Social Legislation and Social Activity

PART II. Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration

INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION

INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION 19 =Hon. Marcus A. Hanna=, United States Senator from Ohio

LIMITATIONS OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION 27 =Samuel Gompers, Esq.=, President American Federation of Labor

RESULTS ACCOMPLISHED BY INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT, NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION 35 =Hon. Oscar S. Straus=, formerly United States Minister to Turkey

CO-OPERATION OF LABOR AND CAPITAL 43 =William H. Pfahler, Esq.=, Executive Committee on Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation, National Civic Federation

HARMONIZING LABOR AND CAPITAL BY MEANS OF INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP 59 =Alexander Purves, Esq.=, Treasurer, Hampton Institute, Va.

PART III. The Housing Problem

THE HOUSING PROBLEM

TENEMENT HOUSE REGULATION: THE REASONS FOR IT; ITS PROPER LIMITATIONS 81 =Hon. Robert W. DeForest=, Tenement House Commissioner, Greater New York

HOUSING PROBLEM IN CHICAGO 97 =Miss Jane Addams=, Hull House, Chicago

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF THE HOUSING PROBLEM IN PHILADELPHIA 109 =Report prepared by the Octavia Hill Association=

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN BOSTON 121 =Robert Treat Paine, Esq.=, Boston

HOUSING CONDITIONS IN JERSEY CITY 137 =Miss Mary B. Sayles=, Fellow College Settlements Association

PART IV. The Child Labor Problem

THE CHILD LABOR PROBLEM

CHILD LABOR LEGISLATION 153 =Mrs. Florence Kelley=, Secretary National Consumers’ League

CHILD LABOR IN THE DEPARTMENT STORE 165 =Franklin N. Brewer, Esq.=, General Manager Wanamaker Store, Philadelphia

NECESSITY FOR FACTORY LEGISLATION IN THE SOUTH 179 =Hayes Robbins, Esq.=, Dean, Institute of Social Economics, New York

CHILD LABOR IN NEW JERSEY 189 =Hugh F. Fox, Esq.=, President New Jersey State Board Children’s Guardians

CHILD LABOR IN BELGIUM 201 =Ernest Dubois=, Professor of the University of Ghent

MACHINERY AND LABOR 221 =Henry White, Esq.=, General Secretary United Garment Workers of America

PART V. Factory Legislation and Inspection

FACTORY LEGISLATION AND INSPECTION

TENDENCIES OF FACTORY LEGISLATION AND INSPECTION IN THE UNITED STATES 233 =Sarah S. Whittelsey, Ph. D.=, New Haven, Conn.

PART VI. Juvenile Courts

JUVENILE COURTS

PROBATION AND JUVENILE COURTS 257 =Mrs. Emily E. Williamson=, President New Jersey State Conference of Charities and Corrections

THE JUVENILE COURT IN PHILADELPHIA 269 =Hon. Abraham M. Beitler=, Court of Common Pleas No. 1, Philadelphia

JUVENILE COURTS IN BUFFALO 277 =Frederic Almy=, Secretary Charity Organization Society, Buffalo

PART VII

PROCEEDINGS OF ANNUAL MEETING 287

I. The Annual Address

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF TRANSPORTATION

By HONORABLE MARTIN A. KNAPP

Chairman of Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C.

The progress of mankind in devising means of transportation embraces three distinctive stages. The primitive man traveled on foot and moved his scanty belongings with his own muscle; and we can only imagine the ages that elapsed before he secured any aid for the transfer of his person or his property other than his own bodily powers.

Probably the first contrivance for carriage was a rough-hewn plank or pole dragged upon the ground. Two connected planks doubtless formed the original sled. Finally the idea was conceived—some accident suggesting it—of lessening friction by the use of rollers. The rollers gradually developed into wheels, and when at last the wheels were made in pairs which revolved upon an axle the essential feature of all subsequent vehicles was devised and employed.

The earliest movement on water, we may suppose, was equally crude and simple. Some observant savage noticed that wood did not sink, and later found out by experiment that a floating log would remain on the surface even when his own weight was added. The rude dug-out followed the discovery. The stick or limb by which the dug-out was pushed and turned shaped itself at length into the lighter and more effective paddle; the hollowed log was succeeded by a framed and covered structure, the paddles became oars; and thus was evolved in prehistoric times the type of all later boats on lake and stream. It was centuries after this—no one knows how many—before the force of wind was utilized by the invention of sails, and when that immense advance was achieved the enduring era of ship-building commenced.

Roughly speaking, then, we may assign to the first stage in the development of transport such results as were obtained by the muscular strength of man, whether applied directly to the articles carried or used in propelling the clumsy vehicles and water craft which he had constructed. The motive power in all cases was the unaided energy of his own body. And no later addition to the resources then at his command, it should be observed, has wholly displaced the original method. The natural powers of locomotion have not only remained unabated, but have greatly increased by experience and training. Indeed, the manual handling of articles of property must always be an important incident of ownership and exchange, since no mechanical device can meet all the needs of transfer or equal the delicacy and dexterity of our bodily organs. Nor should we overlook in this connection the many-sided ingenuity which has been displayed in constructing and perfecting a great variety of vehicles for hand propulsion. The latest examples of this ingenuity are the light racing shells which can be rowed with such remarkable rapidity, and that unique and fascinating machine, the up-to-date bicycle. These are at once the survival and the consummation of primitive transportation, that is to say, transportation where human energy is the motive power.

To the second stage of this development belongs the great increase of force which was obtained by the subjugation of animals and their employment for land transportation, and by the use of sails and rudders which multiplied many times the efficiency of water carriage. When these two results were secured, man had added to his own bodily powers the superior strength of beasts of burden and the enormous energy derived from the winds of heaven. This was an immeasurable gain and marked the beginning of that wonderful civilization which slowly followed. The animal kingdom was brought into service for the varied functions of land distribution, and the ship which could be sailed and guided made every waterway subservient to man’s requirements.

This hasty and imperfect outline brings us to a fact of history which seems to me not merely significant but profoundly impressive. With the subjection of animals and the use of wind-propelled vessels, both of which achievements reached a high degree of perfection in the unknown past, the means of transportation, broadly speaking, remained unchanged and unaugmented until a period not much prior to the present time. It is a long stretch of years from the savage cave-dweller to the twentieth century man, and this wonderful world of ours had quite a career before the present generation was born. Long before other agencies of conveyance were dreamed of, while ox and horse, oar and sail, were the only means of transport, the race had occupied most of the habitable globe and advanced to lofty heights of national greatness. Strong governments were established, vast populations engaged in varied pursuits, and opulent cities crowded with every luxury. The institutions of society had acquired strength and permanence, the arts of leisure and refinement had approached the limits of perfection, and inductive science had laid firm grasp on the secrets of nature. Great inventions and discoveries had widened the fields of activity, furnished the means and incentive for multiplied vocations and opened up in every direction alluring vistas of advancement. In a word, there was the developed and splendid civilization of little more than threescore years ago, before any new or different motive power was utilized for commercial intercourse.

And the weighty fact is that this immense and complex organism, with all its accumulations of wealth and wisdom, its diversified employments, its agriculture, manufactures, business affairs, financial systems, commercial and political relations, civil and social order—its very life and potency—was not only fitted to but dependent upon means of transportation which, as respects their expense, speed and capacity, had not essentially altered since the earliest tribes began to barter! Enormous growth of enterprise and enlightenment, amazing progress in every other sphere of human effort, with motive power, which lies at the foundation of every activity, remaining from first to last a constant quantity! Before the earliest recorded transaction—when Abraham purchased the field of Ephron and paid for it his “400 shekels of silver current with the merchant”—the horse and the ox were the established agencies of land distribution; and what better agencies, bear in mind, became available at any time thereafter until well along in the nineteenth century? Yet the ox was as strong and the horse as fleet, and their powers were as effectively employed, in the days of the Pharaohs as they are at the present time. Indeed, no history is so ancient as not to disclose the general use of animals for the purposes of carriage, while the vehicles to which they were harnessed had then been developed, in point of convenience and usefulness, to a degree not much exceeded in any subsequent period. Though differing considerably in appearance from the wagons with which we are familiar, yet they were constructed upon the same principles and performed the same functions as those now employed.

Similar progress was made in ship-building and seamanship as far back as history affords proof or tradition. There were oar and sail, tides and currents, and the inconstant winds, long before the ships of the Phœnicians brought back from the East the gold of Ophir; and what more was there than oar and sail, winds and currents—for all the purposes of navigation—until, almost within the memory of men yet living, the little steamboat of Robert Fulton ascended the Hudson River! In this long span of time, it is true, bridges were built, highways improved, vehicles finer fashioned, sailing craft increased in size, and the mariner’s compass led to longer voyages; but, nevertheless, the forces by which movement is effected, the actual means of distribution on land and sea, continued without substantial change in character or efficiency age after age and century after century until the recent, the very recent, era of steam locomotion.

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