Proceedings, Third National Conference Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents

by National Conference on Workmen's Compensation for Industrial Accidents

Secretary H. V. Mercer, Chairman of the Minnesota Commission, called the meeting to order at 10 A. M. He announced that in response to the following invitation which had been sent to governors, ninety-four delegates had been appointed from nineteen states:

"Dear Sir:

As you are no doubt aware, several of the States have created commissions and legislative committees to investigate the present Employers' Liability Laws and report plans for betterment along the line of Workmen's Compensation Acts.

A conference of these commissions and committees was held at Atlantic City, on July 29th, to 31st last, a report of which is this day sent you under another cover. At that time it was resolved to hold a second conference, to be attended, if possible, by some person or persons designated by the Governor of each State. (See pages 277-9; 302-3, Atlantic City Report, supra.)

It has been determined to hold this second conference at Washington on January 20th, immediately after the conference on Uniform Legislation, which has been called by the National Civic Federation, and to which we are informed the Governors of the various States have been requested to send representatives.

You are respectfully urged to designate one or more persons specially qualified to take part in our second conference. In case you designate persons to represent the State at the Uniform Legislation conference we would suggest that you might designate one or more of the same persons to attend the conference on Workmen's Compensation.

Enclosed is a brief account of the Atlantic City Meeting, which explains more at length the general purpose and scope of these conferences.

We shall appreciate it if you will advise the Secretary at your earliest convenience as to the persons designated to attend this conference so that he may put himself in communication with them and arrange the details."

On motion, Mr. Mercer, in the absence of Dr. Chas. P. Neill, was elected temporary chairman, and Professor Henry R. Seager was made secretary of the meeting.

Mr. Mercer:

"Our executive committee did not formulate any regular program. We thought that the speeches ought to be limited to ten minutes and unless there is objection we will act upon that principle. We have drafted a short bill which we present here, not with an idea that it is correct, or that it is absolutely the bill that should be passed, but with a view of bringing up the different points for discussion. This matter has been discussed from the standpoint of theory sufficiently long and some of us think that we should get down to practical things."

Senator J. Mayhew Wainwright, Chairman of the New York Commission, described the preliminary work of that body (as outlined again by Miss Crystal Eastman, at the third meeting in Chicago [Page 13]). Senator Wainwright said, in part:

"The great difficulty is to determine how one State can adopt any system of compensation before the other States, and to secure the information upon which may be based a precise conclusion as to what the increased cost to the employers would be. It seems to me that it is going to be very difficult to get at exactly what the effect upon the industries of the States any particular bill will have, until some measure is tried. We are warned not to be the pioneers in the field. That raises, it seems to me, a very great ethical question, for this is a serious matter, and involves basic justice. It seems to me that we should question whether so much importance should be given to the cost, unless we are sure the cost is going to be pretty nearly prohibitive. In other words, if the thing is right, and fundamentally just, hasn't somebody got to start it and make a beginning and take some little chance as to what its effect may be. Another difficult matter, of course, is to determine the effect upon the smaller employers of labor, and there, we can only judge from the foreign experience.... The only thing we can be absolutely certain of, is that the present system is unsatisfactory and that there should be a change. So far as our commission is concerned, we will not cease from our labor but will unremittingly direct all our efforts to this subject until we, in the State of New York, can arrive at a solution which our commission will feel is the right one."...

Commissioner Charles P. Neill, of the United States Bureau of Labor, arrived at this time and assumed the chair. He said:

"Gentlemen, I wish to apologize for my inability to get down here at the opening of the session. It has not been a want of interest in this subject that has delayed me, for there is probably no subject in which I have more interest than the one of employers' liability and workmen's compensation. For the last eight days we have been engaged in bringing about the adjustment of a controversy which required as a solution some form of workmen's compensation. We have been dealing with the representatives of switchmen in the railroad yards, and if there is any occupation in which more men are maimed and butchered, I do not know what it is. Discussion brought forth at almost every point the necessity of doing something in this country to put us on what we might call a half civilized basis for taking care of the derelicts of industry." (Applause).