NEWS WORTH REMEMBER
News Worth Remembering SENATOR LA FOLLETTE'S speech on the pending railroad bill was the event of the week in Con-grass. The administration has made it clear that support of this measure would be...
...Socialism or government ownership of the railroads was declared to be an inevitable outcome of sanction by the attorney general of violation of the law, and, said Mr...
...President Taft, in his Lincoln dinner speech at New York on February 12th attributes the present high prices mainly to the increase in the production of gold and the consequent enlargement of the volume of money...
...La Follette showed the danger of the pending rail bill, terming it "a charter for the monopolization and oppression of the commerce of this country...
...Wickersham in this case, Mr...
...La Follette "If the federal anti-trust law can be repealed by a state legislature, if the department of justice at Washington will hold conferences with and lend countenance to the agents of law-breaking corporations while they are engaged in lobbying through state legislatures a pretended sanction of their violation of the criminal statutes, a shield and cover under which the criminal corporations may go unwhipped of justice...
...Similar provision is made for other accidents, and in cases where the loss of hands or feet has not occurred, one-fourth wages during the first thirty days of disability will be paid, while if the disability continues beyond thirty days one half wages will be paid during the continuance thereof, but not for more than two years from the date of the accident...
...The company will ignore the legal defenses of "contributory negligence," "assumed risk," and the "fellow servant" doctrine, and will compensate injured employees according to a definite scale...
...Professor Sumner was a prominent free trader...
...But the New Haven Railroad, controlled by Morgan interests, succeeded in delaying adjudication and when President Taft was inaugurated he found the New Haven company holding the commerce of New England by the throat...
...Cook claims to have left, and found his maps worthless for their purposes...
...After showing what had been done in the past by Mr...
...Before the letter was made public many Democrats expressed the fear that Mr...
...The affair is intimately connected with Tennessee factional politics and caused the most intense excitement...
...He gave the history of the New Haven road and its acquirement of control of the Boston and Maine railroad and of electric and water transportation lines in New England whereby it secured a monopoly of practically the entire commerce of that section of the country, contrary to federal law and the laws of Massachusetts...
...He declared that "if the consolidation, combination and merger in the New Haven case was not a violation of the antitrust law—and the attorney general has in effect so decided—then we might well strike from this bill the provisions which profess to save the anti-trust law from repeal as to interstate railroads and openly confess the real purpose of this proposed legislation...
...Employees may increase the benefits to be paid during the first thirty days of disability to one-half the amount of regular wages by contributing to a benefit fund to be established...
...The defeat in the congressional elections of the Republican party, on its tariff and trust-breaking record, was held to be certain and rosy pictures of a sweeping triumph by the Democratic party in the next national election were drawn...
...After that, if total disability continues, a pension will be paid...
...The man responsible for the administration of the anti-trust law dropped the government's case against the road on the ground that the Massachusetts legislature, (besieged by a railroad lobby of the worst type) had legalized the merger of the state lines, "Instead of seeking some side door through which the defendant corporations in this merger suit might make escape, instead of searching for flaws and weaknesses in the government's case, I submit that a department of justice of this great government with an eye single to the protection of the public would have laid hold of the New Haven's seizure of steamship lines, amended the government's petition by proper allegations setting out the facts, and made the New Haven merger case for violation of the federal anti-trust law the strongest case ever presented in any court since that great statute was framed to protect trade and commerce against unlawful monopoly," said Mr...
...Bryan would attempt to revive the free silver doctrine, but their fears have apparently been set at rest since the banquet...
...Club women of Chicago are organizing a movement for the granting of Saturday half holidays to girls employed in stores...
...A letter from Mr...
...Attorney General Wickersham in his Chicago speech a few weeks ago commended this bill as "wise legislation embodying no sudden impulse, but matured views expressed in party council," and condemned those who for "selfish motives" opposed the measure...
...The curriculum of Chicago's elementary schools will hereafter contain no algebra or the more complex forms of arithmetic, in accordance with a decision reached by the superintendent of schools...
...La Follette...
...Employees earning $50 a month or less will contribute six cents a month, and so on up the scale, employees earning more than $100 a month contributing ten cents a month...
...Young...
...A pledge on the part of club members not to shop at all Saturday afternoons, and to do as little shopping as possible on Saturday mornings, has been suggested as a measure of relief for working girls...
...La Follette said that the Senate should know the real conditions to which the bill relates, before passing upon the sections of the bill "which clothe the attorney general with an exclusive control of cases in the commerce court and before it shall adopt certain sections of this bill which authorize consolidation and merger, subject to such construction as the attorney general places upon the federal anti-trust law...
...Before the reading of the Supreme Court's decision had been concluded in the case of the state against Colonel Cooper and his son Robin, Governor Patterson of Tennessee had granted a pardon to Colonel Cooper, who is a close friend...
...The system now in force almost everywhere —recourse to the law by the injured employee—has been unsatisfactory to both labor and capital...
...After a twelve-day campaign for funds, the Y. M. C. A. of Chicago succeeded in collecting slightly over $350,-000 as the final portion of a fund of a million dollars raised in the last two years for the development of its activities...
...News Notes The Jefferson Day Banquet held by the Democrats in Washington on April 13 produced a vast amount of optimistic speech on the part of the leading members of the party...
...Recently the Wisconsin legislature drafted tentative measures to be taken up at the next session for a system of compensation, and committees appointed by the legislatures of New York and Minnesota are at work on the same question...
...Figures prepared by statisticians of the Department of Agriculture show that the wealth produced on farms of the United States for last year was $8,760,-000,000, while in 1889 th2 production was valued at $2,460,000,000...
...The Fairbanks Mount McKinley expedition which reached the summit of that peak on April 3 discovered no trace of the records which Dr...
...Robin Cooper's case is remanded for retrial...
...On April 14 the International Harvester Company announced the adoption of a plan to go into effect May 1, which is said to be more far reaching and beneficial to employees than any now in practice, In every case of accident, with the exception of those caused by intoxication or willful disregard of safety appliances, and then only in the case of the one responsible, the company will assume liability...
...It isn't necessary to teach all the details of compromises, etc...
...Proceedings under the Sherman antitrust law were vigorously prosecuted throughout President Roosevelt's administration, said Senator La Follette...
...La Follette ported out that in view of the attitude of the Attorney General in the case against the Now Haven road it would not be assuming too much to say that if the pending bills, delegating to the Attorney General all power to bring action before the Court of Commerce, become law, he would enter into a stipulation with the New Haven road that the roads, proposed to be aoqiiir'.-d were not directly and substantially competing, that upon such stipulation judgment would be rendered by the court of commerce in accordance with the stipulation, thereby estopping the government forever from making any claim that such acquisitions were in violation of the Sherman anti-trust act...
...On the 15th it was announced that the United States Steel corporation had adopted a plan for financially relieving injured employees...
...La Follette devoted most of his speech to a history of the federal prosecution of the New Haven Railroad for violation of the anti-trust law...
...This would seem to settle the celebrated case of Peary vs...
...This bill, Mr...
...Cook...
...The administration has made it clear that support of this measure would be regarded as the test of Republicanism...
...The injured employee will lose no legal right to recover damages that he now has, but if he decides to accept the company's benefits, the acceptance will have the effect of releasing the company from further liability...
...The United States is practically the only civilized country in the world without a comprehensive system for the relief of those injured in industrial pursuits...
...Much of the detail of United States history also may be eliminated...
...Colonel Cooper was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment, but is saved from punishment by the pardon...
...of the period just before the civil war, the plans of battles, and the number of killed and wounded," said Mrs...
...La Follette...
...Contrary to expectations, the attorney general has not yet replied to the speech...
...The severe arraignment of Mr...
...To Compensate Injured Workmen The attention of the labor and industrial world of late has been turned to the subject of employers' liability for injuries received by their workmen...
...Senator Carmack, a prohibition leader, was killed by the Coopers on November 9, 1908, because of attacks made in his paper...
...This unexpected endorsement of our party's proposition in 1898, when we demanded more money as the only remedy for falling pricey is gratifying...
...President," he said, "is the boldest raid upon public right in the form of legislation upon this great subject that the system ever has succeeded in forcing: upon the serious consideration of Congress...
...Wickersham attracted wide attention and it was announced next day that the President and Mr...
...Wickersham were considering whether or not to begin proceedings against other violators of the Sherman anti-trust law in order to answer the charges made by Mr...
...Mr...
...In case of death three years' average wages, but not less than $1,500 or more than $4,000 will be paid...
...The death of Professor William G. Sumner of Yale, on April 12, marked the passing of one of the best known of modern political economists...
...The plan differs in many ways from that adopted by the International Harvester Co., providing for the payment of a higher compensation to married men, among other things, but the general plan is the same...
...for the loss of a hand or foot, one and one-half years' wages, but in no event less than $509 or more than $2,000, will be paid as compensation to the employee...
...Bryan (written from Brazil) was read, which said in part: "But there is another item of news which has just come to my attention...
...Mr...
...La Follette and other progressives will make other speeches on the rail bill...
...Germany, France, England have adopted plans, alike in many respects, by which injured work-ingmen, without going to court, are compensated for their injuries, regardless of what legal defenses employers may have...
...if the door of the federal court may thus be closed in the face of a wronged and outraged public by the attorney general of the United States, then the law becomes a black art and justice a mere juggler's pawn...
...But before any legislation has been enacted in this country of this kind, several great manufacturing concerns have voluntarily adopted a system for the compensation and relief of employees injured while working at their trade...
Vol. 2 • April 1910 • No. 16
