TABLE III SUPPLEMENTARY TO GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL PENSIONS BY AMOS W. BUTLER Review of Reviews, Vol. XV *The legislature of Illinois, in its session of 1907-8, enacted a new law for Chicago. Under this law the sources of funds will be premiums paid by teachers, gifts, and city funds. All teachers employed after the law is effective are required to contribute to the fund, and the older teachers may become members on complying with certain conditions. The dues are $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, and $30.00, according to class, the class being fixed by length of service. The annuity after 25 years of service is $400.00; in case of permanent disability a share of this amount, determined by former contributions to the fund. Arrangement is made to refund payments made by a teacher who is discharged and one-half the payments made by a teacher who retires voluntarily. The minimum annuity is $250 and the maximum $600. No teacher can be retired under these legal provisions unless he or she shall have first paid into the fund such sum as shall make his or her total payments into said fund equal to at least 20 per cent. of his or her average annual salary for the five years immediately preceding the time of retirement. The fund is maintained by deductions from salaries, I per cent. of annuities, gifts, legacies, and interest on investments of the funds. In 1895 a law was enacted in California (amended in 1897 and in 1901) to create a public-school teachers' annuity and retirement fund in the cities and counties of the state. Teachers become contributors and beneficiaries by signing a contract and paying dues. The benefits accrue to members who have served 30 years in the schools of the state. The tendency of a system of pensions and sickness insurance is to lengthen the period of service, and thus to increase the number of teachers who have a strong professional spirit and who have time to give the community the advantage of long experience. At the same time it is easier to remove from the service those who are too old and feeble to be efficient without inhumanity. But such pensions ought not to be paid out of the meager salaries even now too low; they should be supported from taxation, only those receiving over $1,000 being required to contribute and having higher rates of pensions on this account. CHAPTER X THE PENSION SYSTEMS OF THE UNION AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES The federal government. This system is instructive in relation to workingmen's insurance both as a precedent and as a warning. The costly errors committed in its foundation and administration will warn the future legislator to prepare carefully and scientifically in advance a consistent and reasonable plan. The pension idea itself, in spite of faults of law and administration, has already prepared the way for insurance of old age for wage earners. From the beginning of our history as a people the pension method of caring for servants of the community has been familiar. The earliest settlers of New England adopted the principle that it was both the duty and the interest of the commonwealth to provide pensions for those who risk their lives in war for the defense of all. In 1636 the Plymouth Pilgrims enacted a regulation that whosoever should set forth as a soldier and return maimed should be maintained by the colony for the rest of his life. The Virginia Assembly of 1644 passed a law providing pensions for disabilities. Our first real pension law was passed by the Continental Congress, August 26, 1776. The central and state governments thus sought to encourage enlistments in times of national danger. With the beginning of the Civil War pensions there is noted increasing liberality in conducting pension affairs. Up to 1879 a man, to be eligible for a pension, must have applied within five years after his discharge. The Arrears Pension Act of 1879 is one of the most noted of our pension laws. It provided that all pensions which had been granted under the general laws regulating pensions should commence from the date of the discharge of the person on whose account the pension had been granted. The rate of the pension for the inter vening time from which the pension had been granted was to be the same as that for which the pension had been originally granted.1 From this time the sums expended rapidly increased. Military land grants.-Ever since the War of the Revolution the government has given land freely to veterans of the wars. In addition to grants made by special acts of Congress the government has issued since the war for independence 598,628 warrants for 783,030 acres (Rep. Com. of Pensions, 1906, p. 10). In this connection we must compare the expenditures. for pensions in this country and in Europe. It is true that we have no industrial insurance systems, but we give to a large number of superannuated workers a vast sum in the form of veteran pensions. In the year 1891 Great Britain expended on military pensions £5,410,822, less than $27,054,000; France, $29,857,000; Germany, $13,283,000; Austria, $12,245,000. The expenditures of the United States for the same purpose in that year were $118,548,959.2 The disbursements for pensions by the United States from July 1, 1790, to June 30, 1906, were $3,459,860,311.23.3 The amounts paid for the fiscal year 1905-6 were as follows: Regular Army and Navy (invalids, widows and 2 Forum, Vol. XII, p. 426. 'Report of Commissioner of Pensions, 1906, p. 11. The total number of pensioners on the rolls June 30, 1906, was 985,971. The highest number of pensioners at one time was $1,004,196, on January 31, 1905. As the veterans are growing old and feeble the rate of mortality is high and the cost will rapidly decrease. Evils and abuses have been inevitable. For many years since the Civil War the nation has grown rapidly in wealth; the systems of tariffs on imports may have reduced the income of multitudes of consumers but along with the taxes on internal revenue objects, as alcoholic liquor and tobacco, have yielded the federal government an income sufficient to meet the expenses of military and civil service, to reduce the national debt to small proportions, and to produce an enormous surplus which has been a constant temptation to extravagance. Under these circumstances the veterans and their friends, with the aid of political pressure, have been able to secure from Congress such liberal laws as the civilized world cannot elsewhere show. As the manufacturers have desired to retain the high tariffs on imports as a protective measure they had to find a way, or many ways, to spend the surplus, and the soldiers could easily appeal to patriotic sentiment in asking generous pensions. Homes for disabled volunteer soldiers.-In addition to their pensions, which may be used for the personal care and enjoyment of the men or for the support of their families, the disabled volunteer soldiers have the use until death of some one of the homes provided by the nation or by one of the states. The grounds of these homes are made attractive and are visited by many people on account of their beauty. The inmates are well fed, comfortably clothed in army uniforms, and receive the best medical care. Theatrical, musical, and literary entertainments are provided without charge, and chaplains conduct religious services. During the year ending June 30, 1905, 34,053 members were shel |