21 OCTOBER 1911, Page 25

How the.Insurance Bill Will Work Oat. (Published by Charles Knight,

227 Tooley Street, S.E. ld.)—One of the most useful of the many pamphlets published on the Insurance Billie a little penny pamphlet, by an anonymous writer, with commendatory prefaces from such dissimilar authorities as Mr. Worthington Evans, M.P., and Mr. Philip Snowden, M.P. The latter says that he knows " of no speech or pamphlet which deals so clearly, so trenchantly, and so critically with the Insurance Bill as does this pamphlet." The writer of the pamphlet, while strongly supporting the principle of compulsory insurance, shows clearly how the present Bill fails to meet the most urgent necessities of the poor while imposing heavy burdens upon wage-earners and their employers for purposes which are not needed. With regard to Mr. Lloyd George's favourite method of advocating tho Bill as a measure to give 9d. for 4d., the writer points out that the benefits offered by the Bill would be provided by any well-managed friendly society for a weekly payment of 5d. He further shows that the Bill, while professing to help the poor, devotes enormous sums to subsidizing persons who are quite well-to-do, and that the cost of this subsidy will be largely borne by the very poor. How effectively this anonymous writer has criticised the Bill is proved by the angry references made to the pamphlet by Mr. Lloyd George in his speech at Whitefield's Tabernacle.