Mr. CLAGUE. That is right. Wages and prices have risen much more than productivity possibly could rise in such a brief time. Senator ROBERTSON. That is right. Mr. CLAGUE. Yes. Senator ROBERTSON. Is it also true, as it has been testified here at previous hearings, that in total production we increased our production in 1947 about 60 percent, but while we were doing that the money supply increased about 12 percent? Do you know whether or not that is roughly correct? Mr. CLAGUE. My impression is that it is. I cannot vouch for the figures. Senator ROBERTSON. That is the reason we did not have a chance to bring prices down by increased production, because the money supply was increased at the same time, at a ratio of 2 to 1, and that is about the way the dollars are going now. Primarily, they are 50-cent dollars. Mr. CLAGUE. Next, I have here a few other charts that do show productivity across the war period. Here is output per man-hour in mining, which follows this same general long-run trend that I indicated earlier. You will notice that productivity in mining did go above the trend in the early days of the war. It fell behind during the war period itself, that being due, of course, to the excessive demand for coal and metals, and the working of less efficient mines. (The chart referred to appears on p. 198.) Then you had a recovery in productivity in 1945 and 1946, and in general it looks as though productivity in mining might approach the long-term trend line in another year. Senator ROBERTSON. How many more industrial workers did we have in 1947 than we had in 1945? Mr. CLAGUE. Industrial workers? Senator ROBERTSON. Was it about 15,000,000? Mr. CLAGUE. There were about 152 million employees in manufacturing industries in 1947, only a few hundred thousand above the average for 1945, but more than 1 million above the average for 1946. The CHAIRMAN. Does labor generally accept your figures as authentic? Mr. CLAGUE. Yes; in general, I would say "Yes." Senator ROBERTSON. How many workers did we have in 1945? Senator ROBERTSON. Industrial workers, yes. That includes farm workers, too. I do not know. Mr. CLAGUE. The total civilian labor force, which year was that? Senator ROBERTSON. In 1945. Mr. CLAGUE. The total civilian labor force in 1945 on the average was 53,860,000. That is the average for the year. Senator ROBERTSON. Then we had about 60 last year. Mr. CLAGUE. Then in 1947, the average is estimated to be a little more than 60,000,000. Senator ROBERTSON. How do you account for the fact that production in 1945 was so much higher than it was in 1947? It was not in consumer goods, but the value of what these workers produced, 40 percent of it was going into the war effort at that time, but the total production in 1945 was away above what it was in 1947. Senator SPARKMAN. Was that because of the hours and overtime, total hours worked? Mr. CLAGUE. It is partly the fact that they were working longer hours then, but partly also the fact that we had the very highly productive war industries still operating. You see we valued the annual output of workers in the shipbuilding, aircraft, and other munitions industries at perhaps $5,000 to $10,000 each, but put a value of perhaps only $2,000 to $3,000 on the annual output of workers in the non-manufacturing industries. This gave us a very high value of output per worker in 1945, but we lost this when we shifted across to peacetime production. Furthermore, this gave us a period of reconversion in which we could not get too high production. Senator ROBERTSON. The average workweek in 1945 was only 42 hours a week, with absenteeism running in various industries, highest in coal, from 8 to 12 percent absenteeism. What was the average workweek in 1947? Was it not about the same? Mr. CLAGUE. A little bit down, on the average, in manufacturing. It will average better than 40 hours; just above 40. Senator ROBERTSON. One year they averaged about 42; do you have the average there? It is my recollection that that is, the average workweek was about 42 hours in 1945. Mr. CLAGUE. I think the answer in 1945 for manufacturing was close to 43 hours. Many were working longer. In agriculture the productivity has been above the trend line all during the war; that is, of course, because of the good crops, and I suppose, in some instances, because of the shortage of labor on the farm; but, at any rate, the output per worker-not per man-hour-in agriculture, has remained high. In railroad transportation, the very high volume of activity during the war is reflected again in a rise in the output per man-hour far above the trend line. (The charts referred to appear on p. 200 and p. 201.) Senator ROBERTSON. Would you go back to that agriculture chart? I did not quite get that. I think that shows that the productivity per worker increased very substantially. Mr. CLAGUE. Yes. During the war period. Senator ROBERTSON. And still is up. Mr. CLAGUE. Yes; that is right; it still is up. The CHAIRMAN. You may not have this, but as you look this whole picture over, in this job which is closest to your heart, as you are looking ahead, trying to pierce the future, taking these elements of productivity per man in these difference classifications, do you expect to see a ratio of improvement down through the years, such as has been shown in the productivity up to the present time, due to new inventions and scientific improvements? We have not reached the ultimate yet by any means. Mr. CLAGUE. By no means and, in fact, if I can be assured you will not use the word "predict," I would say the chances are that this long |