State vs. Federal Compensation for Longshoremen

What are the rights of a longshoreman under the workmen's compensation system ? During the past ten or fifteen years it has been well-nigh impossible to give a clear or definite answer to this question. The exact legal status of claims for injuries on the seacoast has remained uncertain during the entire period while the States of the Union were gradually, one after another, adopting compensation systems for the benefit of workers within their respective borders. This uncertain and indefinite status was due in the main to the conflict between State and National sovereignty. In the early days of compensation it was assumed, although not without considerable doubt, that the laws of the individual States embraced within their scope men engaged in loading or unloading of freight on board vessels or in the repair of ships lying alongside piers and docks. This assumption, however, was rudely shattered by the decision of the United States Supreme Court handed down on May 21, 1917, in the case of Southern Pacific Company v. Jensen (244 U.S. 205).