t - International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers

70
will 4a 4. HOME
I ,knoleicdge is Il.ol..l, the Ccn..us B,-
Ileau lighti well 1t eons, idered a tr-
Its activities have won for it the
putilation of being the greates t stalisti
!ai bureau in tihe wIr.I. legirinnlig withi
lt fir st census ].... 790. taken ill accrd-
,ee wi, h ,he ho nslbi
halt a.. enun. erat.. e
iioial reqiuibreent
f the IitplI.hsttfl..i be
odelidl vex'y 10 yeal to dternllln conessniial
repr teslint itioi, cnslls aietivi
is hav- e,,pand..edI fIon. little m than
I i.Opulati)n count t o i comrprebrnsive
survey of the li oai and ,conomic
resources of the nation. The facts and
re'nls which the census figures r fiect
IrI of instimable value, for if d ..nor
racy is to detsrmine where it is going, it
must rst know where it is.
LABOR INFORMATION
From labor's point of view, the deiennial
census which bgins on April i1, 1940),
,ill be the mist inl por. nt ever unIdertnken.
In addition to the infoirma'll i
raiis. collected, this census. will
include questions with respect to employmierit,
U Cnemploymentit oeeupIaiuo, incolmle.
age distribution of arkern himsilg,
/ortgagies~ income, ivring rtandsdls, the
siltus of workel'q ,new who have ri(ve,
yet had oppolrtunity to work. tlhe i,,lber
of those engaged in private, permSiaent
and Lnergncy ( l....poray) public work,
he .. i.nbe r not wo kirig because oif illnes,.
vacations. strikes. lock-outs, lly
difs and other pertinent itnforllation. 'The
questions will he directed to the status of
ih waolker as of the wek fiorr Malih e24
to 10. 1940.
A few of the high lights of particular
4ignigclanre to American labor as reecoted
by prior ce.nsus reports will illsrnte
the importance
if these figures.
and practical valu,
THE U. S. AND TH E WORLD
In order that thi details ray bhi
wiighrd against a broad backgrou... let
Vee (4 MARCH 24?
ki
Uncle Sam
will sendl a census taker at that
time. Questions important to
labor to be asked. Profound
changes recorded.
usi list .xaine. what the figures eveal
aIs o thi relation of the Ini ted States to
the rest of Ile world inl area, population
andi resoulces. The area of the Ufiled
Stales constitutes approximately 6' per
cent of the lanId surfice of the earth. Ill
pomuhtltlo, it shares in the samne prpor.
tion, containing ahbout (il, per cent of
the worild's population. Is share in th,
wold..s wealth, however, is far in excess
of its proportion ill area and populaion.
The IUnited States Treasury has 60 per
cent of ithr. world's mnnetarv gold. Thie
United States has b8 per cent of the
worMd', automobiles; 80 per enit if its
tlepllones. It produtirs 62 per retL of
the world's oil; 3 per cent of the pigiron
and steel; 35 per cent of the copper.
lead Irel zinc; 30 per Ient of the coal; over
50 per cent of the cotton.. The United
Stats
worhld,
¢onsunmes , 5 pe.r cent of tll
tin; 56 pI el iat of its rbbi-; 72
Ipr cent of its silk;Id4 11cr cent of its
colfee. Its industrial, railroad ail highway
syntems. are by fat
world.
the best ill the
Such is the relative position of tile
United States in the community of nationi,
These figures at least suggest that.
whatever snimilariles exist between the
reennmtic ills of the United Stotem and
those of other countries, because of our
vast Ieroiel.e: and producing and con
sumsing capacities, our problemns are
d warfd by comparison and substntially
differntr by nature
THE IIPRODUCING FOREIC
What of the c.i,.piI.io..h of the Americai
peoleph which iroeduces and coIuntn.es
sn ulruh Inhre in Il .r'polItwin than the rest
Arohitect's drawin, g of new censuS huilding, Wiashingtol, D C.. center of rmzing activity
urilcng March whiol the 1940 Ceisli il 1eillt taker.*
,
--
The Journal of ELECTRICAL WORKERS and Operalors
of mankind ? By way of a brief summury,
here is whal. the censuS figures show as
of 1930. Out of a tolal population of Ipproximaielyv
123 million, b bot 49 million
wri liit . I, as wvorking firo walges or the
eq u ivalenli tit these, ahbo. t 21 per eent
wire ien ased in agriculture. in this con
netion it is iDltrestilbg to note that the
1790 c..nsu reflected 95 per cent of the
popuhiIon ias ng el irrali, tlcrhe being at
that time only six eities in the Enited
States wi itha population of 8,U000 or over,
Almost 29 per cent of the 1930 labor foare
was ell'agedl in manufactu'hing and mIe
chanical pursuits. Tihe lemoaining hal of
the labor (ore coniasted chiefly of transpotltlitin[,
conmuiieatill,. cerical, pro
fessiial and domestic Woikters.
A PATTERIN WIHROUT DESIGCN
If comparative exii.nlanatons of thl,
above cl~assiications, are nl ido between
differert yeas. the proflnd chianges in
the character of our civilization become
impressively apparent. Shifts from the
country to the city; chagres from ulde
pendrll producer to wage-worker:
changs fronm ownership to tenancy:
changes .ion, multitudes of sinal
prdmlutucth, sitfs to a few gigantic ones
For .example, the 1937 census of 1ma,1 -
factIir s shows , that ther were 106,794
plants doing a busiiness of $5J)00 or more
per yar, emp..loying 8,56.69,231 worker..
But of this total nulnlber of plants. onethird
of them did less than $20.001
annually ind lheir cm bined production
was only i per cent of the total. The
one-fifth of the factories doing more than
$250,000 worth of business per year produced
over 80 per cent in value of all
good, anid employed .lmost seven nrillion
out of a total of 8,569,231 workers.
A glance at the figures of retai tradlh
reifect a similar concenutrion. in 1935
there were 1,653,961 rct{il stores with
almost, four million employees. But I
per cent of these stores did 25 per cent
of the business. The combined business
of one half of the stores amounted to only
8.; per eeI iof the totall retail trade.
It might be expected, perhaps, that
the condition of agriculture would reflect
a healthier state of d.emocratic economy.
Cens:Il figures show that in 1915 there
were 6,812,350 farms. Of these, almost
three l illitn were opera1ted by ttnnant.
not owlnrs, An additionai 48,000 were
operated by manager" . At the samin
time falin itgage borrowings ex
cerded seven and one-half billion dollars
CONSTlRtCTION MATERIALS
OF I'IROGIESS
The intelligent conduct of public and
private affairs depends upon relating objectives
to realities. A program appro -
printe Ior a nation charactilzed by widesprel
landholdings, small industiali
plants anl individualized rather than
institultonalized trade and eommerce
might ,he aijet to devise, but it is not
likely to Ie the proper program for ii
nation whre the ow nershi p of prodtel ve
wealth is vastly conc e trated in the
hanlls n ai few, and wihl re growing pro-
Cnontinued on page 96)