Are The Aged Deserving:
The Townsend Plan Considered
from a New Angle
Joseph F. Cowern
[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, March-April
1937]
Within a few days I will be sixty years old. My wife is about that
age. Being neither aliens nor criminals, if the Townsend Plan became
operative we would receive an income of $400 a month. Assuming the
dollar to retain its present purchasing power, as it is claimed that
it would, I could retire and devote myself to research, reading,
fishing and puttering around with the lawn and flower beds. We have
often wished that we could take a trip to Norway or Labrador in the
summer and to Florida or Mexico in the winter. The necessity of
earning a living has prevented such trips. With the Townsend Plan in
operation such dreams could come true.
It all sounds very alluring and it is little to wonder at that the
idea spread for a time like wildfire, with Townsend Clubs springing up
all over the country as thick as mushrooms after a soaking rain in the
late fall. The arguments advanced to support the plan are subtle, and,
on the surface, persuasive, appealing not only to natural cupidity but
to the fine instincts of the simple good. Those who joined these clubs
are, in the main, plain, honest people who have worked hard all their
lives and who look upon the plan much as a weary plow horse looks upon
a restful, green pasture at the end of a hot day's work. It holds out
the promise of a glorious and restful sunset to the lives of millions
who have spent their strength in years of toil and penury.
It can be conceded that the plan does credit to Doctor Townsend's
heart and I, for one, would never think of questioning his honesty or
sincerity. It has been stated that the plan was born after Doctor
Townsend had seen the gnarled hands of two old women, with weary
workworn bodies, groping for food in the garbage cans of wealthier
fellow humans. The mental anguish caused by that sight and all that it
implied tormented the good Doctor so that he could not rest until he
had found what he considered a solution of the problem of want in a
land of plenty. Would that those who can think straight, if any there
be, might suffer the same anguish and set to work on a solution of the
same old problem! While I do not agree with the Doctor's remedy and
may even consider that its application would only aggravate the
disease that he seeks to cure, I am willing to take my hat off to him
as one who saw the problem and at least attempted to solve it. That is
more than can be said of most of those who criticize him and his plan.
So far as my observation goes, the objections advanced against the
Townsend Plan are all based on monetary and economic grounds. It is
pointed out, and, in fact, convincingly demonstrated to many minds,
that it would bankrupt the nation and defeat its own ends by reducing
practically everyone to a state of pauperism.
Let us approach the problem from a different angle by asking the
question as to just why anyone should be solicitous about the aged. On
what grounds and by what right should they receive special
consideration? Rewards are supposedly based on merit. Theoretically,
at least, they are earned. What have the aged really done to earn
anything at the hands of the young? In attempting to answer these
questions we should follow the advice of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus who
many years ago penned these words as valid today as the day they were
written:
"Make for thyself a definition or description of
the thing which is presented to thee, so as to see distinctly what
kind of a thing it is, in its substance, in its nudity, in its
complete entirety, and tell thyself its proper name, and the names
of the things of which it has been compounded, and into which it
will be resolved. For nothing is so productive of elevation of mind
as to be able to examine methodically and truly every object which
is presented to thee in life, and always to look at things so as to
see at the same time what kind of universe this is, and what kind of
use everything performs in it, and what value everything has with
reference to the whole, and what with reference to man, who is a
citizen of the highest city, of which all other cities are like
families; what each thing is, and of what it is composed, and how
long it is the nature of this thing to endure."
Having walked, so to speak, all around the plan and viewed it from
all angles, it seems to me that there are two vitally important
factors that must be weighed in determining whether the aged merit the
special consideration proposed. First: What did they start out with?
What talents were given them? Second: What did they accomplish? What
are they about to turn over to succeeding generations? In other words,
what use have they made of the talents entrusted to them?
Let us consider briefly what they started out with:
- They had been furnished free by the Creator with a planet which
we call the earth. They held that planet in trust for use, and not
wasteful and sinful destruction, the remainder interest being in
future generations subject to the same trust. That planet was
stocked with an overwhelming abundance of everything needed by man
for his material needs. On such planet there is no real excuse for
any human being lacking food, clothing, shelter, or even the
luxuries of life.
- They had been endowed by their Creator with the ability to
reason. Correct reasoning involves straight thinking, which should
be comparatively easy when the faculty is used. It becomes hard
work only when the faculty is so seldom exercised as to become
rusty.
- They were acquainted with the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. They knew what was good and they knew
what was evil.
- They were endowed with free will so that whatever path they
chose was chosen voluntarily.
- They had the benefit of past history. Civilizations that had
flourished and collapsed or disintegrated could be laid upon their
dissecting table and studied for example or warning. The same is
true of various so-called reform movements, many now current, most
of which have been tried in times past and found wanting.
- They had available the knowledge of God's will for over
nineteen hundred years ago the Word was made flesh and dwelt
amongst us.
The above may not be all they had, but it was enough to make possible
a heaven on earth. What have the aged done with it? In what way have
they used the talents entrusted to them? What does the account of
their stewardship show? Are they turning over to the young a heaven or
a hell on earth? They received much and much can reasonably be
expected of them.
"For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be
required." Luke 12:28.
Let us look at their record. Some of the results they accomplished,
or made their own by neglecting to change, ;may be briefly summarized
as follows:
- They have engaged in foolish and destructive wars. In the
recent World War practically all of the nations involved were
nominally Christian. In that war they killed directly about
10,000,000 of their finest [physical specimens. L. Hersch,
Professor of Statistics and Demography at the University of
Geneva, in a recent [article makes the assertion that the total of
direct and [indirect victims of the World War, men, women and
children, would total 41,435,000. Millions more were badly
[wounded. They destroyed billions of dollars worth of I property.
They piled up staggering loads of debt for [those who follow to
pay or repudiate.
- Not satisfied with the stupendous folly of the World War they
immediately start to prepare for a worse war. The earth trembles
with the march of men under arms. Industry staggers with the
burden of supporting them and of furnishing at mounting costs ever
increasing numbers of machines of death, while at the same time
Spaying for past follies.
- Instead of love they have bred hatred between nations, hatred
between races, and even hatred between so-called Christian bodies
of differing faiths.
- Where millions need things that could be produced in abundance,
we find millions of unemployed not counting those crippled by
accident or disease or those too lazy to work. Want is on every
hand. Even little children suffer for lack of proper food,
clothing or shelter. We have desperate men able to work and
willing to work who have no jobs and little hope of finding any.
Many of the young cannot marry because they have no work and many
more who have work are afraid to marry because they have no
assurance that their work will continue. Thousands of graduates
from our colleges and universities pour forth each year and eat
their hearts out in bitter disappointment as they find no place
for them. The conditions here outlined are measurably true in what
we call good times as well as in times of depression.
- They have raised artificial barriers to natural trade where God
has placed none, thinking that puny man is wiser than his Creator.
As a result, we find all nations raising such barriers,
dislocating normal commerce and increasing unemployment and want.
- They have wasted or bartered away natural resources and have
sought to create plenty by causing an artificial scarcity, even
descending to the folly of destroying food.
What a picture! What a sad commentary on the job done by the aged!
The waste of natural resources and of potential human possibilities is
staggering and sickening. It breeds despair and worse. And it is on
this record that the aged hopefully ask that the young shoulder an
additional and back-breaking burden by liberally pensioning them as
though they had done something deserving of such kind treatment! When
a jackass gets too old to work we put an end to him with a bullet, and
a jackass is an animal of considerable sense. Certainly no jackass
ever went hungry when he was surrounded with an abundance of food. Men
do in the social structure reared, or preserved, by the aged and for
which they are responsible.
The Townsend Plan proposes to give all those over sixty years old a
pension of two hundred dollars a month. Objections to the plan have
been made on monetary and economic grounds. My point is that there is
another objection embodied in this question: "On the record they
have made, have the aged as a class earned a pension of two hundred
dollars a month for each and every person over sixty years old or any
pension at all?" The answer must be "No."
I have dealt with the aged as a class because the Townsend Plan deals
with them as a class. There are those among this class who are
deserving. There are those who have no share in the responsibility for
the conditions outlined. There are those who have actively opposed the
policies that led to such conditions. The Townsend Plan makes no
discrimination and I have made none. We are not dealing here with a
plan to pension the worthy or the helpless but with the Townsend Plan.
A justitia (quasi a quodam fonte) omnia
jura emanenl.
From justice as from a fountain, all law springs forth.
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