The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-01-20
Socia! Security And
DemOCratic0Wnership p
BY REV. JAMES MYERS

l should like to point out that the
term social security" has an even
more vital meaning than social in
surance" with which it has come to be
generally identified in common usage
The Annual Wage
In the first place, | am convinced
real social security calls for the over
hauling of our entire wage system as
at present practiced, and the adoption
of the annual wage. The present wage
system under which our millions of
industrial workers are employed only
by the day or by the hour, is the very
epitome of Insecurity.
Assured weekly and annual earnings
would not only inject new lfe-blood
into the national economy in normal
times, but even more than social in
surance, annual wage payments would
nip in the bud the first signs of the
creeping paralysis of economic depres-
sion. For at the first signs of business
recession, it has been customary for
industry either to reduce wage rates
or to curtail output (Or the number of
days worked each week.. Both of these
courses reduce the total amount of
money paid out in wages, and there
fore, Immediately spread the disease
of recession by reducing purchasing
power, causing less demand for goods,
more recession, and increased unen,-
ployment - and the spiral goes down
and down.
Organized labor and New Deal econ
omiSts have Of late years insisted that
wage rates should not be reduced dur
ing recesSiOnS in the endeavOr to avoid
reduction in purchasing power. But the
tragedy of it is that maintaining rates
of pay does not maintain purchasing
power unless a full week is worked.
We need to face the fact also that
social insurance only partially sus-
| tains purchasing power 1t should, in
deed, lessen the severity of Il depreS-
| sion, but it will not prevent it. The
annual wage is Il prerequisite to real
social security. Personally, | am happy
to see that the United Steel Workers
have included an annual wage in their
present demands, and that the AFL
has called for maintenance of full
weekly wages in the postwar period.
Democratic Ownership
The second point | wish to make is
that, in the final analysis, in my opin-
| ion, security rests on ownership. Mr..
| II. Il. Bowen, General Secretary of the
Cooperative League has wisely pointed
out that you only control what you
own" AS matter of fact, the ultimate
test of democracy itself is the degree
of ownership of farms and economic
enterprise: by the common people.
Unhappily the trend of recent years
has been in the opposite direction, with
only - e of our farms now owned and
operated by the farmers themselves
And industrial workers are even worse
of They enjoy no substantial owner
ship whatever of the tools which they
use to produce the nations goods. Ab
Sentee owners, and great corporations
for the most part, own the factories
American workers have become largely
Il property-leSs class.
HIS IL IL StliouS ludtitl III ItS tl
feet on the national character. There
is only one sure way to develop re
SponSible types Of citizens, and that is
to allow them something TO be reSpOn
Sible fora share in ownership. SOcia
insurance is not enough. Widespread
democratic ownership of economic Ell
terpriSe is Il necessity for the nationa
welfare and the stability of any Socia
order.
Wider democratic ownership may Dt
accomplished in amy one of three ways
or by Il combination of them. The frs
is an increase in individual owners O
farms and businesses. The second il
public ownership of certain industries
with, il is devotcly to be hoped, demo
cratic management \ publicly nWnc,
enterprise should be run by Il board Oj
directors consisting of Representatives
of management, labor, consumers
rather than by Il bureaucratic dictator
ship. The third is consumers coop"ra
tion which is perhaps the most demo
cratic of all forms of ownership,
American labor is beginning !,
realize what the older labor move
mcntS discovered long ago, that TN,
most effective method of price Contro
and of the equally important matter %
quality control is consumer owner
ship
1t is just as important To labor l'
reduce the cost Of living by collectiv,
buying through Il cooperative, as it i!
to increase wages by collective bar
gaining. In fact consumer cooperation
is an important and practical methot
whereby working people can give them
selves 4 raise in real wages withou
even asking the boss,
Consumer cooperation is an eXten
sion to unlimited numbers of our peopi,
Of the precious privilege which ha
been so rightly priced by the American
small business man-lhe privilege o
sharing in the ownership and coopcra
ton of ones own business.
| am happy To report that IL recen
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