Montana labor news., 1932-05-12
MATHEMATICAL ADJUSTMENT OF
LABOR IS THE ONLY ECONOMIC
SAFETY VALVE
(By JUD McGRAW.)

We arc informed by the Secretary of the Treasury that wholesale COM
modify prices have fallen off thirtyfour per cent in the last two years.
For the life of me, can't see any calamity in that fact-that fact which
seems to be held aOft by Sc many as disheartening evidence.
1t is evident that if these figures are true, that the a who has six
hours employment at six hours pay, regularly, is equally a well fixed
as he was in 1929, while working eight hours for eight hours pay.
1t is equally true that in any system of employment, of part time, any
one who enjoys seventyfive per cent IS much work IS he did before the
slump is just IS well fixed, and for the sal reason. l cannot understand
the viewpoint of any employer Or employee who would offer objections to a
twenty-five per cent further spread in available labor
| can remember not very many years ago when the most earnest objective
of labor as a shorter work day. 1t is my deepest conviction that never
was the six-hor work day nor logical OF I might say more imperative,
than it is today.
A 25 per cent further spread in available labor would v the eight mil
lion from despair and restitution. 1t would effect a twenty-five per cent
increase in the spread of buying power and would save thousands of m
ployers from failure and bankruptcy. Not the least beneficial effect of this
plan would be the creation of that great sense of security among the masses
and people would live and buy normally.
My humble brain car not conceive of any other plan whereby we, the
American people, can take full advantage of u modern, magnificent
prolofc means of mass production. Surely, any advancement in progress, in
prosperity, must be followed by MOI leisure and comfort for all of our
people.
Should W eve face a shortage of labor by adopting this plan. which is
most improbable, all we would need to do would be to increase the hours
again. America has nothing to lose and everything to gain in a fair trial of
this plan.
I once heard a story Of a IA who was dying from starvation. Many
good doctors amt to his bedside, but they could not gree on any IN system
of diet and nouishment, and they continued to theorize and debate until the
poor fellow died for want of food.
1t seems to me that along with other troubles America is afflicted with
too many doctors and too much divided opinion.
| propose that we leave to Congress the many questions that are supposed
to have bearing IN this problem of employment; leave to politics all of these
questions that W e are told are too incomprehensibe and complex for the
American citizen to understand, as we know only too well that re a not
go to Congress and take part in the debates anyway Let us be content to
wait and pass Judgment or the action of Congress later, when we have the
time We are facing a great emergency, where the destiny of America hangs
n the balance.
Someone has said that mathematics is the only positive science. 1t never
fails. Let's get down to business and adopt shorter work days and nor
buying power. Here is a chance for heroes to lead the way and gain the
everlasting laudation of the American people.
Here is a plan that anybody can understand. Let's get it into operation,
M people VIII again De content IN comfort N Congress vii b Invested
of all this theorization as far as relief and depression is involved, and we
can extend to Washington the privilege of ratfying the voluntary action of
the American people
Some might argue that the placing of eight million more men or the pay
roll at approximately me hundred dollars per month would not increase the
buying power, as it would only be taking twenty-five per cent of the exist
ing payroll to give the idle millions of men. I cannot be reconcled to that
view.
Let us take the common man with all his reactions to present day con-
dtions. We will say he is working eight hours a day for eight hours pay.
He has a wife and three children He is making one hundred fifty dollars
q month y use 'he figures I'M lr srat pWposes) II es as
tressful conditions all around him. Every day friends and acquaintance are
coming down the toboggan into the ranks of the jobless. He sees the hyter-
icl drives for Community Chest. If he is only a normal human being, he
will resolve to make hay while the sun shines. He will become obsessed
with the idea of building a large emergency fund. He will get a safety
box in some bank, II often hoard the money in his home He will buy only
the barest necessities. He will try to put away half of his income, II more
if possible He knows if things continue downward, his job will be taken
from him. There are forty million such men in America, and this loss in
buying power scars into billions annually, and banks, railroads, factories,
farmers, the entire fabric of our economic structure hovers DER the brink
of disaster for the want of security in the pursuit Of life and it's comforts,
and this bvstera is bv no means confined to the average wage Garner We
see the middle class business ma and all the leaders in finance and indus
try making hysterical drives for economy unloading overhead, like fighting
fire. This hyseria extends to the very seat of our government. and it all
boomerangs down to the dspossessed, the joless and the hungry, multiplying
the millions of idle, hungry men. 1t is one ure route to economic suicide.
If eight million idle men were given employment at N hundred dollars
per month, it would make a payroll of Eight Hundred Million Dollars a
month, Oh Nine Billion Six Hundred Million Dollars a year. Everybody
would know that they would be safe and the cycle of hyshria would be
broken. This country would resume its natural trend toward bigger and
better advances and we would move again excelerated toward u rghtfu
destiny
No one a get more u of a situation than there is in it. 1t seems clear
to m that either the payrohs must rise to meet the cost of commodity prices,
or else commodity prices must fall to meet the payrols. Prices have been
falling and falling, following the inevitable law of cause and effect, clearly
revealing the path " e must tread if we are eve to com back to economic
stability.
1t would indeed be a strange defation that would go half way and stop.
Employers can not do the impossible. Buyers al not spend more money
than they are getting, neither cal people empty their pockets every day
Money was instituted as a medium of exchange, and when it is used for
accumulation OF any other purpose, it is being used arhficaly, and always
the artificial shall perish.
It is a conviction with me that W e must forget politics and look to mathe-
MATES, the on positive science. Economics Invested Of arithmetic is but
a tumble of woros. When this panic is over and the story is told in history,
whether it be five, ten Or twenty years from now, when W have ceased
this deprivation in the midst Of abundance, history will give credit to such
agencies IS statistics, registration bureaus, labor clearing houses, etc. Eco
nomic planning means planning mathenaticany. Mathematical adjustment
of labor is the only safety valve for economic pressure.
ALIAS STOPS ORDNANCE PLANT