The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-12-09


} before that fortune reaches a poin
where it would be seriously affected
. by any inheritance tax such as l pro
{ pose. 1t is eminently right that the
| Nation should fix the terms upor
which the great fortunes are inherit
ed. They rarely do good and they
often do harm to those who inherit
, them in their entirety.
PROTECTION OF WAGEWORKERS
The above is the merest sketch, hard
ly even a sketch in outline, of the re-
forms for which we should work. But
there is one matter with which the
Congress should deal at this session
There should no longer be any pal
tering with the question of taking care
of the wageworkers who, under our
present industrial system, become
killed, crippled, or worn out as part
of the regular incidents of a given
business. The majority of wagework-
ers must have their rights secured for
them by State action; but the Ma
tional Government should legislate in
lthoroughgoing and far-reaching fash
ion not only for all employees of the
National Government, but for all per-
sons engaged in interstate commerce.
The object sought for could be achieV-
ed to a measurable degree, as far as
those killed or crippled are concern
| ed, by proper employers liability
laws. AS far as concerns those who
have been worn out. call your atten-
ton to the fact that definite steps
toward providing old-age pensions
have been taken in many of our pri-
vate industries. These may be indefi
nitely extended through voluntary as
ISOLATION and contributory schemes,
or through the agency of savings
banks, as under the recent Massachu-
sets plan. To strengthen these prac-
teal measures should be our imme-
date duty; it is not, at present neces-
sary to consider the larger and more
general governmental schemes that
most European governments have
found themselves obliged to adopt.
Our present system, or rather no
of benefit to only one class of people
the lawyers. When a workman is in
jured what he needs is not an expen-
sive and doubtful lawsuit, but the Ger
tainty of relief through immediate adj
ministrative action. The number of
accidents which result in the death
or Gripping of wageworkers, in the
Union at large. is simply appalling;
in very few years it runs up a total
far in excess of the aggregate of the |
dead and wounded in any modern |
war. No academic theory about free |
dom of contract or constitutional |
liberty to contract" should be permit !
ted to Interfere with this and SINH |
lar movements. Progress in civiliza-
ton has everywhere meant a limita
ton and regulation of contract. l call |
your especial attention to the bulletin
of the Bureau of Labor which gives
statement of the methods of treating
the unemployed in European countries,
as this is a subject which in Ger
many, for instance, is treated in con-
nection with making provision for
worn out and crippled workmeh.
Pending a thoroughgoing investiga-
ton and action there is certain legis-
lation which should be enacted at
once. The law, passed at the last ses-
sion of the Congress, granting COM
pensation to certain classes of en-
ployees of the Government, should be
extended to include all employees of
the Government and should be made
more liberal in Its terms, There is
no good ground for the distinction
made in the law between those en-
gagged in hazardous occupations and
those not so engaged. II a man is
injured or killed in any line of work,
it was hazardous in his case. Wheth-
er 1 per cent or 10 per cent of those
a given occupation actually I
suffer injury or death ought not to !
have any bearing on the question of
their receiving compensation. 1t is a
grim logic which says to an injured
or to the dependents of one
killed that he or they are entitled to
no compensation because very few {
D6OplS JULIET Iudu IC nave UtSu lUJuI-
ed or killed in that occupation. Per-
laps one of the most striking omis-
sions in the law is that it does not {
peace officers and others
whose lives may be sacrificed in en-
forcing the laws of the United States.
The terms of the act providing COM
1ensation should be made more liberal
han in the present act. A years
is not adequate for
vage-earner's family in the event of
MS death by accident in the course of !
MS employment. And in the event of
1eath occurring, say, ten or eleven {
months after the accident, the fam '
ly would only receive as compensa-
ion the equivalent of one or two {
months earnings. In this respect the
of the United States to-
wards its employees compares most
with that of every coun-
.ry in Europe-even the poorest.
The terms of the act are also a {
hardship in prohibiting payment in s