ACCIDENT INSURANCE.

The whole system of legislation in force in Sweden to-day in regard to accidents to workmen and insurance against accidents is based upon the principle of individual responsibility of the employer for the compensation payable. This principle may be traced back to the extension of the older principle of employers' liability. By the law of April 7, 1830, amended and supplemented by that of January 25, 1842, if any soldier or sailor belonging to a body of troops which was being farmed out to work for a private person or company by what was known as "work assignment" (arbetskommendering) should be accidentally injured so as to incapacitate him for military service while performing such work, the person or company so employing him was bound to indemnify him by a life pension, corresponding in amount to the extent of the injury sustained. The amount of this pension was fixed by the law of 1842 at from 12 to 40 riksdaler or 24 to 80 crowns ($6.43 to $21.44) per annum. If the soldier was killed, a pension of 12 riksdaler ($6.43) had to be paid to his widow as long as she remained unmarried, and an annuity of 8 riksdaler ($4.29) to each of his children until its fifteenth year.

On March 12, 1886, the law regarding accidents to railroad employees was passed. This law provides that if such an employee is injured or killed while performing his work, the employing company is bound to indemnify him unless the injury was caused by another employee, or by a violation of the company's rules, or by gross negligence on the part of the injured person himself. If, however, the injured person was insured at the expense of the employer, the latter was exempt from liability. The amount of the indemnity was to be determined by the courts.

It will be noticed, however, that the legislation outlined above was fragmentary, providing only for special cases. It was not until the workmen's insurance committee of 1884 took up the matter that a general law was passed definitely fixing the obligation of employers to take the necessary precautions for the safety of their employees. This was the law of May 10, 1889, regarding "Protection against industrial dangers." Article 1 of the law defined its application to "industrial occupations, such as sawmills and lumber yards, excavation and similar work not coming under the head of mining (for which separate provision had been made by the law of 1884), establishments for the manufacturing or refining of mineral products, factories, shipyards, dairies, breweries, mills, establishments where mechanical trades were conducted on such a scale or under such conditions that they were to be regarded as factories, printing shops, distilleries, or other establishments that were conducted under factory conditions."

By article 2, section 1, "Every person who plies one of the industrial trades coming within the application of this law, is obliged to take all the precautions in regard to workrooms, machinery, and apparatus, which, taking into consideration the nature of the work, are necessary for the protection of the life and health of the workmen employed by him."

Section 2 enumerates the specific precautions to be taken, which are briefly as follows:

(a) Railings are required on all stairs, hatchways, and similar places where a person is liable to fall down.

(b) All elevators and hoisting apparatus must have labels indicating their capacity in weight and number of persons.

(c) Vats, basins, or other vessels which are dangerous on account of depth or contents, must be provided with guard rails.

(d) Precautions must be taken for saving the lives of the workmen in case of fire, such as fire escapes or fireproof stairways. The latter, however, need be installed in existing buildings only to such extent as can be done within reasonable cost.

(e, f, g) All engines, moving machinery, shafts, and belts must be provided with guards.

(h) Signals must be given before any machinery is started from a central power supply.

(i) Rapidly moving machinery must, as far as possible, be provided with means for quickly stopping it independently of the motors. (k) Precautions must be taken in cleaning or oiling machinery while in motion.

Section 3 requires that sufficient ventilation, light, and heat must be provided in workshops, including precautions against injurious

gases.

Section 4 requires that notices must be posted in all factories where necessary, instructing the workmen how to avoid accidents. Penalties are provided for infractions of the above requirements.

The law further provides for the appointment of a number of factory inspectors. These must be experts in the subject, and must make regular inspections of all the factories in their respective districts. They must see to it that the law is complied with to such an extent as can be reasonably demanded with regard to expense, and must furnish the owners of factories with advice, information, and suggestions as to the best methods of applying the legal precautions. Owners are to be proceeded against criminally only in case they refuse to comply with the reasonable demands of the inspectors.

The workmen's insurance committee of 1884 also laid before the Government a project of law for insurance against industrial accidents. In agreement with its report the Government prepared a bill which it presented to the Parliament on March 12, 1890. The princi

pal provision of this bill was that workmen employed in certain industrial occupations should, at the expense of their employers, be insured against industrial accidents in a state insurance institute, and this insurance was to be compulsory. Persons employed in other occupations should also have the privilege of becoming voluntarily insured in the state institute. This bill was rejected by the Parliament, as was also a similar bill presented in the following year which differed but slightly from the preceding. The main point of difference between the views of the Government and of the Parliament was that the former were based upon the principle of compulsory insurance, the latter on that of employers' liability, and, as we shall see, the point of view of the Parliament prevailed.

After the failure of the attempts at legislation for old-age and invalidity insurance, made during the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Government again took up the question of accident insurance in the year 1900. In that year a project was submitted to the Parliament based upon the principle of employers' liability, the principle of compulsory insurance having been abandoned in view of the opposition of the Parliament. The principal provision of the bill was that the employer could avoid liability by insuring his workmen in some insurance company to be approved for this purpose by the Government. In this provision the bill took the Danish law as a model. Another provision was that the judgment of the court of first instance should be final in regard to the indemnity, the object being to discourage unreasonable contests of claims on the part of employers. The bill was, however, rejected by the Upper House, although the Lower House accepted it with certain modifications, chief among which was that a state insurance institute was to be provided for the voluntary insurance.

The following year the Government laid a new bill before the Parliament, in which the modifications desired by the latter had been embodied. This bill was passed by a large majority, and was promulgated on July 5, 1901, as the "Law regarding indemnity for injury caused by industrial accidents."

The following are the principal provisions of this law:

PROVISIONS OF THE LAW OF JULY 5, 1901.

EXTENT OF THE APPLICATION OF THE LAW.

If a workman or foreman employed in one of the occupations enumerated below is injured in an accident while at work, such an accident causing either death or disability lasting over 60 days, the employer is obliged to indemnify him in the manner hereafter described.

Such indemnity, however, shall not be due in any case for injury which the injured person intentionally or by gross carelessness brings upon himself, or for injury caused by a third person who was not in charge of or exercised supervision of the work.

The occupations in which the employer is liable are:

1. Forestry, sawmill, or lumber-yard activities;

2. Harvesting of ice or peat;

3. Mining, stone or lime quarrying, or other occupations affecting the utilization or refining of mineral products, and which do not come under the category of mechanics' trades;

4. Factory work;

5. Shipbuilding, distilling, brewing, baking, slaughtering, dairying, or milling, which are conducted in such a manner or on such a scale that they are to be regarded as factory activities;

6. Printing;

7. Manufacturing of explosives;

8. Chimney cleaning;

9. Floating of wood;

10. Loading or unloading of goods;

11. Railroad or street railway traffic;

12. Building activities, including the building of roads and waterworks;

13. Blasting, tunnelling, masonry work, timbering or roof thatching;

14. Erection of electrical conduits, or of gas, water, or sewer conduits;

15. Activities applied toward the production, transmission, or distribution of electricity, as well as the distribution of gas or water.

If the State or a commune exercises in an industrial manner any of the occupations mentioned above, the State or the commune shall be liable for injury resulting from accidents due to the exercise of such activity.

NATURE AND AMOUNT OF INDEMNITY.

(1) TEMPORARY DISABILITY.—If the accident causes material reduction in the injured person's capacity for work for more than sixty days after the accident, an indemnity of one crown (26.8 cents) is paid as sick relief for each day, from the sixty-first day until the injured person recovers, or until there is apparent a permanent loss or reduction of capacity for work, or until death ensues.

(2) PERMANENT DISABILITY.-If the accident results in permanent loss or reduction of working ability, a life annuity is paid, in the former case of 300 crowns ($80.40), and in the latter case of a smaller amount corresponding to the degree of reduction of working ability, said annuity to be reckoned from the sixty-first day after the accident,

or from such later time when the permanent loss or reduction of working ability is established; the annuity, however, shall not be payable if the reduction of working ability amounts to less than ten per cent, to be determined as described below.

(3) DEATH. If the accident results in death within two years the following payments are made:

(a) Funeral help amounting to sixty crowns ($16.08);

(b) To the widow, if married to the injured person before the accident, a life annuity of 120 crowns ($32.16) from the date of the death of the injured as long as the widow lives unmarried, and to each child born before the accident, or after the accident in wedlock contracted before, an annuity of 60 crowns ($16.08) from the date of death until the child reaches the age of 15 years, provided, that if the annuities thus accruing to the survivors of the injured person should exceed a total of 300 crowns ($80.40), the annuity to each one shall be reduced in proportion so long as may be necessary to keep the total within the maximum of 300 crowns ($80.40).

DEGREES OF INVALIDITY.

The law gives certain rules for estimating the degree of reduction of working ability, which is expressed in percentages according to the nature and extent of the injury, the nature of the injured person's regular occupation, his physical condition before the accident, age, sex, etc.

EXEMPTION OF EMPLOYER FROM LIABILITY.

If the injured person is insured at the employer's expense, the benefits paid under such insurance shall be deducted from the amount to which the employer is liable under this law. The law also provides that the injured person shall not be barred from making a claim for indemnity in accordance with the common law, but that the employer may deduct from any indemnity thus awarded the amounts to which he is liable under this law.

The law provides for the establishment by the State of a State Insurance Institute for the purpose of assuming, in the manner described below, the employer's liability for the indemnity.

Employers shall have the right to insure their employees against accidents coming under this law in the State Insurance Institute with the effect that so long as such insurance is in force the employer shall be free from liability under the law.

If an employer becomes liable, as a result of an accident, for an annuity in accordance with this law, he may free himself from such liability by the purchase of the required annuity from the State Insurance Institute.