The Connecticut labor news., 1923-12-29

The failure to provide a minimum wage," he continued, ''is shown by ac- tual experience to harm rather than help employers in business and in dustry. Freedom to hire at any wage they please diverts the attention of leaders of industry from the solution of major problems of industrial or ganlZation to such minor and incl dental matters as fixing the hiring wage of his women employees. With the minimum of wages fixed, however the enterprising manager of industry has still open to him a vast unex- plored field for enterprise, ingenuity and initiative which he may exploit with profit to himself and with serv- ice to the community"
 Women to Aid in Modernizing
 Courts.
 Mrs. Florence Kelly, general secre- tary of the National Consumers League, declared that the recent fed eral decisions against two child labor laws and the District of Columbia minimum wage law challenge a new voting constituency to new measures.
 Since Io2o," she said. mo woman can legitimately plead in excuse of our passive acceptance of judicial null
 
 legislation for women and children, that we are innocent because we are powerfless. Whenever we can, through our votes acquire political power, we are particeps criminus whenever a justice or judge defeats the ends of labor legislation and es- capes the grave public criticism and rebuke appropriate to his offense and is continued in office by public vote" "
 Cases were cited by Mrs. Kelly where protective labor laws have been nullihed by technicalities and by the antagonism or ignorance of local judges, in addition to what she de- scribed as "a long list of notorious examples" of overturning labor laws for women and children by state and federal courts "The evil deeds of To- cal rural justices of the peace afford an effective argument for a federal child labor law which will be enforced in federal courts," she said.
 ITO meet this method of weaken ing labor statutes and for interlock- ing compulsory seducation laws, she continued, many communities now form standing committees of women to be always present in court when such cases are tried This IS an i'm mense1y important function for vot- ing women who have leisure. The labor unions, too, need to have well informed representatives permanent ly employed in this cooperation.
 Mrs Kelly in conclusion stated that in addition to the need for women voters uniting for the selection of modern minded judges, Everywhere the need for the hour is fresh afr nation of the constitution right of free speech applied respectfully but firmly to the need of a modernized Supreme Court of the United States" ," Federal-State Action for Mine Safety.
 Discussing the need for national action in preventing accidents in coal mines, Joseph P. Chamberlain, head of the legislative drafting department of Columbia University, suggested that the solution may be found in fed eral-state cooperation similar to that now in operation for the vocational rehabilitation of industrial cripples.
 Miners run an unusual danger in different localities under different state laws and different inspection forces" he said. "The federal gov ernment supports a bureau of mines constantly at work in improving safe ty devices and in drafting safety reg ulations Their safety code is the re- suit of long research and experience, but the federal bureau has no power to compel the acceptance of its stand ards"
 "If under the constitution Congress cannot act directly on the operators to compel them to use the minimum standards set by the federal bureau, acting without local prejudice or local interest, can it not accomplish the re- suit by making grants to the states to pav part of the cost of efficient en- forcement of state acts if those acts are up to a proper standard! The United States delps the states in the education of those injured by acci- dents, why should not not help in pre- venting accidents?"
 Need for Federal Legislation.
 Dr. John A. Ryan, director of the department of social action of the Ma tiona1 Catholic Welfare Council, made the suggestion that the federal con stitution be amended so as to permit adequate national and state legislation for mine safety.
 "While great deal more," he said, "can be done to provide safety de- vices in the coal industry by volun- tary agitation and effort, and while activity along this line is distintcly worth while, it may well be doubted whether the need can be even approx imately met without uniform federal legislation"
 National industries, he asserted, ought to be regulated nationally. ..
 "When the legislative attitude of one state whether it be good or bad, toward industrial and employment re- lations affects industrial conditions Tn another state, we have obVously subject for federal legislation, he de clared. "This supposes an amend ment to the fedora lconstitution. The sooner we direct our efforts toward a amendment which will authorize such legislation, the nearer