of 
ve 
I. 
nt 
IM 
nt 
0b 
3 
19) 
al 
BY 
Ly 
0 
at 
i'Q 
n 
o 
UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 37 
You see, with the development of the automobile and airplane in- 
dustry; radio and others, with all their equipment, hundreds of 
thousands of men have been taken into these newer industries. Now 
that will probably continue so long as we are resourceful enough to 
develop new industries and newer needs and create and build only 
new things; but even now, Congressman, if we could only develop 
a system of employment, the market in America is so potential that 
we could put every man to work if you would put in the hands of the 
masses of the people the power to buy. We would have no unemploy- 
ment. Itis a matter of equilibrium, economic equilibrium, and surely 
the problem is not too great for us. But we can not afford to wait, 
I maintain, to solve this economic and social problem. 
Mr. MonTaGuE. These measures will start you on the way? 
Mr. Green. They will help us wonderfully. . 
Mr. LaGuarpia. I just want to get back to the bill we are dis- 
cussing and to carry out the idea suggested by my colleague from 
North Carolina, Mr. Jonas: Is it not true that in times of industrial 
depression, without a uniform system of employment agencies, there 
is a tendency to bring down the standard of wages and to increase the 
hours of work; so that, instead of getting work for the unemployed, 
you are constantly bringing down the standard and you increase the 
unemployment situation; while if you had a uniform Federal system, 
that could be guarded against and not permit industry to depress and 
tear down the standards? 
Mr. Green. I am glad to have you make that little argument in 
support of the bill; it 1s the right point. The facts are that under our 
present system, in the private employment agency, advantage is 
taken of the large number of men out of work applying for employ- 
ment and, of course, some of them are told, “Well, if you will take 
some reduction in wages, we will give you a job at this rate of wages,” 
which, of course, would be a substantial reduction in wages. Now 
there is a selfish interest there; that is, the selfish interest of the 
employer in back of the private employment agency to take advan- 
tage of this unemployment situation, and to aggravate it by reducing 
the purchasing power of the great masses of the people. Now back 
of the private employment agency are the selfish employers seeking 
men as cheap as they can secure them. Now we will reverse that 
situation. The Government is not interested in reducing wages; 
the Government is interested in maintaining high standards. We 
should not conceive of a situation where the director of an employment 
agency, supervised by the Government, would try to beat down a 
man’s wages in order to get him a job. We feel it 1s creating at least 
an impartial tribunal (if I might put it that way), to deal with a 
serious unemployment situation. The man is sympathetic; the 
Government is sympathetic. ‘We want to bring back prosperity and 
we can bring it back by placing the men, finding them work. They 
are interested in finding work, whereas the private agency and employ- 
er back of it is interested in getting men cheap. We reverse the 
whole situation. There is a splendid argument in support of Senate 
bill 3060. 
Mr. BaceMANN. Just one question in connection with S. 3060. 
I notice in section 2 it says these employees must be selected in 
accordance with the civil service law. Now the purpose of this 
legislation is to help labor and to help the laboring man.