Jake Fisher has introduced a bill into the senate to compel
competing telephone companies operating in the same town to make connections so
that a subscriber to one phone may be connected to another. The purpose of the
bill is to relieve people of having two phones. The proposition seems to be a
satisfactory one and should be made a law.
The recent stage of water helped merchants to get in a fine
cargo of goods, while several townsmen and people of this vicinity made trips
down the river and back.
Just about every U.S. family will be affected by the changes in
social security taxes and benefits for 1959. Some 12,300,000 persons receiving
old age, survivors or disability checks will get a seven percent increase.
Nearly 6,000,000 (about which many taxpayers know nothing) are going to get more
money based on their need--though they are not covered by social security.
Almost 75,000,000 persons paying social security taxes, and the
businessmen and corporations which have been required by law to pay part of
their social security taxes, are going to have to pay more--more than 10 percent
more, this year.
Monthly payments to retired workers at age 65 ranged in 1958
from $30 to $108.50. They will range up to $116 in 1959--starting from $33
instead of $30.
These hikes are not steep, but as the social security system
becomes an accepted and “taken for granted” device in our society, pressure on
politicians will mount--to lower the age at which one becomes eligible for the
federal maintenance, increase the benefits, etc.