Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-09
EMPL OYMENT STERILIZATION
is AIM OF NEW INVESTIGATION
Chamber of Commerce Will Undertake to
Organize Permanent Methods of Sup
plying Work in Industry.

AS a first step in marshaling the
forces of business with the ultimate aim
of deViSing measures to insure stability
of employment and shield it against the
disturbing effects of seasonal and cyclical
f1uctuation the Chamber of Commerce
of the United States today announced
that committee of business executives
and economists will be appointed to
sound the possibilities Of a constructive
approach to the problem. The commit
tee is now in process of organization.
The personnel will be announced
shortly.
In making the announcement Julius
H. Barnes, chairman of the Board of
the National Chamber, emphasizes the
assertion that the task is one to be done
by business itself and not by Govern
ment, if the principles under which the
United States has grown to be the
greatest of industrial nations are to be
I preserved.
He suggests the feasibility of supple
menting individual effort at Stabiliza-
ton with the wider cooperative trade
association effort to minimize as far as
possible the ill-effects of industrial
change. BY strengthening the key in
dustrleS in this respect, he points out,
and relieving a substantial number of
| wage earnerS of the fear of insecurity
which is itself a strong deterrent of
| business activity, q framework will be
provided, which will give greater rigid
| ity to the entire industrial structure.
Responsibility of Business.
american business" said Mr. Barnes,
sis we'll aware of its responsibility in
maintaining the fullest possible measure
| of employment. It is as desirable from
an economic as a social viewpoint, for
fc IS
eral ailment which affects alike the
| wage-earner and the investor. So close
are economic relationships today and
| so complicated the mechanism of pro-
| duction and distribution that no one
branch of industry nor economic class
| can long escape the untoward effects of
depression with which others might
be afflicted. The maintenance of the
earning capacity of the worker is as
necessary to business as the mainte-
nance of the consuming capacity of the
| farmer.
1.-THE problem is to find a practical
method Of minimizing, at least, the dis
| turbing effects of industrial change
| which is the inevitable accompaniment
of progress. Industry finds it necessary
to adjust itself to new conditions, new
methods, new processes which science
and invention are constantly bringing
forward. employment is constantly
| shifting from old channels to new and
labor, left to its own devices or relying
| upon individual resources, oftentimes
| does not keep pace with these changes
as they occur.
"In condition of this kind the thing
to be feared most is fear Itself. Con-
fidence, tempered with prudence, is
| necessary to the operation of even the
most perfect business mechanism. The
retarding effect of a sense of insecurity
| is promptly communicated from worker
| to consumer, from consumer to pro-
ducer, and the whole machine stalls
and the anticipated evil becomes real
Industrial Management.
"At the same time the question Is
one of growing Importance from the
viewpoint of industrial management
Manufacturing plants are highly mech
anized institutions. Skilled workers can
not be casually replaced at the factory
gates. Displacement of employees, even
temporarily, involves enormous eco
nonic waste.
at might be possible that a cumula-
tive series Of these industrial and COM
mercial dislocations is the underlying
cause of the business cycle. That is q
problem to which business leadership
might well address itself in the future
But we need not look so far ahead fol