New Britain herald., 1916-08-07
(SpeciaI to the EeraldO

Washington, Aug. 7.-The first speech by a republican senator made against the child labor bill in the sen- ate was delivered by Senator Brande- gee of Connecticut. He made an ar gument against the measure as being unconstitutional, according to his view of the organic law as interpreted by the decisions of the courts. He said that the white slave law went the limit in extending the powers of the federal government under the inter state commerce clausee of the consti- tuition. The child labor bill would go beyond the limit, he said.
 This bill proposes to exclude from interstate commerce the products of factories where child labor has been employed within thirty days. The measure is favored by a vast maj jOr1ty of the senate on both sides of the par ty dividing line. It was included in the democratic legislative program be- cause President Wilson declared for it and the republican politicians in the senate sought to make @ political issue of it. MT. Brandegees remarks were enlivened by tilts with Senator BOrah of Idaho, a republican, who is author of the law under which the federal children's bureau is operating, and
 
 CTS of the child labor bill. MT. Borah had just delivered a lengthy speech in the senate in favor of the latter mas ure when Senator Brandegee took up the cudge1s for the opposition. This is what the Connecticut senator said and what the Idaho senator said in the middle of the Brandegee speech:
 Arrived at the Limit.
 Mr. Brandegee. MT. President, one remark made by the senator from Idaho as he took his seeat induces me to say word Or two, very briefly.
 The senator from Idaho says there must be a limit some where to the exercise by congress of the powers which it is now attempt ing to exercise, under the authority of the commerce clause of the constitu- tion, to regulate commerce among the states. I hope there is a limit. rather think we have arrived at that limit already. If we pass this bill, I think we shall have exceeded the limit
 I do not think the power to regu- late commerce among the states given to the congress with any idea of it's being used to bring about the cor rection of evils within the states that could be corrected by the states them selves. My notion about the cause that led the delegates to the constitutional convention out of which the union was formed to give to congress the power to regulate commerce among the seV l eraI states and foreign nations is that ] it was in order that the channels of l interstate communication might be 1 kept open and in order that one state l might not, at the expense of the other 411o li iCyh ways and the navigable rivers or the state to other states.
 MT President, this bill does not pur- mort. of course, either upon its face or in the utterances of it's advocates, to be a regulation of commerce. The testimony before our committee was that it was an attempt to regulate the hours during which children might De employed in the several states and the ages at which they might be employed It was only a regulation of commerce when the people who thought that cer- tain states had not adopted laws rela- tive to the labor of children as strict as they should be thought they coulo compel those states to pass laws to their satisfactian, not by regulating commerce but by prohibiting com merce of that state with any other
  of course the power to regulate may include the power to prohibit. That may he SO as an extreme definition; hut think it would behOove congress, when it exercises the power to regu- late commerce, to legislate honestly, with an honest intent to do what 1t pretends to be doing.
 MT. President, if congress, under the authority to regulate commerce among the states, can say that no goods shall be transported out of a state ntO an- other state which were made m a factory where a child was employed more than a certain number Of hours per day or under a certain age, on the 1 ground that public sentiment favOrs | the protection of children and the inn l movement of their condition, it seems ! to me that inasmuch as there Is a l great prohibition movement in the l country, and a great many people l think that the race would be elevated ] if they were total abstainers from all 1 coholic beverages, it would be equally | within the power of congress to say | that no article should be carried be- | yond the borders of any state 1T 1t
 were manufactured in an establish
 ment where any liquor was consumed l by any of the employees.
 A great many people think that it l is the sentiment of the country, and
 the better sentiment, they say, that | woman suffrage should be established. | If congress can pass this law, 1t will
 soon be thinking that it could pass a law providing that no goods should