The boarding house sought by many aged persons who prefer independence of life to living in the family of their children, and sought also by many well-to-do elderly widows and widowers who find that the personal home is too lonely or too expensive to keep up for one alone--the average boarding house is a sorry substitute for a home.

For the young, who hope to escape it soon, it is tolerable.

For the aged, who need to feel settled, it is often a most unhappy dwelling-place.

Beside, any one who tries to find a place for the elderly boarder will find that prices are often prohibitive for all but the rich, and few boarding mistresses want old people.
A state pension has often, as has been said, been proposed for all aged people.

Let us suppose that instead of this some scheme of State Insurance for Old-age Homes be devised; a scheme in which after the payment of a certain specified sum a share in a Boarding Home might be secured.