ical welfare of the nation. The general level of vitality, and hence the working capacity, is being distinctly raised as a result of it." 1 The author first cited elsewhere pronounces the industrial efficiency in Germany as distinctly superior to that in either of its great commercial rivals, Great Britain and the United States. Further proof of the beneficence of the German workmen's insurance is furnished in the fact that it to-day commands the almost universal acquiescence of workmen. There are criticisms, but they look for amendment, enlargement, and improvement, not repeal. It should always be somewhat conclusive evidence of the soundness of a proposition, not that it retains the approval of its friends, but that it gradually compels the assent of its opponents. It would be short-sighted in the extreme for workmen to oppose a plan for the general insurance of wage-earners against accidents, sickness, invalidity, old age, and death, a plan whose virtue has been demonstrated on a colossal scale for a period of twenty years; a plan, too, which must infallibly reveal defects in present rates of wages so far as they have overlooked the contingencies which such insurance covers. 1 F. A. Vanderlip, in North American Review, clxxxi, 925. IV WORKMEN'S INSURANCE IN GERMANY THE legislation of the German Empire upon the subject of compulsory insurance for workmen was a series of events of profound social significance. Accustomed as we are to note in history the extremely slow progress of social reforms in legislative enactment, the varying insistence of public demand, the painful evolution of law through experiment and failure, we must deem this achievement of the German people as without parallel. Within a period of six years a code, revolutionary in its nature, intimately affecting the welfare of the laboring people of the nation, was perfected in its general plan, minutely elaborated in its details, and placed upon the statute books, apparently as a permanent institution. To this swift but orderly procedure several causes distinctly contributed: There was the hereditary solicitude of the royal house for the working classes, dating at least from the declaration of Frederick the Great, that to hold the balance between classes was the supreme duty of the state; there was the 7 1 teaching of Huss and of Luther as to the obligations of the Christian state towards its members; the later discussions of German philosophers like Fichte and Hegel; still later the more definite doctrines and demands of the socialists; there had been for centuries, in some parts of Germany, an experience in the matter of insurance for those engaged in dangerous employments; there had been for thirty years some familiarity with the idea of state compulsion; there was especially the imperious will and the sagacious statesmanship of Bismarck. The attempts upon the life of the Emperor and the aggressive attitude of the radical socialists hastened the consummation. As a cure for what seemed to Bismarck a malignant form of socialism, he prescribed inoculation. 2 The imperial purpose was announced in the message of William I to the Reichstag in November, 1881. His recommendations were from time to time repeated by his successors, Frederick III and William II. The plan proclaimed contemplated three branches of inagainst sickness, against accident, and against old age and invalidity. The laws asked for were to aid in fulfilling "the highest obligations of every community based on the surance 1 1 Ludwig Lass, German Workmen's Insurance, pt. 1, p. 12. 'J. G. Brooks, Compulsory Insurance in Germany, p. 34. moral foundations of Christianity"; they were to be "a remedy for social ills "; they were "to make Germany a refuge of peace.' The bill providing for insurance against sickness, submitted in 1881, became a law in 1883; the law respecting accidents was passed in 1884; and that respecting old age and invalidity, in 1889. These laws have been perfected in their details and extended in their scope by subsequent legislation, but the whole scheme has developed in a remarkably systematic and consistent manner. Emphasis has always been placed upon the fact that the benefits to be received were henceforth to be deemed the payment of a legal obligation and not a public charity.' This legislation marks an era. It erects a mile-post from which a certain phase of social progress is to be reckoned. Legislation since effected and to be effected in other countries must in some degree trace its origin and inspiration from this source. Its distinctive feature may be regarded as a recognition of the workman's right to recompense as a part of the obligation which is due him from society. It has been said of the attitude of the German Government, that "it does not wish to be guided merely by a sense of pity over the unsatisfactory position of wage-earners, but above 1 Sec. 77, Law of 1881. 4 all by a sentiment of justice. Its aim is not only to improve the material condition of workmen, but also to lessen and equalize as much as possible, in the course of time, the unhealthy contrasts between employers as a class and the working population, and more still it wishes to revive the feeling of fellowship between the two elements of production capital and labor.” 1 This plan of insurance, as far as concerns its compulsory features, includes in its scope the principal wage-workers of the Empire; provision is made for permitting others, not under compulsion, to avail themselves of its advantages voluntarily. A few statistics indicate the extent of its operations. Taking the figures of 1902, which answer for this purpose, the population of the Empire, in round numbers, was 58,000,000; the number of wage-workers, 14,500,000; the number insured under sickness insurance was 10,320,000; under accident insurance, 19,083,000; under invalidity insurance, 13,381,000. The number insured against accidents was increased by a large number of small farmers - not included under the term wage-workers and a considerable number who were insured in a double employment. The amount of receipts for the year was about $130,000,1 Ludwig Lass, German Workmen's Insurance, pt. 1, p. 12. |