Click for Table of Contents

Employees talk about what it was like to workfor Social Security in the beginning.

WERE THEY THE GOOD

16 OASIS

OLD DAYS?JACK BENNY and Social Security

have something in common this year.Both are celebrating their 39th birth-days.

What was it like to work for SocialSecurity in its infancy? To find out,OASIS talked with a few "pioneers,”and we’ll take a look at what theyhad to say shortly.

But first, a few basic facts are inorder. The Social Security Act wassigned by President Roosevelt onAugust 14, 1935. On August 23, heappomted a three-man Social Secu-rity Board to oversee the administra-tion of the entire Act. The Bureau ofFederal Old-Age Benefits was set upto administer Title II (Old-Age In-surance) .

To get started we had to borrowpersonnel, space, and equipmentfrom other agencies. Congress didn’tappropriate any money for SocialSecurity Board operations untilFebruary 1936. The appropriationwas for $1 million and was to beused during the remainder of thefiscal year. And it wasn’t just forOld-Age Benefits operations. It had

-to be spread among such other pro-grams as Public Assistance and Un-employment Compensation.

Today, that amount would lastSSA about I/4 of a day. Expendituresfor salaries and expenses for the firsthalf of fiscal year 1974 totaled $612million. Of course, on June 30, 1936,the Bureau of Federal Old-Age Bene-fits had only 53 employees on duty.By December 1936, that figure hadgrown to over 2,500. The total num-ber of full-time, permanent em-ployees now stands at about 71,500.

The very early days of the Bureauwere planning days. The big job wasto get ready for January 1, 1937-the effective date of the Social Se-curity Act. Before then, employershad to be registered so they couldstart reporting their employees’wages, social security numbers issued

AUGUST 1974

OPPOSITE PAGE: The Candler Building,borne of the Accounting Operations Division(forerunner of BDP) for many years, did notprovide what could be termed a perfectworking environment. Note the fans and anti-quated lighting fixture;. TOP: A 3-memberSocial Security Board provided direction forthe Public Assistance, Unemployment Com-pensation, and Federal Old-Age Benefitsprograms from 1935 until 1946. In the photoare Board members Arthur Altmeyer (Chair-man), Ellen Woodward, and George Bigge.ABOVE: The first Social Security field office,equipped with “hand-me-downs,” was lo-cated in the old Post Office Building inAustin, Texas. LEFT: In the days before wehad a sophisticated public affoirs program,posters provided one of the main ways tospread information on social security. Thisone, created by a student, was a winner ina Social Security-sponsored contest.

17

to employees, and the machinery setin motion for the installation of ourwage recordkeeping operations andfor the payment of lump-sum claims.The Post Office Department helpedwith the job of issuing social securitynumbers and registering employersuntil May 1937.

Decisions also had to be made asto where district offices should besituated. By December 1936, the lo-cations of 100 offices had been an-nounced-one-twelfth the number ofbranch and district offices now inexistence.

The first field office opened onOctober 14, 1936, in Austin, Texas.Fred Rogers, now retired, was districtmanager. The office was located onthe ground floor of the old PostOffice Building at Sixth and Colo-rado Streets. When Fred first visitedthe space provided for the DO, hefound a musty interior and equip-ment which consisted solely of somedilapidated desks and chairs left be-hind by the Post Office when itmoved to its new building.

“Three people visited the office onopening day,” said Fred, who wasthe only staff member at the time.“There were two reporters and Con-gressman James Buchanan, Chair-man of the House Committee onAppropriations. . . . He, not I, heldthe press interview on the opening ofthe first social security office in thecountry. As for photographs, accord-ing to instructions, I delayed any andall publicity.”

According to Fred, everything thatwas published during those very earlydays was in this vein: “Austin willbe the location of one of the Texasfield offices of the Social SecurityBoard, whose primary work will beto cooperate with the Post Officeofficials in the work of registration.”

The DO’s had to make extensiveemployer contacts (estimates fromvarious people interviewed run ashigh as 50 contacts a day) andanswer the telephones, which rangall day. At the time, the program hadreceived a ‘lot of adverse publicity(one of the program’s opponentsclaimed that all citizens would soonbe required to wear tags containing

their social security numbers), andthe public was concerned.

Bill Cole recalls that when theJackson, Tenn., office opened in 1937there were only 3 employees (him-self and two others). At that time,there were basically 3 types of jobsin the field-manager, field assistantand claims clerk. The field assistantis the forerunner of today’s socialsecurity rep, while the claims clerkeventually became today’s claims rep.

The field assistant traveled, tooklump-sum claims, gave public infor-mation talks, talked with employersabout their responsibilities under theprogram, and did many other thingstoday’s social security reps do. Unliketoday’s claims rep, however, theclaims clerk job was basically clericalin nature.

Considering the economic situationat the time, social security employeeswere well-paid. For instance, a fieldoffice manager hired at grade CAF-3made $1,620 a year. Compared totoday’s salaries, that’s not a particu-larly impressive sum. In fact, a dis-trict manager in the first step ofgrade GS-13 makes over $100 morethan that every month!

Originally, field ‘offices just tookclaims and transmitted them to cen-tral office for adjudication and pay-ment. But by May 1942, they weredoing the entire job of computingbenefits, designating payees, and de-termining entitlement.

Bill Cole, incidentally, is the onlyliving district manager in the nationwho opened an office in 1937 andwho continuously served as its man-ager until 1974. Bill retired from hisposition in Jackson in May. He re-called that when the 3-member Jack-son DO opened, it was equipped withborrowed furniture and was housedin two rooms on the second floor ofthe Post Office Building. Today. thatoffice is located in a new buildingand has 30 employees serving some60,000 beneficiaries residing in thearea.

In the early days of social security,the field offices were supervised byregional representatives for the Bu-reau of Federal Old-Age Benefits.There were 12 of them. The regionalreps, who reported directly to a

Social Security Board regional direc-tor, had the final say on most mattersarising in the field offices. On all butcertain routine questions, communi-cations between the field and head-quarters passed over the regionalrep’s desk.

As Joe Tighe, Regional Repre-sentative, DOO, Philadelphia, re-members his early experiences in theRO, “It was entirely different thanit is today. We were pretty self-sufficient. There was no overlapamong bureaus. It was much nicer,much easier . . . you might say muchsweeter, less complicated than today.”

Joe, incidentally, joined Social Se-curity in 1936 as a district managerin Camden, N.J. He says he “op-erated out of an orange crate” duringhis first few weeks on the job. Shortlythereafter he held the dual job ofdistrict manager and assistant re-gional rep in Philadelphia. By 1941,he had become Regional Rep, Phila-delphia.

Among the other things Joe re-members was World War II’s effecton Social Security. “The war hadpretty near disastrous effects on ouroperations,” he commented. “We lost370 employees to the Armed Forcesfrom Region III (the old Philadel-phia Region) alone, and we only had1,700 employees to begin with. Thosethat were left worked lots of over-time-frequently 7 days a week.Then, when the war was over, wehad to put the returning veteransback to ‘work.”

As mentioned previously, the fieldoffices did no adjudicative work inthe early days. After taking theclaims, they forwarded them to theClaims Division in Washington, D.C.Everything now performed by theBureau of Retirement and SurvivorsInsurance (and its program centers),as well as the adjudication and au-thorization work now done in thefield, was handled there.

Milt Freedman, Assistant BureauDirector, Quality Appraisal, BRSI,joined the Claims Division just as itwas gearing up to handle work-loads created by the 1939 amend-ments. These changes in the law es-tablished benefit payments for de-pendents and survivors of wage

18 OASIS

In 1937, a fieldoffice manager made

$1,620 a year. Comparedto today’s salaries,

that’s not a particularlyimpressive sum. In fact,

a district manager inthe first step of grade

GS-13 makes over $100more than that every

month.

earners and moved the date of payingmonthly old-age benefits from Janu-ary 1942 to January 1940.

Looking back, Milt stated: “Thesewere trying yet exciting times foryoung people in Washington. Roose-velt, with his New Deal agencies,transformed Washington from asleepy little town to a booming, over-crowded metropolis. In fact, it wasso crowded there was no office build-ing available for us.

“Apartment buildings were com-mandeered for Government use, andthey put us in the Potomac ParkApartments. Some of us had ouroffices in living rooms, bedrooms,dining rooms, even kitchens. Theytook out the stoves and sinks, but leftthe pipes. There were no central rest-rooms like our buildings have today-just individual bathrooms.

“Our building was in the FoggyBottom area where the Departmentof State now stands,” said Milt. Herecalled that many social securitypeople had lived in the BoulevardApartments, which were demolishedto make way for the State Depart-ment building. “There were tears inthe eyes of many of us the day wewatched that building destroyed. Butsoon we were intrigued with the con-struction of the new building. Thatwhole area was swampy, and wewatched as they sank concrete pil-ings, frequently hitting quicksand.

“We were in the Potomac ParkApartments until about 1941 whenwe moved to an office building at1825 H Street. The apartments werecozy, but it was good to get backinto a real business atmosphereagain,” commented Milt.

“To process claims, we used a veryrudimentary claims manual and the48-page 1939 Social Security Act.Just compare that with today’s vol-uminous claims manual, regulations,and the over 1,200-page Social Se-curity Law. For further reference,each of us kept our own library ofGeneral Counsel opinions. Inciden-tally, to work as adjudicators or re-viewers in the Claims Division, wehad to have law degrees.”

Continuing, he said, “We operatedvery informally-almost like they doin today’s program center modules.”

Organizationally, the Claims Divi-s ion was spl i t into 4 uni ts -onehandled New York-New Englandclaims; another Philadelphia and theSouth; one, Chicago and the Mid-west; and still another the WestCoast. There were also several serv-ice components-one providing legalreferences for the staff; anotherwhich handled complicated coverageissues, etc.

In 1942, the Claims Division wasdecentralized-its service componentsbecame part of the headquarters or-ganization which is now BRSI andthe claims processing units’ workwent to area offices (forerunners oftoday’s program centers) in Phila-delphia, New York, Chicago, NewOrleans, and San Francisco.

The New Orleans office was re-placed in 1946 with offices in Bir-mingham and Kansas City.

William Ray, who is now AssistantDirector of Operations (PaymentProcess), Southeastern Program Cen-ter, was an adjudicator-reviewer inNew Orleans.

Bill says the space and equipmentwere poor compared to today’sstandards. “In fact, the space hadbeen used as an auto display roomand repair shop before we tookover.” The building was located onSt. Charles Street, and among Bill’spleasant memories of his time thereare the Mardi Gras parades thatsnaked their way past the office. Hesaid that the building was frequentlykept open in the evening so employeesand their families could view thefestivities from the second floor.

Another social security componentwhich was scheduled for decentraliza-tion was the Accounting OperationsDivision (forerunner of BDP) , whichwas charged with the job of settingup and maintaining the complexsystem of wage records the new pro-gram would require. Originally, itsrecords were divided into 12 regionsto parallel the field set-up. Planswere made to actually transfer theserecords out to the regions. In themeantime, they were housed-on a“temporary basis”-in the CandlerBuilding in downtown Baltimore.The decentralization was never ac- .complished, and Candler became a

19AUGUST 1974

fixture in SSA history.Candler, located on the Baltimore

waterfront, was chosen because it wasnear Washington and it had sufficientfloor strength and space to handlethe enormous weight and volume offiles we would need to keep. In addi-tion, it was fireproof and could beoccupied on a short term rentalagreement. Although adequate insome respects, it was lacking inothers.

“When you look at the excellentlighting we have at the Woodlawncomplex, it is almost impossible toremember how bad the original light-ing was in the Candler Building,”said Isidor “Murph” Cohen, former-ly an administrative specialist inBDP. Murph, who is now retired,said Candler’s lights were replacedwith newer fixtures over the years,“but they never did come up toWoodlawn’s good quality of light-ing.”

He continued: “Those of you whohave a telephone on your desk willprobably find it hard to believe thatthere was only one phone in theCandler Building, and that was onthe south side of the seventh floor.Those of us who had to use the tele-phone had to wait our turn, with thepersonnel office having first priority.I remember once having to wait 5hours to use the phone.”

Both Murph and Jane Stevensmentioned the social life at Candler.There were only about 2,000 peopleworking in accounting operations in1937 as compared to the over 11,500in BDP now. Everyone knew every-one else. The Employees’ ActivitiesAssociation sponsored musicals, boatrides, dances, and other affairs. “Ithought Baltimore was really a livelytown because they allowed ladies tobowl with the men’s Social Securityleagues,” said Jane.

Isidor commented on this, too,saying : “There were twelve teams,ten composed entirely of men, theother two of women. The two ladies’teams finished at the bottom but theycontained the best sports I have evermet.”

Jane is now a disability claimsexaminer (she conducts quality re-views of disability decisions made by

2 0

State Agencies in the SSI program)in the Dallas Regional Office. Shewent to work in the Candler Buildingin 1938 as a keypunch operator.

Some of Jane’s other memoriesare of the War years. “In 1942, theysent 10 women, including me, to theIBM school in Endicott, N.Y., tolearn how to supervise IBM machineunits. When we returned to Balti-more, we replaced men supervisorswho left to serve in the ArmedForces.”

The War years were difficult onesfor accounting operations as theywere for all social security com-ponents. Those who worked in thepersonnel office have vivid memoriesof the problems involved in staffingthe agency.

“We were able to get permissionfrom the Civil Service Commissionto recruit outside Baltimore,” pointedout Esther Sholl (Ret.), Chief ofOA’s Employment Branch, “but itwas a Priority #5, which meant wehad a choice of what was left overafter all defense agencies made theirselections. And the jobs we offeredweren’t particularly attractive. Forthe most part, they were Grade 1positions on the night shift. Thoseapplying had to take a test as wellas pay their own transportation toBaltimore once appointed. Otheragencies were offering Grades 3 and4 day shift work and weren’t requir-ing a test.”

When the War started, 66 percentof the work force was male. When itended, there were 66 percent women.

As the years rolled by, Social Secu-rity and its responsibilities grew.Legislation created new programs--disability, Black Lung, Medicare, andSSI-for the agency to administer,and the existing ones were expanded.New components were formed bothat headquarters and in the field.

And like the memories included inthis article, the simple organizationof the 1930’s-field offices to takelump-sum claims, 12 regional repsto oversee the offices’ operations, anda relatively small group of people ata central location to process theclaims and provide overall direction-came to exist only in the minds ofthose who were a part of it. 0

OASIS