44 BELGIUM - INSURANCF: and THRIF'l^ 



Experience proves that most accidents in agriculture are not due as 

 was belived to machinery, but to falls and edged tools. Now these falls 

 which are the causes of most of the accidents, occur at least as frequently 

 on smaU farms as on large ; we may even say that the large farms by their 

 better arrangements, especially the vaulting of the cattle stalls and stables, 

 reduce this cause of accident. 



Complaint is made nowadays in all the regions of our country of the 

 constantly increasing difficulty of j&nding farm labourers. We have not to 

 examine here into the proper means for putting a stop to the rural exodus, 

 but will not the most important of these be to arrange that the agricultural 

 labourer is as Uttle as possible, economically speaking, in a position of in- 

 feriority to the manufacturing hand ? 



On the other hand, account must be taken of the impression made on an 

 agricultural labourer by the passing from a farm subject to the law to another 

 not subject to it. In the first case, when an accident befalls him, he is sure 

 of receiving the compensation fixed by law of December 24th., 1903. It 

 is true that this compensation is calculated at % the amount of the loss 

 he suffers, but in every case he obtains it and the new law has instituted a 

 procedure far more easy than that of common law; on the other farm, in 

 case of an accident, he must first prove it due to culpabiUty of 

 the master or a representative of the master, in the discharge of his duties, 

 or to an animal employed in the work. If he can not succeed in doing 

 this, he is refused all compensation. 



But the reason we consider of greatest importance is the very consider- 

 able number of cases in which it cannot be said with certainty whether the 

 farm is or is not subject to the law of December 24th., 1903. Farms which 

 employ a machine moved by force other than human or animal are greatl}' 

 in the minority. Again it is only exceptionally that a declaration of vol- 

 untary subjection to the law is made to the registrar of a local court. The 

 very large majority of the farmers to whom the law applies habitually em- 

 ploy at least three labourers. It is true that the meanings of these words, 

 "habitually" and "labourer," have been defined by ministerial decision, but 

 none the less the words are a source of many difficulties. It often happens 

 that two labourers are regularly employed on a farm and several others also 

 for special work. Are these to be considered habitual labourers ? This is 

 a question of fact that can only be settled by the magistrate after hearing 

 the witnesses produced by both parties, by the labourer victim of the accid- 

 ent who claims that the 1903 law applies and by the master or the insurance 

 society maintaining that it does not. It will be agreed, that it would be 

 better to avoid the conflict. 



The premium to be paid to the msurance companies in case of insurance 

 in common law is less than that required by the law of December 24th. , 

 1903, and it is observ'^ed as a rule that the farmers, for whom the application 

 of this law is more or less expensive, profit by every occasion,especially of the 

 termination of their contract of insurance under the law of 1903, to claim 

 that they are not subject to it and insure themselves in accordance with 

 common law. Of course farms are cut up and on this account land which 



