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 THE ABUSE OF PERSONAL INJURY LITIGATION the evils find their origin long before the threshold of the court-house is reached. Ambulance runners, damage lawyers, pre pared testimony, coached witnesses, fat fee experts, padded and inflated injuries, jury tampering, and similar abuses are mere re sults, not causes, and the removal of these results, if at all possible, would not operate to effect a cure. The parent cause of existing evils is due primarily to selfishness; that brand of sel fishness that naturally follows from the elim ination of personal relationship. Half a century ago the abuses so prevalent to-day were probably never heard of. They have developed in proportion to the complexity of commercial and industrial life. When the shop was small and the workmen few the kindly relation of the employer to his men was strengthened by close personal contact. If the men were injured, finan cial aid and sympathy were extended, re gardless of the legal questions involved. There was a moral duty always, and that moral duty was always felt and recognized, even in the absence of legal duty. In such a soil, fertile with the warmth and glow of wholesome fellowship, damage suits can never thrive. But as the shop grew and the gulf be tween the employer and the employee formed and widened, tort litigation in creased. With the growth of corporate power, came the cold-blooded rule of gain, born of corporate greed. With the adop tion of modern mechanical devices came increased hazard and danger to life and limb; likewise increased expense for safe guards. As the individual was supplanted and absorbed by the machine, his identity became lost, and he was and now is regarded as a part of the machine. He no longer has a name, he goes by a number and carries a brass check. If he becomes crippled he is cast out upon the human scrap pile, and another takes his place. If his life is crushed out, "Gather him up, dig a hole, and shove him under."

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To-day serious and fatal accidents are of such frequent occurrence that they excite little concern except to those who must bear the loss. It is no longer the humane ele ment that determines the purchase and use of safeguards, rather is it the commercial element. Every railroad center and every mining and manufacturing community can cite many instances where the cost of safe guards has been weighed against the cost of life and limb, and crowded hospitals and funerals and litigation have followed, as a natural result. It is to the cause of this changed condi tion — this revolution of the moral code — that we must look for the cause of the pres ent day abuses of personal injury litigation. Conveniently, we may consider all injury cases under two classifications: injuries to employees and injuries to the public. Rela tive to the first class, we may safely esti mate that about ninety per cent of the corpo rations doing business to-day in this country are insured in the various Employers' Lia bility Companies. This does not indude railroads, traction lines, and large trusts that maintain claim departments of their own. These liability companies are de signed to indemnify the employer from any loss or damage he may sustain by reason of injuries to his employees. As a matter of fact, they assume entire charge of acci dents arising in the plants of their assured. They secure their business by the sharpest maneuvering and keenest competition. Rates are cut again and again, until it would seem that one serious accident would easily wipe out a year's premium. Now and then a wild-cat company enters the field, and with an utter disregard for liveand-let-live rates demoralizes what little conservatism has been developed in the business. In order that a risk may be made to pay, the injured employees must bear the burden. Accidents must be set tled cheap or the policy cancelled. Gen erally, the employer is deaf to the appeal of his men. The corporation has paid for