The Ohio Act enacted in May, 1911, and became operative January 1, 1912;

The Washington Act was passed March, 1911, and became operative October 1, 1911:

The Massachusetts Law approved July 28, 1911, and took effect July 1, 1912; and

The Montana Mining Law approved March 4, 1909, and declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Montana, November, 1911.

The Maryland Act became operative April 15, 1912.

The enactment of Compensation Acts and Workmen's Industrial Insurance Laws, in particular, introduce remedies for the compensation of injured workmen, which on principle are new to the jurisprudence of the United States.

There are fundamental differences between the principles of Workmen's Industrial Insurance and those of Employer's Liability Laws or Compensation Acts of the type of the English, New York or Wisconsin Acts. The injured workman's claim under a state insurance act is against a fund which is created by contributions paid by employers, employés and the State or by any of them, in the form of an insurance premium which is collected by the taxing power of the State through the exercise of its police power. The employer's liability to his em

ployés on account of personal injuries occurring in the due course of their employment, is discharged when he has paid the premiums provided by the act. The right of trial by jury is entirely eliminated in such cases, excepting the case where the employé is denied compensation of any kind and in that case he may sue the board of administration created by the act and have his case tried before a jury as heretofore but can not sue his employer. No negligence of any kind is recognized either on the part of the employer or employé, speaking generally, excepting the wilful negligence on the part of either. In case the employer caused the accident by wilful act or

by disregarding Factory Inspection acts and orders, he is subjected to some kind of penalty, and in case the injured worker wilfully caused the accident for the purpose of obtaining compensation, he is denied any compensation or has it reduced or is penalized. The compensation is paid in installments and based upon a certain percentage,-usually 50 to 60 per cent.-of the impairment of wages caused by the accident. The act usually fixes the length of time that such compensation may run and also a maximum and minimum total compensation. In the enactment of these statutes the State exercises its police power for the protection of the peace, safety and general welfare of the public.9

The primary object of industrial insurance for workmen is to provide a reasonable compensation which shall be paid without fail and at a minimum cost of administration, to the injured worker and his dependents, at stated intervals, so that his dependents shall not, in case they are minors, suffer in attaining a normal development which is necessary for self-support, and in order that neither the injured workman or his dependents shall become public charges, by reason of bodily injuries which the worker received in the due course of his employment.

From the standpoint of the public, the effect of a serious bodily injury received by such a workman, is the same whether the cause of the injury is attributable to the negligence of the employer or to that of his employé, or that of a fellow-workman, or is caused by an act of God. It is assumed that the case is very rare that either the employer or his employé will wilfully cause an injury covered by such a law.

9 For full discussion of Insurance acts see Chapters IV, VII, X, XI, XVII.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF DEVELOPMENT OF WORKMEN'S INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE AND WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES.

§ 7. Inception of movement for these laws.-The movement for the enactment of more just and humane laws to take the place of the outgrown common-law remedy for the compensation of workmen for injuries received in the course of their employment became widespread in the United States about the beginning of this century. The movement received its first legislative recognition in New York when the Legislature of that state passed an act1 which authorized the appointment of a commission "to inquire into the working of a law in the State of New York relative to the liability of employers to employés for industrial accidents and into the comparative efficiency, cost, justice, merit and defects of the laws in other states and countries relative to the same subject and as to causes of accidents to employés." Pursuant to the statute a commission of fourteen members was appointed in May, 1909, three from the Senate, five from the Assembly and six from industrial and professional walks of life, all of whom were eminent1 Laws 1909, ch. 518.

15

ly qualified for the work to be done. This commission. made its report to the legislature in March, 1910, and the bills reported by the commissioner were virtually adopted by the legislature with but few dissenting votes, there being only four dissenting votes in the House against it. The bill is in the form of a compulsory workmen's compensation law affecting eight classes of hazardous employments. A copy of the law and the opinion of the Court of Appeals holding the act unconstitutional are given in a later chapter.2 The conclusions of the report of the New York commission respecting the important economic and sociological principles of law involved in their investigations are fully set forth in this opinion.

§ 8. Previous investigation of the problem.—Every civilized nation in Europe and many other nations in other parts of the world except the United States have discarded the old system of Employer's Liability based upon fault and substituted a system under which every industry bears the burden of relieving the distress caused by injuries to workers in any given industry practically without litigation. The German system of insuring the workers in all of its industries against sickness, accidents and old age, was inaugurated during the period from 1883 to 1887, a full discussion of which will be found in a later chapter.3

Great Britain enacted her Compensation Act in 1897 and the same was amended and broadened in its scope in 1900, 1906 and supplemented in March, 1912 by David Lloyd-George's Insurance Law against sickness, old-age and out-of-work.3a The prime mover in the adoption of the German system was Prince Bismarck. In

2 See Chapter VI.

3 See Chapter IV.

3a National Insurance Act, 1911, 1, 2 Geo. 5, ch. 55.

England these laws were ably championed by Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlin.

The subject first attracted the attention of legislative agents in the United States in 1893 when the investigation of the German system by John Graham Brooks was published in The Fourth Special Report of the Commissioner of Labor of the United States, Carroll D. Wright. In 1898 William Franklin Willoughby published a careful study of foreign industrial insurance, and in 1900 the report of the Commissioner of Labor of New York contained an intelligent study and report upon the experience of European nations with this kind of insurance and compensation for injured workers. The Commission which was appointed to investigate the subject in Massachusetts in 1904, recommended the adoption of a plan modeled after the English Compensation Act of 1897, but the bill reported by the commission was not passed. A commission in Illinois recommended a workmen's compensation law of a similar nature in 1907. This bill in like manner failed of passage. A commission was appointed in Connecticut in 1908 to investigate the same subject but it was unable to reach any definite conclusions.

During the year 1910 congress and the legislatures of Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Connecticut, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Montana, and Washington authorized the creation of commissions to investigate employers liability laws and the various plans for the compensation of injured workmen, with the result that commissions were appointed in all of these states and by July, 1911, were engaged in their investigations.

89. The Chicago conference of employer's liability and workmen's compensation commissions. In 1910 4 Senate Documents, 123d Session, 1900, Vol. 10, Part II, written by Adna F. Weber.

2-BOYD W C