Evening star., 1949-10-18
The Political Mill
DR.. Townsend in New Drive
For OId-Age Pension Plan
Man Who Startled Nation Is Years Ago
Here Seeking Support for New Bill
Bv Gould Lincoln

Dr. Francis Everett Townsend, pioneer old
age pension planner, says things are looking
up for the Townsend program. The people.
he insists, are more and more pension
conscious, demanding security for their old
age. He cites, for example, the fight which
is being made by the steel workers. the coal
miners and auto workers for adequate pen
sions on retirement He backs this I'D with
the drive made by the Truman administra-
ton for a broadened and deepened social
security act-the House already has passed
such bill. It's all down his alley, DR.. Town
send claims.
Eighty years old and still going strong, the
man who startled the country sixteen years
ago with his demand that law be enacted
to provide $200-a-month pension for every
person in the country so years old and over.
has again been in Washington lining up
support for revised Townsend old-age pen
sion bill. Under the new measure, a per
cent gross tax Is to be levied. on income,
business and individual personal income, and
the proceeds are to be distributed monthly
to persons so years and over-n they retire
and to the incapcitated.
DR.. Townsend figures that the pension.
at the start Of the program, might be as
low as 500 a month, but that once the
program was in full swing. with the pension
money expended each month and thereby
increasing jobs and production. it would not
be long before the pension will increase to
5000. $500 or even $40o month. The first
$250-a-month income Is to be exempt from
the tax.
Hits patchwork" Program.
DR.. Townsend has little use for the social
security program-which he insists the late
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his
aides thought up to head off the Townsend
plan in the early '30s Nor does he see
much virtue in the program which organized
labor is demanding from management. The
social security program. he says, is q patch
work. inadequate plan at best. He does not
believe the new bill is at all the answer.
So DR.. Townsend is planning q campaign
for the election of Townsend plan Congress
next year. All he has to do, he says, Is get
10 per cent Of the voters to go along with
him In each congressional district and he
can hold the balance OF power on election
day. He contends that in the present House
139 members had the Townsend Endorsement
when they were elected. He Is therefore
organizing in every district. so as to bring
pressure on the candidates for the House
and for the Senate.
AS an evidence of strength, Dr. Townsend
points out that drive for signatures to dis
charge the House Ways and Means Com
mittee from further consideration of the
Townsend bill-sponsored by Representatives
Blatnik OF Minnesota and Angel OF Oregon
and others-has already produced 167 sig
natures Of the necessary 218. II he can get
the other 81, the Townsend bill will be
brought before the House for vote. Accord.
Ing to DR.. Townsend, the defeat Of former
Representative Harold Knutson of Mime
sofa. who was chairman of the Ways and
Means Committee in the 80th Congress, was
brought about by the Townsendites, because
OF Mr.. Knutsons S hostility to the old-age pen
sion plan. The Townsend bill is sponsored
in the Senate by Senators Pepper of Florida,
Downey Of California, Thomas Of Oklahoma
and LANCER Of North Dakota.
Started Plan in Depression.
DR.. Townsend Is the pioneering, crusading
type. A country doctor for years in the
Black Hills country Of South Dakota. he
moved to California where he eventually re-
tired and lived in Long Beach. It was then
he became enraged over the plight Of the
old people-during the depths of the depres-
sion-and started out to organize his old
age pension campaign. His organization
grew and grew. Its funds were considerable,
and House committee undertook an in
vestigation. The line of questioning so
angered DR.. Townsend that he walked out.
He was later cited for contempt of the House,
was sentenced to jail and to pay a fine.
President Roosevelt, however, on the recon-
mendation of the Speaker Of the House and
other House leaders, pardoned DR.. Town
send, just as he was about to step into the
Jail.
The passage by the House recently Of the
social security bill brought from Representa-
tive Noah M. Mason of Illinois. Republican.
announcement he had signed the Townsend
petition. He said when he compared the
two programs, Il am convinced the Town.
send plan is to be preferred"
The House bill, Representative Mason said,
proposes the Federal Government shall coll
lect from $4,000, 900 900 to $4,000, 900 900 q
year in payroll taxes and spend it for Gov
ernment expenses. The Townsend plan calls
for raising similar sum to be handed out
Immediately to the old people Of the Nation.