The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-12-12
ADDRESS 1t ACADEMY
Of SOCIAL SCIENCE
Delivered at New Auditorium
Law Building, University of
Minnesota, Dec. a, 1908.
BY WILLIAM T.. McEWEN.
OF STATE FEDERATION
Upon Subject Assigned by the
Academy: "social Legisla-
tion in Minnesota.
Especial to Labor Worldly

Especial to Labor Worldly
Minneapolis, Dec. AT the annual
meeting Of the Minnesota academy of
social sciences. University Of Mime
sofa, held on Friday, December 4, 1908,
at the new auditorium law building,
Justice of the Supreme Court Charles
B. Elliott presiding, Mr.. w. E. Nc
Even, of Duluth, Secretary-Treasurer
OF the State Federation of Labor, de-
livered an address on Social Legisla-
tion in Minnesota"
The address ELECTED much favorable
comment from Judges, professors, and
others. The following is the full text
thereof:
Social Legislation in Minnesota.
To be perfectly candid with you I
did not at first realize the ma agnitude
Of the subject, to which consented to
address myself. Rejecting upon the
theme ,as one Of my humble capacity
must, upon any subject before he can
deliver himself Of such suggestions as
would merit the consideration Of an
Intelligent audience, I discovered that
social legislation in Minnesota involved
a reference to so many important
questions, to do justice to any one of
which would require a degree Of time
and preparation that the multiciplicity
Of other duties would preclude me
from bestowing upon 1t, even were
equal to the occasion in other respects.
Scope Of the Subject.
The subject in it's entirety covers
field so extensive that our law makers
in their wisdom classified it's various
phases under such designations as:
Parent and child; husband and wife;
guardian and ward; master and SER
want, and possibly other titles and
subdivisions. Not being a lawyer I
cannot in the presence of such Jdistin-
guished members Of the profession,
venture to speak authoritatively upon
that point.
On this occasion I shall conf1ne my
remarks to such social legislation in
Minnesota as grows out Of and prop
eriy pertains TO the relation Of master
and servant, or, to use terms more In
harmony with the spirit Of our day.
; and generation, employer and en-
ployee.
Employer and Employee.
With respect to those two correlative
terms, and my individual relation to
them, am reminded OF the story OF
the good old woman in the Emerald
Isle who, when asked where she ex-
pected to go when she died replied
sorrowfully: Il don't know for I have
friends in both places" I am in the
same predicament with regard to those
terms, but with this difference: in
stead Of my friends being concerned
with them, I, myself, am at one and
the same time employer and employee,
and when my sympathy for myself in
the one is in the ascendancy, my SYM
pathy for myself in the other is In
abeyance, and vice versa, as the law
yers say.
Other Social Relations.
Once more referring to the other
social or domestic relations and the
legislation needed to prescribe and
regulate their correlative duties, it is
clearly manifest that 50 far as the
relations of parent and child, guardian
and ward, and husband and wife are
concerned. the conditions, require
ments, duties, obligations, restraints
moralities and ethics which appertain
to these have not changed materially
Tor centuries. The changes in legisla-
lattVe enactments on these subjects
have been merely such safeguards as
the extgencies and moral ethics Of an
advancing civilization demanded I
need not dwell upon this point, for I
take it, that no one will seriously con-
trovert the statement
CorreIative Rights and Duties.
But with regard to the correlative
rights, duties and liabilities of en-
ployer and employee. the departure
from the conditions and methods
which obtained in every department of
human endeavor have been so radical
that they could not possibly have been
anticipated by the brightest minds OF
the past. and howsoever much we may
venerate their good intentions and
legislation, we must acknowledge the
inadequacy Of such legislation to meet
the conditions which confront the state
and its citizens today.
CreditabIe to Minnesota.
However, compared with most Of the
other states, Minnesota's law makers
have taken advanced ground on legis-
lation affecting the moral and eco
nomic welfare Of her people. We were
among the first of the states to enact
measures regulating child labor and
providing for compulsory education. I
know Of no state whose laws on this
subject are more rigid. This becomes
all the more creditable to Minnesota
when 1t is remembered that our state
Is devoted more to agriculture than to
manufacturing, and the necessity for
such legislation was not 80 imminent
as in states where the awful competi-
tion in a fast developing industry was
taking the child from the play ground
and placing it in the workshop and
factory, that its life blood might be
coined into dollars. =:
Difficulty in Massachusetts,.
a And still 1t was much easier for
Minnesota to take this step than it
was for Massachusetts whose cotton