Hard Times

Those who feared the worst about January unemployment figures can take bleak satisfaction in being right. The most disturbing thing about these figures--besides the scary fact that their total (5,385,000) is the greatest for any January since the Depression--is that workers are now exhausting their unemployment benefits. Half a million have already received their last check. Before the half-year is out, 1,500,000 will be without benefits, and the prospects for a quick upturn in the economy are practically nil. In his State of the Union message, President Kennedy admitted that the slump may last through 1961.

All his being so, Congress must act swiftly to pass the emergency unemployment legislation Kennedy asked for earlier this week. The raise in Social Security payments and the extension of benefits to workers who have exhausted ordinary unemployment insurance are crucial--even to maintain the status quo until Congress and Kennedy compromise on a long-term recession program. Whatever its feelings about Kennedy's reluctance to grant business a tax cut, Congress cannot disagree about the misery of workers now without benefits and about the snowballing effect further loss of buying power will have on a sick economy.