The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-06-19
THE END OF THE TRAIL

(By Oscar Ameringer, in the American Guardian)
u it five, six, or seven milio Figuring four
to the family, have we 20, "a, or % million
suffering from lack of employment? What per
cent are five, six or seven million if unemployed
10 the total number of gainfully employed? Is it
One-fifth, One-fOurth, one-third, one-half?
Then IF there are five, six, or seven million un-
employed, hew are the still employed farng? Do
they work two, three, four days a week? And
whatever it is, how do their hourly or daily wages
compare with those Of and two years ago?
All these are vital questions affecting the veal
woe of millions of men, women and children.
The contents of babiesR milk bottles, infant death
rates, marriage and divorce, crime and prOstitu-
ton, insanity and suicide, the number of mothers
that die in childbirth, the percentage of old men
and women who battle against poorhouse and pot
ters field-all these and are tangled up in the
meshes of unemployment.
Yet we have but mere guesses concerning both
the extent and ravages of unemployment Mere
guesses on how to abolish the blacklist crime of
mdern, civilization, the shutting out from the
means of existence of millions of willing workers.
Stuck Heads in Sand
What for instance, did the government have to
offer in this, the worst industrial catastrophe in
the history of the republic?
Well it first denied the existence of the depres-
sion 1t was a stock market furry, nothing more.
I'm a few weeks, cnfidence would be restored and
prosperity return.
AS the weeks crawled into months, unemploy-
ment was reluctantly admitted and census figures
were jugged 10 minimize it's extent. eyes, there
ar some two millions unemployed, but the unem-
,Ixrr ~,
and one-half millions in time of prosperity and
now, due to this temporary business depression,
half million or so more. Too bad and all that
but charity take them. Besides, there
is that rugged indivduasm that safely brought
cur pioneer ancestors through the panics of '55
773 and 49," All reinforced with silly palave1
concerning the soundness of American institutions
the virtues of sefhelp, and the snfulness of doles
Quackeries Only
When at last it dawned upon the Great Enginee
that instead of two-we had around three four fiv
six million unemployed, and that the depression
had advanced from temporary to chronic, Their
came considerable running TO and fro Commit
tees ana commissions were appointed to study Gun
employment" Ito study unemployment" woul
have been confession of its existence) Battal
ions of sociologists and research workers were II
stalled in temporary" offices in Washington an
permanently bounced when they proposed soci;
measures for the cure of social evils instead
applaudng the individualistc quac5eries of D
Hoover and his staff of medicine men headed b
Andy Mellon.
. .
In the meanwhile, appeals and appeals to Il
heart of America. Appeals 10 the good rich to
something for the victims of the not-so-good ric
Appeals for funds for the greatest mother of al
TO feed the poor and deserving horde of toll uni
their erstwhile bosses needed them again. Appea
one and all for doles to soulless capital by symp
thetic souls. But of systematic planning and lar,
scale execution notwithstanding.
Too Much to Expect
However, let us not be too hard on the Cover