The Statistical Survey of the Massachusetts Commission Investigating the Question of Old Age Pensions [Discussion]

DR. FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN: Mr. Cogswell has rendered a genuine service to insurance actuaries by presenting in brief outline the essential facts and findings of the Massachusetts Commission, the most important of its kind that has considered the essentials of the old age pension question. The minority of that Commission were men of outstanding ability, who have dispassionately considered every phase of the question and presented conclusions entitled to the utmost consideration. Mr. Cogswell, as Secretary of that Commission, was primarily responsible for the methods of investigation and the presentation of the results in the report which constitutes one of the most important contributions to economic science. For economics in its last analysis is the science of wealth, its accumulation and distribution. Non-contributory old age pensions are in all cases a modified form of poor relief, cleverly disguised under a terminology which is wholly inadmissible.