The Washington herald., 1919-02-03
WOULD RESUME
PRE-WAR WORK
Department of Labor Off,
cials Want Employment
for Discharged Men.

a nationwide construction program
involving an expenditure of not TO
exceed 5000 10000 for needed road,
waterway, railroad and building work
would provide buffer employment"
for discharged soldiers and sailors and
released war workers sufficient to tide
the country over a period OF threat
ened industrial unrest, in the opinion
OF Department Of Labor officials.
And none of this money need be
expended for unnecessary or doubtful
work, but for construction develop
ment that ought TO be accomplished
and would have been but for the war.
Secretary OF LEhor Wilson tod
members OF Congress last week that
If buffer employment were provided
for men released from military service
and war industries for the next six
months. industry would have time to
get back into its normal swing" and
the country could look forward to a
decade of unparalleled prosperity.
Otherwise there would be industrial
and social unrest, he predicted, that
might become so serious as to require
the employment of force.
Two Remedies Suggested.
1t seems to me-" said Franklin I.
Miller, director of the Division or
Public Works and Construction De
velopment of the Labor Department,
that the trouble now is in buying
no one is buying. The reason IS they
are staggered by the decreased pur-
chasing power OF the dollar.
Building materials have gone up
60 per cent and some commodities as
much as 190 per cent. There are two
ways of decreasing this: Either by
decreasing consumption and bringn-
the country into state of inertia
where there Is no business for any
body, or by increasing production. OF
course the Labor Department stands
for increased production, for only In
that way can the commodities of life
be made more readily available.
THE building situation is one phase
of the matter. As we are now 5000
10000 to $500, 600. 900 short of struc-
ture we would have had but for the
war. We must make up this shortage
before we can keep up with produc-
ton.
When we entered the war, the
Treasury Department had plans
made and sites selected for 200 new
buildings, to have cost something
like $5,OO0.OOo. This is work that
could be started at once. True, the
buildings will cost more now, be-
cause of increased cost of materials,
but Congress ought to appropriate
money at once to cover the increas-
ed cost so that the work can begin
Immediately. Better, so far as labor
is concerned. to appropriate $1,000
600 for something we can do at once
than appropriate S1Oo, 100000 for some
thing we can't get started on for
a while.
There are some leftover appro-
priations for work contemplated be-
fore We entered the war. They are
for specific things and should have
the right of way
IF the war hadn't come, we would
have had four million more immi-
grants in The country than we do
have, and we would have had three
billion dollars or more of construction
work finished that needs TO be done
and must be done. So We would have
had more workers and less work.
Business must realize that 1t must
play the game under a new deal; we
must get down to a postwar basis.
I'VE must act-not wait. And the
way to act is to start with those
things that can be gotten under way
with least delay"