The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1916-11-03

.
,vhich effects every man, woman
and child In this country. IL pass
81 the last Congress by an over
whelming majority, and was veto-
ed nv the President. IL came INTO
This Congress and passed the
uouse with an Overwhelming ma
iorifv II came into the Senate,
and there it lay unmolested ior
months. Some OF us came 10 the
conclusion that the bill should
have q hearing. We realized that 4
when this war Is over that tne
laboring men of this country VIII
be brought in direct competition
with the millions OF men VINO re-
turn from the armies ana enter
into the fields of industry, either
in Europe or immigrate to this
country. When the millions OF
men return from these armies
they will find their homes destroy
ed. their old friendships broken,
and they will naturally seek for
new fields and they will turn their
attention to the great Republic or
the West.
When the war broke out in Eu-
rome 800 thousand working men
left this country and went back
to Europe. 1t will be nothing
exceptional at all for million,
or two million, or even three mill
lion of, the dissatisfied Europeans
to return to this country at the
close of the war to bid for. the
places now held by American
working men. There is not any
thing of more importance to Ia
boring men of this country than
that a strict immigration bill be
put upon the statute books of the
United States. .(Applause.)
There is another thing: The debt in
in the belligerent nations has
run up to about fifty or sixty billions
of dollars. 1t will likely, before this
war concludes, run up to seventy-five
billions or one hundred billions, an al
most incomprehensible and superhu-
man burden resting upon the great
millions. The working man
will understand this. They may not be
sufficiently able as financiers to see or
how much it is, or work
out schemes by which 1t can be satis-
fed and liquidated, but they will see
there this great incomprehensible bur-
den resting upon them and their child
rem and their children's children for
to come. They will under
stand it. and. take my word for it, you
will find upon the American shore
within six months after this war closes
not only hundreds of thousands OF
these men. but you will find in time
millions of them crowding into this
country to take the place of the Am
erican laborer. or bid him down in his
wage.
Voice from the audience: You are
right.)
(Applause.)
And therefore some of us came tc
the conclusion that there was no rea.
son why that bill should not be passed
by the Senate.
CHILDREN AND PARENTS.
You remember that we passed wha
is known as the child labor bill, and
our good friends upon the opposit,
side have taken great deal of credi
for the passage of that child labor bill
I was in favor of it, but suppose, m,
friends. that you take the child out o
the work shop; suppose that you tax,
the child out of the factory, and sent
1T home to mother and father who's
job has been taken away by foreign
er or foreign competitor, have yo,
served that child's interests? Hay
you been protecting the labor and tn
job of the father and mother so tina
they could educate the child? If moi
you haven't served 1t by taking 1t on
of the factory. You have rather turn
ed 1t loose upon the street to becom
vagrant, and enter into crime, an
while sympathize with the child VIII
may be working in the factory unde
environments which may arrest its de
velopment and destroys its womanhoo
or manhood, as between the chill
working In the factory and the chill
turned lOnqn tho OF &C.
ed into vagrancy, my more profoun
sympathy is with the latter, and there
fore, | said that I will offer this bill q
an amendment to the child labor bill
What happened? They put into opel
alton their secret caucus. That hmm
grafton bill never could have been kill
ed in the open. Out of 90 Senators
that body, SO of them were in fave
of this immigration bill. Had II bee
permitted to come to vote, 1t woul
either be law today, and the laborin
Americans would be protected, or
would have been vetoed, and in m
Judgment passed over the veto. (AI
pleause.)
But they took it into caucus nno
whose record the sun never shine
whose vote no mans knows concer,
ing any particular individual. wheI
responsibility disappears like the mi
before the sun, and while they won
not have voted against it in the one
they took 1t into caucus. and killed
and by resolution resolved It shou
not be considered at this sessio
Here, my friends, is the unfairness
your caucus system, and though toucl
Ing the welfare of every man wi
earns his bread. by the sweat of h
brow. this bill was killed in the seer
recesses of the caucus. | take II
| liberty of saying, regardless of who
hits or hurts. whether Republican
| Democrat, representative who n
not the courage and conviction to raj
his position in the open upon any one
ton is too cowardly to represent
people in the Senate of the Unit
! States. (Applause.l
WASTE OF PUBLIC FUNDS
Now. my friends, one more Man
one more plank which has been r,
filled, kept, and then will pass ON
other subjects. 1--WE denounce :
| prohgate waste of the money wrn
/ from the people by oppressive tax
ton through the lavish appropriatio
OF recent Republican Congress-
which have kept taxes high and ,
duced the purchasing power OF 7
peoples toll" 1t reads like the I
commandments. I'VE demand
turn to that simplicity and econo,
4 v-hfnh hnRfC ~