It seems certain that the lamentable tendency to refuse employment
to the middle-aged increases both in America and England. The Carnegie steelworks have recently fixed thirty-five as the latest age of admission in some departments, and forty in others ; while in England the effect of the Em. ployers' Liability Act has been to produce a certain dread of employing middle-aged men, who from want of quickness are more liable to accident. In Liverpool it was recently stated by the Poor Law authorities that large numbers of workmen now dye their hair, and it is well known that certain classes of skilled men, including almost all grades of male servants, suell as coachmen, grooms, butlers, and gardeners, never tell the truth about their ages. That will be found one of the many difficulties in the way of old-age pensions, those who would benefit by them dreading poverty between fifty and sixty much more than after the latter age. In the neighbourhood of great cities a large proportion of the skilled artisans are old men who have fled from the centres, where they found the com- petition of the young insupportable.
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