Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-05-24
SOCIAL INSURANCE
IN GERMANY A SHAM

The social insurance system of Ger
many is another fetch of that coun-
try which has been exposed by Gus
tavus Myers. writing for the Amer
lean Alliance for Labor and Democ-
racy.
MANY shams," he says. ARE being
swept away by the great war Ono
of these Is the long-maintained pre-
tense of Germany's unexcelled social
progress. 1t was sham elevated to
q fetch. Examined 1t turns out to
be a poor shoddy thing which can no
longer be imposed upon the world"
To- support his claim that Ger
many's social insurance system is "a
rank counterfeit" Mr.. Myers quotes
the Amtliche Nachrichten des Reichs-
Versicherung-Amt.B Berlin. which re-
ports that pensions paid in Germany
during the year 1914 averaged. per
person:
Invalidity, $47.79; sicknes s.
$49.3S: old age. $39.9S; widows and
widowers, $18.77; widows sickness.
1888; orphans, $3.50.
"Thus we see," continues Mr..
Myers, that the largest pension
given did not amount to 81 q week.
The disabled had to get along In 1914
on a pension Of about 81 cents
week, and less in previous years. The
sick invalid, in 1914, had to subsist
on q pension of IS cents a week, and
old age on a pension of less than ~
cents a week. Widows. sick widows
and orphans each received the munif-
icent pension of between So and 80
or 80 cents a week. How they per-
formed the miracle of existing on
these sums no German official report
explains
"But what the reports of the Ber-
lin Invalidity Insurance Institution
do show is that in great number OF
cases these so-called pension bene-
fits' have not prevented the recipients
from becoming q charge upon the
Door law Thus in Berlin Of 1879
males receiving invalidity pensions.
1850. or 16 per cent Of the total
number. also received poor relief. 1t
is fact of the greatest signifcantce
that of the persons becoming entitled
to invalidity pensions nearly one-half
we're already in receipt of poor-law
money grants, and most Of them re-
tanned those poor-law allowances.
generally at higher figure. The
same was true of those receiving old
age pensions. Abandonment of the
poor-law money grants DR.. Zahn
comments, occurred only in isolated
cases.
Here we have the true inklings Of
the operations Of Germany's. won
derful workingman's insurance laws.
Most palpably they are the rankest
counterfeit. Yet ignoring both their
essentials and their effects a promi-
nent writer Of a widely circulated
book booming Germany's 'socializa-
ton has the impudence to assert
that these laws prove Germany to be
a Economically minded country
The doing out of miserable pittances
passing under the high-flown term Of
pensions, of SO to IS cents a week.
ia transformed by that prismatic
writer into a juster distribution of
wealth. and a more generous distri-
button of the gains of civilization
Extraordinary, indeed, have been
this generosity and these gains in
Germany, where large proportion
Of those receiving these insurance
pensions have already been on the
regular ofilcial pauper list and have
remained there. II the number thus
getting double government aims in
Berlin-about one-fifth to one-sixth
was applied to the whole German
empire, then self-evidently there has
been an enormous number Of pen
sioners' who. at the same time. have
had to draw poor relief aims. Even
when both pensions and poor relief
aims we're combined the total sum