The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1882.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4212, 1 July 1882, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JULY 1, 1882.

Major Atkinson has announced his intention of introducing a scheme of compulsory National Insurance. The idea was at first started by the Her W. L. Blackley, who contributed an article embodying his scheme to the Nineteenth Century of November 1878. Unfortuna* tely we hare been unable to obtain a copy of that magazine, and in its absence can only convey to our readers & vague idea of the subject. Its main principle consists in the compulsory payment of small capital sums (£lO or £14) in youth—i.e., before the age of 21—by everybody, high or low, rich or poor, which by accumulating would enable him to claim a weekly pay* ment in sickness or old age, enough at least to maintain him. In the Contemporary Rev iew of July 1879, Mr Blackiey says :— " It may be within the knowledge of some of my readers that an essay bearing my signature was published in November last, under the title of • National Insurance/ in which I ventured to indicate what appeared (and still appears) to me a possible means of vastly diminishing our poor rates, and the pauperism which they promote as well as relieve, by making every unit of bur population, at a reason* able, cost, and by a reasonable method, personally independent of parish relief, in timeß of sickness and old age. Starting from the consideration that young single men's Jwages are not very much lower

than those of married men, who are able generally to support not only themselves but wives and children, I ventured to assert, what few persons acquainted with the condition of young wage-earners have been found to deny, that the average earners, even of the lowest wage, might, somewhere between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, make, if (hey chose, a lifelong provision against want in sickness and old age. I pointed oat some present difficulties in the way of thrifty youths , securing such a provision, and sketched out the plan of a National Universal Benefit Club, which might obviate the present insecurity of provision by giving an absolute national security, and might meet possible objections against its cost by making that cost vastly iess than the ordinary amount necessary, in an ordinary club, to secure such benefits as I proposed. But there was something more to point out than how thrifty young men, desirous of securing themselves from potential or actual pauperism, might easily effect their purpose. I had also to consider the case of the thriftless, who, relying on what they falsely imagine their inalienable right to rate relief whenever they choose to throw themselves, as destitute, upon their parish, will take no steps of their own accord to obviate destitution. With regard to these two classes of young men, I Isid down the following positions:—lf the laboring classes can make their own provision, and will do so, they should be shown how. If they can, and will not, they should be compelled." Farther on he remarks—-" Every unit of the nation is to make his own provision with bis own money against destitution in sickness and old age—to make it in such way that every man for the name sum secures the same'provision for himself as every other man; and that the whole function of the State in the matter should be to act, by consent ef the nation, as collector for each man's own insurance fund, and as banker to that fund when once collected. I repudiate every notion of seeking State aid or charity. It need not cost the State one shilling of public money; the Government is to undertake no money responsibility whatever in the matter. If it were found that the premiums were too low, the law might immediately redress the balance by requiring whatever might be declared needful from all future insurers." The insured would be entitled to its benefits when siokness prevented his earning wages ; even although he were possessed of property and means.. To the objection that: the scheme would teach the people to iook to the State to do for them what they should do for themselves, he replies, " Heaven forbid! That is exactly what they are doing now. I claim that the law should make" people do for themselves what they now expect the State to do for them instead." In answer to another objection Mr Blackley writes, "Four shillings a week will certainly procure for an agricultural Jlaborer of 70 (who in many cases, can still even add to his income by a light occupation) a comfortable existence by some friend's or kinsman's fireside. On another criticism he says, " Men point at the vast number of rough, violent, apparently penniless, and possibly lawless men of all ages to be met daily in our crowded cities, and say, " It will be impossible to get £10 out of each of these men under any circumstances." I reply, " We should do it with youths before they become rough. The allegation that persons in indefinite occupation cannot be compelled, is based on ignorance of the very small number against whom compulsion would have to- be enforced, and seems to weigh chiefly with those who cannot yet realise that no one ever 21 years of age on the first introduction of the measure will be compelled to contribute." With regard to young thieves, vagrants, &c, Mr Blackley would have each kept in the stoneyard, or in the mat room, in slow labor, paid at the lowest rates till he has laid by bis £10 in the National stock.