The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-07-07

TICS Oi -abOl WV
Seven Day Week Useless Expenditure
of Energy.
Declaring that nothing would be
more deplorable' than setting aside
"even temporarily the laws which have
safeguarded standards of labor and OF
life" President Wilson recently placed
himself squarely in opposition to the
movement to break down labor laws
as wartime emergency measure.
Speaking at the White House to the
members of the labor committee of the
Council of National Defense, the presi-
dent said In part:
"I have been very much alarmed at
one or two things that have happened
at the apparent inclination of the leg
islature of one or two of our states to
set aside even temporarily the laws
which have safeguarded standards of
labor and of life. | think nothing
would be more deplorable than that.
We are trying TO fight in cause which
means the lifting of the standards of
life, and we can fight in that cause
best by voluntary cooperation. do
not doubt that any body of men repre-
senting labor in this country, speaking
for their fellows, will be willing to
make any sacrifice that is necessary in
order to carry this contest to a sue
cessful issue, and in that confidence l
feel that it would be ineXcusable if we
deprived men and women of such a
spirit of any of the existing safeguards
Of law. Therefore | shall exercise my
influence so far as it goes to see that
that does not happen and that the sac
rifices we make shall be made volun-
tarily and not under the c0mpulsfon
which mistakenly is interpreted to
, mean a lowering of the standards
which we have sought through 50 many
generations to bring to their present
| level"
Later In the day, at meeting Of the
| committee at the headquarters of the
\ American Federation of Labor, British
| labor men, members of the commission
recently sent to this country by theil
government, out of their own expert
| ence in two and half years of wa
4 gave expression to similar views
1 James Fl. Thomas, member of parlia
ment and general secretary Of the Ma
: tional Union of Railway Men of Grea
: Britain and Ireland, said
"One of the mistakes that we mad
in the war was to forget the human
side At the beginning of the wa
J. some of our people worked 100, III
!. and even 120 hours a week. The
worked seven days a week, too, wit
never a day of rest. Then they bega
to get worn out, and conditions becam
alarming. Now we have gone back t
Sunday rest and Saturday half holida!
and overtime has been reduced.
you're going to have a long war 70
can't afford to sacrifice labor power"
In answer to q question Mr.. Thoma
said, with all the great resources
the United States, serious as is the con
dition of the allies, 1 cannot conceiy
of the winning of the war to be depend
ent on the breakdown of the child lab(
laws of this country" A war so VIC
would be lost, he said, because it woul
mean the sacrifice of future gener'
lions.
, The Committee on Labor of the Cou1
Gil of National Defense had been Gale
together by its chairman, Mr.. Gomper
for the purpose of meeting the BIRTHS
labor men, Mr.. Thomas and Charles
, Bowerman, also a member of parli
: ment and secretary of the British Tra(
Union congress, and similar deleg
ton from Canada led by J. G. Waiter
: president Of the Canadian Trades al
: Labor congress.
) The British delegates reviewed BRIT
the experience of labor under war co
: ditions. They expressed themselv'
: vigorously in opposition to overtim
: seven day labor and the employment
r children While there was a demal
l. for the breakdown of child labor Law
at the beginning of the war there WI
10 little yielding to these demands, and a
"a tendance at school has not been int
# fered with in the least.
d Wherever women are emplOyed-a1
II according to Mr.. Thomas there a
h about 1,250,000 of them at work wi
O never were engaged in Industry befo
r. the principle Of equal pay for equ
+ work is rigidly enforced. In the prir
@ ing industry no woman can be emplo
n Survey.