Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1913-12-26

In good health and good heart. said
Mr.. Smith, which relieves him from
the necessity of working when he Is
physically unfit to work and frees him
in the case Of illness from worry as TO
the future, must increase the efficiency
of labor. In no way can this be dons
so cheaply as by scientific system OF
insurance such as the act provides
The increased efficiency of the worker
will be far in excess Of the total cost
o. insurance under the scheme. AS
employers pay only a small part of the
cost, it may be anticipated that they
will in the long run receive benefits
far out-weighing their contributions.
Relieves undeserved Poverty.
''In judging the act" continued Mr..
Smith, you must not consider 1t as
a final measure. 1t is only start
though a good start-in the campaign
for establishing minimum standard
of living and comfort below which no
Briton shall fall, unless 1t be through
deliberate fault of his own. To prop
erly Judge this act you must regard 1t
as part only of wider program for
dealing with the preventable causes Of
poverty and unemployment and rails
ing the standard of living for the work
ing classes in this country. Poverty
and unemployment have existed and
still exist in every country and under
every form Of government. Like dis
ease and death, they cannot be wholly
banished by act of parliament. The
insurance act strikes at certain cause2
of poverty and unemployment which
are preventable. In conjunction with
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 our
world today, the insurance act endeav-
ors to remove poverty and distress due
to accident, sickness. infirmity, old
age, insanitary workshops and I'M
healthy dwellings. 1t attacks the slum
owner, penalties the sweater and
makes the health of the people the
first care of the state. 1t 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
LiberalLabor constituency, but the
city which employs labor, gave EN-
phatic assent.
100000 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
$130,000000. OF this amount the work
men contributed $55,000,000, Twenty
thousand doctors are employed to give
free medical treatment and nine thou
sand arssssu-u sha-, 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 $25,000,00O has
been paid during the year to doctors
and $5,000,000 to chemists. Sickness
benefits are paid weekly to 27O,00O
workers. The men get $3.50 week
and the women $1.75 week. because
they pay less.
Maternity benefits amounting to W.
100000 have been paid. The birth
rate has at least not been discouraged
For tuberculosis sanatoriums has been
set aside $S,000,OO0. twenty-five thou
sand workmen have been treated I'M
der the act, $4,000 i'm 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
great empire?
Let the best-hated and bestowed
statesman in Great Britain, the author
of the national Insurance act, DaN1c
Lloyd-George, make reply: