Labor Organizations And Republican Law

While the republican stump speakers are professing such a disinterested and philanthropic interest for the laboring man, while the president himself, is telling the people that the party the represents is the friends of labor, it might be well in order to get at the bottom of the matter to take a glance at the Congressional Record for June 2, 1900, when the Littlefield Anti-Trust bill:

"Nothing in this act shall be so constituted as to apply to trade unions or other labor organizations, organized for the purpose of regulating wages hours of labor, or other conditions under which labor is to be performed."

A yea nd nay vote was taken on the amendment at the request of Hon. James Richardson, the democratic leader in the house, who voted for the amendment. On the other hand the nay vote shows that the Hon. Charles E. Littlefield, who framed the anti-trust bill, voted against the amendment. His bill was so framed as to include the labor organizations in the list of "unlawful combinations." Representative Cannon, of Illinois, voted against the amendment too, as did Congressman Aldrich, Allen, of Maine; Bailey, of Kansas; Calderhead, Hitt, of Illinois, and Long, of Kansas, all republican leaders of more or less prominence. When republican leaders will vote to make labor organizations unlawful does it look as if the republican party is the friends of labor?