THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1917.

Morning Session-9 o'clock.

Chairman, WILLIAM YOUNG, Chief Mediator, Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and

Industry.

It is not my purpose to talk at length upon any particular subject, but I want to avail myself of this opportunity to say a few words about safety committees, and to touch upon the work of the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration.

There are movements on foot in a number of the largest industrial plants in the State to permanetly establish effective safety committees; the workmen working in conjunction with the employers, whereby the number of accidents occurring daily throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania may be reduced. In such establishments the committees are sometimes composed of three workmen, sometimes a foreman is a member of the committee, and oftentimes one of the executives. These committees meet weekly, or oftener if necessary, to take up whatever phases of accident prevention they regard as worthy of attention.

In the Cambria Steel Company-I cite this as one of many instances they have a number of safety committees, and so as to keep alive the interest, give them bonuses, changing the personnel of the committee every three months, to the end that accidents will be curtailed, and, if possible, eventually eliminated. I regret to say, however, that even in some of the largest industrial establishments in Pennsylvania no attention worth speaking about is paid to safety-first measures. Recently I heard of a large plant, in which four or five men have been killed within a few weeks, and in which great numbers are daily being injured. If proper steps had been taken to have a competent safety man on the job and efficient safety committee work carried out, I believe many of the accidents that have occurred there could have been avoided. This is one of the unfortunate difficulties with which we are confronted.

A long process of education is involved in this work; education not only for the employe, but also for the employer, yet, I believe that with a determined effort the present lines can be so extended as to cause employers and employes generally to realize that the more attention they pay to accident prevention the better it will be for all concerned. If we could have a parade of the persons injured in one month in the State of Pennsylvania, instead of having merely the figures in cold type, I believe many of us would have a better conception of the seriousness of our problem. It takes something in tangible form oftentimes to wake us up. We note the figures, of from eighteen to twenty thousand injuries during the course of a month, and frequently, that is all. But, as I have said, could we let that number of injured persons pass before us in review, we would undoubtedly appreciate the vital necessity for putting forth the greatest efforts of which we are capable in accident prevention work.

One of the speakers yesterday said the matter of safety-first education should be taken up in the public schools. This subject has often been brought up at meetings of the executives of the Department, and I believe steps will soon be taken, in conjunction with the Department of Public Instruction, with that end in view, in order that the coming generation will be more fully enlightened as to the dangers

which daily confront them in their various walks of life. In the pictures shown last evening, some of you will recall, many of the workmen, in spite of the efforts put forth by their employers, paid no attention whatever to the warning signs, placed where danger existed in the operation of the machines, or in fact, to the placards which had been posted all through the plant. Should a workman meet with even a trifling injury, he would, as a rule, realize that he should have been careful, and have given some attention to the precautions which were intended for his protection. Our great problem is to make him realize this before the accident happens.

There are, no doubt, some establishments in which the workmen have given thought to this subject, but lack the initiative to take it up with their employers. Considering the unusual demands now confronting industry, with many establishments on the three-shift basis, and the very large percentage of labor turnover, we Inust recognize that the hazard has been correspondingly increased. It is of the highest importance, therefore, for employers, who have not yet done so, to adopt energetic methods against accidents through the establishment of safety committees and the employment of every other available means, to reduce the toll of suffering and death.

Our compensation act is an admirable piece of humane legislation, but what is a paltry three or four thousand dollars compared with the taking off of a father or some other beloved member of the family? The sympathy of friends is consoling, but it cannot repair the loss. Only those directly affected can feel the full force of the blow. How much finer it would have been could we have saved that life, rather than merely to be able to provide for the material needs of the dependents.

A number of branches of the Department of Labor and Industry are brought into action in co-operating with our everyday industrial life. We have the Employment Bureau to secure work for the unemployed; we have the Industrial Board which formulates the safety standards of employment; we have the Division of Industrial Hygiene and Engineering to assist the Industrial Board in looking after sanitary conditions in the workshops; and the Bureau of Inspection to see to it that approved safeguards have been provided. After all this has been done, there still remains the possibility of industrial disputes arising between employers and employes, sometimes regarding wages, sometimes about shop conditions of employment, frequently about trifling matters which might easily have been adjusted. Either the employer or the employes may be a little hot-headed, and a strike or lockout results, as the case may be. In these instances the Bureau of Mediation is always glad and willing to give its services toward the settlement of the difficulty. The question has been asked, what can the Department of Labor and Industry do in the way of settling industrial disputes? I will say that wherever their services are accepted, no matter in what part of the State it may be, the Department of Labor and Industry will see to it that a representative of the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration shall go there and endeavor to bring about an understanding.

In performing this work the mediator is sometimes placed in an embarrassing position. It may be the employer who is suspicious of his attempts, or it may be the employes. I heard of a case recently in which two of the Federal mediators were referred to as "paid strikebreakers," certainly not a desirable classification in which to be placed. This particular case affected some Government contracts, and a mutual agreement which had been reached unanimously by the representatives of all parties concerned, with the assistance of these two men from the Federal Bureau, was upset solely by the thoughtless injection of this single unwarranted reference. But there is another side to the work. I was interested not long ago in a strike which had dragged along for several months, until finally the parties were brought together, and an agreement reached. The men were satis

fied and the employer was satisfied, and a number of grievances which rankled in the minds of the workmen for several years were cleared from the atmosphere. Only a week ago I was informed that everything was moving along harmoniously and that the best of feeling prevailed.

I know that the men engaged in mediation work in this Department strive with all their power tc bring about a speedy and satisfactory settlement of all disputes. Just a case in point: After the conference adjourned last evening, and as I was going into the Pennsylvania depot, I met two of the men from our Bureau. I knew they had been assigned to visit a locality in the State where a strike had been on for several days. I said to them, 'How did you make out?" And they said, "Well, we got in there last night, and here we are. Everything settled up." Their faces showed plainly how pleased they were. When a mediator has done good work he feels that he has accomplished not only a duty to the Commonwealth, but that he has also assisted in bringing about better relations between employers and employes. Commissioner Jackson, who is now rendering service to the nation abroad, thoroughly instilled into all of the attaches of the Department the importance of doing everything within their power to bring these relations to the highest possible basis of efficiency.

I shall not speak further of the activities of the Department as the next Speaker will go into some of the details of the work. Mrs. Samuel Semple, whom I will shortly introduce, is the member of the Industrial Board, representing the women of Fennsylvania. We occasionally hear that women should stay in the home, and should not be running around attending to this or to that; but if all of the women who are not always at home did the same character of work as does the lady member of our Board, I only wish we could have more of them. To the consideration of every matter coming before the Board Mrs. Semple brings a ripe experience and intellectual attainments of the highest order, representing, in every sense, the best type of Pennsylvania womanhood.

It gives me much pleasure to introduce, as our next speaker, Mrs. Samuel Semple, Member of the Industrial Board, of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

MRS. SEMPLE: Mr. Chairman and members of the Conference, I find that it is really quite an ordeal to be asked to present a paper because on a formal occasion like this or semi-formal occasion one finds one's self between the Scylla and Charybdis of such occasions. If one does not present a formal paper one finds one's self confronted afterwards with expert stenographic notes of remarks that one wishes one had not made, and if one presents a formal paper one has the feeling that it is an exceedingly stilted performance. Having been on former occasions confronted with notes of those things that I heartily wished I had not said I thought I would choose the other alternative this time and impose upon your patience by presenting an oral paper. Without apology I shall proceed to read.

THE WAY IN WHICH THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY MAY BE OF SERVICE TO YOU.

By MRS. SAMUEL SEMPLE, Member of The Industrial Board, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

The entrance of new ideas into life and government may be traced by the emergence of new words and phrases in the general language of the people. Twenty-five years ago the dictionaries were ignorant of the noun "civics," so much used today; then "political economy" was the title given to what was known as the "dreary science," the forerunner of that more understanding and much wider study of human relationships now described under the word "economics"; and though people talked of "law" in relation to many things, the term "labor legislation" was then only in the making. Today, few public gatherings that have a civic meaning, and surely none that bear upon any phase of the great science of economics, would omit discussion of some form of labor legislation. Thus is indicated with triple emphasis the new wave of public and democratic sentiment that has stirred our common life during the last quarter of a century. Civic interest, the broad study of inter-related human welfare, and the increased legal emphasis on humanity, rather than property, are undoubtedly distinguishing marks of the present day viewpoint.

Under these, the development of what is known as labor legislation has been rapid, first in Europe, more lately on the western continent. While the development in the United States has been steady, and fairly satisfactorily matched by law observance, it must not be forgotten that Canada and also certain of the more progressive LatinAmerican republics have shown their full share of interest in this modern work. Practically all the states of our federal union have now some form of labor legislation and some form of organization—a bureau, a department, a board or commission-for the administration of such labor laws.

The work of these bureaus or departments in the different states varies slightly; but, in broad outline, is the same. They are called upon to administer laws that have to do with human welfare in connection with the great project of earning a living, especially where that living is rated in terms of wages. In the earlier days of such law making and law administering, the thought was mainly protection for the worker and to secure this the labor departments were invested with restrictive police powers. In this, Pennsylvania was no exception; and the Factory Act of 1905 was, in its essential nature and

purpose, a police act for the benefit of those employed in the Commonwealth. Larger vision came with years and experience, and laws of a broader tendency began to appear on the statute books of the country. In Pennsylvania, the Act of 1913, which created the present Department of Labor and Industry, while it did not fail to continue police duties and powers for the benefit of the workers, nevertheless put them in connection with the great constructive and co-operative principle which is indicated in the very title, "The Department of Labor and Industry."

The service that this Department of Labor and Industry may render you is determined primarily by the lines along which the Department was created and its activities planned. A study of the creative act reveals that it was passed along large lines. It was intended that the department should be in first-hand touch with the whole industrial situation of the State, and to that end it was stipulated that no one central office, dependent upon paper reports, should be deemed sufficient. In the large industrial centers of the State offices should be established and maintained that there might always be a ready path for the public to the very center of the Department organization. The Act further stipulated the character and adjustment of the inspection of industrial conditions that is to be carried on by the Department. The provisions guarding the assignment and shifting of the inspection force are such as to provide, so far as humanity may, for alertness, for the avoidance of narrow lines of work, and for the bringing in of expert advice, even to the point of trained medical and hygienic knowledge to be applied through the Bureau of Hygiene, to the conduct of the work of this great industrial State. While the original Factory Act of 1905 had almost wholly the police point of view, and while the Act creating the Department of Labor and Industry reaffirmed in unmistakable terms the possession of police powers, yet even in stating and describing the duties of the Bureau of Inspection, in which the police powers center, the real point seems to be the desire to investigate, to know, to advise, to help, and to bring about a wise and logical development. It is the modern statement of the old teaching that the law is not a police officer but a schoolmaster to bring us to better things.

This desire to know the facts as a basis for further work is frankly stated by the law in the duties outlined for the Bureau of Statistics and Information, and, later, that division of this Bureau which deals with the work of Municipalities. The whole structure of the Industrial Board rests upon the foundation of the obligation to discover the truth about industrial conditions in the State, about the laws affecting them and how those laws work out in practice for all concerned, about what further laws are needed, and about how industrial development should be guided.