The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1913-03-27
MANUFACTURERS ASK
FAIR COMPETITION
Say Green Compensation Bill
Cannot Be Success.

Cleveland, o. - Especially - The
Cleveland Twist Drill company of
this city has entered an earnest pro-
test against the passage of the Green
compulsory compensation bin and
against the rates for compensation in
surance now charged by the state.
This company protests against pay
ing the state five times as much TOR
insurance as it has peen costing This
paragraph from a letter to the state
board OF awards is illuminating:
Now we are quite willing and
ready to cone in under the state
board al any reasonable increase in
our rate, but we can not help but feel
that five times as much premium rs
we are now paying is not a reason
able increase. This company has
never had a single fatal nor even a
single serious accident in the close
on to 20 years that It has been doing
business, and II there are any com.
panies in the state that are entitled to
favorable consideration at the hands
of this board, we believe that we are
certainly one of them. And yet we
are asked to pay for four times as
many accidents as we actually have
had. We think you must agree with
us that this is neither a fair, just, nor
equitable condition, and could only re-
suit in our paying large proportion
of the accident expenses Of the other
companies in our class, and suffering
for their backwardness.
And that this is not merely an ac-
cident of our particular situation is
shown by the fact that the whole
method and system Of fixing rates
adopted by the state board tends in
evitably to the same conclusion"
Wants Competition.
The Green bill, pending in the SEN
ate gives the state an absolute mo-
nopoly Of the compensation insurance
business. The Cleveland Twist Drill
company protests against that monop-
oily and demands competition in this
forceful language:
1--WE can conceive of no nobler
work of men than to do for accident
prevention what insurance companies
have done for fire prevention And
we believe the officers of this great
State of Ohio will have a heavy re-
sponsibility to bear if by the adoption
of the Green bill in it's present form
this state shall forever bar its manu-
factUrers out from any part or lot in
this great movement.
"The conclusion is plain. In order
to get careful accurate, scientific
adjustment of the rates to the risk.
with adequate incentive to employers
to reduce their risk, we must have the
competition of privately owned con-
tract or mutual companies. Theg
and they alone, as the whole history
of compensation insurance shows, can
provide the systematic, scientific de.
tailed study which is necessary to
this end. 1t is, naturally, therefore,
with the greatest regret that we see
Ohio about to enter on the enactment
of a measure so anteQuated, clumsy
unscientitic, and inefficient as the
proposed Green law; especially when
it would be such a simple matter to
provide that employers might insure
in contract or mutual companies, ad-
juting their rates and risks in any
manner they saw fit providing only
they carried an adequate reserve. but
be subject to the. regulation and
supervision Of the state in all mat
ters relating to compensation AMI
awards. Surely this would be far
more fair to the employer and would
provide ample guarantee to the en-
ployee.
"The trouble with the plan proposed
by the Green bill is that it only goes
half far enough. 1t provides com.
pensation for the injured worklnen
it is true-but this is only half of the
problem and by far the less difficult
half. 1t means absolutely no provis
ion for the prevention of that Work
mems injury. In fact its whole tend
ency is to work in the opposite direc-
tions as we believe we have amply
demonstrated above.
"We earnestly urge and request
that you will give this matter the
serious and thorough consideration
which it deserves, and will use all the
influence at your command to secure
for Ohio a progressive, fair, just,
temperate and efficient measure such
as may be a model for all the other
states of the Union. Such measure
should include provision for insurance
by contract, or mutual companies, or
by the state, all placed on exactly
even terms, and all equally subject,
as to accounting methods and reserve
requirements, to the supervision of
state department. By such a law you
would not only relieve the more con-
scientious employers of Ohio from an
entirely unjust burden but you would
also open the way to such system
attic study of the means Of accident
prevention as this country has net yet
SEEN"