The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-12
Noted Social Worker
Halls Workers Bill
As Vital Need

insurance, make to the Workers
Unemployment Insurance Bill Oh.
R. 2827.
Miss Van Kleeck is National
Chairman Of the Interprofessional
Association for Social Insurance,
and is director of Industrial Studies
Of the Russell Sage Foundation,
New York. Miss Van Kleeck was a
member of the presidents confer
ence on unemployment in 1921; a
member Of Hoover's Committee on
Unemployment and Business Cycles;
a former Trustee of Smith College,
and is Fellow Of the American Asso-
citation Of Advancement Of Science,
Economic Section.
She was chairman Of the Pro-
gram Committee Of the World So
cial Economic Congress in Amster-
dam Holland in 1881, and president
Of the international Conference on
Social, Economic Planning Of the
International Industrial Relations
Institute held at the Russell Sage
Foundation Building, in Dec. 1894.
Miss Van Kleeks speech said in
part:
Security of livelihood must be
made the leading aim and obligation
Of the American nation. Govern
ment and the economic system must
assume this responsibility as the
test and objective of all policies.
The basis of economic security for
the American people is to be found
in security Of livelihood for ali
workers and their families, who
constitute the great majority Of the
American people and whose collec-
tive working efficiency is the source
Of wealth. BY workers, we mean
all who function in any part Of the
productive system; and in the cul-
tural, professional, technical and
scientific services Of society
The demand for Social Economic
Security for the American People,
based upon security of livelihood
for all the workers of the United
States, is the significance OF this
National Congress for Unemploy-
ment and Social Insurance. While
putting forward a program and
principles OF an unemployment and
social insu; ance system as its CEN
trail purpose, this national congress
OF workers must nevertheless con-
Germ itself with the wider program
implicit in these principles This
wider program will evolve not
merely out of the thought which
may be given to it in these sessions,
but out of the experience which day
BY day develops In these beginnings
OF a peoples movement for security.
1t is in the light of such an inter
probation of this congresses the
first national expression of peo-
pies r11ovsment-that all detailed
items of an immediate program
should be understood.
The workers Movement for Security
Such a movement, after Ave long
years OF continued unemployment
and increasing pressure to lower
standards Of living, has q twofold
cornerstone. First, widespread dis
tfess necessitates organized action
by the group upon whom the bur-
den has fallen most heavily-that
is. the workers, including farmers
and those in the professions.
Second, the workers Of America,
including the technicians and scien-
fists, are convinced that the produe-
tive capacity OF the United States is
/ sufficient to insure a comfortable
living standard for this country and
to contribute our share toward
meeting the economic needs of the
world. A movement based thus ON
a sound scientific analysis of our
productive resources and inspired by
a social objective in harmony with
the original dreams of the American
democracy, is destined to be the
center of the present historical pc
Rod in this country, with wide i'm
plications for the rest of the world
From 80 large a concept Of the
movement which may grow out Of
this National Congress for Unefn-
ployrlent and Social Insurance, it is
necessary to turn our attention to
the first practical steps. These
have already been taken in the in
PRODUCTION of the workers Unem-
ployment and Social Insurance Bill
in the Seventy Third Congress, and
its endorsement by large numbers
of organizations, of which only a
sample, so to speak, is represented
here. While the number is large,
even the most ardent advocates Of
social insurance would say that the
movement is still small and weak
in comparison with the task to be
undertaken.
The Workers Bill on Unemploy-
ment and Social Insurance
The Workers Bill puts forward
new concept Of social insurance,
namely, that continuity of average
income, with an established mini
nitim equal to a living standard,
must be assured through govern
dGbiOli DO q III SO Slidi &c QpOil
the economic system. This con-
trasts sharply with past procedures
in American industry, which have
provided no governmental Insurance.,
but, on the contrary, left the whole
burden upon the workers, who are
paid only during periods of p1odlc-
ton. Thus they are forced to main
tain themselves in idleness, awaiting
the time when the industrial system
will need them for renewed produc-
ton.
Insured Continuity of Workers
Income
Out of this same principle, which
has never been consistently applied
in the workmens compensation
movement. eme-gss a like principle
for all forms Of unemployment
4 Mt 1T