THE SURVEY, Volume 30, Number 6, May 10, 1913

THE COMMON WELFARE

SOCIAL LEGISLATION AT THE PRESENT SESSION OF CONGRESS

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: