LINDSAY— SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' INSURANCE. 639 



brought under efficient business control, and most of the difficulties, 

 delays and mistakes of the first four months are not likely to con- 

 tinue long. 



II. Compensation for Death or Disability. 



The application of the principles of mutuality and insurance to 

 the risk of death or disability resulting from personal injury suffered 

 or disease contracted in the line of duty, and not due to wilful mis- 

 conduct on the part of the injured person, is not new. It has been 

 successfully tried out on a large scale through the admirable work- 

 ings of the national and state workmen's compensation laws now 

 operative for the civilian employees of the federal government and 

 for the industrial workers of 36 states of the American Union. 

 These laws have largely displaced or superseded the old employers 

 liability remedies for industrial accidents. They have proven them- 

 selves to be increasingly satisfactory to employers and employees 

 alike. They operate also to place on each industry the cost of the 

 financial burden of its unavoidable industrial accidents as far as 

 that burden can be translated into dollars and cents. They also 

 operate to distribute among the consumers of the goods produced, 

 the cost of industrial accidents incurred in their production to the 

 extent of providing for the payment of a sum proportionate to the 

 loss of earning power and a fair recompense for the suffering that 

 an industrial accident causes the individual workman and his family. 

 They also operate to encourage industry to adopt and develop every 

 possible safety device for the elimination of preventable accidents. 

 The analogy of this industrial experience with compensation reme- 

 dies to the problem of caring for the hazards of war is plain. In the 

 case of our military and naval forces the industry is an " extra 

 hazardous " one, the payment of compensation must be liberal, the 

 cost will be heavy, the government of the United States is the em- 

 ployer and the nation — the whole people — are the consumers or 

 those for whom the operations of war are carried on. The govern- 

 ment therefore should bear the whole cost of compensation for 

 death or disability for officers as well as for enlisted men, and for 

 members of the Nurse Corps (female), and distribute the burden 

 through taxation. It does not require any contribution from the 



