COURT DECISIONS.
Defeat Elementary Justice and
Common Sense.
INVITE THE POPULAR WRATH
Rulings Like That on the New York
Compensation Act Engender Only
Disrespect and Disloyalty to Courts
and Constitutions.
The New York court of appeals has
decided in its wisdom that the legisla
ture cannot enact a law which insures
compensation to employees injured In
the course of their work and to the
families of those who are killed. The
utmost that can be done is to sweep
away some of the judge made de
fenses behind which employers have
shielded themselves in damage suits.
These defenses have indeed been
strong to defeat elementary justice
and common sense. The fellow serv
ant doctrine, the doctrine of contrib
utory negligence and the doctrine of
assumption of risk, we are told, He
within the power of the legislature.
We now learn that when the
lawmakers open their eyes, when their
minds are stirred out of the old ideas
and they determine to enact a law
which is in principle measurably
abreast of those of the most backward
countries of Europe, they are not to
be allowed to do anything of the kind.
Employees may without legislative en
actment be declared to have assumed,
but employers cannot even by statute
be required to assume, the risks of
their trade.
The doctrine that employees tacitly
assume the risks of their trade Is
good law, for the judges since Abin
per in the Priestly case and Shaw in
the Farwell case have said It.
I-ord Abinger, in refusing to hold the
employer liable, roundly declared that
"the inconvenience and absurdity of
the consequences Is a sufficient ar
gument against this principle." After
nil these years a legislature finds, what
has long been obvious to moralists,
economists and sociologists, that it is
the opposite principle of requiring an
employee to prove that neither he nor
his fellow servants are negligent,
which involves inconvenient and ab
surd consequences. The legislature
modestly tries, in a few admittedly
dangerous trades, to establish the prin
ciple of assumption of risk by the em
ployer. It proposes a plan by which
the industry as a whole is to assume
the risk, which is gradually to be trans
ferred like other Increases of expense
In manufacture, to the consuming pub
lic. But, behold, what the judges did
without difficulty at the expense of the
defenseless workers, even the sover
eign legislature cannot do at the ex
pense of the industry. "Why? Because
it appears this is taking property with
out due process of law. The legislature
had done its best, but to create a due
process of law for the establishment of
a rational, just and modern system of
compensation for industrial accidents,
even in the dangerous trades, is be
yond its power. This Is not because the
makers of the constitution Intended to
put it beyond the power of the legis
lature or because they have ever done
anything which by the widest stretch
of the Imagination could possibly be In
terpreted as indicative of any such in
tention. The fourteenth amendment
was Intended to protect ex-slaves from
any state laws which might impose
civil disabilities upon them. An earlier
amendment, the fifth, requires the fed
eral government also to observe "due
process of law" in taking life, liberty
or property, and. In fact, the "right to
law" is one of thelhost ancient and es
teemed of all the common law tradi
tions. But if this ancient bulwark of
liberty, so long the peculiar glory of
England and of English speaking peo
ple, is by judicial interpretation to be
come one more obstacle in the way of
rational legislation, one more mocking
denial of popular rights under the cover
of protecting them, a husk of constitu
tional guarantee with a rotten kernel
of legislative impotence, then the soon
er it is swept out of the constitution
and out of the judicial mind the better
for all concerned.
Courts and constitutions cannot re
tain public respect and loyalty, to say
nothing of veneration and affection if
decisions of this kind represent their
prevailing spirit. No lip service to the
economics, sociology, and morality,
which tho judges evidently discover
with much misgiving, as a new force
which they do not fully understand,
but with which they see that they
must reckon, will save them from the
popular wrath which such decisions
engender.
If we must amend the state and
federal constitutions before we can
enact a compensation law, providing
such financial compensation to the suf
ferers in the Washington place fire, as
would be theirs if the disaster had
happened in any civilized country ex
cept ours, thts, we repeat, will not be
because any constitutional convention,
or any popular vote has -ever so de
creed. It is because phrases have
gradually been distorted from their
original and natural meaning, and be
cause legal rights have been trans
formed into Judicial wrongs. We are
not prepared to say that any other
remedy than amendment is now pos
sible or that in practice even that one
is possible. We point out merely that
the obstacle which the court finds in
the way of doing what morality, eco
nomics and sociology require is a court
made obstacle, just as are the other
obstacles which the court is now com
placently willing to let the legislature
remove if they will be good enough to
try ngain. E. T. Devine In Survey.
INSURANCE FOR WORKERS.
Brewery Men Have a Plan That Calls
For Employers' Aid.
The members of the United Brewery
Workmen of America are taking a ref
erendum vote on a plan of Insurance
for workers which it is proposed to
submit to the employers. The propos
ed plan is that the brewery and malt
house owners pay $18 a year for each
member of the union into a fund to
which each union man is to add $G.
The fund is to be controlled by a
commission of seven members, three
to be chosen by the employers and
three by the union, and the six are
to elect a seventh man. Workmen in
jured in the course of their employ
ment are to receive G5 per cent of the
amount of their wages, but shall not
receive pay unless the disability con
tinues more "than ten days and shall
not receive compensation for more
than fifty-two weeks for any one in
jury. Provisions are also made In the plan
for compensation for injuries resulting
in death of a worker or workers. It
is believed, according to the origina
tors of the plan, that if it is adopted
by both sides the fund will provide
old age pensions for workers coming
under its provisions.
Pension For Kansas Teachers.
The Kansas senate has passed a bill
pensioning public school teachers. In
order to receive the benefits of the act
teachers must have been in the service
not less than thirty years. The meas
ure applies only to cities of the first
class.
HELPFUL IN NEED.
Union Comfort For the Near
Down and Outer.
THE BOND OF BROTHERHOOD
The Trade Unionist In Hard Luck Is
Not Friendless, but Where Can the
Unorganized Toiler Find Aid When
Misfortune Overtakes Him?
You meet on the street a man you
knew years before as one in the crowd
in your trade. He Is woebegone. His
clothes tell his story at a glance. His
sad and careworn and perhaps pale
and thin face confirms the story in de
tail. He is out of work. He. most
probably avoids you, though you were
always on good terms with him, so far
as you had a ny thing to do with him,
in the old days. You know he shrinks
from your cheerful "How are you, old
man?" "How goes it?" or "Where are
you now?" He hates to explain. His
very appearance is a confession that
he has fallen behindhand. He is ad
verse to adding to it a verbal admis
sion of failure. If you are moved to
sympathize with him, however, and
take him by the hand and try to pre
tend you don't see any difference in
him he may give in and talk. He
knows very well the pious lie you are
acting, but passes it by without men
tion, feeling you are actuated by a
friendly spirit.
He'll tell you what's the matter with
him. He was "let out" when "the
firm," "the company" or "the boss"
where he worked when you knew him
Introduced new machines or reorgan
ized or increased the proportion of ap
prentices or of younger men or women.
For the first time in years he then
found himself on the street. Past the
age to qualify himself without much
trouble for another occupation, handi
capped by the lack of the adaptiveness
of youth, bunched together with the
others of his occupation "laid off" for
various reasons, he has since been liv
ing 'twixt hope and fear, searching for
work. His days of enforced idleness
have stretched into weeks, the weeks
into months.
What has happened to this man? He
may try to think he is the same, as a
human being and a worKman, that he
was when he fell out of his job. He Is
not. Far from it. He has gone back
ward and downward every day. He
has lost in nerve, for he has seen how
he is only one of the many down and
out. He has lest in the confidence he
had in his knowledge of his trade, for
in looking about him he has learned
how methods have changed. He has
lost in self respect, for he feels every
hour that men may speak of him r.s
not having made good. He has lost
flesh and even strength, for he has been
economizing on his bodily sustenance.
When a man in this condition of
mind and body finds a job, his difficul
ties in keeping up with the others on
a force are almost insuperable. He
balks at any task that is new to him,
lacking self confidence. He fears ev
ery day that a new layoff may be
awaiting him. He resents the fore
man's eye, or a fellow worker's show
of help, or the silent sizing up he
knows he is getting from the crowd
about him. He has the sensation that
they are saying he has lost his hold.
It is a question in his own mind
whether he really ever can "come
back" or catch on again.
It is a social truth that the first
thing a man In such plight needs is a
kind of medicine. If he can be placed
in circumstances In which he can be
set firmly on his feet again-ho may
stand upright and do good work the
rest of his days. A new suit of clothes,
a little feeding up, a helping hand at
the right moment at his work, a good
natured bluffing in response to his ir
ritable moods, an acknowledgment by
those about him that hard luck is wait
ing at any and every man's door, the
nerve reaction that ensues upon good
stiff work and the re-establishment of
the discipline of routine with such
medicine the worker who quailed in fear
lest he might be relegated to the human
scrap heap may become a man again.
But if his chance hangs off too long
his fate is to "lay down." He is
"gone." Somehow death often comes
opportunely in such cases. The real
man having passed away, the poor
body remains only to succumb, in its
weukoes, to one of the hundred forma
it Illness into which watchful death is
ready to lead him.
How many good, honest men every
one of us among the elders have seen
passing through these sufferings, each
a sacrifice to an imperfect civilization!
On the other hand, as if to prove that
the dead ones were so sacrificed, how
many other men, just of about' the
same character, we have seen picking
themselves up through finding a Job
in the nick of time, fully recovering
their lost ground and living happily
with their families thereafter a good,
long lifetime!
Fellow union men, as you have read
these lines have you not been reflect
ing, as have we, upon the act that
when your union was weak or lacking
in out of work or other funds you saw
a far greater proportion of men going
down and out in the' struggle than
since your union has become strong?
It has become helpful to its temporari
ly unfortunate members. But tell us,
you men among the unorganized,
where can you look for ifelp in your
trade when you lose your. Job; faW
sick, go wandering in search of work
or need insurance of any kind against
the misfortunes which the wagework
ers of your occupation must face in
common? Samuel Gompers in Ameri
can Federationist.
Labor Legislation In Cuba.
The three following bills affecting
labor conditions in Cuba were recently
introduced In the chamber of repre
sentatives: To fix the legal maximum at eight
hours for all laborers In the republic
who are paid a fixed salary (exclud
ing those who do "job" work).
To repeal article 567 of the penal
code, which penalizes those Who com
bine to increase or decrease in a man
ner contrary to law (abusivamente)
the price of labor or to regulate Its
conditions.
To require that 75 per cent of the
laborers employed in agricultural, in
dustrial or commercial work and 73
per cent of the apprentices in the same
line shall be native or naturalized Cubans.
Christmas at the Corner.
When the members of the Basswood
Silver Cornet band gave a concert last
winter and wore the neckties their
wives gave 'em for Christmas, you
couldn't hear the music at all.
William Jenkins, who is somewhat
nigh in money matters, expects to pre
sent his family with an encyclopedia,
one volume to each member. Last
year he gave 'em one dozen eggs.
Rev, Hanks wishes us to announce
that he has plenty of white lawn neck
ties, and if he preaches from now to
the crack of doom he won't use up half
What, he got last year for Christmas,
even If he uses a fresh one with every
sermon. Potaters and Hubbard squash
will be welcome, but he has all the
secondhand earmuffs that he needs.
Judge. .
