accidents. From 1911 to 1916 thirty-one men were killed, while from 1917 to 1922, inclusive, only nine men were killed. This improvement is principally due to the workmen giving more thought to their personal safety, and to the good work of the Plant Safety Committees.

In the World's Work, Floyd W. Parsons submits wonderful figures and interesting conclusions. "The average person," he says," holds the idea that war is the largest destroyer of human life. As a matter of fact, our participation in the World War resulted in snuffing out the lives of only 50,150 soldiers. During the same period 126,000 men, women, and children engaged in normal pursuits met their deaths from accidents, most of which could have been prevented." He finds that nine persons meet death through accident in America every hour of the day and night, and workers to the number of 900,000 are each year maimed for life, or lose more than a month of time.

Mr. Parsons refers to an industry employing 50,000 men and women in which endeavor along the line of safety provisions reduced the number of fatal accidents to a single workman during an entire year of operation. The writer makes the further statement that fatal accidents have been reduced fifty-five per cent; accidents resulting in loss of eyes, seventy per cent; accidents resulting in loss of legs, fifty per cent; accidents causing loss of feet, fifty per cent; accidents causing loss of hands, one hundred per cent, or a general reduction of all cases seventy-one per cent. The company's compensation costs have shown a reduction of nearly twenty-five per cent, and the production records indicate plainly that safety materially speeds up industrial output.

It is conclusively shown that these safety campaigns are not only humane and profitable to the workman, but that they bring big financial returns to the employer. Compensation payment is substantially reduced. The increase in efficiency and production is substantially increased. The work record is much improved, not only as to number of hours saved to service, but through the increased interest and efficiency on the part of the employee. A great industrial leader has well said, “Accident prevention is not only good morals and good ethics, but also good business."

28. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LAW1

Extracts from the Code of Iowa, 1924

Section 1361. To whom not applicable. This chapter shall not apply to:

1. Any household or domestic servant.

2. Persons whose employment is of a casual nature.

3. Persons engaged in agriculture, in so far as injuries shall be incurred by employees while engaged in agricultural pursuits or any operations immediately connected therewith, whether on or off the premises of the employer.

4. As between a municipal corporation, city, or town, and any person or persons receiving any benefits under, or who may be entitled to benefits from, any "firemen's pension fund" or "policemen's pension fund" of any municipal corporation, city, or town, except as otherwise provided by law.

Sec. 1376. Willful injury — intoxication. No compensation under this chapter shall be allowed for an injury caused:

1. By the employee's willful intent to injure himself or to willfully injure another.

2. When intoxication of the employee was the proximate cause of the injury.

Sec. 1379. Negligence presumed - burden of proof. In actions by an employee against an employer for personal injury sustained, arising out of and in the course of the employment, when the employer has rejected the provisions of this chapter, the following provisions shall apply:

1. It shall be presumed :

a. That the injury to the employee was the direct result and growing out of the negligence of the employer.

b. That such negligence was the proximate cause of the

injury.

2. In such cases the burden of proof shall rest upon the employer to rebut the presumption of negligence.

1 From The Workmen's Compensation Law. State of Iowa; 1924.

1. When death results from the injury, the employer shall pay the dependents who were wholly dependent on the earnings of the employee for support at the time of his injury, the weekly compensation for a period of three hundred weeks from the date of his injury.

2. When the injury causes the death of a minor employee whose earnings were received by the parent, the compensation to be paid such parent shall be two-thirds the weekly compensation for an adult with like earnings.

3. If the employee leaves dependents only partially dependent upon his earnings for support at the time of the injury, the weekly compensation to be paid as aforesaid shall be equal to the same proportion of the weekly payments for the benefit of persons wholly dependent as the amount contributed by the employee to such partial dependents bears to the annual earnings of the deceased at the time of the injury.

4. When weekly compensation has been paid to an injured employee prior to his death, the compensation to dependents shall run from the date to which compensation was fully paid to such employee, but shall not continue for more than three hundred weeks from the date of the injury.

Sec. 1393. When compensation begins - periodical increase. Except as to injuries resulting in permanent partial disability, compensation shall begin on the fifteenth day of disability after the injury.

Sec. 1394. Temporary disability. For injury producing temporary disability, and beginning on the fifteenth day thereof, the employer shall pay the weekly compensation during the period of such disability, but not exceeding three hundred weeks, including the periodical increase in cases to which the preceding section applies.

Sec. 1396. Permanent partial disabilities. Compensation for permanent partial disability shall begin at the date of injury and shall be based upon the extent of such disability, and for all cases of permanent partial disability included in the following schedule compensation shall be paid as follows:

1. For the loss of a thumb, weekly compensation during forty weeks.

2. For the loss of a first finger, commonly called the index finger, weekly compensation during thirty weeks.

3. For the loss of a second finger, weekly compensation during twenty-five weeks.

4. For the loss of a third finger, weekly compensation during twenty weeks.

5. For the loss of a fourth finger, commonly called the little finger, weekly compensation during fifteen weeks.

6. The loss of the first or distal phalange of the thumb or of any finger shall equal the loss of one-half of such thumb or finger and compensation shall be one-half of the time for the loss of such thumb or finger.

7. The loss of more than one phalange shall equal the loss of the entire finger or thumb.

8. For the loss of a great toe, weekly compensation during twenty-five weeks.

9. For the loss of one of the toes other than the great toe, weekly compensation during fifteen weeks.

10. For the loss of a hand, weekly compensation during one hundred fifty weeks.

11. The loss of two-thirds of that part of an arm between the shoulder joint and the elbow joint shall equal the loss of an arm and the compensation therefor shall be weekly compensation during two hundred twenty-five weeks.

12. For the loss of a foot, weekly compensation during one hundred twenty-five weeks.

13. The loss of two-thirds of that part of a leg between the hip joint and the knee joint shall equal the loss of a leg, and the compensation therefor shall be weekly compensation during two hundred weeks.

14. For the loss of an eye, weekly compensation during one hundred weeks.

15. For the loss of an eye, the other eye having been lost prior to the injury, weekly compensation during two hundred weeks.

16. For the loss of hearing in one ear, weekly compensation

during fifty weeks, and for the loss of hearing in both ears, weekly compensation during one hundred fifty weeks.

17. The loss of both arms, or both hands, or both feet, or both legs or both eyes, or of any two thereof, caused by a single accident, shall equal permanent total disability, to be compensated as such.

Sec. 1397. Basis of computation.

1. Compensation shall be computed on the basis of the annual earnings which the injured person received as salary, wages, or earnings in the employment of the same employer during the year next preceding the injury.

2. Employment by the same employer shall mean in the grade in which the employee was employed at the time of the accident, uninterrupted by absence from work due to illness or any other unavoidable cause.

3. The annual earnings, if not otherwise determinable, shall be three hundred times the average daily earnings in such computation.

29. COMPENSATION FOR OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES 1

The arguments used so effectively by advocates of compensation for accidents, and now so generally accepted by all men, apply with even greater force in the consideration of relief for the victims of occupational diseases. No one will doubt, for example, that placing the financial cost of lead poisoning upon the lead industry will promote greater cleanliness in the lead trades. It will pay to clean up. A considerable part of the money now paid to employers' liability companies and to ambulance chasers could, under a just system of compensation, go where it belongs to the injured workman or his family. Expensive, annoying, and unsatisfactory litigation could be reduced to a minimum. Information concerning special danger points in industry would be automatically pointed out to the factory inspectors in a manner both prompt and sure. Unnecessary occupational diseases would then be prevented, and that is the real problem.

1 From John B. Andrews, "Compensation for Occupational Diseases," in The Survey, Vol. 30, page 18 (April 5, 1913). Reprinted by special permission of the publishers.