Denver labor bulletin., 1918-05-04
SEEK TO GAG LABOR SEC
RETARY WITH A GEN.
ERAL DIRECTOR.
Senator King of Utah Leads Bait
ers Who Oppose Government
Employees Receiving Recog-
milton in the Way of HUI
name Conditions and
a Living Wage.
By LAURENCE TODD
Especial Representative The Denver Lahsr
Bulletiu.)

buucflu.l
WASHINGTON, April 27.-Once
more the reactionaries in the national
capital are trying to batter down the
doors of the department of labor, and
to take possession of the premises. As
the war continues, and the character
Of the struggle becomes more and
more clearly one for and against the
liberation of the economic slaves of
the world, the United States depart
ment of labor becomes each day more
important in guiding the course of the
allied battle against the Prussian
slave-lords. Our reactionaries are
afraid that the American workers will
become as powerful here as are the
British workers in England. They
imagine that if they can get rid of
William B. Wilson the old anti-union
influences will be able to control ma
will be less for the standpatters to
worry about.
Worries the Pro6teers.
For Secretary Wilson does worry
them. He moves slowly, but he
moves steadily in the direction of
democratic control of industry. The
work of his special commission which
visited Arizona and the Pacific coast
and Minneapolis and Chicago was bad
enough, from the organized employ
ers' standpoint. They blame him
even more for the creation of the ma
tional war labor board, which has
bound the organized employers
thanks to William Howard Taft, their
spokesman-to grant minimum wage
to all workers which will meet a
health and comfort standard of in
come for the family of any common
laborer. They are hopeful that with
somebody else directing the labor de-
partment, or at least running the la
Dor end of the war industries, they
may get away from this damaging
situation. 1t may, like the German
peace resolution, be cancelled by
events"
This latest attack was publicly
launched by Senator King of Utah,
who is conceded to be the strongest
partisan of the big mine owners, cop
per magnates and special interests
generally, to be found in Congress.
He went to the President, just as the
other reactionaries had done four
months earlier, and begged that
something be done" to secure a bet
ter handling of the labor situation
to stop the strikes and the individual
quitting of jobs in the war industries
all over the country.
Sought to Gag wilson
The President needed all the votes
he could get, in the Senate, to pass
the Overman bill, which permits the
President to reorganize any of the
departments, and to shift duties and
powers. from one department to an
other, in order to speed up the ma
chinery for war. He had to have
the votes of the group of reactionary
democrats for whom King was spokes-
man. He agreed that an administra-
tor of labor in the war industries
should be named. He did not agree
that this labor administrator should
be outside the department of labor,
nor that he should be an anti-labor
man.
But the standpat newspapers got
busy right away. They guessed that
this would finish William B. Wilson.
He would resign, they figured, as soon
as his duties We're handed over to a
big man" This meant. apparently,
that some man of the circle of Charles
NJ. Schwab and John D. Ryan was to
be chosen TO handle labor, lust like
so much pig iron.
Should Be Labor Man.
This talk soon died out, however,
and in its place came suggestions that
some one such as Dr. Charles p. Neill,
who was labor commissioner under
the Taft administration, should be put
in charge of war industries labor un-
der the supervision of Secretary Will
son. DR.. Neill is a capable man, and
has never been unfair to trade unions,
but he has not come from the labor
movement, and much of the time he
has worked for big corporations.
II labor administrator, under the
secretary of labor, is to be chosen, the
labor movement will be satisfied only
with the naming of man from the
ranks of the workers themselves. Any
other selection would run counter to
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