After the Age of 55,

if a man once loses his work, he is almost certain to find himself rejected in favour of some one younger and more active. Of course there are differences in a complex matter like this. Compositors and miners may expect work well into the fifties; although at a lower wage. So may a farm labourer. In many of the iron trades, the chances of employment rapidly diminish after 40. From 55 to 65, then is an anxious time for the man who has to depend for his living on his physical strength, and it is a time which too often plays sad have with the savings of previous years. If, from the 20 years when the work man is at his best, we make a further deduction for out-of-work and sickness, we can easily understand the difficulty of even the skilled workman making provision for old age.

One of the most foolish objections to old age pensions takes the form of an assertion that the working man so rarely lives to that] advanced age that it is hardly worth while making any provision for such a contingency. The statistics of old age pauperism lend little colour to such an assertion. No doubt the rate of mortality may run high in some few industries, and it is not possible to get satisfactory data for each separate trade. Indeed, some authorities are not satisfied with the life tables in use among insurance companies. The Registrar of Friendly Societies in England, says:—"That no adequate data for the probable expectation of survivance at present exists." This may be true if extreme exactness is required for actuarial calculations; but the life tables in current use may for all practical pruposes be relied upon.

The real difficulty in the way of making provision for old age is not so much the want of money as the lack of organisation. The annual drink bill of the working classes is probably more than three times the sum necessary to insure against all the casualties of life. It may be true that the chief part of that bill is paid by a minority of their number; but, if so, it would be so much easier for the majority to undertake the burden. As a matter of fact, the sums saved by working men are enormous in the aggregate, and their self-denial is on the whole remarkable, especially those who are blessed with a large share of this world's goods. Although comparatively little has been accomplished by workmen to secure annuities in their old age, yet something has been done, interest has been aroused, and there is no reason to doubt that in the next few years a great forward movement will take place. It is in the power of the Government greatly to help and accelerate the movement, but beyond this point it is doubtful whether it is possible to go. There is a very distinct limit to the willingness of the taxpayer to add to his burdens. The wiser course is to take a shorter step first, leaving to our successors to complete what we can only hope to begin.