In spite of the fact that the opening week of Congress saw the
introduction of the Kern compensation bill for employes of the federal
government suffering injuries or occupational diseases, the La
Follette-Peters eight-hour bill for women in the District of Columbia, a
bill prohibiting the shipment of goods manufactured in plants where
women are employed more than eight hours a day, a minimum wage bill
presented by Senator Chilton of West Virginia, and several other
measures which fall under the head of social legislation, the impression
seems to prevail that Congress will devote its chief energies to the
consideration of the banking and revenue statutes. In his personally
delivered message to Congress President Wilson said:
“It is best, indeed, it is necessary, to begin with the tariff. I will
urge nothing upon you now at the opening of your session which can
obscure that first object or divert our energies from that clearly
defined duty. At a later time I may take the liberty of calling your
attention to reforms which should press close upon the heels of the
tariff changes, if not accompany them, of which the chief is the
reform of our banking and currency laws; but just now I refrain.”
From these sentences, as well as from remarks made by the President to
callers, it is inferred that the possibility of taking up anything like
the program submitted to Mr. Wilson by the forty-five men and women
interested in social legislation is remote indeed. Those familiar with
the legislative processes of Congress point out, however, that after the
tariff bill or bills leave the House and while they are being debated in
the Senate, there may be an opportunity for the discussion of other
matters.
It is of interest to note that the House leaders decided to defer the
appointment of the majority of the standing committees till the tariff
bills shall be out of the way. Only the Committee on Ways and Means, the
Committee on Rules, the Committee on Accounts and the Committee on
Mileage were selected early in the session.
The Senate, however, fixed the membership of its standing committees
some time before the extra session began. With the change in political
control, there has been, of course, a thorough overhauling not only in
chairmanship but also in memberships. Today the two committees in the
upper chamber which will have much to do with social legislation, that
on the District of Columbia and that on Education and Labor, are as
follows:
Committee on District of Columbia: Messrs. Smith of Maryland
(chairman), Pomerene of Ohio, Smith of Arizona, Kern of Indiana,
Hollis of New Hampshire, James of Kentucky, Saulsbury of Delaware,
Martin of Virginia, Dillingham of Vermont, Jones of Washington, Works
of California, Kenyon of Iowa, Fall of New Mexico and Lippitt of Rhode
Island.
Committee on Education and Labor: Messrs. Smith of Georgia (chairman),
Shively of Indiana, Swanson of Virginia, Martine of New Jersey,
Johnson of Maine, Shields of Tennessee, Borah of Idaho, Penrose of
Pennsylvania, Page of Vermont, McLean of Connecticut and Kenyon of
Iowa.
Among the bills relating to the regulation of labor that have been
introduced into Congress at the present session is that by Senator John
Sharp Williams of Mississippi, aiming to safeguard the children of the
District of Columbia from employments that are dangerous or that are
conducted under unsanitary conditions. The measure provides that
children under sixteen years of age shall not work in factories, on
railroads or on boats. The bill divides occupations into classes, and
puts children into groups from the age of twelve to twenty-one,
enumerating the prohibited occupations, but permitting exceptions under
certain conditions. Discretion is vested in the District health officer
to pass upon other employment for children not already forbidden by the
proposed law.
The convict-made goods bill, substantially in its original form, has
been introduced into the Senate by Senator Thomas of Colorado. This
measure, it will be remembered, passed the House at the last session,
but was not reported out of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. As
Senator Thomas pointed out in a statement, “I propose that prison
products shall be divested of their interstate character, leaving them
subject everywhere to the laws of the states. Many states have
prohibited the sale of such goods. The principle of my measure is the
same as that employed in the Webb-Kenyon liquor law.”
While the principle involved in the Thomas bill is now on the federal
statute books, thus affording a valuable precedent for additional
legislation, it is not generally believed that the Senate will take up
this measure at least till later on in the session. The new Senate
Committee on the Judiciary is as follows:
Culberson of Illinois (chairman); Overman of North Carolina, Chilton
of West Virginia, O’Gorman of New York, Fletcher of Florida, Reed of
Missouri, Ashurst of Arizona, Shields of Tennessee, Walsh of Montana,
Bacon of Virginia, Clark of Wyoming, Nelson of Minnesota, Dillingham
of Vermont, Sutherland of Utah, Brandegee of Connecticut, Borah of
Idaho, Cummins of Iowa and Root of New York.
Senator Kenyon of Iowa has introduced a bill making it obligatory that
all railway employes shall have twenty-four hours consecutively off duty
in every period of 168 hours. It is stated that the belief that the
existing law, intended to protect railway employes and limit their hours
of labor, is being violated because of the impracticability of its
strict enforcement prompted Senator Kenyon to draw up this bill.