SUMMARY OF EUROPEAN LAWS ON INDUS

TRIAL INSURANCE1

The book of Willoughby on Workingmen's Insurance represented the situation in Europe and America up to 1898.2

GERMANY

In Germany there are two forms of sickness insurance of workingmen, compulsory and optional. According to the imperial law of 1883, with its subsequent amendments up to 1903, all workmen and employees with an annual income up to 2000 marks ($480), engaged in manufactures or trade, must be insured. Agriculture and household industries may be included. In the year 1908 the German Empire had sixty-three (figures for 1908) for 1908) million inhabitants, of whom sixteen million were wage earnFor these there were 23,057 funds or insurance associations, with thirteen and two-tenths million members; $84,240,000 premiums paid, or $6.38 per person insured; $79,440,000 were paid out, or $13.92 per sick person and $.72 per day of sickness. The form of insurance is the local insurance association based on the principles of mutual help and self-government, under the general law.

ers.

'This summary, prepared for Charities and the Commons, is reproduced here by permission of the editors with some additions.

"I have used chiefly Zacher, Leitfaden zur Arbeiterversicherung, 1908, and the report of the International Workingmen's Insurance Congress of Vienna, 1905, and of Rome, 1908, and Die Arbeiterversicherung in Europa, Sonderbeilage zum Reichs-Arbeitsblatt, Nr. 7. July, 1910, zussamengestellt im Kaiserlichen Statistischen Amte, Berlin, Carl Heymanns Verlag. More full account in Frankel and Dawson, Workingmen's Insurance in Germany (1910); and in Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 90, September, 1910. See also Bibliography, pp. 323-26.

I

In these local associations the workmen pay two-thirds of the premiums and the employers one-third of the premiums, which are based on the rate of wages. There are also free associations for insurance in which the employers have no share.

The benefits received under the law are: (a) Free treatment and sickness money (50 per cent. of the average wages); or, free treatment in a hospital and one-half the sickness money paid to dependent relatives for twenty-six weeks; (b) lying-in women receive at the same rate during six weeks; (c) death benefit of twenty times the wage of one day. The indemnities seem small when given in American money; their actual value in Europe is much higher than the amounts appear to offer. By special enactments this minimum scale of benefits may be raised. In case of dispute the matter is settled by a supervisory board without costs for litigation.

Accident insurance was introduced in Germany by the law of 1884-87, revised in 1900. Insurance is compulsory for all workmen and foremen with annual earnings under 3,000 marks ($720), in manufactures and agriculture. By special enactment it may be extended to foremen and petty employers with more than 3,000 marks ($720). Employers and other persons not required to insure are permitted to insure themselves under the same scheme. If an accident has been wilfully caused by the employer he can be sued criminally under the old liability law of 1871 and obliged to pay the indemnity fixed by that law, less the amount paid by his insurance association. Such suits are rare, as the process is long and doubtful and the ordinary insurance is adequate and easily collected without suit. Employers are permitted to insure themselves in their own associations. against this liability. The insurance is effected by means of insurance associations of employers (of which there were, in

1908, 114 having 6,100,000 establishments and 23,700,000 insured) in the same or similar trades, organized on the principles of mutuality and self-government. There are special organizations for those engaged in the state service, railroads, telephones, etc. The premiums are paid by assessments on the employers levied according to the total wages paid and the scale of risk in the trade and establishment. This arrangement makes it to the interest of individual employers to guard against accidental injuries. They hardly need factory inspectors to keep them to this duty. The benefits offered under this law are: (a) The benefit begins after the sickness insurance stops, but in any case not later than the fourteenth week of incapacity; free treatment and accident benefit up to 663 per cent. of the average annual earnings, or free hospital treatment together with pension to dependent relatives, up to 60 per cent. of earnings; (b) death benefit of twenty times the daily wages and pension to dependent relatives up to 60 per cent. of daily wages. Benefits are paid in case of any sort of accident without litigation over questions of "negligence" of employee, unless the injured person has purposely brought the injury on himself. In case of controversy the dispute is settled without expense to the parties by an arbitration court and by the imperial insurance authorities, the workmen and employers being equally represented. Premiums paid in 1908 were $43,584,000; average, $1.85 per insured. Expenditures, $37,896,000 to 906,147 injured, and to 81,498 widows, 109,757 children, 4,192 parents of those killed.

Invalid and old-age pensions were introduced in Germany by the law of 1889, improved in 1899. All wage earners with annual earnings less than $480 are required to be insured, and the imperial council can extend this insurance to petty employers and persons in household industry. Provision is also made for optional insurance of workmen and

petty employers not included in the compulsory clause. The invalid pension insurance is effected through organizations covering different territories and these also are mutual in character and self-governing under the general law. Special funds are erected for miners, seamen, and state railway employees. The premiums are paid by employers and employees, one-half each, and the empire adds $12 annually to each pension paid. The benefits paid are: (a) Invalid pensions for persons 2/3 (two-thirds) incapacitated for labor, after they have paid premiums for 200 weeks; (b) old-age pensions for members over seventy years of age, after paying premiums 1,200 weeks; (c) free treatment in addition to aid to dependent relatives, in order to prevent incapacity for work; (d) repayment of premiums in case of death, accident, or marriage, if the pension has not yet fallen due. In case of controversy the dispute is settled, without cost to the parties, before an arbitration court and the imperial insurance bureau; workmen and employers have equal representation. The statistics of 1908 showed that there were forty-one invalid pension organizations, with fifteen and two-tenths million insured members. The premiums paid were $44,256,000-$2.88 per member-and $43,560,000 were paid in pensions-the average invalid pension being $40.80 and the old-age pension $39.92, varying in amount with the wage class. Out of sixteen million, fifteen and two-tenths million workmen were insured.

Already Germany is working out laws and plans for securing income to widows and orphans and for the unemployed. Unquestionably Germany leads the world in industrial insurance, and has prospered while she built up the system, probably largely in consequence of it.

Before 1881 Germany depended upon employers' liability laws, voluntary benefit societies, and private casualty companies for the protection of her workingmen against beggary

in times of disability. When the workingmen become conscious of their wrongs and united in a desperate effort to overthrow a government which seemed indifferent to their sufferings and hostile to their aspirations, they were held for a time in subjection by the iron hand of Bismarck, under the anti-socialistic laws which sought to suppress discussion. It became evident that this would eventually provoke open rebellion and revolution. The most objectionable laws were repealed and in their stead a national policy, based on the duty of a people to care for all its citizens, was announced. On November 17, 1881, Emperor William I, by the hand of Prince Bismarck, sent to the Reichstag his famous message:

We regard it as our imperial duty once more to lay upon the heart of the Reichstag the promotion of the welfare of the workmen, and we would look back with all the more satisfaction on all the successes with which God has visibly blessed our reign, if we might carry with us the consciousness that we could leave behind us new and permanent assurance of inward peace and to those who need help greater security and comfort to which they have a claim. In our efforts directed to that end we are sure of the co-operation of all the federate states and we look for the support of the Reichstag without regard to parties. First of all to this end a sketch of a law relating to the insurance of workmen against loss by accidents in industry has been prepared. By its side and supplementing it will be offered a method of organizing sickness insurance funds. But also those who by reason of age or disability have become unable to earn a living have a well founded claim upon the community for a larger measure of state care than has hitherto been given them. To find the right way and means for this care is a difficult task, but also one of the highest duties of every state which rests upon the Christian life of the people. The close union of the real forces of this people's life with incorporated societies under state protection and state help, will, as we hope, make possible the solution of problems for which the power of the government alone would not in the same degree be adequate.

On February 19, 1907, Emperor William II, in his throne speech before the newly elected Reichstag confirmed the policy of his grandfather, saying: