The Connecticut labor news., 1923-12-29
PLAN PROTECTIVE.
 REAL LABOR LAWS
Congress and States Urged to Adopt Safety and Health Legislation
 Old Age Pensions Favored.

vent mine accidents, to provide work
 mems accident compensation for
 workers in private employments in the | District of Columbia, to llberallze the
 benefits of state compensation laws,
 to stabilize employment, to extend
 the benefits of the federal maternity
 act, and to give wider application to
 state old age pensions, are included
 in the immediate legislative program
 urged for adoption at the I7th annual
 business meeting of the American As
 sociation for Labor Legislation in the
 New Willard here today. > The District of Columbia is the
 most benighted spot in the United 1 States in the treatment afforded to the victims of industrial accidents" associations staff, after special in vestigation.
 Many structural iron workers, car penters, painters, wagon drivers,
 laundry operatives, furniture movers,
 and electrical workers, to mention
 only few of the more hazardous
 trades, are daily paying their toll to
 the Districts industries in loss ot lite
 and limp. Recovery of damages un- der the antiquated law of the District is practically impossible. Of about one hundred recent accident cases in vestigated, not one worker who was seriously injured received adequate recompense. Insurance adjusters offered them twenty-five dollars for a broken leg, or eight hundred dollars for a life, more often nothing at all.
 AesGFaag id Workmens M6s Sh9OO com ths pensation bill, similar to laws in force in most of the states, will pro- tect accident victims from the profes- l sional liability insurance adjpsters and the outworn common law doctrines l now holding sway in the District. It will provide medical care and two thirds of wages during disability, to be paid out of a district-wide em- l p1oyers' mutual insurance fund under l supervision of the United States Elm ployes Compensation Commission.
 Tt is to be expected" she asserted, | "that the bill will have the opposition of commercial insurance agents, but a workmen's compensation law must among other things, protect workmen against insurance adjusters, thing insurance interests will do. The bill has the united support of public spirited citizens, the District Fedora tion of Labor, and other local labor organizations; the Association for Labor Legislation, the Women's Trade Union League, and the Ameri- | can Federation of Labor"
 John A. Lapp, director of the De partment of Social Action of the Ma tional Catholic Welfare Council, de- clared that the program of social in surance which is destined finally to cover the major calamities of social and economic life, has had it's great est forward advance during the last year in the provision for old age pen sions.
 Three states" he said, enacted laws to pension worthy people over 70 years of age: Montana, Nevada and Pennsylvania took the lead in the procession of states which will even tually reach all states as similar pro- sessions have done in providing mo- thers' pensions and workmen's com pensation for industrial accidents, Montana and Nevada putting the plan into immediate operation, while Penn sylvania provided for the setting up of the machinery and the beginning of operations during the coming two years, with expectancy of an adequate at the next Legislative session."
 Dr. Lapp stated that the one set back to date in the program was i'll Ohio where through lack of sufficient preparation" an initiated bill was defeated at the polls in Nov ember.
 Irene Osgood Andrews, assistant secretary of the Association for La Dor Legislation, urged that Congress provide increased appropriations for cooperation under the -Towner Maternity and In fancy Act.
 At present" she said, "Congress is to. appropriate annually sI, ,24oooo. This is small sum for our extensive country when compared f with the many millions spent each year by most European states"
 Mrs. Andrews stated that the ap- high death rates in Hawaii, Porto Rico, and the Philippines in , Heated that it will be necessary to extend in the near future the benefits of the measure to our island posses ,ions
 "Thc many activities initiated by ion of the federal maternity act" she Indicates that splendid progress is being made towards re- lucing the needlessly high death rate ,f mothers and babies in the United States. Cooperation with the federal ( government through the Sheppard r Towner law has been established in 2 II but eight states" |
 Commissioner Charles H. Verrill of he United States Employees Conpen C ation Commission, discussing prog r ess under the federal employees com ensation act, declared that the law | hould be amended so as to increase C he compensation benefits. Ii
 In this connection he cited the case b f a rural letter carrier who had an r of both feet and both l'