Between 1911 and 1921 the laws have been changed to some extent in their application to selected occupations in at least forty-three states and territories of continental United States, (covering all but five of the southeastern states, which are distinctly agricultural). Seventeen states had, in 1921, state Fig. 1, Chapter 24.—Workmen's compensation laws in U. S. and Canada, 1921. Adapted from the map published by the American Association for Labor Legislation.
insurance funds, and in six states (Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming) they were the only insurance agencies allowed. This remarkable develop ment has been largely actuated and guided by a compara tively small group of socially minded non-working-class citizens rather than by either employees or organized workers. It is an encouraging example of what can be done by skil ful methods, when conditions are ripe, in furthering righteous social legislation without the use of money or of corrupting influences. • § 8. Standards for a compensation law. The standards which, in detail, in one jurisdiction or another, have already been attained, and which are the provisional ideals now sought by reformers, may be briefly stated as follows. All employ ments should be included, although as yet there are various exceptions, such as farm labor and domestic service, employers, with but few employees (the number excepted being from one to five), and non-hazardous employments. Compensation should be granted for all injuries, suffered in the course of employment, that cause disability beyond a definite waiting period of from three to seven days. Compensation should in clude medical attendance for a limited period, and two thirds of the estimated loss of wages for disability, either total or partial, during its continuance ; and, in case of death, funeral expenses, and from one to two thirds of the estimated wages to the widow (or dependent widower) and children, or to other dependent relatives. To secure the full benefit of the plan it must be made the exclusive remedy, replacing entirely the old remedy of suits for negligence. The employer should
be required to insure his risk, and general sentiment is mov ing rapidly toward the plan of a state insurance bureau as the exclusive agency. For the administration of the system, an accident and insurance board should be created in each juris diction. Experience shows the importance of careful atten tion to numerous other details, and many amendments will be made as the needs become manifest in practice.
§ 9. Old-age and invalidity pensions. Insurance to pro vide pensions for old-age and permanent (partial or total) disability is in nature but an extension of the insurance against accident and sickness. In a relatively small num ber of cases accidents result in permanent disability, and it is both illogical and inhumane to limit, arbitrarily, the com pensation in such cases to a certain period, as two or three years, as is done in many compensation laws. The disability due to advancing years is in nature a chronic illness, in evitable, sooner or later, to all who survive. The movement to provide some indemnity in such cases has been rapid in European countries, doubtless because the problem was a very pressing one where the average earnings are low. In Ger many and Austria this development has been more in con nection with other forms of insurance; in Denmark, Great Britain, and France it has had more the aspect of an exten sion of poor relief. In the United States little has been done to provide for these great needs. Massachusetts in 1907 au thorized savings banks to sell insurance and old-age pensions to those who applied. An increasing number of corporations, especially railroads, are adopting a pension system for men growing old in their service; but nothing had been done of a general public nature toward compulsory and universal pro tection against these misfortunes until the enactment of the federal law, in 1920, establishing compulsory contributory old-age and invalidity insurance for the employees in the classified civil service, now half a million in number.
The following table shows the situation in some of the leading countries: