General Johnson saw that the bull of unemployment was in the "heavy" industries which could only be revived by government spending fon public works. The success which could be achieved in the consumer goods industries by the URA. drive Was strictly limited. A' huge four billion Public Works plan has now Been adopted by the administration which many of General Johnson's original ideas are incorporated, but {nthe meanwhile the unemployed have remained unemployed and the first flush of enthusiasm has pated. The task will now be both harder and more expensive. Moreover in carrying It out the Administration will run head on into organized labour."
Even Mr. John Maynard Keynes has termed the wages in the building trades "scandalously high." Con struction work upon which "American prosperity in the future must depend, has been brought to a stand. still, many believe by the refusal of the building trades to take the long view and realize that steady wages at a lower rate are better than high wages for a few weeks each yea! The calibre of labour leadership the building trades may be gauged by a dispute which has held "up 2 building in New York for many weeks. "The carpenters found that the steamfitters were cutting the small {triangular holes in the floor through which the pipes of the—hotwater radialers passed. 'They protested. 'The steamfitters refused to' yield the whole of the men engaged are idle til a settlement has been reached. Such jurisdictional disputes are common and often only
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.