Editing Job

Arthur Hendrick Vandenberg was for 22 years editor of the Grand Rapids Herald before the people of Michigan elected him to the U. S. Senate. In politics his nose for news still serves him well. Fore. seeing an inevitable effort to amend the

Wagner Labor Relations Act, he last week stole a march on the New Deal by proposing three amendments: 1) to authorize employers as well as unions to demand labor elections; 2) to require that collective bargaining agreements be set down in writing and, in case a union fails to live up to a contract, to deprive it of its right of employe representation; 3) to establish a fair practice code for Labor just as there is now such a code for employers. Chief importance of these proposals was as a goad to the New Deal majority, but important for itself was another march stolen last week by Senator Vandenberg. He drafted a new child labor amendment to the Constitution and last week the Senate Judiciary Committee not only endorsed it unanimously, but told the Senate that there was every reason to believe it could be speedily ratified.

For four years the big champion of abolition of child labor has been Franklin Roosevelt. The Child Labor Amendment proposed in 1924, which in eight years prior to his election had been ratified by only six States, has now been ratified by 28. But with eight more ratifications required before it becomes part of the Constitution, its chance of joining other would-be amendments in limbo is steadily increasing.*

Senator Vandenberg, with his sly kewpie smile, explained why and how he drafted a new one: i) It seemed absurd, with the country at large in favor of abolishing child labor, that an amendment could not be written which "would say what we meant without saying what we didn't mean." 2) One of the President's chief arguments for the bill to enlarge the Supreme Court was that so simple a reform as the abolition of child labor could not be accomplished via a Constitutional amendment even in 13 years. Senator Vandenberg spent two months getting in touch with the opposition and finding out their objections to the 13-year-old proposal, which read: "The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate and prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age." Mr. Vandenberg finally edited this text to read: "The Congress shall have power to limit and prohibit the employment for hire of persons under 16 years of age."

In this there were just three changes. The word "regulate" was out because it was too elastic and people have feared it would be stretched, like the power to "regulate" commerce, until it meant anything a future administration might wish. Out also went the word "labor" which the Catholic Church had feared might be stretched to include jurisdiction over pupils in its parochial schools. "Employment for hire" was substituted because it would outlaw most of the worst forms of child labor without alarming farmers who expect their children to do chores on the farm. Finally Senator Vandenberg lowered the age limit two years to answer the objection of those who maintained that boys and girls of 16 and 17 were really not children. The Judiciary Committee approved all this and added a fourth change: a provision requiring the States to pass upon, the new proposal by convention within seven years, the same provision which got the Repeal amendment acted on within ten months.

Said Senator Vandenberg: "Now it's up to the Administration. I've done all I can do. If they want to do something about child labor, here's their chance."

*There have been four such would-be amendments, proposed at various times. The Supreme Court in 1921 ruled that they are no longer pending because they were not ratified "within some reasonable time after proposal." In 1789 two lengthy amendments, one concerning the apportionment of Representatives, the other concerning the compensation of Congressmen were unsuccessfully proposed. Since then there have been two others:

1810: "If any citizen of the U. S. shall accept, claim, receive or retain any title of nobility or honor or shall without the consent of Congress accept and retain any present, pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever from any emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease to be a citizen of the U. S. and shall be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit under them or either of them." (Ratified by twelve States.)

1861: "No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any State with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State." (Ratified by three States.)

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.