Yes James, in my opinion your diagnosis is right. However, improving social conditions was not necessarily a socialist idea, but most socialists were thinking in these lines. Deplorably, the original text is not available to me, but I know the central content of Adler's argument in these chapters. There was much to do in improving the social conditions in all the industrializing countries during this era. You may compare Adler's arguments with some of texts by Kafka. He was living and working in Prague during this period - a part of Austro-Hungarian Empire. He made his living in service of the National Insurance Company, and he traveled extensively in this country and reported about the social and working conditions in various industries. His reports are very impressive, because they are so accurate and truthful just like Adler's. I think that the picture I get from Kafka's reports makes a very similar impression as Adler's reports. Kafka makes a number of suggestions to improve the working conditions (=safety), even presenting some drawings in order to make his points more concrete. In his youth, Kafka was a member of an anarchistic organization that was forbidden by the authorities because its activities were anti-militaristic and socialistic. This organization had translated and published some writings by Kropotkin - Adler knew also these writings. "Arbeiter-Unfall-Versicherungsanstalt" made, however, during this time a very slow progress, but there were persons like Kafka who understood the social importance of making improvements. I think this example alone demonstrates how much Adler's arguments were in the spirit of the times, and how well Adler understood the challenge of the history. - Concerning your question about the apathy of the government, the central interest of the government was to keep "Ruhe und Ordnung" - peace and order (the words of the previous Emperor). I think you can read between my lines in the Kafka-commentary that the progress in industrial conditions was very slow. In addition, there was a kind of "therapeutic nihilism" among the medical profession. This attitude was known by this very term, and Adler comments on this somewhere. Yes, there was government apathy, but there was a professional apathy as well, a pessimism that conditions can hardly be improved.