The coastland times with which is combined the pilot and herald of Belhaven and Swan Quarter. [volume] (Manteo, N.C.) 1959-1973, 1961-06-23

/
percent annually, and in France it
was &C percent. The average for
all the OEEC countries in Europe
for the period was 4.6 percent.
Because they have been growing
rapidly, many of the countries of
Western Europe have a surplus of
jobs and next to no unemployment.
In France, one of the tightest labor
markets on the Continent, the rate
of employment in February was
less than .003 percent of the labor
force. West Germany had $4,000
jobs to be filled at the end of March
and only 100000 workers unemploy-
ed. In Great Britain, the highest
unemployment rate since the WAY
was 2.S percent in 1859, and today
the percentage is down to about
1.6.
Against this, unemployment in
the United States in May stood at
4,S00,000 and at a seasonally ad-
justed rate of 60 percent of the
civilian labor force. At the peak
of the recovery period following
the 1953-54 recession, unemploy-
ment got down to only A percent.
In the best months after the 1857
So recession, it dropped to only
81 percent. This time may well
pull out of the recession-achieve
a gross national product running
at an annual rate of $525 billion
to $3.50 billion by the end of the
year-and still have an unemploy-
ment rate of percent.
The point is that, despite this
present encouraging recovery, we
are still long way from achieving
our goals Of a vigorous, healthy
economy which can grow in keep
ing with it's potential and support,
at full employment levels, our ever
increasing work force.
The need to build new momentum
into the economy has been, of
course, a major preoccupation of
the Kennedy Administration for the
past five months. In various ways,
we've been trying to give helpful
shove to business-which makes
me think of a little incident which
happened in the Department of
Commerce not so long ago.
It seems that the wife of one of
our Maritime Administration Of
ficials-Maritime is a part of Com
merce, you know-was chosen to
christen a new ship. Well, she did
her job just beautifully. aimed her
champagne bottle and broke it
skillfully across the ships bow.
But the ship didn't move. Appar-
emily, the mechanism for releasing
the vessel jammed momentarly.
The good lady looked frantically
at her husband. Finally he leaned
over and whispered to her: "Give
| it a good shove, dear"
Well, just as the lady touched
the ship, the release mechanism
righted itself, and the ship-all
II 900 tons of it-slid majestically
down the ways. Whereupon her
husband, and / think with great
presence of mind, seized the micro
phone and informed the audience
that his wife's push was precisely
the kind of assistance that govern
ment was trying to give to private
business every day.
The early steps of the Kennedy
administration were intended pri-
marily as first aid for business.
That is, they sought to step up
consumer buying by increasing
purchasing power Immediately.
They also sought to create new
Jobs and to relieve as quickly as
possible, the distress of unemploy-
ed families.
The President asked, and receiv-
ed, from Congress funds to provide
additional unemployment compen-
sation for workers who had ex-
hausted their benefits and to ex-
tend the aid-to-dependent-children
program to the needy children OF
unemployed parents.
To put more money into the
economy quickly, he ordered speed
ed-up payment of G. l. insurance
dividends and of income tax re-
funds. He released federal highway
funds ahead of schedule, ordered
faster processing of urban renewal
loans, federal purchase and con-
struction contracts, and loans for
facilities in federal affected areas
] Just week ago at the United
States Conference of Mayors,
presented for the President Boost
the Economy program which calls
for local community action to clear
away logjams that have been de-
laying planned private and public
construction projects. The program
is designed to increase employment
now and to accelerate our already
rising level 'of economic activity
through immediate community &C
ton.
j To stimulate housing construc
ton, the President lowered the in