The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1912-08-31
.HARbSHIPS. OF HURT
:. \ ] ALOUD
,Unaided Misery of Families Of Men
Is Injured ia. Industrial Acci-:
:: : !: dents, an Economic Scandal. :
sN=: E.FFICIEN CY. VS.. RHETORIC.
BY John j. Stone, President OF the

BY John j. Stone, President OF the |
MARYLAND Casualty Company.
>, All whose humanitarian Of financial
interests have made them acquainted
with the hardships suffered by the
families of injured -workmen are
agreed that something must be done
in improvement, that the volume of
unatded misery endured by those de-
pendent upon crippled wage-earners
is: nc. longer tolerable. ->s:
Almost all interested in this prob |
lem are also agreed that this, some-
thing which must be done III allevia-
-t1on will have its genesis in, and will
draw its strength from, definite and
; detailed: legislative: enactmelats; it is
+ now almost: universally. accepted that
in; the matter of.workmen's ,compen-
sation America Is about t. turn for
ever away from the old uncertainty
OF the common law, under which an
injured workman gets what he can
/ persuade from a. jury, in some cases
absurdly too little, in other cases ten
times too much, and that in place Of
this a precise scale of compulsory
indemnify for njured employees will
be worked out in the various states
and made into law. =.
|: The point upon which there is
much diversity of opinion is: Whether
these laws shall prescribe and make
mandatory the indemnity due each
! class of workn1en in case Of death or
during disa bility caused by accident
while employed, and having. done this.
| stop. leaving employers to provide for
I these disbursements as they choose,
presumably by the purchase. of work.
mems compensation insurance., or
whether the state shall go further,
| shall establish a state insurance de-
| partment, shall create state insur-
ance fund by collecting proportionate
I percentages from employers and en-
ployes, mostly from the former, and
shall attempt from this fund to in
/ demnify injured workmen.
| Now the answer to this is brief anti
inescapa ble-state insurance will not
work. A state certainly can, and
should, demand protection for it's citi-
zens when they are injured in en-
| ployment which helps build the pros
! perity of that state. But, once hav-
ing made it compulsory for employers
to indemnify employees who have met
disaster, it is better for the state to
| let the employer find his own way
out, better, when the legislative func-
! ton Of the state has enacted protec-
tons for workmen, for the state to
concentrate its judicial function upon
seeing that these enactments are car
ried out, for it has been conclusively
| proven that the state itself cannot
carry out this particular Kind of en-
aotnents satisfactorily. AS is probably
known: to most readers OF this paper,
,Edropelf econo1nic experience puts
that point beyond dispute, the Ger
man experience alone Indicating suf-
| flciently the lamentable difference be-
tween a splendid altruistic theory
and its frightfully. expensive and al
together inadequate carrying out when
subject to the limitations of the sort
of unframed and, uninterested men
who seek and generally obtain po-
litical appointments.
So, whatever be the theoretical ar
guments in favor of: state insurance,
and it is indeed topic that invites
magnificent rhetoric,' the practical
facts are that state cannot, in the
light of past experience, satisfactorily
administer workmen's. compensation,
and that private companies can and
do. Doubtless there are defects in
insurance as provided by private COM
panies, for nothing human is perfect,
but the big thing is that they do: the
work: : It is, then, so far as making
the. fundamental decision: is: con-
cerned, unnecessary to- either attack
or defend private. insurance. COM
panfes. The point to remember is that
they do the work, they offer a sure
way out: and If there be Imperfect
tions, ins the service rendered by pri-
waite companies, it. :of about the
same relative Importance as the
spfnters ON a. board which drown
ing man may USE to get ashore.
!: