Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/740

700

provision for local branches have been practically a dead letter. The more recent legislation, however, which can be exemplified by the N.Y. statute of 1014, has been successful. It establishes a bureau of employment in the State Department of Labor under the immediate charge of a director who must be under civil service rules. The industrial commission is given power to establish such free local offices as it deems necessary. The activities of the local bureaus are coordinated by a labour market bulletin and the interchange of lists of vacancies. Partial recognition of the policy of joint control is given in the appoint- ment by the Commissioner of Labor of a representative com- mittee of employers and employees. Other clauses provide for registration, special regulations for children, and various details. The most controversial point in the administration of a bureau is the policy to be pursued in the case of a strike or lock-out. The first laws forbidding applications under those conditions were declared illegal. Since then the problem has been dealt with by some form of publicity clause requiring the exhibition at the exchanges of statements in regard to trade disputes. But state offices cannot organize the labour market. The war-time demands of labour emphasized the weaknesses of the state systems and led to the development of new administrative machinery, the U.S. Employment Service (see LABOUR SUPPLY AND REGULATION).

In regard to the progressive measures dealing with the systematic distribution of public work, little of value has been accomplished, though a number of cities have inaugurated plans to meet temporary emergencies and have made definite arrangements for reserve work. Pennsylvania is the only state which has established a permanent fund to be used for public work during slack seasons. The question of the prevention of unemployment is only just beginning to be recognized. The Illinois and Pennsylvania laws of 1915 instruct the administration authorities to take steps toward the regularization of employment, but nothing has been accomplished. A more definite inducement to the regularization of employment is found in the laws under consideration by several legislatures which require the employers to take out insurance against the unemployment of their employees and to provide compensation to the workers during the unemployed periods.

Safety and Health. Legislative activities for the control of industrial accidents and occupational diseases have developed along four main lines: reporting, prohibition, regulation and compensation or insurance. Though the early laws did not bring satisfactory results, accident-reporting laws have proved useful as a guide for inspection, safeguarding and advanced legislation, and have continued to spread to new states and to new branches of industry. Laws relating to the reporting of occupational disease are of more recent origin. California in 1911 was the first state to pass such a law, and within five years 16 states had enacted similar measures. The latest tendency is to include within the laws " any ailment or disease contracted as a result of the nature of the patient's employment " instead of limiting them to certain diseases.

The prohibitive method has been applied to the exclusion of certain classes from employment and to the outlawry of dangerous substances and instruments. As a result of continuous agitation, by 1920 the 14-year minimum-age limit had been established for general factory work in all except five states and by the Federal Government, while several states have raised the limit to 16 years and in some instances to 18 years and even 21 for certain more hazardous and morally dangerous occupations. The street-trade laws are still far from adequate. In 1920 only two states had the same age limit, 14 years, for street trades as for other employments, and only about half of the states had any regulations at all. In regard to physical requirements no standards have been fixed, but 12 states require a physical examination of all children granted permits. The New York law makes further provision also for a corps of medical examiners under the Department of Labor to examine any children in any industry and to recommend the withdrawal of the employment certificate. A number of states modify the age requirements by for- bidding the employment of children who do not come up to certain standards of knowledge. These vary from a mere literacy require- ment in any language to graduation from the eighth grade. The principal agencies for the enforcement of child labour laws are the school authorities, the boards of health, and, in some states, special child-labour inspectors. Probation officers and child-welfare agencies may sometimes aid. The issuance of certificates is usually in the hands of the local school authorities, though in New York it is in the control of the Board of Health and in Wisconsin of the State Industrial Commission.

The exclusion of women from certain occupations has not been extensively developed in America. Work in mines is forbidden in most of the mining states, and work in saloons (except by members of the family) in 15 states. In addition there are a few scattered pro- visions in regard to the cleaning of moving machinery, work re- quiring constant standing, operation of emery or other polishing wheels and coremaking in foundries. Child-birth protection did not receive consideration until 1911. Since then five states have passed laws forbidding employment of any women in manufacturing. mechanical or mercantile establishments within two weeks before and four weeks after child-birth. Legal requirements for the ex- clusion of men from dangerous occupations are limited to certain classes of individuals. Four states require certain physical quali- fications for work in compressed air; the " lead laws " require monthly examinations; absence of contagious disease is required in bakeshops; and freedom from colour-blindness of railway employees is mentioned in a few states. Technical qualifications required for licensing men to carry on certain trades are far more numerous. In regard to the prohibition of substances and instruments, there are two laws. In 1912 Congress placed a prohibitory tax of 2 cents per 100 on matches containing white sulphur and prohibited their import or export. This was the first time that the power of internal revenue taxation had been exercised for the protection of the health of the workers. There is also a regulation in Massachusetts forbid- ding the use of certain shuttles.

The need of standards, drafted and enforced by public authority, has led to the development of codes dealing with factories and work- shops, mines and tunnels and transportation. The factory codes include regulations which deal with the construction and use of machinery, steam boilers and elevators, stationary equipment, etc., protection against fire, lighting, heating and ventilation, seats, toilets and dressing-rooms, protection from infectious disease, and tenement-house manufacture. In connexion with mines and tunnels the regulations treat mainly of accident dangers, though the health hazard has been given some consideration. Compressed-air illness (or caisson disease) is the industrial hazard which has been brought into prominence by the increasing construction of tunnels, subways, bridges and skyscrapers. Three states have attempted to control the disease by legislation, and several states have issued orders which include periodic physical examination, a sliding scale of work- ing hours (decreasing as the pressure increases), and a period of grad- ual decompression. More than a 5O-lb. pressure is forbidden.

In regard to navigation the Federal Seamen's Act of 1915 pro- vides for a substantial increase of the size of crews, for a certain percentage of able seamen, for certified life-boat men and for a given number of properly constructed life-boats. Laws dealing with railways and street cars can be divided into two groups: those de- signed to protect the employee and those designed to protect the public. In the case of the first group, continued progress has been made since 1910 by giving the Interstate Commerce Commission power to designate standards of equipment and to investigate accidents. The latest development of laws for the protection of travellers are the full-crew laws, applying to both passenger and freight service. These have been upheld by the courts on the ground of public safety. Their enforcement is usually entrusted to state railway and public utility commissions with delegated power to work out details.

Social Insurance. The first accident compensation law of general application was passed by New York in 1910. This statute was declared unconstitutional, but an amendment to the state constitution made possible the enactment of a compulsory law in 1914. Other states followed, and by 1919 compensation laws had been passed by 42 states in addition to Alaska, Hawaii and Porto Rico. The Federal law of 1908 was repealed in favour of the Act of 1916, which covers all civilian employees of the Federal Government. Early laws had been declared unconstitu- tional on the ground that to require an employer to pay damages for an accident for which he was not to blame was taking property without due process of law; that both employer and employee were deprived of the right of trial by jury and that the employer was charged with liability without fault. In 1917, however, the constitutionality of the chief types of compensation was affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in three far-reaching decisions (New York Central R.R. Co. v. White, 37 Sup. Ct., 247, 1917; Hawkins v. Bleakly, 37 Sup. Ct., 255, 1917; Mountain Timber Co. v. Washington, 37 Sup. Ct., 260, 1917). The Court ruled that the enactment of laws providing compensation for industrial accidents tended to promote the public welfare and were, therefore, within the scope of the police power. It upheld laws requiring compulsory insurance in state funds on the ground of a " fair and reasonable exercise of governmental power." Because of the adverse decision of the first N.Y. law, most American compensation acts have been made elective according to the