AMERICA’S PROSPERITY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19767, 15 February 1927, Page 9

AMERICA’S PROSPERITY

A YEAR OF PROGRESS. Organised labour in Amerida views the year just closed as one of marked progress, expresses great hope for the new year and is determined to cleanse the labour movement of all ultra radidal, destructive and revolutionary elements, according to a forecast made by Matthew Woll, vice-president of the American Federation of Labour.

After saying that the outlook for the future was one that inspired optimism Mr Woll said it wtas important to maintain and if possible raise the consuming power of the masses of people. “That is the best guarantee for continued well-being,” he declared. “It is our high consuming power, matching more nearly than ever before our high productive power, that intakes our present sitnation so favourably. We are, in the mass, comparatively well off, not because we mlake many things, but because our wage levels enable us to buy so many of the things we make, from clothes to pianos, automobiles and homes. Five years ago labour was (almost alone in propounding that doctrine. To-day it is accepted by a majority of good business men. It is important that no minority of shortsighted persons, or of reactionlary thinkers, be permitted to upset it as going practice.

‘‘lt will be well to cite some facts about our amazing prosperity. The latest official figures show that we have one automobile to every six persons in the United States. Thtit is an average of almost one to every family. It isn’t necessarily the automobile that counts, but it is the significance of the purchasing power its possession implies that is worth taking into account. The world has never seen such wide distribution of good fortune, or whatever one dares to call it. The world has seen plenty of potentates possessed of unlimited wealth, like the Princes of India. But never has such a spread of wealth come to the masses. This is an American achievement. It is an amazing achievement.

1 ‘ Generally, it is true that factories are producing but little above what the market will at once absorb. Prices are fairly stable, goods are moving napidly from maker to consumer and credit conditions are generally good. This argues against the imminence of any sudden shift or change. The dollar now has the largest purchasing value it has had since the World War and prices are more nearly in accord with actual values. These are facts of importance to every one and they point to happiness ahead.

“We have fought the fight of democracy against communism, turning upon it with all the energy in our beings, fighting it down as the would-be destroyer of our freedom and our homes. We have given everything we have had to give to maintain and enlarge our freedom. We count the result as satisfying and gratifying beyond words to express.

“We shall not merely observe the coming new year; we shall celebrate it as marking a fresh advance all along the line for human welfare, human happiness, human progress.”