Pensions for widows and other dependents of soldiers killed in the service, or as a result of disease or injury contracted in the service, are provided.

In Italy as well as in most of the European nations at war, more or less recognition has been given in the family allowance and pension legislation or decrees to the claims of illegitimate children.

In the neutral nations of Europe the social insurance plans have been greatly affected. As an indication of the general situation, brief reference may be made to Switzerland and to Denmark.

THE SWISS SOCIAL INSURANCE

Switzerland had adopted and applied before the war an extensive system of social insurance. The sickness and accident insurance system had been adopted by a referendum in 1912, under which the federated government granted subsidies to sick insurance funds. The cantons could make such insurance compulsory, or could assume responsibility for paying the premiums of needy persons for such insurance. These national subsidies amounted to about one-third of the total disbursements. The benefits under the sickness insurance included daily indemnities for loss of time, as well as medical attention.

Accident insurance is compulsory for wage earners in many trades, and the risks insured against include occupational diseases, as well as the ordinary occupational and nonoccupational risks. Each canton conducts this insurance on the mutual plan, but the National Government administers this fund and pays one-half the expenses of administration.

Various attempts have been made in Switzerland to arrange military insurance with private insurance companies. With the outbreak of the war, new legislation in respect to military pensions was necessary, and in 1914 a federal plan of military insurance was adopted. Military service is obligatory on all citizens between the ages of 20 and 48, except in the case of certain persons who pay an exemption tax.

The military insurance pensions and allowances are so related to the federal civil insurance, that the latter become suspended when the person is receiving the military insurance, except in certain circumstances.

The striking feature about the Swiss plan is the use by the government of the insurance principle both for military and civil life risks.1

THE DANISH PLAN

In Denmark social insurance is also broadly national, although not altogether paternal or compulsory. Sickness and nonemployment are cared for by voluntary clubs, to which the government contributes an amount equal to that derived by the members from dues. Accident insurance is compulsory on employers. Old-age pensions are a paternal dispensation, the expense being shared by the national treasury and the community in which the applicant resides. Such pensions were given to 87,400 persons in 1916, as against 85,700 in 1915 and 83,600 in 1914. On account of the advance in the cost of living, the payments made to the needy aged people were larger during 1916 than in previous years. Disbursements by the state were $3,750,000 in 1914, $4,000,000 in 1915, and $4,500,000 in 1916. The city of Copenhagen houses 17,400 of the old and feeble.

The number of widows with children who received government assistance during 1916 was 7,338, and 16,529 children benefited from the distribution. The amount expended was $260,000.

What is most striking about these figures is perhaps the very high proportion borne by the number of old-age pensioners and widows in receipt of government allowances to the total population of Denmark. This population was in 1916 approximately 2,800,000 persons of all ages. Of these, 94.738 were beneficiaries of the government old-age pension and widows' allowance systems. The proportion of such beneficiaries to the total

For further details of the systems of pensions and allowances in various European countries for dependents of soldiers and sailors, see the study of Capt. S. Herbert Wolfe, op. cit.

population, therefore, was over 3.4 per cent.; while if only the grown-up population is taken into consideration the proportion is well above 5 per cent.

SUMMARY

If an attempt is made to summarize the effect of the war on social insurance and pensions, the following conclusions seem to be warranted:

First, the war has had a tendency to stop for the time being the normal scientific development and extension of social insurance to meet the contingencies arising in times of peace for the large class of wage earners in the nations at war.

Second, by bringing into industry large numbers of women, married and unmarried, the war has brought the need for the extension of many kinds of social insurance.

Third, by the modification of existing social insurance legislation by extension, by decrees or otherwise, an effort has been made to provide for the increased dependency due to the war. Pensions have been increased and made to include greater numbers and additional contingencies.

Fourth, thus, by a recognition of the obligation of the nation to provide for needs arising from direct war service, or industrial service in providing war supplies, the people of the various countries are committed to a much wider use of the social insurance principle. The net result, therefore, of the war on this form of insurance is likely to be an extension of social insurance.

More and more a part of the national income and governmental activity will be, in all probability, devoted to the furthering of plans of social insurance. The needs are so clear and the object lesson so striking, that the social use of the insurance principle will probably be increasingly demanded.

The individualistic concept of sickness, accident, maternity, military service, old age and unemployment will be modified by a clearer recognition of the social responsibility, and what is a collective responsibility will be provided for by collective action

IV

THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON MARINE

INSURANCE

No other branch of insurance has been so directly and extensively affected by the war as marine insurance. This was due to several facts. In the first place, ocean transportation rose to a position of even greater importance than in times of peace. Such large numbers of the industrial population were diverted either to the service of the armies and navies, or were engaged in the production of war supplies, that there was not only a decrease in the number of producers of food supplies, but also an increased demand for certain kinds of foods and munitions of war. These supplies had to be brought from other countries and an unprecedented demand arose for shipping facilities. In the second place, blockades were established. On the one hand, the nations allied against the Central Powers attempted to prevent supplies from reaching these countries by blockading their entrance ports. On the other hand, the Central Powers declared a blockade of the ports of the Allied nations and by the use of the submarine began to destroy vessels carrying supplies to the Allied nations. These practices led in some cases to a withdrawal of vessels from these dangerous routes and their diversion to other routes. In some cases, as the use of the submarine became more effective, vessels were withdrawn from the carrying trade. In the third place, large numbers of vessels belonging to citizens of the Central Powers were interned at the outbreak of the war in neutral ports. There was thus an increased demand for carriers, a reduction in their number, and a very great increase in the risk of loss of vessel and cargo.

Nor was the loss of vessels and the increased hazard confined. to the nations actually engaged in the war. The merchant marine

of such important carrying nations as Holland, Norway, Sweden and the United States, was subjected to heavy losses by destruction of the vessels, the confiscation of their cargoes, and certain limitations on their normal business.

The world war has radically changed the risk of transportation insurance and increased it materially. The regularity of certain highways, their tests for wind current, shallowness and ice-drifts, formed a material safeguard for sea navigation. Today the ships are forced to take entirely different routes from those used in times of peace; they must pass through waters which have not been charted and in which in case of need it would be difficult for them to secure help. To this is added the fact that the sea patrol at this time can be carried on only very limitedly; many sea signals have disappeared, and the majority of beacons have been extinguished.

MINES

One of the greatest dangers of the war for maritime insurance is caused by mines. In the present war the coasts of all the important countries of Europe are surrounded by mines, which even after the war will form a serious danger to navigation. Even if the war risk is excluded from ordinary transportation insurance, the underwriter must bear a great number of total losses which are actually caused by mines, but with which the exact fixing of the cause of injury is impossible. Many a sunken ship, which one may assume with certainty ran into a mine without being able to prove it, must be completely compensated for by the underwriter. To this must be added, the guiding of vessels on these imperiled routes must now be entrusted to a decreased number of employes who are not completely experienced, as the war marine has withdrawn from the trade many of the best sailors.

Upon the return of vessels from a journey the normal period for repairs was lacking. Most of them had to venture immediately upon the sea again. Under this plan the vessel became