The Butler County press. [volume], October 14, 1932, Image 1

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

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VOL, XXXII. No. 27
Problem.
By B. C. GLARJCE
The federal treasury is rapidly ap
proaching the most serious condition
in its revenues that it has yet faced
in its history. A deficit is accumulat
ing at the rate of more than two bil
lion dollars a year, or twice the
amount of the deficit with which con
gress wrestled in the last session.
New taxes imposed by congress
last spring are bringing in less than
one-fourth of the amount which
treasury officials estimated they
would yield. From July 1 to Septem
ber 15 the excess of governmental ex
penditures over treasury income was
452,368,943, or at the rate of $2,148,
000,000 for the fiscal year.
Revenues Fall Short
The "nuisance" taxes levied by con
gress last spring—three-cent postage,
one cent on gasoline and oil, two
cents on checks, a tax on electric bills
and other things—are falling short of
yielding their expected revenue.
There is evidence that this year's
deficit in the post office department
may even exceed that of last year, in
dicating that three-cent postage is
actually reducing the gross income.
Preliminary figures on gasoline sales
show that the states are feeling the
effects of the federal tax on gasoline
on their own revenues from this
source.
More and more the feeling is gain
ing in official circles that an attempt
to balance the federal budget can be
made this winter only if the govern
mental structure as a whole is sub-
WALL STREET
Hit
U. S. Rail Unions
Through Canada
By C. McKAY
Ottawa (ILNS)—The cat is out of
the bag in regard to the purpose of
the royal commission which has just
made a report on the Canadian trans
portation situation, recommending
measures that would throw a lot of
railway workers out of their jobs, and
denouncing contracts with union labor.
Speaking in the South Huron by
election campaign, Hon. H. H. Stev
ens, minister of commerce, said:
"When we (representatives of the
Bennett government), went to Wall
street to borrow money, we were told
to return home and straighten out the
finances of the railways. We put our
hand to that task and will carry it
through."
Wall Street Planned Ahead
Stevens, a Vancouver man of spec
tacular career, who joined the U. S.
army during the Spanish-American
War and saw service in the Philip
pines, is rather noted for indiscreet
speeches.
It would appear that when a year
or more ago Wall street told the
Bennett government to straighten
Men Attention
ALL MEN'S
WALK-OVER
SHOES
LABEL
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WORKERS UNION
UNION
Leifheit's
Walk-Over Boot Shop
214 High Street
Ambulance Service
Phone 35
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Mountain of Government Costs
Must Fall New Deficit Impends
Taxes Have Failed to Achieve Their Purpose and Leaders
in Both Parties See Sweeping Reorganization as Nec
essary—States, Counties and Cities Face Same
jected to the. most drastic reduction.
This means the elimination of su
perfluous and useless commissions and
boards, including the flock of "lame
duck" commissions, and the schemes
to erect historic monuments
and
morials over the country.
Even if the costs of the government
should be reduced by $1,000,000,000,
congress apparently must still wrestle
with a deficit aS large as that faced
last spring.
out the finances of Canadian railways,
it had in mind the flattening out of
American railway wages as well. At
any rate, it is an interesting coinci
dence that the Canadian royal com
mission handed its report to the gov
ernment just about the time it was
announced that the American rail
ways proposed wage reductions.
WAGES TOO LOW
And Benefit No One, Says
Retiring Textile Chief
Boston (ILNS)—Taking the trade
union position that there should be a
minimum wage below which no em
ployer may go, Irving Southworth,
retiring president of the National As
sociation of Cotton Manufacturers, in
his final statement as an officer de
clared textile wages too low, bene
fitting neither employer nor worker.
He also advocated restriction of hours
and limitation of the periods during
which women and minors might
work.
"Statistics show," his statement
said, "that the present cotton spindles
in places operating 48 hours weekly
will more than supply the normal de
mand for textiles. This, added to the
fact that 48 hours is generally con
sidered a reasonable working week,
shows the justification of a week no
longer than this, if not one of 44
hours, at least until investigation has
been made as to what length the
working week should be.
"It has come to be realized that
goods will necessraily be manufac
tured in the lowest-cost plants and
that the wage scale, irrespective of
location, must be approximately the
same. The last year has seen the
higher scale in many places replaced
by that of lower centers. Reductions
in the start at one or two places have
been met by competitors—unwilling
ly, to be sure, but met. The willing
ness of many to maintain a fair wage
scale has been nullified by the actions
of those otherwise minded. Making
allowances for sectional permanent
advantages, a minimum figure should
be set, below which no mill could go
FIVE-DAY WEEK IS EXTENDED
Robert G.Taylor Mortuary
Formerly
THE C. W. GATH CO.
New York.—President Ecker, of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Com
pany, announced that the five-day
week summer schedule will be retain
ed "for a time." Employes, he said,
are paid in salaries and no reduc
tions will be made. There are more
than 11,000 employes on the payroll
of the company.
Funeral Directors
Chairs and Tables Rented
17 So. Street
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Pay Cuts No Remedy
It is generally recognized that the
deficit problem can no longer be met
by slashes in the pay of government
workers, or by putting higher taxes
on business and industry, which ulti
mately have the effect of retarding
recovery from economic depression,
and of prolonging unemployment
among the people.
Nor can it be met by a process of
"soaking the rich." Taxes are al
ready beyond the ability of every
class of the people to pay them.
For this reason a sweeping reduc
tion of the federal structure from its
present proportions will be one of the
paramount problems that comes be
fore congress.
Men in both political parties have
expressed the view that it is both
practicable and feasible to reorganize
the government along lines that will
both reduce its costs and enlarge its
capacity for service Whether this
view will prevail in congress remains
to be seen.
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New York City (ILNS)—Forty bil
lions of dollars wait to be spent by
American wage earners as soon as
they are assured of jobs that will not
be taken from them next Saturday
night.
But it will take restoration of em
ployment to the now unemployed to
restore the $100,000,000,000 market
that sent America to a high point on
the prosperity ladder before the big
crash.
Purchases this year, among the
masses, are running at about 50 to
55 billions.
But the estimate now at hand was
not arrived at by subtracting the
present market from the peak mar
ket.
How Figure Was Obtained
It was arrived at by the Graybar
Electric Company, which sent ques
tion blanks to its employes in 73
cities, asking them what they would
buy and how much they would spend
"if they could be assured that busi
ness conditions would improve and
that improvement would be reflected
in the family income."
On the basis of the answers from
these employes in 73 industrial com
munities, regarded as a fair average,
the grand total of 40 billions was ar
rived at as a measure of the stored up
buying—buying being held in check
because of uncertainty of employment
and wages.
Survey Shows Big Gash Cut
Through By Pay Reduction
That is the grand melon held out to
employex-s generally and to business
as the bait for restoration of jobs and
assurance of continued jobs to Amer
ica's wage earners. The continued
holding back or storing up of that
buying power is the penalty inflicted
on business, as well as on labor, for
continued failure to employ. Labor
suffers, but those who claim title to
the rank of "employer" and "banker"
have to stand the responsibility.
Graybar, Itself a Wage Cutter, Conducts Inquiry As
Basis of Estimate on Slowed Buying Among Workers.
Counts Only the Employed
Replies from 1110 employes—
people with jobs—showed the Gray
bar Company stored up, or deferred
purchasing power of slightly over two
billions of dollars among its own em
ployes.
This group was taken as typical of
18 million families, to reach the total
of 40 billions of deferred purchasing
power.
This does not count the pur
chasing power of the unemployed
once they are back on payrolls.
It counts only the deferred pur
chases of those who now have
jobs, but who are under the
threat of depression, which can
mean that their wages have been
cut, that they may be cut, or that
the job may be lost.
With automobile production failing,
it is a shot of fire into the wreckage
to learn from these replies that the
deferred purchases of automobiles run
to three times the year's production
schedule.
Moreover, when they feel safe, or
get, the money, there are purchasers
waiting for more than nine times the
V V I
THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS.
A Lot of Decoys
eseoMs6
Forty Billion United States
Market A
waits Jobs and Wages
number of electrical refrigerators
that will be manufactured this year.
Blasts Old "Overproduction"
This survey is a body smash at the
overproduction theory, but a tremen
dous wall of confirmation for those
who contend there is underconsump
tion. It demonstrates the market ca
pacity of America, provided there
are jobs and wages, and points the
road clearly to a method of achiev
ing and maintaining permanent pros
perity. America, the survey proves,
will use the output of America, if it
can be equipped, through wages, with
the purchasing power. It shows that
there awaits American industry such
a market as it never had and that
industry need not go hunting abroad
for markets.
Here are tabulations of principal
products for which American workers
wait and the money they expect to
pay for them, once wage rates are re
stored and jobs assured on a basis of
permanency:
IN TERMS OF UNITS
New homes 3,096,000
Automobiles'
Refrigerators
Heating equipment
Washing machines
Radios 3,708,000
Ironing machines 2,900,000
6,606,000
....^.....8,838,000
1,494,000
4,986,000
IN TERMS OF CASH
Furniture $1,990,000,000
Rugs and floor
coverings 816,000,000
Musical instruments 451,656,000
Women's clothing 1,494,000,000
Men's clothing 1,104,000,000
Manufacturing lines stand to win
most of the stored up purchasing, the
tabulations show, with clothing and
furniture, prime necessities, leading in
volume. Here is potential work for
all of the unemployed.
Graybar's Own Example
Furniture requirements shown are
about \Vz times the output in pros
perous years, while the volume of
rugs and floor coverings is equal to
the average four-year output. The
clothing purchases held in abeyance
would provide about a half year of
work, but it must be remembered, the
figures represent deferred buying
buying that will not be done until
workers are confident of keeping
their jobs and have a restoration of
pay rates.
And here is the lesson pointed to
Graybar itself, typical of the situa
tion and its causes: Graybar has it
self reduced wages 10 per cent, con
tributing to that bulk of deferred
buying that runs up that enormous
total of 40 billions of dollars. It has
reduced pay 10 per cent and reduced
working time to five days, the latter
to its credit.
By its survey and its own record
this great company does much to ex
plain the situation and to point the
way out. By restoration of its own
pay cut it could start the ball rolling
back to the movement of that enor
mous total of deferred purchasing.
^%W®FT&8
1
Wage Pact For Cargo
Checkers Made By Long
shoremen's Union
New York—Officials of the Inter
national Longshoremen's Association
l'epresenting 30,000 pier workers on
the Atlantic coats, and representa
tives of the steamship lines, reached
an agreement to pay cargo checkers
5.75 a day.
The new contract continues the
clause providing for a full day's pay
whether the men work the full day
or not was continued. The companies
agreed to pay for four hours for
Saturday overtime, and the union
accepted a two-hour minimum at the
overtime rate of $1.10 except for Sat
urdays.
THIRD
3
V
HAMILTON, OHIO, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 14,1932 ONE DOLLAR PER TEAR
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Washington.—William Green, pres
ident of the American Federation of
Labor, issued a statement endorsing
the share-the-work movement under
taken by the Federal Reserve Bank
ing and industrial committees and
urged workers and employers to co
operate in this nation-wide effort to
turn the millions of jobless into act
ual wage earners.
Mr. Green said:
"The share-the-work movement
sponsored by the federal reserve
bank and industrial committees and
of which Mr. Walter C. Teagle is
chairman has for its purpose the cre
ation of work opportunities so that
those who are idle may be re-em
ployed.
"If unemployment is to be overcome
and if work is to be found for mil
lions who are idle the amount of work
available, that is the amount of work
at hand, must be more equitably dis
tributed.
"Earning power is bound to follow
the creation of work opportunities.
The employment of additional work
ers represents the first step which
must be taken in order to enlarge
consuming units and increase buying
power.
"STUDENT" GROUP
DRAWSHRE
New York City (ILNS)—Suggest
ing investigations of "International
House" and of certain colleges which
he says teach "subversive doctrines,"
Ralph M. Easley, chairman of the
National Civic Federation executive
committee, has written Secretary of
Labor Doak, offering the idea that the
secretary's recent ruling barring
alien students who have to earn their
college course be made the means of
a study of college methods with re
lation to these alien students.
Easley asks: Is it true that, as
charged, many of the most revolu
tionary and dangerous characters in
South America and the Far East, for
instance, have been educated in Amer
ican universities and reflect the sub
versive character of the instruction
received
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Green Endorses Share-Week
Plan to Make Jobs For Many
President of A. F. of L. Says Work Should Be More Equit
ably Distributed—Urges Workers and Employers To
Co-operate in Creating Jobs for Millions of Idle.
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"Artificially created work cannot
last because it does not rest upon a
sound economic basis, but an equit
able distribution of the amount of
work necessary and available will
tend to create a demand for manufac
tured goods and this, in turn, will
create additional jobs for idle men.
"If employers of labor throughout
the nation will give the share-the
work movement their full and com
plete support, increasing employ
ment, creating work opportunities for
idle people, great improvement will
be noticeable within a very short
time in the industrial and economic
situation.
"In a great emergency such as now
exists it is the duty, the patriotic
duty, of employers of labor to give
to the share-the-work movement a
full and complete measure of support.
"In like manner, laboring people
can well afford to co-operate and
work with the committees formed for
the purpose of furthering the share
the-work movement.
"Through such co-operation and
support they can extend substantial
aid to more than eleven million idle
workers and those dependent upon
them."
Easley asks: "Is it true that, is
the record of professors to whom
their sons and daughters go for
teachings. He charges that many of
those who have protested to Secretary
Doak against his ruling are"commu
nists, radicals or publicity seekers."
Easley cited, as among the critics,
Dr. Harry F. Edmonds, of Interna
tional House, which has about 1,500
students from 60 to 70 countries,
many of whom, Edmonds says, would
have to return to their home coun
tries if the law is fully enforced.
"While examining the (faculties of
those universities with respect to
their subversvie views," Easley
wrote, "it might be advisable also to
investigate International House,
which is charged with being more or
less a hotbed of radicalism."
The area of Egypt is approximate
ly 400,000 square miles.
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