The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-28
COOPERATION
TO help IDLE
HOOVER IDEA
Gives Hint Of Plan When He
Says Solution Expected
Through Widespread Vol
untary Action.
TREAT AS EMERGENCY
BY MARK SULTAN

WAS1lNGON, OepL ZS.-W nateVer
concrete thing is to come out of the
unemployment conference, it is not
yet in sight 1t is possible that one
or more of the 80 members may have
definite plan or plans in their minds.
II so, those plans will have to pass
an intent scrutiny by various COM
mittees before they are submitted to
the conference itself. 1t is likely that
the public will not hear anything def
mite about plans for a week or ten
days
The public hearings being held this
week deal mainly with the facts of
unemployment 1t is the apparent in
tention later on TO give wider latitude
to the hearings, and out of such lati-
tude We are likely to hear, not from
the official members of the conference,
but from volunteer witnesses, good
many suggestions for a remedy.
1t is already clear that advantage
of the opportunity to testify at public
hearings will be taken by good many
of those persons who either as dream
ers or charlatans always turn up in
such periods as this, and tend to
dramatic unemployment in a way to
bring them personal publicity. Every
crisis has its "Coxy." This time the
number of "Coxeys" promises to be
rather large.
Intelligent Gathering.
But any one who studies the counte-
nances of the members of the confer
ence at any of their official meetings
is reassured by their intelligence and
common sense. 1t is. in fact. an i'm
pressive gathering. To look at it for
half an hour and then go to the other
end of Pennsylvania avenue and look
at the lower house of congress for
half an hour, furnishes comparison
which the unemployment conference
does not need to fear.
Mr.. Hoover, as the presiding officer,
causes a spectator to recall how ac-
curate a portrait Mr. Keynes painted
in four words when he said that Hoov-
er at the Paris peace conference gave
the impression of "a slightly weary
Titan"
In his opening address and in such
other public contacts as Mr.. Hoover
has had with the conference, he mas
restrained himself strictly to the ex-
preston of fundamental principles.
If he has any definite plan in his mind
he has as yet given no hint of it.
The larger probability is that he has
no plan but rests his hope wholly on
a distillation of what is known or
thought or proposed by the SO men
whom he has selected as the best rep
resentatives of the United States for
the purpose in hand.
Genius For Work
Hoover's ability does not lie neces-
sarily in any novelty of inventiveness.
1t lies rather in unusual capacity for
sheer work in the collection of facts
and something approaching genius in
making sure generalization from those
facts together with extraordinary prac-
ticability in putting plans into effect.
He epitomized the present problem
when he said:
There is no economic failure so ter
rible in its import as that of a coun-
try, possessing a surplus of every
necessity of life. in which numbers
willing and anxious to work are de-
prived of these necessities. What our
people wish is the opportunity to earn
their daily bread and surely in a
country with its warehouses bursting
with SURPRISES of food or clothing,
with its mines capable of indefinite
production of fuel, with sufficient
housing for comfort and health, we
possess the intelligence to find a
solution"
Course of Conference.
II is apparent that the course of the
conference will shape itself like this.
First, there will be an agreement on
the facts of unemployment not merely
as to its quantity. but what is more
vital in seeking a cure, in what trades
and what parts of the country unem-
ployment is most prevalent. After
arriving at an official statement of the
facts, the situation will be treated as
an emergency calling for voluntary CO.
operation. On this point Mr. Hoover
gave hint of plan when he said:
The administration has felt that a
large degree of solution could be ex-
pected through the mobilization of the
fine. cooperative action of our manu-
facturers, employers. public bodies,
and local authorities"
Obviously, Mr.. Hoover must have in
mind something like his wartime man.
agement OF food, which was based on
widespread and well directed volun.
tary cooperation.
After treating the emergency as an
emergency. the conference will then.
and not till then, take up consideration
OF plans, first. for reviving general
business, and second, for preventing
unemployment in the future.
Copyright 1921 by the New York
Evening Post, lnc)