The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-05-15

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has anybody else. He hasn't any
money. We will make his employer
look after him. The employer is not
to blame for it, but he had the benefit
of the mans work and he has money
and there is nobody else that we can
reach. In short the employer has
been financially lynched. Now if
have read the popular feeling right,
there are several things more which
the people ought to say. If the man
must be taken care of, he ought to be
taken care of in all cases, he ought
to be sure to get his money, and he
ought to be as certain as possible how
much he is to get. If you are going
to make the employer take care of
his employees who get hurt, he must
charge accordingly, and ultimately the
community will bear the burden.
Dangerous Fake Cases.
To say that the way the personal
injury business is now conducted has
produced widespread decentralization,
would be putting 1t mildly. There is a
steady crop of fake cases which are
much more dangerous than real ones,
The most dangerous of all Is the case
In which slight accident in fact &C.
CURED and in which the injuries are
either quite fictitious or enormously
magnifled. There is here a founda.
ton of fact ready to be embroidered
by most magnificent fiction and with
highly profitable returns. The prac-
tice of charging a contingent fee in
such cases has spread from lawyers
to physicians as well. Not only the
honorable lawyer, but the honorable
physician has sometimes the sore
temptation of watching great returns
go to the INSCRIPTIONS The whole
system of founding liability upon
fault, has broken down under the
practice, which might as well be rec
ognized, of holding the defendant liza
BILE without regard to fault, out of
sympathy for the real or supposed in.
juries of the plaintiff. Speaking for
myself only l think that the princi
pie of liability on account of fault
ought to be given up altogether and
for it should be substituted the prin-
ciple of insurance, whereby an injured
man gets a certain definite sum OF
money simply because he is hurt. In
deed, l would have the law extend
this principle even to passengers, and
let every one be insured during his
journey, but the amount of insurance
be limited to a definite sum, so thai
there would be no room for speculation
or dispute and no occasion for law
suits except in case of fictitious in
juries or those comparatively rare in
stances where it is impossible for the
law to say in adavnce what shall bt
the amount of insurance attaching II
TIC pal blSuAdl hC CACOl "
this principle would be to treat al
men alike, to make it unnecessary 70
them to sue, and to arrange natter
, so that the money paid by the carrie
for the relief of suffering, would reacl
the injured person undiminished.
OF National Scope.
Your attention may not have beef
called to the national scope of the pei
! sonal injury business. Evil condition
are not confined to one or two states
There is an organization for the pun
pose of conducting litigation of thi
character at st. Paul which gather
suits to be brought there not onl,
throughout the northwest, but is al
ready effective as far south as Ken
lucky. A suit against the Illinoi
, Central Railroad company for persona
injuries suffered in New Orleans wa
recently brought in a certain count
, in the state of New York where tn
verdicts are highly spoken of, but no
by railroad companies. 1t has becom
common practice for persons injure
in Louisiana to sue in Mississippi
where the railroads cost of living
much higher. and recently my after
ton was called to the fact that suit
are likewise being brought in Missii
sippi for personal injuries occurrin
in Tennessee. Not only is this true
but the litigation in Mississippi is be
ing centralized in certain favorit
counties which are becoming known t
be places where large verdicts ar
habitually rendered-certain cases, a
1t were, in the desert of Justice, wher
the fierce heat Of the law is tempere
by streams of sympathy and the wear
litigant can rest under the shade Of
magnificent verdict and feed upon