[PRCo] Re: Grant__&__Liberty

[Fred Schneider]

[Blind carbons to two people at PTM not on the Pittsburgh Railways  
mailing list also.]

When I looked at this picture of Liberty Avenue in 1936 it reminded  
me of some 1940 census labor force figures for Pennsylvania that I  
was looking at the other night.   A mind is a funny thing in the way  
the lightning bolts flash from one subject to another.

Some of your might be able to relate this to trolleys and railway  
history and the demise of the trolleys.....   If any of you can get  
something from this,

The Great Depression was a world wide economic event, not just a U.  
S. economic downturn.   The worse year was 1932.   We understand that  
things began to improve in 1933 and 1937 was supposed to be pretty  
good.  There were new PCCs and new streamlined automobiles then.    
But many people told me that we never really came out of the  
Depression until World War II was declared and there were finally  
jobs for everyone.   The following data may help to explain why the  
Argentinians tried to solve their economic problems by taking the  
Falkland Island back from Britain ... a good war can improve the  
economy.

Bear in mind that in World War II everyone that needed a job was  
working.   There was effectively no unemployment.   Even servicemen  
home on leave were happily reemployed as trolley motormen for a few  
days if they were willing to work.   The standard workweek during the  
war was 5 1/2 days .... standard or minimum, whatever you want to  
call it.

Now lets go back to the 1940 census:

Pennsylvania ---  unemployment rate 18.8%

Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton    12.4%  (In spite of Bethlehem  
Steel, unemployment was low because of food and garment industries.)
Altoona       17.8%    (If the Pennsylvania Railroad didn't have  
traffic, Altoona didn't have engines and cars to overhaul.)
Erie     15.4%   (another heavily industrialized city.)
Harrisburg     14.4%   (Government wasn't as important then as today;  
steel and railroads were much more important then and they were  
hurting.  The village of Hershey had a micro-economy with Milton  
Hershey employing thousands on make work projects in the theater, the  
arena and the hotel during the Depression, but these projects were  
done by 1940.)
Johnstown    17.9%   (Basic steel was hurting.)
Lancaster    8.3%    (Lancaster never understood the meaning of the  
word Depression.   It still has the lowest unemployment in  
Pennsylvania.   In 1964 it was probably the lowest in the U. S. at  
1.4%  The reason?  Highly diversified, in the Depression it was  
mostly soft goods - clothing, umbrellas, textiles, shoes, farming ---  
people still needed to eat and cover their bodies.)
Philadelphia    17.6%     (Ship building was probably what dragged it  
down --- Sun Ship in Chester, another ship yard in Camden, another  
one on the Delaware River in Philadelphia ... when the war began they  
were all going gang busters.)
Pittsburgh     20.7%    (Basic steel again.)
Reading     12.3%     (Now why was Altoona down and Reading not  
down ... because the Reading hauled Anthracite and it was used for  
home heating.   People still had to keep warm.   Reading was also a  
very key textile city ... two of the most importing ladies nylon  
stocking plants in the U. S. were there plus a lot of other textile  
mills.)
Scranton - Wilkes Barre    31.5%    (Nothing up there but Anthracite  
coal mining and the season was over when the census was taken on  
April 15th.)
York       10.5%     (Almost as diversified as Lancaster but slightly  
more linked to heavy industry instead of discretionary consumer goods.)

And some counties:

Fayette County     32.3%     (The Bituminous mines were down ...  
explains, doesn't it, why West Penn Railways was going out of the  
transportation business?)



[Note:   The standard at that time for in or out of the labor force  
was no different than now .... looking for work within the previous  
30 days qualified one for being in the labor force.   The  
unemployment rate was the share of those who had had not worked in  
the week of the 12th day of the month (just as it is now) and had  
looked for work divided by the sum of all those out of work and  
working.    The week of the 12th was always used because it had the  
fewest holidays to disrupt statistics.   The only thing that changed  
from 1940 to the present is the minimum age for those in the labor  
force included 16 and 17 year olds then, today they must be 18 and  
over. I have no idea what aberation that change caused because I was  
not working in the field when the change was made.]





On May 13, 2006, at 9:49 PM, Holland Electric Rwy. Op. H.E.R.O. --  
Import SPTC 1.48 Models // James B. Holland wrote:

> http://tinyurl.com/jrk4k
>
>