"
The cornerstone of the labor legislation is the Workmen's
Compensation Law, the story of which is told in the state
archives, in the messages to the Ohio General Assembly. At the
beginning of his first term as Governor in 1913, Governor Cox
said:
"It would certainly be common bad faith not to pass a compulsory
Workmen's Compensation Law. No subject was discussed during the
last campaign with greater elaboration, and it must be stated to
the credit of our citizenship generally that regardless of the
differences of opinion existing for many years, the justice of
the compulsory feature is now admitted. Much of the criticism of
the courts has been due to the trials of personal injury cases
under the principles of practice which held the fellow-servant
rule, and assumption of risk and contributory negligence to be
grounds of defense. The layman reaches his conclusion with
respect to justice along the lines of common sense, and the
practice in personal injury cases has been so sharply in
conflict with the plain fundamentals of right, that social
unrest has been much contributed to. A second phase of this
whole subject which has been noted in the development of the
great industrialism of the day has been the inevitable animosity
between capital and labor through the ceaseless litigation
growing out of these cases. The individual or the corporation
that employs on a large scale has taken insurance in liability
companies, and, in too many instances, cases which admitted of
little difference of opinion have been carried into the courts.
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