Problems in American Democracy Part 30

(b) Att.i.tude toward the closed shop.

(c) What the employer does when a strike is launched against him.

(d) Use of the injunction.

(e) Att.i.tude of the employer toward arbitration.

4. If possible, investigate an actual strike and report upon it.

5. The laws of your state with regard to mediation, conciliation, and arbitration. Do you think further legislation on this subject is advisable?

II

6. History of the trade union movement in the United States. (Consult any available text on labor problems. See also Carlton, _Organized Labor in American History_.)

7. The Knights of Labor. (Any standard text on labor problems, or an encyclopedia.)

8. Trade union policies. (_Bullock, Selected Readings in Economics_, pages 589-613.)

9. Program of the American Federation of Labor. (Any standard text on labor problems, or an encyclopedia.)

10. The theory of price changes. (Taussig, _Principles of Economics_, vol. i, chapter xxii.)

11. The problem of adjusting wages to prices. (Bloomfield, _Selected Articles on Problems of Labor_, pages 56-75.)

12. Reducing the labor turnover. (_Annals_, vol. ixxi, pages 1-81.)

13. Scientific management. (Any standard text on labor problems. See also Hoxie, _Scientific Management and Labor_.)

14. Incorporation of the trade union. (Bloomfield, _Selected Articles on Problems of Labor_, pages 262-267. Commons, _Trade Unionism and Labor Problems_, chapter vi.)

15. Employers' a.s.sociations. (Any standard text on labor problems.)

16. Principles of industrial relations, as formulated by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America. (Write to the Chamber's headquarters, Washington, D. C., for copies. Also reprinted in Edie, _Current Social and Industrial Forces_, pages 346-381.)

FOR CLa.s.sROOM DISCUSSION

17. Closed shop versus open shop.

18. Should trade unions be obliged to incorporate?

19. To what extent does compulsory arbitration const.i.tute an unwarranted interference in private business?

20. The shortening of the working day.

21. Effect of the World War upon relations between labor and capital.

CHAPTER XIX

HEALTH IN INDUSTRY

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 compet.i.tion, 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 pa.s.sed in 1916, but two years later the measure was declared unconst.i.tutional 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 unconst.i.tutionality, 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s 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 cooperation 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 compet.i.tive conditions, does not pay wages high enough to guarantee a decent living.

The first minimum wage law in the United States was pa.s.sed by Ma.s.sachusetts 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 const.i.tutes 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.