The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-07-16
POSTWAR PLANNING

ONE INEVITABLE task lies ahead at some
time we shall have to convert SO per cent OF
production capacity back from wartime to peace
time production.
Unless industries are ready with venture capl-
tai for that conversion and unless provisions have
been made to provide income for workers during
the Interruptions in production that will come, the
human suffering of that period will be unparalleled
in intensity and duration. This seems the ideal
time to make provisions against the immediate
and future emergencies.
The government wants immediate funds with
which to meet war needs Our Price Administrator
contends the goods available for civilian will
soar to new peak of 10 billion dollars Install
ment buying will decline because of new restric-
tions and because industries are no longer making
the things for sale that were customarily financed
10y longtime payments.
Since normal uses of income are limited, what
more natural program could there be than to save
earnings for replacement of household furnishings
and clothing until production is resumed, and what
easier and safer investment for this purpose than
war bonds and stamps?
Such individual savings can be easily en-
couraged in this time of general sacrifice, to the
immediate advantage of financing and later
to provide purchasing power to sustain industrial
ventures.
Of even greater Importance is the opportunity
to provide social insurance to tide workers over
the emergencies that surely await then-unenl-
plOyment, sickness, permanent disability, old age.
Od-age insurance should be extended to all
wage-earners and smal-salaried workers and bene-
fits extended to those prematurely unable to work
because of some permanent disability. Our fifty
one different formulas of paying restricted bene-
fits to the unemployed should be reorganzed into
a national plan to pay adequate benefits until the
workers find new jobs.
During this period of rising employment and
substitution of war for civilian production, reduc-
ton Of payment rates is depicting reservse, so that
funds will not be adequate to meet the mass un-
employment that the postwar transition will Gre
ate. Great wartime industries will close down
without providing for their workers. The continu-
ing civilian industries that do not benefit so much
from the war boom will have to bear this addi-
tlonal demand should Congress fail to reconstruct
social insurance to meet this future need
Temporary disability, one of the greatest
causes of dependency, has not yet been included
i'm our social security program. Workers unable to
fill jobs because of illness not only are denied un-
employment benefits but are not provided with
funds for medical care.
England started work on reconstruction Of it's
social services last year. An Interdepartmental
Committee to make survey of social insurance
was set up Meanwhile legislation was enacted in
creasing contributions from employers and
workers.
We need in this country to make real provi-
slons Tor all emergencies as the only way we can
prevent fear from dominating the lives of work
ers. "A complete federal plan, with a single pooled
fund to which workers and employers contribute
is the only way to provide any real security for 80
per cent OF the citizens Of this country.