Denver labor bulletin., 1917-06-02
CALIFORNIA STATESMEN
DO NOT RESPOND TO
COMMERCIAL BODY.
Wage Contracts Expiring in
Many Industries and the Fed
eral Mediators Are Kept on
the Hustle; Hoover Co.
to Stop H. c. L.
BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Washington Correspondent Th,
Denver Labor BuIlertn)

WASHINGTON, May 2s.-With the
war situation darker than ever it has
been in the past, and with the United
States still waiting to realize the hor-
rors upon which its people are enter
lng-perhaps by the many millions
some of the reactionaries of the Pacific
slope started move in Washington to
break down the dikes of Asiatic exclu-
sion. They proposed that 100000
Chinese coolies be permitted to come
IN and work on American farms dur
ing the period of the war. They had
the Chinese Six Companies in San
Francisco make the offer to bring this
half million of admirers of our democ-
racy TO the United States. 1t was to
be arranged that if the government
would suspend the exclusion law, the
SIX Companies would be responsible
for the safe return of all of these
coolies to their native land when the
war was over.
Standpatters in Washington raised
a yell of delight at the idea Here was
a chance to put the labor skates
where they belonged" and to "estab-
llsh reasonable level of wages in the
West There were conferences with
high administration officials. There
was much talk of national crisis" and
so forth, to which the president is
reported to have replied that he was
willing to consider the matter if the
members of the house and senate from
the Pacific coast should be willing to
take the responsibility for the neces-
sary legislation to change the present
exclusion law.
Wouldn't Stand the Gaff.
That settled it. Nobody in congress
from the Pacific slope was willing to
take the political responsibility. The
dream of the Western labor crushers,
of day when they would stretch out
1 their welcoming arms to tidal wave
of Orientals, whose standard of living
would permit the wiping out of white
competition in all but the skilled
trades, was dissolved.
Some of the members of the ad-
mlnlstration were able to see some
thing more serious than even a Chinese
industrial invasion, in this scheme.
They saw the way opened for Japan
TO demand that Japanese laborers be
admitted to the United States also. to
the number of at least half a million
men. All of the Japanese would have
had military training. Japan has the
most Prussian of all anti-democratic
governments outside of Germany.
Once inside our borders, our German
troubles of the present would not be a
tieabite in comparison with our Orien-
tai problem of the coming years.
The American Federation of Labor
is watching for the next attempt to
bring in cheap labor from outside the
country, and is looking closely into the
order under which Mexican farm la
borers are TO be admitted in spite of
their inability to pass the hteracy test.
Too Hasty For Wooden Ships.
Aiyarrf
ago for the enlistment of 125,0OO
skilled workers to build wooden ships
may have been sent out too soon At
any rate General Goethals is protest.
ing against the orders given him by
the United States shipping board TO
build ships of green timber for the
immediate carrying of food to Europe.
He wants to build steel ships. which
will be bigger and safer and far more
durable
1t seems that the lumber people are
very anxious to sell timber to the
shipping board. by the wooden-ship
route. lot of contracts have been
let for the construction of both wood
en- and steel ships, but there is now
little apparent likelihood that the
board will stick to its first plan of
putting nearly 1000 wooden ships on
the Atlantic
Federal Mediators Busy
Strikes in plants where supplies for
the Allies are being produced, and in
plants where war work is being done
for our own government, are increas-
ing in number. In many cases the old
contracts are running out, and the
men are asking higher pay in order to
meet the higher cost of food. En-
ployers are claiming that the present
cost of food is not going to continue,
but that living costs will soon go
down. They also profess to think
that their own earnings will soon be
reduced, because of war conditions.
Federal mediators are buster than ever
before in the history of the bureau of
mediation.
Secretary of War Baker is meeting
this situation as best he can, in the
shops having contracts from the war
department. He has the assistance of
Felix Frankfurter. who has also been
assisting the committee on labor in
its preliminary work. Their task is
to protect. so far as possible. the eight
hour standard. and after that to meet
the situation in each shop according to
its particular needs. In spite of all
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