On being my brother’s keeper in 2014

Some of the most compelling moral teaching for a civilized world is found in the Bible in the first four chapters of the book of Genesis. In chapter four, the story of a murder is reported. Cain killed his brother Abel. The brothers had a dispute. Cain settled the conflict by taking him into a field and killing him. God appeared on the scene and asked the whereabouts of Abel. Cain’s response was simple. “I don’t know. Am my brother’s keeper?”

Cain’s question still echoes through the chambers of history. It is the great moral issue of civilized people.

I am a child of the Great Depression. The poverty that paralyzed the 1930s is still vivid in my memory. I was born and grew up in Fairbury, a small farm town in central Illinois. It was the birthplace and hometown of Francis E. Townsend. (His autobiography is one of the prize volumes in my personal library.) Townsend became a physician and ended up with a medical practice in Long Beach, Calif. As a doctor, he saw the poverty of the Great Depression firsthand. He had an abundance of patients who could not pay. In 1933, he developed what became the Townsend Plan. It was first published as a letter to the editor in the Long Beach Press-Telegram in August of that year. It called for a monthly payment of $200 to each and every person in the United States who was 60 years old or older. There was one key requirement: people had to spend the money every month.

Townsend was a devout Christian. He believed that people, collectively through their government, had to answer Cain’s question in the affirmative. The enormous poverty and suffering was beyond anything the private sector could do. Government was the only viable answer.

The public response to Townsend’s letter to the editor was overwhelming. Townsend had touched a nerve of the American people. Within two years, more than 11,000 Townsend Clubs were formed across America. Townsend Plan rallies drew thousands. I found myself as an impressionable boy in the midst of the movement.

Every year Francis Townsend returned to Fairbury to lead a rally for the plan. Fairbury was a town of about 2,000 people. It was estimated that 10,000 people each year descended on Fairbury for the rally. Fairbury became an incredible sea of older people. You can only imagine the impression left on this young boy.

The political impact of the Townsend Plan and the Townsend Clubs was very powerful. Senators and Representatives and the U.S. President were struck with fear of the movement.

Roosevelt was a newly elected president. There is little evidence that Roosevelt was moved by the plight of those who were most vulnerable in the Great Depression. I am speaking of people, who were old, sick, lived with handicaps or mired in poverty, and who were unable to participate in the work world. His proposals were driven by “trickle down” thinking. Roosevelt apparently believed the needs of vulnerable people would be met when the economy of the nation was fully recovered. Roosevelt’s massive program proposals were all about jobs and economic recovery, not about caring for the needs of America’s most vulnerable.

Franklin Roosevelt is today given credit for bringing Social Security to America, and rightfully so. However, many historians believe that Social Security would not have been enacted without the pressure of Dr. Francis E. Townsend, the Townsend Clubs and the Townsend Plan. The Social Security Act was signed into law in August 1935. The Social Security Act that was signed by Franklin Roosevelt fell short of the far-reaching proposal that was made by Townsend. However, it was enough to politically placate the energy of the Townsend movement. Amendments were eventually added (mostly after World War II) that have brought the program to the comprehensive level that is now in operation.

I have now lived with the benefits of Social Security for 24 years. My father lived on Social Security benefits for more than 25 years. I am very thankful for the assistance my father and I received and that I continue to receive from my fellow Americans. I was only a young boy in the mid-1930s when the great debates were taking place about the social and economic responsibilities that we have for one another. I remember the poverty of older Americans and the despair of those in need.

Those who today badmouth Social Security do not understand the misery of the Great Depression. They badmouth government involvement in addressing critical social issues. They do not grasp the benefits or the importance of Social Security to older Americans and are willing to answer Cain’s question with a resounding “no!” Their response is to let the rich get richer and wait for their crumbs to fall to those in need.

America’s greatness is tied to the way we answer the question posed by Cain. In 1933, a 67-year-old doctor watched two older women searching for food in a garbage bin. He, prompted by Cain’s question, wrote a letter to the editor of his local paper that initiated the drive toward the Social Security system on which the nation’s vulnerable citizens depend. In 2014 when we hear people, obsessed by the economy and job creation, badmouth government involvement in housing, health care, education and adequate income for vulnerable people, we know they are ducking the great moral issue of humanity.

Am I my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper? In 2014 the answer is still “yes.”

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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