290 



GERMANY. 



a presumption of fault from the point of view 

 of the pecuniary responsibility for the accident. 

 These provisions are also in accordance with Con- 

 tinental laws and contrary to existing British 

 rules. The French distinction between salvage of 

 a derelict and assistance of a crippled ship is 

 abolished in the proposed treaty, with all rules 

 fixing an arbitrary proportion of value due to 

 the salvor, such as 33J per cent, of the value of 

 an abandoned vessel which the French code al- 

 lows. The limitation of ship owners' liability 

 was referred to a new commission. On the mo- 

 tion of Everitt P. Wheeler, representing the Uni- 

 ted States, the proposal that damage and ex- 

 pense sustained by the salvor should as of 

 right be made good in case of successful salvage 

 or assistance was stricken from the draft treaty. 

 It was agreed that tribunals of either the home 

 port of the defendant vessel or of the personal 

 domicile of the defendant party should have 

 jurisdiction in cases of collision; in case of a 

 collision in territorial waters the representatives 

 of Austria, Hungary, Japan, Sweden and Norway, 

 and two other nations voted to give jurisdiction 

 to the courts of the country where it takes 

 place, although the vessel may not be arrested 

 there nor either plaintiff or defendant have his 

 domicile there; 5 countries, including England, 

 France, Germany, and the United States, voted 

 in the negative, and the question was reserved 

 for further discussion at a future conference. 

 That registration should give jurisdiction to the 

 courts of the port of where a ship is registered 

 was agreed to by a vote of 9 nations against 4. 

 The question whether the courts of a place where 

 the defendant ship can be seized could have final 

 jurisdiction was decided affirmatively, but the 

 United States representatives were alone in sup- 

 porting the present American and English prac- 

 tise, which confers jurisdiction on the courts of a 

 country in which a defendant can be served, al- 

 though he has neither domicile nor residence 

 there. Whether mere residence should suffice was 

 left for further consideration. 



Labor Congresses. The thirteenth Interna- 

 tional Congress of Miners met at Diisseldorf on 

 May 19, 1902. For the first time the British 

 miners represented were less numerous than, 

 those of the Continental countries. From the 

 Continent there were 72 delegates voting for 

 748,000 miners. From Great Britain 39 delegates 

 represented 625,000 members of the British 

 Miners' Federation and 3 represented 80,000 mi- 

 ners of Durham, who still held out against the 

 legal eight-hour day demanded by all other 

 miners, British as well as Continental. The ob- 

 jects of the congresses- were defined to be to limit 

 the hours of underground labor from bank to 

 bank ; to obtain proper supervision and inspec- 

 tion of mines, including the election of additional 

 inspectors by the workers, such inspectors to be 

 paid by the state; to organize powers to enforce 

 legal enactments; and to devise means to secure 

 just contracts and fair treatment for all persons 

 in or about mines. The Welsh miners desired an 

 eight-hour day. among other reasons, because it 

 would allow shot-firing to take place between 

 shifts after an interval sufficient to allow dust 

 to settle after the men had left the mines. Ger- 

 man delegates declared that accidents most fre- 

 ciuently occurred in Germany when the men were 

 exhausted by long hours of labor. A French 

 delegate described the bill passed by the French 

 Chamber gradually reducing the work-day to 

 eight hours from bank to bank. A Belgian dele- 

 gate testified that in his country the few legal 

 enactments that existed for the purpose of pre- 



venting accidents were not strictly applied. An 

 Austrian delegate was interrupted by a Welsh 

 delegate, who thought that if the rule previously 

 in force allowing but a single German speech to 

 German and Austrian delegates together were to 

 be disregarded the Welsh and English might 

 speak for the miners of their separate nation- 

 alities. The rule, which was made because in for- 

 mer congresses the German and Austrian repre- 

 sentation combined was comparatively small, was 

 rescinded on the motion of an English delegate. 

 The Austrian then described the new Austrian 

 law which reduces the hours of labor in coal- 

 mines to nine hours a day. The congress voted, 

 in favor of a legal eight-hour day, which on the 

 motion of the, French delegation applies also to 

 surface workers. In regard to compensation for 

 accidents and old-age pensions, it appeared that 

 miners are worst off in Belgium, where there is 

 no law on the subject and the benefit associations 

 pay only a quarter of the wages in cases of acci- 

 dent and an old-age pension of a quarter of a franc 

 a day. In England the doctors frequently deprive 

 the victim of an accident of the full amount of 

 his insurance on the ground of complication with 

 diseases. German doctors cut down allowances 

 in the same way, and the law has intervened to 

 forbid the payment of insurance equal to the 

 daily rate of wages when the man has paid sub- 

 scriptions to benefit societies to secure that 

 amount of insurance or more. The German law 

 of compulsory insurance allows two-thirds of 

 earning capacity lost as the result of an accident. 

 In Austria the miners have only their benefit 

 funds to rely upon, and these are in an insolvent 

 condition. When incapacitated by accidents they 

 receive from 30 kreuzers to a gulden a day until 

 they recover, and if totally incapacitated a pen- 

 sion varying from 80 to 120 guldens a year, for 

 which benefits they have to subscribe from 2 to 

 5 per cent, of their wages. The French miners 

 are the most favorably treated in case of acci- 

 dents, since they contribute nothing to the fund, 

 yet after the fourth day receive half-wages. The 

 congress voted unanimously to have compensa- 

 tion laws amended so as to cover all accidents 

 in or about mines, to begin from the day of the 

 injury. It was unanimously agreed that miners 

 should endeavor to obtain a minimum rate of 

 wages. The congress considered that the govern- 

 ments of all countries should provide pensions 

 for the aged and those unfit for work. Sym- 

 pathy was extended to the French miners in their 

 effort to secure pensions of 2 francs a day after 

 twenty-five years of service, irrespective of age. 

 A resolution that miners in general elections 

 should vote only for candidates pledged to sup- 

 port the proposals adopted by the International 

 Congress and endeavor to enact them into la\\<: 

 in default of such candidates the miners should 

 nominate and elect representatives from among 

 themselves. The congress adjourned on May _'.'{. 



An International Trade-Union Congress Mas 

 held at Stuttgart in June. The English dele- 

 gates agreed with their Continental colleagues 

 in the opinion that, in addition to endeavoring 

 to obtain better wages, it was necessary to direct 

 their attention to politics, and that the amalga- 

 mation of the trade-unions with international 

 socialism was only a question of time, although 

 the old-fashioned unions were not yet ready to 

 adopt the socialist theories. 



The thirteenth German Socialist Congress was 

 opened at Munich on Sept. 15. The Bernstein 

 proposals for the revision of the Marxist dogmas 

 on which Social-Democratic programs have been 

 based and the adoption of more practical political- 



