The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-12-08

tAch ehtiIets-
Protection For Waseworkers.
The above is the merest sketch.
hardly even u sketch in outline. of the
reforms for which we should work
But there is one matter with which
the congress should deal at this ses-
sion. There should no longer be any
paltering 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 given BUSH
| ness. The majority of wageworkers
must have their rights secured for
them by state action, but the national
government should legislate in thor
oughgoing and farreaching fashion.
not only for all employees of the ma
tional government. but for all persons
engaged in interstate commerce. The
| object sought for could be achieved
| to a measurable degree, as far as
those killed or crippled are concerned.
| by proper employers liability laws.
AS far as concerns those who have
been worn out, l call your attention to
the fact that definite steps toward
providing old age pensions have been
| taken in many of our private indus
| tries. These may be indefinitely ex-
/ tended through voluntary association
| and contributory schemes or through
| the agency of savings banks, as under
| the recent Massachusetts plan. To
| strengthen these practical measures
| should be our immediate duty. 1t is
not at present necessary to consider
| the larger and more general govern
mental schemes that most European
governments have found themselves
| obliged to adopt.
Our present system. or. rather. no
| system. works dreadful wrong and is
of benefit to only one class of people
the lawyers. When workman is
| injured what he needs is not an eX-
pensive and doubtful lawsuit but the
certainty of relief through immediate
! administrative 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 eX-
cess of the aggregate of the dead and
wounded i'll any modern war. No
1
| contract or constitutional liberty to
contract should be permitted to in
| terfere with this and similar move
ments. Progress in civilization has
everywhere meant Il limitation and
| regulation of contract. | call your
| especial attention to the bulletin of the
! bureau of labor which gives state
| ment of the methods of treating the
unemployed in European countries. as
this is Il subject which in Germany
| for instance, is treated in connection
with making provision for wornout
and crippled workmen.
Pending a thoroughgong investiga-
| ton and action there is certain legis-
lation which should be enacted ut
once. The law passed at the last SEES
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 i'll its terms. There is no
I good ground for the distinction made
| in the law between those engaged in
| hazardous occupations and those not
| so engaged. If man is injured or
killed in any line of work it was
hazardous in his case. Whether l per
cent or 10 per cent of those following
Il given occupation actually suffer in
| jury or death ought not to have any
| bearing on the question Of their re-
ceiving compensation. 1t is Il grim logic
| WHICH says to an injured employee or
to the dependents of one killed that he
or they are entitled to no compensa-
| ton because very few people other
than he have been injured or killed in
that occupation. Perhaps one of the
! most striking omissions in the law is
that it does not embrace peace officers
and others whose lives may be Sacri-
| feed in enforcing the laws of the
United States. The terms of the act
providing compensation should be
made more liberal than in the present
act. n years compensation is not
| adequate for wage earner's family
in the event of his death by accident
i'll the course of his employment. And
in the event of death occurring, say,
ten or eleven months after the acct
dent the family would only receive as
compensation the equivalent of one or
two months earnings. In this respect
the generosity of the United States
toward its employees compares most
. unfavorably with that of every coun-
try in Europe-even the poorest.
The terms of the act are also a
hardship in prohibiting payment in
cases where the accident is in any
way due to the negligence of the EN-
| ployee. 1t is inevitable that daily ia
miiarity with danger will lead men to
take chances that can be construed
into negligence. So we'll is this recog-
niZed that in practically all countries
in the civilized world, except the Unit
ed States, only great degree of negli-
gence acts as bar to securing com
pensation. Probably in no other re-
spect is our legislation, both state and
national, so far behind practically the
entire civilized world as in the matter
of liability and compensation for ac-
cidents in industry. 1t is humiliating
! that at European international con
crosses on accidents the United States
should be singled out as the most be
lated among the nations in respect to
employers liability legislation. This
! government is itself a large employer
of labor, and in its dealings with its