The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

March 3 | --1 M nftair Empioyer 7 $ u9 ets Wage Leve | mss« + ' I May Be Allowed Three Years CrO" l e"S House \ _ to Establish Claim for " $ . f Silicosis Injury | naniennw_ Industry Cannot Be Trusted REFEREE PROVIDED Not to Exploit Workers, A bill to arsend the Workmen's Declares Minister as Mini-- -- f Compensation Act, to extend from & * two years to three the time in mum Wage B'" Ge*s Sec- which a workman may establish a ond Reading claim for silicosis injury, was in-- hn ecmemen cmd rmnddichiion cce . troduced in the Legislature yester-- day by Attorney--General Roebuck. DEPARTMENT CHANGES _ _ After some experimenting with | the three--year period, the Work-- t t t 'men's Compensation Board may Industry cannot be trusted not i recommend still greater extensions to exploit its workers, Hon. David : of time, the Attorney--General said. A. Croll, Minister of Labor and Another amendment to the act Public Welfare, yesterday told the | provided that the noard be em-- Legislature as second reading was l powered to take a given case before given his bill to establish mini-- | a qualified medical practitioner be-- mum wages for men in Ontario. | fore a court, or, in other words, to The wages of working men were| place a case before a medical ref-- not established by the average om-} Se"es: Brutal QOpinions. eree ployer who was a fair and humane| You will hear plenty of contrary Three bills were introduced by man, anxious to look after the wel--| argument. You will l}ear it said Hon. David A. Croll. One would fare of his employees, but were es--| Jhat industry and business should establish -- permissive _ legislation tablished by a small minority of| . be allowed to go ahead without in-- which would give Ontario 'munivi- men without a conscience who | terference; you will hear that wages palities the right to set up pension drove wages to subsistence levels,| will find their own natural level. schemes for its emplovees. It is the he declared, thus .f'"'"'"_&' Fh" fair Mr. Speaker, such brutal opinions first legislation of its kind in the @mployer to cut his cost sheet oOr' demand a bruta' reply. The man| FProvince go out of business. who expresses them either has his Another bill would amend the Would Preserve Peace. tongue in his cheek or else he is Apprenticeship Act to improve "The bill before the House is a mired in ignorance. trade schools under the Depart-- _ vitally important one to the indus-- '"Why can't we approach this sub--| ment of Labor. Mr. Croll charged trial life of Ontario," continued Mr.: ject on the basis of fact and not ofI girls were paying $50 or $60 to learn Croll. "It is the foundation on prejudice? If we do so, we must| hairdressing, but at the end of their _ which we hope to erect what is ask this question: Can industry be| course were not sititably trained. virtually a new Department of trusted not to exploit its workers,| The other bill was entitled the Labor. With the other labor bills: not to underpay them, not to over--| Operating Engineers' Act, 1937, and t will inaugurate a plan which we: work them? | was virtually the same as the old believe will make for greater peace "That is a difficult question. The !art Somv ('h&l'\i{."\ v\ort made m in mdud»r:." and grpgnvr-sm;url'i.\' for average employer 'is a fair man, a take in new machinery and refrig-- some 600,000 Ontario working men humane one, anxious to pay his | eration plants and women." people decently, concerned for their FHI' a (;('\'('rnmen" to b'? "\act.l\"'.' '\-eltare. B'l' the average employer In the labor and industrial situ-- does not establish the wages of a he said, would be "the worst be--| termined by the operations of a trayal of the Province's interests." _ minority, men w;t}wub ('onSCIenr:eu;l "Mr. Speaker, we have no inten-- men who \?'lll drive _tl}e wage lewi tion of being guilty of such be.| Gown, down until. ;t i n enoer of trayal. The situation must be faced | better 'than the relie a'll ?we}me§ 1(; honestly and the solution courage.| the average--sized family. In teil~ f ously applied | idefense the decent majority has to "During a readjustment period,| drn'p 'hem"'c?lll'; ":gtr'l"d th;h:f"tpa:r; the greatest function of Government :_gr;ng:t': until they reduce tie Jabor * h 'h° m:;:;?r\':mon (;)f pelacct'th;um}; item of their cos.t-sheet.. Fjo; that aeoiiness o6 devent "mages "ald| |brefiee. resson T feol" Sustified in working conditions, the prevention saying that industry can't be eS S proitat 'in the last an. 24 not to exploit its workers. of P m}a n nuncdiartinn in n <iFf m Russell Nesbitt (Cons., Toronto-- alysis, through mediation in a strike. Bracondale) objected to the ap-- Let us be frank: It can preserve o * l beace only by seeing to it that men | 50." Thentiment 'af Lebgr elalt, io get their wages that enable them | ,, ; proposed'Labor and Industry to feed their families, clothe them. | poarq He charged the board would live in a decent house, and call in | jpus reflect "only its master's| the doctor when he's needed. It can / yojee." The Conservative was pep--| preserve peace only by interfering ;pered with barbed criticism from | in private industry because the mss |Mpr, Croll, Hon. Harry Nixon and | of the people who toil are exploited. ; Fred Avery (Lib., St. Catharines).| 64,000 Skilled Work | O4, 1lle orkers -- | Now Operate Under Codes Sixty--four thousand skilled work-- | _ 'There was no intention on the c men in Ontario are working under ! part of the U_overnment of alter-- i codes established by the authority | NE the act in any way, except | h es & s perhaps to strengthen it, he de-- | of the ln.duatrlal Standards Act, | clared, No industry operating -- Hon. David A. Croll, Minister of | under a code had ever had a strike, | Labor and Public Welfare, re-- but last week one thousand furni-- vealed in the Legislature yester-- ture workers struck because they -- day. In addition, he said, there | did not have a code. An agree-- | were 1271 new applications for i ment had been signed under the codes being considered by his de-- : act and the men had gone peace-- y partment. l ably back to work, he said.