that life is hopelessly monotonous, with no incentive for personal effort. The inmates generally have no private place, even a locked drawer, to keep personal effects, so that they can really own nothing. Mills’ hotels seem nearer the ideal. Many systems to help the old involve conditions that amount to dominating their lives. Old age is really a risk to which all are liable and self-respect and thrift require us to give more attention to it. It should be no more of a disgrace to accept a pension for old age than for service in war. State aid assumes that the old have added to the health and power of the state by their work, and recognizes this. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad established the first pension system in this industry in 1884 and in the last two decades many corporations, mercantile houses, banks, etc., have established such systems. The above Massachusetts Report supplies many details of fifty of these systems. In the modern business world the problem of dealing with aged employees is increasingly difficult. The use of machinery, specialization, and the modern efficiency ideals have made it increasingly hard for the old to keep the pace and the universal demand now is for younger men, so that many firms actually refuse new men over thirty-five. Men wear out fast. To carry the incapacitated on their payroll is not only not economic but discouraging to the working force and it is not humane to turn them adrift. The general scheme adopted in view of these facts is either voluntary or compulsory retirement at a certain age, with weekly or monthly allowances, the amount of which depends upon the length of service and the wage, the expense of the system being borne by the employer with help from the employee. The economic motives, of course, have been more potent than the humanitarian. It has been good business policy, for it not only prevents the waste of using worn-out men but it stimulates loyalty on the part of the working force. Voluntary retirement is generally at 60 and compulsory at 70, but this varies greatly, as does the time of service upon which aid is conditioned, which is usually from 10 to 30 years. Often the allowance is one per cent of the average wage during the last 10 years; for example, an employee who has worked 40 years at an average wage of $50 a month would receive $20. The system is generally administered by a board composed of both employers and employees. Some firms expressly repudiate all contractual rights. Inquiry was made in Massachusetts of over a thousand employers but only three hundred and sixty-two replies were received; and of these only four had regular systems of retirement pensions, although often special grants were made. This was a very delicate inquiry and the excuses for the absence of any pension system usually were that the business was itself too insecure or that the working force was too unstable and transitory.