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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Closing statement of hon. Robert F. Wagner, United States Senator from the States of Yew York

Collection:: Economics Books

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 165 lay, rld, rld, 118 eat the tis lect een (th; nay ess. 100 Ss a ray. 5; I ally + it. bles no- ese nle, the ng, less hat "ate lly we TY, nch not cu hat ing ay he -his are be ard ese of ade nto Po has ter his a dy, OW something about it from my childhood days; I know what a hungry family means, and I want to tell you there is not a greater tragedy than a man looking for something to eat, with a wife and children at home waiting for him to bring it. You say that this rich Govern- ment shall not even make an effort, because of some legalistic, fan- tastic objection, to bring about a prevention of a recurrence of this serious and acute unemployment situation? Now, that is the reason this accurate information is absolutely essential. It is not. only essential for us to begin to study the unemployment situation but to know where it exists, what it is, how much is seasonal, how much is cyclical; what happens to the man; what can we do about it. These figures will reveal facts which will suggest other solutions, as all facts do when once brought to our attention. They will be used by the States, the municipalities and private industry, because they show the economic trend back and forth. Proper use of these econo- mic figures will prevent, I am as certain as I am addressing you, de- pressions such as we have gone through. And we have got to be prepared for that. What happened here last November? 1 know it was heralded that the conference saved the country and that the tide of unemployment, had been arresed by the conference at the White House, where some resolutions were passed. Undoubtedly the Presi- dent wisely called that conference; he did the best he could to prevent this terrific economic collapse which was on the way and undoubtedly the men who came there were prepared to help, but there had been no planning. You can not begin public works, or even private industry can not begin to construct work at once, unless they have planned ahead of time. If they had had these economic figures and they saw a depression coming, they could have provided against it and gone in with their public work, provided they had their works already planned. But we know, as a matter of fact, that from the time that we decide to construct a public work, to the time that actual construction can begin fully six months must elapse. In an economic emergency, all of these efforts to stem the tide are futile, because we are unprepared. However, if we have those accurate figures, we know the trend, and can foretell the prospect. Unemployment is like other diseases; it does not come over night; it comes gradually. If you have accurate statistics, you can see the barometer dropping and, if you are prepared, you will walk in and take up the slack and stabilize your economic situation. Because what essentially is all this unemployment? Unemployment results from overproduction ; the industries, not having sufficient information, can not safely foretell prospective consumption and, therefore, if they hear nothing but press notices—prosperity is here; employment is plentiful —why they assume ‘Then we are going to sell a lot of things next year.” They do not know the actual facts. Thus they produce away beyond the prospective consumption; then comes your collapse. The problem is a Federal problem. All this talk about State rights! In economic depression there are no State barriers. A factory shut in Boston is bound to affect factories in other places I mean if the men there can not buy shirts and shoes, some other factory in some other city is affected thereby. It is a national question. To see how serious it is I eompared, by means of what meager statistics we had, the wages paid out in two months. I took only factory work, which is only one of our economic activities. In

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Unemployment in the United States

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation