The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1922-06-03
MINNESOTA EMPLOYERS
Want MONEY REFUNDED

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WANT MONEY REFUNDED
Continued from page y
jured workers, :~'hereas employers
liability applied only to cases grow
ing out Of the employers negligence,
full and just payments for injuries
and death could not be paid by Min
nesota industries If they were to
continue to carry the private insur-
ance companies on their backA Just
compensation under such insurance
would compel prohibitive rates, for
the private companies would con-
tinue to exact the 20 per cent mar
gin they received under the old sys-
tenn.
The state fund plan contem plates
the use for compensation Of every
dollar paid into tn T.: by the en-
ployers,' less an adj Illustration cost
of not exceeding Il per cent as
against 70 per cent charged by pri-
vate companies. Indeed the fund
could safely be carried by the pres
ent state industrial commission, the
cost Of which is paid by the tax
payers, at but a, slight increase in
overhead expenses. insurance and
safety go hand in hand. The state
could combine the two. az the pri-.
vate insurance companies have long
done, and the people, the injured
IL. <An nlnvarR' wnr11H
be the beneficiaries.
A state fund, established and ad
ministered as above defined, would
permit without additional cost to
the employers! Of tn payment Of
compensation to injured employees
for the entire period of their disa-
bility, and the dependents of those
killed lin industry during the COM
plete period of their d :pendency.
Such 4 plan would justly meet the
great social probler'. the presence
of which prompted the enactment
by the state of workingmens' COM
pensation legislation.
Solves No Problem.
The system now obtaining in Mime
sofa has solved no social problem. 1t
is unsatisfactory to employers as
we'll as employees. Its only sure bene-
ficiary is the private insurance COM
pany, which no longer faces the risk
and uncertainty Of employers La
bilfty.~ Its business IL now as certain
and as sure as any business can be.
There is no longer any fear OF, eek
cessive" verdicts resulting from the
whim or caprice Of jury. The law
fixes the limit Of the amount they
shall pay and their rates are based
accordingly and with mathematical
exactness.
If the state were a private insti-
tuition every employer in Minnesota
would have regarded it as good bus
mess to provide. for state fund,
just as the big corporations now
carry their own insurance. They
would have stood for g. state fund
anyway and were gradually coming
to it, when the cunning and adroit
agents Of the private companies
raised the bogy of state social
ISM" It worked. Governor Preus
capitalized it and took advantage Of
the prejudice against socialism gen.
orally by emphasizing the danger"
of state insurance AS an entering
wedge for state socialism,
The "Socialist' Scare.
Popular opinion seems at present
to be against having the state 60
into any business that private per-
sons can do as well. II there is any
business in which the state can ex-
eel that business 10 workingmens'
compensation insurance. Wherever
q state or nation once takes charge
Of collecting and disbursing indus
trial accident funds It never goes
back to the old system. The private,
profit-making insurance companies
are through forever.
Industrial accident insurance Diff
fers from all other forms Of insur-
ance and from nearly every other
business. 1t is distinctly the function
and duty of the state to provide IA
cilities for the prompt and full pay
ment Of compensation to injured
workers. There should be no profit
in it for anyone. and there would not
Oc Al VIC pcOQAS ADSOOA SSS PNA
pose Of workingmens' compensation.
Rules of Negligence. !
The law, as old as our civilization,
and until workinSmens' compensa-.
ton was provided. held employers
liable for only such accidents A. re-.
suited from their, negligence. AS
industry developed the courts set
up rules to protect employers from
thoughtless and : careless workers.
They held that >whenl an sccident
occurred, even though the nsgli-
gence Of the employer was. admitted
and the employee knew that !, the:
place in which he worked was un-i
safe, If he was injured 1T such work
he could not recover, for he had
assumed the risk and thereby abb
solved the employer from liA bility.
If both. employer and employe
were negligent and smother enhploye
was injured ~ = result Of their neg:
ligence many courts barre4 recovery
to the injured man under their rule
Of the fellow servant" In like man
ner when an injured smploye had