The Washington herald., 1913-02-16
By JAMES b. MORROW.

Two young women, briskly walking,
passed a certain man in a park the other
afternoon.
"A mother in Ohio" said one Of them,
writes to Washington that her little
daughter has tubercular trouble Can't
the national government do something?"
she inquiries.
Back goes word in a week or two that
the government isn't in that sort of busi-
ness. The same mail brings letter from
a farmer In Kansas. His pigs, he reports.
have cholera A government expert Is
hurried to Kansas on the first train.
Now think.
But the certain man had passed out OF
earshot and he can only guess what the
young woman thought. Doubtless she
said that little girls i'll OF consumption
were Of more importance than pigs
You must remember my revolution
ary friend the second young woman
might have replied. that pigs are prop
erty. Man, theoretically. is capable Of
taking care of himself. He can telephone
for a doctor: a pig can't. Moreover, ba-
con is twenty-five cents a pound. Still,
the day is coming. ] predict. when every
man is to have his value, along with
every sheep and horse.
Thirty-six years ago a committee of the
British House Of Commons showed that
the old way Of doing business was fast
becoming obsolete. Corporations were
taking the places Of personal owners and
partnerships. The masters. as the En-
Clish still call the employers OF labor.
were disappearing into retirement and
agents were managing mills, factories and
mines. Ancient and familiar relations
were being brought to an end. Indus
try was being unsentimentaliZed. Logic
cally so the committee argued. the act
Of an agent in the eye of justice and the
statute should be the act Of the corpor-
alton owning the establishment. Thus be-
gan the agitation which, three years later,
brought about the enactment of the en-
ployer's liability Law.
Blood Not Figured with Cost.
Up to that time English manufacture
crs ascertained the cost of their prod
ucts by figuring up the outlay for labor,
interest and insurance, the depreciation
of plant. and the losses sustained
through bad accounts. 1t was an ele-
mentary problem in arithmetic. Work
men were injured and workmen were
killed Their blood might be on the
product, but it was not included in the
price The employers liability law
changed the bookkeeping of industrial
concerns. Men who met their death
while at work. so declared the act. were
worth something to their wives and chill
dren Men who were injured at their
work should not be compelled to bear
the whole of the loss. The British COM
pensation law, crude though it was,
turned the Anglo-Saxon mind toward the
thought that human workers, equally
with machinery. required protection and
new legislation.
The thought was a long time in cross
ing the Atlantic Ocean. Labor was well
paid here. and Americans, driving ahead
in the profit and excitement of build
ing a continent. were practical and not
always ethical Some things had to be de-
layed- The arts for example. and also
sundry delicate matters of Justice. 1t was
not until May so. 19os-twenty-eight years
after the action of Great Britain-tnat
congress passed a law granting to GER
tain employees of the United States the
right to receive from 1t compensation for
injuries sustained in the course of their
employment" Maryland and perhaps
one other State had. in narrow way.
applied the compensation principle to