The Senate Looks at Unemployment, I.

...Undoubtedly, the Committee is right in preferring state to national unemployment insurance, but its faith in the possibilities of voluntary and private effort in this field is scarcely justified by experience or by the probabilities...

...And obviously employment bureaus cannot increase the number of jobs...

...The only thing new in the proposal, as it is now agitated, is the provision for previous planning and wider use...

...In conformity with this resolution, the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, under the chairmanship of Mr...

...It rejects "the systems of unemployment insurance now in vogue under foreign governments," and declares that interference by the federal government in this field "is not necessary not advisable at this time...

...Foreigners are likely to be misled by the fact that Italy has a number of institutions described as Catholic banks...

...They can do no more than decrease slightly the volume of unemployment...

...Both public and private insurance plans could be so organized as to restrict the volume of a depression, by discouraging and preventing overexpansion of plants during especially prosperous periods...

...However, the diminution of public works is no necessary part of a rational project of this sort...

...Unemployment insurance would relieve an enormous amount of human suffering and it ought to be adopted in every industry...

...The administrative difficulties are, however, very considerable...

...Father Ryan speaks with authority, even if his conclusions must be accepted as his tion made by the Committee is that the Bureau of the Census should make a count of the number of the unemployed when it takes the decennial census of x93 o. This suggestion has already been adopted by the Bureau, and we are now assured for the first time of fairly accurate knowledge concerning own rather than those of the editors.raThe Editors...

...By the official exponents of prosperity this was set forth as the total number of the unemployed...

...Many governments, both national and local, have striven to increase the amount of public works in dull times...

...Of course this disadvantage to a small number of part-time workers is more than offset by the benefits of that more steady employment which the arrangement brings to the majority...

...Several of the witnesses at the hearings described the success which had attended their efforts to regularize their own businesses...

...Such use of the Commissioner's statement could be justified only on the assumption that in I925 there was absolutely no unemployment, an assumption which was not frankly made by any of Senator Wagner's opponents...

...On the other hand, the limitations of public employment exchanges ought to be kept steadily in mind...

...As a matter of fact, it almost crippled the Federal Employment Service...

...Undoubtedly, it would counteract considerably the forces making for depression if it were carefully organized and carried out in sufficient volume...

...It is generally believed that North American Catholics have in recent years contributed fully 6o percent of the total Vatican income...

...On March x, t929, the Committee made its report, which has since been published by the Government Printing Office in a volume of 53 ~ octavo pages, entitled Unemployment in the United States...

...Its possible good effects would be offset to some extent by its evil influence in exaggerating business activity during a prosperous period, thereby causing excessive expansion and inevitably increasing the depth of the succeeding depression...

...A federal census of the unemployed would stimulate constructive action and give valuable guidance by providing adequate information...

...Some of the latter deverly misrepresented a statement given to the Senate by the Commissioner of Labor's statistics...

...These preliminary pages will naturally attract more attention than any other part of the report, since they embody the condusions reached by the men who conducted the hearings...

...Of course these absolute powers have a somewhat theoretical value...

...How are the legislators and other public officials to determine when prosperity is so great as to justify a retrenchment of public expenditures for roads, buildings, et cetera...

...Very few employers are compelled, even in these days of so-called prosperity, to cease or even greatly to curtail their business activities because of inability to find employees promptly...

...The number of unemployed was put at 4,ooo,ooo by Senator When a Senate committee gathered information concerning unemployment in the United States, it focused public attention upon a grave problem...

...Until the present moment this function was entrusted to a special department which, like all others in the Vatican administration, was managed almost entirely by priests...

...All that it does is to distribute the amount of employment and production more evenly throughout the year...

...It would produce no such effect in a period like the present, when all the masters of government and of industry are convinced that the country is prosperous...

...Of the amount collected for the "obolus" of Saint Peter, a major part is absorbed by international missionary societies such as Propaganda Fide, which has a separate administration...

...comes, and would in greater or less degree be relieved from the fear of want and many other demoralizing influences associated with insufficient employment...

...It does not, except possibly indirectly, increase the total of employment in any industry...

...Rumor has been current in Rome that offers had been received from a prominent banker of German origin with international connections, as well as from a well-known American firm, but the Vatican authorities have declined to discuss plans, and their course still seems uncertain...

...From the nature of the case, old-age pensions would not reduce unemployment...

...There is also a long summary of the testimony at the end of the volume by Dr...

...The distribution of funds as well as their administration depends entirely upon the Pope, who enjoys full and arbitrary power in every field, from dogmatic and political discussion to the smallest and most insignificant detail pertaining to the Catholic Church...

...This is a recently invented bit of jargon to describe the proposal of concentrating and increasing public works in a time of industrial depression...

...If it is to produce any considerable number of good results, it should be frankly recognized as committing governments to a very large increase in the amount of public works to be constructed during any period of years which includes a business depression...

...What they can do is to reduce the cost and trouble of finding employment and employees, and enable both employer and employee sometimes to make better and more intelligent selections...

...The "prosperity reserve" likewise receives strong endorsement from the Committee...

...Unfortunately, Congress did not recognize this duty in the months following the war...

...The practical outcome of the Senate discussion was a resolution adopted May 3, I928, providing for "an analysis and appraisal of reports on unemployment and systems for prevention and relief thereof...

...Several debates about it took place in the United States Senate...

...the Pope can give general directions and decide on matters of importance but he cannot possibly attend to details such as the financial administration of the papal patrimony...

...Undoubtedly this arrangement is superior in many respects to unbalanced seasonal operation, but its benefits can easily be exaggerated...

...There would be no increase in unemployment...

...Stabilization" describes the process of reducing the number of those employed and the amount of production during the busy season of the year, and increasOctober z, x9z 9 THE COMMONWEAL 55I ing both during the dull season...

...If the employer should pass on these gains to the consumer in the form of lower prices, he could increase somewhat the demand for his product and therefore the number of persons employed...

...In accordance with the immense amount of testimony and information offered at the hearings, the Committee recommends unemployment insurance...

...What the Committee says about the United States Employment Service recalls a statement in the Bishops' Program of Social Reconstruction: "It is the obvious duty of Congress to continue and strengthen this important institution...

...By RICCARDO SAVINI S SOON as the treaty between the Italian state and the Holy See became effective, the latter entered into possession of the financial resources which had been stipulated therein...

...If men cannot find jobs after the age of forty-five or fifty, the number of those who may be called the "economically aged" becomes greatly enlarged and the need for old-age pensions greatly intensified...

...As commonly set forth, the scheme implies not only an increase of public works in dull times but a slackening of them in very busy times...

...Legislative action, as contemplated in the Huber Bill which nearly became a law in Wisconsin a few years ago, indicates the only adequate method...

...One must, however, consider that the contributions have diminished to a considerable extent since the war, particularly in the case of European nations...

...Although these measures do not seem capable of increasing in any considerable degree the average amount of employment, their beneficent possibilities in other relations are enormous...

...In the absence of the "prosperity reserve" arrangement, they would not be employed at all...

...In addition to a transcript of the testimony referred to above, the report presents several interesting and important memoranda describing legislation against unemployment in foreign countries, proposed legislation in the United States and provisions obtaining in several American industries for unemployment insurance...

...The administration of Vatican finances will from now on probably require special and experienced handling, and it seems probable that a Vatican bank will be established for the purpose...

...Whether or not the relatively meagre appropriation of $15o,ooo,ooo would suffice to hold in check the forces making for depression, it would at least mean a net increase in the number of men who could find employment...

...But it clearly prefers voluntary and private plans to compulsory and public plans...

...The first article stresses the important facts which have become clear...

...Wagner and others, while the protagonists of Republican prosperity asserted that this estimate was at least too percent too high...

...Father Ryan has written for The Commonweal a series of papers outlining the evidence at hand, examining the remedial proposals which have been advanced, and suggesting the relations which must exist between a general economic condition and employment...

...However, none of the exponents of stabilization that appeared before the Committee mentioned this possible outcome...

...Now one of its own committees realizes that this course was unwise...

...There are too many other ways of making their wants known...

...Such banks are also to be found in France...

...The Jones Bill, which was introduced in the Senate during the last Congress, merely provides for doubling the amount of money expended by the federal government on public works during the year immediately following "a IO percent fall in the volume of all construction contracts for a three months' period, as compared with the average of the same period for the three preceding years...

...The net effect upon employment would be grave indeed, for the vast majority of public employees thus displaced would not be able to find work in private industries...

...As such, it is not a new thing under the sun...

...On their face all six of the foregoing recommendations aim at preventing or reducing the hardships of unemployment...

...Only when the public authorities are preventing private employers from obtaining men and materials which they urgently need would the slackening of public works be attended by no diminution in the aggregate volume of employment...

...Indeed, it reduces the total number of persons who find some employment in the industry, inasmuch as it lessens the demand for labor during the so-called "peak" or busy season...

...Finally, the Committee gives a qualified endorsement to old-age pensions, in the statement that further consideration might well be given to the necessity and advisability of establishing them, "either through private industry, through the states or through the federal government...

...The "prosperity reserve," with the amendment suggested above, could be so organized as to reduce very considerably the amount of unemployment in periods of depression...

...The most definite recommendathe number of wage-earners out of employment...

...550 THE COMMONWEAL October 2, I9z 9 i i I I[ [I II III I II I II III II THE SENATE LOOKS AT UNEMPLOYMENT I. IMPORTANT FACTS WHICH IT CLEARLY SAW By JOHN A. RYAN URING the e a r 1 y months of 1928 the considerable increase in the number of idle working-men occasioned a pretty widespread discussion of unemployment...

...Steadier operation of the plant likewise benefits the employer, since it reduces operating costs...

...Isador Lubin, and thirteen pages of comment at the beginning by the Senate Committee...

...However, it does declare that "efficient public exchanges should replace private exchanges," that the United States Employment Service should be reorganized sufficiently to supervise and co6rdinate the operations of exchanges conducted by the states and municipalities...

...The amount is comparatively small, when one recalls the steady stream of gold sent to Rome by the faithful from every corner of the earth...

...In the third place, the Committee recommends at some length stabilization of seasonal employment, quoting the estimate by Sam Lewisohn that the saving possible in this field amounts to $2,ooo,ooo,ooo annually...

...Less confident and clear-cut is the language of the Committee concerning employment exchanges...

...WILL THE VATICAN HAVE A BANK...

...The Italian Minister of Finance and Treasury handed Cardinal Gasparri a check on the Bank of Italy for 75o0oo0oo lire and informed him that state securities having a par value of i,ooo,ooo,ooo had been credited by the Treasury to the Vatican account...

...That part of the theory which assumes that public works should be retrenched by an equal degree during the first succeeding period of great prosperity had better be thrown overboard entirely...

...Suppose Congress should decide next winter to withhold all appropriations for new federal projects, and suppose that the states, counties, cities and towns should adopt the same policy...

...The workers engaged in public construction could readily find employment in non-public industries...

...In the words of Henry S. Dennison before the Committee: It is very expensive for management to run a plant full time for eight months and slack time for four, or partly for ten and not at all for two, as a good many do, for when a plant is shut down overhead expenses continue to go on...

...For several years now we have had loud and positive and authoritative assurances that we are in the midst of great prosperity...

...However, it does admit by implication the possible value of public insurance, inas552 THE COM MONWEAL October 2, I929 much as it declares that the study of this problem should be left to the state legislatures...

...Their good effects can be comprehensively indicated in the statement that millions of Americans would have larger and steadier in...

...Let us assume, however, that the condition exists and is wisely dealt with...

...The latter group would represent a net increase in the volume of employment...

...According to the Commissioner, the number of persons at work in x928 was 1,874,ooo less than in x925...

...Such is the theory of the scheme...

...Exact data as to the resources, income and expenditures of the Vatican are not available, but it is quite safe to state that the annual income of the Holy See at present is not more than $t,5oo,ooo...

...Stabilization of seasonal employment would only indirectly and very slightly reduce the total amount of unemployment during any given year...

...Couzens, held twelve hearings in the months of December, I928, and January and February, I929 . Business men, industrial engineers, personnel managers, college professors and government officials were heard at length...

...When the depression arrived all the men formerly upon public works would resume operations in that field, together with the additional number required to carry on the public activities which had been neglected during the time of great prosperity...

...The best-known illustrations of seasonal industries are the building and clothing trades...

...A comprehensive system of employment exchanges would reduce costs and hardships, and in some degree would lessen the time spent by some wage-earners in search of work...

...They would greatly mitigate its hardships, particularly in our country at the present time when the age limit for employment has been so considerably lowered...

...And it is questionable whether the average legislative body could determine the existence of this condition with sufficient accuracy or sufficient promptness, or discontinue the retrenchment policy soon enough...

...In that case, the much-vaunted "prosperity reserve" would be merely a device for increasing public works when private employment is unusually slack...