bank account.’ With an ordinary policy he might lose by being unable to continue paying premiums due to loss of his job, but with seguro popular he could deposit money whenever he wished; in the event of becoming incapacitated he withdrew the full amount of his contributions plus 6 percent interest; if he died before the date of policy payment his savings would go to his heirs; if he lived to old age he had a permamnet income.” A law of 10 November 1916 “provided that capital payments up to $5,000 and income up to $1,200 annually derived from seguro popular could not be attached.” However, “Seguro popular (really a deffered annuity with special clauses) failed to gain favour with the public and in 1936 there were less than 200 policies of that type outstanding.” Other highlights of Batlle’s reform program in 1912 included the division of the country into new military zones, creation of an institute of industrial chemistry, the promulgation of a law making the supply of electric light and power a country-wide state monopoly, a bill for suppressing bullfights, decreeing of a law of literary and artistic copyright, approval of an urbanization plan for the city of Montevideo, and the issuance of regulations for a school of nursing. Under a law of 21 October 1912, the State was given, through the Usinas Eléctricas del Estado, "a monopoly of the supply of electric light and power throughout the country." Labour benefited from this decision, with the first budget of Usinas Eléctricas providing for a general increase in wages "which was intended to bring the wage scale up to that of other public utilities and to offset the rising cost of living." A law of January 1913 authorized the issuance of a loan of 500,000 pesos destined for the purchase and division of land. With the promulgation of the law of 22 January 1913, the State began its direct action "which acquires or expropriates lands to sell them based on the mortgage credit to the settlers. In doing so, it seeks, undoubtedly, to eliminate by competition the colonizing companies that had little or no regard for the interests of the colonists, and that for the same reason — and especially due to the peremptory terms for repayment of the loan — led to failure to most colonizing attempts." The aforementioned law authorized the P.E. to issue a colonization loan