Speech 39
EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY

FROM THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE AT THE OPENING of THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FIFTY EIGHTH CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6, 1904

THE wage workers are peculiarly entitled to the protection and the encouragement of the law.  From the very nature of their occupation railroad men, for instance, are liable to be maimed in doing the legitimate work of their profession, unless the railroad companies are required by law to make ample provision for their safety.  The Administration has been zealous in enforcing the existing law for this purpose.  That law should be amended and strengthened.  Wherever the National Government has power there should be a stringent employers' liability law, which should apply to the Government itself where the Government is an employer of labor.

In my Message to the Fifty seventh Congress, at its second session, I urged the passage of an employers' liability law for the District of Columbia.  I now renew that recommendation, and further recommend that the Congress appoint a commission to make a comprehensive study of employers' liability with the view of extending the provisions of a great and constitutional law to all employments within the scope of Federal power.