The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-12-29
Taft Comes Out
For Welfare State
But His Own Kind
BY DONALD WOODS

Robert A. Taft Or, Ohio) has out
lined program for the Republican
party-a program favoring fedora
aid to education, medical care
housing and even food - bu
through the States.
In his weekly column distributed
to Ohio papers, the Senators tell
how far the COP should go towarC
a welfare state" program. 1t il
much further than many Of his col
leagues would go-but still fall
to meet the problems.
Taft traced the development o.
methods for caring for the pool
from the time Of the English pool
house to our free school system
and admitted that in many section:
of this country the obligation to-
ward the poor is not carried out
because Of lack of funds. But then
he spelled out his philosophy in
these terms:
at is one thing to improve our
present system; it is a radically
different proposal to give free
medical care, subsidized housing
and free food to those who are
able to pay for it. The New Deal
ers, labor politicians, and Social
lists have tried to take advantage
of the natural American instinct
'of charity, to forward their plans
to socialize the furnishing of the
necessities of life to all. If the
government gives free medical
care to everybody, why not free
food, clothing and housing?"
This statement discloses the
basic conflict between Taft and
supporters of national health in
surance. The latter contend that
only a minority Of the population
can afford good medical care today
and therefore it is not a problem
of providing for the poor, but a
problem of providing for most peo-
ple-including the great middle
classes.
But on his own premise, Taft
went ahead to propose what in his
terms amounts to socialized medi-
cine. He said the federal govern
ment has an obligation to assist
the States in providing education,
health and welfare" wherever the
"need is clear" But administra-
tion of such programs, he contend
ed, should be left to the States.
"The Truman program" Taft
said, mot only socializes medical
care, but nationalizes it." The clear
of this statement was
that Taft was willing to "socialize"
it under the States, but not to ina
it under the federal gov
ernment.
He said the federal government
should aid education in those
states below the average national
income, should aid States to give
free medical care to all those un-
able to pay for it, should assist
local communities in eliminating
slums and providing minimum de-
cent housing, and should in a crisis
to assist States to pro-
vide food" I
Then, in a statement which in
any other context would be inter-
preted as supporting the Truman
program for welfare state" |
Taft said:
"ln my opinion, the American
people feel that we have a suffi-
GENTLY high income so that per-
laps for the first time in history
We can eliminate extreme hardship
and poverty and give equality of
opportunity to all. agree with
hem"
This seemed to leave only one
ssue between Taft and Truman.
Should this be done by the federal
which shows a will
ngness to do it, or through State
governments which are controlled
" special interest lobbies and have
hown little interest in handling
my of these problems, or ability
o do so.