Evening star., 1936-10-25
Social Security Plan is
Menaced With Collapse
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.

Election excitement is screening what
promises to become the most resounding
crack-up in the history Of New Deal ex-
periments. This time, Mr.. Roosevelt s
pet experiment, social security, is in
volved.
For the last few months the Social
Security Board has realized that 1t was
playing with political dynamite. Only
careful handling has kept the explosive
from blowing up in the hands Of Gov
ernment officials prior to November 3.
The first sign of impending develop
mentS is contained in notices now being
posted in factories and business estab-
lishments over the country.
These notices tell employees that, be-
ginning on January /, deductions of l
per cent will be made from their wages
to support national system of old-age
insurance. In addition, employers will
be called on to contribute per cent of
total pay rolls. Later these deductions
and contributions rise gradually to a
total of 6 per cent.
But those notices are only the surface
signs of growing story. Back of them
is problem of administration that has
the officials staggered even before 1t
begins and that is leading to inside bets
that the plan now on the statute books,
designed to force 100000 American
workers to save for old age, will quickly
collapse of its own weight.
Every one of those millions of workers
must become a number before January
!. That job in itself is huge. Yet for
fear of reminding working people of the
little surprise that the Government has
IN store for them this job was put of
until after election. AS a result the
Government must, between November 3
and January l, register every worker in
the land. except agricultural workers and
domestic help.
Each one of the millions will be called
upon to give five facts about his life
and to each one will be assigned num-
ber that henceforth will represent his
title to personal savings account de-
signed to support him in his old age.
* 4 v
Difficult as is this task of signing up
American workers and getting them
properly tagged, it is simple compared
with what then is to follow.
Thereafter the Government must see
that deductions are made from every pay
envelope of every employe in the land
and that those deductions-augmente
by employer contributions-are sent to
Washington and properly entered on
each of $4,000 900 separate accounts.
Because the annuity that comes later
depends upon the amount that every
single individual earns in every single
week of every year. entries will need to
be made on 26,O0O,O00 accounts 50 times
a year, with compound interest figured
for each of the totals twice each year.
Individual savings figured to the penny.
are expected to average about Is cents a
week. with another Is cents coming from
employers.
The detail involved in this operation
is described as coloSsal-over- -shadowing
any administrative operation yet under
taken by any government anywhere.
x
In fact, it is job that many respon-
sible officials say cannot be done. They
are privately predicting blow-up with
wide repercuSsions and an administra-
tive jam that may take long time to
straighten out. And as a sign that the
Social Security Board itself is stumped,
there is the fact that a delay of six
months is planned in the requirement
that employers make weekly reports on
the earnings of every individual in the
land.
Millions Of American workers move
from job to job and from city to city,
many of them crossing the Nation in
a year. Hundreds of thousands of
American employers are in business one
day, out of business the next.
Yet the Government now is charged
with the task of recording every dollar
earned in the lifetime of every individual
and of collecting slice of every one of
those dollars from every employer-and
of policing the whole set-up to make sure
that deductions are proper and entries
on the millions of savings accounts are
correct.
The only tangible evidence of indi-
vidual employees that the money to be
taken from their pay envelopes is being
saved in their names will be the title to
a number. The only assurance against
juggling by unscrupulous individuals
among employers will be faith in the
ability of Uncle Sam to police between
5000, 900 and 100000 employer accounts.
And what does the individual worker
get out of the system if it can be made
to work?
The answer depends on the earnings
he has made during his lifetime, on the
correctness of Government accounting
and on the honesty of individual en-
ployers
For five years after next January, there
is to be period of accumulation during
which no payments are made. It is in
this period that fund is to be built
from the interest on which annuitieS are
to be paid.
If an individual now is 60 years old and
earning at the rate of 81 900 a year, he
will be entitled in 1942-if he quits work
to an annuity of about SIT a month
which will be paid to him for the re-
mainder of his days.
Or, If now As and earning 500 month
he would have saved enough by the time
he was IS to draw S32.50 q month, pro-
vided he quit work.
Again, If now % and able to earn an
average of $1,000 year for the next 43
years, the individual would be entitled
to an annuity of $85 month at the end
of that time. This is the maximum called
for under the plan.
But what of the individual who has not
been included In the plan, either because
he hasn't worked, or because he is in one
OF the exempt classes?
For him the Government makes i'm
mediate provision. If he has saved moth
ing has made no sacrifices has had no