The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-12-19
Book on Unemployment
In insurance Carefully
Ignores Workers Bill

defect" and late7 points to the fact
that almost every individual COM
pany reserves measure thus far
projected has broken down under
the stress Of prolonged crisis.
Mr. Ebert points to all the eva
sions permitted under the Wisconsin
act by which it is possible for the
employer 10 deny benefit payments
to his workers. Inefhciency and mis-
conduct clauses, Ebert shows, en-
able an employer to keep his reserve
fund completely intact by declaring
that every man he lays of is in
efficient"
UNEMPLOYMENT compensation,
y or insurance" Ebert correctly
says, SIS primarily a social service,
and it is only indirectly a protective
relation between any one employer
and any one man"
Had he stopped at a criticism Of
the various measures projected in
the name Of unemployment insur-
ance, Ebert would have produced a
valuable handbook on the question
of unemployment insurance, limited
though it is in its, scope. But he
puts forth his own observations on
the subject at hand-and here is
revealed the anti-labor hand as
clearly as was shown in the drafting
Of the Wisconsin Bill, the Wagner
Lewis Bill, the Ohio Plan or the
model bill' Of the American Asso-
citation for Social Security.
Unemployment insurance, accord
ing to Ebert, is "a spread in wages;
income for a limited time to which
employees contribute" and to cover
only limited number Of workers.
In what he calls a tentative
plan" Ebert puts forward the fol-
lowing proposals: farm workers,
domestic servants, professional peo-
pie, federal, state and city employees,
casual workers and school teachers
should be excluded from benefits.
Workers should contribute, but If
continuously employed shall have 10
right to draw upon the reserves
which they themselves have built
up. Benefits should not run for
more than twenty-six weeks; a PEN
atty should be exacted upon those
fired for misconduct" and "bene-
fits should not be paid to insured
persons who are participating d.
rectly in a strike" Sickness, old age
and other forms Of social insurance
are not propitious at this time,
Ebert states. and as other problems
must be handled in another wsy.
Workers should contribute to any
unemployment insurance plan, FL
bert states, in order that the worker
may feel that his interest in the
fund is equal to that Of his employ
er," a new slant that has here come
to our attention for the first time,
and repeats the benefits would be
in the nature of gift unless con-
tributions were exacted from the
worker.
CERTAIN basic facts are ignored
v by Ebert and all of his ilk, whose
main purpose is not to grant a
measure of security to the workers
but to secure their own profits The
loss in income among the working
population is at once a direct chal-
lenge to the older forms Of social
and unemployment insurance that
have been in effect in European
countries and the turning point to
newer forms that will be wrested
from the owning class only by the
mass weight of numbers who are
rallied behind such a measure as
the Workers Unemployment Insur-
ance Bill.
This is the essence of the Work
ers Unemployment Insurance Bill,
the measure which guarantees in
come commensurate with existing
wage levels to all unemployed under
direct inpost on that class which is
most able to pay, and through the
use of war funds.
But the learned apologist, Mr..
Ebert, had not heard of the Work.
ers' Bill.