Page:James Ramsay MacDonald - The Socialist Movement.pdf/78

 74 to take his place. The permanent margin of unemployed provides what is wanted.

This truth is well illustrated in the case of Pittsburg. The machines are valuable to the Steel Corporation; the "hands" are not. The machines are kept in the best order. No money is spared to keep them up to date. The means of production are of the best. Turn to the people. The Russell Sage Fund Investigation has revealed a reckless and callous disregard for decency, for health, for comfort, for education in Pittsburg, which, were the details not supplied with scientific precision, one could hardly believe.

The same thing is seen if we consider the effect of industrial legislation. When, for instance, the Workmen's Compensation Law was passed, employers who had hitherto felt little concern about the dangerous machines with which their people had to work, began to interest themselves in guarding and fencing. Insurance companies began to impose conditions under which they were to do business. They appointed inspectors of their own to see that factories did not contain more points of accident danger than were absolutely necessary, with the result that this law, in addition to the compensation it provided for injured workers, made men of some value to their employers. Life insurance companies are beginning to appoint nurses to look after their ailing clients, and the most satisfactory consequence of sickness insurance in Germany is the elaborate system