Liberal newspapers have been writing triumphantly about these figures as
though the decrease in out-door relief meant that pauperism had been killed by old-age pensions. A child would be capable of understanding, we should think, that it does not make much difference to the finances of the country by what name the money paid to aged persons is called— whether it is called out-door relief or pensions. Money whether raised in the form of rates or taxes for this purpose still has to be paid. What difference there is is unfortunately in the wrong direction. A certain number of paupers who draw pensions live in workhouses and come out occasionally to dissipate those pensions. Their support thus falls on both taxes and rates. We do not by any means say that aged paupers commonly do this. The question of guarding and supporting aged persons is one which must command the sympathy of every civilized person. But we assert that the present system is morally unsatisfactory and financially extravagant. Many of the comments we have read in Liberal newspapers are written either ignorantly or disingenuously.
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