Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1920-10-15

Editor Leader:-In last weeks issue
there was a political advertisement,
sent out by the Republican National
Committee, misleadingly called by
Senator Harding "a Labor Bill of
Rights" which states that he, Har-
ding, considers the Cummins-Esch
Law the most considerate piece of
Legislation ever enacted for the pro-
lection of any group of workman in
the United States.
If Mr.. Harding is honest in this
statement why did he vote for the
original Cummins Bill with all It's
teeth, claws and other vicious meas
ures? Our answer is that the CEm-
Minis -Esch Bill is the child of "Big
Business" and as wet nurse for any
child of "Big Business" Harding will
do all in his power to see that the
child gets all the care that it's parents
desire to raise it to maturity.
The next paragraph takes a fall
out of Mr.. Gompers, because he and
his Non-Partisanites declare the law
an outrage, and ask US to blacklist
Harding. Well, we are safe in say
ing that Mr.. Gompers is not the only
man that considers the law an out
rage.
The next three paragraphs are
purely suppositional and may be ans
wered briefly, that the workmen in
any industry are not asking for any
special legislation, neither are chey
begging for any governmental frarer
nalism; but they do most strenuously
object to any such law as the original
Cummins Bill that Harding voted for,
which, if passed, would have tied rail
road employees to their jobs and made
it a crime for two or more employees
to leave the service at the same time
object in view.
Sec. 301 of the Conference Bill
takes care of our wages and working
conditions all right, except to insure
wages against reduction and stip-
ulating how grievances shall be
handled and for the benefit of those
who never read it, we will have it re-
printed.
Sec. 301-It shall be the duty Of all
carries and their officers, employees.
and agents to exert every reasonable
effort and adopt every available
means to avoid any interruption to
the operation of any carrier growing
out of any dispute between the car
rier and the employees or subordinate
officials thereof. All such disputes
shall be considered and, if possible,
decided in conference between rep
resentatives designated and author
lied so to confer by the carriers or
the employees or subordinate officials
thereof, directly interested in the dis
pute. If any dispute is not decided
in such conferences. it shall be refer
red by the parties thereto to the
board which under the provisions of
this title is authorized to hear and
decide such dispute.
A glance at this section will con-
vince any one who is fair minded,
that it's provisions, as far as labor is
concerned, are mandatory by the use
of the word shall, and as far as the
word reasonable is concerned, who is
to be the judge of reasonableness if
any question or dispute that may
arise? is it to be the officials, the
employees or the board? We will
state what is an honest and candid
opinion, that none of the men COM
posing the Republican National Com
mittee ever had anything to do with
settling disputes with railroad COM
pany where wages and working con-
ditions were involved; if they ever
had anything to do with a railroad
it was of a legislative, judicial or ad-
ministrative character, and we al
know something about how long it
takes before you can get action, for
instance the subway and lighting
street crossings at the intersections
of railroads.
The statement that Mr.. Gompers as
Democrat has used the Cummins-
Esch Bill as camoufiage to embar-
ras the Republicans is all tommy rot.