FIRST SESSION, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1910, 9.30 A. M.
In the absence of Commissioner Charles P. Neill, of the United States Bureau of Labor, who was detained in Washington by urgent official matters, the first session of the Chicago Conference was opened by the Secretary, H. V. Mercer, Chairman of the Minnesota Employes Compensation Commission, and he was unanimously elected temporary chairman for the Chicago meetings.
In formally opening the Conference and assuming the chair, Mr. Mercer said:
Chairman Mercer: According to the program here, the first order of business for this meeting is brief reports from the different state commissions. I understand there are seven States that have commissions working on the question of compensation for industrial accidents, or perhaps, more properly speaking, for injuries occurring in the course of and arising out of the industries in which they are employed,—for "accidents," according to the courts in some States, do not mean what we want to cover. Some courts use that term in the popular sense; some use it as including, and some use it as excluding, any idea of fault or negligence.
In view of the fact that you have made me temporary chairman, it would hardly be proper for me to open this meeting with a report from Minnesota, and hence I will call upon the other States first.
(Upon the Call of States by the Chairman, the following responses were given.)
Wisconsin.
Senator John J. Blaine: Our Committee is a legislative committee made up of three members of the Senate and four members of the Assembly. The committee was appointed at the last session of the Legislature in 1909. They have been diligently pursuing the course of their investigations with the object of arriving at a bill which the committee can recommend to the Legislature for its adoption. It was a few months before we got to work after our appointment and it was not until last April that we drafted the first tentative bills.