Evening star., 1944-03-19

lOuS 10 pie up nuge IunQ III CTle Treas
ury when Secretary Morgenthau. him
self. has estimated that safe margin
to have on hand is three times the
amount that will be needed at any time
during the next five years
Recently Senator Vandenberg said
that Congress must reconsider that
three times" formula this year. That
reserve fund.- he said, won't be sufi-
cient when the real load of social secur-
ity payments falls due, as it soon will"
Senator Vandenburg argued in the
Senate debate, when he wished to freeze
social security taxes to l per cent, that
by the time we have $4,000, 600 900 in the
old-age insurance fund we'll be paying
81 1,500,000,0 900 year interest since those
funds are held in per cent Govern
ment bonds.
He says we may as well tax ourselves
to pay the old-age pensions direct The
taxpayer won't feel any difference. He'll
just pay taxes.
Holds Large Reserve Vital
But Arthur Altmeyer, chairman of the
Social Security Board, asserts that the
large funds now coming into the social
security account are deceptive If COM
pared only with the much smaller funds
going out.
He points out that the drive for war
manpower has brought such an increase
Of insured workers drom AZ to So mil
lion) that it is extremely necessary to
pile up large reserve fund now to meet
the payments when the peak comes, be-
tween 1910 and 1880.
There's popular misconception that
the Treasury includes these social Sc
curity funds as income" but fails to
count them as debt" since they do
constitute a Government obligation for
the future. That's not true. They're
registered on Treasury statements as
part of the debt.
Then comes the second big fight.
Senator Robert Wagner Democrat of
New York has introduced bill that
would greatly extend the system-in-
~ Ss~'~ WIZ DSAASAAooi PAoNAdC 1lC0AId4 dllu
hospital care, cover" about 10000 900
people not now included (such as farm
labor, domestics, employees of nonprof1t
organizations, some civil servants and
the self-employedD- further would
put control of unemployment compen-
sation in the Federal Government
These 'U c." funds are now managed
by 81 different units-the 48 States, the
District of Columbia, Alaska and
Hawaii.
. Labor Backs Bill.
Both the AFL and the CIO approve
the Wagner bill, although such an ex-
tension would mean 6. per cent taken
from our pay checks. instead OF the cur
rent per cent.
Senator Vandenberg says the Senate
can't possibly consider the Wagner bill
until after the war. The President, Mr.
Morgenthau. Altmeyer ~ in variou.
ways-have all recommended early con.
sideration, arguing that an extended
social security system would act as q
buffer after the war.
There are bills, now introduced In
Congress, which would pay servicemer
unemployment compensation, even
though they have been gone from theil
jobs during the war.
About unemployment compensation
GU. CO there is some worry. There
are more than $4,O0O,O0O 900 in the re-
serve. 1t paid out $176, 900 900 in 1923
But in 1940-1, when factories were
changing over from peace to war pro-
duction, with consequent labor layoffs
the fund paid out over $5O0,OOO,OOO.
During the war the working force has
jumped from some $4,000 900 to 63,0OO-
600, and most of that increase Is on
jobs covered by the ~. c." laws. Will
most of those extra 81 900 900 of workers
be laid off, and draw compensation?
What about the 5000, 900 service people
who may also draw compensation? Pre-
sumably, at the same time, employment
rolls will be dropping and, therefore
payments into the fund will drop. What
will happen? No one is quite sure. The
test of the system will be stiff one
and early.