Social Security for Water Works Men [with Discussion]

theory of social security is not new in America. Most states, insofar as their resources permitted, were meeting the problems of child welfare and public health, care of the needy blind, and needy aged, for some time prior to 1935, when federal social security legislation was enacted. Governmental old-age insurance, which has long been established as a feature of workers' security systems in other countries, was new to the United States. The American philosophy of individualism had left the matter of saving for old age entirely to the worker with disastrous results. Small savings cannot be invested advantageously; bank failures, business depressions, and unemployment often defeat the most carefully organized plan for individual saving. The feature of old-age insurance in the Social Security Act of 1935 was designed to meet this problem by means of cooperation between the federal government and the states in meeting needs that heretofore had been left to charity or to piecemeal and haphazard provisions by individual cities, counties, and states. Through a national oldage insurance system administered by the federal government, effective January 1, 1937, l 'industrial and commercial workers have an opportunity to build up a retirement income, based on their own industry and assured by the federal government. " The relationship of water works employees to this legislation has not changed since the meeting of the American Water Works Association two years ago, at which we presented a paper on the subject (Jour. A. W. W. A., 29: 1111 (1937)). At that time the federal Social Security Act had recently been put into effect, the purpose of which was to provide against the uncertainties of the future, both as