The Coolidge examiner., 1940-03-14

ingenuity upon the task of displac-
ing men by machines, why should
we choose such a fantastically
high pension age as 65 years? Our
machines increasingly make GER
tain that toilers past 60 have little
chance at decent employment. We
gear our industrial mechanism to
higher and higher tempo, and
as the grueling pace begins to tell
and we discard our workers at
younger and younger age, then we
have the monumental assinity or
the callous cruelty, whichever it
may be, to set our retirement line
years above the point at which
our senior citizens are tossed up
on the labor scrap heap.
One Good Plan Needed
Quite clearly, what we need is
not two bad pensions plans for
persons past 65, but one good plan
for those past 60. We need a ma
tional pension program which will
abandon the shame and poverty of
the Social Security Act, and will
pay to every retired citizen over
60 a decent social dividend, not on
a basis of pinch-penny accounting,
nor Of tainted charity, but as a
matter of simple human right. We
{ need program which will guaran-
! tee benefits adequate not merely
to sustain life, but to grant 1t a
measure of dignity and serenity
a program which will be founded
on a truly equitable base broad
| enough to support ample annuities
that is, upon the income Of all
society including the well-to-do,
and not simply upon that of the
working class.
In short, what we need-and
what increasing multitudes
wants. the Towsend Plan
as submitted to Congress in
1910.
That plan calls for the i'm
position of 2 per cent tax
upon all gross income except
the first $3.50 a month. Thus
the average worker, the small
farmer and small business
man will not have to file any
return at all.
The amount raised will be
equally divided among all citizens
; past 60 who have retired from gain
full employment. We believe that
10 million Americans will claim the
| benefit of the law. 1t is estimated
that the 2 percent tax will set
over to our senior citizens approx
matGy percent of the national in
come, and as they represent about
that percentage of the population,
it would seem an equitable divi-
sion.
While the tax should theoretical
lv increase the cost of living TO
all of us by about percent, it will
save billions of dollars of present
expenditures under the pension
and relief laws, so that 1t is our
opinion that the net increase IN
the cost of living because OF the
Towsend Plan will be less than D
percent. We are, likwise, certain
that this increase Will be far
overbalanced by the Increased
business profits that wilt result
from the enhanced buying power
of our older people.
But the crucial question OF
course. is whether our senior c1tl-
zens are to receive enough for
secure retirement? Well, we esti-
mate the Towsend Plan at the be-
ginning will proved $50 month,
which, of course is not enough,
but the Plan guarantees steady
increase thereafter as the national
income rises.
AS our industrial machine, now
in low gear, shifted into second
and then into high, our national
productivity would advance in huge
strides and would make possible
the distribution of abundance 10
all, the senior citizenry sharing
proportionately with the rest.
The Towsend Plan, in fact holds
out an offer of security to every
group. To labor, first, for 1t Will
shift a large share of the pension
burden from it's back to the III
nacially stronger shoulders OF
the well-to-do. To many a million
burdened family, for it will h1t
from them the support of un-
fortunate parents no longer able
to finance themselves. To youth,
for by permitting multitudes or