Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-03-21

natlOnal ola age pensions as means
of national recovery.
Politicians and Congressman alike
should examine these votes carefully.
If they mean anything to politics
and they do-they mean that the
people are aroused as never before
on the matter of liberal pensions for
| the aged and are determined to OBJ
tain them, not as a matter of charity,
but as right, not as a benevolent
gift to our elder citizens, but as the
only way to restore prosperity. In
way these elections unwiSe and
i'll advised as they were, are new
Feasts of Belshazzar with the hand
writing on the wall for political
parties and for politicians.
The people have been saved from
false step. But that does not mean
they are not just as determined, just
as emphatic in their demands for a
real old age pension plan. They are
determined that we preserve our
American system but have the wis
dom to reject a surrender to any
form of dictatorship, however allur-
ing, in order to attain their objec-
tive.
The Townsend Recovery Plan sug-
gests before the political parties and
the congressman gloat too soon or
rejoice that they have buried the
issue for 1910 they wish to avoid,
that they study closely the real mean
ing of the results. They will dis
cover that these results mean the
people are impatient, that they de-
mand action, that they are deter
mined to establish old age pensions
on national basis as a national
policy, that they understand and will
not be refused. The handwriting on
the wall is plain for those who can
read.
For 10 years this country has been
faced with its greatest problem-the
problem of unemployment. Under the
Republican administration, the prob
lem grew. Under the Democratic
administration the number of unem-
ployed has been at the same level
despite the efforts of government to
give employment and pump buying
power into industry. Now, after
seven years of control, the govern
ment is no nearer the solution than
it was at the start. For every man
taken out of the ranks of the un-
employed and placed on government
work, the machine has taken a like
number out of work. The reason, of
course, is obvious. Neither party has
faced the fact that this is a machine
age and that to keep business going
it is necessary to furnish buying
power in an amount sufficient to
preserve the balance. Substituting
the farmer has resulted only in
great hunger Substituting business
has let business stagnate for want
of customers. Substituting industry
has resulted in a greater increase in
the products of industry, still sinking
into the slough of despair for want
of means of distribution.
Stupidity the government is asking
how little can be given to the aged,
not how much it must furnish them
in order to keep business going.
More stupidity it is adding to the
national debt and to the debts of the
states and communities in order to
keep the elderly upon the basis of
pauperism. Now it is turning its at
tention to the object of reducing the
amounts of demanding that every old
age pensioner first establish himself
as pauper, taking away the little
savings and demanding that all rel
atives be forced to contribute to their
care. Even the Workman's Compen-
sation law moves to this same end,
for it takes the sum collected to store
away for the days of unemployment
and then distributes it in such meager
sums that the buying power of their
families strikes at every grocery store,
every renter and every drug store.
The next result of all this is more
and more debt and less and less tang
IDLE results. The politicians and bust
neSSmen know all these facts. They