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The Commoner.
VOLUME 13, NUMBER 23
Secretary RedfielcTs Warning
If producers or manufacturers
hore and thoro should rcduco the
wages of their employes for tho
loudly proclaimed reasons that the
now tariff had forced the reduction,
thus unquestionably attacking the
fiscal policy of the administration
of tho day, the right of the adminis
tration in mere political self-defense
to utllizo existing law by sending its
agents into an industry to investi
gate tho conditions under which it
was conducted could not reasonably
bo denied. That it is tho settled
purposo of tho Wilson administration
to moot attacks of that character by
government investigations can no
longer be in doubt. Mr. Underwood,
In closing tho tariff debate in the
house, spoke In no uncertain words:
"When great manufacturing in
stitutions aro ready to threaten
their laborers with a reduction of
wages because they say there has
boon adverse- action and legislation
In congress, or to reflect on tho ac
tion of the government of tho
United States, that bureau has the
power to walk into tholr offices and
ascortain whether there is real
reason for tholr cutting tho rates of
wages of their labor or whether it is
merely a selfish attempt to put money
into their own pockets."
Tho bureau Mr. Underwood re
ferred to was that of foreign and
domestic commerce in the depart
ment of commerce. Its powers of
investigation along the lines indi
cated are inherited from the old bu
reau of labor, originally authorized
by congress in 1888. The legisla
tive, executive and 'judicial approp
riation bill last August transferred
these powers to the newly created
bureau of foreign and domestic com
merce, which was a consolidation of
the old bureau of manufactures and
bureau of statistics. It is of in
terest now to note the extent of the
power of Investigation into a manu
facturing industry authorized by the
act of 1888, for hitherto it has been-
a power almost never utilized. The
act charged tho bureau:
"to ascertain, at as early a date as
possible, and whenever industrial
changes shall make it essential, the
cost of producing articles at the time
dutiable in the United States, in
leading countries where such ar
ticles are produced, by fully specified
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Addret. THE COMMONER, Lincoln, Nebraska
units of production, and under a
classification showing the different
elements of cost, or approximate
costs, of such articles of production,
including the wage3 paid in such in
dustries a' day, a week, month, or
year, or by the piece; and hours em
ployed a day; and the profits of
manufactures and producers of such
articles; and the comparative cost
of living, and kind of living; what
articles are controlled by trusts or
other combinations of capital, busi
ness operations, or labor, and what
effect said trusts or other combina
tions of capital, business operations,
or labor have on production and
prices."
The pottery industry is the first
one that Secretary Redfield has de
termined to investigate with refer
ence to the assertions of manufac
turers concerning the tariff and
wages. His blunt speech before the
national association of employing
lithographers in Washington showed
that the lithographers may be in
vestigated next in order, if they
should carry into effect the threat
contained in their circular that the
new tariff "means workmen thrown
out of jobs. It means that wages
must go down." Undoubtedly, too,
the department of labor could co
operate in investigating labor condi
tions, especially in case of strikes.
The old federal bureau of labor in
vestigated the Lawrence strike a year
ago, and that was caused by a reduc
tion of wages following the enact
ment of a state law, not a federal
law.
Federal investigations, indeed,
could be amply justified on various
grounds. If certain manufacturers
should use their power as employers
to cut down wages or sliut down
plants in retaliation upon the federal
government for adopting a new fiscal
policy, the government certainly
would retain the moral right of poli
tical defense. It would be justified
in such cases in having it demon
strated that the real cause of the
wage reduction or the shut-down
was the cause publicly assigned. If
the department of commerce could
show that the business had been run
inefficiently, or was diadvantageous
ly located to compete, such facts
could be brought out with fairness
to all concerned.
During the recent strike at the
Auburn (N. Y.) plant of the Inter
national Harvester company, the
officials voluntarily explained their
action in ordering the plant's removal
to Germany as due to the fact that
strike or no strike, Auburn was an
unprofitable place in which to make
twine. Many old factories now
owned by trusts are kept going for
local or sentimental reasons, like the
Auburn plant of the harvester com
pany. Some of them, under the new
tanff may be shut down. Is the ad
ministration to amiA ..t- .
ww iviuuui quiescent
under charges for political effect
that the changes in the tariff forced
the shut-downs when, as a matter of
fact, the plants had been run at a
loss or without profit for years? It
would be a- weakling, if it did. The
country is full of trusts which have
scattered about these badly-located
or worn-out plants, extravagantly ab
sorbed during the combination pro
cess.; The facts concerning them
S2Une pfublisled. in wo attempS
are made to make political capital
neW0tariffe.ir abandonmet uncfir thi
On the other hand, if a plant ia
genuinely crippled or put out of
business b.y lower duties, the fac?
ma W?i! atudied thoroughly in
order that the administration and
congress may be fully and truth
fully advised of the condiHh
Manufacturers in sucl cases ahoum
court investigation. If they had no?
sought t0 use V'0aay adnot
troubles as a political- weapon if
they had not threatened curtailment
of production or reductions in ,
in order to injure the pa?ty In n?ea
thus mixing politics W?S busing
their own accord, they could coin
on fair treatment doubtless from ul
present administration. smSiS?
Redfield is no academic theorist h
is a business man himself oMon!
experience and he must be fully Z
posed to give every industry a sou
deal.-Springfleld (Mass.) Rebuff
can. l l
CHRISTIANITY'S NEW TRIUMPH
It is not unlikely that the annalists
of the Christian religion will in some
distant time point back to the days
in which we now live as marking one
of the great cycles of history. For
within a fortnight there have oc
curred events which may well be tho
beginning of the vastest spiritual
conquest the world has seen since
Clovis the Frank in the heat of un
certain battle promised to worship
the God of Chlothilde if vietnrv
should rest with his army.
Pepin routed his enemies. Next
day with a thousand of his warriors
he was baptized. So it was decreed
that Germany and France and all
western Europe should shape their
ideals on the model of Latin Chris
tianity. Adown the history of the church
stand such milestones. It does not
require a' very far flight of the imagi
nation to see the fate of Christianity
wavering in the balance when Con
stantino the Great had his vision of
the fiery cross. Whether we believe
that to be miracle or only a fervent
legend, we can not but feel that it
was in that sign that he conquered.
The religion of Mithra at that
time was contesting foot by foot with
the religion of Christ amid the mori
bund paganism of east and west.
Mithra, too, taught brotherhood and
justice. Had the Roman emperor
made Mithraism the state religion of
the empire, devout Americans today
might play with their eyes toward a
Persian village, instead of with their
hearts toward Nazareth and Calvary.
And as Constantine called Chris
tianity up from the caves and the
catacombs ami put it on the throne
beside the Bosphorus, so Pepin made
it the religion of Germanic civiliza
tion. The landing of Patrick in Ire
land and the sale of the golden
haired slaves in Rome that attracted
the attention of the first Gregory are
two other milestones that mark the
progress of the new religion over the
face of the earth.
It is not improbable that Sunday,
April 27, 1913, may take its place
in Christian chronology beside the
dates' of those other epoch-marking
events. For on, last Sunday there
was given to the Christian religion
an official recognition scarcely less
freighted with vast possibilities than
was the official proclamation which
made the teachings of Christ the
state religion of the empire of Con
stantine. Indeed, the Roman world of that
day was but a fringe of civilization
on the edge of an immeasurable bar
barism. Counted by its millions, it
was a puny thing as compared to
teeming China of today, with its civi
lization which was old when Rome
was founded. It was in China that
the epoch-making recognition of
Christianity was made on Sunday
last.
On that date, in accordance with
the request of the government of the
new Chinese republic, prayers were
offered for China in every Christian
church and chapel in that country.
And in the spirit of brotherhood
thousands of Christian churches in
this country joined in the appeal to
a higher power to guide the new
republic through the dangers that
beset It. j.
It is scarcely a decade & vie
world was aghast at theuelties
practiced on Christian martyrs in
.tALisrj
