OLD AGE TENSIONS IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY 159 



wider, far-reaching co-operative scheme whereunder every 

 worker in the kingdom Loth men and women, including shop 

 assistants, typists, clerks, and that great army of toilers whose 

 occupations lie outside that broad sphere which embraces the 

 many millions known as the " working-classes," would he hy law 

 compelled to contribute. 



This tentative scheme of the present Government is, at the 

 best, but a tardy recognition of what might be regarded as the 

 just claims of our workers to State consideration and State aid, 

 for it is beyond question that the people themselves are not 

 capable, nor indeed have they the power to create and put into 

 operation a comprehensive scheme of pensions and compensa- 

 tions wherein tlie employers, the State, and the whole of the 

 workers, would be concerned. 



Present Scheme — the Eesult of Socialist Pressure 



Obviously, a scheme of tins kind must necessarily be 

 inaugurated and carried through by the State. The question, 

 however, which naturally arises out of such an admission is — 

 "What have the Governments of the last quarter of a century 

 been doing that at the eleventh hour, when forced thereto by 

 the Labour party and Socialists, they are compelled to launch 

 upon the country a hasty, ill-devised scheme which, while 

 costing the unfortunate tax-payers another six millions or more 

 annually, satisfies neither of these parties nor meets, in any 

 sense, the many requirements of the great army of our 

 workers ? 



This ill-devised, non-contributory " Old Age Pensions Act " 

 of 1908 can only be regarded as a sop to the recalcitrant 

 Labour section of their own party, and a bid for the Socialist 

 vote. 



That the political party at present in office has succeeded 

 in appeasing neither of these sections of the political community, 

 is but a just retribution for the neglect of the workers' interests 

 during all those years wasted in petty political rivalry which, 

 had they been devoted to the public good, would have done 

 much to obviate the bitterness born of that political unrest 

 which is a marked characteristic of the times. 



The absence of a carefully planned and far-reaching " Old 

 Age and Infirmity Pension and Insurance Act " affords another 

 instance of the ineptness of our party governments to inaugurate 

 and carry through to com])letion measures of real reform — of a 

 nature that w(juld benefit the people and prove of service to 

 the commonwealth. 



It is, moreover, evident that, even when forced to some 



