The New York herald., 1921-09-27
A Sure Cure for Unemployment

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1t is easy enough to talk about
putting 100000 unemployed per-
sons to work as a public spirited
movement pure and simple, but to
do the thing on anything but sound
economic basis is horse of another
color. =
At the war imitation wage scales
! and unde- the unproductive working
conditions which skilled and un-
skilled labor, employed and unem-
ployed, still expect and demand there
is no possible way to make and main
tain jobs for those 5000, 900 idle men
and women.
Who is going to pay them? How
is he going to do II?
1t Is not pleasant to speak these
truths: 1t is painful even to reflect
upon them. But 1t is sheer economic
lunacy to defy them; and deliberately
to ignore them, whether in public or
in private seats, is cowardly.
An official Government report puts
the average wage of the country
to-day at 81 head. For 5,000,0 900
persons that is $20,000,0OO a day.
That $20,000,0O0 a day Is $120 0,O00. 900
a week. That s120. 900, 900 a week
is six and a quarter billions of dol
lars a year.
But that six and quarter billions
of dollars isn't the whole story. The
tools those 100000 employees would
work with. the materials they would
use. the power and the light they
would consume must all go into the
account. What are those items 60
ing to make the total bill? Is 1t
nine, or what? But call it what you
will, what way on earth Is there
under present conditions. to foot It?
There Is not the free money in the
country even to make start on it,
There Is not the free money in the
whole wide world.
There is not the credit. because
credit enters into things that have
market value and can pay back
How can more commodities pro-
duced at prohibitive costs go to mar
ket and sell for the money to pay
back when the commodities already
produced at prohibitive costs cannot
find a market?
Take the example Of building
houses to end unemployment in the
building trades and collateral indus
tries, because that is one Of the
things proposed in this movement.
The estimate OF the shortage Of
houses Is 100000. Maybe that es-
innate is too high-we should think
1t was much too high. But IL there
is actual need OF 100000 houses 1t
would take at an average cost of
$1,000 house five billions of dollars
to put them up. In any event they
could be put up only on credit. How
could savings bank trustees, insur
!. ance company trustees and other In
!. vestors put five billions of dollars or
any billions of credit into buildings
, which, because OF the imitation
, charges in them. might not be worth
one.half what 1t cost to build them?
The talk of having Government.
J national. State and municipal, pro-
vide the employment on public works
. Is just as footless. President HAR.
DING does we'll to emphasize this to
his unemployment conference. The
various Government treasures, ma.
tional. State and municipal, cannot
. pay their way now. More taxes
would not solve the problem. They
would make matters worse, unspeak-
, ably worse.
There are two troubles and only
two with this country to-day They
are inordinate taxes and prohibitive
costs. Put the taxes higher and pile
seven or eight billions of dollars
more of running costs on the coun.
! try and It's whole industrial and
business structure will go up in
smoke. Then II will be more unem.
ployment, not less--you might say
nothing but unemployment.
But II labor will work for a fair
wage, II It will do good days work
for its pay. II the Government tax
mills will stop squeezing the produc.
ers dry, II employer and employee
shoulder to shoulder will get prices
down to the consuming public---and
they can go down only by getting
costs down--there will be no unem.
ployment problem, industrial dead
lock and business stagnation. Under
the irresistible economic laws all