The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-01-20
IF THE POWER is NOT TO BE USED
WHY CONFER IT?

supporters OF the propoSeu leueia Shiiu
labor amendment, so-called, are compelled
TO admit that everything its opponents say
as to the extraordinary and dangerous
power il proposes to confer on Congress IS
true: but, say these friends of the proposal,
Congress has no thought of using this pow
err and no Congress in the future would
ever abuse this power if it is conferred.
That is about the thinnest and weakest
alleged argument supposedly intelligent
citizens have ever been caught using.
Why confer this power on Congress II
Congress has no intention of using it?
What will Congress accomplish by hav-
ing the power and not using it?
What is logical and reasonable in giving
Congress power which is generally regard
ed as dangerous, and which Congress has
no intention of using? Ne.
And then, in addition to all of this, the
friends of the measure undertake to guar
antee the action of future Congresses. They
state unqualifiedly what the present Con-
gress will or will not do and then jump Tar
into the future and assure the country that
all Congresses elected in the future Will
see the proposition exactly as they contend
the present Congress sees it. The absurdity
of this contention is only equalled by the
effrontery of the people who ply this propa-
ganda and expect sensible citizens to be
fooled by it. 49,.
This effrontery, however, is equalled by
assertions that federal child labor law is
imperatively needed, when every informed
citizen of the country knows that child la
bar has been wiped out by the labor laws
of 48 States; that today in the entire Unit
ed States only about $4,000 young persons
are employed in gainful occupations and
these are not employed in hazardous oecu-
pations but for short hours at light work
under the labor laws of the States and per-
mits to work issued according to the pro-
visions of these laws.
The fact is that the field of child labor
legislation is fully covered by action of the
AZ States and Sister Perkins, Secretary of
Labor in, her latest broadside for the
amendment, urges that Congress would
not go further than the States and would
not adopt more drastic regulations than
the States have already enacted into law.
This being true, why should the federal
government exactly duplicate the efforts
of the AZ States, by passing laws that do
no more than the State laws accomplish?
Well, there is reason and an answer to
this last question and it is found in the fact
that the amendment will confer extraordi-
nary powers on Congress, to go miles be-
yond the States in regulating, controlling
or prohibiting the labor persons under IL
wears of age. That is what Sister Perkins
and her radical cohorts are striking at.
They are seeking this power for Congress
and if it is conferred, they will proceed to
try to coerce Congress to go the limit in
exercising the power thus enforced.
Persons Is to Is years of age are not
children. This newspaper has called at
tension to the fact that many females up to
1Syears of age are married and,have fam
lilies and that this is probably true Of some
males. Why give Congress the power to
regulate, control or prohibit the labor of
young men and young women, under the
subterfuge of enaeting child labor laws?
The Times-News has already published
the answers to this whole list of questions,
by showing the origin of the proposed
amendment. 1t was conceived, concocted
and sehemed through Congress a dozen
years ago by the most successful gang Of