The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-04-26
A Clear Road
CNew York World -Telegram)

tNeW YOrk WOrld-Ieegram)
 At last the Supreme Court has made the inter- state commerce clause conversan with the realities of modern industry.
 The recent Wagner act decisions will loom large in history, for they mark the abandonment = the permanent abandonment hope-of those narrow, egalistic concepts that may have fitted very well in the days when manufacturing was matter of millraces, spinning wheels and cobbler shops, and when transportation and communication were handled by oxcarts and stagecoaches.
 They mark a recognition of the facts of modern industrialism = that factories of today reach out across State and national boundaries to bring in raw materials and then send their finished products back out into the markets of the nation and world and admission that Congress constitutional pow CT to regulate power to safeguard the welfare and liberties of human beings dependent that com merce In the words of Chief Justice Hughes a majority of the nine Justices refuse ito shut eyes to the planeSt facts of national life"
 Hair-splitters may distinctions, but under any common sense interpretation of what the Court majority said almost all of the New Deals legis- latve objectives are in cur opinion now attainable
 True no sap-dash law such as the MIRA experi- ment was reaching out to prescribe the wages and working conditions of pants pressers and drug clerks, be brought under this tent. But if Congress has power to protect the right of fac tory worker to join union cannot Congress also protect the right of the factory workers not to be exploited at less than subsistence and for over-long hours of labor? Of factory worker who joins effective labor union will not need governmental protection that score-his union will protect him. But he may need, and his employer may need governmental protection from sweatshop competition The road is clear be- leve for Congress to provide that protection
 And is it not the same in respect to child labor? Of course Congress cannot forbid minors perform chores about a farm But Congress has wanted to do that. It has wanted to keep children out of mills whose products compete in interstate markets. And does not the philosophy of govern mental powers expressed by the Court clear the way fol Congress to do just that? We believe it does.
 Then there is that step which logically follows collective barganing-the right Of which was firm y established by the decisions. We refer the orderly governmental procedure for mediation and voluntary arbtration-such the that has proved so valuable in bringing about and maintain ing labor contrasts and settling disputes in the rail- read industry Clearly such machinery be set up for all industries interstate in character.
 If Congress can do these things which so need to be done to reguarize and humanize interstate industries the States will be competent to handle similar matters in intrastate business.
 It should, believe, be pointed out that the Court explicit in it's reassurance point that has worried some employers. Though saying emphatically that employer whose business is within the scope of the Wagner act may discrimi- nate against any employee for union activities, the Court expressly added that the law does not inter fere with the right of employer to hire fire for any other reason No employer is required to hire incompetent keep one the payroll just because he holds a union card. These pointed marks not only will reaSSure employers who want to conduct an efficient business; they also should serve as a salutary warning to union men