The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-09-04

The spirit of President Harding will continue to fight the cause of American labor and the time is not far distant when no workman in this country will be forced to work more than eight hours a day, six days a week, 1t Is my confident belief" de- clared Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, adressing a mass meeting at Wooorow Wilson park at 3 o'clock duced by pr. H. A. Elkourie, dictator or the Birmingham lodge of Moose.
 In his address Secretary Davis paid high tribute to the late president and praised President Calvin Cool idge, declaring that the new presi- square deal"
 Workers and employers are better off in the United States than any where in the world today, he said. Permanent prosperity and progress can be assured only by an equitable division of production between the men who manages labor and the men whose labor makes industry possible he continued.
 Audience Enthusisatic
 The audience, large despite counter attractions at East Lake. West Lake and Edgewood park, greeted the
 
 enthusiastically and applauded his utterances freely.
 Secretry Daivs' address in full fol- lows:
 Labor Day this year, finds the workingmen and women of America at the close of twelve months of steady progress, of peace and of pros perity, but marked by one great loss, the death of Warren G. Harding. our C-sa Americas toilers. During the more than two years of his service, labor in America made greater strides in steady, cinsistent, material and moral progress than it had during any similar period In the history of our country. Under his calm guidance, without beating of drums or sound Ing oi trumpets, the American work man was lead from the verge of economic chaos, to stable employ ment, record wages, and improved conditions. Not since the foundation of the Republic has American labor, organized and unorganized been in better condition than it is on this Labor Day.
 The late President Harding was no visionary, seeking to attain per lection through uesless theory. He faced conditions as he found them, and in solid practical everyday achfement he obtained results for American labor. He was my leader and my friend. His memory will ever live in the hearts of American labor for the advances which his eff forts brought to the workers of the country. He was the first president of this country. with the courage and the vision to approve legislation re- stricting immigration to this country, thus protecting the American work CT from foreign, low wage compe- tition. He did this at a time when, as he assumed office, we had more than 5,000,000 men walking the streets of America seeking employ ment, in the depression which fol- lowed the great war. By this mea- policies which he followed, he soon brought the country out of the trough of industrial collapse and out again on the plain straight road of industrial ability.
 H@rding Given Credit
 Tt was through his untiring indus try and devotion to the ideals of American labor that this Labor Day finds that archie institution, the twelve-hour workday and tho seven day week practically eliminated from the basic industry of our country, the steel industry Following his leader ship, the department of labor has secured an agreement among manu- lecturers of boxboard looking to the end of the twelvehour day in that industry. It Is my confident belief that the spirit of President Harding will continue to fight the cause of American labor, and that the time is not far distant when no workman in this country will be forced to work more than eight hours a day. six days a week. There can be no higher ideal for American labor, than President Harding's wage creed, which may well become one of his greatest monuments, reared In the heart of every true American. This was his creed:
 "The workman's lowest wake must be enough for comfort. enough to make his house a home. enough to