The times., 1899-11-29

take into consideration certain phases Of
modern life which make the condition Of
the workingman different in several i'm
portant particulars from what it ever was
before It may be well to consider these,
so that the question may be fairly pre-
sented at any rate
1t is important in this connection 20 OBJ
serve that the period of old age that is.
the part of life in which one cannot work
and must be taken care of in partial or en-
tire idleness-has materially increased
during the present century. Formerly it
was for the great majority of the popula-
tion. simply the few years at the very close
of life, in which a man or woman might be
Daralytic, crippled, or so helpless and
feeble as to be unable to move about.
Many people never reached this age at all,
but either died at the comparatively early
age of sixty or siXty-ive or preserved
much of their strength beyond that time,
so that they were able to provide at least
for their own needs, even at the age Of
eighty. Many a sturdy old farmer has
been able to do as good days work as
any of his boys when his head was white
and his grandsons were full-grown men.
Many a grandmother has been the most
valuable member of the family in her abi
ity to care for the children, nurse the
sick, and keep in repair the family cloth
ing. But though it is to be hoped that the
love and duty OF children for their parents
has not lessened, it cannot be questioned
that from a material point of view there
is a.smaller and smaller place for the old
person in the economy of things with every
passing year. The period for which money
must be saved becomes longer with every
generation. No man over seventy would
stand much chance Of obtaining work in a
modern factory or business office; in fact,
in most branches of business grey head is
a disadvantage If this is true of men,
much more is it true of women, The man
or woman of thirty must now provide for
twenty years of partial idleness at the
close of life, with possible medical attend
ance, where formerly there need be pro-
vision for only four or five, or for none at
all
With all this, life has become more ex-
pensive. The father who wishes to give
his children the best possible chance in
the struggle for life-which also ought to
mean making them the best possible ma
terial for the building up of the State
must spend three or four times as much
on that process of education as was spent
on his own; and wages are not three or
four times as much as they used to be.
The increased expense must come out of
the rainy-day fund. The head OF a family
must give his children fairly good advan-
tages, keep up his life insurance, and let
the future take care of itself, trusting that
his children Will in course of time be
| earning enough TO provide for him. If he
is a workingman he knows that his lease
of active working life is short and so mar
| ries early that he may be provided for
when, at the comparatively early age of
forty-fye, he becomes unable to find work,
This is not an exaggeraton. There are
many modern trades which do not pay
large wages which are necessary to the
comfort of the community and in which
an old man, under our present highly spe-
cialized system, is of no use. All these
conditions are not the doing of the work
| ingman. They are tacitly established by
the State, for the good OF the whole. Why
should not the State. which shares in the
benefits accruing from the labors of those
who exhaust themselves early. provide for
their necessities instead Of allowing that
burden to rest on their children? Would
it not be better than TO require them to
curtail their ehildren's advantages in or
der to provide for their own old age? Is
that real thrift" That is the question
which is asked by the advocates of the
pension system, and it is worth some at
tention.