The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-03-08
private insurance than they are now

H"y AA6s
The bill for state insurance spe-
officially exempts the employer from
further liability after he has paid his
dues to the state fund. And this is
as it should be unless the employer
has showed rank carelessness in safe
guarding places of danger when he
should be otherwise penalized, as he
will be under the factory law. AS we
gather experience under state insur-
ance there is little likelihood of state
funds becoming insolvent. No state
fund has ever yet failed, although in
Washington several years ago the
powder mill fund of the state fund
was overdrawn through the explosion
of the lone powder mill in the state
when a number of men were killed.
Through a defect in the law money
could not be transferred from the
fund of one industry to another. This
has since been remedied and no fur
Their complaint has been made from
that source. There are numerous
cases, however, where individuals and
companies even in this state have
been financially unable to pay COM
pensation claims. State insurance
protects injured workingmen against
this sort of employers and corpora
lions.
The employers have no need to
worry about the probability of liabil-
ity under the common law after they
shall have paid their state insurance
dues. The courts can be depended
upon to protect them in all their
rights, and to see that no injustice is
done to them. But the laborer must
! not be denied justice as he is fire.
quently denied it under the present
law and system.
The so-called "casuaP' workers are
not included in the compensation act
now, it is true. We could not have
passed any kind of compensation act
in Minnesota had they been included,
with private companies doing the un-
( derwriting, but under state insur-
ance the state will find it necessary
to ultimately cover them in the law.
State insurance can care for them,
while the high rates charged by prl-
vate companies prohibit employers OF
"casual'' laborers from carrying in
surance for them now.
Part of the expense of this Estate
experiment." to quote the Duluth
Herald, is to be paid out of the state
funds. There is good argument fol
such a provision. State insurance
will relieve the courts Of considerable
time and expense. Workingmen's
compensation has saved the tax pay.
ers thousands upon thousands of dol
lars every year since it's adoption in
Minnesota. The people of the state
at large have been saved money in
taxes which was formerly expended
in trying master and servant cases in
the courts. It was said to cost Hen
nepin county 800 day to try master
and servant cases. Twenty-one pei
cent of the cases tried in St. Louis
county were employers liability. The
cost of such trials has been saved the
tax payers, and they should not now
seriously object to bearing their share
of the cost of administering state in.
surance which will relieve them OF
the expense Of financing the courts
for hearing either employers liabil-
ity or compensation cases.
The bill provides for three FIVE
thousand dollar jobs, and how the
claim agents have paraded this feat.
ure OF the bill. It really does look
cheap along side of the $4,000 and
100000 salaries they pay. The
three men to constitute the commits
sion will be paid each $4,000 year
These men will administer the fund
They will employ insurance experts
and others to work out all the details
of organization, and there will be nc
more danger of politics creeping into
state insurance than it has found its
way into the tax commission or board
of control.
The weak provision in the bill per.
mits self insurance. The Labor World
believes the state monopoly should
be complete, but the provision is no,
vital to the success of the plan. The
employers who now carry self insur-
ance will find in due time that state
insurance will be cheaper and more
satisfactory. This has proved to be
the case in Ohio, and in other coun-
tries. Such employers have found il
| more advantageous to pay into fund
that will distribute the burden to all
the industries in their class within
the state. The high charge for private