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Captain Robert A. Stone - 9   September 14, 1948 

(10) The average widow's benefit under the plan proposed for the air line pilots would, if the plan were in effect at the present time, be not far from $60 per month. The average widow's benefit under the Railroad Retirement Act in June, 1948, was $29.19 for aged widows and $26.85 for the widows with young children. Under the Social Security Act, for April, 1949, the latest month for which figures have been published, these two averages were $20.47 and $20.59, respectively. These amounts are, of course, unconscionably small. But despite repeated recommendations by the President, and last spring by a committee of distinguished citizens appointed by the Senate Finance Committee, that these benefits be raised, the Congress has not seen fit to do so. If the recommendations made by the Senate advisory committee last spring were to be adopted, the averages for Social Security would be approximately $31. Congress has thus far refused to take any action with respect to the approximately 875,000 widows and orphans now receiving insurance benefits under the Social Security Act. Query as to how far Congress may be willing to go for the widows and orphans likely to be beneficial under a retirement system for air line pilots. 

In this connection it is to be remembered that the widow of an air line pilot will get Social Security as well as the ALPA benefit, and the Social Security benefit in such case will be above average. The average pilot's widow would get from both Social Security and the ALPA plan a total of about $90 per month, almost 4 1/2 times the average for Social Security. 

(11) Except for the wage base, the formula for survivors' benefits was taken from the Social Security Act. The intent was to limit the changes in existing Congressional policy to as small a compass as possible so that there would be relatively few new things for Congress to make inquiries about. Each departure from established precedents, of course, is always the cause of numerous inquiries. 

There are no limitations on the earnings of either a widow or a mother. She may work for an air line or anybody else and that fact will have no effect on the annuity which she receives. A child or a father may work for any employer except an air line. This relative absence of restrictions on earnings is far different from those included in the enactments in this field which Congress has already passed.

(12) It is, I believe, the universal custom, so far as legislation is concerned, in all the states of the United States, in the Federal Congress and, so far as I know without exception, in all of western civilization, to regard the obligation of a deceased husband to his wife to terminate upon her remarriage. This, of course, is not true of private insurance; but there the obligation to pay is based on a contract running to an individual and not on status.