Unemployment in the United States

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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 M. Mead, of New York

Collection:: Economics Books

Ae ay on ] ne 0 nd {=~ 1S xt ng 1e b, A n= Ly nt 18 st 18 I, Ce 1e 16 1s 1] -— Fem 2 1S 16 v0 d d UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 161 ment to solve and it particularly recommends itself to the Federal Government for its is our duty to consider the problems that are nation-wide in scope and that affect the very lives, rights, and happi- ness of our people. In the past during periods of widespread unem- ployment such as the country is in to-day Congress failed in its duty with a result that this recent period of hard times struck the country with very serious effects bringing in its wake great suffering, poverty and want. Truly last winter can be termed ‘America’s winter of want.” Therefore our responsibility to act and to act at once is so pressing and urgent that no Member of Congress can fail to recognize his duty and to perform it without delay. Unless we take action within the next two or three weeks, at which time I am informed this session of Congress will have taken its place in history, the United States will face another winter of misery, suffering, poverty, and want which may exceed the unhappy winter just passed in its number of unemployed. Many bills have been introduced both in the House and in the Senate bearing upon this all engrossing subject but the most important, of all of the bills of this nature, the bills that provide the first step toward the ultimate solution of the greater problem, are those sponsored by the junior senator from the State of New York which only recently received the approval of the Senate. One of these measures authorizes the Bureau of Labor Statistics to gather and publish at monthly intervals accurate and comprehensive employment. figures which would serve as a national barometer and enable the authorities to deal more intelligently with the question. The second bill provides for long range planning of public works, authorizing a maximum expenditure of $150,000,000 a year for that purpose and by its provisions periods of depression would be anticipated and the public works initiated in the very beginning of times of unemployment. The third bill provides for a nation-wide free employment service which would be operated in cooperation with the States. It would bring the idle man and the job together in a most effective and practical method. The three measures mentioned are all of fundamental importance in any intelligent and constructive effort looking toward the ultimate solution of the unemployment problem. The adoption of these bills will enable the Government to intelligently apply its power and resources to the alleviation of this serious evil. They have been recommended by the leading newspapers and magazines of the coun- try, by economists and authorities on labor legislation, by committees of Congress and commissions appointed by the President of the United States. The New York Tribune of May 3 last published an editorial from which I quote the following paragraph: Obviously, what the Government can do in this sphere is limited. But to the extent of its powers it should be permitted to function effectively. And to this end, it seems to us, every one of the Wagner bills should be enacted into law. Moreover, now is the time to put them through before the situation is sufficiently Sad to allow Congress and the country to forget the plain lessons of our “ winter 18content. When Mr. Hoover was Secretary of Commerce he appointed a group of distinguished men, of which Owen D. Young was chairman, to study the question of business cycles in unemployment. That conference reported in favor of unemployment exchanges as an impor-

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