Evening star., 1936-03-01
TOWNSEND PLAN THROWN
TO DISCARD BY CONGRESS
Movement Is Denounced as Unsound
and Fantastic, and as Medium
for Racketeers.
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

charges: That it is economically un-
sound and fantasy, and that it has
been used as racket.
BY vote of 240 to the House
voted to investigate "old-age pension
rackets" through a committee headed
by Representative c. Jasper Bell,
Democrat. of Missouri, and to find out
whether anybody has gotten rich by
preying on the credulity of those who
hoped to spend their old age in aff1u-
ence through this "crack-brained"
scheme.
This investigation starts tomorrow,
with r. E. Clements. co-organizeH
with DR.. Townsend, as first witness.
The committee has $4,000 for eX-
penses.
But coupled with the practical re-
lection of the Townsend plan is the
sincere pledge of those who have
been fighting this mirage" that
Congress will take pity on the plight
of its victims and all who might face
distress in their declining years by
enacting an adequate but practical old
age security system, giving greater
measure of relief than that approved
at the insistence of President Roose-
welt. The wisest heads in and out
of Congress are now giving intensive
and concentrated study to devise the
best method of old-age pensions. To
that extent the Townsend plan has
helped by arousing the entire country
to realization that some adequate
social security system must be adopted.
Dimes and dollars, mites to mil
lions, squeezed from the poor, have
flowed in a silver stream into the
pockets of the promoters. But the
message from Congress, broadcast
through the press and by radio to
every community throughout the land,
is sincere and dependable-a sensible,
sufficient, workable old-age pension
system is to be enacted.
Leaders in Expose.
Among those who have been leaders
in exposing the "heartless hoax" the
unsoundneSS and destructiveneSs of
the Townsend plan, and in pledging
their earnest efforts for real relief are:
Senator Arthur Vandenberg. Repub-
lican, of Michigan; Chairman O'Con-
nor, Democrat, of New York, of the
House Rules Committee; Representa-
tive Phil Ferguson, Democrat, of Okla
homa; Representative Thomas L.
Blanton, Democrat, of Texas; Repre-
sentative Charles J. Bell, Democrat,
of Missouri; Representatives Charles
L. Clifford, Republican. Of Massachu-
setts; Representative Clare E. Hoff-
man, Republican, of Michigan; Repre-
sentative Richard M. Duncan, Demo-
crat, of Missouri; Representative AL
bert J. Engel, Republican, of Mich
igan; Representative Clarence F. Lea,
Democrat, of California; Representa-
tive j. Mark Wilcox, Democrat, of
Florida: Representative Jesse P. VOL
colt. Republican, of Michigan; Repre-
sentative Edith N. Rogers, Republican,
of Massachusetts,; Representative
Maury Maverick, Democrat, of Texas;
Representative Frank H. Buck Demo-
crat. of California; Representative E.
E. Cox, Democrat, of Georgia, and
Representative P. L. Gassaway, Demo-
crat, of Oklahoma. The House Rules
Committee-four Democrats and four
Republicans-voted unanimously for
the investigation. OF the four who
voted against it in the House-Repre-
sentative Vito Marcantonio, Repub-
lican, Of New York, explained he is
opposed to the Townsend plan but did
not want to see money wasted in in
vestigating its finances. The others
were Burdick, Republican, of North
Dakota; Moritz, Democrat, of Penn
sylvania, and Stefan, Republican, of
Nebraska.
Also denouncing the Townsend plan
are such noted economists as DR.. H.
A. Mills, head of Chicago University's
Department of Economics; Stuart A.
Rice, acting chairman of the United
States Central Statistical Board; DR..
Henry S. Pritchett, president emeritus
of the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching: DR.. Ray
Bert Westerfield, professor of political
economy, Yale University, and Robert
G. Ebert. New York.
The original Townsend plan has
been discarded. Its cardinal feature
was payment of 5000 a month to all
so years of age-with a sufficient tax
rate to meet the cost. The Townsend
weekly carried the slogan 1--WE will
never compromise on 5000 month"
and it is on this basis that the Or
ganization was built up. That was
the basic provision of the bill intro
duced by Representative John Stephen
McGroarty, Democrat, Of California,
on January Is, 1885. But that has
gone flooey." This original sponsor
has a new bill before Congress, intro
duced on April Fools day, with many
changes and notifications" of which
the Townsend Weekly of recent date
said: "Our new bill embodies all the
salient features of the Townsend plan
optional retirement at go years, the
transaction tax; compulsory spending
and 5000 q month when (and if the
tax reaches that amount pro rata, etc. 4"
$200 Objective Forsaken.
It is only recently that the Town
send Weekly eased down (and that as
inconspicuously as possible) from its
original insistence on 5000 a month
on which the entire movement was
originally founded. Representative
McGroarty, more loyal to the Town
sendites who built up great national
demand for old-age security legisla-
tion on generous scale than the
Townsend leaders are to him-still in
sists that "this is the official Town
send bill"
An invitation recently was extended
to Townsendites from the American
Commonwealth Federation, headed by
Representative Anllie, a Wisconsin
progressive, to join their political for
tunes in a third party effort. Mean
while the Communists had indorsed
the Townsend plan.
But in fairness to Representative
McGroarty it must be said that he
repudiated all third party talk. He
warned DR.. Townsend that "there must