Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

18 TEE ATLANTlAN ATLANTA TO HAVE NEW TAXICAB LINE Big Cars, Plenty of Room, and Low Prices, Their Motto. The Atlanta Baggage & Cab Company has turned over another new leaf, and this time it is Taxi-cabs. The company will begin, on April 1, the operation of a line of Taxicabs, of the very latest and up-to-date limizene type, and the rates, as we understand, will be very reasonable. No meter propo sition. The company has decided that they can give better service to the public by operating on a flat rate basis than to always be in a wrangle with their customers and the public on account of the meters getting out of commission and a row with the driver. The company is to be congratulated on this wise step, and the directors chose well when they placed W. C. Wilson in charge as its president and general manager. Mr. Wilson has put all of his energy into this new position, and is winning in every direction golden opinions for the efficiency of the service which his company is now rendering. A close investigation will show that, in nine cases out of ten, the complaints and criticisms leveled at public service corporations are due to their failure to give the public service for which the pub- are due to their failure to give the public the service for which the public pays. In this case the man and the occasion have met, and it is Atlanta Baggage & Cab Company, for they will take you to ride after April 1st. Pensions, Wages and Efficiency. The effect of non-contributory re tirement pensions in lowering the wages of the beneficiaries was clearly brought out in the discussion at the meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science last week. Many workers favor this form of pen sion from a mistaken idea that con tributory annuities involve a practical reduction of wages, whereas non-con tributory allowances have no such effect. In fact, however, the inevitable result of any non-contributory scheme of retirement is in the long run to reduce wages. The prospective gra tuity Is surely discounted in advance. The employees of a concern that of fers gratuitous pensions for retired workers will accept a lower rate of pay than he would otherwise be forced to demand. He cannot afford to leave the service and lose his right to a pension. If he does leave, he gets nothing in return for the virtual con tribution to the pension fund that he has been making in the form of re duced wages. On the other hand, the participant in a properly organized contributory system of retirement al lowances gets back his accumulated savings in case of withdrawal from the service. Such a system, more over, has no tendency to depress the rate of wages in the slightest degree. Rather it furnishes reasons for de manding higher wages. The contribu tory principle is distinctly advantage ous for the workers, while the non- contrlbutory arrangement is a snare and a delusion. The economy of a contributory re tirement system was also emphasized in the Philadelphia debate. The es tablishment of such a system relieves the service of the heavy handicap of waste, and inefficiency entailed by the retention on the pay roll worn out workers who cannot render a fair equivalent for their wages. Secretary. MacVeagh declared that the adoption of retirement systems for public em ployees in general is an essential con dition of the development of a satis factory service. In his last two an nual reports the secretary has urged the need of retirement pensions in the national service. The remarks on this subject in his report for 1910 put the case very clearly: • “There is no practical way to put the government service properly on its feet without a fair and just method of civil service retirement. This is not only a requisite; it is a prere quisite; and unless congress shall give the executive this necessary method of improving the service the country must accept a service that is not fully satisfactory and which can not be made fully satisfactory. “Fortunately this retiring provision can be made—and this is mathemati cally demonstrable—without the ex pense of one dollar to the government. The contributory system of retiring allowances is not only the only sys tem that has any chance whatever of being adopted but it fortunately is the best system by far for the men and women of the service; and it is, there fore, the part of wisdom for all the friends of this movement to concen trate upon this method. Of course, there must be paid by the government the retiring allowances until the con tributions by the members of the ser vice have become sufficient to take care of the payments; but these pre liminary payments by the government need not cost the government any thing whatever. All of the executive departments which have so far been consulted stand ready to carry out such a ‘law without asking any addi tion whatever to their ordinary ap propriations. The objection, therefore, that we might be introducing another pension roll, has no justification. It has complete justification as long as the straight pension was in contempla tion. The contributory allowance, however, is an entirely different mat ter and eliminates this objection alto gether. The government, therefore, can without any expense to itself, and by the mere passing of a law, set this whole matter right. It is only neces sary to mention two things about the contributory plan, as contrasted with the pension plan, to make clear ita ad vantages to the people in the service. It could never be taken as an answer to a claim for increased pay. It is a contribution of their own and not a contribution of the government, and it is in no sense an estoppel of any argument In favor of increased pay at any time during its operation. On the other hand, a straight pension paid by the government would always be taken as n additional salary and would perpetually have a tendency to estap any argument for increased com pensation. The other consideration is that under a pension system a man must not only live beyond the retir ing age but he must continue always in the service until that period in order to receive any pension at all; whereas, under the contributory sys tem, under all the accidents of life, he gets what belongs to him of the sav ings of the system. It is impossible not to regard a straight pension as a party of the salary and if a man loses it altogether, owing to the accidents of life, he loses a part of his aggre gate salary. “The treasury department is en gaged in the work of increasing its efficiency and diminishing the relative expense of operation. . . . But this is clear, that any successful effort to improve the administrative operations of a large department like the treas ury is immediately handicapped and might well be discouraged entirely by the absence of a just method of retire ment. And even when it is possible to protect these displaced clerks from being thrown into the streets it is done, in many cases, in denial of the right of an office to efficient help. Working in these improvements brings constantly to mind the hope lessness of ever arriving at a com plete state of efficiency without a way of retiring clerks in a just and hu mane manner. I have no doubt that this very discouraging feature has in the past stood in the way of many attempts to improve the efficiency and economize the expense of operation In the departments. A Specimen of Socialist Strategy. The Settler has received a copy of a little pamphlet Issued by the Boston Socialist Party Clubs, containing a report of Father Gasson’s recent Ford Hall address on Socialism, and a reply by Mr. James F. Carey. The publication illustrates the strategic methods of Socialistic propaganda. The pamphlet bears the title, “The Menace of Socialism;’’ under this are two sub-titles, “An Address Delivered by Rev. Thomas I. Gasson, S. J., Presi dent of Boston College,” and "A Reply by James F. Carey, Secretary Socialist Party Clubs of Massachusetts." The title page would lead the purchaser or reader to infer that he would find in the pamphlet the text of Father Gas- son’s address and of Mr. Carey’s reply. Examination of the contents, how ever, discloses the fact that it con tains only a short and inadequate newspaper report of the address, pre faced to Mr. Carey’s counter-blast, which is given jn full. Furthermore, the brief abstract of Father Gasson’s remarks is printed in diminutive type and covers only about two pages, while the reply is printed in bold face and fills several pages. Thus is Gasson minimized and Carey magni fied. The performance is character istic. Socialists complain loudly of the unfair treatment that their doc trines receive at the hands of a sub sidized press. Nothing could be more unfair than the manner in which Father Gasson’s criticism of Socialism has been served up for purposes of propagandist circulation. AGAIN. A church house in a certain rural dis trict was sadly in need of repairs. The official board had called a meeting of the parishioners to see what could be done toward raising the necessary funds. One of the wealthiest and stingiest of the adherents of that church arose and mid that he would give five dollars, inrt sat down. Just then a bit of plastering fell from die ceiling and hit him squarely upon he head. Whereupon he jumped up, looked confused and said: “I—er—I meant I ’ll give fifty dollars! ’ ’ then again resumed his seat. After a brief silence a voice was heard to say: “Oh Lord, hit 'im again!’’ HE WAS EXPERIENCED AND KNEW WHY. “Hi, mister,” called the driver of a huge dray, “will you kindly hold my hoss’s head for me while I get down?” The pedestrian hesitated. “Well, I’ll do my best!” he ob served, approaching gingerly, “though I don’t know much about horses. Er— which one shall I hold?” “The off ’un,” replied the driver. “Dear me! Poor thing!” exclaimed the pedestrian. “Do you mean this sad looking one?” “No, I don’t!” cried the driver. “I said the off ’un, didn’t I?” “Yes, I know you did,” replied the pedestrian testily, “but as I wasn’t at his parent’s funeral, how the dickens am I to guess which is the orphan?”