to it, as transacted on its own account, only the relatively small part of its work which has to do with the assurance of a sum at death. Would not this, sooner or later, involve the supersession of the Friendly Society by some other agency? Subsidies to the Societies might be granted by way of augmenting the contributions of the members, or by adding to the benefits insured, or by granting a high rate of interest on the capital invested by the Societies in the public funds. Assuming that a subsidy of any kind ought to be granted to Friendly Societies, which is open to grave doubt, there is something to be said in favour of every one of these methods. That of direct contribution has the advantage of bringing home at once to the taxpayer the measure of the liability his representatives have undertaken on his behalf; that of additional benefit enables him to retain the contribution in his own possession, and to let it fructify there until the State wants it, when it will be exacted from him with its accumulations; that of preferential interest, presuming that the same high rate is maintained during the whole of the lives of the members, enables the Society to act upon actuarial calculations based on that rate, with full confidence in its ability to meet all claims upon it. The third form of association, that of partnership, implies that the State, jointly with the Societies, will undertake the fulfilment of the contracts made with the members; that, by enacting that membership shall be compulsory upon certain classes of the community, it will add to the number of persons constituting the Societies; and that, in return, it will have and exercise certain. powers of supervision and control over their management. The possibility of the State competing with the Friendly Societies was suggested above. A State Department might be organised independently, and the Societies left to continue their work in their own way, as has happened in the case of the Post Office and Trustee Savings Banks. Indeed, when it is considered that the Friendly Societies cannot possibly cover the whole ground, it would seem that some sort of separate State organisation would be unavoidable. The Friendly Societies do not in general admit a man who is above a certain age; they require some evidence that he is in good health, and not specially liable to attacks of sickness; they do not care to admit persons whose character and social qualities render them undesirable companions. But if insurance is to be made compulsory, all these classes must be provided for. The State surely would not, if it could, insist that the Friendly Societies should break with these excellent traditions of theirs. Must it not, therefore, create a machinery of its own for the purpose? At this point, the great actuarial difficulty of the whole question emerges. The tables of sickness recorded by Friendly Societies -Sutton's, Watson's, Neison's, etc.-are based upon the experience of selected lives, admitted to membership under the abovementioned restrictions. There is some reason to think that, even so, they are an underestimate of the real present liability: but in any case they must be quite inadequate as a measure of average or unselected lives, and still more as a measure of rejected lives. Assuming the practicability of enforcing compulsory membership, it might be possible to frame a table of sickness liability applicable to average lives: but it would be inequitable to claim contributions under such a table from the selected lives; and if the compulsion proved to be ineffectual, the attempt to do so would fail. The foregoing observations deal with the case where sickness insurance and invalidity insurance are held to be the same; but in some countries-notably in Germany—a distinction has been established between them. Invalidity is there defined to mean such a permanent condition of health as prevents a man earning more than a certain fraction of the normal wage he would otherwise have earned. Under sickness only temporary failures of health are included. In applying some such definition to British conditions, it is to be observed that the present practice of our Friendly Societies is to provide for invalidity as thus defined as well as for sickness. The ordinary arrangement is to grant full pay for a certain number of weeks, half pay for another like period, and quarter pay so long as the disability to work continues. By way of applying a rough discrimination, we may assume that the period of full pay represents the claim arising out of sickness as above defined, and the periods of half and quarter pay the claim arising out of invalidity. In individual cases, other proportions would apply, but that does not affect the principle. The State insurance, on this assumption, would take the place of the insurance of half and quarter pay, and would either relieve the Societies wholly of that liability, or would supplement the allowance made by the Societies. Here, again, therefore, we have the prospect of the State entering into competition with the Friendly Societies, and the questions arise whether the Societies will not virtually be restricted in their operations to the provision for temporary sickness, and whether those persons who have to contribute to the State fund will be willing to contribute also to the Societies? Will not the business of the Societies be thus greatly restricted? On the other hand, it is to be observed that if the provision of a State invalidity insurance should result in relieving the Societies of the burden of permanent sick pay which now rests upon them, it would be a material advantage to them. Our object in making these observations is not to advocate or to criticise any particular scheme, but merely to state a few of the problems which have to be solved before any scheme can be acceptable. E. BRABROOK REVIEWS (continued)— ... PAGE 577 585 578 86 Myer, Ernest A., Apprenticeship Law, with Precedents, &c.: a Practical ... ... Prato, Giuseppe, Le dogane interne nel secolo XX. Il mercantilismo Ricci, Umberto, Il Capitale. By C. V. Butler Saggio di un inchiesta sul Lavoro a domicilio in Milano. By C. V. Butler... 587 Sarkar, Jadunath, M.A., Professor, Patna College, Economics of British India. By T. Morison 424 Bd. II., Australien in Politik, Wirtschaft, and Kultur. By M. Epstein 442 Schreiner, Olive, Women and Labour. By Helen Bosanquet... Schullern, Dr. Hermann Ritter von, Grundzüge der Volkswirtschaftslehre, Ein Studienbehelf für Hochschüler. By M. Epstein By Sophy Sanger Small, Albion W., The Cameralists: the Pioneers of German Social Polity. Sombart, Prof. Werner, Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben. By M. Epstein 445 iz REVIEWS (continued)—- Swanson, William Walker, The Establishment of the National Banking The Effect of Protection on the Standard of Living in Germany. By Henry S. Furniss The intuence of Protection on Agriculture in Germany. By Henry 3. Furnis Ure, The Right Hon. A., M.P., Tariff Reform as a Method of Raising www Vouters, Henry, Le Petit Commerce contre les grands magasins à les coopéen. tives te consommation. By Sophy Sanger Vrooman, Cari 3. American Railway Problems. By W. T. Stephenaon Weare, B. L. Putnam. The Conflict of Colour. By J. 3. Furnivall Weber. Jr. adoif von. Der Kampf zwischen Kapital und Arbeit. Withers. Hartley, Stocks and shares. 3y Ellis T. Powell Yale, G. Tiny, in introduction to the Theory of statistica. 30 da NOTES AND MEMORANDA : Astley, Prof. W. The National Insurance Bill Part I-Chemni Barter. J. A., Factory Legislation 1 adia Bickertike, C. F., and rot. P. 7. sugeworth. fononoly under Prices Barnett-Hurst. A. H. and Laret Horwitz. The tenens of .311. fita Resmits Clark, Joseph, The Farmer is he's Cover, W. B., Lei Patrol ind Gide, Prof. Charles Consumers ikes a dance ina Serman, Prof. Edwin R keton, Prof. 0. D.. Le Canadian Tawney, Jeannette, Women and «Пат SPINOFITS Terment zemniŋurgent Milyard, 7., The Increases Male unit auner-m Wson, Bertram, The Economie Cetuation of the |