1938-02-24 — Page 22

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.

THURSDAY,

FEBRUARY 24, 1938.

How Much Do You Think You're Worth?

Di

O you know what is juryman's worst job? That's easy, most people would answer: giving a verdict.in a murder trial.

And most people would be

wrong.

The most difficult task any Juryman can face is estimating the value of someone else's life.

Have you ever thought about that? About how much you are worth-not in cash in the Post Office Savings Bank, but as a productive unit in the social system? Have you ever asked yourself what is the capital value of a human life?

The odds are heavily against oven a brief pause for such obscuro consideration. For there is no basis of calcula- tion, no standard of values well, none worth preserving.

Yet these are questions that someone ought to try to answer. Becauso to know how valuable the individual is to the community is economi- cally important and darned interesting!

An official of the Canadian Bureau of Statistics has declared that at birth every boy is worth £1,800 to his country and (I regret to record it) every girl is worth £900.

And, at 35, the man-child, he says, has increased in value to £0,000 while the woman-child's capitalised earning power has become £3,000,

But these are alump prices-- and the last slump, at that. They were current in 1931.

THREE years later, the head of the Relch Hoalth Office began to think about the subject. And in due course he declared that every German in possession of his" full working capacity " was worth to the State between £16,000 and £20,000.

Now that is odd: for the other ́departments of the Reich pro- vido little evidence that they value life so highly. But, then, do we?

The one standard which per- mits of any kind of official reckoning in this country puts the value of the life of a married man at between 2300 and £600, A working man, he has to be.

THE

ASKS S. E. R. WYNNE

For this standard is provided by the Workmen's Compensation Acts. And this is what these Acts do:-

If a married man without children dies as a result of an industrial accident his widow may obtain as damages "£200 or a sum equal to her husband's carnings during the previous three years-up to £300."

If children also were depen- dent upon him that sum may be Increased to a maximum of £600. In case you consider this maximum ungenerous you may like to know that it was fixed Seventeen thirty years ago. years back the Holman Gregory Commission recommended that It has it be increased to £800. not been increased. And there is no guarantee that even the present paltry maximum always paid.

is

OR the State recog- nises that all cm- ployers are liable when their workpeople are involved: In accidents; but it conveniently omits to compel the employer to insure against the risk.

In the House of Commons the

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BUTTERFIELD & SWIRE

You

other day Jack Jones asked that these anomalles be ended. His motion was defeated. should look up the names of those Tory MPs who decided that a working man's life is worth only £300 to his widow.

Are the wealthy content with Of course such a reckoning? not.

R

ECENTLY a man carn- ing £40 a week was killed in a road accl- dent. His family brought an For action for compensation. the pain and suffering to which ho. was submitted they received £25. For the expenses of his funeral they were paid £62 16s. His widow, was awarded £5.015, his daughter £500, his elder son £300, his younger son £700.

You will not object to this man's life being valued at £6,002 16s. You will disappoint me if you aren't profoundly angry that a working man's life is still officially valued at £300. Three-hundred-pounds-is-in- fact, an exaggeration.

In the

last year for which returns are available Workmen's Compen- sation payments in fatal acci-

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COUNT THE TELEGRAPH"

EVERYWHERE

dent cases averaged £290. Nor is this the only anomaly of the law.

A London working busman's life has been valued at £3,500 following a court decision ob- tained by his union-fighting not under Workinen's «Com- pensation legislation, but at common law.

BANKS

·HONGKONG AND SHANGHAI

BANKING CORPORATION.

Authorised Capital

$30,000,000

Issued and Fully Paid-Up.... $20,000,000 Leserve Funda yine

Sterling......................................... 6,500,000 Hongkong Currency Reserve $20,000,000 Reserve Liability of Proprietors $20,000,000 HEAD OFFICE-HONGKONG.

BOARD OF DIRECTOR

G. Miskin, E. Chairman,

Hon. Mr. M. Johnson, Deputy Chairman;

J. K. Nousdaid, Ewq. K. 8. Morrison, Esq. All. Compton, Esq. Hon. Mr. J. J. Paterson 9, II, Dodwell, Esq. T, B. Pearce, Esq. 2.1. Masson, Esq. AL. Shields, Esq.

Bir Vandoleur M. Grayburn, CHIEF MANAGER:

AMOY BANGKOK

BATAVIA DOBNAY CALCUTTA

CANTON CUEFOO

COLOMBO

In somewhat similar circum- stances, the value of a lorry driver's life has been put at £0,000, a stevedore's at £7,500. But in each case the victim still lives, and the greater award is some recompense for health and HARDIN prospects shattered.

....

TAFELL, that is reason- able; you expect the figure to be rather more than that miserable £290. But do you expect the Agure to be higher for less serious in- juries?

A girl has just been awarded £2,250 for the loss of twa Angers, another girl £2,500 as compensa- tion for a mutilated arm. Too much? Not a bit; but they do show that the Workmen's Compensation figures .are too small.

There are the distinc- tions: £7,500 for a steve- dore, who will never

work again; £2,250 for a girl who has lost two fingers; £300 (perhaps) for the widow of n factory worker. There is the conclusion: we have no idea at all about how much a human life is worth:

How muddled we are on this subject Mr. Justice Singleton Manchester emphasised at

dealing with ✡ Assizes in claim for loss of expectation of life.

He mentioned four cases in which judges and furles had variously estimated the cash value of human life. For a child of three the figure was put at £00; for a child of eight at £1,500; for a man and a woman both in their twenties at £1,000 aplece.

And just to help matters along Mr. Justice Singleton, in the case which he was hearing, put the figure at £982-for a 74- years-old-man.

M

AR. JUSTICE SINGLE- TON may have been as generous as those who refuse to improve the Workmen's Compensation Acts

are mean,

We don't know. But we ought· to know.

For if, instead of the elusive I, we could value a man's life in pounds, shillings and pence, we should at once begin properly to respect the life that sum would represent.

We should see that it repre- sented his skill and technical ability for the worker has no other capital,

We should see that every in- crease would be a gain to the community, every decrease & 1055.

We should see that it would be worth while improving stan- dards of health and conditions of employment-if not in the interests of the individual at least in the interests of the State.

Why, we might even get those Tory M.P.s to agree to raise the Workmen's Compensation aver-- age above £290)

Kowloon Tiger

Back Again

Big Animal Scon At Chungshawan

that

A six-foot long tiger was sighted the vicinity of by o Chinese in Cheungshawan on Tuesday.

the police He reported to about 2.30 p.m. while looking from a window of his house, he saw the aminal chasing a dog in the vegetable plantation beside his residence,

The dog was not caught and finally the tiger ran away in the direction of Talpo Road. Claw prints were vialblo' In the field where the ger had been running.

The Uger was callimated to weight about 2001b und bore black and yellow stripes at its zecki

DAUIEN FOOCH JAIP HAMB

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Hongkong. 18th May, 1907. HONGKONG SAVINGS BANK.

The Business of the above Bank fa conducted by the Itongsong and Shang- ha Banking Corporation. Itules may be obtained on application,

oR THE HONGKONG AND BILANGHAI

BANKING CORPORATION.

V. M. GRAYBURN,

Chief Manager. Hongkong. 18th May, 1937.

THE CHARTERED BANK OF INDIA, AUSTRALIA & CHINA.

Encorporated by Royal Charter 1833 HEAD OFFICE LONDON.

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Y. KANO,

Hongkong, 12th February, 1938.

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