The Race Question.
One of those homilies to which reference has been made is the President’s discussion of lynching and the race question. No one will take issue with him on what he says on the subject—unless it be on the statement that two thirds of the lynchings are for crimes other than rape. He quotes Ex-Gov. Candler as saying that he had, within one month, saved a dozen innocent negroes from lynching. After still further discussion of the question, the President advocates the infliction of the death penalty for rape and urges that assault with intent to commit this crime be made a capital offense, “at least in the discretion of the court.”
All this is, of course, a matter with which the states alone can deal, except in the territories under the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government. On the general subject of lynching, The Brooklyn Eagle says that “the President is right in his preachment, but would be tempted to ignore it if he were in private life, and a citizen of a Southern state.”
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.
