or suggested, as to what their wages
were. what they were in comparison to
other wages, or what they were as
with other employees.
AS 1 say, investigation might have
established the fact that they were
entitled to that wage, and l want to
lake this privilege of saying what ]
said upon the floor of the Senate when
we were told that if we didn't pass
hat law by Saturday night that the
men who run the trains of the country
would have stopped all transportation
md left the country at the peril of
starvation. l took the liberty upon the
ioor of the Senate in saying that in
ny Judgment it was absolutely untrue,
Ind I said If the Congress of the Unit |
ID States will today pass a resolution
promising an investigation and full
of this question, and a |
learing from all parties, and consider
ltion of the facts, will venture to say
hat the men who run the trains will
un them until we shall have had an
opportunity to know what the facts
re. (Applause.)
You need not tell me, l don't care
What any representative of labor says,
ou need not tell me that the men who
re entrusted with these trains and
nillions of dollars of property, who
ssociate in their neighbOrhood and
with the best people of the
ountry, would not have given Con-
ress an opportunity to know the act
al facts. And, therefore, l said let
S investigate, and have full hearing,
nd ascertain all the facts.
Now, my friends, if this was an
eight-hour day, it was a question
of principle, wasn't it? Tell me
how you can apply a question of
principle to twenty per cent of
the men working in an industry?
If 1t is an act embodying a prin-
ciple or act of humanity it should
apply to the men in the machine
shop just the same as the men
who operate the trains. Cap
plause.)
And when you bring a bill into
the Congress where ! have the
honor to sit, and say to me that
this is an act of humanity; that !
the men should not be permitted
to work over eight hours the
strain is too great, then 1 will say 1
to you to include the other eighty !
per cent of the men, because hu-
manity is not limited to a few. |
(Applause.)
Was it question of wage? If
it was a question of wage, the
same rule applies. How can I say {
without a single fact before me {
that these men in the machine |
shop are given enough wages S
while the men operating the trains s
are not. They are in the same t
industry connected with the same t
transportation system, and wheth- '
er it was an act of humanity, or |
an act of principle, or a question S
of wage, I take the position here O
tonight before the working men b
of this community, as 1 took it in
the Senate. that every man en- b
gagged in that industry was en- Il
titled to a hearing as to whether Ii
or not he was being Disseminated C
against t,
I was passing through the state of Il
aine-you heard from Maine CAP Il
ause.) I was passing through the Il
tie Of Maine a few weeks ago. and ii
on the Kennebec River they throw tt
E train across the river with ferry. "
was walking on the deck when the W
rec gentlemen who were running the |
'ry addressed me. l said to them: a.
Iy friends. are you included in this ts
WI fo1, hou {tte M cad ],