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 Dr. William T. Foster

Collection:: Economics Books

74 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES start. Whether more or less should be done is the question. That this should be done there is no question. And in conclusion, my remarks as to the theory which has come now over the condition of economics generally, I would say, that although economists in the past used to talk of the usual volume of unemploy- ment, and think there was nothing you could do about it, I wish to say that these views are exploded to-day, and in their place has come the economics of faith; and the evidence of the part of faith in eco- nomics is shown in the petition which was read to you to-day. Prof. Paul Douglas who will speak to you here to-day knows at least 200 of the leading professional economists in the United States, and I do not know of one single one who is opposed to the conditions or th principles taken up in these bills. They are fundamentally sound. Senator WagNER. Our next speaker is Prof. Paul Douglas, who was formerly a professor of the University of Chicago, and he is now con- nected with Swarthmore College, of Swarthmore, Pa. He is well known through his fine work on economics entitled “Real Wages.” STATEMENT OF PROF. PAUL DOUGLAS, OF SWARTHMORE COLLEGE. SWARTHMORE. PA. Professor Dovaras. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I think one of the greatest advantages which one of the bills (S. 3060) would bring, would be to pool the general labor supply, and reduce the number of workers which individual businesses think at the present time it is necessary to maintain on part time that they may have a reserve for peak periods. In other words, it would lessen the indi- vidual labor supplies by pooling them into one general supply. 1 think I can make clear the saving this method would afford, by taking my example from the work of the longshoremen on the docks. As vou know, work on the docks is irregular and fluctuates from dock to dock. Taking such a harbor as that of New York, you have 10 big steamship companies, and on the least busy day each company needs to employ only 40 men during the week; but on the busiest day of the week each company needs 100 men. But the days of the week when each company is busiest do not coincide. So that on the days in the week on which there is the least business in the harbor as a whole, there would be employed not 400 men, but 500 men; and, similarly, on the day when there is maximum employment in the har- bor there will not be employed 1,000 men, but, say 700 men. In other words, on the busy day during the week you will have 300 men unem- ployed, because each firm will try to maintain 100 men on its own labor reserve in order to serve it when its peak day comes. Then those 100 men will be there for them. And so it will be with each firm or company, each will try to maintain its own labor reserve. Whereas, if you have a central employment office, such as they have in England at Liverpool, and such as Germany has at Hamburg, each firm or company could have 40 men, and therefore 400 men would be em- ployed all the time. And then you would have 300 reserve men and and not 600 attached to the central employment office, who could be sent to the individual docks on their busy day. That experiment has been worked out in this country in the far west in the city of Seattle, with the result that a small number of

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