abled, 6,520. 2,268; 50.88 per cent. of these 12,814 were partly dis Defective arrangement for carrying on business__ 7.03 1,122 2.09 334 Failure to make use of protective apparatus__-- Fault of third person, particularly a co-laborer_---- 3.28 524 Of these 12,814, 12.91 per cent. were incapacitated for a time longer than 13 weeks, 1,654. It follows, therefore, that out of 15,970 employés whose injuries lasted more than 13 weeks, the commonlaw remedies would give 3,156 employés such compensation as a jury would assess after a trial and all appeals were settled.18 But the common law does not pretend to compensate dependents of the 2,372 killed in these accidents where the cause of death could not be attributed wholly to the fault of the employer. Nor does the common law pretend to compensate the 2,268 injured workmen who were disabled for life, the fault not being attributable to the employer. Nor does the com 12 Fourth Special Report of the Commission of Labor, 1893, p. 83. 13 Schonberg, Hanbuch, Vol. II, XXII, pp. 737-748. mon law offer any remedy for compensating the 6,520 injured workmen who were partially disabled, the fault thereof not being traceable to the employer. RESULTS OF ACCIDENTS IN 1887. § 47. Classification of causes of accidents in Germany. A classification of the causes of accidents to 46,000 employés collected by the German imperial insurance office for the year 1907 shows the following results.14 1. Due to negligence or fault of employer----. 2. Due to joint negligence of the employer and injured employé 3. Due to negligence of co-employés (fellow servants). 4. Due to "acts of God"-. 5. Due to fault or negligence of employé‒‒‒‒‒‒ 16.81 4.66 5.28 2.31 28.89 6. Due to inevitable accidents connected with the employment. 42.05 Total -100.00 These figures grouped to correspond to those for one year, 1887 are: 1. Cause of accident attributable to employer---2. Cause of accidents attributable to employé--3. Due to the inherent risks of the business__. 16.81 28.89 54.30 Total __100.00 The agricultural laborers were admitted to insurance after 1887, and the act was made to cover a large additional class of less intelligent laborers. § 48. Miscellaneous data.-The 19,000,000 workingmen who earn on an average less than $500 per 14 Bulletin Bureau of Labor, January, 1908. annum, with their families, represent a population of 60,000,000 people. Every civilized nation has decided that the product of labor of a given generation must support all during that time.15 Looked at from a purely commercial standpoint, that of rearing of men and women for the purpose of productive laborers, the elements of cost and waste have been studied with accurate results. There is the rearing of the children to the age of selfsupport, with the result that 13 per cent die during that period; during the assumed productive life of wage earners, it is estimated that the loss from death is 25 per cent in the United States.16 The loss through sickness is 6 per cent.17 Then you must add the cost, in money and time, of accidents and the support of the aged. Under these conditions, it is claimed that the contract of labor through some inadvertence is made as though sickness, accident, invalidity, and old age had been permanently banished from the earth; that the daily wage is sufficient only for daily necessities; that a man entitled to support for a lifetime unwillingly consents to a wage based upon a portion of that lifetime, for the competition in the field of labor is among the strong, the able-bodied, the efficient.18 We are surprised when told that Germany's poorer classes, though less favored by circumstances, maintain a higher level of well-being and far higher level of vitality than those of the United States and England.19 In industries outside of agriculture, for the sake of 15 F. A. Walker, The Wage Question, p. 34. 16 F. A. Walker, Wages, p. 35. 17 C. S. Loch, Insurance and Savings, p. 50. 18 A. W. Lewis, State Insurance, p. 7. 19 A. Shodwell, Industrial Insurance, Vol. 2, p. 453. comparison we might take $600 per annum as a minimum wage, based upon a family of five.20 In Massachusetts during a period of great prosperity with the necessary attendant cost of living, out of 300,000 adult workmen, only two-fifths received as much. as $12 per week. Making only proper allowance for unemployment, this would amount to considerably less than $600 per year.21 It has been said that the 18,000,000 wage earners of the United States receive an average wage of only $400 per annum.2 22 It is said that one-half of the families of the country and nine-tenths of those in the cities and industrial communities are propertyless; that in a group of States, including Massachusetts, one-fifth are in poverty;23 that one-twentieth are paupers ;24 that one-eighth of the families hold seven-eighths and one per cent hold over one-half of the property of the country;25 and that 71 per cent of the people hold 5 per cent of the wealth;20 that one-eighth of the families receive over one-half of the total income; and that two-fifths of the better-paid laborers receive more than the remaining three-fifths.2 27 We can derive no comfort from the statistics of savings-bank deposits. Take Massachusetts, where there seems to be an average deposit of about $300. Investigation shows that, while far the largest number of de 20 J. A. Ryan, A Living Wage, p. 150. 21 Compare Massachusetts Labor Bulletin, No. 44, December, 1906, p. 430, with thirty-seventh annual report, 1906, Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, pp. 279-281. 22 Address before American Association for Advancement of Science, December 27, 1906, by H. L. Call. 23 Hunter, pp. 43-60. 24 R. T. Ely, in North American Review, Vol. 152, p. 398. 25 C. P. Spahr, Present Distribution of Wealth in the United States, p. 69. 26 G. K. Holmes, in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. III, p. 593. 27 G. K. Holmes, in Political Science Quarterly, Vol. III, pp. 128129. posits belong to the wage-earning class, the deposits of thirteen-fourteenths of the whole number are but slightly larger than those of the remaining one-fourteenth; that in a typical bank the average deposit of wage-earners was less than $75.28 In England "it took 25 years of legislation to restrict a child of 9 to 69 hours per week."29 "It took 75 years to ascertain that the factory act, instead of weakening, had strengthened her in the world's rivalry."30 The assumption of any function by the State, like that of compulsory public education, is based upon higher grounds than compassion for a class. On what grounds does the State regulate the cholera, bubonic plague, and build and maintain institutions for paupers and for the insane? Why not begin higher up and prevent pauperism and assist those who do work of the nation and must fight its battles, who can not protect themselves from having an eye put out or an arm or leg cut off or their lives crushed out? The fourth element which enters into the determination of the economic insecurity of workingmen under the modern wage system is the following: While, theoretically, injured workmen have a cause of action at law against their employers in 18.19 per cent. of the cases of injuries to them, we learn further from this table that the per cent of accidents the causes of which are attributable to the combined negligence of the employer and employé is 9.94 per cent, and from the German statistics we learn that the portion of this 9.94 per cent which is due to the negligence of fellow servants is 5.28 per cent. But in the cases which come under the fellowservant rule the injured workmen can not recover. Sub 28 Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics, Third Annual Report, pp. 304-313; Fourth Annual Report, p. 192. 29 Hutchinson and Harrison, p. 21. 30 Traill, Social England, Vol. VI, p. 825. |