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EVEN more than most legally created institutions, unemployment compensation as it now exists in the United States is an historical product rather than a logical conception. The enactment of the original laws was the result of many compromises. Since then they have been changed frequently and in many respects without following any set patterns. There never has been agreement as to the purpose of unemployment compensation or its basic principles. Differences of opinion among the champions of the institution are so extreme as to disrupt lifelong friendships and to provoke more heat than light in discussions. Unemployment compensation differs so much from state to state that there is a large element of truth in the claim that there is no such thing as an American unemployment compensation system. It is not now and never has been entirely satisfactory to any of the specialists in this field nor to any element in our complex society. Even during a period of rising employment, its limitations and inadequacies have become very apparent. Very certainly, it will not protect us from another depression nor afford an adequate safeguard against its worst consequences.Yet unemployment compensation has not proved a failure. After twenty years of discussion before the first state enacted an unemployment compensation law and three more years before the second law was passed, the next two years witnessed enactment of such legislation in literally every state. Since then eight years have elapsed, during which unemployment compensation has been improved in many respects. Benefits have been very distinctly liberalized and, while still inadequate, are mucl better than the actuaries considered to be within the realm of possibility when the laws were enacted. Much larger reserves have been accumulated than were expected. Both these results are primarily attributable to very favorable employment conditions, but are likely to prove of greatest value now that the war has ended and we are confronted with reconversion unemployment. While there has been much distrust and a great deal of friction between the state and federal officials concerned with unemployment compensation, its administration has been quite satisfactory and not very costly. Unemployment compensation has truly become an

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