Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-03
OLD AGE ANNUITY.
Ex-Governor Douglass Bank Starts a
 New Feature.

El4-UOV6TUOT UOuIldS ooIlA 0teA to c
 New Feature.
 The Peoples Savings bank of Brockton, Mass, of which ex-Gover- nor William L. Douglas, the shoe manufacturers, is president, opened its life insurance and old age annuity department to-day.
 The recent Massachusetts law per mits savings banks to issue life in- surance up to $500 and annuities up to $200 year, the design being to enable workingmen to supply them- selves with old age annuities and life insurance at the lowest possible cost. The banks are not to employ any so- lieitors or collectors, but will appoint a large number of agencies through out the state where applications may be made and premiums paid.
 It is expected that this law will in the near future prove to be as bene- ficial as the. law creating the state board of arbitration, which MT Doug las as senator twenty-two years ago championed, and under which his inn mense factories at Brockton have oluCC bCCh opCl dIVu l hho u6dlh, tAC ex-governor leads the way in progres sive laws for the workingmen of the country, as there is little doubt that other states will enact similar laws in favor of the toilers.
 Ex-Governor Douglas, who himself provided the large guaranty fund re- quired for the establishment of the insurance department of the bank, was unable to be present at the open ing, and sent to the trustees letter as follows:
 "To the Trustees of the Peoples Saw
 ings Bank of Brockton.
 "The system of savings bank in- surance and old age annuities has been made possible by the co-opera tion of progressive manufacturers and other public spirited citizens with the Massachusetts State Branch of the American Federation of Labor and hundreds of labor unions
 "Collier's Weekly. in recent is sue, said: No movement in America has greater actual value than the Massachusetts experiment in savings bank insurance It was with like conviction of the vast importance of this movement that 1 joined with or gazined labor and others in an ef- fort to secure the necessary legisla- tion and was desirous that our bank might be the first to pledge itself to establish an insurance an annuity department. This movement will prove of national significance. It aims to complete the independence of the American wage earner by secur- ing him, besides cheaper life insur- ance, an adequate provision for his old age. Every industrious wage earner is entitled to look forward to an old age financial independence just as much as the business man or the professional man. The cost of making such a provision is a part of the daily cost of living, as much as rent, food, or clothing. No wage is a living wage which does not permit the workingman to make this neces- sary provision for the future and any workingman who having wages suf- ficient fails to make this provision. is not supporting himself but is shift HE part Ol the DuTuen 10 Ills Idm- fly or to the community.
 With wages properly high, the Massachusetts wage earner has now the ability to supply himself with an old age annuity as well as with life insurance, because he can get both at the lowest cost at which it is possible to furnish them. and believe he will avail of the opportunity"
 Ex-Governor Douglas is the presi- dent of the league formed about two years ago to secure the passage of the necessary legislation and the ex- tension of the system throughout the state. and his bank was the first to avail itself of the authority granted by the new law
 The State Branch of the American Federation of Labor, the Boot and Shoe Workers. union and over two hundred other labor organizations joined with the leading manufactur- CTS. finaneiers and philanthropists in urging the passage of the law by the Massachusetts legislature