The Irish standard., 1915-01-09
Social Legislation.

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Social Legislation.
(Report of the Commission on Indus
trial Relations.)
Even granted that an absolute equal
ity in bargaining power be ultimately
achieved, it must always remain the
case that from unavoidable sickness,
injury, orphanage, and other causes,
there will be more or less steady
stream of human wreckage. If the
term social insurance" has come to
be almost catch-word, it is because
the eagerness to serve is very close
to the heart of the world. Welfare
work is seen on every hand and it is
the very extent and sweep of the
movement that makes demand upon
our attention. It is not to be forgot
ten that while the care of the weak,
the sick, the old, and the fatherless
constitutes an appeal to all the finer
qualities of mankind, there is also a
phase of the question that is entirely
selfish, and which can be translated
into dollars and cents. The workmen's
compensation act in the several states
where it has been adopted shows that
humaneness can be made to pay.
The whole problem of social legisla-
ton as it now presents itself to the
commission divides into two parts:
Prevention and insurance. What would
be thought of a community that in
sured against typhoid fever without
endeavoring to discover the source of
the poisoned water supply? A neces-
sary preliminary to social insurance
is to make every effort to do away
with the need of it. Prevent the de-
bilitating effects of fatigue and blow
is struck at illness and poor health.
Prevent accidents, by strict insistence
upon safety appliances and effective
inspection, and there will be an in
slant lessening of the necessity for
workmens compensation, mothers
compensation, and accident insurance.
Arrest the deteriorations of sordid
poverty, monotony, and despair, and a
finer, happier citizenship will result.
The commission, working in con-
junction with the United States pub
lie health service, is preparing ma
tional sanitation program, and is CO.
operating with the National Council
for Industrial Safety on a national
safety program. We believe both to
be measures Of great preventive value.
Several states have industrial welfare
commissions that are completing very
thorough studies Of many of these
questions. This fund of facts is being
utilized by the commission.
The regulation Of the hours of labor
by statute also is being examined in
order that practical report may be
made on the effect and scope of legis-
lation.
Our Investigations are going deeply
into the welfare work administered by
the national government, states and
municipalities, private employers, com.
mercial bodies, labor organizations,
fraternal societies, and insurance COM
panies.
1t is one Of the principal functions
of the commission to assemble, in the
most convenient form, authoritative
statements regarding the character
and results of social legislation of all
kinds and experiments along these
lines. in the United States and in for
eign countries.
In Europe and Australia there have
been many experiments with old-age
pensions, and insurance against unem-
ployment, sickness and invalidity. The
commission appreciates that industrial
conditions in those countries are wide
ly different from those that obtain in
the United States, and in all our in
vestigation and analysis their appli-
cability to democratic institutions is
borne in mind.
In the United States, twenty-five of
our states have written into law the
principles of workmen's compensation.
Without hesitation, upon the evidence
already submitted to the commission,
we affirm the benef1cent results of
such legislation, and believe that such
legislation has been effective in bring
ing about better and more friendly re-
lations between the employer and the
worker, and a greater degree of con-
tentment in the family life of the ma
ton. The facts in support of this
statement, together with the findings
in connection with other forms Of
preventive legislation and insurance,
are being assembled and will be pre-
scented in due form.
THE HUNDRED YEARS OF PEACE.
To the People of the United States:
One hundred years ago today there