be a long time before he gets anything, and that the lawyers will get the larger share.

If a settlement is not made and a suit follows, a great waste of time and money results to both parties. The plaintiff may be compelled to pay his lawyer liberally, if he is successful; and the defendant may incur the expenses of claim agents, expert witnesses and lawyers, and also assume other expenses incidental to litigation, in addition to the verdict, if one should be rendered against him. It is true, indeed, that these expenses of the defendant are generally furnished by employers' liability insurance companies, when employers are insured by such companies against injuries to employees; but the loss is of course paid by the insured. employers as a class, in the premiums received by the insurance companies. At all events, there is a great waste of money, so far as justice and the rights of both employers and employees are concerned. The real beneficiaries frequently are not parties to the litigation, and oftentimes their selfish interests are served by defeating justice or by the promotion of injustice. It is no part of the duty of this committee, nor is it our intention, to censure the conduct of any persons for this condition of things, which indeed may be the result of forces and influences beyond the control of individuals. It would seem, however, to be for the true interest of the community, as well as for the interest of the employer and the injured employee, that some adequate remedy or remedies should be devised to correct these evils.

Before suggesting remedies for the evils above referred to, it may be well briefly to review the law relating to personal injuries to employees as such. In doing so, it is convenient to refer to rights of employers and to rights of employees.

These rights may be described as common law rights and statutory rights. The common law rights are those which exist independently of any action of the legislature, and are, generally speaking, embodied in the decisions of judges rendered during a long period of time. The statutory rights are those contained in acts of the legislature.

Common Law Rights. 1. The employee upon entering the employ of another is supposed to understand and assume

the danger and risk of the work he is expected to perform, provided he is of ordinary capacity and intelligence. This means, however, the ordinary dangers and risks of the employment, and does not mean unusual and extraordinary dangers, known, or which ought to have been known, by the employer and not known by the employee. If such unusual dangers exist, it is the duty of the employer to apprise the employee of their existence.

2. An employee has no remedy against his employer for personal injuries caused by the carelessness of a competent fellow workman. In other words, this is also a risk of employment assumed by the employee. (The Employers' Liability Act, which will be referred to, modifies this rule in certain respects.)

3. An employer is bound to provide machinery, buildings, elevators, etc., ways and approaches that are reasonably safe. He is not bound to furnish machinery, etc., that are perfectly safe, but such as are modern and used in wellappointed establishments.

4. An employee cannot recover damages from his employer if injured by reason of a defect in machinery, etc., of which he was apprised. In certain cases, nevertheless, he may recover damages if he has repeatedly requested the employer to repair a defect and the employer fails or neglects to do so, especially after the latter has promised to make the repairs.

5. An employer is liable for an injury to an employee. resulting from the carelessness of an incompetent, intemperate or reckless fellow workman, if the employer was aware of such incompetency, or might have known it by exercising reasonable diligence.

6. The injured employee, in order to recover damages, must in all cases prove that he himself was careful. In other words, he must show that he did not contribute to the accident.

7. It is improbable that an employee could recover in Massachusetts for injuries sustained while performing work of unusual danger, through fear of discharge, after being directed by his employer to do the work.

8. The employer, as said above, is legally bound to instruct one entering into his employment of exceptional and unusual dangers, known to him and not known to the employee. If the employee is young, inexperienced, or below the average person in intelligence, the employer is bound to give him still greater instruction.

9. At common law the legal representatives of an employee killed by the negligence of an employer can recover no damages if such employee dies instantly. (This rule has been modified in the cases of railroad and street railway employees, and in cases arising under the Employers' Liability Act.)

Statutory Rights. - 1. No employer, by virtue of a special contract with employees, can exempt himself from liability to such employees for injuries sustained by them on account of his negligence, and any such contract is null and void. (A corporation engaged in carrying passengers or in transporting freight cannot require a bond of an employee to indemnify it against loss or damage resulting from the negligence of such employee.)

2. The legal representatives of a railroad employee killed through the carelessness of the company, and not his own or that of a fellow workman of the same grade, may recover an amount against the company, not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, provided he would have been entitled to maintain an action for damages against such corporation if death had not resulted. But this action must be commenced within one year after the injury which caused the death.

3. An employee of a railroad, injured by any locomotive, car or train used contrary to provisions of the railroad laws, shall not be considered to have assumed the risk of such injury, although he continues in the employment of such railroad after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car or train has been brought to his knowledge.

4. The Employers' Liability Act is an important statute, relating to personal injuries to employees; and it was intended to extend the right of employees to recover for such injuries against employers. Its principal provisions may be briefly summarized as follows:

a. Employees may recover for any defect in the condition of the ways, works or machinery of the employer caused by the negligence of the employer or of some one in his employ, whose duty it was to see that the same were in proper condition or properly repaired.

b. Employees may recover for the negligence of a superintendent, or of one acting as superintendent under the authority of the employer.

c. On railroads the company is liable to the employee injured through the negligence of a person having the charge of any signal, switch, locomotive, engine or train. In the event of the death of the employee his legal representatives have the right to recover damages against the company. If death was not instantaneous, or was accompanied by conscious suffering, the widow, and if no widow the next of kin, dependent on the employee at his decease, may recover damages against the company. If there are two suits, one by the legal representatives and one by the widow or next of kin, the total amount recovered shall not exceed $5,000, to be apportioned by the jury.

d. Employees themselves, suing under this act, can recover an amount not exceeding $4,000.

e. In any case under this act resulting in death, which follows instantaneously or without conscious suffering, the amount recoverable is not less than $500 and not more than $5,000, to be assessed according to the degree of negligence of the employer or the negligence of the person for whose negligence he is made. liable.

f. No suit under this act can be maintained unless a written notice of the time, place and cause of the injury is given to the employer within sixty days of such accident, and unless the suit is brought within one year from the accident. The time of giving the notice is extended, in case the employee is physically or mentally unable to give the notice within the required sixty days, to ten days beyond the removal of such incapacity; and in the event of the death of the injured

employee, to ten days beyond the appointment of his legal representative.

g. Employees working for sub-contractors upon the machinery, ways, works or plant of the employer have the same rights against the employer as have other employees.

h. Under this act an employee or his legal representatives cannot recover damages if he knew of the defect or negligence causing the injury, and failed within a reasonable time to notify his employer or some one in authority of such defect or negligence.

i. An employer who has contributed to certain insurance funds for the benefit of injured employees may prove, in mitigation of damages recoverable by an injured employee under this act, the proportion contributed by him to the benefit received by such employee.

j. The Employers' Liability Act does not apply to injuries caused to domestic servants or farm laborers by fellow employees.

It may truthfully be asserted that neither employers nor employees are satisfied with the present law pertaining to personal injuries to employees. The employers, on the one hand, claim that the tendency of juries is to increase their burdens by awarding liberal verdicts against them; that laws are being passed more and more favorable to employees; and that there is a growing inclination of injured employees, either through their own indifference to friendly relations with their employers or through the influence of others, to institute legal proceedings against their employers for damages.

On the other hand, some employees contend that under the present conditions injured employees do not receive substantial justice, or a fair and certain compensation for their injuries. It is also asserted that they are denied speedy trials in the courts, owing to the crowded dockets; that they are forced to fight, not their employers, but unsympathetic employers' liability insurance companies, with their corps of claim agents, experts and attorneys, which only tends to separate employer and employee, and discour