The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-01-08

rapidly the Old Age Pension has been
spreading about the world. In Ger
many the plan in its practical opera
ton might be called form of COM
pulsory insurance under Government
direction and with Government help.
Thus every person working for
wages or a salary not exceeding $500
a year must take out an old age or
intlrmity insurance policy on which
he pays one-half of the annual prem
ium while his employer pays the other
half. From the fund thus obtained
pensions are paid to persons whom
sickness or infirmity have incapaci-
tated for work as well as to those at
tanning the age of seventy years. To
each recipient of an invalid or old age
pension the Government makes an adj
ditional grant of it's own.
The amount of the pension is de-
termined upon the double basis Of the
wages received by the pensioner while
he was at work and the amount he
has paid in premiums.
In 1907 there were insured in Ger
many in the Government Old Age and
Invalidity Insurance more than four
teen million persons-from which as
founding fact you can gather some
thing Of the proportions of the new
idea, says Charles e. Russell, in a
notable article in Hampton's Broad
way.
In practice the invalidity pension
has proved more popular than the
strictly old age pension, for the rea-
son that the infirmity pension can be
entered upon when the invalidity oc-
ours and after the age of seventy it
takes the place of an old age pension.
Thus while in 1907 there were 49,
967 persons receiving the straight
old age pension, there were more than
100000 who were in receipt of the
infirmity pension. The total national
expenditure in 1907 on the insurance
account was $52,750,000, of which
about $4,200,O0O was for old age
pensions.
The average pension was:
Per Year.
=
For old age. -. 500. 90
For permanent invalidity -. 1904
For provisional invalidity -. 40.14
OF course these sums seem very
small to us, but we must remember,
first, that the difference between our
country and Germany in respect to
the relative cost of living is a fact
always to be reckoned with in MAX
ing comparisons, and second, that
Germany was the pioneer in these
reforms and her cautious first steps
have been far exceeded by the nations
that have followed her.
There are five classes of contribu-
tors to the German fund:
/. On annual wages or salaries of
$3.50 the annual premium is 3 "
cents week; 2. On annual wages or
salaries Of $137.50 the annual prem
ium is cents week; 3. On the an
nual wages or salaries of $212.50 the
annual premium is cents week; 4.
On annual wages or salaries of
$287.50 the annual premium is 71s
cents a week; 5. On annual wages
or salaries of $500 the annual prem
ium is 8 cents.
Benefactions under the act are
somewhat restricted. Thus old age
pensions are paid to only those who
have contributed for at least 1900
weeks and the disablement pension to
those who have contributed for at
least 500 weeks. It was thought that
a wholly unrestricted pension scheme
was too fearsome an experiment, the
whole thing being at best so bold
leap in the dark and in defiance of
sacred traditions.
This is the scale of German pen
sions according to classes:
Glass 1. ........ .$27.50 year
Glass 2. $500 year
Glass 3......,...... 42.50 a year
Glass 4............. $3.50 a year
Glass $3.50 a year
Even in country where living is
as cheap, easy and comfortable as it
is in Germany, $3.50 a year as a
nension is no great sum; but 1t is an
income, man can live on it in Ger
many, and every reform must have
beginning, often of timid and feeble
character.
There is also another matter to be
considered. The Government collects
and cares for the fund from which
these pensions are paid, composed of
the contributions of workmen and
employers. 1t is thus in possession
of an enormous sum Of money. Much
of this money it invests for profits IN
order to provide the pensions, but
part of it is put into Improvements
for the benefit of the workmen for the
sole purpose of improving their