WATKINS PREDICTS FALL IN AMERICAN WEALTH

Speaking before a luncheon gathering at the Liberal Club, yesterday; H. M. Watkins, British Laborite, who is traveling in the United States under a Rockefeller Fellowship, said that the outstanding feature of American industry, as seen by an Englishman, is the willingness of operators to discard out of date machinery. He predicted that within a few generations American prosperity would fall into decline.

Mr. Watkins has been observing conditions in the coal industry in the Illinois and West Virginia fields. He described the miserable circumstances which surround the lives of some of the miners in West Virginia as disgraceful to the United States. He presented, however, a bright picture of the alleviating influence exerted on the miners by what he termed "family paternalism" on the part of some operators. He protested against the prevalent belief that all American laborers possess automobiles radios, and all modern conveniences. He remarked that in the course of his survey he had found localities where men and women were denied even the elementary decencies.

His chief criticism of the attitude of operators in American industry is that concurrent with the willingness to discard all but the latest machinery there is an equal readiness to cast off human machinery when its efficiency becomes impaired. In developing his discussion of this aspect of American industry he made a few observations on the subject of unemployment. He explained that, up to the present time, the expansion of industry and the mobility of labor, which follows demand, have served to prevent unemployment from growing into a national problem such as it is in England. Though reliable governmental statistics relative to unemployment in the United States are wanting. Mr. Watkins predicted that it will become a great problem within a few generations and will seriously affect prosperity

In concluding his talk. Mr. Watkins presented two alternative futures for American industry. He admitted as possible the success of the "New Capital", which involves labor stock holding and profit sharing. But he favors the view that overproduction and unemployment will combine to place American Industry in a state of decline