The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-08-10
CHILD LABOR
LEGISLATION
SENATOR OYERMAN FAVORS Al,
TlON BY THE STATE
SPEECH IN OPPOSITION
TO CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMSNT
DELIVERED IN SENATE

DELlN ERED IN SENATE
Washington, August Proposed
child labor legislation should be sub
mitted to the states in the form of d
constitutional amendment, declared
Senator Overman in a speech in the
senate today in opposition to the child
labor bill. He said congress had no
constitutional authority to enact such
a law.
For a hundred years or more il
was almost universally considered
that no legislation could be enacted
which was not authorized by the con-
stitution," said Senator Overman.
Nov with many it seems to be the
theory that anything not forbidden by
the constitution which says all power
not granted by the constitution is re
served to tn epeople is regarded light
ly and is void of meaning.
IF this legislation is constitutional,
Mr.. President, there will be nothing
left of the rights of the states but
there will be an absolute Absorption
of the police powers of the forty-eight
sovereign commonwealth and there
will be no barrier in the way of CEN
traIi2ation of all power in Washing
ton, to which goal we are now rapidly
drifting"
Senator Overman declared that the
ultimate purpose of the measure, UNI
der the guise of regulating commerce.
was TO regulate production in the
manufacture to do what you can not
do dire city, he continued. "It is 20
put a state under duress and compel
it to do that which some states have
done in order to have uniformity.
"a congress has the exclusive pow
er over Interstate Commerce, so the
state has the exclusive power to con-
trol its own domestic and internal
afafirs, and it should be permitted to
do SO without question. Let the pow
ers enumerated in the constitution
remain limited. Let the reserved
powers in the people be undisturbed. /
Let the integrity and autonomy of the |
states be upheld. Encourage state
pride. Capitalization would be a con-
stant menace to the liberties of the |
people, breeding corruption and op-
preston. These reserved powers are
in the people of the sttaes. 1t is theirs
to hold, it is theirs to surrender; but ,
when once surrendered it can not be |
regained. | say with a great judge
that that government is best that
while performing al Its duties inter-
fa"es the least with lawful pursuits
of the people.
Senator Overman submitted statis-
tics to support his contention that
fewer children were committed to
jails and warehouses in North Caro-
lima than in states where stringent
child Ii Dor laws were enforced. Sta
tistics for 1910, he said, showed that
only Is children in 100000 between
IA and 16 years of age in North Caro-
lima were committed to jails or work
houses as compared with 279 in Mas
sachusetts, 199 in Rhode Island and
122 in Missouri.
Senator Fletcher announced that
he would not vote for the bill because
he was convinced that the state
should deal with the question Flori-
da has good child labor laws, he said,
and he did not want them interfered
with by federal inspectors.
Senator Bryan, of Florida denounc-
ed the bill as dishonest legislation,
saying the effort to deal with hours
of labor in the states indirectly
through control of commerce, was a
tacit confession of the lack of con-
troll of conditions of labor and an
improper assumption of the rights of
the states. =
Messages urging the passage of the
nil were received by Senator Kern
from Charles w. Eliot, Rabbi Stephen
Wise and DR.. Lyman Abbott and were
read into the record.
I'm view of the coming election"
DR.. Eliot wrote, II think it would be !
unwise TO postpone the passage of the
bill until December. The democratic
party needs the support in November
of the numerous republicans and pro-
gressives who are interested in its
passage"
Let's make our farms feed us.