Montana labor news., 1939-02-16
MINERS URGE S|uC0S|S COMPENSATION
Corporation Machine
Controls The PASSAGE
OF All Measure,


HELENA.-Tuesday evening the
Labor Relations Bill was up on gen.
eral orders for consideration. l am
satisfied that the bill received the
same consideration that all other
labor bills have received in the con-
trolled house. In other words NONE.
The bill went the same route as that
of House Bill % (wage and hour
BILLY. l had been reliably informed
prior to going into session, that the
bill was on the MUST BE KILLED
list of the corporations and the Or
ders had been given out and also
who was to make the motion. l
stated this in my remarks which
prefaced my explanation 0 fthe bill.
I explained that in spite of the fact
that the bill was slated to die, that
| thought it to be of sufficient i'm
portance to be explained in detail.
That | was not ashamed of this bill
or of similar bills which l had at
various times introduced in this and
other sessions. I also called to the
attention of the members that labor
had at all times supported the fair
trades acts of the SMALL BUSI-
NESS MAN and the FARMERS, and
all other groups which needed as
sistance and that now LABOR re-
quested them to support labor's fair
trade act.
l was ably supported in my argu-
ments by members of the Silver Bow
delegation, Brown and Sullivan;
Moss of Custer, Long of Fallon, Muir
ray of Deer Lodge, McLain of Mis-
soula, and DeDobbeleer. Moss and
Murray both made outstanding talks
dealing with the rights of labor to
organize and bargain collectively
and showing how the enactment of
this act would assist in keeping in
dustrial peace. DeDobbeleer, a
farmer, also spoke on these phases
of the bill, citing his experiences as
a coal miner before he became a
farmer.
In spite of these arguments,
Stromnes, a Great Falls attorney,
who was elected by labor in Cascade
county, moved to strike the enacting
clause. He evaded the real purpose
of the bill by hiding behind a state
ment that he did not believe that
the State Federation of Labor was
behind the act. In other words he
declared that the representatives of
labor were opposed to collective bar
gaining. He was supported by an
other Great Falls attorney, Stafford,
who expressed his opinion that this
bill and the wage and hour bill were
alike and therefore this one should
also be killed. It is amazing that
such an assertion should come from
one of the legal profession. If he
had taken the trouble to read the
bill, he would have found that they
dealt with two different subjects.
1t was apparent to all listeners that
the opposition were not interested
in the merits or dement's of the bill,
they were merely blindly following
out the orders of their masters and
forgetting the wishes of the masses
who elected them. Another attor-
ney, Holiness from Yellowstone coun-
ty, minority floor leader, also sup
ported the motion to kill. He made
reference to the organization of the
workers in the sugar factory of Bill
lings and pointed out the strife
which had attended the attempts to
organize the workers. He complete
ly lost sight of the fact that had there
been such a bill as the one under
consideration on the statute books
at the time, that this trouble could
have been avoided.
At no time was there presented
any valid argument against the bill.
The appearance of Holiness in oppo-
sition to the bill was to line up the
solid Republican side against the
measure. Stromnes was the well
wether of the r~eactionary Demo-
Gratis.
The motion to strike the enacting
clause prevailed in the committee
Continued on Page d