s extremely desirable both in the interest of the
working men and of the State that they should be induced to transfer
themselves from congested towns and from exhausted industries to new
fields. A general pension system would certainly contribute most
powerfully to prevent them from doing so.'

It has been proposed by others that the pension fund should be placed
in the hands of Friendly or Benefit Societies, and that they should be
intrusted with its administration, or that subscription to such
societies for a certain number of years should be taken by the State
as the thrift test. On the first proposal it is sufficient to say,
that these great voluntary societies are themselves opposed to it; for
if they were directly subsidised by the State, they would be obliged
to submit to a State control of their management and their finances
which they do not desire. It is observed that only a very small
proportion of the subscribers to these societies ever find it
necessary to come upon the poor rates; and if a system of old-age
pensions were confined to these limits, it would act in the most
unequal manner. Their members are drawn in a far larger proportion
from the lucrative and flourishing trades than from those which are
struggling and underpaid. Few women belong to them. In Ireland, which
is the poorest part of the Empire, Friendly Societies scarcely exist;
and the same thing is true of large districts in Wales and Scotland.
The main result of such proposals would be to concentrate the new
State fund for the relief of poverty on the richest parts of the
Empire, and on the trades that need it the least.

The extreme difficulty of finding any efficient test of thrift is very
evident; and those proposed by a large number of the advocates of
old-age pensions are so easy as to be almost worthless. Some consider
it sufficient that a man has for a certain number of years not been in
receipt of poor-law relief, except medical relief or relief granted
under 'exceptional circumstances.' Others would accept the mere fact
that a man has lived to be sixty-five, as the drunken and disreputable
workman seldom lives so long. A large number of resolutions have
condemned Mr. Chaplin's report on the grounds that old-age pensions
ought not to be confined to the 'deserving' poor; that they ought to
begin at an earlier age than sixty-five; that they ought to be
administered by a body totally unconnected with the poor law, so as to
carry with