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he is less than 45 years of age and, therefore, has to leave the service, is entitled only to a return of his own contributions and that, in two of the three cases, without any interest. In other words, a pilot for Pan American or American may contribute, for example, from the time he is 22 until he is 42 and get absolutely nothing back but his own money. If he had put the money into a savings bank he could earn a substantial amount of interest even at the present low interest rates. 

The pilots are not paying an unsubstantial amount toward the cost of these pension systems. I have not seen any figures as to percentage of pilots who participate; nor do I know the salaries paid to those with short service who are not yet eligible to participate. Assuming that 85 percent of pilot payrolls go to participating pilots, and using pilot pay as reported to CAA for the second quarter of this year, American pilots would be contributing about $330,000 a year, those under the Braniff plan about $300,000, the Pan American pilots perhaps $425,000, and those on United over $450,000. While the Eastern plan was not in effect until October of this year, had it been in effect the second quarter of this year, the annual rate of contribution by Eastern pilots under the given assumptions would have been almost $190,000. While we would not say that the contributions of the pilots are ill-advised, we do say that they are entitled, in return for such substantial payments, to a much greater degree of security than they have at present. 

V. Solution of the Pilot Retirement Problem Must not be Delayed. 

The air line industry is too important for everyone, and the part the pilots play in it too crucial, for any further dilly-dallying with the retirement problem. I want to say to you, that unless the problem is solved -- and quickly -- the industry and the country are going progressively to lose more and more of the backbone of the industry, and a goodly part of the backbone of national defense. 

We would like to have the employers join with us in solving the pilots' problem along the lines -- with necessary modifications -- that the railroad industry used in 1937 in the joint agreement covering the Railroad Retirement Act. But, if the employers do not join with the pilots -- and their attitude in the T.W.A. case and the fact that all the retirement plans so far adopted were formulated without our knowledge, give us no reason to expect any cooperation from them -- we propose to proceed on our own along the route the railroad labor organizations have cut through. 

I do not propose here to go into detail on the kind of plan which, in my judgement, would be appropriate for giving the pilots that degree of security which I believe it to be in the national interests they should have. What I do suggest, however, and what I believe this Commission might well recognize is the existence of a few general