Evening star., 1939-11-05

CQtJOrn1Q'S nam ana eggS pt1n.
COLUMBUS, ohio.-voters of Ohio
will go to the polls next Tuesday to pass
upon an old-age pension plan that has
stirred this State as has no political
issue In recent years. The cause Of it all
is mild-mannered preacher, the Rev.
Herbert S. Bigelow, who seems some
what surprised at the storm he has
aroused.
The Bigelow plan calls for pensions
of $50 month-$80 to married couples
to all persons over go whose income is
below that figure. The revenue would
come from State income tax equal to
one-fourth of the Federal tax and a 2
per cent tax on all land in the State
valued at more than 100000 an acre.
The opposition, including every major
organization aside from the two labor
groups and every newspaper, insists that
it will ruin the State. Over the radio,
In full-page advertisements, on bill
boards, through hundreds of speakers
the warning of ruin and disaster has
been broadcast. While no one will risk
an estimate, it is conceded that the
campaign of opposition has cost well
over $3.50 900 and perhaps as much as
$500,000. Thanks to this opposition it
appears probable that on Tuesday safe
majority will be recorded against the
Bigelow pension proposal. Even Mr..
Bigelow himself comedies probable de-
feat. But he adds, Next time we'll put
1t over"
No one doubts that there will pe a
next time. The Bigelow plan is merely
part of q rising demand for pensions
that Is being heard In ever increasing
volume. It seems not alone from Ohio,
but from virtually every other State.
California Plan May Pass.
In California they are balloting Tues
day on a pension plan. the famous $3o-
every Thursday, and it appears to have
much better chance of passage than
the Bigelow scheme in Ohio While the
ham and eggs proposal, as it is known
by both friend and foe, was defeated a
year ago, 1t may be adopted this time
because Of concessions that have been
made to certain groups.
All Californians over so years Of age
would be paid $50 every Thursday-but
not in real money. They would get in
stead State warrants which they would
be expected to spend before the follow
ing Thursday, since these warrants de-
preciate at the rate of cents a week.
Each person or corporation keeping the
warrant longer than a week must af11x
2-cent State stamp on it, and thus at
the end of the year $1.04 in stamps will
have been purchased to retire the war
rant. In the proposal as voted on a
year ago State employees we're required
to take up to half their salary In such
warrants. That requirement has now
been taken out and enough votes may
be attracted to overcome the 250O00
margin Of last years defeat.
The campaign of opposition~in Cali
fornia is said to be just as furious as it
is here. In all the big department stores
in Los Angeles and San Francisco are
large signs announcing that State scrip
will not be accepted If the ham m-and-egg
! plan is approved. This, it is predicted,
would become an immediate issue, with
the Supreme Court in Washington
eventually called upon to decide the
ticklish question of what is money.
Pension advocates, as might be ex-
pected, do not agree. The Rev. Mr.
Bigelow disapproves Of ham -and-eggs as
impractical and visionary. DR.. Francis
Townsend, the national prophet of the
old-age movement, is for $30-every.
Thursday but opposed to the Bigelov
plan. In fact, DR.. Townsend made q
special trip to Ohio to speak against thu
proposal that is to be on Tuesdays bal
lot. Pensions, it is plain, mean votes
and votes are likely to mean public
Office, so rivalries naturally follow.
Bigelow in News Before.
For 80 years or more Mr.. Bigelow ha'
been the tail of every reform kite tina
has been sent up in Ohio. In 1912
when he was pastor Of the Vine Stree
Congregational Church In Cincinnati
he won q considerable reputation o.
chairman of . State constitutional con
vention which included many Of tn
States leading men. It did a notable
job of making over the State govern
ment.
In later years Mr.. Bigelow broke will
most of the men he had known. He wa
an ardent pacifist during the last Worlt
War; He attached himself to lost causes
He was a follower of Huey Long. At on
time he followed Father Coughlin ant
spoke on the radio for the Detroit priest
Perhaps the high peak Of his career wa
his election to Congress in the Roose
welt landslide of 1896. Last year in tn
New Deal recession he was defeated