Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

This strategy is all the more perverse as in the not wholly unrelated matters of invalidity insurance and old age pensions, Wales costs less per head to the Imperial Funds than its partners. For invalidity insurance:- In England the charge is 2s. I Id. per head. In Scotland the charge is 2s. lOd. per head. In Wales the charge is 2s. 8.4d. per head. In March 28th, 1913, the total of old age pensioners was 967,221 distributed as follows England 626,753 or 18.17 per 1,000. Wales 41,893 or 16.60 Scotland 96,239 or 20.27 Ireland 202,336 or 46.24 „ The sum allocated to Old Age Pensions for the coming year is 1]2,035,000, approximately £ 12 10s. Od. per head. If Wales had proportionately the same number of Old Age Pensioners as thrifty Scotland, not to mention hapless Ireland, her demand upon the Exchequer would be in- creased by il 15,000. It is evident that only by the methods of autonomy can Wales secure bare financial justice as well as the needful facilities for the due discharge of the duties of the State to its industrious and long-suffering population. No policy of national hygiene can possibly overlook the mischievous physical effects of the taxation of such elements of sustenance as sugar, tea, and coffee, nor the infinite mischief wrought by the excessive consumption of in- toxicants, palpably capable of discouragement and reduc- tion by further taxation, but these methods of promoting the public health are only open to a Legislature-either Imperial or autonomous-which in like manner can lessen the burden of taxation where families are large, tending further to ensure the well being of the children. While for these methods we must needs wait the coming to Wales of complete autonomy, the Ministry of Health Bill should not be allowed to pass without providing Wales with the machinery for administering in Wales all matters relating to Health and Housing, Invalidity and Unemploy- The birds are gathering in their flocks. They sweep across the grain Rehearsing for their Autumn flight, For home again. The gleaners old, and husbandmen Plod weary from the plain And sigh, content, that they may rest When home again. The fox has lair, the bird has nest: They know not of the pain That aches within each soldier's breast For home again. A PRAYER-AUTUMN, 1917 ment Insurance, now dealt with by so great a diversity of Departments in London- condition which Lord Rhondda has clearly found most inimical to a reform so tragically needed as that of materially and instantly diminishing the avoidable excess of infantile mortality. By pressing its claims now, Wales may readily demonstrate to England alike the desirability and feasibility of setting its house in order in this vital matter. A Welsh legislature or, pending its creation, a Welsh National Council of Health and Housing constituted, in the main, by and from the County and Borough Councils and Insurance Committees, would comprehensively survey and courageously deal with the intensely acute Housing problem, the evident predisposition to tuberculous disease prevailing in some Welsh counties, would secure the more efficient guarding and cherishing of child life, and the material improvement of the physical condition and pros- pects of our womanhood, even should this necessitate some considerable approach to a Welsh State Medical Service. As a matter of fact, the payments of the people for purposes of National Insurance should cover all the adverse contingencies of life and provide adequately and honourably for dependants after death. Apart from the taxation of alcohol and narcotics, this should be the sole contribution to the State of those whose remuneration does not materially exceed a reasonable standard of physical sustenance and social amenity, thus virtually abolishing the Poor Law and rendering superfluous much of the elaborate and costly machinery of Industrial Insurance companies, Approved and Friendly Societies. No one pays so ext avagantly for insurance as the working man, as is inevitable where small weekly payments are collected individually. The energies of the State and of multi- tudinous private individuals can, and under stress of after war conditions must, be more profitably utilised. All questions of insurance should be dealt with as an integral part of a National Service of Health broadly and generously conceived. Edward T. John. For us the stench, the sweat, the blood Oh God, let us attain A rule of Love, and bring us back Safe home again. Oh Lord grant of Thy balm to heal The chafing of the chain That binds us in this Hell. Oh, bring Us home again. Let not ambition, greed for power. Oh Lord, our honour stain, But shield us guard with loving care Our home again. Fred Ambrose.