The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-07-12
OLD MAN QUESTION
IS GETTING MUCH DISCUSSION in
THE PUBLIC PRESS.
Edict of Pension Scheme Corpora.
tions That No Man Beyond q Ger
tain Age IL Severely Criticised.
The Vigor and Activity Of Youth
Are Said to be Overestimatei1
Against the Experience OF Age.

The edict of pension scheme corpora.
tons that no man beyond certain
age shall be employed is attracting at.
tention far and wide, and varied are
the comments on this new condition
imposed upon the property-less class
of the human race. Those publications
that obtained their profits from favors
Of corporate wealth accept the situation
as IAN inevitable feature of modern in
dustrialism." They are Every sorry
that the old buffers will have to starve,
but there is no help for it, On the
other hand, radical exchange has sug-
gested that while men over thirty-five
years of age may be too old to work,
they are not too old to shoot" This
sinister suggestion may be prophetic,
for when the time comes, If ever it does,
that all men over thirty-five years OF
age, and those depending on them for
support, are denied the right to live, a
bloody revolution will certainly follow.
There are publications that comment
and lament, but offer no solution. The
Express Gazette, which has usually
agreed with employers until now, says
Of the "age limit"
"A certain railroad of national inn
portance has issued it's fiat. Employ
ment shall not be given to an applicant
over thirty-five years of age. A state
ment made at a meeting in Chicago of
labor organization, to the effect that
all men over forty-five should be shot
for the benefit Of the army of younger
men for whom employment must be
secured, may SEEM astounding. and yet
be logical deduction when taken in
connection with the idea that at that
age man has ceased to be fit for en-
ployment, and not being fit therefor is,
per Sc, all incubus to the bodies social,
polite and economic. Employment
comprehends too vast field; the field
embraces too many occupations re-
Quiring power from different sources
principally brain or brawn-to be
waise& aside with the mere statement
that man at thirty-five or forty-five
is unfit to serve.
The vigor and activity of youth are
said to be grossly overestimated against
the experience of age. 1t is charged that
youth often wins in the competition be.
cause, having fewer responsibilities, it
is content with smaller pay. The boy
makes a present sacrifice, expecting
future. The man is done with sacrifices,
and thinks it is time that the reward
was forthcoming. The matter of maxi
ing sacrifices or that Of a willingness
to perform a task or assume a burden
for less emolument does not solve the
question of fitness to serve, nor does it
carry with it the remOtest suggestion OF
benefit to the business of the employer,
hot h,,ci 10
vitality affected by the quality of the
service rendered.
IF, however, there is an arbitrary
age limit, it is irrational. Age may
raise a presumption one way or the
value of the individual. One man at
forty-five may be active, energetic. pro-
gressive, interested in his work and in
ty-five may be inactive and lack both
energy and interest. One man may be
really young at forty-five and another
old at TWENTY-FIVE. Intelligence ma in
crease with age, or, laying aside the
may have both years and intelligence,
and that person may lack both years
and intelligence
ular? 1t must not be understood that
corporations fail to realize the impor-
lance of experience as a qualification
of employees. There are other reasons
for condemning a man to starvation
after he has lived long enough to be-
come expert. The leading purpose of
employers, when entering into a con-
spiracy to refuse employment to all
men beyond a certain age is TO PRE-
VENT STRIKES. If all employers
will refuse to give employment to any
man over thirty-five years Of age, how
many will starve, as a punishment for
striking? If the horrors of starvation
can be pictured to employees who con.
template striking it is hoped by en-
ployers that all men over thirty-five
years Of age will be loyal and accept
such wages and treatment as is ac-
corded them, without protest.
There is yet another reason for the
"age limit" When a hypocrite start.
out to pose as philanthropist he usu-
ally arranges the details Of his charit-
able work so that the expense will be
!. limited within certain bounds, there
fore, when pension schemes are
launched (for the purpose of preventing
an employe leaving the service of hi.
mastery the first thing to be done is to
employ no man who will probably live
long enough to draw pension. Seven
ty years is set as the age at which an
employee will be entitled to pension
, and no man is to be employed who
is more than thirty-five years DID, Now
If you will take all the railways in the
country and find how many men have
been in ~ service of the SAME COM
pany from thirty-five to fifty years YOU
will discover how many men out Of the
one million railway emploes would be
entitled to pension, II the "age limit
had been in force in the past.
If man secures employment at thu
age of twenty-one years and works
continuously for the same company fol
\ forty-nine years he will be entitled tt
the pension that comes to him at thu
age Of seventy years. To get this pen
sion he must work continuously, he
must never quit, he must never be dis
charged, he must not be killed, he must
not die natural death, he must not b
disabled, he must not strike, he must
accept all wage reductions, he must