Edwin E. Witte

Edwin Emil Witte (January 4, 1887 - May 20, 1960) was an economist who focused on social insurance issues for the state of Wisconsin and for the Committee on Economic Security. He was responsible for developing the policies and the legislation that became the Social Security Act of 1935. Because of this his is often referred to as "the father of Social Security."

Education and Family Life

Witte was born in the Moravian community of Ebenezer, Wisconsin, about four miles south of Watertown. He was recognized from an early age as having remarkable intelligence, such that his parents sent him to high school in Watertown. He graduated as the valedictorian of his class and, as such, also became the first person in his family to attend college.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1909 with a degree in history and immediately began graduate work. His adviser, Frederick Jackson Turner, left Madison in 1910 for Harvard, but recommended that Witte study history under John R. Commons of the economics department. This advice turned Witte to the study of economics. Because Commons at this time was heavily involved in advising Robert M. LaFollette Sr. and the government of Wisconsin (see Wisconsin Plan), Witte easily found work with the state upon completion of his coursework in 1911. Witte was soon overwhelmed with work; he completed his qualifying exams in 1916 but did not come back to his dissertation studies until the mid-1920s. He finished his doctorate in 1927.

Witte married Florence Rimsnider a librarian at the Legislative Reference Library. They lived on Madison Street. They had one son and two daughters.

As Government Social Reformer

Witte's first job for the state of Wisconsin was as a statistician of workmen's compensation insurance rates for the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. His work here led the legislature to grant the Commission authority to regulate those rates.

In 1912, Witte accepted the job of personal secretary to Congressman John M. Nelson. Nelson served on the House Judiciary Committee which was then considering the Clayton Antitrust Act. Witte wrote Nelson's minority report opposing approval of the Clayton Act because its language did not provide a strong anti-injunction clause favored by Samuel Gompers and organized labor. Witte's views were validated in Duplex Printing Press Company v. Deering (254 U.S. 443 [1921]) which struck down the labor protection clauses of the act.

When Commons was appointed to the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, he brought Witte along. Witte's main focus here was on the use of the labor injunction, which became the topic of his dissertation. By the time he published this research, he was noted as the foremost authority on the anti-labor injunction and served as an adviser (along with Felix Frankfurter, Donald Richberg, Francis Sayre, and Herman Oliphant) to the Senate Judiciary Committee drafting the Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act of 1932.

In January 1917, he was appointed the executive secretary of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission. Here he added labor and safety regulatory policies to his list of progressive social insurance concerns.

In 1921, he accepted the position of chief of the Wisconsin Legislative Research Library a position that was mostly helping legislators draft legislation.

In all of these positions, Witte developed his skills at using research as a tool for persuasion in the development of social insurance policy. Working closely with legislators at both the state and national level, Witte had a keen sense for the process. As a government social reformer, David B. Johnson describe Witte as "neither a politician nor an activist. Rather he was a facilitator, a creative draftsman of public programs, a compromiser, and a tireless mediator who devoted his efforts towards bringing divergent sides together and to working out mutually acceptable solutions."

Professor at the University of Wisconsin

In 1933, Witte was appointed full professor in the economics department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, while serving as an administrator, Witte managed to publish consistently. This, coupled with his reputation as an expert on labor economics explain the unusual appointment. Following this appointment, Witte served on the unemployment insurance section of the Wisconsin Industrial Commission.

As a professor of economics, one of his central beliefs (taught in his "Government and Business" courses) was that "market-centered economics failed to credit government in its role as regulator, promoter, umpire, and protector of" the economy. He preferred "political economics" to "economics" as the truer descriptor of his discipline. <41>

Committee on Economic Security

Because of Witte's expertise in both legislation and social insurance, and his national reputation as an expert in the area of social insurance, he was selected to lead the President's Committee on Economic Security to propose legislation that would eventually become the Social Security Act of 1935.