OLD AGE PENSIONS IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY 157 



" Owing to the social lejj:is]atioii that has been enacted within 

 recent years, a workman receives compensation, paid hy his employer, 

 for accidents sustaint'd in the course of work ; he and his emphjyer 

 insure him against sickness, premature infirmity, and old age ; so 

 that his future is provided for with the assistance of his employer 

 and the State. Further, many employers, as we have already shown, 

 confer benelits of various kinds, material and intellectual, ou tlieir 

 employees." * 



Mr. J. L. Bashford, the leader of the Gainsborough Com- 

 mission, in his Appendix to the Eeport, entitled, "Infirmity 

 and Old Age Pensions in Germany," in referring to the nature 

 of the Act said — 



"The Government resorted to Compulsory insurance, because it 

 was impossible to devise any other method for securing the broad 

 masses of the working-classes — those belonging to the lower grades 

 — to contribute." f 



Here is the crux of the position. The German Government 

 knew, when they framed their Bill years ago, that the only way 

 to secure the contribution of a certain section of the working^- 

 classes was to make the Act compulsory. That they were 

 justified in taking this step the following extract from Mr. 

 Bashford 's Appendix will show : — 



" Since the introduction of the system of compulsory insurance 

 for the German workmen, the German Empire has advanced on the 

 road to progress and wealth by leaps and bounds. The material and 

 hygienic conditions of the whole nation have improved ; and every- 

 thing goes to show that the working-classes nmst, in a great measure, 

 attribute their increased health and vigour to the beneficent effects 

 of the legislation initiated twenty-six years ago." J 



Insurance Scheme for Workers not — Wasters 



"This insurance scheme affects Workpeople, not Vagrants, 

 tramps, or those who will not work. Nor are the Workmen's 

 Insurance Laws a charitable scheme, in that tliey confer on every 

 insured person a Legal Right to a fixed modicum of assistance in 

 case of sickness, accident, infirmity, or old age, in return for which 

 they have themselves contributed an obolus to the fund from which 

 they receive such assistance." § 



These brief excerpts from a most valuable Eeport, teach us 

 among other things, that the German " Infirmity Insurance 

 Act" is of a type that, while compelling thrift, builds up, at 



* Lifo and Labour in Germany," p. 117. 



t Ibid., p. 268. X Ibid., p. 286. § Ibid., p. 103. 



