Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-07-19
FOREIGN NEWS


perfectly honest, schemes like the lib
eral government insurance act might
be ideal schemes. But the few months
in which the act has been in opera
ton have shown that many English
men cannot resist temptation. The
amount Of feigned illness among the
insured is becoming a great scandal
In this respect Great Britain is re-
peating the experience of Germany,
which furnished the model for the
Lloyd George bill. The Germans
have invented a new word for the i'll
ness of the government insured, and
some similar word will be needed in
England soon.
Some employers who pay small
wages find that the number of en-
| ployees absent from work on account
| Of alleged illness is from twice to ten
/ times the number under former condi-
items, before workmen and women
were assured Of ten shillings a week
whenever they laid off. The doctors
amount of malingerRg, but have not
| yet discovered any cure. Many peo-
! pc consider thai a week of leisure,
| with an income of ten shillings, is q
| jUstifiable holiday. When the official
! doctor asserts that they are not i'll
| they begin to denounce the act as a
fraud, and make political capital of it,
! IHr
willing to print complaints from the
insured that the insurance act is a
failure.
Fourteen million people are now
paving their weekly contributions,
licking stamps" the governments op-
ponents say derisively. Undoubtedly
many of them find fault with the ad-
ministraticn of the act, and probably
some amendments will be found neces-
sary. New problems develop every
day An employer has written to the
papers explaining that an emplOye had
been four or five months in jail
charged with murder. The trial re,
suited in acquittal. The employer
wants to take back the man, but wants
D
contributions for the time Of detention
: in jail. The act says nothing on that
point.
Fer The time opposition TO the insuT
ance scheme or rather criticism of it
d; is the principal political capital of tbs
: Conservative party. Home rule anc
Welsh establishment have takeI
hn
!, while conservatives declare that com
rulsory insurance is a failure theti
ls3 ners do not go so far as to urg.
/, real. 1t is unpopular with many PEG
. pie, but whether il is not popular witt
, the great majority Of the insured i
!, still an open question
. A discussion rs 10 whether London
/, ers die our wiki the third generation
, as so often asserted, has been takin
O place in the daily papers. One pape
+ suggested that it would be difficult t
h find 4 Londoner OF The fourth genel
' atiCn and as a result has receive
/ many curious peiigrees. Some 0
them date back two hundred years
with a great-great-g grandfather born il
? 10 die. Host Of these come from dis
c tricts where trades are handed dow
Il from father TO son, and in almost a
& Of them it was found that the preser
i generation we're carrying on the bus
!. ness established by their ancestor
d 1t has been pointed out, however, tina
q the Londoners who make Londo
:. have been drawn from the country I
i the city, where they do not last long.
S Sir William Osler, regius professo
t. of medicine at Oxford, has been vol
l. ing the opinion Of the medical prt
fession at the insdequacy of the no
pital accommodation in England an
comparing unfavorably the voluntar
R system in vogue here with the systel
d in America and Canada, where all no
" pitfalls accept paying patients. Throug
h out the United Kingdom the hospital
k, accept no pay from their patient
." with the result that they are crowde
r with those who cannot afford 10 ma
d. ana IN many cases are partially close
IT. because the lack of funds will not z
n low al the beds to be occupied, viii
w people who could afford to nav som
al 'hlng have to go to nursing home
re which are in most cases very expe
slve, or be nursed at home. The =
sui, according to doctors with lar
:. practices, is that only the very no
IT or the very rich get proper medical ;
m tention
as One OF the possibilities Of the retu
nd Of the liberals 10 power in Austral
in where they secured a majority Of o
a over the labor party in the low
ke house, lie thac the plans for the n,