New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-26
COmpuIsi0n a
Prime Necessity

In applying the insurance principle in
The field of health insurance. conlpulsjon is
an absolute requisite to the attainment of
the desired end The necessity for con,nul
sion has been tersely stated by the secre-
tary of a State Federation Of Labor in these
words: "Health insurance must be compul-
sorry IL all the employers owning dirty fac
torres are to pay their share. 1t must be
compulsory if ali wage earncrs in need of
health insurance arc to receive its benefits
The experience with voluntary agencies of
insurance has taught the lesson that per
sons most in need Of insurance protection
either can not Will not avail themselves
IN any considerable number of any volun-
tary insurance device. The idea Of compul-
sion is naturally distasteful to the Amer
lean worker, and opposition to health in
surance has been aroused in some labor
circles on this account. But there can be
no reasonable or logical opposition to the
proposed form Of compulson when rightly
understood. In the field Of education the
compulsory principle has been applied to
protect society against the menace Of Hit
eracy; in the field Of sanitation it has been
applied as q protective measure against dis
ease in the field of social insurance it's
application is clearly justified as means
of protecting society against the burden of
accident, Sickness invalidity and depend
ency. Tie Of compulsion for such ends
cannot be fairly stigmatized as un-Amercan,
AS Professor Fisher puts it:
according to the logic of those now
shedding crocodile tears over health insur-
ancc We ought, in order to remain truly
American and truly free, to retain the prec-
ious liberties of our people to be illiteratc,
to be drunk, and to suffer accidents with
out Naturalization, as we'll as to be sick
without naturalization. In fact, if com
pulsory health insurance is tyranny, all la
Dor laws, all tenement laws, all health laws,
all pure food laws, even all laws, are tyr
amy. In fact, all laws are an interference
with some ones liberty, even laws against
vice and crime. It is the nature of the law
to restrict But it is by the compelling
hand OF the law that society secures liberia
ton from the evils of crime, vice, ignorance.
accidents, unemployment, invalidity and dis
ease"
The main objections to the programme of
health insurance, aside from the mistaken
be reduced to the contention that it would
encourage maingering and thus increase
the amount of the industrial time loss on
account Of Sickness Attention is called to
the fact that in European countries which
have adopted sickness insurance on large
scale the average number of days lost
through sickness has increased. We are
told that in Germany the average number
of days lost per insured person arose from
SO in 1885, when the sickness insurance
laws had just gone into effect, to 9.19 in
1915, and that in Austria the number in
creased from 79S in 1890 to 9.45 in 1918.
This rise in the sickness curve in Germany
and Austria has been interpreted as re-
11ecting "a growing tendency to malinger
and take advantage of the sick benefits
provided" This Interpretation is open to