The Nation

228

[Vol. 94, No. 2436

pointment
The surprlse is as aptto
the
correct
attitude
in this
matter.
for politlcal effect, n o t for serious legisprove disagreeable as of the other sort; I Both last year and this, in the drafting lation. This was not the case with the
theDemocrats
andthestrokemapeaslly
wound the and presentation of tariff bills, he has othertariffbillswhich
party which thmks to inflict it upon the litpt steadily in mind the need of sup- have favored and put through the
other
Any proposal
for
a radical plymgthegovernmentwithfunds
for House They may not have expected
change of pohcy, particularly in the
it on
it 1s in keeping them t o become law,but at least they
law, and if
matter of taxation, has to be considered with thjs position that he now admits werereadytomakethem
not only as a matter of immedlate im- the- necesslty of making good the $50,- the Democrats were to be put in Omthere can be
presslons,
but
of ultimate
judgment;
000,000 of revenuewhich would be cut Iete power
n o t mereIy thetacticsbutthe
conse- of by abolishing the duty on sugar. reasonabledoubtthatsuchreductions
has committed
quences must be taken into the reckonHence the proposal of an income tax. of dutyasthewparty
Viewed in thislarger way, there That would Seem a natural alterna- itselfto in -the items of wool and steel
seemsreason
t o doubtthewisdom
of
if the enactment of such a tax were acd cotton and chemicals would, in fact,
theselatest
fiscal bills of theHouse
it turns out ?xxome law. -with theselatest proposclsarly legal, but
Democrats.
that you are only enacting
lawsuit? als the look of things is different. They
not have the appearance
mature
So far asboldnessgoes
in attacking Lawsuitsyield
n o publicrevenue,
as
consideration.
They
seem
t
o
be
more
protect~vedutywhich
has come to was unhappl,y
discovered
1895
like
political
experiments
than
deliberhave the air of a vested right, tbe plan
the lncome-tax
of the
t o put sugar, both raw and refined, upon
tarla was taken into the courts. ate legislation And in- our opinion they
vJill not dothepartyany
good, since
xhe freelistdeservespraise.The
pro- And the present
would inevitably
they
will
make
it
appear
n
o t sure of
posalwasadoptedover
thevehement be so
About it there is an air
its
ground
and
disposed
to
be flighty.
p ~ o t e s t s of DemocraticRepresentatlves Iof attempting
irregular, or
And
i
f
there
is
anything
the
Democrats
from Louisiana and
Colorado, s p e a k h g atleastunforeseen.The
excjse tax on
conforSane-growersandtheproducers
of the doing of business which the su- needto do. In order to regain the
it i_s toshow
sugar
beets
But
their
local
interest
Court has held legal l= the case fidence of thecountry,
wasdisregarded,
as every local inter- of
is somehow to he ex- themselves calm and cautious and sureestshould be when it conflicts wlth a tentded to
partnerships
and
t o ~ n d i -ftroted.
broadandsoundnational
policy.. For viduals. Butthe
wholething
is conthls
display
of the true
spirit
that
T H E FACTORY
fessedly uncertain,.and has t h e appear- REPORT
8ION.
shouldanimatetanEframers,
Mr. Un- ance of fumbiing a t a big problem. It
dreadful Ioss of lifeinthe
Triderwood and those who stood with him 1s virtually certain that we shallsome
meritcommendatlon.Wecannotget
a day have an income tax in this country angleWaist
Company fire of a year
Justifiablesystem of tarifftaxesuntil
The Constitutional amendmentmalnng ago brought home t o the people of New
they are made to fit nationa.1 c o n d h o n s lt unquestionably legal is i n a fair way York, as nothing else could have done,
and
general
demands,
with
parochial
t o beratified.And
we are to have the lack of proper exercise of the police
and even prlvate back-yard appeals rulthe tax at all we ought to have it in a power of the State In safeguarding the
Idefinite form, with the law drawn broad- lives of industrialworkers.Themost
Pd out.
examina.tion
revealed
the
But if tariff dutles are to be levied for ly and carefully. instead of by means of. superEcial
revenue only, wemust be verycareful a devi.ce t h a t loolrs very like aquibble, fact that the loss of llfe could have been
prevented, in fact that theEreitself
about laying a rude hand upon a sched- wd In a halting measure which might
would probably never have taken place,
ulewhichis
confessedly a greatreve- be oppressiveand UnJUSt tosomeand
Of the if the simplest precautions had been in
nue-producer The sugartaxesbring
in which would surelyleavemany
largeincomesuntaxedEven
convinc- force in thisfactory.
If smokinghad
more than $50,000,000 a year That fact
(x
i advocates of a straight-out Income been prevented,
the
cigarette
which
is one which must bulk large with any
this excise, which started this firewouldnothave
been
man responsible f o r making up the na- taxwillnotlike
is neither flesh nor fowl nor good red lighted
andthrown
into thepile
of
tional budget. He may not like the inwaste. I f thewastehadbeenproperly
herring.
cidentalprotection
t h a t goes withthe
das1)osed of In Ereproofreceptacles, the
tax,andmayresenttheinsolentand
Over and above suchconsiderations
threatening attitude of those who bene- 1taere rises another. It is that the Demo- fire could nothavespreadwithsuch
tremendous velocity. If anautomatic
f
i
:by It, but still there stands the large I:rats in Gongreso are not, in
these
sprinkler system had been mitalled, the
contributiontotheTreasury.Hemay
n:easures, impressing
the
country
as
fire would have been p u t Out beforeit
rlghtly think of sugar as now a univer- steady or entirelysincereTheyseem
If theworkershad
sal necessary of hfeanddesire
t o re- to befeelingaljoutfor
a fetching PO- gotanyheadway
duce its cost to millions: but
if -he is a htical issue, ratherthan-layingtheir
not been
crowded togetherandthe
statesmanmorethan
a politician
he
1rcal pofitlcal programme before the peo- aisles so clogged by then- chairsand
machines,
the
panic
would
not
have
will not run off wlth the taking cry of ple. It 1s scarcelypretendednowthat
a free breakfast table until he has das- 1the bills for making sugar free and for
n o t have
startedandtheexltswould
covered some way 1n which the deficien- Levying a dlsguised income tax can pass been clogged. If theexitshad
been
in revenue may be made good
properly marked, open, and brought to
1b o t h houses and get the Presidents sigthe attention of theworkers by signs
is toomuchtheimpresIt 1s onlyfairto
Mr. Underwood to cature.There
say that he has consistently maintained
sion of something having been advanced and fire-drills, theworkerswouldhave

..

March 7, r g r 21
beenable

t o escapefromthefireir

greaternumbersandthe
loss of liff
would have been much reduced, even i j
the other precautions had been omitted
thf
These'factswerebroughtoutat
t,ime of the fire. It was also recognized
at that time that the conditions in
thit
factoryweretypical
of t h e condltionz
throughout the clty and State in numer
ous otherfactories.Notonlythis,
bul
the communityawoke t o a consideratior
oi its neglect of othermatters besldcE
the propel
t h e firehazardwhichare
subject of police protection.
It was a recognition of thesecondl
tions that led the Legmlature of 1 9 1 1 t c
appoint a commission t o Investigate thc
01
fscforles in thisState.Thereport
the Commission has Just been made t c
the Legislature It is a valuable piece ol
work. It takesitsplaceintheSam
of the Employers
class with the report
Liability Commission t o tho New Yorlr
State-Legislatureandthereport
on
railwaysecuritiestothePresident
It
"is a matter of congratulation that suck
workasthlscan
be obtained by the
State as a matter of patriotic duty in
stead of for gain. Thecommissioners
included two Senators, three
Assembly.
citizens, all ot
men,and'fourprivate
whomservedwithoutpayTheircoun
sel, who, of course, bore the great bur
den of the work, was M r A. I. Elkus,
andhe also servedwithout compensa.
upon
tion,andmany
of theexperts
whom t h e Commission hadto
depend
f o r help,such
a s Dr. George BI Price
andDr
H. I?. Porterandothers,
gave
theirservicesvirtuallyfree.
Thisprelimlnaryreport
of t h e Com.
mission covers only three months' work
and is remarkableforthegreatrange
of subjects which I t treats, for the clearnessandsimplicitywithwhich
it pre.
sents the problems, and for the definiteness with which it makes recommendationsfor new legislation.Thesubjects
treatedarefirehazard,factoryinspection,sanitation,occupationaldiseases,
In tenements,
bakeries.manufacturing
employment of women and children, and
foundries. At first sight, one might suppose it was a mistake to turn over
to
onecommissionaninvestigation
covering such a multlpluxty of problems.
What possible relationship has fire hazard t o theemplopnent of women and
children, or t o foundries? The answer is
that legislation on each and every one
of thesedifferentsubjectsdependsfor

The Nation

229

its validity upon theexerciseby

thc
State of its police powers.Acts
havf
been passed from time
to time in Nex
York -8ealmgwithone
or another oj
theproblemsconsideredby
this Com
misslon. Forinstance,tenementmanu
facturing has been the subject of legis
lation, there has been a n effort t o regu
late the hours of women by legislation
and manufacturing in bakeries has alsc
beenthesubject
of legislativeenact
ment. In each case, the leglslatior
has met with Constltutional objections
which have led the Court
of Appeals t c
declare the acts in part o r i n whole void
To overcome these Constitutional obJec
tions, it is essential that the act shoula
be a valid exercise of the policepower
Inotherwords,thepurpose
of t h e a d
mustbe t o promote thehealth,safety
and welfare of t h e people of the State
and the means provided in the act musl
be clearly adapted to this end. The C o m
mission believes tbat in each of thesc
caseslegislatloncan
be devised which
will meet
the
Constitutional
require
ments,butthatmuchmoretlme
and
studymust be glven tothe problems
It therefore does n o t now make definite
lines,
but
recommendations o n these
asks t o have its time extended.

?'he evils of tenement manufacturing are

In this branch of Its investigation, as

cellas
otherbranches,the
Comzissionhasbutmarkedoutthe
field
IS
lndploughedtheground.Attention
:a!led tothenecessity
of a building
:ode and there is valuable comment on
;he subject of occupational
diseases.

lard to say whxh type of literature has

ionethecause
of thecommutermore
iarm, the satiric article which describes
lim as a man with- parcels clinging to
.he rear platform of an outgoing train,
)r the
bouncing
optimistic
article
vhichtells
how a boymaybesent

thoroughly considered, and the question

of theemployment of womenaqdchilis discussed with care and ability.
Commission
But on thesesubjectsthe
reiralnsfrommakingdednite
recommendations.
The
problem
of the legislation t o be recommended is, of course,
the most serious taskof the Commission.
Our statute books arefull of laws on
these subjects to-day whlch are not adequately enforced, or which are actually
incapable of enforcement,and In addit l o n t o the difficulty of meeting Constitutionaliimitatlons,the
Commisslon
must meet the greater
difficulty of imparting enforceability to the legislatlon
recommended by it A strikmg illustration of this is found in the fact that
up t o now there has been no provision
for registering factoriesin New York,
andhundreds
of factoriesarestarted
t o the Dewhose esrstence is unknown
partmentwhose
Guty it is t o inspect
them under our present laws The
Comlookmissionmakesrecommendations
m g towards the remedy
of this evil by
providing t h a t all factoriesshallbe
registered, and by concentrating the lejponsibility of inspections, which is now
iiyidedamongmanydepartments,but
The report does, however,make defi. x e n more than this is needed.
It is a satlsfaction t o learn that both
niterecommendatlonsfor
newlegisla.
of the sublectc: branches of the Legislature have passed
lion in regard to many
z bill continuing the Commission f o r aninvestigated. In connection
with
the
Bre hazard, it recommends leglslation t o other'yearandmakingthenecessary
appropriation.
concentratetheresponsihilltyforState
Inspection, t o compel factones to put in
Ereproof receptacles, enclose and protect
T H E GOIMPLETE BUBURBANITE.
t o engaslightsandpreventsmoking,
The
commuter and hls problems have
able the %re Department to compel fire
Jeen
greatly
misunderstood and misrepdrills in factories, to require the instalresented
The
mass of llterature on the
latlon of automatic sprinklersm
fac.
;abjectmaybedividedintotwotypes.
torieswheremorethantwohundred
oeople are employed andthefactories
3ne treats of thecommuter
as essen3re above seven stories in height, t o ~ n - :ially a comic individualwhobrings
xensetheprotection
afforded by exits Japerparcelsintotowninthemornm d fire escapes, and t o regulatethe
.ngandcarrieslawn-mowersintothe
em- :ountry atnlght.Theothertype
uumber of workersthatmaybe
de2loyed inone
of thesefactories.The
gcts the commuter as a man who, set:
specific legislation proposed inrelation
:ing out with fiftyeggs and an mcuba:o this lastpoint is perhapsthemost
.or, violates
every
law
of economic
iw-portant of the Commission's . recom- icience by theprodigious
speed with
nnendations.
vhichhegrowswealthy.
It would be