policies lapse in case of failure to pay premium at any time within the first three years.

The Massachusetts savings-bank insurance and pension system was first put into operation on June 18, 1908, when the savings-bank of Whitman-a prosperous manufacturing town in South-eastern Massachusetts-opened the first insurance department established under the statute.

In November, 1908, the People's Savings Bank of Brockton -of which ex-Governor William L. Douglas is presidentestablished its insurance department. Other savings-banksthose at Bridgewater, Ware, and Ludlow, all manufacturing communities-have taken agencies from the Whitman bank; and at least six other banks have now under consideration either the establishment of insurance departments or the taking of agencies.

Both the Whitman Savings Bank and the People's Savings Bank of Brockton have numerous private agencies, including manufacturers, mercantile establishments, labor unions, and welfare institutions. In this manner private agencies have already been established in Boston, Cambridge, Springfield, Lowell, Haverhill, Middleboro, North Abington, Norwood, and South Framingham.

The Massachusetts insurance and pension system can attain success only through the full appreciation by the employee, the employer, and the community that provision for old age and life insurance is an integral part of the daily cost of living; that no wage is a living wage which does not permit the workingman to set apart each day or week or month the necessary cost of such provision for the future; that no workingman can be truly self-supporting or independent who does not make such provision; and that the savings-bank will enable him to make the provision at the lowest possible cost.

To make general the appreciation of these facts involves an extensive, persistent, and long-continued campaign of education. This educational work was commenced in the fall of 1906 by the Massachusetts Savings Insurance League, when the project of savings-bank insurance was first submitted to the pub

lic. The long strenuous campaign which preceded the passage of the Act resulted in a wide discussion of the subject in every part of the State. Nearly 300 labor unions joined in the effort to secure the requisite legislation. Presidents of the State Branch of the American Federation of Labor, of the Boston Central Labor Union, of the International Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, and the International Textile Workers' Union, thus representing Massachusetts' leading industries, were among its most enthusiastic supporters. Leading manufacturers, financiers, and social workers then gave the movement their support, and the educational work commenced has been continued ever since and has been much enlarged. In this educational work, employers, employees, social workers, and the churches are all taking part, and upon this wide-spread and concerted effort rests the confidence in the success of the system.

*INSURANCE AND ANNUITY POLICY.

INSURANCE PAYABLE AT DEATH PRIOR TO AGE SIXTY-FIVE, ANNUITY COMMENCING AT
AGE SIXTY-FIVE.

The figures below show the most you will have to pay and the least you will get. All the profits
go to the policy holders.

Insur- Annu- Insur- Annu- Insur- Annu- Insur- Annu- Insur- Annu-
ance. ity. ance. ity. ance. ity. ance. ity. ance. ity.

THE WORK OF THE MASSACHUSETTS COMMISSION ON OLD AGE PENSIONS.

BY F. SPENCER BALDWIN, Executive Secretary of the Commission.

The Massachusetts Commission on Old Age Pensions, Annuities, and Insurance was appointed in 1907, under authorization of a legislative resolve "to investigate and consider the various systems of old age insurance, or old age pensions or annuities proposed or in operation in this Commonwealth, or elsewhere, and report upon the advisability of establishing an old age insurance or pension system in this Commonwealth." The Commission was further instructed to report "statistics showing the probable expense to the Commonwealth of the various systems considered, and of any system that they may recommend for adoption, together with any bills or other suggestions for legislation relating to this subject that they may deem wise." The report of the Commission was to be submitted on or before January 15, 1909. On January 1 of this year the Commission presented a preliminary report, and requested an extension of time for one year, in order to complete a statistical investigation that had been undertaken. This request was granted, and the life of the Commission was extended to January 15, 1910.*

Massachusetts is the first state to provide for an official inquiry into this subject. In 1905 the legislature of Illinois created a commission to "investigate and report to the governor the draft of a bill providing a plan for industrial insurance and workingmen's old age pension." This commission, however, confined its investigation to the subject of accident insurance of employees, leaving the question of old age pensions untouched. The Massachusetts investigation is thus

* The members of the Commission are Magnus W. Alexander, Chairman, James T. Buckley, M.D., Mrs. M. R. Hodder, Arthur M. Huddell, Walter G. Chase, M.D.

especially noteworthy as the pioneer undertaking of this kind in the United States.

The plan of investigation finally adopted by the Commission, after careful preliminary study of the subject of inquiry, is based on recognition of the need of statistical data regarding the number and the condition of potential pensioners in the state. Before any plan of old age pensions can be considered intelligently, with reference to adoption in Massachusetts, it is obviously necessary to know something about the approximate number of persons who would come under the provisions of the scheme, the probable cost of providing for them in the proposed manner, and the present condition of the pensionable population. In order to form an opinion regarding the expediency of introducing in Massachusetts any one of the old age pension schemes that have been adopted elsewhere, one must know, at least approximately, how large the proposed undertaking is, how much it would cost, and what the need or the demand for such a measure may be. In other words, how many persons would be entitled to share in the benefits of the plan? What would it cost to provide pensions for this number? What is the present cost of maintaining the dependent part of this population under the existing system of poorrelief? What saving, if any, in the expenditure for poor-relief would result from the adoption of the plan? What proportion of the aged population is in actual want,—that is, not properly provided for through income from earnings or savings, and assistance from children or other relatives? Information that will throw light on these questions is needed before judgment can be passed on the cost and need of any plan of old age pension or insurance.

At present there are no official statistics that give answers to these important questions. The results of statistical investigations in this field, carried on in Great Britain and various European countries, afford no secure basis for conclusions as to the cost, the scope, and the need of an old age pension scheme in Massachusetts, for the conditions in this state are widely different from those in foreign countries. Authorita