Ohio OHIO The Ohio statute, effective from January 1, 1914, is a compulsory state insurance law as to all public employés and as to all private employers employing five or more employés regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment. As to employers who have less than five employés employed regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment, the law is an elective one. That is, those who employ fewer than five workmen, may elect to adopt the compensation principle or not, as they please. The Act also excludes from its operation policemen or firemen in cities where policemen's and firemen's pension funds are now or hereafter may be established and maintained by municipal authority under existing laws. § 146561, subd. 1. The Act also excludes from its operations person "whose employment is but casual, or not in the usual course of trade, business, profession or occupation of his employer." § 146561, subd. 2. An employer, to comply with the statute and bring himself within the compensation principle, must, in the month of January in each year, prepare and mail to the State Industrial Commission (prior to Sept. 1, 1913, the State Liability Board of Awards) at its main office in the City of Columbus, Ohio, a statement containing the number of employés employed during the preceding year from January 1st to December 31st inclusive, the number of employés employed at each kind of employment, and the aggregate amount of wages paid to such employés, which information shall be furnished on a blank or blanks to be prepared by the Commission and furnished to employers free of charge upon request. § 1465-45. Such employer must also, in the month of January, 1914, and semi-annually thereafter, Ohio pay into the State Insurance Fund the amount of premium determined and fixed by the State Industrial Commission and pay thereafter semi-annually such further sum or sums in the State Insurance Fund as may be ascertained to be due from him under the rules of the Board. § 1465-69. The foregoing provisions as to payment, however, do not apply to employers who were subscribers to the State Insurance Fund prior to January 1, 1914. Those who were such subscribers are required to pay, from time to time, upon the expiration of the respective periods for which payments into the Fund have been made by them. § 1465-69. Under certain circumstances employers may adopt the compensation principle by assuming the liability therefor personally, without joining the State insurance fund, under conditions specified in § 1465-69. These provisions are as follows: "*** And provided further, that such employers who will abide by the rules of the state liability board of awards and as may be of.sufficient financial ability or credit to render certain the payment of compensation to injured employés or to the dependents of killed employés, and the furnishing of medical, surgical, nursing and hospital attention and services and medicines, and funeral expenses equal to or greater than is provided for in this act, or such employers as maintain benefit funds or departments or jointly with other employers maintain mutual associations of such said financial ability or credit, to which their employés are not required or permitted directly or indirectly to contribute, providing for the payment of such compensation and the furnishing of such medical, surgical, nursing and hospital services and attention and funeral expenses, may, upon a finding of such facts by the state liability board of awards elect to pay individually or from such benefit fund department or association such compensation, and furnish such medical, surgical, nursing and hospital services and attention and funeral expenses directly to such injured or the dependents of such killed employés; and the state liability board of awards may require such se Ohio curity or bond from said employers as it may deem proper, adequate and sufficient to compel, or secure to such injured employés, or to the dependents of such employés as may be killed, the payment of the compensation and expenses herein provided for, which shall in no event be less than that paid or furnished out of the state insurance fund, in similar cases, to injured employés or to the dependents of killed employés, whose employers contribute to said fund; and said board shall make and publish rules and regulations governing the mode and manner of making application and the nature and extent of the proof required to justify such finding of facts by the board as to permit such election by such employers, which rules and regulations shall be general in their applications, one of which rules shall provide that all employers electing directly to compensate their injured and the dependents of their killed employés as hereinbefore provided, shall pay into the state insurance fund such amount or amounts as are required to be credited to the surplus in paragraph two of section seven hereof. "The state liability board of awards may at any time change or modify its finding of facts herein provided for, if in its judgment such action is necessary or desirable to secure or assure a strict compliance with all the provisions of this act in reference to the payment of compensation and the furnishing of medical, nurse, and hospital services and medicines and funeral expenses to injured and the dependents of killed employés." § 1465-69. (§ 22 of Act of 1913.) Employers specified in the preceding section must post notices provided for in § 1465-71. (§ 24 of the Act of 1913.) From the above it will seem that employers who elect to compensate their workmen directly or through mutual associations of employers must still contribute a certain amount to the State insurance fund. Paragraph 2 of § 7, which, as the sections are renumbered, is subd. 2 of § 1465-54, provides as follows: 2. Ten per cent of the money that has heretofore been paid into the state insurance fund and ten per cent of all that Ohio may hereafter be paid into such fund shall be set aside for the creation of a surplus until such surplus shall amount to the sum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) after which time the sum of five per cent of all the money paid into the state insurance fund shall be credited to such surplus fund, until such time as, in the judgment of the board, such surplus shall be sufficiently large to guarantee a state insurance fund from year to year." In an explanatory note to an edition of rules relating to employers who elect to carry their own insurance, the Industrial Commission of Ohio states that the insurance fund is in such condition that the contributions to the surplus fund by employers who elect to carry their own risks will be five per centum for the present. Employers must make an application for a rating the same as if they intended to join the State fund, and the five per centum will be based on the sum they would be compelled to pay to the State fund should they elect to join that fund instead of carrying their own risks. Blanks for this purpose will be furnished by the Industrial Commission and these blanks must be used in all cases. National and State banks which are required by law to file statements with the Superintendent of Banks, and railroad and public service corporations, which are required to file statements with the Public Utilities Commission, are exempted from filing bonds as a condition of carrying their own risks. All others must file a bond in a sum not less than $5,000, in any instance, or not less than the amount of the semi-annual premium which such employer would pay to the State insurance fund if he was a contributor, where such amount exceeds the sum of $5,000. All blanks for the administration of the act are furnished by the Industrial Commission and employers are required to use such blanks. An employer who has fewer than five employés may join the State Insurance Fund (although there is no penalty if he does not do so), by paying premiums thereto and posting Oregon in conspicuous places about his place of business typewritten or printed notices stating the fact that he has made such payment. § 1465–71, § 24 of Act of 1913. Employers having fewer than five employés who do join the State Insurance Fund are, of course, relieved from other liability regarding actions for damages by the workmen to the same extent as employers having more than five employés. § 1465-71; § 24 of Act of 1913. "Printed forms of all notices, applications, proofs, certificates, etc., necessary for perfecting any claim before the Board will be furnished free of charge by the Board. Such forms must be used in all cases." Rule 3 of the State Liability Board of Awards, now the Industrial Commission of Ohio. OREGON The Oregon Act, while following somewhat on the lines of that of Washington, is distinguished from the Statute of the latter State by being an elective Statute. That is, employers may elect whether or not they will adopt the compensation principle by joining a State insurance fund. The election to adopt the compensation principle is presumed, unless some action is taken to the contrary, as to all employers and employés specified in §§ 13 and 14 of the Act. The steps which must be taken by employers and employés to reject the Act are contained in §§ 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 and 18, which provide as follows: "§ 10. All persons, firms and corporations engaged as employers in any of the hazardous occupations hereafter specified shall be subject to the provisions of this act; provided, however, that any such person, firm or corporation may be relieved of certain of the obligations hereby imposed, and shall lose the benefits hereby conferred by filing with the Commission written notice of an election not to be subject thereto in |