The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-20
EFFECT l0lll BILL
70 PASS The HOUSE

Washington. d. c., July ie.-Ths
action sof The house In rejecting 81
= vote Of ass to 81, the Good amend .
ment 70 the Nolan minimum wage bill
indicAtos That the bill itself, providing
TO- minimum wage OF. 81 per day
or si.e6o per year for all federal ana
District Of Columbia employees, will
pa.ss the house BY an overwhilmine
majority.
Final vote ON the bin was prevented
oy diiafory tactics on the mart az
4 preventative Blanton OF Texas, who
10 oppoSed TO the measure, and who.
when the vote was called Tor. de-
manded the reading OF the engroesed
copy OF the bill. Al the enrrosnfne
'uld not be done It that late hour
IN the afternoon. this move nut the
nnAi vote over until the sundry civfl
bin and the prohibition enforcement
hl have been disposed of--proba bly,
some time next week. according to
Representative Nolan.
Notwithstanding the fact that the
Good amendment originated on tho
Republican side OF the house the
number OF Republicans voting against
II was 1Sc and the number OF Demo-
Gratis was 100. Representative Mon
dell, floor leader, did not vote At all.
but Representative Campbell, of Kan
sas. chairman OF the Rules committee
and Representative Madden, OF Il
linois. voted against It. On the other
side OF the aisle Minority Leader
Champ Clark and Representative
scott Ferris. Of Oklahoma, chairman
OF the Democratic Congressional COM
nittee. also voted against the amend
menf- Representative F.ess, OF Ohio,
chairman of the Republican ConEres-
sional committee. and Mr.. Good him
SCI, were the only Republican leaders
who voted for it.
The Good amendment would have
deprived more than 10000 govern
ment workers throughout the coun-
try, whose base pay is $3.50 to 1880
per year. of part OF the $24o salary
in 3rease granted in the last legis-
lative appropriation act.
Party politics entered actively into
T. debate, and for hours the Demo-
Gratis sought to amend the bill to
bring fourth-class postmasters, letter
carriers and railway mail clerks un-
der its provisions. A dozen or moro
amendments to this effect were Of
fered from the Democratic side to
include the postal employees. and
when all of these failed OF adoption,
Representative Wingo made a speech
in which he claimed that the Demo-
Gratis were being blocked by the Re-
publicans in an effort to right great
injustice to the postal workers,
To this reply was made by Repre-
sentative Nolan and Representative
Madden, who explained aaain and
again that 1t was by request Of tho
postal employees organizations, and
OF the house committee on post ofIlces
and postal roads that the entire postal
rvice was left to be legislated for
IN measures reported from that COM
mtttee instead of the labor committee,
An amendment was offered by
Representative Montague OF Virginia,
p-oviding that clerks to members OF
the house be excluded from the pro-
visions OF the Nolan minimum wage
bill. In the heated debate on this
question, 1t was urged that because
the personal and confidential char
acter OF the service rendered by the
clerks to the congressman the law
ought not to require that they re-
ceive the minimum OF SO per day.
Representative Nolan and Represent
tative MacCrate, OF New York. how
ever prevailed with their vigorous
ar -uments as to the position in which
congressman would put themselves
b. voting not to pay a living wage
| to their own employees while requiring
that other government employees re-
| ceive such a, minimum. The Mon
tague amendment was defeated by a
! large majority.
The defeat Of the Good amendm ent,
which was offered without warning
last Wednesday when the Nolan bill
came up on the calendar. Is regard ed
as decisive victory for the friends