Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-04-21
u. S. DEFAULTS IN THE PAY
MENT OF A MOST JUST DEBT

The assets of nation are not en-
tirely found in its material resources
its fertile soil, its noble forests, it's
abundant minerals, and it's powerful
waterfalls: These but furnish the
basis of the wealth of nation. Not
until they are developed and utilized
by the genius and the hand of-man are
thew of any practical value. 1t is,
therefore, the men of a nation who
are is real asset-they are the real
builders of nations greatness.
Not only this, but the members OF
each generation, at great personal
sacrifice, provide and train the chill
dren to take their places and carry on
their work.
The state is therefore twice debtor
to every genration that passes. 1t is
debtor for the material civilization
which the fathers have built up and
transmitted to the present for it's use,
and it is debtor for the personal sac
rifces which they have made in Civ
ing the nation new generation with
a better social equipment than their
own had known. :.
In view of this two-fold debt, so all
embracing, is it conceivable in human
Justice that any industrious member
of the passing generation should be
compelled because of the ,sisabiiitirs
of old age and the efficiency demands
of modern industry, to close his life
as a pauper or, at best, as a de-
pendent on those he loves who may
find his support a grievous burden?
Yet, in this great humane country
there are more than one and one-half
million representative of the older
generation who have thus been de-
graded to the status of paupers.
A just return, a fair share of the
product of their industry in the period
of their economic usefulness would
have been, surely. an amount in wages
sufficient to enable them to live in
frugal comfort during the entire term
of their lives. And this portion of
his life appertains to but little more
than two score years, since not be-
fore the age of twenty is the average
person fitted by strength and train
ing to perform his best in the eco
nomic upbuilding of the state, and be-
fore the age of sixty that strength
and skill have so diminished as to take
him out of the line of regular employ
ment. Hence, the compensation Of
the worllingman, under present con-
ditions in society, must be branded
as cruelty inadequate. Nor can the
blame be fastened wholly on the en-
ployers. 1t appears to be, for the
present, an unavoidable kind of in
justice which requires the even
balance of the state to repair.
In consonance with this view many
nations within the last quarter of a
century have taken measures to ad-
just the scale of rewards for industry
and to protect their peoples from
poverty in old age by providing either
a system of state-administered and
tate-subsidized compulsory old age
insurance Or system of straight-cut
old age pensions. Strange as it may
seem, the United States is the ONLY
great industrial nation in the world
that has not arrived at some such
practical solution of this problem of
justice to the aged. The time has
come for the men and women of
America to consider the matter of this
unjust and involuntary poverty in old
age, to consider it in detail, and with
a purpose to provide relief.