The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-01-27

perience of dealing with lawyers who surely
know their value.
Now let us see what compensation the injured
is getting at best:
For temporary disabilities:
In fourteen states 66 2-3 per cent of the
wages; seven states 65 per cent: three
states, SIS per cent; Hawaii and the rest
so per cent.
Thrty-four states have a maximum number
of weeks during which temporary compensation
may be paid, or maximum number of dollars
that may be paid. This maximum limit ranges
from 1900 to $500. All these laws except thoso
in Oregon and South Dakota provide for
waiting period after the accident during which
no compensation is paid. In five states it is less
than week; in 90 states it is seven days, in
three states it is 10 and in four, it is IA days.
We have also the docking of the waiting period
if the disability is less than a fixed number of
weeks.
Tor permanent total disabled and permanent
nartial disabled workers do not fare better than
"mnorary disabled In these cases the lawyers
benefit most .
The general results are: that the so per cent
or even the 66 % per cent is not enough to
maintain the existence and in the thirty four
states where the maximum limit is set it simply
for longer period he or she is not getting any
thing and is left to starvation plus doctor and
Medicine expenses Not to speak about those
who remain with crippled hand, foot etc
The determination when disabled is fit to
70 back to his occupation puts many of the
category of workers in quite a miserable hole,
Compensation in Case of Death.
Nine states and Alaska pay to the dependents
in of death of the worker a lump sum rang
ing from the total of 1000 to $3.50 exception is
Alaska where maximum is 1900.
How helpless widow can be secured with
such a sum for a lifetime, remains question,
unless she is in position to go to work in
factory.
Twenty four states are paying the dependent
weekly payments which range from 675 to
14.75 week setting maximum amount which it
shall not exceed This maximum amount ranges
from total of 5000 to total of 1900.
Only six states are paying for life or until
remarriage of dependent widow or wdower
This pay ranges on an average OF s1o44 weekly.
And on top of all this is the business with law
yers, courts and the state compensation boards
THEORETICALLY claiming to represent the workers
but in reality serving the employers.
striking example of court procedure was
a case in the state of New York where gang
leader doreman) employed in construction work
by Mccarthy V. Walsh Construction Company
was killed November 81 1926 and the was
dragged and dragged because the company
claimed that the foreman was crossing the track
looking for drink although all the evidence
proved time and again that he was searching
for the material to prepare for the gang work
for the next day.
That these compensation laws are inadequate,
obscure and in operation even rotten is known
not only to the workers, but even the A. F. Of L
union officials are forced to admit that state
compensation laws are inadequate. The excuse
that these labors takers give, Is that legislation
is often passed in ignorance or oversight of the
inevitable consequences.
It is the class character of our laws. Only by
organizing into militant industrial unions and
into the political party of their own class strug-
gle into the Communist Party of the U. S. A.
Only by these methods will the workers be in a
position to bring mass pressure and to force
|. these capitalist politicians to enact more ade
quate compensation laws, better safety codes in
the interest Of the workers