Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-09-25
INDUSTRIES AWFUL TOLL.
lie Appalling Magnitude Just Begin.
ming to Be Appreciated.

ming to Be Appreciated.
Since the wOrkmen's compensation
law went into effect ON July more
i than $4,000 accidents have been re-
ported and claims to compensation
filed. They are now coming III at the
rate Of over l.UUD IL day, says the New
York Word. NIL
These are figures that will he apt to
strike most observers with something
like disniay. They seem to be OF Il
magnitude calculated to Overwhem the
| operations of the law and exhaust the
resources for compensation before the
new system is Il year old.
But they are open to no such inter-
probation. Many of the accidents re-
ported will he found to come from EN-
pigments not covered by the law. A
great many more will be found too
slight to claim compensation under the
requirement of disability extending be-
You'd two weeks. Only about 30 per
cent OF the claims will prove to be
valid. according to present calculations.
What the figures do emphasize is the
great toll of life and limb exacted in
our modern mechanical industries. 1t
existed before this law. but we saw 1t
dimly in scattered reports and suits for
damages. 1t exists now. and we see 1t
i'll clearly in figures which are c0mpre-
hensive of the state The cost was
before uncertain and unjnstly distrib-
uted. 1t is no greater now, but It
has been made calculable and the main
burden of it shifted from the workmen
to the whole industrial society.
Whether society will bear this bur-
den patiently is a matter which is yet
to be determined.
What the laundrymeu are said to be
doing to recover the expense to which
they have been put by the compensa-
ton law is what most employers will
do presently. To pass a charge along to
the public is Il simple matter. The
worst of it is that the increase in prices
will he much larger than the outlay
which it Is designed to cover.
The simplest of all lessons in political
economy is the one that many people
never learn. A small tax may rest
lightly upon the one who pays ii. but
by the time it reaches the consumer it
is n tax Of appreciable size. A cent or
fraction of cent at the beginning
becomes an excuse for a nickel or
dime later on. Everything of this kind
is passed on. so that as the complex
ties Of government increase the cost Of
living arises in much greater ratio.
The fact that public regulation often
ends with the imposition of tax ac-
counts for good many failures of re-
form which are not otherwise ex-
planned.
Already in cases where employers
cannot see their way clear to passing
the tax along they have begun to dis
criminate against married men. II such
discrimination is permitted there will
soon be new economic problem in in
dustry so serious that it will affect the
whole public welfare.
There Is nothing easier than to talk
about social justice" in platforms and
in stump speeches. There is nothing
more difficult in government than to
administer any kind of justice. social or
otherwise. In the case Of the work.
mems compensation law nothing will
do more to reconcile the public to new
burdens than the appalling tatistics Of
industrial death and mutilation which
are now presented for the first time in
concrete form.