HD 7834 A5 Cornell University Library HD 7834.A5 Labor problems and labor legislation N.Y.S. SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL & LABOR RELATIONS THE LIBRARY OF THE NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY Digitized by Microsoft® This book was digitized by Microsoft Corporation in cooperation with Cornell University Library, 2008. You may use and print this copy in limited quantity for your personal purposes, but may not distribute or provide access to it (or modified or partial versions of it) for revenue-generating or other commercial purposes. Digitized by Microsoft® Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archivg.^rgydeJLails^u31924002720633 Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS™) LABOR LEGISLATION W# TKTTT J^KT7'!!VVl Tit^S^^^^fiffa Digitized by Microsoft® Labor Problems and Labor Legislation John B. Andrews, Ph.D. Secretary, American Association for Labor Legislation Editor, American Labor Legislation Review American Association for Labor Legislation 131 East 23d Street, New York City 1919 G-vOvO Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Contents Foreword . Employment Distribution of labor supply — Regulation of private employment agencies — Public employment offices — Public Work — Regularization of industry 23 Wages Payment of wages — Minimum wage laws Hours 45 First modern factory law — Women's hour legislation — Night work — Regulation of men's hours — Eight-hour day — One day's rest in seven Safety ... 69 Accident reporting — Factories and workshops — Mining — Railroads and street cars — Navigation — Adminis- trative orders Health . . 83 Occupational disease reporting — Causes of occupational disease — Health and morals of child workers — Employ- ment of women and men — Prohibition of dangerous substances — Regulation of workshop conditions Self-Government in Industry 97 Growth of trade unions — Strikes and lockouts — Picket- ing — Boycott and blacklists — "Open" and "closed" shop — Mediation or conciliation — Arbitration — Toward in- dustrial democracy Social Insurance . 113 Workmen's compensation for accidents — Health insur- ance — Unemployment insurance — Invalidity insurance — Old age insurance Enforcement of Laws 127 Labor bureaus — Factory inspectors — Industrial com- missions — Regulation through continuous investigations — Civil service and other problems— Co-operation by economic pressippfrjnterna^ional labor regulation, Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Foreword AMERICA has won a world war for de- mocracy. Counting not the cost in suffering and treasure, she took her stand in the trenches of liberty, that the conditions of the people of the world might be bettered. No selfish aims marred the morale of her splendid fighting forces, and in the great settlement her weight was thrown in the scales for liberty and justice to all. The world war in which we were victorious closed one epoch of human history, and opened another — a new era in which the principles of righteousness and equality of opportunity are to march on until they come into their own in the minds and institutions of men. The same pro- gressive spirit which made our nation strong in time of strife must guide our steps in the days of peace. As President Wilson well said, "The men in the trenches, who have been freed from the economic serfdom to which some of them have been accustomed, will, it is likely, return to their homes with a new view and a new impa- tience of all mere political phrases, and will de- mand real thinking and sincere action." The doughboys of liberty abroad will become the champions of democracy at home, and with them Digitized by Microsoft® will line up the progressive civilians of the country, the men and women who have caught the vision of the new day. But democracy — real democracy, the kind we worked and bled for — means more than many of us have thought. It means more than merely voting once a year for some one to govern us. It means more equal opportunities for life and labor, for health and comfort and enjoyment. It means a living income, security of employ- ment, protection against accident and disease, self-government in industry, and leisure for edu- cation and the duties of citizenship. Until these things are won, our democracy is but one-sided. The labor legislation here described marks the progress of a century in the development, by governmental methods, of democratic standards for American industry. Digitized by Microsoft® Employment Chapter One A MAN willing to work and unable to find work," said Carlyle, "is, perhaps, the saddest sight that fortune's inequal- ity exhibits under the sun." Yet Secre- tary of Labor William B. Wilson estimates that there are at all times in the United States from one to three millions who are "employed or un- employed in accordance with industrial activity or industrial depression." Thus the federal Cen- sus of Manufactures for 1909 showed that in the slackest month of the year the number of those employed was 11.4 per cent, less than in the busiest month. Such irregularity of work causes loss to both employer and workman. The latter loses by the stoppage or reduction of wages, leading to suffering, discouragement, and often suicide or crime. "Morality and religion," in the words of Horace Greeley, "are but words to him who fishes in the gutters for means of sustaining life, and crouches behind barrels in the street for shelter from the cutting blasts of a winter night." The employer, on the other hand, loses through the interruption of output and sales, and also through the high expense attached to breaking in new help. Careful studies have found this ex- [7] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION OUT OF A JOB. During industrial depressions the homeless unemployed in large cities often go shelterless. pense to range from $50 to $100 for each new worker. In addition to fluctuations in the demand for labor due to the seasons or the recurrent waves of industrial prosperity and depression, other important causes of involuntary idleness are changes in the nature or location of industry, lack of a centralized market for labor, excessive "hiring and firing" or labor turn-over, and ir- regular or casual nature of the work. As these causes have always been more or less operative, unemployment has been always present, in good times as well as in bad. As stated by an official [8] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT United States report, "Most unemployment has no connection whatever with any fault of the worker." It is a problem of industry. Distribution of Labor Supply At the same time that there have been thou- sands of men fruitlessly searching for work, there have been employers eagerly seeking men. Even during the war involuntary idleness and labor shortage existed side by side. To a con- siderable extent the solution of the unemploy- ment problem lies in quickly and effectively bringing together the jobless man and the man- less job. Many men find work through the recommen- dation of a relative or friend. Some simply tramp the streets in the haphazard search for a shingle or a piece of cardboard with the words "Help wanted" scrawled upon it. Others rise before daybreak and by the light of the corner lamp-post scan the columns of the "want ads" in the morning paper. Arrived at the address given they may find fifty or a hundred applicants waiting for the same position. A few workers, with special qualifications, insert their own ad- vertisements in the papers, in the hope that some employer will call for their services. Alto- gether millions of dollars are spent in these ways yearly, with very poor results in the distribution of labor. Newspaper advertising also lends it- [9] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION BITTER BREAD. The man who is driven to the bread line for a crust to eat all too often falls into the ranks of the unemployable. self to fraudulent and even immoral uses by which many wage workers have been victimized. Regulation of Private Employment Agencies Somewhat more systematic means of connect- ing men with jobs are afforded by private em- ployment offices. In nearly every large city there are philanthropic agencies which charge no fees for their services. Unfortunately these have become known as last resorts for inefficients, and do not attract high grade workmen or em- ployers. For their own trades some labor unions [ IO ] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT and employers' associations maintain "day rooms" where chances to work are distributed. Of those operated by employers' associations it is frequently declared that they are strike-break- ing or blacklisting agencies. Much more wide- spread than any of these types are the commer- cial employment bureaus, operated for private profit, which abound in all industrial centers, to the number throughout the country of about 5,000. A few are specialized professional agen- cies for teachers, trained nurses, theatrical per- sons or the like, but in the main they deal with unskilled and domestic labor. While many commercial employment bureaus do good work, others are known to indulge in highly discreditable practices. They have often been found by official investigators, for instance, to misrepresent wages and conditions of work, send girl applicants to immoral resorts, split fees with foremen who discharge old employees in order to hire new ones through the agency, and even to send men and women to great dis- tances where there is no call for their services. In the effort to check these abuses, most states now provide that commercial employment agen- cies shall be bonded and licensed. Other regu- lations prohibit the location of employment bu- reaus in saloons or gambling places, and limit the size of the fee that may be charged. In a few states advertisements for help must mention [11] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION the existence of any strike or lockout. The form of register is sometimes specified, to assist in the collection of information on the condition of the labor market, but in practice the figures from private agencies have hardly proven worth the pains to gather them. In the main, the regulations placed upon pri- vate employment bureaus have been upheld by the courts as a reasonable exercise of the police power in behalf of public welfare. Experience has shown, however, that they have not suc- ceeded in wiping out the abuses committed by private offices, and the result has been a wide- spread movement for the elimination of such offices altogether. A state law to this effect was initiated and adopted by the people of Wash- ington in 1914, but was declared unconstitu- tional by a majority decision of the United States Supreme Court on the ground that it interfered with a "useful business." Public Employment Offices The next step in the organization of the labor market is the establishment of public employ- ment offices. Beginning with five such bureaus opened by Ohio in 1890, the movement spread until in 19 16 there were ninety-six, half of which had been created since 1910. Most of these were under state auspices, nearly half of the states being represented ; some were maintained [12] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT by cities ; and a few, like the very efficient office at Cleveland, were under joint state-city man- agement. When the war came, drafting millions of our able-bodied men for military service, and ne- cessitating the shift of many millions more to (.Harding, in Brooklyn Eagle.) COLD COMFORT. Statistics are interesting — in their place — but the unemployed want work. [*SJ Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION munitions, shipbuilding, and other war indus- tries, the country realized as never before the need for a nation-wide system of public employ- ment offices for the prompt and efficient dis- tribution of labor. Such a system had been in operation in Great Britain since 1909, and although the area of that country is only one-twenty-fifth of ours there were more than 400 offices. These were grouped in eight administrative districts, each with a divisional clearing house in direct communica- tion with the central office in London. In addi- tion, linked with the offices were over 1 ,000 local agencies which assisted in the administration of unemployment insurance, so that the system was closely in touch with workers in all parts of the kingdom. Before the war it was filling some 17,000 vacancies weekly, mostly with skilled workmen, and this number increased due to the industrial demands of the conflict. In the United States, however, the war found us with our state and city employment offices poorly co-ordinated. While war manufacturers were clamoring for help, men were tramping the streets in search of work. Employers adopted the policy of "raiding" one another for desirable mechanics, and the commercial job- bureaus were reaping a harvest from the needs of the nation. Finally the situation grew so bad that a number of distribution offices run Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT EERCEBT OP UHEMPLOTKEKr AMONG TRADE UNIOX MEMBERS (Due to Lack of Work or Materials) 1007-1915 «E» YORK THE ZIG-ZAG OF INDUSTRY. Most unemployment is not the workman's fault. He is laid off because of fluctuations in the demand for his labor. by the federal Immigration Service were taken over by a new governmental agency known as the United States Employment Service, and linked up under co-operative agreements with most of the state and municipal bureaus. We then had nearly 800 public employment offices under unified control. In about nine months they reported having referred 2,500,000 persons to positions. But they were operating merely as a war emergency organization, on a grant of [15] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION WAITING FOR A JOB. Men often wait in front of factories for a chance to work while elsewhere employers lack men. $2,000,000 from the President's war emergency appropriation. Despite the demonstrated serv- ice of the system to the country during the crisis, and the obvious indications that it would be equally necessary during the period of demob- ilization and reconstruction, Congress adjourned in March, 1919, without setting aside the neces- sary money to carry on the work. As a result, the magnificent and promising federal Employ- ment Service had to be 80 per cent, abandoned except in so far as a few state and voluntary organizations took over parts of the work. One [16] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT of the big tasks before the country is to restore it as soon as possible. Public Work Even the best system of public employment offices cannot make work when there is no work. Hence practically ever since unemployment be- came a modern industrial problem there has been the repeated demand that government pro- vide means of earning a livelihood for those shut out from private industry. It is felt that thus giving the unemployed an> opportunity under government direction to be self-supporting would cost little more than caring for them by public or private charity, it would not debase them as charity would, and at the same time work of public importance would be accomplished. During the severe industrial depression of 1914- 1915 more than 100 American cities provided emergency work of this character, including sewer-building, street and road-making, quarry- ing, forestry, drainage, waterworks, building, painting, and even clerical duties. Emergency public work for the unemployed has not always proven as efficient or as economi- cal as it should be. Yet opinion is growing that the flaws are due to poor administration rather than to any fault in the idea itself. Furthermore, it is becoming recognized that waiting until the emergency has overtaken the [17] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION ; . j H '%W| ^B >a*<*& ,a 1 -7- , ! J gji .^.Wwi 1 ££££ ' ■ j ' * "*-*: ^"Ht ' ■ „., ■ ■■-! -*£ 1 "HELP WANTED." The symbol of inefficiency in the organization of the labor market. community before arranging for public work is wasteful and leads to unnecessary hardship. More stress is therefore being put on the plan of preparing in ordinary times for the slump which is almost certain to occur in the course of the industrial cycle. It has therefore been urged that each community or country lay out a carefully calculated plan of necessary pub- lic improvements, with sufficient appropriation to cover the cost, which could be pushed ahead without delay at the beginning of serious indus- trial depression. In this way public work, in- [18] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT stead of dropping off along with private indus- try, as is now often the case, would expand and tend to stabilize employment. It would, in fact, act as a sponge, absorbing the surplus of labor which private employers at certain times are un- able to utilize, and releasing it when business again picks up. A number of cities have made beginnings in this direction. Regularization of Industry The heart of the problem of preventing unem- ployment has not yet been reached. Lack of work for those able and willing to work results from the maladjustments and fluctuations of in- dustry. No system of remedies is complete which does not include the regularization of in- dustry itself. Such regularization is demanded in the interests of both employer and employee — on one side to keep down overhead expenses and to secure the best returns from the business, on the other to prevent destitution and conse- quent demoralization. One method of regularization which has been successfully used is to send out samples and se- cure orders as far as a year ahead. In this way the market can be carefully gauged, gluts avoid- ed, and production held at a fairly uniform level. Some industries develop supplementary lines, such as tennis shoes and rubber tires in a rubber shoe factory. Others endeavor to avoid extreme [19] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. These agencies may be found in every big city. Many are notorious for defrauding their applicants. styles and develop staple lines which are always in demand. Artificial drying has helped to sta- bilize brick manufacture. The growth of care- ful employment management, by which applil cants for work are selected for the particular task they are to do, are transferred to other de- partments if possible instead of being laid off in slack periods, and are discharged only by some central authority after all efforts to use them in the plant have failed, has also prove! helpful. The "Liverpool dock scheme," by which the longshoremen are pooled into one labor reserve instead of each hanging around the [20] Digitized by Microsoft® EMPLOYMENT office of one particular ship company, can be ap- plied in principle to many other occupations. To some extent, also, it is possible to dovetail occupations, so that building laborers, for in- stance, can in the winter find places in ice cutting or logging, and city factory employees can spend the summer months as farm or harvest hands. A great deal to stimulate this desirable regu- larization of industry can be accomplished by the proper application of the principle of insur- ance. When involuntary idleness entitles the worker to a definite money allowance to tide him and his family over the slack season, those in charge of industry will have an additional incentive to reduce industrial fluctuations to a minimum. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICE. Public employment egjfi&aTsfqkmxSkgP' efficient, and honest — bring good workmen and employers together. Digitized by Microsoft® Wages Chapter iwo NO labor problem is more fundamental than the question of wages, for a man's whole way of life and that of his chil- dren after him is largely dependent on the amount he earns. Many persons believe that wage-earners re- ceived such increases during the war that low pay ceased to be a problem among them. Trades boomed by the war or covered by wage awards from government conciliation boards did fare comparatively well. Late in 191 8 a govern- ment board established eighty cents an hour as the minimum rate for skilled mechanics in the shipyards,, while railroad employees some months before received increases varying from 43 per cent, for those earning less than $50 a month to 1 per cent, for those paid $250. The demand for guns and ammunition enabled ma- chinists to earn big money, and during the two years 1917 and 1918 six successive wage in- creases by the large steel companies amounted to an 85 per cent, increase. Unskilled laborers also had a considerable share in war prosperity, their wages rising from twenty cents an hour to thirty-five and forty. [23] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION PUBLIC WORK. Public work during slack times helps the unemployed and the community. But in many other lines not directly affected by the war wages rose little, if at all. Many organized workers in the building and printing trades received less than 20 per cent, increases in wages from 191 2 to 19 18. The weekly wage of clerks in factory offices in New York state increased only 26 per cent, between June, 1914, and October, 1918, or from $19.18 to $24.11 weekly. The average weekly wage of shop employees in a large group of New York fac- tories representing all forms of manufacture was only $22.22 in October, 191 8. [24] Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES Meanwhile, the high cost of living was af- fecting all employees alike. The price of food, clothing and house furnishings, to say nothing of rent, rose to record-breaking heights. The National Industrial Conference Board, a fed- eration of employers' associations, estimated conservatively that the cost of living had gone UNEMPLOYED CLEARING LAND. In the state of Washington work of this kind was success- fully carried on during one depression. [35] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION (Donahcy, in Cleveland Plom Dealer.) "WORK, NOT ALMS" The hands of labor seek not charity but an opportunity to produce. up 70 per cent, in about four years. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that at the end of 191 8 wholesale prices of all com- modities combined were 106 per cent, higher than in 191 3. In December, 1917, the Phila- delphia Bureau of Municipal Research esti- mated that $1,200 a year or $23 a week was necessary to provide a "living wage" for a fam- ily of man, wife, and three children. Prices continued to rise throughout 191 8. Up to the outbreak of the world war, in 19 14, [261 Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES students of the subject had decided that for the last quarter century wages, as measured by what they would buy, had been slowly but surely falling. The decline amounted to about 10 or 15 per cent, over the whole period and was more rapid from 1900 to 1914 than during the previous decade. We are forced to conclude that all the wage increases of the war hardly changed the situation, as wages in most cases little more than kept pace with the cost of liv- ing, and only very rarely exceeded it. Ap- parently the average workingman did not make a fortune during the war, and is now hardly doing as well as his father did back in the 'eighties or 'nineties. Payment of Wages In the United States labor laws affecting wages have, until the last few years, not set the amount of the wage directly, but have influ- enced its real value by indirect methods. This class of laws deals with such matters as the frequency and form of wage payments, fines and deductions from wages, and protection to the worker if his employer fails to pay the wage due. The unfair practices which such laws are intended to prevent involve sums small in them- selves, perhaps, but of no little importance to the wage-earner, and unjust treatment well cal- culated to leave him with a permanent griev- [27] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION ance against society. Every organization which has taken up the collection of such claims finds its time filled with the work. To the workman with little or nothing to depend on but his wages, the frequency with which he is paid is a matter of great concern. The longer he must wait for his pay, the more likely will he be to run up a bill at the store or to fall into the loan shark's clutches, and the higher will his cost of living become and the lower the real value of his wages. On the other hand, the employer profits by fewer pay- days, as less book-keeping and less ready cash are needed. Consequently all over the world industrial states have stepped in to protect the worker by requiring a regular pay-day, sometimes month- ly, sometimes fortnightly or weekly.. About two-thirds of our American states have laws of this kind, generally providing for wage pay- ments every two weeks. Years ago some courts refused to uphold these laws, stating that they were an infringement on the "liberty" of the workman, but later decisions have recognized the needs of the worker and his inability to se- cure prompt payment from a large corporation, unless aided by legislation. Several states also require that an employee shall be paid during working hours, which saves his time and fre- quently prevented payment in bar-rooms, to the [28] Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES enrichment of the barkeeper's till and the harm of the worker and his family. Many states provide that an employee must be paid as soon as he is discharged and that he can collect in- terest charges for any delay. But if a man quits, the law generally allows his wages to be held until the next regular pay-day. NOT "CHEAP LABOR." This woman machinist did a man's-sized job and received a union man's wage. [29] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION Pheidippides * did not die of heart failure! He was poisoned poisoned hy fatigue. \ Pheidippides was the messenger who dropped dead after running 26^ miles to announce in Athens the victory of the Greeks over the Persians at the battle of Marathon, 490 B.C.) [30] Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES Carlyle protested against modern civilization because its only bond of union between man and man was cash. Yet from another point of view it is only when wages are paid in cash and the wage-earner is free to buy what he wants and wherever he wants that he has any real freedom. The worker who must trade at the company store is liable to pay excessive prices for inferior goods. He may find false items on his bill, against which he dare not protest for fear of losing his job, or on the other hand he may be bound to his job by a debt he is never quite able to discharge. Pay- ment in "scrip" or "store orders" ties him to the company store or lowers his wages by obliging him to accept a discount in changing from scrip to legal money. Half-a-dozen states have enacted legislation which attempts to forbid the whole system of "company stores" and scrip payments. Others try to regulate the system by forbidding exces- sive prices or higher charges to employees than to outsiders. In a "company town," however, where the employing corporation is the sole proprietor, this form of regulation is not very effective. The largest group of laws, found in about a dozen states, attempts to prevent any coercion of the employee to accept company scrip or to trade in company stores. Fines for tardiness or other breaches of shop Digitized by Microsoft® Under a f| continuous strain your muscular strength will eventually break Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES discipline, for bad work or spoilt material, de- ductions for drinking-water, for needles or the use of machines may, in the hands of an un- scrupulous employer, amount to a lowering of wages, and be arbitrary and unreasonable in the highest degree. A fertile ground for labor dis- putes is also found in such fines and deduc- tions. About ten states attempt to regulate the practice in various ways. Massachusetts has two unique laws, one forbidding the fining of weavers except for imperfect work and the other limiting fines for tardiness to the amount of wages which would have been earned dur- ing the time lost. In Michigan no fines what- ever may be imposed, and Louisiana forbids them except for wilful damage to the employ- er's property or materials. The remaining states allow fines to be deducted only accord- ing to a fixed procedure and with the full con- sent of the workers. But, like all laws which try to bring in the "consent of the workers," the value of these provisions is doubtful. Unless he is in an unusually well protected position, the worker must consent if he wants to hold his job. Another kind of law dealing with wage pay- ments is the so-called "mechanic's lien." This is one of the oldest forms of American labor legislation, the first such law having been passed in New York in 1830. It was based on the [33] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION still older practice of giving a contractor a claim for his payment in the house he had built and the land it stood on. To protect the worker, in turn, from the irresponsible contractor with no property of his own to satisfy wage claims, he is given the right to bring suit for his wages against the value of the building or land on which he was employed. Such a claim may be made in every state in the union and is generally given first preference above all other claims, even those of the contractor. Mechanics' liens extend, in various states, to labor performed on public works, railroads, in mines, on the land, and in lumbering, shipbuilding, sawmilling and other occupations. Minimum Wage Laws Recently, England, Australia, and about a dozen American states have developed a wholly different type of wage legislation, known as minimum wage laws, which aim to regulate the amount of the wage directly by fixing the small- est sum which may legally be paid the worker. Australia is the birthplace of minimum wage legislation. Although it was a new and pros- perous country, it was discovered during the 'eighties that a number of trades were paying starvation wages and employing their workers under miserable conditions. Much public feel- [34] Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES ing against these methods developed and after several years' agitation the province of Victoria in 1896 passed the first minimum wage law. This applied only to half-a-dozen trades in which wages were especially low, but in 1900 it was extended so that it might cover any oc- cupation. Practically all the workers of Vic- toria except farm laborers now have their wages regulated by minimum wage awards, and three others of the five Australian provinces have passed similar legislation. In 1909 Great Britain passed a minimum wage law known as the "trade boards act" mod- elled on the Victorian statute, and applying to occupations paying "exceptionally low" wages, under which minimum wages had been fixed for about 400,000 wage-earners in eight dif- ferent lines of work up to the outbreak of the world war. The law was amended in 191 8 so that it could be extended more quickly and to a larger number of occupations. In 1917 a bill guaranteeing the price of wheat to British farmers included provisions for a minimum wage for farm laborers. Norway and France have also passed minimum wage laws within the last two or three years, applying to the sweated workers in the garment trades. Except in so far as a high proportion of workers in many low-paid trades are women, foreign laws apply to both sexes alike. But in the [35] Digitized by Microsoft® After reaching ■^^ their stride, six experienced typesetters found that their hourly output diminished the longer they worked #t without a rest period. TOTAL LINES OF TYPE SET PER HOUR BY SKEXPEHIENCED TYPESETTERS FATIGUE LOWERS OUTPUT. The output of these six typesetters was lowest just before the lunch tytfizgw^mctk&fikite afternoon. 0% 3 1 121 151 130 125 AT LUNCH AND AT REST 142 WAGES United States minimum wage legislation covers only women and children. This is in line with American precedent in other forms of protec- tive labor legislation, such as safety and health, and notably hour restrictions. Women and children are considered the most helpless class of workers. They are least able to protect themselves. The courts are more favorable to protective legislation applied to women and chil- dren than to men, and the labor unions support it while they prefer to have men gain their own ends through organization. Thirteen states — Arizona, Arkansas, Califor- nia, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minneso- ta, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin — and the District of Co- lumbia had provided, up to April, 19 19, for the fixing of legal minimum wages for women and children. A similar measure is in force in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The statutes are of two kinds, known as "flat rate" and "wage board" laws. In the former, found in only a few states, the minimum rate which may be paid the woman worker is spe- cified in the law. Thus Arizona sets $10 a week as the minimum for the principal industrial oc- cupations. The recent rapid rise in the cost of living brought out the weakness of the flat rate law, for it could not be quickly adjusted to price changes. Nor does it take account of differ- [37] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION ences due to locality or to the varying require- ments of different occupations. Because of its greater flexibility, the wage board type of law found in all the other states and abroad appears to be preferable, although it sets up a much more elaborate machinery. A bureau or commission is created, to oversee the administration of the law. The commission then forms wage boards in one occupation after another, each board representing the three par- ties at interest, employers, employees, and the public. Minimum wages are fixed by these boards for the various occupations, after inves- tigation and conference. Most laws require that such a minimum rate shall be "sufficient to cover the necessary cost of proper living," that is to say, a "living wage." Two methods are used to secure the payment of the wage fixed. The employer's wage records are inspected. Women who are paid less than the minimum may sue for the unpaid wage bal- ance. Though in other forms of labor legisla- tion it has proved useless to expect workers themselves to risk their jobs by complaining, in minimum wage cases, where fairly large wage balances quickly accumulate, this method has proved successful. Employers who do not pay the minimum may be fined, except in Massa- chusetts and Nebraska, where their names may », merely be published. [38] Digitized by Microsoft® WAGES THE THE 12 HOUR DAY 8 HOUR DAY TWELVE HOURS OR EIGHT HOURS ? These two men may live next door to each other in almost any city. Which is the better citizen? [39] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION The first American minimum wage law was passed by Massachusetts in 1912, and eight states followed suit in 191 3. One reason why the movement then halted for a time was probably because from 1914 to 19 17 the courts were de- bating the constitutionality of the legislation.- A test case covering the Oregon law was decided favorably in the latter year by the United States Supreme Court. The court was, in fact, evenly divided on the subject, so that a previous favor- able decision by the state supreme court of Ore- gon remained in force. The Oregon court treated the law as closely akin to hour legisla- tion, being for the same reasons "within the po- lice power of the state and . . . tending to guard the public morals and the public health." Since the Oregon case, the supreme courts of other states have upheld the laws within their own jurisdictions. The right of the government to fix minimum wages by law for at least women and minors may accordingly be said to be es- tablished in the United States. Many dire and often-times contradictory pre- dictions of the effects of minimum wage laws are made whenever they are proposed. It is claimed on one hand that it is not possible to increase wages by law. On the other hand, it is alleged that "the minimum will become the maximum" and that higher-paid workers will be reduced when lower-paid ones are raised, that [40] Digitized by Microsoft® MODERN ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY divides labor more and more into 'repetitions,,, o^ ,„ single processes •V. n' :'l -J "ES£lD ' QSiiy diilJMSD ■ fTieaflS increased • monotony for the,, workers . MODERN INVENTIVE GENIUS is Constantly increasing the..spe-ec| of machinery ^ ' ^ ' I k' I Ever y imp rovement in A he rnachmi "means! greater speeding up of the worker The Logtea! Remedy for these new, strains TO SHORTEN THE WORKING DAY (Courtesy New York ^SlgiieHfM'fc^i 1 ^ Conference.) LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION low-paid workers will be thrown out of employ- ment altogether if their wages must be increased, that employers will become bankrupt or move out of the state if forced to pay more wages, and that the efficiency of the workers will suffer if their wages are guaranteed. American experi- ence of the effect of minimum wage awards is still scanty, but in those states where awards have been longest in force, as well as in other countries, these fears do not seem to have been realized. Enforcement is not perfect, but a con- siderable rise in wages is noted. The average weekly wage of women in Oregon stores was 8.6 per cent, higher in spite of a business depression which caused an 8 per cent, falling off in sales. The charge that the wages of higher-paid workers are reduced is not borne out anywhere, while after the first readjustment no lasting in- crease of unemployment is noticeable. In Aus-. tralia, where minimum wages are generally ap- plied, employers make a good many charges of decreased efficiency, but in England and the United States the opposite result is reported. As for the financial effect on employers, wages are not raised so greatly that the extra cost of the product is a large item. In Oregon stores the increased cost of labor was only three mills on each dollar of sales. This last fact helps us define the exact effect of minimum wage laws. They do not, after all, [42] Digitized by Microsoft® CYCLE of the WORKING DAY Eight hours for work! Eight hours for sleep ! Eight hours for home and citizenship! Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION transform society. The sums fixed as living wages for women in this country vary from $8 or $9 weekly a few years ago to $13.20 in Wash- ington and $15.60 in the District of Columbia under war-time high prices. But the standards set represent some gain to the lowest-paid work- ers and do, to that extent, relieve the situation for the poorest, hardest-pressed section of the most helpless part of the wage-earners. 1 44 1 Digitized by Microsoft® Hours CHAPTER THREE IF there is one lesson the great war pounded home to the captains of industry, it is that too long hours do not pay. In the early days of the struggle, when France and England leaped, only half prepared, to the defense of their liberties, they were forced to signal "full speed ahead" to their munitions producers. But as the spurt settled down into the long steady grind of a four-year contest, it was noticed that pro- duction of essential war material was falling off. Not only was the output lessened, but its quality was lowered. There was waste of material and power through broken time. The workers were growing dispirited and lacked "pep." The British government set a commission of experts to investigate, and they very soon found out the cause of the trouble — overwork. All toil and no play was making Jack and Jill (for there were hundreds of thousands of women concerned) into dull and inefficient producers. The commission recommended shorter hours, intervals for rest, one full day off a week. When these were tried, the output of shells and guns went up again. It was the old story, often told, seldom learned, repeating itself. A tired man is a poisoned man, [45] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION poisoned by the waste products of his own ac- tivity. He cannot do good or profitable work until the bodily poisons produced by toil have been removed by suitable intervals of rest. Moreover, for citizenship as well as for pro- duction, the free worker in a democracy needs suitable leisure for the enrichment of his family life and intelligent attention to current questions. Had all the peoples of the civilized world been conducting their national affairs on a well-in- formed democratic basis, the war which cost over 7,000,000 human lives would never have occurred. For America's women in industry, who are among the mothers of the coming generation, there is special need for protection against long hours. A strong and vigorous race demands mothers whose energies are not sapped by a work-day dragged out to unhealthful extremes, or by industrial toil during the night hours that should be given to rest and sleep. And the children, too, if they are to carry on the work of democracy and civilization, must be saved in their tender years from toil too exhausting for their forming minds and bodies. First Modern Factory Law The first modern factory law dealt with the hours of children in British cotton mills. Be- ginning about 1760 people ceased to spin and [46] Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS weave entirely by hand, but took up the manu- facture of cloth by power-driven machinery in large factories. In this transformation, which lies at the foundation of all our modern indus- try, many pauper children were apprenticed to the owners of the cotton factories. Philanthro- pists soon noticed that these children were miser- RIVETER AT WORK. The great speed demanded by some occupations is a strain that can be counteracted by short hours. [47] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR, LEGISLATION ably treated, overworked, and given no chance for education. An act, passed by the English Parliament in 1802, among other provisions, limited their hours to twelve a day. Inadequate as this standard now seems, it marks the be- ginning of the long line of special laws limit- ing the hours during which young workers may be employed. The first such law in the United States was passed by Massachusetts in 1842, and established a ten-hour day for all children under twelve working in factories. Along with forbidding all work for wages by children under a certain age, provisions restricting the hours of the youngest workers have been developed, until to-day there is general agreement that legislation, at the very least, besides keeping children under fourteen out of the factory and in the school-room, should prevent night work by all boys and girls under sixteen and limit their working hours to eight. Beginning with Illinois in 1903, this standard has been reached by about half the states, in- cluding the majority of those of industrial im- portance. Of the remaining states, about half have nine-hour laws for children and the rest allow a work-day of ten hours or more. In some of the southern cotton-mill states, however, it is legal for children to work at night and eleven hours a day, and such poor laws as exist are reported not to be well enforced. 48 Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS In an effort to bring the more backward states up to better standards, two federal child labor laws have been passed. In the earlier one, which became law in 1916, Congress forbade the trans- portation in interstate commerce, that is to say, from state to state, of goods on which children (.Copyright, Underwood and Underwood.') MARBLE POLISHER. The monotony of repeating one process over and over again is wearing on the workman's nerves. [49] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION (Copyright, Underwood and Underwood.) STOKING. Men who are doing hard physical labor often have to work in short shifts. Stokers work for four hours. between fourteen and sixteen had worked at night or more than eight hours a day. The United States Supreme Court set aside the law, however, declaring that such regulation was not within the power of Congress. Congress then attacked the evil in another way in the war rev- enue bill of 1919. A tax of 10 per cent, of the net profits for the year is imposed on all establish- ments in which any child between fourteen and sixteen has worked at night or more than eight hours a day. The measure went into effect in April, 1919. [so] Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS Women's Hour Legislation Next to children, women receive more pro- tection from hour laws than any other class of workers. Though the constitutionality of lim- itations on women's working hours is now es- tablished, years of struggle with the courts was necessary before this was certain. In 1895 the Illinois Supreme Court set aside an eight-hour law for women workers on the ground that it was an infringement on the "liberty" of a woman to work as long as she saw fit. For some years afterwards decisions by state courts varied. Then in 1908 came the test case in which the Oregon women's ten-hour law came before the Supreme Court of the United States. Louis D. Brandeis, who later became a member of the court, and Miss Josephine Goldmark, prepared a famous brief in defense of the law. This brief em- phasized not so much legal technicalities as the harmful effects of excessive hours on the health of women. The court upheld the law as a health measure. "As healthy mothers are es- sential to vigorous offspring," the judges said, "the physical well-being of women becomes an object of public interest and care in order to preserve the strength and vigor of the race." Shortly afterwards the Illinois court sustained a new law for a ten-hour day. In 191 5 the United States Supreme Court took a further [Si] Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS progressive step in upholding the California eight-hour law for women. All but six states had laws limiting the daily or weekly hours of women's work at the begin- ning of 1 91 9. The ten-hour day, found in more than a dozen states, was still the most frequent, but the eight-hour day was in force in eight western states and a nine-hour day in thirteen including the important industrial areas of New York, Ohio, and Missouri. A few states have daily limits of from ten and a quar- ter to twelve hours. Most states fixed weekly as well as daily limits, which varied from forty- eight to sixty hours. Night Work The United States is among the most back- ward of modern industrial countries in check- ing night work by women. In 1906 an inter- national conference on women's night work was called at Berne, Switzerland. Fourteen leading European countries were represented. A mass of evidence on the physical and moral dan- gers of industrial night work for women, gath- ered in five years' investigation by the Inter- national Association for Labor Legislation, was put before the conference. The various coun- tries signed an international treaty by which they agreed, as soon as possible, to pass legisla- [53] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION ^ O *& Digitized by Mfeeoffii ^ I O 3 h & £ : " H W 3 z ° CO "5 tf 3 S> 8 O ^ W ° p4 O HOURS tion forbidding night work by women. By 191 2 they had practically all done so. About a dozen American states have forbid- den night work for women in certain occupa- tions, but only a few have extended the prohibi- tion to any large group of employments. In 1907 the highest state court of New York set aside a law of this kind, while in 1913, making special mention of the facts presented to it in a Brandeis-Goldmark brief, it unanimously re- versed itself and upheld a similar law. Four or five additional states attempt to discourage night work by limiting it to a shorter period than day work. Regulation of Men's Hours Laws restricting men's hours in general pri- vate employment are much less common — in fact in 19 19 only two American states had such legis- lation. Mississippi and Oregon both had ten- hour laws covering' all factory employment. One reason for American hesitancy to legis- late on this subject has been the doubtful attitude of the courts. After the famous Lochner case in 1905, when the highest court of the land set aside a statute giving a ten-hour day to New York bakers, many people believed that general laws affecting the hours of men were not con- stitutional in America. But in 1917, with many [ss] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION y -«s k^'M. fZT~ fflotfMZjlfflfo. «oor. *&-*^S%%%fajdk. ss^r H^m$y% Ssw?oSS x£uiSx%>zfa" i *y wSm/^ js^ss y* l \ P%& I! C0L °- K%K A N S 2% 5v^SSI \ f**IZ. tmF^^t M/XtOY.\-t.., y///tis& ^Sr (=■ ■••■• ^^~ "TEXAS <-/^NSSS i jv-i. ^^™:;"»US"" BBB » ■°™ •> — ^Sk ■■ " '"""'" WOMEN'S LEGAL WORKING HOURS. 77*£ hour limits indicated are those which affect a large proportion of_ female industrial workers. more scientific facts available as to the bad ef- fects of long hours, the United States Supreme Court upheld the Oregon ten-hour law. In spite of existing hesitancy, there are a good many hour laws for men covering lines of work which for one reason or other are supposed to be especially dangerous, and legislation on which can therefore run the gauntlet of the courts. With railroad employees, excessive hours mean not only danger to their own health and safety, but also a greater risk of accidents which may endanger the lives and property of passengers. Almost every state in the union, as well as the United States for interstate employees, has 56 Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS placed hour restrictions on two classes of rail- road workers — firemen, engineers, conductors and others engaged in the actual handling of trains, and those who direct train movements, such as telegraphers and train dispatchers. For those handling trains, sixteen hours, to be fol- lowed by at least eight or ten hours of rest, is generally set as the limit of a day's work. Teleg- raphers may be restricted to eight hours under a three-shift system if employment is continuous, or at small stations to twelve or thirteen hours followed by a rest period of eight or ten hours. But the necessary permission to work overtime in "emergencies" leaves a loophole through which these laws may be evaded, and their en- forcement, though improving, leaves something to be desired. About a dozen states have scattering laws af- fecting men's hours in other special lines of work. Laundries, electric plants, firing of sta- tionary boilers, cement mills, saw mills, brick- yards, textile mills, and drug and grocery stores, have all appeared to some legislators to demand special protection against the dangers of over- work. Eight-Hour Day The constitutionality of statutes which limit men's hours to eight a day is still uncertain. An Alaska court has set aside a measure of this kind, [57] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION "WHY DIDN'T HE SHUT THE MOTOR OFF?" Many serious accidents are the result of trying to adjust or reach across a running machine. but the United States Supreme Court has not passed on a test case. Public opinion in the United States has not yet advanced to the stand- ards of Great Britain, where an industrial con- gress of employers and employees, called by the government early in 1919, recommended a law for a universal forty-eight hour week. The French Chamber of Deputies about the same time declared for an eight-hour day. Public employees, indeed, have frequently secured the eight-hour day by legislative action. A number of states and territories have an eight-hour day for all employees on public works whether carried on directly by state or city or undertaken by contractors. In [58] Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS other states the laws are more comprehensive, applying to all employees and not merely those on public works. The federal government has an eight-hour law covering all its own employees and many, but not all, workers on contracts for government supplies. Even during the war emergency the eight-hour standard was in large part maintained, though in certain cases over- time at higher rates was allowed. Certain groups of post office employees have also secured spe- cial eight-hour legislation, and firemen in sev- eral cities have obtained two-platoon or twelve- hour shift legislation, and are agitating a three- platoon system. The latest hour law for railroad employees is the Adamson law. Rushed through Congress in 1 91 6 to avert a nation-wide railroad strike, this act established eight hours as the standard for pay. There was much discussion as to whether the law would really reduce hours or whether it was merely a device to raise wages. Official investigation of the operation of the law showed both results. Some trainmen, espe- cially in railroad yards, had their hours short- ened; many received higher wages. ' The eight-hour day in mines, where dangers to health and safety are many, has been secured, by law in most of the important mining states. A six-hour day is now the goal of organized miners both in England and America. One of [59] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION SAFETY IN THE FOUNDRY. Protective clothing, goggles, and safety ladles are necessary safeguards for foundry workers. the most scientific hour laws covers workers in comp ressed air in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Modern tunnel and skyscraper, construction requires a great deal of work of this kind. The number of hours' work allowed daily varies according to the amount of pressure, as does the length of the interval dividing the day's work into two equal parts. Starting with an C«o] ■ Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS eight-hour day followed by a half-hour rest if the air pressure is twenty-one pounds above nor- mal, only an hour and a half of work is allowed when working under pressure of forty-five to fifty pounds, and the rest interval must be five hours. Another reason besides the doubtful attitude, of the courts why the progress of hour laws for men has halted in America is that organized labor has not been altogether favorable. Fifty- years ago, when British workmen were demand- ing: "Eight hours for work, eight hours for play, Eight hours for sleep and eight bob a day," the National Labor Union, a predecessor of the American Federation of Labor, under the lead- ership of Ira Steward started a nation-wide movement for a universal eight-hour day by law. But the laws then secured for private employ- ments were not enforceable, and during the past generation trade unionists have supported hour reductions through collective bargaining rather than through legislation. Very recently, how- ,ever, there are signs that this point of view is changing. The Adamson law had the sup- port of the railroad brotherhoods. Meanwhile, the eight-hour day, through trade agreements, arbitration awards, and voluntary concessions by employers, has made great ad- [61] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION BOX YOUR BELTS. Belting is dangerous unless well shielded. Many men have been killed or maimed for lack of safeguards. vances during the last few years. In 1914, out of 6,600,000 wage-earners enumerated by the Census of Manufacturers, only 7.9 per cent, or 520,000, worked in factories where the eight- hour day prevailed. Some 230,000 were work- ing seventy-two hours or more weekly, many of whom were toiling twelve hours a day, seven days a week, in the so-called continuous indus- tries such as steel plants, paper mills, power sta- tions, and glass and chemical works. Men in these establishments generally change from day to night shift weekly or fortnightly, working [62] Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS twenty-four hours without rest at that time. The only practicable alternative to the twelve-hour day in these continuous industries is the eight- hour system, with three shifts. So glaring are the evils of the twelve-hour day that an inter- national convention in London in June, 191 2, favored international action to secure eight-hour shifts in continuous industries. Such a law has been proposed for Massachusetts paper-mills, but no measure of the kind is yet in force in the United States. From 19 1 5 through the first six months of 1 91 8, however, it is officially estimated that no fewer than 1,448,000 workers gained the eight- hour day. Trie movement began in Bridge- port in 191 5, where a series of strikes swept through this hive of war industries, not ceasing until the town was practically on an eight-hour basis. The Adamson law put '400,000 railroad men on an eight-hour basis in September, 1916. After America entered the war the eight-hour movement was greatly aided by the favorable attitude of the government. "The eight-hour day is an established policy of the country," said President Wilson's personal mediation commis- sion. The National War Labor Board, indus- try's supreme court for the settlement of labor disputes during the war, was equally favorable to the principle. Important industries for which an eight-hour day was established by award of [63] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION RUNNING A LATHE. The recent entrance of women into machine shops calls for an increase in safety measures. a government board included many machine shops and munition plants, packing-houses, ship- yards, the lumber industry of the northwest, and news print paper mills. Several large steel mills set up the eight-hour day voluntarily in the early months of 191 8. In the beginning of 1919 an epidemic of eight-hour day strikes swept [64] ... Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS through eastern textile mills. The strikers in most cases won the reduction in hours, but some- times had to accept a reduction in pay. Many of the government wage awards, how- ever, set up not the "straight," but the "basic" eight-hour day, overtime beyond eight hours at additional pay being freely allowed. When the war emergency was over, it was planned to abolish the overtime. The basic eight-hour day is of course a compromise of the eight-hour prin- ciple, and it frequently happens that the work- ers remain content with overtime pay and no real reduction in hours takes place. Carpenters on government construction work in Brooklyn even struck for a return of overtime when it was cut down shortly after the armistice, saying that they needed the extra money to meet Liberty Bond payments. A counter-current, which aims at a real de- crease in hours, is the trade-union and radical movement for a forty-four-hour week. As the eight-hour day becomes more common, this movement to secure a Saturday half-holiday is gaining impetus. It was the crucial issue in a New York strike won in January, 191 9, by a large union in the men's clothing industry, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers. One Day's Rest in Seven Even with moderate daily hours, the worker cannot maintain his health and efficiency year [6S] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION IN A MUNITIONS PLANT. Powerful punch presses that cut through a metal plate at the touch of a lever. No place to be careless. after year without a weekly day of complete rest. The British Health of Munition Workers Com- mittee, striving to build up the output of muni- tions of war, recommended the abolition of all Sunday work. Yet under modern conditions, much work must continue every day in the week. Besides the continuous industries, in which for techni- cal reasons the plants must operate constantly, street cars cannot stop one day a week, milk must be delivered, power plants must continue to operate. In Minnesota in 1909, 14 per cent, of all men workers were reported employed 66 Digitized by Microsoft® HOURS seven days a week, while in New York the fol- lowing year over 20 per cent, of 179,000 trade unionists in a number of specified industries were engaged in seven-day labor. The old-time Sunday laws, designed mainly to protect the Sabbath as a holy day, fail to meet these new conditions. For this reason, a new type of law has been developed, providing one day of rest in seven for workers, but not specifying the day on which it must be taken. Necessary employees can, under such laws, remain at work on Sunday and take their rest-day during some other part of the week. In some cases where a plant must operate in full force every day, the employer may have to hire one-sixth more men, so as to let one-seventh of the total force off each day of the week. The expense of this plan will tend to cut down unnecessary Sunday work, and the Sabbath will be better protected than it is now. Effective laws of this kind, applying to workers in stores and factories, are in force in New York and Massachusetts. Investigations indicate that without undue hardship to industry thousands of workers formerly employed seven days a week have thus been given a rest-day. The courts have universaliy been favorable to the old-time Sunday laws, and the highest court of New York state took a similar position on the new type of law. [67] Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Safety CHAPTER FOUR IF work is to be a means of life and not of death, the places where it is carried on must be made safe. In the early days when manu- facture was literally "making by hand," and was carried on by each craftsman in his own home or small shop, this was a simple matter. To-day, when hundreds or thousands of opera- tives toil. under one roof amid high-power and rapidly moving machinery, with shafting and belting whirring overhead, with the tremendous forces of steam and electricity straining at their leash, and under conditions over which final con- Fatal Industrial Accidents Estimate for the United States for 1913 Mm**-? /W**a/M J&rr-jppn&v/Bb Afar jrr ZSOOOJitl' MutMtl Jkv&nfi pa-Jinum m It* UhiM #i/ti. Ml/ TOVMt *Ml* iyuriH (Chart prepared by Prudential Insurance Company of America.) [69] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION THESE GEARS ARE MUZZLED. The teeth on this drilling machine will catch no one's limbs or clothing. trol rests with the employer, industrial safety has become a very much more complex and impor- tant matter. Accident Reporting Not until Massachusetts took the lead in 1886 did any American state have on its statute books a law requiring industrial accidents to be re- ported. Slowly these laws spread to other states, but their results were not satisfying. Employers appeared reluctant to give out such information, and the state officials very rarely took the trou- ble to prosecute. Speaking at one time of eight [70] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY states which had reporting laws, a federal in- vestigator said that "In none of them is there any pretense that anything like complete re- turns of accidents are obtained." Decided improvement was wrought in this sit- uation by the adoption of workmen's compensa- tion for industrial accidents. When it was to somebody's interest — in this case the injured workman's — to report the accident to the au- thorities, the number of recorded casualties ap- proached much more nearly to the number which actually occurred. In New York, for instance, where the reporting and checking up system was among the best in the country, the number of accidents listed by the labor depart- ment rose from 94,000 the year before work- men's compensation was in force to 225,000 the year after. Even yet the number of industrial injuries oc- curring throughout the country, is not known precisely. An estimate issued by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics places the num- ber of fatal accidents at 25,000 annually, and injuries resulting in disability of more than four weeks at 700,000. Since about three-quarters of all accidents requiring medical attendance result in recovery within two weeks, the total number of injuries in American industry must be close to 3,000,000 annually. During the in- tense activity of the war period this figure was probably increased. [71] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION FIRST AID ROOM. Up-to-date factories are equipped with first aid rooms where qualified physicians and nurses care for injured employees. Mining, especially metal mining, is the most hazardous occupation, resulting in the largest number of deaths in proportion to numbers em- ployed. Railroading, electrical work, and quar- rying are high on the list. In agriculture, the introduction of power machinery has added to the earlier risks due to live animals, while gen- eral factory work, in relation to the occupations just named, is comparatively safe. Factories and Workshops Industrial safety laws in the United States [72] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY most frequently deal with conditions in factories and workshops. Besides fixing a general min- imum age of fourteen years for employment of children in general factory work, many states set a minimum of sixteen years for more dan- gerous processes, and in some states an additional two years' maturity is required for entrance to a number of especially hazardous occupations. The sixteen-year limit usually applies to such employments as cleaning and oiling machinery, adjusting belts, and operating machine saws and grinding or stamping apparatus. Among the occupations for which an eighteen-year mini- mum is required are work in mines, at blast fur- naces, or on railroads, outside erection of elec- tric wires, and manufacture of explosives. Some states give the board of health or labor depart- ment power to add to these lists. Restrictions of this sort have repeatedly been upheld by the courts as a valid exercise of the police power, and in some states illegal employment of a child deprives the employer, in case of accident, of the defenses of "assumption of risk" and "con- tributory negligence." The most important re- cent enactment in the field of child labor is the law passed by Congress in 1919, which lays a prohibitive tax of 10 per cent, of the yearly net profits on all factories employing children under fourteen years of age, or children between four- teen and sixteen for more than eight hours a [73] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION day or six days a week or at night, and upon all mines or quarries employing children under sixteen. Furnishing a reasonably safe place to work in is a duty long recognized as resting on the employer. With the growth of large scale pro- duction it has been found necessary to establish WARNING < THESE SWITCHES N115T «0I It THROWN III OR M mm BY THOSE KAVMt A SIGHT TO ISO SO. OPERATORS HOST ALWAYS OPEN SWITCHES SETOSE LEAVING THEIR POSITIONS. THESE SWITCHES ARE WOT TO BE THSOWI III WHILE DANGER SIGNAL IS ON SAME. THESE DANGER SIGNALS ARE TOBE REMOVED ONltBT THE PERSON PLACIN6 SAME 01 SWITCH. ins THEOUiror every employee to report ANY VIOLATION Of THIS ORDER TO HIS fOREMAN "uTt'zim MNMIOHhlTMCo. \ I NOTE THE SIGN. No one is likely to get a shock from the switch in this szvitch-box. [74] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY certain codes to make this principle effective. The first American law requiring factory safe- guards was passed by Massachusetts in 1877. Now practically every state has a factory and workshop act prescribing minimum conditions of safety. The point most frequently dealt with is safe- guarding machinery. Mechanism for transmit- ting power, such as belting, shafting, and gear- ing, as well as the active parts of machines, like saws, planers, mangles, and emery wheels, must usually be securely guarded. If this is impos- sible, it is sometimes required that notice of the danger be conspicuously posted. Loosely phrased requirements for fire escapes are found in many states, but it was not until disastrous factory fires had occurred in New York and New Jer- sey that scientific provisions for fire prevention and safe exits became general. Factory doors are supposed to swing out or to slide, and not to be locked during working hours. The courts have often held that failure to provide the re- quired safeguards in itself constitutes negligence on the employer's part, and that the workman does not assume the consequent risk. Mining Every state where mining is an important in- dustry has adopted legislation looking to the safety of the men who carry on this hazardous [75] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION IN A GLORY HOLE This mine worker in case of a slide would have difficulty in reaching the distant safety rope. work underground. In many cases these min- ing codes are among the lengthiest, the most de- tailed, and the most complex of our labor laws. They usually require accurate maps showing all workings and open at all times to the mine inspectors, a sufficient number of escapement shafts, proper ventilation and supply of pure air, and periodic inspections to discover explosive or poisonous dusts or gases. Precautions against falling rock or coal must be taken by carefully timbering dangerous places. Rules are laid down for proper methods of drilling and blast- [76] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY ing, protected hoisting cages, safety lamps, tele- phone connections, and sometimes a certain amount of first-aid equipment. Work of women in mines is usually prohibited. Enforcement of these provisions is usually given to a special body of mine inspectors. In 1910 a federal Bureau of Mines was established, which makes studies, publishes reports, and maintains mine rescue stations and cars, but has no power to enforce safety legislation. Railroads and Street Gars As the railroad pushed across the American continent, reports of deaths and maimings, par- ticularly in connection with the coupling of cars, became more frequent. A few states enacted protective laws, but with the spread of inter- state transportation it soon became evident that federal action was needed to avoid delay and secure uniformity. Accordingly the Interstate Commerce Com- mission was in 1893 given authority over safety on the roads, and additional statutes required approved automatic couplers, grab-irons, power brakes, and other safety devices. In 19 10 the' commission was given further power to investi- gate train accidents and make public recommen- dations. In 1890, when only about 10 per cent, of railway cars were equipped with automatic couplers, casualties in the coupling of cars [77] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION A MODERN STEEL MILL. Direct descendant of the village blacksmith shop, the basic industries of our civilization. One of formed nearly half of all accidents to trainmen. By 1 91 2, when 99 per cent, of all cars were so equipped, coupling accidents formed only about 8 per cent, of the total. In this legislation and its beneficial results the United States is far ahead of European countries, where for military reasons the various national railroad adminis- trations have feared to install uniform coupling devices. Recently much attention has been called to full-crew legislation, demanded by railroad workers on the ground that trains are continu- es] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY ally being made longer and heavier, without pro- portionate increase in the size of the crews. The railroads have fought these laws on the ground of increased operating expense, but nearly half the states have enacted them, and the Pennsyl- vania law has been upheld as a reasonable safety measure. Numerous states have also adopted regulations specifying the power of headlights, the blocking of frogs and switches, proper clear- ance along tracks, sheds for repair workers, and other safeguards. Many states require railroad employees to pass tests for color blindness or other defects of vision. Employees on street or interurban railways are also frequently protected by state or municipal action. Among the requirements thus enforced are closed vestibules in winter, seats for motor- men, automatic brakes, and examination of em- ployees. Navigation Until 191 5 the American seaman was kept in a condition of semi-slavery through employment under a contract which was enforceable by im- prisonment. A few state laws regarding boiler inspection and signal lights, and timid federal legislation on size and experience of crews and certain conditions of living and working on ship- board, left the sailor still in an unsatisfactory position. [79] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION In 1915 Congress passed the far-reaching sea- men's act, which permits men to leave a ship in a safe port, and abolishes arrest and imprison- ment as a penalty for desertion. It furthermore makes provisions for proper washing places and sleeping quarters, additional life boats, and larger and better equipped crews. ARC WELDER'S HELMET. A necessary protection to the arc welder against the intense glare and flying particles of molten metal. [80] Digitized by Microsoft® SAFETY Certain other industries are brought under the safety regulations of some states. Typical pro- visions relate to scaffolding, fencing of hoist holes, and filling in floors in the construction and painting of buildings. Administrative Orders Helpful as these safety laws have been, they disclose on close examination four fundamental defects. First, they are incomplete. They cover only certain specific machines or processes or condi- tions which are in the minds of the legislators at the time, and others as dangerous or even more so are left unregulated. Again, they often fail to place direct respon- sibility on any one for improving conditions. Safeguards are required "in the discretion" of the commissioner of labor, or if he "so directs." The result is practical license to maintain danger spots until these are specifically pointed out by the inspector. Third, they lack well-defined standards. Leg- islators, not being industrial experts, could not be expected to draft specific safety standards for the vast variety of establishments in their states. Consequently they left the laws vague, and ex- pected poorly trained inspectors to determine in each case what was required. This discretion- ary power, often blunderingly or arbitrarily Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION used, resulted in dissatisfaction to everyone con- cerned. Finally, the statutes were not flexible enough to meet rapidly changing conditions. The more careful and precise the statute, the more rapidly was it in danger of falling out of date due to technical developments. As a remedy for this situation, several of the most progressive states, such as New York, Ohio and Wisconsin, have adopted the method of ad- ministrative orders. The legislature lays down the general law that workplaces shall be made safe. Committees of employers, employees, and technical experts in the various industries are called together by the state industrial commis- sion to draft rules which shall achieve this re- sult. After public hearing these rules are issued by the commission, and have the force of law. Thus the experience of the worker, the interest of the employer, and the constructive ability of the trained technician are welded together in a co-operative effort for "Safety First." Further encouragement is given to this movement by the rapid spread of workmen's compensation laws, which make all accidents costly. [82] Digitized by Microsoft® Health Chapter Five N OT only must industry be made rea- sonably safe from accident, it must be made free from preventable disease as well. Occupational Disease Reporting In the absence of widespread laws for work- men's health insurance, we have no reliable data on the amount of sickness in the country which is attributable to industrial causes. In 191 1 California enacted the first American law re- quiring the reporting of occupational disease. DOUBLE "WRIST DROP." Hands of workman paralyzed for sixteen years as a result of lead poisoning. Five of his fellow workmen died. [83] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION Within five years, as the result of vigorous and sustained effort, sixteen states enacted similar statutes. Yet the results from these laws have been meager. They have been useful mainly as affording occasional clues to individual plants where further precautions should be taken. For the country as a whole we must still depend on estimates. One group of experts concluded that, on the basis of 33,500,000 persons gainfully oc- cupied, no fewer than 284,000,000 days' illness occur annually, causing an economic waste of nearly $750,000,000. Fully one-quarter of this enormous waste, they computed, could be pre- vented by deliberate effort, largely in the direc- tion of greater care and cleanliness in the na- tion's workshops. Causes of Occupational Disease The causes which give rise to diseases so close- ly and unmistakably connected with the patient's work as to be justly considered occupational, are highly varied. They may be dangerous dusts, acids or fumes. Of these a careful list of fifty-four has been prepared by the Inter- national Association for Labor Legislation, under the name "industrial poisons." One of them, lead, is in constant use in more than 100 trades, from embroidery to house-painting. It may cause lead colic, paralysis of the wrists ("wrist drop") , or even death. Another is mer- [84] Digitized by Microsoft® HEALTH cury, sometimes used in mirror and thermometer making and in fur work, which produces a pecu- liar type of palsy known as "hatters' shakes." Yellow phosphorus, formerly used in the manu- facture Of matches, destroyed the jaws of those whom it attacked. During the war the suddenly increased use of picric acid and "trinitrotoluol" in filling shells, and of "tetrachlorethane" as a solvent in the varnish for airplane wings, gave rise to hundreds of cases of obscure poisoning and many deaths. Even if the dust given off in a trade is not poisonous — as the lint in a silk mill, or the grit in a quarry — after a long period of infiltration into the lungs it will cake the tis- sues and set up mechanical irritation and vari- ous forms of lung trouble. "Back in the first century after Christ," says Dr. Alice Hamilton, long an expert on these questions, "Pliny the Elder spoke of the diseases of slaves, lead poi- soning and mercury poisoning, and the consump- tion of knife grinders and potters. We have all of these still with us." Harmful germs and parasites also occur in industry. Thus the anthrax bacillus may infect tanners and workers in wool and hair, while miners' hookworm menaces those who toil under insanitary conditions amid warmth and moisture underground. The tunnel or caisson worker dreads compressed air illness or the "bends" caused by coming back too rapidly to an at- [85] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION • PREVENTION OF LEAD POISONING. By use of wet methods of polishing, the dangerous dust can be kept down. mosphere of normal density. Telegraphers' cramp, a painful twitching of the eyeballs known as miners' nystagmus, and other occupational neuroses come from excessive strain and long continued use of a single set of muscles. More difficult to trace are the ailments which may arise in any industry from improper lighting, poor ventilation, and ill-regulated temperature and humidity. Health and Morals of Child Workers Many of the restrictions on child labor are designed as a protection not so much against accidents as against dangers to health and mor- [86] Digitized by Microsoft® HEALTH als. Thus some states set a minimum age of six- teen years for employment with lead or com- positions containing poisonous acids. Others have fixed limits as high as eighteen or even twenty-one for night messenger service or other morally dangerous work. In a number of lead- ing states children applying for work permits must be physically examined, and educational requirements are common. Employment of Women and Men Because of their inherently weaker resistance to certain health dangers, as well as for moral reasons, women are frequently restricted from some kinds of work. Among these are occupa- tions which require constant standing, operation of emery or polishing wheels, and employment in saloons. Some states forbid the employment of women in manufacturing or mercantile establish- ments for a few weeks before and after child- birth. Legal regulations for the exclusion of men from dangerous Employments apply only to in- dividuals who are found by examination to be unable to withstand the hazards. Thus a few states bar from work in compressed air men who fail to pass a physical test or who use intoxicants to excess. But most common occupational dis- eases come on so slowly that the examination must be repeated periodically if health is to be [87] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION "DOPING" AIRPLANE WINGS. The varnish which kept the birdmen's wings taut contained a poisonous substance known as " tetrachlorethane." properly guarded. Such examinations are pro- vided for in these compressed air laws, and also in the "lead laws" of half a dozen important lead using states. In bakeshops and other food es- tablishments statutes occasionally prohibit the employment of persons with a contagious disease which might be passed on to fellow workers or to consumers of the product. Prohibition of Dangerous Substances Another form of prohibitive legislation de- signed to protect health forbids the industrial use of well-known poisons or other disease-pro- [88] Digitized by Microsoft® HEALTH during agencies. Ten European countries have united in an international treaty banning poison- ous phosphorus in the match industry, and the United States attained the same result by levying a prohibitive tax of two cents a hundred on matches made with this ingredient. Canada and Mexico and a number of colonies have also outlawed it. Some European countries, notably France, have taken steps to prohibit the use of lead in paint. Famous in textile history is the "kiss of death" shuttle, which requires the operative to suck the thread into it. Both Massachusetts and Rhode Island now forbid the use of shuttles of this type, but because of the difficulty of finding satisfac- tory substitutes the laws are not very effective. Contagious diseases among glass blowers are guarded against in France and Portugal by re- quiring individual blowpipes. Use of the com- mon drinking cup or towel is forbidden in some states, and pure drinking water is often required. Regulation of Workshop Conditions Less drastic than the principle of prohibition is that of regulation, which has been followed in most enactments on industrial hygiene. Dust and fume, whether metallic, chemical, vegetable or animal in origin, and whether poisonous or not, are among the most insidious and serious of modern health hazards. Illness and death, of [89] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION wage-earners vary almost in direct proportion to the contamination of the air supply in their occupation. Hence about half the states have enacted provisions that factories shall be ven- tilated, but the wording is in most cases so vague that it means little. More important are the statutes which require the removal of dangerous dust and fume at the point of origin by specially constructed hoods, hoppers, and exhaust fans. Regulations of this type have been established either by statute or by administrative order prin- cipally in the large lead using states. As addi- tional precautions most of these laws require wet cleaning methods, respirators, washing fa- cilities, special working clothing, separate wash- ing and lunch rooms and prohibit the bringing of food or drink into the work places. Similar provisions in other countries have helped reduce the risk of lead poisoning far below previous American experience. Despite recent striking increase in the number of anthrax cases among tanners and leather work- ers, the United States has done little to coun- teract this striking industrial disease. Common legal safeguards in other countries include dis- infection of hides, hair and bristles, special over- alls, neck coverings and gloves, and facilities for thorough washing. Some states forbid sleeping in workrooms, and some require that rags for wiping machinery be [90] Digitized by Microsoft® HEALTH ANTHRAX GERMS. The slender rod-like bodies are the anthrax bacilli among the blood corpuscles of a patient. sanitary. To guard against infection from small wounds, the requirement of factory "first-aid" kits is growing. Particularly striking is the special protection of women manifested in the legislation requir- ing seats, toilets, and dressing rooms. Almost every state requires seats for women in mercan- tile establishments, and a majority extend the provision to manufacturing. These laws are of little importance, as it is practically impossible to make sure that use of seats is permitted. Near- ly every state requires sanitary and separate toi- [91] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION lets for women workers in addition to those for men. Tenement house manufacture, or the "sweat- shop" system, is often held up as a pleasant and easy method by which poor women and children can add at leisure to the family income. As a matter of fact, such work has usually proved a menace to wage standards and to existing labor laws. Congestion, insanitary conditions, unregu- lated hours and unrestricted child labor flour- ish when thousands of tenement factories are added to the burden of the factory inspector. At- tempts to prohibit tenement house manufacture have so far been ruled out by the courts, but further restrictions are gradually being secured. In the field of industrial hygiene as well as in safety work it has been found inefficient for the legislature to enact hard and fast standards which are incapable of amendment until the fol- lowing session. So diverse are the requirements of different industries, and so rapidly do tech- nical processes change, that here also there is a need of the method of regulation by continuing investigation by committees of those directly in- terested, under supervision of an industrial com- mission. When occupational and other sick- ness is brought under social insurance as acci- dents already are, much more attention will be paid to its^ prevention. [92] Digitized by Microsoft® , . Self-Government in Industry v CHAPTER Six WORKING people did not always have the right to organize into unions for the advancement of their own inter- ests,, as they have to-day, in most civilized countries. When the craftsmen's guilds of the middle ages gave way a century ago to the present industrial system based upon the relation of employers and employees, the work- men were often forbidden to meet for the dis- cussion of trade matters. Associations of wage- earners were declared to be "conspiracies," and were prohibited by law in both England and France. The idea that unions of workers were con- spiracies was brought to America by the colo- nists, and many strikes or movements for better pay in this country were followed by prosecu- tions. In the earliest cases the juries always convicted. But the spread of the factory system, throwing workers together in larger and larger groups, and giving them a sense of their com- mon interest, directly encouraged organization. In 1824 and 1825 the conspiracy statutes in Eng- land were repealed, and during the following decade in America the doctrine was gradually [93] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION HAVTERS' SHAKES. Matters, mirror makers and others who come in contact ivith mercury, contract a peculiar palsy or trembling of the hands. modified by common consent and interpretation by the courts. Growth of Trade Unions The first recorded trade union in America was a little local organized by the Philadelphia shoemakers in 1792. By 1833 the workers had learned the value of all the trades in one center sticking together, and the first city federation of unions in various crafts was formed in New York. Three years later the shoemakers built up the first national union, which took in mem- bers of their trade throughout the country. Now there are about 125 such national unions, repre- senting most of the important trades, and affil- iated mainly with the American Federation of [94] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY Labor. Their membership includes some 3,- 000,000 people, or about one-tenth of all the wage-earners in the country. In England and other countries the proportion of those orga- nized is much larger. Many employers, including some of the larg- est corporations, still bitterly oppose all at- tempts of their men to organize, and will not allow a union member to work for them if they know it. In their efforts to prevent the growth of unionism they are assisted by certain Supreme Court decisions. In one case the court declared that employers had a perfect right to discharge workmen for joining a union. In another case this highest court in the country decided that a union had no right to attempt to organize men if they had agreed as a condition of employment not to join any union. These two decisions to- gether seem to make it possible for powerful employers absolutely to destroy all organiza- tion among their working force, although they themselves have full scope to unite in manufac- turers' or employers' associations of various sorts. Nevertheless, the legal right to organize is now generally recognized. To protect this right Con- gress a few years ago passed the Clayton act, which declares that "labor is not a commodity" and prohibits the laws against trusts from being interpreted so as to interfere with the existence of labor organizations. During the war, in or- [95] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION CAISSON IN FULL OPERATION. Workers {"sand hogs") at bottom of caisson work under atmospheric pressure to prevent water from flowing in. [96] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY der to prevent serious unrest and consequent reduction of output, the government went even further. Through the War Labor Board and other bodies for the settlement of disputes it in- duced many anti-union employers, temporarily at least, to permit unions in their establishments. Strikes and Lockouts But while the right of labor unions to exist is no longer questioned in this country, they are still hampered in many of their activities. Forced labor is slavery, and therefore is not per- mitted in America except as a punishment for crime. Hence a man cannot be compelled to work if he wants to quit, even if he has signed a contract to work. But when many men quit together, the action becomes a "strike," and this act, the most essential of labor's weapons, has often been condemned as illegal. The theory on which some strikes are con- demned is that many persons acting together have a power for harm which no one person pos- sesses. The deciding point appears to be the rather vague one of whether the movement is designed primarily to benefit the strikers, or to injure the employer or non-unionists. Thus strikes for higher wages or shorter hours are everywhere considered lawful. But strikes to gain a closed shop, sympathetic strikes, strikes against obnoxious foremen or non-union mate- [97] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION PROTECTED FROM DUST Respirators keep flying particles of metal from getting into grinders' lungs. rial, and strikes growing out of jurisdiction dis- putes between rival unions, have been con- demned in many states. Only in California is it settled law that all strikes are legal. On the other hand, the right of an employer to close his shop when he wishes, in other words to enforce a "lock-out," is still unquestioned. Picketing Strikes cannot be won if the employer is able to fill his shop with strike-breakers. Hence the strikers try to prevent the employer from get- [98] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY ting them. They may do this either through persuasion or through intimidation. All courts agree that intimidation is unlawful, but persua- sion is usually permitted. There is, however, no very clear line between the two. Many courts uphold peaceful picket- ing, but others declare that there is no such thing. Charges of violence are often made by both strikers and employer, but the evidence is sel- dom clear, and most decisions have gone against organized labor. In several states the courts have condemned all picketing, and some have even made it illegal by statute. Boycott and Blacklist Another collective weapon of labor to secure its demands is the boycott. The cooks or waiters may by pickets or advertising attempt to turn trade away from a restaurant keeper who refuses to hire union help or to grant union conditions. This is a so-called "primary" boycott. But few employers sell directly to consumers. If the hat- ters wished to enforce a boycott on a hat manu- facturer, they would have to appeal to their friends not to purchase his goods from the haber- dashers. This would bring into the matter a third party, the retailer, who was not directly concerned in the original quarrel, and would constitute a "secondary" boycott. [99] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION As early as 1886 boycotts were declared il- legal, and many decisions have since confirmed this view. Both kinds of boycotts are usually condemned, but the court statements against pri- mary boycotts are all incidental references in decisions which condemn secondary boycotts. The argument against the secondary boycott is usually that it amounts to an attempt to coerce a third party, and therefore is a conspiracy. Until 1908, however, boycotting was conduct- ed openly and fearlessly. Trade union papers customarily carried long lists of employers under the heading "Unfair" or "We don't pat- ronize." In the year mentioned a Danbury hat manufacturer was awarded triple damages and costs under the anti-trust law for alleged in- juries to his business through a boycott started by the hatters' union in the struggle to organize his shop. More than $230,000 was levied against the union, and as it could not pay, the threat was made that the homes of several members would be sold to satisfy the judgment. This was avert- ed by collection of an assessment among the or- ganized workers generally. Less use is now made of the boycott than formerly. The weapon in the employer's hands which most closely corresponds to the boycott is the "blacklist," or the agreement not to employ cer- tain workmen. Most states have laws prohibit- ing blacklisting, but they are dead letters. In [100] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY CLEANLINESS BREEDS HEALTH. Workers should not eat or leave the factory without thoroughly washing their hands. these days of watermarked paper, telegraph, and telephone, it is easy for one employer to give another secret information which may lead to a workman's discharge. The employer's right to discharge is absolute, and the man who is de- prived of a livelihood usually has no proof against the person who supplied the information. "Open" and "Closed" Shop As already stated, strikes to secure a "closed" shop are often held to be illegal. A closed shop is one in which only members of the union are permitted to work. Employers object to this re- [101] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION A FACTORY HOSPITAL. Hospitals in modern industrial establishments help to main- tain health and efficiency. striction as an interference with their business, and are likely to contend for the "open" shop, in which theoretically any one, union or non-union, may find employment. In practice, however, the open shop in name is usually a closed shop in an opposite sense — closed to union mem- bers. Unionists point out that if they allow non- members to slip in, their own control of the shop is weakened and standards are soon low- ered. Wages are cut, or hours lengthened, or the beginnings of industrial democracy are stamped out. Since the employers' right to or- [ioa] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY ganize is unquestioned, labor believes that it should be given equal privilege. Mediation or Conciliation In the effort to secure industrial peace, vari- ous plans have grown up for preventing dis- putes between employers and employees from becoming acute, or for bringing the two sides together after a break, has occurred. About three-quarters of the states have permanent boards for this purpose. The federal govern- ment also has various provisions of the sort, the best known having been the War Labor Board created in 191 8. In mediation or conciliation the government officials act as go-betweens con- sulting employers and employees in turn. They carry proposals from one to the other, or bring them into joint conference, so that an agreement may be reached. The opportunity for sympa- thetic and tactful work in this direction is very large, and settlements gained in this way are likely to satisfy both parties. Arbitration Another method of settling trade disputes is arbitration, in which a binding decision is given by an outside agency. Attempts to require the compulsory submission of disagreements to an arbitration tribunal never made much headway in England, except for a time during the war, but in New Zealand and Australia compulsory [103] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION IN THE U. S. White states, and the federal government for its own em- ployees, provide indemnity for industrial accident. arbitration boards have been universally estab- lished within a couple of decades. One reason for this trend is the growth of political democ- racy, which brought about more confidence of the people in the government. Another is the demand of employers for protection against the more powerful unions. As a means of prevent- ing strikes these laws have often been commend- ed, but they have not prevented suspension of work in some important cases. A Canadian law requires the compulsory in- vestigation of industrial disputes and prohibits strikes or lockouts in public utilities and mines without due notice. The miners are hostile to the law, as they say it gives the companies time [104] Digitized by Microsoft® Self-government in industry to secure strike-breakers and to pile up stocks of coal. Employers favor the act, and it seems on the whole to have diminished the number of strikes. A similar statute was adopted by Colorado in 1915, but has aroused much bitter- ness among organized labor. At the same time, many prominent employers and labor representatives favor the existence of state or federal tribunals before which disputes can be voluntarily laid by those concerned, with the understanding that the decision will be bind- ing. The War Labor Board, created to meet emergency situations in munitions, shipbuilding and other essential industries, acquired a coun- try-wide reputation for fair and enlightened de- cisions. Toward Industrial Democracy The emphasis laid on the idea of democracy during the war had its echo in industry. It sud- denly strengthened the demand which labor had been falteringly making for representation in economic as well as in political affairs. More and more of late have the workers been striving not only for better wages, hours, and conditions, but for an actual voice in industrial manage- ment. The British "shop stewards' " movement, which aims to set up in the shops a form of trade union administration more responsive to the wishes of the rank and file, is only another manifestation of this tendency. [105] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION During the war labor in all countries secured a degree of recognition little known before. Its leaders became cabinet ministers. It had a seat on governing boards of important war indus- tries. It awoke to a new sense of its own respon- sibility and power which it is not likely to lose in the future. Notably in England has constructive attention been paid to the new aspirations of the working masses. There a joint official commission of PRACTICAL RETRAINING. Maimed worker learning draftsmanship in spite of loss of an arm. [106] Digitized by Microsoft® SELF-GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY employers and trade union leaders, while the conflict with Germany was still on, submitted to the government an epoch-making plan for labor's participation in the government of indus- try. The commission recommended the estab- lishment, in all important branches of produc- tion, of joint standing industrial councils com- posed of representatives of both employers and employees. These councils are to consider such questions as industrial relations, wage adjust- ments, security of employment, technical educa- tion and improvement, legislation, and extension to the workpeople of further responsibility for determining their conditions of labor. To as- sist in these objects, district councils within each industry are proposed, organized on the same basis of joint representation, and under these there are to be works committees for individual plants. Some eleven of these national councils were organized before the end of 191 8, and many of them have their work well under way. Similar proposals have been made for the United States, but have not yet taken definite shape. Development along this line may well be the direction which progress toward further self-government in industry will take. The right to organize and to collective bargaining, pain- fully evolved through nearly a century, appears about to merge into the right to co-operative management of the agencies of production. [107] Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Social Insurance Chapter Seven AS long ago as 1559 Sir Nicholas Bacon, in opening Queen Elizabeth's first Parliament, referred to the fact that wise merchants "in every adventure of danger" paid part of the value of their cargo to have the rest insured. Other kinds of insurance soon sprang up, so that to-day we have fire insurance, burglary insurance, hail in- surance, and many similar devices for distribut- ing economically among many the losses which would otherwise fall crushingly upon a few. For the working man and woman, who depend for a livelihood not on income from property but on wages earned by their daily labor, some form of insurance is equally necessary to protect them against destitution following industrial accident, sickness, unemployment, invalidity, and old age. Still it has been found that the mass of wage- earners do not readily take out insurance against these hazards through ordinary commercial channels. The reasons for this failure are partly the inadequate incomes of the majority of wage- earners, which leave insufficient margin for the purpose, partly the excessive cost of private in- surance operated for profit, and partly lack of [109] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION REDUCTION OF INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS Decrease in one large establishment after the passage of the New York workmen's compensation law. foresight. Collective action has been found nee • esSary if the insurance is to become general. The system of providing wage-earners with rea- sonable protection against the hazards of life by legislative enactment, at low cost, often assisted by contributions from employers, and usually with the element of compulsion introduced, is called social insurance. In addition to warding off destitution due to mischance, insurance has another very desirable social effect. It gives force to efforts for cut- ting down the risk, so as to reduce the cost of the insurance. "If society and industry and the individual," said Louis D. Brandeis, in 1911, [no] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE before he became a member of the Supreme Court, "were made to pay from day to day the actual cost of sickness, accident, invalidity, pre- mature death, or premature old age consequent upon excessive hours of labor, of unhygienic con- ditions of work, of unnecesary risk, and of ir- regularity of employment, those evils would be rapidly reduced." This prophecy has already been strikingly fulfilled with regard to indus- trial accidents. Workmen's Compensation for Accidents Accidents are spectacular. They occur at a definite time, and responsibility can usually be fixed. Probably for these reasons the first form of social insurance to be extensively developed in the United States was workmen's' compensation for industrial accidents. Before the introduction of workmen's compen- sation laws the injured employee could recover for his suffering, maiming, loss of earnings, and expense of medical treatment only by suing his employer in a court of law. As such action was likely to mean discharge, few employees sought their legal remedy unless the injury were very severe and the expected indemnity correspond- ingly large. If a case was brought to court, the employer sought shelter behind a number of traditional legal defenses. One was the "fellow servant'* Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION rule, by which it was frequently held that some other workman, not the employer, was respon- sible for the injury. Since most employees now- a-days work in large groups, this was very often the case, and the injured workman lost his suit. Another defense of the employers was "contribu- tory negligence," which meant that the victim of the accident had brought it on himself by some want of care, however slight. Finally, the employer might claim immunity under the prin- ciple of "assumption of risk." According to this principle the workman by accepting employment took upon himself all the customary hazards of the occupation, and also any extraordinary, risk of which he became aware, but in spite of which he continued working. It can readily be seen that under such condi- tions injured workmen, or their dependents if the accident were fatal, stood small chance of recovering damages. Moreover, employers usu- ally insured their liability with casualty insur- ance companies, which maintained strong bat- teries of expert legal talent for defeating work- men's claims. Investigations 'showed that of every $100 paid by employers in liability pre- miums, only about $28 ever reached the claim- ants, and so late that the worst of the need was past. Rising dissatisfaction with these methods re- sulted in the American movement for work- [«2] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE men's compensation legislation similar to that which was already in force in some European countries for decades. Two pioneer statutes were declared unconstitutional, but in 191 1 the first state compensation act to go into permanent ef- fect was secured in New Jersey. In the period 1911-1919 the legislation spread to forty-two states and territories, and the United States gov- ernment adopted a model act covering its own million civilian employees. The validity of these laws has now been established beyond question by favorable decisions of the Supreme Court. The direct aim of these laws is twofold — to restore the injured man to industry as completely and quickly as possible, and to provide for the support of the family during the period of dis- ability. Most American laws provide for medi- cal care, but they hedge it in with limits ranging from one week to ninety days in time or from $25 to $250 in amount. To lighten the admin- istrative burden and to discourage men from "laying off" unduly for minor injuries, most laws set a "waiting period" of from three days to two weeks during which no compensation is paid. As only about 25 per cent, of accidents requiring medical care cause disability for more than two weeks it is clear that the latter period is too long. For death and disability the best laws, such as those of New York and Ohio, award 66 2/3 per cent, of wages, within certain limits. Death bene- Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION Accident and Sickness as factors in producing dependency JUarftdfivma My of XfSI 'Biarify Guafy Vie llnilal Sales Immijmlim fmaiaim. 1909 Sickness was a factor in 12082 cases, or 38.3% of the total number Accident was a factor in 1.211 cases.or 3.89b of the total number Sickness: 6544 cases Accident: 1.004 cases 0isa6ilUy of 'Breadwinner Mlone H i. Sickness: 12.082 cases Accident: 1211 cases Disability of Breadwinner or of oi/ur Jte/noer of XunUy Sickness is a factor in 6 Vi times as much dependency as is industrial accident. The State requires insurance against industrial accident but not yet against sickness, a more urgent need. NEED FOR HEALTH INSURANCE. fits in the good laws are paid until the widow dies or remarries, and disability benefits during the disability even if it be lifelong. For partial disability several sliding scales have been de- vised to apportion compensation to the degree of incapacity. Important provisions in most of the acts require employers to insure their risk, sometimes in a state fund, in order to guarantee benefits to the injured, and provide for super- visory administration by a state bureau or com- mission. A beginning has also been made in providing vocational reeducation or "rehabilita- tion" for men who sustain permanent injuries which interfere with their continuing in their pld occupations. [114] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE In a few of the laws, including the federal em- ployees' act, occupational diseases are covered under the term "personal injuries." It has been found that so doing staves off hardships in some meritorious cases, and increases the cost of the act only i or 2 per cent. Health Insurance Most sickness from which wage-earners suf- fer, however, cannot be clearly and directly traced to industry. Therefore even the wide adoption of occupational disease compensation would leave most of the sickness hazard uncov- ered. Further protection is needed if the pres- ent enormous yearly wage losses and doctors' bills are to be more equitably distributed. The draft boards have showed that about a third of America's young manhood is physically unfit for military service. Sickness causes seven times as much appeal to charity as do industrial accidents. About one-third of those too ill to work are getting no medical care. Every year 15,000 mothers die from causes connected with childbirth, and 250,000 infants are carried off in the first year of their lives. Throughout the country the degenerative diseases — the wear and tear diseases — are on the increase. These well-known facts point to the need for social action, and one of the most frequently^ indicated steps is the establishment of workmen's^ [us] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION health insurance. Official investigating commis- sions in five states have reported in favor of this measure. A bill passed by the New York state senate with the full backing of the state fed- eration of labor and scores of civic organizations sought to provide for sick wage-earners and their dependents full medical care for twenty-six (.Courtesy New York Women's Joint Legislative Conference.) "PROTECTED!" This workingman's family is ready for the inevitable "rainy day" caused by sickness. [»6] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE weeks in any year, and special maternity care for insured women and wives of insured men. Cash benefit, in order not to interfere with trade union and fraternal benefit funds, was set at 66 2/3 of wages, but in no case more than $8 a week. A burial benefit of $100 was included. The expense of these benefits was to be met by equal contributions from employers and work- men. Administration was in the hands of local mutual funds democratically managed by repre- sentatives of both sides, under supervision of the state industrial commission. Health insurance systems on this general plan are in successful operation in ten European countries, including England. In Italy, so im- portant was maternity insurance considered that a compulsory system was inaugurated long be- fore general health insurance was taken up. These laws have furnished the workers in the respective countries better medical care than they ever enjoyed before, have distributed large sums in cash benefits to prevent destitution in the families of the sick, and have exerted telling in- fluence on the development of measures for "Health First" in industrial and community circles. Unemployment Insurance Destitution due to unemployment, which was until recently considered a matter of purely in- [117] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION I 1 Compulsory Health Instance' Subsidizes Voluntary System \'o General State System HEALTH INSURANCE IN EUROPE. Most leading countries in Europe already provide health insurance for their industrial workers. dividual concern or of charity, is now also com- ing to be recognized as an evil that should be met by the forethought of society as a whole. Unemployment insurance originated first among labor unions, which footed the cost them- selves without outside aid. This method achieved considerable success in Europe, but in the United States only a few national unions or local branches are known to pay out-of-work benefits. Apparently the burden is too heavy and grievous to be borne by the workers without assistance. [118] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE In the effort to encourage wage-earners to pro- vide in time of employment for their needs when work was slack, the city of Ghent in Belgium adopted in 1901 the plan of offering subsidies to trade unions which paid unemployment benefits. This "Ghent system" rapidly spread to other countries. The subsidies vary from 33 1/3 to 100 per cent, of the amounts expended by the unions. It is 'generally recognized, however, that even this voluntary subsidized plan fails to reach a large enough number of workers. The lesson taught by other branches of social insur- ance points to obligatory insurance as the solu- tion of the problem. Great Britain is the country which has most thoroughly heeded the lesson. There, as part of the national insurance act of 191 1, which dealt also with health insurance, a nation-wide system of compulsory unemployment protection was set up. At the outset about 2,500,000 workmen were covered, about an eighth of those in the country, but this number has since been extended. Em- ployer, employee, and the government contribute to a fund from which, in case of unemployment, the worker receives a small weekly cash benefit for fifteen weeks in any year. As a protection to the employer, a workman is refused benefit while on strike, or if he has quit without due cause or is discharged on just grounds. On the other hand, an unemployed [119] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION man does not forfeit his benefits if he refuses to act as a strike breaker or to take wages below his usual rate or the current rate in the community. To prevent abuse, the system is administered in close connection with the public employment offices, so that a man's inability to secure a place can be rapidly tested. During the demobiliza- tion period England was reported to be paying out $5,000,000 a week in unemployment benefits. Definite incentive to reduce labor turnover and unemployment is held out by offering both employers and men refunds for steady work. Cenrtsi/ 0/ AitotUlun fat Ljter Ltfiilatfwi WHY NOT EQUAL PROTECTION? American workman's social insurance protection compared with British workman's. [120] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE Unemployment insurance bills have been drafted for introduction in several American states. Ten weeks' benefit was tentatively pro- posed, with the proviso that the amount should be generous if possible. Refunds to employers who ran their plants steadily, and to workmen who were seldom out of employment, and cor- responding penalties for casual labor, were in- cluded for the purpose of regularizing industry. Invalidity Insurance Invalidity, or a chronic condition of disability not caused by accident, partakes somewhat of the nature of both sickness and old age. Perhaps for this reason insurance against it is carried in Eng- land along with the former, and in other coun- tries with the latter. In any case the same mo- tives of humanity and social foresight which lead to protection against pauperism from the other hazards of life should result in provision for in- validity also. Old Age Insurance Rapid development of industry has empha- sized the individual's earning power. Old age has been deprived of the esteem once bestowed on it, and the worn-out worker is likely to be cast unfeelingly on the scrap-heap of industry. To ward off old age poverty, three methods have been practiced — charity, saving, and insur- ance. Charity, however, is now looked upon as [121] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION SHOP COMMITTEE MEETING. The members of this committee meet periodically to discuss the problems arising out of their work. inadequate, degrading, and uncertain. Indi- vidual saving is unnecessarily expensive, even if prevalent low wages did not prevent or cripple it. There is left the method of insurance. Voluntary old age insurance or pension plans are found in a few American fraternal societies and trade unions. Commercial old age insur- ance, which is fairly wide spread among the mid- dle class in Europe, is hardly known here. As a consequence of the slight spread of purely voluntary insurance plans, a number of coun- tries and one or two American states have seen [122] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE fit to encourage them by offering subsidies. But even state assistance and supervision have failed to reap large results. Experts agree that even generous subsidies attract only a few wage-earn- ers, and that the resultant benefits are small and uncertain. Compulsory old age insurance is found in half a dozen countries, but the benefits are so small as to be almost negligible, and they are granted in most places only to persons completely unable to earn a living. Another method, found in Great Britain, Australia, and elsewhere, is the establishment of straight non-contributory pen- sions. It is sometimes objected that such pen- sions tend to keep down wages, destroy the habit of thrift, and injure family solidarity. It is re- plied that persons old enough for pensions are a very slight item in the labor market, that thrift is already made difficult or impossible by low wages, and that the regard of children for their parents is not enhanced by the latter's being wholly dependent. In the United States it is estimated that about 1,250,000 of the people over sixty-five years of age are dependent upon public or private char- ity, to the amount of about $250,000,000 annu- ally. Yet, declares a leading authority, "the United States is the only great industrial nation in the civilized world that has not already at- tempted a practical and permanent solution of [123] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION Employers Employees Boards of Health InsmaneefimpanteiL | Committee Meetings and Proposed Rules. | I Public Hearings. I | Administrative Orders. | Employment Bureaus Woman and Child Labor. Statistics, Exhibits and Publications. OUTLINE OF ADMINISTRATION UNDER A STATE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION. [124] Digitized by Microsoft® SOCIAL INSURANCE this problem of old age and dependency." Of late the trade unions have taken up the matter vigorously, and several state commissions have been appointed to study it, so that developments in this direction may be looked for in the near future. [I25l Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS Chapter Eight LABOR legislation,. no matter how good it may look, is of little use unless it is intelligently and thoroughly enforced. A statute which confers on the workers certain rights or guarantees them a certain pro- tection is only a scrap of paper unless it is lived up to. The early labor laws both in this country and abroad merely made pious general statements about what should or should not be done. They provided no officer specifically charged with the duty of seeing that their provisions were car- ried out. It was left to the person who con- sidered himself aggrieved to complain to the sheriff, policeman, prosecuting attorney, or other official of the court, who was then supposed to prosecute. As far as employers were concerned, this ar- rangement was satisfactory. If a body of work- men went on strike for higher wages, and thus seemed to their employer to violate the statute forbidding "conspiracy," he could usually en- gage lawyers and have the alleged offenders brought to bar. For the workmen, however, the situation was very different. They did not dare complain for fear of discharge. They had not [137] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION the means to retain attorneys. The public offi- cials who were supposed to handle such mat- ters were local functionaries, afraid of antag- onizing the wealthy and influential members of the community, and usually had other duties more pressing. This is the condition which still exists in some states. Labor Bureaus The first state labor bureau in the world, es- tablished in Massachusetts in 1869, had for its purpose the collection of information on wages, hours and working conditions. Even the labor unions which struggled until they secured its creation did not yet realize the need of giving it power to enforce the labor laws. Similar bureaus have now been established in nearly all the states and by the federal government. As more experience was gained, the functions of these bureaus were expanded. From time to time they were called upon to carry on investi- gations which would otherwise have been con- ducted by special legislative commissions. Factory Inspectors In 1879 Massachusetts again took the lead by appointing the first American factory inspectors. These officials formed a class of special state police, whose duty it was to investigate con- ditions in the workplaces, to secure their own evidence of any violations, and then to conduct [ia8] Digitized by Microsoft® ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS the prosecutions without calling upon the em- ployees to testify. About half the states now have such inspectors, the force in New York, the largest manufacturing commonwealth, num- bering more than 150. In most cases the fac- tory inspection bureau has been combined with the bureau of labor statistics, but in some states both of these bodies are in existence side by side. A number of reasons have combined to make much factory inspection in this country rather ineffective. The inspectors have usually been political place holders who had little or no train- ing for their important work. They are poorly paid. They are frequently changed? They re- ceive little recognition for honest, "efficient work, and lack opportunity for promotion and a pro- fessional career. They are often far too few for the volume of work. A great deal of their time is spent in collecting statistics which are incomplete and usually out of date when they appear. Meanwhile the courts are frequently declaring labor laws unconstitutional partly be- cause sufficient facts are not presented to dem- onstrate conclusively the need and the reason- ableness of the legislation. This whole matter is now undergoing widespread discussion, and a number of promising attempts at improvement are under way. [129] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION Industrial Commissions Under the American theory of government the legislature is given the duty of investigat- ing conditions and drafting necessary measures in accordance therewith. Growing complexity of conditions makes this duty more and more difficult, if not impossible, to fulfil. Legisla- tive assemblies, composed mainly of lawyers and farmers, cannot hope to become experts on tech- nical industrial matters. Moreover, even if they do investigate all details, the resulting legisla- tion in a short time becomes out of date and ceases to be applicable to every establishment and to every circumstance. As a result, the factory inspectors are forced to decide in their own discretion whether to enforce the law as it stands or not. This leads to inequality of ad- ministration, and opens the way to arbitrariness and even corruption. Remedy for this breakdown was sought by creating permanent commissions to deal with special labor matters. Thus a dozen states have declared that women and children must not be employed for less than a living wage, and have established minimum wage commissions to de- termine proper wage standards. More than half the states have workmen's compensation com- missions to determine, under the law laid down by the legislature, how much indemnity employ- ers shall pay in cases of industrial accident. [130] Digitized by Microsoft® ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS Usually commissions of this kind have been set up in addition to the existing state bureaus of labor statistics, factory inspection, and others dealing with related matters. Sometimes as many as eight or nine independent agencies con- cerned with labor problems have been in oper- ation at once in a state. The'duplication, overlapping, confusion, and wastefulness of this situation were accentuated when the workmen's compensation commissions began to issue rules and carry on inspections in factories for safety. The result was conflict of authority with the factory inspection bureaus. Gradually it was recognized that accident pre- vention and compensation were parts of the same public function, and should be in the hands of the same public body. The next step was then obvious. It was to combine all the scattered bureaus which han- dled labor questions into one state industrial commission, and to give to this commission the' power to investigate and issue rules to complete and apply the principles laid down in the statute law. Wisconsin, the first state to make this progressive change, was shortly afterward fol- lowed by New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illi- nois, and in less complete form by a few others. Regulation through Continuous Investigations The industrial commission is on the job con- tinuously, and not only at intervals like a legis- > [131] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION lature. It is not hurried to put through a mass of legislation before a specified date of adjourn- ment. It can therefore investigate thoroughly and in detail. It can issue different rules for different conditions, and can modify its rules when the conditions change or as soon ,as it dis- covers new and more effective remedies. The usual method for the preparation of an industrial commission order is somewhat as fol- lows: In connection with a given problem a joint committee of employers and employees is called together, which is assisted by technical experts and by representatives of the commis- sion. This committee provides for the represen- tation of interests which is necessary if all the facts are to be given due weight in its final de- cision. If such due weight is not given to all the facts, the decision may not be considered reasonable by the courts. The committee weighs the testimony of inspectors or investigators. It threshes out its differences, and finally reaches a recommendation which represents the knowl- edge and agreement of all. When this agree- ment has been reached, the recommendation is reported to the commission, which adopts it as its own and issues it as a tentative order. The next step is to hold a public hearing for all persons whose interests are affected. Oppor- tunity to be heard is essential to due process of law. After the public hearing the commission [132] Digitized by Microsoft® ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS drafts the rule in final form, and when it is officially published it goes into effect, with the full force of a law, on such date as the legisla- ture has previously designated. Even with this procedure the rules and orders of an industrial commission are not legally con- clusive and binding on the courts. If an em- ployer violates them, and is brought to trial, he is likely to offer as a defense that they are unreasonable in some respects. He may call them "class legislation," or say that they discrim- inate unfairly. In that case the court will have to examine into the constitutionality of the rules. But the legislature may limit the grounds on which the court may declare a rule unconsti- tutional. It may provide that a rule issued by the commission shall be nullified only for errors in law, and that if new facts are shown the rule shall be referred back to the commission for revision in accordance with those facts. Civil Service and Other Problems It is important that the officials appointed to enforce labor legislation be qualified for their work. Sometimes the operation of the laws has suffered because the inspectors or labor commis- sioners were selected for political reasons and were unsuited for their duties. The develop- ment of civil service has tended to correct this situation. In the best states there are careful [133] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATION examinations for all subordinates, tenure of of- fice is secure, and progress is being made toward more just salaries, promotions for merit, and the development of professional standards. As labor conditions become more complex, the task of drawing up progressive and humane legislation becomes more difficult. Specialists are needed to frame measures which will be workable, and which leave no loop-holes for easy evasion. Often enemies of labor laws seek to defeat their purpose by seeking to introduce "jokers," or apparently innocent clauses which would destroy much of the intended effect. Unless there is a penalty attached to violating a law, it is likely to become a dead letter. At the same time, if the penalty is too severe, judges are likely not to impose it. Sometimes in order to make sure that a violation is not allowed to continue, licenses are revoked, or a machine may be locked so that it cannot be used. Co-operation by Economic Pressure After all, the best enforcement of labor laws is secured when the co-operation of employers and employees themselves can be directly en- listed. Many improvements are directly to the interest of both, and if they can be made to realize this fact better results can be obtained than in any other way. Inspectors can at best visit the plant only every few months; work- men and employers are on the spot all the time. [134] Digitized by Microsoft® ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS One of the best methods for thus spurring em- ployers and workmen to act together for indus- trial betterment is through the constant economic pressure set up by social insurance. When there is a financial interest in reducing industrial evils, greater activity is noticeable in preventive work. International Labor Regulation Employers have frequently objected to pro- gressive labor measures which affected only their own state. They said they feared the competi- tion of rivals in other states who could operate under lower standards. Actual instances of in- dustries being crippled by scientific labor laws have, however, practically never been proved. Similar arguments are sometimes made when it is proposed to pass a labor law covering the whole country. Then the plea of international competition is raised. For this reason leading thinkers in many countries have advocated the adoption of labor protective standards on an in- ternational or world-wide basis. Such world-wide labor standards would pro- tect humane manufacturers in one nation from being held back in their improvements by the unchecked competition of those in more back- ward countries. They would also assist the backward countries in elevating their standards towards the level of the highest. Two international treaties embodying just [135] Digitized by Microsoft® LABOR PROBLEMS AND LABOR LEGISLATIO N such humane labor standards were in operation before the world war. One prohibited the use of poisonous phosphorus in the manufacture of matches, the other forbade night work for women. Each had been adopted by a dozen or more leading countries in both hemispheres. Be- sides these, there were a number of lesser re- ciprocal treaties dealing with rights of workmen under social insurance laws. During the war labor and civic welfare or- ganizations in many countries drafted programs of international labor standards for inclusion in the final peace settlement. Agreement on many of these was reached by a special commission of the peace conference. Provision was also made for a permanent international labor bu- reau, the staff of which is to include women, which will deal with labor problems common to all countries. Labor legislation, then, is based on the rec- ognition of certain evils in our industrial sys- tem, and on the equal recognition of the com- mon interest of all in overcoming them. It seeks to bind all groups in the community — employers, workers, and the public — into a united movement for industrial welfare. [136] Digitized by Microsoft® BRIEF LIST OF SELECTED READINGS I. EMPLOYMENT Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 261-293, 409-410; John B. Andrews, A Pracr tical Program for the Prevention of Unemployment; Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No.. 2, February, 1919, pp. 127-202; American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. IX, No. 1, March, 1919, pp. 75-103. Additional Information. Final Report of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, pp. 161-182; W. H. Beveridge, Unemployment, a Problem of Industry. II. WAGES Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 50-60, 167-199; Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February, 1919, pp. 91-124. Additional Information. Monthly Labor Review of the'United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, March, 1919, pp. 89-116; I. M. Rubinow, "The Present Trend of Real Wages," in The -Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1917; Adams and Sumner, Labor Problems, pp. 142-174. III. HOURS Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of La- bor Legislation, pp. 200-294; Lauck anc l Sydenstricker, Conditions of Labor in American Industries, pp. 176-191. Additional Information. Josephine Goldmark, Fatigue and Efficiency. IV. SAFETY Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 295-352; Lauck and Sydenstricker, Conditions Digitized by Microsoft® of Labor in American Industries, pp. 192-211; Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February, 1919, pp. 5-44. Additional Information. United States Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics, Bulletin No. 157, Industrial Accident Statistics. V. HEALTH Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of La- bor Legislation, pp. 295-352; Lauck and Sydenstricker, Conditions of Labor in American Industries, pp. 315-353; Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February, 1919, pp. 23-28. Additional Information. Kober and Hanson, Diseases of Oc- cupation and Vocational Hygiene. VI. SELF GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRY Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of La- bor Legislation, pp. 91-166 ; Taussig, Principles of Economics, Vol. II, pp. 261-284, 303-322; Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, Vol. VIII, No. 2, February, 1919, pp. 47-88. Additional Information. Final Report of the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, pp. 16-21, 135-155, 183-201; United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 327, Indus- trial Unrest in Great Britain. VII. SOCIAL INSURANCE Reading References. G. R. Miller, Social Insurance in America; Taussig, Principles of Economics, pp. 323-342; Commons and An- drews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 354-414; American La- bor Legislation Review, Vol. IX, No. 1, March, 1919, pp. 35-58, 107-153. VIII. ENFORCEMENT OF LAWS Reading References. Commons and Andrews, Principles of La- bor Legislation, pp. 415-464; American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. IX, No. 1, March, 1919, pp. 9-32. Additional Information. American Labor Legislative Review, June, 1917, "Labor Law Administration in New York." Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® AST Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® Digitized by Microsoft® HD7834.A5 rne " UniVerSi,yLibrary ifi?ii;i?iiiK™ ems and labor 'eg'slation 3 1924 002 720 633 Digitized by Microsoft® HD ft5 Digitized by Microsoft®