Minutes from Continuing Committee Meeting, April 23, 1935
Title: Senator David I. Walsh
Description: David I. Walsh was Massachusetts in 1872, the son of Irish-Catholic immigrants. He graduated from Boston University Law School in 1897 and was admitted to the state bar that year. Walsh served two terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1900-1901, but his vote in favor of restricting work hours for women and children led people to vote him out of office. In 1912, he was election lieutenant governor of Massachusettes, and in 1914, he became the first Irish and first Catholic governor of the state. In 1918, Walsh was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, and served until 1925, when he failed to win re-election. A year and a half later, however, he was elected to fill the vacancy left by the death of Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-Mass.), and remained a member of the Senate until 1947, when he once again failed to retain his seat in the 1946 election. During the New Deal era, Walsh served on the Committee on Education and Labor and on the Committee on Naval Affairs. Walsh returned to his native Massachusetts, and died June 11, 1947 in Boston.
Contributor: Harris and Ewing, Library of Congress Public Domain Photographs
Date: ca. 1940
Every bill introduced into Congress has to go through a period of revisions before the final vote is taken. The Social Security Act of 1935 was no different: the bill's drafters took into account the president's wishes, the recommendations of the Committee on Economic Security, and the advice of various groups lobbying for the bill's passage, including the NCCC. This document and the two following it demonstrate the involvement of Catholic Charities in the drafting and revising of the Social Security bill. In the Committee Minutes included here, the members of the Diocesan Directors' Continuing Committee move beyond the vague theoretical arguments that had characterized earlier discussions, and address specific points in the bill. The document records the Committee's suggested changes to the bill's language that would make it more acceptable to them.
Questions:
As you read the documents, reflect on the following questions:
What are some of the problems with the social security bill that the Diocesan Directors discussed at their meeting?
