Unemployment in U.S. ARMS BUDGETS NO ANSWER | Economy stands at threshhold highest since 1940 W has ASHINGTON — The number of jobless in the U.S. tisen Official ¢ Exceed; abroad aig Y Practically 700,000 in a month to a total of 5,173,- igures issued in Washington last week revealed. & the worst fears of economists in the U.S. and Pesoant : : teco SOaring figures are yet far from being a complete td, y: & If : Wo ea ciime working (often into YS a week) wer forth unt: it would ‘Urthey million J0bless, e taken mean a registered as The r e A ey figure may be as trigy . © im ten of indus- Wage earners, The # in g Figures Were presented z va statement So the ___, €Partments of : and labor. or commerce Un ite Ployment in the manu- ng industries was esti- Mat €d at about 10 percent. Indy et: bess production is 9% At below last year’s peak. Ste ag the auto industry is cent & at just over 50 per- duction Capacity. Auto pro- 849 n Stands at just over WO o. With ats per week compared 140,000 cars per week © Year ago B a men ttcies have reached fay V8 Tecord. Only re- Not Se and housing have down with the rest. Py, 2 > Cntigerse Kisenhower had Covery the predicted a re- the dritt 1S month and called Tame to slump by polite S *8iustment as “rolling | re- B : the Nets has not stopped % the York Stock Exchange big bu Serious spokesmen of that Siness from declaring Sight. € end is not yet in Bus; Stites a and economic auth- tio, believe that federal Can an a large scale. alone Slump. the progress of the B s eg President Eisenhower lay < dected proposals for Cefe Seale public works and action on tax cuts. Tenge has however recom- Ploymere extension of unem- Tum ae Pay from a maxi- of tin 26 weeks to 39 weeks 2 €mployment, nis recommendation was Num after a report that the in ¢ €t falling out of benefit the m four weeks preceding 009, Nouncement was 137,- The bron a, US: Ught regi t abou crisis has been t by a prolonged Squeeze introduced under pretext of action against inflation, combined with a general attack on living stand- ards. W. McChesney Martin, head of the Federal Reserve bank- ing system, argued that it was his job to stop retail prices rising, even if this meant fall- ing production and rising un- employment. Senator Johnson of Texas has led the Democrats in call- ing for the financing of big public schemes, jncluding military construction “to head. off trouble before the situa- tion gets out of hand.” AFL-CIO president George Meany is calling for quick “government action to stop “economic chaos.” He wants more arms ex-~ penditure, cuts in taxes and large appropriations for roads, schools, hospitals. But hope of big business and trade union leaders that acceleration of the arms pro- gram will revive the economy again — as in previous arms drives — is not coming true. The decline in_ civilian orders has been at a faster rate than the rise in military orders. Not since 1940, when this picture was taken, such proportions. This picture is a flashback to thos ment Day” demonstration in Los Angeles, one of man of major depression in US. NEW YORK—‘“The economy today stands at the threshold of a major depression which appears more ‘mminent now than at any time since the end of the war.” This is the considered opinion of Marxist economist Hyman Lumer, who reported on the economic situation in the U.S. to a recent meeting of the U.S. Communist party’s national comunittee._ Stating, “We are plainly in for something distinctly worse in character than 1948-49 or 1953-54,” Lumer cites four reasons for this conclusion: One major~ post war stimulus of capital no longer exists. Deferred demand for housing and certain con- sumer durables, which persist- ed for a long time after the war, has naw just about van- ished. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, in its Jan- uary letter, suggests that in this respect 1957 marked the end of the postwar era — that the. wartime voids have now been filled. In 1949, auto production was unaffected by the slump and kept increasing, and the 1954 Gownturn was followed by an unprecedented boom in this field. Na such prospects are visible today. Only housing construction, where some _ shortages still persist, shows any prospects of a new rise in the near fu- ture. Further expansion of consumer credit is sub- ject to definite limiting fac- tors. One is the high level of the present debt. In many fam- ilies, instalment payments con- sume 20 percent or more of the family income, a large part of it in financing charges. Such families are not in a position to add much more to what they now owe. In addi- tion, thanks to short work weeks and layoffs, disposable income is shrinking. This, to- gether with the accompanying uncertainty of employment, further restricts the assump- tion of new debt- The European boom, which continued through the 1953-54 slump in this coun- try and helped among other things, to sustain the volume of American exports, is now at an end. Because of this, as well as the disappearance of the special circumstances of last year, there are no visible prospects of an upturn in for- eign trade. 4 In 1950-53, the massive increase in military out- lays contributed heavily to the boom. The increases now pro- jected, which are much smal- ler, are far from adequate to offset the fall in capital invest- ment. Dealing further with the ef- fect of increased arms budgets, Lumer says that “projected in- creases in armaments will un- doubtedly stimulate capital in- has unemployment in the US., reached e days. It shows an “End Unemploy- y held across the U.S., sponsored. by the Workers Alliance and Labor’s Non-Partisan League. vestment in missile production and related areas. ‘But,” he emphasizes, ‘arms budgets offer no real answer: “In return for such benefits as they may confer, they exact a severe price. “The arms must be paid for, in added inflation. in high taxes, and in the sacrifice of social welfare. Even more seri- ous, they carry with them ‘the threat of new assaults on dem- ocratic liberties, and above. all the increased menace of at« omie war. Nor does spending provide added jobs which would not be provided by spending the same sums f socially useful purposes. or “Aside from all this, the proposed program of missile production, which accounts for most of the increase in out- lays, offers relatively little promise of jobs to unemployed workers, 2 “It does not involve, mass production techniques de- manding the employment of large numbers; rather, it is an experimental type of produc- tion requiring only relatively small numbers of — skilled workers. Nor does it use large quantities of materials;* hence it offers comparatively little stimulus to employment ‘im other industries.” LPP protests RCMP action REGINA—A protest against RCMP interference in the election has been sent by Nor- man Brudy, LPP provincial campaign man- ager, to Nelson. Castoguay, chief electoral officer. The RCMP visited the editor of the Swift Current Sun to “question” him after the paper had earried a press statement from LPP candidate red Schofield. Castonguay replied that the matter does not come “within his jurisdiction,’ but the LPP is continuing to press him for an investigation. Saskatchewan.