Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 12.djvu/344

324 324 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. The whole principle was radically wrong. Either the statutes were defective and should have been amended, or else the citizens of this State should have been forced to abide by the statutes. Special exceptions to the statutes should not be made in favor of individuals, no matter how hardly the statutes may press upon such individual or how much the peculiar circumstances of hard- ship may appeal to the Legislature. In fact, whether owing to the large increase in this class of gratuities or for other reasons, the Legislature has been forced several times to amend the statutes regarding this form of State assistance. . The second branch of gratuities consists of compensation for injuries received. The largest class of these gifts is to persons injured while in the employ of the State. Compensation is apparently given on this basis alone, and regardless of the fact that in most of the cases the injuries were purely accidental or else not caused by any want of care on the part of the State or its employees. Thus, gifts have been made to employees of the State injured in the course of their employment at the Reformatory Prison for Women, the State Nor- mal School, the Massachusetts Reformatory, the State Prison, the State Farm at Bridgewater, at State Primary School, State Reform School, at Revere Beach State Bath House or while working under the Metropolitan Sewerage and the Gypsy Moth Commission,^ and the chief of the District Police has received such compensation for injuries.^ In 1893 a glaring case of pure gift occurred, when for injuries received at State Prison a watchman was awarded 1^3,000 and "his salary during 1893 and for all the time that he has been or may be prevented by his injuries from discharging his duties."^ And two amusing cases of the assumption by the Legislature of responsibility for the acts of God are found, in 1891 when a man was given ^300 (to use the exact language), " as a gratuity in con- sideration of injuries received by him . . . said A. B. being struck by lightning and seriously injured while employed mowing on the 1 1897, ch. 9 ($1800) ; 1895, ch. 66 (annuity of $250) ; 1892, ch. 66 (five-year annuity of $360) ; 1897, ch. 78 ($2000) ; 1896, ch. 13 (annuity of $360) ; 1895, ch. 40 (annuity of $200); 1898, ch. 21 (annuity of $600) ; 1894, ch. 65 ($600); 1892, ch. 82 ($500) ; 1886, ch. 54 ($200) ; 1886, ch. 28 ($200) ; 1880, ch. 26 ($50) ; 1878, ch. 24 ($226) j 1895, ch. 105 ($250) ; 1896, ch. 51 ($250) ; 1897, ch. 76 ($4QOo). 2 1884, ch. 5 (1^548). 8 1893, ch. 106.