Francis A. Carman[134] tells us that the Canadian scheme, like most others, was to alleviate the universal dread of the poorhouse. It was adopted to circumvent the growing demand for the support of old age by the Government. Its unique features are: no forfeiture in case payments are interrupted or ceased, and the annuities cannot be mortgaged, seized for debt, or anticipated. Admirable as is the scheme, there have been less than two thousand to enjoy its full benefits. It has not reached the day laborer but, for the most part, only clerks and teachers. The United States is the only nation that has no retiring system or provision for old age, even for its employees, save for soldiers and for judges of the Supreme Court, who may retire after ten years of service or on having attained the age of 75 on full salaries. Military pensions go back nearly to the Revolutionary War. There has been much legislation since. In 1908 there were no less than 951,687 pensioners who received more than $153,000,000, the survivors of the Civil War constituting 65 per cent of all. There are also retirement pensions for officers and enlisted men in the regular Army. Officers at the age of 64 must be retired, with no option, on three-fourths pay. No American state has established any system of old age pensions, although many Southern states provide for Confederate veterans; but many states or cities have provided for firemen, policemen, teachers, and certain other public employees. Mabel L. Nassau[135] personally studied the history of one hundred poor old people in the very heart of New York city and observed them as a neighborhood study, dividing her cases into those wholly or partly self-supporting, and wholly or partly dependent upon their families or upon charity. She stresses the fact so abundantly illustrated that it was impossible for most of these destitute individuals to put by money for their old age. The lives of most of them had been spent in the direst poverty, with low wages, almost no industrial training, long intervals of non-employment, illness often due to malnutrition, not to mention the really not very common effects of drink and vice. They often have little experience in buying and have all their lives been cheated and imposed on. Very many have the finest sensibilities, although this is often not suspected because they lack education to express their feelings. In this stratum of society, although the young are often underfed and the middle aged overworked, the old have the hardest time. The burden of the aged falls hardest upon the children, who must get a work certificate as soon as possible to help feed their grandparents. The old generally have a horror of going to an institution; and many of these are so managed as to justify this dread, separating married couples, imposing senseless rules, providing poor food and perhaps no recreation, and greatly restricting liberties, so