Against the decisions of the trade association the entitled person may appeal within a month for an arbitration court of two representatives chosen by the employer and two by the employees, with a state official as chairman. The arbitration courts have been established and working since 1901 for both accident and invalidity insurance. As it is evident that both the trade association and their individual members have a strong interest in diminishing the chances of accidents, the law confers on the trade association the important privilege of presenting regulations for the prevention of accident, by such regulations not only the employers can be compelled, under penalty of higher assessments, to adopt the necessary measures for safety but also the workmen may be forced by fines to follow these rules: II. THE QUESTION OF FAULT-AND PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS COMPENSATION. (a) GERMAN STATISTICS. According to the accident statistics of Industries for the three years, 1887 and 1897 (9), and 1907 (10) under the German law were caused by: to mevitable risks of the industries and other causes. This table covering a period of 20 years of experience shows not only the elements of fault which enter into the problem but also supplies a valuable basis for further improvements of preventive measure, since from 55 to 57 per cent of all accidents are due either to the fault of the employer, employee, or their combined negligence. (b) NEW YORK STATISTICS During the years, 1906-7-8 ten insurance companies which keep employers' liability records doing business in New York received in premiums from .$23,524,000 8,560,000 employers They paid to injured employees. Total waste of cost of insurance $14,964,000 See also 24th Annual Report of Commissioner of Labor of U. S. "Dr. George Zacher, Guide, etc., p. 13. 'Dr. George Zacher, Introduction to Workmen's Insurance in Germany. p. 31. a. Last report of the Employer Liability Commission of N. Y., Nothing could more strikingly set forth the waste of the present system. That only 36.34 per cent of what employer pay in premiums for liability insurance is paid in settlement of claims and suits. Thus for every $100.00 paid out by employers for protection against liability to their injured workmen, less than $37 is paid to those workmen; $63 goes to pay the salaries of attorneys and claim agents whose business it is to defeat the claims of the injured, to the cost of soliciting business, to the cost of administration, court costs, and to profit.. Out of this 36.34 per cent the injured employee must pay his attorney. The same report shows that the attorney gets 25.3 per cent of what is paid to the injured employee. (b) This investigation covers forty-six cases where the recovery was above $1,500 each-in small recoveries the attorney fees takes a large proportion. This report shows that not more then somewhere between 20 and 25 per cent of money paid by the employing class actually goes into the pockets of the injured workman for his dependent families in death cases. (c) STATISTICS FROM THE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION. The investigation recently made in Alleghany County, Pa., under the direction of the "Pittsburg Survey" showed, that, out of 355 cases of men killed in industrial accidents all of whom were contributing to the support of other and two-thirds of whom were married, 89 of the families left receive not a dollar compensation from the employer, 113 families received not more than $100, 61 families receive something more than this $100 but not more than $500. In other words 57 per cent of these families were left by their employers to bear the entire burden of income loss, and granting that all unknown amounts would be decided for the plaintiff, only 26 per cent, received in compensation for the death of a regular income provider, more than $500, a sum which would approximate one year's income of the lowest paid of the workers killed. The proportion of the loss borne by employers injury cases does not differ greatly from that in death cases. Thus out of 228 injury cases, of the married men alone, 56 per cent received no compensation, if single men contributing to the support of others, 69 per cent received no compensation; single men without dependents 8 per cent, received no compensation. (In work accidents and their costs by Crystal Eastmon, Charities, and the Common, March, 1909.) (d) WISCONSIN STATISTICS. The Wisconsin Bureau of Labor and industrial statistics reports as follows on the matter of the great financial loss borne by the workmen. The following shows to what extent this is true, in 305, non-fatal cases, in which reports were received by mail for workingmen while at work: C. Last report of the Employer Liability Commission, N. Y., p. 31. Put in words what we may say that in two-thirds of the cases part or all of the doctor bills, were paid, but in less then a third was anything more paid, and in about one-fourth of the cases NOTHING whatever was paid. In 131 non-fatal cases in Wisconsin concerning which reports were secured by factory inspector, the following disposition nothing whatever was paid. In 131 cases non-fatal case in Wisconsin concerning which reports were secured by factory inspectors, the following disposition was made: (e) STATISTICS FROM THE REPORT OF ILLINOIS COMMISSION. The employers' liability commission of the state of Illinois has recently made a report on its investigation of industrial accidents and employers' liability at a cost of $10,000. I give you a condensed statement for the results of the investigation of the Illinois Commission in the language of Edwin R. Wright, secretary of the Commission and president of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. "So much has been said and written regarding the work of the Employers' Liability Commission that I wish to go into the matter at some length-setting forth the whole story in as few words as possible. For the first time in the history of Illinois, if not in the United States, we have a text book on the subject of Employers' Liability. More than 5,000 individual accidents were investigated and recorded, together with comparative figures and analysis. A few words as to what the report shows may be of value. Six hundred and fourteen fatal accidents were recorded. The families of two hundred and fourteen of these workers received nothing in return for the loss of the bread winner. One hundred and eleven damage suits are pending in court. Twenty-four cases have been settled through court proceedings. Two hundred and eighty-one families settled direct with the employer. Skilled railroad employees, in settlement for death cleaims. A further summary may be offered. Of every 100 industrial accidents. 15 got into court, 7 are lost and 8 won. Ninety-two injuries out of every 100 receive compensation. (This includes both fatal and non-fatal accidents. ) Another interesting feature is that: A search through the records reveal 53 fatal cases of recent date. In fatal cases, the usual defenses of the employ ers--the fellow servant doctrine, assumption of risk, etc-did not apply or there would have been not a recovery at all. For these the very pick of industrial cases, the average recovery for death was only $1,877.36. Of this an average amount of $750.95 was paid to attorneys or expended in court fees, etc., leaving an actual payment of $1,126.41 to the family of the dead worker, thirty-four widows were compelled to seek employment and sixty-five children left school to help keep the wolf from the door. (f) STATISTICS FROM OHIO. In Ohio we have the following important statistics: W. G. Wilson, of Cleveland, reported on November 2, 1910, at the hearing in that city, that the Etna Liability Insurance Company had adjusted 65,800 injuries and had made payments on the average of six in every hundred injuries, insured. The Employers' Liability Commission must affirm the same conclusion reached by the New York Commission. 1st. That only small per cent of workmen injured by accidents of employment receive substantial compensation, and therefore, as a rule, they and those dependent upon them are forced to a lower standard of living and are often compelled to depend for support upon public and private charity. 2nd. That the present system is wasteful, being costly to both the state and employers, the compensation to the victims, to accidents being inadequately small. 3rd. That the present system is slow in operation and necessarily causes great delay in the litigation and settlement of causes. 4th. That the operation of the present law fosters antagonism and strife between employees and employers. III. Now in looking toward remedies. The German plan of insurance against sickness, accidents and invalidism and old age in industrial accident had paid out during the last twenty years, ending in 1903, $802,000,000. Of the total sum $555,750,000 was paid on account of sick insurance; $232,750,000 was paid on account of accidents and $13,500,000 paid out on account of invalidism and old age. To the fund necessary to make these payments the employer contributed $424,400,000. The employes contributed $377,000,000 and the imperial government paid the entire cost of administration and a small portion of the fund necessary to take care of invalidism and old age pension. The general rules are in respect to the raising of the insurance fund, that the employees shall pay two-thirds of the fund necessary to take care of sick insurance which lasts for thirteen weeks, and the employers pay one-third. In the case of accident insurance the employers pay 92 per cent and employees 8 per cent. In the case of invalidism and old age insurance the Imperial Government pays $12.70 for each person insured and the remainder of the fund is paid half and half by the employers and employees. In Germany, in 1907, 226,172,000 workmen were insured against sickness, accidents and old age out of a population of 60,000,000 people. Now briefly, the English plan under which 13,000,000 workmen are insured, is the following: In the case of death the compensation paid is at most three years' wages of 300 pounds or $1,460 with a minimum payment of three years' wages at 150 pounds, or $730. In case of disability which lasts longer than one week, the compensation paid is one-half week average wages not to exceed $4.87 as long as the disability lasts. Responsibility for the payments of the compensation rests solely on the employer and they are not required to insure. In both the German and English plan the rules of contributory negligence, assumption of risk, and the fellow servant rules are abolished, and the only kind of negligence recognized is that of malicious negligence on the part of the employer or the employee. The fundamental point which seems to be overlooked in most instances is the following: Even the statistics of the United States in so far as they are available, show that over 50 per cent of all industrial accidents are due to the inherent dangers and risks of the industrial business, and that not to exceed 30 per cent of all these accidents are due or attributable to the negligence of the employer, and at most 25 per cent are attributable solely to the negligence of the employee. Now the common law does not presume to furnish a plan of relief except wherein can be proven that the defendant is at fault. Therefore, the common law does not presume to furnish any relief for something like from 60 to 80 per cent of all persons injured in the United States and the best estimate of the number of persons injured and killed in industrial accidents in 1909 is 536,000 people. In order to impress that upon your minds, I have figured up the following illustration: In the battle of Gettysburg, which lasted three days in actual fighting, there were killed and wounded and missing 43,500 soldiers, and if therefore, you were to have a battle of Gettysburg in one of each of twelve districts of the United States, one in one month, say in the neighborhood of Boston, and the next: month in the neighborhood of Washington, and the fourth month in the neighborhood of Baltimore, then in Chicago, then in St. Louis, and in Minneapolis, and put one in Pittsburg and one at Denver and one at Portland, another at Los Angeles and wind up at the end of the year at San Francisco, you would not create quite the damage and destruction which takes place in one year in the United States in the operation of our industries; then common law does not pretend to furnish any remedy or relief, except in those cases in which the employer is negligent, and the best figures indicate that it does not exceed 20 per cent of all injuries, and even the part of that relief which reaches the employee is about one-fifth of what the employer pays out to protect himself against the liability arising out of injuries to workingmen in industrial accidents. INVESTIGATIONS OF FATAL AND NON-FATAL INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO, FOR THE PERIOD 1905-1910. The Employers' Liability Commission of Ohio, in October, 1910, authorized by resolution the chairman to select the three best known experts to investigate the fatal and non-fatal accidents occurring to workmen, in the due course of their employment, in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, for the period 1905-1910. The purpose of these investigations is to determine the exact economic effect upon workmen, their dependents and society, injured or killed in the due course of their employment, of the Common Law, and as affected by Statutory Liability Law of Ohio, in recovering compensation for personal injuries in our courts. In particular the Commission desires to determine under the conditions in Ohio: 1. What per cent. of workmen killed or injured received compensation of any kind? |