Chapter XV: Section VIII: The Congress shall have power (5)

“Coast lumbermen a few years ago unitedly endeavored to introduce the use of flooring, ceiling, finish and other planing mill products in multiples of one foot from three feet upward. At this time the United States Forest Service made an investigation of the waste due to manufacturing planing mill products in multiples of two feet. We found this waste to be over two per cent. of the material run through planing mills in Oregon and Washington, or the equivalent of the yearly growth of wood on approximately 30,000 acres of good timberland. The consuming trade refused to accept odd lengths and after a conscientious attempt on the part of lumber manufacturers, it was found necessary to discontinue the manufacture of odd lengths over ten feet. It is therefore seen that the useless waste in the manufacture of lumber can not always be attributed to the lack of a desire on the part of the lumber manufacturer to introduce economical practices. It remains for the ultimate consumer of our timber products to determine in what form these products shall be supplied to him, and therefore conservative lumbering and close manufacture are dependent as much upon the layman as upon the manufacturer.”

Our British Columbia neighbors are keenly alive to their timber interests and their forest service is alive to the situation. Mr. Benedict, assistant forester of British Columbia, in a recent address stated that in British Columbia, on a very conservative estimate, after eliminating waste land, rocky mountain slopes and peaks, they had 65,000,000 acres capable of producing merchantable timber and valueless for any other purpose.

“The productiveness of this land in timber will vary from 1,000 hard feet per acre per year in particularly favorable localities on the coast to 25 or 50 board feet per acre per year on the mountains of the interior,” he says, “but I am confident that the average yield will amount to 100 board feet at least. This gives an annual production of 6,500,000,000 feet.

“Allowing for a temporary overproduction of lumber brought on by the desire of the holders of timber limits to realize on their investment as quickly as possible, it will be seen that the stand of mature timber will last from fifty to seventy-five years. At the end of seventy-five years, when this mature timber is cut, the present stand of second growth timber will have matured so that the annual production can be maintained perpetually at 6,500,000,000 feet. All this provided the present stand of mature timber is preserved from destruction by fire and likewise that the second growth is able to escape fire and grow to maturity.

“The stake then for which the forest protection force is working is an annual crop of 6,500,000,000 feet of timber, worth to the Government, say, $6,000,000, and to the community $100,000,000. To win the stake fire must be kept out of the area of 100,000,000 acres, or a block of forest 400 miles square. The problem, both on account of the immense area, the variety of causes of fire, the absence of means of transportation and communication, and the present sparseness of population, is a most difficult one to solve. The safe harvesting of the annual yield will require, besides the expenditure of large sums of money, the good will of every citizen in the Province. However, everything favors the satisfactory working out of the problem.”

I quote the above to prove that we are not alone in our efforts to conserve and provide for the future of our country.

Our associated efforts are being extended continually along the lines of economy in manufacture, in the matter of standard grades and sizes, inspection and insurance. Where is the commodity that can be intelligently transported and marketed without a thorough knowledge of both production and consumption? I now claim, and always have claimed, that associated efforts to disseminate this information and collectively endorse projects financially and otherwise to promote the study of forestry and lumbering are the highest types of Conservation of the Nation’s resources.

In the great State of Washington, which is now furnishing more lumber than any other State in the Union, and where the lumber production is the chief industry of the State, we are vitally concerned in our legislative work, and concerning our Workman’s Compensation Act I wish to bring to this particular Congress a special message. I believe this act emphasizes the benefits of co-operative effort in conserving human life and in protecting the breadwinner, upon whom depends the life and happiness of so large a population.

With an industry affecting throughout the United States over 45,000 sawmills and 800,000 employes, regardless of families dependent on them, you will agree with me that we are all vitally interested in workmen’s compensation.

In a recent Bulletin of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. Bronson wrote as follows:

“Thirteen States have adopted workmen’s compensation acts, and all have become effective since September 1, 1910. All but one of these laws are optional, the exception being the Washington law, which is compulsory, and which, according to the brief experience had, seems to be the most satisfactory both to employers and employes, saving the employer all expense for industrial insurance, and saving both employer and employe all court costs and giving to the employe the full compensation provided by the law without any deduction for lawyers or fees.

“The thirteen States which have adopted compensation acts are California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. In all of these States the common-law defenses are in whole or part wiped out where the employer does not come under the compensation act.”

The law in the State of Washington has now been in operation one year. To those of us who have operated under it, it has already proved what its advocates claimed the most advanced piece of legislation enacted—and we have woman’s suffrage, too.

It is surprising what an effect it has had in clearing the court docket of damage suits and in paying to the injured at a time when the money is needed all the award without the intervention of a third party. With a carefully selected commission of three, responsible to the Governor, and non-partisan in character, we have launched a statute that, regardless of any improvements which may be determined or defects disclosed, has improved the industrial atmosphere both for employe and employer.

The State appropriates a fund of $150,000 to administer the act for two years. The risks are classified and rates assessed, and quarterly payments called for as required.

The statistical records being made and knowledge gained by the Commission in administering this act will be invaluable and it has already brought to the attention of loggers, lumbermen and all manufacturers the loss of life and limb incidental to the business, the benefits of factory inspection as a further prevention and the fixing of responsibility as to accidents.

I secured from the Commission the attached reports, which I shall not read in detail, but which show detailed comparisons and some interesting figures. (See reports, A, B and C, appended to this paper.)

Our commissioners have been called on many times to address conventions and congresses regarding the law, and I can best state their views by quoting from an address of Commissioner Pratt at our recent Logging Congress, and from a statement issued by Commissioner Wallace. Commissioner Pratt says in part:

“The Workman’s Compensation Act has been in operation now for nine months, and those of you who are actively in business in the State of Washington are more or less familiar with its results.

“In the first place, it is compulsory alike on the employer and employe. The employer has to pay into the accident fund a sum of money based upon a percentage of his payrolls, and the employe must accept the awards of the Commission allowed for work accidents in lieu of his right to sue at common law, subject, of course, to a right of appeal on the amount awarded.

“All the extra hazardous industries of the State are divided into forty-seven classes, each class with a fund of its own, and the accidents arising in that class shall be a drain only upon that fund. As the payments for work accidents deplete the fund in each class it provides for monthly assessments to be made to recoup each class. The payments out of these funds are only for work accidents, all the cost of the administration of the law being paid out of the general taxes of the State. For the first twenty-two months of its operation an appropriation of $150,000 was made.

“It is unlawful for the employer to deduct any portion of the premium paid into the accident fund out of the wages of the employe. It provides for penalizing any establishment which from poor or careless management is unduly hazardous by raising its rate. If an employer, besides employing men in extra hazardous employment, employs men in non-hazardous employment, the premium shall be paid only the payrolls of the extra hazardous work, but the employer and the non-hazardous employe may elect to come under the act and both shall receive the benefits of the act.

“As each class must pay for only such accidents arising in that class, and as assessments are made only as the funds of that class are depleted, there are but two things that govern the cost of this insurance: the amount of the awards and the number and seriousness of the accidents.

“As I have said, the classes that the loggers and lumbermen are most interested in are seven, ten and twenty-nine.

“The rate for class seven is 5 per cent.; for classes ten, 2½ per cent., and twenty-nine is 2½ per cent. All operations in which those present are interested in these last two classes take the same rate. Class ten is by far the largest class we have, and as it covers several distinct operations it has been divided into four different subdivisions or groups.

“10.1 covers logging and logging operations of all kinds.

“10.2 covers sawmills and lumber yards, etc.

“10.3 covers shingle mills and operations connected with a shingle plant.

“10.4 covers mast and spar manufacture, stump pulling, land clearing, etc.

“We have had the following table compiled of comparative risks of wood-working industries:

Workday
Av. Number Number of Number of Lost per Number of
Class of Men Time Workdays 1,000 Dismemberment
Number. Employed. Awards. Lost. Men. Awards.

7 4,120 172 5,862 1,402 17
10.1 12,801 440 14,926 1,166 35
10.2 17,770 763 14,941 841 51
10.3 5,565 221 5,766 1,036 56
10.4 381 50 1,144 3,003 5
29 3,787 156 3,368 888 24
—————— ————— —————— ————— ———
44,424 1,802 46,007 1,035 188

Deaths
Dismemberment Number per
Class Awards per of 1,000
Number. 1,000 Men. Deaths. Men.
7 4.1 7 1.69
10.1 2.7 22 1.72
10.2 2.9 7 0.39
10.3 10.1 0 0.00
10.4 13.1 1 2.60
29 6.3 0 0.00
———— —— ————
4.2 37 0.83

“This table is not as nice a one as I should have liked to show this Congress of Loggers. It shows where the great harm is being done in class ten and it shows which is the greater risk and what part of the class should be charged a higher rate than the other part. Furthermore, not only are we keeping a strict account with each class, and division of a class, but we are keeping a strict account with each individual operator and in the end will publish an account of just how many accidents each firm or corporation has had, just how much has been paid out for them in awards or pensions, for injuries to their workingmen.

“Now, what are we going to do to prevent this loss of life and limb? In the first place, there has been a Labor Commission since 1905 and the mills and factories have been subject to inspection and have been forced to put on safeguards. The loggers have steadfastly refused to allow any inspection laws covering logging to be put on the statute book of the State. Logging is a hazardous life at the very best and calls for strong, dare-devil men, and men who are willing to take chances. Danger is always present and men become so used to it that they get careless. This, however, is no excuse for needless loss of life and limb.

“Once more I want to urge upon the lumbermen of all classes the necessity of more rigid inspection; to have some one about the plant whose sole duty is to see to it that every machine is safeguarded the best that possibly can be, and that safeguards are kept in place. It will be money in your pockets if you want to put it on such a mercenary level as that.

“Also I want to urge that a movement be put on foot that our colleges and universities establish chairs of logging and safeguarding engineering, so that our young men, just fresh from school, shall have a better knowledge to start with on these subjects than did their fathers. Many and many a man-killing machine is used just because some one has not invented a better one.

“The report of the expense of the Commission shows that the total amount expended to July 1 out of an appropriation of $150,000 was $87,062.14, and that the proportion of expenses to the amount of business done is 11 per cent., a showing so much below what it costs casualty companies merely to solicit their business as to be notable.

“The president of one of the casualty companies, while I was in New York, showed me their experience, which showed that the cost to them for the last year was 51 per cent. of the premium. As you see, our cost is about 11 per cent. Of course, we do not have to solicit, nor do we have so large a force in the field for adjustment.

“The Commission, is keeping well inside of its appropriation, as the allowable average expenses for twenty-two months would be $6,818.18, while the actual average has been $6,620.16.

“Other details of the financial report are as follows:

Total receipts, accident fund $699,508 72
Total expense 86,062 14
———————————
Total fund $785,570 86

Cash in fund, 36 per cent. $281,993 32
Reserve fund, 20.5 per cent. 161,154 49
Claims paid, 32.5 per cent. 256,360 91
Expense, 11 per cent. 86,062 14
———— ——————————
100 per cent. $785,570 86

“We are executing the law, backed by the State of Washington, and there is less quibble in settlements made by our Commission than there would be by an adjustment made by a casualty company. Neither do we have to pay any attorney’s fees, as the Attorney-General’s office has to attend to all this part of the work for us.

“Since the first of October, there has not been a case filed in any court in the State for damages done to any workman who came under this act.

“This has been a great relief to our courts, and in time will be felt in reduced taxes. The cheapening of our court costs and the removal of all personal liability suits should work a reduction of costs to the general taxpayer.

“One of the features of the old common-law system was the ambulance-chasing lawyer, whom we all know. This gentleman is practically out of business as a result of the Workman’s Compensation Act, but is undertaking to find some activity in the industry of appeals. Out of over 6,000 claims passed upon, only twelve appeals have been filed, one of them from the Imperial Powder Company, to interpret the law, one to determine the scope of the interstate commerce law, one filed by an insane claimant, and several that are in the process of adjustment and dissolution.

“One appealed case has been tried in court and the court sustained the Commissioner’s finding as far as temporary total disability was concerned, but found the claimant entitled to compensation for permanent partial disability, remanding the case to the Commission for additional compensation, which was promptly awarded. Had the Commissioner been in possession of the facts, the award for permanent partial disability would have been made without appeal.”

Commissioner Wallace makes the following pertinent statement:

“The Washington State insurance system has succeeded beyond the best hopes of its friends and sponsors. In this act, one of the youngest States is giving the older commonwealths another example of a wise and progressive law. The State’s control over public utility corporations, giving the suffrage to women, eight-hour laws for underground miners and women wage-earners, full crew law for railways, and other laws enacted during the past four years in the interest of labor deserve full praise and should not be forgotten in the triumph of our compensation act.

“The compensation act has thus ushered in an era of publicity regarding the appalling maiming, dismembering and killing of workmen in the mines, mills and workshops of our State. The great question just now becomes not what we can give to pay for pain and suffering and even death, but how can we best safeguard those who toil. This will be real progress; compensation must ever be mere apology.

“Concerned as we have been as to how the little home flock could be kept together when the breadwinner was stricken down in his endeavor to make an honest living, and thinking in terms of dollars and cents how much it will take to keep the wolf from the door during these times of industrial disaster, we may have overlooked the fact (or was it because we were not familiar with it?) that, according to the best authorities who have made accident prevention a scientific study for a number of years, 75 to 90 per cent. of the accidents that occur are preventable.

“Our law has been widely commended and is in reality the best compensation law in the United States today. It has been rarely condemned, save by those who profited by the old legal system. It has shown the great waste of human energy, manhood and womanhood—wastes which reflect discredit upon this young and virile commonwealth—and as these things begin to be understood by the people they will insistently ask, what can we do, not only to preserve the mineral, the timber, and the water-power resources of our State, but what can we do to conserve our greatest asset—human life?”

I am confident this Congress will endorse the sentiments expressed and I only wish to add the employer and employe, State official and private citizen, voice the same sentiments and desire to give them widest publicity.

REPORT A.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

_Statement of Condition of Accident Fund, September 1, 1912._

================+=======================+===========+=============
| Total Amount Claims. |Estimated |
| |Reserve on | Balance
CLASS. +———————————+———————————+ Approved | in Fund.
| | | Claims. |
| Paid In. | Paid. | |
————————————————+———————————+———————————+———————————+—————————————
1 | $19,350 71| $6,400 60| | $12,950 11
2 | 17,839 53| 3,860 85| $3,481 60| 10,497 08
3 | 6,343 73| 1,653 90| | 4,689 83
4 | 1,996 85| 463 80| | 1,533 05
5 | 70,194 23| 18,207 10| 20,008 25| 31,978 88
6 | 52,990 61| 9,178 86| 2,063 95| 41,747 80
7 | 84,249 20| 28,886 99| 17,863 22| 37,498 99
8 | 30,745 73| 7,982 15| 1,180 07| 21,583 51
9 | 6,340 35| 2,173 30| | 4,167 05
10 | 266,461 72| 167,741 35| 95,777 56| 2,942 81
12 | 6,432 63| 1,642 25| | 4,790 38
13 | 16,371 87| 2,775 43| 7,574 72| 6,021 72
14 | 26,817 34| 8,120 36| 1,266 00| 19,430 98
15 | 4,275 45| 1,284 21| 754 52| 2,236 72
16 | 82,110 27| 33,794 11| 28,020 37| 20,295 79
17 | 14,800 60| 4,786 55| 2,352 55| 7,661 50
18 | 6,368 70| 4,808 75| | 1,559 95
19 | 7,098 59| 717 36| 2,903 83| 3,477 40
20 | 1,202 20| 405 00| | 797 20
21 | 8,319 89| 4,576 43| | 3,743 46
22 | 7,656 94| 2,370 60| | 5,286 34
23 | 4,152 43| 543 40| 2,805 92| 803 11
24 | 8,084 75| 5,826 45| | 2,258 30
25 | 1,489 06| 402 65| | 1,086 41
29 | 27,134 69| 16,760 72| | 10,373 97
30 | 789 83| | | 789 83
31 | 7,051 68| 1,580 73| 842 08| 4,628 87
33 | 11,289 16| 1,536 30| | 9,752 86
34 | 28,349 76| 15,404 90| 3,156 32| 9,788 54
35 | 6,216 34| 1,395 05| | 4,821 29
37 | 9,857 48| 1,828 73| 3,295 17| 4,733 58
38 | 3,812 52| 1,114 95| | 2,697 57
39 | 2,627 55| 415 49| | 2,212 06
40 | 2,149 77| 203 55| | 1,946 22
41 | 6,516 49| 1,297 80| | 5,218 69
42 | 9,885 96| 5,485 86| 3,888 34| 511 76
43 | 4,584 50| 2,494 25| | 2,090 25
44 | 1,412 96| 680 25| | 732 71
45 | 445 14| | | 445 14
46 | 463 27| 1,908 95| | 1,445 68
47 | 632.44| 39 75| | 592 69
48 | 1,000 16| 83 95| | 916 21
+———————————+———————————+———————————+—————————————
|$875,913 08|$368,833 68|$197,234 47|$309,844 93
================+===========+===========+===========+=============

================+=================+===============================
| Deaths |
| Requiring. |
CLASS. +————————+————————+ Occupation.
| | No |
|Pension.|Pension.|
————————————————+————————+————————+———————————————————————————————
1 | | 6 | Sewers.
2 | 1 | | Bridge and tower.
3 | | | Pile driving.
4 | | | House wrecking.
5 | 6 | 2 | General construction.
6 | 3 | 5 | Power line installation.
7 | 8 | 4 | Railroads.
8 | 1 | 2 | Street grading.
9 | | | Ship building.
10 | 33 | 29 | Lumbering, milling, etc.
12 | | | Dredging.
13 | 4 | | Electric systems.
14 | 1 | 1 | Street railway.
15 | 1 | | Telephone and telegraph.
16 | 11 | 6 | Coal mining.
17 | 1 | 3 | Quarries.
18 | | | Smelters.
19 | 1 | | Gas works.
20 | | | Steam boats.
21 | | | Grain elevators.
22 | | | Laundries.
23 | 2 | | Water works.
24 | | 1 | Paper mills.
25 | | | Garbage works.
29 | | | Wood working.
30 | | | Asphalt manufacturing.
31 | 1 | 1 | Cement manufacturing.
33 | | | Fish canneries.
34 | 1 | | Steel manufacturing, foundries.
35 | | 1 | Brick manufacturing.
37 | 1 | 1 | Breweries.
38 | | | Textile manufacturing.
39 | | | Food stuffs.
40 | | | Creameries.
41 | | | Printing.
42 | 1 | | Longshoring.
43 | | | Packing houses.
44 | | | Ice manufacturing.
45 | | | Theatre stage employes.
46 | 7 | 1 | Powder works.
47 | | | Creosoting works.
48 | | | Non-hazardous elective.
+————————+————————+
| 84 | 63 |
================+========+========+===============================

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT B.

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE COMMISSION OF WASHINGTON.

_Statement of Expense Account for the Month of August, 1912._

Mileage—
Commissioners $50 00
Auditors 98 23

Railroad Fare—
Commissioners 20 35
Auditors 195 88

Hotel—
Commissioners 97 10
Auditors 447 90

Incidental Expenses—
Auditors 9 15

Salaries—
Commissioners 900 00
Auditors 2,260 29
Physicians 406 50
Office 2,067 06

Miscellaneous—
Stationery 256 81
Postage 322 61
Telephone 66 30
Telegraph 8 24
Office supplies 208 97
General expense 60 20
Rent 110 00
—————————
Total $7,585 59

F. W. HINSDALE, Chief Auditor.

REPORT C.

Olympia, Washington, August 31, 1912.

Industrial Insurance Commission, Olympia, Washington.

Gentlemen—Herewith statement of claims handled by this Department during the month of August, 1912. Also, the number handled during the period from October 1, 1911 to August 31, 1912.

_Claims Received._

Month of August. Total to Date.
Accidents reported 1,374 10,586
Files incomplete 1,471
————— —————— 9,115

Files complete 1,455
Monthly payments continued 262 1,972
Claims reopened 8 129
————— —————— 2,101
1,725 ——————
11,216

_Claims Disposed of._

Month of August. Total to Date.
Finals 1,097 5,255
Monthly 262 1,972
Fatal 36 214
Total permanent disability 2
Rejections 78 324
Suspensions 46 281
No. claims 198 1,420
Total disposed of ————— ————— 9,468
1,717
Claims in the work 1,748
——————
Total 11,216

Respectfully submitted,
J. F. GILLIES (Signed),
Claim Agent.

President WHITE—This is certainly a very important paper. I want to say here that tomorrow, in Kansas City, Mo., a committee from the organized labor interests, and a committee from the manufacturers will meet to discuss a proposition to prepare a bill for presentation to the next Missouri Legislature that shall be fair alike to employer and employe, in regard to compensation for injuries. It has worked well in Washington, it is humane, and it does shut off the dishonest, shyster lawyer who means to get three-fourths or more of the award for the injury, and gives it all to the person who is injured, without any attorney’s fees. (Applause.)

I will take just a moment at this time to appoint the Nominating Committee:

George E. Condra, Chairman; E. T. Allen, H. A. Barker, Mrs. Marion A. Crocker, E. G. Griggs, Mrs. Elmer E. Kendall, Henry Wallace, and N. P. Wheeler.

This committee has the duty of considering and nominating the officers for the next Congress. They will have a couple of days for the work.

At the first day’s session, there was a report on the program from the National Congress of Mothers, which was to have been presented by Mrs. Orville T. Bright, of Chicago. Through an unfortunate misunderstanding, which was not the fault of Mrs. Bright, she was not here on the first day. We are glad to have the report at this time. I now take great pleasure in introducing Mrs. Bright. (Applause.)

Mrs. BRIGHT—The one object for the conservation of all the material resources of a Nation is for the use, comfort and benefit of the homes of the people.

It would be of little importance what became of forests, lands, waters, minerals or food were there no men, women and children to use and enjoy them.

Therefore, at the very heart of this Conservation work should be the two departments covering homes and child life.

It has been a source of encouragement to see that men who are leaders in many great developments of our land, have given definite place to the study of the conservation of the home.

There is need for it if America is to be the greatest of all the nations, for with its wonderful natural resources it can only be as great as the quality and character of its people.

Great minds are needed to think and plan with wisdom and unselfishness for the America that is to be, for the protection of homes that are to shelter and nurture the men and women who a few years hence will take our places.

The United States has its Departments of State and War and Navy. It has not yet seen that the greatest questions it has to meet are the protection and care of the American people and American homes.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture is educating the farmer to make the most out of his land. It gives him information concerning the soils, the rotation of crops, the protection against the many enemies of plant life, the care and feeding of stock and poultry. It protects the forests and the fisheries. All these things for the service of man have received the guardianship of the Government.

Homes are just as important as farms, and there is just as great need of proper consideration for their elevation and protection as there is that of farms and stock and forests.

The protection of infant life is of more value, even in a pecuniary way, than the protection of the cotton crop, yet three hundred thousand babies die annually whose lives might be saved if the United States gave the same careful, intelligent information to the mothers as it does to the farmers.

The annual sacrifice of three hundred thousand American citizens from preventable causes is a waste far too great not to receive governmental consideration. Time need not be wasted on compiling statistics. There is need for prompt and decisive action to prevent this needless sacrifice; it means that each year the possibility for at least one hundred thousand homes of American citizens is cut off. That means a serious loss to this Nation and one for which immigration can not compensate.

The wonderful advance in agriculture can be paralleled in human culture if the same methods are used. The trains that go through the country for agricultural demonstrations should carry instruction to both men and women on home-making and child nurture. The list of valuable educational pamphlets published and sent free of postage should include instruction in child hygiene and sanitation.

There is today a need for a Home Department in the National and State Governments that is equipped to study the home problems of America and meet them as only can be done by thorough study and knowledge of conditions, their causes and remedies. The sacrifice of infant life is a small part of the waste that undermines the homes.

Juvenile crime, its causes and treatment are of more vital moment than the boll weevil or the chestnut blight, for the possible good citizen transformed into one who is a menace and expense to society is a great waste.

There are countless organizations which give material and charitable relief. There are few which give the help that will enable the average home properly to guide and train the boys and girls who are wayward, or will help parents to learn efficient methods of child nurture. The home has the greatest power over human life and human character. Too long has it been left to chance and ignorant experiment to make it efficient in its work, stable and permanent.

The home is founded by the marriage of a man and a woman. It is a matter of grave concern to the Nation when divorce breaks up one in every twelve homes, and leaves the children bereft, not only of a normal home but deprived of a true conception of what marriage and parenthood should be. The conservation of the home requires that serious study and work be done to change this condition in America. It can not be done by legislation alone, though one of the greatest needs today for the protection of the home is Federal law governing marriage, divorce and polygamy.

It is a serious menace to the home when forty-four States may make as many different laws as they choose on a subject which is the foundation of the Nation’s future.

That a man may be legally married in one State, and that such marriage is illegal in a State adjoining, that divorce is easy in some States and difficult in others, that polygamy is permitted to continue in some States, and that freedom to spread the cult is allowed, have all been undermining influences in the God-given standards of marriage, home and parenthood.

The Government has found it necessary to assume jurisdiction over interstate commerce, railroads and express companies. It is of even more vital importance that it should have jurisdiction over marriage, divorce and their violations. In addition to this, there is need for definite plain teaching of youth in regard to the true high ideal of marriage, of parenthood, and the making of a home. This would prevent a large proportion of the divorces. A standard should be set in regard to the home, and boys and girls should get that as part of their education.

Ignorance of hygiene is responsible for the drawbacks and failures of many homes. It is inexcusable that any boy or girl should be permitted to reach manhood and womanhood without a clear knowledge of personal hygiene, sanitation, and food values. This knowledge is essential to good home-making and good parenthood, and is equally necessary for men and women.

Congestion in cities should not be permitted. In the seaport cities many immigrants from other lands have not the means to go farther, and if they had the means, do not know enough about the country to place themselves where their qualifications would fit best. The cry against immigration is one with which I can not sympathize. The Americanizing of the immigrant should be placed in other hands than the politician’s, who uses him en masse for a manipulated vote.

The special education of immigrant men and women would be an important service to good home-making and the ability to train the children to be useful citizens.

The proper distribution of immigrants by careful information as to opportunities for work and the earning of a home is greatly needed. The proper assimilation of our immigrant population is still in its infancy, but is of vital moment, for they also are the future citizens of America.

The city home of the American citizen should not be left to the will of builders whose only thought is to build houses for sale. Many apartments are built today without the amount of light, sun or ventilation necessary to health. Some cities and towns are realizing the need for regulating this.

The Conservation of the home demands that every State should have requirements as to building homes. The problem of a comfortable home for the family with a moderate income is a serious one today. Few cities or towns are giving the thought necessary to make a city of good homes for the average family at prices possible for them to pay.

The country home is equally in need of study and help. The opportunities for social life and educational advantages equal to those given to the city home should be supplied. That means larger appropriations for schools, the employment of the best teachers, the consolidated school, the use of the schools and churches as centers of educational and social life, the making of good roads between home and school and church and market place.

The Government Department of the Home should take all these things into consideration. It should bring to the overworked farmer’s wife better household facilities and more help. The greatest drawback to country life today is the overworked wife, who can not get needed help and who goes beyond her strength in cooking and doing housework for farm help as well as her own family.

No one who knows of the terrible results of hook worm in the South resulting from the unsanitary, poverty-stricken hovels, where physical weakness had for years sapped the vitality and energy of men, women and children, can gainsay the fact that Government study of the causes and the remedy has done a service of inestimable value to thousands of homes. Seven years’ life among those people proved that many of them were in quality equal to the best American stock, but that disease had brought upon them the unjust stigma of laziness with resulting poverty.

The Government could study and publish the results of its investigation, but Dr. Stiles had to get contributions from individuals to do the educational and medical work necessary to uproot this disease. That is not as it should be. The power to help should go with the power to investigate, for the condition was of much wider interest than to the individuals directly affected.

The National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations have made the subject of the home, of parental education and of child welfare its special study and work for seventeen years. It has worked steadily to build up a united system of parent-teacher associations in connection with every school, to bring about the co-operation of home and school in child nurture.

It has required that these associations should be for child study so that parents might have guidance and help in their problems. It has instituted study courses and provided educational material for the parents. It has headquarters in Washington and has valuable co-operation from Government departments. It should be the Homes Department of the National Conservation Congress because its work is well established, covering every State and reaching to other Nations. It is the only national organization whose membership is composed of parents and teachers and whose educational leaders include the greatest specialists in child nurture and child welfare in home, school, church and state.

I would suggest to the National Conservation Congress that it make the National Congress of Mothers and Parent-Teacher Associations the Homes Department, because in that way it will have consecutive work of high standard, and will bring a strength which could be secured in no other way. Co-operation without duplication brings results.

The National Congress of Mothers offers its co-operation in every phase of conservation for which the Conservation Congress was organized. It also asks co-operation of the Conservation Congress in its international work for home, parenthood and child nurture.

It invites this Congress to be always represented at its annual conferences and at the Third International Congress on Child Welfare in Washington, D. C., in May, 1914.

Life, health, character, all depend on the home and its efficiency. To equip every home for efficiency in its special work is the greatest need in Conservation.

President WHITE—That is surely a fine paper, in a holy cause.

The topic of the next section of the program is “Conservation of Human Life.” The subject, “Saving Miners’ Lives,” will be discussed by Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, of Washington, D. C., Director of the National Bureau of Mines. (Applause.)

Dr. HOLMES—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Those of you who have endeavored, even in part, during the past month to attend the Congresses in session in the United States, have found the time all too short to make that possible for you to do. These Congresses have covered all subjects. There is a feeling of unrest, a feeling that we have not done in the past the things which we ought to have done, and that it is high time we were trying to find out what are the best things to do. For some two hundred years in the development of this country we have allowed the individual very largely to take care of himself. We started out with the government theory that each man is entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and the individual was left to himself to accomplish the purpose he had in view. The country developed rapidly through that system, and we built up a great Nation, but we have in the meantime neglected the public welfare. We are in a state of unrest today in regard to the future, feeling that it is time we were doing what we are trying to do—look after the question of the public welfare.

We have had, furthermore, a period of most rapid progress. When you, Mr. President, and others of us here, go back today to the schools where we went years ago, we hardly know the place. Buildings have changed, new ones have been built, and the teachers of today are different from those we were accustomed to. We see the great system of transportation built by the railroad men of today; we see the means of communication, some fifteen million miles of telegraph and telephone lines, enabling the people to talk with one another. Yet even that is not speedy enough, so we are using the wireless. And so along all lines of industry, we have developed at a tremendous rate. But it has been a one-sided development, and now we have come to look particularly at the other side—the public welfare, and we are trying to find out what is best, from the experience of all countries, so that the American people may do the best that can be done for the welfare of this country.

It has therefore come about, in connection with this one-sided development, that we have lost sight of that great subject which we have for consideration today—the conservation of human life. We have been too busy to think about it. We have jumped on and off street cars and railway trains; we have slipped on our waxed floors; we have met with all sorts of serious accidents in our fast automobiles and flying machines; yet we ask, “Why are these miners so careless as to kill themselves, and these railroad employes?” And we are just as bad as they are. So let us not talk about careless railway employes, or careless miners, but stop to think what we can do to help the entire situation. Let us ask ourselves the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative.

I want to call attention to the fact that we have in this country two great foundations of industry. We have always considered agriculture as the great foundation industry of the country, but we have another—mining. The savage did not need any mines. He only wants a limited amount of material for clothing, and a large amount of material in the way of something to eat. He does not need the great modern appliances which we have today. When we drew up the Constitution of this country we did not think the mining industry of much importance, and it was not possible to anticipate the great complex social fabric which we have in the United States today. A man said to me the other day that he thought if Thomas Jefferson could see the things that we are asking of this great Federal Government, he would not know what to do. My own judgment is that he would advocate the doing by this Federal Government of all the things that this great American people demand that it do today. (Applause.) The trouble is that while we were making this tremendous progress, all of the people were not keeping pace, and perhaps it is well that this is true, because if there was nobody to hold back we would not only progress too rapidly, but progress in too many one-sided ways.

We recognize, furthermore, that while agriculture has made tremendous strides, and in large measure because of the investigations conducted under the Federal Government, other branches of industry have made rapid strides, but they have been forced to one-sided development in order to keep pace. It needs, then, the great co-operating influence of some great force like the Federal Government to help keep the industries from becoming one-sided.

The mining industry touches us on every hand, and today in a great hall like this, where you can find materials from every part of the world, you will find they came from the mine, or were manufactured through the agency of the products of the mine. We can not do anything on a large scale today without the aid of this great mining industry. During last March, the English people awakened to a realization of that fact. They did not consider mining as one of the great fundamental industries, but the stopping of the coal mines for four weeks stopped all the industries of the British, and they came to the conclusion that the very life of the nation was in danger by the cessation of coal mining.

Mining and Conservation should be linked very closely together. Men realize the fact that with agriculture, the resources increase year by year. We increase the fertility of the soil by taking the nitrogen from the air, and from that we get the crops, so that the wealth of the country based on agriculture is easily predicated. The mining industry is just the reverse. We started in this country with greater mineral resources than we will ever have again. Furthermore, in agriculture we have the healthiest vocation known, while mining is the most dangerous industry in the world.

Now, this mining industry has increased so rapidly that we have not been able to take care of many of the difficulties that have arisen, nor do we have a realization of how rapid that increase has been. We have increased in forty years from less than a ton to every man, woman and child, to, in the last year, six tons. Forty years ago a pound of iron, as compared with thirteen today for every man, woman and child. And so it has been with the great industries—they are increasing so much more rapidly than the population that it is hard to tell what has become of this increase, and one of the questions is, can this increase continue? Some of our great statesmen in Washington who have been fighting this Conservation movement, say it can not continue. The fact that the mining industry has nearly doubled every ten years, they say can not continue. But no man today would say that this country will not continue to grow, and as it grows this great mining industry will increase also. We are just entering upon our development. We are just beginning to export the products of our mines, so when we ask the question whether this great Nation will continue to grow, and this industry will increase, there is but one answer, and that is in the affirmative. We ask another question—are these resources inexhaustible? And there is but one answer, and that is in the negative, because we are now beginning to see the end of some of these resources. Shall we curtail the development of an industry like this and not supply the needs of the people? Our politicians ask this and expect us to answer in the affirmative, but no conservationist answers it that way. We say, no, the needs increase and we must meet the needs.

What can we do to perpetuate the welfare of the country? There are but two things we can do, and they are fairly easy to do. Use more and more efficiently all the resources, and prevent unnecessary waste. Now, in connection with this wasteful use of our resources, you say, after all, is there any great waste? What can we do to stop it? Only a few years ago the State of Indiana thought its natural gas was gone, so it passed laws forbidding the waste of natural gas; the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed such an act in regard to coal—after the coal was gone. One of the Supreme Judges said that a man who owns a coal mine had a legal right to destroy it if he wished to. But in the State of New York one of the associate justices overruled the Supreme Justice, and in every case the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as the Supreme Court of the several States, have shown a desire to keep pace with the progress of this country in interpreting the Constitution of the United States for the permanent future welfare of the people of this country. (Applause.) There are a good many signs of improvement, not only in what the Federal and State Governments are doing, but in what private individuals are doing.

Only yesterday, I went through the great plant at Gary, and I found the United States Steel Corporation was using two million horse-power developed from gases from its own operations, which only a few years ago was allowed to go to waste, and that power is not only operating all the machinery of that company, but is supplying the power for other industries in the immediate vicinity. I found that the slag coming from the furnaces, which in many great manufacturing sections of the country we see piled up in great, unsightly masses, is all being converted into cement, and that cement is being used by the people of this country. And so we find an interesting situation—that the steel being manufactured by that plant is likely soon to be a by-product, and not the main product for which the plant is operated.

And so it is when we watch the great industries of this country. Under this great spirit of Conservation individuals are meeting the Federal Government and State more than half way, and they are finding what is the greatest basis of permanent success—that it pays to conserve our resources. And when that great company does any mining for ore in the lake country, instead of burying the materials which they cannot use today, they are laying that material to one side, so that just as soon as it becomes useful it will be immediately available for preparation for that purpose.

Out of five hundred million tons of coal mined last year, we wasted, by leaving it underground, no less than two hundred million tons. Meanwhile, if we could have exported that coal to Central or South America and brought back from these countries raw materials which we could use in manufacture, it would be something worth doing; but to waste it entirely is nothing more than a discredit to this nation. But what are we going to do about it? The coal operator cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he gets; the miner cannot change the situation, because he is doing the best he can at the price he is paid. It is not simply a question for chemists and engineers—it is a problem for statesmen, and the statesman is the man who must remedy the economic conditions.

To come to the main subject of the Conservation of life, the greatest loss of life we have in mines is in the coal mining industry. I want to say in connection with this, that a careful study of the situation for the past several years has led me to believe that the coal operator in the United States is just as humane and just as anxious to conserve the life of his men as the coal operator in any other known country. (Applause.) Furthermore, that while it is true that of the miners, less than half read the English language and 75 per cent. are non-English speaking and know little or nothing about the laws regulating the principles and purposes of a great country like this, yet they are no more careless in mining because of that fact than are the miners from England and Wales who come here after long experience in mining and knowing perfectly our language and customs. These men are up against a condition that they cannot remedy, and while I do not say that they are doing the best they can under the circumstances, I think they are more and more coming to do the best they can, and I believe we will have more and more effort on the part of both miners and operators to do what is right. We have developed so rapidly in the past hundred years that we have not stopped to think of human life, and we cannot expect these reforms to take place without any effort on our part. There is recognition on the part of both miners and operators, that I am my brother’s keeper, and it is a most encouraging sign.

There are these two great reforms in connection with the mines of this country—safeguarding the lives of miners and improvement of conditions under which they labor, and the stopping of waste of our essential resources. The Federal Government is trying to get at the actual information, they are trying to conduct investigations in an impartial manner, and they want to bring about a condition acceptable to both miner and operator. We have suspicion on the part of the operator of the miner; and suspicion on the part of the miner of the operator; and suspicion on the part of other parties in reference to both. What we want to do is to have a condition in this country so that the miner and operator, co-operating with each other, can work together and bring about these great reforms that are needed.

This general welfare clause of the Constitution, which was regarded as an agreement with the devil, is today our great saving clause for getting things done by the Federal Government. The Federal Government, Mr. President, has waked up long ago to what it ought to do for agriculture, and in the next few years it will conduct investigations far more extensive than today—it will submit remedies brought together from the experience of all mining countries of the world, and it will lead in this great movement for a general improvement of conditions. But after all, what may be done by the Federal Government will depend upon what is done by the Federal Congress. There is where we must do our work, to make them appreciate the difficulties of a great industry like this, and the correctness of this clause.

I want to say a word in behalf of these miners. As I said before, more than half of them cannot read the English language. Under the rules and regulations we have permitted these men to come into the United States, and when they come it is interesting to see how they appreciate becoming an American citizen. I talked to a Lithuanian who had only been in this country a few months, and I said, “Are you not very lonely?” and he said, “Yes, but I am an American.” (Applause.)