Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-09-08
NOW ALL ABOARD
FOR COMPENSATION
The Success of Pennsylvania's New
Act Depends Largely on How
Efficiently It Is Manned,
Especially at Outset
BY RAYMOND C. FULLER

Bv RAYMOND G. FULLER
TNHE critical period for workmen's COM
l. pensation In Pennsylvania has just begun
This is not minimizing the difiiculties pre-
cedine and attending the legislative adoption
Of one Of the leading planks in the progress
sive platform of Governor Brumbaugh, by
which action the last of the great industrial
Commonwealths to Join the forward move
ment toward Justice for the wounded Of in
dustry enrolled itself with the majority OF
the American states. Nor is this critical
period because Of any danger that Pennsyl-
vanla will backslide into the clutches OF that
infamous trio known as assumption OF
risk" "contributory negligence and fellow
servant rule" Every State that has yet
tried compensation has been abundanty
satisfied 70 keep on, those with elective laws
advancing to compulsory laws In many In
stances. and those beginning with 80 per
cent. schedule Of payments advancing to
higher one, usually a two thirds schedule.
The principal aim now is to administer the
present law with such efficiency and good
judgment as will promote the good feeling
of employers and employees one with another
and establish firmly a friendly attitude
toward the uct on the part of all concerned
Yesterday the board on which will fall
the duty OF administering the farthest ad-
vanced compensation law in America met
for organization. Upon the yet unproVen
ability and tactfulness Of its members, work.
ing as a body, much depends-not all, but
much. If these men measure up to their re-
sponsibilties and opportunities as did the
men Of the Industrial Accident Board of
Massachusetts in the beginning Of compen-
sntion in the Bay State, IL will be the good
fortune not only of Pennsylvania but Of the
nation. They have law. framed as to
make comparatively easy their task as pro-
moters of better feeling in industry. The
employers have apparently given up all
thought of continuing their obstructionist
tactics. The once-eXpected fight in the
courts is not going to come off. The promise
of general cooperation is bright.
Compensation Act on Trial
The public at large should take a leaf out
Of the notebook of Massachusetts and watch
the early history of compensation in this
State in that helpful spirit which is not
quick to jump at conclusions every time
somebody hollers. Adjustment of the law to
conditions and adjustment Of conditions to
the law will take time. 1t must not be said
in haste that things are wrong with the
compensation law. Board rulings will smooth
out some of the apparent difficulties. EXpe-
rience will show where the act itself will
require Legislative amendment The act is
on trial, but the Judge is Experience, not
Fault Finder If all goes well Pennsylvania
will have a compulsory act in 1917, and that
will be an improvement on an excellent
starter.
When l speak of "the farthest advanced"
compensation law do not mean quite the
same thing as best" There is no best
as yet. What Pennsylvania has done is to
make use of the experience Of more than a
score Of compensation States and adapt the
results of observation and study to condi-
tons in Pennsylvania. And from now
Massachusetts and New York and Ohio and
Washington will learn from Pennsylvania as
Pennsylvania has learned from Washington
Ohio New York and Massachusetts, or 1t
will be the worse for all concerned. Every
compensation State will have to revise its
law, and then revise again and again, not
only to meet local conditions, but to fulfil
the purpose of workmen's compensation as
a principle. Ten or 20 years from now, may
be 3O hardly a compensation act now in ex-
istence in this country will be recognizable
as such by memory of its present looks. The
truth is, Of course, that today there is not
a single thoroughgoing compensation law in
America. This is due largely to the necessity
of compromise, but American Kultur-the
Kultur of democracy-is rapidly making
progress and a splendid efficiency in the
body economic, based on enlightened, al
truistic self-interest on the part of both
wage-earners and wage-payers, will make
OF compromise vastly different thing from
what it is today in the field Of social legisla-
tion. The part which workmen's compensa-
tion will play in this process, which, indeed,
1t is already playing, is of the highest i'm
portance
An Era of Better Feeling
Compensation laws. without exception,
have increased the better feeling which
marks the relations of employers and en-
ployes and the same effect will doubtless
become manifest in Pennsylvania.
The number Of employers in this State who
Will adopt the compensation plan is yet un-
certain. Many seem TO be still in doubt as
to the comparative cost OF compensation
and the modified form of employers liability.
They are likewise more or less in the dark
concerning the comparative cost of the sew
eral forms or methods of compensation in
surance' Moreover, they are awaiting the