Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-12

machines and had not had time to be
reabsorbed in the newer work which
these machines indirectly create. EN-
ployers who plan the installation of new
automatic machinery will some day pro-
vide new jobs in advance for the work
ers they are about to displace. They will
do it for business as well as humanita-
rian reasons Leading employers tell
me now that every worker thrown out
of Job is thrown out of the market,
and we are all in accord with this
statement When this thing happens to
several millions at the same time, the
loss of their buying power hits business
a blow that is felt. If our prosperity
is to continue. every possible worker
must be kept at regular employment at
good wages.
Our Government itself made one great
move to prevent unemployment when
it restricted immigration. If we had
gone on during the past eight years
admitting aliens at the rate Of mil
lion and half a year, with 80 per
cent of them wage earnerS, unemploy-
ment in this country might have become
a horror Competition for jobs would
have been terrific. There would have
been at least two or three seekers for
every job that was open. leave you to
figure for yourselves the misery that
American-born but to the foreign born
as well.
We still hear complaints about re-
stricted immigration. The people of
other countries sometimes think we are
harsh and severe. But let me tell you
that we are the most liberal country
on immigration in the world. No coun-
try excels us in humanitarianism. We
have people in America who migrate to
other countries. Within a recent period
$4,000 Americans emigrated to Canada.
Fifteen thousand of them were turned
back. Did you hear any complaint
about that in the Canadian newspapers?
But when we turn back 10000 out of
many millions from other countries you
hear q roar that goes around the world.
Every one wants to come to America,
and we still admit in the neighborhood
of 100000 year, besides many visitors.
But we do not want cheap labor here
competing with American well paid
labor. We want only efficient, well paid
labor, and only SO much of that as we
can provide with employment, and we
do not want to make this unemployment
problem more serious than 1t Is. If low
wages made for prosperity all America
would be migrating to the rest of the
world. We are not doing that; We want
to maintain and improve our own pres
ent standard of living.
These are some of the things we do
in the Labor Department. Nearly all
questions are of controversial nature.
Which side of the controversy are you
on? You can see now why call it the
most human of all Government activi-
ties. Through the Bureau of Labor
Statistics We gather and publish all the
facts and figures on the cost of living.
The same bureau keeps the workers OF
the country informed as to the prevail
ing rates of wages In their various
crafts and callings. We study the facts
ON unemployment through this bureau.
In millions of American homes three
main questions are ever uppermoSt-
What should it cost me to live? Am
1 getting the proper wage? Am I safe
in my job? We answer these questions
in the Labor Department.
We touch the very life of our country
at still another point-in the Federal
Cancellation Service, which exists to