and “shall be reimbursed in such and such a way,” to read, “every German.”  There is something ideal in this change.  If one thinks of it more seriously, however, and especially if one plans to include also the independent workmen, who meet with an accident at no one’s behest but their own, the question of insurance is even more difficult.  No two hours’ speech of any representative can give us so much concern as this problem has given us:  “How far is it possible to extend this law without creating at the very start an unfavorable condition, or reaching out too far and thus overreaching ourselves?” As a farmer I was tempted to ask, whether it would be possible to extend the insurance, for instance, also to the farmhands, who constitute the majority of the workingmen in our eastern provinces.  I shall not give up hope that this may be possible, but there are difficulties, which for the time being have prevented us from doing this; and concerning these I wish to say a few words.

The farming industry, in so far as it has to do with machinery and elemental forces, is, of course, not excluded from the law.  But the remaining great majority of the country population also comes in frequent contact with machines, although these are set in motion not by elemental forces, but by horses or fellow-laborers.  Such occupations are often dangerous and unwholesome, but it is exceedingly difficult to gather statistics and percentages, and to define the necessary amount of contributions to an insurance fund.  The representative Mr. Richter knows, apparently from experience, the proper percentage in every branch of human occupation, for he has quoted his figures with much assurance.  I should be grateful to him if he would mention also the source of his valuable information.  We have done the best we could.  The preliminary drafts of the bill were based on carefully selected facts—­notice please, selected facts, and not arbitrary statistics based on conjecture.  If we had discovered those figures, which the quicker eye of the honorable Mr. Richter seems to have detected at a glance, and if we had believed them to be accurate, we should have gone further in this bill.

When I say that I do not give up hope that the farming industry may yet be included, I am thinking of an organization which cannot be created at one session of the Reichstag.  Like the child which must be small if it is to be born at all, and which gradually assumes its proper proportions by growth, so also this organization will have to develop gradually.  Eventually the various branches of industry which have insured their laborers should be formed into incorporated associations, and each association should raise among its own members the premiums needed for the proper insurance of its laborers.  It should at the same time exercise supervision over its members to the extent that the dues should be as low as possible.  Or, to put it differently, the personal interest of the contributing members should see to it that adequate means for the prevention of accidents are adopted.  If this can be accomplished by a gradual advance based on experience, we may also hope to find, by experience, the proper percentage as regards that branch of farming which does not employ elemental forces.