WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION, a system of indemnifying wage-workers and em ployees generally for economic losses caused by Injuries (either through accident or occupational disease) and due in employment The modern deselopment of industry, especially through ap plication of mechanical energy and complicated machinery and throtizh the grost th in the di mensions of operations, has raised industrial accidents and injuries to the dignity of a grave social problem It is enough to point out that in Germany alone the number of accidents reported annually exceed 700.0011l of which the fatalities approach 10,000; that in the United States the number of industrial accidents is estimated from 2,000,000 to 3,000.000 and the fatalities from 25,000 to 30,000 a year.
The theory of compensation first developed in Europe when the older theory of employers' (q.v.) proved inadequate to meet the economic problems created by these fatal or disabling accidents. Employers' liability, or the general legal principle of liability based upon the code civil, gave the injured workman the right to recover damages if he could establish by proper evidence that the accident was due to the negligence of the employer or his agent. In the nature of things this was possible only in a small percentage of eases, perhaps 10 per cent ; in a large number of cases the accidents were found to be due to the negligence of the injured employee, or of one of his fellow employees, or the inherent hazards of the industry. The result was a rapid increase in litigation with little benefit to the injured. This became a serious problem in the more hazard ous industries and special legislation developed in the railroad and mining fields.
with the early 70's the problem of =al accidents began to attract the attention of Euro pean legislators. The earlier proposals were directed at a change of the burden of proof. so as to force the employer to show that the acci dent had occurred without any negligence aches part, rather than to require the injured person to establish negligence. The next step was the announcement of the doctrine of 'trade now (risque professionelle in French terminology) This established a right of recovery when an accident was admittedly due to no one's nigh gence but to the inevitable hazard of the in dustry. Yet even with these modifications the
doctrine of employers' liability failed to give general satisfaction. The final step in the evolution of the compensation method was takes in Germany when the question of negligesee was entirely left out. Proposals made is 1879 have materialized m Germany in legislation in 1884. This legislation established on right of re entirely irrespective of the question of causation of the injury, but simply on the bans of the fact. On the other hand, it announced the principle of a specified (admittedly perm!) compensation according to a definite schedule, is which compensation is graded to tie nature of the injury, the degree and of disability and generally the wage-earning capacity of the injured person.
The movement for accident conapessatioe once begun in Germany, spread rapidly through out Europe and later through other parts of the world — as the following list indicates (le which the acts are listed according to the year in which they have passed). Europe—Cs...La.!. 1884; Austria, 1887; Norway, lM; Finlwl 1895; Great Britain, 1897; Demme& Italy. France, 1898; Spain, 1900; Greece. Netherlands. Sweden, 1%1; Luxemburg, _1902; Russia. gium, 1903; Hungary, 1907 Bulgaria, 1909: I ichtenstein, Servia, 1910; Switzerland. 1911: Roumania. 1912; Portugal. 1913. Prstish valet New Zealand, New South Wales. S Australia. 1900; British Columbia, 191r; New Brunswick, 1903; Cape of Good Hope. Queens land, 1905; Transvaal, 1907; Alberta.".ewfoind land, 190S; Quebec, 1909; Manitoba, Nova Scotia, 1910; Tasmania, Saskatchewan, Labra dor, 1911; W. Australia, 1912; Victoria, 1914; Ontario, 1916. Other Countries.— Leon (Mexico). Venezuela, 1906; Peru, Japan, 1911: Cuba, 1916. United States.— Maryland, 1902; United States (government employees), 1908; Montana, 1909; New York. 1910; Kansas, Washington, New jersey, California, New Hampslure, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Massa chusetts, 1911; Michigan, Rhode Island, Ari tone. Canal Zone. 1912; West Virginia, Oregon, Nevada, Texas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Connecticut, New York, 1913; Maryland, Louisi ana, Kentucky, 1914; Wyoming, Indiana, Mon una, Oklahoma, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, 1915• Kentucky, Porto Rico, 1916; New Mexico, Idaho, 1917; Dela rare, 1918.