Denver labor bulletin., 1917-02-03
CONSCRIPTION OF WORK
ERS IS UNPOPULAR IN
BOTH HOUSES.
Brotherhoods Suggest a New
Commission Giving Each Side
Representation; LaFollette
Saves Child Bureau Ap-
preparation Bill.
By LAWRENCE TODD
Especial washin gton Correspondent The
Denver Labor Bullettn.)


WASHINGTON, Jan. 27.-Once
cant strike" law for railroad en-
ployes has been put up before the
members of the senate committee on
interstate commerce, and once more
it has been swatted. This time the
vote was ten to five against touching
the proposition. Newlands of Nevada
led the five, and Jim Ham Lewis of
Illinois seconded him. The names of
the other three are hidden by the
convenient mask of secret session of
committee.
This revival of the fight to secure
industrial conscription came just after
the president had read his world peace
program to congress, and after he had
appealed to a number of members of
the committee to stand by him Chiefs
of the four railroad brotherhoods told
the president and the committee that
they would not submit to such law,
and the senate committee agreed that
they were right.
Now the brotherhoods are trying to
get the senate and house to pass an
act creating new commission to take
the place of the present mediation and
conciliation board. which is supposed
to represent the public"
stop the hOOQWlnklng-
They want board made up of rep
resentatives of the companies and of
the men, each side prepared with all
the knowledge and current facts of
the industry, to whom shall at once be
referred for mediation any industrial
dispute such as this demand for the
eight-hour day.
This board would not need to con-
duct a lengthy Investigation; thew
could get down to business at once,
and settlement would be likely to re-
suit from their work since neither
party could hope to hoodwink the
other.
Decision of the constitutionality of
the Adamson law still hange fire in
the supreme court. If the law is
thrown out, railroad legislation will
be the first business of a special ses-
sion of congress in the spring.
How Earnings Control Life.
Senator LaFollette quoted with tell
ing effect, in the fight for the chill
dren's bureau last week, the r.port of
the bureau on the death rate of babies
in the textile town of Manchester,
n. h. This report showed that where
the fathers earned less than $3.50 a
year, one baby in four died before it
reached the age of twelve months.
Where the fathers were in the wage
class btwen $3.50 and $3.50 a year,
only one in six of the babies died in
its first year. Where the fathers were
earning from $3.50 to S1,050 a year,
one in eight babies died in the first
year, and where the fathers got more
than 81 ,050 the deaths were only one
in sixteen of the babies.
That is, where wages were lowest,
in this mill town, babies had only one
fourth the chance to live that babies
had in families where the father got
a decent wage
Vote Against Child Bureau.
The attempt of Senators Overman
who has been interested in cotton mill
investments, and Smoot who has held
shares in a woollen mill. to cut down
the appropriation for the children's
bureau, was defeated. Various claims
were made that the work of the
bureau overlapped that of the public
health service, and on this claim Sena-
tors Works of California, Thomas of
Colorado and Robinson of Arkansas
voted with the anti-labor crowd
against the bureau. Senator Lane of
Oregon. himself a doctor, showed that
the public health service was not do
ing similar work. and that the chill
because it was threatening the profits
of lot of manufacturers who employ
pregnant or nursing mothers,
Casey Will be Missed.
Congressman John J. Casey of
Wilkes-Barre, Pa, is going out of the
house, and the labor group loses one
of its strongest men. He is talked
of as possible appointee to the new
federal workmen's compensation COM
which will administer the
law for the 100000 en-
ployes of the government. Formerly
he was international organizer for
the Plumbers Union.
Casey was beaten last fall by the
most outrageous corruption and intim-
idation found anywhere in the country.
His district is largely peopled by the
coal miners, who speak
thirty languages and been bossed in
politics as well as in industry until
the past few years, when the United
Mine Workers of America has organ
lied and educated them to their rights.
Last fall they were ready to re-elect
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