The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-17
BY MAX BEDACHT

At the end of the last legislative
session Of Congress, President
Roosevelt made a speech in which
he spoke much about the problem
Of social security" He informed us
that he is studying this problem, he
promised q solution Of it during the
coming legislative period.
Now a conference in Washington
composed of presumably invited
experts and representatives of in
dustry and labor" discusses the
problem OF social security. Secretary
of Labor Perkins predicts that the
measures for social security that
will finally reach Congress will be
more positive than negative, We are
somewhat puzzled about the mean
ing of this, but Perkins Immediately
clarifies it: social security is to be
established rather by providing jobs
than job insurance.
We who advocate and work for
the passage of House Resolution
1898 as measure toward social
security" are interested in these
maneuvers of Roosevelt, OF Perkins,
Of the experts, and Of the repreSen-
tatives Of industry and labor. For
us the problem is not only an acute,
but also a simple one.
Five Years of Crisis
For period of five years now q
most serious economic crisis is de-
priving at least Is million workers
of jobs. Jobs are the workers only
source of life. Without jobs the
workers are deprived of income;
they go hungry; they are no longer
able 10 feed and clothe and house
their children; they are subjected
to misery and privation.
There are those of the leaders of
American capitalism who declare
that the misery and hunger of these
millions OF workers and their fam
lilies Is not the concern of the gov
eminent. The government doesn't
owe these workers anything. If this
premise is accepted these millions
must be accorded the right to or
ganize and by the power OF their
organizations take food where they
can find it, in the full warehouses
and granaries, in the stores and
shops; or, these masses must be de-
clared a useless surplus and done
away with. The first Is actively OPP
posed by the capitalists and their
government. The second policy is
secretly desired by them and actual
ly carried out by means of slow
starvation.
Then there are those representa-
tives and spokesman of capitalism
who declare that the refusal of re-
aponsibility by the government and
the capitalists toward these hungry
masses was raw deal; they prom
Use a new DEAL The immediate
measures Of this new deal were as
follows:
New Deal Panacea
First, an effort to initiate the dol
lar; parallel efforts to increase the
prices Of commodities. OF course,
only the superior intelligence of a
capitalist Brain Trust can figure
out how these steps benefited the
masses. The problem of the masses
was not having enough dollars; the
New Deal decreased the few dollars
they had by cutting their value.
The masses wrestled with the prob
lem Of their purchasing power being
entirely out Of harmony with the
cost of their living. The New Deal
bought itself the title of friend of
the forgotten man" by increasing
the cost of living of the masses and
by decreasing the value OF their
dollars.
The need Of the masses was for
food and clothing. The New Deal
went ahead to destroy food by
slaughtering and burying Surplus"
pigs, by blowing under wheat; it
went ahead to destroy clothing by
blowing under cotton. Thereby they