AND INDUSTRIAL UNDER MODERN CONDITIONS The first complete presentation of the subject showing the underlying causes; of America BY JAMES HARRINGTON BOYD, A. M., Sc. D. (Princeton) IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS PREFACE During the last four years Workmen's Compensation and Industrial Insurance Laws, creating the new and fundamental principle of compensation and insurance for injuries to workmen, have been enacted into statutes by the United States, with special relation to Federal employés, and by many of the states of the Union. Special commissions to investigate the subject and report recommendations have been appointed by many of the state legislatures and it seems not unreasonable to predict and it is to be hoped that within a decade the principle will have been accepted by all the states. The principle of compensation is of German origin. and is an evolution of the thought and purposes of the philosophers, economists and statesmen of that great nation. Its merits have been established by more than thirty years of practical and successful operation on a large scale in that country. Substantially all the civilized nations of the world have followed the German plan. It is the purpose of the author to point out and distinguish the characteristics of the different remedies for the relief of injured workmen—the Common Law Remedy, Employers' Liability Laws, Workmen's Compensation and Insurance Acts; to show the economic effects of the operation of such laws from an ethical, social and political point of view; to trace the historical evolution of these laws; to analyze their constituent elements and point out the fundamental legal principles upon iii 401069 which these laws must be founded under our constitutional limitations and finally to give a complete account of the schemes of procedure and administration employed in the practical operation of these laws in our country. If permanency is to be assured legal principles must be based upon sound economic conclusions. It is both a duty and a pleasure to acknowledge the indebtedness of the author to the various officials and boards charged with the administration of the law in the various states and the officials of the Department of Commerce and Labor, for many courtesies and substantial help in the preparation of this work. These services have been freely rendered and have largely consisted in the careful and painstaking reading of the proof of the chapters relating to their respective jurisdictions, in the tender of the useful sets of forms with which these chapters are enriched, and many valuable suggestions as to the presentation of the subject-matter of the work. The author likewise acknowledges his indebtedness to the Department of Commerce and Labor for the usehe has been able to make of the material assembled by the department in its fourth special report written and edited by the scholarly John Graham Brooks. He is under similar obligations to R. J. Cary for his Brief on the Power of Congress in Respect to Industrial Insurance, and to the writings of Charles R. Henderson on Industrial Insurance. Space will not permit the citation of a complete bibliography of sources of information. Aside from the footnotes a fairly comprehensive bibliography will be found in the 24th Annual Report of the Department of Commerce and Labor and in Frankel and Dawson's book on Industrial Insurance in Europe. The subject of Workmen's Compensation and Insurance has largely engrossed the attention of the author for some twenty years, during which time he has spent two years in Europe where he first familiarized himself with the practical operation of the systems in the countries of their origin. He submits the results of these years of study and labor to students of modern industrial economics and to the bar of this country, which is largely charged with the administration and interpretation of the laws, confident that these pages have vindicated the enactment of these laws, that their scope is better understood and that an adequate administrative procedure-in the light of the present state of the subjecthas been developed. Toledo, December 2, 1912. JAMES HARRINGTON BOYD. |