36 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
Mr. SumnERrs. Instead of men being fired, provide some means of
selling more to the farmers and to the laborers so that they will have
a little bigger house than they have had before.
Mr. GreeN. You hit the nail on the head that time, Congressman.
Mr. Sumners. That is what I am interested in.
Mr. Green. It is a matter of consumption and the establishment
of an equilibrium, a balance.
Mr. Sumners. We are in the situation, as I view it—1I come from
Texas, and we are in the situation there, in so far as the unemployment
matter is concerned, and that is what I am interested in and do not
want to get too far afield, that there is no rainfall on the headwaters’
Mr. Green. I appreciate that.
Mr. Sumners. There is a big flood in the river, but there is no
rainfall on the headwaters.
Mr. GreEN. And a depressing condition existing in the agricultural
industry aggravates the industrial situation in the cities. Both of
the problems are linked, as I see it, and we have to face it some way
or other; evade it as we may, we have to face the issue because it is so
linked and interlinked that it is impossible to disassociate.
Mr. Yates. I understood you to say a while ago that the present
facilities of the States, the different State employment agencies, are
wholly inadequate to meet this situation. Where could we obtain
information or a tabulation in regard to what the States are trying
to do?
Mr. GreEN. You can secure that through the executive depart-
ment of each State. Most all of them have industrial departments;
some of them are industrial relations departments. And you can
find out through the Federal director, who is here in the room, I
think.
Mr. Yates. I was concerned to note your statement that they are
wholly inadequate.
Mr. Green. They are wholly inadequate; I make that statement.
I do not think that is too strong. It is wholly inadequate and surely
any one in touch with the unemployment situation in the different
States will realize that fact. It comes home to you. 1 appreciate
you members here, serving in the Congress of the United States,
remotely situated, perhaps, from these centers of increasing unem-
ployment, will probably not realize it as we do ; but we come face
to face with it and I want to say to vou, in all sincerity, that it is
tremendously serious.
Mr. McKeown. Mr. Green, has it ever been suggested that we
might undertake to defer or declare a rest period for a while in our
patent office on these labor saving machines in this country?
Mr. Green. Well, I had not thought slong that line.
Mr. McKeown. Well, Japan, as I understand it, refuses to permit
any labor-saving machine to be introduced in her country, on account
of the man power and the necessity to use the man power. Now
I am wondering if that suggestion has ever been made or any study
given to the proposition in this country as to whether or not it is
more valuable to have improved machines, or more valuable to have
our men employed.
Mr. Green. Well permit me to remind you what I said just a while
ago, that we have been able to absorb in industry, in the newer in-
dustries, practically all the men who were displaced through the
introduction of machinery, up until probably a year or two ago.
