Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-01-04
A NEW PENSION BILL
Should the State Provide for the Aged?
BY Frederic J. Haskin

VIZ AsHINGToN, d. c.. Dec. 31:-Government
W. pensions for American aged and INDECENT
" are proposed in bill recently introduced
in the house.
Since 900. nearly every European government
has pensiOned its aged poor This bill would grant
a pension OF $40 month to native or naturallzed
American citizens sixy-five years of ago and over
who have been residents of the country fer twenty
years and whose income is less than $500 a year.
This pension would be enough to keep many
old people with their families who otherwise would
have to enter Institutions. Then too, these de-
pendent old people the vitality of the younger
generation. Look about you and observe no" man!
of your friends and acquaintance are handicapped
by the obligation of supporting their parents. In
many cases it does not hurt them at all; they are
quite capable of it, they have ability, money,
strength. On others not capable it is unques-
tiOnably intolerabe burden.
Take the average factory worker. for instance.
He makes barely enough to support family. to
say nothing of two; hence it is up him either to
sacrifice his life-his right to love and his
children-and take care of his parents, or sac
rifice his parents to his own life.
The factory worker is the best example, but the
strain of economic conditions is not by any means
limited to him. For any family with income of
less than $4,000 year in these days of exorbitant
prices, the support of parents we'll as children is
a heavy responsibility.
Neither can it be said to be an enjoyable cir
cumstance from the point of view of the old peo-
pie. They nearing the end of long existence
fraught with toll, as most lives are, and with in
Vulnerable sacrifices made to bring up few healthy
responsible American citiZens-a valuable service
to the country but which is rarely rewarded.
At sxty-five their abilities have dwndled; they
dependents either on their children or the com
munity. And it is a significant fact that the ma
jority of them prefer the community.
In an investigation into the economic conditions
of old people made by the state of Massachusetts
in 1915, it was discovered that out of total
living in that state, 34,496 we're dependent
public charity.
The annual amount spent on dependent old
persons was estimated at $3,233,949, about $94
per capita. Fancy living on $94 a year! Ameri-
cans apt to boast of the superiority Of Amer-
homes. of American institutions, of Americans
themselves. They are properly indignant when
they read about certain tribal organizations that
follow the custom of killing off all their old people
Yet-$94 year, when living costs what it does.
In Europe various provisions for the aged have
been made by different governments. Denmark
was the first to establish old-age pension sys-
tenn, in 1891. The pension age is sixty years-the
lowest age fixed by any country-and is payable to
any sixty years old who is unable to provide
himself his dependents with necessary subsist-
ence Moreover, his required residence in Denmark
is only years. On the other hand, the personal
characteristics of the applicant must comply with
certain fixed standards No one can receive PEN
sion who has ever been convicted of crime, unless
subsequently restored to civil rights who has re-
ceived any poor relief, with the exception of med
ical relief, during the five before his appli-
cation for pension, whose poverty has been due
to his own profligate habits.
The average pension paid by the Danish govern.
ment is about $50 a year, although it varies &C