The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-02-17
E. II. DILLON g. CO.

vinced me that truth and right de-
mand the enactment of these laws,
and that they will be change for
the betterment Of all classes Of citi-
zens."
He then took up the line of argu-
ments of previous speakers regarding
the crying need Of Workmen's COM
pensat1on: Mr.. Fisher quoted a
ing that as nearly as the imperfect
statistics will show, there are 10000
men killed every year, and between
100000 and 100000 injured in indus
trial accidents in the United States.
Each accident" said Mayor Fish
en- simply means a pang or a break
in some woman's heart. home
smashed. and then the world moves
on. Gentlemen. I cannot impress up
on you sufficiently the dreadful
monotony Of these occurrences and
the lack of an adequate remedy"
Mayor Fisher then took upon i'm
portant point against the present
common law Of the state which had
been overlooked by the previous
speakers upon that subject. He
showed that under existing conditions
the, burden, OF proof is entirely upon
the fear of losing his job upon suing
his employer often prevent the in
Jured man from obtaining any re-
dress at all.
Prof. Fisher then quoted from the
statistics of the Pittsburg. Survey.
county Of Allegheny, Pa, including
the city Of Pittsburg. Thousands of
accident cases were averaged up, and
it was found that the compensation
to injured workmen is somewhat rs
follows: For an eye, $50; an arm.
$40: fatal accident. 5000 or $500.
80 you see," said Prof. Fisher,
'the compensation is miserably in
adequate, almost nothing at ALL"
The speaker then went on to show
that for constitutional reasons it
would be advisa BILE to base Work
mems Compensation act in Connect
state as applied to the dangerous
trades. Necessarily a number of trades
must be omitted and for the protec-
ton of these, until such time as they
may be included in a Workmen's
Compensation act, some kind of an
Employers Liability act is needed to
supplement the other measure.
Mr.. Fisher desires the absolute
abrOgation of the fellow servant"
and assumed risks common law doc
trines and the modification of the
all cases not within the scope Of his
compensation act.
The Employers Liability bill intro
duced in conjunction with Mayor
Fishers Workmen's Compensation
bill, provides that any employer who
pensation bin, and file such agree
ment with the State Bureau of Labor
statistics, shall be amenable to an
Employers Liability bill which sweeps
away the present common law de-
fences.
to accept the Compensation measure,
and will abide by 1t, he is allowed to
retain the common law defences in
case he is sued outside the Compensa-
ton act.
Any employee is thus given the
sibility Of third.
II his employer has accepted the
Comp ensation act. the employee may
avail himself of that; or if he chooses
to sue, may sue under circumstances
practically the same as at present.
risks and "contributory negligence
doctrines remaining in full force.
If his employer has not accepted
the Workmen's Compensation act,
then the employee may sue him with
out being nt a.. answerable to the fellow
tributory negligence" doctrines
This shifting arrangement does not
apply to the dangerous trades emu
in Mayor Fishers compensa-
ton bill-the Compensation act is
compulsory in these cases, but the
arrangement is made for the
purpose Of inducing employers who do
not come within the scope of the
act, to voluntarily as
sumo its responsibilities.
Mayor Fisher expressed the greatest
surprise at the statement made on the
previous day by Charles Donahue to
the effect that all that organized la
Dor asks is the abrogatiOn of the sfel-
low servant doctrine.
81 am amazed to hear that the men
who stand with Mr.. Donahue ask
nothing else said Mayor Fisher
He then went on to show that ac-
cording to the best available statis-
tics, only 5.88 per cent of all the ac-
cidents are due to the fault of fellow
whereas 52.1 per cent of all