The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-05-22
Workers Interdependence
In Our Economy

When boom wives way to bust,
as it does periodically in this
country, the continued employment
of government employees, at rel
atively high wages, can be an i'm
portant factor in starting a trend
toward prosperity.
Ten per cent of the population,
maintaining it's purchases, secure
in its employment and hence not
afraid to spend, can help keep
workers employed, and can hold
back the spiral of defiation.
These facts are seldom under
stood or considered by the aver
age citizen. Generally, he is un-
concerned about the wages of his
public employees until there is a
cry for retrenchment in govern
ment expenditures and the average
citizen joins to press against pay
ing the taxes necessary to provide
decent wages in the public service.
In June 1945, more than 2,915,-
476 persons employed by the
United States Government. This
figure does not include military,
naval, judiciary, or employees
stationed outside the continental
United States. Another 21a mill
ion persons are employed by muni-
cipal, state, county, city and local
governments. These make up ap-
proximately 10 per cent of the to-
tai labor force Of the nation.
Public Attitude illogical
Strange contradictions are evil
dent in the attitude of the public
toward government employees. Too
often the approach is one of Bit
ing off ones nose to spite ones
face. We deny government en-
ployees the right to strike, close
our eyes to the fact that the over
whelmng majority of them re-
ceive lower wages than they would
in private industry, relegate them
to a statistic or call them "bu-
reaucrats," refuse to agree to tax
es necessary to maintain decent
wages for them, regard any eff
forts to obtain wage increases or
real economic status for them as
pump printing, politics, and coer-
cion of their "duly-elected repre-
sentatives." We envision millions
of them lolling in Washington,
while actually 80 per cent of the
nations civil servants are scatter
ed throughout the country!
Yet this group must grow in size
and Importance. AS both industry
and agriculture are able to obtain
more and more production out of |
fewer workers, major problem of
the future will be to find useful
functions for the persons who are
displaced from the factories and
the farms. A rational solution
would be to divert these people
more and more to the provision of
needed services for the community.
this will mean a large
of new services provid-
ed by government agencies. Even
with consideration for postwar
the indications are that
employmentSwill need
to remain high and gradually in
crease. 1t would be a sensible ap-
proach to recognize government
as one Of the means
FOR promoting prosperity, parti-
.ularly in periods when the econ
omy has begun to slide downward
toward depression.
Flexibility OF Wages Essential
In this connection it is essential
that the wages of public employees
be as flexible as those of industrial
workers and be raised when in
rreases in wages or prices are the |
rule. We can no longer tolerate,
for the sake of the national econ
omy, a situation in which, for
example, postal employees waited
from 1924 to 1945 for wage raise |
and then had to start Immediately |
toward another because
Of the skyrocketing cost of living.
Inyhis report to the Congress on
january s, -947, the President of
the United States acknowledged
the tremendous need for teachers,
doctors, nurses, etc. Further, he
asked that public works hereafter
be regarded as a means of meet
ing the nations needs rather than