THE HON. W. PEMBER REEVES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13378, 20 March 1909, Page 2

THE HON. W. PEMBER REEVES.

v BEGINNING OF NEW DUTIES.

LECTI'RE ON OLD AGE PENSIONS. (FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, February 3. The lecture room of tho London School of Economics was too small to accommodate tlie numbers who assembled on Tuesday evening to hear the Hon. \Y. l'cmber Reeves deliver, as Director of the School, his opening lecture on Old A_e Pensions. Among those present were Mrs Reeves, a large number of economic .students, as well as several Japanese gentlemen.

.Mr Rec-vcs, who was warmly received, said if they were to fjo into tho subject of old ago pensions in the full and proper of the form they would have to travel much widvr, and at a much greater pace t-'han was possible in the course of lectures. Ho would confine himself to State pensions for the poor — deserving and otherwise. Tlie ideal pension—the pension of the SociaJist, the universal State free pension—that remained an ideal and a dream. And for financial reasons it was likely to remain so —-at any rate in the time of tho "present generation. Tlie idea of old age pensions was not new. It was indicated in "Gulliver's Travels;" it was adumbrated in the 18th and tho early part of the 19th centuries. But for business purposes ho would start with t'ho first important laws passed for subsidising the encouragement of provision for old age by a voluntary thrift. Tho principal instances and the most useful of these- wore to be found in Belgium, France and Germany. Neither Belgium nor France had ' covered the ground. Passing on to tho German system, which ho described as a very gigantic experiment indeed —it was a gigantic triple insurance against the accidents and ills that affected the workers' life—Mr Reeves said tho total sum paid out and spent in twenty-six years amounted to some'3oo millions sterling, and the people who had benefited must be between seventy and eighty millions from first to last, while those affected v.'ould probably number 2o millions yearly. Most Britishers wero strongly prejudiced against a compulsory contributory system, and most prejudiced in favour of free State pensions. But, on the whole, tho German system had done beneficent work. The number of pensions in force on the Ist January, inDT, was 902,000, and the number at the end of tho year was 979,000. It must be admitted that a law which provided pensions for nearly one mi'Hion people, a.s against- 600,000 people under the Ennli-.li State system, was a bi'j; thing. The cla.-:s compulsori.lv insured under this law was, roughly speaking, wage-earners and workers earnins less than £100 a year.

These not inclueled wero "tramps, loafers, occasional workers, as well as persons entitled to brelinary public pensions."' He did not desire to reflect on the latter class by bracketing them with the former. (Laughter.) In order that the system might not press too harshly on tho workers, they were graded into five grades, which" must contribute according to its grade. The lowest class were people earning less than £17 10s a year. He would not say whether he thought it a humane thing to make people earning loss than that contribute at all. Tho fact was that they did, and the contribution worked out at about id a week, supplemented by equal amounts from the employer. In the top class the contribution was 4.32 d. the workmen paying 2id. Apparently no sort of mercy or special leniency was .shown to married pe-oplo with families, whereas it might be possible for a single man or woman to contribute these small sums out of wages without great inconvenience. He thought it would stick in the gizzarel of most Englishmen to make married people struggling along with less than £1 a week contribute compulsorily to anything at all. Then there was no doubt the lot of the widow and children was ono of the blots on the German system. But tho old ago pensions were, after all, strictly speaking only a minor part of the provision made for elderly people. Really the main provision was made under the head cf infirmity and invalidity pensions because a man had not to wait in Germany until he was seventy. After he had subscribed for four years, if ho broke down he was entit'-eei to a pension and that was the most liberal thing under the German system.

Mr Reeves then spoke highly of the sanatoria where the workers had the most scientific treatment that Germany could give. But a woman who married and raised up a family did not benefit by the system. He thought such a one so far from being disqualified, should bo benefited for what she had done lor her country. ("Hear, hear," from several lady students.) If the German pension system had been established with a view to killing Socalism with kindness, then it had failed. It had not hindered the growth of trades unionism, nor had it prevented disputes between capital ami labour. But it might have had some effect in steadying German workers and keeping them iv their native country, tor emigration from Germ-iny had declined in an extraordinary way in the last quarter of a century, although the main cause had been the extraordinary development of Germany since she had had free trade within and protection against competition from outside. He did not think any human being could deny that the German system was doing enormous good and had been justified by results. (Applause.)

At the close Mr Reeves wns thanked for his interesting lecture by several of those present, some Japanese students in particular expressing the pleasure which Mr Reeves's lecture had given them.