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Research Note #8:
The Special Role of the University of Wisconsin in the History of
Social Security |
The state of Wisconsin has a long and distinguished
progressive political tradition, dating back into the 19th century.
The organized social insurance movement in America really started
when the legendary Professor John R. Commons of the University of
Wisconsin, and a handful of other progressive leaders, founded the
American Association for Labor Legislation in 1906.
Wisconsin was the first state to enact unemployment compensation benefits
for its citizens, in 1932. And the Wisconsin system, designed in large
measure by Professor Commons, was the starting point for the federal
unemployment insurance program that became part of the Social Security
Act in 1935.
The University of Wisconsin also had a close and important connection
to the Social Security program, from its very beginnings. Professor
Edwin Witte, who taught in the Department of Economics, was the Executive
Director of the Presidential Committee on Economic Security (CES)
that designed the Social Security program in the summer and fall of
1934.
Another Wisconsin alumnus, Arthur Altmeyer, was one of the three executives
appointed by President Roosevelt to constitute the original Social
Security Board, which was the organization created to carry out the
Social Security Act. Altmeyer was Chairman of the Social Security
Board from 1937 through 1945--when the Board was replaced by the current
Social Security Administration. Altmeyer immediately the first Commissioner
of SSA, and he served in this capacity until his retirement in 1953.
Altogether, Arthur Altmeyer headed the Social Security program for
16 years--longer than anyone else in the program's history.
One of Professor Witte's students, Wilbur Cohen, came with Witte to
work on the CES in 1934, and stayed on to become the Social Security
Board's first professional employee. Cohen was a key figure in the
development of the Social Security program; and he went on to become
a member of President Johnson's cabinet, as Secretary of Health, Education
& Welfare. Cohen was also one of the two or three people most
responsible for the creation of the Medicare program.
Because of Wisconsin's long connection to the Social Security program,
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, to this day, is one of
the leading repositories for records relating to the history of Social
Security. |
Larry
DeWitt
SSA Historian's Office
July 2000 |
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