The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-05-01

When the Industrial Insurance Act
was before the legislature of the State
Of Washington, advocates of that
measure were profuse in their assur-
ances that if it became a law the fl
nancial burden of accidents to work
men engaged in doing the useful work
of the state would be borne by the in
dustry.
Labor was also assured that because
of the method of fixing the rates of
premiums to be paid, the employers
of the state would be financially inter-
ested in safeguarding their employees.
The law as originally proposed and
agreed to between representatives
of the employers and employees car
ried with it first aid" provision.
This clause was designed to relieve
the employee from the necessity of pro-
viding medical and hospital treatment
during the first several weeks after
an accident occurred.
Despite this agreement, the tools of
the interests in the legislature
caused this section OF be stricken from
the bill.
Discussing the history of this legis-
lation, Hamilton Higday, formerly
member of the Industrial Insurance
Commission and now assistant secre-
tary of the Seattle Port Commission,
in an address said:
"First Aid" Controversy.
"The first aid controversy is this:
When the compensation act was draft
ed by five employers and five repre-
sentatives of labor appointed by the
governor as a commission, it was the
agreement that their recommends
tons should be backed in the legis-
lature by both labor and capital. The
law, as thus proposed, provided, first,
that an injured workman should re-
ceive out of the first aid fund neces-
sary medical and hospital expenses,
including transportation to the hos
pital, and receive S. per week for the
first three weeks, and second, the
law provided that after three weeks
the present scale of awards should be
applied for the disabilities, the time
loss (wage time loss), or dependen-
cies which the accidents caused.
The Hospital Fee System.
Nov, the lumberman knocked out
the first aid provision in violation of
They did this because there is in OPP
good faith, and left a one-legged law
GRAFTON in the state of Washington a
hospital ticket system which in many
instances, as it actually operates, is
an unlawful extortionate exaction and
an unholy and indefensible graft. 1t
gives a control by certain corpora
lions over their employees which out
weighs its advantages and allows a
type of contract doctor to collect a
fat income on the dollar a month
taken out of the mems wages and give
them such careless or incompetent
treatment as to result in many afro
cious cases of surgical malpractice
and outrageous professional neglect
Our statistics show that of the
100000 men under this act, 575 per
cent are under the benevolent COM
pulsion of this deduction from wage,
pay in advance, installment system,
and personally putting up the medical
cost of treating accidents. The spirit
of the age insists that industry should
bear the cost of it's accidents and
Washington is alone among the states
which have enacted compensation
laws where the workman is not pro-
vided medical treatment by the en-
ployer or by the state. In other
words, 10000 men are contributing 81
month in the lumber trades, on con-
struction trades, etc. This makes an
accident fund contributed by employ
es of nearly one millions dollars per
year. 1t is a sum equal to that which
the employers contributed last year
Employers pridefully say: we take
care of our injured men They mean