The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-14

and public soup houses where you get things for nothing, but there are many cheap restaurants where the poor are supplied at cost prices. Some of these are managed by the charitable ladies of the city. and that under the patronage of the Empress herself. They are known as the peoples kitchens and are open to all In them yeu can get q dinner for about s cents. A bowl Of soup costs cents and q cup of good. strong coffee cent. The rooms are very clean and well kept and the food is nicely cooked. As you come in there C . cashier who gives checks for the article wanted upon psymest of the money, and by presenting these checks at the luncheon counter you are handed your order. Everyone waits upon himself, carrying his bowl of soup or cofree to one of the tables and sitting there while he consumes IL
 I took dinner in one of these kitchens the other day. My first check was for soup, and it cost me 3 cents. The soup was made of beans. and I venture the bowl contained over q pint. It was. at any rate, more than enough. and that which ate stayed in my delicate stom- ach for hours. had also 2 cents work of boiled beef, l-cenf cup of coffee and finished up with penny's worth of cus- tard for dessert 70 that my dinner all told cost me cents.
 Wcrkmen's Insurance and Old Age
 pensions.
 The conditions have described prevent the average workingman laying up any thing against sickness or old age. The wages are % low and the chances to rise 70 few that the majority of laborins men live from hand to mouth. Only the few est own their own homes and fewer hope to make fortunes. If the same conditions prevailed in the United States our poor houses would be full, we should have framps on every road and beggers at our doers.
 The German Government prevents such a condition by compelling all workmen 10 pay a certain proportion of their wages to a Government insurance fund, which shall support them when they arc eck and give them pensions when they are too old to work,
 The sums paid gre very smaIi, the low est claes being only about cents per week and the highest about cents PCT week. Half of the sum is paid bv the employer and half by the I iaborer. The employer is re- auired to see that the whole is paid or he is subject to fine The result is he takes 1t out of the wages and the govern naent Is sure to get its fees. Many iaborers make it a part of their contract that the employer shall pay all the in surance, and some employers voluntarily pay the insurance of their employees wb, receive wages to a certain amount.
 A payment of cents week gives q laborer after his retiring age $ss a year; 5 cents may give him as much as slso 2 year, and or cents. from sfso to s21o If he pays i-2 cents he may annually receive s270 CT more, according to the time he has been paying in and other conditions. There are also certain pay nAnts for accidents and permanent disa- biiitiss. and in case of death the widow and children annually get from b to 2e per cent of their husbands or fathers former earnings.
 All wage earners receiving less than 500 per year are by lew reqnifad to belong to such associations. They pay thotr premiums in stamps which are pasted upon cards and kept iB books which must be shown to the police upon de- nand. The government watches care fully to see that the insurance is kept up, and as result it has big fund to take care of its needy and deserving poor. Frank S. CafPehter'