The Woman Behind the New Deal by Kirstin Downey

Author:Kirstin Downey [Downey, Kirstin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-385-52950-1
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2009-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

SOCIAL SECURITY

oblessness. Strikes. Immigration. Huge new public works programs. By 1934, Frances certainly had a full plate. But instead of conserving her strength or allowing herself to become distracted by the whirl of issues she confronted daily Frances now began to turn her attention to solving some of the larger societal problems, including unemployment and care for the aging, that had been of concern to her since her settlement house years.

The problem of the indigent elderly had been brought into stark relief with the onset of the Great Depression. Few of the nation’s 6.5 million people who were sixty-five and over had made provisions for their golden years. Even those with savings saw their hard-earned dollars dissipate in failed stock and real estate investments. Only about three hundred thousand had public pensions, through the states or federal retirement systems. Another one hundred fifty thousand received pensions from their private employers or unions. The rest were on their own.

Some 30 to 50 percent of the elderly sought support from friends or relatives, and adult children often found this burden unendurable. Humiliated seniors turned to charity, and around seven hundred thousand obtained federal relief1

Physician Francis Townsend, who worked for the health department of Long Beach, California, looked out the window one day and saw three elderly women rummaging in a garbage can for discarded food. Townsend bellowed with rage about the world’s injustices, and his wife begged him to quiet down. “I want all the neighbors to hear me!” he shouted. “I want God almighty to hear me. I’m going to shout till the whole country hears!”2

And so he did: Townsend started a grassroots political movement, urging the federal government to provide seniors with $200 a month in spending money. Townsend Clubs, operating like old-style Baptist Revival meetings, spread everywhere.

Frances thought Townsend’s plan was foolhardy. Where would that kind of money come from? Its popularity, however, meant that the momentum for solutions was growing. Frances pondered the options. She looked to Europe, where old-age pensions were common, and wondered how best to adapt them to the United States.

In other countries, while employees and employers contributed to the pension system, the central governments also made significant contributions from general funds. In the United States it would be difficult, if not impossible, to convince citizens that the government should somehow become the primary supporter of people’s older years. She focused on ensuring that people could contribute substantially to their own accounts. She looked to the insurance model, in which people pay in when they are employed, so that they can get money back when they are not.

During Roosevelt’s first year, officials had been too busy to launch either unemployment or old-age insurance programs. Now, a year had passed, and Frances insisted that the time was right. She nagged the president to get it started. “It is probably our only chance in twenty-five years to get a bill like this,” she told Roosevelt.3

Finally, Roosevelt gave her the nod. With joblessness rampant, Frances decided to go for unemployment insurance first.

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