1939 | Commerce
Commerce
President Roosevelt asks Congress January 16 to extend Social Security coverage to more women and children. Congress amends the 1935 Social Security Act to extend benefits to widows, orphans, and other survivors beginning in 1940 (see 1956).
Britain's upper 10 percent holds 88 percent of the nation's wealth, down from 92 percent in 1912, and commands 34.6 percent of the nation's after-tax personal income (see 1960).
France is hardly any richer than she was in 1914 and ill-prepared to fight a war.
Japan's Ministry of Labor permits mineowners to hire women as the war in China produces manpower shortages. The ministry does not enforce laws protecting women in the workplace.
Seventeen percent of the U.S. workforce remains largely unemployed, but while the actual number of unemployed men and women has fallen from 15 million in 1933 down to 9.5 million, even Americans with jobs have relatively low average incomes. The Emergency Relief Appropriations Act approved by Congress June 30 provides $1.5 billion for the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
More than 4 million Americans declare incomes above $2,000 for the year; 200,000 declare more than $10,000; 42,500 more than $25,000. Only 3 percent have enough income to pay any tax at all, and 670,000 taxpayers account for 90 percent of all income taxes collected.
U.S. Steel reports a net income of $41 million on sales of $857 million after a 1938 deficit (see 1964). The average U.S. Steel employee works just over 25 hours per week at a wage of just under 90¢ per hour, and his annual wage of about $1,600 is $100 more than the average earned by General Motors employees. Both companies employ roughly 220,000 people.
Steel magnate Charles M. Schwab dies insolvent of heart disease at New York September 18 at age 77, having lost a fortune once estimated at $200 million in dubious ventures outside the steel industry.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closes August 24 at 131.33 but rebounds to close December 30 at 150.24, down from 154.76 at the end of 1938. Former congressman Arsène P. Pujo of Pujo Committee fame dies at New Orleans December 31 at age 78.