Excerpt from Compulsory Insurance in Germany: Including an Appendix Relating to Compulsory Insurance in Other Countries in Europe It has been found necessary in giving an account of the origin and history of the acts which give effect to compulsory insurance legisla tion to trace separately three quite distinct elements in this history First, the relation to social democracy; second, the relation to various forms of primitive insurance in the guilds; and third, to Show by a con crete example in the Harz mining region how this insurance worked among those Simpler conditions which furnish the real foundation to the entire later scheme. If the order in time is thus broken it is hoped that something more important - a clear and easy understanding of the history out of which the laws grew - will be gained by this method. If there seem too sharp a contrast between the final conclusions as to this German insurance and the many critical difficulties which are found with the working of the laws, it is offered in explanation that such difficulties, to a considerable extent, concern the present actual results of a confessedly imperfect organization. A fair criticism will not only deal with the actual achievement of a new and complicated body of laws, but will also take account of what may be accomplished under such laws when adequate experience has been gained to Simplify them and adapt them to their end. Fair criticism will, in a word, take account of reasonable possibilities that promise, under such laws, to be fulfilled. Again, much of the critical portion of the report is concerned with the direct rather than with the indirect influences and results of these laws. It is probable that the indirect educational as well as moral results will prove of greater value than the merely material ones, just as it seems clear that other nations may be incalculably aided in their social experiments by this German experience - possibly not less in its failures than in its successes. As such a report as this must have at least some possible relation to a future consideration of this problem of state insurance in the United States, it seemed better that the weaknesses and difficulties should be brought into clear relief. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.