x4 UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED STATES
employment statistics, if we adopt this proposition of more intelligent
planning of public work, and then if we adopt this proposition to have
a well knit together system of public employment offices throughout
the country, we can commence to answer vour question. No one can
answer it until that time.
I have served on these committees and commissions for 15 years.
I served as a member of the New York City municipal committee
under Mayor Mitchel during the depression of 1914 and 1915. 1
served on the State committee in my State of New York. I served
on the President’s unemployment conference under the chairman-
ship of Mr. Hoover in 1921. Each time we came to the conclusion
that, of course, through our legislators, we must adopt this as a mini-
mum program. And what have we done? What progress have
we really made during those 15 years? That is what faces us this
afternoon. It is not a matter of economic theory; it is a matter of
cold fact, very cold for a number of millions of people who are un-
employed.
There seems to be some difference of opinion as to how this legisla-
tive program developed. There is no secret about it to anybody who
has taken the time to go back through the official records. There
is no doubt as to what has happened. As early as 1919 a former
member of the House and for a time chairman of the Labor Committee
our friend W. B. Wilson who became the first Secretary of Labor,
called together in April of that year 60 conferces representing practi-
cally all of the states of this country. They sat down together for
three days working over the program for this one bill for employment
offices.
Who were some of those people? Who did they represent? Is this
employment office bill an imposition upon the States of this country?
No. The conferees represented Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts,
Governor Allen of Kansas, Governor Smith of New York, Governor
Stephens of California, Governor Lowden of Illinois, Governor Shoup
of Colorado, Governor Hart of Washington, Governor Davis of Vir-
ginia, and on through a large number of the other States. Also
there sat with them a representative of the American Federation of
Labor and a representative of the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States.
Those were the people of a representative character from all these
States. The Federal-State plan they outlined in a lenghty resolu-
tion at the end of their three-day deliberations is a virtual outline,
even in detail, of the bill that has recently passed the Senate. Those
men decided that it was necessary to do those things, and those de-
tails are there on record for anyone who wishes to read, beginning
on page 181 of the May, 1919, issue of the Monthly Labor Review
published by the Department of Labor. And what did they say in
recording this action at the time? They said:
It is greatly to be hoped that at last a permanent national system of employ-
ment offices, administered under uniform rules and standards prescribed by Fed-
eral authority, will be provided for in the forthcoming extra session of Congress.
That is what they hoped. That was 11 years ago, and the United
States Senate, under the leadership of Senator Wagner of New York,
adopted that full program a month ago.
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States in that same year,
1919, took a referendum on the subject and they got 689% votes in
