MILLIONAIRE’S FORMULA

Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1931, Page 3

MILLIONAIRE’S FORMULA

HIGH >AGES AND SECURITY. , SAN FRANCISCO, May 28. An interesting article sent from .Washington . to the ‘‘Montreal- Daily Star” says: “American industrialists and business men can check bad times by guaranteeing economic security to the 40,000,000 persons who -.still have jobs. This f formula is offered by Senator Janies Couzens, of Michigan, the insurgent multi-millionaire, who disr pleases the captains of industry by asserting that their greed mis caused the present great volume of unemployment aiid human suffering. “Senator Couzens is the former general manager of the Ford Motor Company, chairman of the Senate’s important Interstate 'Commerce Committee, and a former coal company clerk, who m less than 30 years has made himself a fortune of 60,000,000 dollars. One

of the most remarkable things about him is that he has a social conscience.

“We are so sick economically that it is hard to find any general panacea,’ said Senator Couzens. ‘But the greatest step we can take toward. recovery is to instil a sense of security in the minds of 40,000,000 workers who are gainfully employed. •“ ‘To-day those workers Jive in the fear that their wages will fig cut, • or that they will lose their jobs. Instead of spending, they hoard their’ dollars. They should. They are only practising that sturdy 'self-reliance and. rugged individualism recommended by President 'Hoover. If those 40,000,000 consumers , were assured that their

wages would not' be cut, and if they could be certain of an annual income, they would begin to spend. Consumption would increase, production would pick up, and the vanguard of our 6,000,000 unemployed would be ' called back to work.’ LEADERSHIP 'REQUIRED. “Assurance that the wage scale will be maintained requires plenty of leadership, he pointed out. He had hop--d and demanded that the United States Chamber of Commerce at its recent meeting would declare against wagecuts. It did not. ‘Continuous employment can be obtained by stabilised production,’ he said. ‘lndustry can both regularise production arid establish some system which .will guarantee the workers a certain income each year. Such systems feave been so successfully operated in many instances that there is no question they will work. There is no reason industry cannot start light now with the workers it has retained. Let our industries produce a little less than they can sell. If an industry—radio, refrigerator, or automobile, say—is going to produce 12,000 units in the next year, let it produce at the rate of 1000 units a month and undertake to sell at the same rate. Let it keep right on with a stable schedule. | I believe that principle would make our i industrialists sleep better and create a ; new efficiency in industry. I “’ Of course, they wjll have to be less greedy if they do that. Unrestrained greecl has put -us where we are to-day. -When our Industrialists have the will to prevent human want suffering they will find a way.’” - j