506 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



(2) that if the employee is disabled permanently through illness or acci- 

 dent before he arrives at the retiring age, he shall receive a proportional 

 pension; (3) that if the employee dies before arriving at the age of re- 

 tirement, his estate shall receive his contributions, with interest ; (4) that 

 if the employee retires, but dies before the total of his pension receipt 

 equals the total of his contributions, his estate shall receive the differ- 

 ence, with interest. 



The difficulties of maintaining a non-contributory pension system 

 for a very large class of beneficiaries are also serious. No such system 

 has been in existence long enough to afford much useful experience, and 

 the estimates of experts are so affected by the lengthening of life in 

 civilized countries, by the unforeseeable growth of the class to come 

 under the pension system, and by that curious tendency for the average 

 age in a community or a class to rise as the community or the class 

 grows, that such a pension fund is liable to sudden and unexpected 

 strains unless there are provisions for its increase from some large 

 source — for example, government appropriations, or a supporting fund. 



The difficulties of either of these systems are not insuperable. The 

 doctrine of law which protects the contributor to a pension fund protects 

 him only against what the law regards as arbitrary action and is difficult 

 chiefly because it requires the management of the fund to proceed in all 

 cases with a regard for legal precedent which laymen are apt to regard 

 as excessive and which at times interferes with efficient management. 

 If, however, justice and the necessary procedure of the law are adhered 

 to, the compulsory contributory feature need not cause embarrassment. 



The objection to the non-contributory scheme may be also obviated 

 by economy, by a careful study of the laws of vital statistics of the class 

 affected, by the general observance of just and fair management with 

 the funds at the disposal of the managing agency and by the coopera- 

 tion of beneficiaries themselves. 



The practical question which faces those who are considering pension 

 systems is, therefore, the relative advantages of the compulsory con- 

 tributive type and of the non-contributory type. Both of these are 

 immensely preferable to the unfair and inhumane system which they 

 are intended to displace. Secretary MacVeagh has most clearly pointed 

 out that, except with employers of peculiar hardness, all governments 

 and institutions conduct their operations really on an imperfect pension 

 system. The secretary writes in his report for 1909 : " The service is 

 blocked in many instances by the unwillingness of the officials in charge 

 to throw out of place worthy men and women who have given the best 

 of their lives to the work of the government. So that, in a very imper- 

 fect and wholly unsatisfactory manner, a pension system is, and long 

 has been, in operation." Every college officer appreciates the fact that 

 the colleges are also maintaining, in this imperfect sense, a pension 



