Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-12-24
A WOMAN OFFICIAL

VIZ ASHINGTON, d. c., Dec. 19.-Whether
| wv a man was murdered or committed
W suicide is one of the interesting points
on which Mrs. Albert Brueggeman must ex4
press an official opinion in the course of her
| work on the employees compensation commits
| sion. If the man in question, a government
employee, was murdered, his widow and chill
dren who are left dependent would receive
compensation. If he committed suicide, there
by deliberately cutting off their means of sup
port, the government can not be responsible
| for his dependents.
Comparatively few people outside of the
government service realize that Uncle Sam
makes himself responsible for injuries con-
| tracted by his employees V lille in the line Of
| duty And still fewer know that the govern
| ment compensation commission sets high
standard for institutions of this sort.
| The government compensation act is like
the workmen's compensation act Of the states
and yet in several ways it is quite different.
| AS Mrs. Brueggeman, one of the commission
| ers, points out:
1.-THE govel ment is far more liberal to it's
workers than employers in the states are re-
CURED to be. In the states, it is the private
employer Of labor who has to pay when a
workman is allowed compensation for an in
! jury. To pay the compensation and at the
| same time hire a new man in the injured
workmans place may be a serious financial
| burden to the employer. So the state COM
missioners must read the law very closely.
But the government can afford to be more
| liberal to it's employees. 1t really wants to
come to the assistance of it's employees when
| they are disabled through their work
For instance, if two men in government
| machine shop were scuffling and one fell
against a machine and was hurt, how should
the case be decided? Should the men have
been scuf1ng? Was it their own lookout that
| the accident occurred.
"In a case of this Sort the government Is
apt to be broader in it's decision than state
commission could be. Workmen are human
| beings, not machines. And the injury may
| leave family destitute for months.
| cat the same time, the government COM
pensat1on law states plainly that no cOmpen-
sation can be awarded for an accident due to
carelessness on the part of the person in
| jured. Nor will the government assume re-
sponsibiltty for person injured while intoXi-
Gated, or for one who deliberately kills or in
| jures himself. So the commissioners have to
| consider every detail of the evidence and act
as board of judges to decide"
Mrs. Brueggeman is the newest commits
sioner-the woman on the board. Her fell
low commissioners, John Keegan and Charles
Berrill, have suggested her for chairman, and
President Harding is now considering the
matter:
| From conversation with Mrs. Bruegge-
man, you would say that she is a good choice
sympathy for the person Who is injured and
for the family which is more often than not
an equal sufferer. But she is at the same
| time Conscientious One of her duties is to
see that the government is not taken adva1l-
tage of.
II wish didn't take it quite so seriously"
she said with rather Wistful smile. 81 dream