Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1916 — EIGHT-HOUR ACT HELPS BUSINESS [ARTICLE]

EIGHT-HOUR ACT HELPS BUSINESS

Senator La Follette Declares Law Saved Nation. DEFENDS THE ADAMSON ACT Only Republican Senator to Support Measure Says Hughes Is Wrong in His Statements. Madison, Wisconsin, September 2 5.- —Declaring that the eight-hour law for railway trainmen has been much misrepresented, and’ that it saved the business men and the farmer from disaster, Senator Robert M. LaFollette of Wisconsin, the only Republican senator to vote for the law, is out today in a signed editorial in the September number of his magazine defending thb passage of the law. He indorses the sentiments expressed by President Wilson before the business men at Shadow Lawn on Saturday. Senator LaFollette denies that the eight-hour law was a “force bill,” as Charles E. Hughes contends. He says that the railroad employes made their demands of the railroads and not upon congress, and it was only when a strike became probable that the President and congress stepped in and averted the disaster. The Wisconsin senator charges that millions of dollars were expended by the railroads during the pendency of their negotiations with the trainmen in an effort to influence public sentiment against the demands of the trainmen for an eight-hour day. “These millions- did not come from the profits of the railroad managers ot the railroad owners,” said Senator LaFollette. “They came from the funds of the treasuries of the railroads. This campaign was conducted with money that really belonged to the people. “The shippers and passengers were made in the last analysis to finance a publicity canrpaign to influence their own judgment upon one side of this great question.” The senator says that the trainmen had no suc'h resources for a publicity campaign to shape public opinion in their favor, nor did they have the additional advantage of placing flamboyant placards upon the walls of waiting-rooms at railway stations to influence their case with the traveling public. Senator LaFollette says that when he secured the sixteen-hour limitation for railroad employes he was met by the same argument that is now being made against the eight-hour day. “The railroads and some other large employers are slow to learn,” said the senator, “but abundant experience has shown that for the trades, professions and crafts where skilled courage, caution and close attention are required the eighthour day is the maximum for efficiency.”