Who Wrote The Social Security Act?

From the Watertown, Wisconsin Daily Times:

With the baby boomers now retiring at an ever accelerating pace, concerns over funding the program well into the future are certainly going to intensify.

But, we'll leave that debate for another time. Right now we want to go back to a topic we've covered several times in this column over the years and that is about the “Father of Social Security” who just happens to be the late Edwin E. Witte, a native of Watertown. ...

Edwin Witte was born on a farm in the town of Watertown back in 1887. He was a graduate of Watertown High School and then received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1909 and his doctorate in 1927. He was a statistician for the Industrial Commission in Wisconsin for a short period of time and then moved to Washington where he became secretary for Congressman John M. Nelson. By 1914 he was a special agent for the Committee on Industrial Relations for the Department of Labor.

He became secretary of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission in 1917 and remained there until 1922 when he took over as head of the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library. He was then the first director of Unemployment Compensation for the Wisconsin Industrial Commission in 1934.

It was shortly after that, he was called upon by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to become executive director of the President's Commission on Economic Security which was ultimately the sponsor of the Federal Social Security Act of 1934-1935. It was during this period that Edwin was on leave from his professorship at the University of Wisconsin. ...

There was a real sense of urgency to this historic legislation and Edwin was leading a team of 20 to 30 experts who were working day and night. ...

When it was all said and done, it was the leadership and the work of Edwin E. Witte that crafted this country's Social Security Administration and its wide reaching programs.