[Footnote 1:  See above, ch. 20, sec. 1.]

[Footnote 2:  See ch. 23, secs. 5-7, on the old law of employer’s liability.]

[Footnote 3:  See Vol.  I, pp. 292-293.]

[Footnote 4:  See Vol.  I, p. 304.]

[Footnote 5:  See Vol.  I, pp. 293 and 303.]

[Footnote 6:  See above, ch. 12, sec. 2.]

[Footnote 7:  Great importance should not be attached to these figures for they contain errors resulting from the inexact notions of inexperienced enumerators as to what constitutes unemployment, and from the inclusion of all persons gainfully employed, whether self-employed or in professional, salaried, or wage-earning positions.]

[Footnote 8:  See Vol.  I, p. 207, on irregularity of employment as influencing wages, psychic income, and choice of employment.]

[Footnote 9:  On static, see Vol.  I, ch. 32; on the scarcity of labor, see Vol.  I, ch. 18, sec. 2 and references there; on value of services and wages see Vol.  I, ch. 18, especially sec. 3, and ch. 19, especially sec. 7.]

[Footnote 10:  See above, ch. 21, sec. 9 on the minimum wage.]

[Footnote 11:  See Vol.  I, p. 223, on friction in the adjustment of wages.]

[Footnote 12:  See above, ch. 10, secs. 6 and 7, on the industrial crisis.]

[Footnote 13:  See Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 159 (April, 1915). ]

[Footnote 14:  See above, ch. 8, secs. 6, 7; ch. 9, secs. 6, 8; ch. 10, secs. 14, 16; ch. 14, sec. 12. ]

CHAPTER 23

SOCIAL INSURANCE

Sec. 1.  Purpose and meaning of social insurance.  Sec. 2.  Increasing need of social insurance.  Sec. 3.  The new era of social insurance.  Sec. 4.  Features of social insurance.  Sec. 5.  Historical roots of accident insurance.  Sec. 6.  Development of compensation for accidents.  Sec. 7.  The compensation plan in America.  Sec. 8.  Standards for a compensation law.  Sec. 9.  Historical roots of sick-insurance.  Sec. 10.  Need of sick-insurance in America.  Sec. 11.  Old-age and invalidity pensions.  Sec. 12.  Unemployment insurance.  Sec. 13.  Need of ideals in social insurance.  Sec. 14.  Insurance rather than penalty.  Sec. 15.  The compulsory principle.  Sec. 16.  State insurance and a unified system.  Sec. 17.  The contributory principle.

Sec. 1. #Purpose and meaning of social insurance.# In importance surpassing at present any one of the various measures on behalf of the wage-earning class that have thus far been considered is the remarkable development now under way of plans and agencies to provide insurance for “the common man.”  Insurance means making some kind of provision out of present means, so as to reduce the injury and suffering that would result from a future mishap.  Usually, likewise, it implies uniting with others to distribute the expense fairly over all in the group.  Social