Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-03

care for all of them properly in re
 turn. Congress should adopt legisla
 ton providing limited but deflnit,
 compensation for accidents to al
 workmen within the scope of the fed
 eral power, including employees o1
 navy yards and arsenals. In othel
 words, model employers liability act
 far reaching and thoroughgoing, should
 be enacted which should apply to al
 positions, public and private, ovel
 which the national government has jurisdiction. The number of accidents to wageworkers. including those thai
 are preventable and those that arc
 not, has become appalling in the me
 chanical, manufacturing and transpor
 tation operations of the day It works
 grim hardship to the ordinary wage
 worker and his family to have the ef-
 feet of such an accident fall solely up.
 on him, and, on the other hand, there
 are whole classes of attorneys who eX-
 ist only by melting men who may or
 may not have been wronged to under
 take suits for negligence. As q matter
 of fact, a suit for negligence is gen. orally an inadequate remedy for the
 person injured, while it often causes altogether disproportionate annoyance to the employer. The law should be made such that the payment for acci- dents by the employer would be auto matic instead of being a matter for lawsuits. Workmen should receive certain and definite compensation for all accidents in industry irrespective of negligence. The employer is the agent of the public, and on his own responsibility and for his own profit he serves the public. When he starts in motion agencies which create risks for others he should take all the ordinary and extraordinary risks involved, and the risk he thus at the moment as sumes will ultimately be assumed as it ought to be- by the general public. Only in this way can the shock of the accident be dffused, instead of falling upon the man or woman least able to bear it, as is now the case. The con- munity at large should share the bur denS as well as the benefits of indus try. By the proposed law employers would gain desirable certainty of obligation and get rid of litigation to determine it, while the workman and his family would be relieved from crushing load. With such policy would come increased care, and acci- dents would be reduced ill number. The national laws providing for employers liability OH railroads engaged in inter- state commerce and for safety appli- ances, as well as for diminishing the hours any employee of q railroad should be permitted to work. should all be strengthened wherever in actual practice they have shown weakness. They should be kept on the statute books in thOroughgoing form.
 The constitutionality of the employ CTS liability act passed by the preced- ing congress has been carried before the courts. In two jurisdictions the law has been declared unconstitution- al. and in three jurisdictions its con has been affirmed. The question has been carried to the su- preme court, the case has been heard by that tribunal, and a decision is eX- pected at an early date. In the event that the court should affirm the consti- of the act I urge further legislation along the lines advocated in my message to the preceding con gress. The practice of putting the en- tire burden of loss to life or limb upon the victim or the victims family is form of social injustice in which the United States stands in unenviable prominence. In both our federal and our state legislation we have, with few exceptions, scarcely gone further than the repeal of the fellow servant prln- ciple of the old law of liability, and in some of our states even this slight of completely Outgrown principle has not yet been secured. The legislati of the rest of the indus rial world stands out in striking con rast to our backwardness in this re- spect. Since 1895 practically every country of Europe, together with Great Britain. New Zealand, Australia, Brit sh Columbia and the Cape of Good Hope, has enacted legislation embody- ng iu one form or another the con- )lete recognition of the principle which places upon the employer the entire .rade risk in the various lines of in- lustry. l urge upon the congress the enactment of q law which will at the | same time bring federal legislation up 0 the standard already established by Ill the European countries and which will serve as a stimulus to the various states to perfect their legislation in .his regard.
 Eight Hour Law.
 The congress should consider the ex- :. ension of the eight hour law. The con- ! of the present law has recently been called into question, and he supreme court has decided that the existing legislation is unquestionably within the powers of the congress. The principle of the eight hour day should as rapidly and as far as prac- | icable be extended 10 the entire work 'arried on by the government. and the ! present. law should be amended to em- Irace contracts on those public works . which the present wording of the act ] las been construed to exclude. The general introduction of the eight hour ! lay should be the goal toward which i re should steadily tend. and the gov