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Copyright by the American Federation of Labor. All rights reserved.

DEMAND THE UNION LABEL.

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DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT

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I

LESSONS IN LABOR LEGISLATION.

By G. CROYDON MARKS, M. P.

N speaking of the trend of recent English labor legislation before an audience of business and professional men at the City Club of Chicago recently, Mr. G. Croydon Marks, of the English House of Commons, explained particularly the workmen's compensation act, which in Great Britain now replaces the antiquated fellow-servant doctrine, and provides that employers shall be liable for injuries received by their workmen and likewise for disease contracted in the course of employment. Mr. Marks said in part:

"Labor and capital, and the interests in association with labor and capital are not national questions any longer; they are international. The difficulties that we have been through and the troubles that we have tried to meet, you will have to go through, and you will have to meet.

You have to remember, as we have had to remember, and take account of this that a workman has but one thing to offer; he has his physical powers, associated with that which belongs to his mind. But if you take away his physical powers you have taken away his use to the community, you have taken away his capacity for being

any good to anybody, and he becomes a charge upon the community sooner or later. That has to be recognized in the poor law system of every land, because it is a part of the tenets of every civilized country that no person shall be allowed to starve.

There is no such thing as individual liberty in a civilized community; there can not be entire liberty in a civilized community, or somebody would suffer. Liberty must be restrained for the good of the average citizen. A man may be impelled by certain motives which would inflict injury upon others unless he were restrained. He may be desirous of doing certain things perfectly lawful in themselves, but not expedient that they should be done in the society in which he lives, and therefore society says that although that which he proposes to do is not a crime, it is not expedient that he should do it, and laws have been passed to prevent him from doing those things.

Responsibility of Employers.

That brings me to the point at oncethe responsibility that capital has and the responsibility that employers have for the

physical powers of those whom they employ, and those whom they pay for. There are certain risks in everything you put your hand to, but you provide for it. You can not build a house, fireproof though it be, next door to another man's house, without running the risk that his house may burn yours down, or burn you, or do some injury. You therefore insure against that risk, if you are a wise man. You look upon it as part of the stock-in-trade expense that you must meet. You can not cross the street, you can not take a journey without running the risk that possibly you may be inconvenienced or injured by the act of another, or you may by accident injure yourself; and you provide for that risk by insuring.

We in England have come to this conclusion: That no man can be engaged by another for salary or for wage without the risk of his life being put upon the person that pays the wage. We have come to the conclusion that a man must insure the risk of injury to the physical powers of those whom he pays, just as much as he insures the risk of his house burning, or the risk of accident happening to himself.

Now, that is a strong order; that is a big theory, but look at it! If you lose your money as manufacturers you can possibly bide your time and get more. If your man loses his health he has no time to bide, he is done. You can recover, but he can not. Therefore the law has said: 'Whoever employs a man for his own profit or advantage must, if the man is injured while in his employment or in the course of his employment, provide for the man precisely as though he himself were the man.' That is, if a man is injured accidentally or in some way due to the business that he is doing, the law now says it does not matter how the injury comes about; it does not matter whether or not it was due to the carelessness of somebody else, provided it was not due to the man's carelessness, and provided it was not his work, the master must pay compensation after the first week.

The first week is necessary to prevent malingering, to prevent shamming. A man may hurt himself; after the first week it is found out whether it is serious or not and then he gets his pay. The pay that he gets is just one-half the average pay that he might earn, provided that sum shall not be less than 1 (about $5) per week. If the

man receives a permanent injury, or one that may last for years, that £1 per week will continue for years. If an injured man gets better and may take other employment, the difference between that which he gets and the £1 per week must be made up by the employer with whom he was when injured.

This money can not be attached; no debt is chargeable against it; it can not be assigned, and payment must continue, with this chance for the employer to check what might be malingering, and to check what might be a tendency to laziness; the employer can subject the man to an examination by medical men and if the man refuses to be so examined then no further compensation will be paid him. If the medical man certifies on behalf of the employer that the man is fit to return to work and the workman dissents, then another medical man authorized by the local government board, an intelligent medical man, will make the examination and his decision will be final. The man may be told to go back, or the employer may be told to continue to pay him.

Liability Law of Great Britain.

If a man is killed outright the amount of money to be paid to his dependents is three years' wages, no matter whether he may have been employed one week by the employer or 20 years. If killed during the course of his employment three years' wages must be paid, figured on his average earnings during the past 12 months, or at the time of his death. But the minimum that shall be thus paid is 150. A man's life, therefore, is fixed at a minimum of £150. It may be that he would not have been earning £50 per year, but three times that sum is the minimum to be paid to his dependents.

If, however, the dependents are not solely dependent upon the man, but only partially, the extent of the dependence will determine the extent of the payment—that is, if it is only half, then only half the £150 will be payable. If there is no dependent then that which has to be done is to meet the funeral expenses. Nothing paid if no one dependent; everything paid if they are solely dependent; partially paid if partially dependent.

Now, there is no way of 'contracting out.' A master may suggest to a man when coming into his employment, 'Now, this

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