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Work Injuries and Adversary Processes in Two New England Textile Mills*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 June 2012
Abstract
Whatever the shortcomings of “no-fault” employee compensation laws, such as the one passed in Massachusetts in 1911, Professor Gersuny shows that such laws were a great improvement over what had prevailed. Working with formerly confidential files, he shows that an “adversary relationship” had existed between the employer and his insurance company, on the one hand, and often pitifully maimed employees on the other. With few exceptions, all of the advantages were on the side of the employer, and the rights of employees to more than token compensation were routinely trampled upon.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1977
References
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35 Lyman Mills papers, volumes LAC1 to LAC13 (injury reports) and volumes PH17 to PH20 (correspondence) were the primary data source. Payrolls from 1895 to 1910 were sampled to calculate departmental sex ratios. Professor Robert G. Layer's work sheets on textile payrolls were also helpful.
36 Lyman Mills papers, vol. EDI; Dwight Manufacturing papers, vol. DN10.
37 Eastman, Work Accidents, 14.
38 The proportion unable to speak English in the Lyman work force as a whole is not known. Hence, the comparison between injured workers charged with contributory negligence and those not charged. Among injured workers not taxed with carelessness, 71 per cent spoke English, while among those defined as careless, 39 per cent spoke English. Among the injured group as a whole, 52 per cent were English speakers.