The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-21
.LAWLER'S ADDRESS
 ON COMPENSATION. THRILLS THE, HOUSE
BRIhLyANT YOUNG REPRESENTA- TIVE OF HARTFORD WINS
 PLAUDITS OF MEMBERS.
His Discussion of Worl1ingmen's Com { pensation Act Feature of Debate
 on Measure.
Especial to The Farmer.)

HAT Nldy GI=-OIlS OI LAC 1AAOSI brilliant speeches heard upon the floor of the lower branch of the General Assembly this session was the contri- button of Rep. Joseph Lawler of Hart ford yesterday, upon the Workmen's Compensation act.
 Mir. Lawler is one of the youngest m em bers of the General Assembly. Nature has given him voice of re- markable volume and richness. His discussion of the important bill which as told in The Farmer of yesterday passed the House by a unaniIn ous vote, was considered by many as the ablest presentation made in it's behalf. The House showed the closest atten- tion during his talk and at the con- clusion he was greeted with a round of applause which swept over the House. The text of MT. Lawler's ad- dress follows:
 The House should concur in the judgment of the Senate on the hu- mane principle involved in this bill, and it should not allow any amend mente to weaken the body of the bill reported. This, bill proposes a wide leap from the present mark of indus trial conditions, yet in Connecticut at least it cannot be said that the step has not been well considered. The voice that would today call this law ruin ous to industry or investment, would unqueStionably be judged as a voice
 
 for regret that our State Sd powerful industrially did not at an earlier date perceive the justice of the conclusions contained in this economic change. We have been among the last of the States to cling with tenacity to the passing ideas of liability for work ac- cidents, based and theorized upon the fault of the parties, and the public conscience has already questioned the attitude of this State on this point, where selfish interests have. hitherto interposed to impede the passage of a compensation law There may be no unanimity of opinion on the different provisions in this law; to some it may seem a bit pussy-footed, but this is neither the time nor the place for wide and divergent views, and inas- much as 1t is a good law, it should be passed
 The early law did not excuse one for injury to his fellow, unless 1t oc- cured through Inevitable accident, but gradually throughout our different States, the prominent defenees to ac- tions for personal injuries occasioned in the course of employment were de- ve1oped. For some time now 1t has been suspected that these defenses are apt to render useless the right of an action at law, where the injureds man iss supposed to receive pecuniary relief, not only for himself but also for de- pendente. When the principles of CO., worker and assumption of hazard were first settled, the only question involved was which one Of the par ties affected would bear the loss consequent upon work accident. And following the early lead the loss was thrown upon the working world. The public policy | of that early date could have demand l ed with good reasons that the loss be thrown upon the producer The com pensation idea now proposes to place l 1+ he nd fn zniff 1 the burden of loss from the workers upon whom it has too long and too heavily lain. Why are States busily engaged in studying and improving these laws? No one is foolish enough to think that they are acting solely from the promptings of sympathy or of kindliness towards their peoples. A gloomy array of facts speaks too strongly of the terrific drainage now | made day in and day out upon hu- man resources, under the present sys- l tenn of litigation oftentines bitter be- | tween employer and employee. The bulletin of labor for the year 1908 con- | tains a comprehensive table of German work accidents, and the record goes over a period of twenty years. In the year 1907, nine per cent of the acci- l dents are said. to have been caused through the fault of both employer and employee, and about forty-four per cent of the accidents are estimated l to have occurred from the inevitable risk in the business. Thus in this big | percentage the workman is helpless, | because he cannot prove freedom from | faults and because he has impliedly assumed the hazard of his employment, | which, when it strikes him down, also | locks him without the doors of re- l dress Allowing further for the per | centage of accidents due to the fault of the workman, 1t is estimated that in only ten or twelve per cent Of accident cases has a man the basal facts | which, when proved, would give re- muneration.~--1 damage inflicted by industry, upon himself and family This fact becomes more startling when l it is realized, that even in this small l percentage where there is a possibtl- ity for recovery of damages, that there is a constant flow of waste nec- eesarily incident to any systen where krecovery depends upon an issue o1 fact. Out of the money recovered 8 weIl-sized proportion goes to defray a legal bill The amount recovered gen. orally is never common surate with the fearful results that follow in the cruel | wake of industrial accidents. As a rule the worker is not alone in his loss but the unhappy blow that strips him of earning capacity comes also with a dull thud of realization to his de pendents. Tn the Illinofs report of the commission on employers liability, ar investigation of f1fty-three death cases revealed the consequence of thirty y-foul widows and some sixty-five children forced to earn a living because of loss of the wage earner. This State has just concerned itself with the hours of labor as applied to women anC children, as of a right 1t ought to do and it must now blot out forever the barbarous system by which the weak innocent of fault, are thrown helpless into a harsh business world. These facts are isolated, it is true, but they stand in the bald and naked outline of truth, testifying with equal vigol to the insecurity of working conditions l in Connecticut. When therefore the collectivist theory would have the i'm pact of industrial accident primarily hit the industry, and when it woul6 lift the workers and skilled bread