GERMANY. 



371 



and even the National Conservative party ob- 

 jected to the expatriation clauses. The meas- 

 ure, at the end of a long and animated dis- 

 cussion, was referred to a committee of twen- 

 ty-eight members, and as altered in their hands 

 and finally passed by the House and signed by 

 the Emperor Friedrich, it is simply a continu- 

 ance of the act as it stood before for two more 

 years from the autumn of 1888. 



Insnranre of Workin-rmen. The last install- 

 ment of the scheme of insurance against the 

 worst consequences of poverty, which was 

 foreshadowed in the imperial message of Nov. 

 17, 1884, is the bill making provision for work- 

 people incapacitated by age or chronic ail- 

 ments, which was elaborated by the Federal 

 Council in the summer of 1888. The measure 

 provides for compulsory insurance, the funds 

 for which are raised in three parts, one of them 

 being contributed by the Imperial Government 

 by means of assessment, one part by employ- 

 ers, and the third part by the laborers them- 

 selves, the men paying in 21 pfenuige, or about 

 5 cents weekly, and the women 14 pfennige. 

 Every man who becomes invalided will re- 

 cvive a pension of 120 marks, and every 

 woman 80 marks. The pension fur superan- 

 nuated working-people begins at the age of 

 seventy-one, with an allowance of 180 marks. 

 No contributions are exacted during the periods 

 when men are required to perform military 

 service. 



The first part of Bismarck's scheme of state 

 socialism was the sick-insurance law that was 

 enacted in 1883, which compels the workman 

 to insure himself against sickness by contrib- 

 uting to a fund insuring him medical care and 

 medicines from the beginning of his sickness, 

 and half- wages for thirteen weeks. At the 

 end of this time he falls a charge on another 

 fund, which is raised from employers under 

 the law that was passed in 1884 for insuring 

 against accidents. The first accident-insurance 

 act was a tentative measure, and was made to 

 apply only to those trades and occupations in 

 which accidents are most frequent. It was 

 extended in 1885 to a much larger class, and 

 made to cover also workingmen employed 

 by the Government in the railway, postal, 

 telegraph, and naval and military administra- 

 tions By a supplementary act that was passed 

 in 1887, and went into operation on Jan. 1, 

 1888, accident insurance was extended further 

 to all persons engaged in marine occupations, 

 with the exception of fishermen and those 

 employed on small craft, who are to be dealt 

 with in a later act. The accident-insurance 

 fund is raised by compulsory assessments on 

 employers, who are grouped for the purpose 

 into associations, according to employments 

 and locality, and these are divided into sec- 

 tions. Exclusive of the one that was created 

 for the execution of the marine-insurance act, 

 there are sixty-two associations in Germany, 

 which are, to a large extent, self-governing, 

 drawing up their own statutes and regulations, 



and managing their own finances. They were 

 divided in 1886 into 366 section-". The asso- 

 ciation of marine employers is divided into six 

 sections. The Government control is exercised 

 through the Imperial Insurance Department, 

 which initiates the organization of the associa- 

 tions, supervises their administration, approves 

 their statutes, divides such of them as become 

 unmanageable, and acts as a last court of ap- 

 peal in disputes on the subject of the payment 

 of insurance that arise between the employers 

 and the employed. This supervising board, 

 which is an organ of the state, consists, in 

 part, of permanent members, who are appoint- 

 ed by the Emperor, and, in part, of delegates 

 of the employers and the workingmen, who 

 are elected for four years. The insurance in- 

 demnities to be paid out of the fund consist of 

 the expenses of the cure in cases of disable- 

 ment, where there is no legal obligation on 

 others to bear them ; of a fixed allowance dur- 

 ing the disablement; and of an allowance to 

 the family in case of death. The allowance in 

 each case is calculated according to a scale 

 based on the annual wages. The assessments 

 are made by specially appointed committees or 

 by the boards themselves. Each section has 

 an arbitration committee, which is presided 

 over by an official, while the assessors are 

 elected representatives of the employers and 

 the employed. The members of the association 

 must provide the expenses of administration 

 and accumulate a reserve fund. The share of 

 each member of the association depends on 

 the number of workmen that he employs, and 

 is subject to increase if the employment is 

 especially dangerous. The indemnities are paid 

 by post-office orders. The associations are re- 

 quired to consult with the workmen in drawing 

 up regulations for the avoidance of accidents, 

 and to see that these are enforced, which, of 

 course, is in the interest of members of the as- 

 sociation, the amount of whose assessments 

 depends on the frequency of accidents. 



The boards of the sixty-two trade associa- 

 tions organized under the insurance law that 

 was in force in 1886 contained 742 members, 

 and the 366 sectional boards were composed of 

 2.356 members. There were 6,501 officers, 

 39 salaried inspecting agents, 404 arbitration 

 courts, and 2.445 representatives of the work- 

 men. The number of business establishments 

 was2fi9,174; the number of work-people in- 

 sured, 3,473,435 ; and the total amount of an- 

 nual wages on which the indemnities were 

 calculated was 2,27>,250,000 marks, or $543,- 

 157,600. The total amount of indemnities 

 paid out during 1886 was 1,736,500 marks; 

 the cost of administration was 2.374,000 marks ; 

 and the cost of investigating accidents, fixing 

 indemnities, arbitrating, and taking precau- 

 tions against accidents was 282,000 marks. A 

 reserve of 5,516,000 marks was formed, and, 

 including this, the total expenditure was 10,- 

 521.500 marks, while the total receipts were 

 12,646,000 marks. Including employes of the 



