The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1935-12-19
INDUSTRY AND RECOVERY

As an aid to better general unuei' '@no
;,,c. Of tho facts in connection with condi-
tions in this country, The Times-News IS
irving space to quotations from recent
address made by w. J. Cameron OF the
Ford Motor Company, who IS in position
to know, and unquestiopably does Know
what he was talking about. Headers OF tpls
newspaper will find the information made
public by MIR. Cameron is exceedingly mn
pressive. Here it is:
Industry does not support people, people sup
port industry" Many of you read this motto III
the rotunda of the Ford exhibit at the Century OF
Progress! Today it has new significance because
government officials are demanding that industry
employ at once the II. 100000 persons whom Wash
sington says are unemployed, OF take the conse-
quences If this demand is based truth, certainly
the motto is not Both cannot be correct
"The general impression is that this nation earns
its living in industry The facts make quite diff
ferent picture of all the people who work for pay
in this country, ten million are attached to agr-
culture. Another ten million are employed in pub
lie and personal service-teachers, lawyers, doc
tors nurses, public officials, entertainers, cooks
walters, hired housekeepers, and so forth. Whole
sale and retail trade engages between eight and ten
million more-among them two million sales clerks
and four million in other clerical positions. -Four
million people earn their living in transportation
and communication, and another four million in
construction of buildings, streets and highways. A
million and a half engage in forestry, fishing and
mining. These lines of business are not classified
by the government industry, although with other
smaller groups they account for about 40 million
OF our normal 48 million jobs. And no official has
suggested that these employ the alleged eleven mil
hon unemployed That is left for industry proper,
which at Its highest peak, in its busiest time never
employed Tin round numbers) more than $780, 900
persons-the highest industrial employment in our
history These figures for industry are given in
Fable No TS7 of the Statistical Abstract of the
united States published in 1884 under authority
Oh 1ne secretary Of commerce In this report indus
Try Is comprised under the Is main branches OF
production which supply the nations basic COM
monty requirements ranging from food and wood
and textile products to the iron steel and trans
portation equipment industries including the auto
mobile Having at no time employed as MANY as
9'OOV,uO0 persons these Is branches are asked to
employ Immediately an additional II OOO, 900 per-
sons, cor else" 49,. - '<''-~H7-
eernlng industry-frst, that any group which nor
mahy employs less than nine million persons. Of
"nom probably seven million are now at work. car
not possibly be said to have eleven million of its
people out of work 1t never had that many people.
anu Second' any group whose highest peak of bust
ness was never sufficient to employ more than nine
thnhon persons cannot, even at government COM
lhano' arbitrarily increase the number to 90, 600
VVo. There never has been that much purely in.
dustrial work to be DONE
This misconceptiOn of the comparative place os
industry in the nation has lasted a long time ,;pa
the mischievops statement that the rich two nov
cent OF the people own between so and e5 nov can't
OF the wealth, when as matter Of fact 10 cent
of the wealth and 50 per cent of tbe ;1conoe are
owned by people who have less than SIS .oea year.
1t is true that industry is important and that Il AFT
fects all other lines of work, lust ss ali other lines
of work affect it, but four-ffths Of American work
ers always have been employed at something else
The nation could hardly exist otherwise. y =
Industry earns its living by making the tool
and utensils which the rest of the people use il
earning their living-shOvel for disgefs, plows an,
trucks and cream separators for FARMERS ovens TO
bakers, hammers and saws and nails and lumbe
Tor carpenters, leather for shoemakers motor car
and electric ears and railway cars and LOCOMOTIVES
ifor transportation, machines for all sorts Of N.
ehaniea work, cloth and sewing machines for clotl
ers, paper and ink and presses for printers, and
on. Industry has never supported all the works