Henderson daily dispatch., 1936-04-10

mean throwing one worker of every
continue no one can say. Competition
is driving employers to do many
things against their will. Displaced
workers who sit around wishing for
their old jobs to come back are puff
ing on the dead ashes Of fires which
cannot be rekindled. My sincerest adj
vice to such displaced workers is to
forget their old jobs and go after a
new one.
Creating New Opportunities
Of course, for every occupation
which machinery destroys, new oppor-
tunities should be created in the long
run. It is spanning the transition pc
riod that is difficult. Today we are in
the middle of just such period which
has saddled us with the severest I'M
employment problem in our history.
Workers in these "down-hill'' indus
tries are often too old to readiust
themselves easily. We must also keep
in mind that a million young people
are stepping up into the ranks of in
dustry every year eager to find their
places as beginners. They add to the
problem of the present unemployed
workers, many of whom have been
jobless for so long that they have, in
great measure, lost both their dex-
terity and their morale.
Another important factor to which
little attention has been paid is our
foreign trade. With world affairs in a
dangerous tangle of political hatreds
and economic confusion, the United
States is faced with the necessity of
staying in it's own backyard for a
while. Since the foreign commerce of
our country in normal times employs
about three million American work.
ers, we can see that part of our pre-
sent unemployment is attributable to
the unsatisfactory state of world trade
There is no reason, however, for long
range pessimism here. Although war
clouds seem to hang low over the
world today, the time will come when
political and monetary stability will
be restored. This will lessen the
shackles on international trade, I ven
ture to guess that when this happens
at least 20 per cent of our, present
labor surplus will be thus absorbed.
Our High Standard of Living
While our unemployment problem is
serious, it is not insoluble An unem-
plOyed worker cannot be expected to
see further than the fact that he
wants a job. To help him, even tenn
porarily, is the task of the govern
ment and industry alike. Meanwhile,
let us not short-sightedly condemn
American industry the machine, and
our government for not providing jobs
for everybody at once. We should re-
member that the machine has given
the United States the highest stand
ard of living of any country in the
world. A larger proportion of our total
population has had jobs since ma
chine development than before Pur-
chasing power since 1900 has increas-
ed nearly SO per cent in terms of hour
ly wage rates. In the same period, the
hours of labor in manufacturing in
dustries have decreased Is per cent.
The trend, therefore, is in favor of
the workers. The future means lower
prices, higher wages, shorter hours
of labor and an improving standard
of living. These lie ahead as today we
turn to both old and new industries
to absorb our nations idle manpower.
l have given you some of the solid
reasons why the unemployed man or
woman can face the near future with
renewed hope. For the Individual
worker of real character and deter
mination, unemployment does not
spell defeat. It, Isl a challenge which
the Individual must meet What we
need Throughout the length and
breadth Of the nation today more than
anything else is a spiritual awaken
ing. Let every one of us-the Presi-
dent, the heads of our great indus
tries, our labor leaders, our workers,
our unemployed-each accept his in
dividual responsibility in the task and
it will 6e speedily accomplished
Business, as registered by the Bah
sonchart, while 10 per cent below nor
NAL, is now 10 per cent above year
ago. Aa,.w