The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-04-05
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

This is the last of series of articles on
unemployment insurance.
ME Bourbons are bringing up all of the con-
- ventional arguments against unemployment
lnsurance-that it is the British dole system in
disguise that it is Muscovite invention and
the like.
There is, in fact, no argument worthy of
the name which can be raised against unem-
ployment insurance.
It is sometimes asserted that American
workers should save enough during PROSPEROUS
periods so that they can tide themselves over
the months of years of adversely. But a few
elementary facts about American wages will
suffice to dispel this illusion.
Even in the Coolidge prosperity" which pre-
ceded the depression, the average wage of en-
ployed American workers was $1205 a year.
Unsk1lled laborers received slightly under 81 600
annually. Agricultural workers received a little
less than $3.50.
Authoritative government agencies, which
have computed family budget requirements On
a minimum basis that will provide only the
necessities OF life, have estimated that family
of five requires an income of from 81 800 to
$4,000 a year, depending upon the section of
the United Sttaes in which they reside.
This is a sufficient commentary upon the
alleged possibility of meeting unemployment
burdens through the personal thrift of workers.
Moreover, Professor Douglas and other students
of American unemployment during the last
forty years estimate that there has been steady
| average of about 10 per cent of American la
Oorers who have been unemployed.
TINE criticism advanced that unemployment
Il insurance is "Un-American" is utterly pre-
posterous Nothing sensible and essential we'll
can be called un-American in any reasonable
Interpretation of that term. In the sense in
which it is used by critics of unemployment in
surance, it would be un-American to live in big
cities, to work in great factories, to ride in
subWays.
All of these things were foreign to the era of
rugged individualsm." The "un-American"
argument is the final proof of intellectual bank
ruptcy upon the part of those who fall back
upon this last refuge.
Of a like feather is the denunciation of I'M
employment insurance as "demoraIizng dole .
The British unemployment benefits have been
attacked by American bourbons as dole We
have been warned to stick to charity and avoid
| the dole system
AS an actual matter of fact England does
not have dole system. According to the philos-
ophy of the critics who aege that she does
have, it would appear that unemployment in
| surance is insurance" when there is little IN
employment but becomes dole when unem-
| ployment is rife and extensive unemployment
! benefits have to be provided
ME fact is that the American system of
Il voluntary contributions through private
charity represents the true dole system. This is
not only demoralizing; it is inadequate and it's
benefits are never enough to provide ANYTHING
approaching normal purchasing power on the
part of the recipients
There are many who approve of unemplov-
ment insurance in the abstract but contend that
1t should be purely voluntary. The slightest ex-
animation of the facts proves the complete
fallacy of any such position.
nf
back in 1881 with a labor union in New York
City. Just q century later the United States
department of labor showed that less than one
half of per cent of trade union members were
involved in trade union unemployment pro-
visions
The voluntary cooperation of employers and
workers in unemployment insurance has not
proved any more popular or adequate. There
are only about $1,000 workers today who are
taken care of in this way Further, company
plans. such as that adopted by the General Elec-
trlc Company in 1880, have made pathetically
slight Roadway
Though the advantages of the compulsory
unemployment insurance are thus vast and far
reaching 1t is necessary, in the interest of &C
curacy and candor, to make it clear that it can
not IN any way be looked upon as a means of
getting as out OF the present depression.
1t is too late for that. To have achieved such
result, unemployment insurance should have
been adopted back in the days of Theodore
Roosevelt, or of Woodrow Wilson, at the latest.
But, If it is launched now it will help to post
pone another like collapse and to mitigate its
intensity