The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1944-08-11
A Duty Of Churchmen to Democracy

| proper medical treatment and hospi-
| talization for all classes. If enacted
it would silence the perennial COM
plant of doctors about bad bills for
good work done. A dear friend Of my
youth died of lockjaw because there
was no anti-toxin for it nearer than
Salt Lake City. Many a poor child
has died of diphtheria for lack of anti
toxin in rural districts. These mis-
fortunes cannot happen when the
Murray bill becomes law.
The third demand of the Bishops
is sixteen year minimum age limit
for working children. We have that
in Montana. 1t is not always obeyed
There may be some excuse for not
enforcing that better during the war.
There will be no reason for not doing
so when hordes of our workers will,
on rehabilitation, cry in vain for en-
ployment by private industry.
To lawyers, who have practiced in
years gone by, when the supreme
court of the United States classed Ia
Dor unions as illegal combination,
with no standing in court at all, who
have seen the courts imprison men
for contempt for joining in strikes
against unfair labor conditions, it is
a pleasure to hear the Bishops clearly
speak for the legal enforcement of
the right of labor to organize.
The National War Labor Board is
the only tribunal ever created in the
United States that had power to han
die disputes between employees and
employers It is not always right, but
it beats having no court at all. The
Boshops wisely wish this continued
after the war. A national employ
ment bureau is another wise demand.
Surely all will agree with the Bishops
for government building and low re-
placement rentals, of better housing
for the workers.
In the eighth demand the Bishops
enter~on the side of workers a bitter
fight that will begin the day the war
ends. They are for no general reduc-
ton of wartime wages, and a long
distance program for raising all
wages, not only for the direct bene-
fits of labor, but also for wider dis
tribution of purchasing power, which
they rightfully claim will lead to pros
perity.
The rich folks of America, the sixty
families, are not talking much about
it, but they have been trying for some
time to get the various state legis-
10 furoc 70 cnaoL thro1oI without onu
noise, constitutional amendment for
bidding the federal government from
taking more than 25 per cent. of their
incomes. Over twenty state legisla-
lures have voted to thus shift the
payment of the war debt from the
rich to the poor. This plan may come
this winter before our own legisla
ture of corporation spinning tops. But !
the Bishops say Prevent excessive !
profits and great incomes by regulat- |
ing rates of public utilities, and place
taxes on inheritances, in
comes and excess profits"
The Bishops seem to have watched |
the Tennessee Valley Authority. Some
Montana newspapers are much OPP
posed to similar Missouri Valley |
Authority. That inspires all the |
hurrah about states rights and Mon |
tana water for Montana farmers. The |
private power interests from st. Louis |
to Great Falls are opposing an MVA,
but the Bishops seem to think a fed |
eral Missouri Valley Authority would |
be good venture. They are for eff