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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS ROYAL ME EKER, Commissioner BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES \ B U R E A U OF L A B O R S T A T I S T I C S / ' * EMPLOYMENT AND UNEMPLOYMENT j WHOLE ‘ ( NUMBER L L \J SE R IE S: NO. P R O C E E D I N G S OF T HE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF TH E A M E R IC A N A S S O C IA T IO N OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES BUFFALO, N. Y., JULY 20 AND 21, 1916 J U L Y , 1917 WASHINGTON G O VE R NM EN T P R I N T I N G OFFIC E 1917 6 A D D IT IO N A L COPIES OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED PROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CENTS P E R COPY V CONTENTS, Page. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5 Proceedings of the fourth annual m eeting..................................................................... 5-11 What records should be kept by public employment offices and how they should be used, by Royal Meeker............................................................................... 12-14 Business efficiency in public employment offices, by G. P. Berner...................... 15,16 Cooperation among Federal, State, and city employment bureaus, by Hilda M uhlhauser....................................................................................................................... 17-22 A national system of employment offices, by Hon. William B. Wilson................ 23-27 Is a national bureau of employment desirable, by Jacob Lightner........................28, 29 Federal-State-municipal employment service in New Jersey, by Joseph Spitz. 30-32 A Federal labor reserve board, by William M. Leiserson.. : .................................... 33-45 Vocational education and juvenile placement departments, by A lvin E. Dodd. 46-51 Vocational guidance as a public-school function, by W. W. Zurbrick.................. 52-55 Vocational guidance and the juvenile placement work of a public labor ex change, by Rachel Gallagher........................................................................................ 56-58 Cooperation between employers and the schools in vocational guidance, by George D. H alsey............................................................................................................. 59-66 N eeds of the women’s department of public employment offices, by Mrs. Samuel Sem ple.................................................................................................................................67,68 Special problems in women’s departments, b y Florence Burton........................... 69-72 Labor organizations and public employment offices: How they can be mutually helpful, by Robert G. V alentine................................................................................. 73-79 Employm ent managers’ associations, b y Meyer Bloom field.................................... 80-82 Suboffices of public employment bureaus, b y Charles J. B oyd .............................. 83-90 New York public employment bureau and its branches, b y Walter E . K ruesi.. 91,92 3 O F F IC E R S A N D E X E C U T IV E C O M M ITTEE O F T H E A M ERICA N A SSO C IA T IO N O F P U B L IC EM PLO Y M E N T O F F IC E S . 1916-17. P r e s id e n t .— Charles B. Barnes, director, State Public Employm ent Bureau of N ew York. V ice r e s i d e n t s .— H ilda M uhlhauser, Cleveland, O h io; H. J. Beckerle, M ilwau kee, W is.; J. D. Maloy, Saskatchewan, Canada; George D. H alsey, Atlanta, Ga. B e c r e ta ry -T re a su re r. — G. P. Berner, superintendent, Buffalo branch o f State employment bureau o f New York. 1915-16. P r e s id e n t .— Charles B. Barnes, director, State Public Employm ent Bureau of N ew York. V ice p r e sid e n ts. — W alter L. Sears, New York C ity; F rancis P ayette, Mon treal ; H. J. Beckerle, M ilw au k ee; H ilda M uhlhauser, Cleveland. B e c re ta ry -T r e a s u re r. —W. M. Leiserson, Toledo U niversity, Toledo, Ohio. 1914-15. P r e s id e n t. —W. F. H ennessy, comm issioner of employment, Cleveland. V ice p r e sid e n ts. — Mrs. W. L. Essrnan, M ilw aukee; J. W. Cailey, Chicago; W alter L. Sears,1 N ew York C ity; Edwin Dickie, Toronto. B e c r e ta ry -T r e a s u re r. —W. M. Leiserson. 1913-14. P r e s id e n t. — Fred. C. Croxton, Columbus, Ohio. V ice p r e s id e n t .—:Jam es V. Cunningham, Lansing, Mich. B e c re ta ry -T r e a s u re r. —W. M. Leiserson. 4 1 Died December, 1915. BULLETIN OF THE U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS. W H O LE NO. 2 2 0 . WASHINGTON. j u l y , 1 91 7 . PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES. INTRODUCTION. This bulletin contains the proceedings of the fourth annual meet ing of the American Association of Public Employment Offices, which was held at the Statler Hotel, Buffalo, N. Y., July 20 and 21, 1916. This is the second bulletin published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics which is devoted to the annual meetings of the American Association of Public Employment Offices. Bulletin 192, the first of these publications, contained the principal papers read at the three annual meetings held in 1913, 1914, and 1915. This bulletin contains most of the papers and addresses given at the Buffalo meeting. R oyal Meeker, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics. SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS. The American Association of Public Employment Offices held its fourth annual meeting in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., in the auditorium of the Hotel Statler, on Thursday and Friday, July 20 and 2 1 , 1916. Delegates were in attendance from all the leading States having employment-office systems, as well as from several of the Canadian Provinces. The meeting was called to order by the president of the association, Mr. Charles B. Barnes, director of the State Public Employment Bureau of New York, who addressed the delegates as follows: Members of the association, at this, our fourth annual meeting, my principal desire is to have you realize the very im portant work with which you are connected. At the present time there are 24 States in the Union th at have public employment-office systems. I t is true th a t in some of these States there is little more than a begin ning. In about two-thirds of them the offices are very active and 5 6 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. since our last meeting in Detroit there has been considerable growth in the different States where interest has been aroused, such as Illinois, Ohio, and NewYork. As every month goes by the interest in this subject increases throughout the country. I have had a great deal of correspondence with persons in the various States touching the question of methods in* our New York offices, and I know that our experiment is being carefully watched. From all this I get the impression it is beginning to be understood that while public employment offices are not going to solve the question of unemployment, they are a vital factor in presenting data that will aid in solving this perplexing question. In fact, public employment offices are the only agency which is ready at all times to present up-to-the-minute data on this question. I t has been too frequently the custom to wait until we were in an acute state of unemployment and then appoint a committee which was expected to show a way out. More and more the recognition is coming th at it is through the public employment office th at society may hope for adequate data. Since our last meeting in Detroit the employment situation has completely changed. Now jobs are seeking workers, while at that time the workers were seeking jobs. I know that we are going to have a very interesting session. You will note that we have prepared a program covering many of the vital subjects in which our association is interested. A few months ago Mr. W illiam M. Leiserson resigned as secretarytreasurer. I appointed as secretary-treasurer pro tempore Mr. G. P. Berner, who has since been acting, and will be with us at this meeting. Since our last meeting at Detroit, the governmental association^ as well as our association, has sustained a great loss in the death of Mr, W alter Lincoln Sears. Mr. Sears was the father of the present conception of the public employment offices, and I believe all of you will agree with me th at at the time of his death he was the leading employment office official in the United States. We can not adjourn for a day in his memory, but I ask that all the members stand for a qui§t moment in recognition of the death of Mr. W alter Lincoln Sears. I declare the meeting open for regular business. The following letter from Dr. Leiserson was read at his request in lieu of a report from him as secretary. T oledo U n iv e r s it y , T o le d o , Ohio, J u ly 18, 1916. To th e m e m b e rs a n d d e le g a te s o f th e A m e ric a n A ss o c ia tio n o f P u b lic E m p lo y m e n t Offices, B u ffa lo , N . Y .: It w as w ith extrem e regret that I w as compelled to resign my position as secretary-treasurer of your association, and to leave to your president and h is SUM M ARY OF PROCEEDINGS OF FO U R TH A N N U A L M EETING. 7 assistants the work o f arranging for the present convention. The pressure o f duties of new work that I had undertaken m ade it impossible for me to attend to the work of the association. W ith equal reluctance I m ust confess th at there is no report to subm it to the convention, because little active work w as done by your secretary-treasurer during the year ju st passed. However, I w ant to take this opportunity to review briefly the work th at th e association has accomplished, and to point out the things that w ere left undone, which, it seem s to me, the association ought to emphasize during the n ext year. Since 1913, when our association w as organized, great progress has been made in the adm inistration of public employment offices. At th at first m eeting the delegates from the State of Ohio got the inspiration and the fa cts which they have so w ell applied in reorganizing and developing the employment offices of their State. Sim ilarly the system and methods in force in the S tate o f N ew York can be traced to the influence o f the Indianapolis convention o f 1914. Illinois during the la st year has reorganized its employment offices along the most approved lines, and the system and methods in force in th at State are alm ost uniform w ith those in New York and Ohio. Prior to th at tim e the late Mr. Sears had pioneered the w ay w ith a system of records in M assachusetts, which w as copied by W isconsin and other States, and on which the present record forms of New York, Illinois, Ohio, and many other S tates are based. Gradually, then, as the result of the influence o f th is association, all the leading public employment offices of the country have adopted improved system s o f records and methods of m anagem ent that are substantially uniform. Not only has there been great im provement and extension o f uniform ity o f records and methods of management, but public employment office law s recently enacted in States like New York, N ew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Cali fornia have included in them provisions which have been advocated and in dorsed by this association, namely, advisory com m ittees of employers and em-. ployees. and a measure of civil service, at least. Thus gradually are w e getting uniform law s governing employment offices as w ell as uniform methods o f management. In some cases officers of this association have assisted in draw ing up the laws, in others they gave the inform ation on which the drafting o f law s w as based. R eference to our constitution w ill show th at to secure such im provements and to secure the extension of such uniform law s and methods of management have been the prime objects of this association. Much still remains to be done, however. W hile there is substantial uniform ity, w e still have no complete system of records worked out by th is association to be recommended to all the employment offices of the country. A comm ittee w as appointed two years ago to devise such a system, but at that tim e there w as still much dissim ilarity in the methods used by the leading employment offices and it w as difficult to get them to agree on standard forms. Now that w e have sub stan tial uniform ity, I think this association can do no more im portant work than to strengthen this comm ittee and compel it to report a standard set of forms during the present year. If this committee collects the form s now used in all the employment offices of this country and Canada it w ill be surprised to see how substantially uniform they have become w ithin recent years. Sim ilarly, a comm ittee on a standard employment office law ought also to report w ithin the year. The executive comm ittee w as instructed la st year to do this, and a tentative form has been drawn up which is now in the hands of your president. This can be worked over in short order by a committee, once it gets down to it. 8 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. The third im mediate duty of the association, as it presents itse lf to me, is to work out a plan for a national organization of employment offices. Only the people who are actually in the b u s in e s s e s the members of this association are, can do this properly and efficiently. The plans advanced by reform ers are up in the air, and it is not only the privilege but the duty of th is association, if it is to carry out its objects, to give out o f the practical knowledge of its member ship the advice and the assistance necessary to fram e a workable national system of employment offices. I would suggest, therefore, th at a comm ittee be appointed to carry out this purpose, to appear before congressional comm ittees, if necessary, and to cooperate w ith Federal officials. May I call your attention also to the suggestion o f Dr. Meeker in his intro duction to our published proceedings, namely, that the U nited S tates Bureau o f Labor Statistics might publish annually a bulletin containing the proceedings of our association. It wras w ith very great difficulty th a t w e finally prepared the proceedings of the last three m eetings for the printer, because no stenographic report w as made. If it is at all possible, an arrangement ought to be made, perhaps in cooperation w ith Dr. M eeker’s bureau, to have a complete steno graphic report of all future meetings. Much of the best inform ation comes out in the inform al discussions, and unless some one makes a record most o f the benefit that might be derived from the discussions is lost. In conclusion I w ant to express my appreciation of the assistance and the inspiration which I have received from the membership during all the period of my association w ith them. In severing my connection w ith the American Association of Public Employment Offices I assure you that, although I can not be a member, I shall alw ays rem ain in close touch w ith your work. There is no more im portant work being done in this country to-day than the work o f this association, and you who are in the business need not be told that there is no more interesting, no more vital, human and helpful work than that of the public employment business. A lthough the rule in the constitution which lim its membership to those connected w ith public employment offices now bars me out, I think this is a good rule and should be kept. The tem ptation w ill be great to let in men who are interested in unemployment but not practically engaged in the work. There are plenty of “ highbrow ” and* reform associations for discussion and agitation of this subject. But this is not your work. We discussed this thoroughly at our first m eeting and decided that if there is place for a new organization it is only for one which w ill study the adm inistrative d etails of the employ m ent business, seek to improve their methods and to secure uniform ity and cooperation among the employment offices of the country. T his can be done effectively only by men actually engaged in m anaging or adm inistering employment business. Our experience thus far has proved this. Much improvement has been secured. In my opinion more direct results in dealing w ith unemployment have been secured by the efforts of this association in the 3 years of its exist ence than have been brought about by 25 years of abstract talk about labor exchanges. Keep up the good work along the lines you have started. The published proceedings show in detail w hat those lines are. Stick to these methods, and you w ill be in a fair wray to grapple w ith and control the greatest scourge of modern industrial life— unemployment. W ith heartiest w ishes for the continued success of the Am erican A ssociation o f Public Em ploym ent Offices, I am. Very sincerely, yours, [Wm . M. L eisebson . SUM M ARY OF PROCEEDINGS OF FO U R TH A N N U A L M EETING . 9 An address of welcome was given by a representative of the mayor of the city of Buffalo, after which the first speaker on the program, Hon. Roy&I Meeker, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics, delivered an address on “ W hat records should be kept by public employment offices and how used.5’ Other speakers on this subject were Charles F. Gettemy, director of the Bureau of Statistics, State of Massachusetts, and Mr* G. P. Berner, superintendent of the Buffalo branch of the New York State Bureau of Employment. The subject was then opened for general discussion. A t the afternoon session, the first subject for discussion was “ How can cooperation among Federal, State, and city employment bureaus be effected.” The opening speaker on this subject was Miss H ilda Muhlhauser, who is connected with the United States Departm ent of Labor. She was followed by Mr. Luke D. McCoy, secretary of the Illinois Bureau of Labor Statistics. The next subject for discussion was a A national system of employ ment offices: How shall it be organized.” The first speaker was the Hon. William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, Washington, D. C. Mr. Wilson discussed the urgent need for public employment offices and showed the advantage which could be secured by a national employment bureau cooperating with State and municipal bureaus, helping to coordinate the work between the different States and cities of the country. Mr. Jacob Lightner, director of the Public Employment Bureau of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Joseph Spitz, director of the Public Employment Bureau of New Jersey, also spoke on this subjectT and Mr. William M. Leiserson submitted a paper entitled u A Federal Labor Reserve Board.” “ Juvenile placement departments: Their connection with voca tional guidance and trade schools” was the first subject discussed at the F riday morning session. Mr. Alvin E. Dodd, secretary of the National Society for Promotion of Industrial Education, New York City, was the first speaker, followed by Mr. W arren W. Zurbrick, chairman of the vocational guidance committee, Buffalo, N. Y., Miss Rachael Gallagher, director of the Girls’ and Women’s Bureau, Cleveland, Ohio, and Mr. George D. Halsey, vocational counselor, Atlanta, Ga. “ Special problems in the women’s departments ” was discussed by Mrs. Samuel Semple, member of the industrial board of the De partm ent of Labor and Industries, State of Pennsylvania, and by Miss Louise C. Odencrantz, superintendent of the women’s depart ment, Brooklyn branch, New York State Bureau of Employment, Miss Florence Burton, head of the women’s department of the Min neapolis Public Employment Office, was unable to be present, but sent a very interesting paper on this subject. 10 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. A t the afternoon session, Mr. Robert G. Valentine, industrial counselor, Boston, Mass., delivered an address on “ Labor organiza tions and public employment offices: How they can be mutually helpful.” Mr. Meyer Bloomfield, director of Vocational Guidance Bureau, Boston, and Mr. A. L. Filene, member of the firm of W illiam Filene Sons’ Co., Boston, delivered addresses on the subject, “ Employment managers’ associations: Employers and public employment offices.” “ How shall suboffices of a public employment office be conducted within a c ity ” was discussed by Charles J. Boyd, general superin tendent, State Employment Bureau, Chicago, and by W alter E. Kruesi, superintendent of the Municipal Public Employment Office, New York City. Although the appointed speakers filled in most of the time allotted to each of the subjects mentioned, many delegates* expressed their views in three-minute speeches. Several questions affecting the daily work of public employment offices were also brought up and discussed, and on Saturday morning, July 22 , there was an informal meeting of the association, held in the Buffalo office of the State public employment bureau. A t a round-table discussion many other questions on the routine work were threshed out by the delegates. The regular program was followed by reports of committees, selec tion of standing committees, and election of officers. A committee on standardization was named, to consist of Hon. Royal Meeker, chairm an; Charles F. Gettemy, director, Bureau of Statistics, Massa chusetts; H. J. Beckerle, superintendent, Public Employment Office, Milwaukee, W is.; C. H. Mayhugh, superintendent, Cleveland StateCity Public Employment Office; and Luke D. McCoy, secretary, Illi nois Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a standing committee for the purpose of drawing up a system of uniform records and formulat ing standard definitions of terms and methods of work which can be used in all the offices throughout the country, to the end that there shall be uniformity in the figures and reports from all the States. I t is the duty of this committee to select from all the systems and methods now in use the best and most efficient, and its report at the next annual meeting will be the most im portant thing on which the association will have to act. Among the im portant resolutions adopted by the meeting was one placing the association on record in favor of the establishment of a national employment bureau. Another resolution that was passed requests Hon. Royal Meeker, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics, to edit and publish the proceedings of the conven tion in the form of a bulletin of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Commissioner was further requested to publish in the M o n th ly R e v ie w of the bureau the figures of the Canadian public employ- SUM M ARY OF PROCEEDINGS OF FO U RTH A N N U A L M EETING . 11 nient offices in conjunction and comparison with those of the State, municipal, and other public bureaus of the United States, provided such publication is permissible. The officers chosen for the next year are: President, Charles B. Barnes, director, State Public Employment Bureau of New York; vice presidents, Hilda Muhlhauser, Cleveland, O hio; H. J. Beckerle, Milwaukee, W is.; J. D. Maloy, Saskatchewan, Canada; and George D. Halsey, Atlanta, G a.; secretary-treasurer, G. P. Berner, superin tendent of the Buffalo branch of the State Public Employment Bureau of New York. The place chosen for the next meeting is Milwaukee, Wis., and the time September 20 and 21, 1917. Stenographic records of the proceedings were not taken, and the discussion therefore can not be reproduced, but the addresses so far as manuscripts could be obtained are printed herewith. W H A T REC O R D S S H O U L D B E K E P T BY P U B L IC E M PLO Y M E N T O F F IC E S AND H O W T H E Y SH O U L D B E U SE D . B Y R O Y A L M E E K E R , U N I T E D ST A T ES C O M M ISS IO N E R OF LA BOR S T A T IS T IC S . Always, whenever I ask for information, either from public offi cials or private business men, I meet with the question, “ Why, what good is this information; what do you come bothering around for?” There is not much difference between public officials and private employers in meeting requests for information. Now, what is the use of any records by public employment offices? I hope we shall not have to stop to discuss that. W hat is the purpose of the par ticular reports that I am asking you to send in to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly ? W hat is the purpose of this investiga tion that I undertook at the request of this organization? W hat do we hope to accomplish ? The first purpose is to furnish information. I am perfectly well aware that the information furnished by the different public employment offices differs from State to State and even from office to office, within the same employment system. The prim ary object in collecting and publishing the facts asked for is to give to the public the best information available as to the work done by the public employment offices throughout the country and the cost of conducting these offices. I think that some statement as to the financial condition of the offices is not merely useful but necessary. I do not agree with those who hold to the opinion that statistics of finances of public employ ment offices are utterly worthless. No p r^ a te business can be carried on successfully without some attempt at itemizing expenditures. To be sure, the employment records and financial statements of the different offices are not standardized on a uniform basis, so it is wholly misleading to compare one office with another on the basis of the cost per position filled. Even if we had worked out uniform standards for keeping employment and cost records, I doubt if it is worth while to present figures showing the average cost of placing the famous u jobless man ” in the well-known “ manless job.” The character of the employment work done by offices in different localities differs so greatly that comparisons even on the closest approximation to uniform bases would be meaningless. For example, one office may handle principally unskilled, low-paid, casual, and day workers. Another may deal in greatest part with high-paid, skilled, and more permanent workers. The first office may place 10 times as many 12 W H A T RECORDS SH O ULD RE K EPT ---- ROYAL M EEKER. 13 applicants as the second per $100 expended. Is it, therefore, the more useful and economically conducted office? Not necessarily. The kind of work done by the first office admits of no such simple cost com parison with th at of the second. Both are performing needed ser vices, and it may well be, when the relative permanency and casual ness. of employment are considered along with the wages paid and character of service rendered, that the second office is doing much better, more necessary, and more economical work than the first. We must be careful not to jump to conclusions as to the usefulness or uselessness of offices on the basis of so-called cost statistics. A t the present time there is no uniformity in the practices of public employment offices. There are no generally accepted defini tions of application for workers, application for work, registration, renewal, reference to a position, or placement. Some offices record as the number of persons applied for by employers the number of persons actually sent out to employers; others record the number of persons asked for without trying to verify the genuineness of the demand. Some offices record under registrations only new registra tions; others report every one carried in their registration files who, according to their records, has not secured a position. Some offices renew all applicants every time they come into the office; others renew nobody; still others register or renew only those who are sent out to positions. Some offices report as persons placed or positions filled the number of individuals sent out to employers, unless the employer or the applicant informs the office that the position was not taken; others make a record of a person placed or a position filled only in case a positive statement to that effect is received from either the employer or the employee. These differences in practice, of course, render the records of the different employment offices incom parable. W ith full knowledge of the discrepancies and incompar abilities in the reports of the various employment offices, I have, nevertheless, been gathering these reports from the various offices, tabulating them and publishing them each month in the M onthly R eview. I f you can not compare the reports of the different offices, you can, so to speak, compare the incomparability of these reports. When I show the discrepancies and divergencies of these reports, when I have put all the cards on the table face up* I think it will not be long before you intelligent directors and superintendents of employment offices will get busy and agree upon uniform definitions, standards, and forms for records. The value of these reports of work done by the employment offices of the country published each month in the Monthly R eview is evidenced by the interest being manifested in the meaning of these reports. I t is not for me to say what records you should keep or what definitions of terms you should adopt. 14 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. These are matters that you practical.employment superintendents should agree upon. I merely take your records as you hand them over to me and print them with all their simple inconsistencies. I think the items called for in these reports are the minimum of infor mation that every employment office must show in order to know where it stands. Perhaps one item could be cut out. We call for, first, the number of applications made by employers; second, the number of workers called for; third, the number of new registra tions ; fourth, the number of renewals; fifth, the number of workers referred to positions; and, sixth, the number of positions filled. Probably the practices of each public employment office differ from all others in some respect. We must get together and agree upon definitions and practices, so th a t you w^ill all mean the same thing by registration, by renewal, by application from an employer, by references to positions, and by positions filled. The last column in the tabulation presented—number of positions filled—is the only information furnished by the employment offices th at approaches uniformity. Even here practice varies somewhat, but it is near enough to uniformity so th a t I have given instructions to have this column totaled so as to show State by State the work of our public employment offices in filling positions. The information being published is not 100 per cent accurate, but it is, I think, very useful information. Its greatest utility, perhaps, has been to arouse Mr. Gettemy to criticise these statistics and to point out their inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Along with the accounts of the activities of the offices there should be required an accurate financial accounting, so th at the cost of the offices can be known. Mr. Gettemy is much better qualified to speak on this sub ject than I. Had I not published the reports of the public employ ment offices—had I not* compared the inherently incomparable— Mr. Gettemy would not have been aroused, and we would not have the pleasure of having him with us to-day and listening to him speak. BUSINESS EFFICIENCY IN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES. B Y G. P . B E R N E R , S U P E R I N T E N D E N T B U F F A L O B R A N C H OF N E W Y O R K ST A T E EM PLOYM ENT BUREAU. My experience covers but slightly more than one year, and I don’t pretend to know much about the business, but it has shown me that there is one, and I believe only one, successful way to conduct a public employment bureau, and that is to use modern, cold-blooded, efficient, business methods. U ntil such time as the director or super intendent can grasp the fact that the public employment bureau is unlike all other public institutions, most of which are regulative, educative, or corrective, his bureau can not be a success. There is only one branch of the New York State service to which our work can be compared and th at is the State fund, which also has to solicit the patronage of the people, and whose existence depends upon their good will in the business sense. So the records should be similar to those kept by a modern busi ness house, and be as simple as possible. A record should be kept of all transactions, corresponding to the bookkeeping department. Simple, complete descriptions of all applicants must be taken and properly filed, as for the inventory of a business house. Eight here let me say that this branch of our work is second only to good will in importance. We might take a very long, thorough application from each man, and then file it away, where, excepting for possible statistical purposes, it is of no practical use. Instead we must keep a perpetual inventory, demanding from appli cants that they keep us informed constantly as to their success or failure, as it may be, to secure employment. I f your system doesn’t permit that you can at least do th is : Under each occupation in your applicant file, place a white card, and as the applicants renew their applications, enter their names or number on this card, in date order, so that when an employer asks for a man or woman you don’t have to look through a lot of dead wood, but have a fresh supply of names to look up. In taking care of our customers, good will, employers, whatever you choose to call it, spells success. We may be established for the purpose of relieving unemployment, or some other purpose, and we are supposed to make placements, but that word is, to my mind, a misnomer, because we are really only filing applications. I t de pends entirely upon the employer as to who is going to secure the 91297°— Bull. 220— 17------ 2 15 16 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. job, so that in reality we make no placements, but supply the wants of employers only—and there is a difference Those of you who have singled out applicants and have tried calling up or w riting to firms asking if they can use them, know what I mean when I make that statement. The importance of keeping a perpetual inventory, or as we call it, live file applicants, is apparent to all, but if we use a parallel, it may appear in a new light. A customer goes to a shoe store and wishes to buy a pair of shoes. The salesman immediately goes to the proper shelf and may secure what the customer wants. But if he should return and say, “ I am very sorry, we haven’t your size in stock but we will enter your order and try to get it for you,” the customer will probably never again go to that place. So it is with our employers. I f they are repeatedly told that we can not supply them, merely because there is no one in the office at the time, they soon cease to call on us. On the other hand, if in most cases we can go to the file and tell the employer we have several names listed and will immediately get in touch with them, his confidence is retained. There are other comparisons which can be made, but I do not care to take up your time with them, and therefore I will simply repeat that in my judgment the records of a public employment bureau should correspond to those kept by a modern business house. The reason why there is not more success in some cities is that most people look upon the public employment bureau as a humanitarian agency to relieve unemployment, etc. But there isn’t one employer in a thousand who can see it in th at light. The employer wants service—the best men at the lowest wages, and unfortunately we must cater to him rather than to applicants, to insure our very existence. In satisfying his demands, however, thereby gaining his confidence, we accomplish our end, although the point of view may be different. COOPERATION AMONG FEDERAL, STATE, AND CITY EMPLOY MENT BUREAUS. B Y H IL D A M U H L H A U S E R , E M P L O Y M E N T B U R E A U E X P E R T . U N IT E D ST A T E S D E P A R T M E N T OF LABOR. D uring the last five years the States and cities have considered the question of the unemployed more seriously than during all the preceding years combined. A fter the, deplorable unemployment crisis of 1914, the Federal Government, also, through the Secretary of Labor, took up the problem, and as a result a question has arisen which has not yet been solved: How can the cities, States, and F ed eral Government come together and in some logical, practical, co operative way, join forces to form a great entente to build a con structive organism throughout the States which shall deal effectively w ith the unemployment problem? The Federal Government has been experim enting in order to find out how this cooperation of cities, States and Federal Government can be brought about, and the U nited States D epartm ent of Labor appointed me to assist in launching this great project. Therefore the conclusions I have reached and the suggestions I make are draw n from practical experience. Some ideas have been suggested and many theories advanced as to successful cooperation, but I frankly adm it th at almost none of the suggestions so far advanced and made known to us can be practically applied w ith any promise of success. BASIC PROBLEMS. There are certain facts in the situation which m ust be borne in mind when the question of bringing together cities, States, and F ederal Government is considered. F irst of all is the basic principle of independent control of each of the three interests contem plating cooperation. The fact is th at the law may make it possible to do a thing in one State but may prohibit such work in another State. There is no uniform ity of method for public employment offices throughout the cities and States, and the problem of doing coopera tive work with States only is very difficult. In addition to this fundam ental question of law and statute, there arises the problem as to how three distinct entities, each under sepa rate governm ent control, can cooperate w ithout having any one factor dominate. W ould the Federal Government assume the au thoritative headship and supersede the States, or would the States IT 18 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . o r cities be in control of negotiations ? So far as the U nited States D epartm ent of Labor is concerned, I m ay say em phatically th a t the intention in the m inds of those who have the interest of th is work at heart and have been giving it a great deal of thought is to b ring these three factors together on an equal basis. T he D epartm ent of Labor does not wish to set up an im perial reign over States and cities, nor is it the present purpose, as I understand it, to dictate the way for the others to follow, but rath er to blend the efforts of each of the three elements for the good of all. The th ird factor to be seriously considered is the m atter of p rin ciple in dealing w ith the unemployed and w ith the labor question in general. There are always danger places ahead, and the m ethod of elim inating the possibility of undesirable entanglem ents is perhaps the most im portant thing to consider in taking up this question of cooperation. I refer to such principles as strikes, attitude tow ard organized labor, age lim it of applicants fo r work, and inform ation relative to conditions where employers are seeking workers. These are the underlying principles which make fo r either success or failure in any public employment office, and these are the fundam ental p rin ciples which we m ust seriously consider when we discuss cooperative employment offices which are to join forces. Such questions as u n i form records and tabulated statem ents are, to my m ind, m atters of detail. The principles, which are the nucleus from which can be built a system of cooperative employment offices throughout the country th a t shall take care of the unemployment problem adequately, are of vast im portance to all concerned. POLICY CONCERNING STRIKES. Take the first principle to which I referred, namely, the question of dealing w ith those places and localities where strikes are con tem plated or declared. Can you not see how dangerously involved cities, States, and Federal Government would become unless some very definite policy were adhered to by all three governments? The various States have various policies on this one question alone. T heir general attitude regarding labor trouble has been to give all inform ation concerning labor troubles, but not to send applicants for work to the places involved, unless the applicant desires to go in spite of troubled labor conditions. I t has always been the policy of the m ajority of city and State employment offices, because they are public employment offices, to serve conscientiously and w ithout p reju dice both employer and employee. Some cities and States leave this question to the discretion of the superintendent of the office. Almost all cities and States try to avoid contributing workers to those places where labor trouble exists, but all have not been entirely scrupulous COOPERATION" AM ONG B U R E A U S---- H IL D A M U H L H A U S E R . 19 in dealing w ith this phase of employment-bureau work. Therefore it would seem to me th a t the first step tow ard consolidation of effort of cities, States, and Federal Government would be the unanim ous adoption of certain principles of governm ent which shall apply to all public employment offices. The U nited States Secretary of Labor has draw n up a memorandum on the subject of strikes which sets fo rth the policy of the D epartm ent of L abor as follow s: I t is n o t deem ed d e p a rtm e n t o f th e a n d in b y w a g e t h e ir m a n n e r s t r ik e e x is ts s e n d in g a lr e a d y it is a p r im a o f th e fro m e v id e n c e lo o k q u a lif ie d do th e w o rk 1. T h e u p o n 2. is it b e in g is o ne a S ta te s , a w h o th a t u p o n is a th e w o rk e rs as b e in g e v id e n c e d s t r ik e h a v e e x is ts h a d o f W h e n a la b o r b y w h o th e is h a v e fa c t w it h p la c e s h a d o r b e th a t th e y h a v e c o n t a in s th e re th re a te n e d in a re th a t p e rs o n s b ee n th e s e e m p lo y m e n t a s im p ly e x p e r ie n c e th e y o r w h e re w h e re th a t th e p u b lis h is a n d th re a te n e d e x p e r ie n c e to th e c o n d it io n s , to w o u ld e x is ts to w e lf a re w a n te d p o lic y s t r ik e th e w o r k in g w o rk m e n p r o f it a b le , o r t h e ir a g iv e n d e v e lo p e m p lo y m e n t, ” su c h s u r p lu s a u t h o r it y a n d im p r o v e p u rs u e is th e c o n c e r n in g la b o r . it to p r o f it a b le T o o f w it h p ro m o te , d o in g e le m e n ts : do n o t lo o k p r o f it a b le . s u f f ic ie n t o f s u p p ly in g s u p p ly m o re o f la b o r , la b o r b u t a lr e a d y o ne o f th e re . T h e s a t is f a c t o r ily p r o b le m in v o lv e d a d ju s t in g th e te rm s e m p lo y m e n t. 3. o f T h e p e rs o n s w o rk w h ic h in w h e re w o rk e rs as T h e re n o t o f to s it u a t io n fo s te r, fo r th e re s u p p ly n o t a c c o rd a n c e in f o r m a t io n w h e re s u f f ic ie n t do A U n it e d th re a te n e d . e m p lo y m e n t it. in “ to o p p o r t u n it ie s is f a c ie n o r la w p r o m u lg a t e o r p e o p le is o r g a n ic e a rn e rs a d va n c e a n y a d v is a b le , th e w o u ld th a t 4. o ne n o t b y in v ir t u e a lw a y s b e th e o f th e d is p u te th e a re tra in in g case w it h q u a lif ie d a n d to p e rfo rm e x p e r ie n c e p e rs o n s w ith o u t th e y p r e v io u s th e k in d h a v e ha d , e x p e r ie n c e e m p lo y m e n t. W e e x is ts eng a g e d r e q u ir e d ca n o r o f is th e n o t c o n ve y th re a te n e d s id e s . I f in f o r m a t io n w ith o u t w e do n o t b e in g o f e m p lo y m e n t p la c e d c o n ve y su c h in th e to b e h a d p o s it io n in f o r m a t io n o f o u r w h e re a a c t iv e ly p o s it io n s t rik e a s s is tin g is e n t ir e ly p a s s iv e . 5. T h e ra th e r In D e p a rtm e n t th a n v ie w th ro u g h a c cep t been th e s e w h ic h th e th e o n fa c ts s m p lo y m e n t m a k in g L a b o r th e w h e re t e r m in a t io n s e r v ic e s t r ik e o f a u t h o r iz e d D e p a rtm e n t o f th e y m a y th e re th e h a v e u n e m p lo y e d ; w h e re is to p ro m o te in d u s t r ia l peace d is t u r b a n c e . in f o r m a t io n e m p lo y m e n t w h e re fro m o f in d u s t r ia l t h e ir b e is d is p u te p re s e n c e L a b o r a lr e a d y w ill a c c e p te d n o r o f c o n ve ye d ca n w ill it b e a c t a e ith e r o r w ill a as ca n n o t b e w h ic h s u f f ic ie n t r e s u lt le a v e p a rty a m a y in s u p p ly t h e ir o th e r to m a d e in d u c e o f la b o r b e in g ra th e r m e d iu m w o rk e rs w o rk e rs in d u c in g d is t u r b in g th e to a n d d is m is s e d * w h o m e n th a n to a h a v e accept p eace fa c to r. A NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. The entire employment work so fa r conducted by the U nited States D epartm ent of L abor has been done through the B ureau of Im m igra tion because there was no other avenue which by law could furnish money and officials to carry on such work. One phase in the statute referring to the prom otion of the welfare of aliens and others made it possible to include all applicants for work under the head of “ others.” I t is quite evident while a beginning had to be made in 20 A M E R IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . this way, the possibility of success of Federal employment offices would be greatly im paired if the work were perm anently carried on in the Bureau of Im m igration, for the following reasons: F irst, because as soon as im m igration increases—as soon as th a t flow of newcomers, now checked by the war, again heads tow ard Am erica—all the im m igration officials now doing employment work will of necessity have to retu rn to the duties for which they were appointed, namely, those in connection w ith im m igration. Hence all the experience gained in regard to employment work, fo r which very few of these officials were qualified, will be lost to the cooperative system. The conclusion to be draw n is th a t the endeavor of the B ureau of Im m igration to do employment work should be only tem porary. I n addition to this fact, moreover, there is a question in the m inds of m any as to the advisability of grouping im m igration and employment together. The erroneous impression is produced th at only foreigners are being placed through Federal employment bureaus, and even though this is not a fact, such a misconception in the m inds of the public greatly handicaps the broadening work of U nited States employment offices. There is one rem edial measure now before Congress, providing fo r a bureau of employment in the D epartm ent of L abor which shall not be linked w ith any other bureau except the Division of In fo rm a tion. I refer to the Nolan bill, which would provide the m achinery to carry on perm anently the employment work of th e departm ent. E very one interested in employment bureaus and the distribution of labor should lend his efforts to support the Nolan bill. MEANS OF FEDERAL-STATE-CITY COOPERATION. I have placed before you the facts concerning the situation as it now presents itself to me, and having done so, I have certain sug gestions to make. These suggestions are not based on any new development in the Federal employment work, nor on the assumed passage of the Nolan bill, but on the present situation w ith all its difficulties. Is Federal-State-city cooperation in employment work possible? My answer is “ Yes.” How can it be effected? My suggestions are these: T hat the Federal employment offices be considered the clear ing houses for inform ation concerning labor conditions, opportu nities fo r employment, elim ination of duplication of w o rk ; th a t these offices, distributed throughout the country, be the center to which the States shall tu rn for any inform ation concerning employers, wages, conditions of plants, and supply of labor, etc.; th a t these Federal clearing houses receive from the States and the cities the inform ation concerning the num ber of workers who are seeking work, their abilities, experience, etc.; th at the actual placement of those seeking CO O PERATION A M ONG B U R E A U S---- H IL D A M U H L H A U S E R . 21 employment w ithin a S tate be done by the States and cities, and the inform ation concerning such placements be turned over to the Fed- ; eral clearing house; and th a t interstate work be done entirely by the Federal employment and clearing offices. i I may illustrate my point by taking New Y ork C ity and State as an example. As you doubtless know, we began an experim ent in New York by having a committee of three, representing the Federal, State, and city governments, act as an execjutive committee to carry on in a cooperative way all the employment w ork in th a t locality. The plan was to have an interchange of workers between city, State, and Federal offices in order to give all those in charge of placement work the necessary experience to carry it on efficiently. C ertain adjustm ents had to be made, which are now in effect in the U nited States D epartm ent of Labor, to enable the departm ent to delegate Federal employees to State and city offices. In the city of New York there are Federal, State, and city employ ment offices and 59 private noncommercial offices. None of these co operate, none of them interchange inform ation. I f the Federal employment office in New Y ork were made a clearing house for the State and city offices and for the 59 noncommercial offices, duplica tion of work which is now so evident would be eliminated. There would be one central place to which all could tu rn for any inform a tion concerning opportunities for work, conditions of work, and available workers. I f one office in New Y ork could not place men or women and such inform ation was turned in daily to the central clear ing house, other offices m ight have just such openings for workers and thus the inform ation would obviate the necessity of tu rn in g those applicants away. D aily reports from all offices would make it possible to do in New Y ork what has never been done efficiently by any individual group, to find out accurately just what the labor m ar ket is, w hat the demand and supply, and what the remedy. Such an office in New York would connect w ith sim ilar Federal employment clearing offices in other States, spreading a network of clearing houses th a t would interchange inform ation and eventually connect w ith the B ureau of Em ploym ent under the U nited States Secretary of Labor. This is my idea of the function of the Federal Govern m ent in employment work—to correlate and coordinate the work of the cities and States in order th a t it shall be of most value to all. PROPOSED MINNESOTA PLAN AND OTHERS. W e m ust of course go on experim enting in various localities in order to form better judgm ents of the practical application of our ideas. I n M inneapolis I suggested and drew up a plan the adoption of which is now pending, namely, to have the U nited States Secretary of Labor and the governor of Minnesota in conference select a direc- 22 A M ER IC A N A SSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E S. to r of employment for the State who shall be entirely responsible for the employment work w ithin th at S tate; to house the Federal and State offices together to do cooperative w ork; to have an advisory committee, representing capital, labor, and various community inter ests, as a consulting group to confer w ith the director; to have the director a State official responsible to the governor of the S ta te ; and to have the Federal work of this joint office th a t of the clearing house, lending in addition the franking privilege and interstate connections. This experim ent for M innesota was planned, bearing in m ind th a t there is no city office and th a t the problems of a western territo ry are not like those of the big eastern cities. The Pennsylvania plan is modeled after the M innesota plan, w ith an executive commission instead of an executive committee. Expansion of the Federal em ployment system to include a women’s and girls’ division was pro vided for when the Secretary of Labor approved the plan I drew up for this division May 1. From such experiments when pu t into effect I hope to be able to draw further conclusions concerning co operation. Experim ents on cooperation in employment work are being made by the D epartm ent of Labor in the States of New York, Missouri, New Jersey, C alifornia, and Pennsylvania, and also in the cities of P ortland, O reg.; Tacoma, W ash.; and Los Angeles, Cal. CONCLUSION. A ll public bureaus are w orking for one object, to place applicants fo r work in those positions for which they are best fitted and which offer the best opportunity for the future. I f there is to be any con certed effort throughout the country to do this entangled and con tinuous work, the effort m ust be made w ith a broad grasp and vision of the whole problem and not only one p a rt of it. W e can not as States and cities selfishly look to statistics and the honor of placing large numbers regardless of how they are placed. We can not go on seeing only the small circle close to u s ; we m ust look out and see the end to be attained, the goal to be reached by the combined efforts of all for the benefit of m ankind. L et us then take up this question of Federal-State-city cooperation unselfishly, realizing, as we must, th a t eventually the U nited States Government will spread throughout the country a system of clearing houses which shall cooperate closely w ith the States and which shall lead the way. Let us help to b ring this about, let us give to them the best th a t we have, and the best will retu rn to us and to the mass of hum anity knocking at our gates. Yes, cooperation is possible if we all want to make it possible. Combined effort shall build constructively the house of opportunity for all. A NATIONAL SYSTEM OF EMPLOYMENT OFFICES. B Y H O N . W IL L IA M B . W IL S O N , U N I T E D STA T ES SE C R ET A R Y OF LABOR. Those who have taken the pains to visualize the problem of employ ment not only realize the vast field th a t is included in it but also understand something of the lim itations w ith which it is bound. I take it th a t no one who has given any attention to the subject w hat ever will assume th at, even if you have a most perfect system of placement, you would then have solved the problem of unemploy ment. I f you have placed every m an where he can be most effective you may still have jobs th a t ought to be filled. I f you have filled every job th a t is available w ith the men best qualified to fill them, you m ay still have large numbers of workmen out of employment. W hat we are seeking to accomplish is to eliminate unemployment where there is a possibility under our commercial and industrial system of finding a place for those who would otherwise be idle. T h a t there is need for employment agencies has been apparent for a g reat m any years because num bers of men have successfully commer cialized the placement of workers. I f it were not for two very im portant facts, it is possible th a t we would never have had any public employment agencies. The first of these facts is th a t a private employment agency operated for commercial purposes m ust of necessity charge a fee, and those who are seeking employment are the p a rt of our population who can least afford to pay a fee. A nd the second of the reasons is th at private employment agencies have not always followed a legiti m ate business. Some of them have pursued" policies which exhibit the lowest possible standard of ethics, and those policies have fre quently resulted in sending one who could little afford the expense from one portion of the country to another, only to find th a t con ditions existing at the place he was to work were not as represented to him. F o r these two reasons principally m unicipal employment agencies came into existence, followed by State employment agencies. LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING AGENCIES. Now each of those employment agencies is naturally lim ited in the scope of its activities by its geographical lim itations. You may have a great demand for workers in Buffalo and a surplus of workers in Chicago and no means of acquiring the inform ation or giving it such publicity as would result in the surplus workers 23 24 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . of Chicago going to Buffalo to fill the surplus places. My attention was first attracted to the interstate features of the problem by the call th a t came to us from the great wheat belt of the M iddle W est, asking for seasonal workers to engage in the wheat harvest; and notw ithstanding the diverse argum ents, the little bits of sarcasm th a t are tro tted out here and there, I am w illing to acknowledge the parentage of the idea of utilizing the post offices of our country. W e have a few effective agencies, but in the natural order of events it will be a long time before you have generally effective agencies in the sm aller towns and villages throughout the country. Y our m unicipal agencies are built up in the dense centers of popu lation where they are m ost needed. T here you can easily build up a sufficient am ount of employment work to give you an effective organization; but when it comes to dealing w ith the little towns and the little cities—25,000 population down to 500 or less—it will be a long time before you can build up complete m unicipal organiza tions, and it will be a long tim e before your State legislatures will furnish any State body dealing w ith the problem of unemployment w ith a sufficient amount of funds to establish agencies in all the small interior towns. I t is not to be hoped th a t the Federal Con gress will at any time w ithin the life of anyone here furnish a Federal agency and sufficient amount of money to keep offices in our sm aller cities and towns. Now when it came to dealing w ith the problem of getting seasonal laborers for the M iddle W est, it must have been apparent to anyone th a t the best equipped workers for the wheat field were to be found in the sm aller towns and villages of the country. I t m ight be slow— there m ight be no means or facilities w ith which you could reach those small villages w ith telephone; but notw ithstanding the lack of phone facilities we could, in the course of a very few days, place in every post office in the U nited States a notice th at certain seasonal workers were wanted at such a place—to report to such an individ ual—th a t they would be paid certain wages—the conditions under which they would labor—and we could advertise th a t fact th rough out the entire U nited States. We did that. The result was th at we secured in a very brief period of time a sufficient num ber of workers to carry on th a t seasonal occupation, and then when we had about reached the point where a sufficient supply of labor had gone into the wheat fields, we sent out other notices to each of those post offices w arning everyone to stay away from wheat fields unless they had first corresponded w ith parties named in the notice and secured employment before leaving their present places. U nder th a t system we have no record of placements, but my conception of the situation is th a t it is very much more im portant th at we should get the place m ents than it is to get the record of the placements. N A TIO N A L SY STEM OF E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S ---- W . B. W IL S O N . 25 USE OF POST OFFICES. Now as to the things in addition to t h a t : I n my judgm ent the post offices can not be used successfully w ith a method of placards for placement work except where large num bers of workmen are to be employed at a given point, but they can be utilized for securing large numbers for a given point, and they can be utilized in m any other ways. There are workmen required in our small villages; w ork men required frequently in this, th at, or the other town where you can not afford to m aintain an agency. Now, I would not make the postm aster the official to do the placing, b u t I would use the post masters in those places as the agency which would hand out to the man who desired work a blank upon which he could w rite his applica tion, inclose those blanks in a franked envelope, and at the end of his day’s business send them to some central office in the immediate vicinity, where the demand for the labor and the demand for the workmen could both be classified and filled by experts in th a t line. Your State and your m unicipal agencies must, as I have said, be lo cated in' your large centers. Now" you have communications to make w ith the interior, w ith the different p arts of the State. Does it lessen the effectiveness of the communications you send out, does it lessen the value of the communication which you receive, th at the U nited States Government carries it in a franked envelope? I can not see th a t it does. One of the things we have hoped to accomplish has been to utilize the Federal representative, in the so-called clearing house, as the channel through which communications could be carried into the interior of the State where the clearing house is located, and outside of the State also, if necessary for the transaction of the business. PROBLEMS OE EEDERAL-STATE-MTJNICIPAL COOPERATION. I feel th a t where there is a desire to cooperate, a way will be found in which to cooperate. O ur experience already has dem onstrated to us th at we can not, as a Federal agency, go into a general conference w ith the representatives of different States and m unicipalities and in th at general conference work out the problem of cooperation. The reason why we can not do this has been th at each m unicipality and each State has developed its lines differently. The authority existing in New Y ork may be different from the authority existing in Ohio, and, of course, State officials can act only in accordance with authority granted by th eir legislatures. T hat also applies to m u nicipalities, and we have found in our experience th a t the only way we can solve the problem of cooperation is to send our representatives into each of" the States and endeavor to work out the problem in accordance w ith local problems in th a t State and w ithin the muniei- 26 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E S. palities. I believe in th at method of cooperation, and the reason I believe in it is the fact th a t I believe in a Federal system. Not a federally controlled system in its entirety, but a Federal connecting link, which will make the territo ry in which the city of New York, Boston, or Cleveland, or the State of New York, Massachusetts, or Ohio operates, the entire territo ry of the U nited States. I do not know as yet how. th a t can be fully brought about, but I know it can be. I know th a t where the spirit of cooperation exists we can find a method, not by imposing our will upon others, but by cooperating w ith others and gaining th e ^ o o d will of others. A nd if we can cooperate, then, as has been the case during the past year, if you have a shortage of labor in P hiladelphia and a surplus of labor throughout the small interior towns, you can utilize the Federal agency in getting the supply of labor necessary for P h ila delphia. I f you have a shortage of labor in Chicago and a surplus of labor w ithin small interior towns, you can utilize Federal agencies in getting th a t surplus labor to the city of Chicago. I t will be in ter changeable in the entire te rrito ry of the U nited States. The vision I have had is wide cooperation, not a Federal institution which would supersede the State and the m unicipal agencies, b u t a Federal instituiton which would supplem ent them. One of our un fortunate conditions has been the fact th a t when we undertook the work and began to look around for the authority to go on w ith it, we discovered th a t the only authority we had was in section 40 of the im m igration law, and we have been operating under th a t section. I t is no reflection on the officials of th a t bureau—who have been earnest in their work, who have been persistent in their work—it is no re flection upon the officials of th a t bureau th a t the conduct of the em ployment work in the Bureau of Im m igration has not been as effec tive as it would be were it a separate bureau. The psychology of the situation is th is: Even when the native Am erican workman realizes and learns the fact th a t this Bureau of Im m igration is his, th a t it is to look up opportunities for the native as well as fo r the alien, the native workman does not want to be associated w ith a bureau th a t is supposed to be exclusively dealing w ith aliens. Thus the psychology of the situation drives him off and we do not get the effective work th a t we ought to have. A FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU. We have pending in Washington a measure which ^liss Muhlhauser has referred to, which proposes to have a separate bureau of employ ment. I f we can have that separate bureau of employment, we will then be in a better position to cooperate, not because we will have N A T IO N A L SY STEM OF E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E S---- W . B, W IL S O N . 27 better officials, but because we will have a bureau better fitted to per form the work for which it is created. I tru st th a t as time goes on we will be able to work out methods of cooperation between the vari ous public employment agencies throughout the country and the Federal agency, even though we may not imm ediately secure the estab lishm ent of a bureau devoted exclusively to th a t purpose. B ut I hope, in so fa r as any of you may have influence upon Congress, th at you will exercise th at influence to give us a bureau of employment. IS A NATIONAL BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT DESIRABLE? BY JA C O B L IG H T N E R , D IR ECTOR, P U B L IC EM PLOYM ENT BUREAU OF P E N N SY LV A N I A . I n accepting the invitation of the secretary to read a short paper to this convention I did so not w ith the thought th a t my ideas or plans offered the solution, but th a t they, w ith the m any others th at you will hear, m ight be used as a contribution to the w orking basis upon w^hich a solution may be arrived at. A national bureau of employment is desirable. The unemployment problem is a national as well as a State and m unicipal question, and our N ational Government should be the leader in elim inating this great and useless hum an waste. The 'energy expended in the seeking of employment by men and women who are w illing to work, but who through their lim ited opportunities are unable to learn where they m ay find employment, is a wTaste th a t our N ational Government can aid the States in elim inating and thus lift the burden from the shoulders of the one who suffers most—the jobless man. Unem ploym ent is a m atter no State can control alone, but w ith a well-organized national clearing house the problem should become fa r less serious. There should be ample facilities for gathering and classifying inform ation about labor and trade conditions, by town ships, boroughs, cities, and counties. Statistics should be compiled as to the num ber of families, the num ber of persons in families, the wage earners in families, and the unemployed employables in fam i lies, and of the trades of the unemployed, also the proportion of perm anent and seasonal occupations in the various localities. By compiling these statistics from all States in the Union, a national bureau wvill be in position to give accurate inform ation and be the focal point for all inform ation on the employment question embrac ing the whole U nited States. I t will be, also, the tra n sfe r agency for shifting labor from one State to another, and the center through which all interstate transfers should be made. In addition to this investigation work, a cooperating agreement should be made w ith the States to bring together all their observa tions and inform ation and to keep a watch on the supply of labor power available in the States. I feel th a t the N ational Government, the States, and m unicipalities would then be in a position to make a great stride tow ard the solution of this problem. 28 IS A NATIONAL BUREAU DESIRABLE?---J. LIGHT XER. 29 F irst, the N ational Government can aid the States in a cooperating agreement so draw n as to enable it to form an e n jo y m e n t system to join w ith and aid the systems of the several States and to act as a tran sfer agent between the systems of these several States. F o r the purpose of proper cooperation, no national bureau should be established in any State having a State system until such tim e as proper arrangem ents are made w ith the chief officer of the State departm ent. Second, it should be responsible for m aintaining the several States’ communities in proper cooperative condition and it should handle interstate employment. T hird, it should aid the State work by means of the franking privilege, the use of the post offices, appropriations, and employees. F ourth, it should arrange th a t the capitals of the several States of the N ation should be, for the N ation and the State, the m ain office or clearing house. F ifth , all local bureaus should handle placement and employment questions in local districts which they represent, for which they would receive State aid, and should be under the general direction of and report to the State central bureau. Sixth, the State bureau should act in a general supervisory capac ity as called for by law, also act as tran sfer agents w ithin the State. Seventh, the N ational Government should give such supervisory direction as is necessary, and receive from the State reports of such character as are needed for its purpose. E ighth, it should also assign one m an to each local agency, or at* least, to the clearing house and the m ain m unicipal office w ithin the State, for the purpose of aiding in m aking placements of an interstate character and in order th a t the franking privilege may be used according to law. N inth, there should be a uniform system of records adopted. I believe th a t if the Federal bureau would work under a cooperat ing agreement with the States, and if it would become the central or focal point of distribution for the country and regulate the interstate business through the different States’ clearing houses, such a system would no doubt prove to the people of our country, first, th a t a national bureau of employment is desirable, and second, th at it can be of great aid and assistance to the States and m unicipalities now having such bureaus, F E B E R A L -ST A T E -M L )JSIC IPA L E M PL O Y M E N T SE R V IC E IN N E W JE R SE Y . B Y J O S E P H S P IT Z , ST A T E DIRECTOR OF E M P L O Y M E N T . The Legislature of New Jersey during the session of 1915 enacted a statute providing for the creation of an employment bureau to be conducted by the State D epartm ent of Labor under the supervision of the commissioner of labor. No provision having been made by the appropriation committee for funds essential for the conduct of the bureau, field activities were necessarily held in abeyance for the 1915 fiscal year. However, the commissioner of labor, Hon. Lewis T. B ryant, assigned Mr. H a rry J. Goas to survey and investigate the employment services in various sections of the country. Mr. Goas, I understand, represented the State of New Jersey at your last annual convention. The early p a rt of th is year Mr. Thomas J . Burns, representing the F ederal D epartm ent of Labor, conferred w ith Commissioner B ryant and, as a result of several meetings, arranged for a conference of Commissioner General Cam inetti, of the Im m igration Bureau, Com•missioner B ryant, and Mr. F . C. Howe, commissioner of im m igration of the p o rt of New York. As a result of the several meetings, on Ju n e 26, 1916, mem oranda of agreement were signed by Commissioner General Cam inetti, rep resenting the U nited States Secretary of Labor, and Commissioner B ryant, representing and acting for the State of New Jersey. The Federal-S tate service wTas instituted on Ju ly 1, 1916. Briefly expressed, the agreement stipulates that the Federal Gov ernment shall designate one official to act as a director o f employ ment and that the State o f New Jersey shall designate another to act in a similar capacity. The Government has named Mr. Thomas J. Burns, and Commissioner Bryant designated the speaker to act for New Jersey. Under the agreement these two directors constitute the State executive committee. Stipulation is made for pro rata sharing o f the expense incurred in the general conduct of the Federal-State service. The Federal Government agrees to provide an office in the post-office building in Jersey City, and the State of New Jersey for its part grants the use 30 E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICE IN N E W JE R S E Y ---- J O S E P H S P IT Z . 31 of the Newark office to serve as a State clearing house for matters pertaining to the employment service. This office is subsidiary to the general office o f record at the statehouse in Trenton, but as the industrial activity of New Jersey is predominant in the northern section o f our State the Newark office is used for the convenience of laboring interests and manufacturers desiring information relative to subjects in which they are interested. I might add that the ref erees in compensation also utilize the offices o f the Federal-State employment service. The mem orandum of agreement fu rth e r sets fo rth th a t the respec tive m unicipalities, towns, townships, and boroughs of the State of New Jersey m ay enter the cooperative plan, and this plan provides for the creation of a subexecutive committee composed of the F ed eral-S tate committee acting in conjunction w ith the representative designated by the m unicipality. I t is agreed by the F ederal Government th a t all opportunities listed at the several U nited States employment services in all the zones shall be subm itted to the Newark clearing house and to the various cooperating m unicipal agencies in New Jersey. Commissioner B ryant, for the State, proposes th a t the field inspec tors covering all m anufactories, m ercantile establishments, bakesliops, etc., shall disseminate the inform ation to employers to the effect th at the Federal-S tate employment service is in operation and the inspectors when visiting the respective establishments coming under the departm ent of labor’s supervision and jurisdiction will solicit the cooperation of the employer to the end th a t the economic principle of supply and demand be applied to the distribution of labor. A fundam ental policy approved by Commisisoner B ryant so fa r as is possible is to provide distribution and to effect placements of New Jersey labor in the State of New Jersey., A fter the S tate’s resources for both opportunities and placements have been exhausted, Federal and interstate propositions will be considered. Cooperating m unicipalities will as a m atter of reasonableness enter the plan bearing th eir pro rata share of the cost of operation in th eir city. I t will be the endeavor of the executive committecr to supply opportunities and placements, giving preference to the c iti zens of the cooperating m unicipality w ithin the confines of their home town. Mr. Archibald, city clerk of Newark, in charge of a m unicipal bureau previously established, has agreed to cooperate w ith the Federal-S tate service, and Jersey City, w ith a population of approxim ately 300,000, has just entered into an agreement. Nego tiations are now pending to establish other m unicipal offices in two other cities and it is hoped w ithin a reasonable time to have the active cooperation of all the communities in the State. 91297°— Bull. 220— 17------ 3 32 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . Notices of the inauguration of the service are to be mailed to all the m anufacturers and to the secretaries of the granges throughout the State. Posters are to be distributed in the post offices, county courthouses, .city halls, and railroad stations in New Jersey and the cooperation of postm asters and city and county clerks is to be solicited. Kecords will be kept by the m unicipal offices, subject to the super vision of the Federal-State-m unicipal executive committee, and credits for opportunities and placements will be established on a basis of interstate, intrastate, and m unicipal. A FEDERAL LABOR RESERVE BOARD. B Y W IL L IA M M . L E IS E R S O N , PROFESSOR OF P O L IT IC A L A N D SO C IA L S C IE N C E , TOLEDO U N IV E R S IT Y . In dealing with unemployment the point has been reached where we must have administrative machinery to put practical remedies into effect. The theoretical analysis of the problem is complete. TJiere is nothing new to be said on causes and effects. The facts are well known, the nature of the evils to which they give rise are com prehended, the remedies for those evils have been logically deduced and their soundness has been established. There remains only the work of devising the administrative organization that will actually put those remedies into practice. As a means of accomplishing this purpose, permit me to outline the structure and organization of a national labor reserve board, and to describe the manner in which it will apply the principles which a century of investigation and analysis of the facts of unemployment has proved to be necessary and desirable. WHY A RESERVE BOARD? The first question that might well be asked is, Why should this administrative organization take the form of a Federal reserve board? Is the labor market so analogous to the money market? Can the labor supply be contracted, expanded, and shifted around in the country to meet varying needs, as money and credits can be? The answer is that the problems of the labor market are similar to the problems of the money market. Both are problems of irregular ity of employment, the one of capital, the other of labor. But it is not proposed to draw the analogy too closely. The main reason for advocating a labor reserve board is that the Federal Reserve Board already in existence is an administrative machine created for the purpose of dealing with fluctuations, with varying, irregular de mands for capital. The problem of unemployment is also a problem of fluctuations, of irregular demands. Labor may be essentially different from capital, but it is bought and sold in a market, and while a labor reserve board may have to do quite different things from those which the money reserve board does, the administrative organization for dealing with irregular and fluctuating demands in the labor market will have to be similar to the organizations that deal with fluctuations in any other market. 33 34 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E S. To appreciate the comparison it must be understood that unem ployment is not a problem of a superfluous army of workers beyond the country’s needs. Every careful student of the subject, from K arl Marx to Beveridge and the Webbs, has pointed out th a t the unemployed are a necessary labor reserve, irregularly employed and not permanently unemployed. The progress of industry, improve ments in machinery and methods, seasonal and industrial cycles make this reserve necessary. There could be no industry as we know it and no industrial progress without such a reserve, any more than there could be safety from fire if there were no firemen waiting for the call whenever it should come. And if we banished half of our wage earners to-day the other half would soon arrange itself in such a way that at any given time some would be working and othefs would be waiting, unemployed. These reserves, however, are tem porarily, not permanently, out of work. At any given time the un employed are but a sample of the reserves. The unemployed man is an industrial factor, not a parasite upon industry, as Beveridge puts it. We must get out of our minds the caricature of the unemployed th at McCutcheon gives us. He shows a long line of hungry hoboes waiting for meals and lodging, and he labels them “ Our Permanent Standing Army—the Army of the Unemployed.” Instead of that wre must substitute the picture recently published in Mr. W illits’ report on “ The Unemployed in Philadelphia.” This shows a re volving platform with workingmen jumping on and being thrown off by the motion. The legend reads: “ The Industrial Roulette Wheel, Off Again—On Again—Fired Again.” This is the accurate picture of the problem of unemployment—unsteady work, not a steady surplus of workers. “ Can you see in your mind’s eyes,” asks Mr. Paul W arburg, a member of the Federal Reserve Board, “ the curve representing the fluctuation of our past interest rates? You will find it a wild, zigzag line rapidly moving up and down between more than 100 per cent and 1 per cent. Teach the country to watch th at curve in the future, the straighter the line, the smaller its fluctuations, the greater will be the beneficent effects of our system.” W hat is it, then, that the Federal Reserve Board is doing? I t is trying to regularize the employment of capital, to remove fluctuations and to make it more steady. Look at any chart showing the curve of employment and you will find a similar zigzag line, moving up and down between more than 40 per cent unemployed and a minimum of about 3 per cent. The recurrence of busy and slack seasons in different industries and the industrial cycle of prosperity and depression which show themselves in the employment curve are paralleled in charts published by the A FED ERA L LABOR RESERVE BOARD---- W . M . L EISE R SO N . 35 Monetary Commission showing fluctuations in interest rates. And if we look to the conditions which the United States Monetary Com mission found in the money market, w^e may see th at the reasons given for the creation of a money reserve board will also hold for a labor reserve board. T H E M O NEY M A R K ET A N D T H E L A BO R M A R K ET . The Commission reported as follows: Could not this be paraphrased to read: 1. W e have no provision for the con centration of the labor reserves of the various industries, and for their mo bilization and use w herever needed. Experience has shown that the scat tered labor reserves m aintained by each employer and each industry make for duplication and unnecessarily large reserves. 2. We lack means to insure such 2. We lack means to insure such effective cooperation on the part of effective cooperation of employers and banks as is necessary to protect their employment agencies to protect the in own and the public interests in tim es terests of the unemployed as w ell as o f of stress or crisis. There is no co the public. There is no cooperation of operation of any kind among banks any kind among employers or employ outside the clearing house cities. ment agencies except where the former W hile clearing house organizations of m aintain a blacklisting bureau and the banks have been able to render valu latter get large enough fees to divide able services w ithin a lim ited sphere between several labor agents. W hile * * * iaci£ 0f means to secure State labor departments have been their cooperation or affiliation in able to render valuable services w ith broader fields makes it impossible to in a lim ited sphere where they have use these * * * to prevent panics had a central office for several public or to avert calam itous disturbances employment bureaus, the lack of means to secure their cooperation on a na affecting the country at large. tional scale and the lim ited nature of their activities make it impossible to use these to m itigate the effects of great industrial depressions. 3. We have no power to enforce the 3. We have no power to enforce the adoption of uniform standards w ith adoption of uniform standards w ith regard to capital, reserves, exam ina regard to records, methods of manage tions, and the character and publicity ment, publicity, and reports of all em of reports of all banks in different sec ploym ent agencies, public and private, tions of the country. in different sections of the country. 4. The narrow character of our mar 4. The narrow character o f our dis count market, * * * results in* k et for labor (depending on the con sending the surplus money of all sec nections which the individual worker tions, * * * to N ew York, w here can him self establish) results in send it is usually loaned out on call on ing the labor reserves of all sections to stock exchange securities, tending to N ew York, Chicago, and other very promote dangerous speculation and in- large industrial centers, where it is 1. We have no provision for the con centration of the cash reserves of the banks and for their mobilization and use wherever needed in tim es of trouble. Experience has shown that the scattered cash reserves of our banks are inadequate for purposes of assistance or defense at such times. 36 A M E R IC A N ASSO C IA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . evitably leading to injurious disturbances to reserves. 5. We have no effective agency cov ering the entire country which affords necessary facilities for making domes tic exchanges between different locali ties and sections, or which can prevent disastrous disruption o f all such ex changes in tim es of serious trouble. 6. We have no instrum entality th at can deal effectively w ith the broad questions which, from an international standpoint, affect the credit and statu s of the United States as one of the great financial powers of the world. 7. Our system lacks an agency whose influence can be made effective in securing greater uniform ity, steadi ness, and reasonableness of rates of discount in all parts of the country. usually possible to pick up an odd job when regular employment fails. This tends to promote parasitic industries based on cheap labor and inevitably leads to underemployment and exploi tation of the surplus labor reserves. 5. We have no effective agency cov ering the entire country which affords necessary fa cilities for sh iftin g labor reserves to different localities and sec tions, or which can m obilize the public work of the country to prevent dis astrous industrial crises. 6. We have no instrum entality that can deal effectively w ith the industrial cycles of prosperity and depression, international in their scope, which affect the m arkets and labor demands of the United S tates as one of the great industrial nations o f the world. 7. Our system lacks an agency whose influence can be m ade effective in securing greater uniform ity and stead iness of employment, and reasonable rates of pay ^for labor in all parts of the country. There is the parallel so far as it can be drawn. Analysis of the labor market shows th at labor reserves are made unnecessarily large and unemployment increased by each employer keeping a full reserve for himself. I f provision were made for mobilizing the reserves at central labor exchanges the same workers might be used by different employers and the total reserve could be reduced, just as the banks connected with the Federal reserve system now keep only a 15 per cent cash reserve instead of the 25 per cent required before the Reserve Board was established. Private labor agencies are uncon trolled where they operate across State lines. They scatter the labor reserves and exploit the unemployed, while the operations of public employment agencies are restricted to small areas and their influence is very limited. Industrial depressions are accentuated by govern ments cutting off funds for public work in hard times, when an effective national agency might save from prosperous times part of the public work and mobilize all of it in hard times, to be used to create demand for labor and thus offset the industrial depression. WHAT SHALL THE LABOR RESERVE BOARD DO? We need no more investigating commissions to tell us that the first step in any program of dealing with unemployment must be to organize a national system of labor exchanges. The comparison of A FE D E R A L LABOE. RESERVE BOARD*— W . M . L EIS E R S O N . S7 the labor market with the money market shows this to be the greatest need; and just as the first work of the Federal Reserve Board was to unite all the banks of the country into one system, so the first duty of the labor reserve board must be to organize all the employ ment offices of the country into one system of labor exchanges. But how to organize that national labor exchange system? W hat sort of a system shall it be, and how administered ? There has been much loose talk about the Federal Government establishing employ ment offices, like post offices, throughout the country, or making the post offices do the w o rt of employment bureaus. No Federal labor-exchange system can be successful that ignores the exist ence of the State and municipal employment offices. There are now about 100 of them in more than half the States, and some of them have reached a high degree of efficiency and influence in their communities. F or the Federal Government to attempt to duplicate their work or to compete with them would be absurd. And cooper ation or dividing the field between local employment offices conducted by the United States Government and others conducted by the States is out of the question until all State and municipal offices have been placed under the control of the Federal Government. The Federal Eeserve Board did not establish new local banks. I t welded the existing banking institutions into one national organization, while yet allowing them much freedom to develop in their own ways. I t is just that sort of a labor exchange system th at must be constructed out of the existing employment offices. The recognition of this has led many people to advocate clearing houses for employment agencies to be established by the United States Government, without giving us a definite idea of how such clearing houses would operate. There is no doubt that a labor ex change system will need district offices similar to the 12 Federal reserve banks for the banking system. B ut these can not be created, can not have any real work to do until the local offices have been put under national control and their records and business methods standardized,, their management made uniform. A t the present time they vary so in their organization and methods that neither compari son nor cooperation among them is possible. To lay the foundations, therefore, and to create the administrative machinery for a labor exchange system, the Federal labor reserve board must establish a central bureau in Washington and build up a force of employees trained in methods of managing employment offices, in devising and keeping records, in collecting and studying labor market statistics and in ability to organize employment offices* These men must devise a uniform system of records, organization, and management which they can install in the various State and local employment bureaus* To be sure, there will be opposition, but 38 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . if the men know their business the States and the cities will be glad to receive the help. As an inducement and as a step in the direction of uniting the local bureaus into the national system, the labor reserve board could give each local bureau a number as a branch o f the United States labor exchange, and offer to each bureau which affiliated as a branch and adopted the standard rules and records the franking privilege for its postage. Plans are now afoot for grants in aid o f vocational edu cation, road building, and other matters o f national concern. Some day a labor reserve board might recommend Federal aid to the States to bring their employment bureaus up to the national standard of efficiency and to induce them to deal with unemployment in con formity with the national plan. Instead of establishing clearing houses with uncertain duties, the Federal labor reserve board, if it is careful, will create district offices in different parts of the country for the purpose of licensing and regulating private labor agencies doing an interstate business. The purpose of this regulation should be to drive the dishonest agents out of business and to bring the rest under the control of the na tional labor exchange system until such time as the people decide to keep private individuals out of the employment business entirely. This is an immediate need. There must be close to 5,000 private labor agencies of various kinds in the country. We can have no organization of the labor market until the crooks are sifted out and the wTork of the rest standardized and controlled as are the public bureaus. In this work of regulation the Government officials would get the knowledge and experience necessary to conduct large-scale public labor exchanges, and when both the public and the private offices have been standardized and brought under national control, it would then be plain whether the district offices could function as clearing houses and just how they should do it. The essential duty of a system of labor exchanges is, of course, to distribute reliable information regarding labor supply and demand and to connect the two as quickly as possible. As a means of accom plishing this a “ labor-market bulletin” of some kind is necessary. But if such a bulletin contains statements of labor supply and demand and is distributed broadcast, it may become a most dangerous and harm ful device. In the first place, the genuineness of the published demand for labor must be proved. Many employers will say they have work for all who apply, but when pressed to put on more help they “ can’t use any one just now.” But even though the statements of demand are absolutely true, it is none the less dangerous to dis tribute them widely through the press or post offices. Forty thou sand men may really be needed in Kansas, but over 100,000 may re spond to the call unless the traveling in answer to the call is con- A FED ERA L LABOR RESERVE BOARD---- W . M . L EIS E R S O N . 39 trolled by local employment offices. This has actually happened, and it is for this reason that the American Association of Public Employ ment Offices has gone on record against the widespread distribution of labor-market bulletins. Instead of such a scheme of widespread distribution, the Federal labor reserve board will issue a bulletin intended prim arily for em ployment bureau officials, just as the Federal Reserve Board Bulletin is intended prim arily for bankers. From this abstracts will be made for newspapers, but never in such a way as to lead workers to travel to a distant place for work without making certain of an opening there by applying to the local branch of the labor exchange. There are other im portant administrative questions which need consideration, particularly those relating to selection of the force and attitude toward labor and capital. B ut before we pass to th at it is necessary to outline some functions of the labor reserve board other than that of creating and conducting a national system of labor exchanges. F irst among them is the policy of using public work to regularize the labor market. Here, again, the financial reserve board can offer an example to a labor reserve board. “ The aim of the Federal reserve system,” to quote Mr. W arburg again, “ must * * * be to keep this gigantic structure of loans and investments * * * both from overcontracting and, as well, from overexpanding, so that, as the natural and inevitable result, it may not be forced to contract * * *. Effectively to deal with the fluctuations of so gigantic a total is a vast undertaking. I f the task is to be accomplished successfully it can not be by operations which are continuous and of equal force at all times, but only by carrying out a very definite policy which will not only employ funds with vigor at certain times but with equal determination will refuse to employ funds at others. * * * To bring about stability of inter est rates * * * judicious withholding, and in turn judicious employment by the Federal reserve banks of their lending power * * * are necessary.” 1 By such a policy of withholding and offering, the Federal Reserve Board, with a lending power of only $600,000,000, is able to steady and stabilize the operations of banks and trust companies with loans and investments amounting to $13,000,000,000.1 How much our Governments might do to keep the labor market from overcontracting and overexpanding by withholding public work in times of active labor demand and prosecuting such work vigor ously in times of depression, we can only guess at until we have a Federal labor reserve board to devise the plan of mobilizing the work of national, State, and local governments, and of judiciously 1 Federal Reserve Bulletin, Mar., 1916, p, 103. 40 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . withholding the prosecution of such work. In England it has been estimated that if 3 or 4 per cent of the public work were saved m prosperous years^ to be used in years of depression, enough would be accumulated to make up the reduction in pay roll caused by the depression. How the Government may 46employ funds with vigor at certain times,” and “ with equal determination. * * * refuse to employ funds at others ” is a policy which can be successfully deter mined only by a permanent labor reserve board. Next to that must come the collection of information regarding the opportunities for self-emplcyment in the United States, particularly on the land. The labor reserve board must study and devise methods and machinery for helping workers to acquire land on easy payments and for securing small homesteads in suburban districts for city workers. When the factory slows down let the wage earner have a garden to work. The experience of Belgium has shown th at it can be made to supplement his income considerably, and it may be one of the most effective remedies for unemployment, as may be learned from Rowntrees’ study in Belgium. Then the board must work to prevent trades and industries from becoming overcrowded—oversupplied with laborers. The industries and localities which are growing and in need of labor will be made known and warnings issued against the trades and places which are oversupplied with labor and where unemployment is most prevalent. This service will be connected with the schools to enable them to guide jnvenile workers into promising employments; and the Immi gration Service, also, will be assisted to direct new workers into fields where their labor is needed and to prevent them from lowering standards by overcrowding other trades. Finally the duty of the labor reserve board must be to devise a method of administering unemployment insurance in this country, and to conduct such a system in connection with the public labor exchanges. U ntil this can be accomplished it will encourage and assist workers to insure themselves against unemployment, help trade-unions to establish and extend out-of-work benefits and show public authorities how unemployment insurance can be practically conducted to relieve distress among the workers and encourage policies of prevention of unemployment among employers. I t will be noted th a t aside from the system of labor exchanges the functions of the labor reserve board are stated in the most general terms. The statement is nothing but a listings of the logical remedies for unemployment which a century of discussion and investigation has developed. These remedies are well known' and there is no. need of explaining how the analysis of the facts of unemployment has established the necessity of the measures. There is great need, how ever, for showing how to create and operate the machinery to put A FED ERA L LABOR RESERVE BOARD---- W . M . L EIS E R S O N . 41 these remedies into effect. This we can not do because the study of administrative problems is a phase of the question of unemployment that has been largely neglected. One purpose in advocating a Fed eral labor reserve board, in fact, is to create a body that will be devoted to studying the means and methods of putting into practice the remedies for unemployment which we have known for many years are necessary and desirable. The board will be a permanent laboratory and the responsibile authority for studying the fluctua tions of the labor market and devising measures to stabilize them, just as the Federal Reserve Board is constantly working on new problems and new devices for meeting the irregularities of the money market. HOW THE LABOR RESERVE BOARD SHOULD BE ORGANIZED. We can hardly hope that our Government will do as it did with the money question, hire a board of five highly trained men and pay them each $ 12,000 a year to work out the problems of the labor market, at least, not till labor is much more powerful in the councils of the nation than it is at present. But this is not absolutely necessary. A good beginning can be made by making the Secretary of Labor and the Commissioner of Labor Statistics ex officio members of the Federal labor reserve board, just as the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency are members of the financial reserve board. In addition the Secretary of Commerce, as represent ing the other side of the labor bargain, should be appointed, and also the Secretary of Agriculture. To these can be added a commis sioner of employment appointed by the President. The five men will then constitute the Federal labor reserve board, of which the commissioner of employment will be chairman. The relation of the board to the Department of Labor should be the same as that of the Federal Reserve Board to the Treasury Department—independent and free to experiment and strike out along new lines, but always in close connection with the department that handles all labor problems. As a beginning toward building up the expert force a director of labor exchanges should be appointed, and later perhaps a director of public works, director of unemployment insurance, etc. When the organization is fully developed these experts might themselves be the labor reserve board, but for a beginning the other form of organization would be sufficient. The director of labor exchanges should be secretary and chief responsible officer for the board. He should also act as secretary of the advisory council, which must be an im portant p art of any labor reserve system, the organization and functions of which we must now consider. 42 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . No plan of dealing with unemployment can expect to succeed which does not recognize the conflict of interests between labor and capital. The neglect of this in the organization of our State employment bureaus has been largely responsible for their ineffectiveness. I f we do not recognize the struggle frankly and bring it out into the open under public scrutiny, it will go on in the dark, behind our backs, each side seeking to gain control of the labor reserve machinery to promote its own purposes. In addition, we have noted above, there is another interest to be considered—the authorities who conduct public employment bureaus within the States. In the organization of the financial reserve board there were also three interests to be considered. There were first the business men and then the bankers; and the authorities representing the public constituted the th ird interest. The Federal reserve act met the problem of these conflicting interests by creating an advisory coun cil composed of one member selected by the directors of each Federal reserve bank. These directors in turn were divided into three classes, one-third of them representing the banks in the reserve district, another third representing the business men, and the other third appointed by the Federal Reserve Board to represent the public. Similarly the labor reserve board must have a Federal advisory council to represent conflicting interests. The organized employers of the country should be called upon to nominate representatives, the organized workers also, and the same with the States and cities con ducting public employment bureaus. Three or five members from each of these interests appointed by the President should constitute the advisory council to meet in Washington four times & year or oftener with the labor reserve board just as the advisory council of the financial reserve system meets with their board. The council would advise and assist in all matters dealt with by the labor reserve board. Questions of policy, proposed investiga tions, and all rules and regulations for the administration of the labor reserve system would be submitted to this council. No rule or policy would be adopted until it had first been considered by the council. The board need not necessarily be bound by the action of the council, but the votes and the opinions of the interests represented would be recorded and made public, so that policies which may become politi cal questions can be kept in the open, decided by the people and Con gress, and not left to the manipulation of the one side or the other which might gain control of them. An additional, most important function of the council should be to aid in the selection of the staff that is employed by the board. A prime qualification of these officials must be im partiality in their dealings with labor and capital, or neutrality, as they call it in European countries. These officials must all be in the classified civil A FED ERA L LABOR RESERVE BOARD---- W . M . L E IS E R S O N . 43 service, but the United States Civil Service Commission can have no way o f testing neutrality except by calling in representatives of labor and capital to sit on the examining board. Only such candidates should be placed on the eligible lists as have the confidence o f the representatives of labor and capital on the advisory council. The ratings that these representatives give must be made a part o f the examination, which necessarily will consist largely of oral interviews. This form o f civil service is to be applied not only to subordinate employees, but to all officials o f the labor reserve system including the director o f labor exchanges. These officers have no political poli cies to decide and should have a secure tenure of office so that they can make a career of the service and acquire the knowledge and ex perience necessary to handle the complicated problems with which they will have to deal. In recent years the classified service has been extended to include very high-grade positions with remarkable suc cess. We have had a mistaken notion that the subordinate positions must be classified and the*ones at the top allowed to remain political. A little thought ought to convince us that the lower positions will be easily handled if we can only get rid of politics and install efficiency at the top. The sooner we extend the classified service to include commissioners, directors, heads of bureaus, and all administrative officers the nearer we shall get to solving our problems. CONCLUSION. A ll these questions o f administrative detail are important because, as we noted at the beginning, we have reached the point in dealing with unemployment where the theoretical questions have been solved and the principles of practical administration must now be studied. This most important work has been flagrantly neglected by econo mists and social workers alike. It is not so interesting as making investigations, and it is very much more difficult. But watching legislators and public officials floundering about, helplessly enacting futile employment-office laws and not knowing what to do when a fair law is passed, one feels keenly the price that is being paid for all this neglect. The remedies for unemployment are not new. Napoleon in structed his ministers to prosecute public work to keep labor em ployed at home. Horace Greeley advocated public employment bureaus, in the New York Tribune, more than 60 years ago. And labor unions have been paying out-of-work benefits for more than a quarter o f a century. These same measures, labor exchanges, public work and unemployment insurance are the remedies ad vanced by all intelligent students of the subject to-day. W hy are they not in actual effect to-day? Because we have not known how 44 A M ER IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . to make them work. We shall be years and years in getting any thing like an adequate plan of dealing with unemployment, unless we begin at once to study the detailed problems of administration and to train the men who will be able effectively to administer the remedies. Create a permanent expert force under a labor reserve board and they will soon get down to studying practical methods; otherwise you will have more temporary commissions reporting the same general remedies. In 1909 the British Royal Commission on the Poor Laws wrote: “ We have to report th at in our judgment it is now administratively possible, if it is sincerely wished to do so, to remedy most of the evils of unemployment, to the same extent, at least, as we have in the past century diminished the death rate from fever and lessened the industrial slavery of young children.” And Sidney Webb adds: “ The problem is now soluble, theoretically at once, and practically as soon as we care to solve it.” Is there any question about our caring to solve it ? And can any one doubt that the social workers who have been agitating the un employment problem have sincerely wished for a solution? Then why is it th at we have made so little headway? W hy are we af flicted with the unemployed almost every winter and overwhelmed every 10 or 15 years? We have not gone at it in the right way. We have become so enamored of a certain kind of investigation and discussion th at we are loath to give them up. Report after report comes forth, books and articles are written, speecli after speech is made, all reiterating, more or less accurately, the same conclusions and the same general recommendations. Economists continue the same analysis; com missions recommend the same remedies; social workers and reform ers* repeat the same facts, picture the same evils, and urge the same reforms. But all the while very little of a permanent, con structive, and remedial nature is accomplished. I t is all right for experts to say th at the facts and the remedies are known, some one answers, but the people don’t know all these things. They must be aroused, and we must take every oppor tunity to point out the real nature of the problem. True. A gita tion is necessary and essential. I t gets up the steam. B ut the steam must be harnessed to something. W hile we have agitated and paraded and aroused a lot of interest and sympathy, we have had nothing definite and practical to which to harness the steam. Back in 1892 and 1893 we had mass meetings of the unemployed, workshops, soup houses, committees of all kinds, and hunger parades. Interest in unemployment was aroused in every city in the country, but what was left of it when the depression passed away? How much of the result could you use in the hard times of 1913 and 1914 ? A FED ERA L LABOR RESERVE BOARD---- W . M . L EIS E R S O N . 45 Nothing permanent was created. And when the last crisis came along we had the same parades, the same committees, the workshops, and soup houses. Oh, yes! And we added the “ Hotels de Gink.” And what have we as a result of all th at agitation? Only some improved and efficient public employment bureaus in New York, Ohio, and Illinois. But the reason you have these real results is that some employment bureau officials had seen how little they knew about running such bureaus, had organized a national asso ciation, and had worked out some of the details for proper and suc cessful administration of such offices. The agitation when harnessed to their practical plans brought some real results. But what else of permanent accomplishment for the future can we point to? Most of the steam went off into the air, lost, because we had nothing definite which we could make it drive- Let us create the machinery of a Federal labor reserve system now, and when the next deluge of unemploy ment comes it may drive the machinery toward a solution of the problem. V O C A T IO N A L E D U C A T IO N A N D J U V E N IL E P L A C E M E N T D E P A R T M E N T S. B Y A L V IN E . DODD, SE C R ET A R Y N A T IO N A L SO C IE TY FOR PR O M O T IO N OF IN D U S T R IA L E D U C A T IO N . Vocational education is in the air. No phase of education has enlisted such widespread public interest as has the demand that our schools shall reorganize to provide more specific training for industrial employment. We provide excellent vocational training for those who seek to become doctors, lawyers, or engineers. We expect these people to be trained. We expect even a dog doctor to be trained for his job and the manicurist for hers. W ith rare exceptions there is little or no opportunity for specific training available to the great numbers of young men and women who, according to President Wilson’s Commission on Vocational Education, are entering our industries at the rate of more than a million a year. I t is the realization of* this situation which has caused chambers of commerce all over the country to take up the question, some times merely as a discussion of current interest, sometimes through committees appointed to confer and work with the local school board as to the best ways of beginning and developing vocational education. The largest vote ever cast on a United States chamber of commerce referendum was that recently taken on the subject of the Smith-Hughes bill providing national aid to the States for stimulating and developing vocational education. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of such grants. REORGANIZATION OF SCHOOLS. But vocational education is in the air in another sense of the word. School authorities are wrestling with the problem of reorganizing their schools to meet the needs of our industrial workers more effec tively, and to reduce the great waste and ineffectiveness of the pres ent forms of education in which there is little which wTill serve as a precedent and guide. The much-put-forth argument by school superintendents to their local boards of education that such and such a progressive city is carrying on in its schools the kind of work which should be initiated may easily lead into the trouble which came upon one city that too 46 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS— A. E. DODD. 47 eagerly copied 44a good thing.” This well-known city, which for reasons to be seen later should not be named, had a school board which prided itself on its progressiveness. Much public talk about the subject of vocational schools led to sending a committee of the board on a visit to several cities to find out what this new type of education was like. In one of the cities which the committee visited, the members were most pleasantly entertained in a trade school for girls which was giving instruction in the needle trades. A delicious luncheon was served by the pupils to the committee members. The general air of efficiency with which the girls carried themselves, the industrial hum of the electric power machines, and the impressive quality and quantity of the product turned out in the school shops sent the com mittee back to its home city full of enthusiasm for the early estab lishment of a girls’ trade school. I t would give just the education needed in their home city. The result was that a trade school for girls was established. A modern equipment was secured, capable teachers were engaged, and the parents and the school board members looked forward to the graduation of the first class of pupils from this modern school. About three months after graduation, the authorities awakened to the fact that there were not enough jobs in their city in the needle trades, for which the girls had been trained, to absorb more than a small p art of the class. The nearest city which had any needle industries—25 miles away—would have its market for workers glutted if it attempted to absorb the graduates of more than two classes. ADAPTATION TO NEEDS OF COMMUNITY. Vocational education, if it is to be effective, must be adapted in its form and content to the particular needs of the community. The demands of the industries and the opportunities for workers in them are bound to be very different in a funiture city like Grand Rapids from those in a textile city like Fall River, Mass. Vocational courses which can profitably be given in a city of one or two domi nant industries will differ from those needed in a city where the industries are widely diversified. Vocational courses in a town which is a trading center for a large farming country will differ from those to be given in a city where highly specialized manufac tured products are made. The only way, therefore, by which a community may determine what vocational education will meet its particular needs is by a care ful survey, which will show the following: To w hat exten t there is a need for vocational education. To w hat extent the public schools, private agencies, and apprenticeship sys tem s are m eeting the need. 91297°— Bull. 220—17------ 4 48 A M E R IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OS' P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . To w hat -extent the worker can “ g et on ” in h is job. To w hat extent the city ’s industries may give special training, which they do not now provide. T o w hat extent the schools can be a factor in providing this needed training. For five years or more the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education had led a campaign of propaganda to secure legislation in the different States. These campaigns were based on the urgent practical demand for a better preparation of boys and girls going into the industries. Manufacturers were loud in their complaints th at the public schools were not meeting the problems which to them were o f major importance. As the different States took legislative action, it became more and more apparent th at there was not at hand any adequate body of information to determine what kind of education was actually needed in order to prepare children to go into the industries. Here was a clear demand for action on a scientific basis. The authorities of the National Society announced th at they would hold their next annual convention in a city which would undertake a careful survey for the purposes of— Gathering the fa cts about the schools and the industries equally necessary for an intelligent vocational program. D eveloping a program for vocational education based on a knowledge of these facts and fitted to meet the special needs of the community. Obtaining the cooperation of every community agency interested in planning and carrying out a comprehensive program of vocational training. F ocusing the proceedings o f the annual convention of the N ational Society upon im m ediate and practical problems, which would be of special interest to those engaged in the movements. Pointing the w ay and showing the method of introducing vocational educa tion in cities interested in providing practical education for their people. SUBVEY OF RICHMOND, VA. Richmond, Va., had become interested and was considering the establishing of a trade school, but having observed the wasteful ex periences of some cities in dealing with the question, it took up the offer of the National Society. A survey committee was formed, which through its membership secured and coordinated the •efforts of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Bureau of Education, the Russell Sage Foundation, the local school board and chamber of commerce. In addition to a study of what the schools were and were not doing for vocational education, this committee made a careful analysis of the largest employing industries of the city. The printing, build ing, metal trades, and tobacco industries were selected. F or the purpose of analysis, each industry was divided into occupations, and each of these occupations was then analy&ed as follows: VOCATIONAL ED U CA TIO N D E PA R T M E N T S---- A. E . DODD. 49 1. W hat does the worker do in his particular job? 2 . In order to do the job, what does the worker have to know ? a. In general education. b. In related trade or technical knowledge. c. In manipulative skill. 3. Where does he get the a know how ” ? 4. How might he get it ? One hundred and eight separate and distinct occupations were studied, which together employed over 16,000 workers* The survey findings and conclusions were printed in advance and were made the chief points of discussion at the National Society convention. The final recommendations were made after bringing to focus the best knowledge and judgment of the most capable ex perts on the subject from the entire country, who were attending the convention; a service which, if it had been purchased, would have cost many thousands of dollars, But a wider and a national influence of the survey was that the facts were so marshaled that it was shown not only what ought to be done but how to do it. The survey saved the city from attem pt ing to meet a situation by costly and inappropriate methods, as, for example, the erection of a $225,000 trade school, which had been seriously contemplated. The survey cost $ 10 ,000. Richmond now has more than 50 schools and classes that are directly meeting the needs of her young people and of her industries and has a 25-year program, which it knows is right for Richmond. MINNEAPOLIS SURVEY. During the months which followed the Richmond survey, invita tions from several cities asking for a survey and convention were received by the National Society. The society did not wish, how ever, to go into the survey business, but rather to set up the idea that vocational education is a local aiid not a general issue and that any program must be based squarely on a knowledge of the facts and the ne^ds of the community. Much had been learned from the Richmond experience, however, and it was decided to undertake one more survey in a wholly differ ent type of city. The city of Minneapolis had long been interested in vocational education. William Hood Dunwoody, a wealthy flour manufacturer, had willed a trust fund of $5,000,000 for “ giving free instruction in the industrial and mechanic arts to the youth of Min nesota.” Before undertaking to put into effect the provisions of the will in any comprehensive way the trustees of the fund desired more information and advice as to the best ways by which the school could cooperate with the other educational interests and institutions of the city and State. 50 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. A special survey committee, representative of the various interests of the State, city, and country, was formed as in the Richmond survey. Among the questions that were answered regarding the industries of Minneapolis were the following: Is there a content of technical knowledge or skill in any job that can not be acquired through routine work, for which special instruction is needed? I f so, what is it ? Can it best be imparted by provisions inside the industry? Is it worth while to provide for such instruction through outside agencies ? I f this is true, should such instruction take the form of— a. All-day industrial schools? b. Part-tim e industrial classes? c. Evening classes? Are there any jobs for which it is not desirable either to direct the youths or train them at public expense? W hat number of new workers could be prepared-for any job, if it has a teachable content, without overstocking the market? W hat kind of equipment as to age and physical and mental assets should the worker have for the job? To what extent does the industry select its workers for any job, so as to secure those best adapted to it ? An im portant use of the findings of the survey has been made by printing in separate pamphlets the information gathered about each industry and occupation. These pamphlets are being used through out the schools of Minneapolis by the vocational guidance depart ment and by juvenile placement agencies, in helping children to select the occupation upon which they are to enter. RESULTS OF THE SURVEYS. An im portant result of the survey itself has in each case been the contact into which it brought the various interested parties for six months or more. I t was not an academic, but a working business proposition, and as a result of the many conferences, the business forces of the city were behind and understood the survey. The interest aroused by all persons in the surveys and in the National Society conventions show^s that it is only necessary to get hold of a practical measure of this sort to secure the backing of the country, which is getting tired of mere propaganda that gets nowhere. Problems of vocational education in the United States, which are of vital importance to the country, will, it is believed, be worked out along such instructive lines as are suggested in these surveys. U ntil we have an educational system which, in copperation with VOCATIONAL ED U CA TIO N D E P A R T M E N T S — A. E . DODD. 51 factory and employment agencies, gives fullest opportunity for each child in the schools to work toward successful qualification in some occupation of the social army, we shall not have our democratic schools or our framework for the future democratization of indus try. I t is the public schools and the private schools working in harmony together, facing the employer, facing the employment manager, facing the trade-unions, and facing the man who is not a member of the union, and saying to all alike, “ The school has its message, and no question of larger production, no question of bet ter production, no questions of selecting, inducting, training, and promoting workers, can be solved without it.” V O C A T IO N A L G U ID A N C E AS A P tJB L IC -SC H O O L F U N C T IO N . BY W. W. ZURBRICK, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY BUFFALO PUBLIC SCHOOLS VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE COMMITTEE. The Public Schools Vocational Guidance Committee of Buffalo feels that vocational guidance as a public-school function is con cerned mainly w ith : Furnishing to older students and their parents definite and reliable information as to the nature of the various occupations of the com munity ; the opportunities and advantages they gffer to young people and the disadvantages and dangers to be encountered in them; the qualifications, physical, mental, moral, and educational, required for success in them. Furnishing equally exact and reliable information as to what schools and what courses in those schools best prepare for entrance into and success in a desired occupation, together with the time and cost of such preparation. Encouraging students to measure their own aptitudes and capac ities against the requirements of the various occupations and their resources against \he time and cost of preparation. Assisting pupils who need it to find employment outside school hours while preparing for a desired occupation. Assisting pupils who are prepared for an occupation to secure a fair start in it. Assisting pupils who have entered employment to select such courses in our evening and continuation schools as will be most profit able to them. Following the progress of those who enter employment— (а) To render assistance in periods of discouragement which come to all young workers; ( б ) To correct mistakes in original choice of occupation or place ' of employment; ( c) To note the effect of our school training, with a view to modi fications in courses of study or in presentation of subject matter. We realized from the beginning that there are many and important interests of the community, other than the schools themselves, deeply concerned in the adjustment of the school product to the activities of the community. 52 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE BY SCHOOLS---- W . W . ZURBRICK. 53 We realized, too, that we are all apt to look upon matters from the angle of the work to which we have been trained and in which our personal interests lie. We believed that the best interests of our pupils demanded a view of the activities of life uncolored by the fortunate or unfortunate experiences of any single individual or class—a plain, frank presen tation of the facts as they exist. We felt that much of the material we needed was already available from existing agencies and that economical and efficient handling of our problem called for utilization of these resources and facilities, so far as practicable. We sought therefore the active cooperation of parents and teachers, of employers and employees of all grades and classes, both as indi viduals and as organizations, of social and social-service organiza tions and workers, of municipal, State and Federal boards, bureaus, and commissions, and of other public and semipublic agencies. We feel that the success of our work thus far is due in great meas ure to the assistance of these forces and th at its future development is largely dependent on a continuance of such relations and the es tablishment of new ones. We believe in cooperation. From our program it appears th at “ placement ” is but one of a number of functions of our committee. But it is not to be assumed that we regard it as a negligible or even minor matter. On the con trary our experience leads us to believe th at no m atter how well fitted and well trained a candidate may be for a certain work, no m atter how great his aptitude for it, his success or failure is dependent in great measure on the temperament, disposition, and attitude of his early employers and his associates in the job as well as on the general policy of the firm. Many a promising candidate has failed of suc cess, not because he was in the wrong kind of work, but because he had the wrong surroundings. Many a manager has had candidates fail in his hands, not because his methods were wrong, but because the candidates were temperamentally unsuited to the conditions ex isting in his plant. Successful placement means a most intimate knowledge of the can didate himself, as well as of his training and ability. I t means an equally intimate knowledge of the employer and of the conditions under which the work is done, as well as of the nature of the job itself. I t often happens that John Smith does not succeed in the Atlas plant and Henry Jones is a failure in the Eureka plant doing the same kind of work. Let them exchange places and each wins the commendation of his employer, feels that he is making good, and strives with all his might for greater achievement. Successful place ment calls for careful study of the candidates’ training, education, 54 AMERICAN'’ ASSOCIATION OF PU BLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. personality, ambition, and environment. I t requires equally careful study of the prospective job and the employer. Of all the agencies interested in placeifient the schools are probably best equipped for intimate knowledge of the candidate. They have known him for at least 8, often for 10 or 12 , years. They have watched him grow from infancy. They know his physical make up, his mental qualifications, his moral caliber, his ambitions, his aims, his likes and dislikes, his tendencies^ his habits, his companions, his family and its ambitions and situation, his strong points, his weak spots. Through constant dealing with him for a period of years the schools have learned to what extent and in what degree he is adapt able to new conditions and new surroundings. I f to this knowledge of the candidate equally intimate information of the job and its surroundings might be added, the problem of successful placement would be much relieved if not completely solved. B ut acquiring such knowledge is to the teacher a slow and arduous process. I t takes far more time than is available to the regular teacher or school officer. Such information is gained far more readily and more accurately by those who have worked in the occupation than by those trained only in teaching. The committee’s best results in vocational inquiries have come, thus far, from those members who have had personal experience as workers in the occupation investigated. Their knowledge of the work and intimate acquaintance with the workers have produced de tailed information not within the reach of those members lacking such advantages. The State employment bureau is especially well equipped to fu r nish information as to the “ j o b ” in general and the “ j ob” as it exists in the individual plants of the city. In its wTork for adults it has already collected a great part of the information needed for juveniles. I t has at its command the material and statistics of the various branches of the State labor department, the industrial com mission, and other State and Federal agencies. A comparatively small amount of investigation by workers fam iliar with the problems of juvenile employment should furnish as intimate knowledge of the occupations as the schools can furnish of the youthful candidates. I t is our belief th at a juvenile branch of the State employment bureau conducted in cooperation with the public schools vocational guidance bureau would strengthen greatly the work of both institu tions, provide a more efficient service than either can give alone; and eliminate duplication of work and expense. The schools with their affiliated interests can furnish to such a branch information of the most valuable kind concerning qualifications of juvenile candidates for employment. The State employment bureau with its allied insti VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE BY SCHOOLS---- W . W . ZUKBRICK. 55 tutions can furnish comprehensive and intimate knowledge of the openings for juvenile workers^ with, the requirements, advantages, and disadvantages of each. Careful organization of the material already available, suitable arrangements for the collection of the additional material necessary, and wise planning for the best use of this information should result in an efficient and comprehensive handling of the juvenile employ ment problem at a cost trifling in comparison with the benefits to be derived by these young people and by the community. V O C A TIO N A L G U ID A N C E A N D T H E JU V E N IL E P L A C E M E N T W O RK O F A P U B L IC LA BO R EX C H A N G E. BY RACHEL GALLAGHER, DIRECTOR, GIRLS’ AND W OM EN’S BURSAU, CLEVELAND, OHIO. Two years ago when the city of Cleveland and State of Ohio joined forces in their employment work, the State felt that it would be possible to have the city give funds for a girls’ placement bureau, which at that time was privately financed. So they asked this p ri vate bureau to take quarters in the city hall and bide the time until the city council should provide funds for it. The persons interested asked the bureau to take the name 44Vocational Guidance.” which was done. A more unwise step could not have been taken, however, for im mediately in the minds of the councilmen and in the minds of the public generally there arose the picture of someone pretending to have the power of directing the future lives of the city’s girls say ing, with uncanny wisdom, 44You go this way, and, there lies pros perity th at way, and, there is destruction.” Not knowing the gen eral theory of vocational guidance, they would have none of it. So the bureau changed its name and became known simply, and I suspect more honestly, as the 44Girls’ Bureau,” and under this name it thrived. W hat is vocational guidance and what connection has it with the juvenile placement work of a public labor exchange? Vocational guidance is putting the information about the working opportuni ties before the individual, collecting all the information about the individual, and with th at knowledge using your judgment and the judgment of persons interested, such as parents and teachers, in helping the individual to secure an opening or decide on future training. The schools know the children and it would seem that here would be the place for vocational guidance. But how can the school know the working field, the entire field? There must be this knowledge, and I certainly can imagine no better machinery for getting it than a public employment office, where every type of em ployer and employee applies. One might think that it would be just as feasible to carry on the juvenile work entirely apart, but what does it mean? A loss of hundreds of opportunities for the young and a narrowed rather 56 VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE BY LABOR EXCHANGES---- K. GALLAGHER. 57 than a broad vision of the whole field. I f we are going to reach the employer, we must not ask him to call one place for a boy of 17 years and another for a man of 22 vears. I t is cutting down our possibilities for service. So we in juvenile placement work should ask the schools to give us the knowledge about the children, and we should stand' ready withjmowledge about opportunities. T hat knowledge must be kept up to the day. The difficulty with pamphlets and publications about any one trade is simply th at they can not remain up to date and they fail to give relationships. We have pamphlets on bindery work, on power-machine sewing, on the girl in the restaurant, and they may be comprehensive, but each year a certain proportion of new workers enter each type of work—they go where they are needed. Our people must do the work there is to be done. There are certain dangers surrounding restaurant work—dangers at which I have shuddered when reading reports such as one published by the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago—but we know, as all people dealing with large numbers know, that the demand for better conditions must come through the workers. We can tu rn one child from something undesirable,*but the law of proportion holds good, and some other child will take his place. I t is something we can get away from only by improvement of conditions—and improve ment will only come through knowledge and a demand on the part of the worker. Sometimes we feel th at it may come through the consumer, and undoubtedly the consumer is powerful. We have been trying in a way to let some of our volunteer workers become acquainted with working conditions. Some of them have been horrified by the strain of power-machine work. But do you suppose that they immediately returned to the ancient method of hand sewing? Not a bit of it. I do not doubt th at in the very next month each bought a powermachine-made waist, and so would we all. We are not going to re turn to primitive living. The very girl who makes the waist will buy it. W hat we must do is to keep our knowledge of the work ever before the powers behind education. Trade schools must not be established in too large numbers. Expensive equipment must not be secured by schools for a trade that is disappearing. In girls’ work we must help the trade schools to plan, always bear ing in mind that the girl’s wage-earning life averages only five years. We in girls’ juvenile placement work complain because girls lack am bition—they do not expect to be wage earners always. As an actual fact they are right and we are wrong in our approach. We should not tell them th a t there may be a time when a trade will not be needed. Who at 16 is not willing to take a chance? W hat we 58 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. have to show is that every minute of life is worth living, not for the future but for the present. We must shape the policy of trade schools in th a t they must feel th at we are a dependable source of information and in fact the only possible source in shaping their course. We must bring it home to the teachers that a larger and larger percentage of the population enter ing high school does not mean an opening up in any community of that proportion of the “ white collar ” jobs. I t may not mean a better wage. But it certainly ought to mean a better understanding of life and what it holds. I t ought to mean a demand for good working conditions, more leisure, and actual living. We are not going to do away with mechanical processes. They, I suppose, will increase in definitely as improvements are made, and skilled trades will probably become fewer and fewer. I t is up to us to let the schools know this and to guide them in a gourse that makes for mental development even when doing something mechanical and certainly the develop ment of a bigger and broader life outside. This, besides efficiency, is one of the reasons th at we feel in Cleveland th a t we must be indi vidualistic. The work is mechanical, the person is not, and we hope that even our little contact may keep tha£ personality above water. H unting out a club for a working girl has very definitely to do with her work life and certainly the worker doing it has not misunderstood her job. Anything th at the placement worker may do to make her life worth living is helping out in her working life. So I should say that it is the very definite function of the labor exchange to let the schools know th at people must do the work there is to do, let them know the true nature of this work, and bring it home to them that in order to have a better and fuller working life, children must be taught how to live. C O O PE R A T IO N B E T W E E N E M PLO Y ER S A ND T H E SCH O O LS IN V O C A T IO N A L G U ID A N C E . BY GEORGE D. HALSEY, VOCATIONAL COUNSELOR, VOCATIONAL BUREAU, ATLANTA, GA.1 Following Miss Gallagher’s splendid talk, I believe that just a brief description of similar work that is being undertaken in A t lanta would prove of interest. We have no publicly supported bureau in Georgia, and so far as I know, the Clearing 'House for Em ploym ent 1 is the only free bureau. I t is supported by one of the business men of the city. The Clearing House for Employment started as a “ placement ” bureau in May, 1915. Those in charge of the work soon saw that simple 64job-getting ” for individual cases would not go far toward solving our employment problems, or even relieving, permanently, the tremendous evils of unemployment. From the first, some at tempt was made to study the positions and the applicants with a view to placing each applicant where he had a chance to be successful. The work of placing the boys and girls coming from our schools has been seriously handicapped by a lack of real information about the pupil’s aptitudes. The average student about to graduate from high school or college has very little idea, either of his own qualifica tions, or of the qualifications necessary for success in the various vocations. He takes what looks to him to be the best opening he can get at the time, and if he fails here, moves on to another and another job, until he finally secures one where he can stick, whether or not this be his best work. This condition seriously lowers the community efficiency and means financial loss, both to the young man and to his employers. In view of this fact, the vocational guidance department of the Clearing House for Employment, the purpose of which is to do all it can to help place young men and young women in all walks of life in vocations where they can be successful and happy, has offered to put into operation, at no ex1 Since the Buffalo m eeting the Clearing House for Employment has changed its name to the Vocational Bureau. I t is now under the direction of an organization committee* of 10 members appointed by the president of the chamber of commerce. I t is to be the work of the committee to carry out a campaign of education, looking to the perm anent organization and m aintenance of the bureau. On th is committee are the president of the Georgia School of Technology, superintendent of schools, and some of the more representative men in tlio leading business activities of A flanta. The bureau has put into operation experimentally in the Georgia School of Technology and in two of the high schools the vocational guid ance plan outlined in the following paper. In this work the school people have cooperated m ost heartily w ith the business men. 59 60 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. pense to the school, the system of vocational guidance briefly outlined below. VOCATIONAL COUNSEL. One of the main things in all vocational guidance work with boys and girls is to get them to thinking seriously and intelligently of their own life work. An effort will be made to give the pupil a oetter and broader idea of just what each vocation really is. Young people often determine upon a certain calling as the one they will enter, when they really have a most seriously distorted idea of what the work really is. Probably one of the best ways to create an interest in the study of the different vocations and in the selection oi a life work is to* assign as subject for the regular English theme work such topics as “ My choice of my life work and why,” “ Loyalty as a factor in suc cess,” etc. A graded list of such subjects may be found in “ Voca tional and Moral Guidance,” by Davis. In addition to this, we plan occasionally to invite a man who has made a success of some one vocation to come and tell all he can about that vocation; its opportunities and drawbacks, the qualities neces sary for success, and how to get the necessary training. Several afternoons in the year can be spent with profit by the senior class in visiting some of the large banks, department stores, factories, and shops of Atlanta. Anything that broadens the students knowledge of the “ workaday world ” is of value. But while this counsel is of great value, there is need of more than just this. Each pupil will be given the opportunity to talk over his own problem privately with a counselor specially trained for such work. This individual counsel will not be based upon the opinion of any one person, no matter how well this person may have known the student, nor how skillful he may be in “ sizing up ” people. Each teacher under whom the pupil comes as he passes through school, learns many things about him that would help in the vocational choice; but about the only part of this information we get with our present system is the record of how well he does in his arithmetic, spelling, algebra, etc. While these things are valu able to the vocational counselor, much more is needed. Obviously, it would be impractical for each teacher to write out a long descrip tion of each pupil. This wrould not only take up too much of the teacher’s time, but would also clog the files with a vast bulk of ma terial which would prove of no great value, because of the difficulty in working it down to a concise form. Some way of getting this same information, however, but getting it in such form th at it can easily be reduced to workable size, is necessary. And to meet this need, we have designed a system based on the following principles: COGP£HATON IN' VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE---- G. D. H ALSEY. 61 Tliere are a very large immber of variables which go to make up the character of any one person, but the more important th at bear on the choice of a vocation may be divided into eight groups as follows: ( 1 ) Mental-scientific; or ability to analyze a problem, to grasp such subjects as advanced mathematics, chemistry, physics, etc. (2 ) M ental-literary; or ability to use good English, to write and speak in a clear, forceful manner, and to learn other languages easily. (3) M ental-calculation; or ability to multiply, divide, add, and subtract rapidly and accurately. (4) M anual; or skill with tools, ability to do things with the hands. (5) Executive and organizing; or leadership ability, the faculty of taking the lead in whatever groups associated with at work, in school, in church, or elsewhere. ( 6) Commercial; or skill at buying and selling, business and financial ability generally. (7) Social; or ability to mix well with people of all classes, to make friends quickly, etc, ( 8) Religious; or inclination toward church work and religious and philanthropic activities. While, of course, the most, if not all, of these variables must be developed to some extent for any large measure of success in any vocation, yet each vocation calls for the different groups in varying proportions. Thus, a big, husky chap who has the executive and manual vari ables well developed with others slightly deficient would probably find his best work in some such occupation as bridge-erector fore man. Similarly, a boy who was of somewhat slighter build and who had the variables developed in order of commercial, social, mental-scientific, manual wTould probably make a good salesman of some type of machinery. .Other factors th at have an important bearing on the choice of ti vocation are general/ health, physical strength, persistence, punc tuality, neatness of written wor.k, and any special talents, such as music, art, etc. The method of getting data on all these things will be to have the teachers grade all pupils who come under them on a scale of 10 , just as they do now in arithmetic, spelling, etc. The scale used will be as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. H opeless. Deficient. Very poor. Poor. Average. 6. 7. 8. 9. Good. Very good. Excellent. Exceptional. 62 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. Each teacher is strongly urged to follow strictly this system o f grading, because unless a standard system is used it will be impossi ble to average results. The list o f names will be prepared in the school office on special forms, so as to put as little additional work as possible on the teacher. O f course each teacher will be able to grade only on those things for which his contact with the pupil gives him sufficient data. In spite of the fact that probably no teacher can give grades on all the variables, it is believed that by getting the information from practically every teacher a sufficient number of marks will be given on each variable to warrant striking an average. These averages will be entered on the 44Final average report ” shown on another page. As a further help to the counselor, and also as an incentive to the boys and girls to study themselves, the students will be asked to fill out the 44Self analysis blank,” which is also reproduced. Before they fill out these blanks, the students will have had the method carefully explained to them, and each will have been given a copy of a booklet on 44Self analysis.” The students will also be urged to have a thorough physical exami nation o f themselves. This is very important, as the pupil’s apti tudes may point to a certain work that would be dangerous for him physically. With all this as a basis, a counselor who is thoroughly familiar with all the demands of the different vocations can give the students some very valuable advice. Care will be exercised, however, not to prescribe a vocation. The vocational counselor should be simply a counselor, and not a sentencing judge. It should not be difficult, with all this help, for the student to select the vocation for which aptitudes best fit him, but aptitude alone will not make him succeed. Too many students have the idea' that so long as they pass in every-1 thing, they are doing satisfactory work. When they start to work, they seem to be content to drift along at the halfway stage. They say they are 44no worse than the rest o f the fallows.” I believe that this attitude of being content to simply 44get by ” has been responsi ble for more failures among young men and women than any other single cause. I fear that in many of our schools we have been somewhat inclined to encourage the doing of things carelessly. In algebra, we have said that it makes little'difference whether or not the answer be numeri- i cally correct so long as the principle is right; in chemistry reports,' it has mattered little how poor the English might be, so long as no chemical principles have been ^violated; and in school-shop work?' C 00P E R A T 0N IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE---- G. D. H ALSEY. 63 we have frequently allowed the pupils to fritter away a large part o f their time. So when they get out into the real working world, the graduates are forced to realize, with somewhat of a shock, that they must reorganize their whole way of doing things. Many fail to learn this lesson and fall behind in the race. PLACEMENT AND FOLLOW-UP WORK. It is by no means the purpose of the Clearing House for Employ ment to do nothing more than give counsel to the pupil as to his best work; but an attempt will also be made to actually secure for the high school and college graduates, positions in the kind o f work recommended. Even though the schools may have equipped them thoroughly in every respect to take up their life work, I feel that the pupils should not be simply turned loose when given their diplomas. O f course, most principals realize this and do follow up their boys and girls as well as their other duties will permit, but there should be some pro vision made for more systematic follow-up work than this. The most significant time in a young person’s vocational career is the period o f two or three years after he leaves school and starts to work. His future success or failure must, in a large measure, de pend on just how he takes hold of things at this time. It is planned to have the same man who met with them and counseled them before graduation keep in as close personal touch as possible with all the graduates and try to inspire them with enthusiasm and ambition. I f he finds they are not fitted for the work they are doing, he will help them to get into some other work better suited to their apti tudes. He will encourage them to come to him with any difficulties they may encounter on the job. Many failures could be turned into success if only there were some one to keep in close touch in this way with the boys and girls during this very important time of their lives; some one who thoroughly understands both them and their environ ment, and who is not related to them in such a way as to blind him to their faults. 91297°—Bull. 220—17----- 5 64 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PU BLIC EM PLO YM ENT O W IC ES. F IN A L A V ER A G E R E PO R T . CGP3 | Attitude toward work. mO of written work. d .d d If 17 I I S -s Neatness | Persistence. | Punctuality. Ph | Physical strength. C/5 ,o *3) General health. Social. Executive. ! C o m m e r c ia l buying—selling. | Manual. Mental literary. Year. [ Mental calculaI tiori. Month. Class of 19............................ Aptitudes. ! M e n tal scien tific. Date. Co urse ............................................ i N a m e ............................................... [Last name first.] Remarks. A p p r oximate average............ Finals by V.C Order ofgiroups. Averaged, d ate................................... B y ......................... Special talents, etc •Special negatives, Remarks and recommendations (by school principal) School. - Vocational counselor’s recommendations (b y. [Copyright, 1916, Clearing House for Em ploym ent, Atlanta.] 65 COO PEEA TO N I N VOCATIONAL G U ID A N C E---- G. D. H A L S E Y . [F ill o u t b oth sid es o f th is b lan k .] S E L F A N A L Y S IS B L A N K . [N o te .— P le a se read th e a cco m p a n y in g b o o k let th ro u g h c a re fu lly before s ta r tin g to fill o u t th is blan k.] N a m e ,______________ Class and c o u r se ,______________ D a t e ,______________ A g e ,___________ H e ig h t,___________ W e ig h t,___________ S e x ,___________ Please grade yourself on the follow ing as explained in the b ook let: 1. Mental scientific___________________ 7. Social____________________________ 2. Mental literary________________ .___ 8. R eligious_________________________ 3. Mental calculation________________ 9. General health____________________ 4. M an u al___________________________ 10. Physical strength________________ 5. E xecutive________________ _________ 11. Outdoor or indoor_______________ 6. C om m ercial_______________________ 12. Settled or roving________________ ^ ^ 5j« *5* ❖ Special talents (such as singing, public speaking, e tc .)________________________ Taking everything into consideration w hat do you think would be the best vocation for you to follow as a life work?____________________________________ WThat are you doing or planning to do to prepare for this vocation?_________ W hat things do you think you w ill find it necessary to overcome in order to make a success in the chosen vocation?_____________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ^ -------------------------------------------------- F ather’s n a m e ,___________ ______________ A d d r e ss,__________________________ O ccu pation ,_________________________ W here b o r n ,__________________________ Give the occupation of both grandfathers__________ ___________________________ [O ver.] [F ill o u t oth er sid e first.] W hat is your religious preference?___________________________ ._______________ D escribe briefly any serious sickness or accidents you have had in past five years and tim e lost from school or work in each case. In w hat form, if any, and to w hat extent do you use tobacco?. Alcoholic beverages?______________________________________________ About how much a week do you spend for candy, soft drinks, etc?. W hat are your favorite subjects in school?. W hat are your hard subjects?. H ave you ever played on any high school or college teams ?. W hat ones?______________________________________________ W hat part have you taken in other students’ activities ?__. 66 A M E R IC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S . Give brief summary of any practical work you have done (giving liow long at each kind of w o rk )______________________________________________________ Do you remember w ell * Nam es?__________________ Faces?___ Can you save money?_________________________________________ Do you worry much?___________________________________________ About how often per w eek do you attend moving-picture shows?. A dditional rem arks____________________________________________ [C o p y rig h t, 1 916, C lea rin g H o u se fo r E m p loym en t, A tla n ta .] NEEDS OF THE WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES. B Y M R S. S A M U E L S E M P L E , M E M B E R IN D U S T R IA L BOARD, D E P A R T M E N T OF LABOR A N D I N D U S T R IE S OF P E N N S Y L V A N I A . W hat are the needs of the women’s department of the public em ployment offices? The first and most fundamental need is th at it should be. In spite of the fact that public employment offices have been in existence for over 30 years, the State or municipality that has a distinct women’s department is still so far in advance that its possession is a legitimate ground for boastfulness. In large sections of the labor market of to-day women constitute about one-fifth of the total applicants, yet a very decided proportion of the public em ployment officers still make no direct provision for handling women applicants, and the heads of some of them even give private instruc tions to their force to discourage women applicants as far as may be possible without overt action. Justice to women in industry to day requires that their special needs should be recognized in any sys tem of labor exchange supported by public taxation. The next need is that all women in industry should be served by such public employment offices. Ju st as such offices do sometimes, beyond dispute, discourage service to women applicants, so others that admit that women should be considered among their patrons do attempt to discourage service to women in domestic employment. Inquiries into occupations of women have revealed the fact that in certain sections, even where women are a recognized- industrial factor, the number of women in wage-earning domestic employment almost equals that of women in all other occupations combined. I t would seem, therefore, that again justice to employed women would demand that domestic service should always be recognized as an oc cupation within the scope of labor exchanges supported by public taxation. It is sometimes felt that in the women’s departments of public employment offices^ and also in private employment agencies for women, less emphasis should be laid upon the question of character than in the past, and more upon the m atter of training and efficiency in labor. The character qualification as it applies to women in in dustry is well understood to have a somewhat different meaning from that which it bears when applied to men. I t is worth while to 67 68 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. remember that in the progress of the last *20 or 30 years the char acter qualification has stiffened considerably as it applies to men in industry. I t no longer refers solely to technical skill, to honesty in handling money, or even to steadiness at work. To-day it includes the subject of the use of .intoxicants; and there is emerging in several directions a cognizance of family relationships and of tlie duties of citizenship. I f these are more and more recognized as industrial factors for men, it seems that at this time the help which the public employment office should extend to all women in industry should be so handled that character shall continue to be regarded as a woman’s most profitable asset in the industrial as in the social field. An evident need of the women’s department of the public employ ment office is special attention to handicap work. In work for the men this branch may, with some show of justice, be considered in relation to the “ down and out.” Not so with the women. The social system of to-day is faulty in th at it allows women to enter the wageearning field with less specific training than must usually be received by men; and also in th at women in wage-earning occupations must often do double duty, both as wage earners and as the pivotal home makers. Untrained women, burdened with youthful or aged depend ents, constitute no small proportion of the women in industry. To meet the needs of this handicapped class is one of the plain duties of a system intended as a public service. To sum it all up, women need the service of the public employment office; the needs of women in employment are even more specific and more complicated than those of men; the service of the public employment office to them should therefore be based upon an exact knowledge and sympathetic appreciation of those needs. While a man may secure to a certain extent the knowledge of those needs, it is doubtful if any but a woman can feel this sympathetic appreci ation. I t therefore remains to be said th at a woman director is one of the needs of the woman’s department of the public employment office. SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN WOMEN’S DEPARTMENTS. BY FLORENCE BURTON. W O M E N ’S DEPARTM ENT, M IN N E A P O L IS P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E . I have sometimes felt th a t the last word has been said on the subject of the elimination of unemployment. Almost periodically a prophet arises and rediscovers some method for its prevention. New policies are constantly being formulated, but because of certain delu sions that exist in the popular mind th at anyone here in our pros perous America who really wants work can obtain it. the waste of unemployment goes on unchecked. Six days of the week and fifty-two weeks of the year there’s a curiously heterogeneous crowd of women and girls—departmentstore girls, factory girls, telephone operators, seamstresses, char women, young and old women of all races—drifting into our office, united in nothing but constantly and often quite vainly hunting for work. This crowd includes women whose husbands are idle and who must keep the family together, girls turned away from the shop during a dull season, widows with babies to support, and young girls just entering the field of employment. All are dependent on them selves for support and for some reason are idle. THE QUESTION OF DOMESTIC SERVICE. W hat is the matter with this country of ours that thousands of skilled and unskilled workers have to find work or change work continuously? The public says, when unemployment among women becomes clearly manifest, as it frequently does in the winter months in Minnesota, that the simplest solution of idleness is in domestic service. The public employment bureau is expected to meet this condition and to create girls and women to enter this field of work. Notwithstanding that some may bravely assert that a woman’s place is in the home, it seems beyond dispute that a woman’s place is wherever she can find suitable work to support herself and those dependent upon her. That place no longer—for many millions of women—is in the home. I t may be in the office, the factory, the department store, or in some other woman’s home. One can readily understand that where there are so many industries that recruit only from women and girls, the converse is likely to be true—many are frequently unemployed—and none more frequently than those in domestic service. 69 70 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. The popular theory that housework is a solution of all unemploy ment among women is no longer a tenable one. The fact th at the ser vant class is the one class that has kept up and tripled its standard of wages proves th a t good houseworkers are in demand, but it ignores the fact that factory workers are no more qualified to do housework, as a rule, than some housekeepers who know nothing of housework would be able to direct them. D uring the summer months, when maids migrate to the farms, choose berry picking for a few months’ vacation or go to summer resorts where wages run higher, the dis heartened housekeeper who has trained girl after girl knows the bitterness of her side of the problem. Naturally they lose confidence in girls who d rift from one position to another, many obtaining from one to twenty positions in a year. “ You can’t save much,” said one girl, “ but it’s mighty gay, changing.” As a class maids have made no claims; they have not appealed to the public or to politicians; but they have none the less increased and obtained their demands. This is rather a curious commentary on organized labor. The explanation might be th at as they are the class coming most closely in contact with the ruling class, they have absorbed and used the methods of th at class. They hold them selves at a high value, assert th at value, and wherever and whenever possible take all they can get. A t any rate, so far as servants them selves are concerned, they may well laugh at the troubles of tradesunions, etc., which, with much turmoil and strikes, have not suc ceeded as well as they in bettering their condition. Experiences in our office in regard to domestic service I know are typical of a widespread condition. I f this service is the panacea that the public holds out for unemployment, why is it th at the servant problem has become almost an international one? Why are apartment hotels supplanting homes if all unemployed women may be induced to enter domestic service? And this becomes one of the most perplexing of all our problems—the task of dealing with a discouraged public—a public giving thousands to philan thropy and yet compelled to abandon homes for apartment houses because we are unable to induce sufficient women and girls to enter domestic service. SEASONAL OCCUPATIONS. I am not planning to try in this short time to solve the seasonal occupation problem so> far as it concerns women. I agree th at it will be possible to take the factory hand of the New England States and place him in the F ar West when work decreases in the mills and there is a demand for harvest hands or fru it pickers during the late summer; but this method of keeping the laborer and employ ment together when applied to women does not seem feasible. Eco nomically the laborer has every reason to be furnished reasonable SPECIAL PROBLEM S IN W O M E N S DEPARTM ENTS— F . BURTON. 71 security of employment, but as long as there are seasonal trades, just that long will we have the problem of securing,suitable tem porary work to supplement their regular occupations.. PLACING THE HANDICAPPED. One of the most discouraging of all unemployment problems is th at of placing the handicapped. Finding work for these may be merely furnishing relief instead of creating special work adapted to their needs. I t is no light task to fit these women into industry at points where their handicaps will be the least evident. And above all, em ployers must be persuaded to give them a chance to work—must be convinced that various kinds of work can be satisfactorily done by e^en these workers, with no loss to their employers. I do not mean, when I refer to the handicapped, th at mass of unemployables who may be classified as anything from beggars to mentally and physically unfit persons. F or this class I have only this to say : I f the State employment bureau attempts to take care of these, it is usurping the work of the philanthropic organization, the reformatory, or the hospital. I t is a m atter of regret th at so many unemployables fii^d their way into the women’s department of our State employment bureau. They should be receiving special assistance from the poor department of the city or care from some philanthropic group, instead of imperiling the reputation of the efficient applicants wTho seek employment through our women’s de partment. We can not afford to jeopardize the confidence of the public by combining relief and employment. The purpose of the department is usefulness, not philanthropy. THE YOUNG GIRL WAGE EARNER. We also have the problem of the young girl just entering upon independent wage earning. She has spent her childhood probably in another country, or, if in our United States, in a family whose entire income may not have exceeded $12 a week. W hat oppor tunities have such girls, however bright, daughters of unskilled and mostly casual laborers of our industrial towns, to get their feet on any industrial ladder th at will lead them to any more satisfactory condition of life than th at of their parents? Will the State permit these young lives to be wrecked because these adolescent laborers think only of immediate returns? The type of jobs into which they d rift—cashiers, bundle girls, and some kinds of factory work—all come to an abrupt end at 18 or 19 years of age, with the result that a vast majority of these young laborers are never absorbed into adult branches of these trades. They have been encouraged in casual habits that will surely militate against their future success. 72 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. They are thrown on the labor market, they d rift from one employ ment bureau to another, without the requisite skill or industrial intel ligence so necessary to obtain a permanent situation. Finally, at 25 or 30 years, they have fallen into the fatal habit of drifting from one job to another, and at 35 years they swell the ever-increasing ranks of low-skilled casual labor. I t is never extremely unlikely that these same women later descend into that direful condition of unemploy ableness. I t is extremely difficult in a State employment bureau to convince adolescent workers th at immediate wages offered will never compensate the evils of this promiscuous choice of an occupation. NECESSITY FOR WIDER STATE POWERS. There are newer and rapidly developing industries. Shall the State assist this young applicant to make a more deliberate selection ? Intelligent selection of a career, even in semiskilled trades, demands knowledge of this potential laborer and a knowledge of the possibili ties of future development in this trade. This is a knowledge that neither the girl applicant of seventeen or eighteen years nor her parent, if she has one, can possess, although any attem pt on the part of the State to really dictate an occupation would result in failure. I t is up to the State, however, to assume tactfully the responsi bility in regard to the questions of blind-alley occupations, aimless drifting into jobs, unnecessary changing of situations, if the young girl worker is to be prevented from becoming industrially de moralized. The State should direct these girls, since they are more adaptable than adults, into newer industries and, as I have already said, to some extent deflect them from packed and declining occupa tions. Do you think there would be a labor famine in dishwashers, in workers on power machines? Well hardly, for the obvious reason that there will always be a supply of untrained adult workers who missed vocational guidance in their youth. B ut it might lead to a deficiency of labor sufficient to cause employers to consider the ad visability of introducing new methods, better hours, or machinery. F or the adequate treatment of this problem of selection of work with a future in viewT, the State must organize its resources so that the period of adolescence is made one of preparation for adult life. In a word future welfare must not be short sightedly sacrificed for immediate industrial utility. The State bureau is not, in my belief, wide enough in its oppor tunities to deal with the problem of unemployment. As everyone sees it now, it should be dealt with through agencies having behind them all the resources and the authority that Federal authority only can command. Certainly, to give stability to employment, to prevent overcrowding, to guide those entering the field of industry into ad vantageous lines of work is a very im portant task and one in which a democratic government can well be concerned. LA BO R O R G A N IZ A T IO N S A ND P U B L IC EM PLO Y M E N T O F F IC E S ; H O W T H E Y CAT$ B E M U T U A L L Y H E L P F U L . BY ROBERT G. V A L E N T IN E , IN D U S T R IA L C O U N SE L O R , B O ST O N , M A SS. T h a t I was assigned this subject by the officers of your society could not but interest me greatly. I had the more reason for th a t interest when you associated my name w ith those of certain S tate and quasi public officials, because for years the m ain stim ulus to m y work has lain in the effort to invent practical ways of effecting the threefold relationship between labor, efficiency, and the State. T his is the fundam ental problem of our time. I could not but be impressed by the selection of this subject by your officers. I t is the most practical evidence of which I am aware th a t it is coming to be officially understood th a t only in this rela tionship can we find the means of creating sound citizenship. In th is connection some phrases from your president’s letter to me are very relevant. He sa y s: The American A ssociation of Public Employment Offices is about to hold its fourth annual meeting. T his association w as organized for the purpose' o f improving public employment offices throughout the United States, and to th is end the association is attem pting to secure cooperation and closer relations among all public employment offices. It is attem pting to promote uniform methods o f work and to establish an interchange' of inform ation and reports, so that there may be a better distribution of labor throughout the country. Its membership is made up of comm issioners of labor, members of industrial com m issions, State directors of public employment offices, superintendents of State and city employment offices, and others interested in the question of employ ment. T hree very successful m eetings have been held, and considerable work done in the w ay of bringing about uniform ity of records and methods. The m eeting this year is to be held im m ediately follow ing that of the Inter national A ssociation of Government Labor Officials. THE BASIS OF THE STATE. The basis of the State is the standard of living among our w ork ers. The standard of living is the criterion by which we shall even tually judge the quality of all public and private business. I am fundam entally uninterested in the statistics of increasing trade until I hear, them translated into the concrete happinesses of living men and women. T his is not socialistic doctrine; it is not syndicalism ; no capitalist need welcome or repudiate it. The standard of living in its fullest implications of national and individual well-being is 73 74 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. simply the vital dogma which, while it recognizes the legitimate meth ods underlying all three, yet results everywhere in constructive ad vance through their coordination. I t is unconnected with any reac tion which usually follows a forward movement. The difficulty with socialism, with syndicalism, with capitalism, is that as closed economic systems they are largely impermeable to those new influences which count for so much in individual and so cial development. This is the more important since it is with science that the future lies; and in none of these is there a genuinely catholic welcome for scientific processes. This virtual repudiation of the best in science is particularly characteristic of the present wasteful and factitious industrial organization. Our leaders in every branch of the national life, whether in finance, in politics, in commerce, in industry—our thinkers, our manual workers, our men of genius— all of them are, in the joint interests of themselves and of the rank and file, basically the servants of the State. We have reached a critical epoch in the history of world organiza tion. A leader who devotes himself to any task other than that of reconstruction is guilty of a social treason fundamentally greater than the treason of political life. We need to know the elemental forces which can place in the hands of the workers the means of their self-development. We must evaluate social discovery essen tially in terms of such industrial technique as is bound to secure the workers’ advance. We are learning slowly. We may now, for example, feel confi dent that the victory is to be gained by the mobilization of the work ers’ economic intelligence on the one hand, and the enlistment of the most catholic leadership in organized labor into the common service on the other. We are seeking to state the needs of labor to-day in the context we have too long neglected—the context of public well being. - CONSTRUCTIVE RELATION OF ORGANIZED LABOR TO THE STATE. The constructive relation, then, of organized labor to the State is our. main problem. How can we best discover its solution? I do not for one moment doubt that the most concretely productive rela tion of the State to labor at the present time lies in the potentialities of those public employment offices, those State and Federal commis sions of labor, of which the significance is beginning to be dimly ap parent. So far, let it be said quite frankly, labor has failed to* grasp its duty of attaining organized relation to the State. One can not blame it very greatly for th at failure. I t is historically simply un deniable that the machinery of the State in the form of the law LABOR U N IO N S AN D EM PLO Y M EN T OFFICES---- R. G. V A LENTIN E. 75 of conspiracy was so largely used to hinder the natural development of trade-unionism as to convince labor that within the State no sal vation was to be found. A case such as th at of the Danbury H at ters, which seemed to suggest that one of the basic elements of trade uni on strength came within the scope of the Sherman act, could hardly fail to tinge the whole administration of justice for labor with an ugly suspicion. There are signs that this hospitality has reached a point where some negotiations can be undertaken in a hopeful spirit. B ut everything depends on the spirit in which we face our task. Nor has the State been more creative in its attitude. Where it has not been persuaded by privileged interests to be blindly hostile it has been too frequently either stupid or indifferent. I t has played with ideas instead of penetrating beyond to the men and women. I t has striven to be coldly neutral—where neutrality meant bad housing, insufficient food, disease, and that ignorance which is the worst of sins. We can find no better word to say of the employers. I t is only w ithin the last decade th a t they have begun to see industry in term s other than those of an absolute private ownership. THE RIGHT BASIS OF RELATIONSHIP— WORK ANALYSIS. The causes of this joint failure are fairly simple. The one positive basis through which a just interpenetration of relationships can be found has not yet been more than vaguely and sporadically under stood. T hat bedrock is a complete knowledge of the industrial proc esses in their fullest social implication. I t is in the field of work analysis that this complete knowledge is to be found. I t is to be found, to give some concrete examples, in the work analysis of the gathering machine operation in a printing plant, i. e., what amounts to a complete industrial audit of a single job. Or it is to be found again in the analysis of the work of a girl on a belt-making machine in the dress and waist industry, or of a weaver at his loom in the cotton mill. The processes of their work have to be studied in their elementary nature and in their synthetic result. F or this purpose two essential approaches are obvious. T IM E ST U D Y A N D IT S E F F E C T S. I. No approach to the field of work analysis can be fundamental which is not based on time study. Let me illustrate my meaning from its application to the dress and waist industry in New York City. The 800 shops of th at industry are making thousands of styles of waists and dresses. Numerous as these styles are and much as they differ from one another in completed appearance this vast 76 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. riot of variables is nevertheless made up of a comparatively few simple operations. The analogy is the thousands of words built from the 26 letters of the alphabet. Similarly, too, the letters of the alphabet are not only combined, but combined under varying condi tions. These varying conditions in the dress and waist industry arise from three sources: ( 1 ) The nature of the product. I t may be called, shortly, product conditions. They are (a) the material on which the operation is performed, and (b) the quality of the work required. ( 2 ) The second source of varying conditions is the skill of the operators. Here all the immediate human variables arise amid the competence or incompetence of the social organization. (3) Thirdly, the conditions of manufacture. In this field lie all the variables th at come from different methods or lack of methods of planning the work and of routing it through the shop and of administering it at the work places. Here, too, impinge the com petence or incompetence of the sales and financial policies. Thus are the comparatively few elementary operations of waist and dressmaking beset on all sides by a hos't of variables. An alpha bet under such conditions would be sufficiently unfortunate. But imagine trying either to create a language without an alphabet at all or to get even some sort of control over the variables of industry without any accurate knowledge of the simple elementary operations. Yet this last is the situation in nine-tenths of all. industrial processes throughout the Nation to-day. We must no longer fail to build the alphabets of the industrial process so that we may at last create a language in which worker, manufacturer, and the State may begin to talk intelligibly to each other. The method of building this lan guage is: To determine the times required to perform these ele mentary operations under varying conditions through time study. A few simple beginnings go very far. A single sewing machine, an operator of any degree of skill, the dozen or so main materials of which waists are made and a half dozen styles, good light, good air, good seating, the material ready cut and sample waists of each style, together with a few dozen time studies made under actual conditions in a number of shops—these furnish in a few weeks, along the lines so time-studied, more basic elementary knowledge of waist making than all the manufacturers and all the workers have ever possessed. Of course the relating of this knowledge to all the variables, while the variables themselves are being reduced through the slow stand ardization of m anufacturing conditions and slow growth of indus trial education, is a long and intricate task in any precisely exact sense; but here, too, the problem is not so difficult as theoretically appears. Certain approximations here also go far. The fact to note in both cases is that scientific method, resting on bedrock, is at LABOR U N IO N S AND EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES---- R. G. VA LEN TIN E. 77 once conquering w ith elem entary facts large areas of ground hitherto contested by irresponsible and undisciplined opinion and th a t the rem aining areas are steadily and persistently reduced. The potential consequences of th is method on both the standard of living of the workers, the costs of the m anufacturers, and the prices the consumer pays, as well as on the relation to the social and political structure of the 35,000 workers and the thousand and more members of the employing group, are so great th at the fact is of the utmost consequence th at the particular work I have described is being done at the joint expense and under the joint supervision of the union and the m anufacturers5 association and under the control of a joint board 011 which are representatives of the public. Now I have said, I think, enough to make very clear th at such a tim e study and its complementary work analysis would go not merely negatively but also positively w rong as a social invention, unless it were conducted not by the m anufacturers alone, but by them in association w ith trade-unions and with the public. The reason is simple. Time study does not affect the interests of the m anufac turers alone. I t touches intim ately the lives of the workers. Its result touches the State as the silent p artner in the productive and the active purchaser in the consuming process. They must then be given the opportunity of adequate control. For consider the social implications of the method of work analysis. I t affects the organization of employment. I t studies not merely the selection and instruction of employees, n ot merely the permanence and regularity of their work, not merely the physical working condi tions of safety, of sanitation, of health under which their work is perform ed, but also th eir control, their promotion and discharge. A nd it goes farth er. I t considers the necessary influence on a business of external forces which the management can not control but to which it can make wise adjustm ent. I have in mind such things as the influence on any particular job perform ed of labor legislation,' of labor decisions by the courts, of the enforcement of th at legislation and those decisions, of group influence in the indus try , whether of employers’ associations or of labor unions. There is thus involved in this single aspect of work analysis the adjustm ent of one particular job to the complete system of economic and indus trial forces in the country. T H E P U B L IC L A BO R E X C H A N G E . II. B ut work analysis makes a second vital demand. No right approach to the solution of the problem of employment in industry is made until we establish an interrelation between the industrial structure and the public employment offices of city and State and Nation. F o r employment so radically reacts on every section of the 78 A M m iC A N ASSOCIA TIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T O F FIC E S. national life that employment can be no longer left to the accidents of bargaining, be th at individual or collective in character. Indus trial life is too fully the national life to leave it in the hopeless anarchy th a t at present prevails. We are bound to seek its social context even while we safeguard its adequate independence. This second avenue of approach is basically connected with the first. We can understand neither in the full richness of its poten tialities until we read it in terms of the other’s prospects. The efficiency of industry obtains its poise from the social relation we shall create between it and the State. We shall do that in no complex fashion. We shall ask simply for the creation of the necessary con nection through the placing of preferential and union shops in full relationship with the public labor exchanges. This is not an idle vision. The whole conception of the public labor exchange would be useless unless it were steadily more and more in possession of work analysis. T hat collection, as I have already indicated, can not and ought not to be made save by the joint association of labor, the employer, and the public. The labor exchange of the future will be under the supervision of these inter ests. I t will supply labor on the basis of a scientific knowledge of demand and supply. I t will be open to no accusation of interference on the p art of the employer and hostility on the p art of the union. I t will be an instrument in the service of their joint efficiency and take therefrom its justification. NECESSITY FOR COOPERATION. The survey of our resources, which work analysis as a p art of the industrial audit for the first time makes possible, is the fundamental condition of our advance. I t is the introduction of plan and form into the business enterprise. I t presupposes labor organizations and the manufacturers paying jointly for the effective analysis of indus trial processes under the controlling supervision of public authority. I have indicated the hopes suggested by experience in the dress and waist industry, where statesmanlike minds on both sides have been doing uniquely farsighted work. I see no reason why th at attempt should not have its right to expansion. I believe it, together with the joint board of sanitary control in the same industry, to be the most concrete example of the first beginnings of thoroughly sound relation between labor, efficiency, and the State. I t is neither imposed from above nor hindered from below. I t is the result of cooperation and in the cooperative spirit it is pursued. I confess th at I find real social enrichment in the thought of this first democratic laboratory of industrial research. I t seems to me like that interlacing network of veins and arteries by which the life blood gives vigor to the nervous system. I t insures the deposit of LABOR U N IO N S AND EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES---- R. G. VA LEN TIN E. 79 thought where it is most needed. I t substitutes wholesale thinking for the anarchy of planlessness. Its sole effort is directed toward the increase of knowledge with care for each interest only in its relation to the whole. I do not offer this suggestion as a panacea for all our ills. I do not doubt that we shall often confront difficulties so grave as to cause despair. We shall find manufacturers selfish enough to misunder stand as we shall find unionists blind enough to misinterpret. But I . believe th a t the spirit of corporate effort which lies behind our en deavor is a spirit which insures success. Our need is so great as to demand the trium ph of whatever contains promise of good. I find hope in education. I believe th at with the convincing demonstration of possibilities we shall be able to overcome the obstacles th at lie in our path. We shall go forward not in haste but with a cautious soberness which realizes the magnitude of our task. To some, eager with the haste of uncreative desire, it may often seem that we are lingering in old and abandoned ways. Yet the future, immediately and practically, is on our side. 91297°— Bull. 220—17----- -6 EMPLOYMENT MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATIONS. BY M E T E R B L O O M F IE L D , D IRECTOR, V O C A T IO N A L G U ID A N C E BUREAU, B O ST O N , M A S S . I stood in the office of the commissioner of immigration at Boston one morning when a new statistical clerk handed in this memo of the m orning’s a rriv a ls : “ On the S. S . ----- were males, 150; females, 95; miscellaneous, 15.” A good p art of the employment managers’ movement, as is the movement of the public employment offices, must, for a while, necessarily be classed as miscellaneous. The drift of this morning’s discussion was most interesting. The experience of officials who manage public employment offices can not help touching social problems and movements on every side. Indeed, if they fail to touch, to come into contact in some way, with those movements, your offices will mean very little to their communi ties, or other forces may develop to supplant them. This applies not only to public employment offices but to other movements. You will see why we are now beginning to talk of employment managers’ associations, the employment executive, and why you, too, in your administration of public employment offices, should follow some such line of thinking in your relations to the employment managers asso ciation. There was a good deal said this morning of a most interesting nature on vocational guidance. Before going very far with vocation bureaus we conclude th at unless industry plays the game and the employer does his part in dealing with guidance, unemployment, misplacement, etc., a large part of the community effort is sure to be nullified. W hat is the industrial p art in vocational guidance or employment? Are we to have counsel, guidance service, industrial, or psychological tests, or whatever may become necessary at any time, and the employer hire and fire as now ? We have talked of the employer as one in touch with details. Of course he is not. In watching the progress of our children from school to work we were appalled by a situation we had not realized before. The first person that boy or girl or man or woman comes in contact with in employment is not his employer, of course. We have found in most instances some underpaid subordinate, with no power and little training, as the responsible agent for making that very vital decision. The agents, or some assistant in the office, some poor person in an abscuue corner of a big establishment, had to do E M PLO Y M EN T MANAGERS * ASSOCIATIONS---- M . BLOOMFIELD. 81 with very vital problems. W hat happened? We saw that nowhere in the establishment was anyone watching the coming and going of people. The school had done its duty in training and guiding, the employment clerk did his duty in filling the vacancy, and that was the end of it. We began to inquire into these leakages. A t that time there was a good deal said and written about seasonal industries— there, at least, was a preventable condition. The employer was busy and no other executive in the establishment had any duty with the relation, with this coming and going, and all th at occurs. We asked 50 men who had to do with hiring in 50 of the largest establishments around Boston to come together four years ago to dis cuss the whole problem of managing. These 50 men came, and for more than a year they had nothing to say. They met once a month, but there seemed no chance of'any discussion. They had no thoughts. They had not analyzed nor criticized the situation they were respon sible for. They also thought that perhaps they had secrets to hold out against one another. A fter committees were made up, they began to tell of their lack of any method in selecting employees. They showed they used only guesswork in making selection; did not follow men; made no judgment in selection. They were simply rob bing themselves of valuable education they could get, when they had the power to follow individuals. When asked in the beginning of their employment association what is costs to change employees, the guesses were from 25 cents to $200. When asked what they knew of the jobs, on what basis people were held responsible for perform ing work, again there seemed to be haziness. I am indicating just a few points in the conditions before employment managers’ associa tions sprang up, before the men who do the hiring or are responsible for those who are, came together and began to state their problems. There are six or seven associations now, a national conference, a national organization of employment managers’ associations is form ing, and, of course, these associations are bound to start all over the country. They may become a great force, or they may become an instrument of failure. The business of the employment managers’ association is to learn how best to deal with individuals who come to them, either through your agencies, schools, or any other way. Unless they do their part, the p art you play is apt to be relatively un important. I want to call your attention to the work of employ ment managers’ associations. [Mr. Bloomfield here read extracts from book.] To handle employees is the job of a responsible, well trained, intelligent person, and a well-kept office. We can’t get that type of person except as we establish standards of service, of performance, practice, etc., for such a director. In other words, one of the prac 82 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. tical results of the employment managers’ movement has been to show the need of a new profession—th a t of handling people in employment relations. Several schools have begun tentative courses in training employment executives, following the history, of course, of training schools for social workers, for lawyers, engineers, etc. Secretary Redfield spoke on the functionalized employment department. The public employment bureau will, of course, want to cooperate, and will find the most ready cooperative ground in the employment managers’ association. The director of public employment offices will have to be as keenly sensitive to the proper steering of these associ ations as have been those who started the work. I f the employment managers work p r o p e r t y , they will become a social agency for the country, dealing with such kinds of misemployment and unemploy ment as they can control, and with questions of upbuilding. They are there to do a new job in industry and commerce. They are there to socialize employment. There is a far-reaching program for public employment offices. You are not supposed to solve all problems belonging to vocation and industry. You have definite functions assigned by law and you will have a great deal to do yet before you can live up to all the laws. I t would be a pity if in the strange position you enjoy you could not have influence on employers and could not profit by what you see. Thus far only men, I am sorry to say, are to be found in the employ ment managers’ association. One reason for it is that the associations meet in clubs which are men’s clubs. We know th at some of the best employment managers in the country are women, and we expect to see more and more women in the executive positions of employment offices. SUBOFFICES OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS. B Y C H A R L E S J . B O Y D , G E N E R A L S U P E R I N T E N D E N T , IL L IN O IS FR E E E M P L O Y M E N T O F F IC E S, CH ICA G O . I am not a public speaker, but it gives me great pleasure to be directed to address you on this topic because it is of much interest to me. I f anyone knew exactly the best way in which suboffices of an employment office should be conducted within a city, he would be aery near to the solution of the employment problem. Any opinion that is offered on the subject should be considered in relation to the results attained. I attribute the success of the Illinois free employ ment offices in Chicago largely to the manner in which they are con ducted, and I am very glad to tell you about our methods if it will be of an}^ benefit or help to anyone facing the problems that confronted me in the reorganization there. THE FUNDAMENTAL BUSINESS FACTORS. Finding employment for the unemployed is purely a business proposition, and the chief success of any business depends upon its organization. I t is a well-recognized fact that in every business undertaking there are four distinct fundamental factors to be con sidered—i. e., producing, marketing, accounting, and financing. The success of any business, whatever it may be, depends upon the success of each of these operations, and it is just so with the public employ ment offices. Unless the organization is complete and well balanced it is sure sooner or later to fall by the wayside. Production in a public employment office consists of getting orders, for help and applicants for positions. In a like manner marketing is solely the operation of fitting the applicant to the position which he is qualified to fill, and at the same time supplying the employer with the help which he requires. Accounting resolves itself into keeping the records no m atter in what form they may be. Financing may seem to you of a minor importance, since a public employment office is maintained by the public; but I expect to show you that upon this more than any other operation, if possible, depends the success of a public employment office. Consequently an organization which dis tributes wisely the work to be performed by each phase of the em ployment business is an organization which is bound to meet with success. 83 84 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. Production is a solid operation or an operation which does not divide itself. Consequently, in a public employment office, even though with suboffices in the city, this part of the work should be conducted at the central or main office, where it can be most conven iently performed and supervised. Financing in itself is a solid opera tion solidly performed, and it is easy to see th at the financing need only be conducted from the main office. Accounting also can be readily assigned to the same department as production and financing. Marketing, or the supplying of employers with help, and the fitting of applicants to the positions for which they are suited, is the only phase of the business of a public employment office th at demands a division. These divisions result in departments or suboffices. THE CHICAGO FREE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES. When the reorganized Illinois free employment offices in Chicago first opened, in August, 1915, almost a year ago, we were swamped with applicants and with employers’ orders. The work of all de partments was so handicapped. th at it was impossible to handle it properly. In December, seeing this handicap, I made a plea to the governor, in the event of his calling a special session of the legis lature, that he embody in the purposes of that call an additional appropriation to carry on the work of the free employment offices in Chicago. The governor responded by wire, asking me to present the m atter to our local and general advisory boards for their con sideration, and they approved my recommendations in full. There was little delay in the legislature, but it was not until February of this year, when this appropriation became available, that I was enabled to establish an office force fitted for handling the various phases of the employment business. S U B D IV IS IO N OF T H E W ORK. I believe that each suboffice of a public employment office should oonfine itself to one certain class of labor. For instance, in Chicago we have what we call our unskilled labor branch office, where all male applicants for any unskilled positions are received and directed to employment. While this literally is the only suboffice we have in Chicago at present, we have so divided labor into various classi fications as to form three other departments, all skilled labor, which in reality all amount to suboffices contributing to the work of the cen tral -or main office. We are located in the heart of Chicago, in what is known as the loop district, with perfect transportation to and from all points. AM male help is handled on the main floor and all female help on the second floor, with separate entrances for each. Male ap plicants are divided into two distinct groups. The first is comprised SUBOFFICES OF EM PLO YM ENT BU R EA U S----C. J . BOYD. 85 of office, clerical, hotel and restaurant, juveniles, and miscellaneous. The second represents mechanical pursuits entirely, including all the trades. Each of these divisions is in charge of a department super intendent, and these departments are subdivided so far as our help permits, each distinct group being handled by some one thoroughly familiar with th at particular industry. H ad we more help we would continue to subdivide each department, drawing finer lines of classification. When we first opened the office we handled all farm labor at our unskilled labor branch office, but experience has taught us that this class of labor can not be handled with the speed necessary in sup plying unskilled labor, while in itself the position of a farm hand is more or less a skilled one. Consequently, we have now transferred the agricultural department to our skilled or central office and are conducting it as an adjunct thereto, with a marked increase in re sults. Our female department consists of three distinct divisions—one handling clerical and miscellaneous help; another specializing in day workers, factory hands, etc., and the third devoting its efforts entirely to the placing of domestics** hotel and restaurant help. To attend to and supervise the production, marketing, accounting, and financing of the work of the various departments we have found it essential to establish an office force or executive department. P er mit me to describe to you the way in which we handle each of the four phases in the employment business through this department. O R G A N IZ A T IO N OF T H E W O R K IN G FORCE. Prom pt telephone communication is perhaps the greatest factor in the securing of orders for help as well as applicants to fill positions, and the importance of the telephone operator can not be too greatly emphasized. We were granted sufficient funds for two telephone operators. We advertise but one telephone number with private ex changes to all departments. All incoming and outgoing calls go through a switchboard where an operator is on duty at all times between 7 a. m. and 5.30 p. m. We also asked the legislature for three business solicitors to secure orders from employers and to locate applicants for opportunities already listed with us. We consider these solicitors one of the great est factors in our business. They are assigned to selected districts and it is not infrequently th at they secure from 5 to 30 orders per day, each order calling for from 1 to 50 persons. A t our request we were allowed the services of an interpreter who finds ample opportunity to perform other duties in connection with his office. We havesassigned to him the responsibility of the pro ductive phase of our business. H e is in charge of our business solici 86 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. tors and attends to their routing, checking, and supervision ; super vises all newspaper publicity and bulletins for the departments, and devises new and novel methods of bringing the office to the attention of the public. ADVERTISING. In our request for an additional appropriation for our office we asked for an advertising fund. Everybody will agree that good ad vertising is one of the greatest keys to the success of any business, and no less so in the employment service. We did not secure this fund, however, and were left with our former resources to secure what advertising we could. We require each department or suboffice to report twice daily the list of opportunities existing there. These opportunities are com piled in the form of bulletins run off on a duplicating machine and distributed to the sources from which a maximum amount of ad vertising can be derived. By means of personal letters and visits to the Chicago newspapers, explaining the public service we render, we have succeeded in getting one morning and one evening paper to publish regularly this list of opportunities in their classified 44helpwanted ” columns without any (iharge whatsoever to this depart ment, while many other publications run them now and then. The exact amount of this advertising in dollars and cents can scarcely be. computed. I t far exceeds any sum which we might hope to receive for such purpose from the legislature, and in round figures is probably about $30,000 per year. Perhaps the most effectual method of advertising is the use of news items which are published purely as a m atter of interest to the public. We have frequently secured a great amount of space from all Chicago newspapers and many out-of-town papers by en larging upon the special points of interest in regard to certain oppor tunities. F or instance, only recently we received an order for two girls—one to be employed as a domestic and the other as a sales woman for a couple whose estate amounted to $7,000 and was increasing at the rate of $1,000 per year. The positions, while they offered only a nominal salary and a good home during the life of employers, held out a promise of a division of the estate at the death of both the employer and his wife. Letters were received from all over the United States in regard to the article which appeared in various papers. Only recently a note of congratulation was received from Cuba in reference to a newspaper article concerning the work of our offices. C O O PER A T IO N W I T H O T H E R F R E E B U R E A U S . There are a hundred or more free employment offices in Chicago, charitable, social, and philanthropic organizations vitally interested in the employment problem, and to these we mail one of our bulle SUBOFFICES OF EM PLO YM ENT BUR EAUS---- C. J . BOYD. 87 tins at the close of each day?s business, so that when their offices open the followifig morning they are acquainted with all of the opportuni ties listed with us., and if they have any applicants fitted for the positions they may then so advise us. In a like manner twice daily each department and suboffice, as well as the neighboring Federal office, which is only a few blocks away, receive by special messenger a list of all our opportunities. The success of this method of adver tising will hot be difficult to appreciate. The organizations receiving our bulletin come in more or less contact with large employers of labor in their efforts to take care of the applicants appealing to them for assistance and spread the information concerning our work. Besides this, in times of actual shortage of labor, such as we are now experiencing, they act as a source of supply. In real cooperation, I believe, lies the nearest solution to the employment problem. Where there are a hundred or more free employment offices, all seeking to take care of those out of employ ment, there can not fail to be a duplication upon duplication of labor and effort, at an almost inestimable cost to the public. Many applicants register at a half dozen or more of these places, and employers place their orders with several different agencies. Thus in times of great unemployment several applicants may be directed to a place where only one opportunity exists, at a useless waste o f time and carfare to people already impoverished by a long term of unemployment. There is likewise the duplication of labor in taking the applications, assigning the applicants, and making the records of the same applicant at each of the free offices. Another serious phase of this waste by duplication is one less often touched upon. I t is in the solicitation to the same employer over and over again in behalf of the same applicants by the several different organizations. Who can blame an employer for becoming impatient at the public for such inefficient methods ? In every large community there should be a central labor exchange, and every other factor of public employment service should be sub ordinate to the general management of th at exchange. These other interests might be assigned suboffices or departments, as I have chosen to term them, and all be conducted along the same lines that I have outlined. Of course, it will be difficult to persuade other institutions to fall in line with any project which would do away with their own life or individuality, although with the great purpose in mind of solving the unemployment problem this should not be the case. One organization in Chicago has already signified its intention of abandoning its own individuality and throwing its support with the Illinois free employment offices. As everyone will agree, before production can reach its maximum in the employment business it is necessary to have a comprehensive 88 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. and thorough survey of the sources of employment and the material with which to fill all opportunities. W ithout a vast organization meh. a survey is impossible; but while it has never been within the power of a single agency, and is not now, to make such a survey, nevertheless, by sensible division of labor among those th at exist, there is no reason why such a survey could not be made accurately and efficiently. I believe that there are ample opportunities in this great country of ours for every individual, and that it is merely a m atter of finding the right opportunity for each and every one. I believe th at every body should be made to work. A very effective method of employ ment insurance would be to have the State or the Government fu r nish opportunities for everyone. The great economical loss on the part of the unemployed to this country can hardly be estimated. Indeed, the great need of free employment offices is only too ap parent when we consider this loss in connection with opportunities which actually exist for those who are unemployed but do not know where to find the opportunity which awaits them. I t is here again that cooperation and advertising of the opportunities which do exist will be one of the greatest economical savings to the country. This point I have never seen or heard emphasized before, namely, that many employers are continually in need of help. Many opportunities exist for hours, days, and even weeks and months without the appli cant who is in search of that particular opportunity being able to locate it. I f there were only a million opportunities in a year in any large center, such as Chicago, and if those positions remained vacant for only one day each at an average remuneration of $3 per day, it would mean an economical saving of not less than $3,000,000 to th at community. Consequently, it should not be hard to realize the vast importance of prompt and efficient production by advertising in any of its various forms. C O R R ESPO N D E N C E. Correspondence is another source of production for an employment business, and of course handles largely the out-of-town business. Every salesman realizes the necessity of keeping in touch with pros pects in order to land his order, and this is just as applicable to an employment business as any other. One essential is the retention of the confidence of the employer as well as of the applicant. Com plaints must be promptly and properly adjusted. Orders must be promptly followed up to ascertain whether or not the applicants sent reported for duty, for, as you well know, no m atter how close the supervision and examination of an applicant m ight be, there are times when a “ won’t work ” is sent to an employer where a “ want work ” is still needed. Many times such an applicant never even reports for SUBOFFICES OF EM PLO YM ENT BUR EAUS---- C. J . BOYD. 89 duty, and unless his direction from the office is followed closely the employer naturally will think that his order lias received no attention. We would scarcely call again for help from a source which has proved of no value in the past. O f course, all applicants are not followed up by maiL Those in the city can generally be reached by telephone, but where the employers are out of town it is absolutely essential th at they be followed up by letter. RECOBDS. The bureau of labor statistics for the State of Illinois has f urnished us a daily report sheet classifying all tlie various kinds of help, and on the report provided for the male department there are some 300 or more classifications. On that provided for the female department there, are about 72. Each suboffice is required to report daily to the central office the number of applications and opportunities received, and the number of positions filled for each of these classifications which fall in their department. These reports are sent to the central office and turned over to the statistical or accounting clerk to be com- s bined in the reports submitted to the bureau of labor statistics. In an accurate record and complete information in regard to the work of: each department lies the success or failure of that department. A comparison from month to month of the business of each suboffice with the previous month’s business for the same period furnishes us with information necessary in locating the sources of increase or de crease in the business of the office. We are also classifying employers who have patronized this office according to the class of help which they have used from us, so that when we have an applicant for a certain kind of position we can turn immediately to such a possibility for placing him. A C C O U N TIN G A N D F IN A N C E . I t is not necessary to touch upon the ordinary routine of account ing and bookkeeping in connection with bills covering the expendi tures of a public employment office. Suffice to say care should be taken to see that the money allotted for each purpose is spent to the best possible advantage, and that no account is overdrawn needlessly. In close touch with the accounting department comes financing, which has already been referred to. When appropriation was made for the State free employment offices in Chicago the funds were sup plied for specific items, to be used only for those items and those alone. Nobody realized the volume of business such an office would perform, consequently the growth in the business far exceeded the means allowed. Realizing that the existence and growth of the Illinois free em ployment offices depended upon our receiving additional appropria- 90 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. tions, I compiled an estimate of the absolutely necessary requirements for the proper conduct of an office doing such a vast amount of busi ness, and we relied on publicity to obtain it for us. I f the public were not informed in regard to the work of the department it would be difficult indeed to secure an appropriation through the representa tives of the public to continue, let alone increase, the possibilities of the office. G R O W TH OF T H E B U S IN E S S . In conclusion it will not be amiss for me to give you some idea of the growth in the business of the Illinois free employment offices since the reorganization. I am informed th at when the old free employment offices were closed 300 positions filled per month was considered a*very good average in each of the offices. When we first opened, therefore, we considered ourselves fortunate in being able to fill 25 to 50 jobs every day, since we were virtually starting a business all over again, the old offices having been closed over a month before the new one was opened. I t may be somewhat surprising to you to learn that during the month of May we filled over 7,500 positions and that June showed an increase over that amount. W ith only 35 employees, a little more than the total number employed in the former free employment offices in Chicago, we filled over 520 positions on the last Friday in June alone. NEW YORK PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT BUREAU AND ITS BRANCHES. BY W ALTER E. K R U E S I, SU P E R IN T E N D E N T M U N IC IP A L EM PLOYM ENT B U R E A U OF N E W Y O R K . The same rule that dictates the establishment in large communities of branch stores—namely, th at convenience stimulates trade—applies to discovering and satisfying the supply of and demand for labor. There should be a defined, unselfish, authoritative center for the unemployed and for employers seeking help. The possibilities of such centers can only be fully realized when they are established and maintained as governmental agencies. But in very large cities and especially those where transportation facilities are not well centered, it is unreasonable and impracticable to expect all classes of unemployed to go to one office. Branch offices thoroughly integrated with the central office should be established in each large subdivision. The subdivisions are generally geo graphical, as in New York’s several boroughs, but may also be indus trial, as for dock laborers on the docks; for commercial and office workers down town; for day and house workers, either near the retail stores or in a residence section. In New York City the municipal public employment bureau has its general office, which handles some of all classes of workers in the city’s hub. I t is within walking distance of the great commer cial buildings, the docks, and the wholesale dry goods and food dis tricts. Here one-half of its business, which amounts to about 2,500 new registrations and 2,000 placements a month, is done. The four branches are not distributed, as one might expect, in the several boroughs. The principal reason is that they were established in response to local demand in several sections which felt that they needed an employment bureau and were ready to provide space, service, and support on a demonstration basis until public budgetary provision was made. One branch represents our adoption of an already well-established private noncommercial office in Hudson Neighborhood Guild, for the special benefit of female day workers. Direct connection with the city bureaus, use of their office system, and the official dignity and authority seem to have forced its growth remarkably. I t will be developed into an all-round branch. I believe it is good policy to have just such branches of public bureaus, and that the general organization of the public employment 91 92 AM ERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLO YM ENT OFFICES. field can be advanced soundly and rapidly by such adoptions. I t is not wise or necessary to supplant or destroy such private noncom mercial bureaus. They can be shown that they can serve more people more effectively at less direct cost to their fostering institutions as branches of a municipal system than as independent and competing units. A prim ary condition, of course, is that they accept the city bureau’s supervision, system, and principles. There are at present several other bureaus in New York which are negotiating for affiliation with the municipal public employment bureau. I believe th at the majority of the three score noncommer cial offices in the city should and will become gradually amalgamated just as many private hospitals have found their wray into a public system. o
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