The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-02-24
FIGHT
For Right to.:Continue
the Slaughter of
Employees.
Corporations Lined Up
in Opposition to Bill to
Insure Toilers Against
Death and Injury.

Stripped of all concealment, a lobby of
lawyers in the pay of several of the
largest employing corporations in Amer.
lea have appeared in Washington before
the House Judiciary Committee and
practically deGed Congress to pass any
employers liability bill framed to in.
sure workmen and their families against
injury or death.
Representative Sabath's bill. standard.
izlng the amount of damages due to in
Jured workmen, forced the fight to an
issue. General Solicitor Reath, of the
Norfolk and Western Railroad; Russell
II. Loines, attorney for the American
and Hawaiian, New York and Porto
Rico steamship lines, and score of
other notable lawyers could hardly find
words in their legal vocabularies with
which to denounce s'this socialistic at
tempt to destroy the constitutional right
of contract
The words of Representative SABBATH
in answer to the corporation lawyers
were such as to fix the tense attention
of every listener
'When it is remembered said the
Illinois Representative, "'that we hold
our property, in the last instance, through
the forbearance and self-control of the
vast class of persons who are at risk
day by day, and who. were they united,
could rend and tear not only our pos
sessions, but our very bodies, it is sur
prising to see the dense carelessncss of
the progressing community before this
great had almost said class; but there
are no classes in America; at least, it is
SO claimed
AT the time when the law of master
and servant received the form which we
are now contending is utterly unjust, the
industries were just beginning to re-
ceive the benefcent effect of the appli-
cation of steam to machinery heretofore
driven by human hands. To-day all this
is changed.''
By the side of SABBATH sat Samuel
Gompers, a keen listener to every word
that fell from the speakers lips The
committee room pulsated with the con-
centrated antagonism of these great war
ring bodies, capital and labor.
''The courts will say that the laborer
10 AhSS, SOhIlhucu ouDiIu ID1C ne
chooses his occupation; that if he takes
up dangerous occupation; he takes the
risk-he does it with his eyes open; he
is compensated for it, and his wages in
part may be used, if properly employed
in buying insurance in some industrial
or accident corporation to compensate
him for the risk which he is bound to
take
lit is not n truism, which must only
be stated to be understood, that the
choice of freedom of the laborers is en-
tirely illusory; that they have no choice;
that the fiction which claims to treat
them as free agents is overcome by the
actualities of their conditions, which
makes wage slaves of them all; that the
wages 50 small and purchase so
little that adeqate self-insurance is i'm
possble7''
The chairman of the committee, Judge
Richard Wayne Parker, of New Jersey,
saw an opportunity, never missed by a
Cannon appointee, and seized it with n
genial smile of general conciliation.
Would it not be in order to defer
further consideration of this bill until
we receive Il report from the commission
which is about to procure information
regarding those killed and disabled in the
industrial trades in the United States7
1 see Mr.. Gompers present; does he not
think this the most practical method of
procedure?
Several of the committeeman were
prompt in their approval of the chair
man s suggestion, but as the President
of the American Federation of Labor
had been addressed, he lost no time in
replying:
cit has been suggested that this whole
matter be turned over to commission
have some knowledge of Congressional
commissions, gathered from expert
ence of twenty-five years, and 1 have
absolutely no hope that help can be
gathered from this source. Two years
ago similar matter was placed in the
hands of a commission, and the only
bill that is drafted has not yet been
even favorably reported
The corporation lawyers sank back
into their chairs; they had listened with
pleased appreciation to Judge Parker g
suggestion and were unanimously in
favor of an investigating commission.