DOCUMENTS, REPORTS AND LEGISLATION: Labor.

The article provides information about documents, reports and legislation related to labor in the U.S. On September 27, 1911, the workmen's compensation act of the state of Washington was upheld by the supreme court of that state. The law was enacted March 14, 1911 to go into effect on October 1 of the same year. The constitutional points of the law were, therefore, decided before its provisions had been put into effect. The state auditor believed the law unconstitutional and therefore refused to issue an order upon the state treasurer for the expenditure of funds that had been provided for establishing the proposed compensation system. Mandamus proceedings followed; the law passed immediately to the courts, and received the speedy determination stated above. The law is the most drastic of its kind enacted in the United States. It provides that workmen injured in extra hazardous labor shall receive fixed and certain compensation "regardless of questions of fault and to the exclusion of every other remedy, proceeding or compensation," except as otherwise provided in the act.