Evening star., 1935-12-22
No Time to Dodge.

lNO AAAAN ~ So
In dealing with the Townsend old-age
pension plan Senator Arthur H. Vanden-
berg of Michigan has taken a courageous
stand. He is against it, despite the rising
tide of approval. The reasons which
the Michigan Senator gives for his oppo-
sition are convincing. A universal trans
actions taxa sales tax on everything
that is bought and sold-would, as he
saws. increase the prices OF commodities
until the living cost Of the American
people would become unbearable. When
this stage was reached and there IS
reason to believe that it would come
oIlicklv, the ninety-tWo per cent OF the
people who must be called upon to
supply the billions of dollars annually
needed to finance the Townsend plan
would be destroyed. And when they
we're DESTROYED what would then become
of the benefciaries of the plan? A pre-
requisite. under the plan, is that all
persons sixty years of age and over must
ouit work. Would they ever be given
chance to find jobs which they had
relinouished after the debacle?
When a tariff wall sufficiently high to
nrotect the American market had been
erected to prevent the flooding OF this
country with cheaper made goods from
abroad, made necessary by the hlgh
orices of commodities of all kinds, what
would become of the foreign trade OF
this country? What chance would there
be for a real resumption OF our foreign
trade, in which the ultimate hope OF
recovery largely rests? These are ques-
tions which the Michigan Senator sug-
eests to those who are advocating the
old-aee pension plan at $500 a month
The Townsend plan is put forward
not only as an old-age pension project
but as a means for bringing about re-
covery. The argument is made that by
placing this huge sum Of money IN the
hands of the aged every month and COM
pelling them to spend it, production will
be enormously increased, jobs for all
those under sixty years of age will be
plentiful and consumption of all kinds
of goods will be continuous. If there is
to be great consumption Of goods, there
must be great purchasing power. The
effect of the Townsend plan will, OF
course. be to increase very greatly the
purchasing power of the aged. But what
will it do to the purchasing power OF
the great mass of people who are to be
called upon to finance the plan? With
the prices of all kinds of goods sky
rocketing because of increased costs OF
production, the ability of the workers
to make purchases will diminish, not
increase. Never yet has it been possible
for a tail to wag a dog.
In the face of the election OF a Re
publican Representative in the third
Michigan congressional district, cam
paigning for the Townsend plan, Sen
ator Vandenberg has announced his dis
belief in the workability of that plan.
He recognizes the fact that the time
for temporizing, for a lodging OF the
issue, is at hand. 1t would be as well
for other members of Congress and for
other presidential possibilities" to
make their stand on the Townsend plan
as clear as that of Senator Vandenberg.
A political campaign is at hand. Can
didates generally will be pressed by the
Townsend plan propagandists to sup
port that plan. There is equally good
reason why the opponents of the plan
should ask candidates to take stand
against it.
The advocates of the Townsend plan
who put it forward as a recovery measure
have sugar-coated it with the $200-a-
month pension to the aged. All that
is required of any person to obtain the
pension is to live to be sixty years Of
age. What becomes of the idea of thrift
and of self-support? The incentive to
save is taken away from the young. Why
should they save in the knowledge that
they are to have 5000 a month in the
future to spend as they desire? And
what of the millions of workers who never
reach the age of sixtyP The money taken
from them during their youth and middle
age to pay the Townsend plan benef1ci-
aries will never come back to them.