The interests of every community demand that all workers, male as well
as female, shall receive a fair living wage, to save them from
pernicious effects upon their health and morals. The dangers to the
health of women have been found to be twofold: lack of adequate
nourishment and lack of medical care in sickness. Careful investigations
as well as statistics have proven that with insufficient wages food is
necessarily cut down below the requirements of subsistence, and health
inevitably suffers. In order to meet unavoidable expenses for lodging
and clothing, workingwomen reduce their diet to the lowest possible
point.
On the moral side, authorities agree in the opinion that, while
underpayment and the consequent struggle to live may not be the primary
cause for entering upon an immoral life, it is inevitably a highly
important factor. When wages are too low to supply nourishment and other
human needs, temptation is more readily yielded to.
The discovery that inadequate wages menace the morals of women and
through them the interests and the good name of the community in which
they work, has had much to do with the adoption of minimum-wage laws in
America as well as in other parts of the world.
In the United States the first minimum-wage orders were those of the
Oregon Industrial Commission, which fixed $8.64 as the legal weekly
minimum for manufacturing establishments, and $9.25 for mercantile
establishments, in the City of Portland. These rates were based upon the
testimony of workers and employers gathered by the Oregon Consumers’
League. The testimony had shown that the prevailing wage for beginners
in department stores was $3.00 a week; that nearly half of these girls
and women employed were receiving less than $9.00, and that female
clerks never received above $10.00 a week, no matter how long the term
of their service.
After learning from the employers what wages were actually paid, the
Oregon investigators sought to determine the amount necessary to protect
the health and morals of the women workers through an examination of
market prices and a careful study of the actual expenditures of the
workers. One hundred and sixteen department-store workers furnished the
information for the following table of averages:
Living at Home Adrift
Rent $315.51 $118.00
Board 196.25
Carfare 31.20 23.42
Clothing 161.36 139.63
Laundry 24.28 16.27
Doctor and Dentist 29.23 23.82
Lodge and Church 12.19 9.72
Recreation 21.48 36.62
Books, etc. 10.11 6.69
——————— ———————
Total Expenses $605.36 $570.42
The total wages received in the average:
Total Wages $459.50 $480.57
——————— ———————
Deficit $145.86 $89.85
These figures show that a majority of these women actually received less
than it cost them to live.
Investigations carried on in order to find how these women met the
difference, disclosed that many of them, whether living at home or
boarding, did extra chores in the morning before going to work and after
work-hours in the evening. Others went into debt. And still others
became “charity girls”—that is, they kept company with “gentlemen
friends,” who came up for the balance, sometimes under promise of
marriage when these “friends” should feel able to set up a household.
That such promises are not always kept and that the girls quite often
sink to lower levels, are facts well known.
The first law embodying the principle of the minimum wage was enacted in
New Zealand 25 years ago. From there it spread gradually to the other
Australian States. In 1896 Victoria, the largest industrial State of
Australia, passed the first act providing for special boards to fix
minimum wages in different trades. Beginning with a few sweat-shop
industries, the movement has grown by successive special acts, until, in
1916, there were about 150 trades or occupations in which minimum wages
were set by special wage boards.
The same general plan was followed by Great Britain in the trade boards
act of 1909. This bill, introduced in Parliament by delegates of the
English Anti-sweating League and of the National Consumers’ League in
January, 1909, was passed and signed in time to take effect at New
Years, 1910.
In the United States, up to the end of 1918, minimum-wage laws had been
enacted in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin
and in the District of Columbia, guaranteeing a living wage to women
workers, especially in unorganized trades.
EFFORTS TO SECURE SAFE AND SANITARY WORKING CONDITIONS AND CLINICS FOR
THE TREATMENT OF DISEASES RESULTING FROM INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS.
When in the industries human power began to be supplanted by
steam-driven machines, when competition grew fierce and fiercer, it was
found that with the ever increasing speed of the whirling wheels the
dangers that threatened the workmen increased enormously. The use of
almost every machine has brought with it some peculiar peril, this one
crushing a finger or cutting a limb of the person in charge; that one
tearing out an arm or killing the operator if for a fraction of a second
his thoughts strayed from his work, or if he became drowsy after long
hours of work.
It was also found that many persons, engaged in certain occupations,
became afflicted by peculiar diseases, unknown before and strictly
confined to the persons doing that special work.
According to conservative estimates, of the 38,000,000 wage earners of
the United States, in every year 30,000 to 33,000 are killed by
industrial accidents. In addition, there are approximately 2,000,000
non-fatal accidents.
Imagine a plain strewn with 35,000 corpses and two million men and women
crying out under the pain of severe lacerations, burns, cuts, bruises,
dislocations and fractures! Imagine the horrible sight of so many human
beings with limbs torn into shreds, with faces having empty eye-holes,
with breasts heaving from the effect of poisonous gases! If such numbers
of men and women were killed and wounded in one day at one place, the
whole world would be terrified, and register the day as the most
dreadful in history. But as these losses extend over a whole year and a
large territory, our nation takes only slight notice of them, hardly
thinking of the fact, that these immense losses and sufferings are
terrible realities, which affect the economic wealth of our nation as a
whole in a very serious way.
These conditions are the more deplorable as the majority of such
accidents could be avoided by intelligent and rational methods, as is
done in other civilized countries, where the possibilities for
successful prevention of accidents have been clearly demonstrated.
Granting that many of such industrial accidents are the result of
ignorance, reckless indifference or carelessness, the fact remains that
much that could be done in our country for the protection of working
people is neglected.
When in Europe with the increase of industries the number of accidents
and “professional diseases” swelled in proportion, some philanthropists
and economists, interested in the welfare of their fellow-citizens and
convinced that every life saved is a national asset, became alarmed and
searched for means to prevent such calamities. When in 1855 the first
World’s Exposition was held at Paris, it had a special department in
which were exhibited inventions for the safety of working people. Later
on a permanent “Musée social” was established.
Since then similar institutions have been opened in Berlin, Munich,
Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels, Zurich, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Budapest,
Milan, Moscow, and several other places. These museums contain the
latest and most select inventions for the restriction of accidents and
in the interest of industrial hygiene. And as all exhibits are arranged
in separate groups according to the various professions, every
manufacturer and every working man and woman can inform himself without
loss of time about all new inventions relating to his special trade.
Perhaps the most comprehensive and most scientific of these museums is
that of Charlottenburg, a suburb of Berlin. Its wonderfully interesting
character is evident from the moment one enters the magnificent
building, which occupies a whole city block. There are long rows of
figures equipped with the various types of masks and helmets used by
miners, divers, fire-fighters, and laborers, working in rooms filled
with poisonous gases, dust, or irrespirable smoke. There are all the
implements and attachments for the protection of persons working on
men-killing machines.
There are casts in plaster and reproductions in wax illustrating all the
dreadful skin diseases and deformities of the limbs, by which the
laborers engaged in certain industries become afflicted. Other exhibits
illustrate what measures should be taken for the improvement of the
conditions of the working classes; how to furnish the best nourishment
at the lowest cost; how to settle laborers in pleasant colonies, and how
to treat those, who have become sick or afflicted with industrial
diseases.
Among the most important exhibits are the statistics of three
institutions provided for all persons employed in workshops and
factories.
Germany was first among the nations to recognize the need of reforms in
the social conditions of the working classes. Before 1870 wages had been
low, and many of the evils that developed in other industrial countries
had spread to Germany. Believing that the working classes have a right
to be considered by the State the Government in 1881 initiated the era
of “State social politics,” which brought about an enormous change in
the condition of the working classes. Besides many reforms in regard to
the length of the working hours and to women’s and children’s labor,
this State socialism provided for three important institutions: first, a
compulsory insurance against sickness; second, a compulsory insurance
against accidents; third, a compulsory insurance against invalidity and
old age.
To the funds of the first class all laborers earning less than 2000
marks a year must pay two-thirds, and the employer one-third of the
weekly premiums. In case of sickness, the insured person receives half
the amount for twenty-six weeks. Doctors, hospitals and medicines are
free. In 1913 14,555,609 laborers, men and women, were protected in this
way. Many poor mothers were supported for several weeks before and after
confinement. To prevent sickness, especially tuberculosis, the
institution supported numbers of sanitariums and recreation homes, where
thousands of people, who would otherwise have perished, regained their
health.
The insurance fees against accidents had to be paid entirely by the
employer. In case of an accident, it was not the employer in whose
factory it had happened who was held responsible, but the whole group of
employers in the same branch of industry. Every group was compelled to
establish an insurance company. In 1913 there were 25,800,000 men and
women thus protected. An injured laborer received, during the time of
his disability, two-thirds of his wages, also free medical treatment. In
case of his death the family received at once fifteen per cent. of his
annual wages and an annual support of sixty per cent. As the employers
naturally wish to keep the amount of expenses as low as possible, this
kind of compulsory insurance greatly stimulated the invention and
institution of measures by which accidents may be prevented.
The premiums for the insurance against invalidity and old age were paid
half by the employees and half by the employer. Support was given to
invalids without regard to age, and to persons above seventy years. To
every lawful pension the Government contributed 50 marks. In 1914
16,551,500 people were protected by this insurance. In the one year of
1913, the amount distributed among needy people by these three branches
of insurance was 775,000,000 marks. The miners of Germany were protected
by similar institutions. The splendid results of such compulsory
insurance induced the Government to prepare a special insurance for
widows and orphans. It may be mentioned that the management of these
insurance companies was entirely in the hands of the working classes and
the employers.
All in all, the “Permanent Expositions for the Welfare of the Working
Classes,” as they exist in Berlin and in other European capitals,
demonstrate what intelligent nations can do for the protection and the
welfare of their laborers. How many millions of useful lives have been
saved by the inventions brought here to the knowledge of the public, and
what vast amounts of suffering, sorrow and tears have been averted, we
can only guess.
In view of these facts it must be stated that our United States, which
of all countries is the greatest in industry and suffers most heavily
through industrial accidents and diseases, is among the most backward in
regard to social legislation as well as in the effort to interest
employers and employees in these welfare institutions which are of such
vital value for both parties.
Yes, there was in 1910 a “Museum of Safety” established in New York, but
so far it has remained the only one in the entire western hemisphere.
And, as it is housed in the lower floors of an insignificant building in
24th Street, it has failed to attract the attention and the support of
the masses.
In my opinion, every state should have a permanent museum which brings
to public knowledge all inventions relating to the special industries
and trades followed by its population. The agricultural states may
confine themselves to exhibits by which accidents connected with the
pursuit of agriculture can be prevented. The mining states may give
preference to everything that increases safety in the mines. The states
bordering our oceans and great lakes should collect all devices that
make navigation safer; our industrial states must direct their efforts
to collect such inventions as may restrict accidents in workshops and
factories. If this should be done, and if our governments, legislators
and factory inspectors would demand the installation of such inventions,
the terrific number of victims that perish every year upon our
industrial battlefields would most assuredly be greatly diminished. It
is to these aims that our statesmen as well as our male and female
workers should direct their utmost endeavors.