ment of its Rules and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.O. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.) Paper cover, 1/-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS. Tracts, each 16 to 52 pp., price 1d., or 9d. per doz., unless otherwise stated. Leaflets, 4 pp. each, price 1d. for six copies, 1s. per 100, or 8/6 per 1000. The Set of 88, 3s.; post free 3/5. Bound in Buckram, 4/6; post free for 55. I.-General Socialism in its various aspects. TRACTS.-121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communism. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By JOHN WOOLMAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land (6th edn. revised 1904). 5. Facts for Socialists (9th edn., revised 1904). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. I. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. TRACTS.-126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. 122. Municipal Milk and Public Health. By Dr. F. LAWSON DODD. 120. "After Bread, Education." 125. Municipalization by Provinces. 119. Public Control of Electrical Power and Transit. 123. The Revival of Agriculture. 118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 115. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. 112. Life in the Laundry. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 98. State Railways for Ireland. 124. State Control of Trusts. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JOHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. II.-Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 114. The Education Act, 1902. III. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T. HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils. 99. Local Government in Ireland Workmen's Compensation Act. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES (Nos. 32, 36, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. The Scandal of London's Markets. Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. 90 to 97). Municipalization of Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats.— Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100. IV.-Books. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net. V.—General Politics and Fabian Policy. 82. A 116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI.-Question Leaflets. Questions for Candidates: 20, Poor Law Guard ians. 24, Parliament. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 6s. a year, or 2/6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London, E.C., and published by the Fabian Society, 8 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W.C. THE CASE FOR STATE PENSIONS IN OLD AGE. By GEORGE TURNER. PUBLISHED BY THE FABIAN SOCIETY. SECOND EDITION. REVISED. PRICE ONE PENNY. LONDON: TO BE OBTAINED OF THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 276 Strand, W.C. NOVEMBER, 1899. Secr FAB FAI BIBLIOGRAPHY, The following is a list of the principal books and official publications dealing with the subject of old age and its provision. Pauperism and Endowment of Old Age." By CHARLES BOOTH. Macmillan, 1892. 6d. and 5s. "Old Age Pensions and the Aged Poor." By CHAS. BOOTH. Macmillan, 1899. 60 "The Aged Poor in England and Wales." By CHARLES BOOTH. 8s. 6d. net. "The State and Pensions in Old Age." By J. A. SPENDER. Sonnenschein (Social Science Series), 1892. 2s. 6d. "Old Age Pensions and Pauperism." By C. S. LOCH. Sonnenschein, 1892. Is. "A National Pension Scheme." By Rev. W. MOORE EDE. Walter Scott, The Humanizing of the Poor Law." By J. F. OAKESHOTT. Fabian Trac: Reports from Her Majesty's Representatives in Europe on Assistance afforded to Report of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor. C-7684. 1895. IS. Treasury Committee Report. C-8911 of 1898. IS. 9d. tic S it VI. F Book House of Commons Special Committee Report. 296 of 1889. 5d. Board of Trade Report on Provision for Old Age in Certain European Countries. "Old Age Pensions at Work." Fabian Tract No. 89. 6 for id. THE CASE FOR STATE PENSIONS IN OLD AGE. The Problem of Old Age. NOT less tragic than the position of the unemployed workman is that of the aged craftsman. The man who does not give the fullest measure of work for his weekly wage is promptly discarded by an economic system depending upon alert competition for its existence. Fortunate it is that sixty per cent. do not live to be replaced by active, able-bodied, hopeful young workmen, and left destitute. But a large minority meets this fate. Wages of men from forty-five years of age upwards, show a gradual and persistent decline. The roughest forms of labor are the first to suffer; but in skilled trades where deftness of handiwork is the first condition of efficiency and of continued employment, the attainment of fifty-five years of age is usually accompanied by a reduction of earnings. The Bradford weaver has to abandon one of his two looms as he advances in years; the Lancashire cotton-spinner, and the head-piecer who has never become a spinner, have to seek for work in mills where the machinery is older and does not run so rapidly; the bricklayer is unable to lay as many bricks, and the compositor to set as many ens; the seamtress's sight fails; the dock-laborer, rheumatic through exposure to the weather, finds his place occupied by more vigorous competitors from the country villages. Besides, with old age come recurring and lengthy illnesses. Some idea of the extent to which such illness restricts wage-earning capacity may be gathered from the fact that whereas the average member of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows receives 14s. 8d. per annum in sick allowance,* those members over sixty-five years of age receive £7 4s. 9d. each. Neison, in his "Rates of Mortality," estimates that adults between twenty and forty years of age experience one week's illness per annum; between forty and sixty years, 216 weeks per annum, and between sixty and seventy years, 6 weeks each year. The Friendly Society experience proves that while adult male members average 2:06 weeks' illness at fifty years of age, by seventy years the average amount has increased to 1474 weeks.t The figures for 1898 are: 944,769 members, £695.789 138. Sd. total sick alowances. +H.C.-303 of 1896. Secr FAB 4 To young people in the full flush and energy of early life, cl age appears so far off that it is not easy to induce them to provid for it in any class. In the laboring class they cannot afford to provid for it, be they ever so prudent. An examination of existing method of provision only proves how inadequate and futile they are. The Extent of Existing Provision. This may roughly be summarized in three main forms: (1) Indi vidual saving, (2) State assistance other than that rendered by the Poor Law, and (3) Combined mutual effort. (1) The first form may be left out of the question. A few pounds painfully accumulated in a cracked tea-pot, are easily stolen and soon spent upon the first serious illness. There is probably less of thi form of saving now than there was fifty years ago. (2) Assistance by the State has taken the shape of the Post Offic Savings Bank and of State annuities. The latter were established in 1865; but in the succeeding thirty-two years only 30,646 imme diate and 2,980 deferred annuities were purchased, and of thes 13,883 have lapsed by effluxion of time and other causes. Fo convenience of calculation, the amounts invested in Trustee Saving Banks may be added to the investments in the Post Office Saving Bank showing a total, in round figures, of £164,000,000. This seems imposing; but as it is shared amongst 8,760,000 depositors the average investment per individual is only about £19.† (3) Of combined mutual effort, there are four methods: (a) BUILDING SOCIETIES. Excepting in certain well-defined districts, such as Woolwich the large cotton-spinning towns, and the smaller towns in the vicinity of coal-mines, the main body of investors is drawn from the middle and shopkeeping class. The security of building societies is mistrusted, sometimes with reason; and their benefits are beyond reach of all except the best-paid artizans. They do not touch the main problem. (b) CO-OPERATION. The Co-operative movement devotes but little of its resources to provision for old age. Its total capital was, in 1897, only £22,984,825, divided among 1,512,128 members, which gives about £15 per head.‡ (c) TRADE UNIONS. Here, if anywhere, should effective provision be discovered, since members, funds, and control are essentially working class; and insurance is a recognized department of Trade Union activity. But an analysis of the assistance rendered by Trade Unions demonstrates its inadequacy. For the year 1893, 687 societies forwarded returns of their membership, income and expenditure. Only 89 of the societies had a superannuation benefit, while 598, or 77 per cent. * C-9022, 1898. + C-9011, 1898, pp. 197-9. C-9011, 1899, p. 23. Book Prin |