190 



The Review of Reviews. 



HOME POLITICS. 



THE INSURANCE ACT. 



In the Contemporary Review for August Dr. Mac- 

 namara discusses the great Insurance Act, which he sets 

 in the most roseate hue. He recalls the chorus ot eulogy 

 with which the measure was greeted by all Parties. 



APPREHENSIONS. 



But after the great scheme had been put forward — 

 All sorts and conditions of people began to get fidgety, 

 anxious, apprehensive — quite unnecessarily ; but they did. 

 The employer couldn't see how his industry was going to stand 

 the now impost represented in his, the employer's, wee]<ly 

 contribution. The clerk and the shop assistant began to hear 

 ominous rumours that if their employers were compelled to pay 

 threepence a week, they would no longer continue the privilege 

 they had hitherto accorded to tlieir employees of paying them 

 full wages during sickness. The casual labourer, the char- 

 woman, and others who were only able to find employment for 

 a day or two a week began to wonder, since the rule was that 

 the first employer would have to pay the employer's contribu- 

 tion for the week, where that first employer was coming from. 

 The servant girl proclaniied herself thoroughly well provided 

 for at present, and considered it like Mr. Lloyd George's 

 impudence to expect her to pay threepence a week. Why 

 couldn't he mind his own business? And even the delicately 

 reared lady o( quality had her grievance. Why should she 

 become a tax-collector ? And what was more, why should she 

 run the risk of a Coroner's inquest by being made to lick nasty, 

 disagreeable, sticky stamps ? 



WHO ARE THE LITTLE ENGLANDERS r 



Dr. Macnamara is most severe upon the Opposition 

 for not having acted up to the assurance of Mr. H. W. 

 Forster, M.P., that they were not going to make Party 

 capital out of the feeling which exists against the Bill :^ 



A word or two ot timely assurance from men of all parlies 

 would have meant much at this juncture. To the eternal dis- 

 credit of the great bulk of the Tory Party that word was 

 certainly not spoken. 



It is, when you come to think of it, a curious spectacle : The 

 great Imperialist and Patriotic Party trying, for the sake of 

 votes, to render difficult an endeavour designed to make British 

 lungs sounder, British limbs stronger, and Brilish muscle 

 manlier ; the great Imperialist and Patriotic Party lending less 

 than no hand in an attempt to secure that the burden of Empire 

 shall rest on shoulders less rickety than many of those upon 

 which it rests to-day. 



THE ADVANTAGES. 



But when the friendly and other thrift societies 

 began to get to work for becoming approved societies, 

 things assumed a different complexion : — 



Poor people who had been frightened out ol their wits with 

 stories of the evil and unjust things that were bound to follow 

 in the train of the Act, had opened before them a vista of a 

 strikingly different character. If they were already members of 

 Friendly Societies they learned what would follow from the 

 setting free of existing "Reserves": they found that if they 

 kcjit up their present subscription in adililion to the Govern- 

 ment contribution— as astonishingly large mmibers of them are 

 doing — they would be eligible for a scale of benefits never 

 before contemplated as being within their means. On the 

 other hand, they found that if they didn't desire, or couldn't 

 afford, to pay for benefits on a more generous scale than those 

 for which they had already insured, they could, as a result of 

 the operation^ of the Act, continue to secure ihcM-. or equivalent 

 bcnedls, at a figure substantially below that which Ihey wrre 

 now paying. 



Further, people who were not members of any Thrift Society 

 began to hear a different story about this new thing that was 

 about to be thrust upon them. They began to find out the 

 precise facts about what their weekly fourpences would do when 

 they were laid aside by sickness. The story of the thirty 

 shillings welcome for the new baby and all it would mean foi 

 mother and child began to come home to them. Their neigh- 

 bours, who knew from experience, told them how the burden 

 of finding a weekly contribution grows less irksome as the 

 weekly budget becomes habituated to it. They told them of 

 the peace of mind which follows from the knonledge that there 

 is something put by for the day of trouble. And as July I5lh 

 approached it became clear to those who watch things closely 

 that the fortunes of the .'Vet were rapidly rising, and that the 

 mean, unpatriotic opposition of which we had seen far too 

 much had shot its bolt. 



Dr. Macnamara expects that the Act will come as a 

 godsend to the poorest-paid class of labour, will give 

 greater stability and continuity of employment to the 

 unskilled class. He concludes : — 



In its chief features it w'ill remain an established part for all 

 time ol the British .Social and Industrial System — its plan con- 

 ceived by minds nobly touched ; its structure raised by hands 

 patient, skilled, and directed by patriotic purpose. It does not 

 usher in the millennium ; but it brings our country a long step 

 nearer the realisation of the Psalmist's aspiration, when there 

 shall be " no decay, no leading away into captivity, and no 

 complaining in our streets." 



UNIONIST BID FOR HOME RULE. 



The July number of the Quarterly Review closes with 

 a paper on the Home l^ule Bill which is not a little 

 significant of the uncertain and transitional attitude 

 of the Unionist Party. After denouncing both the 

 political and financial provisions of the Home Rule 

 Bill in the most approved " new style," and hurling 

 stage thunder at the " dishonoured principles which 

 underlie this reckless and deceptive measure/' the 

 writer concludes by taking a tolerably sharp curve : — 



So far as it is possible to form an opinion, the present Bill 

 cannot become law, in the most favourable circumstances, until 

 at least two years liave elapsed. The protagonists of Federal 

 Home Rule might be fairly asked to join the Unionists in a 

 demand that the interval should be employed in an investiga- 

 tion ol the economic position of England, Scotland, Ireland 

 and Wales, and ol their financial relations with each other. II 

 a Royal Commission were appointed to iiKjuire into the trui' 

 revenue, the hue exiiendiuire, the taxable cap.acity, and tli. 

 fair contribution lo Imperial Services of each division of iIk 

 United Kingdom, there might be some ground for hope ihai 

 Parliament would be in a position, il the inajorily of the peoph 

 of Ireland still expressed a strong desire for self-government, Ic 

 enact a measure of Home Rule lor Ireland which would lu 

 cquilable to her three parlners, consistent with a comprehensive 

 system of Federal (juvernmeiit, and likely to afford a reasonable 

 prospect of finality. If the peoples of England, Scotland and 

 Wales should then manilest an overwhelming desire (or a form 

 of government similar to that which it is proposed to concede 10 

 Ireland, material would be available for thelr.oning of a schenn 

 of Federal Government which would be fair and honourable tci 

 all the peoples comprised in the United Kingdom. 



Unionists opposing the Home Rule Bill for Irckinti 

 in the name of Home Rule all round is another of 

 those (Iclightftil inconsistencies which add lu the 

 humour of politics and lu the gaiet\' ol nation.-^. 



