Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-04

servers the nation over was voiced by
Secretary Wilson, of the federal De-
partment of Labor, when he told committee
of the House and Senate that the -unemploy-
ment problem, foollshly magnifled by fevared
imaginations, would solve itself instantly if
: those who are holding fearsomely back would
forget their nervousness and go toward with
normal activities. Unemployment today" he
said, lis not alarming so far as the number
of men out of work is concerned. But 1t is
condition showing the need OF some buffer
employment to tide US over
1t was inevitable that in the passing from
war to peace we should have a certain amount
of humping and creaking before the ma
chlnery OF business settled smoothly into it's
new gear. But there is nothing to fear in
< this needful and Thoroughly natural readjust-
ment. Business can pass from war to peace
far more easily than it did from peace to war,
and far more securely. For whereas in 1914
we were called upon suddenly to Withstand
tremendous shock and to meet conditions IN
precedented in the worlds history, today we
are in the midst of changes which were antlci-
pated, which are gradual and which there is
good reason to believe will develop into
richer and far sounder prosperity than was
ever enjoyed during the last four years.
Surely, nation that kept it's business courage
and faith in the darkening nightfall of q
world war will not lose them in this cheering
lawn of peace.
True, Ln6r0 are cases OF industrial u0C0r-
ta1nty and transient depression. Some con-
Germs have suffered from the sudden cutting
off of war contracts, and others are under
necessity of finding entirely new lines Of pro-
duction. Markets display the fckleness to be
expected in changeful times, and no prophet
is so bold as to forecast prices a fortnight
ahead. But these not symptoms of any
organic business ills They are but nerve
furries such as the soundest constitutions will
experience IN moments Of suspense. And our
only need, as Secretary Wilson says, is to go
coolly forward, looking with confidence to the
future and acting as normally as possible.
This is the surest solution to the unemploy-
: ment problem, in so far as such a problem.
exists, and to all others that feck the pusi-
ness horizon. Basic conditions are sound,
sounder, indeed, than they we're at the crest
of wartime prosperity, for whilst much of the
Industrial output of that period went for pur-
poses of destruction, future activity with
be for reconstructive and withdrawing
ends Plants that were making the necessa-
gfies of war will now make the necessaries of
peace; and the demand for the latter, besides
being as great as for the former, will be per-
manent No one is better qualified to speak
on this prospect than Judge Ebert H. Gary
head of the United States Steel Corporation.
Looking futureward from the vantage point
of his great experience and command of
AFFAIRS he says
The country was never more in need
of its workers than it is now, and it will
use all the workers it can get. l don't
believe there is going to be any menacing
unemployment problem. We are in an
era Of prosperity hitherto undreamed of.
What we need is simply to get to work
and not talk about unemployment"
How hollow, compared with testimony like
This, sound the political croakings of macon-
tents like La Toilette. The Wisconsin Senator
who is trying to scramble back into publicity
from the slough into which his record on war
issues ~deservedly cast him, affects much
pessimism and even alarm over present condi-
tons. In the dismal fancy of him and his
kind the country is headed straight for full
whiskered Bolshevism-a thought doubtless
fathered by the wish. But when we consult
so thoroughgoing a radical as Meyer London
the Socialist Congressman from New York,
what opinion do we get? ''No man in his
senses, says Mr.. London, "can seriously feel
that in country like the United States, with
three hundred years of political development
with written constitutions, with frequent
elections, with nothing in common with the
peculiar state of affairs which confronted
Russia, any group or party will attempt to
follow the methods of revolutionary cult
which had it's birth in peculiarly Russian con-
ditions." anu he incisively adds that "cnly
Unreasoning fear and incompetency to deal
with American problems in an American way
can give any ground for serious thought that
Bolshevism is upon u.s.
: ITO deal with American problems in an
American way'-that should be the aim OF
business no less than of craftsmanship in this
transitional period. And what is the Ameri-
can way? Is it to hang timorously back in
the face of the moments uncertainty? Is it
to lie down and whine because there has come
a brief lull in our roaring, full-fired pros
perity? There is no such puniness in the