Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-07-11

WASHINGTON, July S.-The re-
port of the select committee of the
Presidents Conference on Unem-
ployment, appointed to inquire into
subject of business cycles, is expect
ed in the near future and economists
and industrialists are looking for
ward to its publication with much
interest. 1t will be based upon a
study unique in character and pur-
pose. The plan is to devise ways
and, means of equalizing the cycles
of business activity which bring
about alternate periods of keen ac-
tivity and periods of depression re-
sulting in unemployment.
The effort constitutes in effect an
attempt to harness and control the
forces defined by political economy.
heretofore these forces have been
regarded as wholly beyond the pos
sibility of human regulation.
Business cycles are as old as mod
ern organized business. Before the
war the cycles were held within ma
tons, each nation % in some cases
groups of nations, having series of
cycles. Since the war the whole
world has econ so interdepend-
ent in an economic sense that it
appears more than likely hat hence
forth industrial depression in any
country will be practically the same
as to time and effect as in other
lands.
Business grows increasingly ac-
tive in periods of peace. Prices
gradually rise owe a period of years
and wages rise with them, but usu-
ally slightly behind them. AS the
period nears it's climax prices and
wages being to shoot up. Their is
tremendous demand for labor at
high wages and people are willing
to pay almost any price for goods
so long as they can obtain what
they want. Then comes a collapse.
The prices which took a decade in
climbing fall literally over night.
The depression from which the
United States is emerging now came
in the late spring of 1920.
The result of such a change is
that business stops dead. Stores
which have goods on their shelves
purchased at the high rates dislike
to see not only their profits but a
large part of the money they paid
for the goods lost, and so are slow
to reduce their prices. The public
is unable longer to pay the high
prices, many pelsons being out OF
jobs and having no money. This
means that factories normally en-
gagged In producing the goods shut
down. Railroad traffic falls off be-
cause there is so little to ship.
Keen Distress Results
The result of this is unemploy-
ment. The transition from a period
of the utmost activity and pros
perity to one in which men are
walking the streets by the hundreds
of thousands out of work, takes but
a few weeks. Keen distress results
and frequently, if an election is
near, there is a party overturn.
The great task which the special
committee on business cycles is
seeking to perform is to discover
some means of equalizing these per-
iods. Some people say it cannot be
done. Some declare it is folly to
try to make periods of prosperity
more restrained and periods of de-
preston less distressing. The plan
has been called an anti-boom scheme
designed to take the romance and
fun out of business. One of the OBJ
erver attending the first meeting
said the plan OF preventing booms
reminded him of the tender-hearted
farmer in one of the southern states
who never used a wagon but in
variably hitched his horses to a
stone boat, a sort of sled which
drags on the ground. Questioned
as to his reason, he explained he
used the dragging sled rather than
the rolling. wheeled wagon because
of his horses.
when / use a wagon" he said.
at pulls so hard going up hills
that 1 feel sorry for the horses.
When I use the stone boat, its pulls
so hard all the time that the horses
don't notice the difference on the
The proponents of the plan say
that what they desire is not SO
much to take the JOY out of h
booms as to take the distress out
of the depression. Depressions in
business have been regarded as so
unavoidable in character that fol-
lowing the one of 1907 a defense
made in a lawsuit thai a mans
failure TO pay the amount for which
he was sued was due to the panic,
which, it was claimed before the
court. was an act of God and there
fore a valid excuse for non-bayment
of the debt. The court did not al
low this construction to relieve the