Page 18 - To Dragma May 1934

MAY. 1934 15

An AOII Fellow Writes . .

Lille (Nord), April 12, 1934. From France
HpEAR MRS. LELAND:
legal aspect of the study by obtaining infor-
I N A LETTER you wrote me last spring you mation from books and working in a library,
suggested that, when the spring of 1934 but the investigations made by the Labor De-
arrived, I should send you a resume of what partment are of a very practical nature. We
I had done. Perhaps, I should begin by say- consult primary sources such as payrolls, and
ing that the plan of my study has been con- I have become used to such material. There-
siderably modified by the fact that the French fore in order that I might use basic mate-
Ministry of Justice felt that court records of rial, rather than information collected in a
compensation cases were confidential and, library, I changed the emphasis of the study
therefore, could not be examined by me. I from the civil administration of the law, to
explained their decision to the Committee on the work which has been done to prevent
Fellowship awards, and I may be repeating accidents.
something which has previously been reported
to you. From a research point of view the change
I had planned to call my report "The Ad- may have been unfortunate. Additional in-
ministration of the Workmen's Compensation formation concerning the administration of
Law in France," and I felt that it would be the French law is needed and I think that a
, necessary to have access to the case records study, based on court records, would have
of industrial accidents, in order to make such provided interesting material. However, from
a study. In New York State the Workmen's a utilitarian point of view I think that the
Compensation Law is administered by the modified study may prove of more practical
Division of Workmen's Compensation of the value. The Labor Department has expressed
Department of Labor. Therefore, of course, interest and the study may serve to suggest
the Division of Women in Industry has access certain additions to the accident prevention
to the records. The Civil Tribunal of the work of the Department. I have changed the
Seine thought that I might be permitted to title of the outline and have called it:
examine the French accident records. As you
may be aware, the French Workmen's Com- Industrial Accidents and Accident Preven-
pensation Law is not administered by the
Ministry of Labor, but is entirely a matter of [CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 1 ]
civil procedure. My request for permission
to consult the records was referred to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Public
Prosecutor consulted the President of the
Tribunal concerning the matter. The Presi-
dent felt that the records were of a confiden-
tial nature and, therefore, could not be com-
municated to me. However, he said that the
Tribunal would give me information concern-
ing court procedure and statistical questions.
It was explained that one reason why it had
been felt that the court records could not be
given me was that I was not a French citizen.

Of course, as I wrote to the Committee, it
would have been possible to emphasize the