– Secretary Of Commerce Henry Wallace – September 26, 1945 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
At the conclusion of World War II, with hundreds of thousands of American soldiers returning home, a large share of the workforce concerned about finding jobs as the economy transitioned from the production of wartime goods, and the specter of the Great Depression fresh in the minds of nearly all, Congress passed the Employment Act of 1946. At the heart of the act was its “Declaration of Policy”:
“The Congress hereby declares that it is the continuing policy and responsibility of the federal government to use all practicable means consistent with its needs and obligations and other essential considerations of national policy with the assistance and cooperation of industry, agriculture, labor, and state and local governments, to coordinate and utilize all its plans, functions, and resources for the purpose of creating and maintaining, in a manner calculated to foster and promote free and competitive enterprise and the general welfare, conditions under which there will be afforded useful employment for those able, willing, and seeking work, and to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.”
The act was the product of numerous revisions to what was originally introduced as the Full Employment Bill of 1945. It had declared:
“All Americans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful, remunerative, regular, and full-time employment, and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient employment opportunities to enable all Americans who have finished their schooling and who do not have full-time housekeeping responsibilities to freely exercise this right.”
Secretary of Commerce Henry Wallace believed that America could attain a goal of full employment (he used the total of 60 Million as synonymous with the peacetime requirements of full employment without inflation and without danger to our national credit. He believed that the goal was practical and attainable. The first step toward this he said was to rid ourselves of the twin evils of disunity and defeatism; two social conditions arising from friction of racial and religious groups and from ignorance and suspicion of foreign countries. He devoted space to a study and review of what had already been done in this country toward full employment He gave credit to the late Franklin Roosevelt for advances already made in that direction. “With strong hands he topples over the fragile houses of thought built by those who think unemployment is a healthy economic condition”, saying in effect that it was healthy only for profiteers. Henry Wallace believed that all who wanted to work and who sought to work had the right to work and that for the time being 60000000 jobs would provide that work.
In this interview, Henry Wallace answers questions about his firm belief that 60 million jobs was an entirely conceivable goal for America going into the 1950s.
Here is that interview, as it was broadcast on September 26, 1945.
