The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-09-26
Harding Opens Unemployment
Conference With Address.
Should Be Work for Everyone
in United States, He Says.
BUSINESS STAGNATION CAUSE
Consider No Remedy That
Means Federal Appropriation.
Program of Sessions Placed in
Secretary HoOver's Hands.

Washington, Sept. 26.-Tho unem-
ployment is the NEST serious problem
that confronts the United States to-
day, it must not be remedied by any
method which seeks either palliation
or tonic from the public treasury"
President Harding declared today
when he opened the national unem-
ployment conference here Such a
remedyIwould but "excite contribut-
ing cause" the president said.
THE fundamentally sound, finan-
c1ally strong, industrially unimparied,
commercially consistent and politi-
cally unafraid, there ought to be
work for everybody in the United
States who chooses to work" the
president said, land our condition at
home and our place in the world de-
pends on everybody going to work and
pursuing it with that patriotism and
devotion which make for a fortunate
and happy people"
Business Chief Cause.
1t is a belief in administration cir
cles, that the root of the present un-
employment evil lies in Stagnant bus
iness. II business can be guided once
again to ''normalcy," the unemploy-
ment problem will speedily solve
itself, they believe.
Consequently after emergency
measures for immediate relief are con-
sidered, the conference can be ex-
pected to delve deeply into the prob
lem of how business can be assisted
to its feet and directed once more
along the road to prosperity.
Those in charge will bend every ef-
fort to eliminate calital and labor
controversies within the conference.
Belief was expressed by the presi-
dent that the results of the conference
would be beyond the borders of the
United States and that the delegates
in fhpiY. do1ihnra ha
forming "a service to the world"
Hunt Speed Cure.
eff we fail today, we will try again
tomorrow" the president said. There
has been unemployment before and
will be again. There will be depres-
sion after initiation just as surely as
the tides ebb and flow. but we can
mitigate, We can shorten the duration,
we can commit all America to relief.
If of your counsel there comes q REM
-edy which America helpfully may ap-
ply today, it may be helpfully en-
ployed some time again when similar
conditions are encountered.
'It is fair to say that you are not
asked to solve the long controverted
problems of our social system" Amer
lea is 'incontestably sound" the presi-
strong" but I'VE are merely depressed
after the fever and we want to know
the way to speediest and dependable
convaIescence."
Always Unemployment
There is always unemployment.
Under most favorable conditions. 1 am
told, there are a million and a half
in the United States who are not at
work. The figures are astounding
only because we are a hundred mil
lions and this parasite percentage is
always with u.s.
But there is excessive unemploy-
ment today and we are concerned,
not alone about its diminution, but we
are frankly anxious, under the involv-
ed conditions, lest it grow worse,
with hardships of the winter season
soon to be met.
"I do not venture to quote the sta
tisticians, whether the maximum fig
ures are accurate or the minimum
more dependable. Owing to the far
swing from intensive endeavor and
the effort to get down to solid founda-
tons coupled with the difficulty re-
adjusting penditures-public, cor
porate and individual. from abnormal
to normal-the problem of unemploy-
ment is the most difficult with which
we are confronted.
Wants No Panacea.
at would have little enthusiasm for
any proposed relief which seeks either
pallitation or tonic from the public
treasury. The excess of stimulation
from that source is to be reckoned a
cause of trouble rather than a source
of cure We could achieve but little
in a remedial way if we continued to
excite a contributing cause.
1T is not my thought to suggest
your fines of conference. Mr.. Hoover
the secretary of commerce, to whom
has been committed the arrange
ments for this important meeting. will
present the agenda. I have wished to
say to you that the people of the
United States are very deeply inter-
ested, not alone the unemployed, but
all who are concerned for our COM
mon veal and the world is looking on
to find helpfulness in our American
example