Page:Economic Development in Denmark Before and During the World War.djvu/47

 of accidents, for it enjoined on employers organized in large mutual vocational societies (Berufsgenossenschaften) to pay compensations to men injured at work or to their surviving families in case of fatal accidents. Finally, in 1889, the complicated old-age and invalid insurance was introduced by the so-called Klebegesetz, which entitled wage-earners and office-workers with low salaries to insurance in case of invalidity or on the completion of their seventieth year. The payment was regulated by means of stamps affixed to receipt cards, one-half to be paid by the insured and one-half by his employer; moreover, the government was to add a contribution of fifty marks a year to each pension. In 1911 the whole system, which was somewhat extended and improved during the following years, underwent its last great change under the comprehensive Imperial Act, which brought about conformity between the regulations concerning workmen's insurance and the attempt to establish widows' funds. But no steps were taken toward the solution of the great and difficult problem of unemployment insurance.

In this way the road was opened for compulsory insurance in Germany, and it is not surprising that a similar movement was initiated in Denmark. The results gradually achieved in this country, however, proved to be of an essentially different character, and the fact is that we may boast of having introduced a system which is in many ways far simpler and yet very effective. If the country had not been so small, it would undoubtedly have been overrun by committees from all over the world appointed to study our system, which in certain points has indeed served as a basis for other countries to work on.

The Commission of 1885 and the Development of Social Insurance

In 1885 a second Workmen's Commission was appointed in Denmark which had a more limited task than that of 1875. Its original aim was to formulate a proposal for an 