The toiler. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1919-1922, 1921-06-18
Capitalist Owners
Responsible for
Industrial
Losses.
American Engineering Council
says managements responsible
for only so per cent production
of capacity.
By JOS. PooRE.

CONSERVATION and pandemonium
reigned in the ranks of the American
Engineering Council, at st. Louis,
Mo-, on June A, when committee APP
pointed by the Executive Board to
investigate industrial stagnation,
charged the employers and capitalists
with wilful waste in the management
of its industrial plants.
The American Engineering Council
was reorganized by Herbert Hoover,
member of Harding's cabinet, as a
bulwark against the growing strength
of the labor movement. Its program
calls for unqualified support to capital
ism and voices vigorous opposition to
organized or.The report which holds
the employers responsible for 80 per
cent. waste in American industries.
has created.a great stir and may lead
to split between the conservatives
and liberals.
The conservative members tried
every trick to stifle the report and
thus prevent its publication. Things
looked rather ugly when compromise
was agreed upon, the conservatives
consenting to the publication of the
reports as the findings of "com-
mittee."
Million Always Idle.
The report points out that the
"margin of unemployment amounts to
more than a million men," In plain
English this means that million men
are compelled to be idle even in
normal times in order to create a
labor market for the employers. A
larger labor market means cheap la
Dor, low wages and 10-11-12 hour
work day. Furthermore billions of
dollars are tied up in idle equipment" "
] Capital demands the same rate of
profits it made during the war and
, will not open it's plants until it get it.
! Naturally this means that millions Of
| workers must walk the streets to sa-
tisfy the inordinate greed of the en-
| ployers.
| Another element contributing to
waste sis the high labor turnover.
This signifies that the bosses keep on
hiring and firing in order to obtain
the cheapest labor possible. From
four to five million workers were
idle during the first three months Of
this year, which means loss in wages
of half a billion dollars. The report
charges.
"Maintainance of high prices,
/ the report continues, "on the part
| of the owners influences the stu
alton; collusion in building trades
is restriction; legitimate CD
restrictions are often practiced by
owners of patented, or trade
! marked articles"
Preventable Sickness Another Cause.
| Charging that the annual economic
loss in the country through prevent
able diseases and death amounts to
$3,000,000,O00, the report urges a
more general use of safety methods.
I The reports adds that "42,0O0,000
persons lose S5O,O0O,OOO days from
illness and disease; az per cent. Of the
waste caused by i'll health is prevent
able; in 1917 there were 100000 in
dustrial accidents resulting in an eco-
nomic loss to the country of about
$3.50, 100000"
Il Summing up, the report says that
90 per cent of the waste is directly
traceable to the culpable neglect and
Indifference of the employers whose
only motive is increased profits and
!. dividends. In view of the fact that the
American Engineering ouncil is a
I, highly reactionary body working
hand in glove with the exploiters Of
labor its accusations against the ri.
gantic greed of the employers IN
keeping factories shut thereby ag.
: gravating unemployment, are doubl,
!. significant.
While the report does not suggest
a replacement of the present capital
! istic system with communism, yet in
; tellingent workers must conclude tha
: the only solution to the unemployment
i problem lies in the control Of th'
factories, mines and mills by tn
n workmcn and their operation for thei
4 own use. All the methods are mer
! palliatives.