Semi-weekly herald., 1915-02-15

SONS as to what Is proper oettie-
ment This accomplishes two vastly
important things, it disposes Of minor
differences, which when accumulated,
develop III feeling, and in the mass
seem adequate to one side or another
for violent action; and it makes avail
able in an authoritative form, so woe
fully lacking in the troubles of the
past year, the facts involved in the
differences between employer and em-
ploye, so that public opinion can con-
fidently and unitedly bring its power
full influence to bear.
1t is proposed that this commission
shall take over and operate all boards
and bureaus bearing on industrial re-
lations-mine inspectors, factory in
spectors, boiler inspectors, minimum
wage boards, each department of
health and sanitation having to do
| with these relations, so that it shall
| be in touch constantly with every pos
sible channel through which friction
might arise.
In addition. it is proposed that this
commission shall administer the
workmen's compensation act. The
theory of the workmen's compensa-
tion act is to replace completely, in
order to meet the change of relation
in modern days of employer and en-
| ployes, the common law liabilities. 1t
assumes that the workman's life and
health, as each wears out in the SER
vice of an industry, should be COM
pensated out of the profit Of that in
dustry, exactly as is the waste and
depreciation in machinery. This doc
trine has come TO commend itself to
practically every civilized nation of
the globe. 1t is today the doctrine
adopted in twenty-four states of the
union with promise that very short
ly all our states will accept it. In
its administration the expense of
court procedure is practically elm
mated; scale of compensation is pro-
vided for every contingency, and the
only question arising on death or dis
ability is whether the employe was
at the time in the service of the en-
ployer, what disability he suffered
and what his recompense shall be in
the classification.
| Everyone must recognize that with
the increasing hazard of the many
occupations which are essential to our
industrial prosperity, the danger of
| injury and death to which the indi-
vidual workman is subjected has been
multiplied many fold when compared
to which he was subjected when the
rules os the common law were devel-
oped and adopted, and which, though
modified by statute, form the basis
for the liability of the employer to
the workman at the present time.
The law in this respect has become
as complex, and the machinery of the
courts has become so involved that in
| the case of injury the workman has
little knowledge of his rights and is
| compelled to resort to the advice of
attorneys whose interest commonly
lies in litigation rather than an adj
justment. The frequent result is that
| the injured person enters upon a pro-
tracted lawsuit with his employer in
which the result is uncertain and in
the event of success the recovery
| must be shared in greater or less pro-
portion with his attorney. Whatever
| may be the financial result, such liti-
cation must be extremely bitter in
its character, and ordinarily in spirit
of hostility not only the employer and
the workman but also the associates
of the latter. The most that can be
| expected by the injured workman is
n recovery which must be charged
with a large sum by way of expenses
| and then divided with the attorney
who has done nothing more than con-
vince courts and puries of an obliga-
tion which in fact existed the instant
the injury was sustained.
The situation of the employer is
no more enviable than that of his
workman. While in some instances he
is personally culpable for the injury
of the employees, a large proportion of
such accidents occur from danger in
herent from the occupation and from
dangers against which the utmost hu-
man foresight cannot guard. The
voluntary making of compensation by
the employer, regardless of legal liza
bility, upon basis proposed by the
attorney for the injured workman,
would so increase the individual en-
ployer's cost of production that he
| would be left behind in the race by