Evening star., 1939-12-14

meet local conditions. Furthermore,
in any joint enterprise, much de-
pends upon the willingness of sepa-
rate groups of officials to cooperate
toward q common end, their respect
for each others sphere Of operation,
their tact in dealing with one an
other and their belief in the objec-
tives OF the program. In this great
task of social security. the loyalty,
competence and patience of thou
sands of public employees throughout |
the land are directly involved, and
1t is to them that much of the credit
is due for the success thus far at
tanned.
With the exception of old-age and
survivors insurance, the RESPONSE
bility for effective performance in
the field of social security admins
tration is not single. 1t is partly
Federal, partly State, partly local.
To those who advocate a single Fed
eral program and administration, it
must be said that time and expert
ence have not as yet demonstrated
the wisdom of such course. 1t
must be remembered that there is
nothing inherently good or bad in
Capitalization as such. So long as a
program can be administered effec-
lively, by enlisting the sympathies
and efforts of officials from the
smallest hamlet, through the State
capitals, to the central agencies in
Washington. its advantages out
weigh the disadvantages that may
loom so large IN its initial stages.
1ntegration can be achieved through
the dominance of an idea as we'll as
through the mechanism of legal
control.
In the attainment of the full
benefits of the social security pro-
gram, the chief problems of the
future are to vitalize Federal leader
ship through proper coordination
and planning of all related activi-
ties and to simplify the innumer-
able contacts with State and local
agencies. These are essential re-
quirements If the three levels of
Government are to become parts of
a single system designed to serve the
interests and needs of the people.
Merit Standards Mapped.
The Social Security Board is now
engaged in putting into effect the
recent amendments to the Social
Security Act. One of these amend
ments requires cooperating State
agencies, after January l, 1910, to
establish and maintain personnel
standards on a merit basis for the
selection Of employees engaged in
the work Of public assistance and
employment security. In carrying
out this responsibility, the board
has formulated standards which
cover the basic requirements Of a
merit system Of personnel selection.
These standards, it may be noted,
were formulated only after full and
free consultation with Representa-
tive groups of State officials con-
cerned with administration of these
functions and in the light of agreed
principles of sound personnel prac-
tices.
Each State agency formulates its
own plan for the selection of its
personnel. To assist the States in
the development of plans which
meet the Federal standards, the
board makes available, upon re-
quest, suggested regulations and
technical services. Insofar as mini
mum standards are met, the States
have complete freedom in construct
ing their own personnel systems.
This procedure is merely one illus
tration of joint attack upon a
common problem in accord with
the American tradition. It is a
large task and delicate one. Both
Federal and State officials are
thoroughly sensitive to its import
ance and 1t is being accomplished
without friction or misunderstand-
ing.
The old-age and survivors insur-
ance parts of the Social Security Act
directly affect the pocketbooks of
more than As million people. Since
this Is an insurance scheme with
benefits based on pay roll records
Uncle Sans bookkeeping task is
probably the largest of its kind in
the world.
There is no system so infallible
and no experts so we'll trained as to
eliminate errors from this work. The
Job OF the administration Of the
Bureau Of Old-Age and Survivors
Insurance is to keep these to the
minimum. In this, they have been
highly successful. The famous John
Doe accounts about which you have
heard 80 much are to only a negli-
gible degree the result of errors in
keeping the wage records. Let me
explain briefly about John Doe
items.
188, ,000, 900 Wage Items Recorded.
Under the Social Security Act, en-
ployers Of one or more employees are
required to report at the end of
each calendar quarter the amount
Of wages they have paid to each of
their employees. Since the start of
the old-age insurance system in
1887, the Social Security Board has
recorded a total of 1873 million wage
items, covering wage payments Of
IS billion to the accounts of ap-
proximately 80 million commercial
and industrial employees.
When there is an omission or in
accuracy in recording a workers
social security account number on
the report, the wage item for that
quarter is temporarily suspended.
Such q situation may arise because
a worker fails to give his number
to his employer, because of the IL
legibility of the name reported, be-
cause the employe without the
knowledge of the board works under
q name different from that shown
on his account-number card, or be-