52nd Year
M
EDFORD
United Press ull Leased Wir
2nd SECTION
Social Security Administration
Assures People it's Not in Red
By LOUIS CASSELS
United Press Correspondent
Washington !W An organiz
tion with $22,500,000,000 in
liquid assets is being kept busy
these days assuring its clients
that it is not going broke.
The organization is the Social
Security administration. The
clients who are concerned about
its solvency are oldsters and not-so-oldsters
who have built their
retirement plans around month
ly social security checks.
They have been telephoning,
writing and calling in person at
social security offices to inquire
about published reports that the
government's huge old age and
survivors' insurance program is
"running into the red."
Their inquiries would be easy
to answer if social security of
ficials could dismiss the whole
thing as a wild rumor. But the
truth, as usual, is a good deal
more complicated than that
even if no more alarming.
It is a fact that social security,
for the first time in its 20-year
history, is paying out more
money for benefits this year than
it is collecting in payroll taxes.
Interest Bridges Gap
Interest payments on the $22,-
500,000,000 worth of government
bonds in the social security trust
fund will bridge the gap between
income and outgo during 1957,
and will leave a surplus of about
one million dollars to be added
to the trust fund at the end of
the year. So there's no red ink
on the social security books yet.
Next year, however, the old
age insurance system may ac
tually show a small deficit, even
after interest payments from the
trust fund are figured in.
By 1959, it will be necessary
to dip into the trust fund re
serves for perhaps as much as
750 million dollars to balance
the books.
Obviously, if this trend con
tinued very long it would lead
to bankruptcy even in an or
ganization with m.-re than 22
billion dollars in reserves.
But social security officials
say there is no danger that it
will continue past 1959. A law
already ' on the books provides
Ike Signs Public
Works and Wafer Bill
Washington W President
Eisenhower reluctantly signed
Monday a public works and wa
ter development bill packed
with 700 million dollars worth
of projects added by Congress
over administration protests.
He went on record with a spe
cial statement criticizing the
legislators' inconsistency in add
ing the unbudgeted local pro
jects while demanding economy
in other fields.
The bill appropriates $858,
094,323 for civil functions of the
Army Corps of Engineers and
units of the Interior Depart
ment to start or continue work
in the current fiscal year on res
ervoirs, .rivers and harbors and
flood control projects.
Elkhart Lake, Wis. (TP)
Officials of the Road America
500-mile race, planned for Sept.
6, indicated today a deer in the
bush is worth two in the road.
They will shoo an overabund
ance of deer away from the
four-mile circuit with a special
"hunting" p rty a few days be
fore the race.
SOBBING SIMS SAYS:- .
"Why pay more when you can buy
the BEST for so little?"
SCHWINH SPITFIRE
BICYCLES
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24" for 7 to 8 years ;4895
20" for 5 to 7 years .4495
r
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26" for 10 years and up with 3-speed
Gears Front Hand Brake and Foot
Brake for added safety
Monarch Rocket Bikes
20" - $39.95
26"
23 North Fir Sr.
SiiS
MEDFORD, OREGON,
that the social security payroll
tax, now 2',i per cent-each on
employers and employees, will
go up to 234 per cent each at
the start of 1960.
This increase in revenue will
put social security safely back
into the black. And although
benefit payments will continue
to rise in the future, so will the
payroll tax.
ProTide Automatic Increases
Congress has provided for
automatic increases every five
years through 1975, if the law
remains as is, the tax will final
ly level off in 1975 at 414 per
cent for employers, 4Vt per cent
for employees, a total of 8Vi
jper cent.
With this kind of money com
ing in, social security and its
clients can face the future with
confidence. Projections by chief
actuary Robert J. Myers indicate
that social security will show a
surplus every year after 1959
until at least 2010. By that
time the trust funds is expected
to reach $115,962,000,000.
Myers' figures show the trust
fund interest payments combin
ed. But a Congress meeting 60
years hence could avoid the
downward by another slight Up
ward revision of the payroll tax.
Social security benefits for re
tired workers now range from
a minimum of S24 to a maxi
mum of $108.50 a month for an
individual. For a couple, both
of whom are over 65, the month
ly check may be as high as
$162.80. If a future Congress
should decide to raise these
benefits witlftut a compensat
ing increase in the payroll tax
that would of course throw the
actuaries' computatijns out of
gear.
The temporary dip into red
ink which lies directly ahead of
social security was forseen by
the actuaries when the present
schedule of tax increases was
enacted by Congress in 1956.
But it has come a little sooner
than 'the experts figured.
Farmers Qualify
The reason is that about 375,
000 self-employed farmers con
siderably more than social secur
ity expected have qualified for
retirements benefits since Con
gress extended social security
coverage to them in 1954.
Following the same formula
which has been applied to all
newly-covered groups in every
extension of social security cov
erage since 1937, Congress pro
vided a short-cut to benefits for
farmers who were already ap
proaching or past 65 when the
laws was passed. They could
qualify for lifetime benefit
checks by paying social security
taxes on their farm earnings for
two crop years.
This was a windfall for many
elderly farmers. For example, a
farm couple past 65 could pay
as little at $24 in taxes in 1955
and 1956, and start drawing
checks for $142.50 a month in
1957.
Although the resulting rush
of over-65 farmers to social se
curity offices has raised costs
above expectation in 1957, of
ficials point out that this is a
"one-time" problem which will
have no significant effect on the
long-range financial soundness
of the insurance system. .
Social security is not likely
to encounter a similar problem
in the future, because there are
no more large groups of seople
to be brought under coverage.
About 90 per cent of the nation's
work force is now covered by
$5488
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CYCLE & HOBBY
SHOP
- Phone SP 2-2472
TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 1957
social security, and another 5 j s
per cent by other government j jng Friday, was reported in sat
programs. lisfactory condition.
- Makes of cars driven by Percent reporting
. j motorists interviewed improvement
' . , . Ford 88.9
, Chevrolet - 89
"r Plymouth 94.1
? Buick 85.7
t i OidsmobHe '85.5
. f, Cadillac '. ;87.0
Pontiac ' 89.7
Chrysler 87 J5
Dodge 95
' AH Other Makes 93.0
Price 10 Cents
Tribune
-Full Leased Wire
Pages 1 to 6
Washington El Chairman
Francis E. Walter (D-Pa.) of the
House Committee on un-American
Activities entered George
town University hospital Mon
day for treatment of a broken
Over Labor Day... t est
this completely new gasoline
in vour car
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i- J.;i H-v'" I 'iij
8 out of 10 owners of all kinds of
cars report immediate improvement!
8ased uooo an bidepeixjent tabulation
resulting from interviews with over 13,000
purchasers o Richfield Boron Gasoline.
West's first arid only BORON
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Registration Set For
Jacksonville schools will open
for registration and first day
classes on Monday, September
9 at 8:54 a.m.
High school students may
register on Sept. 5 through 7
from 1 to 4 p.m. The cafeteria
will open the first day with
meals costing 20 cents for grades
one to eight and 25 cents for
grades nine through 12.
First grade students will be
asked to bring health and birth
certificates. Children six years
old by Nov. 15 should contact
Francis Guidry, grade school
principal, before school starts.
New students entering should
&&&&& W
Jacksonville
bring old report cards and trans
fer slips. Grades one to three
will meet in the main buildings.
Tile Jacksonville faculty will
meet Sept. 5 and 6 to work on
in-service program and devise
ways of putting new ideas into
operation.
HEAT ON PIGEONS
New York (If) The heat
will be on for pigeons if the
American Museum of Natural
History has its way. The mu
seum Monday asked the city
planning commission to approve
$65,000 for an electrical system
to shoo pigeons.
Since this remarkable new Boron motor fuel was
introduced exclusively in. the West by Richfield
last May, hundreds of thousands of motorists
have tried it. Over eighty-nine percent of those
reportin g to us say it gives immediate improvement!
Have you tried new Richfield Boron Gasoline in
your car?
If not, why don't you try a tankful over the holiday
ahead? We think you will agree with others that
Richfield Boron Gasoline gives immediate results:
far more power... faster pickup... a smoother,
quieter running engine.
You see, this completely new gasoline actually
afters combustion in your car's engine eliminates
those "wild' wasteful explosions that cause
knock, roughness, loss of power.
So over Labor Day when you need gasoline,
drive in at your helpful Richfield dealer's for top
octane Richfield Boron. You'll set new perform
ance records in your own carl
.fAty.-.-";.
In a class by itself
since 1830
66 PROOF Biondad Scotch Whisky Schieffalin & Co., New
gasoline
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