The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1922-09-28
KANSAS AGAIN THE PIONEER


KANSAS AGAIN THE PIONEER
Homer Hoch, representative from
the fourth Kansas district, has intro
duced in congress an industrial court
bill patterned after the Kansas indus
trial law.
Mr.. Hoch's bill would first abolish
the railroad labor board, which is BIZ
partisan commission without power,
and substitute in its stead a disinter-
ested commission of five members.
For bipartisan arbitration Mr.. Hoch's
bill would substitute legal adjudica-
ton, as provided in the Kansas court
law. The bill provides, as does the
Kansas law, that men may stop work
at any time of their own will, but it
! would penalize any agreement or con-
spiracy between men to strike in es-
sential industries. 1t also penalties
any effort on the part of employers
to close down their plants for any
reason-labor disputes, or award OF
wages, etc.-that would endanger
! public welfare.
/ The news dispatches from Wash
ington outlining the bill do not state,
but it is assumed that the bill includes
only essential industries subject to
| interstate commerce.
Mr.. Hoch's measure is the only eff
/ fort at constructive legislation at
tempted in congress on the subject of
labor controversies. 1t is said of the
house of representatives that it is, in
its present frame of mind, ready to
give serious consideration to- some
measure patterned after the Kansas
plan. The railroad strike and the
strike of the coal miners during the
summer, with the government appar-
entity powerless to interfere or to find
relief for the public which was made
to bear the burden of both strikes,
gave the members of congress an IL
Illuminating object lesson in industrial
controversies.
Labor leaders have carried the fight
to maintain their present power to
declare strikes and to paralyze tSe
business of the country into politics.
Practically every member of congress
not in open sympathy with them has
found his district flooded with liter
ature denouncing him as an enemy of
labor and a tool of "capitalistic" in
terests. In Kansas three districts at
least, the seventh, eighth and fifth,
now are being circularized with de-
nunciations of the Republican mem
bers from these districts, with the re-
quest that the voters support the
Democratic nominee for congress and
| the Democratic state ticket.
There can be only one reason for
this activity on the part of the labor
leaders, and that is the fear that
some such legislation as that pro-
posed by Mr.. Hoch may be adopted
in the next congress. The result Of
the congressional campaign just open
ing will, of course, have a strong
| bearing upon the attitude of the
| house of representatives when con-
gress meets again, and that will de-
/ termine whether or not Mr.. Hoch's
measure will receive serious consider
ation or be dumped into the waste
basket for the sake of political ex-
pediency.
1t is known, however, that Presi-
dent Harding, after his experience
with the coal strike and the railroad
strike, is of the opinion that federal
measures must be adoped to give the
government power to act under such
conditions. Whether the President
I will go so far as to recommend so
radical a measure as the Kansas law
is a question yet to be determined. 1t
is one of the "open secrets" of the
capital city, however, that the Pres
ident has expressed the opinion that
there must be a federal law bearing
on the subject, and that the law
'must have teeth"
The whole point to the question,
from the standpoint of the public IS
/ that, at last, a step has been taken IN
congress toward ending the destruct-
| I've, barbarous, outgroWn meChod OF
the adjudication of labor troubles by
| the strike. The nation will be under
renewed obligations to Kansas for a
| discussion of such law and for CIV
ing to congress man like Mr.. Hoch,
who is not afraid to open the fight
Kansas City Times.
Lawrence, Kans., Sept. 27.-En-
rollment at the University of Kansas
this year, exceeds 5000, of whom
seven are from Ellis county. Follow