The present system, the commissioner also declares, results in harmful and serious delays, and often requires the worker to pay out so much in fees and court costs that he loses a large part of the award to which he is justly entitled. To prevent the evils he urges that the law be so amended as to provide for a central administrative body, by whom all settlements should be made and the interests of all parties protected without cost or delay.

The statistical information of the report is limited to a few summary statements, based on such information as comes to the department under the requirement that notices of all claim settlements must be sent to it promptly. From a statement in the report of the department for 1915, it may be assumed that these notices are not sent in all cases and thus that the records in the department's possession are not regarded as complete.

The information given indicates that the number of workers benefiting from the act was more than twice as great in the second year as in the first year. In 1915, there were 2.222 claim settlements reported, involving total payments of $49,749. In the first 11 months of 1916, there were 5,411 claim settlements reported, involving $125,262. The following table shows, in condensed form, the more significant data for the year 1915 and for the first 11 months of the year 1916. The total number of accidents reported, given in the top line, are from the reports made to the department under a general law requiring reports for all industrial accidents. The compensation act does not require the reporting of accidents.

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS REPORTED, NUMBER OF CLAIM CASES SETTLED, AND TOTAL AMOUNT OF COMPENSATION AND MEDICAL PAYMENTS MADE, DURING THE YEAR 1915 AND THE FIRST 11 MONTHS OF 1916.

1 Nebraska. State Department of Labor. Report upon the operations of the workmen's compensation act, for the year ending Nov. 30, 1915. p. 18.

NEW JERSEY.1

During its 1916 session, the New Jersey Legislature passed a bill creating, within the State department of labor, a workmen's compensation aid bureau. It is the duty of this bureau to review and approve all compensation settlements made under the provisions of the compensation act of 1911, to study the operations of the act, and to recommend amendments to the legislature. The bureau was organized with the commissioner of labor as chief, two referees, one investigator, an examiner with two assistants, and two clerks. Its first report has been issued under date of February, 1917.

The report is concerned chiefly with recommendations for changes in the law. The first of these is that the bureau should be given authority to make awards as well as merely to approve them. "The work of the bureau," says the report, "would be much enhanced and much more expeditiously accomplished if the referees were invested with power to end å controversy by making an actual award, which would be equivalent to a judgment when filed with the clerk of the court of common pleas."

Recommendation is made for an increase in the amount of compensation by fixing all awards on the basis of 663 per cent instead of the 50 per cent basis now in use. Also, it is suggested that a one-week waiting period be adopted as a compromise between the present two-weeks period and the agitation for the entire abolition. of all waiting periods. In addition, the bureau makes numerous recommendations for minor changes in the reading of the law in order to clear up existing doubts and disputes.

The bureau does not regard a State insurance fund as necessary or essential at the present time. But it does urge that all employers be compelled to insure all operating risks, whether under the compensation section or under the liability section of the compensation act. It also recommends empowering the commissioner of banking and insurance with authority to modify all insurance rates should they prove exorbitant or inadequate.

The report contains a brief statistical statement of the operations under the compensation act for each of the years 1913 to 1916. It is pointed out, however, that the tabulation for 1916 is not very satisfactory, owing to the transfer of records and changing of reporting forms incident to the organization of the bureau. The following table summarizes the statistical data given in the report.

1 New Jersey. Report on the Workmen's Compensation Aid Bureau for the year 1916. Trenton, 1916. 25 pp.

OPERATIONS UNDER THE COMPENSATION ACT IN NEW JERSEY, 1913 TO 1916.

The workmen's compensation act of Porto Rico went into effect July 1, 1916. Provision was made for its administration by a board known as the "workmen's relief commission," consisting of three State officials-attorney general, the acting treasurer, and the director of labor-and two private members. This commission has recently submitted a special report to the legislative assembly regarding the operations of the act up to January 31, 1917. As this covers a period of only seven months, the statistical information is not regarded as in any way conclusive of future experience, but the commission offers the report to the assembly in the belief that certain features of the law need immediate revision or amendment.

The Porto Rico act is of the presumptive elective type, employers who reject it losing certain important defenses. Also, complete ex

1 Porto Rico. Special Report of the Workmen's Relief Commission, covering operations under the workmen's compensation act from July 1, 1916, to Jan. 31, 1917. San

ception is made of employers having less than five employees and of farm labor not using machinery. As a result of rejection and exemption thus provided for the benefits of the act would seem to be limited to a very small fraction of the workers in the island. Thus the present report shows 146 employers under the act, with a total annual pay roll of some $1,385,000 as against 206 employers with estimated annual pay roll of between $2,000,000 and $2,300,000 who rejected the act. The rejections include almost all employers engaged in building construction. Also a majority of the larger steamship companies have rejected the law, so that the dangerous occupation of longshoring is covered to a limited extent only. By far the greater number of workmen actually under the act are in the sugar industry.

During the seven-months period reported 220 compensation claims were made. Of these, 7 claims were disallowed by the commission; 143 were allowed and final settlement made; 5 were partially settled, and 65 were pending at the end of the period. The total compensation cost in the 143 completely settled cases was $1,889.75, but these cases included no fatalities and few serious injuries. Among the cases pending at the end of the period were 3 deaths and 2 probable permanent disabilities. If all pending cases are allowed and compensated at the maximum, the total costs and expenses of all kinds paid out by the commission during the first seven months will reach an estimated total of $19,709.11.

The whole cost of the compensation system is borne by an insurance fund known as the "workman's relief trust fund." This is managed by the commission and is made up of contributions by the employers under the act. The annual premiums on the rates now charged are estimated for the current year at $29,296, and for the seven-month period at $17,089. To carry the fund at the start, the assembly advanced the sum of $25,000 out of the public treasury.

WASHINGTON.

A special report recently issued by the bureau of inspection and supervision of the State of Washington gives a detailed account of the operations of the workmen's compensation act from the time the law became effective on October 1, 1911, down to January 1, 1916. This investigation of the affairs of the industrial insurance department occupied nearly 10 months and the objects sought to be attained by the examination, as stated in the report, "were primarily a general review of the workmen's compensation act with a

1 Washington, Department of Auditor of State. Bureau of Inspection and Supervision of Public Offices. Special report on the State Industrial Insurance Department, the workmen's compensation act, covering the operations of the department from the beginning on Oct. 1, 1911, to Jan. 1, 1916. [Olympia, 1917.] 104 pp.

view of determining its strength or weakness and making recommendations to repair the weakness where found, the verification of the accounts carried by the department with the various contributors, and an investigation of the office system and the methods used for caring for the receipts and making disbursements, and to make such changes as might seem necessary. The fact that the former claim. agent was able to cover defalcations amounting to $20,000 indicated a lack of proper system. During the audit period contributions were received from approximately 14,000 firms throughout the State and over 60,000 claims were filed with the department."

The investigation involved the checking up of the claims paid and the verification of about 200,000 items of receipts and disbursements. The totals in the tables included in this report do not agree with the totals as shown by the reports of the department, which, however, the report states, "has no effect on comparisons of percentage arrived at in the tables intended as a basis for the revision of the rates of assessment."

The report states that certain serious irregularities were uncovered, among which were the payment of claims without signed authority, or without having been ordered paid by any commissioner; payment of claims not certified as correct by the claim agent; settlement of claims in due course in the office without approval of the chief medical adviser; altering the final award and decision of the chief medical adviser; discrepancies between signatures appearing on the application and on the warrant, and insufficient attention paid to the collection of contributions from employers.

A careful checking up of the records shows that of the 60,358 claims filed with the commission to December 31, 1915, 46,725 were paid, 6,129 were suspended, 2,549 were rejected, 2,264 were not perfected, 685 were completed but no warrant was issued, 24 were waived and canceled, 213 were blanks, and 1,769 were paid subsequent to January 1, 1916. The condition of the accident fund on December 31, 1915, as taken from the books of the department is shown in the following statement:

One of the matters given particular consideration by the bureau