COMPENSATION FOR INDUSTRIAL INJURIES By ALLEN RIPLEY FOOTE PRICE TEN CÉNTS. PUBLISHED BY THE OHIO JOURNAL OF COMMERCE COLUMBUS, OHIO EXPLANATORY PREFACE:-CONCLUSIONS My purpose in supplying you with this duscussion of the subject of "Compensation for Industrial Injuries" is to enable you to examine, in brief form, the vital substance of the large amount of data I have read while compiling it. Your interest in this subject is so direct, I feel it unnecessary to urge you to give it your prompt and careful attention. My investigation of this subject has led me to the following conclusions: (1) The basis of insurance should be shifted from “Employers' Liability" to "Workmen's Compensation." (2) The form of insurance should be collective, covering all employes working for each employer. (3) Collective insurance should be made compulsory by law imposed upon every employer and employe in the same manner as laws are imposed requiring the use of appliances for accident prevention and the observance of sanitary conditions designed to render employment safe and healthful. This is necessary to prevent employers who do not insure their employes, and uninsured workmen, from gaining an unfair competitive advantage over those who do comply with the "Workmen's compensation insurance law," by not including the cost of compensation insurance in the cost of their products. (4) The fact of collective insurance should be established by an inspector's certificate in the same manner and by the same inspectors who certify to the fact of compliance with laws requiring the use of appliances for accident prevention and prescribing sanitary conditions. (5) The fact of compensation insurance, so certified, should be a complete defense, for any employer who has paid the required premium for such insurance, against any and every claim for compensation for industrial injuries however originating. 263624 (6) While the fact of compensation insurance is compulsory, the method of insurance should be elective, subject to the choice of the employer electing to have his insurance written by one of the following methods: (a) A state liability board of awards; (b) A stock compensation insurance company; (c) A mutual co-operative compensation insurance com pany; (d) Self-insurance by complying with reserve fund requirements. (7) All compensations for industrial injuries and terms of payment should be fixed by statutory law, and should be identical for all compensation insurance by whomsoever written. (8) The method of accounting to show all costs of writing insurance and administration of the business of compensation insurance, and to establish and verify tests of solvency, should be prescribed by the State Insurance Department, and required of all writers of compensation insurance authorized to do business in the state, including the State Liability Board of Awards, in identical terms and without discrimination. (9) All costs of administration, and all expenses of every kind and nature, incurred by any writer of compensation insurance should be charged to and paid out of the fund created by the collection of insurance premiums. This is necessary in order that the accounts of the State Liability Board of Awards may show the true and entire cost of insurance as shown by the accounts of those writing such insurance by either of the other methods. (10) The State Insurance Department should have power to prohibit the selling of insurance by the State Liability Board of Awards, or by any insurance company authorized to do business in the state, at less than cost, or at rates of premium that are insufficient fully to pay the true and entire cost of the business and to establish a reserve fund sufficient to make the payment of every approved claim for compensation for an industrial injury prompt and certain. This is necessary to safeguard taxpayers from being compelled to pay a part of the cost of com pensation insurance and, in case of the insolvency of the reserve fund, from having public funds collected from taxpayers used to make up deficits. It is also necessary to safeguard employers participating in insurance written by the State Liability Board of Awards from being required to pay extra or increased premiums for the purpose of making up a deficit in the fund drawn upon by that Board for the payment of approved claims for compensation. (11) The proposition to compel taxpayers to pay a part of the cost of insurance, which should be paid by the industry insured, is a device to secure the co-operation of employers in the purpose to create a state monopoly in such insurance. Unless human experience is to differ in the future from what it has been in the past, employers who are caught by this bait will find, when it is too late to correct their mistake, that they have paid too high a price for the privilege of having their insurance written at a temporarily low premium rate through sacrificing their right and power to elect by what method they shall be insured. When the state monopoly is established by this method as is intended, employers, though they inay have the right, will have no power to secure insurance by any other method, as there will be no one engaged in writing such insurance except the state. (12) A state monopoly in writing compensation insurance for industrial injuries is an entering wedge being employed by socialists to secure state control of all industries. The purpose of paying the operating expenses of the State Liability Board of Awards out of funds collected by taxation is to enable that Board to sell such insurance at less than cost and by this means to establish a State monopoly by driving all competitors out of the state. This unfair method of competition, when employed by industrial competitors, is denounced by courts and popular opinion. Why should it not be denounced with equal indignation when employed by authority of the state? (13) State monopoly established in compensation insurance for industrial injuries will be one step taken on the road to state ownership and operation of all industries. With the rates. of insurance premiums subject to the dictation of the State Lia |