Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-06-25
TEACHERS PENSIONS.
The Boston Plan Species of Class
 Paternalism.

Paternalism.
 Another significant move toward the British socialistic variety of pa ternalism is now being made by the city of Boston. The Massachusetts legislature, at the solicitation of Bos- tonians, has passed an act providing for the pensioning of school teach CTS; the city council has accepted 1t, and the mayors signature is fore gone conclusion. The most interest ing feature of this measure is it's man. datory provision that the city shall raise the necessary funds by an an- nual tax of five cents upon every thousand dollars of assessed valua- tion. This method of financing con- trasts sharply with that adopted from German models by most civil service retirement and insurance funds in the United States; it is a frank copy Of the much-condemne British plan to eke from taxpayers a. neat percentage l for various special classes, such as the aged, the unemployed and the dis abled. It's adoption will surprise ev- erybody who knows that the new state pension supplements school teachers retirement fund to which l Boston teachers contribute voluntari' \ ly, and from which they may event. ually draw $1s0 year, the same sum provided by the new law. Why ! it will be asked, is a questionable scheme added to one which satisfies most teachers and has no taint oi paternalism about it?
 The Boston Transcript explains that the new pension was not insti tuted primarily to benefit the teach CTS, but rather to improve the public schools. "1 By empowering the schoo committee to retire any teacher mentally or physically incapacitatet from further efficient service" tn, law enables Boston to disencumbel her schools of "an extraordinaril. large percentage of aged and more ol less inefficient teachers" When VI consider, though, the drift of sucl Legislation. which is clearly toward the pensioning of all state and cit! employees at public expense. the Bos ton experiment looks like blunder :, If $1S0 a year is enough to retire ; teacher on without imposing too grea hardship, the pension fund could b. maintained under all ordinary cir cumstances by contributions iron teachers salaries.
 If these salaries are really too low they should be raised to a poin
 where the recipients can, without pinch, insure themselves against dis ability. It may be retorted that tn
 public pays for the pensions in tn end, anyhow, so why not give then
 directly instead of indirectly? Blu
 there Is a vital distinction betweel
 the two systems. When the city pay a teacher good salary and the
 compels her to insure herself, the i'm
 plication is simply that every citizel must provide for his own future, an that a living wage properly include , the cost of doing this. But when sal ) ary and pension are given independ ently, the former is implicitly re , muneration, and the latter a favo l conferred upon privileged clasl : This divorce is fraught with injus , tice and leads away from democrac! 2 Boston might better have adopted tn l German system, even if a large SD, 9 eial appropriation should prove neces f sary in order to retire her army (
 aged and incompetent teachers. Fc D principle is at stake.-New Tor
 Tribune.