USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Indiana from its exploration to 1922, Vol II > Part 35
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"About 1890, the Eastern Coast States began to make and enforce their labor laws and factory acts, thus driving the cheap labor inland. About the same time, gas began to be used for fuel in factories in Indiana. These together with the fact that Indiana is located at the meeting point of the fuel and the raw material for many industries caused a great movement of factories into this state. Our legislators recognized the need of a compre- hensive system of labor laws and from that time, until the present, scarcely a legislature has met that has not added some needful statute to the labor acts." p. 23.
An excellent article on this subject is "Industrial Accidents In Indiana" by J. Harold Warner.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
of employers in the matter of safe-guarding danger- ous machinery or places in or about the shops.
These acts not fully meeting the needs of the situ- ation, two commissions were provided for by the As- sembly of 1913. The first of these was a commission of five, appointed by the governor, "to investigate the hours and conditions of the labor of women." The second commission consisted of five persons ap- pointed by the governor, was "to make inquiry, ex- amination and investigation into the making of the law in the state of Indiana relative to the liability of employers to employees for industrial accidents.""17
The following General Assembly by an act en- titled "The Workmen's Compensation Act" required all employers of labor either to insure all employees against accidental injury or forego the defense of contributory negligence by the employee or his asso- ciates or assumption of risk of accident by employee. An industrial board, appointd by the governor, was created whose duty it was to assess damage and thus save expense of litigation. This board assumed all
17 Governor's Message, House Journal, 1913, p. 37.
"Of recent years, manufacturers have sought to avoid respon- sibility for injury by taking out casualty insurance. At least sixty per cent of the premiums paid go to the profit of the casualty company. This system has totally failed, both from the economic and the moral viewpoints. It has become a mere game of chance in which all the legal technicalities of the law are taken advantage of to prevent payment of damages. It has failed morally because it has built up a miserable class of ambulance chasers, who bring suits upon the hope of compromise, and of expert witnesses, who testify in accordance with their employment. The greed of this class robs the injured employee or his family of the damages even when received. The intricacies of modern manufacturing demand of the state that it take steps to protect itself from the liability to support those who are disabled and the families of those whose lives are snuffed out. The state has a right for Its own protection, if for no other reason, to declare for compulsory compensation."
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the duties of the previous state bureau of inspection.18
The settlement of difficulties between employers and employees continues after a half century of legis- lation to be the storm center in the industrial world. Both parties recognize the insufficiency of the strike and lockout. The General Assembly of 1897 provid- ed for a labor commission of two members appointed by the governor. One of these appointees is selected from the laboring class and one from the capitalist class. The commissioners, with the assistance of the circuit court judge, call the interested parties into council and after due examination render a decision which, if the parties have previously agreed to arbi- trate, is binding; if the parties have not agreed to arbitrate, then the commission investigates the cause of the trouble and reports to the governor, who pub- lishes the report, trusting to public opinion to cure the evil. The commission has power to arbitrate a dispute only when such power is conceded by the parties.19
§ 192 PROTECTION OF WOMEN
The advent of women into the wage-earning class has complicated the problem greatly. Employment, sanitation and pay were the important elements so long as men only were concerned. In the case of women to these are added the question of morals, overwork and racial effects.
The questions raised by the employment of wo- men in industry, like so many others now attracting legislative attention, have arisen since the Civil war.
18 Laws of Indiana, 1915, ch. CVI. The statutes mentioned above are only the more important ones enacted on this subject in recent years.
19 Laws of Indiana, 1897, ch. LXXXVIII. The General As- semblles of 1903, 1905 and 1907 enacted legislation governing the mining industry.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
Previous to that date, with the exception of a few cot- ton and woolen mills, no factories employed women. In 1910 there were over 20,000 women employed reg- ularly as wage-earners. It must not be supposed in this connection that women had never previously performed any labor in Indiana. The pioneer women did more work than any class of persons in the state, but comparatively little of this was done until they were grown up. Their children were born before the mother's strength was wasted in the excessive toil in- cident to pioneer home life. The women employed in the factories are as a rule unmarried and what the effect will be on home life or on the children born afterward is not known. What is feared is that bad results will follow the withdrawal of 20,000 young women of the more ambitious class from the ordinary functions of the home.
Most of the women wage-earners are employed in textile mills, laundries, retail stores, teaching and in clerical work. Only a few employers in Indiana are so unresponsive to public opinion and common decency as to allow their desire for gain to cause them to impose on female employees. The depart- ment stores, the offices, the cotton and woolen mills, the clothing factories and the laundries are as a rule equipped so that the work is more attractive than ordinary house work.2º Nevertheless certain regula- tions governing sanitation, hours of labor, age, and equipment are laid down in the statutes and enforced by the bureau of inspection. The question of wages has not been settled. That the average shop girl is underpaid is conceded and this has been alleged as an inducement to vice. The Progressive and Socialist parties have injected these questions into politics,
20 For an example see description of Kahn Tailoring Co. shops at Indianapolis by E. R. Mullins, Employers' Welfare Work.
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HEALTH AND SANITATION
much to the disgust of the professional politicians, who much prefer to discuss the tariff, the money question or our foreign policy.
§ 193 HEALTH AND SANITATION
The work in this field has been carried on under the lead of the medical profession and the charities. The General Assembly of 1881 created the state board of health, to be composed of five members ap- pointed for four year terms by the governor. The executive officer is a secretary chosen by this board. The board takes control of any situation threatening the general health of the community. In co-operation with the state board are the county, city and town boards of health. Every physician is required to re- port concerning cases of sickness, births and deaths coming in the field of his practice. Especially do the state and local boards investigate water supplies and sewage disposals of the cities and towns. A state lab- oratory of hygiene is operated at the capital where samples of milk, water, blood or any other material of this nature may be sent for examination. The present secretary, Dr. J. N. Hurty, has been especial- ly active in promoting the health of the state. A large amount of data, including birth, marriage and death records, are collected and published in the an- nual reports of the secretary.21
The General Assembly of 1907 enacted a pure
21 Laws of Indiana, 1881, ch. XIX: "The State Board of Health shall have the general supervision of the interests of the health and life of the citizens of this state. They shall especially study the vital statistics of this state, and endeavor to make intelligent and profitable use of the collected records of deaths and of sickness among the people; they shall make sanitary investigations and inquiries respecting the causes of disease, and especially of epidemics; the causes of mortality, and the effects of localities, employments, conditions, ingesta, habits and circum- stances on the health of the people." pp. 37-38.
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food and drug act, the enforcement of which through a food and drug commissioner, was placed in the hands of the state board of health. This statute was directed especially at adulteration, misbranding, mixing or offering for sale unsanitary food products and drugs.22 In 1911 the conduct of cold storage plants, dairies, and creameries was brought within its jurisdiction.
During the first decade of the present century a public interest became manifest in the housing condi- tions in the larger cities of the state. Dr. U. G. Weatherly and Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon were among the best known investigators. The agitation aroused public opinion to such an extent that the General Assembly of 1913 passed a housing law lay- ing down definite rules and limits according to which all tenements should be built. Courts, yards, win- dows, stairways, closets, plumbing, sewer connection, fire escapes, cellars-in short, all the details were described and specified. The enforcement of the law was given to the state board of health, to whom the builder of a tenement must exhibit plans and specifi- cations and get approval.28 Improvement in the housing conditions is slow and, doubtless, for years
22 Laws of Indiana, 1907, ch. CIV.
23 Laws of Indiana, 1913, ch. CIL. In Indiana University Studies, 1910, is a report by L. M. Campbell Adams on a survey of Indianapolis. In Charities, December, 1908, p. 376, is an article by Mrs. Albion Fellows Bacon, which has had more to do, perhaps, than any single published account with creating a public demand for improvement. Her conclusions, which are very conservative, are as follows :
"There are more slums and worse slums in the state than we had expected. There are more tenements than we believed. The number of families in the tenements varies, but the usual Indiana tenement contains two families, many less than those in New York and Chicago. The alley and stable dwellings, the hovels, the shacks, the detached, unsanitary dwellings, constitute one of the worse features of our problem." 377.
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TRANSPORTATION
unsightly, unhealthful shacks will continue to bear their monthly tribute to greedy landlords at the ex- pense of public health and decency.
The General Assembly of 1911 gave the state board of health supervisory power over the schools. New buildings were required to conform to certain standards and old ones either remodeled or aban- doned. A section of this statute also required the subject of hygiene to be taught in the public schools.24 A statute by this same Assembly authorized a medi- cal inspection annually of all school children. Trus- tees were empowered to hire a physician for this pur- pose, though no part of the law was made compul- sory.25
The General Assembly of 1911 established, under the supervision of the food and drug commissioner, a bureau of weights and measures. The standards adopted by congress in 1836 were made those of Indi- ana and a force of deputies provided to see that all merchants used weights and measures certified by the officers and bearing the state inspector's seal.26
Enough has been written to show that the state is fully awake to the importance of a liberal policy of sanitation in the interest of public health. There is
24 Laws of Indiana, 1911, ch. 72. This was more drastic by the amendment of March 14, 1913.
25 Laws of Indiana, 1911, ch. 200, Sec. 2: "The term, medical inspection, as used in this act, shall be held to mean the testing of the sight and hearing of school children and the inspection of said children by school physicians for disease, disabilities, decayed teeth or other defects, which may reduce efficiency or tend to prevent their receiving the full benefits of school work." 485.
26 Laws of Indiana, 1911, ch. 263. This law was amended March 10, 1913, so that all large counties, population over 50,000, should have an inspector and that all goods be sold by count, weight or in original packages showing exact weight or count.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
manifest impatience with the slowness of the progress but a remarkable change has been made since 1850.
§ 194 TRANSPORTATION
There have been in Indiana history three periods, characterized by the building of transportation facil- ities. The first of these was in the thirties when our canal system was under construction. The second came in the fifties when our railroad system was laid down. The last has come since 1900. It is an attempt to provide some cheaper, more mobile, and more popular method than the steam railroad.
Street railways in Indiana began with an act, dated June 4, 1861, providing for the incorporation of street railway companies. Under this law a com- pany of Indianapolis men was incorporated, June 5, 1863, and received a franchise from the city, October 19, 1863; this company refused the conditions of the charter, however, and an eastern company, January 18, 1864, accepted a franchise, stipulating that cars should be running in Indianapolis by October 1, 1864. From this beginning not only the Indianapolis street railway has developed but systems have been con- structed in all the larger cities.27
Charles L. Henry, then owner of the Anderson street railway, conceived the idea of extending the street car lines of a city to its neighboring cities, making the road not a city but an interurban line. The idea found favor, after awhile, with capitalists and on January 1, 1900, the Indianapolis, Columbus and Southern interurban opened its tracks from In- dianapolis to Greenwood. Three new roads, the In- dianapolis and Cincinnati, the Indianapolis and Plainfield, and the Indianapolis and Martinsville, were opened out of the capital in 1902. The construc- tion of interurbans was carried on rapidly during
27 Albert L. Rabb, Indiana Street Railway.
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TRANSPORTATION
the decade ending 1910, but since then nothing fur- ther has been done. The total mileage now is 2,083 miles with 114 miles of siding.28
It is generally conceded that the interurban has failed to solve the question of local transportation. Hauling to the road and delivery from the terminal station make it necessary to handle freight at least four times.
Since 1888 Elwood Haynes, then of Portland, now of Kokomo, had been experimenting with an auto- matic wagon which should use an electric storage battery for its motor power. By July 4, 1894, this wagon was so far perfected that it ran several miles on the highway at a speed of six or eight miles per hour. In 1897 a four-passenger car was constructed with a two-cylinder engine, which attained a speed of twenty miles. The automobile industry has re- sulted.29
The successful operation of the automobile de- pends largely on a good, solid road. The farmers of the state are looking confidently to the automobile and the solid pike for a solution of the transportation problem. On a good road an ordinary auto truck will haul three to five tons at the rate of fifteen to twenty miles per hour, picking up the freight in the field and delivering it to the final destination, but its usefulness depends on having a level, solid road.
The movement for better roads began with the gravel and macadamizing road law of 1885.30 This law made it possible for a majority of the land own- ers within two miles of a proposed pike to compel the county commissioners to improve it, taxing the
28 State Auditor's Report, 1916. This includes street railways, since they are all owned by the same companies; Charles B. Austin, Interurban Railways in Indiana.
29 Charity Dye, Some Torch Bearers in Indiana, 154.
80 Laws of Indiana, 1885, ch. LVII.
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
cost upon all lands within two miles, as the viewers should determine. The law was amended March 4, 1893, so that the county commissioners became a board of turnpike commissioners with power to hire an expert road builder to take charge of the county road building and repair. Scarcely a General As- sembly before or since but has changed the road law; but there is being made a serious effort to find the best method of making county roads and apply it in the state. The national government is now assisting both with advice and money in an effort to construct a system of military and post roads uniting all sec- tions of the state. At the close of the year 1915 there were 30,088 miles of gravel road in the state for which there were bonds outstanding to the amount of $37,300,825; nearly twenty millions of which have been issued since 1910. This, together with the enormous amount of money invested in automobiles no doubt largely accounts for the fact that no rail- road or interurban tracks have been laid recently.31
31 The best volume on roads of Indiana is the State Geologist's Report, for 1905, by W. S. Blatchley and assistants. Determined attempts have been made to place road-building in the hands of a state commission, but so far this has not been accomplished. Much money has been misspent in road building and the oppo- sition to a state commission has come principally from road and bridge building companies.
CHAPTER XXXVI
POPULISTS, SOCIALISTS AND PROGRESSIVES
§ 195 POPULISTS
The period of the nineties was characterized poli- tically by the activity of the Populists. So far as the old parties in Indiana were concerned the campaign of 1892 was little more than a repetition of that of 1888. The tariff issue continued to divide the voters. The two leading candidates, Harrison and Cleveland, were for the second and third time, respectively, be- fore the people. Both were conservative on all finan- cial and industrial questions. There was much, both of literature and oratory, concerning the Mill's bill, the Wilson bill and the Mckinley bill, the first two Democratic and the last a Republican tariff bill. While they are passed over hurriedly as not peculiar to Indiana history, yet it must not be forgotten that they, the tariff, were the principal political subjects of thought and discussion in the state. Thousands of people during the period between 1880 and 1896 in every county of the state listened patiently if not in- terestedly, while speakers unburdened themselves of tariff platitudes. The newspapers, day after day, or week after week, in editorial, special article, or "pat- ent inside" brought their contributions to aid the people in coming to a conclusion on the subject; but in spite of all this contribution and controversy the voters of Indiana remained, as they were in 1880, about equally divided on the question.
Meanwhile the condition of farmers and laboring men became gradually worse. They despaired of aid from either a high or a low tariff and began to seek
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HISTORY OF INDIANA
relief in other directions. During the twenty years following 1873 agricultural conditions were not sat- isfactory. The average price of wheat from 1878 to 1883 was $1.11; from 1883 to 1888 it was 81c, and in 1893 and 1894, 40c wheat was not unknown. The price of first-class beef cattle in 1884 was above 6c, in 1889 it was below 4c. All farm product prices showed the same steady decline. On the other hand, interest on borrowed money remained firm at 6 and 8 per cent. and money became steadily more difficult to borrow. The price of land went down and down, but the price of bank stock did not drag. The demone- tization of silver in 1873 and the Bland-Allison Sil- ver bill of 1878 were said to be gradually contracting the currency and the bankers, hand in glove with the federal government, were reaping their harvests. As land and its products depreciated money and its earnings appreciated.
On such reasoning and on such facts was the great agricultural and industrial movement known as Populism predicated.
Since, as it appeared, there was a working agree- ment between wealth and the government, it became necessary for the people to reclaim their government, take over the regulation of railroads, telegraph and telephone lines and oust the wealthy interests from the judiciary and the legislatures. So in the nineties there was added a political program to the industrial program of the seventies. Beginning with 1890 one reads of demands by political organizations for the popular election of United States senators, for refer- endums on proposed legislation, for some means of freeing judges from corrupt influences. Australian ballot systems, corrupt practices acts, prevention of indirect bribery by giving railroad passes to legisla- tors and judges, prevention of the corruption of the sources of public information, non-partisan civil
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POPULISTS
service and a general examination of business methods were among the things advocated.
As the contest approached, true to their instincts, the American people began to organize for the battle. Nowhere was this done more than in Indiana, though the struggle, as usual, was not as ill-humored in In- diana as in some other states. The General Assembly of the state has always been reasonably responsive to public opinion and, while often slower than many people desired, has in only a few cases had to recede from advanced positions once taken.
The Grangers had maintained their organizations and, while not directly interested in politics, lent their powerful support to the movement, especially favoring governmental control of transportation.1
There were in the United States in 1889 at least a dozen farmers' organizations, only two of which, however, were strong in Indiana. These were the Grangers and the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Associa- tion. The Patrons of Industry, also, had a number of
1 Proceedings of Indiana State Grange, 1893, p. 37:
2. Resolved, That as heretofore, we favor the election of United States Senators by direct vote of the people.
3. Resolved, That we favor the passage by Congress of a Pure Food bill.
4. Resolved, That we favor the immediate passage of an Anti-Option law, and that we pledge ourselves not to support any candidate for representative, state or national, who will not promise to use his influence and vote for an effective Anti-Option bIII.
5. Resolved, That we are in favor of female suffrage.
9. Resolved, That we are in favor of legal arbitration in settling differences between employer and employee.
10. Resolved, That we are opposed to taxing only lands for the purpose of building roads.
16. Resolved, That we favor repeal of the law authorizing county commissioners to order special elections for voting sub- sidies to corporations.
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organizations in the state. The agricultural reports of 1890 give one hundred and sixty non-secret organ- izations of farmers in the state. The standing topic of conversation and discussion at these meetings, aside from the professional program, was the indus- trial and political situation.
The common basis of all their discussions was the platform laid down by the farmers' and laborers' convention, technically called the Southern Alliance and the Knights of Labor, at Saint Louis in 1889. This platform, the creed of the Populist party, de- manded the abolition of national banks and grain speculation, free and unlimited coinage of silver, prevention of alien or corporation ownership of land and government control or ownership of railroads. The Northern Alliance, composed of farmers and laborers, adopted a similar platform, including among its demands an income tax, a reduction of the tariff on necessities, a Panama canal, and an Aus- tralian ballot law, and pledged its political support to such candidates, in either party, as favored its principles. By 1891 these organizations had given up hope of relief through either of the old parties and in convention at Omaha decided to put out a national ticket in 1892.
In 1890 there was considerable political activity on the part of the F. M. B. A. and the Knights of Labor. County tickets were nominated in many places and other tickets endorsed and repudiated.ª In many places farmers' stores and elevators were organized. The party seemed to be attracting Demo- crats more than Republicans. It is perhaps near the fact to say the farmers' organizations were injuring
2 For Daviess county see Indianapolis Journal, June 8, 1890; for Fort Wayne, Indianapolis Journal, Sept. 12; for Vincennes, see Indianapolis Journal, July 10. These are typical.
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POPULISTS
the Democratic party most and the labor organiza- tions, the Republicans.
On June 19, 1890, a convention of representatives of the Farmers' Alliance, F. M. B. A., the Grange and other orders met in the rooms of the state board of agriculture at Indianapolis. Although called for the purpose of forming a state league, uniting these bodies, it really was a political convention. It de- cided to advise the members to take an active part in local politics, acting for the present within the old parties.3 A platform of political principles similar to the St. Louis declaration was adopted. It was, politically, a Populist meeting, declaring for free coinage, direct election of senators, a just rate of in- terest, that public printing should be let to the lowest bidder, and for woman suffrage.
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