Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/741

Rh

following device. The employer is given the choice of accepting the law or of operating under the liability laws with the old liability defences fellow-servant's fault, contributory negligence, and assumption of risk abrogated or greatly modified.

The laws vary greatly in detail. Though a compensation system should apply to all employments and cover all industries, nine main groups are usually excluded (employees in non-hazardous occupa- tions, agricultural labour, domestic servants, employees in interstate commerce, workmen in establishments employing fewer than a given number of persons, public employees, casual labourers, those

inot engaged in the regular course of the employer's business and those in employments not conducted for gain). Laws of four states and the Federal statute have been amended to include occupational diseases. Medical attendance is usually provided for, though it varies in time limit from two weeks to 90 days and in amount from $50 to $600. An increasing number of states, however, are giving their administrative boards power to use their discretion to increase the period and the amount. The waiting period during which no compensation is paid varies from no waiting period at all to 14. days. The compensation rates range for total disability from 65 % of the wage (within certain limits) to 50% with time limitations varying from 208 weeks to 550 weeks, and money limitations from $4,000 to $6,000. Compensation for partial disability is usually based on a fixed schedule of a certain number of weeks' benefit for each specific dismemberment. In a few states it is reckoned as a proportion of the loss of earning power. Most states grant funeral benefits. Few are liberal in prescribing compensation to be paid dependents, which is either a specified monthly amount or a maxi- mum amount ranging from $3,000 to $6,000. In recent years the question of rehabilitation has been given considerable attention, and by 1920 1 1 states had made provision for the aid of industrial cripples. In that year also, Congress passed a bill to grant Federal aid on the basis of dollar for dollar to states undertaking to re- habilitate industrial cripples. Administration of the laws is usually by a central board with general powers of enforcing the law, though a few states still leave the questions to be settled by the courts. In order to protect both the employer and employee most states compel employers to insure their risks unless they can give satisfactory evi- dence that they are able to bear serious losses due to accident. Besides this so-called self-insurance, three methods have been de- veloped: insurance in a state fund, which has been established in half of the states; insurance in a stock company and insurance in a mutual or inter-insurance company.

Other forms of social insurance have not received much attention in the United States. Several bills have been introduced in state legislatures on health insurance, unemployment compensation and old-age insurance, but as yet only a few have been enacted for special classes. In 1920 a law establishing compulsory contrib- utory old-age and invalidity insurance for the Federal Government's employees in the classified civil service was enacted. Pensions are provided by state and municipal governments for certain groups of employees, such as policemen, firemen and teachers, and by the Federal Government for soldiers and sailors.

Besides the system of life insurance administered by the savings banks under supervision in Massachusetts, the customary form of protection of widows and orphans is by means of mothers' or widows' pensions paid to certain classes of mothers with dependent children. In the years from 1911 to 1919 39 states, Alaska and Hawaii had enacted such laws. The legislation uniformly provides for straight pensions on condition that the mother is capable of providing a proper home for the child.

Vocational Education. The Federal Act for the promotion of vocational education in the fields of agriculture, trade, home economics and industry was passed in 1917, and since then there has been a rapid expansion of this form of labour legislation. The law popularly known as the Smith-Hughes Act is based on four ideas, namely: that vocational education is essential to national welfare; that Federal funds are necessary in order to equalize the burden of carrying on the work among the states; that since the Federal Government is vitally interested in the success of vocational education it should, so to speak, purchase a degree of participation in that work; and that only by such Federal and state relationships can proper standards be set up. According to the statute, the Federal Government does not undertake the organization or immediate direction of vocational training in the several states, but agrees to make substantial yearly contributions to its support. The Federal grants are conditional and their acceptance imposes on the state specific obligations. By 1919 every state had accepted the Act.

The Federal law is administered by the Federal Board for Voca- tional Education, appointed by the President, which consists of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner of Education, together

with three citizens who represent the manufacturing, commercial, agricultural and labour interests. A staff, composed of a director and four assistant directors, is chosen by the board. The state board, which must be created on acceptance of the Act, is the connecting link between the Federal board and the states. Each year Congress appropriates a given sum, according to a graduated scale increasing up to 1926, when the maximum, $7,367,000, will be reached, which will then become the annual appropriation. Money is granted to the states only on condition that it is matched by an equal amount appropriated for the same purpose (salaries and maintenance of teacher training) by the state, local community or both. In addition state grants must be made for buildings and equipment.

The law deals only with general standards and policies. Each state draws up its own plan of education to meet its own needs, which it submits to the Federal board for approval. The guiding principle laid down is that the education furnished must be under public supervision and control and must be designated to train persons for useful, common, wage-earning employments. It applies to boys and girls of 14 years and over who desire preparation as trained wage-earners, or who, having already taken up a wage- earning employment, seek greater efficiency; and to wage-earners, established in their trade or occupation, who wish to advance to positions of responsibility. No academic studies are to be sup- ported out of the Act. In 1920 3,155 schools were aided.

Prior to the enactment of the Federal law two states had provided for compulsory part-time school attendance. Since then 16 other states have enacted similar measures, and several others have passed permissive mandatory statutes authorizing local districts to estab- lish such schools. The laws vary in detail. The most common ages of required attendance are 14 to 18 years; hours required per week range from four to eight ; the length of the school-year varies from 144 hours to the same as that of the common schools. Though the work in the United States is still new, these laws represent one of the most important developments in the labour and educational fields.

Wisconsin has gone one step further in her apprenticeship law, passed in 1911 and revised in 1915. It provides that all minors who receive instruction in a trade as a part of their consideration of employment shall be indentured. All such indentures must be ap-

E roved by the Industrial Commission and can be enforced against oth employer and apprentice. During the first two years of ap- prenticeship the apprentice must attend a part-time school for five hours each week to receive instruction in the theory of the trade, to supplement shop training. The employer is required to pay for such instruction at the same rate per hour as for service. The Industrial Commission has broad powers to investigate, determine and fix classifications, issue rules and regulations and to enforce the same with penalties. It is the duty of all public-school officers and teachers to cooperate with the commission and employers to furnish the in- struction designated. Since all trades must be standardized and different schedules of training outlined, trade committees of em- ployers and journeymen are organized to fix the length of apprentice- ship, wages and the various branches to be taught. There is, also, another advisory board composed of employers, employees and educators which is consulted on questions of changes in the general policy governing apprenticeship.

Administration of Labour Laws. The development of indus- trial commissions is the most significant fact in the recent history of the administration of labour legislation. The growing complexity of conditions has made it practically impossible to embody sufficient details within laws or to make them flexible enough to provide for constant changes. To meet the varying needs and to set the different standards required, the legislatures at first established special commissions, such as the minimum-. wage commissions. This policy, however, led to duplication of functions and conflict of authority, and in their place six states have created industrial commissions which have general adminis- trative control over the branches of labour legislation dealing with minimum wage, hours of labour, public and private em- ployment offices, workmen's compensation and other related laws. Under these statutes the Legislature lays down the general state policy of reasonable standards and leaves to the commission the intricate details of investigation. It is given authority to make the findings necessary for the effective application of the standard to each case or class of cases. It can make classifica- tions and issue different rules for different conditions and can change its rules when conditions change or when it discovers new and more effective remedies. These rulings of the commis- sion are known as orders and are prima facie lawful.

This substitution of administrative rules for legislative details has made it possible to apply the principle of representation of interests. In Wisconsin, for example, joint committees repre- sentative of capital and labour are appointed by the employers and workers to serve in an advisory capacity. Generally these