Guide To Social Security ARCHIVES

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BARKEV S. SANDERS PAPERS, 1926-1976

SANDERS, BARKEV S. (1903- ). PAPERS, 1926-1976. 13 c.f. (34 archives boxes) and 1 photograph.

Abstract
Papers of a statistician and research consultant whose career included positions with the Bureau of Research and Statistics of the Social Security Administration (1937-1950) and the United States Public Health Service (1956-1964). Included are writings, lengthy research memoranda, and reports; administrative files and correspondence; statistical data; and subject files pertaining to topics such as disability insurance, family composition, Social Security legislation, implementation of Social Security in Japan, national health insurance, the Rhode Island cash disability program, and the relative merit of morbidity and mortality rates in measuring community health. Freelance research files concern Medicare cost estimation, the relationship between patents and economic conditions, the retirement program of the United Mine Workers, the effect of radiation on the health of atomic energy workers, Selective Service rejection rates, and many other topics. Limited personal papers consist of correspondence with friends (such as S. Colum Gilfillan) and family (some in Armenian), material relating to his dissertation, and curriculum materials on college courses taught.

Presented by Barkev S. Sanders, San Diego, California, June 8, 1987. M87-300. (The file on Sanders contains no language concerning transfer of copyright.)

Processed by Lynn Maloney (intern-1989)-CJM-1990.
Location 2M/3/H1-6

Biography
Health care statistician and consultant Barkev S. Sanders was born Barkev S. Sandragortizian (alternatively Sandrakortizian and Sandragortizian) in Van, Turkey on July 2, 1903. Sanders was a volunteer in the Armenian army from March, 1918 to September, 1919. After migrating to the United States in 1921 he changed his name to Sanders.

Sanders graduated from Bridgewater State Teachers College in 1926 and earned his M.A. in 1927 and Ph.D. in 1934 from Columbia University, specializing first in social psychology and then in sociology. In 1939 he completed a law degree from George Washington University.

While finishing his doctorate, Sanders worked as a freelance consultant for the Veteran's Administration (1929, hospital needs for mentally ill veterans), the White House Conference on Children's Development (1930, the impact of environmental conditions on growth), and Columbia University Research Council (1931-1932, automobile accident compensation). Sanders' work on automobile compensation for Columbia was considered to be a forerunner of the no-fault insurance concept.

In 1932 Sanders was employed by the U.S. Public Health Service as a medical statistician and psychologist in the Division of Mental Hygiene, during which time (1932-1935) he studied characteristics of prison inmates and the mentally ill. During the period from 1934 through 1937 he was on loan from USPHS working first for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later for the attorney general. In the second capacity he directed the attorney general's survey of release procedures.

In 1937 Sanders became section chief of the Division of Health Studies of the Social Security Board. This position later became known as chief of the Division of Health and Disability Studies. The majority of Sanders' work on Social Security concerned the financial status and medical needs of population groups that relied on governmental aid for medical expenses. During 1947 Sanders served as adviser to General Douglas MacArthur on social insurance needs in Japan.

From 1948 through 1950 Sanders was a consultant for the Division of Research and Statistics, and from 1950 through 1956 he worked for the Bureau of Old Age and Survivor's Insurance. In this capacity Sanders helped to develop insurance programs for permanent and temporary disability and was instrumental in the definition of disability. During this period he also taught courses on medical economics and public health statistics at American University (1947-1958), Catholic University (1951-1958), and Johns Hopkins University, 1952-1956, and he worked as a research consultant for the President's Commission on Veterans' Pensions.

In 1956 Sanders again joined the U.S. Public Health Service, this time as a consultant on the Division of General Health Services to assess levels of community health. During his last years with the Public Health Service Sanders disagreed with his superiors over the use of morbidity statistics and he tried unsuccessfully for three years to publish his monograph on the topic, "Evaluation of Morbidity Surveys." As the result of his work for both the Social Security Administration and the Public Health Service during the 1960's Sanders was at the center of the medicare debate, arguing publicly that the program's costs were underestimated.

Before his retirement from government service in 1964 Sanders began to work extensively as a private health statistics consultant. He advised the United Mine Workers on retirement and pension plans (1960-1964), and working for the American Medical Association he prepared a report criticizing the conclusion and methods of a government publication, "One Third of a Nation," which argued that the high rejection rate of the Selective Service System was the fault of poor health care. During the early 1960's Sanders was an actuarial consultant for the University of Pittsburgh under a contract from the Atomic Energy Commission to study the effect of atomic radiation on the employees of commission contractors. In 1964 he became the principal investigator for a project of the Patent, Trademark and Copyright Research Institute of George Washington University to study the relation between patents and economic activity, a subject which had long been of personal interest.

In 1970 Sanders moved to San Diego. During this period he continued to be active as a board member of the Foundation for Institutes of Research and Advanced Studies, an organization founded to enable retired scientists to continue their careers. Sanders also consulted with the Texas Hospital Association.

Throughout his career Sanders wrote extensively, publishing nearly 200 articles or bureau memoranda and one book, Environment and Growth (1934), which was derived from his dissertation. Sanders has been a member of the American Statistical Association and the American Public Health Association.

Sanders married Bessie Gruber in 1930. They are the parents of a son and a daughter.

Scope and Content
The papers complement other holdings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin on Social Security, providing important documentation at the bureau level on the Social Security Administration (primarily the Bureau of Research and Statistics during the late 1930's and 1940's). The papers also cover Sanders' work for the U.S. Public Health Service, his personal background and education, and his freelance work as a consultant. Taken together, the collection allows for an in-depth examination of the ways in which statistics affects public policy. There is little personal material in the collection, although there are letters from family (some written in Armenian), friends, and colleagues.

The collection consists of correspondence, detailed departmental memoranda and reports, notes, graphs and statistical tables, writings, and notes. It is organized as GENERAL CAREER AND EDUCATION FILES, EARLY RESEARCH FILES, SOCIAL SECURITY FILES, PUBLIC HEALTH FILES, CONSULTANT'S FILES, and MISCELLANEOUS FILES. A portrait of Sanders received with the papers is filed in the Name File in the Visual and Sound Archives.

The GENERAL CAREER AND EDUCATION FILES are arranged alphabetically by subject or by record type and include papers and articles written while still a student, correspondence related to job searches and education, vitas and a list of publications, material concerning his dissertation on the social and economic factors of childhood growth, writings, and correspondence with friends such as sociologist S. Colum Gilfillan and various members of his family. Some of the family correspondence is written in Armenian, and its content is unknown. Also here is a file on Sanders' work with the Library of Congress on Armenian-English cataloging during the 1950's.

EARLY RESEARCH RECORDS are arranged chronologically by project and cover the period of his freelance work from 1929 to 1939. Within each project, individual folders are ordered alphabetically by subject. Drafts for articles, memoranda, notes, and reports account for the majority of the material in this series. Files on the Columbia University Research Council on no-fault insurance are not included, however.

SOCIAL SECURITY RECORDS, the most extensive portion of the collection, are arranged as administrative files and alphabetical subject files. The administrative files contain many of the lengthy, report-like, research memoranda that Sanders prepared, as well as a complete list of all such reports that he prepared during the period 1937 to 1950. These focus on studies Sanders conducted, including the eleven-volume Family Composition Study, 1938-1942, and the Rhode Island Cash Sickness Insurance Study, 1941-1951. Most of Sanders' research analyzed the financial status and medical needs of populations that relied on government aid for medical expenses. Also included in the administrative files are memoranda from Sanders to the staff of the Bureau of Research and Statistics, some division reports, and miscellaneous memos. The correspondence filed here, which Sanders titled his "reading file," includes not only his own mail, but also copies of material circulated to him by others for informational purposes. The reading files cover only the period from April, 1946 to June, 1950.

Nearly all of the Social Security Subject Files contain correspondence and memoranda, summarized information collected by or sent to Sanders, and in many drafts of articles and reports. Within each general subject category, individual folders are also filed alphabetically by keyword. Among the most extensive of the topical categories are the files on disability insurance, the Family Composition Study (the published study is available in the SHSW library), Japanese health insurance planning, Social Security legislation, and the Rhode Island Study of cash benefits to workers.
The PUBLIC HEALTH RECORDS are arranged as alphabetical subject files and correspondence. The correspondence is organized in three ways: daily board files containing letters and memoranda circulated among members of the Division of General Health Services; Sanders' general research correspondence concerning the Division of General Health Services (during the years 1960-1962 only); and general correspondence from his work as consultant for the Division of Community Health Services. Also here is a file collected by Sanders concerning growing differences with his supervisors.

Several of the Public Health Subject Files, especially the files on the Kit Carton Study and the files on morbidity and mortality statistics, are also associated with these professional problems. The Kit Carton Study, which was an attempt to find new ways of gathering information to measure community health, offers comprehensive coverage including background notes, an interviewer's manual, working drafts, reports, and correspondence. Also here are two drafts and related correspondence on Sanders' unsuccessful attempt to publish his monograph, "Evaluation of Morbidity Surveys," which argued that mortality statistics were no longer the best measure of community health.

The alphabetical FREELANCE RESEARCH RECORDS primarily pertain to Sanders' career after he left the civil service. Notable here is the file on his participation in the debate over Medicare in which he argued in articles and letters published in the Congressional Record that the cost of the program was substantially underestimated. Also present is information on his research on the retirement program of the United Mine Workers, the effect of radiation on the health of atomic energy workers, and his career-long interest in patents. The majority of the material in the last section, however, consists of information collected during the latter part of his career for the Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Research Institute of George Washington University.

Among the alphabetically-arranged and diverse MISCELLANEOUS FILES are folders on his involvement with the Foundation for Institutes of Research and Advanced Studies and course materials pertaining to teaching he did on health care statistics at several institutions.

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