CHAPTER FOREWORD Federal Compensation Legislation Special Provisions for Life Saving Service THE EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION COMMISSION: ITS HISTORY, ACTIVITIES AND ORGANIZATION CHAPTER I HISTORY The United States Employees' Compensation Commission is an independent establishment of the government which determines compensation awards and pays compensation in behalf of the United States under the provisions of the Compensation Act of September 7, 1916 (39 Stat. L., 742). Workmen's compensation acts are based on the principle that industry and not the workers should bear the financial burden of industrial accidents. Before the enactment of compensation laws for national government employees, there was no law under which the government was liable for injuries to its employees and there was no way by which a civilian injured in the government service could obtain any relief from the government except by securing the passage of a private act. Federal Compensation Legislation. The Compensation Act of 1916, which took the place of all previous national compensation acts, was the result of the development of workmen's compensation thought in the United States. The first acts were confined to specific services, and were in the nature of provisions for leave with pay during disability. Later in 1908 an act of somewhat general application was passed providing limited relief for employees and dependents of employees engaged in what were considered hazardous em I ployments (Act of May 30, 1908; 35 Stat. L., 556). The present act provides compensation for all employees and dependents of employees of the United States government. The framers of this law aimed to provide a scale of compensation benefits which would both grant a maximum relief to employees and secure for the government a maximum economic return. Following is a brief history of national workmen's compensation legislation: Special Provisions for Life-Saving Service. In 1882 an act entitled "An act to promote the efficiency of the Life-Saving Service, and to encourage the saving of life from shipwreck," 1 provided that the keepers or members of crews of life-saving or life-boat stations should receive leave with pay for a maximum of two years during disability arising from injury or disease contracted in the line of duty; that the widows and children of such employees who should die as a result of injury or disease contracted in the line of duty should receive, during a period of two years, the same amount as the husband or father would have received if he were alive and in the service; and that compensation should cease to widows when they should remarry, and to children when they should arrive at the age of sixteen years. In 1908 the act of 1882 was amended to provide that dependent mothers of deceased employees should share in the compensation benefits.2 In 1915 the act which combined the Life-Saving Service and the Revenue-Cutter Service under the name of the Coast Guard, and which made the Coast Guard a part of the military forces of the United States, provided that the compensation provisions for employees of the former Life-Saving Service should apply to the death of any officer, warrant officer, or enlisted man on the active list in the Coast Guard; and that no pension should be allowed or paid to any commissioned officer, warrant officer, or en 1 Act of May 4, 1882; 22 Stat. L., 57. 3 listed man in the Coast Guard on either the active or retired list. The compensation provisions of the act of 1882, as amended by the acts of 1908 and 1915, continued in force until the enactment of the present general Compensation Act. Special Provisions for Post Office Department. The Post Office Department appropriation act for 1901 contained an item of $25,000 for the appointment of acting clerks in the place of clerks of the railway mail service injured while on duty. This provision, which was a kind of compensation legislation, or a provision similar to it, was included in each succeeding appropriation act for the Post Office Department until the year 1916. In 1902 provision was made to pay one thousand dollars to the legal representatives of railway postal clerks dying from injuries received while on duty.5 In 1910 the amount was increased to two thousand dollars." In 1912 post-office inspectors and sea-post clerks, and their legal representatives were also included in the compensation provisions, and an additional provision was made for the payment of 50 per cent of the salaries for an additional year after the first year to railway mail clerks and sea-post clerks. In 1914 provision was made for the payment of full pay during the first year and 50 per cent of the full pay during the second year to disabled postal clerks, supervisory officers of the railway mail service, post office inspectors, letter carriers in the city delivery service, rural letter carriers, post-office clerks, and special-delivery messengers; and for the payment of $2000 to the legal representatives of such employees dying as a result of injuries received on duty.8 The act appropriating for the Post Office Department for 1917, also included in the compensation provisions, post-office laborers and classified civil-service employees in post offices of the 3 Act of January 28, 1915; 38 Stat. L., 802. |