while recognizing that "to realize the ideal of workmen's conpensation is impossible."

The minority report1 consists of 30 pages, 22 of which present a bill, while the remaining portion is taken up with an account of the grounds for dissent from the majority. The principal contention was to the effect that later drafts and more extended studies were available, showing advances over the provisions of the New Jersey act of 1911, and that these should be taken advantage of in the enactment of new legislation. The bill recommended was the draft of a law prepared by a committee of the National Association of Manufacturers, some of the points of advantage emphasized being the prevention of accidents, the compulsory insurance of the risks of all employers who elect to accept the law, the encouragement of mutual insurance as a means of holding in check the charges for premiums, and the inclusion of farm and domestic labor. Compulsory compensation was said by the minority report to be desirable eventually, but not immediately attainable.

No law was enacted in 1913, but a third commission was provided for, to report to the legislature of 1915.

MONTANA.

Though the legislature had in 1909 enacted a law of limited scope, applicable to coal mines only, the governor of Montana appointed on his own motion a commission of eight men in 1910 to prepare employers' liability and workmen's compensation acts to present to the legislature. This commission, or six of its members, agreed to recommend two bills, one providing for automatic compensation in extrahazardous employments, and a companion bill limiting the amounts recoverable if workmen elect to sue instead of accepting the proposed benefits. Neither of these bills became a law.

The report proper is very short, containing only seven pages, occupied with an account of the appointment and action of the commissions, the nature of the proposed bills, and a general expression as to the desirability of compensation laws as compared with those declaring the employers' liability. A recommendation was made for the appointment of a commission by the legislature to give further attention to the subject.

NEBRASKA.

The House of Representatives of Nebraska passed a resolution, April 6, 1911, empowering and requesting the governor to appoint a commission to investigate the subject of employers' liability and compensation laws. No appropriation was made for expenses, but

1 Letter of transmittal accompanying minority report prepared by F. C. Schwedtman of the Missouri Commission on Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation, 1913.

2 Governor's message relating to employers' liability and workmen's compensation act, with report of the commission appointed by the governor, 1911.

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the commission was authorized to call on the State legislative reference bureau for assistance and clerical help and for other aid in preparing its report. The report is a pamphlet of 48 pages, and is issued by the Nebraska legislative reference bureau as Bulletin No. 2. Data are presented as to accidental deaths in the State for the first 11 months of 1912, reported under the board of health law of 1905, and court business from personal-injury cases.

Two bills are presented as majority and minority reports of the commission, the first being a compulsory compensation system and the second an elective State insurance system. A law was passed in 1913 differing widely from either of the propositions of the commission, being an elective compensation law.

NEW JERSEY.

The report of the New Jersey commission is embodied in a message of the governor to the legislature, transmitting the report. The pamphlet, of 91 pages, contains the evidence taken at the hearings of the commission, discussions of the defenses commonly in use in meeting actions for injuries to employees, some account of the Chicago conference of November, 1910, and the bill proposed for enactment. The representatives of labor on the commission, while supporting the principle of the bill, objected to the amount of compensation proposed..

A law on the subject was enacted in 1911, practically in agreement with the recommendations of the commission, and has been upheld as constitutional by the courts.

NEW YORK.

The Legislature of New York by an act of May 27, 1909, provided for a commission of 14 persons to consider existing conditions in the State as to the liability of employers for industrial accidents, and "the comparative efficiency, cost, justice, merits, and defects of the laws of the other industrial States and countries relative to the same subject." An appropriation of $10,000 was made for the expenses of the commission, which reported in 1910, the volume being a quarto composed of the report proper, of 69 pages, with 200 pages of appendixes, and a record of hearings comprising 470 pages. A second volume appeared under the date of April 20, 1911, on the causes and prevention of industrial accidents, consisting of a report, 116 pages, and minutes, 307 pages; while after the action of the court of appeals of the State declaring the compulsory compensation law unconstitutional, a brief report (11 pp.) was issued May 3, 1911, reviewing

1 Preliminary Report, Employers' Liability and Workmen's Compensation Commission, 1912.

* Message of the governor transmitting to the legislature the report of commission on employers' liability, 1911.

Report by the Commission to Inquire into the Question of Employers' Liability. First report, Mar. 19, 1910.

this decision and recommending the adoption of an amendment to the constitution of the State to meet objections raised by the court. In this report the enactment of an elective system, withdrawing the employer's defenses to secure his coming under the law, was considered as of doubtful constitutionality under the ruling in the case in which the compulsory act was disapproved, and also as of doubtful practical value, since many employers might refuse to accept it, even under such pressure as the law might provide.

The first and principal report is one of the most extended reports issued by a State commission. Eleven public hearings in various parts of the State, 14 executive sessions of the commission, and numerous meetings of committees and subcommittees indicate something of the activity of the commission in one direction. Inquiries were sent to 1,942 employers reporting accidents to the State department of labor, to 975 reporting accidents to the public-service commission, and to the presidents of 2,331 labor organizations in the State. Several statistical studies were made as to the economic results of accidents and proceedings at law with reference to such accidents; also the cost of industrial accidents to employers and the distribution of such costs to hospitals, for fees, insurance premiums, settlements, as damages, etc.

An investigation of 1,040 work accidents by the State labor department, in which total losses and payments were ascertained, showed that in 404 of the 902 cases of temporary disability (lasting from one week to more than one year) nothing was received by the injured person, not even medical expenses; while in 304 cases the amount recovered from the employer was less than one-half the loss of wages and expenses of the injury. In 71 cases there was permanent partial disability, reducing the earning capacity of the employee in varying amounts. Of this number 18 received nothing, 22 received $100 or less, 14 received from $101 to $500, 5 received from $501 to $2,000, while 1 person received more than $2,000; suits were still pending in 11 cases. In 902 cases of temporary disability there was a wage loss of $66,800, besides medical expenses amounting to $20,000, while all payments by employers amounted to but $25,339, or less than 30 per cent of the losses and costs. Payments in cases of permanent partial disability make a somewhat better showing, approximating 34 per cent of the actual losses, though this omits from consideration the depreciated earning power; while in 10 cases of permanent total disability, computed on a basis of 3 years' wage loss, the payments by employers amounted to but 9.7 per cent of the losses and costs. Data obtained from other sources indicate the same general condition of inadequate compensation for losses suffered.

That the system of liability and damage suits entails waste is shown by the fact that the expenditures of 327 firms in the State in 1907, employing 125,995 men, amounted to $192,538 on account of accidents, accident insurance, legal expenses, etc., of which the amount paid to the persons injured was but $104,643, or 54 per cent of the employers' outgo in this connection. Premium receipts and payments of losses by 9 insurance companies that kept separate accounts of their employers' liability business show that during 1906, 1907, and 1908 they took in as premiums $23,523,585 and paid out in insurance $8,559,795, or but 36 per cent of the premiums received. In connection with attorney's fees, which are frequently contingent on recoveries, it was shown that in 14 of the 51 cases investigated the fee was less than 25 per cent of the recovery, in 14 cases it was 50 per cent or more, while in the remaining 23 cases it was more than 25 per cent and less than 50 per cent.

The question of the cost to the employer of a compensation system as compared with the cost of the present system received consideration, the investigation of this phase of the question being conducted by the State bureau of labor statistics.

It was concluded that large manufacturing firms (though perhaps not small employers) could pay compensation benefits at least equal to the English scale at no greater cost than incurred for accidents under the existing system, and probably in some cases for less.

With the exception of one member, who thought that a change of system was necessary, but that the remedy for the situation had not yet been found, the commission summarized its conclusions as follows:

First. That the present system in New York rests on a basis that is economically unwise and unfair, and that in operation it is wasteful, uncertain, and productive of antagonism between workmen and employers.

Second. That it is satisfactory to none, and tolerable only to those employers and workmen who practically disregard their legal rights and obligations and fairly share the burden of accidents in industries. Third. That the evils of the system are most marked in hazardous employments where the trade risk is high and serious accidents frequent.

Fourth. That as a matter of fact workmen in the dangerous trades do not, and practically can not, provide themselves adequate accident insurance, and therefore the burden of serious accidents falls on the workmen least able to bear it, and brings many of them and their families to want.

The commission recommended legislation along two lines-a compulsory compensation act applicable to specified dangerous employments, and an elective law of general application, coupled with amendments to the existing laws on liability. Drafts of bills were prepared and submitted to the legislature in accordance with these

views, and, with some amendment, were passed, being the pioneers in their class in the United States. As already noted, the compulsory act was subsequently declared unconstitutional as interfering with freedom of contract and due process of law.

Subsequent to this decision, the constitution of the State was amended, as recommended by the commission in its report of May 3, 1911, and a compulsory statute applicable to an extensive list of employments classed as hazardous was enacted in 1913.

NORTH DAKOTA.

The compensation commission of this State was appointed in accordance with the provisions of an act of March 17, 1911, creating a commission of three persons, one to be an employer of labor, one a representative of labor, and one learned in the law. No compensation was appropriated for the commission but necessary expenses might be incurred, not exceeding $1,000.

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The report is a pamphlet of 128 pages, and is in six sections, discussing the present state of the law in North Dakota, its inadequateness, the statutory modifications of the common law, a brief summary of foreign and domestic compensation acts, two proposed acts for the consideration of the legislature, concluding with a consideration of the constitutionality of these proposed acts.

The recommendation as to bills is an alternative one, the first being for simple compensation, the law of Wisconsin being substantially followed, the other conforming closely to the Ohio statute providing for a State insurance system. While the recommendation presents these two forms for consideration by the legislature, the preference of the commission is for the State insurance system as eliminating waste, while the burden of administration is offset by the improved condition of the beneficiaries, reducing police and relief expenses. No law was passed.

In the discussion of the inadequacy of present remedies large use is made of the report of the New York commission, while in the consideration of the question of constitutionality the brief of Mr. H. V. Mercer, of the Minnesota commission, is said to have been liberally drawn from.

OHIO.

The report of this commission 2 consists of two octavo volumes, each of more than 400 pages. The first volume contains the report to the State legislature, with numerous appendixes containing summaries and discussions of the compensation acts of foreign countries, statistical data, Federal and State laws, drafts submitted by other

1 Report of the Commission on Legislation providing for the Liability of Employers in Compensation for Injured Workingmen, 1913.

2 Report to the Legislature of the State of Ohio by the Employers' Liability Commission, 1911.