hand, the law has the
effect of postponing marriage for the first four years of a woman's
employment, as it practically imposes a penalty upon a woman marrying
before four years from the time when she begins to pay to the State
insurance money.

[Footnote 1: U.S. Industrial Commission Reports, vol. V, pp. 228-241.]

The English old-age pension law is a mere gratuity in the nature of
outdoor relief, giving to everybody who has reached a certain age,
without reference to any previous service, tramps or drones as well as
workmen. It is a law indefensible in principle and merely the accident
of a radical government. It provides that every person over seventy
whose yearly means do not exceed thirty-one pounds ten shillings
(_i.e._ income from property or privilege) and is not in "regular
receipt of poor relief" and has not "habitually failed to work
according to his ability, opportunity and need" nor been sentenced to
any imprisonment for a criminal offence--all to be determined by
a local pension committee with appeal to the central pension
authority--shall receive a pension of five shillings a week when his
annual means do not exceed twenty-one pounds, that is, thirteen pounds
a year, down to one shilling a week when they exceed twenty-eight
pounds seventeen shillings six pence.

The New Zealand law is more intelligent. It extends old-age pensions
to every person over the age of sixty-five who has resided thirty-five
years in the colony and not been imprisoned for a criminal offence,
nor has abandoned his wife, nor neglected to provide for his or her
children. It does not, however, appear that any previous employment is
necessary. The pension amounts to eighteen pounds, say ninety dollars,
a year and is not given to any one who has an income of fifty-two
pounds a year. The machinery of the law is largely conducted through
the post-office and the entire expense is met by the state. That is to
say, there is no contribution from the laborers themselves.

Austria, Italy, Norway, and Denmark in 1901 had also state insurance
systems.

The minimum-wage idea has so far been attempted only In New Zealand
and in Great Britain.[1] (See above, p. 160.) The New Zealand law of
1899 provided a minimum wage of four shillings per week for boys and
girls, and five shillings for boys under eighteen, but the principle
has been much extended by a more recent statute. The English law
is not yet in active operation, and may or may not rec