The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-02
HOUSE PASSES EIGHT=H0UR
 BILL; SENATE ACTS TODAY;
 STRIKE DANGER IS PASSED

sent when the Senate took recess just before II o'clock. that the time from 10 to 12 o'clock today be divid- ed into 30-minute speeches, and that from 12 to the speeches be limited | to 15 minutes on the bill and five minutes on amendments, voting on amendments to begin at 4 o'clock and | the final vote to be taken not later than o'clock. Senator La Follete served notice that he would try to get one of the 30-minute periods to make a speech.
 l Plea for Wage-Ffxing Section. Senator Newlands, chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission, in- | troduced the committee bill at 2:30 | o'clock, and gave a general explana- | tion. Then Senator Underwood of Alabama began his plea for the bill with Section 6, which had been added in committee at his request, included. The section gave to the Interstate | Commerce Commission the power, at the end of the trial period, to fix hours of work and rates of pay on all railroads. He said this provision was due the country as guarantee for the future. This was something the railroads had fought for ever since the Interstate Commerce Com mission began to fix rates.
 Senator Underwood was interrupted frequently, and for the while all other provisions of the bill were forgotten in the discussion of what was termed "the most revolutionary piece of leg islation ever attempted in this coun- try
 Senator Underwood took the stand that the whole issue was a matter of ! increasing wages. He cOntended that if the bill were passed without Section 6, providing for the eight-hour day and an investigation of it's working by a commission, that at the end of the probationary period of nine months or year the situation would not be bet tered and that a repetition of the present crisis would be most likely.
 Duty to Avert Disaster
 Were 1t not for the crisis con- fronting the nation," said Senator Un- derwood, "every senator here would admit that this legislation would not be before this House. We are proceed ing by law to fix wages for 1000
 
 In my judgment we have the power to do this You may recall that a decade , ago it w;u5 regarded as revolutionary when this Congress created a tribunal to fix freight rates.
 But if I favor voting this increase of 25 per cent. in wages for these 4OO,- 900 men, how can I justify myself? do 1t in this way-the American peo- .;~,{r $Io. which no greater has confronted them since the Civil war. am ready to surrender my rights, to admit am 1egislating without knowledge of the } facts, because while I am thus acting , against myself, the country must come first. We are going to make it the ,aw that for six months this eight-hour day shall be tried in this country. But if you do no more than that, what after the six months or a year You will be just where you are now. There is no guarantee that the men will not strike then. Is that any settlement ! of the crisis for the people of the country?
 Now, we are not acting for the spod of the trainmen; we are acting for the good of the country. If you pass this bill without Section 6, you've merely paid the price of peace for a year. Isn't it the duty of Congress to put into this bill something perma- nent? We considered the matter of compulsory arbitration, but we de- cided that it might be in violation Of the Constitution; we decided it might involve involuntary servitude. We realized that if there was anything the men involved in this controversy did not want it was compulsory arhi- tration.''
 The Text of Section
 Then Senator Underwood undertook detailed explanation of Section 6, which reads.
 That the Interstate Commerce
 Commission shall have the power
 to fix the hours of labor and req
 sonable wages for all employees of
 the railroads named in Section l
 of this act. The rate of wages
 and the hourse of labor provided for in this act shall remain fixed for service and pay until changed
 by the decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission. which,
 within a period of not less than six nor more than twelve months
 from the passage of this act, shall
 determine what are just and req
 sonable wages and what shall be
 the hours of labor for all em-
 ployes of the railroads above | mentioned.
 The Interstate Commerce Com
 mission shall have the power
 from time to time to change the
 hours of labor and the rate of
 wages for all employees of the
 railroads named in Section 1 of
 this act, either in whole or in
 part, prescribed by it on its own
 initiative, on the petition of the
 employees, the managers of the
 railroads, or the public.
 Senator Reed of Missouri asked If | this section meant that the commis- sion could force men to work for the wages it might fix.
 "The only force in the Interstate | Commerce. Commission would be the force of public opinion" replied Sen 1 ator Underwood. Wages would be established, and when a man took a job on a railway it would be under stood he could work for those wages or he could quit. At present the rate