CANON BLACKLEY'S OLD-AGE PENSION SCHEME.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " EINICT•TOR.".1 SIE,—The Government pension scheme is a deep disappoint- ment, as, indeed, any non-contributory scheme must needs be, to those who have the real welfare of the people at heart. It seems to be the product of political obscurantism making a bid for popular support. That it has been passed is owing to ignorance of the real problem in the case of some of our legislators, and apathy, or fear of being con- sidered unfeeling towards the poor, on the part of others. I have never, since I first made acquaintance with it many years ago, met with any refutation of the principle of my friend Canon Blackley's scheme of compulsory nationa. insurance. Is it too late to urge upon our rulers some modil cation of it even now, at least in the case of those who have enough years before them, and so are still able to contribute the small sum required to ensure the pension, or, as it might be more properly called, the annuity, to which eventually they would be entitled ? Canon Blackley's scheme included sick- pay as well :3 pension, and the well-known actuary who guaranteed his figures calculated that the sum required to secure sick-pay at any time and a pension at the age of sixtky- five would amount per head to a completed payment of or ls. 3d. per week between the ages of eighteen and twenty- one. When we consider the vast sums spent in drink and tobacco, who will say that this payment is beyond the power of those who go by the name of the working classes in this country ? If the sick-pay part of Canon Blackley's scheme were dropped and payment for pension only retained, the con- tribution required would, of course, be considerably less, and well within the means of every individual of the rising generation. Little, perhaps, can be hoped for in the matter from reckless rulers and precipitate, popularity-hunting politicians ; but is there no far-seeing patriot iu either House of Parliament who will take up the subject and urge that, conjointly with Mr. Asquith's perilous scheme, a contributory one should be started also for any under a certain age and for all who shall be born after a certain date ? With refer- ence to the objection which has been urged as to the difficulty and expense of a weekly collection, it has been suggested that a special insurance-stamp of the exact value of the weekly payments might be issued, procurable from, and payable at, any post-office in the kingdom. We have thus the machinery at hand far simpler than the elaborate system of Committees which are vexing the souls of the righteous in all parts of the country. The ungenerous, and indeed ridiculous, contrast which has been drawn between the comparatively small sum accorded by a grateful nation to the man who has saved Egypt, and the increasing millions required to provide pensions for people who in too many cases have done nothing at all, is simply the argumentum ad invidiam " Who can stand before envy ? "—I am, Sir, &c., G. J. COWLEY-BROWN.
9 Grosvenor Street, Edinburgh.
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