The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-11-23

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others that have hung tire for a. long
Subordinate Boards
The one big failure of the War
Labor Board plan, al drawn originally.
was, the attempted: establishment of
subordinate boards IN the chief in
dustriat cities. one: such local board
was organized in st. Louis. It failed
to satisfy anybody:h Board finally
came to the conclusion that the only
way in which it could prevent strikes
was directly and =inas person-never
thro1gn subordinat te bodies :. II.
Under the recently revised proceed
ure Of the Board, a., case can be
handled, from inquiry to final award.
in fourteen days. Some Of the Board
members believe that it will finally
catch up with its accumulated work.
Others are not so sure.
In the meantime. the principles up
, on which the Boards awards are
based have been established in Amer
lean industry as the fundamental
demands of the wage workers, which
are necessary to safeguard organiza-
ton to create Industrial democracy.
These principles have been drafted
into a bill, which one of the small
labor group in Congress is to intro
duce in the House, in the hope of
fixing the principles in the Federal
statutes. - -
Labor Must Act. -.
That some agitation. and show of
industrial strength will be necessary to
put such measure through the new
Congress may be- guessed from the
fact that even so mild a measure as
the anti-child labor amendment to the
pending revenue bill has been twisted
out of shape by it's introducer. Sen
ator PomereneS TO Ohio. after the
President had approved the draft Of
the amendment submitted to him by
the labor lobby and the Department of
Labor. Yet this present Congress lis
much nearer in sympathy with or
ganized labor than, apparently, the
next Congress will be. There is only j."
one chance that the next Congress-is
to be liberal; 1t may be frightened
by the wave of social revolution in
Europe, and may decide to follow eau
tiously in the footsteps of the British
premier.
What Pomerene did to the Child
Labor amendment was this-~he so
changed the wording Of the measure
that it's enforcement will be under the
authority of the Treasury Department,
through the collectors Of internal rev.
enue, and only when requested to do
so by the treasury will the Depart
ment of Labor be. able to take charge
of the enforcement. The genuine
measure provided that the Labor De-
partment should enforce the Child
Labor law. Pomerene claims,s: of
course, that the treasury will In any
case ask the Labor Department to
assist it in this job. .sAs the amend
ment provides for collection of a spe-
cial tax OF 10 per cent on the profits
of firms employing children, it fol-
lows the principle used in the law
which stopped the manufacture OF
poison PHOSPHORUS matches. Collec-
tors of internal revenue will ;be di--
rected to enforce It. Many OF these
collectors are In favor Of the employ
ment of child-labor. and will not be
interested ineseeing thezlaw5rigidlysen-
forced. The Department Of Labor will
have to watch both the employers and
the unsympathetic- among the collec-
tors Of internal revenue. POmerene is
against woman suffrage and, various
other steps in civilization 80
e. - -- : . . -. -: - 81 9l
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