“ The origin of the Federal Employers' Liability Act.
By the common law as administered in the several states, the employee, like every other member of the community, was expected to bear the risks necessarily attendant upon life and work, subject only to the right to be indemnified for any loss inflicted by wrongdoers. The employer, like every other member of the community, was in theory liable to all others for loss resulting from his wrongs; the scope of his liability for wrongs being amplified by the doctrine of respondeat superior. ”

“ The power exercised by Congress is not such that, when exercised, it necessarily excludes the state action here under consideration. It would obviously have been possible for Congress to provide in terms, that wherever such injuries or death result from the railroad's negligence, the remedy should be sought by action for damages; and wherever injury or death results from causes other than the railroad's negligence, compensation may be sought under the Workmen's Compensation Laws of the states. ”

“ Whether and in what circumstances railroad companies engaging in interstate commerce shall be required to compensate their employees in such commerce for injuries sustained therein are matters in which the nation as a whole is interested, and there are weighty considerations why the controlling law should be uniform and not change at every state line. ”

“ There was, in the nature of things, no more reason for providing a Federal remedy for negligent injury to employees, than there would have been for providing such a remedy for negligent injury to passengers or to other members of the public. ”

“ To a system making such provision, and not to wasteful litigation, dependent for success upon the coincidence of fault and the ability to prove it, society, as well as the individual employee and his dependents, must look for adequate protection. Society needs such a protection as much as the individual; because ultimately society must bear the burden, financial and otherwise, of the heavy losses which accidents entail. ”

“ Though the principle that compensation should be made, or relief given, is of universal application, the great diversity of conditions in the different sections of the United States may, in a wise application of the principle, call for differences between states in the amount and method of compensation, the periods in which payment shall be made, and the methods and means by which the funds shall be raised and distributed. ”

“ The Workmen's Compensation Law of New York here in question has been declared by this court to be among those which 'bear so close a relation to the protection of the lives and safety of those concerned that they properly may be regarded as coming within the category of police regulations.' New York C. R. Co. v. White, 243 U.S. 188, 207, 61 L. ed. 667, 37 Sup. Ct. Rep. 247. And this court has definitely formulated the rules which should govern in determining when a Federal statute regulating commerce will be held to supersede state legislation in the exercise of the police power. ”

“ And the reports of the congressional committees having the bill in charge disclose, without any uncertainty, that it was intended to be very comprehensive, to withdraw all injuries to railroad employees in interstate commerce from the operation of varying state laws, and to apply to them a national law having a uniform operation throughout all the states. House Report No. 1386 and Senate Report No. 460, 60th Cong. 1st Sess. Thus, in the House Report it is said: 'It [the bill] is intended in its scope to cover all commerce to which the regulative power of Congress extends. . . . ”