Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/153

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS 139

The birth of healthy children, and their necessary care and proper nourishment after birth, are all made impossible for the woman of the sweated industry. The work of women and children in the home is not less detrimental to public health and morals, and consequently to the family and to the race, than their work in factories. The chief cause of the evils of the sweating system are : the ease with which workers are replaced ; the difficulty of organizing the work- ers into unions ; the competitions of rural workers and those not entirely de- pendent upon their labor ; the desire for profit and the fierce competition of the employers. Remedies must come through private initiative and legislative intervention. Pure charity, as a type of the former, will accomplish nothing. The Consumer's League is contributing much to that education of public opinion, which must precede all effective reform. Legislation should provide for the establishment and enforcement of a minimum rate of wages, such as would be sufficient to maintain a proper standard of life for the working woman. Mme. Leroy Liberage, La reforme sociale, November i, 1908, p. 546. E. F. C.

Unemployment at Home and Abroad.- — Unemployment may be measured by three different tests : the trade union employment test, the immigration and emigration test, and the savings bank test. Comparing Great Britain with Germany for the period ranging from 1900 to 1908, unemployment among British trade unionists was 4 times as great, British emigration was from 10 to IS times as large, and savings bank deposits grew only one-sixth as rapidly in Great Britain as in Germany. The preparation of unemployment in Germany as compared with that in Great Britain is about as 10 to 35. Comparing Great Britain with the United States, the trade union employment test is unreliable, but the emigration and immigration test and the savings bank deposits test show unemployment to have been practically non-existent in the latter country from 1900 to 1907. In Germany and the United States full employment is the rule; in Great Britain it is the exception. In Germany and the United States unem- ployment is usually unknown ; in Great Britain, it is permanent and varies only in degree. — J. Ellis Barker, Fortnightly Review, December, 1908, p. 964.

E. F. C.

The Delays of the Law. — Our present administration of justice does not insure continued popular satisfaction with its results. The prosecution of criminals has not been sufficiently certain and thorough. This defect must be remedied or it will ultimately destroy the republic. Another great evil exists in the delays in the administration of justice between individuals. These delays impose an unequal burden upon the poor litigant. The reform must be reached through improvement in our judicial procedure. Our codes of procedure must be simplified. Judges in the lower courts wait too long in writing their opinions and judgments. The right of appeal should be limited. Higher qualifications should be required of justices of the peace. Delays and expense in damage suits of employees against public-service corporations may be reduced by a system of official arbitration, without resort to jury trials. — William H. Taft, Yale Law Journal, November, 1908, p. 28. E. F. C

The Superannuated Man. — One of the most significant developments of the past ten years has been the adoption of pension plans by more than seventy great corporations. The pension idea in this country has practically developed within these ten years. The largest and most efficient corporations now regard pensions as good business. They largely solve the problem of how to get out of a large labor force the most efficient service. The corporation that can assure its employees a reasonable permanency of employment, promotion in the order of precedence and fitness, and a satisfactory provision for old age, will inevitably attract the highest grade of men and obtain from them the most efficient work. The pensions granted to superannuated college professors by the Carnegie Foundation have this same ultimate aim, the improvement of the service. — Burton J. Hendrick, McClures, December, 1908, p. 115. E. F. C.