l fictions and
contradictory judicial decisions shall we be able to work out toward
consistency in this matter. Another unfortunate result of this
difference is that accident compensation, being made peculiarly the
task of the employers, does not develop the spirit of responsibility
on the part of the workers and of cooeperation between them
and employers that other forms of insurance call forth, where
representatives of both parties sit together in the administration of
the system.

Sec. 15. #The compulsory principle#. Insurance must be general in its
application to all the persons within broad wage-earning classes,
and in order to be general it must necessarily be compulsory,
not voluntary, in its application. To leave any form of insurance
optional, or elective, with either employers or wage-workers, is to
fail of the main purpose in a large proportion of the individual cases
where it is most needed, and to increase the expense to those that are
included. Within a compulsory system, however, there should be given
wide opportunity for the voluntary principle by admitting to the
system others that are not compelled to insure, and to enable any
insured person to increase his paid-up, nonforfeitable insurance at
any time by extra payments made at times of unusually high wages, from
legacies, or from any other exceptional income.

Sec. 16. #State insurance and a unified system#. The state, through
the public insurance office, must ultimately be the sole agency for
insurance. Only in this way can the maximum of simplicity and economy
be attained. Of course, this calls for a better appreciation of expert
training, and a broader sentiment in favor of the merit system in the
public service than we yet have in America.

There should be a unification of various kinds of insurance in one
general plan and under one general administration for the whole state.
This should be done with full regard to the actuarial differences in
costs as among various kinds of insurance, various trades, various
establishments, and, to some extent, even the various individuals, so
as to ascertain the costs and to distribute them equitably.

Only in this way can provision be made for entire mobility of labor,
so that men may not be bound, as a condition for obtaining benefits,
to continue in the service of any one employer. To this end there
should be interstate comity and cooeperation, so that the insured could
at any time transfer his actuarial