Montana labor news., 1935-02-14
Roosevelt Security
Message Historic
CONTINUED from page y


proposals as disappointing and vague.
SOCIAL Security emphasized the i'm
poIfance of the message as official
Recognition Of the fact that the United
States must deal promptly with all
these forms OF insurance. THE pro
gram recommended by the President
contemplates a frontal attack on the
problem of insecurity" the monthly de-
clared. The three major phases OF
modern insecurity-old age, unemploy-
ment and sickness-are all taken into
consideration. 1t is of the greatest So
cial significance and most heartening
to those who have championed this
cause that the Executive and Legisla-
tive branches of the Federal govern
ment are at last alive, not alone to the
existence of insecurity, but to its
many-sidedness, pervasiveness and
tragic extent. . In the recognition that
insecurity is hydra-headed, the Presi-
dent makes himself the exponent OF
Americas striving for social insurance
in one of the most epoch-making state
papers in American history"
Proposals for Aged Sound and
Clear"
Turning from the message to the
analysis of the Economic Security bill,
the monthly declared:
THE proposals for dealing with old
age insecurity are the strongest, clear
est and the most gratifying part of the
bill. They follow the lines laid down
in the program long sponsored and
fought for by the American Associa-
ton for Social Security. Its pen
sion provision, which generally repeat
the provisions OF the Dill-Connery bill
advocated and sponsored by the Asso-
citation in Congress year after year,
will not only insure the passage OF old
age pension laws in many additional
states but will cause the ~transforma-
ton OF existing optional and limited
acts into mandatory and liberal sys-
TENS.
"The only Objectionable feature Of
this section Of the bill is the entrusting
of the administration of this subsidy,
and incidentally also that for mothers
pensions, to the Federal Emergency
Relief Administration. The linking up
of a permanent system of subsidy with
an avowedly emergency, and therefore
temporary, organization, whose future
is indifinite, is illogical"
The old age insurance proposals were
hailed as steps in the right direction
although the details in the bill "are
not entirely clear and adequate"
Unemployment Provisions
Disappointing"
The unemployment provisions of the
Wagner Lewis Doughton bill were de-
clared to be highly disappointing for
many reasons" "The program" the
publication asserted, "is contrary to the
recommendations made to the Cabinet
Committee on Economic Security by
the Advisory Council" of large indus
trialists, labor leaders and social lead
ers, and OF the experts of the Com
mittee as we'll as the leading authori-
ties OF the problem, such as Professor
Paul H. Douglas, DR.. l. M. Rubinow
and Secretary Abraham Epstein. "All
these favored either a national plan Of
unemployment insurance or a plan
based on a Federal subsidy"
The doubtful plan" of inducing
states to pass unemployment insur-
ance laws through deduction from a
Federal payroll tax to employers con-
tributing to approved state systems
LEAVES the field open to the bewilder-
ing growth OF a miscellany of 48 unco-
ordinated and contradictory systems"
according to Social Security. 1T leaves
the door open to a mixture OF COM
pany reserves and pooled funds-two
mutually opposing principles. 1t will
induce a variety of unsound expert
ments which will only deepen the
chaos" Moreover, the requirement
that the state turn over the funds col
lected under its own law to the Fed
eral Treasury lis likely to raise the
most serious and difficult political and
constitutional issues.
"The mechanism of the Federal in
ducement is also open to serious po-
litical objections. The appeal is d.
rected primarily at the employers, with
the implicit undemocratic assumption
that industry can do what it likes in
the state legislatures. In place Of
this method, which will likely remain
ineffective in a good many states, a
direct subsidy to states would appeal to
the legislatures themselves on a pro-
gram in which they are already deeply
interested"
Social Security declared it was to be
regretted that neither the Presidents
message nor the Wagner-Lewis bill
tackle the problem Of health insurance,
despite the growth of the movement
for health insurance and the fact that
the inadequacy Of medical service had
been recognized even by official bodies
appointed under the Hoover Admins
tration.
80 Governors Demand Social
Legislation.
A nationwide program Of Federal
State cooperation on social insurance
legislation is quickly taking shape as a
result Of the Presidents message and
the legislative addresses Of SO Cover
nors elected with a popular mandate to