first and second classes. This act was superseded by the present Compensation Act.

First Efforts for General Act. Before the enactment of the general act of 1916 many injured civil employees secured relief through private acts of Congress. At each session the committees on claims of both houses considered numerous bills containing private claims of government employees. In submitting to Congress favorable reports concerning these bills the committees at times considered as many as twenty or more claims in one report.10 Upon the authority of these private acts, the United States paid out large sums of money. It is undoubtedly true that the trouble involved in passing these private claim bills was a contributing cause to the enactment of the present general act.

Efforts were first made for a general law in the 59th Congress (1905-6). In the first session of this Congress two compensation bills of a general character were introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, where they remained.11 In the following Congress nine bills of a more or less general character, providing compensation for government employees, were introduced in the House of Representatives, and one such bill was introduced in the Senate.12 The Senate bill was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Eight of the House bills were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and one was referred to the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. One of these bills (H. R. 21,844), introduced by Mr. Alexander of New York, became the Compensation Act of May 30, 1908.

General Act of 1908. The act of 1908, although more general in its application than any preceeding statute, included within its provisions (Section 1) "any person employed by the

9 Act of July 28, 1916; 39 Stat. L., 412, 413.

10 See for instance H. Rep. 1476, 61 Cong. 2 sess., and 569 and 659, 62 Cong., 2 sess.

11 S. 5430 and S. 6080.

12 H. R. 444; 6284; 14,265; 16,734; 17,870; 21,131; 21,308; 21,844; and S. 5555.

United States as an artisan or laborer in any of its manufacturing establishments, arsenals, or navy-yards, or in the construction of river and harbor or fortification work or in hazardous employment on construction work in the reclamation of arid lands or the management and control of the same, or in hazardous employment under the Isthmian Canal Commission." It provided in general that such employees injured in the course of their employment should receive during their disability for the period of a year, compensation at the rate of their former pay: and that if such employees should die by reason of such injuries, their widows, children under sixteen years of age, and dependent parents should receive for the remainder of the year compensation at the rate of the employees' former pay. The act provided no compensation for the first fifteen days of disability, if the disability did not continue for more than fifteen days, and no medical and surgical relief for injured employees. The administration of the law was given to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, and compensation was to be paid from appropriations for the services where the injuries occurred. The Secretary of Commerce and Labor delegated the work of administration to the Bureau of Labor, where, in what was then known as the Law and Research Division, the regulations and blank forms used in its original administration were prepared, and the work of establishing contacts and devising a system of receiving, adjudicating, and filing claims for compensation was performed. Important questions of law were decided by the Solicitor for the department.

The act of 1908 was amended from time to time, to provide for what were considered peculiar conditions in the Canal Zone, and to extend its scope. Previous to the enactment of this act, by a regulation of the Isthmian Canal Commission, dated July 1, 1907, thirty days of what was known as "meritorious sick leave," over and above the ordinary sick leave, was allowed each year to employees during disability resulting from injuries received in the course of employment. By a deci

sion of September 1, 1908, the Comptroller of the Treasury ruled that the Compensation Act of 1908 was exclusive, and that it was not within the power of the Isthmian Canal Commission to enlarge or diminish the provisions of this act.13 In order to provide compensation for employees of the commission who were disabled less than fifteen days, and who were not engaged in "hazardous" employments, Congress passed an act in 1909 providing that the act of 1908 shall not prevent the Isthmian Canal Commission from granting “meritorious sick leave." 14 Although the commission did not avail itself of this law, an act of 1911 widened the scope of the act of 1908 in regard to employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission by providing that all employees of the commission should receive compensation under the act of 1908.15 This same act transferred the administration of the act of 1908, as far as employees of the commission were concerned, from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor to the commission, and allowed one year for filing of claims in case of death instead of ninety days, as in the original act.

The Panama Canal Act of 1912 directed the President to provide a method for the determination and adjustment of all claims arising out of personal injuries to employees working on the canal or the Panama Railroad.16 Under authority of

this act, the President in 1914 issued an executive order superseding the Compensation Act of 1908 as far as the Isthmian Canal Commission was concerned and containing more liberal compensation provisions than had ever appeared in a national law.17 A waiting period of four days was provided, but no compensation other than medical benefits was to be paid unless the disability should continue for more than seven days. The order provided a fixed schedule of compensation benefits for

13 15 Compt. Dec., 161.

14 Act of February 24, 1909; 35 Stat. L., 645.

15 Act of March 4, 1912; 36 Stat. L., 1452.

16 Act of August 24, 1912; 37 Stat. L., 563.

17 Executive Orders of February 26, 1913, March 24, 1913, and March 20, 1914.

loss of parts; 75 per cent of monthly pay for the first three months of disability, and 50 per cent for the following period of disability; medical and surgical benefits during the whole period of disability; and certain percentages of previous wages to widows, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and grandchildren of deceased employees.

The act of 1908 was amended from time to time to include within its scope what were considered hazardous employments. In 1912 the provisions of this law were extended "to apply to any artisan, laborer, or other employee engaged in any hazardous work under the Bureau of Mines or the Forestry Service," ," 18 and in the same year the law was amended to include hazardous employments in the Lighthouse Service.19 On July 15, 1915, by an order of the Secretary of the Interior, approved by the President on July 20, the provisions of the act of 1908 were extended to the employees of the Alaskan Engineering Commission, and the compensation benefits, which had been granted by the Chairman of that commission, were extended even to certain contract laborers.20

The organic act of 1913 creating the Department of Labor included the administration of the act of 1908 among the duties to be retained and exercised by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics when his title was changed from Commissioner of Labor.21 However, a month later the AttorneyGeneral decided that the final authority to determine claims rested in the Secretary of Labor and not in the Commissioner of Labor Statistics.22

Present Act of 1916. The present Employees' Compensation Act, approved September 7, 1916, was enacted because the

18 Act of March 11, 1912; 37 Stat. L., 74.

19 Act of July 27, 1912; 37 Stat. L., 239.

20 This order was issued by the Secretary of the Interior under authority granted by the executive order of April 10, 1915, which was issued under authority granted by the Alaskan Railroad Act of March 12, 1914 to the President to do "all necessary acts and things.” (38 Stat. L., 305)

21 Act of March 4, 1913; 37 Stat. L., 736.

22 Opinion of April 13, 1913; 30 Op. Atty. Gen. 145. ·

existing compensation legislation for United States employees had been found to be inadequate and incomplete in scope. Inasmuch as the laws generally aimed to provide compensation only for employees in "hazardous" employments, about half of the persons in the national civil service were able to obtain compensation through the regular channels. Those employees who were not covered by the existing laws could obtain compensation, when injured, only through special acts of Congress.

The compensation benefits allowed, except in the case of employees working on the Panama Canal or the Panama Railroad, were inadequate and unscientific. The general act of 1908 provided for a "waiting period" of fifteen days, but for the payment for the full period when injuries continued for more than fifteen days, and therefore either resulted in a hardship or encouraged malingering in the case of employees whose disability would ordinarily continue for less than fifteen days. The legislation applying to employees of the LifeSaving Service and the Post Office Department, and the general act of 1908, did not provide medical or surgical relief for injured employees, and allowed only limited cash benefits in case of disability or death. In the Life-Saving Service full pay could continue for two years in the case of disability, and the dependents of employees dying from the results of injuries received compensation amounting to the employees' wages for two years. In the Post Office Department full pay could continue for the first year of disability and half-pay for the second year of disability, and compensation on account of death was a fixed sum of $2000. In services covered by the act of 1908 full pay could continue for the first year of disability, and dependents of employees dying during the first year of disability were entitled to the employees' salaries for the remainder of this year. Thus the cash benefits allowed for disability or death in all services except in the Canal Zone were inadequate in case of long disability or death;