The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-12-30
By I. AMTER.

THE crisis in American industry is rapidly
engulfing the country. Step by step Amer
lean industry is going into a slump, which
threatens to have the most widespread conse-
quences. The capitalists, acting under the in
fluence of Hoover, are trying to cover up the
situation; but little by little, despite the "as-
surances" of Hoover as to the "soundness of
industry" the facts are coming out--facts that
point clearly to the deepening of the crisis.
The very fact that the manufacturers prom
ised tds institute no wage reductions, followed
by the pledge of William Green that there
would be no movements for wage increases,
suggested the idea to some workers, that
period of Sterilization" was at hand.
How rude the awakening! Wage slashes are
taking place with regularity, hours continue to
be heightened. Speed-up continues with all its
horrors! The number of children working in
industry is growing. The number of the I'M
employed grows daily. And going hand in
hand with 'it--and 'defying the alleged power
of W :am 'Green--the number of strikes is
mounting, involving larger and larger num-
bers of workers!
In the month of November unemployment
increased 81 per cent, the slump in the auto
industry amounting to 17.3 per cent compared
with October, and 231 per cent compared with
and this in face of the promises" of the
manufacturers!
That this is not temporary phenomenon
may be gathered from the periodicals written
for the bankers and manufacturers Thus the
Annalist of Dec. 20 contains the following:
"The decline in business continues. led by
automobiles, steel and freight traffic. In
other industries, with few exceptions, cur
tailment appears to be spreading, with con-
sequent losses in employment and wages"
Speaking of the decrease in business activ-
ity, the journal continues: ~
"This decrease stands, moreover, as the
greatest which has occurred in any one
month in the entire postwar period; and in
all probability it represents the most severe
decline in business activity that has occurred
in any one month in the last half century.
with the exception of those which occurred
in the years 1893 and 1907. The
consequences of such swift descent in bust
ness activity cannot be set aside as likely to
be temporary and inconsequential.
"There has been so much loose talk on the
subject, of character which is misleading
in the light of the facts brought out by the
November statistics, that it is obviously
time to face the facts as they are and not
as the billboard advertisements would like
to have them.
at is question for serious consideration
whether the business decline which is now
well under way may not, on the contrary, be
prolonged and intensified by efforts to "talk
prosperity" The current recession, like all
those which preceded it, has been caused by
decp-scated Embellishments in the national
economy; when those maladjustments are
corrected, and not until then will business
activity show lasting improvement"
This is plain talk. The bankers and manu-
facturers of the National Fascist Council"
who have practically taken over the govern
ment or are working in such close contact
with the Hoover prosperity" government, that
to all intents and purposes, the government is
directly responsible to them, admit deep
seated maladjustment in the national econ
omy" and their own contentious reveal that it
cannot be easily adjusted
Can it be adjusted? It cannot--except thru
a new imperialist war. The crisis has attacked