Statistics in Social Insurance

In social insurance statistics have two broad and closely related functions. They are, using the expression in its broadest sense to include the entire purview of management, essential as administrative tools. Also and at the same time they provide a convenient and convincing method of education. For the administrative use executives have often no worthwhile substitute and as time goes on refinement of statistical method and the inevitable competitive pressure of other demands on public funds will both permit and encourage them to lean more and more on control through statistics. The educative use of statistics is not limited to indicating the importance of passing new laws and setting up new systems. Almost the contrary. The highest standards of public service imply not only routine administration but continuous consistent reexamination of a system in the light of its postulates. Because of the scope of this paper and because in practice they merge and interact, the educational and administrative uses of social insurance statistics in the following discussion will generally be considered together. Workmen's Compensation Statistics-We have in this country our longest experience and-in terms of our opportunities-our greatest statistical failures in the field of workmen's compensation. Workmen's compensation statistics, for those who look forward to other social insurances, are at once a warning and a consolation. They illustrate in broad terms what we ought to avoid. They hearten us by showing how much can be done under the inevitable handicaps of federated government. The administrative uses of workmen's compensation statistics are principally: to prevent or minimize industrial injuries, to secure efficient treatment of claims, to assure speed and certainty of compensation payments including assurance of accuracy of rates and of reserves. In a going system the principal sources of statistics are naturally found within the system. Workmen 's compensation (except for longshoremen and harbor workers) is in this country almost exclusively a matter of state concern, and the standards of statistical information in this field vary widely. State labor departments and accident boards provide information on such matters as accident numbers and rates, delay in payments, 221