158 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



IJa.nlarv 1. 1912. 



bility towards their employes is thoroughly in line with 

 our best social development. 



During the last two years a great deal of legislation 

 has been enacted in the various states, particularly in 

 the Eastern manufacturing states, looking to the bet- 

 terment of the workman's condition. Many such laws 

 have been passed in the state of New York, and, ac- 

 cording to reports of the State Commission of Labor, 

 the condition of factory workers during the last decade 

 has vastly improved. 



A number of state commissions and bureaus have 

 been appointed to investigate various phases of labor 

 in factories, and they have performed a great amount 

 of useful work : For instance, the Bureau of Media- 

 tion and Arbitration, which has succeeded in effecting 

 the peaceful and satisfactory settlement of many dis- 

 putes. Again, there is the American Museum of 

 Safety, whose object it is to investigate carefully the 

 causes of accidents, to discover and demonstrate means 

 of prevention. In many other ways the legislature of 

 New York during recent years has worked for the lighten- 

 ing of the workman's load. If some part of this bur- 

 den has been shifted to the employer's shoulders, it is 

 open to question if any considerable number of em- 

 ployers have seriously objected. Many of them un- 

 doubtedly share the feeling of one large manufacturer, 

 who recently said : 



"Let them legislate to make better conditions for the 

 workers. Wise legislation in that direction is a grand 

 thing The more comfortable my employes are, the 

 better they are protected, the more and better work 

 they will do. My efforts are to keep ahead of the 

 legislature, but if they can point the way to improve 

 still further I shall be glad to follow." 



The interdependence of capital and labor, and, in 

 fact, of all members of our social structure, is now so 

 thoroughly recognized that every man, employer or not, 

 who views our American life in anything but the narrow- 

 est way must welcome all reasonable legislative enact- 

 ments that tend to improve the condition of any consider- 

 able number of people. 



WHAT A FEW YEARS HAVE WROUGHT. 



' I 'HE Department of Commerce and Labor has recently 

 published a few statistics which give in the most 

 condensed form a graphic picture of the marvelous 

 changes that have taken place in this country in a little 

 over a century. The figures given cover the period be- 



tween 1800 and 1911. In 1800 the area of continental 

 United States was 843,255 square miles, in 1911 the area 

 was, and in fact has been ever since 1853, 3,026,789 square 

 miles. The population since 1800 has increased from 5^ 

 million to 93;54 million ; the money in circulation from 

 $26,500,000 to $3,228,627,002 and the per capita circula- 

 tion from $4.99 to $34.35. Exports have increased from 

 $32,000,000 in value to over $2,000,000,000 and imports 

 from $91,000,000 to $1,500,000,000. And all this has 

 happened within a space of time barely more than the 

 span of a human life. 



THE HUMANITARIANISM OF THE MOTOR-CAR. 



IN addition to the incalculable value of the motor-car 

 *■ commercially, it has another and very obvious ad- 

 vantage in its humanilarianism. This is a phase that 

 is brought home anew to every observing person at 

 the coming of the first winter snow storm. The 

 smooth asphalt pavement, so much in vogue in many 

 of our cities, is at best an atrocious device for the dis- 

 comfort and distress and disabling of that faithful fel- 

 low, the horse; but add to it a fall of snow, which, as 

 is usually the case in city streets, first melts, then 

 freezes and melts again, what earthly chance have the 

 horses? On avenue and street you see them sliding, 

 slipping, falling, lying helpless on the slippery pave- 

 ment, or struggling to regain an impossible footing. 

 To any human being of even the slightest humane in- 

 stinct, it is a distressing sight; to the horse it means 

 bruises and broken bones. And while one watches this 

 spectacle, multiplied ten thousand times over in a 

 large city, one cannot help noticing how easily and 

 comfortably and efficiently the motor car rolls by, its 

 rubber tires gripping the slippery asphalt, and riding 

 easily over the snow and ice. Viewed from the hu- 

 manitarian standpoint, it certainly will be a great re- 

 lief when the last draft horse has disappeared from 

 city streets and the trucking industry is turned over 

 exclusively to the motor-car. 



Henry C. Pearson, editor of The India Rubber 

 World, sailed December 18 on the Coppename of the 

 Royal Dutch West India Mail, with the expectation of 

 passing the winter in the tropics, his objective point being 

 the valley of the Orinoco. It is a pleasure to announce 

 that his observations in the rubber country will be em- 

 bodied in a series of letters, illustrated as heretofore with 

 photographs of the scenes described. 



