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facts and handling them for the purposes of knowledge may be better or worse, more or less worthy or adequate, than the earlier; it may be of greater or less ceremonial or æsthetic effect; we may be moved to regret the incursion of underbred habits of thought into the scholar's domain. But all that is beside the present point. Under the stress of modern technological exigencies, men's every-day habits of thought are falling into the lines that in the sciences constitute the evolutionary method; and knowledge which proceeds on a higher, more archaic plane is becoming alien and meaningless to them. The social and political sciences must follow the drift, for they are already caught. in it. THORSTEIN VEBLEN.

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

THE FRENCH WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION

ACT.

THE radical departure in social legislation which found expression in the workingmen's compulsory insurance laws of Germany properly attracted the attention of students. of social reform throughout the world. Had the effect of this movement been confined within the boundaries of the German Empire, it would have been important to the foreign student chiefly as affording an interesting application of a new and striking method of social reform. Its rapid extension in other countries, however, has made it of great practical significance for every land. By far the most important result of this step on the part of the German government is the spread of its influence throughout Europe. Everywhere it has profoundly modified the whole current of thought regarding the solution of several of the most important questions affecting the welfare of the laboring classes.

It is difficult to mention another example where a new and radical form of social reform has gained ground with equal rapidity. Germany enacted her first compulsory insurance law in 1883. Not only has she persistently continued the elaboration of her system, but other nations have followed suit. Austria and Norway have no less unreservedly accepted the policy of compulsion, and the former country has organized a system for the compulsory insurance of workingmen against accidents and sickness scarcely less complete than that of Germany itself. In Italy, when the first proposal for a general system of workingmen's insurance was introduced in 1880, the idea of compulsion was summarily and almost unanimously rejected. Step by step, however, this position has been abandoned until the more recent propositions embody the

principle. In Switzerland the people, through the referendum, have pronounced overwhelmingly in favor of compulsion in some form or other; and it is only a question of time when a working system will be created. In England itself, that stronghold of individualism, the compensation of injured workingmen by their employers has now been made obligatory by the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1897. Now France, where the principle of compulsion has been fought with the greatest determination, has fallen into line, and by an act approved April 9, 1898, has made it obligatory upon employers in the principal industries to indemnify at their own expense all of their workingmen injured while in the performance of their duties.

In each of these countries the history of the efforts leading up to this result is of interest, but in none more so than in France. The enactment of the present law for the compulsory compensation of injured workingmen is the culmination of efforts which began as far back as 1880, and have been continuously put forth since that date. The record of this movement furnishes a typical example of the various phases through which the question has passed. It shows how, under constant discussion, the fundamental features of a problem are gradually made clear, and the principles of the solution proposed gradually changed as the conditions to be met are better understood. In following the experience of France, therefore, we are able at the same time to study an interesting example of the evolution of a social problem.

Prior to the modern movement for the insurance of workingmen against accidents the prevailing law in Europe was substantially that known as the common-law liability of employers. In France, in spite of the great transformation in the conditions under which industry is carried on, the law regarding this point was still that em

*The text of the English act is printed in this Journal for October, 1897.

bodied in Articles 1382-84 of the civil code of Napoleon enacted in 1804. Briefly stated, the provisions were that the employers were responsible to their employees only for those injuries which were the result of their (the employers') fault or the negligence of those directly representing them. The application of this principle meant that the employers were responsible only for the limited number of accidents that could be proved to have resulted from their negligence or wrong-doing. On the general

principles of law the whole burden of proving negligence rested upon the workingman making claims for damages. The workingman thus bore the hardships entailed by accidents due not only to his own fault, but of all the numer ous fortuitous accidents, of those caused by his fellowemployees and those whose occurrence, though resulting from the fault of the employer, could not be so legally proven.

It needs but this statement of the law to show its injustice under modern conditions. At the time the principle became definitely established as law, it fairly met the requirements of justice. The employee was then in intimate relations with his employer. Should an accident occur, it was an easy matter to determine the responsibility. The growth of production upon a large scale, however, changed all this. Under modern conditions the employee is often one of a thousand, working in a system of such complexity that it is frequently impossible to trace responsibility. Under the law, therefore, it was, with few exceptions, upon the employee that fell all the suffering caused by accidents. Leaving out of consideration the fact that the employer is better able to stand the financial burdens entailed by accidents, there was no more reason in equity why the employee should bear the consequences of accidents due to fortuitous occurrences and the acts of fellow-workingmen than the employer.

It has been necessary thus to state the character of the

prior legal provisions regarding accidents to laborers, in order to understand the full force of the demands made for their modification and the particular features which it was desired to change. The hardships that this régime entailed upon the workingmen became more and more marked as the development of the great industries went on. The most grievous injustice of the law was felt to be that provision which, in any attempt to recover damages, threw the burden of proof upon the employee. The first effort of reform, therefore, was directed to the modification of this feature. It was sought to accomplish what was called the inversion of proof (renversement de la preuve); that is, it was desired so to change the law that employers would be presumed to be responsible for all accidents unless they could prove that they had taken all needful precautions and were in no way to blame.

This movement led to a whole series of proposed laws, the first of which was that of M. Nadaud, introduced May 29, 1880. During the succeeding seven years no less than fifteen bills concerning this point were introduced in the French Parliament. This period constitutes the first phase of the evolution through which the question passed.

In the mean time Germany had entered upon her radical system of compulsory insurance. It was now recognized that the change of the law regarding the burden of proof represented but a slight measure of reform. The extensive study given to the subject brought out the fact that a large proportion of accidents were due to occurrences practically beyond human control, or at least to causes the responsibility for which could not be traced. To the two classes of accidents due to the fault of the employer and of the employee there was therefore added a third class, those due to the industry itself. As statistics began to be collected, it appeared that less than 12 per cent. of accidents could be attributed to the di

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