197. INDUSTRY AND HEALTH.—Wherever the Industrial Revolution has progressed beyond the initial stages, there has been an enormous increase in wealth and prosperity. At the same time, serious evils have accompanied the transition from a relatively simple agricultural stage to a stage dominated by the factory system. The tendency toward overcrowding in rapidly growing cities, the difficulties of maintaining a normal family life where mother or children are employed in factories, and the danger of overstrain, accident and disease in industrial pursuits, all these factors render very important the problem of health in industry.

Though health in industry is only one phase of the general problem of health, it will be impossible here to exhaust even that one phase. We shall accordingly confine ourselves to the discussion of three questions: first, child labor; second, the employment of women in industrial pursuits; and third, the insurance of our industrial population against accident, sickness, old age and unemployment.

198. CHILD LABOR: EXTENT AND CAUSES.—There are in this country more than two million children between the ages of ten and fifteen, engaged in gainful occupations. In all sections of the country large numbers of children are found in agriculture, this industry generally being beyond the scope of child labor laws. The employment of children in factories, mines, quarries, mills, and shops, on the other hand, is now considerably restricted by law. This is true of all parts of the country. However, child labor is still of wide extent in the United States, due to the large number of children found in agriculture, domestic service, street trades, stores, messenger service, and tenement homework.

Of the immediate causes of child labor one of the most important is the poverty of the parents. Where the parents are themselves day laborers, it is often considered necessary or desirable to increase the family earnings by putting the children to work.

From the standpoint of the employer child labor is rendered possible and even desirable by the development of types of work easily performed by small children. In many cases the tendency of parents to put young children to work is encouraged by the lax administration of school attendance laws. This tendency has also been encouraged by the indifference of the public to the evil effects of child labor.

199. EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOR.—Students of the problem of child labor unanimously condemn the practice of habitually employing young children outside the home. Where poorly paid children compete with men and women, they serve either to displace adults, or, by competition, to lower the wages of adults.

The effects upon the children themselves are injurious. Stunted, crippled, and diseased bodies are the result of steady work at too tender an age. Schooling is interrupted, so that child workers generally develop into illiterate and inefficient adults. When children are forced into gainful occupations at an early age, the family life is disrupted, and proper home training is difficult, if not impossible. Still another factor is the greater temptation to vice and crime confronting the child outside the home.

200. CHILD LABOR LAWS.—Since 1870 the growing acuteness of the child labor problem, together with an aroused public opinion, has served to increase the number of laws restricting child labor. At the present time, forty-five states forbid the employment in certain industries of children under fourteen years of age.

A Federal child labor law was passed in 1916, but two years later the measure was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. [Footnote: For an explanation of this point, see Section 214 of this chapter.] In 1919 a new Federal law was enacted. In order to avoid the charge of unconstitutionality, this measure attacks child labor indirectly. The law levies an excise tax of ten per cent on the entire net profits received from the sale of all the products of any mine, quarry, mill, cannery, workshop, factory, or manufacturing establishment, which employs children contrary to certain age and hour specifications. The effect of this ten per cent tax is so to reduce the profits of the employers affected, as virtually to prohibit child labor. By this means the act prohibits child labor in several important groups of industrial establishments.

The difficulty with the law is that it touches only about fifteen per cent of our two million child workers. It does not affect, for example, the large number of children employed in agriculture, domestic service, street trades, stores and restaurants, messenger service, and tenement homework.

201. MINIMUM PROVISIONS OF A GOOD CHILD LABOR LAW.—The passage of more comprehensive child labor laws is being advocated by a number of social agencies, notably by the National Child Labor Committee. The minimum provisions of a good child labor law have been set forth by the committee somewhat as follows:

As a general proposition, no child should be regularly employed in a gainful occupation who is under sixteen years of age. There should be an even higher age limit for child workers in quarries, mines, and other dangerous places. Children should not work more than eight hours a day. Nor should they be allowed to engage in night work until they have reached the age of, say, twenty years. All child applicants for industrial positions should first be required to pass educational tests and a physical examination. A good child labor law should provide for a corps of factory inspectors, as well as for other means of securing the efficient administration of the law. Lastly, it is important that there be close coÖperation between employers and the school authorities in the matter of child labor.

202. INCREASED NUMBER OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY.—There have always been women in industry, but of recent years the proportion of women so engaged has increased so rapidly as to create a serious social problem. From needlework, domestic service, and teaching, women have spread rapidly into trade, commerce, and the professions. A few years ago transportation and police work were monopolized by men, but to-day women are entering these fields rapidly. Though they outnumber men only in domestic and personal service, women are numerous in practically every important calling except plumbing and street cleaning. Altogether more than 8,000,000 women are engaged in gainful occupations in the United States.

203. WHY WOMEN RECEIVE LOWER WAGES THAN MEN.—Women generally receive lower wages than men. One reason for this is the physical weakness of women, which renders them less desirable in many types of work. Social conventions, home attachments, and, often, the lack of the venturesome spirit, combine to keep women from moving about in search of improved working conditions to the same extent as men. The expectation of marriage causes many young women to neglect to increase their efficiency, and this at least prevents their wages from increasing as rapidly as those of young men who undergo consistent training. The trade union is still little developed among women workers, a factor which often prevents higher wages from being secured. Low wages are often traceable to the fact that there is an over supply of girls and women in the labor market. Large numbers of girls and women are partially supported at home, and are able and willing to work for "pin-money" only. Many employers take advantage of this fact to offer very low wages.

204. LEGISLATION REGULATING THE LABOR OF WOMEN.—Although it would seem desirable to keep young children out of industry altogether, there is a general agreement among students of the problem that the labor of women ought to be further regulated rather than actually prohibited. A number of states have already enacted laws designed to safeguard women in industry. In some states the number of working hours for women has been cut from eleven to nine, while in other states the maximum number of hours during which women may work is eight. Some states prohibit night work for women in industrial establishments. The great majority of the states now provide for proper rest periods, guarded machinery, the ventilation of workrooms, and, where practicable, seats for women employees. To the extent that women actually do the same amount and quality of work as men, there is a growing feeling that men and women ought to receive equal pay.

205. THE MINIMUM WAGE.—A minimum wage law is one which specifies that in certain occupations laborers may not be paid less than a stipulated wage. The aim of the minimum wage is to protect the laborer against employment which, under freely competitive conditions, does not pay wages high enough to guarantee a decent living.

The first minimum wage law in the United States was passed by Massachusetts in 1912. The movement grew rapidly, and by 1921 more than a dozen additional states had adopted minimum wage laws. In some states the law applies only to specified industries; in others it covers all occupations. In some states the law covers only the employment of women, but in most cases the principle of the minimum wage applies to women and minors under eighteen, or even twenty-one years of age. In some foreign countries the minimum wage is also extended to the labor of men, but in the United States men are everywhere exempted from the operation of such laws.

206. ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF THE MINIMUM WAGE.—The champions of the principle of the minimum wage advance a number of arguments in its favor. It is contended that no industry is socially desirable if it cannot pay a living wage, for when wages fall below a certain minimum, poverty, ill-health, and vice are natural results. When laborers are themselves unable to improve their economic position, it is said, it becomes the duty of the state to guarantee them a living wage. Another argument in favor of the minimum wage is that it not only eliminates considerable poverty, but it makes possible a healthier and more contented labor force. It is claimed that strikes and social unrest are partially eliminated by the minimum wage.

207. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE MINIMUM WAGE.—In spite of the rapid spread of minimum wage legislation in this country, the principle has met with considerable opposition. It is claimed by some that where poverty is due to bad personal habits, the mere payment of a higher wage will not abolish poverty. It is also urged that because of price changes, and because of differing concepts of a standard of living, it is difficult to determine what is really a living wage. Some employers maintain that the minimum wage is contrary to economic law, since it forces the payment of a wage which the laborer often does not earn. The compulsory nature of the minimum wage is also opposed on the grounds that it constitutes an undue interference with individual rights. [Footnote: Formerly an important argument against the minimum wage was this: There are large numbers of people who cannot earn the minimum wage, and because employers will tend not to employ them, such persons will have to be supported by charity. The force of this argument is reduced, however, by the fact that most minimum wage laws now make special provision for the part-time employment of such persons.]

208. THE RISKS OF INDUSTRY.—In spite of the fact that most States now have detailed laws providing for the guarding of machinery and the supervision of dangerous occupations, a half million persons are injured or killed annually in industrial employments in the United States. A considerable amount of ill-health is traceable to working with drugs and acids. Continued work in dusty mills and shops, as well as long exposure to the excessively dry or excessively moist atmosphere required by certain manufacturing processes, also give rise to "occupational" diseases. Old age frequently brings poverty and distress, in spite of a life of hard work. Lastly, the laborer runs the risk of unemployment.

209. THE PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL INSURANCE.—As a general rule, laborers do not voluntarily insure themselves against illness, unemployment, accident, or old age. This is partly because they lack the necessary funds, and partly because they lack the foresight necessary for such action. If, therefore, the risks of industry are adequately to be insured against, the initiative must be taken by some one other than the laborer. As a result of this situation, there has developed the principle of social insurance. Social insurance, as distinguished from insurance by trade unions or private agencies, is compulsory, and is administered, or at least supervised, by the state or Federal authorities.

From the standpoint of the community, social insurance may be justified on four grounds. First, the risks of industry are largely beyond the control of the individual workman, and hence he ought not to be held wholly responsible for the penalties which industry may inflict upon him. Second, the community gets the benefit of the laborer's efforts, and thus ought to feel morally obligated to safeguard his employment. Third, an injury to the laborer restricts the productivity of the community by crippling or removing one of its productive agents. Fourth, compulsory insurance is a social necessity, for where nothing has been laid aside for a rainy day, the interruption of earnings subjects the laborer and his family to hardship and disaster. Wisely administered social insurance prevents a great deal of poverty and distress which would otherwise constitute an added burden upon charitable organizations.

210. INSURANCE AGAINST ACCIDENT.—Accident insurance has been a feature of social insurance programs in Germany, France, and Great Britain for almost a half century, but in this country it was not until 1910 that compulsory insurance against industrial accidents began to be effective. Since 1910, however, the movement has grown rapidly, and at the present time the majority of the states provide for compensation to workmen for accidents sustained in connection with their work. Formerly our courts quite generally held that when a workman could be shown to have suffered an accident because of "personal negligence," the injured person was not entitled to compensation. Under the accident insurance laws of most states it is now held, however, that the personal negligence of the injured workman does not forfeit his right to receive compensation.

In most states the cost of accident insurance is borne primarily by the employer.

211. INSURANCE AGAINST SICKNESS. [Footnote: Sometimes known as health insurance.]—Compulsory sickness insurance has been highly developed in several European countries, but so far we have left insurance of this type to private effort. The question is attracting considerable attention in this country, however, and it is believed that this form of social insurance will soon be provided for by state law. In 1914 the American Association for Labor Legislation outlined a model sickness insurance law. Such a law would provide a sickness benefit for a number of weeks, arrange for medical care, and, in case of death, pay a funeral benefit. The cost of such insurance would be divided equally between workmen and employer, while the state would bear the cost of administering the law. This cost would be considerable, because illness may be feigned, and hence there would have to be more careful supervision than in the case of accident insurance.

212. INSURANCE AGAINST OLD AGE.—Compulsory insurance against old age is an important feature of social insurance systems in European countries, but it is very little known in the United States. We are familiar with the Federal pensioning of military veterans, and with local pensions for firemen and policemen, as well as with state and local pensions for teachers. Such insurance does not, however, touch the question of aged employees in industrial pursuits. Trade unions sometimes provide a measure of old age insurance for their members, but the proportion of workmen affected by this practice is very small.

In 1920, a beginning toward compulsory old age insurance was made, when a Federal law provided for compulsory old age insurance for the civil service employees of the Federal government. The question of compulsory old age insurance is also being agitated in a number of states.

213. SHOULD SOCIAL INSURANCE EXTEND TO UNEMPLOYMENT?—It is contended by many that to insure workmen against the loss of their jobs would encourage shiftlessness, and that for this reason the principle of social insurance ought not to apply to unemployment.

It is obvious that a considerable share of unemployment is traceable to personal negligence, and it is probably true that insurance against unemployment would discourage thrift and foresight on the part of many workmen. On the other hand, it has been shown statistically that a large share of unemployment is due to crop failures, market fluctuations, and other conditions beyond the control of the workmen. In so far as this is true, there would be a great deal of unemployment whether it were insured against or not. Because, therefore, some unemployment is inevitable, and because unemployment is in many cases beyond the control of the individual, it becomes necessary, or at least desirable, for the state to insure workmen against this unavoidable risk.

Insurance against unemployment has never been tried out in this country, but it is likely that we shall some day follow the example of the leading European countries, and include this type of protection in our general program of social insurance.

214. OBSTACLES TO LABOR LEGISLATION.—Labor legislation of the type discussed in this chapter is making rapid headway in the United States. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in this field we are behind the more advanced countries of western Europe. The chief explanation of this relative backwardness is that the extension of labor legislation in this country has met with considerable opposition. The reasons for this opposition may be summed up as follows:

First, the spirit of individualism is so strong in this country as effectively to check legislation which appears paternalistic. The weak position of women and children in industry has somewhat lessened the force of this argument in the case of laws designed to safeguard these two groups, but labor legislation in behalf of men is still regarded suspiciously in many quarters.

Second, it is difficult to secure uniform laws among the several states. Labor legislation in this country has been primarily a state concern, but the attitude of the various states toward social insurance, the minimum wage, and other types of labor legislation, has been so divergent that the resulting laws have often been conflicting. In many cases states fear to enact laws which they believe will hamper local employers and encourage the migration of capital to states which are more lenient in this regard.

Third, an important obstacle to labor legislation in the United States has been the difficulty of enacting laws which the courts will not declare unconstitutional. The constitutional provision [Footnote: See the fifth amendment to the Federal Constitution, Appendix.] that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law has often been interpreted by the courts in such a way as to nullify laws designed to safeguard the interests of the working classes. For example, a law restricting the employment of women might be declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it interferes with the "liberty" of women to work as many hours, and for as small a wage, as they choose.

Within the last decade, however, the obstacle of constitutionality appears to have declined in importance. Our Supreme Courts often reverse their own decisions, as well as negative the decisions of the lower courts, and it is therefore difficult to ascertain what is truly the trend of judicial decision. Nevertheless, many authorities believe that we are on the verge of an era in which the courts will weigh labor legislation primarily in the light of its social benefit, and only secondarily with respect to how it squares with the technicalities of the Constitution.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1. What three questions are discussed in this chapter?

2. What is the extent of child labor in the United States?

3. What are some of the causes of child labor?

4. What are the chief results of child labor?

5. Discuss Federal legislation with respect to child labor.

6. Outline the minimum provisions of a good child labor law.

7. Why do women generally get lower wages than men?

8. What is meant by the minimum wage?

9. What are the chief arguments in favor of the minimum wage?

10. Give the chief arguments against it.

11. What is meant by social insurance?

12. Discuss the four forms of social insurance. Which have been applied in this country?

13. What are the three great obstacles to labor legislation in this country? Which of these appears to you to be the most important? Which appears to you to be the easiest to overcome?

REQUIRED READINGS

1. Williamson, Readings in American Democracy, chapter xix. Or all of the following:

2. Burch and Patterson, American Social Problems, chapter xiv.

3. Ely, Outlines of Economics, chapter xxviii.

4. Fetter, Modern Economic Problems, chapter xxiii.

5. Taussig, Principles of Economics, Vol. ii, chapter viii.

QUESTIONS ON THE REQUIRED READINGS

1. Why is child labor not always the cheapest labor? (Burch and Patterson, page 172.)

2. What is the sweat shop system? (Burch and Patterson, page 174.)

3. What are the chief occupations in which women are found? (Burch and Patterson, page 175.)

4. What is meant by the "dangerous trades"? (Burch and Patterson, pages 176-177.)

5. What is the extent of railway accidents in this country? (Burch and Patterson, pages 178-179.)

6. What are the main causes of irregular earnings? (Taussig, page 323.)

7. What form of social insurance was first developed in this country? (Ely, page 588.)

8. Outline the British Workmen's Compensation Act. (Taussig, page 325.)

9. What are the main features of the German system of old age insurance? (Taussig, page 331.)

10. What difficulties are encountered in insuring workmen against unemployment? (Taussig, pages 337-340.)

11. What is the "contributory principle" in social insurance? (Fetter, pages 363-364.)

12. What are the chief objections to social insurance? (Ely, pages 593-594.)

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT

1. The extent of child labor in your state.

2. Control of child labor by the laws of your state.

3. The difficulties of enacting child labor legislation to cover the employment of children in agriculture. Interview some one familiar with farming conditions for data on this topic.

4. Relation of child labor to the administration of the school attendance laws in your community.

5. Extent to which women are employed in industrial establishments in your community or state.

6. Interview a friendly employer on the relative desirability of men and women employees.

7. The status of the minimum wage in your state.

8. Social insurance in your state.

9. Interview the officials of a trade union concerning the payment of sickness insurance by the union.

10. The emergency treatment of injured workmen in a near-by mill or factory. Compare this treatment with the treatment outlined in the references which are appended to Topic 21.

II.

11. Causes of child labor. (Mangold, Problems of Child Welfare, part iv, chapter i.)

12. Effects of child labor. (Mangold, Problems of Child Welfare, part iv, chapter iii.)

13. Women in industry. (Select some phase of this problem for report. Consult Butler, Women and the Trades; MacLean, _Women Workers and Society; Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through Legislation; Annals, vol. lxv; Abbot, Women in Industry, and similar works.)

14. Relation of home conditions to industrial efficiency. (Annals, vol. lxv, pages 277-288.)

15. Industrial efficiency of women compared with that of men. (Lee, The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency, chapter x.)

16. Housing the unskilled worker. (Wood, The Housing of the Unskilled Wage-earner.)

17. Work of the National Housing Association. (Write to the association office in Washington, D. C., for descriptive literature.)

18. Summary of Irving Fisher's report on national vitality. (Bulletin of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health, etc., prepared for the National Conservation Commission, by Irving Fisher, Washington, 1909.)

19. Preventable diseases. (Hutchinson, Preventable Diseases.)

20. Occupational diseases. (Oliver, Diseases of Occupation.)

21. How to act in case of an accident. (Gulick, Emergencies; Tolman, Hygiene for the Worker, chapter xvi.)

22. The right to leisure time. (Kelley, Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, chapters in and iv.)

23. Legal status of workmen's compensation. (Annals, vol. xxxviii, No. i, pages 117-168.)

24. Health insurance. (Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance, chapters iii and iv.)

25. The police power. (Guitteau, Government and Politics in the United States, chapter xii.)

FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION

26. The minimum wage for men.

27. Should old age and sickness insurance be made a feature of the social insurance program of your state?

28. Should pensions be paid out of public funds to mothers having dependent children?

29. Should labor legislation be enacted primarily by the Federal or by the state governments?