The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1912-02-21
TAFT IS URGING
PASSAGE OF NEW
employees BILL
PRESIDENT DIsPosEs OF THREE
OBJECTIONS WHICH HAVE
BEEN RAISED TO MEASURE.
10
Iniquities Attending Personal Injuries
~
Litigation are Scored by Chief Ex-
eeutive in mes'as to Congress.
Old Laws Clog the Courts.

Washington, Feb. 20.-President
Taft today submitted to congress the
report of the employers liability COM
mission and the commissions pro-
posed employers liability and work.
mems compensation bill, accompanied
by message urging the enactment
of the measure, which is the most ad-'
vanced piece of liability legislation yet
presented. The president sets forth
that the proposed law not only would
insure to employees of railroads en-
gagged in interstate commerce quick
adjustment of their claims for dam
ages, but also would relieve the courts
of vast amount of work and enable
them to administer judicial affairs
with greater despatch.
Il sincerely hope that the act will
pass" said the president. Il deem it
one of the great steps of progress to-
ward a satisfactory solution of an i'm
portant phase of the controversies be-
tween employer and employe that has
been proposed within the last two or
three decades"
The provisions of the measure are
sketched in the message, and then Mr.
Taft takes up and disposes of three
objections that have been advanced
by ITS opponents.
oisposes of Three Objections.
In the first place." says the pres
dent "the question arises whether
under the provisions of the commerce
clause, the bill could be considered
to be regulation of interstate and
foreign commerce. That seems to be
already settled by the decision of the
supreme court in the employers liza
bility case.
''The second question is whether
the making of these remedies exclus-
i've, and the compelling of the railroad
companies to meet obligations arising
from injuries, for which the railroad
would not be liable under the COM
mon law, is a denial of the due pro-
cess of law which is enjoined upon
congress by the fifth amendment to
the constitution in dealing with the
property rights. This question the re-
ports uphold and in an exhaustive re-
view of the authorities makes clear,
as it seems to me, the validity of the
act. 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 efficient to justify the i'm
position upon the interstate railroad
companies of the liability for the in
basis
"The third objection is that the
right of trial by jury, guaranteed by
the seventh amendment, is denied. AS
a matter of fact, the right is pre-
served in this act by permitting a
jury to pass on the issue when duly
in accordance with the linn
itations of the act"
President Raps Litigation.
President Taft then alludes to thet
alleged iniquities attending personal
injury litigation. He declares that per-
iured testimony, emotional juries and
badly constructed laws limiting La
bility, have tended to hamper the ad-
of exact justice, while
the heavy expense of litigation has
rendered it almost impossible for the
poor man to command his rights. In
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 tn
great number of suits for damages for
personal injury The settlement of
such cases by this system will serve
to reduce the burden of our courts
one-half by taking the cases out of
court and disposng of them by this
short cut"
The message concludes with the re-
iterated hope that the bill may be
passed before adjournment of the
present session of congress.