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The Commoner
OGTOBEE, 1916
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20
LaFollette Says 8
Farmers and
A Madison, Wis., dispatch, dated
Sept. 26, says: Declaring that the
eight-hour law for railway trainmen
lias been much misrepresented and
that it saved the business men and
the farmers from disaster, Senator
Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin,
the only republican senator to vote
for the law, is out today in a signed
editorial in the September number of
his magazine defending the passage
of the law. He endorses the senti
ments expressed by President Wilson
before the business men at Shadow
Lawn on Saturday. Senator LaFol
lette denies that the eight-hour law
was a force bill as Mr. Chas. E.
Hughes contends.
He says that the railroad employ
ees made their demands of the rail
roads and not upon congress and it
was only when a strike became prob
able that the President and congress
stepped in and avoided the disaster.
The Wisconsin senator charges that
millions of dollars were expended by
the railroads during the pendency of
their negotiations with the trainmen
in an effort to influence sentiment
against the demands of the trainmen
for an eight-hour day. ' ,,c- '" "' rn
"These millions did not come from
the profits of the railroad managers
or the railroad owners," said Senator
LaFollette. "They came from the
funds of the treasuries of the rail
roads. This campaign was conduct
ed with money that really belonged
to the people. The shippers and pas
sengers were made, in the last an
alysis, to finance a publicity cam
paign to influence their own judg
ment on one side of this great ques
tion." The senator says that the train
men had no such resources for a
publicity campaign to shape public
opinion in their favor nor did they
have the additional advantage of
placing flamboyant placards upon the
walls of waiting rooms at 'railway
stations to influence their case with
the traveling public,
"This eight-hour law has been
called a 'force bill,, enacted under
the demand of organized trainmen,"
continues Senator LaFollette. "This
is not true of the railroad employees.
They demanded an eight-hour day
from the railroads not from congress.
They made no demand whatever on
congress. They said if the railroads
did not grant an eight-hour day they
would quitwork. This was their
fight. They set a day to quit work
in case the railroad managers re
fused them the eight-hour day. Then
the railroads inaugurated a strike
against the public. They refused to
accept freight for shipment, especial
ly perishable goods in many, parts of
the country. This meant appalling
disaster to farmers, particularly to
iruit growers. It meant great dam
age to all business, even to the rail
roads themselves."
"The President sought to adjust
the trouble and avoid the disaster
about Id be thrust on the country,
we was not successful. The railway
managers were particularly obstinate
and refused to concede and refused
jo concede the principle of the eight
hour day.
"At this point the President put
uie matter up to congress for its
cons deration. Congress, disinter
estea although bound to consider
only the public good, was forced to
fnt i ?e public interest. It was not
orced to act because of any demand
upon congress by the workingmen
ur oy the railroads, but because the
-Houf lUw Saved
Business Men
public interest demanded immediate
action, and congress acted.
"It passed what is known as the
eight-hour law for men in the em
ployment of railroads in interstate
commercj engaced in moving trains.
Every Wisconsin representative pres
ent voted for the bill which became
a law and avoided the strike. I be
lieve they did right. I believe in the
eight-hour day.
"It is claimed that congress acted
without due consideration. Did it?
The question for the eight-hour day
for skilled employees was not new.
Every congressman who was alive to
the Issues of the day must have been
fairly familiar with the arguments
pro and con on the subject of the
eight hour day.
"The railroads and some other
large rmployers are slow to con
cede," said the senator, "but abun
dant experience has shown that for
the trades, professions and crafts,
where skill, courage, caution and
close attention are required, an
eight-hour day is the maximum for
efficiency. However, railroads gen
erally, use no 'principle of progress
that is not 'fdrced upon them by
legislation. '"The dawn of a better
day would never brighten the path
of workmen were it left to the rail
road managers. The railroad em
ployees have been patient and long
suffering. Theirs is a hazardous
business. Their labor is performed
under dangerous conditions."
KERN FLAYS HUGHES FOR HIS
ATTACK ON NEW 8-HOUR LAW
A Washington dispatch, dated
Sept. 11, says: Charles E Hughes'
attaqk on the new eight-hour law
was yesterday answered by Senator
John W. Kern of Indiana. Senator
Kern said:
"In attacking the eight-hour law
Hughes also attacks a majority of
the republicans of the house of rep
resentatives. Tho leading republican
members of the house, no doubt, will
be indignant at the vicious attack
made on them by their candidate for
the presidency. Hughes seemingly
has forgotten that seventy-two re
publican members of the house,
headed by Uncle Joe Cannon, Mon
dell and others of equal prominence
voted for the eight-hour law, while
only fifty-six republicans voted
against it.
"Hughes also seemingly forgets
that while under the rules of the
senate the republicans of that body
were able without difficulty to block
the passage of the corrupt practices
act and to prevent tho passage at the
last session of the ship purchase bill,
and while with the same ease they
could have blocked the passage of
the eight-hour law, ye there was not
the slightest effort in that direction.
Of course, they saw the great calam
ity that was threatening the country
and the emergency for immediate
action, and such partisanship as is
now manifested by Mr. Hughes was
overcome by their patriotism and
they permitted the law to pass with
out throwing a single obstacle in its
way."
SAYS HUGHES LET 8-HOUR BILL
PASS
From the Chicago Herald, Sept.
29.
' Senator Thomas J. Walsh, western
Wilson manager, in an address to
the Iroquois club last night declared
that Charles Evans Hughes could
have killed the Adamson eight-hour
bill. A telegram to. ropubliqan sen
ators, ho said, would havo applied
the chloroform.
Senator Walsh's speech was made
at a dinner in his honor at tho Hotel
La Salle. Tho Iroquois club was
host, and party leaders, great and
small, tucked their feet under tho
banquet tables.
"Let the heathen rage," said Mr.
Walsh. "Tho eight-hour day for rail
road train operatives is here. It
never will be repealed. Congress
must now address itself to tho task
of legislating so that tho conditions
never again will arise that made it
imperative to pass tho Adamson bill
with a speed inexcusable under any
other circumstances.
"It is vain to disclaim about the
Iniquity of legislation under coer
cion. Tho man who might havo ar
rested the passage or the act, had ho
but raised his voice,' remained silent.
"Had Candidate Hughes sent and
published a telegraphic message to
the republican members of tho sen
ate to stand firm, to take advantage
of the senate rules to prevent tho
passage of the Adamson bill, it
would not bo the law.
"Ho shrunk from that awful re
sponsibility, as well he might. He
had In mind tho economic waste in
volving not only tho railroads and
the men but every industry great and
Binall; tho farmer unable to havo his
grain transported to market; a nation-wide
paralysis, bitter strife and
probable bloodshed.
"What right has he now to de
nounce the bill or to denounce the
President for urging its passage?"
A. O. U. W. AGAINST PROHIBITION
REPEAL IN ARKANSAS
Tho grand lodge of the A. O. U.
W. of Arkansas endorses tho present
prohibitory laws of Arkansas and has
adopted resolutions against its re
peal as proposed in Act. No. 2 to bo
voted on at the November olections.
A copy of tho resolutions, which was
sent to every member of the order,
follows:
"Whereas, nine months trial has
proved tho beneficent effect ofth.
statewjdo prohibition law, and ef
fectually demonstrated that tho only
business it hurts is that of the sa
loon, which impoverishes and do
grades; it has had a tendency to va
cate our jails and county laruin, hub
increased tho earnings of legtlmato
business, has made labor more effi
cient and dependable, has brought
happiness and plenty to homes that
had been pauperized by tho saloon
and its attendant evils, and is lifting
our citizenship to a higher plane of
self-respect; and,
"Whereas, There Is now pending
before the people, to bo submitted at
the November election, Act No. 2,
which proposes to repeal not only the
state-wldo act, but all tho salutary
anti-liquor laws that havo been se
cured by persistent effort during tho
last 40 years, substituting therefor
a law, under tho spacious guise of
'local self-government that would
again deliver tho stato into tho hands
of the whiskey ring with all its per
nicious influences; therefore, bo it
"Resolved, That the Grand Lodge
of Arkansas, Ancient Order of United
Workmen, hereby condemn Act No.
2 as wholly vicious and unworthy
of support, as n deceitful device of
Satan to defeat the will of our best
citizens, and to debauch and debase
tho social fabric, as a step backward
in the march of progress; and In tho
name of the 0,200 members of tho
order and tho homes they; represent,
urge upon all the imperative neces
sity and their fraternal obligation to
vote and work for tho triumphant
defeat of Act No. 2."
A SHELL GAME
A gentleman who dined regularly
at a certain restaurant often ordered
a dozen clams. Ono day he counted
them and found but eleven. Still
another day tho dozen was one short.
He called tho waiter and asked him:
"Why do you give only eleven clams
when I order twelve?"
"Oh, sir," replied the waiter, "I
didn't think you'd want to be sitting
thirteen at table, sir." The Chris
tian Herald.
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