The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-10-27
BY JOE SMITH.
Copyrighted, 1910.

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vent as many as possible, and to
see to it that unpreventable acct
dents are adequately compensated.
Every industry should be re-
quired to carry all the human risks
its conduct involves, to pay for the
human lives it takes and the hu-
man wrecks 1t makes, just as 1t
pays for the lives of its horses or
the wrecks of it's equipment. Any
industry which cannot afford to
do this is an undesirable industry.
The law which requqires, or
rather which i'm a great majority
of cases fails to require, industries
to compensate their human victims,
is here referred to as the law Of
the killed and wounded.
This is the story of an assault
in the supreme court on the law Of
the killed and wounded.
When We speak of compensation
for human life, we are Obliged to
confine ourselves to commercial
value. For the value of the life it.
self, or for the suffering endured
by the victim, there can be no
adequate money compensation. For
>the agony of the crushed arm we
cannot pay In money. Nor can we
pay for the torment of the scorch-
ed body, the thirst of the age-long
night in the hospital, or the sink
ing qualms of the march to the
operating table.
There can be no adequate COM
gpensatiOn for what follows when
the compassionate fellow WORK
man tells the tale of death at the
door of his stricken comrades
home, for the stretching out of the
agOnized woman's hand, for the
loss of the fathers love or the
emptiness of the fathers chair. E.
All that Is left to our frustrated
- sense of justice is the bare COM
y mercial value of his loss to the
crippled victim, or to the surviving
dependents of the man who gives
his life that the wheels of industry
may go on turning. The laborer is
worthy of his hire. And il, in the
course of his industry, he gives us
his arm or his life, we should at
least give to him or to his de-
pendents the commercial value of
that arm or that life, and not con-
tinue prospecting as an Industrial
people on these bloody sacrifices of
our industrious citizens.
1T is THE MOST WE CAN DO.
DO WE DO 1T?
We do not. And the reason why
we do not is because our law of
the killed and wounded has been
made by corrupted legislatures and
packed courts;. legislatures cor
rupted and courts packed by men
and by interests who place the
greed for profits above the level of
Justice.
1t is argued that the courts of
Washington have been as liberal in
their Interpretation of the law of
the killed and wounded as have
those of other states. do not dis
pute it. Because other states have
endured corrupted legislatures and
unrepresentative courts is no rea-
son why Washington should do so.
Nor do find fault with the MEM
ed well established principles of
law in curtailing the rights of the
killed and wounded. That is al
part of a larger system, the sys-
tenn of judicial precedent, doing
wrong because there is a precedent
for doing wrong. But there isl
ground for complaint where curl
court has favored the strong and
the greedy incases in which there
, was equally valid authority for|
preserving the rights of the weak
and unfortunate.
And what shall be said of a SYST
tenn of selecting supreme judgesI
under which court can be pack
ed by special interests in an effort
10 overturn an established princi-
Pile of law? This is one Of the
charges against the system in
Washington.
Some ten years ago one Green, al
miner, was injured in an accident
In q coal mine in Pierce county
operated by the Western Ameri-
can company. The mine caved in
for lack of timbering. The law re-
uuired the company to keep a sup
ply of timbers ON hand, to be used
by the miner in .timbering his
work. The company violated the
law. 1t admitted the violation. Yet
when Green sued for damages, it
yet up the plea that its violation of
The law was q defense, because
Green knew the law was being vio-
ated, and had, therefore, assumed
Inc risk.
Superior Judge w. o. Chapman
(who, it may be of interest to note,
was a candidate for the supreme
bench before the hand-picked judi
eiaI convention at Tacoma August
B., 19fO) tried the case, accepted
Jle plea of the company, and
threw Green out of court.
Green appealed and the case was
reversed by the supreme court in
. dooj-i~-, --r'++~-, NV wv II WI 10
IN appointee of Governor Rogers,
judicial convention at Tacoma Sep
tember 26, 1910. This was unan-
lmous decision. In 1t the court
affirmed the doctrine that where a
person violates a law designed to
protect the lives of his employees,
he cannot, in suit for damages,
set up his violation as a defense
under the doctrine of assumed risk.
This decision followed a noted de-
cision handed down in Ohio by w.
II. Taft, then federal Judge, in
the Narramore case.
In 1903 the legislature passed
what is known as the factory act,
requiring manufacturers to place
guards about dangerous machinery.
Many manufacturers defied the
law. Many employees were injured
and began to appeal to the courts
for damages. Employing corpora
tons and their attorneys then dis