The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-01-07
Labor News From Brituin

the first place upon recognition of the
fact that the present wage system
alone does not afford stable founda-
ton for the family's permanent Sc
curity. The report points out that "A
minimum subsistence for families Of
every size cannot in practice be So
cured by wage system which is based
on the product of a mans labor and
not on the size Of his family. Neither
can the family's security be assured
when the flow Of breadwinners' carr
ings into the household is liable to be
stopped by unemployment, sickness,
accident or disease, old age-Or death,
and birth. The Beyeridge Report is
accepted by trade unionists, from this;
standpoint as method Of meeting the
gaps in the existing wage system.
! 1t regards the position Of the work:
ing class family in fact, from exactly
the same standpoint as the Trade
Unions themselves. For generations
past the Trade Unions have striven to
protect the family by precisely such
methods. The Unions instituted very
early in their history the protection
of an insurance system providing
against the hazards Of industrial life
by a series of trade and friendly benr
fits The Unions have expended mil
lions of money in cash benefits TO their
members in unemployment, sickness,
bereavement and old age. 1t is that
system which the Beveridge Plan pro-
poses to enlarge and fortify.
State Insurance System Questions
Throughout their history the Trade
Unions, toO have Striyen TO expand
family resources by raising wages. AS
the Bey2ridge Report emphasizes, so
cial surveys in Britain between the
two wars have shown that in the first
thirty years of this century alone real
wages rose by almost one-third In the
previous century real wages also rose.
But the social fact upon which the
Beveridge Report tounds its epoch
making proposals is that the rise in
wages has not eliminated poverty. The
poverty that remains is almost wholly
due (as the Report says) to these two
causeS-interruption or loss of earn
ing power and large families.
Trade uniOniStS, therefore, agree
that whatever else may be said about
the Beveridge Plan it clearly conforms,
as whole, to Trade Union principles
and aims. 1t seeks to ensure the Sc
curity and welfare of the family pre-
cSely as the Trade Unions have sought
to ensure it-by the method of inSlIl-
ance against unemployment, sickness,
accident, bereavement, old age and
death itself, and by the method of in
. creasing the family income. The
Unions have sought to achieve the
latter aim by raising wages. The Bey-
eridge Plan proposes to achieve it, in
part, by adding to wages IA system OF
childrens allowances. But the result
will be exactly what the Trade Unions
have sought to achieve out of theI
: own resources and by constant etfort
, through several generations--to abol
ish want
Problems of Adaptation
The Trade Unions. therefore, are
; favOrably disposed to the Beyeridgt
Plan. 1t would assist them to affair
their own fundamental aims. But ad
mttedly it raises some difficult ques
tOns for the Trade Unions that have
provided trade and friendly benetits
which the individual worker will bt
able to obtain, if the BeveridGe Plal
j.. is implemented. for a single all-in con
; tributiOn, from the State.
How to adapt the Trade Union sys
TEN of trade and friendly benefits il
. relation to the State Insurance SyS
TEN is the question to which Unioi
leaders are now giving their attention