Toward Depression or Prosperity?
CAREY, JAMES B.
Toward Depression or Prosperity? fhe Viewpoint of the CIO on Current Economic Problems By James B. Carey Serretaiy-Treaturer, Congress of Industrial Organization MY frank answer to the query,...
...The professor aptly points out that there .is no necessary equilibrium between the national capacities to consume and to produce...
...The great cause of worker migration is insecurity...
...The in.iic run quite faiily sets forth his prediction that a postwar period akin to that of the Harding "normalcy" would •*»t longer than the Harding-Coolidge Hoover t» /,pei ous depression, if any one •fa number of factors do not upset the 'rend...
...We are concerned, however, with his listing 1,500,000 workers as being in the "surplus labor" market, also with his estimate of 2,500,000 workers, "tempo eerily unemployed" because of seasonal factors, industrial changes, occupational and geographic shifts of workers and the like...
...Only the charlatan economists holds that view but they have no difficulty in raising a specter for large segments of American industry...
...fhe Viewpoint of the CIO on Current Economic Problems By James B. Carey Serretaiy-Treaturer, Congress of Industrial Organization MY frank answer to the query, "Toward Depression or Prosperity...
...The position of industry rests on the eld and discredited assumption that there amy lie or certainly will be a danger of overproduction...
...Technical science has shown us how t* take matter apart...
...If at times we appear to become too vociferous in behalf of the common man it is because the common man is a flesh and blood reality...
...That is the cause of current disputes, and we ran add to it the new found determination of the workers that this just sharing of proceeds must extend on into the future...
...is that ¦ highly organic minority ol powerful industrialists 'ire openly committed to the theory that *e can have fn this country a greater or leaser degree of prosperity with a depression existing alongside of it...
...The prewar pattern is highly undesirable...
...It was unnecessary for him to comment or predict...
...In view of the impact upon it of the possible utilization of atomic energy In war and peace...
...It is this just sharing, the CIO contends, that will make for full employment and the guai anlceil annual wage...
...Prolessor Woytinsky's analysis of the current situation and its future portent is commendable...
...Strangely enough, the denunciations of the transient's burning search for better and permanent things, come mainly from those who talk constantly about free enterprise...
...Temporary is a difficult term to reconcile with hunger...
...Professor VVoytinsky cites the surface fact that most of the spokesmen for liberal causes appear to be pessimistic as to what the future holds...
...Accepting as accurate the professor's estimate of a $''15,000,000,000 backlog in dammed-up purchasing power, we are not inclined to challenge the statement that, despite worries over unemployment and the consequent hoarding of war saving* by workers, there will villi be a fairly large amount of current and liquid purchasing power in the market...
...Depressions do not just hsppen...
...Transients, for the greuter part, are driven from place to place...
...To us, these figures mean 4,000,-000 workers out of jobs...
...they do not go through choice...
...People do not reduce their consumption of goods and services voluntarily out of whim or spite...
...We merely point out that if all but the confirmed savers could be assured of security through the maintenance of purchasing power, it would call for still wider expenditures and make for the welfare of all the people ami a steadily rising standard of living...
...We need adult education to teach us hi»w to live together, tn understand ourselves and the work we In, and most important, to understand our civic duties ami our postwar relations lo the people of the whole world...
...Strongly entrenched <»*-hind huge financial rettrvtt and but-fretted by Federal guarantees of tax rebatet and continued wofltt, he /» potet to ritk nont of them...
...The fact is that everything used in our daily lives wears out after varying periods of use and must be replaced...
...Its basis should be the welfare of the whole people...
...Now we need social science and intelligent group ssriion ts keep (ociety together...
...We demand that they All the role which they have taken to themselves...
...The industrialists of this country have set themselves up as leaders in production of goods and services...
...It should not be a static equilibrium that seeks to establish production ot only the number of units that will insure industry the greatest possible margin of profit...
...The boasted initiative of American free enterprise has become a hollow shell...
...Such illiteracy anil ignorance amid our tall skyscrapers should bring a blush of shame to our civic pride...
...The economist poses the question: "How far should production and consumption increase in comparison with the prewar pattern to ensure lull em -ploy men t in the nation...
...Atomic energy demands more mental energy...
...We do not consider that condition with any degree of complacency as long as the expansion is handcuffed with the equation of largest possible profits and only that quantity of production necessary to produce those profits...
...The observation confirms our point: thai there should be no hoarding al all, and that there would be none if the boarders detecleil a favorable industry attitude toward universal individual security...
...Cosmic suicide or salvation is within easy reach...
...Professor Woytinsky's figures on the labor supply appear oil cursory examination to be accurate, and we sincerely hope that his deductions, as far as he has carried them, are likewise accurate...
...In his objectivity the Kefessor %a precluded from pointing out *h»t labor disputes do not arise out of ¦ mere tantrum...
...At'the moment, he in putting off hit thare of the ritk to the contnmtr and the worker...
...In his further prediction that the outcome of reconversion and the level of employment will be determined by the relationship of erpantion as urged by us, and contraction as desired by industry, he only stresses our point that the welfare of the whole people should be treated as an imperative factor in the discussion...
...It is this sort •f reasoning that underlies our planned economy of scarcity...
...When wartime alien registration was made, over 70,000 New Yorkers signed their names with a cross...
...In summarizing bis comparison of I be 1940's with the 1920's, Professor VY.iy...
...We believe that reference to the prewar pattern answers the question...
...The facts speak for themselves...
...True, probably, but the prevention with which the CIO is concerned lies in a steady flow of purchasing power into the hands of all the people...
...In our opinion it is high time to establish something in the nature of an equilibrium...
...This ability to buy is made up of two factors...
...It is this pessimistic view that'"makes us pessimistic...
...This latter nebulous term presumably would call 51 pei -Wat- employment a higher level than 4!> Percent unemployment...
...The war and the tremendous advances of applied sclenrj have made the maps and textbooks of our school days as outmoded a- the dodo Our education must equal our current responsibilities...
...These challenging days of our atomic age make more urgent than ever lbs provision of adult education through public and private agencies on a scale hitherto uuiinagined...
...they are caused, and their great basic cause is lack of consumption...
...We must plan or perish...
...We refuse to subscribe tu the romantic or theatrical theory of wanderlust when transient workers are mentioned...
...The risks of production should be borne by all, but the industrialist need not seize upon this admission as a contribution to his side of the case...
...Their rauset are rooted in the struggle of workers .for a just share in the proceeds of industry...
...The CIO position, bluntly stated, is that it is just as easy to plan an era of prosperity as it is to drift into one of depression...
...This highly durable product, which relegates other types of hosiery largely to oblivion, could have been marketed freely ten years ago...
...Neithei is compatible with protpei Hy...
...Moronic minds cannot safely operate billion dollar gadget/4...
...Kvery American wosnan is somewhat familiar with the case of nylon hosiery...
...The number of our political morons and illiterates is Indira td by the low voting legist ration and the high circulation of the yellow press in our city...
...What prevented "free enterprise" from operating in this rase...
...This view it partly predicated on the theory thai a job without a worker is a crime, hut that a worker without a job is the result of some immutable natural law...
...it means lack or drastic curtailment of three meals a day for the.n and their lamilies...
...Violent showdowns between labor •mi management are cited as one of the "¦setting factors...
...industry franklv says that it can't l>e attained, »nd chooses instead to talk about "high levels of employment...
...It's the steady fire that keeps the boiler at the ideal operating temperature...
...He, as an economist, must deal with cold appraisal of trends, stressing neither the plight of the Individual worker nor the morals of the individual industrialist...
...the availability to each willing and able individual of a productive job at a wage rate sufficiently ample...
...Education in the Atomic Age By MARK STARK If life begins at forty, education cannot dare stop at eighteen...
...Think of the nr.luir . ml waste and inefficiency, the opportunities for disease and delinquency anil crime thus created...
...But in New York City nearly 370,000 have not been to school al all...
...Industry wants to be free to pass on all the risks of doing business to wage workers and consumers...
...If the answer must he put in words, let us advance them: "All-out increase is needed...
...tinskjr concludes that the imminent danger is inflationary over-expansion rather than mass unemployment...
...Certainly, as he points out, the existence of a sellers' market in the next few years will bring expansion...
...The CIO says full employment can lie attained...
...hit workrre and the eontitmcrt hart been detignotei for the chore...
...We do not challenge the professor's estimate that if only four out of live workers spend but 10 percent of their war savings, an additional $1,000,-000,000 of purchasing power will come into the market...
...out of every hundred of our adults have bad less than five school years...
...Professor VVoytinsky, in his article on the query, has done his best to be fair tad objective...
...However, his whole thesis tupports the position of the Congress of Industrial Organizations on full employment...
...Industry knows that, but drums up a defense based on a collateral erroneous assumption that out -aioding of goods or manufacturing processes through technological improvements is not a good thing...
...The great limitation on consumption is the point at which ability to buy is abruptly terminated...
...The argument may be advanced that many of these folks are transients...
...He really exists...
...arise out of our different roles .In the economic scene...
...As evidence I cite the few fads that have been revealed about the operations of international cartels that have deliberately, acquired and withheld from use technological improvements...
...An analysis of tabl surface fact would have brought the professor' into agreement with me that labor leaders are pessimistic over industry's pessimism...
...What differences there are between him and organized labor...
Vol. 28 • November 1945 • No. 48
