Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-24
A Glance at Britain's Dole System
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.

The manner in which public relief
measures planned to ameliorate the
distress of unemployment build up on
each other and become huge burdens
on government treasures Is being Illus
trated by the expNTience of Great
Britain. A keener insight into the rea-
sons why President Hoover. Secretary
of the Treasury IAeiion and other
American statesmen have so bitterly
opposed anything resembling a cole
system is vouchsafed by a glance at
British experience.
It is found that schemes for public
assistance to the unemployed, the aged
and the INDECENT, which begin under
the most favorable auspices and with
actuarial assurance of paying at least
a large part of their own way. failed
before unforeseen and uncalculated
conditions.
The American Nation has had con-
siderable experience to illustrate this
has been bought dearly by Great
Britain.
When William G. McAdoo, as Secre-
tary of the Treasury in President Will
sons war cabsAet, preached the scheme
of war risk Insurance for every man in
the armed forces, it was figured out
that the benefits would pay for them
selves. The United States Government
got into the insurance business by set
ting up War Risk Insurance Bureau
to write marine insurance on merchant
vessels. The activity of German sub
marines against neutrals and the gen.
eral risks of wartime at sea caused
private insurance companies to raise
their rates to prohibitive figures and at
q time when there was special necessity
to keep the channels Of world trade
open. The Treasury Bureau wrote such
insurance rates which shippers could
afford to pay.
Then the United States entered the
war as belligerent The Treasury
Insurance Bureau had worked well and
at no great drain on the public funds.
The idea of extending the insurance
scheme to the entire military and naval
forces at one sweep was magnif1cently
conceived. Such plan, It was urged,
would forever obliterate the necessity
to pay war pensions.
Hard to Count on Future.
Held strictly to insurance, the scheme
did appear to work well, but very speed
ily Congress took hand and began ex-
tensions Of benefits. Huge sums had to
be appropriated to pay disability COM
pensation and otherwise take proper
care Of the veterans. No one has queS-
toned the rightneSs OF this recognition
Of military services, but experience his
shown that the best laid plans are sub
ject to the greatest changes.
At the last session Of Congress, huge
sums were appropriated to pay, in adj
vance, in the form of loans, bonus
money to veterans suffering from the
hard times. The theory even now is
that these loans will be repaid. That
only a very small portion of them will
be seems to be the general opinion.
Moreover, all the experience of past
wars and past lgislation suggests COM
pellingly that when this bonus money
has been exhausted and expectations for
more from that source are dim Congress
will, in its generosity. vote regular
monthly pensions to surviving veterans
in the old manner. This is far cry
from the original plan Of an insurance
scheme which would cost the Govern
ment little or nothing.
Not yet has the American Government
gone into unemployment insurance, al
though strenuous efforts were made at
the last session to pass measures for
public insurance against unemployment
which would have been revolutionary in
American practice. Great Britain, how
ever, is in the business. up to the chin
and the British experience is well worth
some inquiry.