was due unless disability was established. The minimum pension was 240 lire ($46.32) for women and 480 lire ($92.64) for men. If such disability arose before the completion of 25 years of service, but after 10 years, the employee was entitled to of the average annual salary for the preceding five years, but such pension was to run only 2 years if the employee had served less than 12 years; 3 years if he had been in service 15 years but less than 20 years, and for 4 years if he had been in service 20 years but less than 25 years. The position of persons entering service after September 30, 1899, was entirely different, as they were subject to the general rules of the old-age insurance institution. But a computation showed that the pensions acquired under the latter conditions at the age of 60 for men and 55 for women would not be inferior to those granted under the old conditions.

To make the provisions for the two classes of employees uniform, and to sanction the system by legislative action, a bill was introduced on March 17, 1904, which with a few modifications became a law on June 16, 1904.

The law regulates the pensions for such employees as were in the regular service before September 30, 1899, subsequently referred to as "old employees," and for those who entered the service since then and referred to in the following accounts as new employees. The conditions are still very much different for these two classes of employees, but an effort was made in the law to equalize them as far as possible under the radical difference that only the new employees contribute to their old-age and invalidity insurance by compulsory insurance in the national institution.

All workmen permanently employed in the six institutions of the tobacco-manufacturing monopoly, whether day workers, pieceworkers, master mechanics, artisans, supervisors, or clerks, are included.

The law provided for both superannuation and invalidity benefits. The old employees are entitled to a pension from the administration, and the new employees must have their pensions liquidated by the old-age insurance institution under one of the following three conditions:

(1) When they reach the age of 60 (55 years for female employees); (2) When they are disabled for further employment after 25 years of service; or

(3) When they are disabled through injury or disease contracted because of their employment, provided they renounce their right to compensation under the accident-insurance law.

Lump-sum invalidity benefits are paid if the old employee has become disabled (not through the causes mentioned in the preceding paragraph) before he has acquired the right to a pension but after

10 years of service. Under identical conditions the new employees may demand the liquidation of their accounts in the old-age insurance institution either in the form of pensions or lump-sum payments.

When an old employee is forced to give up the service on account of disability (invalidity), a right to the regular superannuation or invalidity pension is acquired; but after 10 years of service he receives a lump-sum benefit computed on the basis of the average daily wages for the preceding five years, which is multiplied by 300 when the length of the service is less than 15 years, by 450 when it is 15 years but less than 20 years, and by 600 when it is 20 years but less than 25 years.

In case of new employees the national insurance institution must liquidate the pension either as a pension or as a lump sum, at the option of the insured. If the amount is below that named above the administration of the tobacco monopoly adds the necessary difference to bring it up to that.

The superannuation or invalidity pension of the old employee who has been in service 25 years is equal to the average daily wages for the preceding 10 years (excluding the two years of lowest wages) multiplied by 150. This gives approximately half his annual salary. For each year over 25 years up to and including the 45th year of service 3 units are added to the multiplier, so that by the end of 45 years the multiplier would be equal to 210 and the pension to of the annual wages. For each year of service over 45 six units are added, so that the full pension, equal to annual wages, would be reached after 60 years of service. In no case shall the pension be less than 300 lire ($57.90) for female employees and 480 lire ($92.64) for male employees.

The new employees receive their pensions from the National Old-Age and Invalidity Insurance Institution, computed according to the general rules. Their insurance may be either on the mutual (alienated-capital) plan or the reserved-capital plan (see. p. 1878), as explained later. If the pension computed by the national institution falls below the minima mentioned in the preceding paragraph, and the insurance has been taken on the mutual plan, then it is raised to the minimum, and the administration of the tobacco industry pays to the national old-age institution the difference necessary to bring the computed pension up to the minimum. When the insurance has been taken on the reserved-capital plan, then the payment is such as would be necessary to bring the pension up to the minimum, if the insurance had been taken out on the mutual (alienated capital) plan. That is to say, the minimum quoted is guaranteed to the employee only as a pension or annuity. But if the employee prefers to reduce the amount of his annuity by insuring on a reserved-capital plan, that circumstance shall not entitle him to any extra benefit.

In computing the length of service, all periods of service are added together, including the time of absence on account of sickness or military service. Credit is given for the time spent in service in the private tobacco works in Sicily.

The entire cost of the pensions of the old employees is met by the Government as a part of its appropriation for the tobacco works. The new employees are required to pay for their insurance, the following amounts being deducted from their wages: One lira (19 cents) per month for the female employees, who are in the vast majority, and 2 lire (39 cents) per month from the wages of the male employees. In addition, a monthly contribution is granted by the administration, enough to make, when added to the members' contribution and the subsidy of the insurance institution, a total of 34 lire ($6.56) for the females and 58 lire ($11.19) for the males. In other words, the total annual subsidy of the State and of the insurance institution amounts to 22 lire ($4.25) for the female employees and 34 lire ($6.56) for the male employees.

Each employee must decide under which of the two plans (reserved or alienated capital) he wishes to be insured. Within one year from the promulgation of the law the change from the alienated capital to reserved plan was permitted.

All superannuation and invalidity pensions paid according to previous regulations are transformed into pensions according to this law, but on the basis of the wages and length of service established at the time when the benefits were granted.

On March 31, 1903, at the time when the text of the law was being prepared, there were 16,184 names of workers on the rolls of this tobacco monopoly; of these, 2,371 were pensioners and 13,813 active employees and only 1,388, or about 10 per cent of the active employees were males. Only 3,170, or less than one-fourth, of these entered the service since September 30, 1899, and were subject to the new provisions for compulsory insurance, while 10,643, or over three-fourths, were entitled to gratuitous pensions. An estimate of the capitalized value of the pensions already running or to be granted to these 10,643 employees placed this value at nearly 25,000,000 lire ($4,825,000).

SALT WORKS.

By the law of July 9, 1905, the provisions of the law granting pensions to the employees in the tobacco industry were extended, practically without any modifications, to the employees of the government salt works, (") both to those who were employed on or before September 30, 1899, and to those who entered the service since that time. These works employ about 2,000 persons.

a Bollettino dell' Ufficio del Lavoro, Vol. IV, 1905.

OFFICE OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

A special law granting pensions to the workers of both sexes employed in the government office for engraving and printing securities and valuable papers was approved on July 7, 1905. This law practically repeats the provisions of the law for the tobacco employees, except that the division into old and new employees dates not from September 30, 1899, but from the day of the promulgation of the present law (July 15, 1905).

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.

No governmental institution for the insurance of wage-workers against unemployment exists in Italy, although the problem of unemployment insurance or rather unemployment relief has been under serious discussion for some time. So far the practical movements of relief have been limited either to cooperative or to humanitarian relief. Only within the last year or two has the subject of government aid to unemployment insurance been seriously discussed. No general discussion of the complex problems of unemployment is here intended, but the measures applied and proposed in Italy and the results of their application will be briefly sketched.

For a proper appreciation of the question of unemployment insurance, the few available statistical data concerning unemployment in Italy will be quoted. In view of the importance of trade unions in the development of unemployment insurance, the main data concerning trade unions in Italy will be brought together, and the most interesting experiment in the field of unemployment insurance will be described.

UNEMPLOYMENT STATISTICS.

Data concerning the amount of unemployment in Italy are rather scant. While chambers of labor since 1904 have been required to furnish the Bureau of Labor with data concerning the number of organized workers and also the number of unemployed, the data thus furnished are, as yet, very incomplete.

Perhaps the best statistical study of the unemployed is that published by the Humanitarian Society in 1905 and referring to the status in Milan on July 1, 1903. Of an entire productive population of 165,305, only 27,306, or 16.5 per cent, made any report relative to unemployment. Of these, 6,388, or 23.4 per cent, of the number reporting were without employment on July 1, 1903.

In the following table the number and per cent of these 6,388 unemployed persons are given by age and sex.

AGE AND SEX OF 6,388 PERSONS UNEMPLOYED IN MILAN ON JULY 1, 1903.
[Source: Contro la Disoccupazione. Pubblicazioni della Società Umanitaria, April, 1905.]

The length of the state of unemployment, as indicated in the answers of the unemployed in Milan, is shown in the next table. Altogether 165,305 persons were asked to report in regard to unemployment. Of this number, 137,999 persons, or 83.5 per cent, did not respond at all; 18,720, or 11.3 per cent, reported days of unemployment within the preceding year; and 8,586, or 5.2 per cent, stated that they had never been unemployed. Of the 6,388 persons reported unemployed on July 1, 1903, 878, or nearly 14 per cent, were unemployed continuously from 1 to 4 years and over.

DURATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT OF 6,388 PERSONS UNEMPLOYED IN MILAN ON JULY 1, 1903, BY SEX.

[Source: Contro la Disoccupazione. Pubblicazioni della Società Umanitaria, April, 1905.]

The above data, interesting in themselves, because they throw light upon the composition of the unemployed body, do not give very much information as to the rate of unemployment. In a later report of the same institution an interesting table is given which shows the rate of unemployment for members of labor organizations, which have been for several years furnishing regular monthly reports concerning the extent of unemployment.