Newspapers / The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, … / Jan. 3, 1936, edition 1 / Page 9
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BRISBANE THIS WEEK A Pretty Good Christmas Germs Travel High We Are Coughing Better Prairie Dogs, Catacombs It was a aatiafactory Christmas, th( best aince the depression began. Th< nation at least knows that the depres ?Ion la here and that attending to It Instead or talking about things "Jusi around the corner," Is the program. The government knows that monoj was made to be spent In emergencies and that helping the people Is cheauei than revolution. The government Is spending and helping. Colonel Lindbergh proves, aftei transatlantic flights, that bacteria can travel across the ocean by air. Tht winds of the north Atlantic carrj microscopic germs of life through the upper air. Disease germs might trav el, thus, across either ocean. That Interests anybody planning to make war more Interesting by adding disease germs to poison gas and high explosives. Scientists already believed that, since life cannot be created on the earth, eScept supernaturally, life be gan on this planet probably with germs that had traveled millions, per haps billions, of miles through space at absolute zero. They started life on the earth when it had sufficiently cooled off. and may have been brought in the wake of flying meteors. Heat destroys microscopic life, cold does not. Cheerful optimists, telling you that conditions are getting better, remind you of Meyer Hecht's benevolent friend who told each tuberculosis patient, "You are coughing better this morn ing." We all are "coughing" a little Wet ter. It has been the best, most free ly spending Christmas season since the depression began. Merchants testify to that. The -season of grand opera opened In New York with every seat sold and a demand for seats nonexist ent. Mr. Holl, able secretary of state, wants freer trade witfc_foreign coun tries. Those that shut their markets to the outside world are like "animals which burrow In the ground," says Mr. Hull. That might be true, without proving that protection is unwise. Animals burrowing in the ground ? prairie dogs, etc. ? would regret It if they came to the surface and sat around inviting coyotes to eat them. Early Christians burrowing in the catacombs were better off than they would have been on the surface, thrown to the lions. It is better for this country to bur row under protection than be thrown to the lions of free competition of la bor and manufacturing. Occasionally you hear what Mr. Field called "a sour note" Id the hope ful chorus of "Happy Days Are Here Again." Senator Dickinson of Iowa ? Republican, of course ? says NRA plans hare collapsed. He finds that "monopoly" Is being encouraged, pri vate Initiative Is being depressed and the small business man driven to the wall ? "The rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer." That will be news for some of the rich ? they had not heard It. You may hear many of them say now. "If I can get together and keep enough to take care of my family, that is all I ask," and they mean it. Projects thus far proposed by con gressmen and executives in Washing ton would cost Uncle Sam, In addition to money already spent, $30,000.0110,000, and would double the rational debt. If tbe money were wisely created, wisely spent, the country would be better off, with many employed In useful work. But If it is found necessary to Inflate with interest-bearing bonds, instead of simply printing the money and later retiring it as bonds would be retired, the $30,000, 000,000 would cost the coun try $60,000,000,000. Is it really necessary to force on taxpayers that extra load of $30,000, 000,000 for Interest, when Interest bonds are Just so much "Inflation money," In no respect different from greenbacks? According to dispatches from Nan king, China'* killing methods make the efforts of Stalin or Hitler seem feeble. Gen. Klang Kal-Sbek gives proof In Klangsi province. Six million people have been driven from their homes and 1,000,000 killed In cold blood by "Red Communist" troops. The killing championship Is now with China, naturally one of the most peaceful countries on earth. Mr. Irenee du Pont, munitions man ufacturer, who knows about war, since he produces "tbe goods," tells the muni tions committee "the only way to wage a war is to have an absolute monarch at tbe head of the government": also shall have a b ? 1 of a time in case of war." No question about the last statement Mr. Baruch, entering whole-hearted ly into the President's campaign to f>revent profits for munitions makers In wartime, wisely urges preparation, ?ays the country should buy and store thousands of tons of tin for use In the event of war. "I think we ought to buy tin Just as we would Invest In a battleship, and keep it Id ttorage." I ?. Kins rwturM Syndic*!*. Inc. WNU S?rrlc?. Unemployment Insurance Much Debated Question By WILLIAM C. UTLEY WHAT to do with the man who wants to work, who Is able to work, who needs money for himself and bis family, but who simply can't find a Job, is one of the most Important Issues facing the country today. It's no new problem. There are, even in normal times, some 2.000.000 or 3,000.000 workers who have no work; but now, with the world still in the throes of tha depression, that figure has probably multiplied five times or more. It would hardly be possible to se cure employment for everyone with out changing the Industrial structure and the country's whole system of pro duction. But while we are trying to alleviate yie condition to the greatest possible degree, we have got to do something to relieve not the lack of work Itself, but the lack of life's ne cessities to the families of the unem ployed. "Relief," "work relief' and "maile work" have been doing the Job so far and have drained enormous sums from governmental treasuries. To lighten this drain, to administer aid to the unemployed more efficiently and to make for what might be a more unified, permanent method of adminis tration. prominent factions, led by Wil liam Green, president of the American Federation of I. ah or, and Frances Per kins, secretary of labor, favor a na tionally-unified system of compulsory unemployment insurance. The plan approved by the President's economic security advisory committee crs, yet during the flrst half of 1032, I the last period for which figures are I available, the benefits cost the tarpay- i ers 64.000.000 florins, or more than 125. 000, QpO at par. Norway's trade unions < sucneded in insuring only 8 per cent i of the total number of workers. In i Switzerland. Yugoslavia and Spain, i government subsidies were constantly i growing In the last few years. In Fin- | land, the voluntary Insurance plan. In i fact, all unemployment Insurance, was i abolished because of accusations of i Communistic tendencies In the trade i union groups. I While the chief objections that have < been thrown at voluntary unemploy- < ment Insurance through- the trade i unions are that they have not Insured enough of the workers and have re- I Group of Unemployed. Upper Left: Secretary of Labor Perkins. Right: President Roosevelt Lower Right: Judge C. B. Ames. recently Is based upon contributions by employers through a 3 per cent pay roll tax. The employer would bear the full expense of the plan. The federal | government would aid state insurance I plans, which it had approved, by pay ing grants to the state funds from this I tax. If this plan should be accepted by the country, jobless workers would be paid 50 per cent of their former sal aries, but not less than $15, each week for 25 weeks In the year. The tax fund would pay for the first 15 weeks and as many more weeks as any par ticular state saw fit Three old age pension plans were also considered. Tried In Europe. While new to any great extent In the United States, unemployment In surance has been tried extensively throughout Europe, with questionable success. Voluntary unemployment In surance through trade unions has been tried by Belgium. Czechoslovakia, Den mark, France, the Netherlands, Nor way, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and Finland, and all but the latter still have It to some degree. Austria, Bul garia, Germany, Great Britain, the Irish Free State, Italy, Luxemburg, Northern Ireland, Poland. Russia and Switzerland, as well as New Zealand and Queensland, Australia, have com pulsory unemployment Insurance. Berne, Switzerland, started the first communal unemployment Insurance fund in 1893, and In the years follow ing, many other Swiss towns and can tons followed suit But the real cra dle of unemployment insurance was Belgium, where the City of Ghent be gan a voluntary plan in 1902. This plan spread rapidly throughout Bel gium and adjacent territories in Eu rope. It was a failure, for the work ers didn't seem to want It, and In 1931 less than 30 per cent of them were Insured. The system wag costing the government huge sums of money, about the only success within Its claims be ing attributable to government sub sidies. Much the same situation existed with other countries who tried voluntary Insurance against unemployment suf fering. Czechoslovakia, with only 31 per cent of its workers Insured, drained Its national treasury to such an extent In aiding the relief programs that the plan, while still In use. Is generally recognized as inadequate. France has some 300 voluntary systems, with only about 300.000 workers so insured ; the associations, playing a minor role Id relief, have constantly been in difficul ties. France has another system, based upon local Municipal funds assisted by federal grants; these grants have had to be increased year after year until Anally they were more than doable In proportion : and the lion's share of the moneys for local distribution was com ing from taxpayers throughout the na tion. Found It Expensive. The Netherlands' trade unions In jured only about one-third of the work quired governmental subsidies oat of proportion to the amount of good they have accomplished, only the latter crit icism has applied to compulsory Insur ance, economically speaking. Compul sory insurance simply hasn't been able to meet emergency situations. Great Britain, with Its Unemploy ment Insurance act of 1911, became the first great experimenter with compul sory unemployment Insurance. At first It was limited only to a few trades. Insuring only 2,250,000 workers. It re quired equal contributions to the fund from the employee, employer and gov ernment. To stabilize employment, employers were granted refunds as bonuses for providing steady employ ment Refunds were offered to em ployees who had paid for long periods. Both of these amendments were soon withdrawn as having little effect and being difficult of administration: The plan was In a few years extend ed to Include virtually all types of workers, the only ones left out being agricultural workers and domestic serv ants. It worked satisfactorily in nor mal times, but soon came the great war. By 1916 there were 1,250,000 ad ditional workers engaged In the manu facture of munitions. The government extended the benefits of the insurance fund to these workers, as well as to thousands of others In allied Indus tries. Then Cams the Dole. Two years later, with the end of the war In sight, the government was re quired to make some provisions for the return of several million men and women engaged on the battlefronts, making the world Bafe for democracy. They had to have Jobs or an Income when they returned home. The gov ernment. operating through the labor exchanges of the Insurance system, be gan making "out of work" donations ? the beginning of the oft-lamented "dole." So many were still out of Jobs by 1920 that unemployment Insurance ben efits bad to be extended to more peo ple, Including agricultural and domes tic workers. Continued unemployment required extensions of the time limit In the benefit payments. In March, 1921, the Insurance fund was permit ted to borrow up to 10,000,000 pounds from the exchequer. Although Intend ed to be temporary, the extended bene fits have been allowed ever since. And until 1931, the Insurance fund was al lowed to continue Its borrowing from the government By the time a stop had finally been put to the flow of money from the treasury, the debt of the Insurance fund bad reached $575, 000.000. In addition, local relief au thorities spend about $125,00,000 a year caring for the unemployed. Criticisms were hurled at the Brit ish government that the dole and the system of extended benefits were pro ducing a great share of the unem ployed population wnich preferred to remain unemployed, because it could get money without working, anyway. More than half those on the benefit roll* were single men without deiieoa rats, married men with wives working jr widows without dependents. The attitude of the employer ? and even of the taxpayer ? in most cases Is "What would we have done without It?" Meanwhile the unemployment insur ance fund was the subject of so nuch legislation this way and that, that It had both legislators and odookers llzzy. Germany, after much experimenting with methods of handling unemploy ment relief, investigated Great Brit tin's unemployment Insurance system and. In 1027. decided to give an experi ment similar to that one a try. Hene Bts, derived from contributions of a similar source to those of Great Brit ain's scheme, were applied to virtually ill types of workers. Including the ag ricultural. But the system, like so many others, was not comprehensive enough to care for extraordinary con ditions and, like so many others, be came simply a matter of relief and did little or nothing to ease its own burden by creating Jobs or by allowing Its Industries to try tbelr hand at creating jobs and taking workers off relief rolls. The 700,000 workers out of work when the 1927 art was passed became more than 6,000,000 by February, 1032. It simply returned the heavier work of caring for the unemployed to the national and local governments. By the middle of 1929 It owed the govern ment $85,000,000. Before another year had passed the figure had risen to $148,000,000 and all hope of payment vanished. At the end of 1930 federal subsidies and loans to the Insurance fund stood at $279,800,000, which had to be taken from the pockets of the taxpayers, many of whom also paid their contributions to the Insurance fond. Worse and Worse. Despite all these grants, there were at tbe end of 1931, only 1,642,000 out of C, 668, 000 unemployed who were de riving regular benefits. A total of 1,011,000 were receiving no aid at all. While undoubtedly no more Inoppor tune time for the Institution of a Ger man unemployment system coold have been selected, it Is ccrtainly obvious that the plan has been a complete fail ure, and no better off, financially, than the British system. Bulgaria and Austria hare been more successful with compulsory unemploy ment Insurance, although the Austrian government was forced to cancel a debt of approximately *20,000.000 owed (it by the Insurance fund. Italy anil the Irish Free State have been the out standing examples of the financial sac cess of social insurance. However. Italy's Insurance covers only 4,500.000 workers out of 10,000,000. Kor the classifications for which it is Intended, it may be said that It has paid out benefits which total only 44.4 per cent of the contributions. The Irish have consistently kept contributions ahead of disbursements. American business leaders refuse to consider that unemployment Insurance Is emergency legislation, and through the voice of their conference at Warm Springs. Ga., in December, they have asked that legislation on the subject b? deferred until such time that they may make a comprehensive study of social Insurance and determine wheth er or not a feasible plan may4 be worked out The conference has aske<l that the business leaders and capital be given a chance for a year at least to see what they can do to restore normal business conditions, creating better markets and more jobs. The chairman of the Warm Springs confer ence, Mr. t. B. Ames, was named to head the committee to study uncm ployment Insurance. Greatest of Life's Joys Found in Helping Others "Oh, my G ? d ? now Conrad can re tire!" That was the first response of a winner In the Irish Sweepstakes lot tery when told that she was richer I by $150,000. "Conrad" Is her husband, a laborer for a chemical company. Their name Is Lenz, ainl they were married when Ihey came over from Uermay to gether XTye^rs ago. They have chil dren and grandchildren. "He hat i worked so hard all his life." she says, "I'm so happy that now he can rest." We may be Impelled to the thought that being the wife of a laborer, bringing up a family on ? laborer's wage, was not exactly a cinch, either. There must have been a good many things Mrs. Lens might hare wished for in those 32 years, that $150,000 could bring her now. But her only thought is that "Conrad can retire." Another winner was Angle GralTeo, : a girl working In a factory as a dress operator. She won ttu.OOO. And what was her first thought? "I'm going to take my mother and my stepfather on a trip to Europe, and build a house for them !" Perhaps ilie accusation is true that we women lead "contingent lives," that we live In the lives of those we care for. Certainly to one who knows women there Is toothing un usual about the wife who thought first of what her good fortune would mean to her husband, or the daugh ter whose Joy was in terms of what it would do for her parents. Does anybody feel sorry for them? Are you wondering whether their sacrifice Is appreciated, and thinking how they might be enjoying .the ful fillment of dreams for themselves? Then consider If that wife would really get more satisfaction out of the jewels and fine clothes and motor cars that she might enjoy on the money she won than she Is actually getilng out of the realization of her husband being freed from the need to labor in his old age. Or the daugh ter who thought first of her parents ? would her life be really richer If her new fortune meant chiefly the at tainment of the luxuries and pleas ures which young people so often .confuse with liapplness? I don't believe women are to be pitied because they think first of those they love. For despite the bad repute of the thought for Its fre quency Id sermons and preachments. It Is true that there Is no richer joy, no more glowing realization or ful filment In this life than that which comes of being able to give to those we love. ?. Bell Syndicate. ? WNU Service. Canadian Stonehenge Indications of similarity in primi tive religious cults have be?n dis covered la every continent, and It Is now accepted that what Is called the New world contains some of the world's most ancient relics of dead civilizations. A recent archeologlcal find Is reported from Canada. A museum curator was on a canoe trip with a friend in the Whltesheet for est preserve 100 miles east of Win nipeg, when they stumbled on a sa cred area which they compare with Stonehenge. They found a number of large upright stones and monu ments In weird formation, covering an area of several acres, which are thought to have been erected by members of a snake cult of Cree or Chlpewa.van Indians many centuries ago. ? London Tit-Bits. Tim. Most of ns think of Time as the fleeting present, plus the days and years that are to come. This is th? reason we lose out. Time Is now. It makes little difference what we are going to do some time, but It does matter what we are doing now. ?Grit. 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The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Jan. 3, 1936, edition 1
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