THE NEW DEAL-- THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT OF 1935 gggff

We are reproducing here the full text of the classic 1937 work Social Security in America.

The Committee on Economic Security The President's Committee on Economic Security (CES) was formed in June 1934 and was given the task of devising "recommendations concerning proposals which in its judgment will promote greater economic security." In a message to Congress two weeks earlier President Roosevelt spelled-out what he expected the CES to achieve. ". . . 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." The Committee's work was extraordinary in its scope and remarkable for its brevity. In barely six months the CES designed the first comprehensive federal social insurance program in the nation's history. The CES intended to produce a complete system of social insurance, in the broadest possible meaning of the term. It was to include workers' compensation, health insurance, disability insurance, unemployment compensation, old-age benefits, survivors' benefits and various types of family and maternity benefits. This was to prove an illusive challenge. Not everything contemplated by the CES at the outset made it into their final proposal, for example, health insurance was deferred for later study. And not everything in the CES proposal made it into the final law, for example, the proposal for voluntary old-age annuities did not survive Congressional review. But the Report of the CES was the basic blueprint for what would come to be the Social Security Act. The work of the CES was in many ways historic and in some ways heroic. One of the participants in this watershed undertaking, Thomas Eliot, in his posthumously published memoir, described his work with the CES in this way: "And what was it like, to be there? The best way to answer that question is to quote Wordsworth: 'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, And to be young was very Heaven.' " The Reports The basic text of the original CES report to the President was 50 printed pages, with an Appendix containing a list of Committee members and 19 additional tables of data. The full work of the CES was contained in 10 large volumes of reports and studies, which were never published. In 1937, two years after passage of the Social Security Act, the new Social Security Board published a summary of the unpublished volumes of the Committee's work. This book, "Social Security In America," published in 1937, contains a summary of the unpublished material. This book, therefore, represents the only published work documenting the study and analysis that underlay the creation of the Social Security program. The book has been out of print since 1937, and is being republished here in its entirety. It is important to appreciate that this book is not a full record of the CES' studies. The still unpublished 10 volumes of studies contain many reports and some key recommendations that are absent from the 1937 book. As the Preface to the book put it: "The present report is a summary of some of the most important information in the staff studies. Completely omitted from consideration in this summary were numerous studies which concerned problems not dealt with in the Social Security Act or which have been published privately. In many instances the specific recommendations included in the voluminous staff reports have been omitted, as these are now largely only of historical interest. In this summary informational data in the staff reports have also been greatly reduced in volume, but it is believed that the most essential facts have been included." Despite its shortcomings, this book is a foundational document in the development of the Social Security Act in 1934-35. Until the unpublished 10 volumes become available, this electronic reprint of "Social Security in America" is the most complete documentation of the work of the CES and is perforce the most complete explication of the case for social insurance made by the CES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Note: Page numbering and page-breaks are maintained as in the printed version of the book.  SECTION PAGES INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL    I-V TITLE PAGE AND PREFACE   XIV-XIX LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES     PART I- UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION CHAPTER I  3-16 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II  17-54 A SUMMARY OF FOREIGN EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT CHAPTER III  55-72 ESTIMATES OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER IV  73-90 THE ACTUARIAL BASIS FOR UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION CHAPTER V  91-104 THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION CHAPTER VI 105-136 STANDARDS OF UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION: STRUCTURAL PROVISIONS     PART II- OLD-AGE SECURITY CHAPTER VII 137-154 THE ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF OLD AGE CHAPTER VIII 155-180 PROVISIONS FOR THE AGED IN THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER IX 181-188 OLD-AGE SECURITY ABROAD CHAPTER X 189-216 FORMULATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AN OLD-AGE SECURITY PROGRAM FOR THE UNITED STATES CHAPTER XI 217-228 OLD-AGE PROVISIONS OF THE FEDERAL SOCIAL SECURITY ACT     PART III- SECURITY FOR CHILDREN CHAPTER XII 229-232 CHILD WELFARE IN A GENERAL PROGRAM OF ECONOMIC SECURITY CHAPTER XIII 233-250 AID TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN CHAPTER XIV 251-258 WELFARE SERVICES FOR CHILDREN NEEDING SPECIAL CARE CHAPTER XV 259-286 MATERNAL AND CHILD-HEALTH SERVICES CHAPTER XVI 287-300 A PROGRAM OF SPECIAL SECURITY MEASURES FOR CHILDREN     PART IV- PROVISIONS FOR THE BLIND CHAPTER XVII 301-314 PROVISIONS FOR THE BLIND     PART V- THE EXTENSION OF PUBLIC-HEALTH SERVICES CHAPTER XVIII 315-344  THE EXTENSION OF PUBLIC-HEALTH SERVICES CHAPTER XIX 345-384 THE NEED FOR FEDERAL SUPPORT OF SOCIAL SECURITY PROGRAMS     APPENDIXES APPENDIX I 385-402 PROCEDURES FOLLOWED IN ESTIMATING UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COVERAGE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1922-33 APPENDIX II 403-414  PROCEDURES FOLLOWED IN ESTIMATING DURATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1922-33 APPENDIX III 415-422 PROCEDURES FOLLOWED IN ESTIMATING THE MAXIMUM DURATION OF BENEFIT APPENDIX IV 423-439 THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE APPENDIX V 440 SUMMARY OF STATE UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION LAWS, JANUARY 1, 1936 APPENDIX VI 441-448 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROVISIONS OF THE CANADIAN EMPLOYMENT AND. SOCIAL INSURANCE ACT APPENDIX VII 449-452 OLD-AGE INSURANCE IN GREAT BRITAIN APPENDIX VIII 453-458 THE CANADIAN PENSION SYSTEMS APPENDIX IX 459-468 SURVIVORS' INSURANCE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES APPENDIX X 469-498 FINANCIAL HISTORY OF THE WORKERS' INVALIDITY, OLD AGE, AND SURVIVORS' INSURANCE OF GERMANY APPENDIX XI 499-513 BIRTH RATE AND INFANT AND MATERNAL MORTALITY TABLES APPENDIX XII 514 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT RELATING TO FEDERAL GRANTS TO STATES FOR PUBLIC-WELFARE PURPOSES APPENDIX XIII 515-520 CREATION AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC SECURITY AND AFFILIATED GROUPS APPENDIX XIV 521-524  STAFF OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC SECURITY APPENDIX XV 525-530  LIST OF STAFF REPORTS APPENDIX XVI 531-560 THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT     INDEX INDEX 561-592 INDEX