Labor Legislation.
The relations of labor and capital come in for considerable discussion, and the cause of labor is well sustained. The President advocates a rigid enforcement of the eight-hour law, where practicable, a conservative use of injunctions, and an investigation of the conditions of the labor of children and women.
Senator Beveridge is already primed with a bill which will reach the child labor question, through the elastic Interstate Commerce Commission, by prohibiting the interstate transportation of commodities on which child labor has been employed.
The President favors the enlargement of the Employers’ Liability bill, passed at the last session of Congress, so as to place the “entire risk of the trade” upon the employer, and he favors federal investigation of controversies between labor and capital.
He advocates an enlargement of the meat inspection bill, so as to provide for placing the date of inspection on the label and throwing the cost of inspection on the packers.
He urges the more complete control of corporations in general, “by a national license law, or in other fashion,” which is one of the utterances anticipated with the keenest interest.
Washington Post
TEDDY’S ONLY TARIFF REFORM.
He comes out for an inheritance tax, an income tax, and mildly urges a ship subsidy and currency reform.
A bill providing for free trade with the Philippines passed the House in the last session, but it met its death in the Senate at the hands of members who feared that it would seriously affect the beet sugar industry. The President again recommends the adoption of this measure, or at least a reduction in the Philippine tariff; and, as one result of his visit to Porto Rico, he asks that the inhabitants be granted United States citizenship. A special message on this subject, it is said, will go to Congress later.