Montana labor news., 1932-11-17
OLD-AGE PENSIONS MENACED.

Old-age pensions have had the support of organized
labor and forWard-looking persons generally in all coun
tries. 1t has been fervently hoped that this commendablt
feature of humanitarian legislation would not be mo
Tested.
But the economy-mad Prime Minister Lyons of Aus
tralia has made an attack on the old-age pension system
of that country by endeavoring to establish pauper stand
for the administration of the law. His reactionary
proposal brings the strong condemnation of the Aus
Worker, which says:
Hitherto these payments have been made to men
and women of the statutory ages as something to
which, within certain financial limits, they were en-
titled by virtue of their citizenship. 1t has been re-
garded as the States recognition of long p~articipa-
ton in the life of the community. It's acceptance
therefore carried no stigma with it. The pension was
a right-a public reward for work or services con-
tributed to the common good, and rendered in the
course of a lifetime.
"Allt that is now to be changed. Under the scheme
propounded by Mr.. Lyons the old-age pension is to
be Invested of its honorable character and debased
to a pauper allowance. T. x y The amounts paid in
pensions are to be recovered from the near relatives
Of the pensioners wherever it can be done. With
this object in view the private resources of the rela-
tves concerned are to be probed by departmental
inspectors who, one may be very sure, will develop
the usual traits of sleuths and inquisitors armed with
the authority of the law.
"Such a provision is completely destructive of the
principle on which old-age pensions have been
founded.
MANY elderly people have gladly received these
payments because they were thus relieved of de-
~pendence on their children, and enabled to feel that
no one would regard them as an circumference and
a burden in the evening of their lives.
"Mr. Lyons and his wealthy colleagues are going to
put an end to that happy state of things.
"Old-age pensioners, in thousands of instances, are
in future to be made miserable by the knowledge
that every penny paid to them from the public ex-
chequer will be wrenched from their relatives-in
most cases from sons and daughters who have their
own hard way to make in life and their own parental
responsibilities to carry on or prepare for. y
Capitalism, using the depression as an excuse, is
callously forcing down the workers standard of liv-
ing, %tampering with legislation that mitigates to some
extent the evil consequences of the social system,
welding the axe of economy with a ruthlessness
that continually i~ntensifies unemployment, and now,
to balance a budget reeking of mismanagement is
preparing to poison the amenities of family life"
Australia was one of the first countries to establish old
age pension in a scheme of humanitarian Legislation
which brought considerable admiration throughout the
world. The present pension is but II shillings 6 pence
a week, about three dollars at the current reduced rate Of
exchange. 1t is ~regretable that Prime Minister Lyons
should lead the reactionary groups in undermining the
creditable principle of self-respect which is the basis Of
the Australian pension system.
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