The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-01-26
By JAMES D. GRAHAM
President Montana Federation of
Labor

President, Montana Federation of
Labor
The legislature in the year 1915,
enacted a law providing for Teachers
Retirement Benefits or Insurance,
compelling teachers to retire when
they became physically or mentally
incapacitated for further school serv-
Z ice or when they reach the age of 65
years.
The teachers were to receive $500
per year from the State Treasury, pay
able every three months The Retire
ment Fund was to be maintained by
a tax from the teachers salary, do
nations legacies, gifts, requests and
appropriations from the State Treas
ury Monies in the fund were to be
invested and interest from the invest
nlents was to be paid into the Retire
nent Fund By the enactment of
this law, the State of Montana en-
tered into a contract to give the
school teachers of Montana retire
ment pay of $4,000 per month and
collected from the teachers the pre-
MUM on the insurance through a
monthly tax on their salary.
In 1920, the Federal Reserve Bank
put on a campaign of deflation in the
northwest by forcing the banks to pay
off their loans to the Reserve Bank.
This forced the local banks to stop
making loans and to foreclose mort
cages, which in turn forced prices
downwards, causing farmers to be
dispossessed and banks to close their
doors and go into receivership Taxes
became delinquent and the General
Fund of Montana went in the red. The
legislature faced with a reality of in
sufficient revenue being received by
the State Treasury to meet the ex-
penses of government, did not make
an appropriation to the Teachers Re-
tirement Fund and the great State of
Montana, defaulted it's contract with
with the teachers to pay the retired
teachers the amount due them on said
contracts, all of which was primarily
caused by the bone-headed, brutal,
shortsighted and stupid policy of the
directors of the Federal Reserve
Bank, which ruined local bankers,
farmers, merchants and caused wide
spread desolation and ruin through
the northwest with accompanying
acute and prolonged unemployment,
robbing through bank failures, the
frugal, aged workers and teachers of
their life savings and making them
dependents in their old age.
When the legislature made no ap-
preparations to the Teachers Retire
ment Fund, this left the revenue from
the tax on teachers salaries as the
only source of income to the fund
therefore, the amount of retirement
pay received by the teachers was con-
siderably less than the $50 per month
pledged by law To remedy this sit
uation, House Bill No 1877, was intro
duced in the legislative assembly of
1927.
House Bill No. 1877 provided for
amendments to the Teachers Retire
ment Act, whereby the counties, in
stead of the state would make the con-
tribution to the Retirement Fund, and
the County Commissioners would have
to levy tax of not to exceed one
mill on the dollar of the assessed
value of all taxable property within
the county. House Bill No. 1877, on
February 7th, 1927, was killed by
the Committee of the Whole in the
House.
Again in the legislature of 1929, an
attempt was made to amend the
Teachers Retirement Act and House
Bill No. 222 was introduced and re-
ferred to the Committee on Education.
House Bill No. 222 was similar to the
one before the legislature of 1927. The
Committee on Education reported |
back to the assembly recommending |
that House Bill No. 222 do not pass"
This ended a second attempt to place
tax on counties to relieve the Gen
eral Fund of the state from it's obliga
lions.
1t should be remembered that in the |
years 1927 and 1929, the counties had
a large delinquent tax list, therefore,
the legislators felt that counties could
not assume the liabilities of the state
In 1887, the legislature reinacted
the Teachers Retirement Law and
raised the tax on the salaries of teach
ers to five per cent up to $4,000 and
provided for appropriations to be
made by the legislature to the Retire
ment Fund and guaranteed the Teach
ers a retirement salary according to