Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-05-12
World of Labor
News from AU Parts of the World, of General Interest to the Worker

dustrial accident insurance is based on the general principle that the con sumer should pay the cost of proouc- ton as affected by accidents to the workmen. The cost is first to De borne by the contractor or mahulac' turer and then charged against ohe consumer in the price of the manulac' tured article The Italian law might properly be termed law to prevent accidents, rather than compensation for accidents, as every safeguard IS taken to prevent casualties. The eh- ployers have asked for certain changes, however, as the compehsa- tion act, which was avoWedly dra"h in the interest of the Worklngmen, contains provisions which are held to foster carelessness on the part or the workers. Compensation in case oi death is based on sum equal to i've annuities of the annual wages. Ill case of absolute disability, the con- pensation is based on six annultles or the wages with a minimum equivalent to $579 For temporary or permanent partial disability the indemnity IS computed in proportion to the degree of partial disability as compared With absolute disability. The government does not contribute to the payment or any part of the premium for accident insurance, except to regulate the cost to reasonable amount, and to make 1t compulsory and uniform to all Tn proportion to the risk covered.
 Brooklyn, N Y-Miss Mary Dreier, worker for industrial betterment, speaking on the laundry strike before a large and fashionable audience at the Church of the Pilgrims, declared that lives of young girls are blighted and their health so ruined through the drudgeEy of laundry work that they become unfit for marriage. We find women and girls and even little chil- dren working away, some sixty and ninety hours a week-ten and fifteen hours a day-for wages anywhere from four to ten dollars week Some do piece work, of course, and earn more than others, but they have to work so much harder in comparison to those who receive salaries that their health pays the difference"
 New York. - The government brought three actions in the federal district court against the Erie rail road for alleged violation of the six teen hour law in relation to employees. The suits involve fifty-one offenses, and allege that the defendant corpora tion required conductors, firemen and trainmen to work continuously for more than sixteen hours. Penalties asked by the government involve $25,5OO, that is, $500 for each offense. The period covered by the alleged vi olations extends from April to Sep tember. 1911.
 Chicago.-Chief Factory Inspector Davis has issued statistics showing that the enforcement of the ten-hour law for women in Illinois has cost Chicago hotel men not less than $50- 900 a month since July 1, when the law went into effect. The half dozen big department stores in Chicago, ac- cording to the statistics, obeyed the law at an extra expense of $1.500 a day during the holiday season, being compelled to employ 1000 additional persons.
 Chicago.-Chicago's unemployed are to be the subject of municipal inves- tigation. There are more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons out of work. Charles R. Henderson, professor at the University of Chi cago and chairman of the executive committee of the United Charities, asked Mayor Harrison to have the in vestigation undertaken. The mayor decided to put the entire situation be- | fore the city council.
 Boston.-The Navy Yard Federated Trades council has taken vigorous ex- captions to story recently published in one Boston newspaper to the effect | that the crew of the battleship Ne braska had installed the new turret guns on that ship. The work is not | yet thirty-five per cent. complete, the navy yard men say, and all of it done up to date has been done by navy yard civilian mechanics.
 New York-A. Rosenberg, presi. dent of the International Ladies' Gar. ment Workers union, reports to the membership that thirty new local unions were formed during the year 1911 in the United States and Canada, and that the membership is fast ap- preaching the one hundred thousand l mark.
 Ottawa, Canada-The strike record of the Canadian labor department shows that there were only eight trade disputes in existence during De. cember, being six fewer than in No. vember and two fewer than in Decem. Der, 1910.
 Peekskill, N. Y.-The Swedish Safety Match company is to establish the largest match factory in the world at Verplanck's point, near this city Dwellings will be erected for five thousand employees. many of whom