Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-04-02


personal-injury lawyers will be elimi
mated and all other expenses greatly re
duced. In other words. while for ever.
dollar the railroad companies are com
PEELED to pay under existing law, thcl
will, under the proposed law, pay ap
proxmately $l25; for every dolla
which the employees and their depend
ents now receive under existing Law
they Will, under the proposed law, re
ceive sum very much in excess o.
SIPS.
Under this bill which is presented (,
you. today. there is a compromise be
tween the bill introduced into the Sen
ate and the bill introduced into tn,
House We believe as it is offered now
it is fair TO labor and fair to capital
The conditions of the old common-law
which have existed for hundreds o
years when the employer employed only
a few men and worked with them ant
knew them, have passed away: the CON
ditions are different, today; the rela.
tionghip between master and servant is
no longer a simple one.
This employers liability law still left
uncovered that large class Of injuries
caused by chance, ana those caused by
fellow servants; it resulted in an in
creased number of law suits. seriously
embittcring the relations between en-
ployer and employed, and caused vast
expenditures for litigation that should
have been spent directly for he benefit
of the injured employees
,n
changed The relation of master and
servant is no longer a simple one. but
as applied to the overwhelming number
of industries is exceedingly complex.
The master is no longer in daily personal
contact with his men, directly supervis-
ing their work; he has been twice re-
moved; first, by the employment of SUI
perintendiug agents. and second by the
creation of the modern corporations The
appliances are no longer simple. con-
ssting of manual tools, but are COM
pick and in many respects inherently
dangerous. Complicated and ponaerous
machinery has taken the place Of man
ual tools. The great and dangerous
forces of steam and electricity have
supplanted the simple forms Of power.
Instead of employing few men as was
the ease with the master at common
law, the modern railroad carries upon
it's pay rolls thousands and sometimes
tens of thousands of employees. Under
these conditions the whole situation has
reversed Instead of tine majority of
accidents being due to somebody's care
lessness, the majority of accidents now
are due neither to the negligence of the
master nGr the man, but are the result
of the inherent dangers of these mod
ern industrial conditions.
1t has been stated that out Of ev-
cry dollar the employer pays now, the
employee receives less than 40 cents,
that is, 90 per cent. is utilized in the
transaction between the employer and
the employee, in the COST of court and
injuries and things of that sort while
under the provisions OF this law the
employee will receive the fun benefit
of all the money that is paid ~ the
employee
| now move, Mr.. Chairman. that @c
take up the amendments alphabetical
ly, commencing with House Amend
ment A.
The motion was agreed Ia.
The CHAIRMAN: Tie Chair will
lay before the committee House Bocu-
ment No. G72, the same being House
Amendment \ To Senate Document
No. 575.
Mr.. IRVING Of Caribou: Mir Chair
man, this amendment provides that
farm laborers and laborers employ
ed in cutting, hauling, yarding or
driving the logs or lumher or any Ia
Dor in woods or on the drives, shalt
also he exempt from the provisions %
this bill. Many of the members pres
ent know something Of the peeullar
hazards in connection with numbering
and driving In the first place, | WISH
to state that | am not interested Ill
numbering or in lumber men. / speak
from knowledge of man coming from
a region where this is one OF the DOM
mating industries in the county. -
lumberman or operator has absolute
Nv no control over his little bdha Oh
men as they go into their work. as
they are separated out into smaii
groups. That is very true as apphed
to the spring driving Now the pro-
vision of this bill is that the employer
shall be compelled to place an IN
suranco ON his laborers or his en-
ployes. so that in ease OF aceldeht
they shall have some money coming
to-tirem for the support Of their ram
lfes. =.
The principle is good, in theory II
is excellent; the question is how does
it work out in practice in the case oil
The hunberman toward whom TINS
is amended, TO relieve
them from possible conditions that
will make it,.impossible for them &c
meet the provisions of the bill. Ihe
question of injuries comes up ana
whether or not rat the present time 4
IL noSsible for an operator TO insure
his helm at a cost of - per cent. Tha.i
Is nearly prohibitive when you CON
slider what | will try very briefly 10
hiring before the committee. The haH-
ards of the business is SO much IN
creased that the percentage must nee
essarily very rapidly increase ana lol
a time il will come, in the opinion o.
many who have become conNefSah'
with this matter, prohibitiVe.
In regard To the work that is done
in the numbering operations, 1T is no.
the big lumber operator who does thl>
, .;.ba. 10 II under thp SuDer