Sec. 6. #Development of compensation for accidents#.  In some countries of continental Europe, notably Germany and France, the law of employers’ liability was altered in favor of the worker early in the nineteenth century, so as to make compensation more usual and adequate.  Since 1885, especially, this liability has been much further extended in many countries and in various directions, and yet the laws of accident compensation still retain many features of the old liability laws and remain in their legal character somewhat apart from the other branches of social insurance.  Even in the newer type of “compensation” laws the indemnity paid by employers on account of accident is looked upon as commuted damages, but the old employers’ defenses, just named, are abolished or made more difficult to plead.  The new plan has the advantages of granting compensation by a schedule fixed in the law, insuring greater certainty, more adequate payments, greater ease of securing redress, and abolishing the cost of law suits.  Still, in most countries and in most states in America, the worker has the option of suing under the old law.  In some forty countries the principle of compensation by a prearranged schedule of rates has to some degree replaced that of litigation, and determination by a jury of the damages, in each separate case.  The insurance spoken of in relation to accidents is technically that which the employers may or must take to protect themselves against loss, not that which the workman has.

The situation as to compensation in a few leading countries is as
  follows, the dates given being those of important legislation.

  ACCIDENT INSURANCE

  Voluntary (as to employers insuring, but compulsory compensation).

  Great Britain, 1897, 1906, 1907.

  France, 1898, 1907, (compulsory for seamen, 1898, 1905).

  Denmark, 1898, 1908.

  Belgium, 1903, (voluntary except for miners).

  Compulsory insurance of their risks, by employers.

  Belgium, for miners, 1868.

  Germany, 1884, (in employers’ associations), 1887, 1900,
  1911 (voluntary for some classes).

  Austria, 1887 (as in Germany), 1894 (voluntary for some
  classes).

  Norway, 1894 (in a state central insurance office), 1896.

  Italy, 1898, 1904.

  Holland, 1901 (in the Royal Bank or in private companies).

  Sweden, 1901 (as in Norway).

Sec. 7. #The compensation plan in America#.  Under the practical operation of the law of employers’ liability in force in any American state until 1911, a very small proportion of the workers injured while at work were legally entitled to any indemnity, and a still smaller proportion could succeed in recovering any substantial amount.  Employers, and the accident companies with which employers insured, either compromised the claims for small amounts or fought bitterly in