UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 163 
mic 
ind 
as a 
mnt. 
the 
the 
sive 
ted 
for 
ion 
rCo 
eps 
or- 
ent 
res 
ler. 
red 
ant 
at. 
ny 
aq t 
ny 
fs, 
“Qo 
as 
73] 
he 
ed 
He 
nd 
mm 
3S, 
J 
as 
nr 
18, 
nd 
Here is a telegram from Professor Commons supporting this legisla- 
tion, this very bill. 
Mr. CaristoruErsoN. Would you mind reading the telegram 
Senator? 
, Senator Waener. This is addressed to Prof. Samuel Joseph, who 
Is the economist who appeared here with a petition in behalf of this 
legislation and Professor Commons’ name is on that petition approv- 
ig the legislation. The telegram reads: 
i ented to add my name to the signers of the communication on unemployment 
Hills. 
Joun R. Commons. 
As a matter of fact, I have frequently communicated with the 
professor and I know he has been deeply interested in this very legis- 
lation as a first step in the proper direction. Then Senator Couzens 
made an investigation of this subject in behalf of his committee. As 
is generally the case, the chairman does most of the work. His 
report strangely enough was read in opposition to this legislation. 
Why, Senator Couzens, in the Senate, was one of the most ardent 
supporters I had for the progress and the final passage of this 
legislation. 
I want to impress upon this committee that these bills, of course, 
are not new. A question which was asked by Congressman Michener 
Yesterday indicated that perhaps I claimed some authorship of this 
idea and that it was new. I never made any such claim and I dis- 
claim any originality as to this program now. In all of my speeches, 
from the very first time I called the attention of the country to the 
unemployment situation over two years ago and then protested that 
Congress had not attempted even to attack this serious question, I 
Spoke of the conferences that had been had on the subject of unem- 
ployment many years previously. I referred particularly to the 
conference of 1921 and all subsequent conferences that have been 
had on the subject of unemployment, and I called attention to the 
fact, when these deliberations were finally concluded, that all of them 
agreed upon the very program which I am proposing to the Congress 
of the United States, without exception. I never claimed to be the 
originator of this program for the prevention of unemployment. 
The press of the United States—and, after all, we must give the 
Dewspapers some credit for intelligence, and I do not think they would 
unanimously approve this legislation without some investigation, not 
only of the great subject of unemployment but also of the proposal 
to attempt to prevent an acute unemployment situation in this 
Country—almost without exception, irrespective of political philos- 
ophy, has approved this legislation. Every group of economists— 
and they are the men we must rely upon more or less; they make a 
Special study of these subjects to alleviate economic diseases—every 
group of economists that have ever studied this question, without 
exception, I will say, have approved this program. It is not a 
Panacea; I never claimed it was, but it is a beginning, a proper effort 
to solve this most serious social and economic problem in which the 
Congress of the United States has been neglectful. The pioneers of 
the past have been met with the same legalistic argument—we want 
old-fashioned government—as if we were living in an entirely different 
age,