Wilbur Joseph Cohen Papers, 1937-1942
Collection Number: 5222

Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Cornell University Library


DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

Title:
Wilbur Joseph Cohen Papers, 1937-1942
Repository:
Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Collection Number:
5222
Abstract:
The collection consists of the papers and pamphlets collected by Mr. Cohen and relating to the Social Security Advisory Council during 1937-1938.
Creator:
Cohen, Wilbur Joseph
Quanitities:
3 cubic feet
Language:
Collection material in English

Biographical / Historical

Wilbur J. Cohen was director of the Research and Statistics Bureau of the Wisconsin Health, Education, and Welfare Department, and technical advisor of the U.S. Advisory Council on Social Security. The Advisory Council was appointed by the Senate Finance Committee in cooperation with the U.S. Social Security Board and was composed of representatives of the public, employers, and employees. The purpose of the Advisory Council was to cooperate with a special subcommittee of the Committee on Finance (Senators Pat Harrison, Harry Flood Byrd, Arthur J. Vandenberg) and the Social Security Board in the study of problems relative to social security, with special attention to the problem of financing an old age insurance system.

Includes letters, memoranda, and reports of the meetings of the United States Social Security Advisory Council during the period Cohen served as its technical advisor (1937-1938), as well as correspondence, reports, notes, pamphlets, ,statistical studies and other documents assembled by Cohen, relating to economic security.
Correspondence (1932-1948) discusses old age benefits in general, including methods of financing,, the wage base, women's eligibility, and various alternative schemes. Disability insurance is also examined: its feasibiity, benefit specifications, and the medical, surgical, and institutional care of annuitants. Revisions to Title II of the Social Security Act are discussed, including the possibility of extending coverage to employees of charitable agencies and state governments. Changes in AC 12, especially coverage of women and the children of deceased wage earners, are mentione,d as are proposas for the coverage of dependent children, agricultural laborers, the self-employed and widows under AC 13. Coverage of dependent children, still an issue in AC 14, is discussed, as is the exclusion of mental illness from th edisability definition. Title VIII of the Act, especially in relation to the inclusion of state and charitable workers, is the subject of correspondence, as is the possibility of a guaranteed annual wage.
The major correspondents include Wilbur J. Cohen, J. Douglas Brown (chairman, Advisory Council on Social Security), Arthur J. Altmeyer (chairman, Social Security Board), Eleanor Lansing Dulles (chief, Division of Old Age Benefits Research, Bureau of Research and Statistics), John J. Corson (director, Bureau of Old Age Insurance), Murray W. Latimer (chairman, Railroad Retirment Board), Alanson W. Wilcox (assistant general counsel), Edwin F. Witte (professor, University of Wisconsin, Department of Economics), I.S. Falk (acting director, Bureau of Research and Statistics),, and W.R. Williamson (actuarial consultant).
Reports and papers (ca. 1935-1957) on the overall issue of economic security (old age security, unemployment compensation, aid to children and the handicapped) include a report by I.S. Falk on permanent and total disability (1938); an analysis by Abraham Epstein of the federal old age insurance plan; a statement by Emile Rieve (president, Textile Workers of America) suporting a national system of unemployment insurance; documents regarding state vs. federal control of unemployment insurance; a report by Eleanor Dulles to the Advisory Council on her examination of the social security reserve problem (1957); a study of old age assistance and unemployment insurance in foreign countries; documents concerning state economic security plans in the 1930s; and documents regarding the implementation of social security and actuarial and statistical analyses of the program by various subdivisions of the Social Security Board, private and state agencies.
Access to the collections in the Kheel Center is restricted. Please contact a reference archivist for access to these materials.
Conditions Governing Use

This collection must be used in keeping with the Kheel Center Information Sheet and Procedures for Document Use.

INFORMATION FOR USERS

Preferred Citation

Wilbur Joseph Cohen Papers #5222. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.

SUBJECTS

Names:
Altmeyer, Arthur J. (Arthur Joseph), 1891-1972.
Brown, J. Douglas (James Douglas), 1898-1986
Cohen, Wilbur Joseph, 1913-
Corson, John Jay, 1905-
Dulles, Eleanor Lansing, 1895-1996
Epstein, Abraham, 1892-1942
Falk, I. S. (Isidore Sydney), 1899-1984
Latimer, Murray W.
Rieve, Emil, 1892-1975
Williamson, W. R. (William Rulon), 1889-
Witte, Edwin E. (Edwin Emil), 1887- 1960
International Conference of Employment Security Agencies
United States. Advisory Council on Social Security (1937-1938). Interim Committee.
United States. Social Security Board.
Subjects:
Social security.
Pensions
Pensions -- Finance
Unemployment insurance.
Unemployment insurance -- Governement policy
Pensions. Agriculture. United States.
Self-employed. Pensions. United States.
Widows' pensions. United States.
Women. United States. Pensions.

CONTAINER LIST
Container
Description
Date
Box 1 Folder 1
025 - Advisory Council J. Douglas Brown Correspondence
1937-1938
Box 1 Folder 2
025 - Advisory Council November 5 & 6
1937
Box 1 Folder 3
025 - Advisory Council November 5 & 6
1937
Box 1 Folder 4
025 - Advisory Council Statements December 10 and 11
1937-1938
Box 1 Folder 5
025 - Advisory Council Statements February 18-19, 1938
1938
Box 1 Folder 6
025 - Advisory Council Feb. 18-19, 1938
1938
Box 1 Folder 7
025 - Advisory Council April 29-30, 1938
1938
Box 1 Folder 8
025 - Advisory Council Statements April 29-30, 1938
1938
Box 1 Folder 9
025 - Advisory Council December 10 and 11
1937
Box 1 Folder 10
025 - Miscellaneous AC Plans and Materials
1938
Box 1 Folder 11
025 - Principles Concerning Revision of Benefits, Etc.
1938
Box 1 Folder 12
025 - AC 13
1938
Box 1 Folder 13
011.1 - Amendments AC - 14
1939
Box 1 Folder 14
Preliminary Outline of Plan AC-14
1938-1939
Box 1 Folder 15
011.1 - Amendments AC-14
1938-1939
Box 1 Folder 16
011.1 Amendments AC-14
1938-1939
Box 1 Folder 17
Principles
1938-1940
Box 1 Folder 18
Methods of Financing
1938-1939
Box 1 Folder 19
Cohen's Letters to Gray Report on Integration of S.S. & Teacher Retirement
1950
Box 1 Folder 20
Bill to Amend the Social Security Act and Related Materials 1937
1937
Box 2 Folder 1
Benefit Payment Procedure July 1937- July 1939
1937-1939
Box 2 Folder 2
Federal Security Agency Folder 1
1939
Box 2 Folder 3
Federal Security Agency Folder 2
1940-1946
Box 2 Folder 4
Legislative Information on Bills Affecting Unemployment Compensation
1939
Box 2 Folder 5
State Operations Bulletin No. 2
1940
Box 2 Folder 6
Summary of Recommendations of the Advisory Council on OASI
1948
Box 2 Folder 7
Advisory Council on Social Security
1948
Box 2 Folder 8
Confidential
1948
Box 2 Folder 9
Confidential
1948
Box 2 Folder 10
Confidential
1948
Box 2 Folder 11
Confidential
1948
Box 2 Folder 12
Advisory Council Materials December 4-5, 1947
1947
Box 3 Folder 1
Social Security Board
1938-1940
Box 3 Folder 2
National Health Conference
1938
Box 3 Folder 3
President's Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities (National Health Conference)
1938
Box 3 Folder 4
National Health Conference
1938
Box 3 Folder 5
National Health Conference
1938
Box 3 Folder 6
National Health Conference
1938
Box 3 Folder 7
Interdepartmental Committee to Coordinate Health and Welfare Activities
1938
Box 3 Folder 8
Mr. Altmeyer
1938
Box 3 Folder 9
California Disability Insurance Program
1948-1952
Box 3 Folder 10
New Jersey Disability Insurance Program
1950
Box 3 Folder 11
Railroad Temporary Disability Insurance Program
1949
Box 3 Folder 12
Temporary Disability Insurance
1949
Box 3 Folder 13
Temporary Disability Insurance Coordinated with Unemployment Insurance
1947
Box 3 Folder 14
Temporary Disability Insurance Coordinated with Unemployment Insurance
1948-1949
Box 3 Folder 15
An Economic Security Program for the United States Vol. 1
1935
Box 3 Folder 16
An Economic Security Program for the United States
1935
Box 3 Folder 17
Employment Service Handbook of Information
1940-1941
Box 3 Folder 18
1939
1939
Box 3 Folder 19
1941-1943
1941-1943
Box 3 Folder 20
1944-1945
1944-1945
Box 3 Folder 21
Old-Age Benefits
1932-1936
Box 3 Folder 22
Proposals for Coordinating Guaranteed Annual Wages & Unemployment Insurance
1948
Box 3 Folder 23
A Dynamic Analysis of Unemployment Statistics
1935