The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-07-15
Ensland's Domestic Upheaval
By SYDNEY BRooKs.

Half Of the householders in Great
Britain are in panic, and all of them
are frantically insuring themselves
against liabilities OF which they
know nothing except that they are
bound to be bothersome and may be
overwhelming. The cause of their
precipitate anxiety is an Act OF Par
lament that came into force on July
/. The title of the act looks harmless
enough. 1t is called the Workmen's
Compensation Act. We have had
many such acts before and they have
not disturbed the peace of the Eng
lish fireside. But this one Is both
more stringent in Its provisions and
far wider in its scope than any of its
predecessors. When l say that for
the .st time in the history OF British
industry 1t makes householders le-
gally and financially responsible for
any accidents that may befall the
domestic servants they employ have
said enough to account for the ma
tional alarm. 1t is not often that
legislation touches the home, or that
the average man, still less the SER
want woman, Is affected in any vital
and personal interest by what Par
llaments may do or undo. The prin-
ciple of employers liability is an old
and familiar one. But hitherto 1t
has scarcely ever made itself felt
outside the spheres of business and
- rnvlI fnruat all
about it when he reached home, and
as for women, there was virtually no
occasion for them even to think OF
1t. All that is changed by this act.
Every one who employs a servant
Is now doomed to study the beauty
of employers liability in his own
household, and will count himself
lucky If his experience of how 1t
works does not make vast inroads
on his balance at the bank. And
what applies to men applies equally
to women. The mistress of the
household suddenly finds her respon-
sibilities incredibly enlarged. Hither-
to they have revolved mainly round
the problems of food, furniture and
feminine "help." Food and furni-
ture will continue to make their ap-
peal in the future as, In the past, but
from now onwards the servant ques-
ton is enormously complicated and
expanded. Not only has the mistress
of the household to find servants,
engage them and keep them, but to
be prepared at any moment to find
herself liable for any accidents they
may meet with in the course of their
employment That is something alb
solutely revolutionary. No act, in
deed, in my time has affected any
thing like so huge proportion of
the people of this kingdom as this
act promises to or has affected them
so intimately and unescaDably and
with such impartial comprehensive
ness.
Naturally for months past every
householder in Great Britain has
been making a wild rush for cover.
The insurance companies have never
done such business. Whether it will
prove to be profitable business no
one as yet can say with any certainty.
There are very few data to go upon.
No statistics that I am aware of have
ever been compiled of the number of
accidents that annually occur in do
nestle service. The insurance COM
panies in fixing other premiums are
frankly plunging into the dark.
Everything about the act is for the
present hidden in obscurity. You
will hear dozen different opinions
| of what its clauses mean, of the
| effects they are likely to produce,
and of the classes of labor that come
or do not come within their scope.
Some people think that when the peo-
pie realize by concrete experience the
results of the act they will rise in
great wrath and sweep the govern
.ment that passed 1t from power
Harper's Weekly.