The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-03-07
PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
OF UNEMPLOYMENT

THE persistent refusal of those who and
control American industry to provide employ
ment for around nine million men and women able
and willing to work in a national tragedy which
is sapping the stability of our system for the pro-
duction and distribution of wealth.
Every worker in the United States has the
moral right to permanent employment. This is
automatic in face Of the fact that under our in
provide living for themselves and their families
is by the sale of their labor power-their ability
to produce wealth and render service-to employ
erS.
The Constitution of the United States was es-
tablshed to Secure the blessings of liberty for
all Americans. When employers refuse to buy
the labor power of millions of working men and
women, those workers are deprived of their ability
to purchase the things that constitute a living.
They and their families are thus denied the bless
ings of liberty enunciated by the Constitution, for
without the right to buy a living, liberty is a
meaningless word.
The crux of the entire unemployment situa-
ton is the profit motive and principle on which
our industrial system is based. Business men go
into business solely to make profits out of the la
Dor they employ. If they can't make profits they
refuse to employ labor-and that is the reason
why nine million workers today are tramping the
streets vainly seeking jobs If employers could
sell at a profit the commodities the unemployed
workers are capable of producing and the services
the unemployed workers are capable of rendering,
the nine million jobess would vanish into the
commercial system. But the practical experience
of employers reveals to them the ndisputable
business'fac that the millions who are employed
produce all the commodities and render all the ser
vices that can be sold at a profit. Therefore, the
nine millions of unemployed are denied work and
kept in the conScript army of the joblesS. .
Economists, politicians, jurists, social workers,
business leaders and other prominent persons dis
agree as to many OF the causes OF unemployment
and the measures capable of being applied to pro-
vide the jobess with work. Some of the Lincolns
Birthday speakers contended that so-called labor
saving machinery and other chronological devices
are not responsible for unemployment. But the
American Federation Of Labor declares that three
million workers have been thrown into the present
unemployed army by means of these jOb-destrOy-
ing methods. In addition, the Federation points
out that five million of the iobess represented
by working men and women who added to
the working population during the last ten years
and for whom those who own and control industry
have not provided jobs.
TO remedy this atrocous unemployment con-
dition, which inilicts undersigned poverty upon
millions of helpless workers and their dependents,
the American Federation of Labor demands the
extension of the siX-hour day, fiveday week, thus
absorbing many Of the unemployed. In addition,
the Federation urges the creation by Congress of
a National Advisory Council including representa-
tives of labor, farmers, consumers, industry and
the Government, to explore the entire unempoy-
ment problem and coordinate all elements of our
population in q determined effort to develop meth
DDS by which industry can expand production and
wipe unemployment off the map of the United
States.
Surely the proposal Of the American Fedora
ton of Labor is a reasonable and pragmatic APP
proach toward restoring to nine million American
men and women the legal right to life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness set forth by the Declara-
tion of Independence and the right to the blessings
of liberty proclaimed by the Constitution the
fundamental principles upon which free lnStltu-
tions based and without which the documents
establishing free institutions mean nothing to the
freedom of the masses
ANAINC ..,EIIIDn nECDLEn