The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-01-12
NEA Service Writer.


 Washington-Some of the deli- bsrations of the various learned societies which convened here at the last of 1881 were rather hard to follow, but there was no such trouble in the case of the Ameri- | can association for labor legisla- ton as it discussed and weighed | the various brands of proposed preventive medicine for unemploy- mcnt.
 Practical students of unemploy- ment undertook to bring them- selves up to date on latest devel- l opments and thought aS to short CT working days and working weeks, public works and long range planning, unemployment in- surance, reserve funds and dis missal wages as well AS the state laws passed to combat the prob. lem during the last year.
 You heard, for instance, the con- tention that reduction in the working time of labor. So widely accepted as one of the most po- tent possible remedies for wide- spread Joblessness, would do no | especial good. And you heard that contention ably refuted.
 Despite oil the agitation for long range planning designed to use public works construction aa q weapon in emergencies, 1t was found that hardly any cities or states had done anything about it. otto T. Mallery, treasurer of the association and an expert on public works planning. said that although the federal government had tripled It's public works ex- pendltures three times over those for 1928 the aggregate for states and cities apparently had declined more than enough to offset that.
 Some of the largest states cre- ated special Investigating commis- sions in 1881 with view to flnd- ing permanent methods for reduc- ing Unemployment, 1t was found. including California, Connecticut. Massa husetts, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee and Wisconsin, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Mis- souri, New Mexico and Vermont provided additional state employ ment offices.
 old age pensions continued to advance as Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire, New Jersey and West Virginia adopted such laws, mak- ing 17 states in all:
 Speakers attacked the "hypo- protecting workers against sud critical shouting of the word dole to observe the need for pratectlng workers against sud den loss of jobs. The A. A. l.. l.. n year ago began promoting what is called ian American plan for unemployment reserve funds' and Secretary John E. Andrews re- ported that there had been mark ed progress" in American public opinion on such Legislation. The association proposes to place direc- tly on industry responsibility of making systematic advance pro- vision for the involuntarily uncm- ployed worker. asserting that the | plan would tend to sustain pur- chasing power and create a per- mancnt economic incentive to em- ployment mobilization.
 Professor T. N. Carver of Har- ward was the student who pointed out what he called errors in the theory that shorter working time was an unemployment remedy. He argued that while it would give employment to some men 1t would give part-time unemployment for all. He secuted the commonly ac- cepted idea that increased leisure l pointing out that if the demand were to be effective 1t would have to be accompanied by increased purchasing power and that great CT leisure might be employed by it's possessors without any increase of expenses. such as in hiking