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COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY

THE BANKS LAW PUBLISHING COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY

THE BANKS LAW PUBLISHING COMPANY

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

Although the general plan of the first edition has been followed, this is an entirely new work. Some of the chapters have been rearranged and new titles have been given to them, for the purpose of facilitating the finding of the particular points in which the searcher is interested. The old decisions have been reëxamined and an enormous amount of new material has been added. The new matter has not been merely tacked on to the old, however. The old and new decisions have been combined and harmonized as if the first edition had not been written. Much of the new material has been gathered at the cost of a good deal of time, money and patience. It consists not only of strictly judicial interpretation of the courts, but of decisions by the various accident boards, industrial commissions and other public officers whose duties are connected with the administration of the various compensation statutes.

Many of the decisions are in manuscript form and may never be published. The author is under obligations to the various industrial commissions and accident boards for their invariable courtesy in assisting him in furnishing rulings of these various bodies. He is under special obligation in this respect to the unfailing and generous courtesy of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board, the Michigan Industrial Accident Board, the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, the Ohio Industrial Commission, the California Industrial Accident Commission and the New Jersey Employers' Liability Commission. He also acknowledges many courtesies at the hands of Hon. James B. Carroll, Chairman of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board, Hon. Wallace D. Yaple, Chairman of the Ohio Industrial Commission, Hon. Will J. French, of the California Industrial Accident Commission, Hon. Frederic M. Williams, one of the Connecticut

Commissioners, the Industrial Insurance Commission of Washington, the Industrial Board of Illinois, the Iowa Industrial Commissioner, the Nevada Industrial Commission, the Oregon State Industrial Accident Commission, the Rhode Island Commissioner of Industrial Statistics, the Texas Industrial Accident Board, the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Mr. Robert E. Granfield, Secretary of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board, Mr. P. J. Watrous, Secretary of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, Mr. Richard L. Drake, Secretary of the Michigan Industrial Accident Board, and Mr. Ira B. Cross, Secretary of the California Industrial Accident Commission.

If the author has succeeded in elucidating some of the problems which inevitably must arise from a somewhat sudden adoption of the more or less revolutionary compensation principle in a number of States in quick succession, his success will be due, in a large measure, to the members of the boards and commissions whom he has mentioned above.

In the present edition of this work has been included all the really important material having a bearing on the problem of workmen's compensation as it is to be solved in the United States. It has been deemed advisable to print the German Code, as that statute was the basis of most of the compensation acts in all countries. The translation published by the United States Labor Department has been used.

The British statute contains the basis of very many of the provisions to be found in American statutes. It therefore has been given a place as in the first edition. The Lloyd George National Insurance Act which has caused so much discussion in England and other parts of the world has been inserted, because, while not strictly a workmen's compensation act, it has an important bearing on the larger question of social insurance of which the workmen's compensation act is a part

There have also been added the compensation acts of the various Canadian provinces. All of these provinces have

such acts, except Ontario, which has not yet adopted the compensation principle.

The Federal Compensation Act relating to certain Government employés, which was adopted in 1908 and has been extended by several amendments since then, is also printed in Chapter XXIII, with a digest of the rulings of the various departments which have the final determination of questions arising under that Act. Many other Federal departmental decisions have been included in the general discussion in others chapters in the book whenever they were of such a nature as to apply to the compensation principle generally. Under the Federal Act certain questions which are peculiar to that statute have been decided. Such decisions have been confined to the immediate discussion of the Federal statute.

The complete acts of the twenty-two states which have adopted compensation laws will be found in Chapter XXIV. These laws as printed include all the amendments up to January 1, 1914, and in one or two instances amendments passed early in the year 1914 have been inserted.

The taking effect of two of the compensation laws is left somewhat in doubt. Reference is made to Nebraska and Ohio. In Nebraska the Act was intended to become effective July 17, 1913. But a referendum petition was filed under the Law of Nebraska which postponed the taking effect of the Act until after there has been a vote under this referendum. The referendum vote will be taken at the general election in November, 1914, and the taking effect of the Act at all will depend upon that vote.

In Ohio the amended law, according to its provisions, went into full effect on January 1, 1914. A referendum petition was filed under the law of Ohio, however, which, ordinarily, would have postponed the taking effect of the law until after there had been a vote on this petition. The Secretary of State, with whom the original petition was filed, held that the petition was fraudulent in that it did not contain the valid signatures of a sufficient number of citizens, and re

fused to order an election on the referendum. Subsequently additional signatures were filed, but the Secretary of State held that the original petition was void and could not be made valid by such an amendment. Proceedings were then taken to compel the Secretary of State to order an election. Such proceedings were pending undetermined when this edition went to press. The Ohio Industrial Commission has taken the position that the law went into full effect on January 1, 1914, and is acting accordingly. The Supreme Court of Ohio has met several times since the matter was submitted to it, but no decision has yet been rendered.

The Oregon law was originally intended to become effective on July 1, 1913, but by reason of a referendum petition upon which a vote was taken in November, 1913, the taking effect of the law was postponed to July 1, 1914.

The Kentucky law was enacted somewhat unexpectedly after stereotyped plates had been made of both volumes of this work. To make the book complete, however, the Kentucky act has been added at the end of Volume 1, beginning with page 1052a, and the entire act has been properly indexed in its regular place in the index at the end of Volume 2. The New York law was amended in the very closing hours of the session of the Legislature, late in March, 1914, after the stereotyped plates were made for that act as well. Corrections were made, however, and a number of the plates recast, so that the text of the New York act contains all the amendments up to the end of the Legislative session of 1914. HARRY B. BRADBURY.

141 Broadway, New York. April 10, 1914.