10. The fair division of leisure, as in rising school age for children, retirement pensions, shorter hours, etc. 11. The price system as a mechanism for prompt and widespread distribution of goods. This Commission might recommend to Congress the form in which Congress could make annual reports to the citizens (through the appropriate committees) showing how the legislative program for the year was designed to achieve the highest possible production and a fair division of the work that was necessary to maintain that production. The free economy needs only a few well-designed "rules of the game" to funetion at its highest productivity. Congress has hewed to the line of its constitutional duty in trying to provide a favorable climate for free and voluntary organization of work. It lacks only a means for reporting to the people how its separate decisions on taxes and other matters fit together to strengthen high production and full employment in a free society. Hon. CARTER MANASCO, House Office Building: ATLANTA, GA., September 24, 1945. Regret impossible to appear as witness full employment bill hearing. However, I stand unequivocally in support of any measure that will bring about full employment. If the democratic form of government and the American way of life are to continue our people mus have jobs. Government should encourage business to provide employment by actually giving business an opportunity to do the job, but if business fails or cannot provide employment for our people, the Government must. Whatever is required must be done. I have confidence in congressional leadership, to see that proper measures are enacted, first, to give business a chance to provide employment for those who desire to work and, second, to set up the machinery for the Government to give employment to those who are not absorbed in gainful employment provided by business. Regards. ELLIS ARNALL, Governor. The Honorable CARTER MANASCO, BUFFALO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. MANASCO: The Buffalo Chamber of Commerce has given much time and thought to the full employment bill (S. 380) which was introduced last January. As a result of this study, we have come to certain definite conclusions which we are listing below for your information: 1. Full employment is a most desirable goal and warrants the greatest possible attention of management, labor, and the Federal Government through the medium of a representative commission established to secure and study all facts and figures relative to the problem. (The production demand and necessarily, the demand for workers, is greater now than at any previous period. Consequently, there is ample time for a scientific, scholarly approach to the subject.) 2. The relief of mass unemployment would be a most practicable step toward full employment. 3. No program to provide for full employment or to prevent mass unemployment can be successful with continuous labor troubles such as strikes, lock-outs, misunderstandings, dissatisfaction, and unfair trade and labor practices. 4. Private enterprise should be encouraged by the Federal Government to supply the labor force with more opportunities for employment through such means as: (a) Revision of the corporate tax structure to enable commerce and industry to plan ahead and to operate on a profitable basis. (b) Removal of some further governmental controls and restrictions now hampering business. (c) Creation of legislation to prevent the causes of labor unrest. 5. Huge Federal expenditures do not necessarily create conditions that eliminate unemployment. This was evidenced in the 1930's. War expenditures, mostly for expendable items, did create a situation of near full employment but such spending could not continue without the assessment of confiscatory taxes and the impairment of the national credit. 6. Advance estimates of employment opportunities and the labor supply should be made in any event, even though the experience of large business corporations and the Federal budget have shown these estimates to be most inaccurate. A Federal spending program, however, should not be based on such questionable figures. 7. The proper timing of necessary Federal public works projects to coincide with slack periods in private industry is commendable. 8. The plan for full employment as stated in the bill (S. 380), in our opinion could not be successfully executed unless the Central Government had full authority as to the control of prices, regulation of both Federal and private investments, location and production of plants, and the mandatory moving of the labor supply from one location to another. Such procedure would tend to eliminate rather than promote free enterprise. 9. Economic recessions in this country always have been followed by periods of prosperity, with the standard-of-living curve progressively advancing to higher and higher levels. This envious position of the people of the United States has been attained without resort to regimentation, and until recent years, without excessive governmental expenditures. We ask that you give your usual careful consideration to our views contained in this statement and that you keep them in mind when the bill comes up for further action. Sincerely yours, DANIEL W. STREETER, President. CHICAGO, ILL., October 30, 1945. Hon. CARTER MANASCO, Chairman of Committee on Expenditures, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.: As businessmen, we believe the Murray full-employment bill is urgently needed as a first step in creating the conditions which are essential to an expending economy. The first requirement for an expanding economy is confidence, which must be shared by business and workers. Business and workers must be fully confident that common national problems will have the continued and watchful attention of the executive and legislative branches of the National Government. The passage of the Murray bill will mean the beginning of the orderly collection of economic data with which Congress should be provided in order to take appropriate simultaneous action on the many fronts which our complex economy may need. We endorse and urge that Congress accept the principle that the chance for reasonably regular and well-pail employment for every able and available worker, at work suited to his capacities, is a result which government and business should guarantee through cooperative and compensatory action. As businessmen we believe that the passage of the Murray bill will improve business chances for maintaining a mass consumption market which is the best prospect business can have. With this prospect, businessmen can plan and carry out programs of mass production, development of new products and methods, and initiate other measures appropriate to an expanding economy. American business faces the creation of tremendous surpluses in the stocks of good which can be produced with our expanded productive resources. Such surpluses, whether agricultural or industrial, can be moved only if workers are fully employed and earning sufficient wages to purchase the final products. The Murray bill emphasizes the role of private enterprise in providing the bulk of job opportunities. It fosters and warrants the continued investment of private capital in business ventures. The New Council of American Business wishes to go on record in favor of this bill as the most important service it can render American business and all American life at this time. THE NEW COUNCIL OF AMERICAN BUSINESS, STATEMENT OF DONALD HENDERSON, PRESIDENT, FOOD, TOBACCO, AGRICULTURAL AND ALIIED WORKERS UNION OF AMERICA, CIO, IN SUPPORT OF S. 380 AND H. R. 2202, BEFORE THE SENATE BANKING AND CURRENCY COMMITTEE AND HOUSE EXPENDITURES IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS COMMITTEE, AUGUST 29, 1915 President Truman said, when war with Japan came to an end, "This Nation faces a crisis as great as that which faced us on December 7, 1941." Big business, which bears the responsibility for this situation because of its failure to plan for an adequate, orderly reconversion with the end of hostilities, has started wage cuts and lay-offs which will result in mass unemployment. Unless Congress acts immediately to consult with labor and enact legislation which will provide a program to prevent the complete break-down of our economy, Congress will bear the responsibility, along with big business, for a depression which will cause untold misery to the American people. The Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of America, CIO, representing some 80,000 workers under contract in the food, fiber, and tobacco processing industries, realizes that its members are, in a sense, more fortunate than some of their fellow workers in other industries. They do not face immediate lay-offs. But mass unemployment in other industries will soon have its effect on them, for full employment in their industries depends on a solid basis of full employment and full production in all industries. We insist, therefore, that in view of the failure of big business to take steps, Congress recognize the validity of labor's claims and pass acts which will insure us, in peace, the things we fought for in war. We support the measure before you, S. 380 and H. R. 2202, which is one step in planning for a future in which every man has a right to a job at good wages. PAST LEGISLATIVE INADEQUACIES All during the war, in spite of all appeals. Congress has been enacting legislation which not only was wholly inadequate in planning for full employment after the war, but, on the contrary, protected big business at the expense of labor. The Revenue Act of 1942 made plans for refunding 10 percent of corporations' excess-profits tax. This was done ostensibly to provide funds for reconversion and expansion, but in reality such unprecedented profits were made during these war years that corporations have funds on hand to finance their own reconversion and expansion program. They have a working capital of 63 percent above the 1939 level. A weakened Economic Stabilization Act was passed in spite of the statement of the late President Roosevelt that in order for such a program to work at all a seven-point program had to operate in its entirety. Instead, only wage control was selected for real policing. As a result, the workers have suffered substantial cuts in real wages while profits soared to unprecedented levels. Congress repealed the $25,000 limitation on salaries in 1943, again expanding the gap between controls of large and small incomes. In 1944 Congress overrode the President's veto on the tax measure, giving further relief from taxation to big corporations and wealthy individuals and increasing the burden on the workers in low-income groups. Nothing was done by Congress to plan a sorely needed program of public building which would have given employment to people displaced with the end of the war. No plan of unemployment compensation was even considered by Congress. These problems of reconversion should have been faced at least 2 years ago, and surely should be put into effect immediately in this period. FULL EMPLOYMENT AS BASIS FOR PEACETIME PROSPERITY Who are the people who want unemployment with all the attendant misery which it entails? Certainly not the workers. They know the need for employment to get the necessities of life. They know that they must eat and sleep and be clothed. It is big business which wants a floating reserve of unemployed, to eliminate the need to pay a living wage. Corporations want increased profits and hope to break down the democratic structure of America by denying labor its rights. This reasoning on the part of the corporations is extremely short-sighted. There is a direct ratio between purchasing power and profits which in turn is governed by full employment. During the depression it is estimated that sales lost through unemployment totaled $355,000,000,000. Even disregarding the suffering of people during this time, corporations should recognize the hard fact that with roughly 64,000,000 people employed during the war, their profits were actually higher than ever before. Consumption must be kept high in order to maintain maximum production. Adequate purchasing power is the only means of maintaining consumption and employment, and that can be possible only through full employment. Such simple economics must be clear to all of us. Here are some figures from the 1940 United States census of some industries covered by our union, which bear out the relationship between employment and profits: If we take the period of 1936-39 as a base, bearing in mind that during 1939 up to almost 20 percent of the labor force available in the above industries was half unemployed during that year; in 1943, with full employment generally, profits rose to 223 percent above the base in the food industry and 26 percent above the base in the tobacco industry. In agriculture, using the prices of 1909-14 as a base, prices received for products in August of this year averaged 204 percent above the base. NATIONAL HEALTH AND WELFARE The health and welfare of the Nation are affected in a very concrete way by full employment. Full employment will make it possible to provide adequate food and housing which are essential to people's health and welfare. Operation of the Selective Service Act showed up the shockingly poor health of the young men of this country when they were called for induction. What percentage of this condition can be laid to poor nutrition and housing is not clear-cut in the records of the doctors who examined them, but later statistics showing weight changes and weight distribution of inductees when they were given three square meals, many of them for the first time in their lives, is an indication that good health is possible only when people have enough of the right things to eat. During the period of full employment during the war that even low-income families were able to change their food habits somewhat for the better is shown in a survey made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor, published in the Monthly Labor Review of June 1945. It is not fitting that improvement in national health and welfare is possible only when we are at war. What was possible during that period should be doubly possible in peace. We must have the freedom from want which we fought for during the war. FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY The full employment bill would not guarantee full employment. It would, however, set up machinery to plan for it by establishing the responsibility of the Federal Government for the welfare of the Nation and making it possible for Congress to pass yearly appropriations or legislation affecting industry, labor, agriculture, foreign trade, taxes, social security, housing, health, education, etc. It is not a sufficient postwar economic program by itself. Even after passage of this measure, Congress has the great responsibility of setting into motion plans to build and bring about a high national standard of living. These plans cannot be ones which merely make up a deficiency in employment demands by setting up a $55 a month WPA sort of thing; they must create goals which require full employment. One-third of our agricultural workers were on relief in the fourth richest agricultural county in the United States during the winters of 1936–38, according to Carey McWilliams, in Ill Fares the Land. Congress will be avoiding its duty to them if the only plan it can set up is an emergency work-project type of thing. Since technological advances have made it possible for 10 percent of our farms to produce 54 percent of our food needs, we cannot just give farm workers emergency work or relief to tide them over until they are reabsorbed. We must use this reservoir of labor to go forward, and not just keep them occupied in maintaining the status quo. A dole system will not last forever. Men have the right to work, and "It is the worthy object of any good government to give to the laborer the full product of his labor, or as nearly as possible."-Abraham Lincoln. We insist that Congress accept its responsibility now and take one step toward providing all Americans with useful, remunerative, regular, and full-time employment by enactment of S. 380 and H. R. 2202. STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN LEGION ON H. R. 2202 The prime responsibility of the national employment committee of the American Legion is, and will continue to be, the employment of veterans. It is our duty to make certain that every veteran receives the special treatment and special consideration necessary to restore him to a full competitive position in our economic life; that no veteran shall be penalized in employment and opportunity because of the time spent in the service nor by reason of war-incurred experiences or handicaps. The American Legion has always believed, however, in its ability to find jobs for veterans in direct proportion to the total number of jobs available. The experiences of the depression strengthened that belief. Only by promoting maximum employment for all can the Legion insure the maximum job opportunities for veterans. Therefore, the national employment committee has sought: 1. To promote that level of production and distribution which will provide sufficient job opportunities and a high standard of living for all Americans; and 2. To make certain that the special treatment and considerations are provided which will enable every veteran to enjoy those opportunities and that hign standard of living. The committee is actively engaged in strengthening and extending within proper channels of veterans' preference. It is alert to see that veterans' preference is fully exercised in harmony with the spirit as well as the letter of the law. The committee has invited and instituted programs of legislative action and voluntary cooperation to this end. Various organizations, including the Congress, trade associations, and labor groups, have adopted or are considering resolutions declaring it to be a matter of public, organizational, or business policy that veterans should be given preference in employment, at least to the extent of giving time spent in service equal seniority credit with equivalent time spent in private employment. Education and retraining opportunities have been provided, and others have been recommended. Certain specific employment rights have been set up in private contracts, and others have been established by law. But whatever consideration may be accorded him the solution of the veteran's employment problem depends on the existence of job opportunities. And the promotion of such opportunities must be a major function of the committee. THE BROADER INTERESTS OF THE LEGION Maximum job opportunities are of basic importance to every purpose and activity of the American Legion. Rehabilitation fits a veteran for the resumption of a full share in our social, political, and economic life; but it is useless to fit a man for work if there is no choice of jobs at which to work. Americanism, is more than patriotic forms and patriotic favor. It means the preservation of the free society in which to live. It means freedom of choice and opportunity. It cannot be attained by denying a man a job, nor by freezing him in a job by custom, law, or circumstances, any more than it can be attained by any other form of slavery. Preservation of the Constitution demands the preservation of our free individual competitive enterprise. That means the minimum of Government regulations consistent with the public interest; and the minimum of Government in business consistent with the basic public need. Clearly job opportunities must be promoted to the greatest possible extent, and within the fields of free private enterprise. |