OKRA 



OLD AGE PENSIONS 



Oklahoma City has a number of attractive 

 parks, with a combined area of nearly 1,400 

 acres. A boulevard thirty miles in extent en- 

 circles the city. Among the more prominent 

 buildings are the state Capitol, a Federal build- 

 ing, a Carnegie Library and a fine high school 

 building which cost $500,000. Here are the 

 university medical school, Epworth University 

 and several private schools. 



Oklahoma City is an important jobbing cen- 

 ter for a large agricultural and stock-growing 

 country. The principal trade is in cotton, 

 grain, live stock and fruit. Rich oil fields are 

 being developed in the vicinity. The industrial 

 establishments of the city include extensive 

 meat-packing plants whose annual output is 

 valued at $40,000,000, cottonseed oil mills and 

 cotton compresses, flour mills and feedmills, oil 

 refineries, poultry- and egg-packing plants, 

 cracker and soap factories, and printing and 

 publishing houses. 



When, in 1889, the district about Oklahoma 

 City was declared open for settlement (see 

 OKLAHOMA, subtitle Government and History), 

 a village was at once established on its site. 

 This was incorporated two years later as a 

 city, and in 1911 it became the state capital. 

 The commission form of government, providing 

 for five commissioners, was adopted by the 

 state in 1912. E.E.B. 



O'KRA, a plant cultivated chiefly for its 

 green pods, which are used to thicken and 

 flavor soup. The okra is a species of hibiscus 

 (which see), and is a native of the West In- 

 dies. In the southern part of the United 

 States, where it grows abundantly, it is known 

 variously as okra, gumbo, gombo, gobbo and 

 ochro. The plant is an annual and grows to 

 a height of from three to five feet, bearing 

 rounded, fine-lobed leaves and greenish-yellow 

 flowers. The pods, which grow three or four 

 inches long, are generally used when they are 

 young and tender, and may be eaten as a vege- 

 table as well as in soup. To insure good results 

 the seed should be planted about the middle of 

 May, and the young plants be kept free from 

 weeds. 



OLD AGE PENSIONS, regular payments to 

 assist men and women of advanced age in 

 order that they need not be dependent upon 

 relatives or upon charity or pass their declining 

 years in almshouses. The plan exists in a 

 number of countries and in many forms. 



The Compulsory System. Germany was the 

 first country to adopt a national pension. In 

 1854 miners were compelled by law to insure, 



and since 1891 each workman whose annual 

 wage does not exceed 2,000 marks (about $476) 

 has been obliged to set aside an amount rang- 

 ing from four to twelve cents a week, accord- 

 ing to his earnings. His employer must add 

 an equal sum, and after he reaches the age 

 of seventy he receives a yearly pension of from 

 110 to 230 marks ($26 to $55), of which the 

 government contributes fifty marks. Since 1911 

 teachers, musicians, actors and salaried work- 

 ers who receive less than 5,000 marks must 

 insure; their employers help, but the govern- 

 ment does not. A salaried man pays from 

 twenty cents to over three dollars a month, 

 and his pension, which begins when he is 

 sixty-five, may reach nearly $600. Austria es- 

 tablished in 1906 a similar system for workers 

 receiving salary; France, in 1910, for all work- 

 ers; and Sweden, in 1913, for the entire popula- 

 tion. 



Voluntary Contributing. Belgium, by its laws 

 of 1890 and later, adds liberally to the savings 

 of its citizens. The older they are, the more 

 encouragement they are given to provide for 

 a pension. Italy has followed the same policy 

 since 1898. 



Canadian Government Annuities resemble in 

 principle the Belgian and Italian systems, but 

 the only contribution of the government is 

 the expense of maintenance of the insurance 

 system. At first there was a greater contribu- 

 tion than at a later date, because the four 

 per cent interest which the government pays 

 was higher than the current rate of interest. 

 When the scheme was first inaugurated in 1908 

 a campaign of advertising lectures drew a few 

 thousand depositors, most of whom desired 

 annuities of less than $150. More recently 

 the system has been less popular. The advan- 

 tages claimed for the government annuities 

 over the policies of private companies, known 

 colloquially as "Yankee annuities," are that 

 they cannot be seized for debt and that they 

 are not forfeited if payments cease. 



Free Pensions. Nearly all the nations grant 

 pensions to government employees in their old 

 age, and in the United States many corpora- 

 tions pension those who have served them 

 long and faithfully. In a few countries this 

 principle is extended to all citizens. Denmark 

 gives an allowance to any man or women who 

 at the age of sixty has an insufficient income 

 but has not within the previous ten years re- 

 ceived help, has never been a criminal nor 

 shirked work. Each community bears half the 

 cost of its pensions, the nation the other half. 



