The Oskaloosa herald., 1908-12-10

lCBlSlaIlOH can 10 u good deal. POSta
savings banks will make 1t easy TO
the poorest TO keep their savings IL
absolute safety. The regulation O
the national highways must be sucl
that they shall serve all people will
equal justice, Corporate finances
must be supervised Sc as to make 4
far safer than at present for the mar
of small means to invest his none,
in stocks. There must be prohibition
of child labor, diminution of woman
labor, shortening of hours of all me
chanical labor; stock watering should
be prohibited, and stock gambling Sc
far as is possible discouraged. There
should be, a progressive inheritance
tax on large fortunes. Industrial edu
cation should be encouraged. AS fal
as possible we should tighten the bur
den of taxation on the small man. We
should put premium upon thrift
hard work and business energy; but
these qualities cease to be the MAR
factors In accommodating a fortune
long before that fortune reaches .
point where 1t would be seriously af
fected by any inheritance tax such as
propose. 1t is eminently 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 merest sketch,
the reforms for which we should
work. But there is one matter with
which the Congress should deal at
this session. There should be no
longer any paltering with the ques-
ton of taking care of the wagework.
ers who, under our present industrial
system become killed, crippled or
worn out as part of the regular in
cidents Of given business. The ma
jority of wageworkers must have their
rights secured for them by state &C.
ton; but the national government
should legislate in thoroughgoing and
far-reaching fashion not only for all
employees of the national government
but for all persons engaged in inter-
state commerce. The object sought
for could be achieved to a measurable
degree, as far as those killed or Grip
pied are concerned, by proper employ
ers' liability laws. AS far as con-
Germs those who have been worn out,
/ al 70 hn af
definite steps toward providing old
age pensions have been taken in many
of our private industries. These may
be indefinitely extended through vol.
untary association and contributory
schemes, or through the agency of saw
ings banks, las under the recent Mas
sachusetts plan. To strengthen these
practical measures should be our inn
mediate duty; it is not at present ne
cessary to consider the larger and
more general governmental schemes
that most European governments have
found themselves obliged to adopt.
Our present system, or rather no
system, works dreadfully wrong, and
1t is of benefit to only one class Of
people-the lawyers. When a work
man is injured what he needs is not
an expensive and doubtful lawsuit,
but the certainty of relief through i'm.
mediate administrative action. The
number of accidents which result in
the death or Gripping Of wagework-
ers, in the Union at large, is simply
appalling; in a very few years 1t
runs up to total far in excess 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 interfere with
this and similar movements. Progress
in civilization has everywhere meant
a limitation and regulation of con-
tract. l call your especial attention
to the bulletin of the Bureau of Labor
which gives a statement of the meth
DDS of treating the Unemployed in
European countries, as this is sub
ject which in German, for instance,
is. treated in connection with making
provision for worn out and crippled
workmen.
Pending a thoroughgoing investiga-
tion and action there is certain legis-
lation which should be enacted at
once. The law, passed at the last
session of congress, granting compen-
sation to certain classes of employees
of the government, should be extend
ed to include all employees of the gov
eminent and should be made more
liberal in It's terms. There is no good
ground for the distinction made in
the law between those engaged N
hazardous occupations and those not
SO engaged. If a man is injured or
killed in any line Of work, 1t was haz-
ardous in his case. Whether l per
cent of those following a given occu.
patton actually suffer injury or death
ought not to have any bearing on the
question OF their receiving compensa.
ton. 1t is grim logic wn.ch says
to an injured employee or to the de-
pendents of one killed that he or they
are entitled to no compensation be
cause very few people other than he
have been injured or killed in that
occupation. Perhaps one OF the most
striking omissions in the law is that
IL does not embrace peace officers and