Evening star., 1936-12-31
|ARMS RACE CASTS
SHADOW ON TRADE
New World Gains Due Un-
less Tension Brings War
or BreakdoWnS.
Continued From First Page.)
CONTINUED From First Page.)

cial responsibilities. A new charter
of industry has been set up since the
election. This Is the most convincing
guarantee that the major problem to-
day facing the country, that Of un-
employment. will be corrected, but not
wholly cured.
Permanent Jobless Group.
The latest figures on combined un-
employment place the total at around
| 8,500,000. This Is q decrease of g..
100000 within a year and compares
with the maximum Of $4,000, 900 at
the bottom of the depression. Labor
leaders, economists and technologists
cannot see ahead to a period of full
employment Of those physically fitted
to work.
The probabilities are that there Is q
permanent unemployment quota in
the United States Of 100000 to T.
10000 persons
Politically. the labor situation car
ries disturbing implications for 1887.
The split in the ranks of labor has
intensified the movement for more
representation in business councils
and for both higher pay and shorter
work week.
1t Is in this contest that the eco
nomic as well as the social philosophy
of President Roosevelt is expected
ultimately to determine its merits.
Decisions in cases pending before the
United States Supreme Court also
will play an important part in the
controversy.
We are at the beginning Of a FOUR
year period when the relations be-
| tween capital and labor in this coun.
try for the next few generations per-
haps will be established. There is
no doubt today that these are to take
a form in which a higher standard
Of living for the low income classes
Of this country is to be the issue.
Living Costs Climb.
Associated with this as an increasing
factor in controversial wage matters
is the steady rise in the cost Of living.
Pay roll increases in 1885 and most
of 1886 kept slightly ahead Of the
living cost advance.
Then a multitude Of wage advances
in November and December, and other
money benefits in the form Of bonuses
served to counteract sharp rise in
| food costs and the start of what Is
evidently to be a definite. and per-
haps prolonged, increase In the cost
Of living.
Commodity prices in December had
the sharpest advance since the infla-
tion boom in 1888. According to the
Standard Statistics chart, such prices
at the end of 1886 we're nearly double
the range at the low point Of 1888.
Investment and Interest.
More significant, and affecting
wider area than the rise in 1886 in
the market for stocks, was the great
strength in investment securities. Not
only did the public issues Of corpora
tions and municipal bonds combined
! represent the largest total in years,
all financing including stocks reach
ing nearly $4,000, 100000, but prices
for the best grade mortgages and de-
bentures exceeded those of any period
since the early days Of this century.
This was primarily the effect of low
money rates. which were not confined
to the United States, but were quite
universal in the free money markets
Of Europe.
The investment market was mainly
| devoted to the needs of the institu-
tions. as life insurance companies,
savings banks and commercial banks.
Their portfolios at the end of 1896
contained the largest aggregate of
prime long-term bonds, in proportion
to their total assets. in their history.
And not within this generation has
the average return on this portion of
their resources been so low.
(Copyright. 1885. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.D