The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1936-10-08
FARMER-LABOR
Rv A /. Harris

-
BY A /. Harris
For the first time in its history,
the Minnesota Federation of Labor
at its state convention at Cloquet
last week endorsed candidates for
public office. The full state ticket
of the Farmer-Labor party was en-
dorsed by name, the only party
which received endorsement 1or
state office. Endorsement also
was given to President Roosevelt.
This was labor's answer to the
preposterous claim of Martin A.
Nelson and other Republican
spokesmen that this party OF re-
action was the friend Of labor. 1t
was labor's answer to its foes VINO
profess to believe in the rights OF
collective bargaining but who con-
stitute the only political party IN
America today which represents
barrier to labor attaining the right
of collective bargaining.
Our esteemed contemporary, Mr..
r. w. Hitchcock, Republican pro-
pagandist, has been making some
rather preposterous and fantastlc
claims of friendship displayed oy
the Republican Party to labor. he
has cited IA labor bills introduced
in the 1888 session which he says
were passed by the Republican
controlled Senate and killed by
the liberal-controlled House.
The burden of his Argument Is
that the Republican Senate was
far more generous in passing LABOR
legislation than was the House, un-
der more or less liberal control
through a union of Farmer-Labor-
ties and Democrats. Hence, he says,
the Republicans and not the Farm
er-I.aborites are the friends OF Ia
Dor.
Naturally, our curiosity was
aroused and we looked into this
situation. What did we find!
In not a single instance was one
of the labor bills introduced In
either the Senate or the House by
a Republican. In the Senate the
bills met the opposition of all the
Republican leaders.
Let US take one of the bills, Sen
ate file No TAP, and House file NO.
1928. This bill provided for paying
the highest rate of wages on pub
lie works. 1t was passed In the
Senate by a vote of 3S to 81, the IL
berals in that body winning the
support of the more moderate Re-
publicans. Among those who voted
against the bill were the following
Republican leaders: Rockne, Light
ner, Bonniwell, Sullivan, Weber,
and others.
In the House this same bill pass
ed by a vote of. 80 to 10 with Roy
Dunn, Republican House leader
and now national Republican COM
mitteeman voting against 1t.
The same story is repeated in all
the other 13 bills. The vote was vir-
tually the same as on this one.
Mr.. Hitchcock says that the
House killed the bills which the
Senate voted What happened was
that the Senate bills and the House
bills differed slightly in phraseolo-
gy and wording and hence the Sem
ate bills were substituted for the
House bills. Therefore, Mr.. Hitch
cocks fictitious contentious that the
House killed" these bills.
This is the kind of stuff they are
using to fool the voters! Inciden-
tally, it represents type of spac-
ious argument which a scribe OF
Mr.. Hitchcock's standing should
not resort to. 1t does his profess
sion no good.
In some counties the local ad-
ministrative bodies for old age as
sistance have been in doubt as to
just how medical and hospital as
sistance might be provided for, If
needed, in the monthly budget of
a recipient.
In other instances it has been
assumed that no local relief pro-
visions could be made for such
medical care or services to an old
age assistance recipient who was
not receiving the maximum grant
Of $500 per month
The state Attorney Generals Of
flee has given a recent opinion up
on these points which will clear
the matter up for the old age as
sistance county agencies and the
local relief authorities.
The Attorney General holds that
IN old oua oco;cfo mo GRO NJ m ou