Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-12-10

! anu llSlEuueBtS Dy WHICH all WOFk Is
| carried on. AS far as possible 1 hope
| to see a frank recognition of the adj.
/ vantages conferred by machinery, or
/! ganization and division of labor, ac-
1 companied by an effort to bring about
a larger share in the ownership by
| wageworker or railway, mill and fac
! tory. In farming this simply means
! that we wish to see the farmer own
/ his own land. We do not wish to see
| the farms so large that they become
| the property of absentee landlords
/ who farm them by tenants nor yet so
small that the farmer becomes like a
European peasant.
Again, the depositors in our savings
banks now number over one-tenth of
our entire population. These are all
capitalists, who, through the savings
banks, loan their money to the workers
that is, in many cases to themselves
| to carry on their various industries
The more we increase their number
! the more we introduce the principles
| of cooperation into our industry. Ev-
| cry Increase in the number of small
stockholders in corporations is good
/ thing for the same reasons, and where
the employees are the stockholders the
result is particularly good. Very much
of this movement must be outside Of
anything that can be accomplished by
| legislation, but legislation can do a
good deal. Postal savings banks will
make it easy for the poorest to keep
their savings in absolute safety. The
regulation of the national highways
must be such that they shall serve all
| people with equal justice. Corporate
finances must be supervised so as to
make it far safer than at present for
i the man of small means to invest his
| money i'll stocks. There must be pro-
| hibition of child labor, diminution of
woman labor, shortening of hours of
all mechanical labor. Stock watering
should be prohibited and stock gam
bling, SO far as is possible, discouraged
There should be a progressive inner
/ itance tax on large fortunes. Indus
| trial education should be encoura ged
] AS far as possible we should tighten
the burden of taxation on the small
man. We should put premium upon
| thrift, hard work and business energy.
| but these qualities cease to be the main
| factors in accommodating fortune long
| before that fortune reaches point
where it would be seriously affected by
any inheritance tax such as l propose.
1t is cminently right that the nation
should fix the terms upon which the
| great fortunes are inherited. They
rarely do good, and they often do
| harm to those who inherit them in
| their entirety.
Protection For Wageworkers.
| The above is the merect sketch.
| hardly even a sketch in outline of the
reforms for which we should work.
| But there is one matter with which
the congress should deal at this ses-
sion. There should no longer be any
paltering with the question of taking
| care Of the wageworkers who. under
our present industrial system, become
killed, crippled or worn out as part of
the regular incidents of given bust
ness. The majority of wageworkers
| must have their rights secured for
them by state action, but the national
government should legislate in thor
oughgoing and farreaching fashion,
not only for all employees of the ma
| tional government but for all persons
engaged in interstate commerce. The
! object sought for could be achieved
to measurable degree, as far as
those Killed or crippled are concerned.
by proper employers liability laws.
AS far as concerns those who have
been Worn out, / call your attention to
the. fact that definite steps toward
providing old age pensions have been
taken in many of our private indus
tries. These may be indefinitely ex-
tended through voluntary association
no contlibutOry schemes or through
agency of savings banks, as under
recent Massachusetts plan To
S; then these practical measures
Should be our immediate duty 1t is
net at present necessary to consider
the larger and more general govern
mental schemes that most European
governments have found themselves
| obliged to adopt
| our present system, Or rather, no
system, works dreadful wrong and is
of benefit to only one class of people
the lawyers. When a workman is
| injured what he needs is not an ex-
| pensivc and doubtful lawsuit. but the
certainty of relief through immediate
administrative action. The number of
accidents which result in the death or
Gripping of wageworlers in the Union
at large is simply appalling. In very
few years ii runs up total far in ex-
cess of the aggregate of the dead and
wounded in any modern war. No
academic theory about freedom of
contract or constitutional liberty to
contract should be permitted to in
terfere with this and similar move
ments. Progress in civilization has
everywhere meant limitation and
regulation of contract I call your
especial attention to the bulletin of the
bureau of labor which gives a state
ment of the methods of treating the