Unemployment in the United States

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1828236179

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-226169

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Unemployment in the United States

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: United States, Government Printing Office

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: II, 193 Seiten

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Statement of James A. Emery, Washtington, D.C., representing the National Association of Manufacturers, and others

Collection:: Economics Books

126 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES - I was in a conference this last week where there were two very dis- tinguished railroad presidents discussing this situation, and they pointed out that the railroad business, which had been the most stable business in America, was being reorganized all over again in order to meet the intense competition of the passenger carrying auto- mobile and the freight carrying truck, which has cut so deeply into the passenger and freight traffic of the railroads that it has raised an entirely new problem in railroading, and when that difficult situation was presented by one of the railroad executives, the head of one of the great oil companies of the United States said: Have you considered the extent to which that is offset by the new volume ot freight developed with the rise and expansion of the oil industry? And one of the presidents paused and the gentleman said: I can not speak for the entire oil industry, but I can tell you this, that my own company is now paying per annum for the freight carriage of our products to all parts of the United States, to the railroads of the country, more than was paid by the entire oil industry of the United States 12 years ago. That is the character of the problems that we are facing, and I believe, Mr. Chairman, that it will recommend itself to this committee that voluntary local action coordinated and cooperating under the leadership of the Federal Government of the United States, as it has been doing, can make a great contribution to the solution of this problem, but the ultimate unit of responsibility is local, and the ultimate unit for the responsibility of all our social problems should be kept local. The more you ask citizens to look to Congress and to Washington to settle their own local difficulties, the less responsible you make them and the more difficult become the great social problems that require individual initiative, individual intelligence, and indi- vidual responsibility for their guidance. So I hope I have made it clear that our objections to this legislation to-day are not predicated upon any light and fantastic objection, but go to the nature of the proposal which threatens the very integrity of local self-government and creates what may be regarded as a precedent for encroachment into the government of the State. You are already overloading the Federal Government with administrative responsibilities so great that it threatens to break down under the obligations of administration already thrust upon it, and now you offer this as an opening wedge, because action of this nature to-day would merely be the opening of the door to the further expansion of the same authority and the further enlargement of appropriations to take over this placement. And remember, gentlemen, that when you are operating your local agencies for placement purposes, when you are undertaking to provide regulations under which they shall ad- minister all these local questions relating to employment agencies, you are actually establishing the policy of the State with respect to private and public employment agencies—and when I speak of private agencies I mean that vast body of agencies that are within every plant in the United States, through its personnel, its management, under- taking to meet its own problems of placement and adjustment of men within its own industry. I thank you, gentlemen. Mr. MonTaGUE. Have you made any approximation of the number ol origloyens this legislation would place upon the Government, pay roll?

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