Montana labor news., 1935-02-14
Wings Over Washington
By LEN DE CAUX

do
you do with your old people? ?" an in
quiring foreigner once asked an Amer
lean. For answer the h|ardboiled Yank
of the story just pointed to a cemetery.
For years the United States has been
the butt OF such a humor as this.
While every other civilized country in
the world has long had government
old age pensions covering most Of its
needy aged, America has been content
to consign its old folks to the poor
house, to miserable dependence upon
low-paid relatives, or to the cemetery.
what do you do with your unem-
ployed? !" is a question that might SINH
larly be answered by pointing to soup
and bread-lines, to meager grocery re-
lief, to work projects paying the barest
subsistence relief-wage.
+ + +
Now at last-after years of agitation
and hundreds of promises-a govern
ment move is made in the direction OF
removing some Of the causes Of these
jibes at a modern country almost com
pletely without social insurance. A
program is announced that may affect
the whole future lives of tens of mil
lions of misunderstanding &C
cording to its merits, failings or faults,
what they may eat and wear, how
much they may spend, and for many
perhaps life itself.
Yet news of this historic character,
of this intimate Importance to nearly
everyone in the country, was given less
space and smaller headlines in the daily
press than the most trifling details
bearing on the question Of whether one
Hauptmann did or did not kidnap the
Lindbergh baby.
What does the administration pro-
gram mean to me? the reader may ask.
Assuming that it is enacted at this Con-
gress and that the states follow through
with Complementary laws, it will mean
something like this.
If you are now over 20, have lived in
n state at least five out Of the last
10 years and have no other means of
support, you may become eligible to
draw a pension Of $50 a month or less
half paid by the federal and half by
the state government. Beginning 1910,
the federally-set age will be 65, though
states may set this earlier limit before
that date.
If you are younger, you will have to
pay for such pension as you may draw
in the future. Beginning Jan. /, 1887,
your wages will be locked by one-half
OF | per cent, the percentage increas-
ing every five years until you will be
contributing ~ per cent of your wages
by 1857. Your employer will be taxed
a like amount. After contributing for
200 weeks you may at the age of 65
draw a pension amounting to Is per
cent Of your average monthly wage, if
it is less than $3.50. The longer you
contribute the more you will get,
though for sometime the top limit will
be 500, based on wages of $50 a mouth
and contributions for 10 years.
T. = =
If you are now out Of work, the Sc
curity program means practically moth
ing to you, until you get a job again.
Perhaps that is why so many OF the
Ills million jobless were less inter
ested in it than in the Lindbergh trial.
But if you have a job now, or expect
to get a fairly steady one soon, you'll
still have to wait a long time for the
program to mean anything tangible to
you. What you will get and how much
you will have to pay for it it will de-
pend almost entirely upon what action
your state takes. The federal govern
ment will start levying a payroll tax in
1886, but it will probably not reach its
full amount Of 3 per cent until 1888.
Thereafter, if your state acts along
the lines suggested, you may become
eligible (after being covered by con-