Reviews, Notes and Comments. 557
"THE OHIO WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION
LAW."
Since the publication of the QUARTERLY
for January, 1920,
frequent complaints have been made by
the representatives of
one of the dominant political parties in
regard to the article en-
titled "The Ohio Workmen's
Compensation Law." It has been
charged that the author of that article,
Mr. Mengert, is a par-
tisan; that he has not stated fairly the
leading facts in regard
to the attitude of prominent public men
toward the law; that
the views of former Governor Frank B.
Willis, now United
States Senator, and Governor James M.
Cox are not fairly
presented; that the article in fact is
political propaganda in the
interest of a party and its prominent
leader; that due credit has
not been given former Governor Harmon
for his influence in
the inauguration of workmen's
compensation in Ohio; that
Governor Cox was not originally in favor
of the state monopoly
feature of the present law; that
workmen's compensation was
not an important issue in the
gubernatorial campaign in 1914;
that both Cox and Willis and their
respective parties favored
workmen's compensation in that campaign;
that the favorable
attitude of Governor Willis toward the
law through his adminis-
tration has not been fairly shown in the
article. The complaints
have come from individual Republicans
and those connected
with the state organization of that
party. They have said that
while they have not brought political
discussion into this publica-
tion and do not desire to do so, they
are unwilling, without pro-
test, to have the article on "The
Ohio Workmen's Compensation
Law" written down for the perusal
of the present and future
generations in a publication of the
dignity and authority of the
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
Quarterly.
The Editor wishes to state in this
connection that the article
in question was published in the
interval between his appoint-
ment as Secretary and the death of his
predecessor, Honorable
E. O. Randall. The Society was without a
Secretary and the
QUARTERLY without an Editor when the article was
published.
Workmen's compensation in Ohio has been
a subject of
partisan controversy since the year
1912. The literature issued
by the campaign committees of both
parties teems with charges