The labor advocate. [volume], September 02, 1916, Page 8, Image 8

About The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937

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THE LABOR ADVOCATE
Compensation For Injuries
By WILL J. ROHR
Former Commissioner and Secretary to Ohio Employers' Liability Commissi)
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(Editor's Note At the Annual Con
vention of the International Labor Press
of America, held at Cincinnati, Ohio,
arrangements were made whereby a
series of special articles from the pen
of men who have made a thorough study
of the matter upon which they write,
will appear simultaneously in the col
umns of those papers. The first comes
from the pen of Mr. Will J. Kolir, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, who has gained a wide
reputation through his study and writ
ings upon those topics in which labor is
intensely interested.)
Liability insurance companies are re
sponsible for the various laws dealing
Will .1. Itolir.
with workmen's compensation. True,
they deny the soft impeachment.
Organized labor, employers, judges
and lawyers were the instruments which
nnally combined to write the fundamen
tal principles underlying the idea of in
part trying to offer some slight compen
sation to a worker when injured, and in
a small measure relieving distress to a
family that lias suffered the loss of its
principal breadwinner.
In the State of Ohio, October (!, JUKI
the first 12-ccutinieler gun began to
smash the old industrial system that
human life was the cheapest thing around
an industrial plant. That gun and am
munition was furnished by the indem
nity insurance companies.
"Liability insurance companies doing
business in a single Slate for three
years, collected $2:i,fi2:i,.r.sr., and they
paid out in settlements of suits, $8,r()!),
7'K'i. '
The Ohio Commission found that less
than as per cent of those recoveries by
suits at law and settlements, ever reach
ed the injured workman or the hands of
his widow or his orphans.
In (!.',()() cases passing through one
indemnity insurance manager's hands,
the record shows that approximately only
(i per cent of those injured ever receiv
ed anything, while ill per cent of those
injured either temporarily, partial or
total disability, or in case of death, re
ceived nothing.
i ins is now tne indemnity insurance
companies assisted in bringing about
workmen s compensation laws.
The fundamental and underlying priu
ciplcs which were written into work
men s compensation laws in some twen
ty-two foreign countries had to do with
reducing the number of accidents, the
necessity of immediate surgical attention
to an injured workman, the placing of a
stated amount of money in the hands of
the injured party or his dependents, and
doing away with the possibility of frit
tering and long delays in placing awards.
All available statistics in the United
States bore out the contention that the
number of accidents, both those inher
ent to the business and those incurred
through carelessness or indifference on
the part of the workmen or employer,
could be reduced to a minimum. And
that might best be done by making it
compulsory upon the State or other agent
to see that every workman should re
ceive something, and that the principle
of placing the burden of doing this
should eventually be borne by industry.
In a conference participated in by
representatives of the Federal govern
ment and a large number of commis
sioners from several of the larger States,
held at Chicago, III., November It). 11,
IS, 1010, an attempt was made to unite
upon a plan or a form of compensa
tion law, which would not work a hard
ship upon any one State's industries.
The fact was brought out that the con
stitution of some of these States would
not permit that form of compensation
known as State insurance, i. e., a fund
contributed by the employers and ad
ministered and disbursed by a State
Hoard or Industrial Commission.
The record of industrial indemnity in
surance companies was so black, that
when the Employers' Liability Commis
sion of Ohio gathered in executive ses
sions to formulate a plan and write a
law, the idea uppermost was to the
effect : If absolute, quick and sure com
pensation was to be looked for, then all
middlemen or intermediaries would have
to be eliminated. However, there was a
provisionthat upon complying with cer
tain requirements, a firm or corporation
might arrange to carry its own insur
ance, after having satisfied the proper
State officials of their financial ability
to do so.
In formulating a system of compensa
tion, it must be borne in mind that the
plans in force in European countries
were planned for the whole country in
which it became operative. In the
United States it became necessary to
take up the matter along the lines of
each State being a government unto
itself upon internal management and the
regulation of industries, other perhaps
than those which had to do with the
intrastate and interstate traffic.
In the second paragraph of this article
mention is made that judges and law
yers assisted in the promulgation of
workmen's compensation laws. This
statement, however, is paradoxical. Hun
dreds of thousands of workmen never
were able to understand how it was, that
after they had been injured, a suit for
damages undertaken, it was seldom that
in case of recovery, were they permitted
to receive any compensation until after
a long drawn-out litigation. And then
perhaps a widow, the dependent chil
dren or other nearest of kin, found that
fees and litigation had figuratively left
them in debt, while the home had been
broken and the inmates dispersed to
possible charitable institutions.
Law's delay and the uncertainty of
recovery aroused organized working
men, quite as much as did the charitable
(?) procedure of the industrial indem
nity insurance companies.
In a very exhaustive and compre
hensive investigation made by what is
known as the Russell Sage Foundation
in the l'lttsburg and Allegheny district,
and liy the hmployers' Liability Com
mission of Ohio, in Cuyahoga county, of
that Stale, a condition of affairs was dis
closed that was so appalling and black
for a change, that in all the testimony
offered, not a single individual offered
a word in palliation.
J'hc law's delay, either through the
clogging of the machinery, or through
llie dilatory tactics of those having the
cases in hand, in many instances, per
mitted the "wearing" -down of litigants,
and tne eventual settlement at merely
nominal or insignificant sums: in manv
cases barely enough being received to
pay tne imriai expenses, and then only
ii uiey um noi exceed .hi 10 isau.
It must not be inferred that all judges
aim lawyers sought to hinder or oh
struct the process of meting out jus
tice to the injured workman or his de
pendents m case of his death, lint in
the taking of testimony covering thou
sands of pages, the word "shyster" and
"tool" were very frequently used, along
with "ambulance chasers."
Under a State workmen's compensa
tion law the word "shyster" and "am
bulance chaser" will become obsolete in
sofar as it may be used in connection
with an injured workman or dependents.
It may be quite true that in the es
timation and opinion of many workmen
and others, that compensation to injur
ed workmen and dependents is placed at
too low a figure. When it is taken into
consideration that within the short space
of five years 10(1 per cent of workmen
are receiving medical and surgical at
tention, prompt awards for injuries with
out being forced to take a pauper's oath
to secure that settlement, it is indeed
a long step forward.
In several States the cost of carrying
industrial insurance by employers has
been reduced, while the awards to in
jured workmen have remained at the ori
ginal figures. The next step along the
lines of workmen's compensation will
be to increase the awards and make
those awards more quickly available to
the injured person or his dependent.
Aside from the attempt to partially
compensate an injured workman, one
of the main features of a compensation
law has to do with the reducing of ac
cidents. As the compensation law oper
ates, and as statistics are used by in
demnity companies, the manufacturer in
a particular line of business has his
premiums reduced in proportion to the
reductions of accidents in his particular
line. It is then to his interest to sec that
every precaution is taken, and that
when he has a man in charge of any one
certain department, who shows an in
difference to safeguarding the lives and
limbs of the men over whom he has
charge, he at once puts his hands into his
employer's pocket by causing an increase
in the rates which that business must
carry to cover injuries and accidents.
The compensation plan as now in force
in the several States, has gone many
Direct your attention to their
splendid line of Clothing for
Men and Boys, also to their
superb showing of Outer
garments for Women, Misses
and Children.
t ..... -
leagues to advance the conditions pre
vailing no further back than five or six
years. The principles of partial com
pensation have become so firmly a part
of the organic laws of a majority of the
States in the Union, that it would be
suicidal upon the part of any individual
or a combination of individuals to at
tempt to revert to old time practices.
During the past year there were over
lOO.OOO accidents occurring in industrial
Ohio. Every one of those accidents
came under the personal observation
and scrutiny of the Ohio State Industrial
Commission. Some of the awards made
under the State insurance system carry
M2 per week lor the length of life of
the injured worker, when it is a case
of total disability.
This means that should total disabil
ity overtake a workman, he would re
ceive' the sum of $is,(i(l(), distributed
over a period of twenty-five years, or
longer, should he continue to live. Also,
that a partial cash advance payment can
be made for the purpose of purchasing
a home, a farm, or some business which
would enable him to live in comfort
without depending entirely upon his
monthly awards.
Cases too numerous to mention arc
of record prior to the enactment of the
compensation law, where a worker total
ly disabled, had no rights in the courts,
and the law designated him everything
but a malefactor. Under the old sys
tem of fellow servant, contributory neg
ligence and assumption of risk the re
coveries made by injured workmen and
his dependents in case of his death, were
almost nil, when all accidents were con
sidered. Again it may be stated, that with all
the employers of a State coming in mi
ller a workmen's compensation law, the
fact still remains that prior to such a
plan, we have the (ifi,00() cases coining
under the immediate notice of one in
demnity insurance manager, and settle
ments or compensation being made in
only 0 per cent of the cases. Ninety
four workmen in every 100 injured or
killed never recovered one penny.
Docs any man with one iota or spark
of manhood in his makeup, want to
claim that this was justice? Do the
working men of the United States desire
to revert to those barbaric conditions?
Do they desire that the widow and or
phans shall be scattered unto the four
winds of heaven; that the life of the
breadwinner has no more value than the
bolt or screw in a piece of machinery?
Twenty-two foreign countries have
compensation laws, and nearly all the
States in the Union have them, including
the territories.
Cincinnati's Greatest Store, Founded 1877
!0c&igfl0(&BBMl(Qo
Cincinnati's Greatest Store, Founded 1877
REDUCING ACCIDENTS
BY EDUCATIONAL PLAN
Sacramento, Cal. The state industrial
accident commission, of which Will J.
French, Typographical union, is a mem
ber, is conducting an educational cam
paign for the purpose of lessening the
number of accidents and fatalities in
industry.
Many of the notices arc printed on
stout linen and an appeal is made to
both employer and employe to work for
the common end. The literature is pro
fusely illustrated to show the wrong
way and the right way of doing thincs
and the results of carelessness arc viv
idly pictured. It is shown that there
were 51 accidents in 101-1 because of
piling construction material unsafely.
Lumber with protruding nails caused
1,001 accidents. Unguarded floor open
iugs in buildings under construction, de
fective ladders, flimsy constructed scaf
folds, careless handling of explosives
and other subjects arc illustrated and
printed in a form easily read.
The commission has issued special or
ders that cover many industries and
callings. One of the features of this
campaign is the use made of California's
historic bear. The commission has or
ganized a Miner's Safety Hear club, with
the slogan, "I am a bear for safety,"
on an attractive button. Admittance to
the club is free and through an endless
chain system "every good safety bear"
is supposed to enlist a recruit.
The commission is also working with
sub-committees of employers and em
ployes. It is the purpose of this joint
movement to awaken a state-wide inter
est in the lessening of accidents and to
make prevention of these occurrences
a major question in California industry.
1)KI'HXIS UNIONISM.
Newark, N. J. The Evening News
of this city is not, in sympathy with the
recent anti-union policy of employers
in New York's garment industry.
The editor says that the employers'
attempt to repudiate the preferential
hiring of union workers, which was
agreed to in the original contract, and
also to retain a free hand in dismissals,
"would cast the entire organization of
the industry into the scrap heap and
bury the protocol in anarchy.
"To abandon the preferential shop, to
cripple the union and to reinstate the
employer autocrat would be a calamity,
not only to the world of industry, but in
the world of democracy."
PACKERS' PENSION A SNARE
Toronto, Ontario. The Swift Pack
ing Company, Chicago, has announced
that it will inaugurate a pension scheme
without cost to its workers. It is esti
mated that the company employs 2,000
men and women in Canada, and the In
dustrial Banner, official paper of the
Toronto Trades and Labor Council,
says :
"It is doubtful if at this stage of the
development, intellectually and econom
ically, any large number of the working
people of Canada can be deceived by the
old-age pension molasses which the
American meat packing trust is now
dangling before their employes. It is
significant that this 'generous' non-contributing
pension system is being held
before the eyes of the packing-house
workers at a time when there is an
actual shortage in the kind of labor the
packing houses demand.
"Old-age pensions and insurance
against unemployment, sickness, etc., are
most desirable, but if they arc to be of
any real benefit to the great mass of
people compelled to sell their labor in a
competitive labor market, they must not
depend on the benevolence of whims of
private individuals or corporations.
"It is the business and mission of the
labor unions and wage workers them
selves to bring such pressure to bear
upon the provincial and dominion gov
ernments as to compel them to inaugu
rate and establish universal pension sys
tems which will tend to liberate the
wage workers from the haunting fear
of want during their old age instead of
further riveting their chains upon them.
"An old-age pension, like the one of
fered to the packing house workers,
where they have no legal claim to it, if
they offend their masters, by demanding
more wages or better working condi
tions while thev are qualifying for it,
means slavery of the worst kind and
nothing but slavery."
NEXT! BARBERS
NOW ON STRIKE
Union Lender Hays 110,000 Ilnzoi-Wicldi-is
Will Quit.
New York, Aug. 22. Two thousand
barbers in 800 shops went on strike to
day, according to Charles M. Fiedcr,
vice-president of the International Bar
bers' Union of America. Before the end
of the week Fiedcr declared the major
ity of the 20,000 barbers in the greater
city would join the strike. They demand
an increase of one dollar a week in
wages.