UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES 25 
McGhee v. Mathis (4 Wall. 143-153) ; Federal Aid Legislation, by Prof. Charles 
K. Burdick (8 Cornell Law Quarterly); and Spending Power of Congress, by 
Prof. Edward 8S. Corwin (36 Harvard Law Review 548). 
In considering the bill, to provide for the establishment of a na- 
tional employment system and for cooperation with the States in the 
promotion of such system, and for other purposes, it is important to 
ascertain: 
. First. Whether the employment situation is a question of national 
Importance. 
Second. Whether the employment situation, if found to be of 
national importance, is such as to justify and warrant legislation by 
Congress to establish an agency having for its purpose the bringing 
about of stabilized employment and to aid workers in obtaining 
employment. 
Third. Whether or not such legislation is constitutional. 
That the employment situation is a matter of national importance 
is clear when we consider the situation now existing in England and 
the continental countries, the vast numbers of the unemployed in 
those countries, the lengths to which England has been compelled to 
go in an endeavor to provide for the existing conditions, and the 
vast amount of money she has been compelled to appropriate and 
expend in an endeavor to ameliorate the circumstances of the unem- 
ployed. 
It is not necessary to cite any facts to stress the importance of 
this question to the United States and the States, and the necessity 
and demand for remedial legislation, other than those set out in the 
testimony before the Senate committee and the public address and 
memorandum of Senator Wagner, above referred to. 
It must be admitted that the employment situation is one of 
national importance. Conditions of to-day have materially changed 
from those of years ago, and the employee can no longer limit himself 
to any one city, country, or State in seeking work for his livelihood, 
but must, if he is to secure employment, look, from time to time, to 
the country as a whole and ascertain in what particular part of the 
country he can find employment. 
The individual States have not undertaken to collaborate with 
their sister States and with the Federal Government to such an ex- 
teat as to bring about a proper coordination for obtaining the best 
results from a national aspect. To accomplish this end there must 
be some center—that is, there must be some clearing house—and the 
best and only way to secure this is by Federal legislation establish- 
ing a Federal agency which shall cooperate with and aid the States 
in the endeavor to solve the all-important question of unemploy- 
ment, so far as the individual States are willing to cooperate through 
their own legislatures. 
The importance of the question of employment is admitted in the 
brief of the National Association of Manufacturers filed in opposi- 
tion to the Senate bill 3060 and above referred to. * This brief states, 
page 1, that the association and its members are “vitally interested 
mm employment problems, and, individually and in cooperation, are 
continually engaged in the study and exchange of information and 
experience for the purpose of securing a better regularization of 
employment.” 
The brief, therefore, concedes that the study of employment 
problems and the exchange of information and experience upon these