Page:Sergei Ilich Kaplun - The Protection of Labor in Soviet Russia (1920).pdf/15



The problem of protection of labor is not only the struggle against the degeneration of the proletariat by establishing, by means of legislation, conditions of labor, protection against overwork, and especially against undue strain and exhaustion of its weaker elements, women and children, but also to effect real improvements and changes in the general conditions in which the workman lives. With this object in view special attention is paid to the sanitary and hygienic construction of enterprises, to the housing problem, hospitals, schools, nurseries and so forth. Measures are also taken to prevent accidents, by means of a proper construction of industrial buildings, machinery safeguards, inspection of steam boilers, lifts, and so forth.

It is of course impossible immediately to achieve important results in this sphere. The old form of production, which was mainly concerned with the profit of the owners, took no care whatsoever of the health of the workers. As a result of this we are left with a legacy from the bourgeoisie of close, flithy, dark and technically badly equipped enterpríses, in which the worker daily ruins his health, and which have acquired the appropriate name of "exhausters". The Soviet Government has commenced a serious battle against dust, high temperature, poisonous fumes and gases and other industrial evils. A number of compulsory regulations of a sanitary and technical character, applying to all enterprises, as well as to individual forms of production, have been established. The organs of Inspection of Technical and Sanitary conditions of labor take all measures for every possible improvement as to safety, industrial hygiene and sanitation.

The housing conditions of the working class are closely connected with their conditions of labor, and