United labor bulletin., 1913-02-13
LEGISLATION.
important Measures Now Before
the legislature---Legis
Gossip.
(By r. E. Croskey.)

The three most important labor bills
introduced in the nint<enth general as
sembly are: First. the workman's com
pensation act; second, the act to abolish
the doctrine OF assumption OF risks. and
third, its companion bill. the abolish
ment Of the doctrine of contributary neg
ligence.
The enactment of the workman's COM
pensation act will in a great measure do
sway with the necessity Of the last two
named laws, but we need them all to pe
safe because the workman's compensa-
ton act is not general in its application
and we want to put every worker In
position TO recover damages for accident
and his dependents in a position to re
cover damages in case OF his death
through accident while employed in his
or her avocation.
These laws then are the most vital TO
the wage Garner and should rank far
above any others. The latter two Will,
ms is usual. meet with opposition from
the employinH class. They have been in
troduced in very nearly every session OF
the legislature of recent years. and with
sickening regularity been either killed In
committee or failed to be even reported
out for consideration. The reason is OBJ
yfous: the great corporation lawyers rec
ognize their importance and the silent
hand OF corporate influence gets In Its
nne work" to defeat the measures
With the abolishment OF the old COM
mon law doctrines that the employe as
sumes all risks OF his occupation. the
passage of an adequate workmans COM
nansation act will be easy. Both EN-
ployers and employees will desire IT, the
employers because they Will have no de
fense for not paying damages when an
employe is injured at work. and Will
much rather pay a fixed tax that VIII
have the effect OF insuring their workers
AGAINST accidents. and form common
fund from which these accidents shali
be paid from. rather than have to pay
them themselves from the proceeds OF
their business; and the worker Will have
the satisfaction of knowing that in the
event of accident he will be provided for
and in the event of his death from acci-
dent. that his dependents will receive
su fiicient sum to keep them from want
There are lots of other labor laws.
notably the eight-hour law for miners
and smeltermen. etc. ten-hour law Tor
street carmen. minimum wage for wom-
en- workers. coal miners protection law,
locomotive headlight law. amendment to
the deception law. abolishment OF the
anti-boycott law. farm workers lien law.
law to require all industrial accidents to
he reported. extension of the state eight
hour law to public utility corporations.
and others that are all good ana. ii en-
acted. will all help to improve the con-
dition of the workers; but In my 1udg-
ment they cover only certain portion
of workers in their scope, while with the
three laws l place of most Importance.
they are fundamentals which will, in
great measure. do away with the neces-
sity of many of the others cited. For In
stance. II an employer must pay damages
for injuries received by his workers
while on duty. 1t is self evident that he
will do all in his power to safeguard the
workers from injury. 1t may not be gem
orally known, but statistics prove that
three-fourths OF industrial accidents oc-
cur In the last few hours OF the days la
Dor. thus showing conclusively that
when the worker is tired he Is mpch
more liable to become forgetful or care
less than Is the case when fresh and
strong, and his or her faculties are not
Impaired from overwork. This fact. as
II becomes generally known. will have
tendency to shorten the hours OF labor.
The present legislature, from my OBJ
seryation. is disposed to be very fair to
labor. The usual amount of opposition
30 far has been conspicuous by its abb
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