SOCIAL SECURITY IN AMERICA

[Applause] to introduce this week's guest here is Roy swift of the Social Security Administration this week Social Security in America tells the story of two men living in widely separated parts of the country first will visit the home of a coal miner in Pennsylvania who fell 100 feet to the bottom of a mine shaft and lived to tell the story then will go across the country to Arizona and visit a man who lives in the valley of the Grand Canyon our guests are two of the more than 23 million Americans who get Social Security benefits benefits earned under the Social Security program our first guest has lived and worked most of his life here the Pennsylvania coal mining town of Pottsville these are the mountains of Pennsylvania dressed in all of their autumn glory this is Schuylkill County's tri-valley area in central Pennsylvania gateway to the anthracite region 55 miles east of Harrisburg the colorful leaves of autumn softened the hard black lines of what was for many years the lifeblood of this area anthracite coal much of the fuel for the power that made America great came from this earth but the needs of a nation change new industries grow the old fade away hard coal is no longer king the mines grow smaller the coal towns to grow smaller and more peaceful but not without occasional tragedy and this is the story of Marlon embers lives here with his daughter Bonnie and wife Doris who recalls that fateful Sunday when her husband went to inspect an old coal shaft in the hills above town I got a telephone call that he was he was injured I didn't think much of it because they sort of smoothed it but so that I wouldn't get excited [Music] then later on I find out that he had been trapped down there for five hours the accident occurred in a nearby mine similar to this where Marlon Enders waited five hours in the dark for help to come waited until friends someone from the other mines dug toward him a friend of Pat Moore and I we rented his - Sunday morning he crawled on about 250 feet Minh Aloka stiff Gillian I fell down 100 feet I'll eat down there but four or five hours before tea put me in a stretcher brought me open a cool car Marlon Enders suffered multiple rib fractures three fractures of the pelvis kidney damage a fractured leg shoulder separation dislocated ankle and a partially collapsed lung he was hospitalized 49 days and then was able to return home but his doctors said it would be many months before he would be able to return to work the injuries were so severe that he is no longer able to do any kind of work in fact it was many months before he was able to walk around his disabling condition was not considered permanent but doctors felt it would continue for at least 12 months enough to make Social Security disability benefits possible Marlon Enders was able to qualify because of a recent change in the disability law which lets people qualify if they have been unable to work for a year or are expected to be unable to do so under the old law the disability had to be expected to last for a long and indefinite period he's a captive audience for his father-in-law who lives next door sparky adams who likes to reminisce about his major league baseball days and show his treasury of old photos taken during his 13 years with the Cubs and the cards and the Pirates in the years after World War one each month Sparky receives a Social Security retirement check and along with most other Americans who have reached 65 he has Medicare to help pay hospital and doctor bills it turned out that Marlon Enders was the one millionth disabled worker beneficiary in current payment status that is for the first time in history 1 million workers were drawing monthly disability payments at one time a trip to Washington was arranged where he and his wife were interviewed by the press in the office of Secretary John Gardner so that other disabled persons could learn about the Social Security benefits payable I was not aware that yeah until after my husband was injured that we would be eligible for Social Security and I was surprised when my daughter and myself would be included 17-year old Bonnie talked about herself and her plans for the future well I'm a cheerleader for our home basketball team and I am trying to graduate back to attend college and take a course in fine arts and advertising art and this is Bonnie Enders today attending college about 40 miles from her home on the beautiful campus of Koontz town State College it is a picturesque campus marked by stately trees which shade the quiet roadways although bonnie has only now entered college already she has set her sights on winning that place as a cheerleader just as her father has set his sights on someday soon returning to work mr. Enders has had an operation on his shoulder now followed by extensive physiotherapy for his arm and hip he's been helped a great deal and will be helped more by the Pennsylvania vocational rehabilitation agency that has been working with him to hurry his recovery mr. Enders was helped as many others have been by a provision in the Social Security law for disability applicants to receive services from the state vocational rehabilitation agency that will help them as much as possible to return to work and become self-sustaining he's getting around now and getting restless he visits his fellow workers and hopes it won't be long before he'll be back working with them at the mind when he recovers disability benefits will stop as will the benefits to his daughter in college Social Security will have done its job replacing income lost for a while because of the disabling accident it's been a long road for Marlon Enders but he's fighting his way back he's been able to keep his family together and his Social Security disability benefits have helped and now from the mountains of Pennsylvania we go to the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona we're going down into the valley at the bottom of the Grand Canyon where we'll visit with a member of the Havasupai Indian tribe the hover supply lived in the gourds of the Grand Canyon long before the American frontiersman came west and discovered the canyon that today is one of America's natural wonders the Grand Canyon tourists and visitors to the Grand Canyon number in the hundreds of thousands each year awed by the grandeur of this mighty wonder of nature few visitors realize that far down on the floor nestled in a hidden cleft in the canyon is a tiny settlement the only way to reach this remote area is by pack mule down the tortuous trail in the first mile and a half the trail drops a thousand feet dropping from the grey buff Rim of the upper Canyon to the red walled inner Canyon the trail widens and green groves of cottonwoods and willows appear here along the banks of Havasu Creek live the Havasupai Indians the Havasupai people of the blue-green waters have farmed and hunted this remote land since long before the white man first set foot on this company here in the tiny village of Supai with a brilliant red walls of the inner Gorge rising hundreds of feet straight up above the canyon floor the rest of the world seems far away but the problems of life and living are much the same dan Hanna a member of the Havasupai with the wife and nine children and no longer work he's had arthritis for many years which has now crippled him to the point where he can't close his hands he's also almost totally blind he has no vision at all in one eye and can see family and friends only dimly with the other Dan would find it impossible to care for his family except for Social Security disability payments Dan frequently left his home in the canyon to work in the lumber industry in Arizona and California during the years before he became disabled this work provided support and social security protection to Dan his wife and his children when word reached the Social Security district office at Prescott Arizona of Dan Hanna's disability and of his inability to travel a field representative made the long difficult trip to the floor of the canyon to interview Dan once Dan Hanna's application for disability benefits has been completed by the district office the information along with the medical report is forwarded to a state agency when a team of specially trained people including a doctor considers the facts and besides whether Dan is disabled within the meaning of the social security law at the same time information is sent to the vocational rehabilitation staff about Dan's application so that he may be considered for vocational rehabilitation services at the national headquarters of the Social Security Administration in Baltimore Maryland during the long years of Dan Hanna's employment accurate records of his earnings have been kept but those who qualify for Social Security benefits whether through retirement the death of a breadwinner or through disability are not simply numbers in a vast impersonal system through its district offices and its field representatives the Social Security program is administered in a friendly personal and considerate manner dan Hanna having qualified for disability insurance benefits under the law receives a check each month for his family and himself although it seems unlikely for damn Hanna many disabled people try to work even though they do not recover if a disability beneficiary tries to go back to work before he has the law gives him an opportunity to test his ability to work for at least a year before benefits are ended this gives him the incentive to try to work again confident that his benefits will continue without interruption while he sees if he can hold down a job far from the hustle and rush of the great cities the people of the Havasupai find that the Social Security payments they have made when working entitle them when qualified to the same benefits as their fellow Americans throughout the nation [Music] today we have talked with two men who are receiving monthly benefit checks from Social Security as a result of disability which prevents them from working Marlin Enders was disabled in an accident while Dan Hannah's crippling disability developed gradually they have one thing in common peach is unable to work because of his disability anyone who's been unable to work for several months because of a disabling condition and who expects the disability to continue for a while longer should get full information about disability insurance benefits from his Social Security office and next week we hope you'll join us again when we tell you about Social Security in America [Music]