The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-07-08
(By Herbert S. .Bigelow.)

10y HerDerC .. ~B1gelO".)
It is. proposed to amend the Con-
stitution to establish an old age pen
sion system in Ohio.
. The majority of people, when they
are too old to work, are thrown on
public or private charity. They can
not, out of their scant wages, save
enough to keep them in independence
In their declining years. They must
go to the poorhouse. or become a bur-
den to children who need all they can
earn for their own growing families. =
! Old age is, at best, a distressful or
deal. Destitution in old age Is q trag-
edy. I believe that the young men
OF Ohio honor their own fathers and
mothers enough to vote to all old
people a pension sufficient to save
them from want :
The man or woman VINO works
from the age of twenty to sixty is en-
titled to comfort in his old age. If
one were to buy, of a. private insur-
ance company, a deferred annuity,
after sixty years Of age, Of a dollar
a day, it would cost him 1925 g. year.
The average wage of our industrial
worker is around $500 a year. Out
OF this sum a working man cannot
afford 1925 year for Insurance..
Corporation Pensions.
Some private corporations now
pension their superannuated en-
ployes. Such efforts indicate the need
Of: old age pensions, but they benefit
only a few. The benefit should be
as extensive as the need. The State
should provide insurance for every
one who needs it.
We pension our old soldiers. The
worker creates wealth, the soldier de-
tends it. Why should not one be as
much entitled to a pension as the
other?
Every employer should vote and
work for old age pensions to be paid
by the state. A>plan Of insurance,
which would guarantee a peaceful
and Independent old age to every citi-
zen of Ohio, would greatly improve
industrial conditions. It would be
social harmonizer.
The expense should not be met by
imposing additional burdens on BUSH
ness or property. The money for
pensions could easily be drawn from
inheritance taxes: and from the un-
earned increment Of land value. Thus,
ample revenues for old age pensions
could be- provided without putting a
penny Of taxation upon production or
enterprise: ..
If a man inherits a fortune he
should not object, even to a substan-
tial tax, to protect the unfortunate
from want in old age. II he did OBJ
ject, his .selfishness would be: entitled
to no consideration.
Moreover, If a man buys a lot for a
thousand dollars, the value of which
goes up to ten thousand dollars, he, in
reality. received a legacy from society
of $4,000 of unearned land value. He
should not object to giving up some
Of that unearned increment to pen
sion the WORKOUT soldiers of industry.
100000 Destitute in Ohio.
There are a hundred thousand des-
titute old people in Ohio who are cry
ing to us in the language of the
Psalmist:
''Cast me not off in my old age:
forsake me not when by strength
..
Those Of us who are not yet old
have a chance to answer this cry of
the dear old people. BY pension
system we can at least abolish the
poverty Of the aged and infirn.
In addition to the old people, the
children have a peculiar claim upon
the state. Infancy and old age are
helpless. In the very nature Of things,
the care of the young and the old
must fall upon somebody. When pri-
vate provision: has not been made, or
cannot be made, for the proper care
Of children, it. is the duty of society
to make that provision.
There are two, burdens Of mind
which every responsible man carries.
He breads the thought of impover-
ished old age, and he suffers still