Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-26
DEPRESSION HELD
AT DARKEST HOUR
Private Agencies Now Ready
to Face Facts and Lift
Nations Load.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

b1 WILLIAM HARD.
A lot Of Al economic sharps here this
week end are of the expressed opinion
that in the matter of unemployment and
the business depression the country is
now on the brink of the good old dark
est hour before the dawn" They based
this opinion on a proposition which Is
largely psychological They note that
the depression of 1920 and 1921 did not
end till the country got tired OF cuss-
ing the Government for It's troubles and
also got tired of thinking that its
troubles were bubbles which the Gov
eminent could blow away. Therefore,
1t did not end until late in 1921, the
country itself got busy and rolled up its
sleeves and started manufacturing odd
Jobs of any and every possible sort for
all of the needy in every State and
county and city and village and from
the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the
Canadian line to the Mexican border.
Everybody Faces Facts Frankly.
For the first time in the course of this
current business depression a similar
awakenment. both pessimistic and ulti-
mately optimistic, is noted now. Pes
simism is that now just about everybody,
from the President down, faces the full
facts frankly and realizes thoroughly
that We are undergoing not the simple
aftermath OF a mere New York stock
market crash, but the major final crisis
OF worldwide business upset conSe Quent
upon the great war. The best economic
judgment here now Classics the de-
preston Of 1920 and 1921 and the cur
rent depression as follows:
The first one was the postwar dis
location crisis" The present one Is the
postwar REIMBURSEMENT crisis" The
nrst one was cramp. The present one
Is worse than q cramp and also better
1t Is great big growing pain after
which the patient is expected to bound
out OF MS postwar cradle pretty well
really grown up.
That is the dominant Interpretation
here today and it goes along with the
policy which has recalled Col Arthur
WOODS to Washington to repeat the I'M
employment relief measures which he
forwarded in 1921 with countrywide
success Col. Woods states to this
WIiter that ms methods now will be
substantially the same as his methods
were then. That being so, this writer
states as his own deduction, drawn out
OF his recollections of Col Woods
methods in 1921 and drawn out of his
observations also Of present tendencies
In Washington, that the following
Things are going to happen:
!; Much less will be heard of Federal
public works" as a solution Of unem-
payment.
Public Works to Leave Spotlight.
2. Much less will be heard even of
state and local public works" as a So
luton OF unemployment Public
works" will continue to be pressed with
al possible vigor as q factor in the So
luton OF the problem, but they will re-
ceoe from the center of the spotlight.
5. The calcium glare Will be turned
on the unemployment relief which can
ne furnished through Jobs created by
the nundreds OF thousands of separate
private producing business firms and
the millions OF separate private con-
Stunning households in the countrys
multltudinouS local communities.
Inc best figures here obtainable
tcollected by the Hoover and Shaw
committee on Recent Economic
Changesl show that in recent pros
porous times the pay roll of wages and
salaries for employed people in the
United States was running up above
90 billion dollars q year, not million,
billion.
1t Is realized that no feasible expan-
son OF public works can effectively
MI the deep dent made by q major
oppression In pay roll so massive.
MoSt OF the dent, 1t Is realized, will have
to be filled by the job-finding capacity
OF the private business production and
the private household consumption of
commodities and of services of the
private citizens OF the country.
Inis is in timely harmony with the
SUDDEN emergence of local committees
OF private citizens throughout the coun-
try Tor the finding and giving of iobs
from and to their own neighbors. 1t is
an emergence partly spontaneous, and
partly stimulated from Washington 1t
is belated but emphatic response, in
some cases consciously, and in other
cases unwittingly, to the request for the
organization of such committees made
many months ago by the Federal Gov
eminent. The reliance which Presi-
dent Hoover places upon such commit
tees In the execution Of the task which
ne has delegated to Col Woods may be
seen condensed into one fact.
CrOxtOn 70 BE Summoned.
just about the first man summoned
TO Washington to convey current in
formation about unemployment relief
70 Col. Woods Is, or will be, Fred G.
Croxton OF Ohio. He has been execu-
tive secretary, or the like. OF the Ohio
State Committee on Unemployment
The President has regarded that COM
mittee as one OF the best examples IN
this country today OF civic effort In con-
tribution TO current public needs. 1t
was organized and developed under the
auspices of Gov. Myers Y. Cooper and
of William T. Blake, director Of
the Ohio State Department Of Indus
trial Relations. Its experience Is likely
70 be widely studied and initiated
throughout the country within the next
few weeks. Mr. Croxton. after he has
conferred with Col Woods, will prob
ably travel from State 10 State COM
municating the methods and the results.
IN some details disappointing and in
other details enormously encouraging,
- he
essence Of that endeavor would seem
70 lie in the application Of two out
standing principles:
!. Collaboration OF private business
agencies on a State wide scale.
e. Extension OF the collective ener-
Ries OF those agencies down into the
smallest organizable local units OF the
State.
The private business agencies which
took part in the organization OF the
Ohio State Committee on Unemploy-
ment were the State Bankers ASSocia-
ton the State Building Association
League. the State Chamber OF Com
merce, the State Manufacturers AS
ISOLATION, the State Council OF Retail
Merchants, the State Newspaper ASSo-
citation, the State Federation OF Labor,
the State Farm Bureau Federation and
the State Grange. Each Of these nine
agencies thereupon appointed rep
yesentative in each Of the States 81
counties. The nine different repre-
senJatlves thus selected in each county
thereupon formed a county commit
tee. Thus the ensuing endeavor was
State wide and local deep Simultane-
ouSly and concertedly. The general
policies have been formulated in some
degree in a uniform manner at the top,
and the active immediate work has
been done by neighbors among nigh
bors at the bottom