646
AGRICULTURAL RELIEF
© Mr. Warrace. Oh, well, you know the old saying, “The fish
monger is not going to cry out stinking fish.”
Mr. FuLmer. Have you any figures, Mr. Wallace, to show the
unemployment in these various centers?
Mr. WaLLace. We have some figures, but my estimate is based
upon personal observation. I was in Detroit last summer; I was in
New York: I was in Chicago; and I was in many other industrial
centers in the country. Especially is this true in Detroit, that for
every man who was working you would find one man sitting on the
street, last summer. There might be a little amelioration since the
Ford plant started, but not much. For every man Ford has em-
ployed I will undertake to say that two men rushed to Detroit.
Mr. Apxins. How does this year compare with all vears at this
season of the year?
Mr. WALLACE. It was last summer I was there, Mr. Adkins.
Mr. Apxkins. I say, how do various vears at this season compare
with other years?
Mr. WaLrace. It is now far worse.
Mr. AsweLL. Worse than it has ever been?
Mr. Warnace. I will not say that, but comparable to 1920.
Mr. Fort. To another presidential year?
Mr. Warrace. I do not know that the fact that we have to elect
a President has much to do with it. The fact of the matter is, Mr.
Fort, that in industry the per capita productiveness of the individual
has risen faster than his consumptive power.
Mr. ANDRESEN. The same thing is true of the farmer?
Mr. Warnace. Oh, yes; but what shall we do? The question is,
Shall we send our surplus products abroad, and then send another
billion dollars after our products so it may be bought back; or shall
we use some of this consumptive potentiality from abroad here in
this country? |
Mr. AsweLL. What are we going to do about that—the 40 per cent
idle? That is what I am thinking about. What do vou propose to
do about it?
Mr. WarLace. The only answer is, Mr. Aswell—because we have
made that answer we are treated as criminals—we say raise wages,
raise the remuneration of the farmers, and then we will have pros-
perity in this country, because if we are able to produce more then
we should consume more; and that is absolutely necessary, if we are
to run on 6 or 8 cylinders, or whatever you might call it, in this
country, instead of running on 3 cylinders.
Mr. KincueLoe. If you curtail the consuming power of 30,000,000
people who live on the farms in this country, of course, that 1s going
to affect the industries, is it not?
Mr. Warrace. Absolutely, yes; and that is why we are here,
unless we see it and the other fellows do not seem to see it. They
seem to think ‘‘the less these people have the more we will have.”
It does not work out that way.
Mr. KiNcEELOE. From your observations, there is not much “full
dinner pail” around in this country under this administration?
Mr. Kercaam. You get the slant of these gentlemen, of course.
They are bound to put a political complexion on things.
Mr. KincuELOoE. No; I am not. The witness is giving the eco-
nomical situation.
