Beveridge Proposes

White-thatched, idealistic Sir William Henry Beveridge* is one of those Englishmen who believe that post-war reconstruction must go hand in hand with basic social reforms. This belief, voiced in many public utterances, he bases on a lifetime spent in the study of economics and years of experience with social problems. Contemptuous of crackpot Utopias, he backs his statements up with figures, for which he has an abiding passion.

Since June 1941, when he was appointed chairman of a Parliamentary committee to survey existing schemes of social insurance and allied services, he has put his ideas in a 100,000-word document, which last week was ready to be sprung on England. If preliminary forecasts were correct, it bid fair to be a memorable document.

The Plan. Broadly, Sir William's plan is said to foresee a system of compulsory state insurance covering every man, woman and child in England, regardless of age, income or job, from the cradle to the grave, against almost all forms of personal want or insecurity. The system would be administered by a Minister of Social Security, its details worked out by official experts. Some features:

> Weekly insurance premiums would approximate five shillings ($1) per person, to be shared by employers.

> Sickness benefits, to be paid for an unlimited period, would cover not only the patient's individual needs but also those of his dependents.

> Around seven shillings sixpence ($1.50) weekly would be allowed for the upkeep of children.

>Retirement pensions would be provided for all, beginning for men at 65, for women at 60.

> Medical service for all citizens would be nationalized and comprehensive, covering hospital, specialist, surgical, prenatal & postnatal and convalescent treatment.

> Housewives would be recognized officially as performing special services and possessing special needs, which would be covered as would those of any wage earner.

The Cost: an estimated -L-800,000,000 ($3,200,000,000) yearly, of which perhaps -L-300,000,000 would come from contributions, -L-500,000,000 from the state. (Before the war Britain spent -L-300,000,000 annually on comparable social services.)

There was little prospect that the Beveridge scheme would be adopted by the present predominantly Conservative Parliament elected in 1935. Sober, competent New York Timesman Raymond Daniell cabled: "This, it has been predicted, will be the longest step this country has ever been asked to take toward economic reform, and the best political opinion is that it is doomed before [it has] ever seen the light of day, so far as this Parliament is concerned. . . .

"In all this there is being laid the basis for a post-war political struggle, the outcome of which may have as important a bearing on social change in this country as the Battle of Britain had on the military outcome of the war, for, regardless of what their existing leaders wish, the people of this island are beginning to demand in still inchoate form that out of the wreckage the war leaves behind a better world must come into being."

*Known hitherto as a confirmed bachelor, studious Sir William last week surprised his friends by announcing his engagement to his Scottish sister-in-law, Mrs. Janet Mair, mother of four children and a grandmother to boot. Said she: "I am radiant." Said he:"My future wife is about my own age (63). She's a very charming person."

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