The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-08-21
INDUSTRIES AWFUL TOLL.
It's Appalling Magnitude Just Begin.
ming to Be Appreciated.

nln9 TO BE Appreciated.
Since the workmen's compensation
law went into effect on July more
than 14,0O0 accidents have been re-
ported and claims to compensation
filed. They are now coming In at the
rate Of over 1000 day, says the New
York World
These are figures thet will be apt to
strike most observers with something
like dismay. They seem to be OF
magnitude calculated to overwhelm the
operations of the law and exhaust the
resources for compensation before the
new system is year old.
But they are open to no such inter
probation. Many Of the accidents re-
ported will be found to come from en-
ployments not covered by the law. A
great many more will be found too
slight to claim compensation under the
requirement OF disability extending be-
yond two weeks. Only about 35 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. 10
existed before this law, but we saw it
dimly In scattered reports and suits for
damages. 1t exists now, and we see 1t
all clearly in figures which are compre-
hensive OF the state The cost was
before uncertain and unjustly distr1b-
uted. 1t is no greater now, but 1t
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 laundrymen 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 charge along to
the public is q simple matter The
worst OF 1t is that the increase In prices
will be 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 1t, but
by the time it reaches the consumer 1t
is tax of appreciable size. A cent or
a fraction of a cent at the beginning
becomes an excuse for a nickel or a
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 a 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. If 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 statistics of
industrial death and mutilation which
are now presented for the first time In
concrete form.