The Coolidge examiner., 1944-07-14
and Tomorrow
JOBS
BY DON ROBERTSON

VODC W ~
''Do we have to have a war to
get jobs?"
That question was fired into the
political arena by Mr.. Dewey dur
ing his acceptance speech. He used
1t as dramatic conclusion to q
bitter denunciation of the handling
of unemployment by the admins
tration during the years before the
war.
Following Mr.. Dewey's talk you
may have heard one of the
commentators on the speech, Leo
Churne, refer to that question ard
say that as far as he knew no
other answer had been offered yet.
Mr.. Cherne, who recently painted
a gloomy picture of the future of
this country in a book entitled.
1.-The Rest of Your Life" may be
Of our nation to cope with un-
employment. But he is certainly
not alone in feeling that no salts
factory solution has yet been ad-
vanced to give us the right to as.
sumo that jobs will be plentiful as
soon as the war is over.
When Dewey asked his question
he undoubtedly lit the fuse VII ch
will set off the most explosive fire
works of the coming election cam
paign. The question of how to
handle or prevent unemployment
Is the foundation of the maiOs
differences in the philosophers r.
Mr.. Dewey and the President An.
to date, it seems quite uncerta !
that either candidate has any ade-
quate answer for insuring full en-
ployment.
DEWEY RoosevoH
There are thousands of men and
women in business and in govern
'ment who are working on emplcr-
ment plans, but so far they seem
to be experiencing the same diff
culties which all the kings horses
and all the kings men ran %
against in their efforts to repair
Humpty Dumpty.
Many business men act confGart
that if the governme leaves Their
alone and removes restrictions
under which they now operate they
will somehow be able to provide
jobs for millions Of returning
soldiers as well as for those who
will be released from war work.
Government economists appear to
= nI1 -
business to handle the job and are
working on elaborate programs to
handle it themselves.
If President Roosevelt gets re.
elected, control of employment un-
doubtedly will be kept largely in
government hands-probabIy with
a modernized WPA, a new batch
of subsidies and other stop-gap ar
rangements to keep purchasing
power alive.
ELEMENTS riches
When Mr.. Cherne intimated that
war was, so far, the only sure way
to end unemployment, he may
have suggested the line of investi-
6ot4OII AlCNCSoo1J W ll1lQ DSIIIld"
nent solution to this so far un.
answerable problem.
If war assures full employment,
what are the elements of war which
bring this about?
In brief, there are three such ele-
ments: Cd keeping every factory
and every farm working at full
capacity; (2) guaranteeing a mar.
ket ahead of time for all our fac
tories and farms can produce, and
90 giving employment to millions
of men and women in occupations
outside of ordinary peacetime pur-
suits.
l do not pretend to know how
these elements can be injected into
our postwar economy. But it is
apparent that the road to take is
one which aims toward enor-
nous expansion of markets, both
foreign markets and markets
created by greater consumer pur.
chasing power at home.
Our production sights will have
to be set even higher than in war.
time if our nations factories and
farms are going to be able to en-
ploy the men now in the armed
forces.