Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/902

 886 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

for " systematic and comprehensive relief, covering sickness, accident, old age, and death." These are the Baltimore .X: Ohio, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Pennsyl- vania Company, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Plant System. The Pennsylvania Railroad established its "department" in 1886, the Plant System, in 1896, the other four established theirs in 1889. Membership on the part of 'the employe's of the Baltimore & Ohio, the Philadelphia & Reading, and the Plant System is compulsory ; of the others voluntary. These six systems include one-seventh of the railway mileage of the United States, and employ one-fifth of the railway men. The membership of these "departments" in 1895 (before the Plant System established its "department") was something over 100,000. In 1895,18,382 injured received benefits of from (averages for different roads) $12.30 to $24.91, while 33,228 sick received from $9-73 to $28.65. Death benefits averaging from $427 to $1125 were paid in 799 cases. The benefits are graded according to classes based upon wages received. The funds are created partly from membership dues, varying with wages received, and partly by contributions from the companies. In 1895, the "dues" amounted to 51,745,114.36, while the contributions from the railroads (including some interest paid by them on funds in trust) were $346,259.88. This work is directed by a manager appointed by the directors of the railroad company, who is advised by a board composed of an equal number of representatives appointed by them and of representatives elected by the employe's from among themselves. Through these " departments," the Baltimore & Ohio has given in benefits almost five million dollars, the Pennsylvania Railroad, $5,170,000, the Burlington, $1,760,000, the Philadelphia & Reading, $1,448,000, and the Pennsylvania Company (the Pittsburg & Erie), $1,917,000.

The railroads established these departments partly to furnish safe insurance to their employe's, but chiefly to secure for themselves better employe's, and to bind the interests of the employe's more closely to the interests of the railroads. DR. EMORY R. JOHNSON in the Bulletin of the Department of Labor, January 1897. M.

Condemnation of Criminals not Punishment. A bitter spirit will continue to dominate the people as long as the notion prevails that our courts of justice are to mete out retribution. Society has not the right to inflict pain. The spirit of vengeance must be eliminated from our courts. When the idea of punishment is abolished, then the emotional attitude toward the criminal will disappear. As organized society we have the right to protect ourselves against the criminal as against the person afflicted with a contagious disease, but this right should not be deemed the right to punish. The simple term justice or condemnation will convey the idea that the good of society is the consideration of the court, while the term punishment con- veys the idea that the individual alone is the factor, and, as long as it remains on our statute books, the criminal cannot be blamed for imagining that the whole force of our courts is to cause him bodily pain. EDWARD F. BRUSH, M.D., Apple- ton's Popular Science Monthly, February 1897. Fr.

Evidences of Health throughout the Industrial World. In 1870 the property of the United States was valued at 24 billion dollars in gold; in 1890 at 65 billion dollars. In 1870 the population was 38 millions ; in 1890, 62 millions. Thus, during these twenty years there was saved, on an average, over forty dollars per annum for every person in the nation. The distribution was as follows : The census of 1850 showed 6.47 per cent, of the population and 35.95 per cent, of the families in the country possessed of real estate ; that of 1890, 47.90 per cent, of the families and 9.69 per cent, of the population a gain of 33 and 50 per cent, respectively. In 1890 on an average only 5.01 per cent, of the total number engaged in gainful occu- pation were unemployed. In 1891 the purchasing power of wages was about 40 per cent, more than in 1873. The saving and spending power of the masses was improved to that extent. These are the best possible evidences of health in the eco- nomic and social life of the nation. The general prosperity, interrupted by the panic of 1893, is being recovered. The needed employment of labor in constructing rail- roads or in other enterprises hinges upon the profitable return for labor on the farm