Ɛpsilon

WCP510

Letter (WCP510.510)

[1]

GLEN-SHEE,

235, UXBRIDGE ROAD, W.

29 Ja Dec 1911

Dear Sir,

In your letter in today's "Times"1 you give your blessing to the Insurance Act.2 Will you kindly give me your opinion as to how this, and similar acts, will work and in relation to the ordinary worker. Let me give a case near this. A large bakery, employing over 500 hands, will have to pay £325 per annum towards [2] the insurance of the employés [sic]. Of course they will wish to be recomped for this expenditure & it will mean a lower wage or an increased price of the loaf. The former would mean strikes & unrest, the later latter more hardship for the poor, — in fact they will have to pay the master portion of the insurance. At least [3] that is how it strikes me.

If it is not too much trouble I should be very much obliged for your opinion on this most important matter.

Yours faithfully & with great respect & best wishes for a happy new year | W. A. Davidson3 [signature]

1
Wallace, A. R. 1911. Mr. A. R. Wallace and the Insurance Act. The Times No. 39781 (29 December): 6.
2
The National Insurance Act 1911 gave the British working classes the first contributory system of insurance against illness and unemployment. It was regarded as one of the foundations of modern social welfare in the United Kingdom and forms part of the wider social reforms of the Liberal Government of 1906-1915.
3
W. A. Davidson has not been identified.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP510.510)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Abdelfadeel, Walaa [2014-08-01] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2014-08-01] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2024-11-11]

Please cite as “WCP510,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP510