The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-04
REPUBLICANS Taxing PROSPERITY

/ houses in the country are reducing
their prices by nearly ten per cent
in order to stimulate business.
In the Chicago Federal Reserve
Bank district, there was a further de.
crease Of nearly four per cent in the
number employed and nearly six per-
cent in the wages for last month
Iron and steel mills laid off nearly
ten per cent Of their men in addition
to curtailing production.
The latest Federal Reserve Bank
report shows that production in the
basic industries declined nine per
cent in June and was, on July frst,,
twenty-five per cent below the level
Of the first two months OF the year.
Tho iron, steel, and cotton, were hard
est hit, the decreases were general
in almost all the other industries.
BIuffIng the Country.
Altogether too great stress is now
being laid on the billions Of dollars
that are supposed to be flowing into
the Golfers of the farmers because
of the failure of European crops and
the shortages in Canada and some of
our own states.
The fact of the matter is that even
if the farmers were to get an the
money that they are supposed to be
getting, but which the spectators are
now actually getting thru the rise in
the price Of wheat, corn and hogs,
N -
chasing power for the whole coun.
try. This is true because something
like lightweight per cent of the
wheat produced in the United States
lis consumed in the country and the
additional money that the farmers
are supposed to be getting now thru
higher prices would therefore, have
to come out Of the pockets Of the
country.
| At best the rise in the much over
advertised farm prices can be only
shifting and not an increase of
purchasing power. Besides, many of
the farmers have sold their wheat,
have assigned it long in advance in
order to meet mortgage payments,
bank notes, and tax bills. Then, il
will take years of genuine widespread
prosperity to pull the farming mass
es out OF the hole in which they have
been thrown by the last five years of
severe depression.
The few and scattered signs of re-
vival in some of the lesser important
industries are only seasonal. In the
view of the authoritative financial
journal, The Annalist, the present sit.
uation is to be summed up as fol-
lows:
Unemployment, which in the fac
tory field has already attained an
alarming rate Of increase is becoming
more marked. The Minneapolis Fed
eral Reserve District sees an excess
Of farm labor in all sections of the
district.
Kidding the Country.
But there is no doubt that Wall
Street would like to see the country
talk itself into a state of cheerful
optimism toward the future and is
willing to lead the way 1t is quite
as true in business as in other hui
man contacts that optimism is both
contagious and infectious. II such
condition develops, and it would rep
resent nothing more nor less than a
psychological change in commercial
sentiment, it should first be evidenced
in an increase in forward orders. In
this one direction lies the main diff
Guilty. Those whose products are a
long while in the process of manu-
facture have been literally geared to
a hand-to-mouth scale, and they con-
tinue to be so geared"
Here we have the real objective of
the grand offensive that has been
launched to psychologist the country
into the belief that prosperity is
with us again. The employing class
propagandists have political and eco
nomic reasons for their campaign Of
Misrepresentation Of the present
state of affairs in industry and bust
ness.