PENSIONS AND POLITICS

Although currently a very touchy subject among Washington legislators, old-age pensions--and particularly the Townsend Plan--have become a very real factor in the national political arena. Dynamite because of the emotional fervor of its followers, the aged Californian's celebrated brain-child has caused, and is still causing, many a headache. An investigation into the politics played in the last congressional election is still making headlines today, and although it is doubtless too much to expect that any really objective wisdom can be shown in such an atmosphere, one nevertheless hopes that before long Congress will evolve a workable, economically sound, program of old-age pensions.

The iron is now hot. Attacks on the Social Security Act, and more particularly on the unwieldy reserve fund which is already accumulating, have built up the all-important political atmosphere. Appalled by the spectre of $47,000,000,000 falling into the hands of American Senators and Representatives, economists and political scientists have led the movement to revise the Act itself, and so successful has this movement been that political expediency now demands compliance. Realizing this fact, a New Deal advisory heard, the Social Security Council, has been examining ways and means of revision, and recently recommended more liberal benefits in the early years of the plan in addition to the oft-heard suggestion that all categories of workers be included in the payments. This would head off the fantastic reserve fund, and at the same time go a long way to satisfy the embarrassingly potent demand for large old-age pensions.

A movement that is politically so appealing as to capture both Sheridan Downey and Leverett Saltonstall cannot be ignored. Increase of retirement benefits and extension of the scope of recipients would do much, but the plan must be put permanently upon a reliable, pay-as-you-go basis. Eventually, the aged and dependent must be provided with a comprehensive program of old-age insurance, and it is generally recognized that the Federal government must provide at least a portion of the necessary funds. If so, time is of the essence, for calm, unemotional study is becoming progressively less and less possible in proportion as pensions become a political football.