328 



GERMANY. 



In view of this a beginning would be made 

 with the long-deferred plan of increasing the 

 salaries of certain state functionaries. While 

 other departments of industry were flourishing, 

 agriculture was in a depressed state owing to 

 foreign competition, and consequently a pro- 

 tective duty on grain would be proposed. In 

 continuation of the economic legislation fore- 

 shadowed in the Imperial message of Nov. 17, 

 1881, the Reichstag would be asked to deal 

 with a bill for providing state assistance to 

 old, infirm, and unemployed workingmen, and 

 to extend accident insurance to classes not yet 

 provided for ; also to consider a law for the 

 regulation of co-operative societies, and one 

 for applying to the wine-trade the principles 

 adopted in regard to the adulteration of food. 

 The speech concluded with the following allu- 

 sions to foreign affairs: 



The foreign policy of His Majesty the Emperor is 

 successfully endeavoring to strengthen the peace of 

 Europe the maintenance of which is its object by 

 cherishing friendly relations to all powers, as well as 

 by treaties and alliances which aim at obviating the 

 dangers of war, and at making common cause against 

 unjust attacks. The German Empire has no aggress- 

 ive tendencies, and no wants that could be satisfied 

 by victorious wars. The unchristian inclination to 

 fall upon neighboring nations is foreign to the German 

 characterj and neither the Constitution nor the mili- 

 tary institutions of the empire have been fashioned 

 with a view to disturb the peace of our neighbors by 

 wanton aggression. But for the warding off of such 

 aggression, and for defending our independence, we 

 are strong, and with God's help will become so strong 

 that we can calmly confront every danger. 



The Workmen's Insurance Bill. The new install- 

 ment in the Chancellor's scheme of social legis- 

 lation that was promised in the Imperial ad- 

 dress, was brought before the Reichstag in 

 December. The bill provides that all work- 

 men who pass the age of seventy, or become 

 permanently and completely incapacitated for 

 work, shall have a pension. Like the previous 

 acts, it affects only workmen, apprentices, serv- 

 ants, and administrative employes having a 

 yearly pay of not more than 2,000 marks. The 

 pension to these is to be due, however, only if 

 contributions, or, in ordinary insurance lan- 

 guage, premiums have been paid on their be- 

 half during a certain length of time, which is to 

 be thirty years in case of the pension for old 

 age and five years in case of that for disability. 

 We say contributions must be paid on their be- 

 half, for here, as in the case of the other in- 

 surance acts, contributions are paid only in 

 part by the workmen themselves. Not more 

 than one third is paid by them, another third 

 is paid by the employers, and the last third 

 comes from the Imperial Treasury, that is, from 

 taxation of the community at large. The pen- 

 sion in case of old age is 120 marks per year ; 

 that for disability varies from a minimum of 

 120 marks to a maximum of 250 marks, ac- 

 cording to the length of time for which con- 

 tributions have been paid. The sums seem 

 pitiful enough : possibly they have been made 

 small intentionally, in order not to take away 



all incentive to independent saving or all oc- 

 casion for calling on children or other relatives 

 for help. The contributions per workman are 

 fixed for the present at 6 pfennigs per day, or 

 36 marks per fiscal year. The employers have 

 to advance two thirds of this, or 4 pfennigs per 

 day, but may deduct 2 pfennigs per day from 

 the stipulated wages of the workmen, so that 

 their net charge is 2 pfennigs per day. The 

 rest of the contributions, as was noted above, 

 is paid by the empire. For women the pay- 

 ments are two thirds of those for men, and the 

 pensions correspondingly less. These contri- 

 butions, or premiums, are, it should be said, 

 merely provisional. Within ten years after 

 the act goes into effect, a new and permanent 

 scale is to be prepared, based on the experience 

 of the workings of the act and of the sums it 

 calls for. The managers of the pension system 

 are the Bervfsgenossenschaften, or associations 

 of employers,, which were organized in order 

 to carry out the system of compulsory insur- 

 ance against accident. This utilizes the exist- 

 ing machinery and effects an obvious saving of 

 expense. The Berufsgenossenichaften are to 

 establish separate accounts for the new sys- 

 tem, and the funds are to be kept distinct from 

 those collected for insurance against accident. 



The Triple Alliance. The secret treaty of alli- 

 ance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and 

 Italy is supposed to have been renewed and 

 signed by the representatives of the three 

 powers at Vienna, on March 13. The appre- 

 hensions of war were directed, in the latter 

 part of the year, more toward Russia than 

 toward France. The tension between Ger- 

 many and Russia, which the Chancellor had be- 

 fore denied, was revealed by the attitude of 

 the German press, and the interest of Germany 

 in the Balkans was no longer strenuously dis- 

 avowed. The renewal of the triple alliance 

 was made certain by the visit of Signor Crispi 

 at Friedrichsruhe, where he had a long con- 

 ference with Prince Bismarck early in Novem- 

 ber. This visit removed the apprehensions of 

 the Italians regarding the attitude of Germany 

 in the Papal question. The results of the 

 meeting are supposed to be in this respect that 

 Germany admits that the Pope is an Italian 

 subject, under Italian jurisdiction, and there- 

 fore outside of the possibility of interference 

 of other nations between the Pope and Italy. 



It was feared that the death of Signor 

 Depretis would weaken the bonds uniting 

 Italian policy with that of Germany and Aus- 

 tria; but these bonds have been strengthened 

 under Signor Crispi, who, on his return home, 

 announced that Italy had allied herself with 

 the two empires for the maintenance of Euro- 

 pean peace. He also intimated that an under- 

 standing between Italy and England had se- 

 cured the status quo in the Mediterranean. 

 The German press gave prominence to these 

 statements; and it is generally understood 

 that if Austria should be menaced by Russia 

 or Germany by France, the Italian army will 



