America's forthcoming adoption of a "Srogramme of social Inmurance, which has been in existence in umber of European countries for many. years, is merely an inevitable development of "industrial conditions {n'that country. Miss Frances Per= king, Secretary of Labour, has an~ hounced that such a scheme. will form. part of the. Administrations new programme, and that the major portion of the coat will be a charge Rgsinst production. Of course, there ie nothing mew in this. Te is merely another version of the pre-war slogan which accompanied the Hoya George Scheme with its sainepence for fourpence" "In "England, the former [Premier Introduced his insurance Scheme. at atime. when conditions were practically normal and it with: ood the buffets of economic condi-fons and considerable' withdrawals Until a few years after the war When unemployment in the country became acute that instead of the. fund being solvent it had to be bolstered up by Government appropriations Which" resulted in' the. unfortunate Implication being attached to. the "dole" for the unemployed although the medical benefits escaped such a censure While the United "States enjoyed tremendous prosperity, which Tasted considerably Tonger than. in another country and recelved.the fariifeal stimulus of unparalled Spectiation giving the sppesrance of Continued and permanent prosperity whereas the reverse proved the cate, fas the sensational collapse revealed. stich a scheme as social insurance was unnecessary because the margin fof surplus for everybody seemed 20 rear. Recent developments and the! fenormots number of unemployed Hhave exploded. the fallacy. that. the ate should not, throughs social legis= Intion. provide for the bleak sears ars the empleyeble population i cone teemed. The scheme which Mr. Lloyd George successfully introduced has Sccsived more criticism than possibly any other act of legislation ever pas-Sed by the British Parliament but Estill remains one of the greatest which could usefully be copied by fother countries. andi, apparently, being adopted by the United States.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.