The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-06-11

accidents will become automatic instead O being matter for a lawsuit. Work men should receive a certain definite and limited compensation for all accidents in industry, irrespective of negligence. When the employer, the agent of the public, on his own responsibility and for his own profit, in the business of serving the public, starts In motion agencies which create risks for others, he should take all the ordinary and extraordinary risks involved; and though the burden will at the moment be his, it will ultimately be assumed, as it ought to be, by the general public. Only in this way can the shock of the accident be diffused, for 1t will be transferred from employer to consumer, for whose benefit all indus tries are carried on From every stand point the change would be a benefit. The community at large should share the burden as well as the benefits of indus try. Employers would thereby gain a desirable certainty of obligation and get rid of litigation to determine it. The workman and the workman's family would be relieved from a crushing load.
 The national government should be model employer It should demand the highest quality of service from its em- ployes and should care for them proper ly in return. Congress should adopt leg
 saton providing limited but definite compensation for accidents to all work men within the scope of the federal pow CT, including employees In navy yards and arsenals. Similar legislation should follow throughout the states
 Responsibility of Employe.
 Such a policy would mean that with increased responsibility of the employer would come increased care, and accidents would be reduced in number. The tenn porary burden involved will not ham, per our industries. Long experience of compensation laws in other countries has demonstrated their benefit. What we ad- vocate is only a simple measure of jus tice, only one step toward the goal of securing, so far as human wisdom can secure, fair and equitable treatment for each and everyone of our people
 National Employees Liability.
 As a corollary to the above let me point out the extreme unwisdom of the rail- way companies in fighting the constitu- tionality of the national employers lia- bility law. No law is more emphatically needed, and it must be kept on the statute books in dI~stic and thoroughgoing form. The railroads are prompt to demand the interference and to claim the protection of the federal courts in times of riot and disorder; and in turn the federal govern ment should see to it that they are not permitted successfully to plead that they are under the federal laD when thereby their own rights can be protected, but outside of it when 1t is invoked against them in behalf of the rights of others. If 1t is proper for the federal courts to issue injunctions in behalf of railroads. it is proper that railroads should be held to d strict liability for accidents occurring to their employees. There should be the plainest and most unequivocable addl- tional statement by enactment of con- gress, to the effect that railroad employees are entitled to receive damages for any accident that comes to them as an inci- dent of the performance of their duties, and the law should be such that it will be impossible for the railroads success fully to fight it without thereby forfeiting all right to the protection of the federal government under any circumstances. In the same way there should be rigid fed eral legislatio to minimize all railway accidents.
 Army and Navy.
 In closing, friends and fellow citizens of Georgia, let me say one word sug- gested by the recent ceremonies in which you have just taken part, in connection with your gift to the noble battleship named after your state. Our battleships and great armored cruisers, our fighting craft are named after the states of our union. and this symbolizes the fact that the navy is a common possession of all of
 Reduction in GARBAGE CANS on account Removal Sale. Prowell Hardware Co.