Evening star., 1935-01-10
The Mill
Bv C.. Gould Lincoln.

President Roosevelt's special mes
sage to Congress on social security
egislation-old-age pensions, unem-
ployment insurance, etc.-is to 90 to
the Capitol by the middle Of next
week, the President says. Western
Senators and Representatives say
that 1t will have to be potent to meet
the drive of the friends OF the
Townsend $200-a-month old-age pen
sion plan. They predict that within
. couple of weeks Washington will
have begun to feel the full strength
of this drive. The Townsend plan
has galloped across States of the
West Ike clouds Of grasshoppers, eat
ing up opposition wherever It has
raised its head. The Westerners be-
lieve that it will be equally strong
once the virus Ii injected into East
, ern veins. The recent action Of the
Democratic majority In the House,
killing the rule under which las
members, or one-third of the mem
| bership Of that body, could sign .
! petition and force q vote on discharg-
| ing q standing committee from con-
sideration of q bill before it, came,
they say, in the nick of time to de-
lay, IL not prevent entirely, consid-
Grafton Of the Townsend plan. Under
| the amended rules 1t takes q ma
tority Of the House membership, 218
when there are no vacancies, to make
such petition effective. The
Townsend bill may sleep in q COM
mittee. therefore.
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The old and the near-old, those
who are so and over and those who
expect to be go, have become excited
in Massachusetts, as we'll as in Cali
fornia about this plan to give q
s200-a-month pension to every man
and woman so years old or more.
Fifteen million signatures to a petit
ton for the Townsend bill Is the lit
tie document which the bills sup
porters are planning to submit to
Congress
The administration plan is not
like the Townsend plan for old-age
pensions. The age limit is believed to
be IS, and the amount Of pension,
perhaps as much as $40 q month.
Half Of this amount would be pro-
! vided by the States and half by the
Federal Government. Probably .
mere SIS 100000 would be sufficient
to start the Government on the
this nAncinr Snandirn ca
far as unemployment insurance is
concerned, it is expected that the
funds TO pay this inSurance-which
is not TO be an immediate substitute
for relief for the destitute and un-
employed-will come perhaps entirely
from the employers and the employees.
The States will have to enact the
laws, but the Federal Government,
using its power to withhold Federal
money. will be in position to COM
pei the States to keep to certain
| standards. That power, by the way,
of money spending by the Federal
Government has grown vaster and
vaster with the years, and particu-
larly with the recent years. 1t can
compel the States to borrow money
for all kinds OF projects. There is
no reason why it cannot fail to
compel States to pass laws such as
the Federal Government demands.
The States seem to like the process
although 1t is Q process that spells
ultimate doom Of independent action
by the individual States.
I,tyz znrfA fe al
form which the $4,000 00O, 900 one
sum-or lump sum-work relief ap-
preparation Is to take. More par
ticularly it Is interested in who is
going to handle this vast sum for
the President. Obviously the Chief
Executive could not give the time to
work out the details of such a spend
ing program. nor one iota of the
time that will be required to see that
1t is properly administered. Whether
the job will be turned over to an
existing agency, combination Of
existing agencies or whether q new
agency will be set up to spend this
money is part of the question. The
President has at hand a well set up
public works outfit in the P. w. A.
1t could be expanded and lot of
preliminary work avoided thereby.
There are politicians and some po-
htical leaders who do not think that
Secretary Ickes. as p W. A. admin
istrator has done right" by them,
/. E., has not given them what they
wanted. They do not want Mr..
Ickes to control this new fund. It
is interesting that just at this time
there should be considerable CONVEX
sation about grooming Mr. Ickes for
a vice presidential candidate in 1896,
to run with President Roosevelt.
The present expectation Is that the
| $4,000 100000 appropriation will be
| sought in a special appropriation bill.
1t probably can be handled more ex-
peditiouSly that way. Senator La Fol-
lette and other big works" Senators
promise to offer amendments increas-
ing the total amount up to SIC, ,000, ,000-
900 or more There seems no doubt,
however, that the administration will
be entirely successful in keeping the
| appropriation to the $4,000, ,000, 600
ilIIlll IIlc 1IcSiucIit klhS Scl. 4ACLC &
| will be roar about the lump-sum ap-
preparation on the ground that Con-
gress is again abdicating and turning
its powers over to the President. The
bill carrying this money is expected to
say that the money is to be expended
for half a dozen or more kinds of
work. without tying down any specific
sum to each kind of work, and to let it
20 at that. Stun clearance. rural
housing, rural electrification are
among the kinds Of projects that the
President himself has specified. If
the President has all this money avail
able to spend as he determines, he
will have a huge club to hold over the
heads of the public utilities. He could
dump as much as he wished into any
State or community to build power
plants to produce electricity in COM
petition with the private concerns.
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