PROCEEDINGS CORN BELT MEAT PRODUCERS' ASSN. 569 



I might have said more while the secretary was here concerning his 

 problems. His problems are our problems; he is working on our prob- 

 lems, and I want to congratulate you upon the progress that he is mak- 

 ing. I am hoping that he will be able to accomplish a good many of the 

 things that he had no time to refer to this evening. For example, our 

 exports of agricultural products are large at the present time, contrary 

 to general opinion. We are sending out from one to three times the 

 normal export of wheat, corn, meat and dairy products, and it would be 

 a great thing for this country if he will find a way by which the markets 

 which are just now being developed may be maintained for our advan- 

 tage In years to come. 



There are some very diverse opinions as to the cause of the depression 

 that rests upon us. Of course, we all know ft goes back to the war, but 

 in some conferences which I have been permitted to attend I have 

 noticed that honest men may have hoiiest differences of opinion. For 

 example, at the present time there are about four million men in this 

 country out of employment. The normal number of persons out of em- 

 ployment in the United States is about one and a half million. In the 

 larger communities and eastern cities the problem is to find employment 

 by which these people can make a living. In the absence of employ- 

 ment they will suffer great hardships and their families will suffer great 

 hardships, and that, in turn, will develop a spirit of unrest, which is con- 

 trary to the best development of this country. Do you know what is 

 happening over in England on account of the unemployment situation? 

 The government has heen following a system of doles, so-called, which 

 is the payment of cash to the unemployed, and this system has developed 

 among some of those people a disposition to continue that method of 

 life, and instead of stimulating an ambition to find work, it has stimu- 

 lated an ambition not to find work, and some of the unemployed are 

 organized and they are seriously advocating the forcible taking posses- 

 sion of libraries and churches and schools in order that they may use 

 those buildings for shelter. In their organization they have a president 

 and they have a secretary, and they issue letters of instructions to their 

 leaders. One of these letters came to my attention in which it was advo- 

 cated that the unemployed should go into hotels and restaurants and 

 private houses and literally help themselves to food supplies. We are 

 very fortunate that we do not have those conditions in this country, and 

 we certainly do not expect to have them; but what about the remedy for 

 the unemployment? I am going to mention two theories for the reliev- 

 ing of unemployment. I am a kind of filler-in on your program and I 

 have not had time to prepare in advance what I should say to you, but I 

 think you may be interested in these two theories. 



One of the great industrial leaders in this country, a man whose opera- 

 tions extend through a large part of this middle western territory, who 

 has large interests in manufacturing and in railroading, is perfectly 

 honest in his conviction that the best remedy is to start building. And 

 so he says if we can only find a way to start building, it will relieve the 

 situation. We are short more than one million houses in this country; 

 we need business houses; we need various structures, to say nothing of 



