LABOR LEGISLATION, laws passed to regulate employment in favor of in dustrial workers. The necessity for such legislation first made itself felt when the invention of steam driven ma chinery, in Great Britain, in the early part of last century, radically caused a change in the system of production. As a result of these changes manufacturing, which had previously been carried on by the individual handicraftsmen in their homes, was concentrated in large fac tories, where many men, women and children were gathered to attend to the machinery installed in the factories. This made the workers entirely depend ent on the owners of the machines and introduced the wage system. Taking ad vantage of this economic power, the em ployers, ever anxious to increase their profits, competed with each other, not only in reducing wages, but in employ ing women and children and lengthening their working hours, sometimes amount ing to fourteen a day.
The first to voice a protest against these conditions was Robert Owen, him self part owner and director of a large textile manufacturing plant, in New Lanark, Scotland. Taking charge of the factory, he found children under ten years of age being worked ten and twelve hours a day, with deplorable re sults to their moral and physical con dition. He at once set an example by reducing the hours of daily labor to ten, for adults, and took the children out of the factory altogether. Thereupon he demanded that other employers do like wise, and when they refused to comply, began an agitation for parliamentary enactments compelling them to do so. His efforts bore fruits in the famous factory acts, the first legislation in fa vor of labor, and later serving as models for similar laws in other countries. The first of these was passed in 1819, whereby working hours were limited to twelve hours a day for persons under eighteen, while the employment of chil dren under nine was prohibited entirely. Further enactments extended this class of legislation and provided for a system of inspection whose object was to en force sanitary conditions in the factories.
In this country, naturally, labor leg islation came long after it did in Great Britain, because of the later develop ment of manufacturing. With the growth of our vast industries during the past generation, however, labor legisla tion has progressed at an equal pace and laws for the regulation of working conditions in the United States are now very little behind those of other indus trial countries.
In the main labor legislation has been left to the individual States, the Federal Government interfering only where na tional services are concerned, or in the case of such industries as are covered by the Interstate Commerce laws, such as the railroads.
State legislation for the regulation of working conditions may be classified un der several heads. One of these is the
insurance of workers against industrial accidents and the liability of employers for compensation to those that have been injured. By common law it was for merly generally accepted that the em ployer was liable to grant compensation when it could be proved that the injury was not due to the negligence of the working-man injured, or through the neg ligence of a "fellow servant." Thus the burden of proof was on the injured worker, which was usually where it re mained, as it was generally impossible to prove that the accident was due to the negligence of the employer. Gradu ally one State after another passed spe cial laws shifting the burden of proof to the employer, forcing him to prove that the accident was actually due to the neg ligence of the injured party. Together with this class of legislation there have appeared laws providing for insurance against injuries. In fourteen states in surance is compulsory; in eight it is based on compensation to the extent of two-thirds of the wages of the injured; and in eighteen States it is based on compensation ranging from 55 to 65 per cent. of the wages paid.
Another class of legislation fixes the hours of labor. Here the Federal Gov ernment, through its power of taxation, has been able to prohibit the employment of children under fourteen in factories, and under sixt,een in mines. In many States legislation has been passed to limit the hours of labor, especially in dangerous occupations. Stringent laws have also been passed enforcing sanitary conditions, notably in the textile trades in New York. Other samples of legisla tion are shown in Ohio, where women are not allowed to be employed at any work involving the lifting of loads more than twenty-five pounds in weight; in Mis souri, where women may not be em ployed three weeks before or after child bearing; in Indiana, where in certain in dustries the employers are compelled to afford gas masks to their employees, on account of the noxious fumes incidental to employment.
"Minimum wage" laws form another class of legislation, whereby the down ward tendency of wages are fixed. Fif teen states and territories, and the Dis trict of Columbia, in 1920, have passed laws fixing a minimum wage.
The international aspect of labor leg islation is shown in the Covenant of the League of Nations, one provision of which enumerates nine principles to be followed by all the members of the League; first, the fundamental principle that labor is not a commercial commod ity; the right of association ,• an ade quate living wage; the eight hour day; a weekly rest of twenty-four hours; the abolition of child labor; equal compen sation for men and women; and insnec tion by women as well as men.