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G. H

Chicago, Illinois
August 5, 1948

Dear Sir:

The proposed Airline Pilot's Retirement Act raises various philosophical questions such as:

"Is the Act too Socialistic?"
"Should Congress do our thinking?"
"Are we men or are we mice?"

It is not the purpose of this letter to even consider such grave problems of principle but merely to point out some technical faults of the Act.

The Retirement Act would place a 7-3/4% wage tax on every Captain and Copilot (including "management" pilots) even though the pilot personally opposes the Act. Some pilots have threatened to resign from ALPA if the Act is passed. This will accomplish nothing; the tax would arbitrarily be collected on every member and on every non-member.

Everyone is agreed that retirement at 60 is rather far-fetched for the average pilot, yet the Act specifies 60 as retirement age. Let's be realistic! The average pilot will probably retire at 50, but he will receive only 33% as much monthly pension at 50 as he would have received at 60. That's $67 a month, not $200 as has been intimated. Some reduction is of course proper, however, commercial insurance companies pay between 41% and 46% as much at 50 as they do at 60. Why can't a non-profit government pension plan give you as much protection as a plan offered by a private company which is in business to make a legitimate profit?

There is one important provision to be considered before a pilot decides to retire. In order to collect the pension the pilot must have absolutely no other employment. Suppose that at 50 you are tired of rolling out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to sit in a noisy airplane and argue with Airways. You decide to give it up and open a camera shop. You will received no pension at all so long as you operate the camera shop. Independent insurance companies don't place any such restriction on you.

The $200 a month pension for busting a physical exam has been stressed as a selling point for the Act. Have you read the "fine print"? To collect the $200 you must meet one of these qualifications:

1. Disabled in the line of duty.
2. You have been an air line pilot 10 years.
3. You are over 50 yers old.

Suppose you are 34 years old and have been an air line pilot only 8 years; you wreck your car and lose an eye. You are through flying but since you don't meet any of the three qualifications you don't receive one cent of pension.

Let's suppose a little more. The car wreck was pretty bad; you lost both eyes; you are totally disabled. You're lucky! You have 8 years service so you can draw a pension. If you had less than 5 years you would not receive any pension. Commercial policies cover you from the moment you sign on the dotted line, not from five years after you sign. By the way, don't expect to received $200 a month for losing those two eyes. If during your 8 years service you averaged $600 a month wages, your pension will be $56 a month.