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The Commoner.
5
FEBRUARY lt 1007,
k
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE
Charles D. Kelso, Alexandria, South Dakota,
writes: "In your issue of December 28, 1906,
you give a draft of the Beveridge Child Labor Law
and state your approval of same and think it
should receive support. I, myself, think it a vast
fmprovement of anything on the statute books
at present, and if it can not be bettered should
vigorously support it. I would like to offer some
suggestions. We are all aware that the one great
evil connected with the child labor question is,
that not only do the employers and their represen
tatives falsely give the child's age, but, also, do the
parents, as was shown in Mrs. Van Vorst's articles
in the Saturday Evening Post. I consider to
make it impossible to misrepresent the age is
the nost important point to accomplish. The
Beveridge bill accomplishes this the most nearly
of any bill known to me, but I believe we can
and should make it absolutely impossible to mis
represent the child's age. In the Beveridge bill
we have only the chance that we might happen
to discover -some violation of the provision. How
are we to prove an affidavit false if the parent
says the child is so old and the employer abets.
Further, the affiant may be innocent of any false
swearing. I do not think we should depend upon
the parents' word for the age, but provide a
record. These are my suggestions: Make it com
pulsory upon every physician attending at birth
to furnish a certificate of birth" showing the sex,
name, if known at the time, color, name of father
and mother and nationality", place of residence,
giving town (or city), street and number, county
and state, day, month and year of birth and occu
pation of father. Verify this certificate by an
oath and file it with some county officer in the
county where reside parent's of child. If there
be no physician, require this of the mid-wife, and
if none, of some person present of sufficient age
to understand the oath. If none of these persons
be present require this of the mother. The census
commissioner should be held responsible for secur
ing such certificate of every birth in his county.
This, record, so complete as to make it possible
to identify a child, becomes a part of the public
record for inspection by any one. The employer
should not bo allowed to employ any person, a
certificate of whose birth is on file, unless he re
ceive from the officer in whose custody this cer
tificate is placed a certified copy of said certificate
and place It on file in his office subject to the
inspection of any officer or person. Of course,
such a law will not have effect at once as it is
necessary that children who have been born since
its enactment grow to the age of employment. I
.hope, if any suggestion I have here made appeals
to The Commoner it will, through its pages, in
terest those who are at work to remedy one of
the blackest evils in our midst. I believe it to be
the absolute duty of every citizen in our land
to do what he or she can to stop the employment
of babies. If the money that is used to erect
mounments and library buildings was one-half
used to aid effective legislation along this line
we would soon feel its effects. I know there is
no paper before the reading public that will carry
more weight than The Commoner and for that
reason hope you will find it possible to agitate
such a provision as I herein suggest, providing
it accords with your ideas'
James W. Peelee, Summit, New Jersey: Vice
President Fairbanks stated in one of his speeches
which I read, that the government ownership of
railroads- would result in a fizzle, be unsatis
factory, and for the interest of the country they
would have to be sold back into private hands.
Also before he finished this speech he told his
audience what an awful menace Mr. Bryan was
to the present glorious conditions and how his
state and national ownership of railroads would
lead to socialism. Will the Commoner please
explain to me Mr. Fairbank's logic? If, as Mr.
Fairbanks says, the public ownership of railroads
will be a fizzle and prove to be against the in
terests of the people, why would this lead the
people, to take any thing else out of private
hands and, therefore, as he says, bring about
socialism? It looks to me as though the vice
president is short on logic, or is afraid the people
are going to hurt themselves, or, perhaps he has
fears they may really learn something which he
already knows which being interpreted is to say,
he believes the state and national ownership of
railroads might prove to be more satisfactory to
a. majority of the people than the present private
ownership, but would not be so satisfactory to the
few gentlemen who now control them and for
whom ho has a very warm place in his heart.
Have also noticed in the papers a number of
times what a terrible burden this buying of the
railroads would be. These writers who keep
telling us how well off we, as a people, are and
then, without even stopping to let the ink get dry
or even suggesting that they are joking, try to
impress us with the fact that it would bo a burden
for eighty million of people to own the railroads
though every one with ordinary intelligence
knows a few hundred thousand of this great eighty
million now own the railroads and so far as wo
can N see it does not appear to bo much of a
burden, either. They say it would weigh down
eighty million of people so flat financially to ac
quire, what a few hundred thousand now own
that we never would rise again. If that Is a fact,
then the conditions under which our wealth la
distributed can't be so glorious as Mr. Fairbanks
would have us think. It may be there are Some who
through special privileges are getting more than
their share, perhaps the public ownership of rail
roads would help end this special privilege and
perhaps Mr. Fairbanks Is afraid it would. Now
this may be, after all, what is troubling Mr. Fair
banks. Who knows? Let us hammer away at all
this nonsense about the danger of the people
getting hurt. Mr. Bryan, or any other man who
may be elected president, can not take over the
railroads only by the mandate of a majority of
the people, then it must be, of necessity, a gradual
process from private to public ownership and the
people can be trusted to know when they have
enough. Also let the country know, In season
and out of season, that there is not much chance
of a railroad being taken over by the government
of any state or by the national government which
is following these rules and honestly living up
to them, namely: Passenger and freight rates
based on dividends (annual) not to exceed five
per cent on the actual cash value of road, rolling
stock, building, etc. (less value iow under the
heading of franchises, as for the most part, they
belong to the people anyway). An economical
management regarding salaries of officials, etc.,
an eight-hour day as far as possible for employes,
at standard wages, a due regard for the comfort
and safety of passengers, no rebates of any kind
given (either direct or indirect), no discrimination
against any place, person, on concern, no free
passes, uniform charges to all. Absolutely nothing
but railroad business; no Interference in either
town, county, state, or national politics. Any road
following the above rules will not be compelled
to sell unless needed to complete a system which
would-be to the public advantage to own. But
don't let us .worry about that, for I guess any
road on the above basis would just as soon sell
out to the people, for the owners would be such
true blue Americans that they would gladly do
that which was for the good of all.
Charles H. MathewsWill you kindly print
the following prophetic lines and please one of
your subscribers, who has just passed his eighty
seventh mile-stone, but hopes to linger long enough
to vote for a democratic president in 1908:
The Warning
More than fifty years ago the great poet Henry
W. Longfellow wrote tho following suggestive
lines:
"Beware! The Israelite of old, who tore
Tho lion in his path, when poor and blind,
Ho'saw the blessed light of heaven no more,
Shorn of his noble strength and forced to
grind
In prison, and at last led forth to be
A pander to Philistine revelry.
"Upon the pillars of tho temple laid
His desperato hands, and In Its overthrow
Destroyed himself, and with him those who made
A cruel mockery of his sightless woo;
Tho poor, blind Slave, tho scoff and jest of all,
Expired, and thousands perished In the fall!
"There is a poor, blind Samson In this land,
Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of
steel,
Who may in some grim revel, raise his hand
And shako the pillars of this commonweal,
Till tho vast temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies!"
Henry B. King, Augusta, Georgia I have just
seen in Current Topics of your issue of the 11th
the question propounded by Theodore Harris:
"What article is that In common daily use by all
men, and women, which, if all tho other conven
iences we have to account among the necessities
of life had" to bo given up, we would by common
consent retain?" If Mr. Harris had stopped there,
tho answer to his question would, to my mind,
be simple and it was by confining my attention
to tho quoted question that I last night arrivad at
the conclusion that the answer was "bed." This
morning, however, looking over the article again,
I find Mr. Harris explanations hardly fit my
hypothesis; for beds were certainly "invented"
loiore than one hundred and twenty-five years ago.
Anyhow, my answer seems to meet all tho other
conditions, and as it was acquired at some little
expenditure of gray matter, I venture to send it
to you.
THE AUTO TRUST
William Looser, Greenville, Pa. Your edi
torial entitled "The Asset Currency Scheme
Watch It" is a good one and should receive broad
cast circulation. If there ever was Vi time that the
people should be put on their guard against the
forces that have for the past forty odd years, and
are right now, laughing down the contention of
Lincoln that we 'can legislate in favor of the
moneyed interests without undermining the
foundation of our government, it is right now.
The harvest of corruption; the evidence of the
nation's fall in manhood, making Itself manifest
in a thousand and one ways, is the natural fruit
of our having for the past forty odd years given
the national bankers everything that they asked
for. To them we surrendered the franchise right
to issue and furnish the nation's need for new and
more circulation. The new scheme is simply one
asking for a widening of the franchise right that
they have for these long years enjoyed. If they
succeed and are allowed to go right on as they
have been, an "era of corruption," as Lincoln
termed it, will follow in this land of ours that will
put the present one in the shade. Every reader
of The- Commoner should see to it that ..this,
scheme is brought to the attention of the public
through some source, either through their local
paper or distribution of sample copies of The
Commoner.
A Marion, Ohio, reader sends to The Com
moner' a copy of the Ohio State Journal, contain
ing an article showing what the automobile trust
did for a projected new industry at Columbus,
Ohio. The article follows:
"Some Columbus men who have put quite a
lot of money in developing a new automobile en
gine, intending to put a new automobile on tho
market, have run foul of the automobile trust,
and indications are that the factory will;not bo
built. Practically every manufacturer of automo
biles In the country is a member of the Automo
bile Manufacturers' association and for this mem
bership and the license to do business under the
auspices of the association pays to the association
one per cent of his gross sales. For this payment
he receives a number of advantages, not the least
of which is participation in an iron clad agree
ment that no manufacturer will supply automo
biles to any dealer who acts as agent for unli
censed machines. This puts the automobile trade
of the country in the hands of seventy-six manu
facturers composing the association. Any agent
of the association can not be directly or indi
rectly interested in the manufacture or sale of an
unlicensed machine or he will lose the agency
for the licensed machines. When tho association
learned that Columbus men were to engage in tho
manufacture of automobiles a representative of
the asociatlon was sent to them. As they are
Interested in a garage which has the agency for
a number of machines, they were told that all of
these would, be taken away from them if they
put a new machine on the market. 'But we will
take out a license when we have perfected our
engine and are ready to place it on the market,'
they said. 'No, you won't,' answered the agent of
the association. 'We have decided that there are
enough manufacturers of automobiles in this coun
try and. no more licenses will be issued.' The
local men could do nothing and have decided that
they don't want to engage In the making of auto
mobiles, especially as the hostility of the associa
tion vould prevent them from placing their ma
chine on the market except at a ruinous cost for
special agents in every city, as none of the agents
now in the business would handle an unlicensed
machine."
The day after the New York Herald showed
that" a big navy was a good thing because it
enabled us to promptly succor Jamaica, the Amer
ican naval squadron sent to Jamaica sailed away
from that place on request of the governor. The
Herald will now have to hunt up another one.
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