=THE BINGHAMTON FIRE AND ENCLOSED STAIRWAYS=
After many conferences and two days of public hearings on the enclosure
of factory stairways, following the Binghamton fire--and backed by the
attorney-general’s opinion in regard to the scope of its powers--the
industrial board of the New York Department of Labor has adopted rules
and regulations for the enclosure of stairways in factories of four
stories or under. On account of the vital importance of exits, their
rules are quoted in full:
Regulation No. 1. In all factory buildings less than
five stories in height in which more than twenty-five
persons are employed above the ground floor, or in which,
regardless of the number of persons employed, articles,
goods, wares, merchandise or products of combustible
material are stored, packed, manufactured or in the
process of manufacture, all interior stairways serving as
required means of exit, and the landings, platforms, and
passageways connected therewith, shall be enclosed on all
sides by partitions of fire-resisting material extending
continuously from the basement. Where the stairway extends
to the top floor of the building such partitions shall
extend to three feet above the roof. All openings in such
partitions shall be provided with self-closing doors
constructed of fire-resisting material, except where such
openings are in the exterior wall of the building. The
bottom of the enclosure shall be of fireproof material
at least four inches thick, unless the fire-resisting
partitions extend to the cellar bottom.
Such enclosure of stairways shall not be required in
factory buildings in which there is an exterior enclosed
fireproof stairway or a horizontal exit serving as a
required means of exit, as defined in Section 79f,
Subdivisions 8 and 9 of the labor law. Where approved
automatic sprinklers are installed throughout such
buildings, such enclosure of stairways shall not be
required unless more than eighty persons are employed above
the ground floor.
Regulation No. 2. In all factory buildings no articles
or wares of a combustible nature shall be kept or stored
inside the limits of any stairway enclosure, or unenclosed
stairway, or on the landings, platforms, or passageways
connected therewith, nor shall such articles or wares be
kept or stored under any stairway unless such stairway and
any partitions or doors thereunder are constructed of, or
covered with, incombustible material.
Both rules become effective October 1, 1913. The labor law specifically
provides for the enclosure of stairways in buildings over four stories.
The attorney-general’s opinion was asked by the Industrial Board in
this case, for the purpose of determining at the beginning of its work
the question of its powers not only in relation to matters not covered
by legislation but also to those covered in part by law. The essential
part of the opinion follows:
“It seems to me to be entirely beyond question that the
industrial board has power to adopt rules and regulations
upon subjects of which the statute already treats. The
statute itself makes mandatory provisions for many
safeguards and then makes provisions that additional
safeguards may be required by the industrial board. There
is nothing in the letter of the statute nor in its manifest
intent to confine the jurisdiction of the industrial board
to such few subjects only as are not expressly legislated
upon by the statute itself. Such an extensive limitation
upon its powers would be manifestly absurd and far foreign
to the evident purpose of the Legislature in enacting
additional legislation for the protection of the lives and
health of employes in factories.”
The attorney-general’s opinion further states that the legislation does
not offend any constitutional provisions.
=SANITARY SURVEY OF THE OHIO=
The Public Health Service, under the direction of Surgeon-General
Rupert Blue, has undertaken a “sanitary survey” of the streams which
feed into the Ohio river. It is proposed to test the waters of these
streams in order to determine scientifically to what distances the
contamination of sewage is carried by flowing water. The object of the
survey is to establish standards of pollution beyond which no community
will be permitted by the federal government to trespass in dumping
sewage into streams.
This is the first time that the federal government has ventured to
invade the local police powers of municipalities, except in times of
great extremity, such as during the yellow fever epidemics along the
gulf coast.
The survey of the Ohio Valley will probably result in the erection
by the government of “purification plants.” It has been suggested
that such legislation will be deemed constitutional under the law
prohibiting the transportation of disease germs in interstate commerce.
=OREGON COMMISSION AS STRIKE ADJUSTER=
The Industrial Welfare Commission which was created by the last
Legislature to determine and enforce reasonable wages, hours and
conditions of work among women and minor employes in Oregon began work
June 3 with Bertha Moores representing the employes, Amedee Smith, a
retired manufacturer, representing the employers and Edwin V. O’Hara,
chairman of the committee of the Consumers’ League which secured
the passage of the act, representing the public and chairman of the
commission. Caroline J. Gleason, whose investigation of the wages and
conditions of women workers in Oregon furnished the chief data in the
campaign which resulted in the passage of the law under which the
commission operates, is paid secretary.
At the beginning of its work the commission was asked to adjust a
strike among the women employes of the Oregon Packing Company at
Portland, which employs about 200 girls and women during the summer
season. It had no power to make a legal ruling effective in less
than 90 days and by that time the packing season would be over for
this summer, so its office could be one of conciliation merely.
Investigation revealed that with the piece rate in force a large number
of the workers were earning as low as fifty to ninety cents a day.
The commission succeeded in getting the company to sign an agreement
pending the setting of a legal minimum, which fixed one dollar a day as
a minimum for all workers except those “old or crippled” who may secure
a special permit. Piece rate prices were re-arranged so that the worker
of “average ordinary ability” would earn $1 a day, thus enabling the
better workers to make more.
Two “conferences” of nine members each have been organized by
the commission, one to consider questions relating to mercantile
establishments, the other to deal with factory problems. The commission
is engaged in forming conferences to deal with laundries, telephone
companies and hotels and restaurants.
Interesting recommendations have been made by the conferences already
established. The mercantile conference reported that forty dollars a
month is required for the decent maintenance of women workers in that
occupation. The factory conference has recommended $8.60 a week pay as
a minimum for factory workers, and a nine-hour work day. The present
legal maximum is ten hours a day. Investigation has shown that one-half
of the department store girls receive less than forty dollars a month
at present and about the same proportion of factory girls get less than
$8.60 a week. If the commission, after holding a public hearing as
provided by law, decides to enforce these recommendations, its decision
will directly affect the wages of fully one-half the women workers in
department stores and factories in Portland.
The commission has authority to regulate the employment of minors
without calling a conference, though it holds the usual public hearing.
It favors restricting night work of girls under eighteen in all
industries, its chief opponents being the department stores.
=NEW METHODS IN MOTION PICTURES=
Motion pictures are bringing the scenes and events of distant lands and
even of other ages vividly to the eyes. The Durbar, the coronation,
the Scott antarctic expedition, the story of “Quo Vadis,” as shown by
the “movies,” not to mention a thousand and one travel subjects from
a railway trip in the Andes to street scenes in China, are playing a
growing part in popular education. Films are being used increasingly
to spread information and enlist public co-operation in the struggle
against tuberculosis, dirty milk, flies and other menaces to health.
And now, as described in THE SURVEY of September 6, Mr. Edison himself
is enlisted in the problem of adapting motion pictures to school
training.
All this development of course hangs on improvement in the mechanism
by which motion pictures are projected on the screen. A new method is
announced designed to eliminate all flicker which is clearly one of the
serious problems in its strain upon children’s eyes. The inventor of
the machine, called the vanoscope, is Lewis C. Van Riper and he essays
to show continuous action by having each picture dissolve into the
next instead of projecting a series of entirely distinct pictures on
the screen. Col. S. S. McClure has been so impressed with the especial
adaptability of this new method for educational purposes, that he is
now on a trip to Europe to gain what he can for its wide use in this
field.
In the prevalent method of motion picture projection, the film movement
is in the nature of a series of quick jerks, each taking about one-half
of the time given to each picture. Nearly 50 per cent of the time is
taken up in moving the pictures forward and 50 per cent in projecting
them upon the screen. Hence the flicker and the chance of eye strain.
The principle underlying this present method of projection is that the
persistence of vision in the human eye is about one-tenth of a second.
It has been found that a speed in projection of from 16 to 17 pictures
per second is necessary to enable the eyes to retain the image of one
picture until the next is projected upon the screen and to overcome or
partially overcome annoyance to the eyes caused by the intervals. This
is the rate of projection now used throughout the world on all standard
machines for monochrome pictures and photographs for such use have had
to be taken at a speed of at least 16 per second in order to appear
natural.
Some of the advantages claimed for the new method are that there are
no intervals between successive pictures, but each succeeding picture
dissolves into the one preceding it in exact proportion as the volume
of light shifts from one to the other; that there is no flicker; and
less danger of fire because the projecting light does not reach the
film directly, but is reflected by the mirrors; and that the front
seats in an assembly room would be made as desirable as any other seats.
=BOSTON CONFERENCE ON ILLEGITIMACY=
Perhaps in no field of social work are the factors less adjusted, the
issues more baffling, than in that relating to unmarried mothers. It
has become not only desirable, but positively imperative, to a wise
pulling together for the workers in Boston dealing with problems
related to illegitimacy to unite in some sort of permanent group for
free discussion of aims and means.
The Conference of Workers on Problems of Illegitimacy which was
organized in Boston last year has had a fruitful year of discussion.
Each month some general question has been up for consideration,
the question always being precipitated by the detailed story of
some puzzling specific case. In this way have been thrashed out the
following questions:
What shall we do with unmarried mothers who are unfitted for housework?
Is it ever advisable to separate the child from a normal mother?
Is institutional or private care best for a pregnant girl and under
what circumstances is each preferable?
What shall we do with pregnant girls from other states or countries?
The conference was pretty fully agreed upon the policies of treatment
that follow.
It is advisable to keep mother and child together where possible if the
mother is in any way capable of bringing up the child. In cases where
the mother is unfitted for domestic service it may be decidedly wiser
to place her where she is happier and more efficient, in a factory, for
instance. But even here financial responsibility for the baby, and at
least weekly visits to the child, should be insisted upon.
It is desirable to send back to the states or countries from which
they come girls who arrive here pregnant in order that each section
may develop care for its own unmarried mothers. Although this may mean
old-fashioned care in the individual case because of the lack of modern
agencies and institutions in places from which the girls come, it is
one of the means of making localities that are not equipped to deal
with such situations more alert to their responsibility.
It is difficult to determine in what cases individual care or
institutional care is wise. Particularly wayward girls often need the
discipline of an institution, while the more innocent type are not
helped by association with those they are sure to be brought in contact
with, even in institutions that take only first offenders.
Wherever there are not very positive reasons to the contrary, it is of
great importance to tell a girl’s family of her approaching confinement
in order to enlist their co-operation and to enable the girl to have
the most natural and helpful relationships possible at a time when
she needs every constructive influence to build up courage for her
life ordeal and determination to keep her child and give it every
opportunity within her power. Her family ought to be, and if properly
approached and dealt with, often is, the social worker’s greatest asset
in this effort.
It was discovered that little provision, other than that in almshouses,
is made for people who have had cases of venereal disease, as the
good private institutions caring for prospective mothers exclude, and
naturally, such cases.
The Conference have also discussed at each meeting various aspects
of the greatest single cause of illegitimacy--feeble-mindedness.
They have tried to formulate more definitely the indicia of the high
grade feeble-minded cases, and to determine more clearly the relation
of the social worker’s investigation and history to the doctor’s
analysis. They have debated the desirability of domestic service under
supervision for these defective girls. The high grade feeble-minded
girls if cared for in an institution probably cost the state more
than the same girls doing domestic service, even allowing for the
immense amount of surveillance necessary on the part of the visitor to
keep them out of harm’s way. Neither institutions nor philanthropic
agencies have enough equipment adequately to deal with this class of
delinquents. The conference has faced the question of segregation
in institutions and of sterilization as a means of preventing a
continuance of this evil in future generations. They have asked whether
it was ever safe to return a feeble-minded girl to the community.
While agreeing that marriage of feeble-minded persons ought not to be
permitted, they have not reached a final conclusion as to the best
means of prevention.
A committee has been appointed to make an investigation of the causes
other than feeble-mindedness that are at the root of illegitimacy. This
committee has already done valuable work as a by-product of its main
purpose in suggesting important points which agencies are apt to omit
in their histories, and in aiding in a greater standardization of work.
A full report is expected of this committee next year.
Study groups are being organized to take up the questions of
legislation, venereal disease, the efficiency and range of existing
institutions, public opinion, feeble-mindedness and statistics. Any
further information about the Boston Conference may be had from the
secretary, Mrs. Stanley King, 295 Beacon Street.
=PROBING
FOR PEACE=
[Illustration:
_Minor in St. Louis Post-Dispatch._
“What have you got against me?”
“Nothing. But our masters have ordered us to fight.”]
The investigational method has proved of such demonstrated worth in
all-American situations--whether of civic conditions or strikes--that
its application to the peace movement will be watched with interest.
The reference is of course to the appointment by the International
Peace Endowment, through Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia
University, acting director of the endowment, of an international
commission of inquiry into the Balkan war. The first move toward this
is said to have come from Bulgarians who in consequence of attacks on
them by the Greek and Servian press demanded a public inquiry into the
extent and responsibility for atrocities committed during the war.
The New York _Evening Post_ calls the proposed work of the commission
a “diagnosis of war,” and congratulates the peace movement on the
greatest opportunity that has been presented it to win the world’s
serious attention to the nature and implications of war. The topics of
investigation include the responsibility for the outbreak of war, the
economic waste caused by it and the truth about the outrages committed
by non-combatants. Of these, the last appeals most strongly to the
popular imagination, but the first, the responsible cause, is, in the
opinion of the _Post_, the most fundamental. The main point of attack
on war by peace advocates says the _Post_ “lies in the direction of
ascertaining who or what is responsible for war. Is it being fought
for a worthy cause, or is it being fought because certain leaders or
certain interests desire war? It makes all the difference in the world
whether the mangled bodies on the hillsides in Thrace and Macedonia
are the price paid for the liberation of the Balkans from Turkish
misrule, or whether those dead bodies and shattered limbs are incidents
in the ambitions of a king or a commander-in-chief, and a testimonial
to the skill of travelling salesmen from the gun factories at Essen and
Creusot.”
[Illustration:
_Cesare in New York Sun._
THE WORLD IS OVERCROWDED AND OVERARMED.--_London Economist._]
A list of names has been suggested as members of the commission, but
the final make-up will not be known until the meeting to discuss the
work of the commission which is to be held soon in Paris. The proposed
membership includes:
Prof. John D. Prince, of Columbia University, representing
the United States.
Francis W. Hirst, editor of the _London Economist_,
representing Great Britain.
Baron d’Estournelles de Constant, senator and president
of the French parliamentary group favoring international
arbitration, representing France.
Prof. Philipp Zorn, of Bonn University, representing
Germany.
Prof. Paul N. Milukoff, editor and leader of the
Constitutional-Democrats in the Russian Duma, representing
Russia.
Prof. Heinrich Lammasch, of the University of Vienna,
well known as a jurist, representing Austria-Hungary.
=PEACE IN WEST VIRGINIA=
The West Virginia coal strike, which lasted sixteen months, and was
marked by the violence and bitterness of a civil war, has come to an
end, and contracts have been signed on both Paint and Cabin creeks.
The Paint creek agreement, which was signed on July 24, accords full
recognition to the United Mine Workers, and grants practically all
their demands, including the check-off; that is, the deduction in the
office from the miner’s wages of his union dues and the payment of them
to the union officials. On Cabin creek the agreement signed on July 29
did not grant recognition to the unions, but it is stated in the _Coal
Age_ that by the change from the long ton to the short ton the miners
have secured an increase in wages, amounting to about 12 per cent. They
have gained also the nine-hour day, a semi-monthly pay, the right to
employ check weighmen and to trade where they please. The Paint creek
contract is to run until March 31, 1914, while that of Cabin creek is
to continue a year longer, coming to an end April 1, 1915. The _Coal
Age_ sums up the cost of the bitter struggle, now ended, as follows:
“Thirteen lives were lost in the insurrection. The cost in
money was as follows:
Operators loss in business $2,000,000; Loss to the miners
in wages $1,500,000; Cost to the tax payers of the State
$400,000; Additional cost to the tax payers of Kanawha
County $100,000; Cost to the United Mine Workers collected
by the check-off, a forced levy on the miners of Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania $602,000; Property
destroyed $10,000. This makes a total of $4,612,000.”
BUSINESS IS LIFE: A SURVEY
OF NEGRO PROGRESS