The Daily Worker Newspaper, March 15, 1924, Page 5

ee “The idea becomes power when it pene- trates the masses.” —Karl Marx. Special Magazine Supplement THE DAILY WORKER. te > eA EG E856, SECOND SECTION March 15th, 1924. This magazine supplement will appear every Saturday i in The Daily Worker. > Unemployment and Labor Aristocracy By JOHN PEPPER. T= well-paid optimists of the capitalists are trying constantly to;make the country believe that we are having a great economic pros- perity at the present time. The facts gainsay these official and semi-offi- cial fairy tales, The general economic situation as a whole is continuing to deteriorate, Partial improvements cannot change the situation permanently. In_ pro- duction, pig iron and steel is the only branch of production which increased on a national scale in January and February. The number_of employed workers increased in. February in New York state and in Illinois. The report of the New York State De- partment of Labor says: “Factory employment made a good recovery in February from the dull- ness of January. The advance amounts to about 1 per cent and brings the level back to that of De- cember. There has been no evidence thus far, however, of a repetition of the upward swing of a year ago.” In Hlinois the number of employed workers increased 2.2 per cent dur- ing February. Nevertheless there were in February 155 registered with the Hlinois Free Employment Offices for every 100 jobs reported to the offices. : § January the proportion of workers to jobs was 166 to 100, a@ year ago it was 104 to 100, and during the worst period, during 1920 it was 209 to 100. In-m#hio unem- ployment increased in February. Applicants for work at the’ thirteen employment bureaus maintained by the state numbered 9,919 for the week ending February 23, and only 2,883 got jobs. In Iowa the Public Welfare Bureau was forced to tssue a warning at the beginning of March against the ever-growing unemploy- ment in January and February. The surprising and sudden increase of pig iron and steel production is most likely only of a short duration. The causes of the increase are prob- ably the concentrated railroad orders, and work for Japanese reconstruc- tion. The New York Times of March 2 reports: on March 1 from’ Pitts- burgh concerning the pig iron market that: “There is, however, practically no disposition to buy at this time.” And about thé steel market: “Gen- eral buying of finished steel products by jobbers and ordinary manufactur- ing consumers has been running dis- tinctly lighter in the last fortnight than in January. A fair volume of business is being placed, but the mar- ket is distinctly less active. By precedent, if there is any change in the volume of activity at this time of year it should be in the other direction. The steel mills are much less sold up than’ they usually are when as active as at present.” On the front page and in edi- torials the capitalist papers continue to spread professional optimism about the economic situation, but in their financial columns they are forc- ed to tell at least a part of the truth. The New York Times of Feb- ruary 25 writes: “Leading mining interests in Illinois and Indiana are preparing to operate more economi- cally and work the .most valuable mines, closing the others, thus keep- ing the supply of coal more ad, c to requirements.” Says the repo’ of the New York Times of March 3: “Business conditions thruout theWest are spotted. In Minnesota and the Dakotas it is poor because of the small returns fo the farmers.” Dunn’s Review says about the first week of March: “With conservatism still the predominant sentiment, a rapid growth of business is not to be ex- pected,” Bradstreet’s establishes: ‘Trade and industry present a spot- ted appearance, and caution for buy- ing for anything beyond immediate need is still the central feature ... Nowhere except possibly in the auto- mobile trade does there appear the great onward sweep visible at this time a year ago,” The World of March 9 admits in its look the same tendency: everth less, intead of growing more liberal, buying policies have become more PE ASRLEE DE SERRATE TIL TN URE eek SESE Sle PERRO SEENON MEENERE SIT conten toieeete eee nnn) LS —— ee restricted in many lines. Inflated costs supply one explanation for the restraint, but loss of confidence must take the foremost position, as a rea- son for the present, hesitation which governs all forward operations. This lack of corifidence is not only the average business man’s feelings in regard to his markets, but it also grows out of his reaction to the pres- ent_ political discussion.” The Chi- cago Tribune of March 12 gives the attitude of business men _ highly alarmed over the economic situation: “The more pessimistic look for a Summertime slump. .. . Expansions of mills, factories and shops already are being held back, . .. Already there are indications that ‘expansion is being curtailed in some lines.” The situation summed up shows that the increase of pig iron and steel production and the increase of The Unequal Struggle Wilford Isbell King, “Employment Hours and Earnings in Prosperity and Depression, United States, 1920- 22,” says: “5,033,000 fewer workers were on the pay rolls in the early part of 1922 than were employed in the third quarter of 1920. However, part of this decline was seasonal. If we compare the third quarters, we discover that there were 4,102,000) fewer people at work in 1921 than in 1920, or about one-seventh of all who had been employed at the earlier date.” The maximum decline of em- ployment during the great crisis when 4,100,000 workers were out of jobs was 14 per cent. Today on the present depression we have no fig- ures which we could compare with this general figure. But we have two partial figures: the volume of factory employment and the volume of railroad employment. The March DON Wonay/ YOU HAVE Your Ba OLD WELL TRIED Br WE&4PON | miners. onth, August, 1923, was 1,- 978,505. From then till the end of the year 1923, 179,726 railroad work- ers were laid off; which means 9.1 per cent. We can judge how heavy an unemployment this 9.1 per cent decline means if we bear in mind | that during the greatest crisis of our ;economie history, the maximum de- cline of employment of the railroad workers was not more than 22.2 per cent, But the decrease of the number of employed railroag workers does not give the complete picture of the catastrophic economic situation of the railroad workers. An ever grow- ing number of railway workers are employed only part time. In August the number of full time employed railroad workers was 1,713,000. In December only 1,524,000; That means that the number of full time jobs declined by 11 per cent andthe number of those working part time increased no less than 189,000. _ We have still a third figure’ which is not as fully significant as the others because it is not a national figure; but it illustrates the mass character of present unemployment. In Massdchusétts, according to the January report of the State Depart- ment of Labor, the reductions of em- ployment between October and Jan- uary show that almost one-tenth of the workers in the State of Massa- chusetts were laid off during that period. Unemployment and Labor Aristocracy, The facts analyzed above show clearly that the working class of the United States is facing a heavy un- employment. Almost one million few- er factory workers are employed to- day than in-the middle of 1923. And in adition to that about 180,000 less railroad workers are employed today than halfa year ago. And again, in addition ‘to that, we must add the in- creasing number of unemployed coal But all these figures, as I showed in my previous article, still do not give the complete number of unemployed worker, They give only the figures showing by how much the number of employed workers de- creased. But these workers whom the capitalists drive out of the fac- tories, railroads and mines are only a part of the growing industrial re- serve army which is being constantly increased thru hundreds of thousands of dispossessed farmers, and new im- migrants. The unemployment is very heavy and has a mass character; but it. is employment in the state of New York; report of the Federal Reserve Board|0t as heavy as during the great and Illinois during February does not | gives the following new index num- mean at all that the economic depres-| bers for facotry employment: sién which began in the middle of On the con- trary the general outlook is of ag- 1923 is passing over. gravation. The Volume of Unemployment. It it an unquestionadfe fact that there exists a heavy unemployment today. If no other proof existed the Factory Year Employment | BRS sieve seeveee 100 BE Se awev ss ceece ches ..104 BEET ee heey cS Ci'en e's KS 90 BOBS. CIUNB). ks. vies es 103 1924 (January) ........ 98 The year 1920 has the index num- economic crisis of 1921-22. Tha lgreatest difference between the two j Periods is the condition of the metal industry. In the previous period the metal industry was most heavily af- fected. Today the metal industry does not yet show the full effects of depression. The present unemployment has a mass character, and the working “Industrial Information Employment | ber of factory employment, 104. The | Class suffers greatly from it. Part- Bulletin” of January, 1924, of the; year 1922 shows 90. That means aj| time work and wage cuts are a gen- United States Department of Labor | decline of 14 per cent. The figures; eral phenomenon today. It is in is an absolute and complete proof,|of King’s book show that the maxi-|sharp contradiction to these facts This Bulletin gives a description of }mum number of factory workers in|that the official labor movement and the employment situation not only | 1920 was 11,370,000 and in 1922,/the press of the American Federa- for every state of the country, but |} 8,621,000. That’s a decline of 2,-|tion of Labor simply take no cog- for the most important industrial | 749,000. That shows that a decline of centers within the states, This very: 14 percent was a decline of 2,749,000 important report is so detailed that employed workers. we cannot repeat it here. But it ‘The volume of factory employment gives the best basis for judging the | declined from: June, 1923, to January, situation to everyone who takes the| 1924, trom 103 to 98, a decline of trguble to study the report carefully. |5 per cent. 1 : few exceptions the picture | ployed factory workers in the middle by this report of the whole | of 1923 was almost the. same as in is of an increasing and|1920, therefore, a decline uf 5 per With ve present country spreading unemployment. true volume of the present unem- As the number of em- cent means a decline of about 975,- But if we wanted to size up the | 900 workers, The heaviest unemployment ever ployment we would have to compare | experienced in the economic history it with the unemployment of other|of the United States showed during periods. If we should want to form | the crisis of 1921-22 the maximum judgment as to whether the present | decline of 2,749,000 factory workers, unemployment ‘~ of a mass character present depression shows a de- jnizance of this unemployment. How is that possible, and what is the solution of this contradiction? We can give a clear answer to this question if we study carefully the “Industrial Employment Infor- mation Bulletin” of January, 1924, of the United States Department of Labor, The facts show that unemployment does not affect equally all strata of the laboring masses. The masses of unemployed consist of unskilled workers, And at the same time the labor aristocracy is fully employed, jand in many cases there ig even a searcity of skilled labor. We could cite scores of examples or not, we could do so by comparing | cline of almost one million factory | proving that fundamental fact, but it with the last great mass _unem-| Workers. This figure alone justifies ployment in the last great economic |the assertion that unemployment ia crisis of 1922-23. tory did the United States exper- fence a greater and Never in its his- | mass phenomenon today, The other figures that we can com- deeper unem-| Pare are the figures on the railroad labor in many sections, ogee than in the crisis of 1921-| employment. situation. The best study, the work of | of employed railroad workers in the The number jwe will present here only a few ci- tations from the above-mentioned Bulletin: “New York. There is a surplus of principally in the larger cities, consisting of (Continued on Page 8),