risks are: (1) The inability of the wage-earner to find employment; (2) The physical inability of the wage-earner to labor; (3) The death of the wage-earner and the consequent economic distress of his dependents.

Experience has shown that when left to his own initiative, the wage-earner does not, and usually cannot take out insurance for himself and his family. The most he can do is to subscribe to some fraternal order which contracts to pay his burial expenses. In order that it may reach the low-paid workers who need it most, the system of social insurance must be a government system, and it must provide insurance for all workers.

The need for social insurance, backed by the resources of the government, has been recognized in every important industrial nation except the United States. Germany, the pioneer in this field, has installed the most thoroughgoing form of workmen's insurance. Her laws compel the workman to insure himself against accident, sickness, and old age. Both the employer and the government contribute to the fund. In case of accident or sickness the insured receives weekly payments based on the amount of his wages, medical attendance, and, in case of death, a funeral benefit. If he has paid the compulsory contribution to the insurance fund for 1200 weeks, at the age of seventy his old-age insurance gives him a pension for the rest of his life. France and England have similar laws providing old-age pensions, except that in England the conditions are easier. A pension, not more than $1.25 a week, is paid to any man or woman over seventy years old whose income does not exceed $157.50 a year.

Now nearly every European country has either old-age insurance or an old-age pension system, and compulsory health insurance. The British National Insurance Act of 1911 provides a fund of which four-ninths (not over four pence a week), is contributed by the insured, three-ninths (not over six pence a week), by the employer, and two-ninths by Parliament. Insured persons may include all persons 16 years of age and

over who are employed, whether in factory, on farm, in domestic service or in any capacity for which wages are paid. In return for these payments the insured are given medical care and medicines, if needed, cash benefits of not more than ten shillings a week, and maternity benefits. No funeral benefits are provided. In 1920 Parliament passed a compulsory Unemployment Act insuring all persons over 16 employed in trade or business. If a worker is thrown out of employment he is paid a certain sum each week, up to fifteen weeks.

Workmen's Compensation Laws. The only type of social insurance which has been generally adopted in the United States is accident insurance in the form of workmen's compensation laws. This differs from the European insurance systems in that the entire burden of compensation falls on the employer. Forty-three states now have workmen's compensation laws. These laws, the oldest of which date from 1910, provide compensation to a workman who has been injured while at work. Some states require employers to take out policies for their employees with a reliable insurance company. The New York law provides that if an employee is disabled he shall be paid approximately two-thirds of his wages for a period varying according to the extent of his injury. If he is killed his dependents are pensioned. In most states where this law is in effect there is an Industrial Compensation Board, or some similar body, before which all cases for compensation are brought. They review the facts, examine witnesses, and make the award to the injured employee.

Formerly, if a man were injured his pay stopped at the same time that his expenses increased. He and his family often became objects of community charity because the weekly wage had stopped and the necessary expenses of sickness had begun. If the wage-earning member of the family were killed, his dependents often were forced to turn to charity. Suits for damages against the employer were often postponed, or the awards eaten up by the lawyers' fees. With the workmen's compensation laws, the man and his family are adequately provided for.

The United States Government has also a workmen's compensation law to cover its civil employees and those employed on the Panama Railroad. The provisions of the federal law are similar to those of the New York law, with the exception that there is no provision for insurance, and the payments are made from a special fund set aside for that purpose.

Widows' Pension Laws. Many states have also passed widows' pension laws, providing funds to keep a wage-earner's family together in event of his death. Payments are in proportion to the size and resources of the family.

4. LABOR UNIONS

The growth of the factory system, and the gulf that developed between employer and employed led to the formation of our labor unions, of which the most powerful organization in the United States is the American Federation of Labor.

The labor unions have striven for improved conditions of work, increased wages, and a working day of reasonable length. Laborers have discovered that banded together they can make better terms with their employers than they can as individuals. When a union, acting as a unit, proposes to the employer that certain conditions of work be changed, it is doing what is named "collective bargaining."

When the employer refuses to agree to the demands of the union, the latter sometimes calls a strike. All union members then refuse to do any work until the employer grants their requests. On the other hand, the employer sometimes forestalls a strike by closing the factory against the workmen. This is called a lockout.

Strikes and lockouts are really forms of industrial warfare. Employers and employed become embittered against each other, and a great deal of harm may be done to the community. When a strike occurs, the employer may try to operate his factory with hastily hired "strike-breakers." This measure sometimes causes rioting on the part of the striking employees, who attempt to damage the factory buildings or to do bodily

harm to the hated strike-breakers in order to intimidate them and force them not to work.

Of course such injury to property, personal violence and terrorism are illegal acts, and the local police force is called upon to keep order in the community and to arrest all rioters. In most cases the union leaders, fearing to lose the support of public sympathy, try to manage a strike along peaceful lines. But it is not always possible for them to keep order in their own ranks during the progress of a strike, when emotion is at fever heat.

This division of employers and employed into two armed camps has proven wasteful and dangerous to industrial peace. During the past few years many projects have been tried to bring the employers and their employees into harmony and to prevent the occurrence of strikes and lockouts. Among these

A FACTORY SCHOOLHOUSE

This is the National Cash Register Company's schoolhouse in which noon-hour entertainments are given daily for employees.

are welfare work, profit sharing, and various schemes to give the employees a voice in the management of the industry.

5. EXPERIMENTS OF THE EMPLOYER

Welfare Work. Many large industrial plants have instituted systems of welfare work among their employees. They are spending vast sums of

money each year to promote good health and contentment among their workers.

Among the numerous industries that have undertaken welfare work is a large manufacturing plant in Dayton, Ohio.*

*The National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio.

The story of how this company regenerated a whole city district is typical of what welfare work, wisely administered, is capable of accomplishing.

In 1888 the first of the factory buildings was erected in Slidertown. It was generally said that "everything bad in Dayton slid down to Slidertown." The houses in the district

Courtesy National Cash Register Co.

THIS FACTORY LUNCH ROOM SERVES 100 PER MINUTE

were dirty and dilapidated, and thieves, gamblers, and even gangs of criminals made it their headquarters.

The company put a fence around its property; gangs of boys found it good kindling wood and before long it was demolished. The company's bill for window panes assumed alarming proportions. Even in the daytime stones went whizzing through the windows, narrowly missing the heads of employees. The company found it hard to get workmen; the better type of skilled laborer refused to work in such a district. Finally the company decided to try to set a good example