The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-06-18
BY BARROW LYONS
Times Special Writer

NEW YORK, June 18.-That eco
nomic recovery depends upon the
development of new industries,
which will absorb unemployment
created by rapid advances in tech
nology, is recognized generally to-
day by industrial leaders. The auto
mobile and radio industries furnish
examples of absorption of labor sur
plus in the past.
The hope is that air. conditioning,
cheaper housing construction, the
airplane industry, household electrl-
cal equipment and possibly televl-
sion may perform another miracle
of industrial readjustment. Possibly
a revolution in railway equipment
is on the way to assist. Perhaps
the chemists, who are seeking an
alliance between the farm and the
factory, have found key.
At any rate, the conviction is that
a good deal more than resumption
of business as usual is necessary
that the times call for more inven-
ton, initiative and business pioneer
ing than ever before.
New Industries Needed
New industries, furnishing new
EMPLOYMENT, many believe, is the
only way of bringing mass purchas-
ing power up to the point where 1t
can consume the output of poten-
tial mass production. The power
to produce has leaped ahead too
rapidly in most of the established
industries-even the automobile bust
ness-for employment to catch up
with production.
The MIRA Research and Planning
Division in the first comprehensive
report on the motor industry as a
whole points to astonishing replace
ments of men by labor-saving ma
chinery. Harry Jerome'S book,
INFLAMMATION in Industry" sup
ports the thesis of chronological I'M
employment with a fine array of
specific data on many other indus
tries. Several other studies follow
the same theme.
Evidence also is found directly in
the figures of production, employ
ment, hours of labor and pay rolls
published by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, and adaptations made by
the Federal Reserve Board.
From 1923 to 1923 factory en-
ployment shows virtually no rise
the index moved down, in fact, from
104 to 80. But factory production
increased from 101 to 112, and the
man-hour output advanced from 95
to 113.
Labor Efficiency Spurts
But during the slump, labor eff
cheney spurted upward, and the
man-hour output rose to 126 in 1882
at the depth of the depression.
A more detailed study of the
movement of factory output and
employment since the depression
shows that upon each upturn pro-
duction shot up more quickly than
employment, indicating that pro-
duction would have reached an in
deX of 100 long before employment.
In July, 1888, man-hour output
reached an index of 154, while out
put rose to 81 and employment to
only u. Workers never before were
able to produce so much a man, but
they did so under pressure and long
hours.
The spring upturn this year how
ever, proved that neither eXtraor-
binary hours nor large labor force
were needed to produce goods in
only per cent less volume than
during the prosperous years of 1928
25. In February, 1885, the produc-
ton index leaped to 81, while en-
ployment rose only to 81, and out
put a man-hour attained a mark
almost equal to that Of the 1888 in
duStrial drive to beat the codes.
In view of the enormous capacity
latent in the industrial plant, with
new efficiency devices introduced
every day, it is clear that existing
industry in a capitalist system can
not absorb the excess labor, and
that new industries must be Gre
ated to end the depression, if the
present scheme is to be maintained.