WHAT IS THE WELFARE STATE?
Humphrey, Senator Hubert H.
What Is the Welfare State? . . . By Senator Hubert H, Humphrey THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY over the "welfare state" can be boiled down to the question of whether we favor, or are...
...On the tightening battlefront between the Tory and the liberal conceptions of government, there is no escaping the fact that the "welfare state" has become the political issue...
...In considering the basic intent and purpose of the Department of Welfare I proposed in the, last session of Congress, we can well turn to the Constitution of this nation and read, once again, the phraseology of its magnificent preamble: "We, tha people of the Untied States, In order to form a mora perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for tha common defense, promote the gen* aral walfsra...
...Every time an attempt has been made to apply that purpose to the people at large, and not simply to the rich and the well-entrenched, the sume cry has been raised by the same kind of people...
...By Senator Hubert H, Humphrey THE POLITICAL CONTROVERSY over the "welfare state" can be boiled down to the question of whether we favor, or are against, measures to promote the general welfare of the people of this country...
...The dictionary defines welfare as "state of faring, or doing well...
...Throughout our history, any government project which involved spending the people's money in the interest of the people has called forth the same thunder and the same forked lightning...
...Opponents of the Fair Deal have chosen to misuse the word "welfare" in political propaganda...
...to promote the general welfare...
...It is good that the Democratic party and the liberal movement in America have been willing to accept the designation of "welfare state," in spite of the fact that the phrase has acquired a political significance that far overshadows its actual definition...
...The establishment of a Department of Agriculture, a Department of the Interior, a Department of Commerce, and a Department of Labor, the beginnings we have made in providing public health and social-welfare services, all have come in response to definite and concrete needs of the people...
...As for myself, every instinct calls for resentment against this deliberate twisting and distortion of the simple and homely word, "welfare," and the implied assumption that anything connected with it is leading this nation down the road to "statism" or "socialism...
...Ha helped push through s strong civil rights plank at tha Democrats' National Convention in July, 1S48, and In the November election won Joseph Ball's Ssnste seat by a landslide...
...This was a speech delivered in 1828...
...They have tried to associate the meaning of the word in the minds of many people with the various community social services to aid the poor and helpless...
...THE REACTIONARIES have seTSNF on this phrase to express their contempt and scorn for all progressive social legislation...
...Glib, bustling young Hubert H.^ Humphrey !i one of tha most colorful figures in American politics...
...But the tone of voice is always the same, the purpose is always the same, the philosophy is always the same...
...But let us not be deceived about their intentions...
...Let us not be influenced by semantics...
...Even so cursory a summary indicates what a potent force the general welfare principle has been in the peaceful progress of our country along the road to democracy...
...the only hope we have of protecting the basic framework of a free private enterprise economy...
...Here was a phrase which introduced a new light into a world of tyranny and darkness: ". . . . promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...
...They have chosen to give it a wholly restrictive meaning, carrying with it the stigma of charity...
...And all of these functions of Government have contributed, and contribute today, to the general welfare of the people,, of the United States whose Government this is...
...Perhaps it would be more accurate to say their fear of all progressive social legislation, yet I am at a loss to understand why they should fear it, except out of blindness, for this kind of legislation, if wisely drawn, is...
...Here is an illustration of political semantics...
...If the firm "welfare state" had been in existence, it certainly would have been included in that speech attacking Adams...
...as if welfare were a synonym for police...
...Only the phrase changes...
...And Adams' crime was that he proposed an extensive program of internal improvements for the country, to be financed by the Government out of the sale of public lands...
...The phrase, "welfare state," is comparatively new...
...snd secure tha blastings of liberty to ourselvts and our posterity, do ordain and establish mis Constitution for tha United States of America...
...LET US NOTE an excerpt from a speech by a former, high-ranking Government official, Hugh Legare, Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams— himself a former Secretary of State— which I think you will agree has a familiar, disturbing ring...
...And finally, those who themselves conceived the phrase as a means of smearing policies and programs which they know the people want, come to believe the implications they read into it, and even attribute the epistemology of the phrase to us...
...Each'generation has interpreted the principle according to its own needs, to meet its own peculiar problems...
...The phrase is usually spoken with a curl of the lips, a sneer, a hint of terror...
...The Government," this gentleman says, "has bean fundSsasniaUy altered . . . instead of confining Itself in times of peace to the diplomatic and commercial relations of the country, it is seeking out employment for itself, and by interfering with tha domestic concerns of society, and threatens in the course of a vary few years to control in tha most offensive and despotic manner all tha pursuits, the interest, the opinions, snd tha conduct of man...
...It is repeated in the same way, with the same inflection and the same sinister insinuation, time after time...
...in an attack against President John Quincy Adams of the Massachusetts Adamses...
...As Mayor of Minneapolis, ha revamped the tiring Democratic-Far mar Labor Party of Minnesota...
...especially condition of health, prosperity, etc.: negatively, exemption from evil or calamity...
...This is the same battle that has been fought in the United States ever since it was said, in the preamble to the Constitution, that one of the major purposes of this Government...
...He Is also national chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, which ha halpsd found...
...It is true that even in this restricted sense it requires '''¦¦¦ssjSjjamWe lack of social conscience and undersTJ^jjno to invest the term with an unfavornbj^jneaning for political expediency...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 9
