Mr. Carnegie has offered, through the trustees of the Carnegie
Corporation, to provide a pension of 25,000 for ex-Presidents and the widows of Presidents and ex-Presidents In a statement issued last week he makes it clear that the arrangement is designed as a spur to public opinion. "We are the greatest of all pension-paying nations, and yet we exclude the holder of the highest position on earth, exercising the greatest powers, and one seldom, if ever, occupied by men of independent means. We should do so no longer." The very fact that the proposal has not been favourably received is of good omen. The niggardliness of the State at present is bad enough, but the indignity would be worse if private munificence were allowed to supply a national need; and we gather that Mr. Carnegie's action has decidedly improved the chances of the necessary legislation.
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