The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-07
FAVOR COMPLETE PENSION SYSTEM Special Commission Of Episco- pal Church, In Report, Pre-
 sents Comprehensive
 Plan 10 GUST S5OO,OOO YEARLY Proposes To Provide For All Clergy Over 65 Years Of Age And For Widows
 And Orphans
10 GUST S5OO,OOO YEARLY

In a preliminary report the comrnis-
 sion on pensions of the Episcopal
 church deveIopes some interesting in-
 formation. The report shows that the 1 Episcopal church pays $S,OoO, 900 a year
 in salaries to it's clergy. who number
 $500. The bold plan purposed by the 1 commission is intended not only to pension the whole body of the clergy l when they become 65 years old, but
 also to pension the widows, to educate
 their orphan children and to take care
 of clerggmen disabled at any age. It
 will apply to foreign missionaries as
 well as to the entire United States.
 The pension will be approximately half pay.
 The sums of money involved are large. No less than $7,O0O. 900 will be necessary, to provide for the pension obligations at the start, and no less
 than $500, 900 will be thereafter expend-
 ed each year by the pension fund. This pension plan is the result of a
 comprehensive study carried on for three years by commission of distin-
 guished churchmen, of which Bishop
 Lawrence of Massachusetts is chair
 man. and Bishop Greer of New York
 is a. member. The pension plan was
 trained by Mcneil Sayre .an official
 of the Carnegie Foundation, and an authority on pensions, who is one of the six Iaymen who are members of the commission.
 The plan is based upon the study of. every pension system in the world, including those of governments, col- Ieges public school teachers, railroads. banks, etc. Facts have been collect ed from every Episcopal clergpman, and these facts studied by eminent au- sthorities on statistics Some of the details of the proposed scheme are innovations in pension systems. On one fundamental principle, the method of taking care of the liabilities with which & pension fund starts, always a heavy burden in growing concern. this Episcopal church fund is consid- | cred to mark a noteworthy advance in pension history. The $5O0,O00 a year expenditure will be provided by a tax on the local churches which will be | graduated according to | the age at which it's clergyman was or dained This tax will average sizR per cent on the salaries.
 The Episcopal pension commission in reviewing existing pension systems, intimates that many of them are real ly bankrupt, a condition that is not | now apparent because the systems are will become evident. This bankruptcy l is attributed to the neglect of proper statistical study before these pension | funds were started and to the failure | to provide properly Tor the load or la 1 bilities with which a pension system always begins. Episcopally mentioned | as unsound is the New York state pub l lie school teachers fund, which went into operation on August 1st of this year.
 The Episcopal commission also criti- sises pension systems like those of the First National Bank of New York and 3f Armour & CO. which keeps from an smploye the interest on his pension contribution when he resigns. Tn many instances this is simply a device to prevent strikes. There is also criticism of a large number Of pension funds, -anging from that of the Internation- Il Harvester, company to that of the of Chicago, which have jules authorizing the reduction of pen sions if the funds become insufficient The Episcopal commission considers a pension a sacred obligation, because he pensioner is helpless, and says that jules for reducing pensions are un- necessary if proper study and the proper financial arrangements have preceded it's creation.
 Incidentally the report discIoses hat ten per cent of all the Episcopal .Iergymen were formerly ministers in ,ther churches.