Report Of The Industrial Commission On The Condition Of Foreign Legislation Upon Matters Affecting General Labor PDF Download

Excerpt from Reports of the Industrial Commission on the Condition of Foreign Legislation Upon Matters Affecting General Labor, Vol. 16: Of the Commission's Reports A few more important laws not found or not fully set forth in the Belgian annual or in the United States Labor Bulletins have been taken direct from the original sources, notably, the employers' liability art and workmen's compensation act of Great Britain, the labor code (Gewerbeordnung) of Germany, and the various State compulsory assurance systems, recently enacted in continental countries for insurance of the laboring and salaried classes against old age, disease, or disability. For the same reason a full statement has been given of the New Zealand old-age pension act. On the other hand, the mining laws of foreign countries have not generally been set forth in this report for the reason specified in Chapter V, below; and the report is necessarily deficient in other matters not generally considered as part of labor legislation in other countries, and consequently not found in the labor codes and above-mentioned authorities. The countries whose labor legislation is fully or partially set forth in this report comprise, usually in the order named, the following: Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria. Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Roumania (there appears to be practically no labor legislation in Spain, Portugal, and Greece), and in Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia, and Queensland, New Zealand, and the Dominion of Canada. For obvious reasons it has not seemed wise to go into the legislation of uncivilized or unchristian countries, nor into that of India or other colonies or dependencies of civilized nations where the people are generally of a different race. As was perhaps to be expected, not many subjects will be found in which the legislation of any country upon subjects of interest to labor exceeds in bulk and detail the aggregate of that of the American States and Territories. It may be well to note a few of the important differences, as well as a few of the subjects their legislation has considered which are not as yet touched upon by that of the United States or the States and Territories of the Union. Among such latter may be mentioned, first in order, the great state insurance systems above mentioned found in some European countries and some of the Australian colonies, but not as yet in Great Britain; second, the great guild system of Germany. corresponding not only to the legislation of our States upon trade unions, but establishing a system far more complex and elaborate, nearly as much so, perhaps, as the medieval guilds which were abolished in France by the revolution of 1789, and in England by a series of court decisions and statutes beginning as long ago as the time of Queen Elizabeth and finally terminating only in the present century. If the German system is to be adopted in this country so that the power of collective contract is given solely and exclusively to labor organizations, it will be a return not only to continental conditions, but to conditions existing in their perfection many centuries ago. But in modern Germany guild legislation includes much more than this; for instance, the entire system of apprenticeship, as well as a great deal of the legislation upon affairs which would in this country be managed by voluntary organizations, such as mutual benefit societies, building and improvement societies, funeral societies, mutual insurance societies, etc. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com