TEANSACXIONS OF SECTION F. 739 



of hindering the Legislature striking a severe blow at a system of thrift which had 

 admirably served its purpose, and which, by reason of its excellent work among a 

 class who suffer greatly for the public good, had strong claim for consideration at 

 the hands of the nation at large. 



2. State Provision against Sickness and Old Age, and the German Inva- 



lidity and Superanmmtion Law. By LouiS Ttlor. 



The writer proposed to present the German law in an English dress and draw 

 a slight sketch of what would be the experience of English workpeople were we 

 to adopt the principle of State insurance in our own way of doing things by com- 

 bining officialism with voluntaryism in much the same way as we have already 

 dealt with education and military service. Among the proposed modifications of 

 the German sj'stem are the adoption in England of a uniform standard of relief, in 

 place of the fourfold classification according to wages which prevails in Germany, 

 and the substitution of sixty-five years for seventy years as the limit of super- 

 annuation. Other readjustments are enumerated under several heads. The 

 total cost of the scheme is estimated at Is. Sd. per week, which the writer 

 apportions between employers and employed. Further information has increased 

 the estimate to Is. 5d. per week. 



3. On Some Economic Aspects of Life Assurance. By John M. McCandlish, 

 F.B.S.E., formerly President of the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland. 



After referring to the growing interest of the public in this subject and to the 

 fact that to Life Assurance are due the existence and the security of tens of thou- 

 sands of families, the author defined Life Assurance as being, like Fire or Marine 

 or Accident Insurance, a means of mitigating the pecuniary loss arising from an 

 accident by distributing it among the many who are liable to the like accident, 

 the accident in this case being that of premature death. The paper proceeded to 

 .show among other things that legitimate life insurance was the antithesis of 

 gambling, and that the real gambler is he who refuses or delays to insure his life 

 when he has no other means of providing for his family ; while Insurance Institu- 

 tions or Governments or ^lunicipal Bodies gamble if they conduct insurance or 

 annuity schemes on unsound principles. It was needful also to recognise that the 

 advantages of life assurance must be paid for, and that while every man gets what 

 he has paid for, namely, protection against loss to his family in case of his prema- 

 ture death, in another sense the advantage to the families of those who die soon 

 must be paid for by those who live long. And in the case of annuities the advan- 

 tages to those who live long must be pa id for by those who die soon. 



The paper dealt with the question to which Canon Blackley, and more lately 

 Mr. Chamberlain, have invited attention — of how ' the masses ' can be induced or 

 compelled or assisted to provide for their own old age, so as to escape the degra- 

 dation of pauperism and relieve the country of the cost of it. It was shown that 

 by an extension and a popularising of the existing arrangements by which Govern- 

 ment sells deferred annuities it might be made easy for almost every member of 

 the so-called ' working-classes ' to secure by means of payments well within his 

 power, and extending over a limited number of years, a sufficient income for him- 

 self in old age. It was recommended that the necessary facilities .should be given 

 and a staff of men employed to promote the scheme, leaving it for future consider- 

 ation whether any form of compulsion, as has been proposed, or any further 

 inducements should be used to ensure its universal adoption. It was pointed out 

 at the same time that any large contribution out of public funds towards this 

 object, unless it could be shown to be for the benefit of taxpayers universally, 

 would be simply an arbitrary transfer of money from the pockets of those who 

 would derive no advantage from the scheme to the pockets of other people. 



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