Evening star., 1935-05-31
that it will stand the test of the courts.

that it will stand the test Of the courts.
While unemployment insurance,
from Federal standpoint, Is q new
venture, 1t Is with no degree of pride
that we must admit that our Gov
ernment has been derelict in blazing
way for this very necessary social
reform. For many years, even in q
number of the less progressive gov
ernments of the world, unemployment
insurance has been promoted, and the
experience in most Of those countries
Is that it has been most helpful in
ameliorating their unemployment sit
uation. 1t was therefore refreshing
to the progressive thought of America
when President Roosevelt, in words
never to be forgotten. addressed Con-
greSs last January on this important
question.
He said: I'm addressing you on
June 8, 1884, summarized the main
objectives of our American program.
Among these was, and Is, the security
of the men, women and children of
the Nation against certain vicissitudes
of life" The President specifically
ACoA6A1 dS ollC VI
these hazards.
At the outset I wish to impress
upon you that 1t is not the purpose
of unemployment compensation to
meet the extraordinary situation with
which we are now faced, for this
emergency is being largely met by the
public works program. The social Sc
curity bill, on the other hand, looks
to the future and seeks to provide
ways and means for permanently
dealing with the problem Of unem-
ployment in the years to come.
The bill is based on the assump-
tion-and 1t is sound assumption
that the people of the United States
are determined that never again will
they be caught unawares by a great
depression. In the late years of the
nineteen-twenties, we were needless of
the future, and when the crash came
we were utterly unprepared We had
no machinery to deal with the sudden
increase of unemployment. We had
no method. then, of keeping purchas-
ing power in the hands of the masses
of the country We had not set any
thing aside for a rainy day, and we
suffered more keenly in consequence.
Action Could Have Aided.
The American people know now that
if we had only done something to
insure ourselves against the crisis, the
suffering of our people would not have
been so severe. If, after the war, we
had started sound systems of unem-
ployment insurance in all the States
of the Union, for the first two years
of the depression the insurance funds
would have taken care Of the great
bulk of unemployment, and, further
more, would have provided for this
emergency. The workers would have
had small but regular incomes COM
ing to them for several months after
they were thrown out of work, and
thus purchasing power would have
been partially sustained and the de-
preston at least partially checked. The
Federal Treasury would not have been
tapped. as We were forced to do.
through direct Federal relief.
These advantages would have been
gained at cost which, in those boom
years. would have seemed hardly
worth noticing at all For instance,
if the employers in Ohio. beginning in
1928, had made unemployment insur-
ance contributions in their State at a
rate of only per cent, and the en-
ployes at rate of l per cent, the
Ohio unemployment insurance fund
would have stayed solvent until the
middle of 1882. The thousands of
workmen who became unemployed
would have received half their wages
for six months, and still the fund
would have met all demands for more
than two years after the crash oc-
CURED.
1t should. however, be constantly
borne in mind that unemployment in
surance cannot cope with the whole
problem of unemployment. 1t is not
designed to do that. For very long pc
RODS of depression, and for localities