Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-06-27
SUING FOR DAMAGE.

1t is a great pity that all the great
and varied industries of our country
are not more thoroughly investi-
gated, tabulated, and ciphered out
sources, possibilities and develop
ments. 1t should be possible to go
to a reference book Of some kind,
printed and circulated by the gov
eminent - postage prepaid 1880 and
find out every fact hat is worth
knowing about any business that IS
a principal-or even a large-source
of income to any considerable num-
Der of our people.
Take, as an instance, the damage
suit industry. A good deal of money,
or a great number of moneys varied
equivalents, must change hands or
be put into circulation every year
through this industry. Yet we look
in vain look through census reports,
through the documents Of the de-
partment Of agriculture, through the
reports Of labor commissioners,
through mOrtuary documents,
through the tables Of %actuaries,
through assessment lists, and in
n many other more or less likely
Z places, only TO discover to our sor-
row and regret hat this great field
of human industry and enterprise
has been utterly, carelessly-we
might almost say %wantonly neglect
ed by our governments, state and
national.
Surely this ought not to be. For
this great department Of human IN
dustry; this ready harvest field for
the prompt and enterprising. Is en-
titled to some attention in the
places where attention should count
for something practical. This is a
business which affords balm for hurt
minds; wherein the jingling of the
guinea help the hurt that honor
feels: wherein the careless, the in
competent and the wanton are made
to pay the price of their careless
ness. inconpetency and w~antonness;
wherein the physically hurt get pay
for the pain they suffer; wherein
the mentally and spiritually
wounded find balm in Gilead;
wherein the man whose heart IS
broken by the alienation Of his
wife's affection may have the oil OF
gladness poured into the place
where the solution of continuity has
occurred in his cardiac tissues, in
the shape of a good round verdict
for a good round sum, wherein the
man who has had a bad year in his
business may be enabled TO make
his books show The right balance, II
he can only persuade a jury that
some sufficiently solvent individual
has IN some way injured his purse,
person or reputation, so that a YER
dict for damages may result.
1t is a great industry, a growing,
thriving industry, which deserves
TO have some attention paid to it.
Congress ought TO take it up; also
the state legislature. We ought TO
have exact data about it. In the event
that any man or woman should do
anything to us. in word, act or look,
we ought to know just what book 70
get, and what leaf to turn to find
the information we need We should
know:
What is the average percentage
of outlay in damage suits, and what
is the average net profit?
What kind of pleas are the best
winners?
How does the case where actual
physical damages are sustained
through gross or criminal negligence
of the defendant compare. as a cash
winner, with the cases where a
golden ointment is sought for ethi-
cal or spiritual damages.
All this and much else We should
know, for no wise man will embark
in a business that is entirely intang-