The Coolidge examiner., 1940-03-14
TEXT OF DOWNEY'S SPEECH
ON FORUM OF AIR PANEL
Following the of Sheridan Downeys speech
of the debate
the Mutual network)

LADIES and Gent,emen: ThlS eve
ming | shall first analyze the pres
ent Social Security Act, leaving for
later discussion the Towsend Plan
Now. the present act includes
unemployment insurance and other
features with which we are not
concerned. The only provisions
that | shall discusse relate to the
two different pension systems, one
for the workers under the social
ed insurance plan, and the other
pension plan called "Federal-State
Old-Age Assistance.
Both these provisions were de
bated in 1885 when the bill was uI
in Congress. The act had the good
fortune to be sponsored by our
colleague and prior speaker, Sen
Wagner, one of the leading states
men of the Nation.
Pension Need Obvious
Certainly, no one could have
doubted the need for decent pen
sions to our older people after the
Senator had painted a tragic pic
/ tuce of their destitution.
And ne then expressed the
opinion "that $40 a month per
person has been estimated as
the minimum requirement."
Forty dollars now, isn't very
much, as the Senator himself
was quick to point out. And so
should like to ask him-how
he can now defend plan that
gives less than $40 a month to
many and an average of less
than SIS to over one-haIf of
the beneficiaries, or rather, |
should say the victims of the
Act?
Let's quote the Social Securit.
I Board itself to show how far pen
sion payments fall short of Mr
! Wagner's $40 monthly. Take frs
!, the charity pension plan. The aver
age payment is only $19 montl
less than half of the Senator
minimum.
! He may argue that the responsi
bility for these miserable pay
ments falls not on the Fedora
Government but on the states.
true, does that lessen the miser.
of our older people? Alibis, evas
ions, the shifting of blame from
one governmental sovereignty tt
another will accomplish nothing
i And certainly Sen. Wagner can
not argue that the Federal Govern
ment is not wholly responsible fol
the scanty payments under the in
surance plan, because that plaT
is wholly the creature of the Ma
tional Government.
Many Get Nothing
! With the use of tables supplied
by the Social Security Board, We
find the sad record reads thus: Ii
percent of those taxed will be re
| turned nothing at all, since they
| failed to qualify because of small
+ earnings or partial unemployment
Their contributions will be strip
ped from them and they will moi
, get one slender dime for them
Thus do we penalize the part-time
worker and the low income groups
Another Is percent of the, contir
butors will get only the statutory
minimum-a miserable $40 q
month. And a good 20 percent
more will receive under $40. This
last group will have a monthly
average of about $1450. In other
words, one-half of all those paying
contributions will get less than Is
given free to the average recipient
of state old-age doles, shamefully
small as these are.
OF course, to these bleak
amounts, other wretched sums
must be added: the compensation
due the wives, the widows and
the orphans of the poor. So, If the
retired worker enjoying the mini
mum of $40 month, has wife
past 65, the government lifts the
amount to the pitiful SIS. How.
ever, if the wife is only so they
must struggle along for another
five years on 35 pennies a day for
the two of them.
One cannot help wondering
how, in a land as rich as ours,
we can have the cruelty to
provide for our retired work
ers at scale that would
scarcely keep hound in dog
biscuits? Yet we do. And in
stead of hanging their heads