Readings in American Democracy

air, arrangement of rooms for ease in house-work as well as to meet Thrift in the personal and social needs of the family group. It raises such housing questions as: Is there any better investment than owning one's own home? Are we spending unnecessarily for display in the house? In household operating expenses, thrift demands adequate heating, and in

household lighting, water-supply and housekeeping supplies. It justifies hired

operating service where the housewife has other useful employment or is unable expenses. to do all the work. It raises such questions as: Can supplies be bought cheaper in quantity? Is the heating and lighting system efficient and economical? Is the telephone justified, and if so, is postage a cheaper substitute for many toll calls? Do the members of the household coöperate fully in reducing the burden of daily household tasks which come upon the housewife or her hired substitute?

In culture wants, thrift emphasizes their importance as compared Thrift in with material wants and asks full provision for education, for

culture

personal development and for health, and reasonable provision for physical and mental recreation, for necessary expenses for personal care and for incidental needs. But thrift asks: Are large personal indulgence expenditures justifiable? Do they not give special treatment for one or more members of the family as compared with others? Is special musical or art instruction to an ungifted person wise? Should recreation expenditures exceed cultural expenditures of the sort which, for lack of a better term, are called educational and ethical?

wants.

Questions on the foregoing Readings 1. Into what two parts does Professor Carver divide his outline of

the democratic program of industrial reform? 2. Outline the essential features of the first part of this program. 3. What are the essential features of the second part of this program? 4. Define justice. 5. By what three means might unearned wealth be redistributed? 6. To what tendency in taxation does Professor Seligman call at

tention? 7. What is the relation of this tendency to income tax legislation? 8. What does Professor Seligman have to say with reference to a

higher tax on land, especially in local finance?

9. What is his opinion of the single tax? 10. Why might the application of the principle of justice to industrial

problems fail to improve the condition of all of the poor? 11. What is the importance of vocational guidance in the attack upon

low wages? 12. What occupations are covered by the term “ vocational”? 13. What are the aims of vocational guidance? 14. What principles should govern the choice of a vocation? 15. What, according to Mr. John B. Andrews, is the condition of the

labor market at the present time? 16. What remedy does he suggest for this condition? 17. Outline the functions of the central office, as embodied in the

plan for a national system of employment bureaus. 18. What would be the functions of the proposed local labor exchanges? 19. Why is labor legislation a necessary function of government? 20. What is the legal basis for labor legislation? 21. Outline some forms of labor legislation. 22. Explain why high wages do not necessarily mean freedom from

poverty. 23. What are the five phases of the problem of thrift? 24. Outline Professor Andrews' suggestions with reference to written

budget plans and written accounts of expenditure. 25. Illustrate the principles of thrift with reference to food expenditure,

clothing costs, expenditure for house-room, household operating expenses, and culture wants.

PART III - AMERICAN SOCIAL PROBLEMS

CHAPTER XVIII

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

103. The extent of strikes and lockouts 1

In any survey of the actual workings of modern industry, the The persistmost casual observer must be impressed by the persistence of dis- ence of in

dustrial disagreements between labor and capital. These disagreements take agreements. different forms, and are of varying duration and significance. Two of the most serious types of industrial disturbances are strikes and lockouts. Complete data on these industrial phenomena are lacking, but for a number of years the United States Department of Labor has kept a record of strikes and lockouts in this country. The following extract from a report of the Department indicates the extent of strikes and lockouts in the years 1916, 1917, 1918, and 1919:

TABLE I. NUMBER OF STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS, 1916, 1917,

1918, AND 1919

Strikes and lockouts, 1916–1919.

Although the number of strikes during 1919 was not appreciably larger than in 1918 and was less than in 1916 or 1917, the number

1 From the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review. Washington, June, 1920; pp. 200–204.

of persons on strike during the year 1919 was greatly in excess of the number on strike in any of the three preceding years, due to the number of strikes in which large numbers of persons were involved. The strike in which the largest number of persons was involved in 1916 was the men's clothing strike in New York City in December of that year, involving 60,000 employees. No strike in 1917 involved as many as 40,000 persons. In 1918 the strike involving the largest number of persons was that of machinists in northern New Jersey in July, where 60,000 persons struck.

In 1919 there were nine disturbances, in each of which 60,000 or more persons were directly concerned: A general strike in Tacoma and Seattle in February in sympathy with the metal-trades strikers, in which 60,000 persons were involved; 65,000 employees in the Chicago stockyards struck in August; 100,000 longshoremen along the Atlantic coast struck in October; 100,000 employees in the shipyards of New York City and vicinity struck in October; 115,000 members of the building trades were locked out in Chicago in July; 125,000 in the building trades in New York struck in February; 250,000 railroad shop workers struck in August; 367,000 iron and steel workers struck in September; and 435,000 bituminous coal miners struck in November. The number of persons concerned in these nine strikes and lockouts was upward of 1,600,000, while the total number of persons in strikes and lockouts during 1919 was 4,112,507. : ..

In 1919 the employees were connected with unions in 1,811 strikes and 102 lockouts; they were not connected with unions in 135 strikes and ı lockout; in 27 strikes and 2 lockouts they were not so connected at the time of striking, but organized almost immediately thereafter; in 1,280 strikes and 16 lockouts the relation of employees to unions was not reported.

The causes of strikes and lockouts were numerous. Aside from wages, few strikes occurred in which the cause was confined to one matter in dispute. The principal causes are shown in the table following:

Extent of unionism among the employees involved

in 1919.

Causes of strikes and lockouts, 1916-1919.

PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS BEGINNING IN

1916, 1917, 1918, AND 1919

Strikes

Lockouts

Matter of Dispute

1916 1917 1918 1919 1916 1917 1918 1919

1917/1918/19