Speech #540131232

Bankers and merchants are likely to give as the absolute cause of depressions some financial or commercial reasons. clergymen and moralists largely incline to assert that social and moral influences. united with providentil causes. produce the industrial difficulties which afflict nations. manufacturers incline to give industrial conditions. labor legislation. labor agitation the demands of the workingmen. overproductin. and various features of the industrial system as causes. while the workingmen attribute industrial diseases to combinations of capital. long hours of labor. low wages. machinery and kindred causes. The politician feels that changes i c administration. the nunenactment of laws that he desires. tariffs or the absence of tariffs. are the chief influencingcauses of industrial disturbances. The fact that. as a rule. ones opinion can be foreseen by knowing his calling in life vitiates to a large extent the value of causes alleged. yet when all classes unite upon a few prominent reasons. and those reasons can be illustrated by facts. it becomes possible to consider the alleged causes of industrial depressions with a fair degree of intelligence and with conclusions that have sufficient soundness in them to indicate partial remedial agencies." The long list of causes of depression is classified by the Commissioner of Labor into three great divisions: "First. leading or direct causes. such as overproduction. cost of production. influence of machinery. crippling of the consumptive power. etc. . second. contributory causes. such as transportation. distribution. exchanges. commercial systems. etc.. and third. remote. indirect. and trivial causes." Many remedies for industrial depression have been proposed. the most important of which. in the opinion of the Commissioner of Labor. are the restriction of land grants to corporations. the restriction of immigration. the enactment of laws to stop speculation. the establishment of boards of arbitration to settle industrial difficulties. the contraction of credit. a souid currency. commercial and mercantile regulations relating to tariff. transportation. navigation laws. and public works. reform in the distribution of products. profit sharing. and the or anization of workmen and of employers. It will be seen that the field is a wide one. that many interests are involved. and that the depedenc e fnupon the other can ie ascertained only by a systematic and careful study of the conditions which surround industrial lfe. Without such study it will he impossible to understand the problems presented by labor. agriculture. and capital. and without exact knowledge it will he impossible to apply a remedy. "Probably." says Labor Commissioner Wright. "no human device or comSbination of devices can be instituted powerful enough to prevent the recurrence of dincial and commercial crises and industrial depressions. but this should not prevent men seeking devices which will mitigate the severity or shorten the duration of such calamities.