Show after peace comes what committee for economic bonom ic development seeks ways to maintain employment survey of postwar business prospects Is urged by ELLIOTT PINE released by western newspaper union within a year and perhaps much sooner the war in europe will end according to most experts both political and military immediately the problems of reconverting wartime america to peacetime production will begin factories that have been running day and night will slow down and perhaps close many thousands of men w will ill be released from the armed forces labor shortages will disappear and before long the specter of unemployment wi will be back it was to try to devise ways for the orderly return to peacetime production and to try to avoid the mass unemployment that usually follows war that the committee for economic development was organized a little more than a year ago this committee is a group of the nations licin foremost business executives bankers economists and other technical experts chairman is paul G hoffman president of the studebaker corporation the vice chairman is is the vice president of the university of chicago presidents of several nationally known corporations serve on the committee the committee is not connected with the federal government in any way although its office is in washington D C its activities are split i into two major branches research division and field development division the research division has the task of investigating all policies of business labor and government that retard expanding employment and production after finding out what and where the trouble is the research division presents recommendations for suitable changes the field development division has the responsibility of ing and helping individual enterprises to plan now for high levels of productive employment and profitable distribution ui in the postwar period there are 12 regional chairmen I 1 tor for each federal reserve district who supervise the field cevelo development ament divisions work in their sections under the regional chairmen are state chairmen aho abo in turn appoint chairmen of county committees finally the county committees supervise the survey work of the community committees now how albert lea minn does it A typical survey by a commini community ty committee is one conducted in albert lea a city of in freeborn county minnesota freeborn county is on the southern edge of the state adjoining iowa so the trading radius of albert lea includes part of three northern iowa counties nearly people in the agricultural region about the municipality trade at albert leas stores I 1 there are 11 major industries in albert lea and businesses classed as secondary employers there is a stove factory a gas machine factory a creamery a meat packing plant a food products maker and several specialty products manufacturers in the city the electric power company is located there being a county seat there is considerable sid erable legal and clerical activity keeping all these matters in mind the local economic development committee began its survey of postwar business and employment possibilities its first step was to I 1 set up two questions the answers to which were to be the solution of its problem beginning with the premise that somehow there would be a job paying a living wage for every worker who wanted one after the war N first thing said the committee is is to 0 find out how many workers world would want jobs and how many jobs business thought it could provide after the he war it took the nu number aber employed in 1940 as a base this being the last full year before the country entered the war then it added the number unemployed and seeking work in that year these figures were employed in 1940 6 unemployed in 19 amo 10 total prewar labor labo r force orca or cc 1981 then the committee obtained the employment figures for 1943 r recognizing that they were abnor abnormally y high with many women and tige high h school students working who ordinarily would not be in industry some people had moved into town too who were not expected to stay y 0 ta P K J 4 I 1 4 HAPPY STEEL WORKERS tined lined up before the pay windows of a huge pittsburgh plant now operating at capacity are representative of 0 the millions of 0 factory people now BOW earning good wages but how many will be working when the war orders end after the war boom the figures settled upon were employed in 1943 ed in 1943 wartime labor force the next step was more difficult it was to try to estimate how many persons would want work after the war when the servicemen had re new automobiles city residents fa farmers r s XII aier new b blousing bo ou using n g city houses farm houses bouses i repairs to housing hou sine city houses bouses farm houses bouses i farm barns farm silos other farm purchases tractors fabricated prefabricated pre small buildings electrical installations other city purchases refrigerators furniture vacation travel turned and other changes had come about A survey among employers gave these figures from armed forces 2012 returning from rom farms arms returning Return lne from rom other regions rec lons growth and maturity of population 1943 46 total 11 1815 this total was then added to the wartime labor force wartime labor torce force 1943 number returning after war 1115 total subtracted from this however was a sizable group who would not be in the labor market after the war these were returning to faring farms returning He turning to other regions 50 not seeking postwar jobs total taking this number from the previous total left which the committee called the net postwar labor force in other words between six and seven thousand people would be expecting to find steady work in albert lea after the war obviously the next move was to find out how many jobs the cites employers could provide when returns came in from every employer from smallest shop to largest factory the results were postwar labor force as before number that can be employed after nar at as estimated albert leas unemployed in say 1916 on this basis I 1 so about people would be out of work or nearly 10 per cent local business prospects the committee then turned to finding out whether business activity could not be stimulated a bit every businessman business man answered a confidential questionnaire tabulated responses gave this salient information the 11 big industries gave this reply as summarized volume of 0 business done in 1933 gross sales s oooo volume of business done in vo volume 1 ume 1 of business done in 1 1 43 volume of 0 business you expect to do in the first postwar year then the secondary businesses were told that these 11 major industries expected to employ about go 60 per cent more workers in the postwar period than in 1940 and I 1 per cent more than in 1943 the peak year to date with this in mind the secondary business men guessed that their volume of sales would run about 15 per cent higher in the years immediately following follo wini the war than in 1943 while the survey among business men was being made a second on ono 0 was being conducted among a selected cross section of the cites population to find out their buying intentions tent ions after normal conditions returned A similar survey was made by mail among the farmers of freeborn county asking them what goods they expected to buy for their farms as well as for their homes and families some of the things that people hoped to buy were 1156 cars at 1053 average cost 1140 cars at at at at at aw at 1473 at at gio at at at 44 10 at 1 1 at ilov how to pay for it another question put was how do you intend to pay for these purchases city people with incomes between 1770 and replied that they would pay in this manner from current income 32 borrowings war bonds 9 no report 7 farm families with incomes ranging from 1500 to 2000 a year expected to pay for things thus current income 64 1 borrowings 4 war bonds 32 1 in general people with large in comes proposed to buy with cash rather than to borrow as people of smaller means planned to do how much farm income the albert lea committee realized fully how dependent the city was on the prosperity of the surrounding farmers A sub commit tee was working on farm income prospects while the other investigations were going on total income for freeborn county was set down as follows farm income 1939 S farm income 1943 farm income first postwar year y eat the postwar figure was established after analyzing the possibilities of changes in crops and livestock aside from maintaining hemp raising and an increase in soybeans and some vegetable crops the committee did not anticipate any important changes the members did recommend establishing a soybean processing plant and a cannery to find out how much the city and county construction projects could be depended upon to provide employment a survey of public works programs was made when this subcommittee sub committee reported it was shown that some worth of work had to be deferred because of war representing about man hours new projects might amount to of expenditures the committee cittee did not consider the possibility of state slate and federal projects it was the committees conclusion that little reliance could be placed on pu public alic works as a means of reli relieving bev unemployment after weighing all the information gleaned by the subcommittees sub committees the general committee of albert lea had a sound starting point for its postwar employment plans albert lea is only one city but it is representative of thousands of communities in the united states its problems are the nations problems it is the committee for economic developments intention to help solve these problems by accurate information |