UNEMPLOYMENT SOCIETIES.

In the years 1902 and 1903 there were presented to the Norwegian Storting two bills providing that the State should grant aid to workmen's unemployment societies. The Storting rejected the bills on the ground that they lacked technical clearness, and instead gave a grant for the appointment of a departmental committee for the consideration of the question whether measures should be taken to advance the establishment and work of private or communal unemployment societies, and, if so, what measures. On December 30, 1905, after six months' work, this committee made its report containing a plan for state and communal grants to Norwegian unemployment societies, together with a memorial in which the various phases of unemployment and insurance against it in Norway and other lands are carefully considered.

The bill submitted by the departmental committee was altered by the Government in one point only. It was decided that only onefourth instead of one-third of the expenditures of the unemployment societies should be repaid them by the State and commune. In the Storting some additions were made. A provision was added to the effect that the societies should derive at least one-half their income from dues. It was also provided that the societies should receive reimbursement only for aid to members who are citizens of Norway or have resided in Norway for at least five years, and that the State should receive reimbursement from the commune for members who have resided in the commune for half a year. The law received the royal sanction on June 12, 1906.

The main provisions of the law are as follows:

PROVISIONS OF THE LAW OF JUNE 12, 1906.

REFUNDMENT.-All Norwegian societies of unemployment which fulfill the conditions prescribed by the present law may, on petition, be granted recognition as entitled to have refunded from the state treasury one-fourth of the amount of money with which they aid their insured members resident in the country, if they are Norwegian citizens or have been residents of the country for the last five years. Such refundment is made quarterly by that government department to which the administration of the law is intrusted by the King.

CONDITIONS OF OBTAINING RECOGNITION.-To be able to obtain recognition as entitled to refundment, the unemployment society in question must derive at least one-half of its income from the dues of its members. Its by-laws must also contain provisions to the following effect:

1. That a member has no right to aid unless he has been a member of the society for at least the last half year and has paid his dues for at least twenty-six weeks since last becoming a member;

2. That local aid is not given before the unemployment has existed for a certain length of time, which must not be made less than three days;

3. That as local aid there is not given more than a certain amount, which shall not be more than half of what is to be regarded as the average daily wages in the occupation of the member in question;

4. That aid is not given for more than ninety days in the course of twelve months, if the society's by-laws are based on the administrative year, or in the course of one calendar year;

5. That members of the society are obliged, in case of unemployment, to accept the work which the directors of the society regards as suitable for them;

6. That if the ordinary dues prove insufficient, extra dues may be assessed and, if it becomes necessary, a reduction may be made in the amount of the aid provided for in the by-laws;

7. That no aid is given to a member who belongs to another unemployment society or to a member who is receiving aid from a sickness society.

8. That no local aid or traveling or moving aid is given to any but persons who are undeservedly out of work, but are capable of work. Undeserved unemployment does not include unemployment in connection with strikes or lockouts.

Existing societies may receive temporary recognition even if their by-laws do not in every respect conform to the above requirements, but only for the period which, according to the societies' by-laws, must elapse before the alteration can be made.

An application for recognition is sent to the department concerned, accompanied by a copy of the society's by-laws. If the department finds that these satisfy the above conditions, and are not in other respects out of accord with the present law, the petition may be granted. Later alterations in the society's by-laws may not be made. without the department's consent.

SOURCE OF PUBLIC GRANTS.-Two-thirds of the amount which the State thus pays out is to be assessed once a year by the department concerned against the country and city communes in which the persons who have received unemployment support have last resided for six consecutive months within the last five years, reckoned from the first day for which support is granted. The obligation of refundment does not, however, devolve upon the commune for workmen or employees regularly employed in the public construction of roads, railroads, etc., who have resided in the commune merely on account of such work.

The State bears the entire expense: (a) If the residence which is made the condition of the obligation of refundment can not be proved to exist; (b) if the person aided has not during the past five years

resided for six consecutive months in any one Norwegian commune; (c) if the commune where the person aided has last resided for six consecutive months is, according to the second provision of the preceding paragraph, freed from the obligation.

The question whether the obligation of refundment devolves upon any commune, and if so, on which commune, is decided by the department concerned.

RELATION TO TRADE-UNION.-Every unemployment society entitled to refundment shall keep special accounts. Its funds shall be kept separate from other funds, including all other funds of the union if the unemployment society is connected with a union, and must be used only in payment of the society's own obligations. If it is connected with a union its funds may not be made the object of arrest, execution, or distraint by the creditors of the union, nor can a debt owed by anyone who is insured in such a society be collected by attachment of any sums due him from the society.

Every unemployment society connected with a union must, to obtain refundment, give persons having the same occupation as members of the society access to insurance on the same terms as these, even if they are not members of the union. But such insured persons do not obtain a right to take part in decisions concerning the by-laws of the society or in its management, unless the society passes a resolution to this effect. Moreover, the society, if its administration is carried on by the union in question, may impose upon such insured persons a 10 per cent increase of the ordinary membership dues to cover administration expenses; and if this proves insufficient, it may, with the department's approval, further increase them up to at most 15 per cent.

APPEALS, REPORTS, AND INSPECTION.-If anyone who is, or has demanded to be, insured in one of the unemployment societies treated of in this law thinks that a decision made by the managers of the society in his case is illegal, he may appeal it to the department concerned.

An unemployment society, the petition of which for the right of refundment has been granted, must not give aid to any unemployed person who resides in a commune for which there exists a public employment office until the person in question has been in vain reported at this office as seeking work. If this is omitted, the unemployment society loses its right to have any of the aid thus given. refunded. As soon as the unemployed person again gets work, this fact also is reported to the office by the unemployment society.

The unemployment societies which receive refundment under the present law shall, at the end of each quarter, send in to the department concerned statements of the unemployment aid given during the quarter, accompanied by the vouchers and the information

specified by the department. As soon as the statements are found to be correct the refundment provided for takes place.

Once a year the unemployment society in question sends in to the department a report of its activity and a balance sheet of its accounts. The unemployment societies treated of in this law shall send in each month to the communal authorities in the communes where unemployment aid is given reports concerning it, according to a plan furnished by the department.

As soon as possible after examining these reports the communal authorities are to turn them over to the department concerned, together with the remarks to which the reports give rise. Those of the society's payments in connection with which no remarks are made are regarded as approved by the communal authorities, if the obligation of refundment under this law devolves upon the commune which has to control the reports.

The communal authorities may themselves, or through an appointed board of inspectors consisting of one or several persons, examine the reports more carefully and may decide that they shall be sent directly to the board of inspectors. If a special board of inspectors is appointed for this purpose the appointment holds for three years, and anyone may refuse to accept reelection during a period equal to the time which he has served. The communal authorities or the board of inspection appointed by them must, among other things, see to it that the by-laws of the unemployment societies, in so far as they refer to the granting of aid only to persons undeservedly out of work, but capable of work, and not out of work on account of strikes or lockouts, are severely enforced, and they may, to the extent necessary, examine the books and accounts of the unemployment societies and demand from their directors the information which is needed. The board of inspection carries on its work in accordance with the rules laid down by the communal authorities with the approval of the department. In case of disagreement between the communal authorities or the board of inspection and an unemployment society concerning the legality of aid paid out, the case is submitted to the department for decision.

The quarterly statements mentioned above must be sent in to the department within six weeks after the end of the quarter and the monthly reports must be sent to the communal authorities within fourteen days after the end of the month; otherwise the right to refundment is lost.

WITHDRAWAL OF RIGHT TO REFUNDMENT. The right to receive refundment may be withdrawn from an unemployment society, or a section of such society, if its directors repeatedly violate the society's by-laws in important respects or if palpably defective reports are repeatedly sent in.

This law goes into effect October 1, 1906, and ceases to be in effect at the close of 1911 at the latest.

APPLICATION OF THE LAW.

In view of the fact that the labor unions had expressed general approval of the bill, it had been expected that after the passage of the law the existing unemployment societies would hasten to avail themselves of its advantages, and, as a matter of fact, the Norwegian Bookbinders' Association and Norwegian Bakers' Association did petition for recognition, and the most important of the other national associations were on the point of so doing; but, acting under the advice of the Social Democratic Party, they withdrew their petitions and the other associations postponed action until a social democratic project for the abrogation of paragraph 6 should have been acted upon by the Storting. This project was rejected by the Storting, which, however, by the amending law of July 25, 1908, increased the amount of the public grants from one-fourth to onethird of the amounts paid out in aid by the societies; that is, the public grant amounts to one-half of the amount contributed by the societies themselves.

Meantime the law had already afforded the impulse for a strong movement among commercial employees toward the formation of a national unemployment society for store, warehouse, and office employees, and, as a preliminary step office employees had established an unemployment society of their own, which had obtained recognition under the new law.

After the above-mentioned action of the Storting, the unions no longer held back, but took measures to get state recognition. The three largest associations-that of the metallurgists, with 7,809 members; the workers in wood, with 2,212 members, and the printers, with 1,731 members-were to be entitled to the grants November 1, 1908; and before the end of the year 1908 other applications had been received. It was then estimated that in two years 50,000 workmen and 5,000 commercial employees would be enjoying the benefits of the law.

In this connection the following statistics are interesting:(") The membership of the national associations having unemployment societies in May, 1908, is as follows:

p. 83.

a From Die Arbeiter-Versicherung im Auslande, Dr. Zacher, Heft IIIb, 1908,