tified to by a physician or in case of any other obstacle certified. to by the local authorities.

ADMINISTRATION.-The National Old-Age and Invalidity Insurance Institution is autonomous in the sense of having an administrative machinery entirely separated from the General Government, and no obligations, except such as are definitely specified, are assumed by the Government. While the details of the administration are determined by the constitution, the law establishes the following demands: The main administrative body is a council appointed by royal decree, the number of members of the council being determined by the constitution. According to the law, one-third of the membership must consist of representatives of workmen insured; there must also be representatives of savings banks and other corporations which assist the institution and of cooperative associations whose membership is insured. In addition the council includes one representative from each of the following ministries: Agriculture, finance, posts and telegraphs; and finally, the director general of the Bank of Deposits and Loans and the director of the Bureau of Labor of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, are ex officio members of the council.

This council prepares the constitution of the institution, prescribes conditions for the establishment and administration of branch offices, and also the technical regulations and the tariffs for the computation of annuities; but the constitution, regulations, and tariffs must be presented for consideration to the insurance council and the council of state, to the ministers of agriculture, of finance, and of posts and telegraphs, and must be approved by royal decree. The same conditions regulate the amendments of these acts.

The institution is under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce, to which all financial reports and balance sheets must be forwarded. The technical balances, which must be prepared every 5 years beginning with January 1, 1908, must also be presented to the Ministry of Finance.

The details of administration are further regulated by the constitution, which was published by royal decree of May 24, 1902, and amended on September 2, 1904, to conform to the changes introduced by the law of March 13, 1904. The text of the new constitution, proposed by the council on December 21, 1907, was adopted without any material changes on March 18, 1909.

According to the constitution, the administrative council governing the institution consists of 23 members-18 appointed by the Crown, 3 ministerial representatives, and 2 ex officio members. Among the 18 members appointed by the Crown there must be 6 representatives of the insured workmen, 2 from savings banks, and 2 from benefit or cooperative societies insuring their membership. The period of serv

ice is 3 years, with right of reelection, one-third of the membership being elected each year. The council elects its own officers and convenes at least once in 3 months. As is customary, the council directs the general policies, issues regulations, approves tariffs, appoints the clerical force, etc., while the executive work is performed under the direction of an executive committee elected by the council and consisting of the president, vice-president, and five members of the council.

Service on the council is gratuitous except that traveling expenses and a fee of 20 lire ($3.86) per day is paid to members residing outside of Rome, and a fee of 10 lire ($1.93) for each session is given to the labor representatives living in Rome.

The director general is the executive officer of the institution and is appointed by the council.

BRANCH OFFICES.-The duties of branch offices may be intrusted to savings banks, popular banks, various industrial associations, mutual benefit societies, insurance companies, and similar institutions, and in absence of such, special branch offices may be established and put in charge of local committees. Besides performing the necessary financial operations these local branch offices must endeavor to keep the population informed of the activity of the insurance institution and the advantages offered by it. In addition the constitution contains regulations concerning the investment of the funds and the preparation of annual and quinquennial balances.

PROCEDURE.—The procedure of old-age and invalidity insurance is regulated mainly by the new technical regulations.

Applications for insurance may be made either by the applicant himself or by another person either at the central office in Rome or at the branch offices or agencies of the institution or in post-offices, from which they are forwarded to the main offices. The administration may decline to insure an applicant, but he has a right to appeal to the administrative council, whose decision is final.

For each insured person an individual account is opened in the books of the institution and a deposit book is made out and forwarded to him through the local agency. This book must be presented with each payment.

Payments may be made at any agency of the institution, as enumerated above, but once a year the book must be forwarded by the insured through the agency, for balancing, for making the entries in the account and for adjusting the benefits.

Italian workmen living in foreign countries may avail themselves of the benefits of this act, and consuls may be designated as agents by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or the insurance institution may appoint agents in foreign countries.

When an insured person ceases to conform to the qualifications for workmen's insurance required by the law, he must so inform the institution. If he fails to do so and information to that effect reaches the administration, it must notify him in writing that the appropriate measures will be applied to him. The insured may appeal to the council against the decision within one month, but the decision of the council is final. When the question is settled against the insured the transfer of his account to the "popular insurance" roll is effected. When he again qualifies for the workmen's insurance rolls he must furnish the same evidence as for an original insurance. When an annuity is granted the deposit book is exchanged for an annuity certificate. Annuities are payable in quarterly amounts, on March 1, June 1, September 1, and December 1, on presentation of this certificate by any office or agency of the institution. Annuity payments not demanded within a whole year are suspended and application for their recovery must be made to the central office. Payments due but not collected may be recovered by the heirs within two years.

PROBABLE AMOUNTS OF PENSIONS.

The new method of computing the pension values of payments has gone into effect so very recently that it is impossible to give any accurate estimate as to the values of pensions which the insured may expect under normal conditions. But as the actual values of pensions purchased could not change very materially notwithstanding the radical change in the method of computations, estimates based upon the old laws of 1898 and 1901 will be indicative if not altogether accurate. The actual pensions can not, of course, be guaranteed in advance; they must depend upon the rate of interest, the amount of the institution's subsidies and the invalidity table.

In the following tables the assumptions are: An annual rate of interest of 3.75 per cent, an annual additional benefit of 6 lire ($1.16) from the institution to each individual account, and the accepted Italian mortality table. The following table shows the expected value of the annual pension maturing at 60 or 65, when payments of contributions begin at 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40, and when the annual contributions amount to 6, 12,18, 24, and 36 lire ($1.16, $2.32, $3.47, $4.63, and $6.95). The values of pensions differ materially under the two plans of insurance, the mutual (alienated capital) plan and the reserved-capital plan.

If old-age insurance is taken out at the age of 20 or 25, the pensions may reach substantial amounts, but for persons contracting for such insurance at more advanced ages, and especially if the minimum contribution of 6 lire ($1.16) per annum is paid, the pensions are very small. It must be remembered, however, that a substantial increase

of the value of the pensions is possible by delaying the time of the maturing of the pension from the age of 60 to the age of 65, or according to the new table of pension values (on p. 1893) to the age of 70.

EXPECTED VALUE OF ANNUITIES, BY FORM OF INSURANCE, AGE AT TIME OF INSURING, AND AMOUNT OF CONTRIBUTION.

[Source: Luigi Rava, La Cassa Nazionale di Previdenza per la Invalidità e per la Vecchiaia degli Operai.]

An estimate of the amounts of monthly contributions necessary to acquire a pension of 180 lire and 360 lire ($34.74 and $69.48) to mature either at 60 or 65 years of age, both for the alienated and reserved capital plans, is given in the following table. For a person starting at the age of 25 years, for instance, a pension of 360 lire ($69.48) at the age of 65 years may be acquired by a monthly payment of 1.90 lire (37 cents) per month on the reserved-capital plan and of 1.15 lire (22 cents) per month on the mutual plan. Unfortunately, it is impossible to ascertain, because of the absence of detailed reports of the old-age insurance institutions, what the average contribution of the persons insured amounts to.

ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION NECESSARY TO INSURE A PENSION OF 180 LIRE ($34.74) AND 360 LIRE ($69.48), BY FORM OF INSURANCE AND AGE AT TIME OF INSURING.

[Source: Luigi Rava, La Cassa Nazionale di Previdenza per la Invalidità e per la Vecchiaia degli Operal.]

Estimated amount of monthly contribution necessary to insure a pension of

20 years.

CO years. 65 years. 60 years. 65 years. 60 years. 65 years. 60 years. 65 years.

25 years.

30 years.

367

35 years.

511

40 years..

.309

.434

.704

.994

ORDINARY PENSION INSURANCE.

A tariff of rates for ordinary voluntary old-age pension insurance, authorized by the law of July 28, 1901, and by the decree of December 22, 1901, was published June 26, 1904. This form of insurance does not confer any specific gratuities upon the assured, but gives the advantage of insurance in an institution not conducted for profit, which may manifest itself in lower rates. Both forms of insurance are permitted—the alienated-capital plan and the reserved-capital plan. In the former plan the premiums are forfeited at death, in the latter plan they are returned. A few rates for each plan are quoted in the following table, where the amount of pension maturing at a definite age and purchasable by a single payment of $100 is given. While the alienated plan naturally permits a higher pension than the reserved-capital plan, it is nevertheless evident that for longer periods the difference becomes very much less important. It is evident that, while attractive in form, these ordinary old-age pensions are of comparatively little importance to the wage-workers, with the standard of earnings prevailing in Italy. Thus it is true that by making a single deposit of $100 to the credit of his child at the age of 5, the workman could guarantee to that child an annual pension of $168.90 beginning at the age of 65, but there are very few workers in Italy with an income large enough to make such provision for the old age of their children. At the age of 25 a workman could begin to provide for his own old age; then each dollar paid in would guarantee a pension of 46 cents beginning with the age of 60, the value of the pension purchasable with each payment decreasing with advanc ing age. No statistics of this branch of activity of the institution were available.