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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1911)
MAN IS FORGOTTEN Underlying Cause of Casualties of Industry. DEATH THE PRICE OF A JOB. Worker Who Won't Take Chances Soon Loses Employment Two Rail road Rules That Show What Value Is Placed on the Toiler. At the fourth annual meeting of the American Association For Labor Legis lation in St. Louis Daniel L. Cease, editor of the Hallway Trainmen's Magazine and member of the national commission on employers' liability, submitted a paper on "Compulsory Compensation For Injured Workmen." lie said that the railroad casualty statistics for the last year showed that nine men were killed each twenty-four hours and that one was Injured or killed every seven minutes. One man was killed for each 203 employed -and one was injured for every nine em ployed. "It 13 customary to aver that compen sation for injury and death will go a long way to reduce casualties, mean ing that mployers will .install safety devices and exercise greater care in the operation of dangerous machinery, but I feel sure that even with assured compensation and the most perfect safety devices there will always be a most terrible loss of life and limb. We have reached that stage in indus try of which it can be said we have gone 'output mad.' Every scientific means, every mechanical device, has been employed as an aid to produc tion, and with It the man has been shifted to the high speed which re duces the efficiency of safety devices, for it places the entire question of safety automatically upon the device. "I almost wish my paper had "been confined to the specific rules for safe ty that are supposed to be in opera tion on certain of our railroads. These rules are for the legal protection of the company, and it is not intended the employees will observe them liter ally. These rules are used as com mon law defenses against liability and are forced on the employee as a con dition of employment. "I will quote a paragraph from an official railroad bulletin of the 'pro tection to the employee' kind, and then I will quote from a letter issued by a superintendent to his employees. I quote from the bulletin: "Employees, before they attempt to make couplings or to uncouple, will examine nnJ see that the cars or engines to be un coupled or coupled, couplers, drawheads and other appliances connected therewith, ties, rails, tracks and roadbed are in good, safe condition. They must exercise great care In coupling and uncoupling cars. In all cases sufficient time must be taken to avoid accident or personal Injury. "This ruli is for the legal defense of the company. Now note the rule for the men: "Entirely too much time Is being lost, especially on local trains, due to train and engine men not taking advantage of con ditions In order to gain time doing work, switching and unloading and loading freight. Neither must you wait until train stops to get men in position. It is also of the utmost Importance that enginemen be alive, prompt to take signals and make quick moves. In this respect it is only necessary to call your attention to the old adage, which is a true one, that when train or engine men do not make good on local trains It thoroughly demonstrates those men are detrimental to the service as well as their own personal interests, and. such men, Instead of being assigned to other runs, should be dispensed with. I am calling your attention to these mat ters with a view of invigorating energy and ambition. In order that your families who. axejje,nenciejit onypu tQ jyiaJse a. suc cess shall not some "day "point The "Hhsjer of scorn at you and that the public may not be able to say you lost your position due to lack of epergy and interest in your own personal welfare, for which you can consistently place the responsibility on no one but yourself. "Compare the bulletin with the letter and note the difference. I say to you now that if railroad employees observ ed the companies' rules for safety the railroads of the United States would be within twelve hours hopelessly con gested. "A system of almost perfect mechan ical production has been installed, and the man must keep pace with it. So much must be produced per man per machine per hour, and. the man knows if he falls below the minimum of pro duction he will lose his job, and a job is a job oven in this land of oppor tunity, lie knows the inexorable rule. "Does it not appeal to you that there is an underlying cause other than negligence that is responsible for the casualty record? We have been so busy making money that we have for gotten the real man who made it. for gotten his family, neglected ordinary rules for national welfare and safety, until we are overwhelmed with the enormity of our industrial offenses, and we hope shamed into an effort toward forcing restitution. I say 'forcing.' for it never will be made otherwise. "We ask that every human sacrifice be fully compensated without having to wait for the delays and uncertain ties of the courts; we want the injured not to have to suffer mental pain with his physical ills for fear of the future for himself and his family; we demand medical, surgical and hospital atten tion; we want certainty of responsi bility fixed for the employer, with cer tainty of compensation fixed for the employee; we want the' defenses of negligence, fellow servant and assump tion of risk eliminated; we want al! the common law defenses now open to the employer removed and the profes sional risk to rest upon the profession, not upon the man. That is, I believe, the only way we can enforce compensation." NO WORK ON SUNDAY. Six Days of Labor Should Be the Maximum Week. President James M. Lynch of the International Typographical union gives his views on Sunday work as follows: "The seven day week obtain ed for years in the newspaper end of the printing trades. We got over it by enacting a law which requires our members emplo3-ed on seven day situa tions to give out one day each week to the first obtainable substitute. As a result our wages for six days are new in excess of the wage formerly received for the seven day week. The subject was forcibly impressed upon mo by a paragraph appearing in the report of a sermon delivered by a lo cal minister, who said: "'It seems to us that the worst ene my of the workingman is the person who wantonly removes the sacredness of his one day of rest, commonly call ed Sunday, for if one line of amuse ment makers be allowed to pursue their regular line of business on Sun day on what logical basis can we pre vent hundreds of other lines from opening up also? I have in my pos session a most urgent appeal publish ed by the actors of this country, in which they request the clergy to assist them in keeping theaters closed on j Sunday.' "One of the local newspapers in dis cussing this matter truthfully said that not a tithe of what will come Is included in tty labor of those thus called on to minister to the selfish en joyment of Sundaj amusement seek ers. The same license that acquiesces Ui lawbveakin for .this purpose, will ureak it for other purposes ,and, un checked, we shall come on a time when there will be no Sunday free from work for the average man, and, what is more, the equation will settle Itself so that in the run of things the work ingman will get no more for his seven days than he now gets for six. "Labor has come a long way from the almost unremittent toil that bound the worker to his task for practically all of his waking moments to a time where it has been discovered that the worker can do really more work and better work in shorter days than longer. This has been followed by the movement against child labor to give the child a chance of an education and a time free from body breaking toil in its tender years. "Our German members during a pa-, riod of industrial stagnation decided to work five days a week, giving one day for the relief of their less fortu nate brothers. Then they continued the practice. Today they receive as much for the five days as they for merly received for the six days. Sun-; day should be a day of rest and not a vehicle for the imposition on the work ers of the seven day week." The Real Cause of High Wages. It is a familiar adage in the business world that an efficient man is cheap at high wages. Yet in its application to larger questions this adage is never thought of. In discussing the tariff and wages people assume as a matter of course that the employer who pays high wages must therefore sell his goods at a higher price. The fact is that if the labor is well fed and intel ligent and is applied under good nat ural conditions and with, skillful lead ership the employer can turn out an abundant product or a product of high quality, sell it cheap and still pay his laborers well. And the real source and cause of general high wages, says the economist, is precisely in these condi tions efficient labor, good natural re sources, skillful industrial leadership. Given these and you will always have higher wages and need not fear com petition from cheap and inefficient la bor. Professor F. W. Taussig in Atlantic. Union Haters Boycotting Buck's. It is charged that the anti-unionists desire to inflict all punishment possible on the new management of the Buck's Stove and Range company on account of having made peace with organized labor. Recent actions on 1h part of certain union hating iuuIvid.irJs indi cate thai the charges are based on facts. "Therefore it Is the duty of all trade unionists to keep tho general public well informed of the fact that the Buck's company and organized labor have settled all grievances and that the relations between the two are of the most friendly and satisfactory nature. In fact, Frederick W. Gard ner, the present head of the concern, has always been of the opinion he holds to at present that collective bargaining and trade agreements are the only sureties for industrial peace. CHILD LABOR IN MINES. Conditions Improved In Pennsylvania . Coal Fields. ; In his official report the chief of the Pennsylvania state department 61 mines,- James E. Roderick, has some thing to say about the improved con ditions of labor in the anthracite fields The principal obstacle in the way oi attaining still better conditions is the parent who forces the child to work in order to help support the family. It is common, he says, for parents to make false statements about their children's ages. "The pathway of the youthful work er." says Mr. Roderick, jjs being grad ually freeil Trom"theh"ardshipT?Tong hours, Insanitary conditions and . in adequate wages, and today he works under conditions of safety, convenience and comfort undreamed of a genera tion ago. "It is a matter of gratification to be able to say that "the conditions sur rounding this class of workers have greatly improved in the last decade. In addition to the more intelligent and efficient operation of the mines and the consequent betterment in the phys ical conditions, there have been a grad ual decrease in the hours of labor and an increase in the amount of wages paid. "The greatest gain, however, has been brought about by the wise and humane legislation regulating the ages of the workers. Years ago little chil dren not more than eight or nine years of age were allowed and in many cases obliged to work about the mines, but owing to enlightened public sentiment that has always opposed the employ ment of children of tender years in in dustrial work and to the more thought ful and sensible attitude of : the op erators the age limit has from year to year been increased until today no child under fourteen years of age can be employed at any work whatever about the mines, and as a rule few children under sixteen years of age are employed inside the mines." Demands of Danish Workers. At the great workingmen's conven tion recently held at Copenhagen, Den mark, a resolution was introduced and adopted declaring present labor legis lation everywhere to be quite inade quate. The following were declared to be the final demands of the work men: First, a maximum working day of eight hours; second, prohibition of work for children under fourteen years of age; third, prohibition of night work unless absolutely necessary for technical reasons or for public weal; fourth, uninterrupted rest of at least thirty-six hours weekly; fifth, guar antee for right of organization; sixth, establishment of a system of active inspection of working conditions in town and country, with the co-operation of persons chosen by workmen. HELP THE CHILD SLAVES. The union label can easily be made the emancipator of child slavery. If the organized work era of the country and their friends would resolve never to purchase or consume any article to whose production child labor has contributed these murderers of the innocents would be soon out of business. The union la bel Is never placed on the prod uct of Infant toil. t TRUTHS TO PONDER. ' Constant 'association of " the 1 workers In unions broadens their minds and develops their "Intel-' lectual" power. The fellow who bolts never learns much. It is the workingmen 'who stick together , who achieve the victories on the field of indus trial warfare. It does not take much knowledge to know - f enough to stick together.1 SOU.- some do not know that much.- X Some union members love the y union cause so well that they . will go out of their .'way to t spend hard earned union wages . for the product of unfair firms and then wonder why the'Unlon ' cause Is no stronger. T