The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-12-17

making recovery more distant, and weighing
down even the seasonal upspurts that the capt.
talists expect.
Why Hyde Cried.
Foremost is the growing severity of the agrar-
ian crisis. The seven lean years forecast by
Hyde have basis in fact The recent action of
the Federal Farm Board in cutting American
wheat off of the world market, seals up tremen-
dous stocks of wheat in an already overloaded
market and lays the basis for an explosion 1t
is no wonder that Hyde has tears in his eyes
when calling for war against the Soviet Union to
relieve the agrarian crisis in the United States
The railroads are in a dcep swamp. They are
decaying so badly that t d, railroad executives
of the Glass 1 railroads, in petition to Con-
gresS. admit they are faced with the worst crisis
in their history. They plead for special laws to
protect their profits, and to permit them to
trustify still further
The Building industry is badly off The drop
of the year 1880, low as it was, had been arti-
ficially kept from going lower, and. in spite of
the bosses efforts, will express itself in worse
form during 1881.
Glut of Automobiles.
The automobile industry is in really serious
situation, typical of the enormous difficulties of
American capitalism in the present crisis. AS
an illustration, the present auto plant capacity
without overstraining is capable of producing
100000 cars year. This year about 100000
cars were produced-and at least million were
never sold! Next year the market for automo-
biles will be still further contracted as the full
effect of the crisis on the inner market will be
felt more severely in 1881. The world situation
effectively stops any promise of an increase in
exports. In 1890 auto exports dropped go per
cent below 1929. 1t is no wonder then, that
Ford, according to the Wall Street Journal is
going to close his plant indefinitely. The Ford
dealers were loaded up in 1880, and are virtually
checking with overproduced stock.
The Purchasing Trick.
And on this basis the steel industry, which de-
ponds for so per cent of it's orders on build
ing, autos, and railroads, cannot be expected to
show any important advances in 1881. In this
connection the recent mall ,uver of the United
States len raising steel prices
81 ton is interesting, This is done to stimulate
business by M buyers belie.a it would be
better to buy now as prices might go up still
further. 1t was tried before and failed. In Oct
the steel corporation tried the same trick, but
the result was lessening in steel output and
T IS dropped ain The copper trust tried the
same stunt, pulling prices of copper up from 9
cents pound to IL cents. The 12-cent price
remained on paper. Copper prices are dropping
daily
Now Bonds Go Down!
reflection OF the deeper extent of the crisis,
its more complicated nature, is contained in the
transfer of crashes from the stock to the bond
market. Bonds are guaranteed profit-producing
Investments. Their movements up and down
vary little Common stock-the bulk of the
paper traded in on the stock markets. based
more on the excess Of profits over and above
that paid on bonds and other fixed Indebtedness
Early in the crisis bond prices went up. Now
they are going down. This is alarming the CAPT.
talists, who see in it quirk they didn't expect
This leads the Commercial & Financial Chron-
icle Oec. 6, 1890 to exclaim: "It is bad enough
to see stock prices going all to smash, but when
bond prices follow the same destructive course
there is reason for the gravest apprehension"
There will be rabid campaign of lying and
predictions soon. They will not feed the unem-
ployed. They will not reduce the unemployed
army. They will not end the crisis But they
will fool many workers. 1t is the duty of every
class conscious worker to smash these lies and
increase the struggle for unemployment insur-
ance.