Official proceedings of the annual meeting: 1923

II2

INDUSTRY

reasonable adequacy; mothers' pension work is being lifted out of the realm of pauperism. The proper place of mothers' pensions is being recognized as a form of social
insurance, as a payment for service rendered by mothers to the community, and as a
good insurance against an increase in future dependency.
Health insurance is at this time obscured by the smoke barrage and fumes of
poison gas which the commercial insurance companies threw out against it when it
seemed likely of passage in the state of New York in 1919. It may take some years
to drive away the poisoned atmosphere. It is probable that health insurance may follow old-age pensions, as it did in England. No subject has ever had as much carefully
prepared basic information upon which to proceed before enactment as has this one.
When political conditions are ready, we may reasonably expect the enactment of an
advanced form of social insurance against sickness.
What has been said concerning the adequacy of payments is likely to apply in the
new legislation for old-age pensions. Of the new laws enacted Nevada has not made
adequate provision, while in Pennsylvania the appropriation was cut from $2,000,000
to $125,000, with the expectation that the plan would be set up administratively before
the appropriations were made available in later years. The danger is that the early
appropriations will be insufficient to meet the requirements, but experience proves
that that weakness of social insurance gradually corrects itself.
Social insurance against unemployment has not been enacted anywhere in this
country, but it has reached the stage of practical planning. The bill introduced in
Wisconsin, which seems likely of passage, is a carefully prepared plan, based upon
American conditions. Out of the maze of bewildered discussion, running back through
the last twenty years, we have at least reached the point where we see dearly that
unemployment can be solved by the stabilization of industry as far as possible, plus
the application of unemployment insurance.
What has this movement meant to social work, and what will it mean when the
program is fully rounded out? It has meant already the promotion of several of the
ideals of social work. It has kept thousands of children in their own homes under the
care.of their own mothers; it has given independent support as a matter of right to
hundreds of thousands of workers injured in industry; it has prevented many thousands from being reduced to the necessity of making application for charitable aid; it
has restored hundreds to self-support, and it has reduced the number of normal children
in child-caring institutions. When the program is entirely rounded out it will practically stop up the main channels by which people pass from economic independence into
precarious living, destitution, and pauperism. Social insurance will, to a considerable
degree, stabilize conditions, and stop the recruiting of the ranks of the destitute. If
we conceive of a complete scheme of social insurance in operation in any state, we might
reasonably expect that new cases in the files of social organization would decrease fully
75 per cent.
PROGRESS OF LABOR LEGISLATION FOR WOMEN
Mrs. Florence Kelley, General Secretary, National Consumers' League
New York
When I looked at the subject assigned me, progress of Labor Legislation for
Women, my first impulse was to say "It has been progress backward!" There is
bitter truth in those words, but it is not the whole truth.