NUMBER AND PER CENT OF COMPENSATED ACCIDENTS RESULTING IN DEATH, PERMANENT DISABILITY, AND TEMPORARY DISABILITY, BY KIND OF INSURANCE INSTITUTION, 1899 TO 1902.

[Source: Congrès International des Accidents du Travail et des Assurances Sociales, Paris, 1900; Dusseldorf, 1902; Bollettino di Notizie sul Credito e sulla Previdenza, August, 1906; Bollettino dell' Ufficio del Lavoro, Vol. III and Vol. VII.]

a Including 211 accidents the results of which were unknown.
b Data by accident insurance institutions are not available.

A comparison between the premiums paid to the insurance institutions, the compensation paid by them, and the wage expense of the employers throws some light upon the cost of the accident insurance system. The amount paid in wages was not stated prior to 1901, so that the comparison of premiums, compensation, and wages can be made only for 1901 and 1902. For 1903 to 1906 the data are so fragmentary that they are omitted from the table which follows.

AMOUNT OF COMPENSATION AND PREMIUMS, COMPENSATION AND PREMIUMS IN PER CENT OF WAGES, AND COMPENSATION IN PER CENT OF PREMIUMS, IN ACCIDENT INSURANCE, BY CLASS OF FUNDS, 1899 TO 1902.

[Source: Congrès International des Accidents du Travail et des Assurances Sociales, Paris, 1900; Dusseldorf, 1902; Bollettino di Notizie sul Credito e sulla Previdenza, August, 1906; Bollettino dell' Ufficio del Lavoro, Vol. III and Vol. VII.]

The proportion of total premiums to wages is shown to be 0.96 per cent in 1901 and 1.08 per cent in 1902. This is not altogether accurate, because in the private and railroad funds no premiums are paid. The percentages for the years 1901 and 1902, excepting the private funds and railroad funds, are 1.10 and 1.26, respectively. The percentage is highest for the national institution, which corroborates the opinion that the industries with the highest risks are insured

in this institution. Altogether, however, the accident insurance system as established by the law of 1898 did not cost Italian industries much over 1 per cent of the wage expense during 1898 to 1902. As the amendments of 1903, embodied in the codified text of 1904, made somewhat more liberal provisions, the cost is now considerably higher. In fact the data for 1903 to 1906, though not very accurate, seem to indicate an increasing cost, which in 1904 amounted to 1.56 per cent, in 1905 to 2.12 per cent, and in 1906 to 2.19 per cent.

This comparatively low cost of the accident insurance system in the earlier years is explained by the very low average amount of the compensation. From the two preceding tables and the estimates of Dr. Magaldi, quoted below, the following statement has been compiled:

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS COMPENSATED AND TOTAL AND AVERAGE AMOUNT OF INDEMNITY PAID, 1899 TO 1905.

Thus the average amount of compensation per case, while increasing quite rapidly, amounted in 1902 to only $18.10, and in 1905 to $16.38, this including all cases.

A general average like the above has a limited value. Of greater importance are the averages for the four main classes of accidents, those resulting in death, complete permanent disability, partial permanent disability and temporary disability. In such detail, data are available only for the year 1901, and they are shown in the table following. The average compensation for death is found to have been only $633.42, for complete permanent disability $646.24, for partial permanent disability $151.64, and for temporary disability, which cases constitute the vast majority of all accidents, $3.83. No definite conclusions can be derived from this table concerning any differences between the various classes of insurance institutions except that the benefits paid by the railroad funds are considerably higher than those of other institutions. The number of cases of death and total permanent disability is too small for the averages to be trustworthy. Both in case of partial permanent disability and temporary disability the compensation paid by private insurance companies seems to be decidedly smaller than that paid either by the National Accident Insurance Institution or by the mutual employers' associations.

NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS AND AVERAGE INDEMNITY, BY RESULT OF INJURY AND BY GROUPS OF INSURANCE INSTITUTIONS, 1901.

[Source: Bollettino di Notizie sul Credito e sulla Previdenza, August, 1906.]

The results of the application of the accident insurance law during 1903, 1904, and 1905 are shown in the table following. The figures contained in this table were compiled by the author from original reports of the separate insurance companies, though some of them are only estimates. In the few cases where the figures may be checked up from official reports, as for instance the total number of accidents in 1905, they do not quite agree with the figures quoted elsewhere in this report. They are reproduced here as the best available data concerning the application of the law during recent years.

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE APPLICATION OF THE ACCIDENT INSURANCE LAW, 1903 TO 1905. (a)

[Source: Vincenzo Magaldi, Die Arbeiterversicherung in Italien (Zacher, Heft VIb, 1908).]

a The number of workmen insured and the amount of wages paid to these workmen is available for eight insurance companies only. This important information is given in the table in columns 7 to 11, inclusive, while the last two columns contain an estimate of the total number of persons based upon data for these eight companies.

The table indicates, first, a rapid increase in the number of accidents compensated, proportionately as well as absolutely. In two years the absolute number has more than doubled (increased by 112 per cent), partly through inclusion of new industries by the amendments of 1903. But the accident rate within two years has increased from 72 to 105 per 1,000, or 45.8 per cent. The average amount of compensation has not shown any tendency to increase, being in 1905 less than in 1903 ($16.38 as against $17.46), but the total amount of compensation has doubled and the amount of premiums has even more than doubled. The average premium per insured has increased from $1.29 to $2.02, and the cost of the insurance premium from 0.8 per cent of the wages to 1.91 per cent, or considerably more than doubled.

It is the general impression in Italy that this rapid increase of accidents reported is to a great extent due to fraudulent practices, and, as will be shown in a later section, these conditions have created a strong demand for amendment in the procedure by which such frauds might be prevented.

LITIGATION UNDER THE LAW.

As one of the purposes of the law is to do away with unnecessary and costly litigation, and substitute for it a cheap, automatic, and orderly manner of settling disputes, the following statistics of the cases of litigation under this law are interesting. It appears that during the year 1906, 1,987 cases were disposed of in some way, and in 1907, 2,498, while 2,431 were pending on December 31, 1907, making a total of 6,916 for these two years. In the table these cases are shown by the result, by the court, and also by the group of insurance institutions.