The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-01-22
LABOR AMENDMENT
Continued from First Page)

49, A GStJ
{ labor amendment is concerned. tn,
only feature of the charge which i'm
m~ediately concerns us.
The present Government of Russi;
seized the power it has since s,
tenaciously held and so ruthlessly ex
erclsed in the month of November
1917. 1t displaced the short-Iivec
kerensky government, which assumes
control on the fall of the old Czarist
regime in March of the same wear
While the theories of the existing
order may have been in process OF
incubation during the old order. no
p%retense is made that Heretofore its
deyotees were in any position to carry
their propaganda into foreign parts.
being too busily occupied in keeping
their heads respectively on their
shoulders at home.
Long prior to 1917 the agitation
for legislation to restrict and regu-
late the labor of children in industry.
both by the State and the Federal
Government, was in full swing. Not
only was it under the way, but Con-
gress, assuming it had the authority
under the Constitution, had in 1916
enacted the first child labor law. By
that time nearly every State in the
Union, including practically all the
industrial States, had restricted and
regulated child labor, the standards
hp1nO ATUOrC1 in +bn 11ffo.a-L Gill;
the laws of varying degrees of ex-
degrees of efficiency and exactitude.
degrees o deficiency and exactitude.
In 1912 Connecticut and Massa-
chusetts passed laws restricting the
employment of young children to 10
hours a day in certain manufacturing
establishments, a circumstance set
down here to the credit of those Com
monwealths, pioneers in this humani-
tartan movement, as well as to call
attention to the fact that heartless
employers had to be restrained bv
the heavy hand of the law from keep
children of tender years at work
In a factory for more than 10 hours
a day and the further fact that either
through the conservatism of the
people of that land Of steady habits
or, more likely, the influence exer-
by the class of people who are
our time combating the reform in
Massachusetts, the law was made
applicable only to certain industries.
The further history of the move
nent as reflected in legislation is set
tut in a pamphlet issued by the Child
labor Bureau, pertinent pages of
which will be found as an appendix
0 the Record copy Of this address.
ask that they may be printed at the
lose of these remarks.
For reasons upon which it is I'M
Lecessary at this point in the dis
ussion to dilate, the agitation for
'ederal legislation on the subject,
supplementary to that of the States,
ook form as early as 1906, when
appropriate bills were introduced in
9th Houses of Congress, and had at
aimed such success by the year 1912
hat the Progressive Party, which
oiled over 100000 votes in the
residential election Of that year, de-
AIRED for the legislation in it's plat
Both of the great political par
es went on record in their platforms
favor of Federal legislation deal
g with child labor in 1916 and again
1920. Responding to the very great
smand thus evidenced, the Congress,
heretofore stated, in August, 1916, h
used the first child labor act, rely
g upon the commerce clause of the
institution, held unconstitutional
June 8, 1918, and the second
lid labor act, under the taxing
wer, in February, 1919, also held
yond the power Of the National
,vernment under the Constitution.
the final passage of the bill, which
came the act of 1916, the vote
,od in the House 337 for and 46 )
in the Senate So for and IL
The bill which became the
act was approved by the fol
wing vote-in the House 349 for
d 81 against, and in the Senate
,hout dissent.
Even before the passage of the
act serious misgivings had
n entertained as to whether legis~
on such as was desired was author
d by the Constitution. What the
mt showed was the wiser course
advocated by Representative
n Jacob Rogers, of Massachusetts,
in 1914 introduced a resolution
an amendment to the Constitution
ferring upon Congress the author
to legislate on the subject of
d labor. In the course of an adj
IS made in support of his reso-
on on September 20 of that year,
'ead a plank from the platform of
Republican Party of his State for
year 1913, as follows:
Je favor a Federal constitutional
ndment which shall give to Con-
IS the right to prescribe maximum