Some Backgrounds to American Social Security

At the last meeting of the Society, social insurance was the subject of the presidential address. The philosophical approach of the joint paper by Mr. Jarvis Farley and Mr. Roger Billings raised certain questions as to the definition and the scope of the social insurances. It is a tradition that a presidential address is safe from discussion, though I believe I recall something very like a debate between ex-President Greene and Secretary Fondiller concerning a social insurance problem of governmental experimentation. This paper is suggested by all of these Society discussions; is not a direct reply to any of them, but is something that seems called for since social insurance responsibilities had heretofore apparently pressed rather lightly on our consciences.