The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1913-11-06
NO CALL FOR IT'S REPEAL
Commission Declares that if there is
Need of Further Amendment These
Changes May be Made at Next SEES
sion Of the Legislature.

Commission do not seem to think that
the attacks which are being made from
some sources on the Wisconsin wage
compensation act are likely to get very
far or that very much will be accom-
plished by the men who are publicly
opposing the law and by mass meetings
and otherwise attempting to work up
"a material opposition to the measure.
just who the opposition comes from it
is hard to say. Workingmen generally
who understand the provisions of the
wage compensation act seem to like
the measure. At least, after two years
trial of more imperfect act than the
present law there was no request from
the legislature which ended its ses-
sion in August to repeal the law pass
ed two years ago.
The main objection to the law which
has so far been raised by its opponents
is that the compensation awarded I'M
der the law is not large enough. In
this regard it must be taken into con-
sideration that under the old plan
nearly always forty per cent and some
times fifty per cent Of the judgments
recovered went to the attorneys who
tried the cases, while now the entire
award goes to the injured person. In
the next place, in a very large per-
centage of the cases with the common
10 Iafo 70. -
employees through the alleged negli-
gence of the employer no recovery was
possible, and thus many persons who
received injuries could obtain no dam
ages. Now all persons who are in
jured receive compensation and thus,
although a few may not obtain IS
much as they would have received I'M
der the common law liability hundreds
of others do not suffer hardship by rea-
son of receiving no compensation at all.
There was, indeed, one amendment
adopted to the law, the advisability Of
which was strongly questioned by
friends of the wage compensation idea.
The amendment referred to is the
clause added to the law at this session
Of the legislature making fixed scale
for payment of damages for injury in
accordance with the character of the
injury. There was very strong obiec-
tion raised to this amendment before
the legislature last winter, but the OBJ
lection did not come by any means al
together from workingmen. In fact,
the only person who appeared as a
speaker for workingmen against this
clause and objected to it on the ground
that it was not fair to the injured,
was Assemblyman Minkley. There were
other workinmen who appeared in fav-
or of the fixed scale on the ground
that it gave assurance Of the amount
Of damages which would be received in
case of an injury.
One of the most strenuous opponents
of the amendment was Chester Barnes,
a Kenosha attorney, who has given a
great deal of study to the wage com
pensation question and who claimed the
amendment was absolutely unjust by
reason Of the fact that the same in
juries did not mean the same loss to
all persons, and that the loss Of a finger
or a hand might mean infinitely more
to workingman employed in one class
of labor than it would to a working
man employed in another class of labor.
If the clause for fixed compensa-
ton for injuries is not fair it can be
easily corrected at the next session Of
the legislature The original law which
was passed and went into effect two
years ago provided that the Wisconsin
Industrial Commission should fix the
amount of compensation for an injury
within certain limits, and if this method
of placing the amount of compensation
for an injury is preferable to fixed
compensation for all classes of injuries
without regard to the work of the per-
son injured it will be very easy to re-
turn to the plan for fixing the compen-
sation of injured persons provided for
in the original act.
The members Of the Wisconsin In
dustrial Commission have very strongly
favored the plan of a fixed compensa-
ton for each class of injury, as they
claim that while in some cases the fixed
damages work an injury that in the
main it gives more general satisfaction
than when tha amount 0f comnanSo+;oD
is in each case adjusted by the com
mission. One of the strong arguments
for the fixed compensation, according
to the members of the commission, is
the fact that it gives both the employer
and employee an idea of what the
amount of the payment will be just as
soon as an accident occurs
There are unquestionably some en-
ployers of labor in the state who are
very much opposed to the wage COM