Hoover and Unemployment
![handle is hein.journals/alablegr19 and id is 269 raw text is: Hoover and Unemployment
By GEORGE H. TRAFTON
W HEN Herbert Hoover was elected President, it was widely
believed that now at last there would be prompt and vigorous
action to prevent unemployment.
This hope was based upon Mr. Hoover's own record of active
interest in the problem. Eight years ago he was the chairman of
the President's Conference on Unemployment. This Conference
recommended at least two very concrete measures which the Federal
government should undertake; namely, the establishment of an
adequate system of employment bureaus and a long-range plan for
the construction of public works during periods of unemployment.
The report of the Conference made specific recommendations for
carrying out these projects.
Two years later, in 1923, a committee on business cycles and
unemployment, appointed by Mr. Hoover, published a report for
which Mr. Hoover wrote a foreword. This Committee was assisted
in its work by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Its
report again emphasized the need for action in providing employ-
ment bureaus and control of public construction. The report said:
A national system of employment bureaus was recommended by
-the President's Conference on Unemployment, and the commit-
tee gives hearty approval to that recommendation. In regard
to public works the report said: The committee calls attention
to the need for careful drafting of laws to insure a policy of re-
serving public works projects, if it is to be done effectively.
The following year, 1924, Mr. Hoover wrote the foreword to a
third report which again urged the planning of public works with
a view to the alleviation of unemployment during periods of depres-
sion. This report was issued by a committee appointed by Mr.
Hoover, as Chairman of the President's Conference on Unemploy-
ment, to make a study of seasonal operations in construction indus-
tries. The recommendations of this committee also gave support
to the plan for a system of employment bureaus that had been
recommended by the President's Conference.
Since Mr. Hoover became President, his Committee on Recent
Economic Changes has once more called attention to the proposals
of these previous committees. In addition, it cited the recent
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