Interwar Unemployment in International Perspective

The outstanding internal economic problem of the interwar period in all countries studied was undoubtedly unemployment. Next to war, unemployment has been the most widespread, most insidious and most corroding malady of our generation; it is the specific disease of western countries in our time. It varied in intensity in the different countries but in nearly every industrial country it held the center of the social and economic stage in the interwar years. It was a social evil more than an economic evil. Its effects in terms of personal insecurity, maldistribution of income, and the deterioration of health, technical skill and morale were probably greater than the waste of resources and potential wealth involved. At the same time the pressure of the problem on national government was perhaps the most decisive disrupting factor in international economic relations (Arndt, 1944, p. 250).