Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1920 — LABOR RAISES VOICE AGAINST MILITARY BILL [ARTICLE]

LABOR RAISES VOICE AGAINST MILITARY BILL

Washington, D. C., May 22.— American Federation of Labor liability clause of the senate army reorganization bill on the ground that it might permit conscription of labor in peace times, were based on a “misconception of the meaning and purpose of the language” of the bill. Chairman Wadsworth today inform ed President Gompers in answering the latter’s letter. “Needless to say,” Mr. Wadsworth said, “nothing of the sort is intended. The term ‘emergency’ was employed by the senate committee as descriptive of a state of war of the first magnitude constitutinga national emergency.” During a conference with house managers on the bill, the senator said, the senate representatives had suggested and would continue to urge, substitution of the words "state of war constituting a national emergency” for the language objected to. The clause of the bill in question provided; as it passed the senate, that in time Of “national emergency” declared by congress and proclaimed by the president, liability for military service rested upon men between 18 and 45 years of age and that under military regulation that service could include assignment to essential industries.