(4) There remains finally the question of indemnity. As may well be imagined, during the discussion of the project of the socialization law as well as during the deliberations on the project of the Constitution, this question was very vigorously discussed. The Socialist parties wanted no allusion made to this question in the text of the law or that of the Constitution. The bourgeois parties demanded that at least in the case of complete socialization the state should be absolutely obliged to accord an indemnity. It was impossible to arrive at agreement. So that although the principle of indemnity was incorporated, it was left to the legislature, whenever it enacts a special law decreeing a socialization measure, to decide whether or not indemnity shall be accorded and to what extent. * * * * * In accordance with the above provisions a certain number of industries have been placed under the régime of collective ownership, where they are about to be transformed. For the coal, potash and iron industries the laws of March 23, of April 29, 1919, and the regulation of April 1, 1920, have chosen the system of collective ownership, properly so-called. That is to say, the industries of coal, potash and metallurgy, although to a very limited extent, have been organized into autonomous bodies, self-administering under the supervision of the Reich. As to electricity, the law of December 31, 1919, provides that electrical plants that have acquired a certain importance will become the property of the Reich, the latter, however, providing a suitable indemnity. The project of the law relative to municipalization, finally, provides that municipalities may, with the authorization of the Reich, transfer to the régime of collective ownership private industries that serve principally common local needs. Full authority is given the municipalities over all that concerns transportation, water, gas, cinematographs, theatres, burial, baths, etc. These enterprises may be either taken over entirely as the property of the municipalities, or be organized into autonomous bodies. In principle the municipality is required to indemnify in all such cases. It is impossible to examine here in full detail these or later laws. It is interesting, however, to devote several pages in describing in a very general way, in view of the great importance of the coal industry at the present time, the system into which it has been transformed. 3.--THE REGULATION OF THE COAL INDUSTRY.