The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-23
PENSION FOR OLD EMPLOYEES.
Chicago & NOrth-Western to Inau-
gurate the System Jan. L.

chicago IL Orth-W eSteTn to Inau-
gurate the System Jan. L.
About two years ago the Pennsylvania
railroad, east of Pittsburg, adopted the
employees pension system, which has
proven so satisfactory that other lines
have taken it up. The system is steadily
gaining in favor with American railroads,
and it is predicted that before the close
Of the next year it will form a part Of the
rules and regulations of numerous
large Western as well as Eastern roads.
Shortly after the Eastern Pennsylvania
adopted this system, 1t placed it in effect
on It's Western lines and then the Lake
Shore perfected arrangements for its
adoption. The New York Central is now
said to be getting ready to establish
pension bureau.
The first Western line to place this
system in vogue will be the Chicago &
Northwestern, which has announced
that after Jan. 1 it will begin a system
for pensioning old and worthy employees
In the main the North-Western's system
will not differ from that in use on the
Pennsylvania road An employe be-
tween sixty-flve and sixty-nine, who has
spent thirty years in the service OF the
company, and who has been disabled by
an accident while at work, will receive
1 per cent per month, calculated on the
basis of his former monthly salary. Any
employee having reached the age of seven
ty and who has spent thirty years in the
company's service will be retired and
given a pension of per cent per month,
calculated on his average wages for the
past ten years.
With the enacting Of the above rule
the company has taken the course re
Gently adopted by the other Western
lines to employ no man over thirty-five
years Of age. To carry out the plan the
hos
bureau composed of executive officials Of
the road.
Naturally there is wide diversity of
opinion among Western railroad officials
as to the eXpediency of the pension sys-
tenn either to the roads or the employees.
Those who hold adverse views to the
plan maintain that it cannot be made
to operate practically or profitably to the
parties concerned. Their first contention
is that few railroad men remain in the
service thirty years unless they chance
to be high officials who would probably
not need the benefit, and few of the en-
ployes reach the age of seventy. There
is no intention in the management to
exclude the officials from the benefits of
the system, however. But the high Of
fcials generally save enough money by
the time they reached the advanced age of
seventy, as to place them beyond the
need of this tTif1ing pension. AS to the
employees those who have been getting
q salary of 500 per month, which is not
a bad income, will only receive the bare
plttanCe Of So a year under the provis-
ions Of the pension law. This would
scarcely be the means of keeping an old
decrepit man, seventy years Of age. from
want if ne had no other source of income.
Such are the ways in which the scheme
IS opposed by many of the Western Of
fcials They add that the employees VINO
have been receiving less than SOD PER
month might as well be left alone as
TO be offered the pension based upon I
per cent of their monthly income
There is another side to the question
however. The North Western maintainv
that about 2,000 people would be bene-
nted by this pension. It will seem there
fore, that the annual amount paid by the
company in this way would reach some
thing like $500, 600 or perhaps a little less.
at any rate it would amount to $500 Geo
year. This might not amount to a
great deal per capita but it would be far
better than nothing.
A president Of one of the leading West
ern roads, speaking on the question said:
no we are not going to adopt a pension
plan on our system just yet We wa 1t
to see how it works on the. roads that
have just put it into effect I do not
think the plans thus far evolved are
prdcLCdple, ana doubt that they will
accomplish the benefit claimed for them.
Instead Of proving an incentive 10
faithful work / think they will have the
opposite effect, as few men, except high
officials, will remain in the service of
one company for the mere purpose of
getting a small pension after thirty wears
of hard service and after having reached
the age of seventy years There is
scarcely a railroad in the West that does
not take care of it's old an1 fai
employees and provide for them much bet-
ter than they wouldebe provided for under
such pension systems as have been latelv
put into effect