SP ECTATOR SUMMARY. (Week ending 6th March.)

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 102, 1 May 1909, Page 12

SP ECTATOR SUMMARY. (Week ending 6th March.)

THE LATE PRESIDENT. We cannot pass over the retirement of Mr. Roosevelt without adding a few words in review of his remarkable presidency, and as a token of very warm admiration for him as a man. He will , always be remembered as the President who "was responsible for the tone of that transition period in which the United States passed from her old circumstances of detachment into the larger business of the politics of the world. And he has secured that her influence should not only be one of the most powerful influences in existence, but that it should be employed consistently in just and righteous causes. If Mr. Roosevelt wants his country to be strongly armed, it is because it increases her power to defend the right. That is what strikes us chiefly about his relation during the past seven years to other countries. But the same passion for high-principled conduct has distinguished nis career as Chief Magistrate of the American people. He has assumed that public life can have as high an ethical standard as private life, and that every failure to keep it up to that standard is an ignoble declension. He has made bitter enemies as well as countless friends. Pa"? t of the criticism of his methods may be true. It matters little. What we do know, beyond fear of dispute, is that he has shown a consistent, wholesome, and absolutely fearless character ; that he has done much to purify and elevate his country ; and that every one who speaks the English tongue will wish that he may live long to render the world new services. OLD-AGE PENSIONS. The administration of the Old-Age Pensions Act was discussed in committee on Monday on the motion of Mr Fell, who charged the Government with lack of foresight, and called attention to the anomalies revealed by Lhe Irish statistics. These criticisms, endorsed by Mr. Davies from the Ministerial benches, were resented by Mr. Gwynn and other Nationalist members, who contended that the census returns were untrustworthy, and that there was no ground to doubt the good faith of the claims. After Mr. Snowden had condemned the Board of Inland Revenue for its tyrannical and unjust action towards pension officers, Mr Lloyd George replied to these criticisms at length. Dealing with their alleged want of foresight, he declared that the only miscalculation was that they had underestimated the popularity of the pensions. But he could not accept Mr. Gwynn's defence of the Irish figures as conclusive. A case for enquiry had been made out, and the investigations so far justified the belief that a good many of those whose claims had been acknowledged were not entitled to pensions. He described the exertions and sympathy of the pension officers as beyond all praise, and noted, in reply to Mr. Snowden, that they W-ere to get £40,000 in gratuities, or about £20 each. Mr. Lloyd George enlarged in eloquent terms on the appalling amount of undisclosed poverty, especially in Ireland, brought to the notice of the pension officers. If the scheme had cost more money than the Government anticipated, the greatness of the cost showed the depth of. the need.' Mr. Balfoor, while applauding the compassionate tone of Mr. Lloyd George's peroration, pronoußced his speech unsatisfactory- The BiU was for persons over seventy, and did nothing to relieve the sufferings and privations endured by many others who had no refuge but the infirmary or workhouse, and were thus disqualified for pensions. Mr. Balfour dwelt on the demoralising effect of permitting fraudulent claims w> be made, and regretted «iat the Chancellor of the Exchequer should have seemed to palliate wbat was going on in IreJand. Mr. Brrrell deprecated this censure, and entered a caveat against the formation, of a hasty judgment before the result of the enquiries was made known. Mr". Pell's amendment having been withdrawn, the vote for the Supplementary Estimate £910,000, was agreed to.