Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1918-06-09
COMPULSORY LABOR
LAW MUCH NEEDED
STATE COUNCIL OF DEFENSE
URGE UPON THE LEGISLATURE
NECESSITY OF PASSING THIS
KIND OF LEGISLATION.

ATLANTA, Ca, June THE COM
mittee on labor from the State Council
of Defense has been called for con-
ference in the Office of the commits
sioner of commerce and labor, state
capitol to pass upon the draft of
compulsory labor law to be submit
ted to the forthcoming legislature.
The bill, the draft of which will be
finally approved at this conference,
will provide in general terms that ev-
cry able bodied man in the state of
Georgia between the ages of Is and
so shall work at least five days each
week, according to the hours of labor
now regulating a day in the specific
lines of trade or industry in which
engaged
In event an unemployed man be-
tween these ages has no position and
claims that he can not find employ
ment, he is to be cited by the agents
of the department of labor to the COM
missioner, who will find the subject a
position, which he must accept or find
one himself, ten days being the limit
OF time allowed. In the event of fail
ure to comply with this order the PEN
atty of misdemeanor will he imposed.
One important feature of the bill
will be that evidence of property or
income sufficient to maintain the u"
employed, or the support of parents,
shall not be sufficient causes for ex-
emption from the provisions of the
bill
The measure is intended entirely as
a war time necessity, and the pro-
posed statute is tot be operative only
during the war and the few months
subsequent I'd a declaration of peace,
when the veterans of the overseas
campaigns are being returned to the
states and discharged.
While several war measures are to
be suggested by the State Council %
Defense, perhaps, no bill is of NOR"
significance. Such laws have teen re-
Gently enacted in several of the north
ern and New England states, and all
of the states having sessions of their
law-making bodies this summer anS
PolI in If tho IUa p
continues that long, will be called on
by the National Council of Defense +
enact similar legislation.
The proposed Georgia bill is not in
tended primarily to strike at the va
grancy element, although it will serve
to cure that menace, but particularly
to regulate the days of labor among
the thousands in every line of indus
try, who feel that three or four day.
of work week are sufficient and with
the increased wage scales are deter
mined to lay off the other two or three
days This is the feature that makes
the labor situation particularly en-
barrassing at this time: In the private
as we'll as in the government opera
tons great deal of labor refuses to
work more than three days a week, or
four at the outside, thus making y
necessary for the employing individ-
ual or firms to carry surplus OF
from % to 80 per cent. of labor ON
the payrolls in order to keep opera
tons moving adequately during the
six working days of the week.
1t is known that the governor is
thoroughly in sympathy with the pro-
posed legislation and will urge its
passage in his message.
There is no question about the pas
sage of the bill, as the exigencies OF
the times are generally believed to de
mand such a regulating and stabiliz-
ing measure.