The Winslow mail., 1925-09-18

creased cost of maintaining the
| courts, and by the cessation of the
relief bills covering injuries and
deaths which are introduced into
= every session of the legislature.
'As to the Commission becoming
political machine, as some of its
I critics urge, l can only call at
tention to its provisions which not
; only forbid political activity, but
. make the Commission itself bipar-
= tisan since not more than two com
. missioners may be of one political
: party.
''The election of remedies pro-
, vided in the law does not have to
be made at the time of employ
ment, but it is provided specifically
that the election may be made or
changed at any time prior to the
injury. Failure to make an cleo
: tion of remedies automatically
places the injured workman under
the compensation law.
"It should be remembered by the
working men and women that 71%
of all injuries sustained in industry
are durable in less than fourteen
days. Under the present system
the injured workmen receive moth
ing for such injuries, and beside
the loss of his wages, the expense
of medical attention falls upon the
injured man. There are of course
glaring exceptions to this rule as
| recall that in Cochise county the
working men maintain mutual
benefit associations which provide
against this contingency and in
the GlobeMiami district, one DOM
pany pays for the expense of medi-
cal attention. Otherwise the work
man himself pays. This new law
provides an accident benefit fund
which takes care of the expense
Of doctors, hospital, surgical opera
| tlons, nurses, artificial limbs, ct
cetera, from the time of injury, and
in addition after a seven day period
pays compensation from the time of
the injury.
The old cause of controversy,
the direct negotiation between the
injured workmen and the employer
or his insurance carrier, in which
one sought the greatest and the
other the least factor of compen-
sation, is eliminated The claims
are presented to the Commission.
The commission ascertains and de-
termines the kind of injury. The
law fixes the compensation and
the insurance carrier pays. The
employer has nothing to do with
it, he pays only the premium on
his insurance. The only person in
jured by the provisions of the new
law, is the personally injury law
yer. Of this kind of attorneys
there are two classes, the legiti-
mate ones whose practices is con-
fined to a clientele attracted by
their skill and standing in the
community-these have no obiec-
tion to such a law since they rec
ognize the benefits which will be
conferred upon the state by it's
adoption, and as to the other class,
which is opposed to the law, this
class with its staff of ambulance
chasers whose sole object in life
seems to be the pursuit and hound
ing Of the unfortunates injured in
industry, and by whose insidious
and Specious arguments, or more
direct and brutal browbeating lead
the unfortunate workman, or his
helpless dependents into the path
! of endless litigation from which
the lawyer and the ambulance
| chaser reap the benefit, and the
workman pittance wholly made
quate to compensate him for the
| injury sustained-does this class
, merit consideration?
Every one recognizes the right
of the injured workman and his
dependents to speedy and adequate
: compensation without recourse to
+; the courts, and without the inter-
vention of third party. The new
, law provides this kind of compen-
sation at the highest rate of COM
pensation to the workman, and the
lowest cost to the employer of any
similar law in the United States.
1t will eliminate the poverty line"
, the Zine that runs up and down
the earth and in and out of nearly
every street of every city, into the
homes of those who toll, wherever
they are. Three-fourths of the
children of men live on it, or near
it, or below it. This is known as
the poverty line It is no imagin-
ary line. 1t is so real that the pre-
mature explosion of dynamite or
gun podwer, a flying missile, an in
finitesimal fragment of steel blind
ing one, may force him and his
whole family to find that line in
the dark, to sink below that line,
never again to rise above it,
Before rejecting the new law,
may 1 not suggest to you to ask
your readers, individually, to stop
and consider what an accident in
their occupation would mean to
them. Could they maintain their
standard of living if deprived of a
means of livelihood, or would they,
too, without the compensation pro-
vided in this law, find that poverty
line in the dark, to sink below it,
| never perchance to rise again."
CERTIFICATE
on TNICODDOD AnTnNY