to have recovered his working capacity, the fund has the right to cause a new medical examination to be made at any time and revoke the pension award; against such action the pensioner may appeal to the court of arbitration.

SOURCES OF INCOME.

SICK-BENEFIT SECTION.

EMPLOYEES' DUES.-The dues of the employees are based on the rate of wages used in computing the benefits and consist of 14 hellers (three-tenths of 1 cent) for each crown (20.3 cents) of wages received. Establishment officials whose annual earnings exceed 2,400 crowns ($487.20) pay double the rates of other insured persons.

The insurance of members of the families of employees must be borne by the latter alone, as the employers are required to pay dues only for the compulsory features of the insurance system.

EMPLOYERS' DUES.-The dues of the employer are equal to those of the workmen; for establishment officials whose annual earnings exceed 2,400 crowns ($487.20), the employer pays no dues. For those employees who receive no money wages, the employer must pay both his own and the employee's dues.

PENSION SECTION.

EMPLOYEES' DUES.-The dues of the funds vary according to the industry in which the establishment is engaged. In the official decree which prescribes the dues, the establishments are classified into four groups: (1) soft coal mining, (2) mineral salt mining, (3) other mining, and (4) smelting.

For full-benefit members the dues consist of two kinds, those for the invalidity benefit and those for the widow and orphan benefit. The following tables show the rates for the invalidity pension and for the widow and orphan pension. The rates given are for male members; the rates for female members are one-half of those for males.

The monthly dues, it will be noticed, vary considerably in the four groups; a person 30 years of age, for instance, would pay invalidity pension dues of $0.244 if he obtained employment in an establishment engaged in iron-ore mining or any other mining of the third group; for smelting establishments the rate is $0.248, for soft coal mining $0.272, and for mineral salt mining $0.39.

The monthly dues for the widow and orphan benefit are only partially reproduced in the following table, the years intermediate between the five-year points being omitted. The age referred to is the age of admission to the fund. Whenever a member is advanced to a higher pension class his dues from that time forward consist of the dues formerly paid, increased by the dues for the new amount com

puted at the age when the advance is made. Thus a member engaged in soft coal mining, aged 30, wife also aged 30, would pay $0.406 per month for a pension of 200 crowns ($40.60); if at the age of 35 his claim is increased by 40 crowns ($8.12), his dues will be increased by the addition of 40 per cent of the rate given in the table for the age of 35 with age of wife 35 (40 per cent of $0.235, the rate for 100 crowns) or $0.41 plus $0.094.

The members insured only against accidents occurring in the course of the employment (partial-benefit members) are not divided into classes according to the industry in which the establishment is engaged. For the invalidity pension the dues are three-fourths of 1 per cent of the wages, and for the widow and orphan pension they are one-half of 1 per cent of the wages. These dues are simply the premium necessary to provide the capitalized value of the pensions granted each year.

EMPLOYERS' DUES.-The employers' dues for the pension funds are equal in amount to those paid by the employee and are forwarded by the employer together with the dues of the employee which have been deducted from the latter's wages. The employer is not required to contribute toward any pension insurance which the employee may voluntarily assume.

MONTHLY DUES OF FULL-BENEFIT MEMBERS (MALES) ELIGIBLE FOR AN INVALIDITY PENSION OF 200 CROWNS ($40.60).

[Source: Amtliche Nachrichten betr. Unfall- und Krankenversicherung, 1890, Beiblatt 9.]

MONTHLY DUES OF FULL-BENEFIT MEMBERS (MALES) TO ACQUIRE RIGHT TO WIDOWS' PENSION OF 100 CROWNS (820.30) AND THE CORRESPONDING OR PHANS' PENSIONS.

[Source: Amtliche Nachrichten betr. Unfall- und Krankenversicherung, 1890, Beiblatt 9.]

Age of husband.

Amount of monthly dues when age of wife is

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 GO 65 70 years. years. years. years. years. years. years. years. years. years. years. years.

The financial organization of the sick-benefit funds is comparatively simple; the current receipts are adjusted to meet current expenses, though the sick-benefit section is supposed to keep on hand a reserve equal to two years' expenses. The law specifies no rates of dues for

The preceding table may be summed up by stating that the expenditures for old age pensions for independent persons will begin at the end of five years of waiting time, namely, with the 6th year, and the amount in that year will be $649,600; in the 10th year it will have reached the amount of $5,156,200; in the 40th year, $17,417,400; and in the period immediately following the 40th year a stationary point will be reached, when the expenditures will be $19,386,500. Of this amount, as is explained below, the State, it is estimated, will pay $6,699,000.

For the invalidity and old age pensions for workmen and members of their families working with them, the expenditures, it is estimated, will be as follows: In the 5th year, $609,000; in the 10th year, $9,277,100; in the 20th year, $21,112,000; and when the stationary point is reached, after the 40th year, the annual expenditure, it is estimated, will be $33,860,400. Of this sum it is estimated that the

State will have to provide $11,794,300.

The payments of lump sums to survivors, it is estimated, will be in the 1st year, $365,400; in the 2nd year, $1,684,900; in the 10th year, $3,978,800; and after the 40th year, when the stationary point is reached, it is estimated that the expenditure will be $5,278,000.

The amount returned to female insured persons upon their marriage will begin in the 5th year with $385,700, and in the 30th year will be about $913,500, which is also estimated to be the amount when the stationary point is reached.

The costs of administration, it is estimated, will be $2,436,000 annually, of which the State will provide $406,000.

The total cost, therefore, of the proposed system is estimated to be in the 1st year $2,801,400, in the 10th year $21,558,600, and gradually increased until the stationary point, after the 40th year, is reached, when the amount, it is estimated, will be $61,874,400. The expenditure incurred by the State in connection with the proposed system will be as follows: An annual contribution of $406,000 for costs of administration by the Government, to each pension a subsidy of 90 crowns ($18.27), and, finally, supplementary pensions to insured persons performing military service. The subsidies to these pensions begin in the 5th year, and therefore in the first 4 years the only expenditures by the State will be about $406,000 for cost of administration. In the 10th year after the inauguration of the insurance system the state subsidy for pensions to independent persons is estimated at 13,200,000 crowns ($2,679,600), and for workmen 23,600,000 crowns ($4,790,800), making a total of 36,800,000 crowns ($7,470,400). In the 20th year it is estimated that the subsidies for independent persons will be 29,000,000 crowns ($5,887,000), for the workmen 48,800,000 crowns ($9,906,400), and the payments for persons engaged in military service 100,000 crowns ($203,000), a total of 77,900,000 crowns ($15,813,700). When the stationary point is

reached after the 40th year it is estimated that the expenditures by the State on account of independent persons will be 33,000,000 crowns ($6,699,000); for the workmen, 58,100,000 crowns ($11,794,300); for persons in the military service, 5,300,000 crowns ($1,075,900), making a total of 96,400,000 crowns ($19,569,200). Add to this the amount granted for costs of administration, the total will be 98,400,000 crowns ($19,975,200). In round numbers, therefore, it is estimated that the State will have to provide at the end of 10 years about 40,000,000 crowns ($8,120,000). At the end of 20 years, 80,000,000 crowns ($16,240,000), and after the 40th year about 100,000,000 crowns ($20,300,000). It is stated that these amounts have been estimated on the basis of the available actuarial information, but that such data can be relied upon only for comparatively short periods of time, and the program provides for a thorough revision of the whole system at the expiration of 12 years.

INSURANCE OF MINERS.

HISTORY.

Miners' relief societies or provident funds (Bruderladen) are known to have existed in Austria as early as the year 1280. As in other countries the miners were among the first of the industrial workers to found institutions for the relief of distress caused by sickness, accidental injury, invalidity, and death. These organizations were usually local societies confined to each mining operation and gradually became almost universal. Their legal status was regulated by a series of official decrees, issued at various times, applying to individual funds, and naturally lacking in uniformity. The first uniform regulation of the miners' funds was contained in the Mining Code of the year 1854, which also made compulsory the creation of such funds at each mine. The employees were required to become members and to pay dues, but no company contribution was exacted of the mine owners. The code failed to provide regulations regarding the amount of the benefits and of the dues, the right to change membership from one fund to another, and contained no provisions relating to the maintenance of assets to assure the meeting of future obligations. The need of such provisions in the law were recognized, but it was not until 1889 that a new law was enacted. The law of July 28, 1889, as amended by the acts of January 17, 1890, and of September 17, 1892, is the statute which at present regulates the miners' funds.

PRESENT PURPOSE AND SCOPE.

The miners' relief funds at present conduct sickness insurance, accident insurance, old age and invalidity insurance, and have systems of benefits for widows and orphans. The funds are required by law to be divided into two sections, the sickness insurance section