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The New York Times
To the Editor: "... Our Social Security system is as different in
conception,
purpose
and responsibility from private insurance as the United States Government is
from the United States Steel Corporation or the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company. Our program of national defense provides security
against external aggression. Our program of Social Security is a national
defense against the corroding effects of poverty and hardship resulting
from old age, disability or death. Both kinds of defense are financed
through the use of the constitutional taxing and appropriation powers of
the Government. Both have become perpetual, inherent obligations of a
sovereign government.
The obligations of a government in a democracy become the
obligations of
its people - all its people. The decision on what is adequate protection
against hardship is for Congress to make. It is not a matter of private
contract but of national concern for the welfare of our people. Financed
on a current-flow basis, Social Security benefits can be adjusted to
current needs and costs of living. The essential source of security is the
taxing power of a sovereign government, not the precise size of an
equalization fund.
In sum, the basic conception, purposes and responsibilities of
our national Social Security system are: (1) to provide adequate protection
against hardship - adequate under the current conditions: (2) to be the
mutual financial responsibility of all the people - employers, workers
and the general taxpayer - with no excluded groups, and (3) to seek
constantly its proper area of service as a basic, universal protection of
our people, the best means of financing the benefits required and the best
possible administration to maintain public trust."
The second and longest-serving Director of Princeton's
Industrial Relations Section
from 1926-1955, Dean Brown is most responsible for shaping a vision for
the Section and ensuring its long-term financial security. J. Douglas
Brown was affiliated with the Section for fifty-two years and was Dean of
the Faculty and later Provost for twenty-one years. He was the author of
many scholarly works in social security and industrial relations and a
tireless public servant.
In fact, Brown was one of the principal architects of our nation's
Social Security system. He served as Chair of the first Federal Advisory
Committee on Social Security, 1937-38. He was a Special Advisor on Social
Security to the Secretary of the
Treasury in l939 and served on the Advisory Council on Social Security,
Senate Finance Committee, 1947-48
READINGS Advisory Council on Social Security. Final Report. December 10, 1938.
P94.919.017.03 Brown, J. Douglas (James Douglas), 1898- An American philosophy of social security: evolution and issues.
Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1972.
HD7125.B69 Brown, J. Douglas (James Douglas), 1898- The genesis of social security in America. Princeton, N.J.
: Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, 1969.
HD7125.B81 Brown, J. Douglas (James Douglas), 1898- The idea of social security. Baltimore, Md. : U.S. Dept of
Health, Education, and Welfare, Social Security Administration, Bureau of
Old Age and Survivors Insurance, Division of Management Planning and
Services, 1958.
HD7125 .B82 Robert M. Ball 1914-Robert M. Ball has had a long career in the field of Social Security.
In 1939 he joined the Social Security Board as a Field Assistant in a New
Jersey field office. In 1942
he moved to Social Security's headquarters in Baltimore where he quickly
became the organization's chief staff expert on the issue of expanding
coverage.
Ball was Director of the Social Security Advisory Council
1948-1949 ( resulting in major 1950 Amendments ) Returning to the Social
Security Administration (SSA) in 1949, Ball was made Assistant Director of
the Bureau of Old Age and Survivors
Insurance, and eventually, Deputy Director and Acting Director.
In 1962, President Kennedy appointed Ball, Commissioner of
Social Security, a position he held under three Presidents--retiring in 1973.
During his time at SSA, both the disability program and Medicare were enacted,
and Ball was again very influential in the development of both of these
landmark pieces of legislation.
In 1981-1982 Ball was an influential member of the Greenspan
Commission, which resulted in the 1983 Amendments--the last major piece
of Social Security legislation in the 20th century. Writing in 2001,
historian Edward D. Berkowitz described Ball as "the major
non-Congressional player in the history of Social Security in the period
between 1950 and the present."
READINGS Ball, Robert M. Insuring the essentials : Bob Ball on Social Security : a
selection of articles and essays from 1942 through 2000. Edited by Thomas
N. Bethell. New York : Century Foundation Press, 2000.
HD7125 .B2787 2000 Ball, Robert M. Social security, today and tomorrow. New York : Columbia
University Press, 1978.
HD7125.B28 Ball, Robert M. Straight talk about social security : an analysis of the
issues in the current debate. New York : Century Foundation Press,
1998.
HD7125 .B279 1998 SOCIAL SECURITY
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