local fire mutuals indicates that the administrative expenses of the fund need not be more than 15 or 20 per cent.

To promote economy and speed in settlement, use might be made of the device employed by the Ocean and Accident Guarantee Corporation, elsewhere fully explained, whereby the employer might settle all small cases immediately according to his own interpretation of the law, and be reimbursed from the insurance fund up to 80 or 90 per cent. of what he paid out.

How the workman may be encouraged to provide for himself. -It might be made a part of the conditions of the organization of the mutual insurance fund mentioned in the preceding section, that workmen who paid additional premiums (either directly or by having them deducted from their wages) into this fund, should receive additional benefits.

Or, it might be advisable to separate these two features, and organize a system of workingmen's accident insurance on the plan now being tried for life insurance and annuities in Massachusetts, through the efforts of Mr. Louis D. Brandeis.

By an Act of the Massachusetts legislature in 1907, savings banks are permitted to establish departments for the issue of life insurance. These departments (two of which having been organized at the present time) are to be conducted at a minimum expense, no solicitors being allowed. The waste in industrial insurance as now conducted by private companies is very great. It is the thought of this Massachusetts plan to supply good insurance at a low price to those who want it. It is only when such an opportunity is offered that one can reasonably adopt the principle of "let each man look out for himself."

Similarly the attitude, frequently expressed, "Let each man buy his own accident insurance in the same way that he buys his fire insurance" will only then be a reasonable one when the workingman is given an opportunity to buy this article without feeling that he is being robbed.

Conclusion. The foregoing considerations make inevitable the conclusion that the existing method of settling the claims arising out of accidents to workingmen while at work can be greatly improved. In some manner we should introduce the idea of insurance, which practically disregards the idea of negligence. Perhaps it would be best first to test the constitutionality of making all employers liable to moderate benefits, amounting on an average to about as much as they would pay under the present system, in all cases of accidents, and

then releasing them from the liability to damage suits when these benefits have been paid. But if this is inadvisable, it would be desirable to have permissive legislation, as outlined in preceding sections, combining the idea of encouraging co-operation between employers and employees, state supervision of insurance funds to guarantee fairness, and the opportunity for workingmen to provide adequately for themselves.

In fact, a number of bills might be passed, each capable of standing alone, yet supplementing the others. Such bills would be in substance as follows: (1) Extend the law regarding the railway industry given on p. 84 (chap. 254, Laws of 1907) to other employments; (2) give the workmen the option of proceeding under the law of negligence or under a law of compulsory liability that disregards negligence, but not under both; (3) provide for a voluntary co-operative insurance fund as above outlined; (4) require complete reports from employers' liability insurance companies. The combining and choosing of these plans is the work of the legislator.

APPENDIX O

LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1908, CHAPTER 489

An Act to Authorize and to Provide for the Approval of Plans of Compensation for Injured Employees.

BE IT ENACTED, etc., as follows:

Section 1. Any employer of labor may submit to the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration a plan of compensation for employees in his employ, providing for payments to said employees in the event of injury in the course of their employment, based upon a certain percentage of the average earnings of such employees, and without reference to legal liability under the common law of the employers' liability act. After examination of such plan of compensation, and a public hearing thereon after public notice thereof, the board of conciliation and arbitration may, if it considers the same fair and just to the employees, give its approval thereof by certificate to be attached to such plan.

Sec. 2. After obtaining the approval of a plan of compensation as set forth in the foregoing section, it shall be lawful for the employer to enter into a contract with his employees by which such employees shall release the employer from liability in case of injury in the course of said employment and accept in lieu thereof the compensation provided in said plan of compensation.

Sec. 3. Either parent of any minor employee or the guardian of such minor may agree to said plan of compensation in behalf of the minor. Such agreement shall be in writing signed by the employee, or, in case of a minor employee, by either parent or guardian, in the presence of two witnesses, of whom one shall be an employee at the time of such signature.

Sec. 4. No employer shall require as a condition of employment that any employee shall assent to any plan of compensation or in any way waive his legal right to recover damages for an injury outside the provisions of such plan.

Sec. 5. No contract under such plan of compensation shall be binding for more than one year from the date thereof.

Sec. 6. So much of section sixteen of chapter one hundred and six of the Revised Laws as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed.' Sec. 7. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

May 5, 1908.)

(Approved

This law embodies one of the central principles of the bill proposed by the Illinois Industrial Insurance Commission in 1907, that of release of employers from liability when they have insured their employees in a satisfactory scheme. But in this law the terms are decided by an administrative board, while in the Illinois bill the legislature itself was asked to determine the basis. There are other differences.

1 Sec. 16 reads as follows: "No person shall, by a special contract with his employees, exempt himself from liability which he may be under to them in their employment and resulting from the negligence of the employer or of a person in his employ."

NOTE ON THE MASSACHUSETTS LAW.-The Secretary of the State Board of Conciliation and Arbitration, in a letter dated January 6, 1911, writes: "Nothing has resulted except inquiries. Neither of the industrial parties has shown the slightest interest."

For other recent legislation and bills for laws, see Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 90, September, 1910, pp. 675-717, by Lindley D. Clark.

APPENDIX P

LAWS OF NEW YORK, CHAPTER 352

An Act to Amend the Labor Law, in Relation to Employer's Liability. [Became a law May 24, 1910, with the approval of the Governor. Passed, three-fifths being present.]

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Sections two hundred, two hundred and one and two hundred and two of chapter thirty-six of the laws of nineteen hundred and nine, entitled "An act relating to labor, constituting chapter thirtyone of the consolidated laws," are hereby amended to read, respectively, as follows:

$ 200. Employers' liability for injuries.-When personal injury is caused to an employee who is himself in the exercise of due care and diligence at the time:

1. By reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, works, machinery, or plant, connected with or used in the business of the employer which arose from or had not been discovered or remedied owing to the negligence of the employer or of any person in the service of the employer and intrusted by him with the duty of seeing that the ways, works, machinery, or plant, were in proper condition;

2. By reason of the negligence of any person in the service of the employer intrusted with any superintendence or by reason of the negligence of any person intrusted with authority to direct, control or command any employee in the performance of the duty of such employee. The employee, or in case the injury results in death, the executor or administrator of a deceased employee who has left him surviving a husband, wife or next of kin, shall have the same right of compensation and remedies against the employer as if the employee had not been an employee of nor in the service of the employer nor engaged in his work. The provisions of law relating to actions for causing death by negligence, so far as the same are consistent with this act, shall apply to an action brought by an executor or administrator of a deceased employee, suing under the provisions of this article. If an employer enters into a contract, written or verbal, with