Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-07-03

tivities and it's practical service in
dispensable to the farming commun-
ity. It was this wise encouragement
and this effective concern of the
Democratic party for the farmers of
the United States that enabled this
great interest to render such essen
tial service in feeding the armies of
America and the allied nations of
the war and succoring starving pop
ulations since armistice day.
! Meanwhile the Republican leaders
at Washington have failed utterly to
propose one single measure to make
rural life more tolerable. They have
signalized their Is months of Con-
gressional power by urging schemes
which would strip the farms of labor;
by assailing the principles of the
farm loan system and seeking to i'm
pair it's efficiency; by covertly at
tempting to destroy the great nitro
gen plant at Muscle Shoals upon
which the government has expended
! S70,0OO.OO0 to supply American farm
ers with fertilizers at reasonable
cost; by ruthlessly Gripping nearly
every branch of agricultural en-
deavor; literally gripping the pro-
ductive mediums through which the
people must be fed
/ We favor such legislation as will
confirm to the primary producers Of
the right of collective bargaining and
the right of cooperative handling
and marketing of the products of
4 the workshops and the farm and such
legislation as will facilitate the ex-
/ portation of our farm products.
We favor comprehensive studies of
farm production costs and the I'M
censored publication of facts found
in such studies.
I Labor and Industry
The Democratic party is now, as
ever, the firm friend of honest labor
and the promoter of progressive in
dustry. 1t established the Depart
ment of Labor at Washington and a
: Democratic President called to his
official council board the first practi-
cal working man who ever held a
cabinet portfolio. Under this adj
ministration have been established
employment bureaus to bring the
man and the job together; have been
peacefully determined many bitter
disputes between capital and labor;
J were passed the child labor act, the
Workignmans compensation act,
! (the extension of which we advocate
so as to include laborers engaged in
loading and unloading ships and in
interstate commerce), the eight hour
! law, the act for vocational training
and code of other wholesome laws
affecting the liberties and lettering
the conditions of the lab oring class
es. In the Department of Labor the
{ Democratic administration establish
ed Woman'S bureau which Repub-
lican Congress destroyed by with
! holding appropriations.
Labor is not a commodity. it is
human. Those who labor have rights
and the national security and safety
depend upon a just recognition of
| those rights and the conservation of
/ the strength of the workers and their
families in the interest of sound
/ hearted and sound headed men, wom-
en- and children. Laws regulating
hours of labor and conditions under
which labor is performed, when pass
ed in recognition of the conditions
under which life must be lived to at
tain the highest development and
happiness, are just assertions of the
national interest in the welfare of
the people.
At the same time, the ration de-
Ponds upon the products of labor; a
cessation of production means loss
and, If long continued disaster. The
whole people, therefore. have a right
to insist that justice be done to those
who work and in turn that those
whose labor means the necessities
upon which the life of the nation
depends must recognize the rccipro-
cal obligation between the worker
and the state. They should partici-
pate in the formulation of sound
, laws and regulations governing the
conditions under which labor is per-
formed, recognize and obey the laws
so form ulated and seek their amend
ment when necessary by the pro-
cesses ordinarily addressed to the