The Connecticut labor news., 1923-06-08

i bearing in favor of the amendment The committee, the following morn
 ing, re-assigned the resolution for hearing on a later date, and the same day reported the resolution unfavor-
 able in the house and the report was accepted, thereby eliminating any pos sibility of any further progress on this Legislation at the 1923 session.
 "The hearings held on the Kinder
 garten Bill, the Old Age Pension Bill,
 and the Workmen's Compensation Amendments, were well attended and
 very forceful arguments were pre- sented in favor of this legislation, but
 as expected the Kindergarten Bill and
 the Old Age Pension Bill was re
 ported unfavorable. The Judiciary
 Committee, in charge of the amend
 ments to the Workmen's Compensa-
 ton Act, have not reported the
 amendments of the Federation to date, but the same committee, to sat
 isfy the whims of two members of
 their committee, raised a bill in the
 Judiciary Committee which would
 change the present system of appoint
 ing the compensation commissioners;
 at present they are appointed by the
 governor The bill reported by the
 committee would require the approval
 of the legislature of the appointment
 of the commissioners, the same as the
 judges are now appointed. Your sec
 retary vigorously opposed this legis-
 lation, feeling that if the act was
 passed that the efficiency of the com
 missioners would be nullihed Such
 requirements as having the legisla-
 ture approve their appointments
 would require them to play politics.
 At the time this report was compiled
 the bill was on the table in the Sen
 ate on motion of Senator Els, the
 maj jority leader, after it had passed the house.
 "On January 20, 1923, the House of Representatives passed the following resolution, known as House Joint Resolution No. B Resolution direct ing the joint standing committee on railroads to investigate the service of the steam roads,
 'In the Senate this resolution was
 referred to the Committee on Rail- roads. At the time this resolution was introduced in and passed by the House of Representative there was a general demand from all sections of the state that some action be taken by the General Assembly to improve , if possible the passenger and freight service of the steam railroads in this state, and the object of this resolu- ton was to give the committee broad powers for Investigating purposes. Two large public hearings were held
 at which the railroad officials, Public Utilities Commission, representatives of the striking shoomen, and the pub lie generally appeared and freely ex- pressed their views. Your secretary appeared at these hearings and 1t seemed to me that the facts were es- tablished before the committee that if the company would adjust their diff ferences with their employees, now on
 strike, that that would solve all of
 the difficulties then confronting the
 railroad. The states attorney of New
 Haven county, who has taken such an
 interesting part in the strike from the
 very inception, appeared before the
 committee in an effort to prejudice
 the committee by presenting docu- ments to prove that the strike was in the hands of anarchists and that the railroad company and the public was suffering as a result He also charged that sabotage was frequently prac- ticed by the strikers, all of which he led the committee to believe came about as a result of Organizer Schlei- | fer coming to Connecticut to advise l with the strikir~ shoomen, but when [ questioned before the committee ad- | mitted that not one arrest had been | made since MT. SchIeifer arrived in | the state, outside of Schleifer himself, which arrest we contend was a framed-up charge. We further called | of the committee, and 1t was admitted by the states attorney, that only six men had been arresed since the beginning of the strike. After the two public hearings were held by the Railroad Committee and inspec- ton of the road was made, the fol- lowing is a part of the committees report submitted to the legislature:
 s"tYour committee does not see it's way clear to recommend any legisla- i've action on this subject-even if 1t could be done without interference with Federal authority
 'I need not go into detail regard ng the influence used to secure the of men to the judgeships ,f our state. AS an example, during he present session of the legislature citizen of Connecticut has been ap- pointed and confirmed as a judge of he superior court who advocates con ' ract Coolie labor for a period of five l ears and return this labor to their ative land and again import Coolies | or period of five years. He went s urther to suggest to the farmers t legislative committee how this could g e brought about If the remainder c f the judges, who have been ap- s ointed, have minds running in this D irection, the organized men and ! yomen of Connecticut can judge for | themselves as to the disadvantage t hey are placed at without the advice | nd counsel of any attorney employed s
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