Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-31
Richie DEMANDS |
ACTION FOR IDLE.
Government Must Act il
Business Won't, Virginia
Bar Told.

and In general working out all the
plans 1t reasonably can for getting on
its feet again and providing work for
the millions who need It and want 1t
and cannot get 1t. y
But industry has no right to stop
there. I am not wise enough to chart
the cycles Of industrial depression and
unemployment. leave that TO the
Roger Babsons and the Harvard Eco
nomic Society and to the other very
capable agencies now wrestling with
the problem.
Cycles Of Depression.
Perhaps these depressions occur IN
10-year cycles. as some say. or IN 3-
year cycles. as others deduce, ana per-
haps these smaller cycles are enl-
braced, as is claimed. within still
larger 50-year sweeps. Perhaps de-
preston always. follows q destructive
war. as was the case after the Ma.
poleonic wars and the Civil War and
as 10 the case now after the World
However all this may be, our pros
perity when It returns will some time
be followed by another period OF indus
trial depression, and 1t Is the duty OF
industry now to put its mind TO work
on ways and means Of relieving the
comes again.
ut may be, as President Hoover said
In his Indianapolis speech, that we
have passed through IS major depreS-
sions In the last century. and we have
learned something as the result Of each
Of these experiences
But we did not learn enough to
avoid or mitigate the distressing re-
suits Of this last depression on Ameri-
can labor. From six to eight million
men and women are out of work, and
whatever We may have learned from
past experiences has not helped them
to get It.
Industry builds up depreciation and
obsolescence funds to care for its plant
when that needs repair or wears out
It maintains sinking funds so that its
bonds may pay interest and be re-
deemed. 1t sets aside a surplus from
which dividends may be paid when
times are hard. It looks out for its
plant. for its bondholderS and for its
stockholders, but when business Is bad,
generally speaking 1t cuts down its
labor, turns 1t adrift and bids 1t look
to citizens relief committees for the
necessities Of life.
Other Problems Solved.
Industry has worked out the prob
lem Of protecting its labor against ac-
cident and injury. It should likewise
work out the problem of protecting its
labor against involuntary unemploy-
nent.
IF industry viii not fulfil this
social obligation, then predict that
government is going to step in and
take the remedy in its own hands. In
many States Of the country there is
already q movement, more or less ad-
vanced, for compulsory unemployment
insurance. The American Association
for Labor Legislation Is now giving wide
circulation to the draft OF an act pro-
posed for adoption in the several States,
which provides for an unemployment
reserve fund to be raised in much the
same way as State accident funds are
raised. The Federal unemployment in
surance bill will be before Congress
when it meets next December.
If industry and capital fear that
the consequences of governmental ac-
ton may be harmful to their interests,
II they fear that government may do
something unsound or half-baked or
waSteful or extravagant, then it be-
hooves industry and capital to become
statesmen and make governmental ac-
ton unnecessary.
Insurance in Other Countries
I'm 1s other countries of the world
unemployment insurance plans have
been established and are in operation:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria,
CzechoSlovakia, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Irish
Free State, Italy, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Russia, Spain and Switzerland
Those most available for our study
and most applicable to our conditions
are the British and German systems,
and 1t would be a calamity If the ex-
perience Of those countries were re-
peated in ours. The British system
was established in 1911, and was the
first national compulsory unemployment
insurance plan undertaken by any gov
eminent. In the beginning 1t covered
not very many industries and about
1850, 900 workers. It got OF to a good
start. Business was prosperous, and
when the World War came there was
practically no unemployment at all. So
by 1920 a surplus Of 500, 100000 had
been built up.
During the past 10 years the total
cost Of the system has been almost
$4,000, 900 900.
THE system is saic to have degen-
Grated so far that almost anybody out
Of work can demand q job as good as
the best he ever had, and If he does not
get 1t he draws insurance BENEFITS
paid from the national treasury and
from other peoples money and lives on
them.
The German system was established
in 1927 and covered about four fifths
Of the working population. At first
farm labor and home workers were in
the system, but this proved so ex-
pensive that they were soon taken out.
BY January, 1929, the fund became
i,aeA I'D -
national treasury. Within Q year the
governments advances reached $780,.
000, 900, and in April, 1880, the Reichs-
tag voted to cancel the existing gov
eminent loans and make q fresh start
It then granted an annual subsidy from
the treasury equal to one-half the
deficit each year, the other half to be
made up by increasing the contributions
from employers and employees. Under
this plan the governments subsidy
for 1890 was over $4,000 900. In
British and German experience these
obstacles have so far proved impossible
to overcome.
Experience rs Teacher.
cat present no compulsory plan has
been tried out in this country and all
proposed are subject to revision, but
it Is only the part of wisdom and
sanity to remember that experience in
other lands shows that in established
compulsory plans there lurk the dangers
of waste and graft, Of favoritisrn and
exploitation and of huge deficit which
the public treasury must carry.
'Industry's obligation to the labor
which assures its profits in good times
is not to turn that labor adrift in
hard times The intervention of gov
eminent in business is largely political
Intervention, and business should be
as free Of it as possible. But unless
industry realizes that this problem of
unemployment Is primarily its own, it IS
going to ind government undertaking
to solve 1t, and this will put govern
ment In business more than 1t has ever