A notable exception to the rule that no such policy has been adopted toward salaried or professional women is to be had in France. There boards of education are not permitted to refuse leave of absence to teachers who want to bear children. Three years ago the government made imperative the granting of at least two months’ vacation, together with full treatment, to teachers expecting confinement. And in the following year this protection was extended to the female staff of the department of posts, telegraphs and telephones.
INDUSTRY
NATION WIDE MOVEMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
FERDINAND C. SCHWEDTMAN
CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS
There was a time when most employers and employes thought that they were the only factors to be considered in the adjustment of industrial conditions. Enlightened employers and employes long ago learned that in the final analysis the public is the arbiter as to whether conditions are just or unjust, right or wrong.
The National Association of Manufacturers, in its work for compensation and prevention of industrial accidents, started out with the theory that the first essential requirement to the furtherance of equitable conditions is a knowledge of the facts—all the facts, for half knowledge leads to wrong conclusions. To meet this requirement we made a thorough study of foreign compensation systems. The next requirement, it was felt, was prompt action in line with sound conclusions.
Voluntary systems of prevention and relief have been established by numerous American employers which compare favorably with European conditions, but on the whole the United States is far behind other civilized nations in these matters. Employers are not more nor less to blame for this condition than employes, legislators or the public. We each and all need education; we need to get in tune with the times.
For many years much time and attention at the board meetings of the National Association of Manufacturers have been given to the consideration of accident prevention and relief plans. In common with other humane agencies, the association has felt that the economic loss due to accidents, enormous as it is, is as nothing compared with humane considerations. It has taken the stand further that prevention is even more important than compensation.
Three years ago the conclusion was reached that the time had passed when attention to these problems in the abstract was to any extent effective, and that results could be secured only by practical campaign methods. Macaulay’s truism, “The only knowledge that a man has is the knowledge he can use,” has been the basis for the efforts which the committee, formed at that time and entrusted with this work, has carried on during these three years.