Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-12-24

In good health and good heart" sais |
MT. Smith, which relieves him from
the necessity of working when he il
physically unfit Il, work and frees hin
In the case of illness from worry as tt
the future, must increase the eficienc,
OF labor. In no way can this be don,
SO cheaply as by scientific system o
insurance such as the act provides
The increased efficiency of the worke.
Will be far in excess of the total cos
or insurance under the scheme. A
employers pay only small part of thu
cost, it may be anticipated that the,
will in the long run receive benefit
far out-weighing their contributions.
Relieves Undeserved Poverty.
In judging the act" continued MI
Smith, you must not consider it al
final measure. 1t is only a start
though good start-in the campaign
for establishing a minimum STANDARD
| of living and comfort below which M
Briton shall fall, unless it be through
! deliberate fault of his own. To prop
erly judge this act you must regard /
as part only of wider program fol
dealing with the preventable causes o
poverty and unemployment and rails
ing the standard of living for the work
! ing classes in this country. PoVert,
and unemployment have existed and
still exist in every country and unde
every form of government. Like dis
ease and death, they cannot be who'll,
banished by act of parliament. The
insurance act strikes at certain causes
of poverty and unemployment which
! are preventable. In conjunction will
the workmen's compensation acts, the
old age pensions act, the public health
acts, and the factory acts, all measures
of social reform, which seek to make
tomorrow's world better than oul
world today the insurance act endeav
orS to remove poverty and distress due
to accident, sickness, infirmity, ole
age, insanitary workshops and un
healthy dwellings. 1t attacks the stun
owner, penalties the sweater anc
makes the health of the people the
first care of the state. It lays broad
and firm the foundations of new so
cial policy-a policy of mutual help
and good will among all members OF
the community, based upon recogni
ton of the fact that the undeserved
poverty or undeserved unemployment
of the humblest member of society is
something which closely affects the
general well-being of the state"
And Mr. Calvert, who represents not
a LiberalLabor constituency, but the
city which employs labor, gave EN-
phatic assent.
10000 Get Sick Benefit Weekly.
Some things are certain in regard to
the acts workings. About 100000
persons in Great Britain and Ireland
are now insured against sickness,
when before the act there were about
100000. The act raised the first year
$130,000,000. OF this amount the work.
men contributed $55,000,000, Twenty
thousand doctors are employed to give
free medical treatment and nine thou
sand chemists-who are the British
druggists--furnish free drugs, pre-
scribed by these doctors. To the poor
est workingman is given the same
medical treatment and the same pure
medicines and drugs as the richest
duke can afford About $25,000,e00 has
been paid during the year to doctors
and $5,000,000 to chemists. Sickness
benefits are paid weekly to 100000
workers. The men get $3.50 week
and the women $1.75 week, because
they pay less.
Maternity benefits amounting to ST.
100000 have been paid. The birth
| rate has at least not been discouraged.
For tuberculosis sanatoriums has been
set aside $8,0O0,000. twenty-five thou
sand workmen have been treated un-
der the act, $4,000 il sanatoriums.
These are the figures, but for the real
facts as to the benefits brought by
the act one must note the changed
conditions in the workingmen's homes,
see the cures wrought, the shadows
lifted No man or woman in the
United Kingdom need lack, under this
act, insurance against sickness, unem-
ployment or the unmerited poverty
which, to the underpaid, so frequently
comes with old age.
But is this not queer business for
. SIf5dL SmlLIS.
Let the best-hated and DESTROYED
statesman in Great Britain, the author
of the national Insurance act, David
Lloyd-George, make reply:
'Adds New Glory to Empire"
Since 1908, when we had old age
pensions for the first time, we have
had a great empire for the first time
taking a direct interest in the condf
ton of those aged, those infrm, those
sick, and those broken. The old the
ory was that this was beneath the dig
nifty of an empire. The concern of an
empire was to see that the machinery
of human slaughter was perfect That
was the concern of an empire. To tai
the food of the people, that is think
ing imperially; but to heal the SICK
to feed the hungry, these are thoughts
fit only for a parish beadle. There was
a great emperor once who added to
the luster of his fame by visiting the
| wounded after the battle. Now we
| have got this great British empire for
the first time walking the hospitals.
visiting the sick, inquiring how the in.