The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 5, 1919, Page 4

North Dakota *Workefs Are Protected Industrial Compensation Law Indemnifies Labor Against Injury in Employment—Members of Bureau Organize and Study Duties Bismarck Bureau,- Nonpartisan Leader. 2 | NDUSTRIAL compensation, the major legislation asked for by organized labor, will be a real- shortly after July 1. The North Dakota compen- sation bureau, created by an act of the sixteenth legislative as- sembly, which was controlled by Nonpartisan league members, has already met, or- ganized, selected a site for an office in appropriate quarters at Bismarck, and is now ready to do busi- ness—a business which will indemnify every wage- - earmer in North Dakota against injury or accidental death, sustained during employment, except those employed in agriculture, domestic service, or by common steam carriers. The latter class of labor was exempted from the act upon its own request and because it is provided for under federal insurance. In less than 60 days after adjournment of the legislature, Governor Lynn J. Frazier selected S. S. McDonald of Grand Forks, N. D., president of the North Dakota Federation of Labor, and recom- mended for the appointment by the North Dakota Federation of Labor, and L. J. Wehe, an attorney of Devils Lake, N. D., as the two appointive mem- bers of the workmen’s compensation bureau. They already have filed their bonds and taken oaths of office and are ready for duty. Mr. McDonald and Mr. Wehe will devote their entire time to work of the bureau and will make their homes at Bismarck. John N. Hagan, commissioner of agriculture and labor, a Nonpartisan-elected official, is the other ' . member and will be chairman. - McDONALD LONG CHAMPION OF LABOR IN STATE Mr. McDonald has championed the cause of or- ganized labor all_his life and has made a careful study of legislation for the wage-earner, especially industrial compensation. Mr. Wehe is a graduate of the University of North Dakota law school. At the first meeting of the bureau at Bismarck on April 5, the law was informally discussed and a secretary was named. John B. Brown, who for the last year has been executive secretary to the North Dakota Council of Defense, and prior to that was engaged in newspaper work, was chosen sec- retary. Before the bureau’s office in the Northwest ity in North Dakota on or . disability, the percentage which / hotel building is formally opened, Secretary Brown will go to Columbus, Ohio, and Madison, Wis., to study similar laws in those states. The Ohio law, like the North Dakota law, makes the insurance compul- sory, while in Wisconsin the - insurance is made optional. Authorities on industrial compensation are unani- mous in their conclusion that the North Dakota law is the most practical, both from the viewpoint of the employer and employe, - that has ever been written into a statute book in this or any other country. In- demnification of a work- man or his dependents for economic loss on account of injury or death, suffered because of his connection with a particular industry, is provided for to the ex- tent of 6624 per.cent of his average weekly wage, which shall not exceed more than $30 a week or be less than $18. In case of permanent partial 3 R S o e L) E ) e, ox | 3 such disability bears to total disability will be determined by the bureau, and compensa- tion allowed the employe, a sum equal to 663 per cent of his weekly wages for a period ranging from 52 weeks for 1 per cent disability to 468 weeks for 90 per cent disability. The bureau is also directed to fix and file a schedule of special benefits to be allowed for specific injuries. Medical aid and hospital at- tention will be provided the injured at the expense of the bureau for all classes of injuries. The application of the industrial insurance is made compulsory to all except the three exempted classes, .and the employer is made to stand the burden of expense, with a heavy penalty provided for any attempt on the part of the employer to Representative “Dell” Patterson of Donnybrook, N. D., floor leader for the League farmers in the lower house of the North Dakota legisla- ture. Mr. Patterson’s untiring efforts had a great deal to do with the suc- cess of the League program for the benefit of the workers of the farms and cities of North Dakota. shift the burden of premium upon the wage-earner. No one will attempt to esti- mate at this time the number of wage-earners affected by the law, as there are no reliable statistics available to_show the number of persons employed in industries in the state. The bu- reau today is faced with the problem of levying a premium on every dollar of wages earn- ed by every one of the employes in proportion to the hazard of the industry in which they are employed. FIXING PREMIUMS BIG TASK OF BOARD In determining the premium on the various hazards in North Dakota for the first few years, Chairman Hagan says, the rates charged by work- men’s compensation bureaus of other states and by old line companies will have to form the basis, but that in the course of two or three years North Dakota will be able to adjust the rates to better meet the local conditions. The ques- tion of premiums has not been discussed by the bureau. Workmen’s compensation has been long established in European countries and in the British colonies. The germ of - the present compensation sys- tem existed over a century ago in the mining in- dustries of Austria and Germany, where the first at- tempts were made to provide for accident relief. In these countries as well as in others “lability laws” were enacted which made less difficult the obtaining of indemnity but which continued to recognize the fundamental idea of personal neg- ligence as a cause of action. At the present time 49 foreign governments and 32 states of the Union have enacted compensation laws which, while the laws differ in scope and method, are all based on the principle of providing indemnity for injury, re- gardless of personal fault. e R s o2, ) L ™% w oy * . 3 PR L) W « Session in Idaho Is Record of Reaction Power Trust Tax and Soldiers’ Moratorium Measures Killed—State-Wide Primary Law Repealed—Governor Given Autocratic Powers | ' I. P. MacDowell, author of the following article, is the editor of the Idaho Leader. He is a newspaper man of wide experience and has been at Boise throughout the session, watching the progress of the legislature and the work of the League members in it. BY I. P. MACDOWELL OLLOWING is the record of the fifteenth legislative session of Idaho, which recently adjourned sine die. In. comparison with the accomplishments of the North Dakota legislature, the work of the Idaho lawmakers stands in a particularly sinis- ter light: Authorized bond issues and appropriations ap- proximating $10,000,000. ; Repealed the state-wide primary law. Created a state constabulary. Created the biggest political machine -in the Northwest under the name of the cabinet form of government. Passed a fake bonded warehouse act which is, worse than none at all. Denounced President Wilson in a set of reso- lutions. Killed women’s eight-hour law. . . Appropriated $20,000 for investigation of water resources of the state. This investigation to be made by-the public utilities commission, which has never rendered an important decision unfavorable to the power trust. Killed a bill providing for just taxation of the power trust. 3 Killed a bill which would prevent use of substi- tutes in manufacturing butter. ; Killed soldiers’ moratorium. Killed initiative and referendum. Killed resolution favoring league of nations. On this page are given examples of the accomplishments of two legislatures, those of Idaho and North Dakota. In Idaho a reactionary body killed every effort to lighten the burden of indus- try, refused to make special privilege carry its.just share of the taxes, and repealed a law for which the people long have fought, the direct primary. In contrast, here is just one of the acts passed in North Dakota for the benefit of the producer, the workmen’s com- pénsation act, which indemnifies a worker against injury' or accidental death in the pursuit of his employment. The reactionaries in all states are pre- paring the way, by their tactics, for a Nonpartisan victory in 1920. Killed a bill providing interest rate on farm mortgages shall not be more than 5 per cent per annum. : Killed bill providing that contract rate of inter- est should not be more than 8 per cent. * The fifteenth session of the Idaho legislature has adjourned and the legislators have gone to their homes leaving behind them the reputation of being the most reactionary who ever sat in Idaho’s state capitol. , From the very start of the first day’s session there was an agreement to act toward one aim— g:he suppression of anything and everything relat- ing to the Nonpartisan league. Scores of bills were introduced by Nonpartisan league legislators: bills which if passed would have proved a boon to Idaho. But these bills were either killed .in com- mit&cee or by the other house, and in several in- stances were passed by both houses of the legis- lature only to be vetoed by a governor who for seven years received, free of charge, all the elec- tricity he could use in his home, : ; In one instance a whole page of a bill which pro- vided for a semblance of justice in the taxation of the power trust in this state was “lost” somewhere between the clerk and the printer. There were a few Nonpartisan league-indorsed legislators in. both houses, and they were true to their trust. They came to Boise with the intention of carrying out their pledges to their constitu- A : (Continued on page 13) :