Evening star., 1944-03-23
Letters to The Star
Anticipates Highway Program
for Postwar Employment.

Tor POSTWAR employment.
To the Editor of The Star:
One of the most serious problems
with which we shall be confronted as
the war begins to draw to close is the
readjustment from a military to a civil
economy This means the approximate
establishment of preWar industry and
the re-employment of those released
from military duty with the armed
forces and from munitions plants The
unemployment work must be useful,
honorable and available in all parts of
the Nation. Our men at the front came
from everywhere and probably in most
cases will wish to return to their home
communities and to the positions they
had before going into the service.
In the selection of the fields in which
work conforming to the above Specifica-
tlonS may be found it is we'll to remem-
ber that our economic life is exceedingly
complex. The various parts of it are SO
lnterdependent that any deviation from
the regular procedure in many industries
produces repercussions in very many, if
not virtually all, of the Others A study
undertaken to classify the various ac-
tlyitieS of our economic life into basic
groups and to trace the influence of
each of these on all other subdivisions
OF industry should prove Of absorbing
interest and of immeaSurable value in
guiding attempts at economic stabiliza-
ton.
In any classification into basic eco
nomic groups the construction industry
is found to form very important, if not
a paramount, subdivision Such inten-
sive studies as have been made indicate
that in general the fortunes of all other
industries are predicated largely on the
fortunes of the construction industry.
This is particularly true of road i'm
provement
We are accustomed to think of our
roads largely or entirely in the light of
their service value as traffic carriers and
give far too little attention to the part
which road improvement takes in our
economic life. The business of road
improvement furnishes much direct en-
ployment and indirectly is stimulating
to almost every other business through
out the Nation
Direct or job labor includes all super
visory skilled or unskilled workers en-
ployed by a contractor or a subcon-
tractor on given road project. In
carrying out his work the road con-
tractor must have equipment and must
purchase supplies and materials of con-
Structlon. These must be fabricated
and transported, and for this indirect or
industrial labor is employed AS a re-
suit OF an order for steel, iron ore min
ing operations are stimulated and busi-
ness OF value is transacted The trans
portation of iron ore from the mines to
the smelter adds to the value of the
business transacted as does the con-
version OF iron ore into pig iron. At
the steel mill there is the application
OF labor and equipment to these ma
terlals before the order from the high
way contractor finally can be loaded on
the railway cars for shipment. The
total value of business thus transacted
Is the sum OF the separate item values
involved in the several stages required
Tor the complete processing Of materials.
1t was estimated few years ago that
Tor Federal highway construction
program of 81 1000 100000 direct expendi-
tllre for the job the average total value
OF all business transacted, direct and
indirect, including reinvestment projects
totaled about $3156, OPT, 900.
The turnover value of this total busi-
ness resulting from highway construc-
ton expenditures is relatively small for
those low types which use little equip
ment and require but little auxiliary
work either in the production of ma
terials or in their transportation. On
the other. hand, these turnover values
increase very rapidly with those higher
types. of construction which utilize much
modern equipment on the job and re-
quire the purchase of material which
provides auxiliary employment in plants
and factories, in mines and quarries, in
cement mills, in iron and steel mills, in
petroleum plants, in transportation, on
farms and in a myriad of other activities.
In view of the foregoing, I believe
there is ample justification for very
extensive road-improvement program to
relieve postwar unemployment.
T. WARREN ALLEN.