undertake the payment of the prescribed compensation himself. Or he may transfer his liability to an insurance company, provided the company deposit adequate security with the State Office. The State Insurance Office is under the management of directors appointed by the crown, and decides on all questions as to compensation; there is also a “Supervisory Board” of the State Office with joint representation of employers and workmen. There is an appeal from the State Office to Councils of Appeal, and from them to a National Board of Appeal.
Greece has a law of the 21st of February 1901, providing for compensation for accidents causing incapacity of more than four days’ duration to workmen in mines, quarries and smelting works. The employer is exclusively liable for such compensation and for medical expenses during Greece. the first three months; after that time he is liable for one-half, the other half being borne by a miners’ provident fund, supported by certain taxes on the properties affected, fines, &c.
By a law of the 5th of July 1901, Sweden adopted the principle of the personal liability of the employer for industrial accidents. The employer can, however, insure himself against liability in the Royal Insurance Institute. Compensation becomes payable after the expiration of sixty Sweden. days from the date of the accident.
Russia has a law which came into force on the 1st of January 1904. Under this law employers in certain specified industries are bound to indemnify workers for incapacity of more than three days’ duration due to injury arising out of their work. Employers are exempt from liability by Russia. insuring their workmen in insurance companies whose terms are not less favourable than those laid down by the law.
Belgium passed a law dealing with industrial accidents on the 24th of December 1903. It adopts the principle of the personal liability of the employer in certain specified Belgium. trades or industries. There is a power of extension to such other undertakings as may be declared dangerous by the Commission on Labour Accidents. Employers may exempt themselves from their liability by contracting for the payment of compensation by an insurance company approved by the government or by the National Savings and Pension Fund. Where an employer does not so contract, he must (with certain exemptions) contribute to a special insurance fund. The law of 1903 also established a permanent Commission on Labour Accidents.
Switzerland in 1899 adopted a law providing for accident insurance, but it was defeated on referendum in May 1900.Switzerland.
In the United States the law mainly depends on the doctrine of common employment, and the extent to which this doctrine is applied varies considerably in the different states, more particularly as to who are and who are not to be regarded as fellow-servants. The tendency, however, has been to increase the liability of the employer for the United States. negligence of a fellow-servant, and in the case of employment on railways many states have passed laws either modifying or abrogating the doctrine. Colorado, by a law of 1901, has entirely abrogated it; and Alabama, Massachusetts and New York have laws generally similar to the English act of 1880. But the greatest departure, due to the initiative of President Roosevelt, has been the passing by the Federal Congress of the laws of April 22 and May 30, 1908, one giving damages to injured employees of interstate carriers by railroad, and common carriers by railroad in Territories, the District of Columbia, the Canal Zone and other territory governed by Congress, and the other giving regular wages for not more than one year to injured employees of the U.S. government in arsenals, navy yards, construction work on rivers, harbours and fortifications, hazardous work in connexion with the Panama Canal or Reclamation Service, and in government manufacturing establishments. These national laws, which were intended to serve as an example to the states, specifically provided for employers’ liability and for the non-recognition of the doctrine of common employment.
Most of the British colonial states have adopted the principle of the English Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897, and the various colonial acts are closely modelled on the English act, with more or less important variations in detail. The New Zealand Act was passed in 1900, and amended British Colonies. in 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1905. The act of 1905 (No. 50) fixes the minimum compensation for total or partial disablement at £1 a week when the worker’s previous remuneration was not less than 30s. a week. South Australia passed a Workmen’s Compensation Act in 1900 and Western Australia one in 1902. New South Wales passed one in 1905, and British Columbia in 1902.
EMPOLI, a town of Tuscany, Italy, in the province of Florence,
from which it is 20 m. W. by S. by rail. Pop. (1901) 7005 (town);
20,301 (commune). It is situated 89 ft. above sea-level, to the
S. of the Arno. The principal church, the Collegiata, or Pieve
di S. Andrea, founded in 1093, still preserves the lower part of the
original arcaded façade in black, white and coloured marble.
The works of art which it once contained are most of them
preserved in a gallery close by. Some of the other churches
contain interesting works of art. The principal square is surrounded
by old houses with arcades. The painter Jacopo
Chimenti (Jacopo da Empoli), 1554–1640, was born here.
Empoli is on the main railway line from Florence to Pisa, and is
the point of divergence of a line to Siena.
EMPORIA, a city and the county-seat of Lyon county,
Kansas, U.S.A., on the Neosho river, about 60 m. S.W. of
Topeka. Pop. (1890) 7551; (1900) 8223, of whom 686 were
foreign-born and 663 were negroes; (1910 U.S. census) 9058.
It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé, and the
Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways. The city has a Carnegie
library, and is the seat of the state normal school and of the
College of Emporia (Presbyterian; 1883). Emporia’s industrial
interests are mainly centred in commerce with the surrounding
farming region; but there are small flour mills, machine shops,
foundries and other manufacturing establishments,—in 1905
the value of the factory product was $571,601. The municipality
owns and operates the water-works and the electric-lighting
plant. Emporia was settled in 1856 and was chartered as a city
in 1870. The Emporia Gazette, established in 1890, was purchased
in 1894 by William Allen White (b. 1868), a native of
Emporia, who took over the editorship and made a great stir in
1896 by his editorial entitled “What’s the matter with
Kansas?”; he also wrote several volumes of excellent short
stories, particularly The Court of Boyville (1889), Stratagems and
Spoils (1901) and In Our Town (1906).
EMPORIUM (a Latin adaptation of the Gr. ἐμπόριον, from
ἐν, in, and stem of πορεύεσθαι, to travel for purpose of trade)
a trade-centre such as a commercial city, to which buyers and
dealers resort for transaction of business from all parts of the
world. The word is often applied to a large shop.
EMPSON, SIR RICHARD (d. 1510), minister of Henry VII.,
king of England, was a son of Peter Empson, an influential
inhabitant of Towcester. Educated as a lawyer he soon attained
considerable success in his profession, and in 1491 was one of the
members of parliament for Northamptonshire and speaker of the
House of Commons. Early in the reign of Henry VII. he became
associated with Edmund Dudley (q.v.) in carrying out the king’s
rigorous and arbitrary system of taxation, and in consequence
he became very unpopular. Retaining the royal favour, however,
he was made a knight in 1504, and was soon high steward
of the university of Cambridge, and chancellor of the duchy of
Lancaster; but his official career ended with Henry’s death in
April 1509. Thrown into prison by order of the new king,
Henry VIII., he was charged, like Dudley, with the crime of
constructive treason, and was convicted at Northampton in
October 1509. His attainder by the parliament followed, and
he was beheaded on the 17th or 18th of August 1510. Empson
left, so far as is known, a family of two sons and four daughters,
and about 1513 his estates were restored to his elder son, Thomas.
See Francis Bacon, History of Henry VII., edited by J. R. Lumby (Cambridge, 1881); and J. S. Brewer, The Reign of Henry VIII., edited by J. Gairdner (London, 1884).
