900 with 126,000 employees subject to factory inspection had such funds. The usual contribution of the members is 1 per cent of the wages; the employers contribute one-third or one-half of the contributions of the employees. The usual sick benefit is one-half the daily wage; in a few cases it is only one-third; benefits are usually limited to six weeks. The total income of the funds in the province is estimated at about 150,000 rubles ($77,250) with about 50,000 rubles ($25,750) contributed by employers.

In Russia proper the movement, while more recent, has assumed a broader form. During the strikes of 1905 and 1906 financial assistance during sickness was frequently one of the demands presented. These demands were met halfway by many individual employers, and even organizations of employers; and collective agreements to that effect have been concluded. Thus in June, 1906, all the lumbermen of Archangel signed an agreement to grant to their employees sick benefits amounting to one-half the wages for a period not exceeding one month, provided the sickness is certified to by the employer's physician. Similar agreements were made in 1905 by the printing shops, the lumber mills, millers, and other branches of industry of Samara. In Orenburg 44 manufacturers signed an agreement not to deduct the wages in cases of absence of the employee for one day on account of his sickness, or that of his wife, children, or parents; to give medical aid, but without pay, during two weeks to the worker who has been employed not less than three months; after seven years of employment, to give him medical aid and subsistence for one month; after two years of employment, for five months. Similar agreements were made in the Province of Baku, the great oil region, in December, 1904, February, 1905, and June, 1906. The first embraced the oil refineries, chemical factories, machine shops, electric stations and similar establishments; the second included the printing industry; the third the shipbuilding and beer brewing industries. The factory inspectors, in 1907, reported that some form of sick benefits was paid in 1,982 establishments, or about one-eighth of all subject to factory inspection; but these establishments gave employment to 586,480 persons, or one-third of all employees in manufacturing industry. The proportion rises to 42.3 per cent in the central industrial region; 43.9 per cent in the Polish provinces; 52.5 per cent in the Caucasus, and 60.3 per cent in the northwestern region, while it falls to 32.2 per cent in the northwest; 31.1 per cent in the north; 29.6 per cent in the central black soil region; 26.4 per cent in the Baltic Provinces; 24.5 per cent in the south, and 15.5 per cent in the east.

Half the daily earnings is the most frequent amount granted, this being the established rate in 962 out of 1,982 enterprises, or nearly one-half of them; 741, or 37.4 per cent of the establishments, grant

full wages, but such high sick benefits are usually limited in time to 1 month or even to 2 weeks. Occasionally a distinction is made between married and single employees; and in a few instances only married employees are entitled to receive such benefits. In some cases the right to receive benefits is conditioned upon a certain length of employment-from 6 months to 2 years. The limitations as to the time during which benefits are paid are always defined, but the terms vary considerably. In 717 establishments, or 36.2 per cent of all those reported as granting benefits, the limit is from 1 to 3 months; in 515 establishments, or 26.5 per cent, until recovery; in 789 establishments, or 14.6 per cent, during 1 month; and in 269 establishments, or 13.5 per cent, only during 1 or 2 weeks; in 182 establishments, or 9.2 per cent, neither the amount nor the duration of the sick benefits is regulated by any rules, but depend entirely upon the judgment and good will of the management.

An interesting form of sick insurance is represented by maternity benefits, which were granted in 153 establishments; of these, 142 were located in the central industrial region (around Moscow), where employment of women in the textile industry is very common. These benefits are usually paid during 2 to 4 weeks, and occasionally for a longer period. In some establishments leave with half pay or full pay is granted for 2 weeks before and 3 weeks after childbirth.

Similar provisions for sick insurance are found in the private mining industry of European Russia. In the Province of Ekaterinoslav, where the coal and iron mining is concentrated, 104 establishments, with 41,628 employees, grant some sick benefits. Almost all the oil wells of the Baku district grant half pay to sick employees during from 1 to 3 months.

These examples offer sufficient evidence that the conditions of industrial life have forced this form of social insurance before legislative authority was ready to introduce it, and that sick insurance has made very rapid progress during a very short time. In summing up these facts, the official report of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to the Duma says: "Evidently the payment of benefits to sick employees must be regulated immediately, for the purpose of preventing the straining of the relations between the workmen and the employers. The care of the sick wage-workers during illness should not be a matter of private initiative, but must be made a problem for governmental concern and be solved by the introduction of compulsory insurance."

INDUSTRIAL BENEFIT SOCIETIES.-In addition to the establishment funds, a considerable number of industrial benefit societies exist in Russia, i. e., societies consisting of workmen in a certain industry or occupation. While many such societies have been described from time to time, no statistical or any other recent information can be

obtained as to their number or the extent of their activity. The most frequent and important functions of these funds are sick and funeral benefits, though old age or invalid and widows' pensions are often given. Most of the societies described were found in the more progressive western border provinces, such as the Baltic provinces, and Poland, and the large industrial centers-St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa. Thus, in the Baltic provinces 98 artisans' mutual aid societies were found in 1898, and 113 funeral societies. Often these mutual aid societies are found in connection with the artisans' guilds, and represent the beginnings of organized charity rather than a system of insurance. Among the Jewish industrial population of Lithuania and White Russia such funeral and sick aid societies are frequent.

Better regulated benefit societies, with constitutions, sometimes officially approved by the authorities, definite dues and benefits, are most frequent in the printing trade. Such funds exist in Warsaw, Riga, Dorpat, Reval, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kazan, Kiev, Saratov, Samara, Smolensk, Tomsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Ekaterinoslav, Orenburg, Orel, etc. Those in the western cities are the oldest, the society in Warsaw existing since 1814, in Riga since 1816, and in Dorpat since 1819. Of the printers' benefit societies of St. Petersburg, one was organized in 1834 and another in 1866; the Moscow society followed in a few years, 1869, while the last 10 mentioned were organized since 1900. The sick benefits are usually from 3 to 5 rubles ($1.55 to $2.58) per week, free medical advice is provided, and the funeral benefits are from 20 to 60 rubles ($10.30 to $30.90). Oldage pensions are granted to invalids after fifteen or thirty years of membership, the amount of pension varying according to the length of membership, also according to the amount of dues; two or three classes of dues are the rule rather than any percentage of the wages. Such organizations are also met with among the commercial employees. (")

PROPOSALS FOR COMPULSORY SICKNESS INSURANCE.

In 1902 the Russian Society for Development of Industry and Commerce appointed a commission which elaborated a complete legislative plan of compulsory sickness insurance and presented it to the Ministry of Finance. When the special interministerial commission was organized in conformity with the imperial manifesto of December 12 (25), 1904, and the resolution of the committee of ministers of December 24, 1904 (January 6, 1905), the instructions demanded the elaboration of a plan of compulsory sick insurance, the cost of which should be borne by both employer and employee.

a K rabochemu voprosu v Rossii, S. N. Prokopovich, 1905.

The first draft of a sick insurance law was published on March 29 (April 11), 1905, in conjunction with the general plan for workmen's insurance.

PROPOSAL OF 1905.

This proposal for sick insurance embraced the same class of industries and establishments as the law of June 2 (15), 1903.

This insurance was to be effected by establishment sick benefit funds, to be organized in connection with each industrial or mining establishment employing over 50 wage-workers; smaller establishments might be joined together for the purpose of organizing a similar fund, and even establishments of the larger class in the same locality might do so, if both the employers and employees agree. Membership in these funds was to be obligatory for all workers employed either by the establishment or by its subcontractors, and also salaried employees receiving not over 1,500 rubles ($772.50) per annum. Other employees may join the fund voluntarily.

The benefits paid by these funds were to be as follows: (1) Daily sick benefits amounting to from one-half to one-third of the daily wages of the worker, to be paid until perfect recovery or for a definite maximum limit which is to be established for each fund, but must not be less than three months; (2) maternity benefits to workingwomen in case of childbirth, amounting to the earnings of four to six weeks; and (3) funeral benefits, equaling twenty to fifty times the daily wages.

Following the example of the German sickness insurance system, certain obligations toward the employees injured while at work, and covered by the compensation act of June 2 (15), 1903, were to be transferred for a certain time from the employers to the sick bene fit associations. These include funeral expenses, sick allowances, and cost of treatment for six weeks. This transfer seems to be justified by the large burden which the contributions to the sick benefit association place upon the employer.

To meet its obligations the sick benefit association was to collect dues from its membership; the amount of these dues to be not less than 1 per cent nor more than 3 per cent of the actual earnings of the employees. The employer was to contribute to the association an amount equal to the total income from dues.

These dues and contributions, together with other incomes of the associations, such as interest upon money, constitute the "turn-over" or general fund, out of which the obligatory benefits must be paid. In addition, the association must possess a reserve, into which were to be paid the surplus from the annual operations of the association, the fines for delinquent payment of dues by the employer; and the membership might order a definite percentage of the dues of both

The

the employees and the employers to be paid into the reserve. reserve was to be used to keep up the uninterrupted payment of benefits when the operating fund is exhausted.

A third fund was also provided, to be known as the fine fund, into which the fines levied upon the workers must be paid, and this fund was to be used only for additional benefit features, which each association may establish; the following feature being permitted by the proposed law: Medical treatment of members of families of workers belonging to the associations, sick benefits to the members of the family, funeral expenses in case of death of members of the family, maternity benefits to the wives of the workmen, and also various subsidies, other than sick benefits, to the needy workers.

In its main features this legislative proposal follows the provisions of the decree of February 7 (19), 1895, promulgating a standard constitution for the sick benefits of the Polish mining and metallurgical industry. The duty of furnishing medical help was not imposed upon the planned associations, in view of the special law proposed for regulation of the matter of medical assistance entirely at the expense of the employer; and the minimum scale of sick benefits allowed was considerably higher. On the other hand the distinctions between married and single workers was eliminated, and the amount of medical assistance furnished to the family of the worker would bẹ very limited, since only the fine fund would be available for the purpose of such extension of the activity of the associations.

PROPOSAL OF 1906.

The draft of the law adopted about a year later at the insurance conference of April 15 to 21 (April 18 to May 4), 1906, organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, followed the general plan of that of 1905, but introduced several important modifications.

The scope of the bill was made somewhat more comprehensive. It was not limited to those establishments which are covered by the accident law of 1903, but embraced all manufactures, mining and metallurgical industries.

The conditions of membership for the employees were left the same, and also the three classes of benefits, with the same limits of the minimum and maximum benefits, except that a maximum limit of sick benefits was established at 26 weeks. Provision was made for the sick benefit fund assuming the employer's obligation to furnish medical help, for an agreed stipulation, such agreements to be approved by the local factory inspection office. The combination of sick benefits with care of the sick was therefore permitted, though not required. The main sources of income of the fund were to be contributions from the employers and employees as in the previous drafts; but per