Salt Lake Telegram | 1903-02-25 | Page 4 | Where Labor Legislation is Killed

Where Labor Legislation Is ICHIed 1 The United States Senate has become a veritable , ! . ......... . graveyard for labor bills. Reference to the. record of the last two Congresses will ?stablish the soundness sound-ness of this statement. Th House has just passed the railroad- safety appliance bill The measure ia now np to the Senate. It will die in that body, for that has been the policy followed for years. In order to manufacture cheap political capital the party in power, wnetner ueraocrauo or iiepuoucan, pushes labor bills through the Jlouse us evidence of its friendliness to labor and tlwn the Senate kills the measures. This enables Congressmen to square themselves with their constituents at the expense of the Senators, who always seem willing to shoulder shoul-der the responsibility. If the election of Senators were by popular vote there would be a radical change in the mental attiti'leof the members of the "Millionaire's Legislative club." It would bring the selection of tluse statesmen nearer to the people. peo-ple. Great pressure has been brought by labor or-ganieations or-ganieations during the last few. weeks to secure action ac-tion by the Senate on the various labor jills, but there is no indication so far that it will bear fruit. The managers of the body iledded long ago that none of the labor bills should beconie a law, and the constant presence of the Statehood bill in the body enables xhe leaders to offer some excuse for nonaction. non-action. The so-called labor bills uow in the Senate are the unli-injunction bill, the eight-hour bilk the railroad appliance bill and the immigration bill. Over against the influence of the labor unions of the country that have sent great stacks of petitions in favor of these measures, is the opposition of the steamship companies and transcontinental railroad lines t.i tbe immigration bill, the opposition of the Navy department, the shipbuilding companies and the National Manufacturers' association to the eight-hour bill; the opposition of the railroads and several large manufacturers of air brake appliances to the railroad appliance bill, and the opposition of organized capital generally to the anti-injunction bill. The truth is that many large concerns have emulated the example of Rockefeller by writing and wiring Senators that none of these bills must pass. Unquestionably it would be a good thing were tbe people to take a closer rein on the Senators and make then: more directly responsible to their constituents. con-stituents. The election of Sutors by popular vote would be a great step in this direction.