The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-07-19
State Accident Fund Inevitable.
(Rutland Herald. }

some tault IS beng found by manu- !
facturers with the rates charged by |
the liability companies, and many
have signitied an intention to carry
their own insurance. This they can
do by satisfying the board that they
are financially responsible 1t is said
that when they so signify there is a
cutting of rates in order to get the
business At the present time the liza
bility rates are three times what they
were last year which employers think
are too steep. Many employers around
Montpelier, especially quarry owners
and large granite plants, who are
financially able, have secured permis-
sion from the board to carry their
own Observation-Disclosures Item in Mont
| pelier Argus.
| This situation was inevitable from
| the beginning. The liability com
panies have been in many states the
most troublesome factor that industrial
| insurance commissions and accident
| boards have had to deal with. This
| arises from two causes, % a we'll
| founded conviction that workmen s
compensation means in the end the de-
struction of the liability insurance
business, (2) a natural desire to make
as much profit as possible from a
| business in which the risks are great
and the opportunity limited
The employer s desire to ''carry his
own risk is not first-class insurance
wisdom, but, with the Vermont law in
it's present form, he must either ac-
cept this alternative or re-insure.
| When he carries his own risk ne runs
a chance of having series Of acct
dents that viii cripple him financially
when he re-insures with liability
company, he pays, in addition to the
legitimate insurance cost, profits, com
missions, salaries, office expenses and
the huge overhead expense of securing
maintaining and extending large
business.
The obvious escape is through state
insurance, by no means an ideal sys
tenn, but apparently necessary as a
check on liability rates, regulated as
they are by an interstate agreement
probably contrary to law, if the actua
facts could be procured.
The Vermont Legislature, for reasons
already explained, failed to provide
for fund to be administered by the
state, although mutual agreements arc
] permitted The latter, however, would
. demand a working organization Il
care for the fund, as the industrial ac
cidcnt board has no authority to han
die employers money.
The result is that the larger EN-
ployers are refusing to pay the en-
$ HANGED rates of the liability com
4 panies, and are preparing to carr.
I their own risks. This is a hazardou
. experiment, as the employer thereb.
has no distribution of risk, but in cas-
of bad luck will be hit hard-har'
enough, perhaps, if a series of acct
dents should happen, to put him out o
Q business.
:, The act should be amended so tina
0 the granite manufacturers, for exam
Q pie, could insure themselves by q mu
: tual agreement, assessing a certain pei
centage on their pay-rolls and depos
ting the same in a state fund, froI
Z which accident costs would be met
{ This fund could be kept up to ceI
tain mark and. assessments made q
| often as necessary to maintain it.
The same privilege would extend t
y the marble manufacturers, the lumber
d men, the street railroads, the construt
Is ton trades, etc. all of which coul
n be grouped on the basis of associate
! risks and permitted to insure then
= selves through q state fund.
Two or three severe individual losse
rs will speedily demonstrate to the en-
G. ployer the danger of carrying his ow
g risk. and the demand for a state az
-. cident fund will be so insistent b
1917 that the state will be compelle
. to amend the law.
rs The present situation makes it ineN
he liable.