Montana labor news., 1934-10-11
By HENRY c. FLEISHER

New York-FP)-Herbert Hoover's
Temporary recession" is five years old.
The stock market crash, which dra-
matically attracted the attention of
the world to the industrial collapse,
occurred in October, 1879, but prodlc-
ton, employment and distribution were
already on the skids five years ago last
une. Department of Commerce sta
tistics show that the Wall Street col
lapse was merely the fireworks that let
the world know that the days of pros
perity were past.
In five years the country has been
treated to two different attacks on de-
preston. The first, led by Hoover,
was one of keeping governmental
hands off private industry and off re-
lief, though the government did finally
dish out several millions to banks and
public utilities through the Recon
struction Finance Corporation. The
second, Franklin Rooseelt's New Deal,
swung away from the Hoover tactics,
and the government has become con
cerned with the working of business
and has, through the FERA, made the
motions of providing for the man in
the street.
The fact remains, though, that the
statistics still point to one clear truth
we're not out of the depression yet.
At a time when most economists
agree that our industrial machine is
capable Of making this an era Of the
Economics Of abundance" the figures
demonstrate that production, consump-
ton and business activity are far be-
low normal.
What do the figures show?
The New York Times index shows
business to be more than IS per cent
lower than in the fall Of 1929. Another
indication of what America is doing
in the way of clothing and feeding it.
self is shown in the reports of depart
ment store sales, which dropped "a
per cent in the period up to July Of
this year; and recall that in 1929 there
were millions of workers who didn't
have enough funds to absorb the prod
ucts of industry.
The automobile industry, which be-
cause of its size and scope determines
whether it's going to be depression or
prosperity for a score of subsidiary
industries, was producing in the second
week Of September just a little more
than half as much as its average out
put in the years l927-l930.
Steel, key factor of the nations en-
tire industrial setup, was being pro-
duced at only 2.3 per cent of capacity
in the second week of September.
Freight car loadings, which give a
good picture of the amount of goods
shipped for productive and consump-
tive purposes, fell from SIS million in
September, 1929, to little more than
rs million cars for July, 1884, a de-
cline of considerably more than 50 per
cent.
Unemployment in the summer of
1929 was estimated between three and
five millions; the summer of 1884 the
estimates ranged between eight and II
millions. And weekly wages in "a in
dustries surveyed by the Department
of Commerce, only $28.63 in Septem-
Der, 1929, had fallen to $2O.71 in June
of this year.
Construction of new buildings has
fallen off tremendously, despite the ef-
feet of governmental building projects.
In September, 1929, more than $4,000
new projects were recorded by the De-
partment Of Commerce; the depart
ment's figures for July, 1884, indicate
less than half that number.
There has occurred the beginnings
Of an upturn in commerce and indus
try, but its course has been slow and
irregular. Meanwhile production OF
clothes and food, of steel and build
ings, remain far below the pre-depres-
sion level; more than that, insufficient
to provide the vast majority of Amer
leans with articles of use common in
the days when that m%uch-vaunted
American standard of living" was at
the height Of its newspaper popularity.