The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-02-17


accidents, it is such change in TIN
government of state, 50 far as the in
dustries are concerned, that the mem
! bership of that commission-both EN-
ployers and employees agreed that thi
law was as far as we could possibly
90 at this time. Coming down to tn,
features of the law and the objections
contained in the article which | hole
i'll my hand; coming down to the fea
| legislature, and as it will be discussed
! in our convention that is meeting "a
present in this city, | want to mention
several features that the representative.
of labor have not understood, and
through misunderstanding of thos,
features, have naturally opposed. Ii
is natural that man opposes that which
he does not understand. When we in
vestigate the merits and argue the ben
efits or objections to this law, or point
out the demerts as our friend Govnol
Teats pointed them out, opposition and
hesitation fade away. Then. for the
purpose of investigating this law thor
oughly, ! will argue at this meeting this
afternoon, as tiresome as my talk may
seem to some, and | hope | may have
the intelligence of this meeting this
afternoon to 90 into the merits OF this
law so the men who are the representa-
tivcs OF the state OF Washington in
legislature assembled may have an OPP
portunity of amending the law by hui
manitarian arguments of the law and
of what it means to the state and it,
industries, as well as what it means tC
the entire commonwealth. Beginning
first of all with the section which places
the foundation of the law, we tell the
employers and emplo-ea = t they must
accept the provisions intending
here to establish, for .. ..rst time in
the history of civilization, legislative
and compulsory procedure that will
meet and has met, and | believe will
meet in the future, with opposition; but
when in investigating accidents and the
reasons why the law is made compul
sorry, our reasons should be made plain
to the intelligence, and then | believe
that opposition will be, as before stated,
of the smallest character and of no
value. Let us consider first of all the
necessity that exists at the present inc
We have in the state of Washington a
large number of industries OF a danger
our character. We have in the state of
Washington the highest death rate, es-
pecially in the industry which | belong
to, mining, that there is in any state
in the Union or any civilized country on
earth. We have in the coal mining in
dustry, for instance, death rate that
duplicates the most dangerous state in
the Union. We have il death rate that
is four times more than Connecticut
and Europe, and we have absolute
ly no provisions, the only provisions
made being those the employees have
made up themselves a little sum of six
hundred dollars to help the victims and
try to tide them over for a short per
iod of time. We have come to the con
clusion on this committee. hat if the
state of Washington demands that the
industry of coal mining shall continue
then every accident that occurs in that
industry, and every accident that oc-
ours in any other industry, shall be an
obligation for the state of Washington
to take care of. This is rather a big
step in progress for common people to
take people who have not given it very
much consideration, you understand,
but | believe that in this legislature
here assembled we have men who have
the average amount of gray matter, we
have men who have the average size of
q human heart, and if that is so, the
humanitarian aspects of the case will
apepal to them from point of view
that is right; and when this law has
been studied l am sure they will give
il their unanimous approval.
Coming to the other industries of the
state, and speaking strictly from a
workman's standpoint, ! want to tell
you, gentlemen of the legislature, that
the workers who are in each industry
will have protection. We claim labor
produces all of the wealth of the great
state of Washington, and we claim thai
in the days of darkness which are
brought upon our families through
deaths in industry, it is the duty OF
the state of Washington to take care OF
our families. (Applausel
Preceding along I'll of argument
YOU may say the emp who repre-
sented the great state OF Washington
on this commission agreed absolutely OF
this point. When we reached decision
that no employer would wilfully create
death or iniure a workman, anC
workmen on their side agree no work