New Britain herald., 1916-08-07
BRANDEGEE OPPOSES BILL
 TO ABOLISH CHILD LABOR
Senator From Connecticut Given Warm Reception By Borah When He Expressed Opinon Congress
 Will Go Step Too Far


 1 not give equal suffrage to it's citizens. ] AS the senator from Idaho says, there | must be some limit; but seeing 1 through the glass darkly, and into the 1 twilight zone, there seems to me to be no more impossible gulf between the l child labor bill and the bills which would provide for such subjects as 1 have just indicated than there is be- l tween the child-labor bill and the bills about which the decisions have been read recently.
 MT. Smith of Georgia. I only want ed to remind the senator that in 1907 the judiciary committee of the house republicans and democrats, unan1- mously reported most vigorously that the limit was passed before legisla- tion of this kind was reached. Mr. Borah. Does the Senator think that the question of suffrage would in any way relate to the subject of commerce.?
 Mr. Brandegee. No; any more than the regulation of the hours that child ren work in mills relates to the sub ject of interstate commerce; not bit
 MT. Borah. Not init more; but does he think it does as much? MT. Brandegee. Just as much; to my mind, exactly as much. l think the hours which children labor in the local mills and factories and mines of a particular State IS as un- related to commerce among the States as the hour at which the Senator from Idaho is accustomed to get his lunch.
 Borah Comes Back.
 MT. Borah Of course if the Sena- tor views it in that light-if the Senator thinks the employment in factories of children of the age of s and 10 years working all hours of the day and under all conditions, is not a matter about which the National Government is in any way concerned; if he thinks it is not a question which in any way concerns the people as whole throughout the country, and is wholly a matter for the particular State where the employment takes place-then certainly the Senator is right in his contention.
 MT. Brandegee. The Senator knows perfectly well, if he can remember what he asked me, that he did not ask me any such question as that, and I did not say that the question of how long children labOred, or at what age they labored, was a matter in which the National Government was not concerned at all The Sena- tor asked me if I thought the ques- tion of woman suffrage related to in terstate commerce, and I stated that I thought it related just as much to interstate commerce as the hours which children labOred in factories related to interstate commerce; and 1 still think so.
 MT. Borah. And I conceived, by the Senator's answer, that it was a matter of no concern whatever to the National Government, because if the Senator had conceived it to be a mat ter of concern to the National Gov ernment he would not have said it was of no more concern than the hour at which the Senator from Idaho takes his lunch.
 MT Brandegee. I would not have said it, and I did not say 1t. I said it was not more related to the sub 1 ject of interstate commerce than the hour at which the Senator takes his l lunch.
 MT. Borah But that is related to interstate commerce.
 MT. Brandegee. Well, they may transport the beef products to feed l the Senator in interstate commerce, | of course.
 1 MT. Borah. I was not referring to l the hour at which the Senator takes 1 his lunch, but the manner in which
 the citizenship of the country is en- l plOyed with reference to the articles l which go into interstate commerce is
 a matter in which the National Gov-
 ernment and with reference to the 1 shipment.
 MT. Brandegee. The hours which
 the citizens of the several States are l emplOyed in their mills is of no con-
 cern; IL mas no relation whatever to
 the subJect Of interstate transporta- 1 ton. In fact, in many of the fac
 tories In the States the product of the
 Iactor1es Is used rifght on the ground
 that State. Many concerns are engaged l gagged exclusively in manufa cturing g | products which are used in the mill
 rlght across the street from it, and
 they are built there for that purpose
 The hours which that concern works
 US help or the wages which 1t works
 US help are absolutely unrelated to in
 terstate transportation. It may be used
 rlSht Tn the same yard on the preni-
 ses. So the question of the hours of
 labor and the ages of labor per SC
 has nothing whatever to do with com
 merce among the States or with for
 e1gn nations over which Congress has
 exclusive jurisdiction.
 | MT. BOrah. Does the Senator think
 that the principle upon which the
 Whlte-slaVe case was decided is sound ? l MT. Brandeget. Of course I can
 not say it is unsound because it is the
 law and has been sustained by the Su-
 preme Court
 MT. Borah. Then the Senator would