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Clinton Presidential Records
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[State of the Union 1999] Social Security: Facts/Real People
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�OPTION 4: TAKING SOCIAL SECURITY OFF BUDGET
PART #1: PHASED IN TRANSITION TO T A K I N G S O C I A L S E C U R I T Y O F F B U D G E T
Taking Social Security Off Budget could prevent tax cuts in the short run. Since meaningful onbudget surpluses do not arise until 2004 under OMB (MSR) projections and 2006 under CBO
projections, this proposal would rule out tax cuts for the next few years.
The drawback would be that it would be harder to claim credit for balancing the budget and to
come up with money for discretionary spending.We expect to run on-budget deficits through 2001.
By lending money from Social Security surpluses to the non Social Security budget and promising
to pay it back with interest, we could claim to have balanced the budget while simultaneously
preserving the entire surplus for Social Security. Social Security will have surpluses of 1.7 trillion
dollars between 2000 and 2009. By lending a little of it to the non-Social Security budget in the early
years, we can have a balanced budget while protecting the full Social Security surpluses for Social
Security.
•
•;• :!;::::::.:: ,. :
,
y . . . ^ - . '•
:
:
::'ri;i i: :i!i.ri.. . :::::;;:i::. ':-j;iijj : :::;: • ..•
1 1
1
1 l
r
'•ffniL.S.j;!;;!^
OMB MSR Biidget Prbjectibns
(billions of dollars)
:
Unified
Budget
Non-Social
Security
Social
Security
Amount
loaned by
Social
Security
'
Amount
paid back to
Social
Security
Balance owed
to Social
Security
(includes
interest)
2000
61
-62
123
62
0
62
2001
83
-48
131
48
0
114
2002
148
6
142
0
6
115
2003
150
-2
152
2
0
124
2004
184
24
160
0
24
108
2005
213
36
177
0
36
77
2006
245
60
185
0
60
22
2007
300
103
197
0
24
0
2008
342
136
206
0
0
0
2009
369
156
213
0
0
0
20002009
2,095
409
1,686
NA
NA
NA
With an addition $20 billion of discretionary spending each year, it would take until 2008 for Social
Security to be "paid back" for the early years.
�PART #2; DIFFERENT MECHANISMS FOR TAKING SOCIAL SECURITY O F F BUDGET
•
Abolish existing "sham" trust fund and announce creation of a new "rear trust fund
invested in private securities and marketable government bonds. Stop double counting of
surplus
•
Keep existing trust fund, legislate that budget documents must focus only on on-budget
surpluses, stop double counting of surplus.
•
Keep exisiting trust fund, announce that Social Security surpluses will be used to purchase
private securites and transferred to the trust fund.
ILLUSTRATIVE SOLVENCY PLAN
Begin redeeming current trust fund assets to purchase equities immediately. Limit equity share
of trust fund to 50 percent.
Do phased-in transition to making Social Security off-budget.
Once on-budget surpluses arise, transfer some fraction (50 percent?) to trust fund.
Do additional reforms as necessary to reach solvency.
�Roosevelt'? statements regarding Social Security
http://www.ssa.gov/history/fdrstmts.:
FDR's Remarks on Social
Security
VIESSAGE TO CONGRESS REVIEWING THE BROAD OBJECTIVES AND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION-JUNE 8, 1934
ADDRESS TO ADVISORY COUNCIL OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC SECURITY
ON THE PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SECURITY. - NOVEMBER 14, 1934.
,
•)
/^T)
THE INITIATION OF STUDIES TO ACHIEVE A PROGRAM OF NATIONAL SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC SECURITY-EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 6757-JUNE 29, 1934
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ON SOCIAL SECURITY-JANUARY 17,1935
5.
PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT SIGNING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT-AUGUST 14,1935
6.
A RECOMMENDATION FOR LEGISLATION AMENDING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACTDECEMBER 14, 1937.
7.
A RECOMMENDATION FOR LIBERALIZING THE OLD-AGE INSURANCE SYSTEM APRIL 28, 1938.
8.
RADIO ADDRESS ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY
ACT-AUGUST 15, 1938
9.
A MESSAGE TRANSMITTING TO THE CONGRESS A REPORT OF THE SOCIAL
SECURITY BOARD RECOMMENDING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LAW. JANUARY 16, 1939.
10. CAMPAIGN ADDRESS ON THE "ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS"-OCTOBER 28,1944
1. MESSAGE TO CONGRESS REVIEWING THE BROAD OBJECTIVES AND
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE ADMINISTRATION. JUNE 8, 1934.
You are completing a work begun in March 1933, which will be regarded for a long time as a splendid
justification of the vitality of representative government. I greet you and express once more my
appreciation of the cooperation which has proved so effective. Only a small number of the items of our
program remain to be enacted and I am confident that you will pass on them before adjournment. Many
other pending measures are sound in conception, but must, for lack of time or of adequate information,
be deferred to the session of the next Congress. In the meantime, we can well seek to adjust many of
these measures into certain larger plans of governmental policy for the future of the Nation.
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You and I, as the responsible directors of these policies and actions, may, with good reason, look to the
future with confidence, just as we may look to the past fifteen months with reasonable satisfaction.
On the side of relief we have extended material aid to millions of our fellow citizens.
On the side of recovery we have helped to lift agriculture and industry from a condition of utter
Prostration.
But, in addition to these immediate tasks of relief and of recovery we have properly, necessarily and
with overwhelming approval determined to safeguard these tasks by rebuilding many of the structures of
our economic life and reorganizing it in order to prevent a recurrence of collapse.
It is childish to speak of recovery first and reconstruction afterward. In the very nature of the processes
of recovery we must avoid the destructive influences of the past. We have shown the world that
democracy has within it the elements necessary to its own salvation.
Less hopeful countries where the ways of democracy are very new may revert to the autocracy of
yesterday. The American people can be trusted to decide wisely upon the measures taken by the
Government to eliminate the abuses of the past and to proceed in the direction of the greater good for the
greater number.
Our task of reconstruction does not require the creation of new and strange values. It is rather the finding
of the way once more to known, but to some degree forgotten, ideals and values. If the means and details
are in some instances new, the objectives are as permanent as human nature.
,,
i
Among our objectives I place the security of the men, women and children of the Nation first. /
SM'
This security for the individual and for the family concerns itself primarily with three factors. People
want decent homes to live in; they want to locate them where they can engage in productive work; and
they want some safeguard against misfortunes which cannot be wholly eliminated in this man-made
world of ours.
In a simple and primitive civilization homes were to be had for the building. The bounties of nature in a
new land provided crude but adequate food and shelter. When land failed, our ancestors moved on to
better land. It was always possible to push back the frontier, but the frontier has now disappeared. Our
task involves the making of a better living out of the lands that we have.
So, also, security was attained in the earlier days through the interdependence of members of families
upon each other and of the families within a small community upon each other. The complexities of
great communities and of organized industry make less real these simple means of security. Therefore,
we are compelled to employ the active interest of the Nation as a whole through government in order to
encourage a greater security for each individual who composes it.
With the full cooperation of the Congress we have already made a serious attack upon the problem of
housing in our great cities. Millions of dollars have been appropriated for housing projects by Federal
and local authorities, often with the generous assistance of private owners. The task thus begun must be
pursued for many years to come. There is ample private money for sound housing projects; and the
Congress, in a measure now before you, can stimulate the lending of money for the modernization of
existing homes and the building of new homes. In pursuing this policy we are working toward the
ultimate objective of making it possible for American families to live as Americans should.
In regard to the second factor, economic circumstances and the forces of nature themselves dictate the
need of constant thought as the means by which a wise Government may help the necessary
readjustment of the population. We cannot fail to act when hundreds of thousands of families live where
there is no reasonable prospect ofa living In the yearslO come. This is especially a national problem.
Unlike most of the leading Nations of the world, we have so far failed to create a national policy for the
development of our land and water resources and for their better use by those people who cannot make a
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living in their present positions. Only thus can we permanently eliminate many millions of people from
the relief rolls on which their names are now found.
The extent of the usefulness of our great natural inheritance of land and water depends on our mastery of
it. We are now so organized that science and invention have given us the means of more extensive and
effective attacks upon the problems of nature than ever before. We have learned to utilize water power,
to reclaim deserts, to recreate forests and to redirect the flow of population. Until recently we have
proceeded almost it random, making mistakes.
These are many illustrations of the necessity for such planning. Some sections of the Northwest and
Southwest which formerly existed as grazing land, were spread over with a fair crop of grass. On this
land the water table lay a dozen or twenty feet below the surface, and newly arrived settlers put this land
under the plow. Wheat was grown by dry farming methods. But in many of these places today the water
table under the land has dropped to fifty or sixty feet below the surface and the top soil in dry seasons is
blown away like driven snow. Falling rain, in the absence of grass roots, filters through the soil, runs off
the surface, or is quickly reabsorbed into the atmosphere. Many million acres of such land must be
restored to grass or trees if we are to prevent a new and man-made Sahara.
At the other extreme, there are regions originally arid, which have been generously irrigated by human
engineering. But in some of these places the hungry soil has not only absorbed the water necessary to
produce magnificent crops, but so much more water that the water table has now risen to the point of
saturation, thereby threatening the future crops upon which many families depend.
Human knowledge is great enough today to give us assurance of success in carrying through the
abandonment of many millions of acres for agricultural use and the replacing of these acres with others
on which at least a living can be earned.
The rate of speed that we can usefully employ in this attack on impossible social and economic
conditions must be determined by business-like procedure. It would be absurd to undertake too many
projects at once or to do a patch of work here and another there without finishing the whole of an
individual project. Obviously, the Government cannot undertake national projects in every one of the
435 Congressional districts, or even in every one of the 48 States. The magnificent conception of
national realism and national needs that this Congress has built up has not only set an example of large
vision for all time, but has almost consigned to oblivion our ancient habit of pork-barrel legislation; to
that we cannot and must not revert. When the next Congress convenes I hope to be able to present to it a
carefully considered national plan, covering the development and the human use of our natural resources
of land and water over a long period of years.
In considering the cost of such a program it must be clear to all of us that for many years to come we
shall be engaged in the task of rehabilitating many hundreds of thousands of our American families. In
so doing we shall be decreasing future costs for the direct relief of destitution. I hope that it will be
possible for the Government to adopt as a clear policy to be carried out over a long period, the
appropriation of a large, definite, annual sum_sp_ that v/.ork.may proceed year after year not under the
urge of temp^ry^expediency,"but"in pursuance of the well-considered founded objective.
The third factor relates to security against the hazards and vicissitudes oflife. Fear and worry based^on
unknown danger contribute to social unrest and economic demoralization. I f , as our Constitution tell's us,
our Federal Government was established among other things, "to promote the general welfarer-ifis our
-plain duty to provide for that security upon which welfare dgpgnds.
^
/
Next winter we may well undertake the great task of furthering the security of the citizen and his family
through social insurance.
This is not an untried experiment. Lessons of experience are available from States, from industries and
from many Nations of the civilized world. The various types of social insurance are interrelated; and I
think it is difficult to attempt to solve them piecemeal. Hence, I am looking for a sound means which I
can recommend to provide at once security against several of the great disturbing factors in
life—especially those which relate to unemployment and old age. I believe there should be a maximum
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of cooperation between States and the Federal Government. I believe that the funds necessary to provide
this insurance should be raised by contribution rather than by an increase in general taxation. Above all,
I am convinced that social insurance should be national in scope, although the several States should meet
at least a large portion of the cost of management, leaving to the Federal Government the responsibility
of investing, maintaining and safeguarding the funds constituting the necessary insurance reserves. I
have commenced to make, with the greatest of care, the necessary actuarial and other studies for the
formulation-of-plans-for the consideration of the 74th Congress.
.
\
___ •
__
~^~t > ^
/•These three great objectives the security of the home, the security of livelihood, and the Security of
social insurance—are, it seems to me, a minimum of the promise that we can offer to the American"
people. They constitute a right which belongs to every individual and every family willing to work.
They are the essential fulfillment of measures a_lready_.taken.toward.relief,xecoyery,and reconstructiony.
This seeking for a greater measure of welfare and happiness does not indicate a change in values. It is
rather a return to values lost in the course of our economic development and expansion.
Ample scope is left for the exercise of private initiative. In fact, in the process of recovery, I am greatly
hoping that repeated promises of private investment and private initiative to relieve the Government in
the immediate future of much of the burden it has assumed, will be fulfilled. We have not imposed
undue restrictions upon business. We have not opposed the incentive of reasonable and legitimate
private profit. We have sought rather to enable certain aspects of business to regain the confidence of the
public. We have sought to put forward the rule of fair play in finance and industry.
It is true that there are a few among us who would still go back. These few offer no substitute for the
gains already made, nor any hope for making future gains for human happiness. They loudly assert that
individual liberty is being restricted by Government, but when they are asked what individual liberties
they have lost, they are put to it to answer.
We must dedicate ourselves anew to a recovery of the old and sacred possessive rights for which
mankind has constantly struggled homes, livelihood, and individual security. The road to these values is
the way of progress. Neither you nor I will rest content until we have done our utmost to move further/ /
on that road.
2. ADDRESS TO ADVISORY COUNCIL OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC SECURITY ON
THE PROBLEMS OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SECURITY. NOVEMBER 14, 1934.
I am glad to welcome you to the White House and tell you that I am happy that there is so much interest
in the problem of economic security. Last June I said that this winter we might well make a beginning in
the great task of providing social insurance for the citizen and his family. I have not changed my
opinion. I shall have recommendations on this subject to present to the incoming Congress.
Many details are still to be settled. The Committee on Economic Security was created to advise me on
this matter. It will bring to me, not any preconceived views, but a mature judgment after careful study of
the problem and after consultation with the Advisory Conference and the cooperating committees.
On some points it is possible to be definite. Unemployment insurance will be in the program. I am still
of the opinion expressed in my message of June eighth that this part of social insurance should be a
cooperative Federal-State undertaking. It is important that the Federal Government encourage States
which are ready to take this progressive step. It is no less important that all unemployment insurance
reserve funds be held and invested by the Federal Government, so that the use of these funds as a means
of stabilization may be maintained in central management and employed on a national basis.
Unemployment insurance must be set up with the purpose of decreasing rather than increasing
unemployment. It is, of course, clear that because of their magnitude the investment and liquidation of
reserve funds must be within control of the Government itself.
For the administration of insurance benefits, the States are the most logical units. At this stage, while
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unemployment insurance is still untried in this country and there is such a great diversity of opinion on
many details, there is room for some degree of difference in methods, though not in principles. That
would be impossible under an exclusively national system. And so I can say to you who have come from
all parts of the country that not only will there have to be a Federal law on unemployment insurance, but
State laws will also be needed. In January the great majority of the State Legislatures will convene, as
well as Congress. You who are interested in seeing that unemployment insurance is established on a
nationwide basis should make your plans accordingly.
We must not allow this type of insurance to become a dole through the mingling of insurance and relief.
It is not charity. It must be financed by contributions, not taxes.
What I have said must not be understood as implying that we should do nothing further for the people
now on relief. On the contrary, they must be our first concern. We must get them back into productive
employment and as we do so we can bring them under the protection of the insurance system. Let us
profit by the mistakes of foreign countries and keep out of unemployment insurance every element
which is actuarially unsound.
There are other matters with which we must deal before we shall give adequate protection to the
individual against the many economic hazards. Old age is at once the most certain, and for many people
the most tragic of all hazards. There is no tragedy in growing old, but there is tragedy in growing old
without means of support.
As Governor of New York, it was my pleasure to recommend passage of the Old-Age Pension Act
which, I am told, is still generally regarded as the most liberal in the country. In approving the bill, I
expressed my opinion that full solution of this problem is possible only on insurance principles. It takes
so very much money to provide even a moderate pension for everybody, that when the funds are raised
from taxation only a "means test" must necessarily be made a condition of the grant of pensions.
I do not know whether this is the time for any Federal legislation on old-age security. Organizations
promoting fantastic schemes have aroused hopes which cannot possibly be fulfilled. Through their
activities they have increased the difficulties of getting sound legislation; but I hope that in time we may
be able to provide security for the aged-a sound and a uniform system which will provide true security.
There is also the problem of economic loss due to sickness—a very serious matter for many families with
and without incomes, and therefore, an unfair burden upon the medical profession. Whether we come to
this form of insurance soon or later on, I am confident that we can devise a system which will enhance
and not hinder the remarkable progress which has been made and is being made in the practice of the
professions of medicine and surgery in the United States.
In developing each component part of the broad program for economic security, we must not lose sight
of the fact that there can be no security for the individual in the midst of general insecurity. Our first task
is to get the economic system to function so that there will be a greater general security. Everything that
we do with intent to increase the security of the individual will, I am confident, be a stimulus to
recovery.
At this time, we are deciding on long-time objectives. We are developing a plan of administration into
which can be fitted the various parts of the security program when it is timely to do so. We cannot work
miracles or solve all our problems at once. What we can do is to lay a sound foundation on which we can
build a structure to give a greater measure of safety and happiness to the individual than any we have
ever known. In this task, you can greatly help.
3. THE INITIATION OF STUDIES TO ACHIEVE A PROGRAM OF NATIONAL SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC SECURITY. EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 6757. JUNE 29, 1934
By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me by the National Industrial Recovery Act (ch. 90,
48 Stat. 195), I hereby establish (1) the Committee on Economic Security (hereinafter referred to as the
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Committee) consisting of the Secretary of Labor, Chairman, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney
General, the Secretary of Agriculture, mid the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator, and (2) the
Advisory Council on Economic Security (hereinafter referred to as the Advisory Council), the original
members of which shall be appointed by the President and additional members of which may be
appointed from time to time by the Committee.
The Committee shall study problems relating to the economic security of individuals and shall report to
the President not later than December 1, 1934, its recommendations concerning proposals which in its
judgment will promote greater economic security.
The Advisory Council shall assist the Committee in the consideration of all matters coming within the
scope of its investigations.
The Committee shall appoint (1) a Technical Board on Economic Security consisting of qualified
representatives selected from various departments and agencies of the Federal Government, and (2) an
executive director who shall have immediate charge of studies and investigations to be carried out under
the general direction of the Technical Board, and who shall, with the approval of the Technical Board,
appoint such additional staff as may be necessity to carry out the provisions of this order.
4. MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ON SOCIAL SECURITY. JANUARY 17,1935
In addressing you on June eighth, 1934, 1 summarized the main objectives of our American program.
Among these was, and is, the security of the men, women, and children of the Nation against certain
hazards and vicissitudes oflife. This purpose is an essential part of our task. In my annual message to
you I promised to submit a definite program of action. This I do in tile form of a report to me by a
Committee on Economic Security, appointed by me for the purpose of surveying the field and of
recommending the basis of legislation.
I am gratified with the work of this Committee and of those who have helped it: The Technical Board on
Economic Security drawn from various departments of the Government, the Advisory Council on
Economic Security, consisting of informed and public spirited private citizens and a number of other
advisory groups, including a committee on actuarial consultants, a medical advisory board, a dental
advisory committee, a hospital advisory committee, a public health advisory committee, a child welfare
committee and an advisory committee on employment relief. All of those who participated in this
notable task of planning this major legislative proposal are ready and willing, at any time, to consult
with and assist in any way the appropriate Congressional committees and members, with respect to
detailed aspects.
It is my best judgment that this legislation should be brought forward with a of delay. Federal action is
necessary to, and conditioned upon, the action of States. Forty-four legislatures are meeting or will meet
soon. In order that the necessary State action may be taken promptly it is important that the Federal
Government proceed speedily.
The detailed report of the Committee sets forth a series of proposals that will appeal to the sound sense
of the American people. It has not attempted the impossible, nor has it failed to exercise sound caution
and consideration of all of the factors concerned: the national credit, the rights and responsibilities of
States, the capacity of industry to assume financial responsibilities and the fundamental necessity of
proceeding in a manner that will merit the enthusiastic support of citizens of all sorts.
It is overwhelmingly important to avoid any danger of permanently discrediting the sound and necessary
policy of Federal legislation for economic security by attempting to apply it on too ambitious a scale
before actual experience has provided guidance for the permanently safe direction of such efforts. The
place of such a fundamental in Our future civilization is too precious to be jeopardized now by
extravagant action. It is a sound idea—a sound ideal. Most of the other advanced countries of the world
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have already adopted it and their experience affords the knowledge that social insurance can be made a
sound and workable project.
Three principles should be observed in legislation oil this subject. First, the system adopted, except for
the money necessary to initiate it, should be self-sustaining in the sense that funds for the payment of
insurance benefits should not come from the proceeds of general taxation. Second, excepting in old-age
insurance, actual management should be left to the States subject to standards established by the Federal
Government. Third, sound financial management of the funds and the reserves, and protection of the
credit structure of the Nation should be assured by retaining Federal control over all funds through
trustees in the Treasury of the United States.
At this time, I recommend the following types of legislation looking to economic security:
1. Unemployment compensation.
2. Old-age benefits, including compulsory and Voluntary annuities.
3. Federal aid to dependent children through grants to States for the support of existing mothers' pension
systems and for services for the protection and care of homeless, neglected, dependent, and crippled
children.
4. Additional Federal aid to State and local public health agencies and the strengthening of the Federal
Public Health Service. I am not at this time recommending the adoption of so called "health insurance,"
although groups representing the medical profession are cooperating with the Federal Government in the
further study of the subject and definite progress is being made.
With respect to unemployment compensation, I have concluded that the most practical proposal is the
levy of a uniform Federal payroll tax, ninety per cent of which should be allowed as an offset to
employers contributing under a compulsory State unemployment compensation act. The purpose of this
is to afford a requirement of a reasonably uniform character for all States cooperating with the Federal
Government and to promote and encourage the passage of unemployment compensation laws in the
States. The ten per cent not thus offset should be used to cover the costs of Federal and State
administration of this broad system. Thus, States will largely administer unemployment compensation,
assisted and guided by the Federal Government. An unemployment compensation system should be
constructed in such a way as to afford every practicable aid and incentive toward the larger purpose of
employment stabilization. This can be helped by the intelligent planning of both public and private
employment. It also can be helped by correlating the system with public employment so that a person
who has exhausted his benefits may be eligible for some form of public work as is recommended in this
report. Moreover, in order to encourage the stabilization of private employment, Federal legislation
should not foreclose the States from establishing means for indicating industries to afford an even
greater stabilization of employment.
In the important field of security for our old people, it seems necessary to adopt three principles: First,
non-contributory old-age pensions for those who are now too old to build up their own insurance. It is,
of course, clear that for perhaps thirty years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the
Federal Government to meet these pensions. Second, compulsory contributory annuities which in time
will establish a self-supporting system for those now young and for future generations. Third, voluntary
contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old
age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan,
which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.
The amount necessary at this time for the initiation of unemployment compensation, old-age security,
children's aid, and the promotion of public health, as outlined in the report of the Committee on
Economic Security, is approximately one hundred million dollars.
The establishment of sound means toward a greater future economic security of the American people is
dictated by a prudent consideration of the hazards involved in our national life. No one can guarantee
this country against the dangers of future depressions but we can reduce these dangers. We can eliminate
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many of the factors that cause economic depressions, and we can provide the means of mitigating their
results. This plan for economic security is at once a measure of prevention and a method of alleviation.
We pay now for the dreadful consequence of economic insecurity and dearly. This plan presents a more
equitable and infinitely less expensive means of meeting these costs. We cannot afford to neglect the
plain duty before us. I strongly recommend action to attain the objectives sought in this report.
5. PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT SIGNING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. AUGUST 14,1935
Today a hope of many years' standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years,]
with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have/
come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered J
how long the job would last.
This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty millions of our citizens who will
reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through
increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health.
^
We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards \
and vicissitudes oflife, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to
the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age.
J)
This law, too, represents a cornerstone in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete. It
is a structure intended to lessen the force of possible future depressions. It will act as a protection to
future Administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy. The
law will flatten out the peaks and valleys of deflation and of inflation. It is, in short, a law that will take
care of human needs and at the same time provide the United States an economic structure of vastly
greater soundness.
I congratulate all of you ladies and gentlemen, all of you in the Congress, in the executive departments
and all of you who come from private life, and I thanlc you for your splendid efforts in behalf of this
sound, needed and patriotic legislation.
If the Senate and the House of Representatives in this long and arduous session had done nothing more
than pass this Bill, the session would be regarded as historic for all time.
6. A RECOMMENDATION FOR LEGISLATION AMENDING THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACTDECEMBER 14, 1937.
My Dear Senator:
Mr. Altmeyer, Chairman of the Social Security Board, has submitted to me some non-controversial
amendments to the Social Security Act. In brief, they cover the points listed in the attached
memorandum. I feel they are of sufficient importance to warrant their passage at the earliest possible
date.
As these amendments will considerably improve the effectiveness of this important Act, I have asked
Chairman Altmeyer to discuss this matter with you personally.
Best wishes to you.
Very Sincerely yours,
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Honorable Pat Harrison,
United States Senate,
Washington, D.C.
(A similar letter was sent to Congressman Robert L. Doughton.)
Summary of Amendments to the Social Security Act, forwarded with the foregoing letter.
1. To pay death claims direct to the wife or dependent children and save expense of probating estates—as
in veterans' laws. This would save real money to the widow and to the Board.
2. To change "wages payable" in unemployment compensation to "wages paid" as in old-age insurance
and permit a duplicate list of wage payments and so complete our efforts greatly to simplify employers'
wage reports.
3. To enable "merit rating" to work by making technical changes. It becomes effective in Wisconsin,
January 1, 1938.
4. To permit earlier payment of unemployment compensation in states that passed their laws late. For
two years funds have been built up in these states. With increasing unemployment this will get money
earlier to those laid off.
5. To permit persons now 60 and over to continue working through 1941 to qualify upon retirement for
monthly old-age annuities instead of receiving small lump sum payments. A great gain all around.
6. To increase coverage.
a. To seamen on American vessels. Approved by Maritime Commission and the International Seamen's
Union and the National Maritime Union.
b. To employees of national banks, state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System,
institutions that are members of the Home Loan Bank system, and the like. The American Bankers
Association approves.
NOTE: In signing the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, I stated that it "represents a cornerstone
in a structure which is being built but is by no means complete" (see Item 107, 1935 volume). The Act
constituted a pioneer effort on the part of the Federal Government, but although it was comprehensive
in scope we recognized that it would have to be developed with experience.
After over two years of operation of the Social Security Act, we concluded that it should be expanded in
certain directions. Accordingly, I urged Senator Harrison, the Chairman of the Finance Committee of
the Senate, and Representative Doughton, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the
House of Representatives, to consider the changes in the Act outlined by Chairman Altmeyer of the
Social Security Board in the foregoing summary.
During 1938, Senator Harrison and Representative Doughton held frequent conferences with Chairman
Altmeyer. Meanwhile, several new amendments to the Act seemed advisable and on April 28, 1938, I
wrote to Chairman Altmeyer advocating that the old-age insurance system be revised and extended to
provide for earlier payments. I also recommended that further liberalizing changes be made in the
old-age insurance provisions of the Act (see Item 56, 1938 volume).
Inasmuch as several additional substantive amendments were being developed by the Social Security
Board, it was decided to postpone congressional hearings upon all amendments until the final report of
the Board was submitted. By the close of 1938, this report had been completed, and I transmitted it to
the Congress on January 16, 1939 (see Item 11, 1939 volume).
After the report was submitted, hearings were held upon the amendments outlined in the foregoing letter
and also upon the later suggestions of the Social Security Board. Many of these recommendations were
enacted and approved by me on August 10, 1939 (Public No. 379, 76th Congress; 53 Stat. 1360).
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(For a discussion of the nature of these amendments, see Item 109 and note, 1939 volume.)
7. A RECOMMENDATION FOR LIBERALIZING THE OLD-AGE INSURANCE SYSTEM APRIL 28, 1938.
My Dear Mr. Chairman:
I am very anxious that in the press of administrative duties the Social Security Board will not lose sight
of the necessity of studying ways and means of improving and extending the provisions of the Social
Security Act.
The enactment of the Social Security Act marked a great advance in affording more equitable and
effective protection to the people of this country against widespread and growing economic hazards. The
successful operation of the Act is the best proof that it was soundly conceived. However, it would be
unfortunate if we assumed that it was complete and final. Rather, we should be constantly seeking to
perfect and strengthen it in the light of our accumulating experience and growing appreciation of social
needs.
I am particularly anxious that the Board give attention to the development of a sound plan for
liberalizing the old-age insurance system. In the development of such a plan I should like to have the
Board give consideration to the feasibility of extending its coverage, commencing the payment of
old-age insurance annuities at an earlier date than January 1, 1942, paying larger benefits than now
provided in the Act for those retiring during the earlier years of the system, providing benefits for aged
wives and widows, and providing benefits for young children of insured persons dying before reaching
retirement age. It is my hope that the Board will be prepared to submit its recommendations before
Congress reconvenes in January.
Very truly yours,
(The President)
Mr. Arthur J. Altmeyer,
Chairman,
Social Security Board,
Washington, D.C.
NOTE: The Social Security Act (Public No. 271, 74th Congress; 49 Stat. 620) expressly provides that
the Social Security Board shall conduct studies and make recommendations related to the most effective
methods of providing economic security through social insurance.
Pursuant to the foregoing request, the Board made a thorough survey of those proposals which I
suggested in my letter to Chairman Altmeyer, along with various other changes which it appeared
advisable to make. The Board submitted its report and recommendations; and I transmitted it to the
Congress on January 16, 1939 (see Item 11, 1939 volume).
The report of the Board advocated the adoption of all the suggestions which I had asked in the above
letter to be considered. Subsequently, these recommendations were written into law when the
amendments to the Social Security Act were adopted on August 11, 1939 (see Item 109, 1939 volume).
For example:
1. Extending the coverage of the old-age insurance system. Under the 1939 amendments, the old-age
insurance provisions of the Social Security Act were extended to include about 1,100,000 additional
persons. The additional groups covered were seamen, bank employees, and employed persons, age
sixty-five and over.
2. Commencing the payment of old-age insurance annuities at an earlier date than January 1, 1942. The
1939 amendments advanced the date for beginning monthly old-age insurance benefit payments to
January 1, 1940.
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3. Paying larger benefits than now provided in the Act for those retiring during the earlier years of the
system. Under the original Act, the basic amount paid in old-age retirement benefits was computed from
the total accumulated wages of the person retiring. Thus, an individual who reached sixty-five within a
short time after the passage of the Act would not have a very large annuity because the wages
accumulated would be small. Under the amendments adopted in 1939, the basis for paying benefits was
changed from accumulated wages to average wages. In this way, a person retiring in the early years of
the system would receive more than a paltry amount.
4. Providing benefits for aged wives and widows. The 1939 amendments to the Act granted supplemental
benefits to the wife, age sixty-five or over, of an insured individual. The total amount of the wife's benefit
equals one half of the husband's.
Additional provision was made for widows' old-age insurance benefits. Since the adoption of the 1939
amendments, when the widow of a fully insured individual reaches 65 she is eligible for a total benefit of
three-fourths of that of her late husband. Regardless of age, a widow with one or more children now
also receives a total benefit equal to three-fourths of that of her late husband.
5. Providing benefits for young children of insured persons dying before reaching retirement age. Under
the 1939 amendments, monthly insurance benefits equal to one-half of the amount due to the parent are
made available to unmarried dependent orphans who have not yet reached eighteen years of age.
8. "A Social Security Program Must Include All Those Who Need Its Protection." RADIO ADDRESS
ON THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT. AUGUST 15, 1938
You, my friends, in every walk oflife and in every part of the Nation, who are active believers in Social
Security:
The Social Security Act is three years old today. This is a good vantage point from which to take a long
look backward to its beginnings, to cast an appraising eye over what it has accomplished so far, and to
survey its possibilities of future growth.
Five years ago the term "social security" was new to American ears. Today it has significance for more
than forty million men and women workers whose applications for old-age insurance accounts have been
received; this system is designed to assure them an income for life after old age retires them from their
jobs.
It has significance for more than twenty-seven and a half million men and women wage earners who
have earned credits under State unemployment insurance laws which provide half wages to help bridge
the gap between jobs.
It has significance for the needy men, women and children receiving assistance and for their
families-least two million three hundred thousand all told; with this cash assistance one million seven
hundred thousand old folks are spending their last years in surroundings they know and with people they
love; more than six hundred thousand dependent children are being taken care of by their own families;
and about forty thousand blind people are assured of peace and security among familiar voices.
It has significance for the families and communities to whom expanded public health and child welfare
services have brought added protection. And it has significance for all of us who, as citizens, have at
heart the Security and the well-being of this great democracy.
These accomplishments of three years are impressive, yet we should not be unduly proud of them. Our
Government in fulfilling an obvious obligation to the citizens of the country has been doing so only
because the citizens require action from their Representatives. If the people, during these years, had
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chosen a reactionary Administration or a "do nothing" Congress, Social Security would still be in the
conversational stage—a beautiful dream which might come true in the dim distant future.
But the underlying desire for personal and family security was nothing new. In the early days of
colonization and through the long years following, the worker, the farmer, the merchant, the man of
property, the preacher and the idealist came here to build, each for himself, a stronghold for the things he
loved. The stronghold was his home; the things he loved and wished to protect were his family, his
material and spiritual possessions.
-—^
His security, then as now, was bound to that of his friends and his neighbors.
But as the Nation has developed, as invention, industry and commerce have grown more complex, the
hazards oflife have become more complex. Among an increasing host of fellow citizens, among the
often intangible forces of giant industry, man has discovered that his individual strength and wits were
no longer enough. This was true not only of the worker at shop bench or ledger; it was true also of the
merchant or manufacturer who employed him. Where heretofore men had turned to neighbors for help
and advice, they now turned to Government.
Now this is interesting to consider. The first to turn to Government, the first to receive protection from
Government, were not the poor and the lowly—those who had no resources other than their daily
eamings-but the rich and the strong. Beginning in the nineteenth century, the United States passed
protective laws designed, in the main, to give security to property owners, to industrialists, to merchants
and to bankers. True, the little man often profited by this type of legislation; but that was a by-product
rather than a motive.
Taking a generous view of the situation, I think it was not that Government deliberately ignored the
working man but that the working man was not sufficiently articulate to make his needs and his
problems known. The powerful in industry and commerce had powerful voices, both individually and as
a group. And whenever they saw their possessions threatened, they raised their voices in appeals for
government protection.
It was not until workers became more articulate through organization that protective labor legislation
was passed. While such laws raised the standards oflife, they still gave no assurance of economic
security. Strength or skill of arm or brain did not guarantee a man a job; it did not guarantee him a roof;
it did not guarantee him the ability to provide for those dependent upon him or to take care of himself
when he was too old to work.
Long before the economic bright of the depression descended on the Nation, millions of our people were!;
living in wastelands of want and fear. Men and women too old and infirm to work either depended on \
those who had but little to share, or spent their remaining years within the walls of a poorhouse.
/
Fatherless children early learned the meaning of being a burden to relatives or to the community. Men J
and women, still strong, still young, but discarded as gainful workers, were drained of self-confidence y
and self-respect.
The millions of today want, and have a right to, the same security their forefathers sought-the assurance*
that with health and the willingness to work they will find a place for themselves in the social and
Jj
economic system of the time.
<J
Because it has become increasingly difficult for individuals to build their own security single-handed.
Government must now step in and help them lay the foundation stones, just as Government in the past
has helped lay the foundation of business and industry. We must face the fact that in this country we
have a rich man's security and a poor man's security and that the Government owes equal obligations to
both. National security is not a half and half manner: it is all or none.
The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent
present needs and of forestalling future need. It utilizes the familiar machinery of our Federal-State
government to promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation.
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The Act does not offer anyone, either individually or collectively, an easy life-nor was it ever intended
so to do. None of the sums of money paid out to individuals in assistance or in insurance will spell
anything approaching abundance. But they will furnish that minimum necessity to keep a foothold; and
that is the kind of protection Americans want.
What we are doing is good. But it is not good enough. To be truly national, a social security program
must include all those who need its protection. Today many of our citizens are still excluded from
old-age insurance and unemployment compensation because of the nature of their employment. This
must be set aright; and it will be.
Some time ago I directed the Social Security Board to give attention to the development of a plan for
liberalizing and extending the old-age insurance system to provide benefits for wives, widows and
orphans. More recently, a National Health Conference was held at my suggestion to consider ways and
means of extending to the people of this country more adequate health and medical services and also to
afford the people of this country some protection against the economic losses arising out of ill health.
I am hopeful that on the basis of studies and investigations now under way, the Congress will improve
and extend the law. I am also confident that each year will bring further development in Federal and
State social security legislation~and that is as it should be. One word of warning, however. In our efforts
to provide security for all of the American people, let us not allow ourselves to be misled by those who
advocate short cuts to Utopia of fantastic financial schemes.
We have come a long way. But we still have a long way to go. There is still today a frontier that remahis
unconquered—an America unclaimed. This is the great, the nationwide frontier of insecurity, of human)
want and fear. This is the frontier-the America~we have set ourselves to reclaim.
S
This Third Anniversary would not be complete if I did not express the gratitude of the Nation to those
splendid citizens who so greatly helped me in making social security legislation possible and to those
patriotic men and women, both employers and employees, who in their daily activities are today hearing
social security work.
First of all, to the first woman who has ever sat in the Cabinet of the United States-Miss Frances
Perkins—then and now the Secretary of Labor. Then to the unselfish Commission of men and women
who, in 1934, devoted themselves to the almost superhuman task of studying all manner of American
problems, of examining legislation already attempted in other nations, and of coordinating the whole
into practical recommendations for legislative action.
Finally, I thank publicly, as I have so often thanked them privately, four men who have had long and
distinguished careers in the public service-Congressman David J. Lewis of Maryland, who is known as
one of the Americas pioneers in the cause of Social Security; Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York,
who also was long its advocate; Senator Harrison of Mississippi and Congressman Doughton of North
Carolina, who carried the bill successfully through the Senate and the House of Representatives. They
deserve and have the gratitude of all of us for this service to mankind!
NOTE: The idea of Social Security, which some reactionaries used to label as alien to the American
tradition, has become so firmly rooted here in America that business, labor, finance, and all political
parties now accept it as a permanent system. During the years since the passage of the original Social
Security Act in 1935, we have been constantly studying the system in operation. As the result of many
investigations and surveys, we have been able to strengthen the original act and to extend it to cover
additional activities (see Item 163, 1937 volume; Item 56, this volume; Items 11 and 109, 1939 volume,
and accompanying notes).
When I signed the Social Security Act, I stated what I conceived to be the basic purposes of the
legislation (see Item 107 and note, 1935 volume, for a more detailed analysis of how the various phases
of the Act actually operate). The program attempts to deal with many of the factors which make for
economic insecurity among our people.
The first threat against security—that of spending one's aged years in the poor house is dispelled in two
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ways. In the first place, an old-age insurance system is established, enabling retirement at sixty-five on a
pension. The amount of the pension depends upon wages received and taxes paid by both employers and
employees. At present (1941), payrolls and wages are taxed 2 percent in order to raise the funds to pay
the statutory benefits to workers and their wives who are over sixty-five. Survivors' benefits are now also
available for aged widows or aged dependent parents, young widows with dependent children, and
unmarried dependent orphans under eighteen.
In the second place, an old-age assistance program has been established, independent of the old-age
insurance system. The assistance is in the form offederal grants-in-aid to the states to provide funds for
the pensioning and relief of old people. When the federal government has approved the assistance plan
of a particular state, it contributes with the states on a 50-50 basis up to a total of $40 per month per
individual, with a little extra for administrative purposes.
The other great threat to security is the spectre of unemployment. Unemployment insurance has been set
up largely on a state-administered basis in cooperation with the Federal Government. The federal
payroll tax for this purpose is merely nominal, employers being freed from 90 percent of this tax if they
contribute an equal amount to state unemployment insurance plans approved by the Social Security
Board.
The United States Employment Service also maintains employment offices in the states to facilitate
placement of job applicants where needed.
ready
In addition to these forms of assistance, federal grants are made by the Social Security Board in varying
amounts to assist the states in aiding dependent children, and needy blind persons. Under the Social
Security Act, the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor administers grants to states for maternal
and child welfare and the aid of crippled children; the United States Public Health Service administers
grants to states to develop state health programs; and the Office of Education administers grants to
states for vocational rehabilitation.
With the exception of the Children's Bureau, all the above offices and bureaus have been placed within
the Federal Security Agency since the adoption of Reorganization Plan No. 1 (see Item 66, 1939
volume). From the standpoint of effective coordination of the social security program, this is of great
importance inasmuch as closer working relationships have been established among the Social Security
Board, the United States Public Health Service, the Office of Education, the National Youth
Administration, and the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Administratively, the Social Security Board is composed of three members, appointed by the President
by and with the consent of the Senate. Not more than two of the members may be of one political party;
and the President designates the chairman. Administrative and executive action is in the hands of the
executive director, who also supervises and coordinates the work of the various bureaus. The actuary of
the Board performs the important function ofplanning the various phases of the program on a
long-range basis to determine the adequacy of funds available, benefits which can be paid, etc.
There are three operating bureaus and three service bureaus within the Social Security Board.
The operating bureaus are:
1. The Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance, which administers the monthly benefits which are
paid to aged workers, their wives, or survivors and dependent children, under the old-age insurance
scheme.
2. The Bureau of Employment Security, which administers the unemployment compensation features of
the Social Security Act; analyzes and certifies the adequacy of state unemployment compensation laws;
furnishes technical aid to the states in drafting their legislation; assists the states in developing their
administrative policies and specifications; supervises the functions of the former United States
Employment Service; aids farmers, veterans and District of Columbia residents to obtain employment;
and assists public employment offices throughout the country.
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3. The Bureau of Public Assistance, which supervises federal grants for old-age assistance, aid to
dependent children, and aid to the needy blind. It advises and assists the states in initiating or amending
state public assistance laws, consults with the states on technical problems, acts as a clearing house for
information gathered from the various states, and analyzes and develops standards and procedures.
The service bureaus within the Social Security Board consist of the Bureau of Research and Statistics,
the Bureau of Accounts and Audits, and the Informational Service. These three service bureaus work in
close conjunction with the operating bureaus.
The Bureau of Research and Statistics investigates such problems as the factors causing insecurity, the
adequacy of existing legislation, and the problems caused by the application of the program to various
population groups. It plans and conducts the statistical service, and advises the states on the statistical
reports required by the Board. The Bureau publishes a record of the volume and trend of general relief
in the United States, in collaboration with other government and private agencies.
The Bureau of Accounts and Audits maintains the accounting and auditing records of the Board. It has
charge of an administrative audit and also a field audit of states receiving federal grants. It examines
financial insufficiency of state plans submitted, and assists the states in improving their accounting
procedures. It also advises the Board on governmental fiscal programs.
The Informational Service keeps the public posted, and answers inquiries about rights, benefits and
responsibilities under the Act. It also cooperates with the states in planning and conducting their
informational programs.
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, individuals participating in the Social Security Act and related
state legislation received a total of $1,085,800,000 in comparison with $897,000,000for the preceding
year. The amount for 1939-40 was distributed as follows:
Public assistance
$587,700,000
Unemployment benefits
$482,500,000
Old-age and Survivors insurance
$17,600,000
The above amounts do not include the funds allotted to the states to cover administrative expenses, nor
do they include expenditures by other federal agencies for public health, welfare and vocational
rehabilitation services under the Social Security Act.
Since the United States Employment Service has been consolidated into the Social Security Board, the
employment security program of the Board has been expanded and strengthened. The state employment
offices maintained by federal funds filled more than 3,500,000jobs during the past year, and were
instrumental in making 1,100,000 supplementary placements. By the end of the fiscal year 1940, there
were close to 1,500 employment offices and more than 3,000 itinerant service facilities provided
throughout the country. Having the information drawn from state unemployment compensation systems
at its disposal, the Board is now in a strategic position to help to bring workers and jobs together.
By June, 1940, approximately 28 million workers had wage credits under state unemployment
compensation laws. At the same date, more than 40 million had received wages counting toward old age
benefits. During the fiscal year, benefits were advanced to more than 5 million different persons
unemployed in that period, totaling nearly $500,000,000, and the weekly average of workers receiving
such benefits exceeded $73,000. In addition, under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act,
administered by the Railroad Retirement Board, 161,000 workers received benefits totaling
$14,800,000.
In the brief period since January 1, 1940 that the old-age and survivors' insurance system has been in
operation, nearly 109,000 persons have received monthly benefits. When this program reaches its peak
level, it will involve a larger number ofpersons and a larger amount offunds than any phase of the
social security scheme. Although the amount already made available is small in dollars, it has been
invaluable in restoring faith in the future.
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The amendments to the Social Security Act passed in 1939 stimulated the states to participate actively in
the public assistance plans under the Act. About 2,200,000 needy aged persons, 55,000 blind persons,
and 1 million children in over 400,000families were assisted under the terms of the Act during the fiscal
year 1939-1940. It is interesting to note that whereas during the fiscal year 1938-1939 public assistance
to the needy aged, blind and children constituted 14.4 percent of the aggregate expenditures for public
aid, in the year ending June 30, 1940, similar assistance represented 18.3 percent of the aggregate
expenditures of $3,300,000,000 by the Federal Government for public aid.
The Social Security Board and the machinery set up under the program have played an important role in
meeting the requirements of national defense. In April 1940, an inventory was made of the active file of
those who had registered at public employment offices. With the work histories of 5 million job seekers
available, it was easier to determine what the existing labor reserves were and where they existed.
In June 1940, the Social Security Board assembled the Federal Advisory Council for Employment
Security to consider defense problems. This body, consisting of representatives of employers, employees
and the public, was originally appointed to advise the Board on questions arising in connection with the
public employment offices. After a two-day conference, the Advisory Council presented an eight-point
program which was accepted on June 28, 1940, by the Advisory Commission to the Council of National
Defense.
This plan urged employers and employees to communicate their immediate and prospective employment
requirements promptly to the local public employment office, and to depend upon this machinery to
fulfill their needs. The employment offices were directed to recatalog the skills available, and take steps
to institute training programs where there was a shortage. It was further recommended that the
decentralized features of this program be preserved, that preference be accorded to citizens, and that in
the event of universal registration for defense an inventory of employment qualifications be made.
Under the Second Deficiency Appropriation Act, approved June 27, 1940, $2,000,000 was appropriated
to assist and supervise state employment services in selecting and placing workers in national defense
industries. Funds were also provided for the Office of Education to cooperate with the Social Security
Board in providing vocational training for workers selected from public employment registers.
Since the speeding up of the defense program, there has been very close cooperation with the National
Defense Advisory Commission and the Office of Production Management, the War and Navy
Departments, the Selective Service System, and Civil Service Commission.
The public employment offices, as of October 31, 1940, have registered a total of192,129 workers
equipped with skill or experience in about 500 different industries, including such essential defense
activities as aircraft, machine shop work and machine tool manufacturing, foundry work, construction,
ship building, metal working, electrical equipment, radio, telephone and telegraph.
The employment offices have aided measurably in furthering the defense program through placing men
in these industries. There is special cooperation with the Civil Service Commission in the maintenance
of an adequate supply of men for placement in arsenals and navy yards. In order to maintain adequate
labor reserves and to guide the transfer of workers from point to point, thirteen regional clearance
offices have been established.
The Board has aided the War Department in analyzing army jobs, and has helped local selective service
boards in assembling information to be used for classification or deferment of workers. As the result of
visits to 20,000 defense plants, the Board has compiled estimates of defense labor requirements to be
supplied to all of the defense agencies. These estimates are very significant summaries of employment
conditions, changes in labor demand and supply, and trends in hiring practices.
In my message to the Congress on September 14, 1940,1 called attention to the need for additional
legislation to protect the social insurance of those called into military service (see Item 96, 1940
volume). The Board has participated actively in developing plans for taking care of those who joined the
armed forces.
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There is, of course, still room for improvement in our social security system. I have repeatedly
recommended that it be extended to cover many of the occupations now specifically exempted under the
Act (see Item 163, 1937 volume; Item 56, this volume; Items 11 and 109, 1939 volume). Also, the health
provisions of the Social Security Act are now inadequate to cover the costs of medical care and provide
for temporary or permanent disability.] There are other changes which have been suggested from time
to time by the Board, the most pressing of which concerns the plight of those states financially incapable
of matching federal grants for public assistance. In 1939, the Board recommended that the grants be
placed upon a different basis in order to take care of the varying economic capacities of the states; but
the Congress failed to pass this proposal.
Yet the program has gone a long way toward eliminating one of the most fearsome evils of our economic
system—insecurity. It has provided new life and hope for millions of our citizens, and has bolstered the
mechanisms of our economy to help it withstand the dislocations of war as well as the shock of great
economic cycles of disaster in peace-time.
9. A MESSAGE TRANSMITTING TO THE CONGRESS A REPORT OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY
BOARD RECOMMENDING CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LAW. - JANUARY 16, 1939.
To the Congress:
Four years ago I sent to the newly convened Congress a message transmitting a report of the Committee
on Economic Security. In that message I urged that Congress consider the enactment into law of the
program of protection for our people outlined in that report. The Congress acted upon that
recommendation and today we have the Social Security Act in effect throughout the length and breadth
of our country.
This Act has amply proved its essential soundness. More than two and one half million needy old
people, needy blind persons, and dependent children are now receiving systematic and humane
assistance to the extent of a half billion dollars a year.
Three and a half million unemployed persons have received out-of-work benefits amounting to
$400,000,000 during the last year.
A Federal old-age insurance system, the largest undertaking of its kind ever attempted, has been
organized and under it there have been set up individual accounts covering 42,500,000 persons who may
be likened to the policy holders of a private insurance company.
In addition there are the splendid accomplishments in the field of public health, vocational rehabilitation,
maternal and child welfare and related services, made possible by the Social Security Act.
We have a right to be proud of the progress we have made in the short time the Social Security Act has
been in operation. However, we would be derelict in our responsibility if we did not take advantage of
the experience we have accumulated to strengthen and extend its provisions.
I submit for your consideration a report of the Social Security Board, which, at my direction and in
accordance with the congressional mandate contained in the Social Security Act itself, has been
assembling data, and developing ways and means of improving the operation of the Social Security Act.
I particularly call attention to the desirability of affording greater old age security. The report suggests a
two-fold approach which I believe to be sound. One way is to begin the payment of monthly old-age
insurance benefits sooner, and to liberalize the benefits to be paid in the early years. The other way is to
make proportionately larger Federal grants-in-aid to those states with limited fiscal capacities, so that
they may provide more adequate assistance to those in need. This result can and should be accomplished
in such a way as to involve little, i f any, additional cost to the Federal Government. Such a method
embodies a principle that may well be applied to other Federal grants-in-aid.
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I also call attention to the desirability of affording greater protection to dependent children. Here again
the report suggests a two-fold approach which I believe to be sound. One way is to extend our Federal
old-age insurance system so as to provide regular monthly benefits not only to the aged but also to the
dependent children of workers dying before reaching retirement age. The other way is to liberalize the
Federal grants-in-aid to the states to help finance assistance to dependent children.
As regards both the Federal old-age insurance system and the Federal-State unemployment
compensation system, equity and sound social policy require that the benefits be extended to all of our
people as rapidly as administrative experience and public understanding permit. Such an extension is
particularly important in the case of the Federal old-age insurance system. Even without amendment the
old-age insurance benefits payable in the early years are very liberal in comparison with the taxes paid.
This is necessarily so in order that these benefits may accomplish their purpose of forestalling
dependency. But this very fact creates the necessity of extending this protection to as large a proportion
as possible of our employed population in order to avoid unfair discrimination.
Much of the success of the Social Security Act is due to the fact that all of the programs contained in this
act (with one necessary exception) are administered by the states themselves, but coordinated and
partially financed by the Federal Government. This method has given us flexible administration, and has
enabled us to put these programs into operation quickly. However, in some states incompetent and
politically dominated personnel has been distinctly harmful. Therefore, I recommend that the states be
required, as a condition for the receipt of Federal funds, to establish and maintain a merit system for the
selection of personnel. Such a requirement would represent a protection to the states and citizens thereof
rather than an encroachment by the Federal Government, since it would automatically promote
efficiency and eliminate the necessity for minute Federal scrutiny of state operations.
I cannot too strongly urge the wisdom of building upon the principles contained in the present Social
Security Act in affording greater protection to our people, rather than turning to untried and
demonstrably unsound panaceas. As I stated in my message four years ago: "It is overwhelmingly
important to avoid any danger of permanently discrediting the sound and necessary policy of Federal
legislation for economic security by attempting to apply it on too ambitious a scale before actual
experience has provided guidance for the permanently safe direction of such efforts. The place of such a
fundamental in our future civilization is too precious to be jeopardized now by the extravagant action."
We shall make the most orderly progress if we look upon social security as a development toward a goal
rather than afinishedproduct. We shall make the most lasting progress if we recognize that social
security can furnish only a base upon which each one of our citizens may build his individual security
through his own individual efforts.
NOTE: Back in 1934, I created an Advisory Council on Economic Security to assist the Committee on
Economic Security in its investigations which eventually led to the formulation and adoption of the
Social Security Act in 1935 (see Items 117 and 179, 1934 volume). The Act was based upon the careful
research and the thorough studies and surveys made by both the Advisory Council and the Committee.
Since the passage of the basic statute, we have had considerable experience in the administration of the
social security program. We had an opportunity to test the operation of its various features, in order to
determine the directions in which it might be plausible to expand the Act.
In May 1937, another Advisory Council on Social Security was appointed by the Social Security Board
and by a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Finance. This body was similar in some respects to
the old Advisory Council which I had created in 1934. It was composed of twenty-five members,
representing employers, employees, and the public; and it concentrated its attention upon the problems
arising out of the operation of the old-age insurance program.
Throughout 1937 and 1938, the Advisory Council investigated the ways in which the old-age insurance
provisions of the Act could be improved. At the same time, the Social Security Board itself was carrying
on surveys, and on December 14, 1937, Chairman Altmeyer submitted to me a list of suggested
improvements (see Item 163, and note, 1937 volume). On April 28, 1938,1 wrote to Chairman Altmeyer
requesting that the Board study some additional changes in the old-age insurance provisions (see Item
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56, and note, 1938 volume).
The "Final Report of the Advisory Council on Social Security," dated December 10, 1938, was before
the Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of
Representatives when they started their deliberations on the Act. The report of the Social Security Board
on the proposed changes in the Act was also referred to the congressional committees concerned, along
with the foregoing message which I sent to the Congress.
From February 1 until April 7, 1939, the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on possible
amendments to the Act, and over ninety social security bills were referred to the Committee. H.R. 6635
finally passed the House of Representatives on June 10, 1939, by a vote of 361 to 2, and the bill as
amended passed the
Senate on July 13, 1939, by a vote of 57-8. After the adoption of the conference report, I signed H.R.
6635 on August 10, 1939 as 53.Stat. 1360 (see Item 109, this volume).
Most of the reforms recommended by the Social Security Board were embodied in the amendments
which were passed by the Congress. The following account outlines changes which the Board
advocated, and the extent to which their suggestions were followed by the Congress:
1. Federal Old-Age Insurance
a. Benefits
The Board recommended that monthly benefit payments start in 1940 instead of on January 1, 1942, as
scheduled. The amendments advanced the date for beginning payments to January 1, 1940.
Because those retiring in the early years of the operation of the system would receive very small
amounts, the Board suggested that supplementary benefits be provided for aged wives, and that average
wages instead of total wages be used as a basis for computing benefits. Both these reforms were carried
into effect when the amendments were passed, with aged wives being granted supplementary benefits
totaling one-half of the old-age insurance benefit of their husbands.
Under the Social Security Act of 1935, single lump-sum cash payments amounting to 3 'A percent of the
worker's total wages were made at the time of his death. The Board felt that monthly benefits to widows
and orphans would be preferable. These recommendations were carried out by the 1939 amendments,
which granted monthly benefits to widows who had reached 65, unmarried dependent orphans under 18,
younger widows with children, and aged dependent parents.
b. Coverage
The Social Security Board recommended that the old-age insurance system be extended to cover
employees in large-scale farming operations, and that eventually agricultural labor be covered
completely. Likewise, it was advocated that the following groups be covered into the operation of the
Act: domestic service, maritime employment (with the exception of foreign crews on American vessels
engaged in foreign trade), services performed for religious, educational, charitable and non-profit
organizations, services performed for the federal and state governments or their instrumentalities, those
workers employed after they passed the age of 65, and those workers performing personal service who
did not fall within the term "employee" as used in this Act.
Under the 1939 amendments, three of the above groups were placed within the system: maritime
workers, those earning wages after they reached 65, and employees of federal instrumentalities, such as
member banks in the Federal Reserve System.
Several other clarifying amendments were passed, such as the exemption of foreign governments and
their instrumentalities, the exclusion of any instrumentality wholly state-owned or constitutionally
tax-exempt, and the coverage of an employee performing both excluded and included types of
employment where the latter predominates during a particular pay period.
c. Financing
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The Board made no definite recommendations regarding the financing of the system, beyond stating that
if additional funds were needed, they should be raised by taxes other than those on payrolls.
The 1939 amendments postponed until 1943 the increased taxes to be paid by employers and employees.
Under the original terms of the Act, the 1 percent old-age insurance tax was to be stepped up to 1 Vi
percent during the years 1940, 1941, and 1942. However, the amendments froze the rate of 1 percent
until 1942, thus saving employers and workers about $275,000,000 in 1940 and $825,000,000for the
three years.
d. Administrative changes
The following recommendations
of the Board were enacted in the 1939 amendments:
(1) Employers are now required to make a statement to employees showing the amount of taxes deducted
from their wages under the old-age insurance system.
(2) The recovery by the Federal Government of incorrect payments to individuals has been rendered
easier.
(3) Provisions have been made respecting the practice of attorneys and agents before the Board.
(4) Employers are not required to pay taxes on payments they make under any employer welfare plan
providing for retirement benefits, disability benefits, medical and hospital expenses, etc.
2. Unemployment
Compensation
a. Coverage
In general, the Board advocated that coverage be extended to the same groups which it suggested
should be included under the old-age insurance provisions of the Act. With the passage of the
amendments, about 200,000 additional persons, chiefly bank employees, were brought into the
unemployment compensation branch of the system.
b. Financing
The Board felt that certain features of both the old-age insurance and unemployment compensation
sections of the Act should be standardized. Since, under old-age insurance, only the first $3,000 paid to
an employee is taxed, a similar recommendation was made for unemployment compensation, and it was
embodied in the 1939 amendments. A suggestion that the tax provisions of the two systems be combined
or made identical, in order to facilitate record-keeping, was not adopted. However, the Board asked that
the taxes for unemployment compensation be imposed on "wages paid," instead of "wages payable," and
when the Congress adopted this amendment it established the same basis as used in old-age insurance.
The Board proposed certain liberalizations in the time limit within which an employer could qualify for
the 90 percent credit against the federal tax by contributing to state unemployment insurance funds. As
asked by the Board, the time limit was extended where the employer has paid his tax on time, but to the
wrong state. Also, the amendments of 1939 saved employers approximately $15,000,000 by providing
that they would receive full credit for delinquent 1936, 1937 and 1938 taxes paid within sixty days after
the passage of the amendments. Other minor changes eased the stringent provisions governing
delinquent taxpayers.
c. Administrative changes
The following recommendations
of the Board were subsequently
enacted:
(1) As in the case of the old-age insurance provisions of the law, payments under employer welfare
plans are made exempt from taxation.
(2) States are required to establish and maintain a merit system for the personnel in unemployment
compensation agencies, in order to be eligible for federal grants.
(3) The Board recommended that the administration of unemployment compensation and of the United
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States Employment Service should be placed within a single federal bureau. Under Reorganization Plan
No. 1, the United States Employment Service was transferred from the Department of Labor to the
Federal Security Agency, and its functions were consolidated with the unemployment compensation
functions of the Social Security Board (see Item 66, this volume).
(4) As in old-age insurance, the language excluding state instrumentalities is clarified to apply to any
instrumentality wholly owned by the states or political subdivisions thereof, as well as those exempt
from tax under the constitution.
(5) Exemption offoreign governments and their instrumentalities from the unemployment compensation
tax.
(6) States are now required to enact laws providing that expenditures be in accordance with the
provisions of the federal act.
(7) The provisions relating to "merit rating" or "individual employer experience rating" have been
clarified in accordance with the recommendations of the Social Security Board.
3. Public Assistance
The Board recommended that the present uniform percentage grants be changed to a system which
would take into account the varying economic capacities of the States. However, no action was taken by
the Congress.
a. Old-age assistance, and aid to the blind.
The Board proposed that federal contributions for the administration of grants-in-aid to the states
should be increased. In the 1939 amendments it was provided that the federal government contribute 50
percent of state assistance payments to needy aged and blind up to a maximum limit of $40 a month.
Inasmuch as the previous limit was $30 a month, the maximum federal grant per aged or blind persons
was thus increased from $15 to $20 per month.
b. Aid to dependent children. The following recommendations of the Board were subsequently embodied
in the 1939 amendments to the Social Security Act:
(1) The contribution of the federal government toward state aid to dependent children was increased
from one-third to one-half of the amount granted to each individual.
(2) Where a child is regularly attending school, the age limit is raised from 16 to 18 to enable most
children to finish high school.
(3) Before the passage of the amendments, the federal government was limited to contributing $18 per
month for the first child and $12 per month for each child thereafter. The Board suggested a
liberalization of this amount, and now the federal government will pay one-half the amounts up to an
average of $18 per child per month throughout the state.
c. Public assistance for Indians
The Board advocated that the Federal Government reimburse the states for the entire cost ofpublic
assistance to certain Indians. No action was taken by the Congress upon this recommendation.
d. Maternal and child health services, and services for crippled children.
Although the Social Security Board made no recommendations on these aspects of public assistance,
which are administered by the Children's Bureau of the Department of Labor, testimony presented to the
Senate Committee holding hearings upon the Wagner national health bill (see Item 17 and note, this
volume) showed the immediate need for expanding assistance along these lines. Greater amounts of
federal money, under the 1939 amendments, are authorized to be appropriated to assist the states in
extending these services. The total amount authorized to be appropriated for maternal and child health
grants was increased from $3,800,000 to $5,820,000, while that for crippled children was increased
from $2,850,000 to $3,870,000.
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The 1939 amendments to those titles of the Act covering aid to the needy aged, blind, dependent
children, maternal and child health services and services for crippled children provided that approval of
state plans was contingent upon the establishment of personnel standards on a merit basis.
c. Public health work
The Social Security Board urged the enactment of the National Health Program presented by the
Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities (see Item 17, and note, this
volume). The amendments of 1939 stipulated that the amount authorized to be appropriated for federal
aid to state public health programs should be increased from $8,000,000 to $11,000,000. Following this
increase, particular emphasis has been placed upon developing control of tuberculosis, malaria, cancer,
pneumonia, and industrial hygiene.
4. Vocational Rehabilitation
The Board made no additional recommendations regarding this phase of the Social Security Act, but the
1939 amendments increased the annual allotment from $1,938,000 to $4,000,000, to be divided among
the states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
(For a discussion of the accomplishments of the Social Security Act, see Item 107 and note, 1935
volume; and Item 103 and note, 1938 volume.)
10. CAMPAIGN ADDRESS ON THE "ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS." OCTOBER 28,1944
The American people are now engaged in the greatest war in history—and we are also engaged in a
political campaign.
We are fighting this war and we are holding this election-both for the same essential reason: because we
have faith in democracy.
And there is no force and there is no combination of forces powerful enough to shake that faith.
As you know, I have had some previous experience in war—and I have also had a certain amount of
previous experience in political campaigning.
But-I must confess-this is the strangest campaign I have ever seen.
I have listened to the various Republican orators who are urging the people to throw the present
Administration out and put them in. And what do they say?
Well, they say in effect, just this:
"Those incompetent bunglers in Washington have passed a lot of excellent laws about social security
and labor and farm relief and soil conservation—and many others—and we promise if elected not to
change any of them."
And they go on to say: "These same quarrelsome tired old men have built the greatest military machine
the world has ever known, which is fighting its way to victory; and, if you elect us, we promise not to
change any of that, either."
"Therefore," say these Republican orators, "it is time for a change."
They also say in effect: "Those inefficient and worn out crackpots have really begun to lay the
foundations of a lasting world peace. If you elect us, we will not change of any of that either." "But,"
they whisper, "we'll do it in such a way that we won't lose the support even of Gerald Nye or Gerald
Smith-and-and this is very important-we won't lose the support of any isolationist campaign
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contributor. We will even be able to satisfy the Chicago Tribune."
Tonight, I shall talk simply about the future of America—about this land of unlimited opportunity. I shall
give the Republican campaign orators some more opportunities to say-"me too."
Today everything we do is devoted to the most important job before us~winning the war and bringing
our men and women home as quickly as possible.
We have astonished the world and confounded our enemies with our stupendous war production, with
the overwhelming courage and skill of our fighting men-with the bridge of ships carrying our munitions
and men through the seven seas—with our gigantic Fleet which has pounded the enemy all over the
Pacific and has just driven through for a touchdown.
The American people are prepared to meet the problems of peace in the same bold way that they have
met the problems of war.
For the American people are resolved that when our men and women return home from this war, they
shall come back to the best possible place on the face of this earth—to a place where all persons,
regardless of race, color, creed or place of birth, can live in peace, honor and human dignity—free to
speak, and pray as they wish-free from want-and free from fear.
Last January, in my Message to the Congress on the state of the Union, I outlined an Economic Bill of
Rights on which "a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all-regardless of station,
race or creed":
I repeat them now:
"The right of a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a
decent living;
"The right of every business man, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere offreedomfrom unfair
competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
"The right of every family to a decent home;
"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and
unemployment;
"The right to a good education.
"All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the
implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being."
Some people have sneered at these ideals as well as the ideals of the Atlantic Charter and the Four
Freedoms-saying they were the dreams of starry-eyed New Dealers-that it's silly to talk of them
because we cannot attain these ideals tomorrow or the next day.
The American people have greater faith than that. I know that they agree with those objectives—that they
demand them—that they are determined to get them—and that they are going to get them.
The American people have a habit of going right ahead and accomplishing the impossible.
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And the people today who know that best are the Nazis and the Japs.
This Economic Bill of Rights is the recognition of the simple fact that, in America, the future of the
worker and farmer lies in the well-being of private enterprise; and that the future of private enterprise
lies in the well-being of the worker and farmer.
The well-being of the Nation as a whole is synonymous with the well-being of each and every one of its
citizens.
Now, I have the possibly old fashioned theory that when you have problems to solve, objectives to
achieve, you cannot get very far by just talking about them.
You have got to go out and do something!
To assure that full realization of the right to a useful and remunerative employment, an adequate
program must provide America with close to sixty million productive jobs.
I foresee an expansion of our peacetime productive capacity which will require new facilities, new plants
and new equipment-capable of hiring millions more men.
I propose that Government do its part in helping private enterprise to finance expansion of our private
industrial plant through normal investment channels.
For example, business, large and small, must be encouraged by the Government to expand their plants
and to replace their obsolete or worn out equipment with new equipment. And to that end, the rate of
depreciation on these new plants and facilities for tax purposes should be accelerated. That means more
jobs for the worker, increased profits for the business man, and lower cost to the consumer.
In 1933, when my Administration took office, vast numbers of our industrial workers were unemployed,
our plants and businesses were idle, our monetary and banking system in ruins-our economic resources
were running to waste.
By 1940—before Pearl Harbor—we had increased our employment by ten million workers. We had
converted a corporate loss of five billion five hundred million dollars in 1932, to a corporate profit (after
taxes) of nearly five billion dollars 1940.
Obviously, to increase jobs after this war, we shall have to increase demand for our industrial and
agricultural production not only here at home, but also abroad.
I am sure that every man and woman in this vast gathering here tonight agree with me in my conviction
that never again must we in the United States attempt to isolate ourselves from the rest of humanity.
I am confident that, with Congressional approval, tile foreign trade of the United States can be trebled
after the war-providing millions of more jobs.
Such cooperative measures provide the soundest economic foundation for a lasting peace. And, after this
war, we do not intend to settle for anything less than lasting peace.
When we think of the America of tomorrow, we think of many things.
One of them is American homes~in our cities, in our villages and on our farms. Millions of our people
have never had homes worthy of American standards-well built homes with electricity and plumbing
and air and sunlight.
The demand for homes and our capacity to build them call for a program of well over a million homes a
year for at least ten years. Private industry can build and finance the vast majority of these homes.
Government can and will assist and encourage private industry to do this, as it has for many years. For
those very low income groups that cannot possibly afford decent homes, the Federal Government should
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continue to assist local housing authorities in meeting that need.
In the future America we think of new highways and parkways. We think of thousands of new airports to
service the new commercial and private air travel which is bound to come after the war. We think of new
airplanes, new cheap automobiles with low maintenance and operation costs. We think of new hospitals
and new health clinics. We think of a new merchant marine for our expanded world trade.
Think of all these vast possibilities for industrial expansion~and you will foresee opportunities for more
millions of jobs.
Our Economic Bill of Rights-like the sacred Bill of Rights of our Constitution itself-must be applied to
all our citizens, irrespective of race, creed or color.
In 1941,1 appointed a Fair Employment Practice Committee to prevent discrimination in war industry
and Government employment. The work of the Committee and the results obtained more than justify its
creation.
I believe that the Congress should by law make the Committee permanent.
America must remain the land of high wages and efficient
production. Every full-time job in America must provide enough for a decent living. And that goes for
jobs in mines, offices, factories, stores, canneries-and everywhere where men and women are employed.
During the war we have been compelled to limit wage and salary increases for one great objective—to
prevent runaway inflation. You all know how successfully we have held the line by the way your cost of
living has been kept clown.
However, at the end of the war there wilt be more goods available, and it is only good common sense to
see to it that the working man is paid enough, and that the farmers earn enough, to buy these goods and
keep our factories running. It is a simple fact that a greatly increased production of food and fibre on the
forms can be consumed by the people who work in industry only if those people who work in industry
have enough money to buy food and clothing. If industrial wages go down, farm prices will go down
too. After the war, we shall of course remove the control of wages and leave their determination to free
collective bargaining between trade unions and employers.
In this war, the American farmer has been called upon to do far and away the biggest food production
job in history.
The American farmer has met that challenge triumphantly.
Despite all manner of wartime difficulties-shortage of farm labor and of new farm machinery-the
American farmer has achieved a total of food production which is one of the wonders of the world.
The American farmer is a great producer; and he must have the means to be also a great consumer. For
more farm income means more jobs everywhere in the nation.
Let us look back for a moment to 1932. All of us remember the spreading tide of farm foreclosures; we
remember four-cent hogs, t-twenty-cent wheat,five-centcotton.
I am going to give you some figures of recovery-and I am sure you will pardon me if I quote them
correctly.
In 1932 the American farmers' net income was only two and a quarter billion dollars.
In 1940—a year before we were attacked—farm income was more than doubled to five and a half billion
dollars.
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This year-1944-it will be approximately thirteen and a half billion dollars.
Certainly the American farmer does not want to go back to a Government owned by the moguls of
1929-and let us bear it constantly in mind that those same moguls still control the destinies of the
Republican Party.
We must continue this Administration's policy of conserving the enormous gifts with which an abundant
Providence has blessed our country—our soil, our forests, our water.
The work of the Tennessee Valley Authority is closely
related to our national farm program, and we look toward the similar developments which I have
recommended in the valley of the Missouri-in the valley of the Arkansas-and in the Columbia River
Basin.
And accidentally—and as an aside—I cannot resist the temptation to point to the gigantic contribution to
our war effort made by the power generated at TVA and Bonneville and Grand Coulee.
Do you remember when the building of these great public works was ridiculed as New Deal
"boondoggling"? And we are now planning developments at Grand Coulee, which will provide irrigation
for many thousands of acres-providing fertile firm land for settlement-I hope-by many of our
returning soldiers and sailors.
More "boondoggling"!
This Administration has put into the law of the land the farmers' long dream of parity prices.
And we propose, too, that the Government will cooperate when the weather will not-by a genuine crop
insurance program.
This Administration adopted-and will continue-the policy of giving so many farmers as possible the
chance of owning their own farms.
That means something to those veterans who left their farms to fight for their country.
This time they can grow apples on their own farms instead of having to sell apples on street comers.
I believe infreeenterprise~and always have.
I believe in the profit system-and always have.
I believe that private enterprise can give full employment to our people.
And if anyone feels that my faith in our ability to provide sixty million peacetime jobs is fantastic, let
him remember that some people said the same thing about my demand in 1940 for fifty thousand
airplanes.
I believe in exceptional rewards for innovation, skill, andrisk-takingby business.
We shall lift production and price control as soon as they are no longer needed-encouraging private
business to produce more of the things to which we are accustomed and also thousands of new things, in
ever-increasing volume, under conditions offreeand open competition.
This Administration has been mindful from its earliest days, and will continue to be mindful, of the
problems of small business as well as large.
Small business played a magnificent part in producing thousands of items needed for our Armed Forces.
When the war broke out, it was mobilized into war production. Money was loaned to them for
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machinery. Over one million prime and subcontracts have been distributed among sixty thousand
smaller plants of the Nation.
We shall make sure that small business is given every facility to buy Government-owned plants,
equipment and inventories. The special credit and capital requirements of small business will be met.
And small business will continue to be protected from selfish and cold-blooded monopolies and cartels.
Beware of that profound enemy of the free enterprise system who pays lip-service to free
competition-but also labels every antitrust prosecution as a "persecution."
This war has demonstrated that when the American business man and the American worker and the
American farmer work together, they form an unbeatable team.
We know that—our Allies know that—and so do our enemies.
That winning team must keep together after the war, and it will win many more historic victories of
peace for our country, and for the cause of security and decent standards of living throughout the world.
We owe it to our fighting men and to their families—we owe it to all of our people who have given so
much in this war-we owe it to our children-to keep that winning team together.
The future of America, like its past, must be made by deeds-not words.
America has always been a land of action-a land of adventurous pioneering-a land of growing and
building:
America must always be such a land.
The creed of our democracy is that liberty is acquired and kept by men and women who are strong and
self-reliant, and possessed of such wisdom as God gives to mankind—men and women who are just, and
understanding, and generous to others-men and women who are capable of disciplining themselves.
For they are the rulers and they must rule themselves.
t
I believe in our democratic faith and in the future of our country which has given eternal strength and
vitality to that faith.
Here in Chicago you know a lot about that vitality.
And as I say good-night to you, I say it in a spirit of faith—a spirit of hope—a spirit of confidence.
We are not going to turn back the clock!
We are going forward-and-with the fighting millions of our fellow countrymen-we are going forward
together.
27 of 27
12/3/98 5:32 PM
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The Presidcnlial Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936, Item 67 Address at Little Rock. Arkansas. June 10
These problems, with growing intensity, now flow past all sectional limitations. They
extend over the vast breadth of our whole domain. Prices, wages, hours of labor, fair competition,
conditions of employment, social security, in short the enjoyment by all men and women of their
constitutional guaranties of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-these questions, reflected
with the speed of light from the Atlantic to the Pacific,fromthe Canadian Border to the Gulf of
Mexico-these problems we are today commencing to solve. It is true that the new approach to
these problems may not be immediately discernible; but organization to meet human suffering can
never be predicated on the relaxation of human effort.
IgJOOd
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The Presidential Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938, Item 104 Radio Address on the Third Anniversary of the Social
Security Act. White House, Washington, D.C. August 15
It has significance for the needy men, women and children receiving assistance and for
their families—at least two million three hundred thousand all told; with this cash assistance one
million seven hundred thousand old folks are spending their last years in surroundings they know
and with people they love; more than six hundred thousand dependent children are being taken
care of by their own families; and about forty thousand blind people are assured of peace and
security among familiar voices.
i^ou^
�10/22/98 THU 12:49 FAX
The Presidential Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938, Item 104 Radio Address on the Third Anniversary of the Social
Security Act. White House, Washington, D.C. August IS
Long before the economic blight of the depression descended on the nation, millions of
our people were living in wastelands of want and fear. Men and women too old and infirm to
work either depended on those who had but little to share, or spent their remaining years within
the walls of a poorhouse. Fatherless children early learned the meaning of being a burden to
relatives or to the community. Men and women, still strong, still young, but discarded as gainful
workers, were drained of self-confidence and self-respect.
^uua
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1^004
The Presidential Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938, Item 145 Radio Address on the Election of Liberals. November
4
Democracy in order to live must become a positive force in the daily lives of its people. It
must make men and women whose devotion it seeks, feel that it really cares for the security of
every individual; that it is tolerant enough to inspire an essential unity among its citizens; and that
it is militant enough to maintain liberty against social oppression at home and against military
aggression abroad.
�10/22/98
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The Presidential Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936, Item 230 Address at Montevideo, Uruguay. December 3
In the days of General Artigas and of his friend President Monroe, human society had, of
course, little conception of the economic and social problems which we face today. None of the
fathers of any of our Republics had even heard of an eight-hour day, of minimum wages, of
protection for women and children, of collective bargaining between employers and employees, of
old-age security, of modem sanitation, of concrete highways, of railroads or steel buildings. The
fathers had no thought of the telegraph, the radio, the automobile, or of travel by fast steamships
and by air. They knew little of the problems of modem science, of modem finance.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Michael Waldman
Description
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<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
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1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Still Image
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Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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[State of the Union 1999] Social Security: Facts/Real People
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 53
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36403"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 1
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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6/3/2015
Source
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg1-053-008-2015