Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-06-24
NATIONS MUST UNITE
TO END UNEMPLOYMENT
Cooperation Of All to Mitigate Interna-
tional Factors Involved Declared
Essential-Progress May Be Slow.

offer to the depressed industries and to
the million of unemployed. The m
creased employment has been provided
by the expansion of certain home indus
tries, and particularly by the increase In
the expansion of the distributive trades.
It Is not a healthy condition Of indus
try for the number o. producers to de-.
cline and the number Of middlemen md
mere distributors to increase.
The unemployment problem In Great
Britain and In all other manufacturing
countries Is mainly question Of inter-
national trade. No country can be per-
manently prosperous II its basic indus
tries are the production Of motor cars,
gramophone records and artificial silk.
Not at Saturation Point.
Countries will have to look to an ex-
pansion of foreign trade for the restora-
ton and expansion Of the great basic
industries of shipbuilding, iron and steel
and textiles It is ridiculous to assert
that the needs of the world population
have reached the saturation point. The
world capacity for consumption Is in its
infancy. 1t may be true, and indeed it
is, that the effective demand of the
world population is being met by the
present volume Of production. The ex-
istence Of unemployment proves that
But the potential demand Of the world
population for goods is a very different
matter. That Is imn1easurably short Of
satisfaction. In the more advanced
countries large part of the population
has a low standard Of living by COM
parison with the minority of the popu-
lation. To raise the standard of living
OF the wage earners to that of the lower
middle classes would vastly increase the
effective demand for goods
But when we turn to the hundreds Of
millions of the population of Asia and
Africa, whose consumption of manufac-
tured goods per head is infinitesimai,
We see possibilities of trade expansion
which make imagination reel
Simply to double the purchasing
power OF those populations would create
demand which the present productive
capacity OF the manufacturing countries
would be quite unable to supply.
Main Facts in Problem.
The main factor in the world unem-
ployment problem Is that of effective
demand of the masses. Unemployment
will persist so long as the workers pro-
duce more than they are able 70 buy.
Production will exceed demand. Mar
kets Will become congested. Prices will
fail. Production VIII be curtatled. I'm
employment will ensure. A period Of
depression viii exist until the market Is
cleared by the people whose purchasing
power has been maintained.
Then the boom sets In. Production
becomes reckless. Prices rise, wages lag
behind and general purchasing power
cannot absorb the increased output
The depression comes around once
more.
The problem of unemployment, there
Dc rfa frN aa3~ .kAf~z
power in relation to productive capacity.
Wages must rise as production increases.
The financial policy must be directed to
maintaining price level Rooms and
depresSionS alike must be prevented
boom and progressive expansic
Of trade are not the same things. !
boom Is an artificial stimuIant applied
to production without any regard to
consumption. Solid trade expansion Is
the keeping of production and con-
sumption in progressive equilibrium.
The interdependenee of nations has
new become so close that the fun solu-
ton of the unemployment problem can
be achieved only by international CO.
operation. Individual nations may do
much to mitigate the problem in their
own countries by national development
schemes and the raising of labor con-
ditions. m
The international labor once Of the
League of Nations is directing its atten-
ton to yarious ways Of raising internal
/ tional labor standards It's task Is n
difncult one, however. and progress viii
be slow.
The human and moral aspects Of the
unemployment problem are beyond the
scope of this article. but Il may be. said
that it Is o strange and discreditable
that with all our scientific knowledge
to organize our resources In men and
matters so as to provide an willing
workers with the opportunity 70 earn q
living e%