The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1909-09-09
INGALLS, TAKES LEADING PART
Problems of Enacting Suitable Employ
ers' Liability and Industrial Insur-
ance Laws Are Discussed by Investi-
gators at an Important Conference.


are endeavoring to work out employers
liability and workingmen s insurance
laws held one of the most important
conferences since the inception of this
movement at Atlantic City this sum-
mer. The meeting was attended by
two of the members OF the Wisconsin
committee that is formulating a report
on the subject to be presented to the
Legislature in January and the follow
ing review of the proceedings which
will appear shortly in an eastern maya
zine should be Of interest to every
working man in the state,
The article will say:
Midsummer and Atlantic City are
not usually associated with aggressive
plans for social betterment, but that
may be because western enterprise is
seldom active along the Jersey coast.
Certainly the success of the confer
ence on Employers Liability VS..
Workmen s Compensation for Indus
trial Accidents that was held on July
20, 30 and 81, few steps away from
the allrements Of the ''board walk, -
left no doubt in the minds of those
present that the time was propitious
and the place well chosen for such
gathering. The Conference was called
together by the Minnesota Employees
Compensation Committee on the initia-
tive of its chairman. Its purpose was
to enable the members of the that Com
mission and representatives Of the Wis
consin Joint Committee on Industrial
Insurance, the New York State Com
mission on Employers Liability and
Unemployment, and other interested or
CARNATIONS to come together and talk
over remedies for the present haphazard
and VIGOROUSLY inadequate methods of
providing for the victims of industrial
accidents in the United States. In
conformity with this design a program
had been drawn up and list of speak
ers prepared, but it is no disparage-
ment either to program or speakers to
say that after the conference was
started no machinery was needed to
keep it5in motion Up to the moment
when ascolored porter came to tell the
chairman that Itthe station bus is wait
ing for you, sab" questions flew thick
and fast and discussion was continuous
and animated.
In addition to the three members of
the Minnesota Commission, there were
present Assemblyman Wallace ingalls,
of Racine, Wisconsin and Senator J. J.
Blaine Of Boscobel, Wisconsin, repre-
s'nting the Wisconsin committee on in
duslrial insurance; also representatives
of the New York Commission; Charles
P. Neill, commissioner of labor of the
United States Miles M. Dawson, actu-
airy and joint author with DR.. Frankel
of a forthcoming report on foreign
systems Of Industrial Insurance and
Workmen s Compensation, prepared for
the Sage foundation; a representative
of the American Bridge Company, and
various others, who contributed much
valuable information and many helpful
suggestions. AS the first business of
the conference Dir. Neill was chosen
chairman.
The most significant fact brought out
at the first session, when the question
discussed was the desirability Of
changing the basis of recovery for in
juries received In the course of employ
ment from that of negligence or fault
of the employer to that Of risk of the
industry or insurance. was the abso-
lutte unanimity of opinion among those
present. All agreed in condemning as
highly unsatisfactory existing employ
ers' liability laws. All concurred in
approving a system under which iniur-
ed workmen or those dependent upon
them should be entitled to compensa-
ton on a definite scale irrespective of
the question of employers negligence.
A basis for further discussion was then
readily established and through all the
sessions not voice was raised in favor
of a continuance of the present system
The real construction work of the
conference began with the: second SEES
sion when the possibility I, of a sys-
TEN Of workmen S eompensation or in
surance in the United States was con
sidered. 1t was atstliis point that Mr..
Mercer of the Minnesota Commission
presented a neutrality-suspicious. argu-
ment in support of the view that
reasonable system Of workmen's com
pensation could be justified as a legiti-
mate exercise Of the police power and
would therefore be constitutional In the
american states. Based as it was on
an exhaustive review of the decisions
-of the United States Supreme Court in
yolving the question of the scope of
Ahe police power, as we'll as on a
sympathetic understanding of the social
interests at stake this argument did
much to heartsn those to whom the