Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-08-20
COAL OPERATORS UNABLE TO
COMPLY WITH WoRkMEN'S
COMPENSATION STATUTE.
COULD NOT FORM MUTUAL
ORGANIZATION TO CARRY RISKS
Casualty Company Rates Prohibtive
--one Hundred Prisoners in State
Labor Camps Food Department
Ready to Enforce Weights and Meas
ure Law-State Capital News.
speciaI TO Tfmes-Republican.


Des .Moines. Aug. 2o-The coal mine
operators OF Iowa have not been able
To take advantage OF the workmen' s
compensation law OF the state as had
been expected.
Il understand that great majority
of the operators have rejected the law,
said l.. E. Stamm secretary of the
state mine examiners They FOUND
that it was impossible TO form nu-
tual organization to carry their own
risks, since it was held that TO form
such an organization there would have
TO be 200 or more members. The result
was that they had 10 look TO the cas-
ualty Insurance organizations and the
rates demanded for carrying the risks
were simply prohibitive. But the OPP
orators are out only SO long a snay be
necessary to make some arrangements
when they can carry the risks and paE
under the law"
It is understood that the casualty
companies have insisted on rates five
or six times as great as the rates
charged m other states on mining
risks, especially where the state un-
dertakes to handle the funds for the
benefit OF employers and employees. So
the Iowa operators simply get from
under.
This means that in case of acct
dents the miners Will have an easy time
securing settlements. The OPP
orators VIII hardly dare go into court
in defense, with all the common law
defenses eliminated. and nothing 10
consider but the measure of damages
and that to be left TO an average jury.
1t is almost certain that this situation
viii mean a settlement out Of court OF
most of the damage claims
I'VE have about 100 men out and
away from the prison in camps where
they will stay for weeks and not he
within prison walls all summer" So
said Warden Sanders of the Fort Mad
ison prison.
There are camps Of convicts at
! Glenwood. Woodward and other places.
1 The men are selected as men most likely
4 to be trusted. They are placed under
strictest discipline. They are given
/ rules which they must follow under
| penalty of forfeiture of their good time
I and other considerations.
/ The result thus far has been excel
! lent. Only one man fell under the
I, temptation TO run away and ne was
caught. 1t is a severe penalty for his
transgression, for his act will cost him
several years of Imprisonment. unless
the sob squad takes up his case an6
decides that he would have made good
! if he had been permitted to violate the
prison rules with impunity.
! But there are also about 100 others
/ Of the prisoners at work practically
every week outside the prison walls,
! who return each night to the prison.
I Iowa has been doing more and going
! further in this direction than almost
! any of the states in Iowa's class.
With the problems in food sanitation
! pretty we'll out of the way for the sea
! son the power of the state food and
dairy department will now be concen-
! trated on the enforcement Of the
| weights and measures law Of the state
When the bill for the weights and
! measures department passed the house
! of the thirty-hfth general assembly i,
| provided for four persons to take
charge of it, but in the senate all were
! Topped off except one: so that the en-
tire duty of enforcing this law devolves
! on one person for the entire state The
result is that the testing of scales AMI
| investigation of weights and the meas
urement Of baskets, etc, has not been
done for the whole state. But now with
! other duties fairly out of the way
| the inspectors who are especially
equipped for creameries, for sanitation
and for pure food matters will be used
! to look up the weights matter.
The department finds there is room
for vast amount of work in this field.
The errors are not all one side either:
for it Is found that while some scales
are off so as to give the advantage to
! the seller there are many that are off
to give the advantage to the buyer
| Hence the necessity for testing out all
scales. A pretty thorough inspection
Of the state will be made for enforce
ment of the weights and measures
law.
Anxious inquirers about the status
of the American branches of foreign
insurance companies. because of the
war. are being informed by insurance
authorities that there is not the slight
est reason for alarm as to their condi-
ton, there are fifty or sixty of these
branches operating in the United
States. Under the insurance laws Of
the various states the branches have
10 % entirely independent. to main
tain their reserves and surplus in thi.
country, and in fact they are merel!
American companies using the names
of the foreign companies and having
some mutual interests.
1t is now figured that the great war
if it continues long. will immensely adc
to the Importance and the profit of til
insurance companies, there has bee
some tendency to reinsure in tn
foreign companies. This will be GU
off if the financial standing of thu
foreign companies is reduced by the
war
Prof. Frank Herriott is engaged il
making a complete report on the
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