182 PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE 



as employers' liability acts and in others as workmen's com- 

 pensation acts, vary greatly in the measure of protection 

 afforded employees. However, they all abrogate partially 

 or entirely the doctrines of assumption of risk, contributory 

 negligence and fault of fellow-servant which formerly af- 

 forded unsympathetic employers an adequate defense to 

 most actions for damages. Some of these laws have afforded 

 employees an election between the benefits of the statute 

 and the enforcement of their rights under the common law. 

 The more advanced laws of this character provide a grad- 

 uated scale of compensations, considered commensurate 

 to the decrease in earning power caused by the various in- 

 juries. As a means of enabling employers to meet the 

 burden thus imposed upon their business, a system of in- 

 surance against the losses due to accidents has been pro- 

 vided in several states. Since August 1, 1908, compensa- 

 tion for injuries to certain employees of the United States 

 has also been provided by an act of May 30, 1908, (35 Stat. 

 L. 556) and its amendments.. l 



Public act number 267 of the sixty-fourth Congress, ap- 

 proved by President Wilson on September 7, 1916, super- 

 cedes the previous acts and provides compensation to all 

 Federal employees for injuries sustained in their employ- 

 ment provided the injury was not caused by the wilful mis- 

 conduct of the employee or was not the proximate result of 

 the intoxication of the employee. 



The legislation of this character is still in a formative stage 

 and is receiving modification almost yearly in many states. 

 For this reason, as well as because compensation to em- 

 ployees is only indirectly related to the subject matter of 

 this chapter, it is not considered advisable to include 

 references to the state statutes. Any reader particularly 

 interested in this branch of the law, should consult the late 

 session laws and the most recent treatises devoted to this 

 subject. 



1. Amendments, Act Mar. 4, 1911, (36 Stat. 1363); Act. Mar. 11, 1912. (37 Stat. 74); 

 Act July 27, 1912, (37 Stat. 238, 239) 



