Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1914-09-17
CARST OUTLINES HIS
IDEAS FOR IMPROVING
STATE LIABILITY ACT
Favors Adoption of Ohio Plan
For State Control-Present
Insurance High.

Des Moines. Ia. Sept. 16.-In a form
nj report submitted to the governo.
| yesterday, Warren Garst, Iowa indus
trial commissioner. outlined his recon-
mendation for improving the work :
mans compensation act which has been
in force but few months. The COM
missioner claims the stock insurance
companies have been charging q rate
for protection that is higher than war
ranted by the Iowa risks, and he rec
ommends a general system of state
control. which would have the effect
the provisions of the law, with the state
carrying the insurance at cost.
A summary of the report follows.
!. In nine-tenths of it's provisions
the Iowa act is declared one of the
best compensation laws in the country
and worthy the advanced position of
the state i'm welfare legislation.
.. The one drawback in this excel
lent law is the nisfit of stock company
Insurance.
3. This is shown primarily by the
number and nature of the reflections of
the law which are 60 times those in
the aeighboring state of Minnesota un-
der a law very similar except as to in
Surancc
A. A vast majority of the reflections
by Iowa employers are circuitous not
are appalling in number, covering
probably 10000 employees. They are
achieved indirectly by refusing to take
out insurance They are dividing the
industrial community into two great
bodies under grossly dissimilar and un-
equal laws. No other state has as many
reflections.
). The unfavorahle contrast with
certain other states is further shown
by taking q highly organized and rep
resentative Iowa industry--coal min
ing and subjecting it to a detailed
parallel analysis of insurance rates and
risks.
6. This detailed study of coal mine
rates and risks is an entering wedge
ut II new angle and gives new insight
into the reflections of nine-tenths of the
operators. 1t shows the actual risk in
Iowa mines To be covered by 90 cents
per 500 of pay roll. whereas the basic
insurance rate is over seven times as
much. a fraction over Il cent a ton
ought to carry the current loSs-cOSt
of Iowa coal.
{. This study shows further that
while Iowa coal mines are levied on for
$3.50 insurance per 500 of pay roll,
deeper and more dangerous mines UNI
der state fund plan in Ohio pay S1.50,
in West Virginia 81, and in Washington
% cents (for like benefits to employes).
s. Analysis of rates in general shows
Michigan and Wisconsin under private
insurance have basic rates three times
those in Ohio under the state fund sys-
tenn. Slated in percentages the basic
rates are as $50 in Iowa to 72 i'm Ohio.
Forty three segregated and leading in
dust,ies show {; proportion of 81 in
Ohio TO 1913 in iowa
.. Many insurance companies in
Iowa refuse the small employer insur-
not yield :, satisfactory profit. A pri-
waite interest operated for profit thus
forces parties outside of the compensa
tion uct when both employer and en-
ploye desire TO remain under it.
TO- Further evils spring from the
misiit of stock company insurance APP
piled to The compensation liability.
The wrongs are not charged as wilful.
but lie in the old iron system, which
cannot be stretched to lit the new eco
monte conditions. 1t is the misiit of
the old insurance methods under the
new plan which will inevitably. and
against the best intentions of the i'm,
surance people. lead tn wedding the
payroll of old men. onc-eyed men or
those suffering other handicaps, and
giving preference to the young, the
unmarried and the physically test
proof.
H. The remedy for these hardships
and inequalities is in the plan of Ohio,
where they are all unknown. The Ohio
law has been sufficiently tested to re-
flute all evil predictions made in re-
gard to it. 1t was said the original
Ohio rates We're inadequate and must
be advanced, yet they have been re-
duced three times in AS many years.
u. Experience shows the true plan
to lie in AN indemnity fund paid by
each industry according to its peculiar
risks. personal and general, but with
all funds collected into Il statewide
system and administered by the state
This is not state insurance. 1t does not
contemplate the STATE going into the
insurance side as we'll as the compen-
sation side of workmens compensa-
ton arranged to eliminate the dis
| cordant and disturbing element of pri
waite profit
| 49, A competing state fund like
| those of Michigan and New York is
| neither one thing nor the other. Under
| il the stock companies take the cream
! leaving the bad risks to the state
a. Iowa has unusual safety condi-
| ton in q high average of intelligence
| and temperance, but the old stock com
| panN methods make no allowance fol
| either. Iowa is assessed on the Same
| basis as states where illiteracy anG
| incompetence are rife. Only /, state plar
| can relieve the state from paying this
| undue and Legitimate profit.
| 10. 10 adopt the COMPENSATION
| principle and then subject the en-
\ ploycr 10 monopoly insurance rates il
| he stays under tho act, and reward
| him if he goes out with opportunity
| to raise The issue of negligence. * I;