The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-09-12
INSURING The SOLDIER And
THE CITIZEN
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic j. Haskin,-Director.
Washington. ID. c.

Washington, Sept. 1.-THE bill
providing for a comprehensive system
of insurance for Uncle Sans fighters
before congress, is a part of world
wide tendency toward the care of the
individual by the state, which has been
greatly stimulated by the war.
This insurance plan will authorize
and enable the government to PROVIDE
a fund which, with the CONTRIBUTORS
from the fighting men themselves, WIN
keep their dependents safe rms
fund will compensate soldiers and sail
ors who are injured in the course OF
duty and will assist those who have
been disab led to learn new trades ana
otherwise help themselves. Finally II
will enable the government TO insure
the lives of its defenders on land and
sea, thus providing for their depend
ents in a quicker and much more ef-
| ficient way than could be done py the
payment of pensions.
Substituting Insurance for PENSIONS.
This gradual substitution of the in
surance principle for the pension idea
| in caring for those needy citizens for
whom the state acknowledges respon-
| sibility, is one of the significant social
| and economic developments OF our
age The modern state has come TO
realize that its own welfare is pound
M in the welfare of its individual cttl-
lzens. The greater the health, strength,
| and length of the individual, the pet
| ter the prospect for the nation, par
ticular1y in these days when nations
fight for existence in war and trade
of course there are ethical motives
underlying the social insurance
~movement-our modern social con-
science is a very sensitive one-but
| the principal actuating motives con-
/ Germ themselves with the conserVa-
| ton of men as workers and producers
| National, state and social insurance,
| that is to say, some sort of community
care for the Individual, has grown up
| in the countries of the old world as a
sort of scientific blend of three differ
| ent schemes of cooperative provisions
against risk; the pension. mutual aid
and the business of insurance.
The Pension System Old as Hills.
The practice of pensioning those
who had served the state or the SOW
ereign and had retired because of age
or any other incapacity is almost lit
orally as old as the hills. The kings
of Chaldea and the Pharaohs of Egypt
did it. The mutual aid society is even
older than the pension. Voluntary
aid has been a human habit ever since
the days of the cave man. Before his
tory was written there were burial
clubs. In the middle ages there were
the guilds Today we have the fra
ternal orders, all bearing testimony to
| the inclination of men to Club to-
gether'' for the purpose of aiding
themselves by helping their fellows
AS for commercial or actuarial insur-
ance, it is also of very ancient origin
Social insurance systems providing
against loss by death, sickness. acct
dent, unemployment, old age and
other impairment of capacity to work
are in working order in many coun-
tries of the world.
/ Compensation, or insurance for ac-
cident, has been established by law
generally turnout Europe, in many OF
the British colonies, as well as in most
of the states of the American Union
Compulsory old age insurance al
ready exists in Germany, France and
Luxembourg. Old age pensions are
provided by law in Denmark, Great
Britain, France, Austria, and New
Zealand. while in Italy, Belgium. Ser
bia and Spain there are state systems
of old age insurance voluntarily sub
sidized by the state.
Legislation for compulsory insur.
ance for illness has been introduced
in most of the large countries OF
Europe, including Germany. Austria.
Hungary, Norway, Great Britain, Ser
bia and Russia There is voluntary
sickness insurance subsidized by the
state in France, Belgium, Denmark
Sweden and Switzerland
Norway and Denmark have nation
! al unemployment insurance by means
, of insurance subsidies to workingnen'i
organizations. The idea and practic,
is spreading to many large European
l cities. Great Britain has recent,
: established the first compulsory un
employment insurance system on ;
national scale.
A national system of widows an,
? orphans pensions is being esta blishe,
and worked out in Germany.
Compensation for Workers Injuries
Within the lifetime of the presen
generation, most of the industrial
countries of the world have enactet
laws providing some compensation
for wage workers injured n tn
1 course OF their employment. AT frs
. it was customary to emphasize tn
= ployers' liability. This limited tn
s obligation of the man hiring other
7 to the expressed terms of the contract
:, that is, to the Specification of III
l damages" that could be recovered
n This has now given place to the NOR
s altruistic principle of "workingmen'
compensation" which sets down hu
man~injury as the wear and tear G
o the machinery and assesses the entir
= damage on the employer.
:. Great Britain and Germany hav
had an industrial development whic
has proceeded farther than that of an
q other nation. They have worked OF
social insurance methods and pre-
grams most cOInprenenSlVely, an
n their national systems are models {
n completeness.
If<the individual is secure from e1
ceptional risks he will be better abb
IT to meet the ordinary demands an
thus become a more efficient membe
! of the community. In Germany, whe1
social insurance is oldest, it is til
: opinion that, by freeing the workin
h classes from anxiety as to sickness, il
e trinity and accidents, their conditio
, of life has been materially bettere
u Labor and industry therefore tend I
IS become stabilized. From the emplo.
II ers' standpoint, the contributions mao
;s are admitted widely to be an excellel
investment. There is even official te
d timony to the fact that the great wa
1t has positively proven the benefit of tt
= national insurance system to the &C.
man masses.