The Republican party is pledged to do this. The Republican party will have nothing to do with any plan that involves prying into the personal working records of 26,000,000 people. Before discussing the positive part of our program, however, I want to take up the second main feature of the present act, the part dealing with unemployment insurance. The problem of unemployment insurance differs fundamentally from that of old-age pensions. Old-age pensions were reasonably well established in a number of States even prior to the passage of the Social Security Act.
Unemployment insurance is something new and of a different character.
We have never had unemployment insurance in this country. With the exception of two States, and their laws are of recent origin, there were no unemployment insurance laws on the statute books of our States before the Social Security Law. Under these circumstances for the Federal Government to step in and use its taxing power to compel all the States immediately to enact unemployment insurance statutes is something unheard of. It is most unwise. There is no element of real help to the States in the present statute.