“The stake then for which the forest protection force is working is an annual crop of 6,500,000,000 feet of timber, worth to the Government, say, $6,000,000, and to the community $100,000,000. To win the stake fire must be kept out of the area of 100,000,000 acres, or a block of forest 400 miles square. The problem, both on account of the immense area, the variety of causes of fire, the absence of means of transportation and communication, and the present sparseness of population, is a most difficult one to solve. The safe harvesting of the annual yield will require, besides the expenditure of large sums of money, the good will of every citizen in the Province. However, everything favors the satisfactory working out of the problem.”
I quote the above to prove that we are not alone in our efforts to conserve and provide for the future of our country.
Our associated efforts are being extended continually along the lines of economy in manufacture, in the matter of standard grades and sizes, inspection and insurance. Where is the commodity that can be intelligently transported and marketed without a thorough knowledge of both production and consumption? I now claim, and always have claimed, that associated efforts to disseminate this information and collectively endorse projects financially and otherwise to promote the study of forestry and lumbering are the highest types of Conservation of the Nation’s resources.
In the great State of Washington, which is now furnishing more lumber than any other State in the Union, and where the lumber production is the chief industry of the State, we are vitally concerned in our legislative work, and concerning our Workman’s Compensation Act I wish to bring to this particular Congress a special message. I believe this act emphasizes the benefits of co-operative effort in conserving human life and in protecting the breadwinner, upon whom depends the life and happiness of so large a population.
With an industry affecting throughout the United States over 45,000 sawmills and 800,000 employes, regardless of families dependent on them, you will agree with me that we are all vitally interested in workmen’s compensation.
In a recent Bulletin of the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association, Mr. Bronson wrote as follows:
“Thirteen States have adopted workmen’s compensation acts, and all have become effective since September 1, 1910. All but one of these laws are optional, the exception being the Washington law, which is compulsory, and which, according to the brief experience had, seems to be the most satisfactory both to employers and employes, saving the employer all expense for industrial insurance, and saving both employer and employe all court costs and giving to the employe the full compensation provided by the law without any deduction for lawyers or fees.
“The thirteen States which have adopted compensation acts are California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. In all of these States the common-law defenses are in whole or part wiped out where the employer does not come under the compensation act.”
The law in the State of Washington has now been in operation one year. To those of us who have operated under it, it has already proved what its advocates claimed the most advanced piece of legislation enacted—and we have woman’s suffrage, too.
It is surprising what an effect it has had in clearing the court docket of damage suits and in paying to the injured at a time when the money is needed all the award without the intervention of a third party. With a carefully selected commission of three, responsible to the Governor, and non-partisan in character, we have launched a statute that, regardless of any improvements which may be determined or defects disclosed, has improved the industrial atmosphere both for employe and employer.