s upon the bill were delayed so long that
action was prevented during the long session. In the short session of
1898-1899 the bill met the cruel fate of having its introducer, Senator
Kyle, submit a minority report against it. Under the circumstances no
vote upon the bill could be had in the Senate. In the next Congress,
1899-1901, the eight-hour bill once more passed the House of
Representatives only to be lost in the Senate by failure to come to a
vote. In 1902, the bill again unanimously passed the House, but was not
even reported upon by the Senate committee. In the hearings upon the
eight-hour bill in that year the opposition of the National
Manufacturers' Association was first manifested. In 1904 the House Labor
Committee sidetracked a similar bill by recommending that the Department
of Commerce and Labor should investigate its merits. Secretary Metcalf,
however, declared that the questions submitted to his Department with
reference to the eight-hour bill were "well-nigh unintelligible." In
1906 the House Labor Committee, at a very late stage in the session,
reported "favorably" upon the eight-hour bill. At the same time it
eliminated all chances of passage of the bill through the failure of a
majority of the members of the committee to sign the "favorable" report
made. This session of Congress, also, allowed a "rider" to be added to
the Panama Canal bill, exempting the canal construction from the
provisions of the eight-hour law. In the next two Congresses no report
could be obtained from the labor committees of either House upon the
general eight-hour day bill, despite the fact that President Roosevelt
and later President Taft recommended such legislation. In the sessions
of the Congress of 1911-1913 the American Federation of Labor hit upon a
new plan. This was the attachment of "riders" to departmental
appropriation bills requiring that all work contracted for by these
departments must be done under the eight-hour system. The most important
"rider" of this character was that attached to the naval appropriation
bill. Under its provisions the Attorney-General held that in all work
done in shipyards upon vessels built for the Federal government the
eight-hour rule must be applied. Finally, in June 1912, a Democratic
House and a Republican Senate passed the eight-hour bill supported by
the American Federation of Labor with some amendments, which the
Federation did not find seriously objectionable; and President Taft