The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-08-14

| The organizations which have doIie
| this in the past have reaped prompl
benefits. Some of these are the Den
nison Manufacturing company, the
| American Radiator company, and the
| American Telephone and Telegraph
| company, but a rapid survey of Amer
| lean business shows more than fifty
other examples of intelligent anticipa-
ton of the business cycle by Ameri-
| can business men.
1t is worth noting that this intelli-
gent anticipation results not merely
in greater security on the job for the
| emplOyees-and of course the Presi-
| dents conference on unemployment is
interested in that-but also it has re-
suited in profits to the employer and
work for the worker, at time when
other peoples business was in the
doldrums.
There was a time when the country
had financial panic about every so
often, precisely as it now has the bust
ness depression. But the Federal Re
serve Banking system has taken away
this threat of financial cataclysm. And
the business cycle as we'll? Secretary
Hoover feels exactly that way and he
hopes to find the answer by the study
in which we are now engaged.
The Dull Seasons.
But these larger movements of
bOoms and slumpS are not the whole
story. In every year comes the minor
problem of seasonal intermittency and
unemployment. Generally speaking, the
summer months, with their slackening
of activity, and the vacations, which
interrupt the flow of business, are fol-
lowed by the busy autumn period
after the rush of the holidays comes
another dull season.
Particularly building, of course,
slows down in winter; manufacturers
of agricultural implements have their
maximum number of employees in the
late winter; automobile building falls
off in the autumn Hosiery, garments,
shoes, have two peaks Of employment
year-early spring and autumn.
Twice as many factory workers are
idle in Massachusetts and New York
state, for example, at the end of
March as at the end Of September of
the same year.
We all know that there is an off
season on the farm after the crops
have been gathered and the fruit
picked. Road building slows down in
winter, and logging camps are idle in
summer. The fisheries fall off during
certain seasons and so it goes.
Just as some business men have
controlled the cycle in their own af
fairs, so these seasonal waves admit
of control within limits. How far, no
one can tell until he tries it with his
own business. Anticipation of demand,
analysis of markets, extra sales effort
all these have been used with sur
prising success.
Many concerns have profited by
just such intelligence; but their num-
Der is few, where it should be large.
There are examples in the manufac-
ture of mems and women's clothing, IN
corset making, art embroideries, paper
specialties glass making, shoe making,
and tool making, and in the market
ing of meats, dried fruits, nuts, etc.
all of them seasonal.
Missing Something.
The important point to realize is
that unless the American business
period of many years and is laying
his plans accordingly, he is missing /
something this year and by that much I
is the helpless victim of so-called /
"blind economic laws" Working to-
gether American business men, man.
ufacturers, and farmers, can do even
more. They cannot only deal with the
inside their own particu-
lar industry, but with some of the
forces which affect them from the out
side Right here is where the study of
unemployment and business cycles
may be depended upon to help out.
This will not be completed until next
autumn, But already the value of get
ting together in, modifying the evils
of booms as well as of slumps is very
clear.
For example, the policy of holding
back construction work in boom peri
DDS and of expanding plans and equip
nent in dull ones will enable the bust
|
costs at the right time. He will not
De paying high prices for material and
abor in boom periods by overriding
lis competitor In other words, the
business man will not throw away his
money in good times but will set aside
portion of it to keep the industrial
wheels going in the off-years, thus
reating employment for more men
md a demand for more goods.
On the other hand, every mistake in
Judgment by those responsible for
and industrial decisions
esults in waste. In the year 1921
lone, 1862 manufacturing and trad
ng companies went into bankruptcy,
Nth liabilities totaling over $627, 0O0,-
90 and thousands thrown out of n
York. Practically every one of these
ailures was the result of mistakes in
Thousands of other bust