NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE- chief Parliamentary event of the week has been the debate on the Contributory Pensions Bill. In substance the debate has -proved what, we- feared—that the savings on Poor Law expenditure and in other ways will not be nearly enough to cover the new burden which will be placed on industry. Industry, as we all under- stand only too well, is not in a condition to bear having more breath pressed out of its body. The danger is that same industries under such pressure might yield up the Spark of life altogether. The right method for introducing Comprehensive insurance would have been to place on industry no greater burden, in the form of fresh con- tributions, than would have been saved to industry by the cessation of Poor Law expenditure. In our opinion it would have been possible under some such scheme as that drawn up by Mr. Broad to •abolish the Poor Law altogether. * • *
