CHAPTER V. WORKMEN'S INSURANCE IN GERMANY. INTRODUCTION. Germany was the first country to adopt a system of compulsory insurance of workmen on a national scale as a part of the policy of a great industrial nation. This policy was not regarded as a break with previous traditions, but was considered rather as a logical development of institutions for the care of disabled workmen made necessary by the change in conditions brought about by modern industrial methods. The beginnings of workmen's insurance in the area comprised within the present German Empire date in many cases as far back as the eighteenth century, and in a few instances even earlier; the earliest forms of such insurance are found in the provisions for the relief of disabled miners, seamen, and domestic workers. In the case of miners and seamen it will be noticed that these were the industries in which the safety of the workman was peculiarly dependent on the general management of the establishment, and in which his risk of accident, sickness, etc., was accentuated because of such dependence on the care of fellow-workmen in the exercise of their duties, or on the skill or care of the one directing the workman's operations. Even in the eighteenth century, therefore, those industries which possessed some of the characteristics of modern industiral methods had developed special institutions for the relief of the workmen engaged in them. In the case of domestic servants, the special provisions referred to were due to the fact that such service practically meant the inclusion of the worker in the family circle of the employer. The industrial development-especially the growth of the factory system-which took place in Germany in the period following the Napoleonic wars introduced a change from the personal relations of employer and workman which had been characteristic of the old industrial order. This change brought the workman a greater degree of freedom than he had hitherto possessed, but also left him without the former claim to the aid of the employer or of a guild in case of distress caused by physical disability due to sickness or accident. Under the German common law a workman injured in the course of his employment through the fault of the employer had to secure redress by means of a suit against the latter, subject to all the disad 977 vantages which were recognized in Germany even in the early part of the nineteenth century. To meet the new conditions, as well as to make provision for disabled workmen without means, many of the local governments throughout the country enacted laws requiring specified workers within their areas to pay regular contributions to the communal treasury from which was paid sickness and accident relief. These steps antedated the national compulsory workmen's insurance by ten to twenty years, and their successful operation formed an important argument for the institution of a similar system of provision on a national scale. It is interesting to note that one of the earliest acts of the new Empire was the adoption of an employers' liability bill in 1871, and that this law was practically the last attempt of the Imperial Government to provide for disabled workmen under the old principle of negligence. The law of 1871 was in force for about ten years before it was superseded by the new compensation system. It may be said, therefore, that the great national system of workmen's insurance now in operation in Germany was adopted only after a thorough trial of other methods had shown that they were inadequate to solve the problem. The reasons for their adoption and the detailed steps by which the three principal branches of workmen's insurance-accident, sickness, and invalidity-were brought to their present stage of development are indicated in the following pages. This system of social insurance has now been in operation. for a quarter of a century, and during this period the only questions receiving serious consideration were those relating to its extension and improvement. No proposal to restrict the plan or to return to the former liability system has ever been seriously offered. At the present time the total population of the German Empire is about 63,000,000, of whom about 30,000,000 are gainfully employed. The number of persons insured against accident is about 23,000,000, against sickness about 13,000,000, and against invalidity about 15,000,000. The distribution of the population gainfully employed at the date of the industrial census of June 12, 1907, is shown in the table following. NUMBER OF PERSONS GAINFULLY EMPLOYED, BY INDUSTRIES, 1907 AND 1895. [Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich, 1909.] a Not including servants, etc., living in the household of the employer. According to the grand groups used in the preceding classification, in 1907 about 33 per cent of the persons gainfully employed were engaged in agriculture, about 37 per cent in the general industries (including mining and the building trades), about 12 per cent in com |