CURRENT LITERATURE.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS.
Old-Age Pensions: Pro and Con. By Frederick Rogers and Frederick Millar. (Isbister and Co. 28. 6d net.)—This is the first volume of a projected "Pro and Con. Series" to appear under the general editorship of Mr. Henry Murray. "It is equitable," says Mr. Rogers, after stating his case, "that those who cannot produce, whether from childhood and ignorance, or age and feeble- ness, shall have their support from the surplus wealth," this sur- plus wealth being "the joint product of all the people." The pensioner must not be "a criminal under police surveillance", This is not quite clear. The criminal who has worked out his sentence is not included. "All habitual drunkards should be classed with imbeciles and lunatics," these, it is explained, being kept in public asylums. The considerable class who from youth to age live by begging, with a little petty larceny, are not dis- qualified. It seems clear that thrift must disappear under this system. Mr. Rogers, indeed, is not an admirer of thrift. He talks, we venture to say, some nonsense about it on p. 105. A pension earned by service is a very dif- ferent thing from a pension which accrues automatically if only the recipient does not actively disqualify himself. In fact, the tone of Mr. Rogere's argument is sometimes distinctly aggressive. Who is he to talk of the "unimaginative arrogance of the middle-class mind"? But to say this does not imply that there is not much in his contention. The system would be a not too extravagant premium to pay against social conflagra- tions. Our Poor Law already acts in that way, and this would make it more effective. The evidence from other countries is of doubtful bearing. The United States military pension scheme seems to us a shocking example, and yet it has this in its favour, that the pensioners can theoretically plead desert. But in any case this is an interesting and suggestive volume.
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