The Bitter Fight for Workers' Compensation
How Washington's landmark industrial insurance law survived a $100,000 corporate sabotage campaign.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Workmen's Compensation Act, known as the Teats bill, was prepared by a committee of five employers and five workingmen. While it gained the endorsement of labor and lumber interests, the bill faced fierce opposition from chambers of commerce and manufacturing associations who sought to maintain the status quo of medical 'grafting' institutions. Casualty companies, facing the loss of their revenue from injury settlements, reportedly spent over $100,000 to defeat the measure. After a bitterly contested fight, the bill passed on the 68th day of the session, establishing the state as the insurer and eliminating the need for costly personal injury suits.
“If the Teats bill was adopted the state would become the insurer... Naturally, the casualty companies were bitterly opposed to legislation that took away their chief source of revenue.”
This 1911 struggle highlights the origin of Washington's unique state-run workers' compensation system, which replaced a predatory, privately-held 'first aid' scheme. Today, Washington remains one of the few states where this safety net is publicly managed, continuing a century-old ideological battle over who controls the funds meant for injured laborers.
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