The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1911. SOCIAL INSURANCE.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13339, 30 March 1911, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 1911. SOCIAL INSURANCE.

A big step forward in the way of humanitarian legislation was made last session when the Government passed the National Prov'dent Act, ensuring pensions for old age and for those members of society on whom, accident u or misfortune may fall, in view of New Zealand’s experiment in the direction of social insurance, the efforts of older countries in a similar direction should be interesting and instructive. The Commonwealth Statistician (Mr Knibbs) has for some time been making inquiries abroad concerning the subject, and the result of his observations is embraced in a report which \h« has presented to the Federal Ministry. Mr Knibbs notes that the term “Social Insurance” is ordinarily employed to embrace insurance of workmen' against sickness, accident, death, old age, and other adversity; and to meet these he found a number of schemes, varying somewhat in detail, hut all based on the same underlying principle of self-help with greater or less State regulation and contribution to a common fund. Regarded from the. moral or the economic aspect, therefore. Social Insurance is the most distinct success which has hitherto been achieved by the principle of the systematic regulation by the community of the personal circumstances of the individual; and! it-seems to point the way to a development of social ideas capable in time to come 6f the' most beneficent and utilitarian expansion. In Denmark and Sweden,

in Holland and Austria, and ilia more restricted sense a few Swiss towns such as Zurich, insurance against the varying vicissitudes of life, from accident to unemployment and want arising from old age or death of the bread-winner, tads expression according to the particular local needs and ideals.

But it is to Germany that the inquirer (urns most naturally because of the perfection and comprehensiveness of its systems. The Germans get right back to the beginning of things. They commence with the schools and the technical education institutions, believing that a youth well-equipped for bis calling in life will be least likely to inquire Stats aid in after years: that, the full expression of his individuality and the thrift it. entails will enable him and those dependent on him to escape or provide against the ordinary vicissitudes of life. Every artificer, mechanic, and worker is taught and classified, and it goes ill with the confirmed loafer whoso hardest task seen consists in dodging the stringent regulations with which ho is hedged, and which make honest employment preferable to compulsory tasks of an exacting and somi-penal nature. And just as in New Zealand our industrial legislation is designedly built on existing trade, unions, so, in Germany, the systems of sickness, accident, and unemployment insurance are based on the old-time “Pirdtli Guilds” of the Fatherland called the “Innung.” The system dates back thirty years, when Bismarck and the old Kaiser declared for “organised self-help by means of co-operative associations under State protection and State care," the development of the local organisms dating back many centuries. In other words, it ■ gave to tlie German people a revival in modern form of the ancient Teutonic communal life. The communes were invested with educational and industrial authority, and to each was left the administration and expenditure of its own funds, with the State contributions for employment and unemployment purposes, the whole of the communes being ultimately linked up into one homogeneous and smooth-working system with the State as head and front. Dr. Zachcr, in his official bulletin, records the triple system of sickness, accident, and old age insurance which are comprehended in the Social Insurance policy of the Empire. “In the first named,” he says, "the insured are classed in corporate associations whose members belong to the same trade or, calling where the risk of sickness is alike, f.nd the organisation greatly facilitates self-administration.” “The Accident assurance,” he proceeds, “is under the guarantee of the Empire, on the mutual system by the employers and employees united in trade associations, which emir race the different branches of industry cither in certain districts or in the whole Empire-. They enjoy perfect self-adminis-tration and may decentralise by forming ‘sections.’ ” And finally, “the Invalidity and Old-age pensions system is on trusted under Imperial guarantee to special insurance institutions whose districts coincide with the communes.” No undue burden is thrown either on the masters or the workers, while the communal spirit promotes the most harmonious relations in each. ;Tt forms,” he adds, “a complete organisation, resulting in the formation of a new working men’s code, which, in the inevitable fluctuations of modern industrial life, afford to all those in genuine need of assistance a welcome aid without destroying their, self-respect; and in its further development it is beginning to exorcise a profound influence on the economic and social conditions of the working people, and indeed on the entire nation. Mr Knibbs expresses the view that, as regards the actual system to be adopted in Australia for this purpose, it might best follow the German scheme; though he foresees difficulties in framing a general scheme to comprise all classes of employees in the Commonwealth. The prcferable-iinc of action, he considers, would be to confine it in the first instance to certain classes such as railway employees, miners and the like, regulated and controlled by a State Commissioner and staff. Noting the complexities and the widely differing Australian conditions he counsels the policy of hastening slowly, proceeding one step at a time and building on the experience gained rather than on any broad theory of what “plight to be.”