NATIONAL INSURANCE IN GERMANY.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sr ,—Will you kindly forgive this intrusion ? In your issue of May 3rd appears an admirable article, signed " R. C. L.," and entitled " The Recoil from Social Policy." I am very anxious to learn whether an English translation of Dr. Ludwig Bernhard's book on "The Undesirable Results of German Social Legislation" (upon which that article is founded) has been published, and where it can be obtained. About thirty-five years ago I secured, through our Ambassador at Berlin, a copy of the Statistical and Mathematical Memo- randum upon which the German law against invalidity and old age was based. This I translated, and thus happened to be the first who introduced to our public a complete exposi- tion of that law. In my paper I ventured to predict certain unhappy consequences which that legislation would inevitably produce, and seeing that Dr. Bernhard's book appears (from the extracts in the article) to confirm those predictions, I am naturally very desirous of studying it in fulL Especially is the circulation in English of the contents of that book most important at this stage, when (speaking as an old-fashioned Liberal) we are misled by an ignorant and pretentious Chancellor of the Exchequer like Mr. Lloyd George, the insignificant creature in the big chair of Gladstone.—I am,
(Late President of the Institute of Actuaries).
108 Evering Road, Stoke Newington, N.
[The name of the publisher of " Unerwiinschte Folgen der deutschen Sozialpolitik" is Julius Springer, of Berlin, W., Linkstrasse, 23. The book has not been translated into English. It is a very special and detailed work, and assumes in the reader a great deal of knowledge of German legisla- tion, &c.—ED. Spectator.]
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