Attitude of the Courts in Construing the Workmen's Compensation

The subject as originally assigned was "The Increasing Liberality of the Courts in Construing the Workmen's Compensation Act". This involves a thesis which must be characterized as "important if true", and reflects an opinion very widely held. The opinion appears to be based on the following considerations: (a) The trend of the times has been distinctly in the direction of an increasing liberality towards injured employees. This tendency has been markedly exhibited in the legislatures, whose duty it is to declare the policy of their respective states. Few legislative sessions go by in any state without one or more additions to the compensation laws; and the proposals for addition outnumber, many times over, those actually enacted. The policy of industrial commissions has generally been in the same direction.