Evening star., 1954-10-23
The G. @. p. Hits Back

QACooCu pOi1b4Cdlly ny COICGuGTdClOuO OF Lem.
ocratic campaign fire on business conditions
and unemployment, have hit back this week
through some of the administrations best
qualified Spokesmen. Within 24-hour
period, Chairman Arthur F. Burns. of the
Presidents Council bf Economic Advisers,
Secretary of Treasury Humphrey and Sec
retary of Labor Mitchell all have under
taken to refute some of the opposition's
critical emphasis on the economic picture.
And, eoincidentally, some Of the current
business statistics tend to support the more
CHEEKY tone of the administration spokes-
men, particularly in the following lines:
Q) Home-building starts in September were
3 per cent above August and 20 per cent
above September, 1858; (2) steel operations
this week are scheduled at 1876 per cent of
capacity, highest since last February; (3)
commercial exports for the first eight
months Of this year were 3A per cent above
the comparable 1853 figure; (4) leading
retail merchants forecast Christmas trade
from ] to per cent above 1858; (5) in an
unusual advance estimate, Secretary of
Labor Mitchell announced that unemploy-
ment for this month has dropped below 5
million-lowest figure for the year.
Each of the three administration
spokesmen emphasized one point that
clearly had a bearing on the economic
trend of the past IL months. It is that the
transition from war (Korea) to peace (even
an unsettled peace) was bound to force a
readjustment in economic activity, and that
most of these in the past have been i'm
measurably more dislocating than that of
1953-54. It is not so strange that this factor
has been generally ignored by the opposition
critics but 1t is surprising that it has not
been more widely cited by Republican
speakers as partial explanation at least,
for the showdown in certain industrial ac-
tivities.
OF the three administration champions
IN this instance, Secretary Humphrey per-
hapS came closest to putting the unemploy-
ment picture into a proper perspective when
he pointed out that the total of joblesS
under a Democratic administration in
peacetime 1889 was over nine million as
compared to slightly more than three mil
lion today. In percentages of the Nations
work force, these figures mean that about
II per cent of those available were un-
employed in 1889 compared to less than
per cent last month. It might have been
pointed out, also, that just before the out
break of the Korean war in 1850, unem-
ployment still totaled about four million, or
slightly above per cent of the work force.
Statistics are cold fare, of course, to
those who are without jobs. It is natural
political habit for those unemployed to
turn to the party out of power in hopes that
1t may bring change in their personal
fortunes. There are areas of heavy un-
employment in the country today and the
Republicans have good cause to run
scared" in such localities For the country
as whole, however, the business and en-
ployment picture has not been acutely bad
during the past year and it shows tangible
signs today of becoming brighter. Although
cautious in expressing his optimism, DR..
Burns told Detroit audience that 1--WE are
again entering phase of economic expan-
sion." His reasoning has persuasive quail
ity to it.