Evening star., 1934-11-04
Experts Crapple With Scores of Ideas
In Surrey of Unemployment Insurance
Greatest Secrecy Guards
York of Presidents
Special Committee.
Schemes From All Parts
of World Studied to
Find Best Plan.

ItNI DCSt tuIGs
President Roosevelt in the early
DAYS of December will receive a re-
port from his Committee on Economic
Security that may affect the lives of
SO, ,00O, 900 Americans.
Unemployment insurance will oc-
cupy the place of honor In this
report.
As the name implies. the Commit
tee on Economic Security, backed by
an army Of technical experts. is try
ing to devise ways and mean2 Of
guarding against humanity's great
est hazard-unemployment.
Two schools of thought are bat
Ting for their ideas, to be incorpo-
rated In this report. Upon the basis
of data. 1t is believed. the President
will go before the next Congress and
ask for legislation destined to stay
the devilish debacle of unemployment
In the future.
From the 48 States Of the Union,
| and from abroad. agencies Interested
in humanitarianiSm, and especially
unemployment insurance, are direct
ing their efforts in shaping, one way
or another the report about 10 be
handed to the President.
Miss Perkins Heads Group.
The committee now working on
data to be laid on the presidential
desk is made up of Miss Frances Per-
kins, Secretary of Labor, chairman;
| Harry L. Hopkins, Federal relief ad-
ministrator; Henry Morgenthau, lr.,
Secretary of the Treasury, and Homer
S. Cummings, Attorney General. Or.
! Edwin E. White. former University
Of Wisconsin professor. Is executive
director of the committee.
1t is understood that Miss Perkins
has turned most of her duties over
to the Second Assistant Secretary Of
Labor. Arthur Joseph Altmeyer.
Already the committee has drafted
a preliminary report and this report
has been scrutinized by sociologists
and economists, by labor leaders, busi-
ness men, manufacturers and all
others vitality interested in unem-
ployment insurance The object of
the search is to find out which way
the wind blows: what the committee
is going to recommend to the Presi-
| dent when the final report is taken
to the White House in December.
DR.. Witte, surrounded in his Office
by piles of books and pamphlets and
digests all having to do with unem-
ployment insurance and other pam
| aceas prescribed for economic secur-
ity, defies any one to find out just
Members in the Dark.
THE committee, as yet, has not
drafted its final report-and even its
members do not know what will be
recommended" the executive secre-
tary states.
In the meantime in offices in Wash
| ington representatives Of various or
| ganizations are doing all they can to
find a weather-wane pointing to what
| the President will ask the next Con-
gress in the way of helping the hordes
out of work.
Those who attended the sessions Of
| the International Labor Conference
l lIllS year III SCllCtd dACY lOL OItC AAlOSt
part, advocating straight unemploy-
ment insurance. This, they claim, is
quite different from any plan which
Incorporates compulsory or voluntary
savings.
What the President will do, after
seeing the report of his committee,
remains the big question. Out of it
| may come, for instance, increased tax
| alton; new forms of saving, decrease
in corporation dividends; amassing
of a huge pool of money, to be dis
tributed by another Federal agency;
anything. No one knows.
This much is known; most OF the
leading nations are adopting some
form Of unemployment insurance, II
it is not already in existence, and all
of these plans are being studied by
| the United States.
Wisconsin is the pioneer State In
the unemployment compensation leg
| islation.
Ohio has a plan that differs ma
| terially from that Of Wisconsin.
Between these two plans there prob
ably is the compromise, or golden
medium. that will come out as the
national idea Of unemployment in
| Surance.
Wisconsin Law First.
The Wisconsin unemployment re-
serves and compensation act was
passed two years ago-in l932-and
is just about starting to function. the
| full machinery set up. 1t stands as
| the first American law of its kind.
1t happens that DR.. Witte, execu-
tive director of the Committee on
Economic Security, had a hand in
this legislation; so those on the
other side # the fence claim. Natu-
| rally, they fear that some of the
features of the Wisconsin law will
find place in the report about to 60
to the President.
The WISCONSIN type of unemploy-
ment compensation has three out
standine objectives:
l. Stimulation Of regular en-
ployment;
2. Payment Of unemployment
benefits to workers whose jobs are lost
because of inability to find steady
work.
3. Contribution to unemployment
reserve funds maintained by each in
dependent establis. !ment.
This third feature is the point OF
attack for opponents of the Wis
consin idea. Under this plan, each
employing unit must create reserve
fund to compensate its own unem-
ployed workers. Each employer must
finance his own unemployment costs.
Massachusetts,, New Jersey, Virginia,
Louisiana, North Carolina, California
and Oregon are other States which
have gone half way toward adoption
of unemployment insurance having
some features of the Wisconsin plan.
In most of these seven States the law
has passed the lower house.
Plan One for Saving"
Whatever may be said for the Wis
| consin plan-and its advocates claim
that 1t forces an employer to stabilize
Jobs for the men he employs-the
old-line unemployment insurance CO.
horts say it is ''just compulsory saw
| ing" for the individual workers, and