Most of the text in this photo relates to Proposition 25, an initiative on the November 1938 ballot in California to create a system of “retirement warrants” in place of public assistance for anyone qualified to vote in California and aged fifty or older without a job would receive $30 of “warrants” every week. Each $1 warrant would require a two-cent tax paid weekly to keep the note valid until redeemed. The warrants would be legal tender for payment of state taxes.

Had it been adopted and implemented, retired California residents in that age range would have received tax-and-interest-free self-liquidating “warrants” of $30 a week for life.

It was assumed that to avoid paying the weekly taxes on the money, the tender would be spent immediately, thus boosting the depressed economy. A cited example was the opportunity to trade up in foodstuffs from breakfast oatmeal to ham and eggs, hence the name ‘Ham and Eggs Movement’. While it may not have had an effect on the economy, similar plans gave Social Security a more moderate face.

It failed to pass, by a relatively small margin of 1,143,670 to 1,398,999.