Evening star., 1936-11-03
Pension Plans Compared
Landon's System Held Less Conservative in Revenue.
Raising Than Present Law.

| Is the same that is basic in the whole
New Deal. It Is the fact that the
worker is not permitted to decide
whether he wants Government in
surance or not. He Is not given the
chance to have Government insurance,
he is compelled to have it. He must
take 1t and act as If he thought 1t
good, he must pay for it and like it.
The objection to the New Deal plan
Is the compulsion, the requirement
that every worker shall pay for old
age pensions whether he wants to or
not; the requirement that every work.
er shall see l cent (rising to 81 out
of every dollar taken out Of his
pay envelope by the arbitrary action
Of the Government. The New Deal
plan refuses to admit that any worker
may prefer to do his own saving, and
be able to do it. 1t refuses to admit
that the worker has right to his
pay, to all Of it; and has q right to
save as much Of it as he wishes, or
none Of 1t If he wants, and to spend
all OF 1t II he chooses for whatever
he cares to buy.
Phase ef Regimentation.
Plenty Of workers have the charac-
ter and intelligence to do their own
saving. Millions of them have life
insurance policies and savings bank
accounts. But the New Deal makes
no distinction between the provident
and the improvident. This, the uni
versal compulsion put upon all alike,
is characteristic running all through
the New Deal which justifies the
charge of Regeneration"
In this case it involves the Federal
Government keeping a check on every
one of some $4,000, 900 workers, in
quiring how much they receive each
week, following them from job to job
with a new army of Government
agents, which have seen estimated
at hundreds Of thousands. In this
aspect Of the social security system
lies the difference between voluntary
and compulsory, between individual
ism and collectivism.
In the same spirit Of compulsion, of
conformity and uniformity, no pri-
vate employer or corporation is al
lowed to have its own pension system
as substitute for the Government
one. Even If the private system is
better. still the employer must take
the Government system.
Landon Vivid on Disposition.
There is another objection to the
existing system. 1t has to do with
the disposition Of funds which are
collected for old-age insurance, after
they are taken into the Treasury. The
amount ultimately will run into tens
Of billions. There Is not space here
to describe how the funds are sup
posed to be invested In Government
bonds, but are at the same time SUBJ
ject to whatever use the Government
may choose to make of them. But
Landon was sound, and also vivid,
when he described this part Of the
existing system in terms Of q familiar
analogy:
Let me explain it - in the SIM
pie terms Of the family budget. The
father of the family impresses
| upon his sons and daughters the ne
cessity Of saving for their old age
Every month they bring per cent
of their wages to him so that he may
act as trustee and invest their saw
ings for their old age. The father
| decides that the hest Investment js his
own I. o. u. so every month he puts
aside in box his !. o. U. carefully
executed, and, moreover, bearing in
terest at 3 per cent. And every month
he spends the money that his chill