1. Rep. Jere Cooper (D-TN).
Cooper was a member of the House Ways and Means Committee
and would go on in subsequent years to become something
of an expert on Social Security topics and he was
a major force in Social Security legislative developments
during the 1940s to the mid-1950s. Mr. Cooper also
rose to the position of Chairman of the Ways &
Means Committee during the Eighty-fourth and Eighty-fifth
Congresses.
2. Rep.
Claude Fuller (D-AR). Fuller was a
member of the Ways & Means Committee and was generally
opposed to the Administration's bill. During Committee
consideration he made motions seeking to strike key
provisions of the legislation. But when his efforts
failed, he compromised with the Administration and
joined in voting for passage of the bill.
3
. Rep. Robert Doughton (D-NC) was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. As such
he was the principal official sponsor of the legislation
in the House.
4. Rep. Frank Buck
(D-CA) was a second-generation
industrialist and fruit grower from California. He was a
member of the House Ways & Means Committee, which had
jurisdiction of the bill in the House. He graduated from
Harvard Law School and served five terms in Congress, from
1933 until his death in 1942. (Representative Buck has
often been misidentified in photos of the signing as being
Edwin Witte. Witte, in fact, was not in the signing photographs.)
5. Rep. John Boehne, Jr.(D-IN) succeeded his father as a representative from Indiana. He
was first swept into office in the 1932 elections with President
Roosevelt and strongly supported FDR's programs. At first,
he was against the Social Security bill and wanted to exempt
industrial employers with their own pension systems.
6
. Sen. Robert Wagner (D-NY) was born in Germany, immigrated to New York City, attended
law school and was elected to the Senate in 1926. He served
four terms. He was a close associate of Frances Perkins
and helped draft several early New Deal measures. Wagner
introduced the bill into the Senate. His son, Robert F.
Wagner, was mayor of New York City for 16 years.
7
. Sen. Alben Barkley (D-KY) was a seven-term Congressman before being elected to the
Senate in 1926. By 1937, he was Senate Majority Leader and
a decade later, Vice President of the United States. He
was an ardent New Dealer and helped shepherd the Social
Security Act through the Senate. He argued for "a universal
and uniform program in general." He didn't want to
exempt certain private groups merely because they already
had pension systems, as was proposed by some conservatives
in the Congress.
8
. This individual is presently unknown.
9
. Sen. Robert LaFollette, Jr., (PROG-WI) was the eldest son of Robert LaFollette, a progressive Senator
from Wisconsin and one-time presidential candidate. When
his father died in 1925, Robert Jr., then only 30 years
old, was appointed to succeed him. Initially elected as
a Republican, LaFollette changed his party affiliation to
the Progressive Party in 1934. LaFollette served on the
House-Senate conference committee that drafted the final
version of the Social Security bill. He served in the Senate
until 1946, when he was defeated by Joseph McCarthy. In
1953, LaFollette committed suicide in Washington, D.C.
10
. Rep. John Dingell, Sr. (D-MI).
Rep. Dingell was a member of the House Ways & Means
Committee. He was a prominent leader in Congress in sponsoring
social insurance legislation and teamed with Senator Wagner
he authored a couple of important precursor bills to the
Social Security Act. (Several authors have identified
Dingell as "unidentified man" in some versions
of the signing photo.)
11. Sen. Augustine Lonergan (D-CT) was a native of Connecticut and a graduate of Yale University.
Although he was a four-term Congressman, he served only
one term in the Senate. During the discussions on the Social
Security bill, Lonergan gave information about various private
insurance annuities to show how they compared to the social
insurance program that was being proposed.
12
. Frances Perkins was
appointed Secretary of Labor in 1933, making her the first
woman to hold a cabinet-level position. Like FDR, she was
a child of privilege, but became a strong advocate for the
poor and working class. She began her career in New York
City as a social worker and held several responsible State
government jobs. She served as head of Roosevelt's Committee
on Economic Security, set up in 1934. The Social Security
legislation sprang from this committee.
13. Rep.
Frank Crowther (R-NY) was a Republican member
of the House Ways & Means Committee;
14. Sen. William H. King (D-UT).
King was a conservative Democrat and member of the Senate
Finance Committee. King expressed persistent opposition
to many features of the bill as it was being considered,
and his support of the legislation was in doubt until the
last possible minute. In the end, he voted for passage of
the Social Security Act. (Senators King and Harrison
have often been confused in the signing photos, including,we
are embarrassed to admit, in SSA's own OASIS magazine. Clue:
King has a bowtie, Harrison has a regular long tie.)
15. Rep. David J. Lewis (D-MD) was a member of the House Ways & Means Committee and
was probably the leading expert on social insurance legislation
on the Committee. It was Lewis, a former coal miner and
self-taught lawyer, who introduced the Social Security bill
into the House on January 17, 1935. However, Chairman Doughton,
exercising what he took to be the Chairman's privileges,
made a copy of Lewis' bill and submitted it himself. Then
he persuaded the House clerk to give him a lower number
than Lewis' copy. Newspapers then began calling the bill
"The Wagner-Doughton bill." When Lewis found out,
he sputtered and swore, then went to work to understand
every sentence and master the arguments in favor of the
bill. And when David Lewis walked down the aisle of the
House to debate on the bill's behalf, he received a standing
ovation–a subtle rebuke to Chairman Doughton's high-handed
treatment.
16
. Sen. Byron Patton "Pat"
Harrison (D-MS) was a Congressman for 8 years
before being elected to the Senate in 1918. In his book
"The Development of the Social Security Act,"
Edwin Witte gives Harrison credit for his "adroit"
handling of the Social Security bill in the Senate Finance
Committee. According to Witte, Title II would not have been
approved by the Committee without Sen. Harrison's help.
Harrison went on to serve in the Senate for the rest of
his life and was elected President pro tempore 6 months
before his death in June 1941. (In other versions of
the signing photo, Sen. Harrison can be more clearly seen
wearing a white suit and tie and holding his trademark cigar.)
17. Sen. Joseph Guffey (D-PA) was 65 years old at the time the Social Security Act was
passed, although he was only a first-term Senator. From
Pennsylvania, he served two terms before being defeated
in 1946. His vote on the Social Security bill was in doubt
until the final roll call.
18. Senator
Edward Costigan (D-CO), a member of the Finance
Committee.
19. Rep. Samuel B. Hill (D-WA) was a member of the House Ways & Means Committee.
20. Rep. Fred Vinson (D-KY) was a member of the House Ways & Means Committee. He would go on to serve as Secretary of the Treasury and as a Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
21
. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
NOTE: For more biographical
information on any of the members of Congress see the U. S.
Senate Biographical Directory of the United States Congress on the Senate
website |