The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-27
Roosevelt Opposes JobIess
Insurance, Boosts Fake Blu

The Roosevelt Administration Is
putting over a gigantic and CHASTITY
hoax on the workers in boosting the
Wagner Bill as Unemployment in
surance." Roosevelt's letter itself
admits that the Wagner Bill sp-
plies only to seasonal and inter
mittent" unemployment. The Wag-
ner Bill makes no pretensions Of
applying to the 100000 workers
now totally jobless. It would apply
only to those now in industry.
Roosevelt admits in his letter that
it applies only ito those temper
arily out of work" But what Of
the millions who have been squeezed
out Of industry permanently by big
machines and speed-up. They are
to be callously left to starve.
HOWEVER, the Wagner Bill does
III not benefit even those 'tem-
porarily" out of work. The recent
words of Mrs. Perkins, Roosevelt's
"motherly" secretary of labor,
should be burned into the conscious
ness of every worker. Mrs. Perkins
stated last week that the employers
should support the Wagner Bill be-
cause it does not harm them. She
said, "it will not impede recovery
because collections do not begin
until July, 1885,"
Roosevelt advocates the Wagner
Bill as unemployment insurance,
knowing that even the tax" on en-
ployers will not begin for two years.
Roosevelt proposes that the I'M
employed shall starve for two years,
that meanwhile relief shall be Sub
stantially' reduced, that even after
two years there shall be no federal
unemployment insurance.
Cost Borne BY Workers
But Mrs, Perkins makes clear to
the employers that even the small
tax on payrolls proposed in the
Wagner Bill, will not be borne by
the employers but by the workers.
She says that the bosses can raise
the tax by adding it on to the price
Of necessities. Mrs. Perkins said
last week: MOST OF THE COST
CAN BE PASSED ON PAIN
LESSLY BY A MINUTE PRICE
RISE" That is "painlessly" for the
employers, by making the workers
pay for it in higher cost Of living.
Finally the Wagner Bill exempt
ing the Federal government from
any Federal unemployment insur-
ance, taking effect after two years,
advocates state unemployment in
surance" laws which give benefits
for only ten to sixteen weeks maxi
mum (such as the Wisconsin law),
where the employers are in absolute
control Of the funds, 50 that they
can use the benefit payments as an
anti-union, strike-smashing weapon,
and where all the 100000 iobIess
are totally on the outside looking
in. Is this unemployment insur-
ance?"
Analysis thus makes clear that
the Roosevelt-supported Wagner
Bill is deliberate attempt to evade
the granting Of real unemployment
insurance to the workers.
THE mass demand of the workers
1 for real unemployment insur-
ance, for enactment of the Work
ers' Unemployment and Social In
surance Bill (H R. 1899 not in two
years but NOW, is growing by leaps
and bounds. Congress is being
flooded with demands for the pass
age of the Workers Bill. This
mass campaign must be intensified
if real unemployment insurance is
to be won.
The Wagner Bill of the Roosevelt
Administration must be exposed as
a swindle and fraud. The only
bill now before Congress which APP
plies to the 100000 iobless, which
provides for the workers themselves
to administer the funds, and which
calls for payment of average wages
to the jobless as long as they are
out of works the Workers I'm
employment Insurance Bill Oh. r.
1899.
Unemployed and employed work
ers, an intensified mass campaign
for the Workers Bill will force las
Congressman to sign the petition to
bring the Workers Bill to the floor
of the House.
Demand that Roosevelt keep his
promises of security against star
walton!
Expose the fraudulent, employers
Wagner Bill!
Fight for the enactment of real
unemployment insurance by the
present session of Congress-the
Workers Unemployment and Social
Insurance Bill III. r. 1898!