of liability insurance. Where changes in the law have occurred subsequent to the period embraced by the experience, comparative studies of the laws have been made and corrections made in the table accordingly. The table represents accurately the relative costs at the date of writing. The ratios are constantly changing.

It is worth while to consider the probable part which the casualty companies will play in the immediate future in relation to the development of accident and sickness insurance, especially if permissive or compulsory laws should be passed in any of the states. 12 This matter has already been seriously considered. It is well known that in England under the Compensation Act and recently in France under a compulsory-insurance law, the private accident companies have done a thriving business in assuming the legal obligations of the employers. In France the mutual insurance associations or syndicates, and even the government itself, through a central fund, are competitors of the private companies, and yet the latter hold their own and contribute very substantially to the promotion of the purposes of the law. Nor are we entirely without experience in the United States, for the workmen's collective policies contain suggestions of a method which may be greatly extended if legal pressure or even encouragement were to make it to the interest of large bodies of employers and wage-earners to unite in securing protection. Already under the collective policies the expenses of solicitation have been reduced to a minimum, since the entire body of employees is included at a stroke under a contract which also lowers the cost of payments of

12 Mr. H. G. B. Alexander, president of the Continental Casualty Company of Chicago, stated at a meeting of the International Association of Accident Underwriters, that the accident and health insurance companies had collected $25,700,000 in the United States in 1906, this being a gain of $2,783,000 over the preceding year. Health insurance showed an increase of 28.8 per cent. and accident insurance of 9.57 per cent.

premiums by the simple process of deducting them from the wages. Uncertainty in regard to the indemnity would be reduced by legal definition of obligation and by simpler judicial organization for the adjustment of disputed claims. If the employers could be released from liability under existing laws they could then have at their disposal a large fund which they are now compelled to expend on casualty companies and lawyers to protect themselves against suits for negligence; and the insurance companies would then become insurers of the working-men rather than their sworn antagonists.

mate.

CHAPTER VII

FIRMS AND CORPORATIONS

In this article railroad relief departments are excluded from consideration as they are treated in the next chapter. The relation between the two movements is very intiBefore the railroads undertook their relief departments experiments had been made on a small scale by private firms, and when the railroads had developed their plans with manifest advantage the employers of smaller numbers of men in turn enlarged their schemes and multiplied their number. Meantime the size of manufacturing plants has rapidly increased, until now many of them rival railroad corporations in the magnitude of their enterprises and the number of employees. Some of the corporations also resemble the railroads in their prospects of permanence without regard to the persons who own their stocks and temporarily control their policies. This condition of affairs is favorable to the introduction of plans of old-age pensions, and especially of sickness and accident insurance. During the years 1905-8 there has been a marked increase in the amount of attention given to the development of such schemes. This has been due to various causes; and, first of all, to the examples of success in the railroad relief departments. Another cause has contributed powerfully to this tendency and will continue to operate with increasing momentum until compulsory insurance makes it unnecessary. That cause is the tightening of the employers' liability laws and the strictness and even rigor with which they are interpreted by many courts and applied in individual instances. It has been said by certain judges in high places that with a little more stringency the courts will practically make the

law of negligence a compulsory insurance law, for the fact of accident seems to carry with it in such courts a presumption of negligence. The juries very generally act on this presumption, and elective judges, being human, are inclined to lean to the side of the workmen, whose votes are neces

sary to elect them. This tendency has received further momentum from the exposures of the frightful waste of life due to industrial accidents and diseases revealed by factory inspectors, reports of trade-unions, and by the Interstate Commerce Commission. Public opinion has been thoroughly aroused and will not bear much more; it will soon demand all the protection that law can give to prevent injury and to compel each industry to bear its own costs. The exhibits of dangerous machinery, sweatshop evils, and tenement-house life in various cities have deepened these convictions and directed public attention to remedies. The expositions of the German government at Chicago in 1893 and at St. Louis in 1904 have had their share in educating the public conscience and revealing a practicable plan for mitigating the sufferings incident to modern industry.

It is almost impossible to tabulate the schemes of insurance here to be noticed; we shall describe certain examples and then endeavor to discover the tendency revealed in them all. Until the government report has been given to the world we shall not have anything like a complete catalogue of all these plans, but we have enough typical illustrations to furnish insight into the forces at work.

The Westinghouse Air Brake Company Relief Department, Wilmerding, Pa., was established in 1903. The company has charge of the relief department, is responsible for the funds, pays 4 per cent. interest on deposits, supplies facilities for office work, and pays operating expenses. The medical examiner is appointed by the general manager. The advisory committee is chosen, one-half by the company and

one-half by the members, the general manager being chairman. The relief fund is made up from voluntary contributions of members, income from investments, and contributions by the company when necessary to make up deficiencies. The members are divided into five wage classes: first, those receiving less than $35 per month; second, those receiving $35 to $55; third, those receiving $55 to $75; fourth, those receiving $75 to $95; fifth, those receiving $95 and more. No employee is required to become a member of the relief fund, and any member may withdraw after giving due notice. Usually a person loses membership when he for any reason ceases to be an employee. The monthly contributions are 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 cents according to wage class. The occasion for indemnity is disability due to either sickness or accident, and the medical examiner decides the question of disability. Benefits are not paid longer than thirty-nine weeks, although the right to death benefit continues during disability. Settlement may be paid in a lump sum. No benefits are paid where disability is due to intemperance, vice, or quarrel. The benefits each week for thirty-nine weeks are, according to class: $5, $7.50, $10, $12.50, $15, and surgical treatment is also given free. Injuries sustained while off the premises of the company come under the rules of sickness benefits. The usual release clause in the contract reads:

The acceptance by the members of benefits for injury shall operate as a release and satisfaction of all claims against the company for damages arising from or growing out of such injury; unless, within ten days from date of injury, notice is given to the superintendent of intention to seek indemnity from the company; and further, in the event of the death of a member, no part of the death benefit or unpaid disability benefit shall be due or payable unless and until good and sufficient releases shall be delivered to the superintendent, of all claims against the relief department as well as against the company, arising from or growing out of the death of a member.