The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-11-11

tilily LhS, Sllii lul tllCl IL was lOullu llldl
where the fathers were business or pro-
fessional men the infant mortality was
but Al per thousand. Among the higher
paid workers the death rate rose to "A,
while in the families of the less skilled
and low paid, the infant death rate rose
to 101.
In residential ward Of Johnstown
Pennsylvania, where comfort and wealth
abound, the infant mortality was but 80
per thousand, while i'll the tenement dis
triCt where the lower paid workers were
forced to live, the death rate was 271
per thousand. Z.
The report of the medical officer of
tinsbury, London, for 1906, shows that
the death rate of adults in the one
room tenementS was 80 per thousand
while in the four-room tenements and
upwards, it was but sixteen and four
tenths per thousand.
This same report also indicated that
the infant mortality i'll the one-room
tenements was 211 per thousand while
in the four-room tonements it was re-
duced to 121.
In the inquiry made by the local gov
ernment board of London in 1910, it
was found that the death rate was Is
per cent greater in back to back houses
built in long rows.
Statistics compiled in England some
seven years ago indicated that the chill
dren of the lower paid workers at six
teen years of age weighed nineteen and
a half pounds less and were three and
three-nuarter inches lower i'll stature
than the children of the well-to-do.
What do wages mean to the worker !?
They mean his very life, the vitalizing
quality of the blood that flows through
his veins and nourishes his body, the
degree of vitality with which his chill
dren shall enter this world, they deter
mine his physical and mental welfare in
predominating manner.
Why does the trade unionist struggle
to secure a shorter workday? Let the
trade unionists speak for themselves!
They desire a shorter workday among
other things so that there may be op
portunity for leisure and recreation.
They desire to terminate each days la
Dor with sufficient vitality left to enjoy
the society of their fellow-men to study
so as to better prepare themselves for
the problems which face them as wage
earnerS, and to enjoy some of the bless
ings which the Almighty has so boun-
teously spread at every hand.
The American wage-earner has known
from practical experience what it meant
to labor from sun to sun, what it meant
to give most of the waking hours to hard
manual toll, what it has meant to return
home so tired, so exhausted from the
days labor that all their being cried out
for rest.
The trade unionst has learned that
housing conditions, the quality and guam
tity of the food, the sanitary conditions
of the shop, wages and hours of labor
affect not only his immediate physical
wcll-being and reflect themselves in his
offspring, but that they very largely in
tluence his length of life.
know of no statistics more striking
or more convincing of this fact than
those presented by the cigarmakers' and
the printers union from their record of
death benefits paid to members,
In 1888, 81 per cent Of the union cigar
makers died of tuberculosis. In 1911
this had been reduced to 20 per cent.
In 1888, the average age at death of
members of this union was 81 years, 4
months and 10 days. In 1911 the aver
age at death had been increased to so
years, l month and 10 days. In 1900
the average at death of members of the
Typographical Union was II years and
, months, and in 1915 it was practically
50 years and II months.
During these periods the eleven, ten
and nine-hour day had been displaced
for the eight-hour day and the wage rate
had been considerably advanced, in some
cases being almost doubled.
Wages and hours of labor and the
conditions which they established had
reduced deaths from tuberculosis over
80 per cent. They had heightened the
life of union cigarmakers 10 years and
had heightened the life of printers over
. years.
1t is because of these and similar facts
that the trade unionists see something
more than dividends in wages, see their
very life and that of their descendants
determined by the money in the weekly
pay envelope and profoundly influenced
by the hours of labor during which they
are called upon to toll under modern in
dustriai conditions.
The trade union movement believes
that man was made for something more
than mere labor, eating and sleeping.
They believe that opportunities for self
development are as important as labor
t1,,t 1,n &c r