Pensions and Politics.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16264, 15 July 1918, Page 6

Pensions and Politics.

A novel but very wholesome resolution carried by the House of Commons was reported by cable on Saturday. It was moved by a private member, "That it is , essential "that all questions relating to pen- " sions should be kept free from party " politics." The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in approving of the motion, said that if parties were to begin seeking electiod on the strength of what they were going to do regarding pensions, "a most demoralising campaign "would ensue." The House, he .said, ought to carry a resolution showing that they were ddtermineS to keep the question outside the area of ordinary politics. "We have in this country seen old-age pensions policy affecting political controversies, and interfering with the free play and conflict of xlonestly-hold opinions, and we can easily understand the apprehension with which those who wish to purge politics of appeals to greed or pure prejudice are in Britain watching the growth of an enormous public directly interested in the scale of war pensions. We are not without some apprehension on account of our own country in this respect, and we are not very confident that a means can be found to prevent needy politicians, or needy parties, from buying votes by offering to increase the scale. The peril is indeed large and obvious. When the war is over there will be an army of pensioners, who, with their relatives and friends, will make up a body of voters sufficiently large to appeal irresistibly to those politicians whose craving for office makes them indifferent to the plain interests of the country they would govern. "Vote for us," a party may pay at some futuro time, "and we "shall increase the war pensions b^ 50 "or 100 per, cent.," and the special support they would thus purchase might oasilv turn the scale in their favour, and give office to a set of men who, in the absence of such a means of buying support, would never be entrusted with power. We are writing, wo may observe, with no special party in our mind, but we may be sure that the opportunity will find the party ready to take advantage of it. "But, " surely," a person unacquainted with the actual working out of political theories might say, "surely the support "thus bought would bo far outweigh- " ed by the opposition of the outraged "majority, outraged alike by the " offence of the bribe, and by the un- " just demand it would make upon " their purses." Unhappily, experience in all countries has shown that it is easier to find advocates of imprudent, or even improper spending, than defenders of financial soundness. The beneficiaries of the offered bribe would b© united by personal motives to vote for the party that promises them the cash: the people who are not personally, or, at least, directly, concerned, would distribute their votes amongst the parties on all kinds of grounds. Very few people ever made their visit to the polling booth a mission of protest against a threatened mishandling of the public money. The present House of Commons cannot bind future Parliaments or parties; indeed, it cannot even bind itself, in tho sense of doing something which it cannot undo if it pleases. There are ways and means, to be sure, of so tying up tho pensions scheme as to make the undoing and revision of it a process more difficult and prolonged than the mere introduction of an amending Bill. But this will not check a party determined to appeal to the cupidity of individuals. The only safeguard against the turning of the pensions scheme into a great instrument of corruption is the creation of an active public opinion, the awakening of the public to the fact that the corrupting of tho electorate is as great an evil as oppression or social fnjustlce. The resolu-

tion of the House of Commons will, by

its novelty, do something to encourage the growth of this idea by making people think about it.