Oxford eagle., 1922-10-26
Urge Good Roads and Workmen's
Compensation Act to Aid State

ways of other states in all directions.
Mississippi citizens can help tfeir
highway department to make Missis-
sippi a greater state and better
place to live by voting on Nov. for
the Constitutional Amendment. This
amendment, if carried, positively will
not encroach on the rights or author
ity of Boards of Supervisors. On the
contrary, it will help them.
The Development Board regards ets
forts to obtain a state workmen's
compensation act as most important
feature of it's program Among the
first questions that may occur to many
are: Does workmen's compensation
pay both employer and employe, and
does it operate efficiently and salts
factorily in states that have adopted
it?
Workmen's Compensation Act.
Workmen's compensation has been
written into the federal statutes and
is on the statute books of over twenty
states. From both employers and en-
ployes of these states the answer to
both above questions is an emphatic
yes"
Adoption of this policy has brought
Capital and Labor into such relations
that there has come to exist moral
obligation on Capital to compensate
Labor for injury received in the per-
formance of duty. Where there is no
workmen's compensation act, each
iase of injury to an employe is an in
dividual case to be adjusted between
employer and workman, most often in
the courts and at great expense In
time and money for both parties. i
The old-time individualistic system
brought about a condition where ev-
cry employe was an incipient litigant
against his employer. The workmen's
compensation act changes this, for
both employer and employe are pro-
tected and each is benefited. The en-
ployer is enabled to reduce costs, do
away with unknown hazards, elimi-
nate waste and to fairly discharge his
obligation 10 an employe injured in
his service. The employe is assured
of fair compensation for his injury or
loss of time without tedious and ex-
pensive litigation or arousing animos-
ity through court proceedings.
Under the individualistic system IL
an employe accidentally loses finger
at his work, there frequently develops
battle OF wits between the injured
man and the claim agent, next be-
tween the claim agent and the "ambu-
lance chaser lawyer acting for the
employe, and later a battle royal in
the courts between attorneys for en- !
ployer and employe. Regardless of |
which party wins the legal battle, !
both employer and employe are in
volved in heavy expense and very
often, even if the employe is victor. |
the greater part of the sum awarded I
him by the court goes to his attorney
as fees.
Operation of the Act, |.
But under the standardized general
principle of workmen's compensation,
the state, itself, declares first. that
there is a moral and financial obliga-
tion resting on the employer to reim- i
burse the employe injured in line Of
duty: second, that under existing eco ;
nomic conditions there is known f. ;
nancial relation between the impair
ment Of the workman's efficiency by /:
any specific injury and his former
earning power, and third, that an in
jury does not constitute in principle
real grievance and reason for going to
law, but merely creates new rela-
tion between the man and the busi-
ness, which has a fixed financial .
status and is not subject to long /,
drawn-out quibbling or mutation.
Workmen's compensation acts have
bettered the morale of labor, have '
helped to greatly lessen the per capita !
of injuries, have enabled employers to
reduce their court litigation to a min
imum, have saved them money in in '
surance premiums, damages and at
torney's fees, and employees have gain
ed by the fact that every cent Of the
awarded compensation goes to the en-
ploye and nothing to the lawyer. The I
employer saves money; the employe !,
gains it.
f