Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-08-25
Remedial Measures Sug gested Include Equal
Suffraqe-Public Utilities Companies Con-
demned in the Second Section of the Report
of Investigation by U. S. Commission on Indus
trial Relations

Chicago. Aug. 24.-The second sec
ton of the summary OF the report VI
Basil NJ, Manly, director OF research
and investigation of the United states
Commission on Industrial reiatlohs.
was made public today. This second
section sketches evidence gathered 10
the effect that industrial unrest is
caused by low wages, and that low
wages are due to the lack of strong
tabor organizations. Many remedial
measures are recommended. including
equal suffrage, and various puplc util-
tiles companies are condemned.
Commissioners Lennon and O'Connell
in their findings take issue with the
claim by commissioners Ashton, Bal
lard and Weinstock that faults that
NAV exist in trade unions can properly
be considered among the causes OF IN
dustrial unrest. They urge strong lao-
or organizations as remedy, and sug-
eest that instead Of forming new
federal industrial commission, with
large powers to deal with Industrial
unrest, that the Department OF Labor
be developed and given larger funds
for carrying on its WORK.
Its principal feature of this section
Is q vivid portrayal of living and work.
ing conditions that prevail in American
Industry today. Evidence is presented
at great length in support of the re-
ports findings to the effect that indus
trial unrest is caused by the payment
of wages too low to provide decent
standard of living, and in support of
the reports further conclusion that
this situation is a direct result of the
lack of strong labor organizations by
which wage earners could force the
payment of living wages.
The section made public today also
recommends many remedial measures.
Among the recommendations is a
strong argument urging equal political
rights for women as one Of the means
by which women in industry may OBJ
tain living wages.
Other parts of the report deal with
women and children in industry, with
conditions of employment in the tele-
phone service, the telegraph service.
the Pullman Company, and the rail-
roads.
One of the most striking findings
presented today concerns the existence
OF many typical industrial communities
that are declared to present every as
pect of a state of feudalism, with en-
ployers controlling the social and po-
litical life and abridging the funda-
mental rights Of citizens.
Discussing the question Of whether
or not labor conditions in the country's
s,r;v,o ;r ind frin n
the report repudiates the view that
these conditions should be judged by
comparison with the past. 1t asserts
that conditions should be judged "only
by comparing conditions as they actu-
ally exist with what knowledge and
experience shows that they might east
ly be made during the immediate fu-
ture, if proper action were taken to
utilize the resources of our nation
sufficiently and distribute the products
equitably."
1.-THE crux Of the question: says the
report, lis: have the workers received
a fair share Of the enormous increa Sc
in wealth which has taken place in
this country during the past quarter
century as a result largely Of their
labors? The answer is emphatcally-
No.
The wealth of the country between
1890 and 1912 increased from 65 to 1S7
billions, or 1SS per cent, whereas the
aggregate income of wage earners in
manufacturing, mining, and transport
tation has risen between 1889 and 1909
only 95 per cent. from 2516 millions in
1889 to 1915 millions in 1909. Further
more, the wage earners' share of the
net product of industry in the case of
manufactures was only 402 per cent
in 1869, as compared with 449 per cent
in 1882
With the inexhaustible natural re-
sources Of the United States. her tre-
mendous mechanical achievements, and
the genius of her people for organiza-
ton and industry. there can be no nat
ural reason to prevent every able bod
led man Of our present population from
being well-fed, we'll housed. comfort
ably clothed, and from rearing a fam
lily Of moderate size in comfort, health
and security. How far this ideal is
actually achieved is discussed in some
detail.
ut is evident both from the investi-
cations Of this Commission and from
the reports of all recent Governmental
bodies that a large part Of our indus
trial population are, as a result of the
combination Of low wages and unem-
ployment, living in condition Of act
ual poverty"
At Least one-third in Poverty.
How large this proportion Is cannot
be exactly determined, but 1t is certain
that at least one-third and possibly
.one-half Of the families Of wage earn
ers employed in manufacturing and
mining earn in the course Of the year
less than enough to support them In
anything like comfortable and de-
cent condition. The detailed evidence
is presented in a separate report which
is submitted for transmittal to Con-
gress.
american society was founded and
for long period existed upon the
theory that the family should derive
its support from the earnings Of the
fathers. How far we have departed
from this condition is shown by the
fact that Is per cent Of the fathers Of
these families earned less than 500
per year. In brief. only one-fourth of
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