be the organ for the opinions of the classes which its members represented, it should gather information and arrive at a clear insight in regard to the best method of developing the system of public accident insurance, so as to be in a position to give advice in the matter of new legislation or the amendment of existing laws. It should also collaborate in an advisory capacity with the State Insurance Institute, giving information in regard to the conditions obtaining among the insured and insurable working classes, which would aid the institute in arriving at truer bases for the fixing of premiums and risk classes. Other advice of similar import should also be furnished by the council to the institute when called for. It was proposed that the expenses of the council should be met by an appropriation of about 1,000 crowns ($268) annually from the interest of the workmen's insurance fund.

STATISTICS OF ACCIDENTS.

By a royal mandate of November 17, 1905, the Royal Bureau of Commerce (Kommerskollegium) was assigned the duty of investigating and publishing statistical data regarding industrial accidents in Sweden. The first report prepared in accordance with this mandate was published in September, 1908, and covers the year 1906. Although general accident statistics had been compiled in Sweden before this date, all previous publications were defective and incomplete and could not satisfactorily fulfill their functions of furnishing exact data for estimating the risk of accidents. The first statistics of accidents were compiled by the workmen's insurance committee in 1885. It covered the year ending August 31, 1885, and gave information concerning 5,869 accidents, based on data secured from employers, municipal police records, etc. Its object was to determine the frequency of accidents within the various trades, in connection with the committee's projected law regarding accident insurance. With the same object in view, to provide data for the projected employers' liability law, the Bureau of Commerce in 1898 gathered statistics of 8,506 accidents occurring during 1897. In both of these cases, however, the data were defective and incomplete owing to the lack of a regular system of reporting accidents.

On October 1, 1894, the Bureau of Commerce, in conjunction with the Central Bureau of Statistics, had submitted to the Government a proposal for the establishment of a thorough system of collecting and elaborating Swedish accident statistics, but no efficient action was taken in the matter until ten years later. Article 12 of the law of July 5, 1901, provides that if an accident happens with such results that the indemnity required by article 4 of the same law becomes payable, the police authorities must be notified, and the latter must in turn forward a report on the case in due form to the royal authori

ties. This provision, however, excludes from the obligation of notification all accidents occurring in occupations not coming within the scope of the law, as well as all accidents in which the injury results in less than sixty days' illness. Accordingly, the Bureau of Commerce, in its report to the Government of December 30, 1904, recommended the extension of the obligation to report accidents to all persons engaged in any industry as well as to accidents resulting in less than sixty days' illness, and furthermore proposed a new form for these reports. In accordance with this suggestion the Government sent in a bill to the Parliament, and on November 17, 1905, the "Law regarding notification of industrial accidents" was promulgated. The provisions of this law are as follows:

ARTICLE 1. If a workman engaged in any of the occupations mentioned in the law of May 10, 1889, regarding protection against industrial danger or the supplement to that law of December 13, 1895, or in the law of July 5, 1901, regarding indemnity for accidents, meets with an accident which may result in death, permanent injury, or material reduction in the capacity for work, if said reduction continues for more than three days after the accident, the employer shall immediately send written notification thereof to the local police authorities on a special form to be determined by the Bureau of Commerce. Said notification shall state

The employer's name;

The nature and locality of the work;

The time of the accident;

The name of the injured person, his age, civil station, residence, the special kind of work at which he was employed, and other conditions of his work;

The particular task at which the injured person was engaged at the time of the accident, and the cause and nature of the latter;

The nature of the injury and its immediate consequences;

Whether a physician was called;

What precautions have been taken to prevent similar accidents in the future;
The accident insurance of the injured person;

Other circumstances which the employer thinks may throw light on the accident.
If a physician has attended at the accident, a medical certificate must accompany
the notification.

ARTS. 2 and 3. The police must see to it that the notification is made out in the required form, and must immediately give a copy of the same to the factory inspector of the district, who, after entering it on his records, must forward it to the Bureau of Commerce.

ART. 4. An additional report is to be sent in if the injured person recovers completely from the effects of the accident, and also if said effects last for more than sixty days, or if death results. In the latter two cases a medical certificate must be furnished stating the nature of the effects remaining from the injury, or, in case of death, the cause of death.

ART. 6. A penalty of 5 to 200 crowns ($1.34 to $53.60) is provided for failure to comply with the provisions of this law.

Unfortunately, even the above law does not cover all trades and industries, since the laws of 1889 and 1901 exclude several occupations in which the frequency of accident is very considerable. To this extent, therefore, even the latest statistics are necessarily defective.

During the year 1906, 14,950 industrial accidents were reported in Sweden, involving 15,041 injured persons. Those cases in which complete data were obtained were distributed among the various industries as follows:

INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS REPORTED AND ACCIDENT RATES, BY INDUSTRIES AND

SEX, 1906.

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik. Not including 3,381 accidents for which complete data were not reported.]

The number of "year workers" is obtained, as previously mentioned, by dividing the total number of days' work performed by 300, the number of working days in the year.

Of the 15,041 persons injured, the number and per cent of each sex injured is shown in the following table, by age groups and by conjugal

condition:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF PERSONS OF EACH SEX INJURED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 1906, BY AGE GROUPS AND CONJUGAL CONDITION.

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik.]

With regard to the causes of accidents, the following table shows the number of accidents and the percentage of the whole number of accidents occurring within each of the four main branches of industry that was due to the causes mentioned:

NUMBER AND PER CENT OF PERSONS INJURED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 1906, BY CAUSES OF INJURY AND INDUSTRY GROUPS.

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik.]

The number of persons injured whose injuries were due to the principal causative agencies was as follows:

NUMBER OF PERSONS INJURED IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 1906, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS AND PRINCIPAL CAUSES.

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik.]

The results of the injuries caused by industrial accidents in 1906 are shown in the following series of tables:

DURATION OF TEMPORARY DISABILITY CAUSED BY INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 1906, BY INDUSTRIES

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik ]

PER CENT OF REDUCTION OF WORKING ABILITY CAUSED BY INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN 1906, BY INDUSTRIES.

[Source: Olycksfall i Arbete, 1906. Utgifven afdelning för Arbetsstatistik.]