Proceedings, Third National Conference Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents. National Conference on Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents
of figures which nobody reads and nobody pays any attention to, but it is an entirely different proposition to get back of those columns of figures and see what they stand for. These columns of figures stand for men's lives and they stand for the happiness of the family; yes, and they stand for the prosperity of the employer as well.
In looking up a state report the other day I found an analysis that interested me. It showed apparently that every householder in the State of Massachusetts was paying $30 a year indirectly on account of the industrial accidents and occupational diseases that occurred in that State. That is where the public comes in; it costs the public too much. Should not that be shifted back upon the employer, and if it is shifted back upon the employer, the employer will, if possible, prevent the accidents, because it costs a great deal less to furnish suitable protection for the machinery than it does to pay damages to the injured employe or to the families of those who are killed.
I want to say this for the trades unions; we do not wish to rob the employer; we do not wish any bill that will materially injure the employer. We want to stop the accidents. We do not want damages from the employers; we want our brothers to remain alive and able to do their work.
Chairman Mercer: Is there any member of the first Illinois Commission present?
Prof. Ernst Freund (Illinois): Professor Henderson asked me a few years ago to give a little assistance in the drafting of the measure that the Commission had decided upon, and that is the only share I had in the work of that first Illinois Commission. That Commission was appointed for the sole purpose of reporting upon schemes of insurance. The whole matter of compensation was, therefore, only indirectly involved; at the same time the report as to insurance was unlimited, as far as I know, and not limited to accidents, but the Commission thought wise to confine their recommendations to an insurance scheme covering simply the matter of accidents.
They found that it would have been extremely difficult to recommend or try to secure some plan of compulsory insurance, and for that reason it was finally suggested that there should be an opportunity offered for the employers to make a contract with the employes by which the employers and the employes together might substitute for the liability under the common law or statute a plan of insurance which was worked out with some care, to some extent upon the basis of the English act, one of the main features being that the employers and employes should contribute each one-half of the insurance premium. But the whole scheme was a tentative one, especially this feature, which was so much opposed, of the sharing of the cost of insurance between the employers and employes, and it was by no means suggested as a final solution. The whole matter was a tentative method of dealing with this problem, it being believed that in this way the plan of insurance might get a foothold in the State and might approve itself by experience.
At the same time there was a very strong opposition and perhaps Mr. Wright could speak to that point, because Mr. Wright was one of those who opposed that scheme very strongly, and nothing came of it. I may say that in the same year Massachusetts passed a very similar measure, and that measure has been in effect now for several years, I believe, with very little practical result.
I think the failure or lack of suggestion of the plan of Massachusetts was due to the fact perhaps that the public was not sufficiently familiarized with the scheme, and no determined effort was made to introduce it.
As I say, the matter was suggested in Illinois as a tentative solution, not by any means as anything final; and I think it was felt that a compensation scheme of some kind would probably be called for sooner or later, and that was the reason the Legislature was urged to make provision for a compensation commission, which commission is now studying the problem.
Massachusetts.
James A. Lowell (Massachusetts): I am the last thing in commissions, together with these other gentlemen with me. We are just about a day old, and not quite that old. We were appointed in a great hurry when the bill went through, in order to get here to listen and find out what was being done by the other States, and in order to make up our mind what should be done in Massachusetts.
The only thing I desire to say now is to explain the kind of a commission this is. Massachusetts has got so far under the resolution appointing us that they say, "We want other laws." We are not to investigate the question of whether other laws would be good or not; the Legislature has said, "We want other laws. The present laws are not satisfactory, and we will appoint five residents of Massachusetts to look into the matter and to see what kind of other laws are proper," and it is their command to us that we report at the next Legislature before the middle of next January some kind of a bill to change the law relating to injuries of workmen in Massachusetts.
As perhaps most of you know, there have been two commissions in Massachusetts, or, rather, one Commission and a Legislative Committee. The first Commission sat in 1904, and Carroll D. Wright was the chairman. A great many things were referred to that Commission, not only this subject, but the subject of injunctions and the subject of blacklisting, and so on. That Commission reported a workmen's compensation act framed after the English act. That has come up before each succeeding Legislature since then. Then in 1907, I think it was, a Legislative Committee was appointed and a great many things referred to them, not only this present subject, but also boycotting and things of that kind. That committee did not report or, rather, the minority of it reported in favor of the same act which the former Commission reported in favor of, but it has never been passed, although it has come up at every session, and we have annual sessions in Massachusetts. So this Commission has now been appointed with the mandate to bring in some kind of a bill to change the law.
I might be pardoned for saying a word about what seems to me to be the Massachusetts situation as it differs from others. Our industry there is largely factory industry. Of course, we have cotton mills and woolen mills, and boot and shoe factories, and all that sort of thing. It is a kind of an industry where, take it by large numbers, the injuries are probably a good many, but not very serious, so that a bill which might work well with a State where there were a good many hazardous trades, such as mining and not much manufacturing, might not work well in Massachusetts. Therefore what this Commission has to consider is some kind of a bill which we must report relating to the industries of Massachusetts which will be financially possible.
Of course, we also have the same difficulty which everybody else has as to getting a constitutional bill. I suppose a voluntary bill would be constitutional, but, as Professor Freund has just said, we have had a voluntary bill in Massachusetts for two years which allowed, in the first place, the employers to propose a scheme for compensation and thereby get out from under our employer's liability law, and which the next year was amended so the employes could propose the scheme. That has been on the statute books for two years, and no one has ever made the slightest attempt to come in under it, so that as far as our present situation goes the voluntary system is of no use in Massachusetts. After a great deal of advertisement, nobody at the present time cares about it. It seems to me that some kind of a compulsory law would be necessary to effect anything, and the great legal difficulty is in getting one which will stand the test of the courts.
Joseph A. Parks (Massachusetts): I listened very attentively to the delegates from New York, and while they have done some work there, I was a little disappointed, on the whole. I do not think they have gone far enough to please your humble servant. I notice that they have not included any manufacturing establishments whatever. Of course, that touches me, because I happen to be a mill operative for about thirty years, and we have mostly mills in my State.
I have introduced the bill for workmen's compensation in the Massachusetts Legislature for the last four years, the bill Mr. Lowell referred to, and, as has been stated, they have reported two different measures in two different years, and no one took any notice of them. In the mills in the city where I live, and in all the mill cities in Massachusetts, they have a great many more small accidents than they do of the serious ones. That is especially true in the weaver room, and I happen to be a weaver. We have a lot of things that are liable to take a finger off or injure an eye, or the shuttle is liable to come out of the loom suddenly, or you are liable to slip and get caught in the machinery. The machines are all crowded together, and a girl is liable to get her skirts or her hand caught in the machinery, and when little things like that occur, injuries that will possibly