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ably entered into the case. The management wanted to do something for his destitute wife and family. They were warned by the insurance company against giving a dollar, lest it have an effect upon the pending suit. This system became a veritable damper on human sympathy, certain and pitiless.

We are "talking business," however; let us forget sympathy. The point here is the wastefulness of the system. The money paid by employers for industrial accidents dribbled away all along the line before a modicum of it reached the injured working-man. When it did arrive, the beneficiary paid a greater or smaller part of the proceeds for his own legal expenses. Then, too, it was as uncertain as a lottery, three men justly entitled to compensation receiving nothing, while another drew a capital prize.

The record in New York state, where the Employers' Liability Commission has made a pretty thorough investigation, is significant. In three years ten insurance companies, authorized to write employer's liability insurance, received premiums of $23,523,585. They expended in actual payment to employees $8,559,795. In other words, the employees-and their lawyers-received only 36.34 per cent. of the sum of the premiums. Deducting the probable amount of the fees and costs paid by the employees, the percentage falls as low as twenty-eight or thirty.

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Insurance is, of course, the most 'economical" way for the employer to meet the problem under present conditions; and when we take into calculation the firms not insured, the figures are a little less startling. But in 1907 327 employers in New York State, operating under all kinds of plans, paid approximately for industrial compensation $192,000; of which injured employees or their families received only $80,000. Probably the proportion is generally lower in the South and Middle West.

Nor from the general view of society is this the whole waste. We have to reckon in the energies of our somewhat expensive courts and in this year of grace 1911, such cases will occupy one fifth of the time of the New York courts. We have We have to reckon in the orphan children thrown prematurely into industry, with their uneducated minds and stunted bodies, a drag

on the production of the next generation. We have to reckon in the cost of friction between employer and employee. And still I am ignoring the unnecessary suffering of it all.

However, as I said in beginning, the new idea has arrived; and only the old fogies of the corporations and the labor unions are opposing industrial indemnity, except in its small details. Whether a just and general system of automatic compensation for all injuries would cost the employer more or less than the present system is a disputed point. There are figures to prove the case both ways; it is something which we shall never know until we have tried it. Several employers who have adopted a voluntary system based on the European plan, stated to the National Civic Federation that they pay no more, by and large, than they did when they left the matter to law. Others, on figures alone, disagree; they declare that an automatic system of employer's liability, based on the German plan, would so increase "overhead charges" that the payment would have to be taken from the public in higher prices.

That, however, is just what the methodical and close-living Germans, with their talent for social machinery, have long ago admitted--that compensation compensation for the killed and injured should be a tax on the industry itself, collected with as little expense and friction as possible. By this principle they have turned back to production the parasites on industrial indemnity; and they have preserved to the body commercial of this and the next generation tens of thousands of units lost under our system-or lack of system. They regard it from the standpoint of the State, realizing, as we must realize, now that we have broken nearly all our virgin soil, that competition between nations is becoming keener and closer, and that the state which would win must subordinate certain private interests to the interests of the whole body commercial.

The German system, however, is at present an impossible model for Americans. We have not, possibly we never shall have, their minute registration of births, deaths, residences, and removals; and their bureaucratic government renders many things possible to them which would be impossible to us. The question

before legislatures and civic bodies is how best to adapt their plan to our less settled conditions. Employers' liability in Germany is so intertwined and interwoven with sick benefits and old-age pensions that one finds it difficult to isolate it for a simple statement. Enough to say that every employer and every employee must insure against accident in a state-conducted insurance company, the employers carrying more of the burden than the employees; and that the victim of an industrial accident, whether it result in temporary disability, permanent disability, or death, receives compensation on a fixed scale, immediately and automatically. The payments are considered a tax on the industry. The cost of administration is not more than five per cent. of the whole sum; and from that cost Germany pays for the supervision of safety appliances.

For industrial indemnity and industrial safety go hand in hand; and when employers are required to pay for every accident in their shops, no matter by whom caused, they will see, as a matter of self

protection, that the safety devices for which reformers have striven so long and usually so vainly, are placed and kept on their machines. In the past twenty years the raised "set screw" has caused hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of accidents. "Set screws" can be set flush and thereby made harmless at a cost of thirty-five cents a piece; yet labor unions, charity organizations, and employers' associations have fought them in vain. With the accidents certainly and irrevocably charged against the industry, the raised set screw and all other unnecessarily dangerous devices would disappear. In the perilous trades, like railroading and steel construction, the employers, for their own interests, would curb the reckless trade customs of their young employees. So we should gain in lives, and lose in miseries, as Germany and England and France and Austria have done. Meantime we are the only civilized people in the world who continue to administer this important department of industry on the rules of the old hand-labor days.

"THE BRAVEST DEED I EVER KNEW”

THE NEGRO BOY AT THE PETERSBURG EMBRASURE

BY E. K. PARKER

Late United States Volunteers

THE

HE bravest deed that ever came to my notice occurred during the Civil War, and was performed by my servant, a colored lad of fifteen, named Henry Cornelius. The time was the last of July, 1864, and the place was in the Union trenches before Petersburg, Virginia. At that time our lines in front of the point where Fort Rice was afterward built were within 300 yards of the enemy's main line. Later it was rumored that the enemy was tunneling our front, and our main line was thrown back about 100 yards and

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The lad proved to be intelligent, honest, and truthful. His special duty was to wait upon the officers' table. He was very patriotic, and at his own request was allowed to learn the drill of the cannoneer, as we were short of men. I had confidence in his honesty. I had a small grip in which I placed money, a few valuable papers, photographs, and at times my watch, and I instructed him, in case of an attack in force by the enemy, to take my grip and carry it as quickly as possible to City Point, and to retain it until we should meet again.

The lad had been in my service six or seven weeks and had proved himself very capable. He was popular in the battery, and afforded us all much pleasure by songand-dance performances, in which he was expert.

One morning soon after roll-call the orderly sergeant appeared at headquarters and informed me that a member of the battery, whom I shall call Hughes, had made complaint to him that my servant had stolen a five-dollar bill out of his knapsack, which was lying in his tent. He said that the preceding day, in the forenoon, while both Hughes and the comrade who tented with him were out of camp on fatigue duty, the lad entered the quarters, remained only a minute, and departed; that he was seen to do this by two members of the battery who were near by; and no one else had been seen to enter. I directed the sergeant to send for the men, to investigate the case thoroughly, and to report to me. I also instructed him not to question Cornelius or to inform him of the accusation.

The substance of the report was that he was of the opinion that Cornelius had taken the money. He said that the two witnesses had been close to Hughes's quarters all the time that he and his comrade were absent, and they were sure no one else had entered.

It was now near the dinner-hour, and Henry was busy as usual setting the table. Throughout the meal I kept my eye on him to see if I could detect anything that indicated guilt. But he was just as usual, prompt, respectful, and attentive.

After dinner was over and my officers had gone to their quarters, I sent for Henry. He came in, saluted, and re

mained at attention, awaiting my pleasure very respectfully. I said abruptly, "Henry, hand me Hughes's money."

This was evidently a great surprise to him. He looked up in an inquiring manner, as though he did not comprehend, and answered: "I cannot, sir. I have not got it."

"Private Hughes charges you with taking his five-dollar bill out of his knapsack yesterday forenoon while he was out on fatigue duty."

Henry replied, "I did not, sir."

"Were you not in Hughes's quarters about ten o'clock yesterday morning?"

"I was, sir; but I did not steal that money. I am not a thief. I went into the quarters to borrow a book from Mr. Hughes. I thought that he was lying in his bunk. I went to see; and when I saw that he was not there, I went away. Mr. A. and Mr. B. saw me go in and come out."

When it fully dawned upon him that he had been charged with stealing this money, he was greatly overcome. I told him to go to the servants' quarters and remain there until called for. As he went out, big tears were rolling down his cheeks.

Notwithstanding the strength of the evidence against him, I had so much confidence in the boy that I believed him innocent. To determine this question, I hit upon the following plan, which I proceeded at once to put in execution.

I at once sent for the orderly sergeant and ordered him to arrest Henry and take him to the guard-house, and then to procure a lariat and handcuffs and take him to the embrasure where our first piece stood, and handcuff him, and then tell him that the orders were that he should be tied, handcuffed, to the gun, that the gun was to be run forward well into the embrasure, and that he should remain there for thirty minutes. I instructed him to tell Henry what the orders were, but when he had got everything ready to move the piece forward, not to do it, but to report to me. At this particular embrasure it was usually certain death to stand exposed for even three minutes.

The sergeant reported that he had taken the lad and was about to put the handcuffs on him, when Henry said with great earnestness: "If the lieutenant wants

me to be shot, you need not bind my hands or my feet. I am not afraid to be shot. I will stand in front of that gun. I will be shot in the face, I will not be shot in the back. I am no thief. I will die as a brave soldier dies, just as you would, Ser

He then started for the deadly embrasure, and before he could be caught back by the guard a ball from one of the enemy's sharpshooters had gone through his cap, slightly wounding his scalp. When the sergeant came back to report, Henry stood the calmest of all the brave men there, quite unterrified.

After the sergeant made his report, I said, "Sergeant, what is your opinion of his guilt?"

He replied, "Sir, that nigger is no more guilty than I am."

I saw that the sergeant's eyes looked watery, and I said, "Very well, Sergeant, take him back to the guard-house, and in five minutes send him under guard to report to me."

When Henry came in, he appeared deeply affected; but I knew that this condition arose not from conscious guilt, but from wounded pride. I said to him, "Henry, you are not a thief, you are not guilty of taking Hughes's money; but, certain as I am that you are innocent, still, it will not be best for you to stay in Battery E. Therefore you will be discharged from arrest. Get your kit ready as soon as you can and come to me for a pass."

He went out, and the orderly notified the guard to discharge him from arrest.

I at once wrote his pass, and gave him all the money I had.

The boy had not been gone more than twenty minutes before Hughes hurriedly appeared at my quarters. He hastily saluted and cried out that he was "so sorry" he had accused Henry of stealing; and unable properly to restrain himself in the presence of his commanding officer he continued: "I found my money in the folds of my rubber blanket. Two days ago I overhauled my knapsack, and placed the bill in the blanket, and forgot to put it back in the knapsack."

I immediately sent an orderly to ride on the main road to City Point to overtake Cornelius and explain, and bring him back, which he did. Soon Henry reported to me, and I sent him to his quarters and the incident was closed.

Henry was now more popular than ever. He filled his position in the battery until June 14, 1865, when it was mustered out at Providence, Rhode Island. I kept him in my service for a year, during which period he divided his time between work and school. He proved to be an excellent student. The second year he went into a cotton-mill in the Pawtuxet valley, where he proved to be an apt workman. He was saving his wages to enable him to visit his mother in Norfolk; but two weeks before his intended departure, he was attacked by a severe cold, which developed into pneumonia, and in a short time he was dead. With many tears we tenderly buried the brave boy in the valley of the winding Pawtuxet.

YOUTH

BY THERESA HELBURN

YOU hear Youth laughing down green, budding aisles,

You glimpse her dancing limbs, her hair of gold,

The care-free, sweet defiance of her smiles,

For you are old.

But I can see her eyes gray with alarm,

Misty with longings that can find no tongue,
The hooded Future clutching at her arm,
For I am young.

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