The enormous financial obligations involved in the proposals of the
Old-Age Pensions Committee have at once been seized upon by the Protectionists—as we fele-mire they would
and it has been suggested by a writer in the Daily Telegraph that the money should be found by the imposition of a 5s. duty on corn. That would, argue the Protectionists, not only give its old-age pensions, but would rejuvenate British agriCulttire. In fact, old-age pensions are to play here the sinister part played by Army pensions in America. They are to be used to empty the Treasury, and so produce an imperative reason for filling it by a protective tariff. For- tunately the Daily Tel suggestion seems to be meeting with little or no encouragement, but the injury done to the cause of a reasonable and conservative solution of the problem of old-age poverty is very great. If the plan for pensions for old age is to mean a return to the Cord-laws it must be opposed at every point.
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