[ 631 ] U.S. History GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW _____________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Use the excerpts below to answer the following question. Franklin Roosevelt’s Statement on Signing the Social Security Act (1935) Today a hope of many years’ standing is in large part fulfilled. The civilization of the past hundred years, with its startling industrial changes, has tended more and more to make life insecure. Young people have come to wonder what would be their lot when they came to old age. The man with a job has wondered how long the job would last. This social security measure gives at least some protection to thirty million of our citizens who will reap direct benefits through unemployment compensation, through old-age pensions and through increased services for the protection of children and the prevention of ill health. We can never insure one hundred percent of the population against one hundred percent of the hazards and vicissitudes of life, but we have tried to frame a law which will give some measure of protection to the average citizen and to his family against the loss of a job and against poverty- ridden old age. . . . “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” —Dwight D. Eisenhower written in a letter to his brother 1954 As expressed in the speech excerpt and statement from Eisenhower, how do the viewpoints of Roosevelt and Eisenhower regarding social security compare? a. Neither has a strong opinion regarding social security. b. Both believe in the importance of social security in the country. c. Neither thinks social security will survive into the future. d. Both anticipate constitutional amendments to strengthen social security.