Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-04-21


or is true. There are western
countries where the depression is still
serious - France. for instance - and
there are other countries where pro-
duction approaches or has reached or
surpassed the 1929 level. But these
countries still. and very significantly,
have either an unemployment prob
lem. or have solved unemployment
by means which certainly would not
appeal to Mr.. Hoover.
Great Britain is a case in point.
Great Britain enjoys at this moment
political stability. has a balanced
budget. and decreasing national
debt. and industrial production is
above the level of 1929 Indeed. Great
Britain is regularly taken as the mod
Ell which the United States ought to
follow. And it is possible that if we
had undertaken years ago. when Brit
ain did. some of the social measures
which have helped her to weather the
depression. we would be in better
shape than We are. But Britain is
certainly no illustration of the sue
cess of anything which up to now has
resembled a Republican program.
Britain has not stabilized her cur
rency. The British public debt is de-
Creasing but is still, per capita, more
than three times the American. The
taxation load per capita is very much
heavier there than here except in the
very highest income brackets. Recov-
cry has been effected by an immense
amount of government interference
all along the line. The British boom,
for instance, has been largely slim
ulated by public housing program,
under which nearly three million new
dwellings have been erected. About
a fourth Of them were by direct gov
eminent subsidy; all of those private
~ built were done with money avail
able at less than 4 per cent interest,
due to governmental action. And
Britain has no such problem of the
division OF authority among the
states and no such protection of prop
erty rights by constitution as We have
The Board OF Health can and does con-
denim slum property, and can and
does pay the owner its own evalua-
ton for condemned buildings. some
times paying just nothing at all.
Still Has Unemployment.
Furthermore, Britain has a uni
versal legal, 48-hour week. old-age
pensions for workers over IS and q
complete prohibition of child labor
And even so. she still has serious
unemployment problem. With produc-
ton past the 1929 peak, there are
1877 900 persons on the dole. Con-
sidering that the British population is
one-third of ours, this Is equivalent
for us of over 100000. And the
British attitude toward the problem is
largely defeatist. We shall simply
have to write them off, a British
cabinet official said to me some months
ago.
Germany is also a country which
claims to have recovered" And If
production is the criterion, they are
approaching 1929 The stimulation to
the heavy industries afforded by the
vast rearmament program has put
nearly every factory in Germany work.
ing full time. Germany, furthermore,
claims to have reduced unemployment
from nearly 100000 in 1888 Cthe
equivalent of 100000 in this coun-
try to 1,706.O00 at the end of August,
1885. the last dates cited by the Ger
man minister Of labor in an article in
Sundays New York Times. But GER
tainly the German method of dealing
with unemployment would not be IA
vored by Mr.. Hoover, for it contains
every idea used by the New Deal and
q great many more besides, all en-
forced by ruthless dictatorship,
against which there is no appeal.
The unemployed in Germany have
not been reabsorbed into normal eco
nomic life, despite the increased pro-
duction, but most of them are working
for the state under work relief pro-
grams which differ from ours in that
the workers are paid almost nothing.
The work camps take the youth for
their board and bed; the huge road
building program absorbs more; the
national housing program put many
to work with direct government sub
sides. Agricultural workers may not
move to towns; Jews are forced to
emigrate or driven out of business.
and since they are no longer citizens
are not counted as unemployed. The
army has been quintupled. Industries
are forced to employ two men when
one could do the work. nor may they
dismiss their workers unless under ex-