The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-11
Liberal Viewpoint
by DR.. HARRY ELMER BARNES

lau6able But it should not obscure the i'm
portance of passing of social security legislation
proposed by Mr.. Roosevelt.
To students of economic and social affairs,
unemployment insurance constitutes a neces-
sary and elemental step in the direction of
civilized economy and a rational social order.
1t is sad reflection upon our civilization that
this issue has not been Squarely met and solved
successfully many years back.
If a well established system of compulsory
unemployment insurance had been in opera
Cion, we can be certain that the present de-
preston would have been less severe, its misery
more easily mitigated, and its termination made
more rapid and decisive.
Unemployment insurance is frequently as
sailed as a socialistic proposal something
based upon partisan and sentimental sympathy
with the working class
Nothing could be farther from the facts. The
best case for unemployment insurance today is
one which embodieS nothing more than hard
boiled and logical appeal to ordinary horse-senSe
on the part of American employers.
ONE may talk about such things as the gold
~ standard initiating the dollar, lowering the
tariff, cancelling war debts and building up our
foreign trade But any one of these item is the
merest triviality compared to putting really ade-
quate and dependable purchasing power into the
hands of those who must buy commodities and
stores distributing goods.
Purchasing power is the dynamo of business
enterprise under capitalism, and any plans for
recovery and assured future prosperity must
be built upon this as its corner stone.
This means, among other things, that able
bodied and willing workers must be given steady
employment. When this is not possible owing
to adverse business conditions, they must be as
sured of a dependable and decent income which
will enable them to go on buying, even though
at a somewhat decreased rate.
The reactionaries are bringing up all of the
conventional arguments against unemployment
insurance-that it is the British dole system in
disguise, that it is a MuScovite invention, and
the like.
There is, in fact, no argument worthy of the
name which can be raised against unemploy
ment insurance.
1t is sometimes asserted that American
workers should save enough during prosperous
periods so that they can tide themselves over the
months or years of adversely. But few elemen-
tary facts about American wages in the past
suffice to dispel this illusion.
THE criticism advanced that unemployment
Il insurance is "un-American" is utterly pre-
poSterous Nothing sensible and essential can
we'll be called un-American in any reasonable in
depreciation Of that term. In the sense in which
it is used by critics of unemployment insurance.
work in great factories, or to ride in SubwayS.
All of these things foreign to the of
rugged individualiSm" The 'un-American" argu-
ment is the final proof of intellectual bankruptcy
upon the part of those who fall back upon this
last refuge of greed.
OF a like feather is the denunciation of I'M
employment insurance as a "demoraliZing dole"
The British unemployment benefits have been
attacked by American BourbonS as dole. We
have ben warned to stick to charity and avoid
the dole system.
AS an actual matter of fact, England does not
have a dole system According to the philosophy
of the critics who allege that she does have, it
insurance" when there is little unemployment
but becomes dole when unemployment is rife
and extensive unemployment benefits have to be
provided.
The fact is that the American system of vol
untary contributions through private charity
represents the true dole system. This is not
only demoralzing, it is inadequate and its bene-
| fits are never enough to provide anything ap-
preaching normal purchasing power on the part
of the recipients.
Though the advantages of compulsory unem-
ployment insurance are thus vast and far-reach-
ing, it Is necessary, n the interest of accuracy
and candor, to make it clear that it can not in
any way be looked upon as a means Of getting
us ont of the present depression.
1t is too late for that. To have achieved such
| a result. unemployment insurance should have
been adopted back in the days of Theodore
But, if it is launched now, it will help to post
pone or mitigate another like collapse and to
mitigate its intensity.