employer. A test that is
sometimes applied is, who has the right to direct what shall be done
and when and how, and who has the right of general control. When,
therefore, one exercises an independent employment, selects his own
help and has the control of them, and the method of conducting the
work, he is an independent contractor. Again, he may change his
relation for a time, and become an employee, or he may be a contractor
for a part of his service and an employee for a part. Thus, one who
was injured while operating a launch to bring supplies to a dredge for
his employer was an employee and not an independent contractor, though
he was one in conducting the work of dredging. Likewise, a physician
who is employed on a salary by another physician, who in turn is
serving a manufactory, is an employee of the latter and not an
independent contractor, though he is still engaged to some extent in
his own private practice.

By the Federal act an employee must be "employed by the United States
to be entitled to its benefits." Thus, a plate printer in the bureau
of engraving and printing who is paid by the piece, and who bonds
himself and hires and pays his own help, also the owner of a power
boat chartered to the government and operated by the owner in its
service, are contractors, and not federal employees. A workman,
therefore, who is employed by a government contractor is not an
employee of the government. On the other hand, one who is employed and
carried on the pay rolls of the reclamation service, though working
for the contractor, is employed by the government, likewise, a workman
employed in the forest service who is working with others for county
supervisors who, in turn, are executing a contract with the
government.

As public officers are not employees within the meaning of the
compensation acts, they may be distinguished from others who are
employees. Unless the statute says so, a policeman is not an employee
of the city which he serves, but an officer holding a public trust. On
the other hand, a night policeman or marshal is an employee by the
Wisconsin law. Firemen and deputy sheriffs on a fee basis are officers
rather than employees.

The compensation acts secure compensation not only for injured
workmen, but should they die, to their dependents. Who then is a
dependent? "Dependency," says Honnold, "does not depend on an answer
to the question whether the alleged dependents could support
themselves withou