PROVISION FOR HIS FIGHTERS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 40, 10 November 1917, Page 8

PROVISION FOR HIS FIGHTERS

UNCLE SAM'S INSURANCE SCHEME

GENEROUS ALLOWANCES \ [Bill H B 5723, the official name of the measure that provides for the insurance of American soldiers and sailors, is interestingly discussed from a humanitarian point of view by Judge Julian Mack, of Chicago, who has made a specinl study of the subject, and who drafted the bill which was introduced in the Senate nnd House.l Judge Mack snya in an interview in the New York "World":— life insurance has a scientific basis. The American experience table of mortality (ells you how many out of a hundred thousand who entered at age ten are oxpected to die each year, and at what ages life insurance rates are based upon these tables. . • The United States, however, is not going into tho life insurance business for profit; it is going to do it as a matter of duly to tho soldiers and sailors who can not insure their lives in the ordinary way because of the. extra hazard of war. As the Government will not have to pay heavy • ovorhead expenses, advertising agents' commissions, medical fees, taxation, etc., and as tho Government, not tho fighting forces, ought to 6tand the extra cost of the higher war mortality, the premium rates (o be charged by it are based upon the mortality experience tables of peace times, without load;');-,

Incidentally, it may be pointed out that the physical standards of admission to the Army and Navy are higher than nny life insurance company, ever thought of insisting upon, 60 that apart from tho • war risk cost which the Government ought to pay, the Government will be on the safe side, even at the lowest rates. It will be possible to insure the life of nny of our young fighting men at about il 13s. -Id. per thousand a year, so that aar officer or enlisted man in the Army or Navy, or any Army nurse, may take out the maximum .£2500 policy for only about iCI6 a year, a auni which even a private soldier or cr.mmon sailor can afford out of his pay. This insurance will not only cover dcath.it will also cover total disabilitv. That is to say, that the insurance will not mature only on the death of the insured; it wilf mature from the moment he is totally disabled. The insurance thus issued will b° yearly renewable term insurance, but after the war those who return may convert their policies into other form?, such as ordinary or twentypayment life or endowment policies maturing at age of sixty or later, tho premiums to be based, however, on the same mortality tables and without loading. A Square Deal. What the Government intends to do may be expressed in two thoughts: "win the war" and "give a square deal to our righting meu." must relievo the -men wider arms from ail worry about their families, and we must tee to it that the families do not suffer overmuch from the enforced absence of tho breud-wiunere. As the Secretary of tho Treasury has said, when we draft a wageearner we call not ouly him but the entire family to the flag; the sacrifice enfailed is not divisible. ' it is up to the people of this country to see that the dependent wives and children and father and mothers of our fighting men are not reduced to want. We must maintain them until the soldiers and sailors can return and look after them. Now the Government proposes to do the following things: First, all enlisted men will be required to make an allotment of part of their pay to support their families,, and the' Government will supplement this allotment by a special family allowance to be paid in addition to what the enlisted man gets. Secondly, the Government will pay compensation in the case of disablement or death on' the lines of the Workmen's Compensation Act. It is something better and more equitable than the pension system, because the sacrifice of and loss to the family, is taken into consideration by varying the amount of compensation, both after death and during disability,- according to the size of the family. Thirdly, the Government will provide for the rehabilitation and re-education of such men as are seriously injured in battle. Compensation is not enough. The Government must fit the crippled soldier for a life of activity and usefulness and happiness, either in his former or in some other vocation. These are the things the Government ■ is going to do for the men. It is also going to make it possible for them to do something for themselves, and so the Government will offer life insurance to its soldiers and sailors at cost, iu . any amount from .£250 to The men themselves must pay the premium, they can use their enforced deposits to direct the Government to pay tho premiums or they can pay it themsolvee or have their families pay for it. But the point is this, tho men pay the premiums,' cot me Government. . . All insurance is to be payable bv instalments, to be non-assignable, and to bo free from the claims of creditors either of the insured or of the beneficiary. It is to be limited to the wife, children, and other specified kindred and must bo applied for within 120 days cfter the .terms are promulgated or subsequent enlistment or entrance into the service. For those who fall before they have had an opportunity to insure within the prescribed period of 120 days, insurance that will give monthly instalments of £j for twenty years or for the life of the disabled' man will bo deemed to nave been applied for and issued. , ... . \fter all, the most important tiling is not the cost, but the justice of the measure. So far as we can see the cost of doing justice to the men who are going to fight and die for us will not exceed .£110,000,000 for the first two years of war, but if the cost was five- or six or even seven hundred million dollars a year, how could we hesitate in view of what those men are going to do for the present and future happiness of mankind upon earth? If need be, we are going to spend money by the tens of billions to prosecute and win this war. Shall we hesitate to spend 5 or 6 per cent, of that amount to do justice to those who will fight? Indemnity for Disability. Discussing indemnity for disability, Judge Hack emphasises the provisions for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers, and says:— But while compensation is an essential indemnity for the disability that reeults from injuries received m tho patriotic service of the country, there is something that is infinitely more important both to the man himself and to tho community-that is the obligation to rehabilitate and. re-educate in somo instances tho men. It is most important that theso men, crippled, maimed in tho service of their country, who have been out of active life during a period, who know that they are going to cot money from the Government, should not bo permitted to lose whatever stamina is lett. On the contrary, there is an obligation on behalf of tho community to see that all their potentialities' are increased and developed. . . The method by which this is to be done is by offering to all such men opportunities of re-education. Not merely offering them, but when a man is fitted for it making it compulsory to this extent—that if he declines although fitted for it, unreasonably declines, lie loses compensation while he so declines. On the other hand, jn order to spur these meu on, and also because if the thing is successful the economic value to the "country will be infinitely greater than if this were not done, we will not deprive the man of his compensation because ho has re-established himself or bettered himself in the economic world as the result of his re-education. In other words, the compensation is given for the injury, and that injury, if it is permanent, remains with him in life, even though, thanks to re-education, it has not destroyed his earning power in tho world.

We want the man who is compelled to take re-education to feel and to understand that it is for his own good, that he can keep the compensation the Government is giving him, but. that tho Government does not want him to have to

go through life with his family on nothing but this minimum.

Marriage. One more very important provision is contained in this Bill. It is inspired alike by tEe loftiest motives and by the soundest business considerations. These men coming back from the wa.r will be largely unmarried. Those who come back wounded will bo in a more or less helpless condition, when if ever men needed the love and care of wife ai.d children they will need it. And so we have bcliereil that no barriers should bo put in the way of their marrying, and no barriers should bo put in tho way of food women marrying because of the inability of theso men to go out in the world to make the sort of living that other people should have or would have. Therefore, we provide that it is immaterial when tho marriage takes place, when the children are born. The amount wanted depends upon tho size of the family from month to month, from year to year, and even though a man marries later on in life, the widow is going to get hers. It may be that we will have some frauds in the sense that an eighty-five-year-old man marrying a twenty-live-year-old woman can bo considered n fraud. But at least at this time and at the age of our men coming back nov/ the possibilities of such fraud are too insignificant and too far removed _to militate against an act of absolute justice, to the man and to tho community. We will not put obstacles in the way of marriage or of procreation.