The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-02-08


Security before congress
there is brand new
outburst of talk, because it seems the
social securers' never can agree
among themselves. The result is that
leadership in the house and in the
senate is trying vainly to follow adj
ministration Instructions, and has run
afoul of all kinds of difficulties. The
end is not yet, but it is safe to say
without fear of any necessity for re-
traction that the social security pro-
gram will not go back TO President
Roosevelt as a law in the form it was
presented as an administration bill.
l find everywhere among those not
charged with responsibility for the So
Cial security legislation that there is
much confusion and lack of under
standing as to what the President has
proposed. 1t is easily understood. Any
time that it requires thirty thousand
words to explain a piece of legisla-
ton obviously that legislation must
be complex. To comprehend what the
length of Mr.. RoOSeyelt's social Sc
curity message is, it is only neceS-
Sary, l think, to remind readers that
the message with its explanation of
the legislation would fill approximate
ly thirty-fve columns of an ordinary
newspaper. Many persons naturally
will fall asleep before they wade
through that much material.
But, let us attempt to summarize
the social security bill. 1t provides,
first, for a national system of COM
pulsory cOntributOry old age insur-
ance; second, it authorizes apprOpria-
uOns to be used as federal subsidies
(platn giftS) to the individual states
TO help them pension the aged who
cannot be brought under an insur-
ance system predicated upon their
service in commerce and industry and,
third, voluntary system of old age
annuitieS is set up. .,.... ......
The system of compulsory contribu-
tory old age insurance is designed to
protect those who are no longer able
TO work but who have done their turn
on the payrolls of industry. An old
age fund is set up in the Treasury
of the United States. Initially, the
money comes from the Treasury but
thereafter there is a tax operating
on payrolls of all those who employ
workers in numbers exceeding four.
This tax will start January 1, 1887, at
a rate Of 1 per cent. 1t is Increased to
2 per cent as of January 1, 1892; 3
per cent as of January 1, 1917; 4 per
cent as of January 1, 1852, and 5 per
cent after January 1, 1857. The en-
ployer pays the tax but he collects
half of it by a deduction from the
payroll of the individual worker.
The age of sixty-five years is fixed
as the time when worker shall re-
tire and receive this pension. The pen
sioner can receive as much as $50 a
month. If the individual dies before
retirement, his dependents receive
back the amount paid in In his behalf.
AS a part of the old age pension
system the legislation sets up an old
age fund in which workers may pur-
chase an annuity but they never may
maturity value-the ultimate amount
from which their income may be in
creased. # rsrtEalsg j. 50 11
Then there is the much discussed
unemployment insurance. This also is
predicated upon a tax on industrial
payrolls but it is state proposition.
That is, the federal government is at
tempting to encourage individual
states to enact legislation which will
protect the worker in periods such as
that through which we have passed
since 1929. In other words, this phase
of the legislation is designed to cause
workers and their employers to lay
aside a certain percentage of their
income while they are employed, to be
used when times are hard.
There are countless subdivisions in
the bill, none of which are simple,
that seek to protect the many who for
one reason or another do not qualify
under the general terms of the legisla-
ton. For instance, aid to dependent
children is provided Federal health
subsidies-a kind of health insurance
is proposed. Maternal aid Is ar
ranged, and extraordinary cases are
covered, such as aid to crippled chill
dren. There are other subdivisions
much too intricate to analyze here
for the reason that their application
is decidedly limited. The drafters of
the legislation sought to cover all.
Whether they have done so can be
determined only after the legislation
has been in operation some years.
l have been unable to compute the
cost of this legislation to the federal
and state govern
Counting ment and no one, of
fhe Cost course, can approx
mate the expense it
will be to industry. 1t is one of those
things so far reaching in its effect as
to make utterly impossible advance
calculations of the cost in dollars and
cents. Suffice 1t to say that all through
the bill as it now wends its way
through legislative channels are fire.
quent paragraphs where money either
is appropriated or authorized to be
appropriated in the future. One wag
covered the money phases of the bill
the other day with remark that it
was not unlike the conversations be-
tween Amos and Andy, the radio come
dams, for there is five million, three
million, twenty million, seventy-eight
million and so on through the list.
Yet it is not the money phases that
constitute the difficulties in the legis.
lation as the leaders in congress see
them. The bin sets up an in
tricate system of administration
against which even the present fan