When machines break down the employer has to pay the cost of replacing or repairing them. He, in turn, adds this expense to his cost of production and in this way passes it to the public which buys his product. But men break down as well as machines. Every great industry has many human accidents each year. No matter how well the machinery is guarded or how careful the workmen may be, accidents are inevitable. An enormous amount of attention has been given to making railroad-operation safe by means of automatic couplers, air-brakes, electric signals, interlocking switches, and so on, yet it is said that one railroad employee is killed or injured each year for every mile of trackage operated. Why not, therefore, require the employer, and through him, the consumers of the finished products, to pay for what is an inevitable item in the cost of transportation and manufacture? The answer to this question is that it should be done, and in most of the states it is now being done, through the medium of workmen’s compensation laws.
The new plan.
Workmen’s Compensation.—The usual arrangement established by workmen’s compensation laws is as follows: Every injured worker is entitled to compensation, according to the extent of his injury, no matter how the accident may have been caused. If the accident results in the death of the workman, his dependents are entitled to compensation. The amount of the compensation is either fixed by law, or adjusted to the amount of wages which the employee has been receiving, or determined by a state board. It is paid in installments, so much per week for a set period of time. In addition, an injured workman receives medical attention without any expense to himself. The employer usually arranges with a liability insurance company or with the state insurance department to pay this compensation in return for an annual premium which he remits to the company or to the insurance department as the case may be. The cost of the insurance, in other words the amount of the annual premium, becomes one of the regular expenses of conducting business, like taxes, fire insurance, or interest. If the employer does not arrange for liability-insurance, he must pay the compensation from his own pocket. These workmen’s compensation laws have been of incalculable service to the employees; at the same time the cost to the public, in the way of higher prices, has been so small as to be almost unnoticeable.
The need for special laws to regulate the employment of women.
Limitations on the Working Hours of Women in Industry.—The various industries of the United States now employ several million women, and the special protection of the laws has been extended to them in various directions. The reason for this is that women cannot work long hours without detriment to their physical welfare, and any break-down in the physical well-being of several million women would result in a serious injury to the physique of the whole race. Women in industry, moreover, are not as well able to protect their own interest as men are and for that reason also the laws have intervened in their behalf. Most of these laws have been directed towards limiting the hours of labor for women to a certain maximum per week, forbidding work at night, and improving the conditions under which women are employed. Factories, for example, have been required in some states to provide rest rooms, and stores are under obligation to furnish seats for the use of saleswomen whenever they are not busy at the counters. It may be urged that women, like men, should have the right to work as many hours as they please; but the general welfare of society is paramount to the rights of any class, whether of men or women. It is the duty of society to protect itself against anything that tends to break down its physical or moral well-being.
The old iniquities of child labor.
Child Labor.—In the early days of the factory system children of twelve, ten, or even seven years were put to work for long hours under frightful conditions. Underpaid and underfed, deprived of schooling, they grew up to be physically and intellectually unfit and developed into inferior citizens.[[187]] Child labor was thought to be cheap, and from the employer’s point of view it was; but in the long run society found it to be incalculably expensive. Unrestricted child labor increased the number of illiterates, promoted the spread of disease and crime, augmented poverty, and bred discontent. The child is the father of the man; and as our children are cared for so will the future manhood and womanhood of the nation be. No fewer than two million persons under fifteen years of age are engaged in some form of wage-earning occupation in the United States today. Since they are unable to protect themselves against overwork and underpayment, the state must see to it that they are treated by their employers with consideration and humanity.
Child labor laws of today.
The laws relating to child labor differ considerably in the various states; in some the provisions are much stricter than in others. In general the tendency is to prohibit the regular employment of children under fourteen years of age. Many of the states forbid the employment of persons under sixteen years of age in night work or in certain dangerous occupations, such as mining. The hours of labor for persons under sixteen are also limited in some states to not exceeding eight per day. Many other provisions restricting child labor are now in force, and year by year new limitations are being added.[[188]] In 1916 Congress undertook to place a general restriction on child labor throughout the entire country by passing a law which forbade the transportation and sale in interstate commerce of any goods made in whole or in part by children under a designated age-limit. The Supreme Court of the United States held this law to be unconstitutional, however, declaring that the authority to regulate commerce among the states does not empower Congress to control the conditions of industry within the state boundaries. Congress has since placed a ban upon child labor in another way, namely, by providing that the profits of these industries which employ children shall be taxed more heavily than the profits of those concerns which do not.[[189]]
The arguments for minimum wage laws.