and the realization of democracy-to show what organized labor has been doing and why it is doing it. The data were furnishby Commissioners of Labor of the various States, covering the legislative session of 1911-12. Enactment of labor legislation does not usually come about without hard work on the part of its proponents. Their needs and theories must be presented and defended, hostile legislation must be defeated. Securing these positive and negative results requires that labor representatives be constantly in attendance and on guard. The trade union while essentially an economic organization, utilizes its power for political and social advantage. The labor organizations maintain legislative agents. This is particularly true of the American Federation of Labor, the State Federations, and city central bodies. The The most strikingly characteristic feature of the general enconomic legislation enacted during the past two years is compensation and insurance of employes. legislation is based upon a new theory of the costs of production. The old theory provided that the employer should bear the cost of material, machinery, and such loss as might result from use or waste of these. More recently, the employer has always set aside a certain sum for depreciation, but now the idea of the social cost of production entails still further provisions. The aroused social conscience is demanding that the public through the employer not only pay for the waste and destruction of material things, but for the waste and destruction of human life. The great social wealth that has come as a result of improved methods, mechanical inventions and power, and the development of natural resources, is in strong contrast to the distribution of wealth and the misfortunes of many of those who have aided in its production. People with enlightened consciences see the injustice of pauperism among workers who have produced a social wealth greater than that of any other country, and demand that more consideration and more care be given to the human element in production. Under the old system, in case of injury or death, the worker or his dependents had the right to institute legal proceedings, but the cost of the lawsuit and the time consumed in gaining judgment, the unequal advantage of his position in court as compared with his employer, the employer's defenses under the common law, rendered this method no adequate means to justice. To remedy this situation the workers and their friends have, in the last two years, succeeded in securing compensation or insurance laws in ten States. Compensation laws have been adopted by California, Wisconsin, New Jer sey, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Nevada. These laws are of two types; obligatory and optional. As a result of the New York experience, most of the States adopted nominally elective or optional laws. All these laws require the employer to bear the entire cost of the compensation. MassaOhio, chusetts, and Washington have adopted insurance laws. The Washington law is compulsory in certain enumerated extra-hazardous occupations; the Ohio law provides that 10 per cent of the expense shall be paid by the employes, and 90 per cent by the employers. The early Massachusetts experience with an optional compensation law revealed that such a law remains a dead letter. Accordingly, most of the laws abrogate or modify the employers' defenses under the common law. In California and New Jersey this abrogation is unqualified, but in the other States it is provided that in case the employer does not elect to accept the provisions of the law, he loses these defenses. Coercion is brought to bear upon the employe by providing that if he does not accept the compensation but carries his case to the court, then the employer retains the three common law defenses. This double-edge coercion is found in Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The laws all establish presumption in favor of adoption overcome only by express notices. New Jersey gives equal exercise of option to both employers and employes; elsewhere, the employe is discriminated against on the theory that he is more helpless and the employer can more easily force him to act contrary to his own advantage. These laws provide for benefit awards in the case of injuries, temporary or permanent, and in the case of death. The awards are determined according to a fixed schedule or upon a salary basis. While the maximum attainable may seem small as compared with the injury or what might be obtained in the common courts, there is yet a benefit due to the simplicity and cheapness of the process, and the sureness of the result. In case the employer and employe are not able to reach an agreement in regard to an injury or damages, administrative machinery of two types is furnished-industrial and judicial. New This expert knows decoration from mansion to cottage; from city skyscraper to country store. He knows goods and can speak from intelligent experience in their use. You know Bahlhorn and that he represents the best element in the Brotherhood, that his opinions are not for sale and cannot be purchased. Read in the December Number what he says. Alabastine The Beautiful Wall Tint has not always met the requirements of Mr. Bahlhorn. While willing to admit the many commendable features always possessed by the goods, he will tell you that in common with many other craftsmen he objected to the workings of Alabastine, particularly to the setting if left standing over night. So strong had that prejudice become that when his attention was called to the fact that this had been entirely overcome in the modern Alabastine, he "had to be shown." Some practical men today are opposing the use of Alabastine honestly thinking the goods will not work to please them and are in their working qualities the same as they may have used years ago, or that their fathers may have used. Alabastine as now manufactured spreads freely, flows together making a perfect wall and may be kept in good working condition for days. Alabastine is a time saver and a money saver. Your customers know about Alabastine, its advantages, and want it used on their walls. They are willing to pay a good price for good work. Fill out the coupon at the bottom of this page and let us tell you how we can help you get business and why it will pay you to be listed up as an Alabastine Man in your town. Do this to benefit yourself, not us. ALABASTINE COMPANY GRAND RAFIDS, MICHIGAN Alabastine Company Please tell us what you can do to help us get business and how Hampshire provides for proceedings in equity, New Jersey for proceedings in the courts of common pleas; the other States have provided some special industrial agency or commission with the right of referring all appeals to the courts. are pre Two methods of payment scribed; either by lump sum or by periodic remittances. Consensus of opinion greatly favors the latter method, since the average workingman is accustomed to dealing with small amounts and does not understand conserving his resources. This legislation places upon each industry the burden of its full social cost. It is generally conceded that the waste of the old system is economically indefensible-a waste absorbed by lawyers. The moral and social waste has been past computation. Commissions for investigating the subject of compensation and reporting laws to their State legislatures have been appointed by Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The work of such commissions has given us some of our most enlightened and progressive legislation; for example, the Illinois legislation on industrial diseases and the Massachusetts minimum wage law. These commissions deal with a great variety of subjects. Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts have appointed special commissions to draw up mining codes; New Jersey has appointed commissions to report upon old-age insurance and immigration; Massachusetts has appointed a homestead commission to inquire into the practicability of aiding workingmen to own their own homes and to find out what other countries have done along that line, also an educational commission to inquire into parttime schools. The commission has also been utilized as part of the administrative machinery. The Wisconsin Industrial Commission is an American State experiment with a policy very common in Europe that of blocking out a broad legislative policy and leaving the details to the administrative agents. The law provides that all places of employment shall be safe, defines "safe" in broad, general terms and directs the Industrial Commission to establish regulations and standards for securing the desired end. The adoption of this policy resulted from the conviction that a legislative body can not lay down specific regulations to meet all exigencies-the legislative body has neither the time nor the expert information. The establishing of these directions belongs more properly to the administrative agents, the State determined. Another principle that is gaining in favor with the legislators is that of the shorter working day, or the eight-hour principle. Under the old natural rights political theory, when government was considered a necessary evil-to be curbed and restricted lest it infringe upon the rights of the individual-such legislation was considered unconstitutional; but democratic control of the Government, the more sensitive social conscience, keener appreciation of the value of each individual, have widened the scope of legislative action so that it operates not only to protect property, but also to protect and to conserve human life. Laws for shorter workday are of this class. It seems unnecessary to comment on the fact that a normal working day enables the individual to be of greater productive value; time for rest and recreation enables him to come back to work invigorated. Women and children, considered the special wards of the State, have been guaranteed a shorter workday by New York, South Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Washington, and California. Men have been considered more capable of providing for their own needs, and are not so frequently protected by legislation; however, Colorado has enacted that eight hours be the working day in the coal mines and for employes in State tunnels; Pennsylvania has limited the working day of hoisting engineers in anthracite mines to eight hours; New Jersey and Wisconsin have provided an eight-hour day on public works; Connecticut has made the same provision for the engineers, firemen, and other craftsmen, who are State employes. Railroad accidents resulted in regulation of working time on railroads by two States. California has restricted the working hours of all railroad employes to sixteen per day, requiring that they have eight hours off duty; Nebraska has fixed sixteen hours as the workday for employes having charge of train movements, and nine hours work out of twenty-four for telegraph operators and dispatchers. Another phase of the regulation of work time appears in the Connecticut legislation, requiring that all workers be secured one day's rest out of seven. Wisconsin was working to the same end when she forbade the opening of certain shops or stores on Sunday as not work of necessity or charity. (To be continued) The New Prospectus Having the title page (The Road to Success) in colors, and Literature of the Chas. Kraut Academy of Decorative Art is ready now, and Painters interested in Decorative Art can secure it by sending two Cents in stamps to cover mailage. GET OUT OF THE RUT AND BEOCUME DECORATORS. Study does not interfere with your daily work, as we teach by correspondence only in six courses, as Flowers, Ornaments in all styles, decorative Landscapes and Figures. NO TALENT OR EXPERIENCE TERMS VERY REASONABLE. CHARLES KRAUT Academy of Decorative Art 819-821 North Trumbull Ave. SOME OF THE DOBBS'S THINKS Reported by JACKSON BIGGLES for The Public. "Biggles!" he said with much asperity in his voice, "I'm stirred to the depths." "What's done it?" I inquired as warmly as possible in the low temperature. "It's that man Root," he replied. "The shoemaker?" I queried. "Shoemaker! Nothin'," he said spitefully. "It's the Senator. Didn't you see what he said about the Recall?" I replied mildly, not seeking controversy at the moment. "No. I didn't see it. There was so much sporting news, I didn't get around to the police court reports yet." "It's just what I expected of you," said he with much heat. "You ought to have an expurgated newspaper to read all the time. Here's Root predicting the fall of the Republic and the extermination of liberty, and you go on contentedly reading about Jack Johnson's new car and the hope of the white race. If people were all like you Root wouldn't have anything to talk about, and we'd carry the elections by passing round cheap cigars and bribing the nickel shows." I tried to get excited about this remark, but the temperature prevented. "Why shouldn't Root talk about the Recall?" I queried. "It's human nature to hanker after soft jobs and stability in the same." "Sure 'nuff," said Dobbs. "I'm not kicking about that. I'm objecting to what he said and the way he said it. Jest listen. "The safety of American institutions depends on the independence of the judiciary. Decisions should be in accord with the laws as they are.' As Captain Cuttle remarked, "The p'int o' that observation lies in the application on't.' What institutions does he mean? and what shall the judiciary be independent of? Shall they be independent of the people that place them in power and pay their salaries? What institutions are in danger from the Recall? Is it the institution of tariff protection? Does he mean that the institution of government by party bosses and big campaign funds and jackpots is threatened? Is it possible that the sugar trust, the Standard Oil and the Steel Corporation will lose their harbor of safety if judges are subject to Recall? I'd like to know just what was in his mind then. I'd like to have him explain how decisions can be made in accord with the laws as they are. when nobody knows what these laws are until the odd judge at the top has made the last guess at it-and then a later guess coming to change it perhaps. It's asking too much of the judges, this is. That observation isn't so wise as it looks on the surface. Then he wants us to preserve law as it is in its course of continuous change and development. How we goin' to preserve anything that is continually changing? If we can it and seal it up, development will stop." "Sure thing!" I ventured to say. "But what's to be done about it?" "And then," continued Dobbs, "Root insists that the preservation of order, the prevention of anarchy, and the continuance of liberty and justice depend upon us doing what can't be done, preserving a thing that is continually changing and won't be preserved." "Well, Dobbs," I interrupted. "I'm a ifttle in the dark about these things. The lawyers are presumed to know the law-" "So are all the people," replied Dobbs with great heat, "and it's a rank presumption in both cases. If he knows the law, why does he say the respect for judicial decisions is based upon the idea that such decisions are different from political opinions, when nearly every court in the land has its finger in the political pie to such an extent that the people never know whether a law is valid or not, until some political judge has said that it is Constitutional or otherwise. I he knows what the law and the practice is he must have observed that a large proportion of cases before the courts, especially important cases, necessarily involve political questions, and that the demand from the people for the Recall has come from the fact that the courts have assumed legislative power, and also executive power in ordering municipalities and States to obey their injunctions During the last ten years a crusade has been carried on against tuberculosis in every civilized country. Much good has been accomplished and the death rate considerably diminished. This has led some enthusiasts to say that within twenty-five years tuberculosis would be banished from the earth. Such statements are not only unwarranted and unreasonable, but also misleading, and calculated to hinder real progress in this direction. Medical scientists have discovered the living cause of the disease and effective means of destroying it. They have also discovered that the factors concerned in the perpetuation and propagation of this disease are overwork, child labor, poverty, want, intemperate use of alcoholic liquors and narcotic drugs and all the various forms of vice and debauchery. Until these conditions are removed, or vastly improved, tuberculosis will continue to claim its victims. When the wealth of the nation is so distributed that each man receives enough and no man too much; when child labor shall have been abolished and when factories are conducted with a view of conserving the health of the employes, as well as for the purpose of earning dividends; when man shall have reached that stage of moral development where he is able to rise above the numerous forms of vice and debauchery that now degrade him physically and morally, then only may he hope to see tuberculosis eradicated. -Dr. G. Harlan Wells. There is no man alive, however he may strive, The chartered wrong, or Christ and liberty? |
