Evening star., 1934-11-01
BY LOUIS NJ. LYONS.

In England when a wage-earner Is
sick he draws sickness insurance. When
he is laid off he draws unemployment
insurance When he reaches IS he
draws an old-age pension. When he
dies his widow or his orphans receive
insurance.
England leaves none of these hazards
to chance. All these forms of insur-
ance are compulsory. The govern
ment Is the insurance company. The
worker pays for his inSurance-in part
The government also pays and its part
is cne of the chief causes for the ter
rife rate of national taxation in Eng
land, which in the last fiscal year bore
four times as heavily upon the average
individual as Federal taxes in the
United States.
But England apparently feels that
the security of her workers is worth
the price. Each succeeding govern
ment through more than 25 years has
extended this pattern of security until
it now covers more than one-third OF
the entire population with its protec-
ton. Almost all employed persons
earning less than $1,000 year are
insured against all of the contingen-
cies that normally interrupt the earning
ability of the worker. When this Spring
brought assurance of British recovery,
the conservative British chancellor,
Neville Chamberlain, was as prompt
in restoring the cuts in unemploy-
ment insurance benefits as could have
been the Socialist, Philip Snowden, to
whom it fell as tragic duty to have
to make the cuts, in the depths of the
emergency Of 1881. Neville Chamber
lain's father, Joseph Chamberlain, was
one of Britain's pioneers in seeking
to frame old-age insurance legiSla-
tion. He served on the first royal
commission to report on the subject,
in 1898. But it was 1908, and Herbert
Asquith was prime minister. before
Englands first old-age pension law
was passed.
First Insurance Form
This was the first of the several
forms of social insurance to be under
taken by the British Government.
The others came tumbling after
within a few years and have been
more and more closely related, so that
now one insurance payment by the
worker insures him both against
sickness and old age, and, if it is
woman. also for maternity care.
1t was more than 20 years after
England's first old-age pension law
before New York and then Massa-
chusettS began to blaze a similar
legislative path in the United States.
It is natural enough that the old-age
problem should have struck England
first. A greater proportion OF her
population has been engaged in ma
chine industries, which have little
use for the aged. Her wages, too, are
lower, and that has made more diff
cult for the British worker the burden
of caring for aged dependents which
mans increasing life span has laid
upon the active generation.
In England politics, which is also
a science. has accepted the problem.
Its solution seems inadequate by
American standards of living The
first old-age pensions in England be-
gan at 70 and were only shillingS,
or $125 a week They now begin at
IS for that part of the population
which is insured, and the rate has
been doubled, to $3.50 a week. The
wife of an insured man is also en-
titled to $3.50. and a widow receives
the 50 so and an additional SIPS for
the first child and IS cents for each
other child.
But such pensions, small as they
are, must be considered in relation
to the whole pattern of security. II
the workers old father or mother can
contribute $3.50 week to the family
support. and his wife can receive
maternity benefits and he can count
on payments when there is lay-off
at the factory, then his chances of
having to go on the town when times
are hard are enormously reduced.
Governments Part.
There is also to be considered the
Governments contribution to lowered
living costs by its housing program.
In 1928 three-fourthS of the houses
built in England were built on sub
sidy by the government. Last year
the government was still helping to
build one house of every five erected
in an effort to bring decent housing
accommodations to workers families.
The first British old-age pensions
we're somewhat like the Massachu-
sets law. There was no contribution
by the benefciaries. The pensions
were paid entirely out of tax money.
The aged person had to demonstrate
his need He was entitled to the full
pension only if his income was under
S125 year and could receive nothing
at all if he had income above $3.50
year.
But in 1925 contributory old-age