The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-02-20
By President Taft in Special
Message to Congress Today
WITH COMMISSION REPORT
President Declares Perjured Testimony,
Emotional Juries and Badly Constructed
Laws Have Tended to Hamper Ad-
ministration of Exact Justice.

Washington, d. c., Feb. 20.-President
Taft to-day submitted to Congress the
report of the employers liability com
mission and the commissions proposed
employers liability and workmen's COM
pensation bill, accompanied by a message
urging the enactment of the measure,
which is the most advanced piece of La
bility legislation yet presented. The
president sets forth that the proposed
law not only would insure to employees
of railroads engaged in interstate COM
merce quick adjustment of their claims
for damages, but also would relieve the
courts of a vast amount of work and en-
able them to administer judicial affairs
with greater dispatch.
81 sincerely hope that the act will
pass says the president. 81 deem it one
OF the great steps of progress toward Il
satisfactory solution of an important
phase of the controversies between em-
ployer and employe that has been pro-
posed within the last two or three dec.
AIDES"
The main provisions of the measure
are sketched in the message and then Mr.
Taft takes up and disposes of three OBJ
jections that have been advanced by its
opponents.
"ln the first place" says the president,
tire question arises whether under the
provisions of the commerce clause the
bill could be considered to be regula-
tion of interstate and foreign commerce.
That seems to be already settled by tine
decision in the employers liability case.
"The second question is whether the
making of these remedies exclusive and
the compelling of the railroad companies
to meet obligations arising from injuries
for which the railroad would not be la-
BILE under the common law, is a denial
of the due process of law which is en-
joined upon Congress by the fifth amend
ment to the constitution in dealing with
the property rights. This question the
report takes up, and in an exhaustive re-
view of the authorities makes clear, as it
seems to me- the validity of the net.
1t is sufficient to say that the argument
of the commission is most convincing
to show that the police power of the
government exercised in the regulation
of interstate commerce is quite sufficient
to justify the imposition upon the inter-
state railroad companies of the liability
for the injuries to its employees on an
insurance basis.
'"The third objection is that the right
of trial by jury, guaranteed by the sew
enth amendment, is denied. As matter
of fact. the right is preserved in this act
by permitting a jury to pass on the
issue when duty demanded, in accordance
with the limitations of the act"
President Taft then alludes to the al
legged iniquities attending personal injury
litigation. He declares that perjured tes-
timony, emotional juries and badly con-
structed laws limiting liability, have
tended to hamper the administration of
exact justice, while the heavy expense
of litigation has rendered it almost inn
possible for the poor man to command
his rights. In referring to the condition
of the courts because of this form of
litigation, the president says:
"The administration of Justice to-day
is clogged in every court by the great
number of suits for damages for personal
injury. The settlement of such cases by
this system will serve to reduce the bur-
den of our courts one-half by taking the
cases out of court and disposing of them
by this short cut"
The message concludes with the reiter-
ated hope that the bill may be passed
before the adjournment of the present
session of Congress.