THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1935 “SOCIAL SECURITY.”

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 159, 21 June 1935, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1935 “SOCIAL SECURITY.”

Although President Roosevelt has met with some unexpected and serious checks to his more ambitious and, it has to be admitted, largely speculative schemes for speeding up economic recovery in his country, lie has at length been successful in getting through Congress a social measure that is at least equally dear to his heart-To-day we have news that the Senate lias, with some slight modifications, passed what the message, adopting the American custom of dubbing a bill by the names of its congressional sponsors, speaks of as the Wagner-Lewis Bill. This measure, in earlier days discussed as being designed to embody the President’s ‘‘social security” ideas, forms an integral and very important part of his New Deal plans and, unlike many of them, is intended to be lasting in its operation and to take a permanent place in the social system. The cabled summary of it probably does not quite cover all the reforms that the President had in mind, but it is quite likely that it is entitled to be described, as the cable describes it, as ‘‘the most comprehensive measure of its kind ever adopted in any session by any parliament in the world.” That description, however, is > only a sample of American journalistic magniloquence, for when we come to analyse the Bill’s provisions as cabled wc find that they embrace nothing whatever that is very new to our own little country or even to ‘‘effete” old Great Britain. The fact of the matter is that in measures of this kind, as also in its industrial legislation, the United States, for all its claims to lead the world in its material progress, has lagged far behind in the promotion of schemes for the amelioration of conditions among the mass of the people. It may be. perhaps, that this is to a great extent due to the

fact that its immense range of natural resources, all awaiting the hand of man for exploitation, has spelt a general run of almost uninterrupted superficial prosperity in which the needs of the undergrades of the social structure have been obscured. It can scarcely be said that, amid all its great hives of industry, something of the kind has not long been called for. Possibly the want of it accounts, at least partly, for a spread of crime among them that lias made the country somewhat notorious in this respect. Tn any event, the pressure of recent circumstance has been such that action could scarcely be any longer delayed, and in President Roosevelt the people are fortunate in having a man prepared to tackle, the problem in an energetic way. So wc have him succeeding, but not without a good deal of factious opposition, in forcing through Congress a measure which incorporates means to his end that have long since been adopted in older countries hitherto somewhat pityingly looked upon as less happily placed and as lacking in the progressive spirit. It was, of course, only to be expected that, having once approached the problem, it would be dealt with on the grand scale that appeals to a people who crave the reputation for the ‘‘biggest ever.” Thus it is said that the, measure—which now requires only the assent of the House of Representatives to the amendments made by the Senate—is ‘‘wider in its scope than any that has over before been attempted anywhere.” It is in this way that a salve is sought for a political conscience that has been very rudely shocked ’out of its complacent neglect of very pressing social problems. The name of Franklin Roosevelt will go down in American history as a great adventurer in economic experiments whose success or failure has yet to be revealed. It should, however, be sure of a lasting place as the real author of a measure of social justice that lias been delayed long after the need for it had become plainly apparent.