Note 191 — Chapter VIII · INDIVIDUAL SAVINGS AND INDUSTRIAL PENSIONS

According to the New York Times of April 22, 1821, W. Jett Lauck, economist for the railway labour organizations, declared before the Railroad Labour Board that “authoritative government reports state that five million workers are idle, at least three million of them having been without work throughout the winter. It costs these five million workers nearly one billion dollars a month to supply their families with the barest necessities of existence. This situation means acute distress to approximately 25,000,000 persons. The cost of maintaining these five million families would absorb each month approximately one-fifth of the total savings deposits of the country. The entire savings bank deposits of the country could support them only five months, as they amount to only $5,186,845,000.”