The New York herald., 1921-09-26
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2s, 1921.
The Unemployment Conference.

President HARDrNG, 1t is announced
will open the conference on unem-
ployment to-day with "cail TO in
lustry to formulate some definite
plan to reduce idleness."
Such a call, of course, must In
,lude the employee as well as the
employer Of industry or 1t will be
ootless. The conference may urge
unemployment till the cows come
home but the mills and factories
viii not be able to respond with
lengthened payrolls unless they can
sell their product. And they cannot
sell their product when it costs too
much to get it out.
There is more unemplcy In
this country due to the refusal OF
labor to work at readjusted wage
scales and conditions than is due to
Ill other causes put together.
Thousands OF idle coal workers, to
take one specific example, could have
Jobs to-day and could have had jobs
all last summer and last spring IL
they would have worked at rate
Of pay and production which would
enable the industry to sell the out
put. But they would not.
Hundreds of thousands OF idle men
in the building trades, to cite an
other glaring case, need never have
been off the payrolls. for months past
if they would have gone to work on
basis that would permit houses to
be erected at tho right cost. But
they would not.
And when there are large numbers
of unemployed in this, that and the
other industry because their cost OF
production is prohibitive OF sales to
consumers they cause still other un-
employment far and wide. Coal and
other supplies that are too dear for
use in manufacturing plants stop the
wheels and cut off the payrolls In
those industries as we'll as at the
mines. Building trades wage earn
crs who will not work for Sc or 81
day, although it IS impossible to
give them SS and $40 day, throw
other men out OF employment in the
lumber camps and sawmills and the
steel mills.
Excessive railroad labor costs that
make excessive freight charges that
in turn stop traffic from flowing
knock off workers not only on the
carriers where the traffic falls away
but at the source OF supply where
the shipments would have begun un-
der rates that were not prohibitive
and at the destination points where
the shipments would have been con-
stunned.
The economic penalty OF these
wage conditions and Of other costs
due to the labor charges that cannot
be borne is millions Of unemployed.
some Of them the men who deiiber-
ately refuse to take readjustment
that would enable industry to start
Up, some of them the innocent vic
tins Of the economic folly Of the
others.
1t is of no use for the uDemploy-
ment conference in Washington to
blink these bitter truths and hard
facts. The only terms and condi.
tions on which unemployment can
cease. under the inexorable economic
lows, are the restoration Of costs
that will create business instead Of
killing business. Capital cannot do
this alone. Labor cannot do il alone.
Employer and employee must alike
put both their heads and their shoul-
ders together to work out the labor
charges and the production costs tnat
will enable the goods to sell.
As long as unemployed wage earn.
ers stand stubbornly on the ground
that they would rather continue to
live on nothing than try to live on q
wage that is less than SAM GoMPERs
says they must get or.refuse to work
there can be no hope of putting the
Lle hands In the country back to
work. II the unemployment confer.
ence in Washington does not hon
estiy, clearly and convincingly bring
this truth home to the wage Garner
as well as to the wage payer OF the
country it Is wasting its time and
night better never have met.
r. p~nIs,. D...g Il