Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/572

 550 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL unless he makes an express declaration to the contrary before the local mayor. In the absence of such declaration his employer is made bound to retain from his wages a sum of five centimes at least, or ten at most, for every day he works, and to contribute an equal sum on the workman's behalf out of his own pocket, whereupon the State will still further enlarge the premium by a contribution amounting to two- thirds of the combined contributions of the workman and the employer. The premium begins to be paid at the age of twenty-five, and if it is con- tinuously paid for thirty years the workman will be entitled at the early age of fifty-five to a pension of from 300 to 600 francs a year, according to the amount of the premium. In the event of lapses, for which he can offer a reasonable explanation and which do not exceed five years in all, he may get the lost years to count by paying up the arrears, or he may, if he prefers, have the lost years added on to the end of the regular term. Then the workman who has joined the fund may secure to his family at his death a sum of money equivalent to the amount he has personally contributed in premiums by paying a small additional premium every year, of which the State will pay one-third. Though foreigners are ineligible for the benefits of the fund, their masters are compelled all the same to pay ten centimes a head for them for every day they work, to prevent them being preferred for employment to natives. As there are said to be a million foreign workmen in Fran, the fund is expected to gain from this source about thirty million francs a year. The calculations have been made on two assumptions-- that men work on an average 290 days in the year, and that the State can invest the money at 4 per cent.; but both these and other assumptions which constituted the financial basis of the project have encountered much adverse criticism, M. Leroy-Beaulieu going so far as to scout the whole plan as another Panama scheme. THE draft report of the sub-committee of the New South Wales Labour Commission on the cause and c_!re of strikes has been issued. It recommends the formation by State authority of a Board of Con- ciliation and Arbitration of a somewhat composite character. The Board of Arbitration is to consist of three members appointed for a term of years, of whom the Chairman is to be chosen by the Govern- ment, and his two coadjutors by some body representing employers .and some body representing employe. d respectively. This board is to pronounce a decision on the matter tn dispute, but its award is not to be made enforceable at law, the expectation being that in accordance with the experience in England the arbitrators' award will be generally accepted by the parties. But arbitration itself is only to be resorted to when efforts at conciliation have failed, and for this first duty of conciliation a special board is to be constituted for each dispute. It is to consist of the three permanent members of the Board of Arbitration and six other members, three to be chosen by each partly