A correspondent of last Saturday's Times sketches briefly the two
lines which the Government may take in the new Employers' Liability Bill which they are bound to produce in the coming Session. In the first place, they may present Mr. Asquith's Bill, or something very like it, with a con- tracting-out clause, which would be vehemently opposed not only by the Opposition but by the Trade-Unions. This they could certainly carry against the Opposition, but if they did, they must expect to have the contracting-out clause repealed whenever the two parties next change places in the House of Commons. On the other hand, they might take up a proposal of Sir Arthur Forwood's, which re- ceived the cordial approval of Mr. Chamberlain before the last General Election, for putting the whole enact- ment on new bases. The idea was that reasonable compensation, definitely fixed according to a schedule, should be offered to any workman injured (except by his own fault), and that a definite time should be appointed within which only this compensation must be claimed, so that no claim could run on indefinitely. This would not, it is thought, cost more on the whole than Mr. Asquith's pro- posals, and would not interfere with the influence of the Unions as the contracting-out clause would ;—and would cover more cases of distress.
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