FAKED FIGURES

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1930, Page 5

FAKED FIGURES

AMERICAN UNEMPLOYMENT. Professor Charles Persons, who has taught at Princeton and other wellknown universities, has severed his connection with the Census Bureau, says the “Daily Telegraph’s” New York correspondent. He has done this on the ground that there has been juggling with figures to cover up the extent of unemployment, of which the Republican Administration for political purposes is disposed to make light. According to persons who were engaged in the work of the Census from November to April, the number of unemployed in June was approximately s,ooo,ooo—labour organisations say 6,000,000 —but by using hair-splitting definitions to covei- up unemployment and picking areas, the Department of Commerce estimated the total as only 2,000,000.

To make things as rosy as possible, it is stated, people engaged on Odd jobs—it might be a few hours onljr—on the day when the Census was taken were classed as employed, whereas they might have been unemployed for some months previous, and were actually unemployed on the day after the enumeration was made. Professor Persons said he could not agree with this method, which was likely to deceive the public, and so he left the service. The data employed by the Department of Commerce, he asserts, related to areas where there are no largo industrial centres, and were not representative of the country. Workmen “laid off” or working part-time did not figure in the administration’s report. The chief industrial States, he declares, were scantily represented in the statistics, upon which the official estimate of 2,000,000 unemployed in June was based. Industrial figures relating to unemployment since June are not complete, but admittedly the general situation has not improved since, and in some respects it has actually become worse, because of the prolonged drought in the agricultural States.