What was described as the most constructive proposal to meet the present economic situation was presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Science here by Gerard Swope, president of the General Electric Company.
Mr. Swope, a brother of Herbert Bayard Swope, the distinguished Jewish publicist, urged that all workers be guaranteed a minimum period of employment per year and that industry set up huge unemployment reserves.
Mr. Swope’s program was as follows:
1. We must decide what volume and what kind of products we want industry to supply and how to have industry organized to be of service.
2. We must secure for workers in industry an assurance of minimum employment per year at a compensation adequate to enable them to live in accordance with a standard of living that we want to maintain.
3. Where we have not advanced far enough to give an assurance of employment, unemployment reserves should be built up and maintained as a separate reserve by each unit.
4. Every employe “who receives less than a specified compensation” shall contribute to the plan.
5. The employer’s contribution shall equal or exceed that of the employe.
6. Provision of a “minimum waiting period before such benefits become effective.”
7. To have the minimum of such benefits adequate to provide for food, shelter and clothing.
8. To provide such benefits over a sufficiently long period without calling on the State or society for relief or charity.
9. To “make provisions for such unemployment emergencies as may transcend the usual periods of unemployment.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
