Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1936-03-19
The Relief Message.

Inc PreSldentS relle1 message correctly
characterizes the unemployment problem
as "the most difficult one before the
country" and proceeds to place the major
responsibility for its solution with in
dustry. That, of course, is where the
major responsibility has rested all along.
The record of the Government to date
in its relief activities has merely empha-
sized the fact that while Federal funds
may be poured by the billions into such
drains as the P. w. A., the w. P. A., etc,
nothing will be effected in the way of
real and lasting unemployment relief
until real jobs are provided for people
out of work. Industry is the only agency
that can provide such jobs.
This responsibility resting, as it does,
with industry, what does the President
offer in the way of Government assist
ance enabling industry more effectively
to assume 1t?
First, there is the continuation Of Gov
eminent relief for certain types of I'M
employment through w. P. A. and the
Civilian Conservation camps, on scale
only slightly diminished from that pro-
vided during the current fiscal year. The
President has asked actually less money.
But the billion and half requested, plus
unexpended balances from the current
fiscal years expenditures and plus the
appropriations already made to continue
the Civilian Conservation camps will
make almost as much money available
next year as in the current fiscal year.
Second, a somewhat vague and unde-
fined promise of the sort Of cooperation
from the National Government that
would permit industry to organize and
to put through its own plans for unem-
ployment relief-through providing jobs.
MANY private employers" says the
President, believe that if left to them
selves they can accomplish the objec-
tives we all seek" Are they to be left
to themselves?
Third, 1.-The cooperation of all the
appropriate departments and agencies
of the Federal Government" whatever
such cooperation may amount to.
The group of industries in which there
has occurred the greatest lag in taking
up unemployment is that of the so-called
''heavy' industries, dealing in such du-
rable goods as steel, cement, lumber, iron
and other building materials. Several
causes have been advanced to explain
this lag, among them being the con-
tinued high cost of materials and the
high cost of labor manufacturing and as
sembling such materials. One answer to
the problem may lie in action by the in
dustrialists to lower costs, with reciprocal
action by labor to cut the cost Of con-
struction by reducing wage scales, main
tanned in the face of continued unemploy-
ment. 1t has been demonstrated so often
in other fields that volume of new
business is necessary to recovery that
every effort should be made to increase
this volume by lowering costs.
The President indicates twice in his
message that he places the blame for
failures Of certain recovery expedients
not on the character of such eXpedients
but on the Supreme Court" Certain
revenues have been lost" through "the
decision of the Supreme Court" Certain
alleged benefits from the codes under
N. r. A. have been lost "by reason of
limitations recently imposed by the Su-
preme Court" The other way of looking
at these losses, of course, is to blame
them not on the Supreme Court but on
the fact that the National Government
exceeded the limits of its authority I'M
der the Constitution. Certainly it would
be more accurate, but much more po-
litically inexpedient. to blame the re-
verses on the Constitution of the United
States.
While industry may agree, with every
body else, that the cure of unemploy-
ment depends on the jobs to be furnished
by industry, it may ask whether industry
Is being helped to provide such jobs
through tax programs aimed at cutting
down the amount of money usually con-
sidered as available for future expansion.