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introduce the system into all her large cities, apart from aid to trade unions the only actual local attempts at unemployment insurance have been at Cologne and more recently at Leipzig.

Apart from these cities the direct insurance of the unemployed has been tried only in Switzerland, and that with no marked success, though with results which it is important to study.

SWITZERLAND.

The Swiss experiments began with a private bureau for the insurance of the unemployed, established at Bern in 1892, by the League of Manual Laborers through the efforts of Doctor Wassilieff, the labor secretary. It was founded on the principle that each one of its 600 members should pay dues in proportion to the wages earned and receive a benefit when out of work. The bureau, however, soon applied for municipal aid, and it was decided in January, 1893, to make it a municipal bureau. This took effect on April 1 of that year. Its regulations have been altered several times, but in the main its method of working has been as follows: Insurance in the bureau is voluntary upon the part of the workingmen and is open to any able-bodied Swiss citizen not over 60 years of age, living in Bern. Employees of the municipality are compelled to insure themselves. Men who have been insured in the bureau for at least eight (formerly six) months and have paid full 8 monthly premiums, if they have had employment for at least six months in the year, may, during the winter months, claim a daily allowance of about 29 cents a day for single men after they have been unemployed one week. No payment may be for more than ten weeks (originally two months). Unemployment due to incapacity for labor gives no claim to unemployment pay. The payment is about 10 cents more for married men than for single. In 1905 the number insured in the bureau was still 600, two-thirds of whom were married and 50 per cent of whom had been without work at least once between 1903 and 1905. They were almost exclusively from the building trades. In the year 1906-7 21 per cent of the receipts came from the dues of the insured, over twothirds from the municipality, and about 6 per cent from employers and donations. The amount of the annual grant made by the municipality to cover deficits was increased from 5,000 francs ($965) in 1894-95 to 7,000 francs ($1,351) in 1895-96 and 12,000 francs ($2,316) in 1899-1900. For one year (1900-1901) it was 13,200 francs ($2,547.60), since which it has remained at 12.000 francs ($2,316). The insurance bureau is worked in close connection with the Bern municipal employment bureau. The following table gives

particulars as to the number of persons insuring themselves and the number of persons unemployed in each of the financial years from 1893 to 1907:

PERSONS INSURED IN THE BERN BUREAU FOR THE INSURANCE OF THE AND PER CENT UNEMPLOYED,

UNEMPLOYED,

AND

NUMBER

1893-94 TO

The following table shows the receipts and expenditures of the bureau for each year 1893-94 to 1906–7:

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE BERN BUREAU FOR THE INSURANCE OF THE UNEMPLOYED, 1893-94 TO 1906–7.

RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE BERN BUREAU FOR THE INSURANCE OF THE UNEMPLOYED, 1893-94 TO 1906-7-Concluded.

This is not the correct balance of the figures shown in the preceding column, but it is the equivalent of the amount shown in the original official report-2,427.65 francs.

It will be seen from the above table that the bureau does not rest upon a self-supporting basis. The payments by the members in 1906-7 were less than two-fifths of the amount of the payments to the unemployed members. The bureau is mainly supported by the grants of the municipality and by small donations. Nor does it accomplish a large work. The payment of 9,804.70 francs ($1,892.31) in the last financial year to 239 persons means an average of 41.02 francs ($7.92) per unemployed person. This can scarcely be called an insurance. It is at best a disguised charity calling out some thrift and saving in those who receive the aid. In 1906, 193 of the members were in the building trades, 394 were laborers, agricultural or otherwise, and 27 were of other occupations. This shows that the bureau is an institution for aiding those in the winter months whose occupation makes them largely idle at that season.

Opinion seems divided in Switzerland as to whether the bureau is a success. It certainly has not accomplished large results, but some argue that it has continued in existence now for fifteen years and has steadily done good, if not large good. It is generally believed in Switzerland that the main trouble with the bureau is that insurance in it is voluntary.

Professor Reichesberg, of Bern, observes that the relatively high proportion of the insured workmen who became unemployed " is connected with the fact that insurance is voluntary, and consequently, as a rule, such men only insure themselves as have been accustomed to become unemployed in the winter months. The number of persons having claims on the fund would probably have been still greater if the men who entered their names as insurers had kept up their pre

mium payments for a longer time than they did. But, either from carelessness or other causes of one kind or another, a large number of insurers fail to keep up their premium payments and accordingly lose all claim on the fund. It is true that the insured workmen who have been entitled to claim unemployed pay from the fund have so far received what was due to them; but the fund is never certain beforehand that in any given set of circumstances it will be in a position to discharge its liabilities. The fear that this might not be the case led, in the winter of 1898-99, to the reduction of the amount of the unemployed pay after the first four weeks of unemployment."

Dr. E. Hoffman, a member of the National Council from Frauenfeld and author of an important report upon unemployment to the Swiss Federal Department of Industry, remarks: "Only upon one point has a practically unanimous opinion been arrived at—that is, upon the entirely impracticable character of voluntary municipal unemployed insurance-an opinion largely based upon the experience of the Bern fund." (")

The St. Gallen experiment.

On May 19, 1894, the great council of the Canton St. Gallen gave power to the municipal and communal authorities to establish an insurance fund against unemployment which should be compulsory on all men not earning more than 5 francs (97 cents) per day. Any man earning more than this could be insured if he so desired. Women could be insured either voluntarily or compulsorily, as the managers of the fund thought to be wise. The bureau was established July 1, 1895. The general conditions under which the fund was conducted were as follows: The weekly dues from the insured were to be 15 centimes (3 cents), 20 centimes (4 cents), and 30 centimes (6 cents) for daily wages of 3 francs (58 cents), 4 francs (77 cents), and 5 francs (97 cents). No one was to receive unemployed pay if work could be found for him in the trade to which he belonged at rates current in his district. Payments for unemployment were to begin only after dues had been paid for an uninterrupted period of six months. In case of foreigners a longer period was required. The expenses of administration were to be met out of moneys of the police department. The other expenses of the fund were to come from (a) the dues paid by the insured; (b) voluntary subscriptions and donations; (c) by grants from the municipalities or communes not to exceed 2 francs (39 cents) per person per year; (d) subsidies from the Canton; (e) subsidies, if any should be granted, from the Swiss Federal Government. Payments for unemployment were a daily sum of 1.80 francs (35 cents) for a maximum period of sixty working

a Sociale Praxis, June, 1903, col. 956.

days in any one year to men earning 3 francs (58 cents) or less; 2.10 francs (41 cents) to men earning from 3 to 4 francs (58 to 77 cents), and 2.40 francs (46 cents) to men earning from 4 to 5 francs (77 to 97 cents) a day. In times of necessity the committee of management was empowered to reduce the payment of unmarried men, but not to a lower figure than 1 franc (19 cents) per day. Men whose unemployment was caused through serious misconduct or having ceased to work on account of strike, or who refused work without reasonable ground, or who were incapable of work because of accident, sickness or other causes, or who were in the army, could not claim unemployment pay. Unemployment for less than five consecutive days within three months gave no right to a payment. The committee of management was to consist of 9 members, 2 to be appointed by the municipal council and 7 chosen from the insured workingmen.

The experience at St. Gallen was, if anything, less favorable than at Bern. Great difficulty was found in inducing the workingmen to become insured. Those who did become insured were those receiving the smaller wages. The higher class of workingmen did not favor the plan. Various criticisms were made of the system; the management of the fund was criticised, and the whole experiment soon became so unsatisfactory that the bureau was closed June 30, 1897. In the course of its two years' existence the fund had received from the municipality 22,135.55 francs ($4,272.16) and from the Canton 6,000 francs ($1,158). Nevertheless, when the fund was closed there was still a deficit of 4,516.19 francs ($871.74). Doctor Schanz states that one-fourth of the workingmen of St. Gallen were never insured at all, and that of those who were insured 15.6 per cent were not entitled to make any claim on the fund, in most cases because their minimum period of premium payment had not expired.

The English Report on Agencies and Methods for Dealing with the Unemployed in Certain Foreign Countries, by Mr. D. F. Schloss (1904), speaking of the St. Gallen experiment, says:

One reason for the failure of this scheme is said to have been that the administration of the fund was made part of the business of the poor law department of the St. Gallen municipality, a fact which gave the scheme at once an outdoor relief complexion and added to the hostility of the better situated among the working classes. What is more, the officer in charge of the poor law department, though his work was thus greatly increased, received no extra pay for the performance of his duties in connection with the fund. * ** *

The manner in which the scheme was carried out appears to have been very defective. The rules governing the administration of the fund were not properly observed in actual practice. Thus, in the first year of the fund, men who had not fulfilled the requirement that they should have paid their premiums for an uninterrupted