The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-11-14
WHY VERMONT W0RkMEN
DESIRE BETTER LAWS
CONTINUED from third page.l

. actually responsible 10 pay MS snare o
the whole OF the amount required. Act
or omissions OF corporation, for whiei
an action will lie against them, musl
necessarily be committed by some one
of their agents. Therefore, when cor
poration is negligent in law because Of
the negligence in fact of one of its
agents, in order 10 sue il 1.-THE corpora
tionl successfully, the negligence of Oh,
agent must be established as a fact be.
fore the negligence of the corporation
can be established as a matter OF law
Thus il can be seen that when neg
ligent act is committed for which two
or more individuals or institutions are
responsible, in law and in fact, the Liza
bility rests upon those jointly respon-
sible and as such they may be sued as
joint tort feasors wrong doers) and
| jointly held responsible for the damage
caused. Under these circumstances, any
corporation that is sued for the negli-
gence of its servant can, under the law
in every state in the union, make the
servant a eo-defendant in the first in
stance, or can make him a defendant in
an original suit under the doctrine of
contribution and thus force labor TO
4
low servant pay the judgment il he has
sufficient property to do so.
The application of this doctrine OF
contribution" would leave the working
classes in position where it will not
be safe for them TO own attachable
property of any description. Their homes,
equity in their homes, deposits in saw
ings banks or in any bank, musical in
struments, stock in building and loan
associations or corporations, will be in
danger of being attached TO satisfy the
judgment which may be obtained under
this rule of common law. This prompts
the query, "What advantage is gained
by having a law that permits the recov-
cry of damages from an employer, il
the employer may in turn sue the one
causing the injury and recover as II
matter of eourse?" Soon the employer
would be holding judgments over the
heads of many OF his workmen, and |
could enforce payment whenever the
workman accumulated sufficient proper |
ty to cover same.
The question OF adequate compensa- |
tion for injured labor is one of far
reaching, as well as highest Importance,
not only to the workman himself, but |
to society as a whole. It must be
positive guarantee of reasonable protee-
ton. Therefore in view of the analysis
just presented. we are forced to con.
clude that our present method of EN-
ployers' liability based solely on negh-
gence. is grossly inadequate and fails
to produce justice when applied to mod
arn industrial conditions. Intelligently
\ 4 Ill l,x. /
templates change, and there certainly
,an be nothing wrong. nor is there any
thing new about developing improved
egal processes to meet and take care of
new necessities arising through new con-
litions. No one can in reason maintain
hat Justice requires that a man injured
through no fault of his own should as
sumo the financial burden as well as the
1hysical pain and inconvenience which
( directly traceable to the trade itself,
" that public policy would best be
erved by making him and his depend
,nts charge upon the charity of the
community in which they happen to
eside.
Present-day conditions demand recog-
lition by law of right to reasonable
for every accident which
5 result Of industrial environment, re-
ardless of what may have been a COM !,
non law custom All Of the great in !
ustrial countries except our own have
ONE to the point of treating industrial
ccidents scientifically through limited
compensation charged up against the in 2
ustries In this way costly and un- =
eterminable litigation is avoided and
he terror of becoming public charge o
Trough industrial misfortune is miti- a
ated. Under an employers liability "
amage case system. even when recovery il
had very little of the amount paid p
caches the injured person. A large per- "
,ntage of it is consumed in securing pi
1idence and witnesses in trials. and the j
nlk of what is left goes to the law m
nrs. 1t is a wasteful. costly. unsatis-
Ictorv and an ineffective system. II
There may exist some constitutional u
that can be highly magni %
ID by expert corporation lawyers. that II
i'll temporarily stand in the way of m
e enactment of satisfactory work he
ems compensation law, but like our an
azard of occupation assumed risk Ia
negligence of fellow servant" contrib IN
orv negligence" and all other antiquat- nv
doctrines. they viii have to make ~
~ for the demand of modern economic a.
nditions ard not be permitted to stay re
e march of civilization. Inn
Alex Ironside. III
Barre, Vt.