BY R. M. JOHNSTON, I.S.O., F.S.S. 109 



Two chief arguments of all objections to old age 

 pensions are: — (1) That it adds additional cost to the 

 country, and (2) that it would destroy the existing habit 

 of thrift. 



1. THE DIFFICULTIES ARISING OUT OF AN 

 ALLEGED ADDITION TO THE COST OF THE 

 COUNTRY. 



The introduction of old age pensions for the reasons given 

 in the previous pages would entail no fresh or additional 

 cost to the country, or to breadwinners or taxpayers in the 

 aggregate. It would only distribute the existing pro- 

 vision for support and maintenance in a less humiliating 

 form, in a less costly manner, and in a more equitable and 

 effective way. It would relieve to some extent the un- 

 equal direct burden now imposed upon the willing, kind, 

 and conscientious ; and impose, indirectly by taxation, a 

 little more burden upon the selfish and unwilling who at 

 present to a large extent evade directly their rightful share 

 of burden. 



By the present haphazard provision it often happens that 

 the forward, hypocritical, and undeservinoj poor get more 

 than their fair share, while the unobtrusive, shrinking, but 

 deserving poor, get little or nothing. 



2. THE ALLEGEMENT WHICH ASSUMES THAT 

 OLD AGE PENSIONS WOULD HAVE THE 

 EFFECT OF TENDING TO DESTROY THE 

 EXISTING HABIT OP THRIFT. 



Thrift is a word that may mean many things. In a re- 

 ply to this objection, Mr. Frederick Rogers observes : — "To 

 many (thrift) it appears simply to mean the saving-up of 

 money, but that virtue (?) is not likely to flourish among 

 people who have no money to save. Mr. Charles Booth 

 showed in his evidence before the Commission on the 

 Aged Poor that two-fifths of the adult population of Eng- 

 land and Whales consist of agricultural labourers, unskilled 

 town workers, and women wage-earners, and that these 

 classes account for 80 per cent, of the paupers of our own 

 country, and that two out of every three who live to old age 

 have come to the Poor Law for assistance. Sir Robert 

 Giffen told the Labour Commission that there are one 

 million and three-quarters of adidt men in the United 

 Kingdom earning a pound a week or less. There are no 



