BILITY OF EMPLOYERS TO EMPLOYES (_Continued_)

In our last lecture we stated some of the principles relating to the
liabilities of employers to their employes; in this lesson the subject
will be continued. _An employer is bound to use some care or
precaution, and if he does not will be responsible for his neglect._
One of these is he must employ persons who are fit for the work they
are set to do. If an employer in mining should put a man to work by
the side of another to mine coal who he knew was not a skilful
workman, and, in consequence of this unskilful workman's
unskilfulness, other miners were injured, he would be responsible for
hiring such a man. Every one will see the justice of this rule.

_The employer must also give proper instructions to the person
employed whenever he does not understand his duties._ If a person is
employed to run a laundry machine who does not understand how to work
it, and other employes are injured through his ignorance, the employer
would be liable. He must, therefore, tell such a person what to do; he
has no right to hazard the lives of others by putting any one who has
no knowledge of a machine to work without instructing him properly.
Again, if a person pretends to be capable, and the employer,
believing him, engages him, and it is soon found out that he is not,
then it is the duty of the employer either to dismiss him or to give
him proper instructions. The rule, however, on this subject is not the
same everywhere. It is sometimes said that if an employe continues to
work by the side of another after knowing that this other is
incompetent, it is his duty to give notice to the employer, and if the
employer continues to employ him, to quit. If he does not he assumes
the greater risk arising from his knowledge of the incompetency of the
other.

_It is the duty of the employer to furnish proper appliances for his
workmen._ He must furnish proper tools and machinery and safe
scaffolding, and in every respect must show a reasonable degree of
care in all these particulars. But the courts say that he is not
obliged to exercise the _utmost_ care, because the employe takes on
himself some risk with respect to the tools and machinery he uses. For
example, it is said that employers are not obliged to use the latest
appliances that are known or appear in the market for the use of their
workmen. If an employer has an older one that has been in use for
years, and the employes have found out al