The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-09-22

Newark, Sept 22-Lessing I. Rosenwald, vice chairman of the board of directors and chairman of executive committee, today made public at the Port of Newark (N. J.) plant of Sears, Roebuck and Company a telegram to Governor Roosevelt of New York placing the financial and merchandising facili- ties of the company behind the governors proposal to speed up repair and modernizations in New York state as a means of unem- ployment relief. The telegram fol- lows:
 Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Capitol.
 Albery, New York
 Your recommendations for un- employment relief to the New York State Legislature urging organized effort to induce people to provide additional jobs by having as much necessary work done as possible on homes, busi- ness and farms possesses great merit. Assistance in financing will be required by owners. Per hans fifty per cent of all costs. on such jobs are local labor wages. According to the Ameri- can Federation of Labor there are nroportionately more idle werkmen in the building trades than in any other division or or ranized labor. Usual processes of financing for this type or work have required that virtual lv all payments be m e from current income instead or through long time financing sucn as applies to purchases or many other commodities. In the past th,s has tended to hamper an otherwise progressive building and remodeling program which would put men and doliaTs U work. Sears, Roebuck x Com nanv ia keenly interested In tnls phase of your admirable Job fnding program and is prepared tn finance modernizing and inn nrovement work in New fork state on an adequate scale with liberal time payment plan TOT deserving cases and to offer stae ana local relief committees US facilities and eve rycooerp
 facilities and every cooperation to this end.
 (Signed) n
 Vice Chairman Board or
 Director
 Sears, Roebuck & Company;
 A statement by Harvey l.. Harris general manager of the Home con structien Division of Sears, Hoe- buck and Company, made punic with the telegram, follows:
 If has been conservatively esti- moted in a recent survey by the American Construction counch' or which Governor Roosevelt was founder and is now honorary presi- dent. that there are 1,250,00O jobs of moderization or repair on homes and farms to be done throughout the state of New York, at costs Tor labor and materials ranging rom s100 to s3,000. Taking the lowest figure this would mean that there is a market in New York state to- taling $125,000,000, of which sum approximately one-half or $62,- 5O0,00O would be required for labor employed locally.
 This survey also reveals a proo- able unemployment of more than 50 per cent in the building trades in the state, with 51 per cent un- employment reported nationally by the American Federation of Labor for the month of August, 1881.
 "Building material and equip ment costs the country over are lower than at any previous time in recent years. Labor efficiency is high, with the best of skilled mechanics available, and building labor costs are correspondingly low. There exists a tremendous. idle excess of funds in the custom ary sources of financing for such operations, and there is an abnor- nal amount of this necessary work built up over many months of sub normal undermining and recondi- tioning activity on the part of owners.
 "That this combination of idle men, idle dollars and stagnated industrial activity and buying pow CT be vitalized and put into motion as quickly as possible is the es- sence of a national as we'll as of a state need.
 1.-TWO interrelated factors are principally responsible for this stagnation. One is the public fear of the future. the psychological ef- feet of the depression; the other Is the lack adequate operative credit or financing machinery based on payments exte- -ded over a period of time-a credit machinery repre- senting a confidence in the future on the part of the financing source. the manufacturer of building ma- terials, the building contractor, as we'll As the home owner.
 s'If the forces in our everyday economic life to which the average man looks for guidance would, by their example, inspire him with confidence In the future---by ex-