New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-23
Stimson Urges Intensive
Military Training for
Indoor Nation"
LEGISLATION ASKED
FOR WOMEN WORKERS
Measures to Regulate I'm
migration at Wars End
Urged by F. w. Warne

Consideration of municipal, state and
national questions, ranging from the
status of woman in industry to social
insurance and universal military train
ing. occupied the National Civic Fed
Grafton in the opening sessions of it's
seventeenth annual convention in the
Hotel Astor yesterday.
V. Everit Macy. who was elected
president OF the organization to sue
coed the late Seth Low, asserted in his
opening address that the increase in
employment Of women was so appalling
even in the United States under peace
conditions. that legislation should be
enacted at once to safeguard female
workers il the vitality Of future gen
erations was TO be preserved.
Henry L. Stimson, ox-Secretary Of
War, said that six months of intensive
military field service would do more
TO counterfeit the "softening tendency
IN American life than anything else,
while Warren s. Stone. grand chief of
the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi-
neers, maintained that "a living wage"
TO the workers of the land would be
effective in elevating the standard OF
character and in making America big
ger and better than ever
Gompers Speaks by Proxy
August Belmont, who spoke on the
workmen's compensation law; DR.. John
H. Finley, whose subject was MILITARY
Training" John Hays Hammond. who
discussed Industrial Economies;
Samuel Gompers, who by proxy out
lined his views on Social Insurance,
were other contributors to the days
deliberations.
Mr.. Stimson's appeal 10 the woman's
department of the federation to sup
port the compulsory military training
plan for boys was the feature OF the
afternoon session.
eve are becoming an indoor ma
ton. prone to sunshine through the
window and steam heat" he said. "The
fathers of our countryside pioneers
that made it what it is to-day-lived
on the frontiers in field and forest.
The preponderance OF the city infu-
ence on life is a new problem. bringing
new tendencies inimical to the out
door virtues of the early race.
1--WE must get the American boy out
of doors. Six months Of intensive mil
itary training in the field will produce
a respectable army and do more than
anything to counteract the softenlnS
influences of to-day.
The hope that the plan of military
training under the Slater bill could be
extended TO working boys who, under
the law, are exempt was expressed BY
DR.. Finley, who is a member of the Mil
itary Training Commission, which is
considering methods of applying the
law.
Percy S. Straus. vice-chairman of the
minimum wage commission OF the FED
Grafton, read a report on woman
Labor in Competitive Industries and
abstracts of report made to the com
mission by Miss Mary Obernauer, who
investigated the subject as special
agent of the Department of Labor. Mr..
Straus said that the Federation was
undecided regarding the possible merits
of a minimum wage law.
Several labor leaders, including Hugh
Frayne, of the American Federation OF
Labor, and Peter ]. Brady, Of the Al
lied Printing Trades Council. as well as
representatives of large corporations,
upheld the views of the Federation on
the inadvisability of social insurance
Legislation and resolution placing the
National Civic Federation on record as
against the plan was passed.