Of the profits of investments, etc., one-half must be assigned to the reserve until it reaches 10 per cent of all obligations of the fund; the other half and the entire profits after the reserve has been sufficiently built up are distributed among the members' accounts.

The members have the right to receive a pension at separation from service after 15 years of service. Pensions may be given to employees forced to leave the service on account of total disability due to illness after 5 years' membership. The detailed regulations are determined by the constitutions of the individual funds. If no pension is granted all the sums accrued to the member's credit must be paid out to him. The same is true if a member is forced to leave the service through disability before the expiration of five years. In case of separation without disability before the expiration of 15 years, the member receives only his own contributions, without interest if leaving the service before five years, and with compound interest at 4 per cent if after five years of service. After 10 years of service 25 per cent of all other sums credited to his account must be paid, after 11 years 40 per cent, after 12 years 55 per cent, after 13 years 70 per cent, and after 14 years 85 per cent of all such amounts.

In case of death of an employee after five years of employment the widow receives a pension until death or remarriage, etc., the amount depending on the accumulations to the credit of her husband. If an employee dies before the end of five years of service the widow receives in one payment the sums credited to their accounts. Pensions must also be given to the children in case of death of the member after five years of service, to be paid until 18 years of age or marriage, and may be extended until the completion of secondary education, but not later than the age of 21. The same conditions as exist in the State Railway Employees' Pension Fund, modifying the pension, are made in case the children receive a scholarship from some other

source.

A demand for the payment of the capitalized value of the pension may be made by the employee when the pension does not exceed one-fourth of his average salary for the entire period of service, and by the widow when it does not exceed one-sixth of the average salary. In all pensions to employees and widows, but not to children, the capitalized value of one-fourth may be requested by the pensioner. The administration of the pension is left to the zemstvos and its administrative council (the uprava), while members of the fund may be invited into the special committee in charge of the fund.

These are the general requirements which the law demands from the pension funds. The individual funds may vary within the prescribed limits, but each individual constitution requires the approval of the Ministry of Interior. To expedite matters a standard constitution has been prepared by the ministry, by accepting which the

time necessary to obtain the approval is materially shortened; while the introduction of material changes in the model constitution has in some cases led to considerable delay.

The constitutions of the pension funds organized since 1900 are fairly uniform; the deviations from the normal constitution are not many, though some are important. The sources of revenue are uniform, though a few pension funds started with the transfer of large accumulations, made for old-age pensions, while others had no capital to begin with. The contributions from the members are usually as stated above, though one fund demands an initiation fee equal to one and one-half months' salary instead of 6 per cent of the annual salary; while in another fund the zemstvos contributes 8 per cent of the annual salaries instead of 6 per cent. In some funds no salaries are considered as above 2,000 rubles ($1,030) for pension purposes, while others have no such limitations. Uniformly, any per diem expenses or traveling allowances, though paid in regular annual amounts, and also the part of salary designated for renting a home is not included, it being the custom of the zemstvos either to provide their employees with lodgings or to pay a specified sum for renting same.

All funds grant a pension to the employee at the time of leaving the service after at least 15 years; most funds grant a pension to disabled employees leaving the service after at least 5 years, though a few have preferred the payment of a lump sum equal to all accrued rights. The computation of amounts paid at time of leaving the service after 5 to 15 years for other reasons than disability is uniform and agrees with the plan demanded by the law and explained above. If the employee's wife is living at the time of his leaving the service without a pension, he is also entitled to certain payments on her account, as follows: If the employee leaves before the expiration of 5 years of service because of total disability, or before 15 years of service because his position is abolished, or if he leaves it for any reason at the age of over 60 years, then he is entitled to receive the entire amount credited to his wife's account.

If he leaves for any other reason he receives only his voluntary contributions to the credit of his wife, and in addition after 5 but less than 10 years of service, 10 per cent of all other amounts credited to his wife; after 10 years of service, 25 per cent; after 11 years, 40 per cent; after 12 years, 55 per cent; after 13 years, 70 per cent, and after 14 years of service, 85 per cent of all other amounts credited to his wife's account.

Almost no variations are found in the regulations concerning the children's pensions. These are not based upon the accumulations of individual credits, like the pensions or other benefits of the employ

ees or widows. For that reason a special fund is provided for children's pensions.

The conditions of these pensions are specified in the general law, and have been stated before. The amount of the pension is computed as follows: Each child of a deceased employee having one parent living receives for each year of the present service one-half of 1 per cent of the latest salary which the deceased parent received for a full year. An orphan receives 50 per cent more than the half-orphan. The maximum sum of pensions to all the half-orphans left by an employee must not exceed 50 per cent of his salary. The pension for orphans must not exceed 75 per cent of the salary nor be less than 20 per cent. Pensions for death of the mother are not paid unless the father is completely disabled from earning a livelihood and is not receiving any subsidies from the fund. If both parents were employed in the same zemstvo, and the father dies, the children receive their pensions if the mother continues in service; when both parents die they receive the greater of the two pensions to which they are entitled.

The financial arrangements are also similar to those of the State Railway Employees' Pension Fund. Each member has a personal account to which all his obligatory contributions are credited. Voluntary contributions are assigned according to the wishes of the member, if consistent with the rules. Among these individual accounts are also distributed the remaining part of the monthly contribution of the zemstvo after the other obligations have been met, the profits and income from investment, or that part of it which does not go into the reserve (in which distribution the wives' accounts sometimes share equally with the members' accounts), and all other revenues not specially provided for.

Individual accounts are also kept for the wives of the married members. The credits of these accounts are taken from the obligatory zemstvo contributions after deducting the necessary amount for the children's fund and for covering any existing deficits for which the reserve is insufficient. Within each year not more than two-thirds of the obligatory monthly contributions of the members may be credited to their wives' accounts. The profit or income from investments, or at least that part which does not go into the reserve, is distributed among the wives' accounts, as well as among the accounts of members.

A special orphans' fund is established to guarantee the pensions to children. This must always be kept at the level corresponding with the amount of the orphans' fund obligations at the time, as computed from statistical data of mortality, etc. The income from fines is turned over to this fund, also accidental revenues, bequests, etc., without designation of purpose. The fund is kept at the

required level by adding to it the necessary amount from the monthly contributions of the zemstvos.

In addition there is a reserve fund. One-half of the profits and income from investments goes into the reserve. When pensions or parts of pensions are capitalized, 5 per cent of the sum paid to the pensioner is turned into the reserve, also unclaimed amounts due, and a few minor revenues, until the reserve amounts to 10 per cent of all the obligations of the pension fund. When this limit is reached, all these sources of income are distributed among the individual accounts of the members and their wives proportionally to the amounts credited to these accounts from the regular monthly contributions of the zemstvos. In some funds this distribution is made proportionally to the total amounts of these individual credits. A variation found is in distributing all extra sums so as to favor the employees receiving smaller salaries. This is accomplished in various ways. One is to divide the sum to be distributed into two unequal portions, then to distribute the larger portion among all members' accounts and the smaller portion only among those members receiving not more than a specified salary. Another method is to divide the employees into two or three classes and to give to the employees receiving smaller salaries a greater share per amount of salary than to the higher employees.

As in the railway funds, the rate of interest to the accumulations during the year depends upon the age, varying from 4.52 per cent at the age of 17 years to 8.85 per cent at the age of 70.

In determining the length of service, normally the years of continuous service in the particular zemstvo, with participation in the fund, are counted. At the time of opening the fund the years of previous service were taken into consideration. If the employee leaves the service before he is entitled to a pension, receiving a lump sum, and then reenters service, the years of his previous service will be counted if he reimburse the fund for the payments he and his wife had received. Otherwise he is considered a new employee. If the employee at the time of reinstatement receives a pension, and his new salary is greater than the pension, the payment of the pension is stopped, but its capitalized value at his age at the time is credited to his account. If his new salary is smaller than his pension, he is permitted to receive the pension. It is a rule of almost all funds that persons transferred from service in one zemstvo to that of another zemstvo may transfer their membership and all credits in the funds, including a credit for the years of service in the former.

The procedure prescribed by the standard constitution has been adopted by ali new funds. It provides for thorough medical examinations whenever the pension for disability is claimed, and medical reexamination once a year.

In other cases documentary evidence as to age, length of service, etc., is sufficient. The adjustment of claims must be made within two weeks. Pensions must be paid in monthly installments. Lumpsum payments to widows are paid out at one time; to members only one-half of the lump sum due is paid at the time, the other half in six months, unless the member dies within that time, in which case the second half reverts to the reserve. Applications for capitalized value of pensions must be made within two weeks after the determination of the pension and before the first pension is paid. The administration may decline the application if made after two weeks; while applications made after receiving the first pension payment are not considered. Persons making no application for pension within two years, or taking no advantage of the pension granted, lose their right to claim the pension for the time expired. After 10 years they lose all their rights, and the value of the pensions or benefits is transferred to the reserve. The statistical basis upon which all computations are made must be revised every five years, but if any changes are found necessary the pensions granted, or the individual credits, must not be diminished in consequence.

The administration of the fund differs considerably from that of the railway pension fund in that the membership scarcely participates in it. The executive board of the provincial zemstvo (Gubern skaya Zemskaya Uprava) and a special committee, with the chairman of this board as chairman and chairmen of the boards of the district zemstvo as members, administers the affairs of the fund. The general supervision over the activity of these executive organs is left to the provincial zemstvo. which may add some members of the fund to the committee; and which must approve the budget for the expenses of administration. The main supervision over all funds is in the hands of the insurance committee of the Ministry of Interior.

Detailed annual reports, together with all required statistical information in regard to the membership, must be presented by the executive board to the zemstvo and, after being approved by the latter, are forwarded to the Ministry of Interior.

PRIVATE PENSION FUNDS.

The old-age pension funds described above, except those of private railroads, embrace only government institutions. The activity of the Government in regard to the broad field of old-age and invalidity insurance of private employees is as yet limited to plans and legislative proposals. Private initiative has done but little in the way of pensions for the wage-workers of the country. Among the salaried employees the pension fund principle is popular; applications of it are found among the employees of the zemstvos as described above,