8 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
oS I nn 
PENSIONS FOR TELEPHONE EMPLOYES 
New System Just Announced Expresses Modern Spirit of 
Industrial Co-operation 
The business world was greatly 
interested last Monday when it was 
announced that a fund of $10,000,000 
had been set aside by the Bell Tele- 
phone system and its associate inter- 
ests for their 175,000 employes, their 
families and dependents. The fund 
will be available on Jan. I, 1913. 
Commenting on the new departure, 
The Boston Herald says: 
“This latest announcement of the 
telephone companies relative to pen- 
sions, disability payments in cases of 
accident or sickness, and life insur- 
ance to dependents of employes, is 
further proof of the acumen of that 
great industrial leader, Theodore N. 
Vail. It seems almost too good to be 
true, and yet—it goes into effect Jan. 
& 
“To the workingman who has unsel- 
fishly deprived himself in order to 
educate his children, or who by rea- 
son of illness or other adversity has 
been unable to save for that proverbial 
“rainy day,” old-age pensions bring a 
comforting sense of security, at least 
against absolute want. As a_ rule, 
however, they are applicable only to 
comparatively few because of the 
usual age requirement of from 60 to 
70 years, coupled with a condition of 
continuous employment of from 20 to 
25 years. 
“Mr. Vail apparently observed this, 
and noted how ineffective was a pen- 
sion plan in the telephone organiza- 
tion where half the employes are wo- 
men, and where from that verv fact 
alone it was apparent that compara- 
tively few could hope to become pen- 
sioners. The old-age pension is only 
a part of his new plan. Revolving in 
his active and acute mind the ques- 
tion of what could be done to benefit 
employes as a class, he hit upon the 
insurance feature and wove into his 
amended scheme an interesting va- 
riety of health, accident and life in- 
surance. 
“Tf sickness interrupts an empolye’s 
service and he has been in the employ 
of the company ten years, he draws 
full pay for 13 weeks and half pay for 
the remainder ofa year. If he has 
been an employe five years, he gets 
full pay for 13 weeks and half pay 
for another 13 weeks; if two years, 
four weeks full pay and nine weeks 
half pay. 
“Tf he is injured in the course of his 
employment and totally disabled, he 
draws full pay for 13 weeks and half 
pay up to six years. If partially dis- 
abled, he draws full pay for 13 weeks 
and then half pay until able to earn a 
livelihood, or up to six years. If an 
employe dies as the result of an acci- 
dent, his dependents get three years’ 
wages, not to exceed $5000; if he dies 
from sickness, they get one year’s pay 
if he has seen ten years’ service, and 
one half year’s pay for five years’ ser- 
vice, not to exceed $2000. 
“No contribution is asked from em- 
ployes. ‘The telephone companies pay 
NORTH SHORE WANTS WILSON 
Beverly. and Gloucester Anxious for Honor of Being 
Family Spent Season of 1902 
Summer Capital. 
the bill and are farseeing enough to 
perceive its potential value. In these 
days of industrial discontent and 
changing employment what better de- 
vices could be provided to hold people 
to their work? And what manifesta- 
tion of interest better calculated to win 
a reciprocal interest than this pro- 
vision against the gaunt spectre of old- 
age 
sickness and death? , - 
“So far as our casual inquiry dis- 
closes information, this is the most 
comprehensive plan of the kind ever — 
formulated, and it will interest not — 
only its direct beneficiaries but all em- 
ployers of labor. It is a credit to Mr. 
Vail’s heart and brain, and there can 
be no question that it will pay big 
dividends in appreciative interest and 
loyal service.” ; 
at East Gloucester 
North Shore residents, accustomed 
for four years to living in the vicinity 
of the summer White House, are 
hopeful that the honor will not pass. 
Beverly has already asked President- 
elect Wilson to make his home there 
but it is East Gloucester that may 
bring Massachusetts the honor of 
having the President as a summer 
resident, if he does come. 
President-elect Wilson and his fam- 
ily spent one summer nine years ago 
at East Gloucester. Prof. Stockton 
Axson of the Princeton faculty, broth- 
er of Mrs. Wilson, was one of a lit- 
tle colony of versatile men and women 
with whom the President-elect and 
his family passed pleasant days. Prof. 
Axson is now a regular summer guest 
in East Gloucester, and other mem- 
bers of the little colony gather there 
also. If they can bring it about, the 
coming President will make Glouces- 
ter his summer home. 
Walter F. Osborne, now collector 
of the port of Gloucester, was the 
Wilsons’ host at the Hotel Harbor 
View, East Gloucester, where Prof. 
Axson and the others pass their sum- 
mers. Mr. Osborne will endeavor 
to have the President return next 
summer to the North Shore. 
In the little artistic and literary col. 
ony, Mrs. Wilson gained a place at 
once by her artistic gifts, and with 
her southern charm and _ cléverness 
matched Mrs. Elinor Cartney-Lane of 
New York, author of “Nancy Stair” 
and other novels. Mr. Wilson’s 
scholarship and mental keenness made 
him a prominent figure in the gather- 
ings of the summer. 
That summer of 1903 the little col- 
ony found recreation in getting out a 
clever little paper, “The Trifler.” Mrs. 
Lane was editor-in-chief, Prof. Ax- 
son was the associate editor, Miss 
Jean Oliver city editor, Arthur M.. 
Hazard dramatic editor. — 
On the staff of “The Trifler” were 
such well-known artists as 
Duveneck, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph De 
Camp, Mr. and Mrs. William Paxton, 
Kitson, the sculptor, and his noted 
wife, Theo. Ruggles Kitson, Herbert 
D. Ward and Philip Little of Salem. 
While President-elect Wilson was 
not in politics then, but was an educa- 
tor-and author exclusively, strangely 
enough the editorial page of the lit- 
tle paper contained the following de- 
finite statement, with regard to the 
paper’s political tendencies: 
“Tn politics it is strictly independent 
but with the firm conviction that the 
Democratic party is right in every par- 
ticular.” 
So Gloucester is hoping next sum- 
mer to be the host of President Wil- 
son and the publishing center of an- 
other volume of “The Trifler.”—Sun- 
day (Boston) Herald. 
poverty and its sister “haunts,” 
Frank ~ 
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