NA TURE 



545 



THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1921. 



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American and British Superannuation 

 Systems. 



THE fifteenth annual report of the president 

 and of the treasurer of the Carnegie 

 Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching- pro- 

 vides some interesting reading, particularly with 

 regard to the pension system in operation in the 

 universities and colleges of the United States. 

 The work of the Foundation falls into three parts : 

 (i) the completion and liquidation of the old 

 system of full-paid pensions ; (2) the development 

 of the contractual forms of insurance and of old- 

 age annuities through the policies of the Teachers' 

 Insurance and Annuity Association; and (3) the 

 prosecution of significant studies and reports 

 through the Division of Educational Inquiry. The 

 last-named constitutes an important and active 

 branch of the Foundation, with an income derived 

 from the investment of a capital of one and a 

 quarter million dollars. Its most recent inquiries 

 relate to the subjects of legal education and the 

 training of teachers. As a result, " A Study of 

 the Training of Teachers for the Public Schools " 

 has recently been published, and there is promised 

 in the immediate future the first section of a 

 "Study of Legal Education." Without doubt, such 

 inquiries form an increasingly valuable feature of 

 the work of the Foundation. 



On the other hand, it is to be noted that the 

 trustees administer a total sum of almost twenty- 

 five million dollars, the income from which is at 

 present mainly devoted to superannuation pur- 

 poses. For the year ending June 30, 1920, the sum 

 NO. 2696, VOL. 107] 



of 875>5i4 dollars was granted in retiring allow- 

 ances to administrative officers and teachers or 

 their widows in certain of the colleges and uni- 

 versities in America. As is well known, the gift 

 was intended primarily to establish retiring allow- 

 ances for teachers in the higher institutions of 

 learning in the United States, Canada, and New- 

 foundland. The income was, however, quite in- 

 sufficient to provide for all these, and at present 

 the pension obligations of the Foundation are 

 confined to some five or six thousand teachers and 

 administrative officers who were in the service of 

 institutions associated with the Carnegie Founda- 

 tion on November 17, 191 5. As the income is 

 released, it will be devoted to the advancement 

 of teaching in American colleges and universities. 

 With regard to the officers and teachers who 

 do not participate in these pensions — the large 

 majority — the trustees have promoted a contractual 

 plan of old-age annuities, and some fifty pages 

 of the report give an account of its progress and 

 development. In brief, it is a contributory system 

 of deferred annuities which will gradually super- 

 sede the previous non-contributory pension 

 scheme. It is intended that the teacher should 

 contribute 5 per cent, of his salary, and the in- 

 stitutions a like sum, the combined premium to 

 be paid to the Teachers' Insurance and Annuity 

 Association and to become the property of the 

 association. In exchange the teacher will receive 

 an annuity policy — a contract which guarantees 

 that in case he dies before the stated age a sum 

 equal to the premiums with interest will be paid 

 to his dependents, and that in case he lives to the 

 stated age a selected annuity of equivalent value 

 will be paid. It will be observed that insurance 

 is considered a responsibility of the teacher alone. 

 The success of the scheme so far may be 

 measured by the fact that the association, which 

 began the issuing of contracts in March, 1919, 

 had, by July, 1920, issued policies representing 

 more than two and a half million dollars insur- 

 ance, and also annuities representing the payment 

 at maturity of nearly half a million dollars 

 annually. 



It is instructive to compare this scheme with 

 the Federated Superannuation System of British 

 universities. In the first place, some five or six 

 thousand American teachers who were in service 

 in the associated institutions before November 17, 

 19 1 5, are well provided for by the Foundation by 

 means of a non-contributory scheme for which 

 there is no parallel in the British scheme. The 

 * nearest approach to this splendid provision is the 



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