JFK+50: Volume 6, No. 2055JFK-LBJ PAY TRIBUTE TO FIRST WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION LAW
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-five years ago today, August 31, 1961, President John F. Kennedy and Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson attended a ceremony to honor the 50th anniversary of the passage of the first state workmen's compensation law* and to introduce a new United States Post Office Commemorative stamp.
The Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wisconsin wrote the first workmen's compensation policy for the Wausau Sulphate and Fibre Company on September 1, 1911. It was appropriate, then, for the Governor of Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson, along with Senator Alexander Wiley** of Wisconsin, to take part in the ceremonies which were also attended by Postmaster General J. Edward Day.
Wisconsin's lead had been followed by Massachusetts, the President's home state, and by 1921 only six states in the Union had not passed workmen's compensation laws.
*Workmen's Compensation provides wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of their employment in return for the required waiving of the right to sue for negligence. Germany had the first modern workmen's compensation laws, known as Sickness and Accident Laws in 1884, England followed in 1897.
**Alexander Wiley (1884-1967) was a 4 term senator representing Wisconsin from 1939 to 1963. AW was a graduate of the University of Michigan. He was born in Chippewa Falls, WI.
"100 Years of Workmen's Compensation," by Drew Roberts, May 26, 2011, www.floridawc.com/
"Workmen's Compensation: A Background for Social Security Professionals," by Ann Clayton, 2003-2004, www.ssa.gov/
"Workmen's Compensation in the United States: The First 100 Years," by Alan Pierce, March 14, 2011, LexisNexis Legal Newsroom, www.lexisnexis.com/