l of many birthdays.

To go over these points with greater detail: The first requirement,
namely, to make sure that all possible financial provision is made for
grandparents while they are yet young and capable enough in their work
to save, is one that is more and more recognized. Moreover, the
tendency in every country is increasingly toward state recognition of
the duty of society toward its aged members. The proposition of Victor
Berger, then the solitary socialistic member of the Congress of the
United States, to pension every person over the age of sixty is one
that will hardly be carried into effect. The objection, however, to
much existing pensioning by the state which this blanket proposition
was intended to offset is that its benefits are mostly for those near
the poverty line or below it and hence may be and often is a
discouragement to thrift and self-dependence rather than an aid to
individual effort.

=Pension Laws.=--For example, in Great Britain, the pension law made
all eligible to state aid who were over seventy years of age and whose
personal income did not exceed one hundred and five dollars per year.
Such were entitled to aid to the extent of $1.25 a week, and those
having incomes above that sum were entitled to receive a graduated
series of state benefits. This aid from the state has doubtless made
the condition of many aged persons far more tolerable and even happy
in families where, previous to the passage of that Act, the extra
expense involved in caring for the grandparents was the last straw
that broke the back of independency. In all cases where the addition
of a few dollars weekly to the family income is an actual and obvious
help to family comfort, state pensions for the aged have worked good
results in family feeling and good-will and affection. Where, however,
the state aid comes without any contributory savings from the
individual or his employer and where to qualify for its benefit all
must have an income of very small proportion, it is in effect a class
measure and obviously for the relief of the very poor.

The higher family interest demands that every system of insurance or
of subsidy, or of occasional aid to any member of the family, should
tend directly and powerfully toward and not away from thrift, work
capacity, and sound business principles. Society-at-large must now
make good in some makeshift fashion for many social failures of the
past, but its main currents of pressure up