The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-08-01
SOCIAL SERVICE BULLETIN

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The Weekly Press Service of the So
cial Service Commission, Ameri-
can Federation of Catholic Soci-
cites. Peter E. Dietz, Editor, 49,
"A University Bldg, Milwaukee,
Wis.
Cheap Labor is Expensive Labor.
The cost of cheap labor to the
community has not, as yet, received
direct attention in sufficient force to
create general demand for action
that will remedy the situation. Cheap
labor makes necessary additions to
all of our public institutions that are
open for the relief of the distressed.
Our asylums and public charities
are mostly filled by broken down
cheap laborers. The employer has
profited at their expense although he
has reduced his business by limiting
the ability of his employees to pur-
chase other products and, in turn.
create a demand for his own. 1t
doubtless has paid him, for the time,
better to continue cheap labor with
its lesser production and pay his pro
rata tax for the public maintenance
of his broken down workmen. All
any rate he continued it.
In discussing cheap labor, from
habit, we associate it with foreign
labor, for therein is to be found the
bottom wage level. The employer
has little regard for the foreigner
unless his own government shows
unusual interest in his welfare. We
have at times resented this interior
ence but it has been necessary, so,
instead of resenting the protection
given the foreigner by his own gov
eminent, it would have been more to
the purpose to commend it. The
public has had to pay the price for
every human wreck, and, until leg:s-
lation interfered, the employer gave
little attention to the number of such
wrecks. This making wrecks of men
has reached a point now where sew
eral of the states realize the force
of the growing burden of expense
and their inability to meet it with
out greatly increased taxation.
Between politics and short-sighted
sentiment the immigration question
has been permitted to run amuck.
and we are reaping the result of
employers avarice and public I'M
concern in deteriorated class of
workmen, an increased public bur-
den, comparative decreased pur-
chasing power and an unassimilated
population mass, on its rapid way
to citizenship, that bodies no good
for the common welfare.
The nation living on it's resources
since it commenced, both in materi-
ais and men, must finally pay the
price for the toll it has taken with
out recompense. In every direction
the skimming of the surface shows
that it can no longer be done; that
scientific use of every natural re-
source must follow the prodigality of
years-which means decreasing lack
of opportunity for the cheapest of
labor, which is fast becoming the
most expensive.
The common practice of working
cheap labor until it falls from men
tai and physical exhaustion and goes
to an insane asylum or the poor
house must be stopped soon or the
bulk of the population will be found
in these two classes of public chari-
ties. The employer who profits does
not care what the result is; his pres
ent profits take care of his future
in any event, so the present is all
he has in mind. The employee, be-
twene politics and the sentimental
interference of philanthropists
of several kinds and de-
grees, cannot move in sufficient
force to stop the practice of hiring
the cheapest labor in competition
with everything that stands for de-
cent living.
The Toll of Industry.
The report of the statistician OF
Tho Industrial Accident Commission
~ the State of California for the hrs'
s;x months Of 1914 has just oeen
..,odo II shows some startling hs-
,,ra. relative to the extraordinary
hoavv toll of industry in terms Oh
hvman lives and bodily injuries. "A
+ota, Of over $4,000 accidents have
heen reported to the commission our
,np the first half year ending June
10Th OF these, 25.475 resulted in
temnorary disability, while 22s re-
.,,,.ad in death. During the month
of June alone over $500 accidents
were reported, 10 of which were
death cases, while 1874 caused per-
manent disability.
twenty states have already intro
duced legal compensation for the ac-
cidents of industry. But this fact
-..1.,,s,,o ond Telling &C to