Denver labor bulletin., 1917-06-09
PRESSURE MADE ON LA
BOR TO LOWER STAND
ARDS OF LIVING.
Employees Compelled to Fight to
Gain Living Wage, and Are
Called Upon to Garry Chief
Burden of Americas
War Program.
By LAURENCE TODD
Especial WashinKton Correspondent The
Denver Labor Bulletin.)

BY LAURENCE TODD
Especial Washington Correspondents rhs
Denver Labor BuIietin.)
WASHINGTON, June 4.-In an ar
ticle appearing in the Official Bulle-
tin of May 2s, the thanks of the COM
mittee on labor, advisory to the coun-
ell of national defense, are rendered to
the British labor spokesmen recently
in this city, by Samuel Gompers. In
the course of this statement Mr..
Gompers says:
Certain fundamental questions have
required attention (from the commit
tee on labor), one being the effort to
maintain our present economic stand
ards-legislative and otherwise-un-
til such time as the council of national
defense shall request the lowering
thereof because essential to the main
tenance of our democracy"
This hint that great pressure is be-
ing exerted upon the organized labor
movement to consent to the lowering
of the already inadequate safeguards
of industrial life in this country, and
that when the six cabinet members
composing the council of national de-
Tense shall request" it the labor
movement may be helpless to oppose
their desire, is further borne out by
another official statement on Mr.. Com
pers' part. This latter statement
comes in a letter addressed by him,
on June 1, to ". P. Hamrick, a cotton
mill manager at Columbia, S. c., who
has been trying to get the Keating
child labor act suspended
Hold Human Safeguards.
LAS you say in your letter." OBJ
serves the president of the American
Federation of Labor, "there is on foot
a movement to render the child labor
law and compulsory education inoper..
ative, or to secure the suspension OF
provisions restricting hours of work.
This movement seems to be part of
larger movement to nullify or de-
stroy all humanitarian safeguards that
protect the health and welfare of those
who work Those directing this move
ment have taken advantage of the
first period of transition during which
the people are appalled, by their new
\ immediate future may contain for
them.
"Under all conditions the purpose of
our government is to conserve and
further the interests of humanity.
Those standards which safeguard the
health and well-being of the people
cannot justifiably be suspended or re-
moved unless the nation is reduced to
the direst extremity. We are not
facing such emergencies, nor have we
exhausted our resources TO such a de-
gree that we would be justified in
setting aside safeguards that insure
the physical and mental well-being of
future citizens. There can be no JUS
tifcation for rendering child labor
laws imperative during war, except
when it shall have been demonstrated
THAT all other methods have failed and
an extreme emergency shall have been
defense of the nation-the council of
national defense"
Don't Lower Standards.
How grave is the possibility that the
council of national defense may yield
to the advice of the anti-labor forces
that are so potent in the United States
senate and house of representatives,
and may declare a necessity for the
ten or the twelve-hour day in munition
plants and factories and on the rail-
roads when no such necessity really
exists. cannot be foreseen. 1t is to be
borne in mind that such organizations
as the national consumers league and
the national women's trade union
league, as well as the women's COM
mittee advisory to the council of ma
tional defense, are carrying on ma
tion-wide campaign of publicity
against any such mistake as would be
involved in decision that Industrial
standards must go down The mani
festo of March 10, which is the last
and most representative expression of
the organized labor movement of
America on the industrial situation
in war time. fatty demands that these
safeguards be maintained.
In spite of these declarations, and in
spite of President Wilson's recent
pledge of support to the committee on
labor on this point, the employers of
the country are refusing to increase
wages TO meet the rapidly increasing
i, cost of food and fuel and other neces-
saries. In the past eleven months
there were reported to the United
States department of labor 244 indus
trial disputes, as compared with a to-
tai of 900 for the three years and
-four months just preceding. There are
twice as many strikes per week, this
, year, as there were year ago.
Measure Wages by Bread.
: A man closely in touch with labor
sentiment thruout the country has just
. made tour of the industrial cities