The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-09
Editor of Daily Worker
Blasts Administration
Supported Bill


terests of the workers, Clarence A.
Hathaway. editor Of the Daily
Worker. appearing before the House
Committee on Labor on Feb. 1, de-
handed the enactment Of the
Workers Unemployment, Old Age
and Social Insurance Bill, H.R. 1927.
The full text follows:
The Chairman. We are proceed
ing under the 5-minute rule, Mr..
Hathaway. but your time may be ex-
tended by unanimous consent Of
the committee.
Mr.. Hathaway. 7 will make the
statement of our position brief and
to the point,
The Communist Party is opposed
10 the administration economic
security bill as introduced by
Senator wagner and to its under
living provisions. We do not believe
that this bill can be amended in the
interests Of the workers.
Communists Back H. r. 2S27
The Communist Party counter
poses to this and urges the sdop-
ton of the workers unemployment,
old-age. and social-insurance bill,
H. r. 1927.
In our opinion. the Wagner bill is
not designed to provide social secu-
rity for the masses of the people.
In our opinion this bill is designed,
rather. to provide security for the
rich who dominate the country.
The aims Of the sponsors Of the
Wagner bill, in our opinion. are
first, to quiet the masses who are to-
day Increasingly expressing their
discomfort with the crisis conditions
that exist by offering them a sham
measure that will give them in re-
atty nothing.
Secondly, the sponsors see in this
possibility Of lowering the cost Of
caring for the millions Of unem-
pleved in the country today; and
thirdly by lowering the cost of
caring for the unemployed the spon-
sors Of the bill see the possibility in
this Of lowering the living of the
American people as q whole, in or
der to increase the profits Of the
rich.
Specifically the theory that each
State should insist on its own law in
relation to Unemployment insurance
is a negation of all effective social
insurance legislation.
IN the first place, il one waits for
the States. each one, to adopt an
unemployment insurance bill, the
workers of the United States will
be running around for the next
20 years waiting for unemployment
insurance, as they have waited for
all other forms of social legisla-
ton.
This bill will not serve quickly to
give to the millions of unemployed
real unemployment insurance.
Migratory Workers Barred
Secondly, the basing of insurance
on the States will involve the pro-
blem Of residence not only for ac-
tors, as was pointed out by a pre-
vious speaker, but for literally mil
lions of workers, because workers.
particularly in periods of unsettled
industrial conditions, move from
one city to another in a desperate
hope Of finding Jobs. You will find
one worker after another barred
from the unemployment features Of
the legislation as we'll as from the
old-age feature, by the simple
process of being compelled to move
from one city to another in search
Of work.
A simple example: An automobile
worker in Toledo thinks that there
is q possibility Of 2 Job in Detroit.
He packs Up and leaves Toledo, goes
to Detroit, and, IN doing so, he can
GELS both his opportunity to get
unemployment insurance and also
the possibility Of getting old-age
Insurance. Secondly. the unem-
ployment-reserves theory that is
embodied in all administration pro-
posals is unsound. The reserves
theory eliminates the IS or Is mil
lion who are now unemployed from
(. any consideration under an unem-
ployment-insurance scheme that IS
adopted 1t would only apply, at
best, to those workers who are nov
employed in factory, or who are
employed after the system goes into
effect Even The would only
benefit providing reserves were built
UP on plant basis, providing they
had been employed in the plant for
a definite period Of time, providing
they had contributed toward the
building up Of these reserves, and a
whole series of other factors.
So the effect would be that only
q very small number Of workers out
of the total working population Of
the country would ever benefit from
an unemployment-reserves system
brought forward as q substitute for
Insurance
A Pittance 10 Aged
Thirdly, the old age pension pro-
posals contained in the Wagner
bill, starting at SIS and limited to
81 week, are Joke to the millions
Of workers who are today being
thrown out of American industry in
the most ruthless manner as soon
as they reach the age of so.
Throughout the mass reproduction in
dustries worker at so can no longer
hold a job. He is thrown out. But
he has to wait Is years before he is
included in scheme such as this.
and even then he Is limited to a
very small amount each week, ST.
unless the State makes other provi-
sion.
Finally, the graduated-t
theory, as contained in the Wagner
proposal. is an evasion of the fun
damental problem with which the
Government is now confronted N