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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR JA M E S J . D A V IS , Secretary BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS E T H E L B E R T S T E W A R T , Com m issioner BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES ) BUREAU OF L A B O R S T A T IS T IC S f • • • • EM PLO YM EN T AND U N EM PLO YM EN T • No. 400 SE R IE S PROCEEDINGS OF T H E TW ELFTH ANNUAL M E ETIN G OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICES HELD AT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 19-23, 1924 S E P T E M B E R , 1925 W A S H IN G T O N G O V E R N M E N T P R IN T IN G O F F IC E 1925 A D D IT IO N A L C O PIE S OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE PROCURED FROM THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON, D. C. AT 10 CEN TS P E R COPY OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEES OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICES 1923-24 President: Hon. E. J. Henning, Assistant Secretary, United States Depart ment o f Labor, Washington, D. C. Past president: Bryce M. Stewart, Director Employment Department, Amal gamated Clothing Workers o f America. First vice president: Charles J. Boyd, General Superintendent Illinois Free Employment Offices, Chicago, 111. Second vice president: A. L. Urick, Commissioner o f Labor, Des Moines, Iowa. Third vice president: J. J. Burke, Deputy Commissioner of Labor, Hartford, Conn. Secretary-treasurer: Miss Marion Findlay, Department of Labor, Toronto, Canada. Executive committee at large: Joseph Ainey, General Superintendent, Prov ince o f Quebec, Employment Service of Canada, Montreal, Canada; R. A. Rigg, Director Employment Service of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Francis I. Jones, Director General United States Employment Service, Department of Labor, Washington, D. C. 1922-23 President: Hon. E. J. Henning, Assistant Secretary, United States Depart ment of Labor, Washington, D. C. First vice president: G. Harry Dunderdale, Superintendent Public Employ ment Office, Boston, Mass. Second vice president: A. L. Urick, Commissioner of Labor o f Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa. Third vice president: Charles J. Boyd, General Superintendent Illinois Free Employment Offices, Chicago, 111. Secretary-treasurer: Miss Marion C. Findlay, Department o f Labor of Ontario, Toronto, Canada. Executive committee at large: Robert J. Peters, Director Bureau of Employ ment, Department of Labor and Industry, Harrisburg, P a .; R. A. Rigg, Director Employment Service o f Canada, Ottawa, Canada; Francis I. Jones, Director General United States Employment Service, Department of Labor, Washing ton, D. C. 1921-22 President: Bryce M. Stewart, Director o f the Employment Service of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. First vice president: John M. Sullivan, field representative, United States Employment Service, Washington, D. C. Second vice president: G. Harry Dunderdale, Superintendent Public Employ ment Office, Boston, Mass. Third vice president: Miss Marion C. Findlay, Toronto Employment Office, Employment Service o f Canada. Secretary-treasurer: Richard A. Flinn, 1834 Forty-ninth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Executive committee: Charles J. Boyd, General Superintendent Illinois Free Employment Offices, Chicago, 111.; Robert J. Peters, Director Bureau o f Em ployment, Department o f Labor and Industry, Harrisburg, P a .; Thomas N. Molloy, Commissioner o f Labor and Industries, Regina, Canada. (ra) 1920-21 President: Bryce M. Stewart, Director Employment Service o f Canada, Ottawa, Canada. First vice president: A. W. Holbrook, Superintendent State Employment Bureau, Dayton, Ohio. Second vice president: G. Harry Dunderdale, Superintendent Massachusetts State Employment Bureau, Boston, Mass. Third vice president: J. M. Sullivan, United States Employment Service, S t Paul, Minn. Executive members at large: Miss Marion C. Findlay, Superintendent Women’s Department, Employment Service of Canada, Toronto, O nt.; Robert J. Peters, Director Bureau of Employment, State Department of Labor and Industry, Harrisburg, P a .; Thomas N. Molloy, Commissioner o f Labor and Industries, Regina, Canada. Secretary-treasurer: Richard A. Flinn, Superintendent Bureau of Employ ment, New York State Industrial Commission, 112 West Forty-sixth street, New York City. 1919-20 President: Bryce M. Stewart, Director Employment Service of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Vice presidents: L. E. Woodcock, Russell Sage Foundation, New York C ity; Mrs. May L. Cheney, University of California, Berkeley, C alif.; John S. B. Davie, Commissioner of Labor, Concord, N. H .; E. N. Ellis, State Employment Service, Oklahoma City, Okla. Secretary-treasurer: Richard A. Flinn, 112 West Forty-sixth street, New York City. 1918-19 President: Hon. John B. Densmore, Director General United States Employ ment Service, Washington, D. C. Vice presidents: J. A. Miller, Toronto, Canada; Mrs. Margaretta Neale, United States Employment Service, Washington, D. C .; C. B. Sexton, Superin tendent State Public Employment Bureau, San Francisco, C a lif.; Morna M. Mickam, Indianapolis, Ind. Secretary-treasurer: Wilbur F. Maxwell, United States Employment Service, Columbus, Ohio. 1917-18 President: Charles B. Barnes, Director State Public Employment Bureau of New York. Vice presidents: Mrs. L. H. Walter, Chicago, 111.; Royal Meeker, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Washington,. D. C .; Arnold F. George, Dominion Inspector of Employment Agencies, Saskatoon, Canada; Wortley Dickey, Superintendent Municipal Employment Bureau, Richmond, Va. Secretary-treasurer: H. J. Beckerle, Assistant Director of Employment, State Employment Bureau, Minneapolis, Minn. 1916-17 President: Charles B. Barnes, Director State Public Employment Bureau of New York. Vice presidents: Hilda Muhlhauser, Cleveland, Ohio; H. J. Beckerle, Mil waukee, W is.; J. D. Malloy, Saskatchewan, Canada; George D. Halsey, At lanta, Ga. Secretary-treasurer: G. P. Berner, Superintendent Buffalo Branch of State Employment Bureau of New York. 1915-16 President: Charles B. Barnes, Director State Public Employment Bureau of New York. Vice presidents: Walter L. Sears, New York City; Francis Payette, Mont real, Canada; H. J. Beckerle, Milwaukee, Wis*; Hilda Muhlhauser, Cleveland, Ohio. Secretary-treasurer: W. M. Leiserson, Toledo University, Toledo, Ohio. Civ) 1914-15 President: W. F. Hennessy, Commissioner of Employment, Cleveland, Ohio. Vice presidents: Mrs. W. L. Essman, Milwaukee, W is.; J. W. Calley, Chi cago, 111.; Walter L. Sears, New York C ity; Edwin Dickie, Toronto, Canada. Secretary-treasurer: W. M. Leiserson. 1913-14 President: Fred C. Croxton, Columbus, Ohio. Vice president: James V. Cunningham, Lansing, Mich. Secretary-treasurer: W. M. Leiserson. <v) CONTENTS Page Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,2 Acting President’s address, by Charles J. Boyd, general superintendent Chicago division, Illinois Free Employment Offices, acting president____ 3,4 The wastage of men, by Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics______________________ ^____________ !______________ 4-11 Some uses of employment statistics, by R. D. Cahn, chief statistician General Advisory Board, Illinois State Department o f Labor__________ 11-17 Interviewing the applicant for work, by Richard A. Flinn, chief, division of employment, New York State Department of Labor________________ 17-20 How to interest business in the service of public employment offices, by Otto W. Brach, chief, division of labor statistics, Ohio State Indus trial Commission_____________ _______________________________________ 20-24 How the public employment service meets the needs in Ontario, by H. C. Hudson, general superintendent Ontario offices, Employment Service of Canada____________________________________________________________ 24-20 Publicity for the public employment service, by Llewellyn Rogers, super intendent Joliet office, Illinois Free Employment Service______________ 26-2S Canada’s experience with private employment offices, by R. A. Rigg, director Employment Service of Canada_______________________________ 23-37 Methods of dealing with private employment offices, by Taylor Frye, director child labor department, Industrial Commission o f Wisconsin_38-41 Need for a public employment service in the United States, by Francis I. Jones, Director General UnitedStatesEmployment Service______________41-44 How the public employment service meets the need of the Great Wheat Belt, by J. H. Crawford, presiding judge Kansas Court of Industrial Relations-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 46 BULLETIN OF THE U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS No. 400 WASHINGTON S E P T E M B E R , 1925 PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE INTER NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICES IN TRODUCTION The International Association of Public Employment Services held its twelfth annual meeting at the Congress Hotel, Chicago, May 19 to 23, 1924. A t the opening session, held jointly with the Association o i Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada on May 19, George B. Arnold, director of labor of Illinois, presided. The invocation was delivered by Rev. Frederick Seidenberg, S. J., dean of the school o f sociology, Loyola University, Chicago, after which a telegram of greetings from Hon. Len Small, Governor of Illinois, was read and an address of welcome was delivered by Frank Padden, representing the mayor of Chicago. John Hopkins Hall, president of the Association of Governmental Labor Officials, gave a very interesting address .on the objects and accomplishments o f the Association of Governmental Labor Officials. The report of the committees appointed from the Association of Governmental Labor Officials and the International Association of Public Employment Services to consider the question of amalgama tion of the two associations was read, and after considerable discus sion the matter was referred, on a point of order, to the respective associations for action, after which the meeting adjourned, the two associations to meet in separate sessions on May 20. At the session on May 20, at which Charles J. Boyd, acting presi dent, presided, the minutes of the eleventh annual meeting were read and approved. The following committees were appointed by the chair: Resolutions.—John S. B. Davie, Concord, N. H .; R. A. Rigg, Ottawa, Canada; O. W. Brach, Columbus, Ohio. Credentials.— Emanuel Koveleski, New Y ork ; P. D. Stewart, Richmond, V a .; Llewelyn Rogers, Joliet, 111. Nomination and place of meeting.— R. A. Flinn, New York City; H. C. Hudson, Toronto, Canada; J. J. Burke, Hartford, Conn. • The committee appointed to meet with a similar committee from the Association of Governmental Labor Officials to consider the question of amalgamation made its report, and upon motion duly made and seconded the question of consideration of the report was made the special order ox business for May 22. A t the next session, May 22, a motion to adopt the committee’s report on the question of amalgamation, which favored the union of the two associations, was, after an expression of opinion by nearly all present, lost. 1 2 ASSOCIATION OS' PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICES A motion that the acting president appoint a committee to confer with the Association of Governmental Labor Officials to arrange a joint time and place of meeting was, after considerable discussion, withdrawn and the question left to the incoming executive com mittee.1 The following resolution was unanimously adopted: The International Association of Public Employment Services, meeting in annual convention at Chicago, May 22, 1924, declares the belief that the enactment o f Federal child-labor legislation will aid the State in the enact ment and administration o f child labor law s; and since the Supreme Court o f the United States has declared that Congress has no authority to enact child labor legislation without amendment to the Constitution: Therefore, the members o f the International Association o f Public Employ ment Services, representing 38 States, unanimously urge the passage at this session of Congress o f the child labor constitutional amendment without modi fication in the form in which it passed the House o f Representatives on April 26. At the session on May 23 the following resolutions were adopted: Resolved, That the secretary extend in the name o f the association its thanks to the officers and members of the executive committee for their services during the past year. Resolved, That the secretary extend in the name o f the association its thanks to the department o f labor o f the State o f Illinois, the arrangements com mittee representing the department o f labor o f Illinois, for the many courte sies extended to the association and its members while in the State of Illinois. Resolved , That the secretary o f the association extend to the publicity com mittee of the local committee o f the State department of labor and to the press o f Chicago its thanks for the publicity given to the meetings of the association. Resolved, That the secretary extend in the name of the association the sym pathy of the association and its members to the widow o f the late E. J. Conway, and that the resolution be spread on the minutes and the records o f the association. Resolved, That the secretary o f the association extend the sympathy of the association to Miss Findlay because o f her inability to be present at this meet ing, and also express the wish for her speedy and complete recovery. Resolved , That the secretary extend in the name o f the association its thanks to the United States Department o f Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the many courtesies extended to the association, and particularly for the publica tion o f the proceedings o f the annual meeting. Resolved , That the incoming executive committee be charged with the special duty to provide a constitution for the association. The? executive committee, which formerly consisted o f three mem bers, was, on motion, increased to five members. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President: Charles J. Boyd, Chicago, 111. Past president: E. J. Henning, Washington, D. C. First vice president: A. L. Urick, Des Moines, Iowa. Second vice president: J. J. Burke, Hartford, Conn. Third vice president: R. A. Rigg, Ottawa, Canada. Secretary and treasurer: R. A. Flinn, New York City. Executive committee at large: Joseph Ainey, Montreal, Canada; Elsie Essman, Milwaukee, W is.; Francis I. Jones, Washington, D. C .; T. M. Molloy, Regina, Canada; LUla Walter, Chicago, 111. 1 T his com m ittee decided later to hold the thirteenth annual m eeting of the association Sept. IS, 1925, a t Rochester. N. Y. A C T IN G P R E S ID E N T 'S A D D R E S S BY CHARLES J . BOYD, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT CHICAGO DIVISION, ILLINOIS FREE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, ACTING PRESIDENT While we regret the absence of our president, Hon. E. J. Henning, who is at present in Europe to attend a conference on immigration which is to be held in Naples, Italy, and where 57 countries will be represented, we feel that his mission there is of more importance than being present at this convention. * An act recently passed by the Congress of the United States vitally affects southern and eastern Europe, and particularly Italy. Previous to the passage of such act the statutes relating to immi gration permitted, with some restrictions, admission into the United States of the natives of any country up to 3 per cent of the foreignborn persons of such nationality residing in the United States as shown by the 1910 census. The new law restricts such admissions to 2 per cent of the foreign-born persons of any nationality residing in the United States as shown by the census of 1890. Thus it will be seen that Congress not only lowered the percentage one-third, but also changed the basic census year from 1910 to 1890, which will reduce immigration from southern and eastern Europe almost 90 per cent. Italy’s quota to-day, based upon the 3 per cent limitation and the 1910 census, is upward of 40,000, while under the 2 per cent limitation and the 1890 census its quota would be less than 4,000 per year. You may ask what all this has to do with public employment offices, and the answer is that statistics are constantly being gathered from public employment offices throughout the United States to measure the supply of and demand for labor; that is, the number of persons registering for employment are matched against the number of employers’ orders for help. You can see that we have a very good line on the industrial situation, and our experience tables form a good barometer to guide legislative bodies in the enactment of laws of this kind. The purpose of our annual conventions is to exchange ideas which will stimulate the activities of the employment service. There are many interesting topics on the employment program for this meet ing and also on the program of the Governmental Labor Officials, and there is no doubt that these conventions inculcate new ideas, create good fellowship, give us much favorable publicity, and help us to render better service. This is the real objective toward which we are working. The personnel of the employment offices and the officers of the International Association of Public Employment Services are of as high a type as can be found in any civic or industrial group. Mr. Fred Croxton was president in 1913, when the convention was held in Columbus, Ohio. He was followed by W. F. Hennessy, who held 59213°—25----- 2 3 4 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES office during the 1914-15 period. Then came Charles B. Barnes, who held office until 1918, when the Hon. John B. Densmore, then Director General o f the United States Employment Service, was elected president. Next followed Bryce M. Stewart, who held office until the Toronto convention in 1923, when Hon. E. J. Henning, Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department o f Labor, was elected; and last, but not least, although not holding office in this association, is Hon. Francis I. Jones, present Director General o f the U. S. Em ployment Service, from whom we received splendid cooperation. Looking forward, these conventions will, I am sure, be of very material assistance to the service, while a retrospective view shows that much benefit has been derived by our annual exchange of ideas. The broad scope o f subjects covered at these conventions has been very beneficial, and from whatever angle you may view this subject you can see naught but good accruing to the service through the holding o f these conventions. Our final session is to be held Friday, and whether this convention will go down in history as being o f more importance than preceding ones remains to be seen. Before closing I wish to touch briefly upon our service in this State. In Illinois we maintain offices in 13 important industrial centers, viz: Aurofa, Bloomington, Chicago, Cicero, Danville, De catur, East St. Louis, Joliet, Peoria, Quincy, Rockford, Rock Island, and Springfield, cooperation being maintained among these offices and a clearance system operated as occasion demands. In order to render the largest measure o f service we also cooperate with philan thropic, social, trade-union, and other organizations. The city o f Chicago is one of first importance as an industrial center, a work census showing that there are about one and onequarter million persons engaged in gainful occupations. In supply ing jobs for approximately 110,000 persons a year the Chicago office of the Illinois Free Employment Service, plays no small part, and our work is constantly being expanded. TH E W A ST A G E OF MEN B T ETHELBERT STEWART, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER O F . LABOR STATISTICS Several weeks after I had indicated to President Hall that the subject o f my address to-day would be “ The Wastage o f Men,” I came across an advertisement in the April issue o f The Nation’s Business which reads in part as follow s: In many a concern and many an industry the loss o f a nickel’s worth o f m aterial is a great offense, while the waste o f men is suffered without the bat ting o f an eye. T his is neither logical, humane, nor profitable. W asting men by keeping them at unproductive w ork when machinery w ould do it faster, better, and cheaper is indefensible. The better w ay— the Am erican w ay— is to concentrate men upon productive w ork at better pay and let iron and steel in the form o f material-handUng equipment attend to the m oving o f materials. The results that have been accompUshed in some industries and by some individual concerns should be an inspiration and a chaUenge to others. . H andling m aterial by mechanical means benefits both w orker and employer, permits you to better place your own labor, the dollars invested in labor are m ade to yield a higher dividend, and workers are benefited by being engaged at m ore profitable tasks. ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 5 It would be difficult to find a better statement o f the real indus trial situation to-day. One element, and an important one, is left out of the statement, however, and that is that this wastage of men is a very appreciable part of the cause of the social restlessness of the workers of the world everywhere. The discontent of the world’s workers has its taproot in the fact that workingmen wish to be considered as a part of and not as an implement of society. The next great cause of dissatisfac tion is the feeling that their power and energies are being frittered away, that their life and energy are being exhausted in inconsequen tial and unnecessarily laborious toil. One of America’s early philosophers said that no man could be hired at any wage to carry brick from one side of the road to the other and then carry them back again and then back again and so on for a week at a time. A brother philosopher insisted that he was wrong and that he would furnish him a person who would ac cept that work at a very reasonable wage. The challenge was accepted and a low-grade idiot was produced who agreed to do this wasteful task. But the original quoter of the idea replied, “ I said no man could be hired. This fellow falls very far short of what either you or I had in mind when we say man.” Any of us, in the days when ditches were dug by hand, would have been perfectly willing to take a shovel and go into the mud to dig a ditch for draining a farm or a road, if such a drain were necessary. To-day, with the steam shovel, not one of us would go into such a ditch at any wage, and particularly when for such work the lowest imaginable wages are paid for the longest imaginable working-day. The war ana the wage rates that common labor was able to secure during and since the war have worked a radical change in our ideas of what constitutes the wastage of men. Formerly employers were anxious to secure labor-saving machinery only when it displaced or lessened the amount of really skilled and high-priced labor. When the printers’ union secured a wage rate which for the day and time created consternation and alarm in the minds of the em ployers, inventors went to work to produce a typesetting machine. As a matter of fact, one was invented in 1840, but at that time the wages of printers had not reached a point where the machine was of any particular interest to the employing class. By 1890 they felt differently about it. When the coal miners’ union got the mining rate up to a point where the miner could live and a little more, mining machinery became o f very great interest and was very generally adopted. As the underground labor in the mine became a part of the organization and the wage scale, the mule and his driver and the little bucket on wheels in which he hauled the coal from the face of the working to the mouth of the pit gave way to electrical hauling devices in the mine. ~ WASTE THROUGH EMPLOYMENT OF CHEAP LABOR By the same token the common-labor wage rate of the past six years has turned the attention of the inventor and the superintendent of the factory to the discovery of ways and means for getting greater results from the labor of unskilled men. Up to that time the drudg ery of life had been left to common laborers because such labor was 6 A SSO C IATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES abundant and cheap, but we have come now to the time when we must apply mechanical devices; we must invent machinery, where it is not already invented, to do the kinds o f work that no man should be expected to do and that no man can do and develop his cultural manhood at the same time. A plant in New England employing some 6,000 men is to-day pro ducing more than it did before the war and employing 600 fewer men. Because those whom we are pleased to call “ wops ” and “ hunkeys ” could be secured for 22^ cents an hour for 12 hours a day, they were employed carrying steel ingots from the ingot pile to the hopper of the machine of the initial manufacturing process. To-day a huge crane magnet lifts up a ton o f these ingots by the mysterious power o f magnetism and swings them to where they are needed. One o f these crane magnets will do the work of 60 of the men who formerly carried these ingots on their backs. The “ wops” and “ hunkeys, now being paid $4 a day for 8 hours’ work, are put to a task which is worth that pay and which requires some intelligence, which enables them to have some respect for themselves and to develop some sem blance o f manhood. WASTE THROUGH UNEMPLOYMENT AND LOST TIME Most of us are too far removed from the real workaday world to appreciate the everyday tragedy of human waste. Literally, as well as figuratively, I fear we are coming more and more to listen to the voices of the air rather than to the rumblings of the earth. Our ears are no longer to the ground; we are going crazy with our ear phones and the radio. Nobody seems to care particularly that the f 00,000 men in our coal mines, for instance, are idle more than half of the time. We do not appreciate the human tragedy concealed in the figures which show that if 25 per cent of our better type of coal mines operated 306 days a year, employing 60 per cent o f the men now employed in the industry, they could produce all the coal we could use or export. In other words, an average o f 250,000 men in this industry must be out of work all the time, which means that the entire number of 700,000 are being wasted one-third of the time. The attitude toward work, the industrial habits, the social conduct, engendered by having only two or three days’ work in the week are a part of the social side of our wastage of men. A study of the pay-roll data in the manufacturing industries, which employ 11,000,000 of our population, indicates that the fluctua tion in volume of employment alone spells an average total of 12 months’ unemployment for from 1,500,000 to 1,750,000 o f that total number. O f course, I do hot mean that this number o f individuals are out of work for 12 months, but the average aggregate of idleness or the low percentage o f full employment in various industries amounts to about 1,750,000 persons being idle all the time. This waste is spread, of course, over the entire 11,000,000 employees. Sad to say, this does not take account of such short periods o f idle ness as two or three days, nor does it include the individual loss of time due to sickness, much o f which is preventable, nor the enormous loss of time due to industrial accidents, most of which are prevent able; nor does it take into account the turnover, a subject which in itself would require an evening’s discussion. a s s o c ia t io n o f p u b l i c e m p l o y m e n t s e r v ic e s 7 WASTE THROUGH LABOR TURNOVER I may simply say in passing that the labor turnover in industry is very largely, though not entirely, concerned with the unskilled and semiskilled workers. The turnover is the aggregate of individualistic strikes, usually of unorganized men—strikes against wages which are considered inadequate or labor conditions which are considered in tolerable. Practically all of the labor turnover could be stopped by humanizing the labor conditions and making some effort to get ac quainted with the men. A low estimate of average turnover for industry as'a whole is 30 per cent, which means that probably 3,500,000 men change jobs an average of once a year. The average loss of time between job and job is two weeks. Most of this 7,000,000 weeks of lost time is un necessary and a pure wastage of men. O f course, a very large per centage of those who go to make the turnover change jobs 2, 3, 4, and sometimes 10 times a year. This reduces the number of actual in dividuals involved but does not change the situation as to the indus trial waste. WASTE THROUGH PLANT INEFFICIENCY The difference between the efficient plant and the inefficient plant represents another element of waste. I f the cotton mills of Alabama were as efficient as the cotton mills of New York, 10,514 persons in stead of 13,697 would have produced the textile output of Alabama in 1914; 38,000 instead of 53,000 would have sufficed in North Caro lina; and 25,000 instead of 31,000 in Georgia. We have boot and shoe factories where the output per worker per day is 2 pairs of shoes, and we have boot and shoe factories in which the output per one-man day is 12 pairs of shoes. We have sawmills where the output per one-man hour is 15 board feet, and we have sawmills in which the output per one-man hour is 323 board feet. I f all the sawmills of the United States were as efficient as the average sawmills now in existence, it would require less than one-half the present number of men employed in the industry to produce the total output, while if the highest efficiency—323 board feet per oneman hour—obtained in all the plants, practically 45,000 men could do the work now being done by 292,000 men. I do not mean to say that this standard of efficiency is universally possible. I simply give you these figures to indicate the extent to which we are wasting men. Here in Chicago a brick machine shoots out 49,000 brick per hour, and if all the brick plants of the United States were as efficient as the best brickyards in Chicago, the industry could release 80 per cent of its employees to be utilized by other industries. Taking two brick plants, for instance: Plant A consumed lS y2 hours of one man’s time per thousand brick, as compared with 3.9 hours o f one man’s time in another plant. One plant pays the men whose time they are wasting an average of 17 cents an hour; the other plant pays an average o f 79 cents an hour. Most o f the brickmaking plants in the United States to-day are using precisely the same method as that used in Egypt with the Hebrew slave labor at the time Moses led the great brickyard strike, which I suppose the Egyptian brick manufacturers considered a failure, since the strikers’ places were taken by strike breakers if they were taken at all. 8 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES Most of the successful attempts to stop the wastage o f men have been accomplished by a simple readjustment o f machines, on the one hand, or by means o f either automatic conveyer devices or the instal lation of more efficient trucking and shop transportation methods, on the other hand. One automobile concern which advertised that its material from the time it entered the factory until it became the fin ished product traveled an average o f 3% miles has within the last six months so readjusted its plant that its material travels but 50 feet. A plant in Louisiana which conveyed its product from the factory to the boat by truck has installed a conveyer which carries the material packed in crates across a marsh from the factory to the dock and automatically discharges it into a spiral chute which carries it into the hold of the vessel without its being touched by human hands. By means of this one deviee 4 men are now doing in a few hours each day the work formerly done by 100 men on a 12-hour-day basis. It is admitted by those who have studied the subject without prejudice that this same device is applicable to every dock and every factory in the United States. In the manufacture of pig iron we have blast furnaces in which the time cost is 1 hour and 12 minutes of one man’s time per ton o f pig iron; we have other blast furnaces which require 11 hours o f one man’s time to produce the same result. There can be no real labor shortage while some plants in an industry like this are consuming five times the number of men which would be intelligently required. It is far better to stop wasting men than to let down the immigration bars and flood the country with more men to waste. WASTE IN AGRICULTURE In agriculture the situation is still worse. And right here I want to call your attention to the slogan the new Minister of Agriculture in Mexico has adopted as the motto o f his department: “ Death to the wooden plow.” I f this official succeeds in accomplishing that in Mexico he will have achieved more to elevate Mexico socially, po litically, and industrially than all its political institutions have ever done. I propose to give you some figures upon the wastage o f men in American agriculture which I think will convince you mat while the slogan o f “ Death to the wooden plow ” is not applicable literally to American agriculture, yet it is applicable in spirit. Agriculture per haps has suffered most from economic and industrial inertia. We hear lamentations go up from Georgia that a score of thousands of plows have been piled up and abandoned, never to be used again. I wish you could see those plows. They are not wooden plows, it is true, but Illinois abandoned that type o f plow 55 years ago to my certain knowledge, and not because o f the boll weevil or the exodus o f the negro. I have prepared a table based upon the number o f acres of crops actually harvested in each of the States mentioned. Now, under stand, this does not include all farm lands or even all cultivated lands or even all crops planted, but only the acres actually harvested. This acreage I have divided by the agricultural population as shown by the census, the term “ agricultural population” including all the men, women, and children over 12 years old actually engaged in agri ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 9 cultural pursuits. The same set of figures has been used as a base for each State. I have taken the State of Illinois as the standard or base because I was born and reared in Illinois and know that the agricultural methods o f that State are none too good, or at least could be vastly improved. Yet the acres of crops actually harvested per person classed as belonging to the agricultural population were 45.3 in Illinois. N U M B E R O F A G R IC U L T U R A L W O R K E R S A N D A C R E S H A R V E S T E D (T O T A L A N D P E R P E R S O N ) IN S P E C IF IE D S T A T E S A N D N U M B E R OF P E R S O N S R E Q U IR E D A N D S A V E D IN A G R IC U L T U R A L W O R K IN SU C H S T A T E S ON BASIS O F A C R E A G E H A R V E S T E D P E R P E R S O N IN IL L IN O IS State Number Acres of Total acres har agri vested harvested cultural per workers person Assuming as many acres harvested per person as in Illinois (45.3 acres)— Persons required Alabam a.............................................................................. Connecticut............................................. .......................... Delaware.......................................................... - ................. Florida................................................................................. Georgia................................................................................. Illinois________________ _______________ _____ ______ Indiana............................................................................... Iow a...................................................................................... K entucky............................. *............................................. M aine.................. : .............................................................. M aryland................................................................... ......... Massachusetts.................................................................... M ichigan.................. ...................................- ..................... Mississippi......................................................................... N ew Hampshire................................................................. New Jersey.......................................................................... N ew Y ork ........................................................................... North Carolina............................................................... Ohio................: .................................................................... Pennsylvania...................................................................... Rhode Island.................... .............................................. South Carolina_____ ______ _______ _____ ______ ___ Tennessee____ ____ ______ _________________ _______ Verm ont...................................................................... — Virginia........................................ ......... ........... ............... West Virginia............................................ ........................ Wisconsin............................................................................ 664,647 46,015 22,742 131,449 729,503 447,513 342,971 353,724 452,396 73,331 108,734 67,472 321,877 672,817 34,555 76,068 372,885 602,527 417,461 352,593 11,276 511,240 464,410 48,701 348,926 160,075 296,545 7,202,040 533,516 438,296 1,220,798 9,660,737 20,269,123 11,329,049 20,371,134 6,046,028 1,587,896 1,927,254 652,094 8,194,842 6,158,147 592,976 1,111,300 8,376,072 5,736,176 11,425,822 7,821,702 83,705 5,152,801 6,360,928 1,203,735 4,255,282 1,873,893 8,554,073 Total.......................................................................... 8,132,453 158,139,419 10.8 11.6 19.3 9.3 13.2 45.3 33.0 57.6 13.4 21.7 17.7 9.7 25.5 9.2 17.2 14.6 22.5 9.5 27.4 22.1 7.4 10.1 13.7 24.7 12.2 11.7 28.8 158,985 11,777 9,675 26,949 213,261 447,513 250,089 449,694 133,466 35,053 42,544 14,395 180,902 135,941 13,090 24,532 206,977 126,626 252,226 172,665 1,848 113,748 140,418 26,573 93,936 41,366 188,832 Persons saved 505,662 34,238 13,067 104,500 516,242 92,882 195,970 318,930 38,278 66,190 53,077 140,975 536,876 21,465 51,536 165,908 475,901 165,235 179,928 9,428 397,492 323,992 22,128 254,990 118,709 107,713 19.4 3,513,081 , 4,619,372 i M ore required. As this table shows, the acreage per person in Alabama was 10.8, in Florida 9.3, in Kentucky 13.4, in South Carolina 10.1, in North Carolina 9.5. The average number of acres per person for the United States as a whole was 19.4, as against 45.3 in Illinois and 57.6 in Iowa. I f the agricultural population of Alabama would do as well as that in Illinois, not 664,647 persons, as at present, but only 158,985 would be required for the agricultural occupations in that State, thus saving 505,662 persons in that State alone. On the same basis over half a million would be saved in Georgia, 319,000 in Kentucky, 537,000 in Mississippi, and 476,000 in North Carolina. I f agricul ture throughout the United States was as efficient as it is in Illinois, 4,619,372 persons could be released from this industry alone. The table will reveal other details. 10 A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES Admitting, as I do, every just argument that can be brought against this table because of the difference in crops, difference in soil, and so on, the fact remains that these figures show an enormous waste of our agricultural labor in most o f the States of the Union. “ Death to the wooden plow ” has been proclaimed in Mexico. Let us pile up all o f the plows in these enlightened United States that correspond most nearly-to the wooden plow. When tractors and gang plows have been substituted in the South for the negro and the mule it will be infinitely better for the South and better for the negro. CONCLUSION The drudgeries in our industries which heretofore because o f cheap men have been left to cheapen men must be removed. We must provide a condition o f industry, including agriculture, in which men will feel that their labor is valuable, that what they are dding is worth doing. We can not escape the conclusion that industrial wastage is moral wastage; and I want to emphasize the moral wast age which all this implies. The habit of industry is a moral right. The poet J. G. Holland has well said: O f all the dull dead weights men ever bore None wears the soul with discontent L ike consciousness o f pow er unused. I do not care what kind of power you mean, whether it is the forensic power of the orator to sway the multitude or whether it is the power of the coal miner to get out 10 tons of coal per day 6 days in the week. Nothing so demoralizes a man as to feel that he is being wasted. No man wants to be overworked; no man wants to be driven; but every man, unless his whole moral fiber has been weakened by our slip-shod industries, wants to feel that he is put ting forth the full measure of his ability, whether it is to think, to make shoes, or to saw lumber. This is a part of that self-respect which belongs to a man and which he is entitled to an opportunity to retain through his own efforts. No standard of wages will justify a man’s loss of self-respect, and no methods o f industry will compen sate society for undermining the morale of men. We saw the moral effect of the cost-plus plan upon the workers employed by the costplus contractors, and some of us realize that the workers o f this generation will not get over the moral effect of that system. Now, just one word more. In the South, as a result o f generations o f negro slavery, work, particularly common and unskilled labor, became socially connected with a despised and enslaved race, a race with which no white man would have cared to work for physical reasons, even though to do so would not have placed him on a social level with the slave. White people would not do the work which the colored slaves were supposed to do. Legal slavery is no more. The social, conventional, and industrial condition which it produced did not, however, pass away with the legal enactments which abolished slavery, nor can these conditions be abolished by law. You see colored hodcarriers in the South; you see few white ones. You see very few colored bricklayers in the South, and these seldom work ing on the same building with the white bricklayer. Regret it, deplore it, deny it as we will, a social caste line has been driven through the industrial condition in the South. The oppor ASSOCIATION OP PUBLIC EM PLOYMENT SERVICES 11 tunity for the white boy is correspondingly restricted. He can not start at the bottom. Let us see what the situation is along the same line in the North. In 1870, when the radical expansion of our industries in the United States began, we had a population of 38,000,000, the annual increase of which did not supply sufficient labor for the industrial develop ments then under way. The enormous low-wage immigration that came in during the next generation possibly had much to do with our overdevelopment of industry and with our habit o f wasting men. Our captains of industiy seem to be thoroughly convinced, on the experience of the past generation, that an immigrant with a shovel and a wheelbarrow is cheaper than a steam shovel and a loading crane, and while this is not and never was true, they resent any pro posal to invest large sums of money in machinery to do the work connected in their minds with low-wage immigrants. As the result of this policy common and semiskilled labor is associated in the minds o f the people of the North with what they are pleased to call the “ wop” and the “ hunkey,” precisely as the same class of labor is associated in the South with the negro. Regret it, deplore it, deny it as we will, the fact that common labor has become associated with the idea of the Mexican, the wop, and the hunkey shoots across our industrial life a line of social caste which the American white boy can not, dare not, and will not pass, no matter what your wage rate may be. A ll this talk about the lure of the white collar and the fear of the calloused hands is bosh. We have created a social caste in common labor in the North just as impassable as that in the South. To-day over a million boys, to say nothing of the girls, are annually entering the wage-earning age. They are our own boys, whom we can not afford to waste and who above all things can not afford to be wasted. I submit that it is probably true that we will never stop wasting men so long as we can reach out and get more men to waste. As evidence of this I want to call your attention to the tactics now being employed by certain interests to run in Mexicans, and to the threat that if there are not enough Mexicans they will bring in the Chinese. Let us not deceive ourselves. We have got into the habit of using the labor of cheap men in the hard menial drudgery of industry. It is my judgment that our only industrial, economic, political, social, and moral salvation lies in being forced, if force is necessary, to reform our manufacturing and industrial methods upon a basis of human conservation and helpfulness rather than upon human dete rioration and wastefulness. SO M E USE S O F E M P L O Y M E N T S T A T IS T IC S BY R. D. C AH N , CHIEF STATISTICIAN GENERAL ADVISORY BOARD, ILLINOIS DEPART MENT OF LABOR One good thing about a streak of bad luck is that it stimulates ingenuity. Plagues have provided the incentive to research that led to medical discoveries. In some States we have free employment offices dating from the nineties, developed as treatment for the unem ployment disease. The crisis of 1893 probably focused attention on 59213°— 25----- 3 12 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SEBVICES the ailment. So have other crises. The only current unemployment statistics—that is, unemployment statistics as distinguished from employment statistics—the Massachusetts series, dates from 1908. We credit this development to the panic of 1907. Industry was in the dumps in 1913-14, and June, 1914, is the date of the beginning of employment statistics in the State of New York. What is to be said of the crisis of 1921? Certainly it stimulated the imagination of many people, and numerous plans for the pre vention or alleviation of unemployment were devised. True, due to our shortsightedness, little has been done to carry the plans into prac tical operation. Our attitude about unemployment has been like that o f the man whose house has a hole in the roof. When it rains he can not fix the hole, and when it does not there is no need for fixing it. But though we do forget readily, a few permanent results, both from the relief and the prevention point of view, remain from our 1921 experience. On the alleviation side we have at least a record of the measures used in the localities which organized to attack the problem. The Bussell Sage Foundation sent an investigator, Dr. Philip Klein, about the country to observe what measures were taken in selected communities. Doctor Klein stood by and watched what the various communities did under stress, and his observations are set forth in his book, The Burden of Unemployment. We thus have a brief compendium of the measures taken in 1921. I f in 1928 times get hard in Bichmond, you can consider what Evanston, Schenec tady, and Atlanta did in 1921 when the situation was ‘identical. Emphasizing the prevention side, there was the President’s Con ference on Unemployment. One o f the recommendations o f that conference was that there should be developed employment statistics. Miss Mary Van Kleeck was chosen to develop plans and put them into operation, and to her splendid work is doubtless due the fact that employment statistics have been developed to their present state in a number of localities. We now have monthly employment statistics in New York, Wis consin, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Maryland, Iowa, California, and Illinois, where the figures are collected by the States; in Pennsyl vania, New Jersey, and Delaware, where the figures are collected by the Philadelphia Federal Beserve Bank; and in Michigan, Iowa, and Indiana, where the figures are collected by the Federal Beserve Bank o f Chicago. In addition, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has extended its survey marvelously. It gathers reports in all the area not covered by the States and in those States which have not qualified for cooperation with the Federal bureau. By employment statistics is meant statistics taken from pay rolls and reported by employers at monthly intervals. In all but one or two States the employer reports both earnings and employment. The very pertinent questions which this paper attempts to answer are, “ What uses do employment statistics serve? Why the recom mendation of the President’s conference? Why is it a proper ex penditure of public funds to collect and publish employment sta tistics?” In the past the uses that have been pointed to emphasize the utility to the business man. True, employment statistics must be of value to him or else he would be unwilling to fill out a questionnaire ASSO CIATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 13 each month, and these uses will be covered later. But the foremost use of employment statistics, as I conceive it, is to provide the work ingman with authentic information about the shifting state o f industry. The economists defend the speculator on the ground that through his operations on the board of trade prices are equalized through out a season, which in turn means a uniform use of an available supply. He sees to it that as to a few commodities and for society in general not only the future is not sacrificed by overfeeding in the present, but also undue parsimony is not practiced now, with glut tony and waste at the season’s end. But every individual has to make decisions anticipating the future in something the same way that the speculator does. On April 19, the Saturday before Easter, John Doe, a Chicago workingman, looks at his last season’s spring suit and his felt hat. He asks himself these questions: “ Shall I buy a new suit and hat for the fashion parade to-morrow? How much can I afford to give the wife for her Easter outfit ? What can I afford to spend on the kiddies ? Shall I sign up with the landlord at the $5 increase or move to a cheaper apartment on May 1?” John has been steadily employed during the past two or three years. His income has been coming in regu larly. He has saved a little. But what are the prospects ? He can afford the suit if conditions continue as at present, if his job is steady. But what is the drift of things? He remembers that in 1920 he wore silk shirts and later had to use oleomargarine and to walk the streets looking for a job. The economic law of diminishing return tells us that the greatest human happiness comes from the most uniform use of the available supply. But to apportion wisely one has to look ahead. What has the future in store? What is the present trend? The Illinois Department of Labor, or the part of it which I represent, conceives it to be its duty to advise John Doe in this matter. Not that the department has gone into the soothsaying business, but its aim is to make a monthly survey of the industrial situation in the State and in the principal communities of the State by thoroughly scientific methods. The other States heretofore named are doing the same thing. But our purposes do not stop here. We aim to analyze the situation in the light of the facts, and then to publish an analysis that will be read and can be understood by the layman—a careful analysis, but one that can be understood by anyone who can read. Our story each month of the industrial con ditions in Illinois has been printed in every newspaper in the State. We are shooting at all the people of the State and not the 25 or 30 members of the American Statistical Association in Illinois. We have just as much interest in telling the Herrin miner and Kockford cabinetmaker about the drift of things as we have in supply ing that information to the La Salle Street banker. But we have found that a release that is understandable to the man with horny hands is not objectionable to the other fellow. On the contrary, he welcomes that quality in a statistical story. In short, our pla£ is not to wait for Babson and the Harvard economic service to pick up our tables and analyze them for us. In fact, we conceive it to be the principal purpose and use of employment statistics to supply the people in general, and not alone those who have studied eco- 14 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES nomics, with a fresh, timely, simple statement of the way the in dustrial winds are blowing. We think that enables the working man to arrange his affairs with understanding. I f times are im proving, he may safely incline toward liberality. I f things are on the down grade, conservatism will enable him to be prepared for coming emergencies. There are people who do not sympathize with this point of view— good citizens, some of them, too. In 1922 industry was beginning to pick up in Illinois. That was clearly shown in the employment reports. We issued a statement to the press setting forth the change in the situation. No sooner were the newspapers containing the story"* on the streets than a well-intentioned but misguided gentleman rushed breathless into my office and asked to have the story killed. “ Why,” said he, “ if information gets out that things are improving in Illinois, unemployed people will rush to Illinois cities from all over the country and complicate the unemployment problem.” That gentleman was politely told that we would not do it, that we were doing a scientific job of acquainting the public with the facts, and that we were dreadfully sorry he did not like the facts, but we would do no coloring or shading for his cause or that of anyone else. Another instance of the same sort arose two weeks ago when a representative of an advertising agency asked us to “ soft pedal” the news about declining employment. He said that publishing the true situation would hurt business. The very fact that there are people who are trying to spread false impressions, because such im pressions will best serve their interests, makes it doubly necessary that an impartial agency such as a State labor department give cor rect information. I f such information leads to migration of workers from one area to another, one or both of the areas may have cause for complaint, but the real welfare of society is promoted by this redistribution of labor on the basis of facts. In serving this popular need the scientific point of view must not be sacrificed. It has been the aim of the Department of Labor of Illinois in publishing such statistics to comply with the highest statistical standards. When preliminary standards were developed by the committee on labor statistics of the American Statistical Association, they were complied with readily by the Illinois depart ment. The exacting requirements of the United States Bureau of •Labor Statistics have been followed and our statistics adjusted so that the United States bureau does not collect statistics on employ ment in Illinois, but accepts directly reports collected by the Illinois Department of Labor. A great deal of emphasis has been placed upon the value of em ployment statistics as a measure of production. The volume of employment does indicate with a considerable degree of accuracy the trend of production. In many industries the amount produced is shown pretty clearly by the number of workers on the pay roll. However, this serves but little in such an industry as mining, where the fluctuation is not in the number of employees on the pay roll but in the amount of actual payments made. For this purpose the employment index is not so good as the index of earnings, but both an employment index and an earnings index are produced as a result of'the collection of the statistics known as employment statistics. ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 15 When a firm finds it necessary to expand production and utilize more man power, it may do so by giving regular employment each day to its workers, it may work the existing force overtime, or it may add more workers. To the extent that changes in operations result in firing or laying off workers, the shifting production sched ules have a barometer in the number of employees. I f the firm has a large number of skilled workers or a very high degree of season ality, it will probably be without an idle reserve and will have to rely upon its existing working forces. Accordingly, when times are dull staggered schedules are used, rotating employees in jobs, or a shorter number of hours per day, and when things pick up steady work and then overtime will be the rule. So far, then, as the changes in production mean more or less work for an existing body of workers, the changes will be reflected in average earnings, and in such cases the course of employment is shown more clearly in the fluctuations in the average earnings than in the course of employ ment. There is a figure, however, that combines the two; that is, fluctuations in the number of workers and fluctuations in regularity of work. That figure is the total amount of pay roll. It also regis ters changes in the basic rates of earnings, but, as we have no way of correcting our figures for such changes, any such interpretation must be made by the persons using the figures. As a result of the recent contest held by the J. Walter Thompson Co., another use of employment statistics has been indicated. In August, 1922, this advertising concern offered three prizes for essays on the question of a statistical index of the purchasing power of consumers in the United States. The first prize of $1,500 was won by Dr. William Berridge, assistant professor of economics at Brown. Doctor Berridge demonstrated that the best index of the purchasing power of working people was to be found in the index of the incomes of factory workers. He showed that the New York State Depart ment of Labor statistics of earnings collected in connection with its employment statistics measured the purchasing power of the con sumers. In his study Doctor Berridge demonstrated the fact that people buy most when they have the most money to spend, a thing naturally to be expected. But through employment statistics it is possible to observe the trend of earnings and how business is likely to be in a coming season, and merchants may regulate their pur chases accordingly. Manufacturers can regulate their scale of pro duction in the same way. When employment statistics were instituted by the New York State Department of Labor they were published m a bulletin, and in the analysis presented the emphasis was always placed upon the information as to the state of the labor market. While the figures relate only to factories, New York is distinctly a manufacturing State, and the extent to which manufacturers are adding to or re ducing the number of their workers is certainly a good indication of the state of the labor market. Of course, it gives "an indication of the state of the labor market from only one side; that is, the demand side; it does not give any indication of the extent to which workers are being shifted to other industries. Doubtless the rela tionship of orders to available help in the indexes supplied by the operations of the free employment offices supplies for the field cov 16 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES ered a better indication of the labor market. Nevertheless, the employment index does give an indication of the condition or the labor market that manufacturers as well as organized workers use. During the period in 1922 when wage rates were being revised up ward there was a great deal of interest shown in the employment curve by the organizations both of the employers and the workers. In the higgling going on in the labor market the bargainers turned to the.employment curve as an index of the situation. Probably one of the most valuable services of employment sta tistics is to furnish information as to the unemployment situation and to provide a basis for correcting that situation. In a State that is almost exclusively manufacturing, when workers are being laid off it generally means that the number of unemployed is being added to. But while i f is true that there is a certain degree of industrial and geographical mobility—that is, that workers are having recourse to other industries and other localities—to a very large extent workers are rooted to the place where their jobs are; their homes are there and their families are there. In many areas the range of employment is quite narrow, and in such a situation workers may to a certain extent seek employment elsewhere, and so the number of workers on farms may increase during periods of industrial depression. Probably as accurate a key as can be given is given by the employment curve. Estimates of the number of unemployed have been made upon this basis which probably have a rough degree of accuracy. The President’s Conference on Unemployment could not find a better basis for regular measurement of the unemployment situation than employment statistics such as the State of New York collects. The committee on labor statistics of the American Statis tical Association, o f which Miss Van Kleeck was chairman, went into the subject and decided that the thing to be recommended for gen eral use was employment statistics. And if employment statistics do furnish a rough measure of the unemployment situation, they furnish an index that can be used as a basis xor the application of the remedies for unemployment. As Miss Van Kleeck said in her chapter on “ Charting the curve of employment” in her volume Business Cycles and Unemployment: I f public works are to be pushed forward in dull periods, it is necessary not only to know that dull periods recur at more or less regular intervals but also to note at any one moment whether the curve of employment is going down or up or whether the program o f road building should be expanded or contracted. Remedies for the unemployment evil are based upon knowing when unem ployment recurs. To review, the gathering of employment statistics is justified on the following grounds: 1. A State has an obligation to its people to keep them informed of the industrial trend. Much that is published is calculated to deceive. I f people are to make provision against adversity, they can do so better if they know when one form of adversity, unem ployment, is coming. Private agencies can not be depended upon to supply the information scientifically. Therefore the State is the logical agency to furnish the information. 2. Employment statistics are needed because they furnish a meas ure of the state of production. The difficulties private agencies ASSOCIATION OF P U BLIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 17 have in collecting such statistics prevent them from providing in formation which is either dependable or of public utility. 3. Employment statistics give an indication of the state of the labor market. 4. Employment statistics should be used to provide information as to the extent of unemployment and for applying measures for the prevention or relief of unemployment. It is because of these various services that many agencies agree that States should undertake that function. Already at least eight States are undertaking the task, most of them in cooperation with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Federal Reserve Board now considers the employment index such an accurate basis of industrial activity that it has expended some money upon a study made by Doctor Berridge, and such employment statistics as are available have been plotted in a curve. We may credit to the crisis in 1921 the development of statistics in the States that already have begun the work. Other States, which may have representatives here, have an obligation to undertake employment statistics so as to complete the present gaps in such statistics. IN TERVIEW ING TH E A PP L IC A N T FOR W ORK BY BICHARD A. FLINN, CHIEF, DIVISION OF EMPLOYMENT, NEW YORK STATE DEPART MENT OF LABOR The task of training an inexperienced placement worker to become an efficient interviewer is not easy. The instructor is often handi capped at the start because of the views which his pupil has absorbed from something he has either read or heard on the subject of inter viewing. The pupil is often not open to argument, being found at one extreme or the other. He has been persuaded that the work of fitting the man to the job is either an exact science, and depends on the color of a man’s hair and the shape of his nose, or else that it is merely a problem of individual judgment and that no general prin ciples can be applied. After observing the methods of many em ployment-office interviewers in various States, I have concluded that the interviewer is most successful in fitting the right man to the job when he systematically follows definite principles and methods and supplements them with his knowledge of industrial conditions, par ticularly in their special relation to the individual applicant. In general, there is no great difference in the standards to be followed in interviewing men or women, skilled or unskilled work ers. What, then, are the essential qualifications for a good inter viewer? They are: 1, courtesy; 2, willingness; 3, knowledge of human nature; 4, familiarity with industrial conditions; 5, ability to record data. Courtesy in employment interviewing means far more than the official politeness of a public officer to a taxpayer. You probably felt uncomfortable before the election clerk when he publicly re corded your name, age, and occupation. How, then, can you expect the applicant to give you before the listening crowd the details of his earnings, family, etc.? The census reports and the income-tax returns are rightfully confidential documents. The very arrange ment of the office quarters must express courtesy. Suitable signs 18 ASSO CIATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES should direct the applicants to the proper desks, so that both the better type and the backward persons alike may not become dis couraged and walk out before being interviewed. Applicants should be interviewed in turn and promptly. I f the size of floor space will permit, the applicant should be seated opposite the interviewer’s desk, which should be sufficiently distant from the crowd to permit a private interview. The average worker is frankly skeptical of the ability of the placement man to obtain the right job for him. Until his confidence is gained, there can be little successful placement work. When he realizes, however, that the questions are being asked not for red-tape reasons nor to get him merely any old job, but in a real effort to get him a better position than he has ever had, then he tells the story of his industrial life, page by page. Each chapter is summarized and recorded on the registration card, so that all his valuable experience may not be left to the memory of the interviewer, but recalled regularly, whenever an employer needs that type of worker. Even though the interviewer has no immediate job for the applicant, he should send him away with a smile. I f you are dis courteous to one hungry, disappointed jobless man, he can do so much harm to the public-employment service that it will not be offset by the successful placement of scores of applicants. Willingness travels alongside of courtesy. A good interviewer never dodges extra jobs, difficult assignments, or overtime work. He arrives early in order to get the men promptly to work or on board a certain train. When the employer telephones during the late afternoon for a worker to be on the job the next morning, the willing interviewer promptly goes througn his files, selects the best prospects, and telephones until he locates one for the job. Knowledge of human nature is- in many respects a talent. Some interviewers can tell at a glance, or after a short conversation, whether an applicant is a reliable or a shiftless worker; whether he is a real mechanic or a “ butcher ” ; and whether or not he is giving his true trade record. Much of this knowledge of men may be acquired by experience and by a careful study of racial types and trade groups. The interviewer soon learns to classify the applicant as energetic or lazy, aggressive or meek, agreeable or troublesome, careful or careless, and capable or incompetent. The successful interviewer always bears in mind that the unsatisfactory applicant before him is not there out of curiosity. No matter how incompe tent he may be, it is a fact that he has worked and has been paid wages, and he must work if he is to live honestly. The skillful interviewer will find some employment for him similar to his pre vious work, with an employer who is not too exacting. In order to find that employment it is necessary for the interviewer to know thoroughly the industrial conditions m his community. Familiarity with industrial conditions means much more than a nodding acquaintance with the location of the principal manufac turing plants of a city. Of the many interviewers who have been successful in fitting tne right man to the job, there is one who is among the best. Basing my remarks upon his experience, I offer these suggestions: 1. Learn the principal industries of your city and the various kinds of mechanics they employ; for example, machinists, molders, millwrights, pipe fitters, etc. ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 19 2. Gradually acquire some knowledge of the requirements and duties of each position. Spend every spare hour in factories and observe the men at work; watch the operation of the various ma chines, and note the degree of skill required to do the work. 3. Ascertain the wages paid and compare them with those of other factories doing similar work. 4. Note the cleanliness and ventilation; the service and welfare program, and the policy of the company in dealing with its em ployees. Knowledge of these matters greatly assists the interviewer not only in his selection of the best job for the applicant but also in his handling of former employees who claim to have been unjustly discharged or who have quit apparently for cause. 5. Make as many personal contacts as you can with employment managers and foremen, and call to see them as often as possible. The interviewer referred to spends three hours every day in visits, and he has a regular calling day for nearly every employer, whom he visits once or twice a month. I f the interviewer always remembers that his work is to select for the applicant not merely the job which he is competent to fill but one with which the worker is satisfied, he will then really fit the right man to the job. Try always to place him in work which pays good wages, is reasonably steady, and with satisfactory work ing conditions. This is the test of good placement work. Usually the efficiency of an interviewer can be rated by the length of time an applicant remains in the job for which he was selected. * The ability to record data is one of the most important qualifica tions of a good interviewer. Not only is placement work performed more quicldy and efficiently when a man’s industrial experience is completely recorded on his registration card, but excellent jobs are found for men who would not have been considered for the work if certain details of their experience had been omitted. An appli cant’s card should contain the names of the machines and tools which he can use, the various types or classes of v^ork which he has done with these tools, and the jobs which he can do or likes best. Many of the best jobs are filled by applicants who have been selected not from the waiting crowd but from the files. When a good interviewer receives an order in the afternoon, and has no suitable applicant, he does not leave it on his desk to await the morning rush. He imme diately goes to his occupation file, selects the most competent appli cants, and summons them by telephone or by mail. Morning comes, and with it a swarm of applicants as well as the selected worker. He is sent to the job. There is no time wasted in weeding the best man out of the crowd. The selection had previously been made with care and deliberation. The men realize then that a registration card is worth while. Compare the work of this progressive interviewer with that of the lazy placement worker with set notions on how to fill the jobs. When a call for workers is received in the afternoon, he does not think it worth while to send for an applicant when he has mysterious advance information that the right man will apply the following morning. The interviewer is indiscreet and calls out the job to the assembled work seekers. Ten or twenty claim that they are master workmen. The interviewer wastes half an hour making a selec59213°— 25------ 4 20 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES tion, and the unlucky applicants are often disgruntled as well £s discouraged, particularly if the man selected has no registration card on file. The many difficulties encountered, not only in persuading the applicant to give the particulars of his experience, but also in having some interviewers record all those facts on his registration card remind me of a negro story I recently heard. Brother Jackson called to see Johnson and said: “ Brother Johnson, does you all still refuse to pay me the two dollars I loaned you a long, long time ago ? ” “ No, suh,” replied Brother Johnson, “ I doesn’t refuse, I just refrains.” And so it is in placement work. Personal pride or lack of con fidence cause the applicant to refrain from telling some detail of his former wages and experience. Because they do not realize the value of this experience record or because they are careless, many interviewers refrain from recording these facts. I f the interviewer will constantly keep in mind that the difference between routine work and exceptional work may mean obtaining a good job for a man so that he can pay his rent, feed and clothe his family, and keep his children from an institution, he will often be more* thorough in his work. HOW TO INTEREST BUSINESS IN THE SERVICE OF PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES BY OTTO W . BEACH, CHIEF, DIVISION OF LABOR STATISTICS, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS OF OHIO With so many representatives of the International Association of Public Employment Offices present, representing many States in the Union and Canada, I feel that the subject assigned me is one in which all present, as well as those who were unable to be repre sented, are vitally interested, and also one entitled to receive earnest consideration and discussion at this and all future conventions of this association. Without the interest of business or employer, little can be accomplished; cooperation with the employer is essential to make the public employment service the success it deserves. Before proceeding to a discussion of the subject assigned me a brief statement of the activities of the employment service and the purpose for which it was organized may be in order. It is more than 25 years since the first public employment office was put into operation through legislation presented by men who believed that it is the duty or the Government, State and municipal, to put the employee in contact with the employer who wants a man or woman for some particular trade or profession and to secure for the em ployer the necessary contact with the man or woman seeking work. These men sought to eliminate the abuses of some private em ployment agencies, properly to distribute farm labor in agricultural States, and to give to workers and employers information as to where the worker can find the job he is best fitted for and the employer can secure the help he wants. The idea was to furnish clearing houses for labor; to bring work and the worker together with the least delay. It might be said by some to-day that the operations of public em ployment offices are not what they should be, and I agree with ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 21 them to some extent, but they are much better than they were, and will become better as we go forward and show the public who must pay for their functioning by taxes, and rightly so. The person seeking work, be he laborer, mechanic, or professional, as well as business, pays the taxes, and therefore should receive the benefit of the service. There are some thoughtful people who see no necessity for em ployment offices, believing that every able-bodied man or woman is able to find his own work. In one of our offices in Ohio a man who was a cabinetmaker was seeking work as such. After several weeks of search he finally came upon a sign in a window which fur nished him the information that a cabinetmaker was wanted. After walking back and forth and reading that sign, he lost his nerve and would not meet the employer. He then decided to visit the public employment office to see if it had the job listed. It so hap pened that it was not listed, but the superintendent gave him an introduction card and the man secured the job; he was a very efficient worker and the employer was well satisfied. This shows that the man was somewhat timid, but made a good workman after the job was secured, and the public employment office performed the duty for which it was organized. Another illustration is that of a communication sent to one of the newspapers in the city in which we are assembled by a working girl seeking employment. She wrote the following letter: For the last 10 days I have been going to the Loop every day to look for work. I am there at 8 o'clock in the morning; I look for work until 11. From 11 to 12 is the lunch period in most big establishments, and it is useless to try to see anybody at that time. My lunch in a cafeteria gives me a rest of 15 or 20 minutes; then I am back again on the sidewalk. The chase from building to building during the morning and the constant dodging of automobiles tires me. Is there a place when I can go to rest up? The girl in question does not concern us so much as her method of seeking employment. Think of the waste of time and energy and the discouragement in going from door to door to ask if any help is needed. She had been doing this for 10 days without success, and the significant thing about her search for work is that the demand for woman workers is generally greater than the supply and that this was in the busy month of July during a fairly prosperous year. What must be the waste and discouragement of male workers whose labor is not so much in demand. The public employment service is still in its infancy; systemati cally organized, it will perform the duties required so that wageearners and vacant positions meet. We may find that there is. an oversupply of labor in one place and a shortage in another; that some occupations are overcrowded while others have not a sufficient supply. An organized market for labor is needed for the same reason that other markets are organized—to eliminate waste; to facili tate exchanges; to bring the supply and the demand quickly together; to develop the efficiency that comes from specialization and a proper division of labor. A good manufacturer may be a poor man at get ting business, and many good workmen are poor hands at finding jobs. There are perhaps many ways to interest business in the public employment service. Every State may have different methods 22 ASSO CIATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES which may be used. I submit for your consideration and discus sion, however, several methods that can be applied and are used to some extent. There are several that could be used, providing suffi cient appropriation would be available to the department which has to do with employment. First of all, we must convince employers that the service is an essential factor in industry, a place where he can secure competent employees, that his wants for help will receive attention quickly, and that the personnel in the employment offices will be competent in referring workers to him. Many times it is found that a work man can be placed to better advantage through the service than by the employer directly, because men and women registered with the service can be placed nearer to their homes, eliminating time and money spent in transportation to and from work, and doing away, to a great extent, with the turnover, which is very expensive to the employer of labor. It can be safely said that the employer will patronize the service if he is convinced that through his co operation this may be accomplished. We find that a very effective way to interest business is to have the working forces in the different offices so organized that they will have time to establish days for visitation. In this way the employer is made acquainted with the service in every detail. This is slow work, however, because the time necessary to interview the employer is limited. Also where the working force of an office is small, no one can be spared to interview employers; the superin tendent is required to do much of the detailed office work, when most of his time should be utilized in bringing business into the service. The service may use the medium of advertising in newspapers and farm journals within the State. All of you are aware that private agencies do extensive advertising. When the employer is in need of help or the employee is seeking a position, they consult the ads in the newspapers. The public employment service should therefore bring it to the attention of business that it can secure the help desired free of charge on short notice, and also that the em ployee can be placed in profitable employment without any cost to him. . Employment statistics, which should be sent to all employers of labor, newspapers, and other agencies interested in employment, will play a great part in interesting business. Many employers do not give these statistics the consideration they should. Large plants, however, many of which have an employment department, preserve these statistics, mostly to keep in touch with labor conditions as they change from time to time. In my opinion, local statistics from the service will interest the employer, and especially the smaller employer, more than statistics sent out from other points in which his attention is called to the local service; being closer to the local office, he naturally expects his wants to be satisfied through it. It is found, however, that this will add much to the work of the smaller offices, and in most instances they are already overburdened with duties. There should. be larger appropriations from available sources to improve the service, to advertise, and to produce the proper statistics to interest the em ployer. ASSOCIATION OP P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 23 In Ohio there is now published by the Department of Industrial Relations and Industrial Commission of Ohio a monthly bulletin, Industrial Relations, which prints the activities of the employment service, which is a part of that department. A considerable amount of space is given the service. This bulletin is sent to employers in Ohio, giving them informa tion which could not be obtained by them through other channels. This bulletin will bring greater results in the future. We con template using it to advertise our service by articles appearing each month. The location and telephones of the different offices in cities where the service is operating are given. This will keep constantly before the employer the service he can secure without much difficulty, that his overhead can be reduced, and that his turn over can be eliminated to a great extent by applying direct to the public office. The employer must know that the many private agencies extract large fees from the workers, which at times causes considerable trouble to both the employer and the employee, and that the multiplication of employment agencies merely makes more places for the worker to look for work, and the more places there are the more the chances are that the man and the job will miss each other. The competition amongst agencies keeps them from exchanging lists, and an applicant for work may register at one agency while another might have a job which fits him. The public service, on the contrary, will exchange lists with the other offices within the State and with those in other States through the United States Employment Service, so that the applicant may be sent to the job where he fits. These facts should be printed from time to time for the considera tion and information of the employer. When business understands these facts it will give more attention to the public employment offices. Once the principle and methods established are made known to the employer, it is an easy matter to increase the business and draw trade from private agencies. The latter are seldom careful in the selection of applicants, and when employers learn the methods em ployed by the State offices they prefer to patronize them. Wage earners, too, will begin to come to the public offices in greater numbers as they see the calls for help at the free offices increasing. They soon learn that at a factory gate they have but one chance to get work while at the public employment offices there may be many. When employers are convinced that free offices are active and ener getic in gathering and distributing information about jobs they re fuse to pay labor agents for this information. Labor agents who supply employers with labor many times come to the public offices, for there they know the labor needed can be found. It is necessary that the employer be made acquainted with all these facts. The public employment service may thus be made known to busi ness through different channels, such as advertising in newspapers and farm journals, by published statistics, daily, weekly, and monthly reports, bulletins, news items, and other avenues. A better way, however, to bring to the attention of the employer the public employment service is by personal contact by men and women who are competent and familiar with every detail of the service going to the employer and giving him the many reasons why he should 24 ASSOCIATION OB* P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES patronize the service. It is just as essential to have salesmen to sell the service as it is to have a salesman to sell any other thing of value. From experience we find that employers often refuse to talk to officials o f the public service because of former experiences. When the employer is told, however, that our service is free to both the employer and the employee he becomes interested and invariably will discuss our service. What we may call the sales force requires, of course, additional appropriation xrom available sources, which is quite difficult to secure because of the many other burdens carried by the several States and municipalities. It is the most efficient way of increasing the service and acquainting the employer with the aims and objects for which the same was organized. In conclusion, I believe the service is the greatest service that can be rendered anyone, and when the employer is convinced that the same is efficient and that his wants will be satisfied the service will receive more attention from the employer. I can vision the public employment service in America becoming greater and greater and serving to the fullest extent every citizen therein. H O W THE PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICE MEETS TH E NEEDS IN ONTARIO BY H. C. HUDSON, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT ONTARIO SERVICE OF CANADA OFFICES, EMPLOYMENT In speaking to you on the subject which has been assigned to me I am inclined to amend the topic to read “ How the public employ ment service in Ontario attempts to meet the needs.” We are proud of our service, naturally, but we are by no means blind to its short comings. I shall, accordingly, dwell briefly on our successes and our failures, endeavoring to leave plenty of time for the discussion, which so often surpasses the papers, so far as practical value is concerned. The Ontario offices o f the Employment Service of Canada con stitute one unit—the biggest numerically—in the chain which ex tends from the Atlantic to the Pacific, all working harmoniously toward the development o f a better day in public employment prac tice. For the information of those of you who are unfamiliar with our plan of cooperation between Federal and provincial authorities in Canada, I may say that the Dominion Government pays a large proportion o f the cost of operating provincial employment services, but demands no direct control over their administration beyond the right to ask for uniform methods o f procedure in the matter of record keeping and regular reports regarding employment conditions in the district covered by each office. The function o f the entire system of public employment offices is, of course, to bring together, with the minimum of delay and expense, employers seeking help and applicants seeking work. In the Province of Ontario we have 25 o f the 78 offices which make up the Employment Service o f Canada. A distance o f over 1,300 miles separates some of these offices, which are located as far west as Port Arthur and Fort William, as far north as the gold mines o f Timmins, and as far east as Ottawa. Industrially, then, ASSOCIATION OF P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 25 there is the greatest possible variety in the work covered by the offices, but the same principle of courtesy and service is faithfully adhered to by all. It is not my intention to make any comparisons between the personnel o f Canadian and United States services, but I do wish to pay this public tribute to the loyal and efficient service rendered by the 90-odd men and women who constitute the personnel of the Ontario employment offices. I have sketched our organization to furnish you with an impres sionistic picture of our service. May I now proceed to outline, briefly, the manner in which we try, in Ontario, to meet the needs, first, of employers; second, of applicants; and last, but by no means least, the general public. So far as the employer is concerned, the first consideration nat urally is to let him know that you have something which he requires, namely, capable and efficient workers. Regular calls by canvassers in Toronto serve to keep our employers informed as to the service we are able to render them. In other cities and towns where scouts, or canvassers, are not employed, local office superintendents make personal visits to the employers at intervals, depending upon the individual circumstances in each case, while a systematic telephone canvassing plan is also part of our regular procedure. The second consideration in meeting the employers’ needs is care ful selection. This all-important topic will have full consideration by another speaker, but I can not overlook this opportunity of stating as my personal opinion that careless selection is the rock on which our employment bark is most likely to founder, while careful selec tion may be the lighthouse to guide us into the harbor o f relatively perfect public employment service. Closely connected with the question of selection is the question of familiarity with the work which employers have to offer. We can not be experts in every line of industrial activity; but if we visit the plants to which we as employment-office superintendents are con stantly sending men, we can at least grjisp the fundamental require ments incident to the various operations, with a consequent improve ment in our ability to select the right type of worker. In Ontario superintendents and members of the office staffs are encouraged to pay fairly frequent visits to the firms they are serving, having this question of familiarity in mind. The clearance function further assists us in meeting the needs of employers. There is a constant ebb and flow of workers from point to point in Ontario as climate or industrial conditions necessitate, and this flow is now largely controlled by the employment service, instead of being a mad scramble based on garbled or otherwise incorrect press dispatches. The saving of time, energy, and money which has resulted from the inauguration of the clearance system would, in my opinion, quite justify the cost of the employment serv ice even if no other good had resulted from its establishment. I f time permitted, I should like to tell you in some detail the method followed in recruiting men for lumbering operations and for railway and other construction projects. I can state, however, that employers have found, somewhat to their surprise possibly, that their needs can be met more efficiently by salaried employment-office offi cials than by fee-charging agencies, and that overtime work and 26 ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES extra duties are cheerfully assumed by officials who are impelled only by their desire to improve the service. The applicant and his needs remain for our consideration. What the applicant desires and has a right to expect is, first, a courteous reception and? second, an interview which will bring out in some detail his training, experience, and general qualifications for the particular position which he is seeking or some alternative work within the scope o f his abilities. The third requirement of the applicant is full details with regard to the job or jobs available for him. We in the service are not merely making records and entries on a form when we send a man to a jo b ; we are linking him up with his means of livelihood, creating new social contacts for him—in short, helping to affect his whole future. He is entitled, therefore, to all the information we have available, whether the job is local or out of town, although in the latter in stance he has a right to expect even more than in the former. In our work we sincerely try to keep the foregoing principles in mind. Finally, we meet the needs of the general public by providing interested individuals, organizations, or authorities with reliable data regarding employment and industrial conditions. The offices make daily and weekly reports not only covering the transactions each day so far as registrations and placements are concerned, but also covering their districts thoroughly, forecasting as far as possible probable needs for labor, so that the necessary steps may be taken to take up the slack between different sections of the Province. An employment bulletin, which is mimeographed and sent out weekly, provides its readers with an index which they may utilize as they see fit. Newspaper publicity, carefully handled, is the final way in which we in Ontario endeavor to meet the needs of employers, applicants, and our old friend, the general public. P U B LICITY FO R TH E IJUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICE B Y LLEW ELLYN ROGERS, SUPERINTENDENT JOLIET OFFICE, ILLIN OIS FREE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE I am young in the service compared with some of those who are participating in this program, but I have been in the service long enough to know that it gives me two privileges: First, to be able to assist some poor fellow in finding a job and in many cases to bring back his self-respect; and, second, to be able to assist an employer in need o f suitable help for the factory, the mine, the farm, or the office. The command in the Bible given by the Great Man o f Galilee is “ to work.” He said, “ My Father worketh, and I also work,” and commanded us to do likewise. No man can be happy without working, but sometimes it is not easy for a man or a woman to find suitable work, and the function of the free employment agencies in this country is to try to find work that the person out o f a job will like and can accomplish. The best way, even if less rapid, is to continue as we are, working one with the other to give the public the best service, which means sending the right man to the right job, with the greatest care and ASSOCIATION OF P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 27 dispatch possible. The policy of the service is, as you know, “ Better fill one job and fill it right than fill a dozen with undesirable men.v Our object is to please the plant executives as well as the applicants. The chief difficulty with the paid agencies, as you know, is not that they fail to fill orders, but, rather, that they fill too many. This is due to the fact that they are unscrupulous in sending out applicants, for a position filled means a fee for the agency from the employer and the employee. In many instances only a casual ex amination or interview is given, and the applicant is sent out re gardless of his fitness, if the money is forthcoming. Naturally these careless practices result in dissatisfaction among employers and em ployees alike, and the consequent labor turnover is expensive. %In the free employment service it is by doing our best work that we can create a demand for our kind of service in preference to that of the paid agencies. By public and personal contact with plant managers and other employers we can attain the universal support of the industrial world quicker. In Joliet we are fortunate in obtaining excellent publicity. We try to do our part in keeping eye and ear ready at all times to record anything that may be of interest to the public, material from which the reporter can build an interesting story, without giving our ap plicants unpleasant publicity, without betraying confidence, and yet giving more than cut-ana-dried statistics. Thus we reap the harvest o f a wealth of good newspaper notices. Letters sent out occasionally to employers by the employment offices are, in my opinion, a very valuable means of advertising the service. Such a letter must not be lengthy. It should be friendly and busi nesslike. It should remind the employer that we have applicants available. It should impress the employer that we have served him in the past, or it should reniind him that we are the good servants of other employers and would like to help him. We are doing this in Joliet, and so far have found it effective. We also employ a follow-up campaign which is worth while. A week or so after an applicant is placed we write or telephone the employer and ask if the person employed is satisfactory. Very often we get glowing reports, as well as formal thanks for our assistance, unsolicited. Sometimes we learn that the applicant was not satis factory and only remained a few days, and that the employer was about to use another medium in getting the next employee. We have a little talk with the employer, convince him that we were not to blame for the misfit, and m this way usually get the op portunity to send other applicants for the job. Personal contact with employers is, in my opinion, a most valu able means of securing cooperation with the service. It is an ex cellent idea to spend some time each month calling on employers, and it is to be regretted that a greater opportunity is not afforded for this field work. It is a means of gleaning information for our selves and of spreading the doctrine of the free employment service. Another valuable medium is the weekly bulletin of opportunities and applicants available, compiled and distributed by our Chicago office. It contains a complete list of applicants and opportunities 28 ASSO CIATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES from every free employment office in the State. Its value to both employer and employee can not be overestimated. The only other medium besides newspaper, direct mail, and per sonal contact which we can employ in broadcasting our service is the window display. This is a method which, I understand, paid . agencies largely employ. In my opinion it has some disadvantages, *and I would be interested to know vour opinion on the matter. We want all job seekers to come in. It we have nothing listed for them we can at least have a talk with them and make them want to come back, and very often we are able to find an opening for the appli cant. He may be just the man that some employer is looking for. We often probe the capabilities of an applicant through interview and find that he has latent talents which can be put to use. It seems to me that, to keep in close touch with business activities, to create a closer relationship between the State and industry, to encourage the cooperation of public and civic service, and to make for prosperity, good will, and efficiency in business, it would be worth while to expend some money in exploiting the free employment agencies of the various States. It would accomplish in a short time what our care and work will eventually accomplish, but only after more years o f educating the public by degrees. The sooner we get the light on us through publicity the more quickly we will be of universal service, the effects o f which will be reflected not only in our own department but, what is more im portant, throughout the State and the Nation. For what, after all, is o f greater economic value than an instrument which tends to stabilize industrial conditions by keeping the job filled with the right man? C A N A D A ’S EXPERIEN CE W IT H P R IV A T E EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES B Y R. a . BIGG, DIRECTOR EMPLOYMENT SERVICE OF CANADA Among the many problems which the evolution o f modern industry has precipitated is that o f the organization of the labor market. Whether it be with malice aforethought or with beneficent design, the edict has gone forth that by the sweat of his brow man shall earn his bread, and that if he works not neither shall he eat. This principle is so vitally incorporated in the code of law governing human existence that in spite of all the efforts made to avoid it, it remains^ and presumably will remain, coercive and irrefrangible in its application to human kind. That some should reap where they have not sown simply means that by a trick of fate or, shall we say, through economic iniquity the burden of toil has been unequally distributed. No matter with what vociferousness we may proclaim the doctrine o f the right to be lazy, Mother Nature insistently en forces her will. Human life and progress depend upon obedience thereto. Work and you shall live; be idle and, as civilized beings, you shall surely die. Because this is Nature’s way of life it is good for man that he should toil. Not only is work necessary from an economic point of view, but it is equally important in a political, sociological, moral, and spiritual sense. The doing of tasks that make for the meeting of man’s deepest needs and the fulfillment o f his highest aspirations ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 29 not only defend us against the decay which is the inevitable penalty o f sloth, but it provides us with the means which make for strength and beauty of body and soul. In other words, it is essential both for the individual and society that each should perform his or her share of the world’s work, for in so doing the highest type of citi zenship is attained. The more wide-awake the minds of men become the more the spirit o f freedom develops, the more the sense of the right to a life which gives some reasonable measure of comfort and security and beauty grows, then the more potently articulate becomes the demand for some approximation to economic justice. At one end of the social scale the parade of lavish luxury by an ever-increasing number of those who take heavy toll of the results of the labor of others must always constitute a challenge to those whose labor is so taxed. No sane, intelligent-minded person is willing to work for another merely to secure for himself a mean existence while the beneficiary of his double burden dissipates the fruits accruing therefrom in selfish and useless extravagance. At the other end of the social scale there exists the corruption which sets in when those whom Nature has equipped with the desire for and the capacity to toil are denied the right and privilege of so doing. Involuntary poverty will not be permanently tolerated when society in the mass knows what is good for it. It is this latter section of the unemployed with which the subject of this paper is concerned. I f there is any intelligent direction or worthy, purposeful design which aims toward the realization of the aspiration for peace and good will among men, the solution of the problem of involuntary unemployment must be one of the principal objectives of such effort. Unemployment and the fear of it consti tute the most potent factors making for the threatening unrest which is to-day universal. To find reasonably assured employment in useful occupations is the most important task that awaits performance. Yet, although this problem is of such magnitude and commanding importance, it is only within recent years that the attention of our governing bodies has been directed toward it. The dread menace of unemploy ment obviously requires as the first and least step that can be taken toward removing or even reducing it that ample means should be provided to insure that the manless job and the jobless man should be matched. Although a start has been made in this direction through the estab lishment of free public employment offices, the attention given to this desideratum is in no way commensurate with its importance. A liberal course of educational propaganda is necessary in order sufficiently to impress upon the public mind that, while some useful results have been obtained, greater accomplishments are possible provided adequate funds are appropriated for the purpose. There is still a large body of opinion which regards the public employment service as purely paternalistic and an unnecessary and expensive luxury. Ten States o f the United States have not yet deemed it necessary to exercise even elementary supervision over private fee charging employment agencies. The voice of the man who says that he has managed to get along with some measure o f success without the aid of a free public employment service, and that there- 30 a s s o c ia t io n o f p u b l i c e m p l o y m e n t s e r v ic e s fore there is no reason why every other man should not do the same, is still heard in the land. Nevertheless, the difficulty that presents itself in securing favorable action for the purpose of supplanting private commercial employment offices with a coordinated free public employment service is perhaps less that of active opposition than the inertia of indifference. It is with the desire to assist in promoting the propaganda necessary to overcome this difficulty that I have undertaken to outline the history of the movement in Canada against the private employment office system. Trade-unionists in Canada, as in other countries, stand less directly in need of the assistance which employment offices, whether public or private, can give than unorganized workers generally and the un organized manual workers in particular. In an ever-enlarging de gree the practice of establishing the office o f business agent has grown among local trade-unions. An important part of the function o f this office is to carry on the activities of an employment bureau. Such activities are, o f course, limited to the members of the organi zation. Undoubtedly the organized labor movement will in the near future still further develop and perfect its own employment office machinery. The most outstanding illustration o f this tendency is the policy of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union in estab lishing its own employment service on a scientific basis. Notwithstanding their own employment facilities, the earliest public reference which I have been able to find among Canadian records in which the private fee-charging employment offices have been condemned, and a demand made for a Federal system of free bureaus, is contained in the official records of the Trades and Labor Congress o f Canada. At the annual convention of this body held in 1897 the then president of the congress in the course of his official address said: To my mind—and I direct the particular attention of the congress to the subject—a continued, active, and persevering effort should be made through the several subordinate and other labor organizations o f the Dominion to secure a system of Federal Government free employment bureaus throughout the Dominion, at least in the large centers of population. Such a system obviously would be of the greatest possible advantage and convenience to work ing people at large, and would without doubt be a death blow to the rascally .private employment agencies which rob the very poorest and those least able to bear the loss. The convention indorsed the president’s recommendation by reso lution. This attitude of opposition to private commercial agencies and of indorsement of the policy of a public employment office system has been consistently and persistently maintained, and the organized labor movement o f Canada is one of the stanchest sup porters of the Employment Service o f Canada. Subsequent to the above-quoted declaration of the mind o f Canadian organized labor a decade passed before the first meager attempt was made to estab lish free public bureaus in Canada, and 22 years had flown by before the Employment Service o f Canada began to function. In an article which I recently contributed to the Canadian Con gress Journal, the official magazine of the Trades and Labor Con gress of Canada, which dealt in part with this subject, I wrote: Organized labor in Canada, With its great passion for protecting the interests o f the workers from excessive exploitation, has always condemned the system ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 31 of private employment agencies which charge fees to the unemployed for information as to where employment could be found [and not infrequently extort money by fraudulent practices]. While it is not alleged that all private employment agencies indulge in such practices, it is, nevertheless, the truth that where such agencies exist many are guilty of extortion and deception and that they have entered into league with works foremen and superintendents for the purpose of causing heavy turnovers o f labor, the object being to bleed their unfortunate victims to the limit. They, further, not infrequently dupe their patrons by charging them fees for sending them a considerable distance to jobs which do not exist. Such has been the fate of multitudes of hapless individuals who, finding themselves in the ranks of the unemployed, have had no other recourse than to register with a private commercial employment agency. Each royal com mission that has been appointed to investigate the operations of these agencies has convicted the system of being guilty of criminally deceiving and fleecing those who sought its aid in an endeavor to find work. But the -opposition of Canadian organized labor to the private employment agency system does not rest principally upon the ground that extortionate fees are charged or that gross deception or other criminal acts are practiced. Or ganized labor knows that the last person in the world who should be taxed for seeking needed assistance is the man or woman who is in search of employ ment * * * It is not the writer’s purpose to discuss here the problem o f unemployment. It is desired, however, to state specifically that to the mind of organized labor it appears most unjust that the man who desires employment and whose material resources are frequently most meager should be required to pay for the service of telling him where he can find a job. Often such a system has meant borrowing or begging the amount of the fee, without which no work was obtainable. More tragic still has been the fate of many who could neither beg nor borrow. For these latter there was only the way of hunger, wretched ness, and the despair which kills independence of spirit and drives its victim to charity. Such a system organized labor in Canada has consistently condemned. It has maintained that the most trifling contribution which organized society could make is to furnish free of cost the information which would bring together the employer seeking labor and the worker seeking a job. To the Province of Ontario belongs the honor of making the first response to this agitation by establishing free government employ ment offices in three cities during 1007 and in three other cities in 1908, 1910, and 1912, respectively, under powers provided in legis lation enacted in 1906. This honor, however, has its luster consid erably dimmed by the fact that the most meager financial provision was made to support the policy and the further fact that the offices were operated only on a part-time basis. Under such circumstances it was natural that the agent should regard the work as a mere side line and generally give to it a most indifferent attention. The re sult was that the offices proved to be quite ineffective competitors with the alert private agents, who secured the lion’s share of the business. In 1910 the legislature of the Province of Quebec passed an act authorizing the government to establish and maintain in cities and towns free employment bureaus, for workmen, such bureaus to be under the control of the minister of public works and labor. Under the authority of this legislation, offices were opened in the cities of Montreal and Quebec in 1911, and in the city of Sherbrooke the following year. Much more liberal appropriations were provided for the maintenance of these offices than in the case of the Ontario offices, and consequently much more efficient work was accomplished. The complete breakdown of the private-agencies system during the periods of industrial depression proved influential in educating 32 ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES the public mind to the fact that a more efficient and less mercenary system was needed. Jobs were few and the cry o f distress loud and poignant. The private agent cared little for the extremity o f the need and the fewer the vacancies the more attractive loomed the fee. The economic and social suffering occasioned by such periods was the travail in which municipal employment offices were born. Such offices were established by the city of Toronto in 1908 and by the cities of Victoria, Vancouver, New Westminster, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Montreal during the slump of 1913-14. A ll o f these offices rendered free service, with the excep tion of Calgary, in which case a small fee was charged. Prior to the year 1919 a very useful service was provided through the medium of offices conducted by the Provinces of Ontario, Mani toba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta for the placing o f farm workers within the respective Provinces. The three last-named Provinces transferred this activity to their offices established in 1919 and co ordinated with the Federal-provincial scheme, creating the Em ployment Service of Canada. In Ontario farm-labor placement work is still carried on under the direction of the provincial de partment of immigration and colonization. Undoubtedly these activities were undertaken by the Provinces named on account of the failure o f the private agencies reasonably to meet, by honest methods, the requirements of the farmers for labor. The evidences of fraud practiced by private agencies upon immi grants who had-newly arrived in Canada were so many and of such general character that in April, 1913, the Federal Government passed an order in council prescribing regulations for the protection of immigrants. This order in council, No. 1028, required, among other things, that every agency dealing with immigrants should be licensed by the Federal superintendent of immigration; that records of business should be kept and reports concernmg same furnished; that a maximum fee of $1 could be charged for securing employ ment, the fee to be refunded if employment at wages and upon terms as represented was not procurable upon arrival at the place of employment; and that in the event or a license holder being con victed of an indictable offense his license should ipso facto be deemed to have been canceled. The May, 1913, issue of the Labor Gazette, published by the Federal Department of Labor, in reporting the new order in council, states that it— is designed * * * to protect immigrants against impositions and injustices at the hands of unscrupulous agents trading on their ignorance o f conditions in this country. * * * While it is not suggested in the order in council that the employment agencies throughout Canada are generally o f an undesir able class, the Dominion Government has satisfied itself by investigation that conditions exist in some localities which render the passage of these regulations most desirable. Some 315 agencies were licensed under the authority o f this order in council, 300 being o f the ordinary private fee-charging type. Eloquent testimony concerning the corrupt methods adopted is re vealed in the fact that before the war broke out, or, in other words, within 16 months of the passing of the order in council, one out of every four of these licensed agents had been prosecuted and con victed and his license canceled. Owing to the practical cessation of immigration resulting from the outbreak of the European war. ASSOCIATION OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 33 the provisions of order in council No. 1028 fell into disuse and have not been restored, Government machinery for employment service work having now been provided. In addition to the aforesaid Federal licensing and regulating of private employment offices, certain of the Provinces and municipali ties also attempted some measure of control for the principal pur pose of protecting workers against victimization. While such efforts exercised a salutary influence, it can not be claimed that they met with any flattering measure of success until 1919, when the field of employment work was militantly invaded by the Employment Serv ice of Canada, with the support of the Federal and provincial governments behind it and its offices located at strategical points from the Atlantic to the Pacific. While it is by no means contended that all private commercial agencies are unscrupulous or lacking in the desire to render full service for payment received, it does appear to be the truth that all the bona fide investigations concerning their methods which have been conducted have disclosed abuses of a criminal character. Nor have such practices been isolated cases or confined to an insignificant proportion of such offices. Employment work is a field which affords attractive opportunities for the type of individual who pays scant respect to the law and has less regard for the principles of honesty and fair play in his dealings with his fellow men. Perhaps in no branch of administration is the task of law enforcement more difficult, except it be that which is charged with the weighty responsibility of administering Volstead and other prohibitory liquor legislation. The most recent investigation that has come to my notice is that conducted last year by the New York State Department o f Labor. Following a similar investigation made 20 years ago, which brought to light the evil practices of many private commercial agencies, the New York State Legislature enacted a law which authorized munici palities to license such agencies. Concerning the investigation o f last year, Margery Leve Loeb, in an article contained in the Decem ber, 1923, issue o f the American Labor Legislation Review, says: A recent investigation by the New York Department o f Labor has shown that, in spite of 19 years of regulation, employment agencies continue the same abuses that have been exposed by surveys during the past 75 years. My only criticism of this statement is that the report rather indi cates that very little attempt appears to have been made to apply regulation. However, experience seems to teach that it is almost as difficult to induce governing authorities to enact adequate enforce ment laws regulating private fee-charging agencies as it is to per suade them to abolish such agencies and to set up efficient and co ordinated free public offices. Two royal commissions fully empowered to investigate the subject of employment-office work have been appointed in Canada. The first commission was created in December, 1912, by the government of the Province of British Columbia. The report, which was pre sented in March, 1914, is emphatic in its condemnation of private employment agencies, as follows: Though a great deal of unemployment necessarily exists in times of depres sion, your commissioners are convinced o f the unsatisfactory working of private employment agencies. Some unscrupulous managers, concerned only 34 A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES with the collection o f fees from workmen out o f employment, receive moneys under false representations. The workman is assured that employment is to be obtained, only to find, after seeking work and spending his time and incur ring expense, that the reported vacancy has been filled. The evidence we have received justifies the need of efficient public control to prevent employment agencies being conducted solely for profit. The commission further found— that collusion sometimes existed between the manager o f the employment agency and the foreman of the contractor requiring labor, whereby the foreman received a share o f the agency fee on all workmen placed with the contractor. The obvious result o f such an arrangement is tha*t workmen are discharged after a few days *of work to make way for new men, who in turn are soon displaced by others. After expressing the opinion that municipalities with a population of 10,000 or more might with advantage conduct free employment bureaus, the report continues: We consider that it would be still more in the public interest if national labor bureaus were established by the Dominion as a whole and [the work] taken entirely from the hands of private agencies. The second commission was appointed by the government of the Province of Ontario in December, 1914. In the report, which was submitted early in 1916, the evidence disclosed shows that from May to December, 1914, 56 convictions were secured against private agents in the courts of Ontario. When it is taken into consideration that no matter how zealous officials may be in seeking to enforce such law, evidence sufficient to justify conviction is in many instances extremely difficult to secure, the above-quoted record may safely be interpreted as indicating that a very large percentage of private employment agencies conducted their business with intent to plun der their patrons as opportunity presented itself. The commission recommended the appointment of a provincial labor commission, part of whose duty it should be to administer a system of free public employment bureaus and to further the institution of provincial employment bureaus throughout Canada, with a view to their ulti mate linking together in an effective national system. The Ontario government responded to the recommendations of the commission by establishing in 1916 a trades and labor branch, which immediately proceeded to open employment offices in six of the principal industrial centers in the Province. This movement has grown until to-day all the Provinces of Canada have established free employment offices, with the exception of the small Province of Prince Edward Island, where the problem is of minor propor tions. Stretching across the Dominion from Halifax, in Nova Scotia, to Victoria, in British Columbia, is a chain of provincially established free employment offices located in 66 centers, with the Federal Government acting as the coordinating link, the whole com prising the Employment Service of Canada. It will be recalled that the International Labor Conference held at Washington, D. C., in 1919, after adopting a convention in favor of the establishment of free public employment agencies, approved the following: The general conference recommends that each member of the International Labor Conference take measures to prohibit the establishment of employ ment agencies which charge fees or which carry on their business for profit,. ASSOCIATION' OS’ P U B LIC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 35 Where such agencies already exist, it is further recommended that they be permitted to operate only under government licenses and that all practicable measures be taken to abolish such agencies as soon as possible. Eight months before this conference was held all the Provinces of Canada, with the exception of the far eastern ones, namely, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, in conjunction with the Federal Government had brought into being the Employ ment Service of Canada. It is also worthy of mention that four and a half months before the International Labor Conference con vened in Washington legislation passed by the Provinces of Mani toba and Saskatchewan prohibiting the operation of fee-charging employment agencies had gone into effect. The substance of this prohibitory legislation is as follows: No person, firm, corporation, or association shall collect or receive, directly or indirectly, any fee or compensation for sending or persuading, enticing, inducing, procuring, or causing to be sent from or to any place within the Province to or from any place outside the Province, or between any two places within the Province, any person seeking employment, or for giving or furnish ing information regarding employers seeking workers or workers seeking employment. Similar legislation was put into effect during 1919 by the Prov inces of Alberta and British Columbia, and by the Province of Nova Scotia in 1920. The Provinces of Ontario and Quebec have not prohibited private agencies from operating, but have through their licensing systems made such material reductions in the number of these agencies that in both Provinces, which comprise the most densely populated and the most highly industrialized section of Canada, only 26 private fee-charging agencies are operating. No legislation relating to private commercial employment offices exists in the Province of New Brunswick, but as only three such offices are in operation there the situation is not serious. Nevertheless, a dele gation representing the New Brunswick Federation of Labor re cently waited upon the government of the Province and urged that prohibitory legislation be enacted. The Employment Service of Canada is operated under an agree ment annually entered into between the Federal Government and each of the eight Provinces named previously. A section of this agreement reads as follows: The party of the second part [being the provincial government] shaU not issue any new provincial licenses to commercial employment agencies which charge any fee or commission either to employers or employees, and shall not transfer any licenses already issued. It will therefore be seen that in the natural course of fulfillment of the policy that has been adopted it is only a question of time when the private commercial agent, whose only interest in employment work is the fee which he may be able to exact, will have passed into oblivion in so far as Canada is concerned. In the Province of British Columbia the legislation making it illegal for fees to be charged on account of any assistance rendered either to employers or employees in placing workers in employment has been somewhat severely attacked. Certain agencies continued to operate on a fee-charging basis in spite of the statute which aimed at their abolition. Acting on behalf of the British Columbia govern ment, James H. McVety, general superintendent of the Employment 36 ASSO CIATIO N OE P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES Service of Canada for the Province, instituted police court proceed ings against the offenders. The police magistrate dismissed the cases, ruling that the agencies were operating legally. This action of the court had the practical effect of invalidating the legislation and rendering it virtually useless. A stated case was granted at the request of the Crown and submitted to Mr. Justice Murphy of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The learned judge ruled that it was unlawful for an agency to collect a fee or accept a commission of any kind from either employer or employee and reversed the decision of the magistrate. Having done this, however, he proceeded to express the opinion that it was quite lawful for a private employ ment agent to conduct his business so long as payment was made not on a per capita basis but in the form of salary or remuneration with out regard to the number of persons engaged by him for employment. This interpretation, while expressed only in the form of an opinion, afforded encouragement for groups of employers to establish a species of semiprivate employment office, the activities of which it would be very difficult to regulate or control. As one such agency, operating on behalf of a number of firms engaged in the same industry, was in existence in Vancouver, an information was laid against the manager. This case also was dismissed by the magistrate, whereupon an appeal from the decision was taken by the Crown in the county court before Judge Cayley. The judgment rendered in this action was that the fact that the employment manager was paid a monthly rate without regard to the number of workers engaged was of no consequence. He therefore found for the appellant, but as the action was a test case only a minimum fine of $10 was imposed. Thus the efficacy of the prohibitory law, in so far as present court rule is concerned, is vindicated. I f effective regulation of private agencies is at all possible, it should surely be demonstrated in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. Both these Provinces have stringent regulations relating to private agencies, and both have organized free employment serv ices. Yet, in spite of the law and the competition of the government employment offices, there is ample reason for belief that the predatory practices of private agents are still stealthily indulged in. But the indictment against the private employment office system does not rest wholly on the ground that many agents are utterly unprincipled in character and ghoulishly cheat and rob those who stand in extreme need of sympathy and assistance. The evil of their nefarious meth ods registers itself to the disadvantage and loss of employers. While it is not claimed that the best judgment is always displayed by public employment officials in the matching of vacancies with the most suitable type of employee, it is submitted that on the whole much more care is exercised with such end in view than is the case in the average private exchange. Furthermore, complaints that bribes have been accepted or decep tion practiced are very seldom filed against any of the 76 offices of the Employment Service of Canada, with their staffs comprising 259 employees. Among the rare occasions on which such charges have been made investigation has still more rarely discovered any ground for justification. It may quite safely be assumed that if ASSO CIATIO N OP P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 37 such practices were carried on in the public offices they would quickly be called to the attention of the authorities. The patrons of the public employment service regard it as an institution in which they have a proprietary interest. This attitude of mind, coupled with the keen sense of satisfaction which the man on the street experi ences in finding fault with governmental enterprises, provides an effective safeguard against abuses creeping into the public employ ment service, which abound in the private agency field. The opera tions of the public employment office are too open to critical scrutiny to permit ox serious abuses being practiced. The private agency system stands condemned not only because it has resulted in crimes perpetrated against workmen but also because of the fact that it creates disorganization of plant arrangements and causes an unnecessary labor turnover. Two other weaknesses inherent in the system, which have not been previously indicated in this paper, but which render the private commercial agency incapable of meeting the need of modern condi tions, are (1) the lack of coordinating and clearance facilities, and (2) the utter inability to render service to handicapped or juvenile seekers for employment. The first of these defects could be over come only by the monopolizing of the employment field by an indi vidual private concern. With regard to the second, it is obviously impossible for a system that depends for its existence upon fees collected either from employer or employee, and whose end is profit, to give the detailed individual attention required for the successful placing of handicapped or juvenile workers. Private agencies have, moreover, frequently exercised a malignant influence upon relations existing between employers and their work people. Not only have they sharpened and deepened the spirit of enmity between the two contending parties when strikes or lockouts have taken place by supplying strikebreakers, but they have in numer ous instances proved active agents in provoking the temper among dissatisfied employees, which inevitably made conciliation and settle ment impossible. Fee-charging agencies are also out of tune with the need of the times because they charge fees. There are very few services which (lie State can render to its citizens which are more important than that of providing a free national system of employment offices. In any community where there exists a proper sense of the responsi bility that the collective strength should be placed at the disposal of the weakest members for the purpose of aiding and encouraging such in their hour of direst need, no system of employment service can be regarded as satisfactory which denies to those who are unable to pay from $3 up information where work is available for them. Such has been the experience of Canada with private commercial employment agencies. The sins of commission and the spirit of venality which controls the conduct of many of these agencies, coupled with the inability of all of them as uncoordinated activities to so function as to meet successfully the needs of modern industry, have led the governments of Canada to indict them as being in capable of efficiently discharging the responsible duties attaching to employment service work. 38 A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES METHODS OF D E ALIN G W IT H P R IV A T E EM PLOYM ENT OFFICES BY TAYLOR FRYE, DIRECTOR CHILD LABOR DEPARTMENT, INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF WISCONSIN Previous to 1913 private employment agencies in Wisconsin were licensed by the secretary of state. A merely nominal fee was charged. The duties and obligations of the licensees were not fixed by statute and there was practically no supervision of their opera tions. In 1913 a statute was enacted placing private employment agencies under the supervision of the industrial commission. This statute defines employment agencies and lays down general rules for their conduct and operation. It also invests the commission with power to make rules and regulations for the conduct of the agencies and to carry out the purposes of the statute. The term “ employment agent” is defined by the statute to mean and include all persons, firms, corporations, or associations which furnish to persons seeking employment information enabling or tending to enable such persons to secure the same, or which furnish employers seeking laborers or other help of any kind information enabling or tending to enable such employers to secure such help, or which keep a register of per sons seeking employment or help as aforesaid, whether such agents conduct their operations at a fixed place of business, on the streets, or as transients, and also whether such operations constitute the principal business of such agents or only a side line or an incident to another business; but this term shall not include any employer who procures help for himself only or an employee of such an em ployer who procures help for him and does not act in a similar capacity for any other employer. This definition is intended to be broad enough to cover not only the agent who would engage in a legitimate agency business but also the “ fly by nighter ” and other would-be bootleggers of labor. Under the law all private employment agents who charge fees for their services are required to be licensed by the industrial commis sion and to furnish a bond in the sum of $1,000, conditioned upon compliance with the law and lawful orders of the commission. The fee for agencies which place women only is $10 in cities under 30,000 population and $50 in other cities. The fee for agencies which place both men and women is $25 in cities under 30,000 popu lation and $100 in other cities. A code of rules was adopted by the commission and has been in effect since July 1, 1914. This code covers, among other things, the following subjects: Character of places to which applicants may not be sent; records to be kept; reports to the commission; form of orders for help; promises of positions; false statements; revocation of licenses; posting of licenses, rules, and schedule of rates; form of contracts; registration fees; refunds; and form of receipts. Copies of the statute and rules are furnished to licensed agents. For the information of patrons the agent is required to post his license, schedule of fees, and a copy of the rules in his office. All stationery and advertising used by the agent in the employment busi ness must carry the information that he is licensed. ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLOYMENT SERVICES 39 A vital provision of the statute makes it the duty of the industrial commission to refuse to issue a license to an applicant if it is found and determined that the agencies already in operation are sufficient to meet the needs of employers and employees. In considering an application for a new license all nonfee and public as well as licensed agencies are taken into account. During the last 10 years we have had scores of applications for new licenses. The applicant for a new license is informed of the provisions of the statute and procedure of the commission and of the agency situation in the State. The history of previous applications is outlined to him, omitting names, and he is frankly told the nature of the opposition he must expect to meet and the gantlet he must expect to run if he presses his application to a final decision by the commission. I f the applica tion is pressed, the statutory investigations are made and a public hearing on the application is scheduled. At this hearing all inter ested parties are heard. The decision of the commission follows. In perhaps a dozen cases the application was pressed to a hearing and in only four was a license granted. One of these was a teachers’ agency, one was a clerical bureau, and the other two were so-called nurses’ directories. None of these applications met serious oppo sition. It may be of interest to note that in every case the application for a new license for what is commonly considered a labor agency has been solidly opposed by representatives of the employee class— the class that is supposed to benefit particularly by the activities of the agencies and which pays practically all the bills. In most cases the employer class was also represented in the opposition. In no case has the application received more than indifferent and half hearted support from employers. On July 1, 1913, we had 39 licensed agencies. This number has been steadily reduced until now we have only 12 licensed agencies in the State, classified as follows: Common labor, 4; clerical, 1; nurse, 4; teachers, 3. Among the regulations relating to the conduct of employment agencies, I wish to call your attention particularly to those requiring the keeping of records and the giving of receipts. Records of names and addresses of all patrons of the agency are required. This enables the commission at any time to get in touch with the patron with reference to his dealings with the agency, a most important factor in the administration or the law. The receipt given to the patron for money paid to the agent must contain the following printed statement: “ Complaints against the employment agent may be made to *the industrial commission at Madison.” With this information in his possession the patron is in a position to make prompt and effective complaint if he believes that he has been overreached in any way by the agent. The agent also has his appeal to the commission if he thinks he is not getting a square deal from the patron, which sometimes happens. The com mission declines to act as a collector of claims for employment agents, but it stands ready to investigate and advise regarding its opinion of the fairness of a claim by either party to a dispute. Vio lations of the statute or orders of the commission involve forfeiture of license, prosecution for penalties, and forfeiture of bond. On 40 A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES two occasions agents have forfeited their licenses and have not been allowed again to engage in the employment business. Following are some of the abuses which we found in the earlier history of regulation of private employment agencies: (1) Larger fees were charged than were named in the schedule of fees filed with the commission; (2) the character of the work offered was misrep resented; (3) applicants for work were not advised as to probable duration of employment, or, if advised, the matter was misrepre sented; (4) receipts were not given for money paid; (5) false records were kept; (6) overcharges were made by the agent, he taking part of his fee in cash, of which he kept a record, and also taking an assignment of wages for an additional amount, of which he kept no record; (7) the schedules of fees posted in the offices did not correspond with those filed with the commission; (8) applicants for work were not advised that complaints against the employment agent might be made to the industrial commission; (9) misleading advertisements were used; (10) advance payments in the nature of registration fees were charged. It was for some or all of these practices that the licensees above referred to lost their licenses. At such times as it thinks necessary and desirable, the commis sion, through its employees, visits and checks up on the operations of the agents. All licensed agents, with the exception of those placing teachers, are required to furnish a monthly statistical re port on requests for help, work, and placements. Some years ago the statute was amended to give the commission power to fix schedules of fees which might be charged by employ ment agencies. To date this power has been exercised only in the case of the clerical bureau. The rates fixed were approved by a majority of an advisory committee composed of a member of the State,senate, representatives of the civil service of the State, of the city of Milwaukee, and of labor. O f the 39 agencies licensed in 1913, 2 were for clerical and 33 were for common labor. At no time has the schedule of fees for common-labor agencies been fixed by statute or order of the com mission. The schedule of fees for clerical agencies was fixed only recently and after one of the two licensed in 1913 had voluntarily quit business. With this exception regarding schedules of fees for clerical agencies during the past decade, the only restrictions on fees has been that a schedule must be filed with the commission and posted in the office, that no fee in excess of that filed and posted might be charged or accepted, and that no registration fee might be charged. To-day only 5 of these 35 agencies are in existence* 28 having quit business voluntarily and 2 under pressure. Of course, during this time the regulations aimed at abuses in the agency busi ness were in force and were strictly enforced. Let me repeat that the typical labor agent, whether for common or clerical labor, is not permitted to charge registration fees. Previous to the statute of 1913 this was not true. In those days it was no uncommon occur rence for an agent to take out his license, advertise his business, collect substantial sums in registration fees for which he rendered no service, and, after a few months of easy picking, fold his tent and quietly steal away to repeat his larcenous performance in some other field, taking the bag with him. A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 41 Our experience during the last dozen years tends strongly to show that labor agents can not thrive in any considerable number in Wisconsin when not allowed to collect registration fees and when compelled to comply with regulations assuring to all parties a square deal. The penalty for violations of the statute or lawful orders of the commission is $100 for each offense, and it is enforceable in a civil action in the name of the State. This frees the action from the petty annoyances and hazards of a criminal prosecution. I f necessary, the foundation for the complaint may be laid under an application of the discovery statute. Either side has the right of appeal. Under this system the real offender—and the commission would not prose cute any other—has about the same chance of winning his case as the proverbial snowball has of coming out of Hades intact. We make every effort to acquaint licensed agents with the regula tions and with the consequences of violations. During the past several years it has been a rare thing to receive a complaint against a licensed agent. Investigations and inspections during this time have disclosed no instances of willful or perverse conduct on the part of an agent. NEED FOR A PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES BY FRANCIS I. JONES, DIRECTOR GENERAL U. S. EMPLOYMENT SERVICE We are about to consider the “ Need of a public employment service in the United States.” Do we or do we not need a public employment service? To one who has just returned from an in spection trip through the Southern, Western, and great North western States such a question has but one answer. Most emphati cally we do need a public employment service. The question has long since gone beyond the disputable stage. Were there any ques tion at this time, the splendid work being accomplished by the public employment services of the several States cooperating with the United States Employment Service has supplied the answer beyond a doubt. The placing of 2,156,465 men and women in jobs during the past fiscal year emphasizes the use made of the public employment service and the necessity of the same. The need of a public employment service was first recognized by the great State of Ohio. It is interesting to note that the creation of the Ohio Bureau of Employment, and therefore the inauguration of public employment bureaus in the United States, was directly due to the influence of similar institutions in France. In 1889 W. T. Lewis, later chief of the Ohio Bureau of Labor, went as a delegate, with a group of prominent labor men, to the International Exposition at Paris. He found a public employment bureau in operation in Paris and brought this idea back to the laboring people of America. As a result a law was passed in 1890 to create free public employment offices in the five principal cities of Ohio. As in the realm of nature the tiny acorn holds within its shell the future oak tree whose wide-spreading branches provide comfort for humanity, so in the economic field we find a counterpart of this phenomenon in the law passed in Ohio—the seed—from which has 42 A SSO C IATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES developed the present system of public employment offices operating in almost every State of the Union and functioning to find work, with its attendant blessings, for men and women who are in need of employment. Following Ohio’s example, New York in 1896 passed a similar law providing for employment offices in several of the larger cities. In 1899 the State of Illinois passed an employment bureau act, and the legislatures of other States, on observing the excellent results achieved in Ohio, New York, and Illinois, one by one made pro vision for employment bureaus under their departments of labor. There are two schools of thought as to how the public employ ment service should be conducted. One favors a national system; the other advocates a system in which the State is the unit, cooperating with the Federal Government, which functions as a national clearing house for employment activities. While I have an open mind on this subject, I favor at present the system in which the State assumes responsibility in providing such a service, which is under its immediate supervision. I do not favor more centralization of power in the Federal Government, and I do not favor the Federal Government assuming functions belonging to tlte States. The Federal Government, under the cooperative service organized at present, is able to furnish assistance to the several States in their employment placement work, and gains from them information which is valuable to the country as a whole, and affords a national clearing house, which, in my opinion, is one of the proper functions of the United States Employment Service. However, whether conducted by city, State, or Federal Govern ment, finding employment for men out of work is a necessary public function. I f it is the duty of organized government to provide schools to educate its future citizens, is it not reasonable for the same governmental organization to supply the machinery whereby its citizens may find suitable work? A man without a job is as helpless as a child without an education. Public sentiment is united in the belief that a child should be given that which he can not obtain for himself. Sentiment is now crystallizing into the belief that the State should also undertake this equally important function of helping a man to obtain suitable employment. Nothing on earth is so important to a man as a job, and the public employment service undertakes to find jobs for the jobless. There is need for a public employment service. Time was when each man was his own boss and made his liveli hood at his home, in his shop, or on his farm, and commerce was largely a matter of barter and exchange. That was the day of the tallow candle, which has long since been superseded by the age of electric light. In that earlier age an employment exchange to furnish builders with craftsmen or farmers with laborers would have been the height of folly. The demands for help were not large and men with less difficulty made their own adjustments. In this day and age industrial processes have become so complicated that the labor of many kinds of skilled and unskilled workers is necessary for the completion of a single finished product. One factory em ploys thousands of men; a change in the process of manufacturing may throw many of these employees out o f work, or an enlargement of the plant may require additional hundreds of employees. Sud ASSO CIATIO N OF P U B L IC E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICES 43 denly hundreds of men in one locality may be looking for a job at the same time, or employers in another locality may be asking for more men than the immediate labor market can produce. In such a complicated situation the public employment service, whose officials have knowledge not only of the local but of other labor centers, is an absolute necessity if labor is to be furnished so that production and commerce may continue on an uninterrupted course. As it is, too little attention is paid to the assembling and distri bution of human labor, which plays the most important part in producing the finished product. There is no question but that the collection of materials and products is a proper function of corpora tions and private enterprises, but the dealing with the human ele ment, the movement of labor, and the protection of its rights should not be left to profit-earning organizations or to fee-charging agencies. Yes; there is a need for a public employment service. The right to labor should be free to all. Information as to labor conditions should be as accurate as possible and uninfluenced by thought of personal gain, as nearly every migration of the worker is at his own expense and usually on his very last dollar. Therefore any misinformation finds him stranded and unable to return and obtain redress. There is a need for a public employment service. To illustrate a case of misinformation: During the winter of 1915-16 literally thousands were out of employment in the city of Portland, Oreg., and the public employment offices were besieged by men looking for jobs. In answer to the question “ Place of last em ployment?” the reply would invariably be “ Six days at St. Johns tunnel.” The coincidence became so noticeable that the matter was investigated. It developed that a great railroad company had let a contract to private contractors to put through what is known as the St. Johns tunnel. This was a large undertaking, employing several hundred men and continuing through the entire winter. The source from which they got their men was a private employment agency. The State law requires that unless three days’ work is furnished the employment fee must be returned and unless six days’ work is furnished one-half the fee must be returned. It was also the custom that a hospital fee of $1 per month be deducted from each man’s wages, the practice on the particular job being to deduct 25 cents per day for the first four days. The men were directed to this job, hired, and worked six days, then a new gang of men appeared, were employed, and the other men discharged with no reason given. The employment fee on the job was $1, but with a turnover every six days the workers paid in hospital fees $5 per month and $5 per month employment fees, being a total of $10 per month per man job. The investigation of this showed that the contractors made a profit from each man in hospital fees of $4 per month and a profit in employ ment fees of whatever the split might have been. Where such agen cies are used it would be well to look in the woodpile. There may be a nigger lurking in it. Does this not give additional emphasis to the need for a public employment service? There are, however, many reliable private agencies which give a service equivalent to the fee charged, and among the better class of these agencies there is no intention to misrepresent the nature of the 44 ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICES employment advertised. I have no quarrel with such agencies, for they supply a service that is necessary and which the public employ ment service in its present scope does not cover. But for every applicant who can afford to pay a fee there are hundreds who out o f their meager savings from their last job have barely enough to carry them and their families along to the next work. To these the public employment service is a salvation. They w ill tell you, “ W e know the need o f a public employment service.” Under the present public employment system, which is as yet only in its infancy, there is no need for private employment agencies which cater only to common labor and to skilled mechanics. The public employment service is not interested in the turnover o f labor. Being a public function its effort is to stabilize labor. A turnover of labor such as that shown by the Portland episode is a disgrace, dealing as it did with human flesh and blood. Is the Gov ernment going to permit such things to continue? That one inci dent, not to mention many similar ones, emphasizes again the need o f a public employment service. The continued demand that is being made upon the United States Employment Service to extend its Farm Labor Bureau indicates the need of this important function. New offices are continually being opened; the last permanent office added to the Farm Labor Bureau was opened at Denver, Colo. Other offices will be opened to help take care o f the harvest. Farmers from Texas to the Canadian border, chambers of commerce, kindred organizations, and labor organizations are giving their most hearty support and cooperation to the work of the Farm Labor Bureau. The splendid record made by the Farm Labor Bureau of the United States Employment Serv ice in placing 161,083 people in seasonal farm work in the past fiscal year is evidence that indicates the need o f a public employment service. The Farm Labor Bureau had the cordial support and assistance o f the public employment services of the many States in which it oper ated and of the county farm agents, without which support it could never have made such an enviable record. The dawn o f a new day has been ushered in. The spirit o f the brotherhood o f man and the fatherhood o f God has taken firmer hold upon the minds o f men. The Government is giving closer at tention to the needs o f men, and by the great weight o f its power is protecting humanity from exploitation wherever possible. There is no way that a government can serve the common, needs o f man and promote the common welfare better than by establishing public employment services where men and women may get information as to how work may be obtained. May I go so far as to say that it is the duty o f government to provide employment for its citizens. I say there is a need for a public employment service. HOW T H E PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICE MEETS TH E NEED OF TH E GREAT W H E A T BELT BY J . H . CRAWFORD, PRESIDING JUDGE K A N SA S COURT OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS When we hear of a public employment service our thoughts are immediately drawn to the great industrial centers or to the industrial ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICES 45 activities of our own community. In my own State, Kansas, we take some pride in the fact that it is the second largest State in the meat-packing industry, the second largest in the milling in dustry, the third largest in oil production, and the fourth largest in the production of salt. However, even with these large industries in which to care for the unemployed, we find that in the year 1923 it required one-fourth more men to supply the need for farm and harvest help than to supply all the other industries in the State combined. For this reason I am calling your attention to the public employment service in its relation to harvest needs. Paint in your imagination, if you can, a picture of a field of waving, golden grain ready for the sickle, covering more than 15,000 square miles in area, a field as large as the total land surface o f Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware, and you will have a faint idea of harvest time in Kansas. However, this is not all. Enlarge this picture of your imagination to include the entire winter wheat belt, comprising a total area of some 33,000 square miles, a field of grain ready for harvest that is equal to the total land surface of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Dela ware, and New Jersey, and to this add another area of 15,000 square miles, which includes the spring wheat fields of Minnesota and North Dakota, again equaling the total land surface of Massachu setts, Connecticut, and Delaware, and you will gaze upon the bread basket of our Nation. Previous to the organization of the public employment service each community in the wheat belt undertook to secure sufficient harvest help through some local agency. Eastern papers were filled with demands for more than twice the number of men actually needed; at times the wage advertised was different from that paid in the com munities; and the date of harvest could never be accurately given. The result was that in some localities there was a congestion of unemployed for weeks before harvest commenced, while in the out lying counties there was no help whatever. The wheat ripened, farmers became panicky, and in their efforts to secure the much needed help bid against their neighbors. In this way harvest wages ranged from $2 to $8 per day with keep, and in some cases $10 per day with keep was paid. With the coming of the United States Public Employment Service, cooperating with State and county agencies, came the relief long sought. Starting in northern Texas the harvest labor work gains momentum until it hits Kansas, where it becomes the center of ac tivities, and upon the success of the public employment service in Kansas very largely depends the success of the work throughout the entire wheat belt. For this reason I must use Kansas to illus trate the character of the work done by the public employment services. A complete organization has been made under the direction of the Farm Labor Bureau of the United States Employment Service. Forming a part o f the organization are the State employment service, the State board of agriculture, and the county farm agents. The State board of agriculture furnishes complete information as to the number of acres to be harvested in each county and the condition o f the crop. The county farm agents furnish the public employment 46 ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC EM PLOYM ENT SERVICES service with the probable date of harvest in their respective counties* the number of men needed each day, and reports when the need is supplied. With thi§ information the United States Farm Labor Bureau can have the men mobilized at a given point, and cooperating with the State employment service distribute at various points throughout the wheat belt only the required number of men. There is no congestion of men in places where the men are not needed, but each locality is cared for at the proper time. However, more than this has been accomplished. In 1923 a uni form wage o f $4 a day and keep was agreed upon. That was more than the farmer could afford to pay out of the price of his product, but owing to the strong labor market that price was established in order to get the men. Particular attention was paid to this agree ment, and for the first time business men, farmers, county agents, and public employment services worked in perfect harmony. With but very few exceptions the $4 wage was maintained all season. Accord ing to the county farm agent leaders, “ Sticking to the uniform wage agreed upon saved the farmers of Kansas alone a quarter o f a mil lion dollars last season.” It required 104,905 men to handle this harvest and provide for replacements. To visualize this great army, again call on your imagination. See 162 trains, made up o f 10 passenger cars each and carrying 65 men to the car, rushing from the south, the east, and the west, to the points of distribution. Then watch for 39 hours while the men march single file past a given point, and stretch down the highway for a distance of 78 miles. Do this and you will see the army of harvesters distributed throughout the wheat belt annually. In addition to the harvest help the United States Public Employ ment Service recruited 51,488 men and distributed them where needed as cotton laborers, potato pickers, com huskers and for apple, berry, and sugar-beet labor, making a total of 156,393 sea sonal laborers supplied during 1923. It is not an easy task to recruit 104,905 men in a short period o f time, send them to points o f distribution, and parcel them out— 10, 20, or 100 men in each locality as its needs demand. The men must be followed through the harvest, necessary replacements must be furnished, and when the harvest is all over the men must be sent back to the starting point, there to be absorbed in the daily labor turnover of the large industrial centers. It is a tremendous task, gladly performed each year by the public employment services for the Great Wheat Belt. SERIES OF BULLETINS PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS The p u b lic a tio n d is c o n tin u e d in t e r v a ls . in of th e annual J u ly , 1 9 1 2 , a n d E a ch n u m b er c o n ta in s and s in c e s p e c ia l r e p o r ts th a t tim e a m a tte r d e v o te d and b u lle tin to on e of th e has b een of a b im o n th ly b u lle tin p u b lis h e d s e r ie s of w as at ir r e g u la r g en era l s u b je c ts . T h e s e b u lle tin s a r e n u m b e r e d c o n s e c u ti v e l y , b e g in n in g w ith N o . 1 0 1 , a n d u p t o N o . 2 3 6 t h e y a ls o c a r r y c o n s e c u ti v e n u m b e r s u n d e r e a c h b e r in g has b een d is c o n tin u e d . A s e r ie s . B e g in n in g w ith N o . 2 3 7 l i s t o f t h e s e r i e s is g iv e n a ll t h e b u lle tin s w h ic h c o n ta in m a te r ia l r e la tin g t o b e lo w . th e s e r ia l n u m U n d er e a c h is g r o u p e d t h e s u b j e c t m a tte r o f th a t s e r i e s . A lis t o f t h e r e p o r t s a n d b u lle tin s o f t h e B u r e a u is s u e d p r i o r t o J u ly 1 , 1 9 1 2 , w ill b e fu r n is h e d o n a p p lic a tio n . T h e b u lle tin s m a r k e d th u s * a r e o u t o f p r in t. W holesale Prices. * Bui. 114. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1912. Bui. 149. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1913. * Bui. 173. Index numbers o f wholesale prices in the United States and foreign coun tries. * Bui. 181. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1914. * Bui. 200. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1915. * Bui. 226. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1916. Bui. 269. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1919. Bui. 284. Index numbers of wholesale prices in the United States and foreign coun tries. [Revision o f Bulletin No. 173.] Bui. 296. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1920. Bui. 320. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1921. Bui. 335. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1922. Bui. 367. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1923. Bui. 390. Wholesale prices, 1890 to 1924. [In press.] Retail Prices and Cost of Living. * Bui. 105. Retail prices, 1890 to 1911: Part I. Retail prices, 1890 to 1911: Part II— General tables. * Bui. 106. Retail prices, 1890 to June, 1912: Part I. Retail prices, 1890 to June, 1912: Part II— General tables. Bui. 108. Retail prices, 1890 to August, 1912. Bui. 110. Retail prices, 1890 to October, 1912. Bui. 113. Retail prices, 1890 to December, 1912. Bui. 115. Retail prices, 1890 to February, 1913. * Bui. 121. Sugar prices, from refiner to consumer. Bui. 125. Retail prices, 1890 to April, 1913. * Bui. 130. Wheat and flour prices, from farmer to consumer. Bui. 132. Retail prices, 1890 to June, 1913. Bui. 13(k Retail prices, 1890 to August, 1913. * Bui. 138. Retail prices, 1890 to October, 1913. * Bui. 140. Retail prices, 1890 to December, 1913. Bui. 156. Retail prices, 1907 to December, 1914. Bui. 164. Butter prices, from producer to consumer. Bui. 170. Foreign food prices as affected by the war. * Bui. 184. Retail prices, 1907 to June, 1915. Bui. 197. Retail prices, 1907 to December, 1915. Bui. 228. Retail prices, 1907 to December, 1916. Bui. 270. Retail prices, 1913 to December, 1919. Bui. 300. Retail prices, 1913 to 1920. Bui. 315, Retail prices, 1913 to 1921. Bui. 334. Retail prices, 1913 to 1922. Bui. 357. Cost of living in the United States. Bui. 366. Retail prices, 1913 to December, 1923. Bui. 369. The use of oost-of-living figures in wage adjustments. [In press.] Bui. 396. Retail prices, 1890 to December, 1924. [In press.] Wages and Honrs of Labor. Bui. 116. Hours, earnings, and duration of employment of wage-earning women in selected industries in the District o f Columbia. * Bui. 118. Ten-hour maximum working-day for women and young persons. Bui. 119. Working hours o f women in the pea canneries of Wisconsin. ♦ Supply exhausted. (i) Wages and Hoars of Labor— Continued. * Bui. 128. Wages and hours o f labor in the cotton, woolen, and silk industries, 1890 to 1912. * Bui. 129. Wages and hours of labor In the lumber, millwork, and furniture indus tries, 1890 to 1912. * Bui. 181; Union scale o f wages and hours o f labor, 1907 to 1912. * Bui. 134. Wages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe and hosiery and knit goods industries, 1890 to 1912. * Bui. 135. Wages and hours of labor in the cigar and clothing industries, 1911 and 1912. Bui. 137. Wages and hours of labor in the building and repairing o f steam railroad cars, 1890 to 1912. Bui. 143. Union scale of wages and hours o f labor, May 15, 1913. * Bui. 146. Wages and regularity of employment and standardization o f piece rates in the dress and waist industry of New York City. * Bui. 147. Wages and regularity ot employment in the cloak, suit, and skirt industry. * Bui. 150. Wages and hours of labor in the cotton, woolen, and silk industries, 1907 to 1913. * * Bui. 151. Wages and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry in the United States, 1907 to 1912. Bui. 153. Wages and hours o f labor in the lumber, millwork, and furniture industries, 1907 to 1913. * Bui. 154. Wages and hours o f labor in the boot and shoe and hosiery and under wear industries, 1907 to 1913. Bui. 160. Hours, earnings, and conditions of labor of women in Indiana mercantile establishments and garment factories. Bui. 161. Wages and hours o f labor in the clothing and cigar industries, 1911 to 1913. Bui. 163. Wages and hours of labor in the building and repairing of steam railroad cars, 1907 to 1913. Bui. 168. Wages and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1913. * Bui. 171. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 1, 1914. Bui. 177. Wages and hours of labor in the hosiery and underwear industry, 1907 to 1914. Bui. 178. Wages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1914. * Bui. 187. Wages and hours o f labor in the men’s clothing industry,1911 to 1914. * Bui. 190. Wages and hours of labor in the cotton, woolen, and silk industries, 1907 to 1914. * Bui. 194. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 1, 1915. Bui. 204. Street railway employment in the United States.. Bui. 214. Union scale of wages and hours o f labor, May 15, 1916. Bui. 218. Wages and hours o f labor in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1915. Bui. 221. Hours, fatigue, and health in British munitions factories. Bui. 225. Wages and hours of labor in the lumber, millwork, and furniture indus tries, 1915. Bui. 232. Wages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1916. Bui. 238. Wages and hours of labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing, 1916. Bui. 239. Wages and hours o f labor in cotton goods manufacturing and finishing, 1916. Bui. 245. Union scale of wages and hours o f labor, May 15, 1917. Bui. 252. Wages and hours of labor in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry, 1917. Bui. 259. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1918. Bui. 260. Wages and hours o f labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1918. Bui. 261. Wages and hours of labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing, 1918. Bui. 262. Wages and hours o f labor in cotton goods manufacturing and finishing, 1918. Bui. 265. Industrial survey in selected industries in the United States, 1919. * Bui. 274. Union scalfe of wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1919. Bui. 278. Wages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1920. Bui. 279. Hours and earnings in anthracite and bituminous coal mining: Anthracite, 1919 and 1920; bituminous, 1920. Bui 286. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1929. * Supply exhausted. <n) Wages and Honrs of Labor— Continued. Bui. 288. Wages and hours of labor in cotton goods manufacturing, 1920. Bui. 289. Wages and hours of labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing, 1920. Bui. 294. Wages and hours of labor in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry in 1921. Bui. 297. Wages and hours of labor in the petroleum industry, 1920. Bui. 302. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1921. Bui. 305. Wages and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1920. Bui. 316. Hours and earnings in anthracite and bituminous coal mining— anthracite, January, 1922; bituminous, winter o f 1921-22. Bui. 317. Wages and hours of labor in lumber manufacturing, 1921. Bui. 324. Wages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1922. Bui. 325. Union scale o f wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1922. Bui. 327. Wages and hours of labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing, 1922. Bui. 328. Wages.and hours of labor in hosiery and underwear industry, .1922. Bui. 329. Wages and hours of labor in the men’s clothing industry, 1922. Bui. 345. Wages and hours of labor in cotton goods manufacturing, 1922. Bui. 348. Wages and hours o f labor in the automobile industry, 1922. Bui. 353. Wages and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1922. Bui. 354. Union scale o f wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1923. Bui. 356. Productivity in costs, common-brick industry. Bui. 358. Wages and hours of labor in the automobile tire industry, 1923. Bui. 360. Time and labor costs in manufacturing 100 pairs of shoes. Bui. 362. Wages and hours of labor in foundries and machine shops, 1923. Bui. 363. Wages and hours of labor in lumber manufacturing, 1923. Bui. 365. Wages and hours of labor in the paper and pulp industry, 1923. Bui. 371. Wages and hours o f labor in cotton goods manufacturing, 1924. Bui. 373. Wages and hours of labor in the slaughtering and meat-packing industry, 1923. Bui. 374. Wages and hours o f labor in the boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1924. Bui. 376. Wages and hours o f labor in the hosiery and underwear industry, 1907 to 1924. Bui. 377. Wages and hours o f labor in woolen and worsted goods manufacturing, 1924. Bui. 381. Wages and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1924. Bui. 387. Wages and hours of labor in the men’s clothing industry, 1911 to 1924. Bui. 388. Union scale of wages and hours of labor, May 15, 1924. Bui. 394. Wages and hours of labor in metalliferrous mines, 1924. Tin press.] Employment and Unemployment. * Bui. 109. Statistics of unemployment and the work o f employment offices in the United States. Bui. 116. Hours, earnings, and duration of employment of wage-earning women in selected industries in the District of Columbia. Bui. 172. Unemployment in New York City, N. Y. * Bui. 182. Unemployment among women in department and other retail stores of Boston, Mass. * Bui. 183. Regularity of employment in the women’s ready-to-wear garment industries. Bui. 192. Proceedings o f the American Association o f Public Employment Offices. * Bui. 195. Unemployment in the United States. Bui. 196. Proceedings of the Employment Managers’ Conference held at Minneapolis, Minn., January, 1916. * Bui. 202. Proceedings of the conference of Employment Managers’ Association o f Boston, Mass., held May 10, 1916. Bui. 206. The British system of labor exchanges. Bui. 220. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Association of Public Employment Offices, Buffalo, N. Y., July 20 and 21, 1916. Bui. 223. Employment of women and juveniles in Great Britain during the war. * Bui. 227. Proceedings o f the Employment Managers’ Conference, Philadelphia, Pa., April 2 and 3, 1917. Bui. 235. Employment system of the Lake Carriers* Association. * Bui. 241. Public employment offices in the United States. Bui. 247. Proceedings of Employment Managers’ Conference, Rochester, N. Y., May 9-11, 1918. * Supply exhausted. (in) Employment and Unemployment— Continued. Bui. 310. Industrial unemployment: A statistical study of its extent and causes. Bui. 311. Proceedings o f the Ninth Annual Meeting o f the International Association o f Public Employment Services, held at Buffalo, N. Y., September 7-9, 1921. Bui. 337. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Association o f Public Employment Services, held at Washington, D. C., September 11-13, 1922. Bui. 355. Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting o f the International Associa tion o f Public Employment Services, held at Toronto, Canada, September 4-7 , 1923. Women in Industry. Bui. 116. Hours, earnings, and duration o f employment o f wage-earning women in selected industries in the District o f Columbia. * Bui. 117. Prohibition of night work of young persons. * Bui. 118. Ten-hour maximum working-day for women and young persons. Bui. 119. Working hours of women in the pea oa'nneries of Wisconsin. * Bui. 122. Employment o f women in power laundries in Milwaukee. Bui. 160. Hours, earnings, and conditions o f labor o f women in Indiana mercantile establishments and garment factories. * Bui. 167. Minimum-wage legislation in the United States and foreign countries. * Bui. 175. Summary o f the report on condition of woman and child wage earners in the United States. * Bui. 176. Effect o f minimum-wage determinations in Oregon. * Bui. 180. The boot and shoe industry in Massachusetts as a vocation for women. * Bui. 182. Unemployment among women in department and other retail stores of Boston, Mass. Bui. 193. Dressmaking as a trade for women in Massachusetts. Bui. 215. Industrial experience o f trade-school girls in Massachusetts. * Bui. 217. Effect of workmen’s compensation laws in diminishing the necessity o f industrial employment of women anfl children. Bui. 223. Employment of women and juveniles in Great Britain during the war. Bui. 253. Women in the lead industries. Workmen’s Insurance and Compensation (Including laws relating thereto). * Bui. 101. Care o f tuberculous wage earners in Germany. * Bui. 102. British national insurance act, 1911. Bui. 103. Sickness and accident insurance law o f Switzerland. Bui. 107. Law relating to insurance o f salaried employees in Germany. * Bui. 126. Workmen’s compensation laws o f the United States and foreign countries. * Bui. 155. Compensation for accidents to employees of the United States. * Bui. 185. Compensation legislation of 1914 and 1915. * Bui. 203. Workmen’s compensation laws o f the United States and foreign countries, 1916. Bui. 210. Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Columbus, Ohio, April 25-28, 1916. Bui. 212. Proceedings of the conference on social insurance called by the Interna tional Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, Washington, D. C., December 5-9, 1916. Bui. 217. Effect of workmen’s compensation laws in diminishing the necessity of industrial employment of women and children. * Bui. 240. Comparison of workmen’s compensation, laws o f the United States up to . December 31, 1917. Bui. 243. Workmen’s compensation legislation in the United States and foreign countries, 1917 and 1918. Bui. 248. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the International Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Boston, Mass., August 21-25, 1917. Bui. 264. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting o f the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Madison, Wis., September 24^27, 1918. Bui. 272. Workmen’s compensation legislation of the United States and Canada, 1919. * Supply exhausted. (IV ) Workmen's Insurance and Compensation— Continued. * Bui. 273. Proceedings o f the Sixth Annual Meeting of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Toronto, Can ada, September 23-26, 1919. Bui. 275. Comparison of workmen’s compensation laws o f the United States and Canada up to January, 1920. Bui. 281. Proceedings o f the Seventh Annual Meeting of the International Associa tion of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at San Fran cisco, Calif., September 20-24, 1920. Bui. 301. Comparison of workmen’s compensation insurance and administration. Bui. 304. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Chicago, 111., September 19-23, 1921. B,ul. 312. National health insurance in Great Britain, 1911 to 1920. Bui. 332. Workmen’s compensation legislation o f the United States and Canada, 1920 to 1922. Bui. 333. Proceedings o f the Ninth Annual Meeting of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Baltimore, Md., October 9-13, 1922. Bui. 359. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the International Association o f Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions, held at Sjt. Paul, Minn., September 24-26, 1923. Bui. 379. Comparison of workmen’s compensation laws of the United States as of January 1, 1925. Bui. 385. Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Meeting of the International Associa tion of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions held at Halifax, Nova Scotia, August 26-28, 1924. Industrial Accidents and Hygiene. * Bui. 104. Lead poisoning in potteries, tile works, and porcelain enameled sanitary ware factories. Bui. 120. Hygiene of the painters’ trade. * Bui. 127. Dangers to workers from dust and fumes, and methods o f protection. * Bui. 141. Lead poisoning in the smelting and refining o f lead. * Bui. 157. Industrial accident statistics. * Bui. 165. Lead poisoning in the manufacture o f storage batteries. * Bui. 179. Industrial poisons used in the rubber industry. Bui. 188. Report of British departmental committee on the danger in the use of lead in the painting of buildings. * Bui. 201. Report of committee on statistics and compensation insurance cost of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commis sions. [Limited edition.] Bui. 205. Anthrax as an occupational disease. * Bui. 207. Causes of death, by occupation. * Bui. 209. Hygiene o f the printing trades. * Bui. 216. Accidents and accident prevention in machine building. Bui. 219. Industrial poisons used or produced in the manufacture of explosives. Bui. 221. Hours, fatigue, and health in British munition factories. Bui. 230. Industrial efficiency and fatigue in British munition factories. * Bui. 231. Mortality from respiratory diseases in dusty trjades (inorganic dusts). * Bui. 234. Safety movement in the iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1917. Bui. 236. Effect of the air hammer on the hands of stonecutters. Bui. 251. Preventable death in the cotton manufacturing industry. Bui. 253. Women in the lead industries. Bui. 256. Accidents and accident prevention in machine building. (Revision of Bui. 216.) Bui. 267. Anthrax as an occupational disease. [Revised.] Bui. 276. Standardization of industrial accident statistics. Bui. 280. Industrial poisoning in making coal-tar dyes and dye intermediates. Bui. 291. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Bui. 293. The problem o f dust phthisis in the granite-stone industry. Bui. 298. Causes and prevention o f accidents in the iron and steel industry, 1910 to 1919. * Supply exhausted. (V ) Industrial Accidents and Hygiene—Continued. B ill.306. Occupational Hazards and u^gnostic signs: A guide to impairment to be looked for in hazardous occupations. Bui. 339. Statistics of industrial accidents in the United States. Bui. 392. Survey of hygienic conditions in the printing trades. [In press.] Conciliation and Arbitration (including strikes and lockouts). ♦Bui. 124. Conciliation and arbitration in the building trades o f Greater New York. * Bui. 133. Report o f the industrial council o f the British Board o f Trade on its inquiry into industrial agreements. ♦Bui. 139. Michigan copper district strike. Bui. 144. Industrial court o f the cloak, suit, and skirt industry o f New York City. Bui. 145. Conciliation, arbitration, and sanitation in the dress and waist industry o f New York City. BuL 191. Collective bargaining in the anthracite coal industry. •Bui. 198. Collective agreements in the men’s clothing industry. Bui. 238. Operation of the industrial disputes investigation act of Canada. Bui. 303. Use o f Federal power in settlement o f railway labor disputes. Bui. 341. Trade agreement in the silk-ribbon industry o f New York City. Labor Laws of the United States (including decisions of courts relating to labor). ♦Bui. 111. Labor legislation of 1912. ♦Bui. 112. Decisions of courts and opinions affecting labor, 1912. ♦Bui. 148. Labor laws of the United States, with decisions o f courts relating thereto. ♦Bui. 152. Decisions of courts and opinions affecting labor, 1913. ♦Bui. 166. Labor legislation o f 1914. •Bui. 169. Decisions o f courts affecting labor, 1914. ♦Bui. 186. Labor legislation of 1915. ♦Bui. 189. Decisions o f courts affecting labor, 1915. Bui. 211. Labor laws and their administration in the Pacific States. ♦Bui. 213. Labor legislation o f 1916. Bui. 224. Decisions of courts affecting labor, 1916. Bui. 229. Wage-payment legislation in the United States. ♦Bui. 244. Labor legislation of 1917. Bui. 246. Decisions o f courts affecting labor, 1917. ♦Bui. 257. Labor legislation of 1918. Bui. 258. Decisions of courts and opinions affecting labor, 1918. ♦Bui. 277. Labor legislation of 1919. Bui. 285. Minimum-wage legislation in the United States. Bui. 290. Decisions of courts and opinions affecting labor, 1919-1920. Bui. 292. Labor legislation o f 1920. Bui. 308. Labor legislation o f 1921. Bui. 309. Decisions of courts and opinions affecting labor, 1921. Bui. 321. Labor laws that have been declared unconstitutional. Bui. 322. Kansas Court o f Industrial Relations. Bui. 330. Labor legislation of 1922. Bui. 343. Laws providing for bureaus of labor statistics, etc. Bui. 344. Decisions of courts and .opinions affecting labor, 1922. Bui. 370. Labor laws of the United States, with decisions o f courts relating thereto. Bui. 391. Decisions o f courts affecting labor, 1923-1924. [In press.] Foreign Labor Laws. ♦Bui. 142. Administration of labor laws and factory inspection in certain European countries. Vocational Education. Bui. 145. Conciliation, arbitration,, and sanitation in the dress and waist industry o f New York City. ♦Bui. 147. Wages and regularity o f employment in the cloak, suit, and skirt in dustry, with plans for apprenticeship for cutters and the education of workers in the industry. ♦Bui. 159. Short-unit courses for wage earners, and a factory school experiment. ♦Bui. 162. Vocational education survey of Richmond, Va. BuL 199. Vocational education survey of Minneapolis, Minn. Bui. 271. Adult working-class education (Great Britain and the United States). ♦ Supply exhausted. (V I) Labor as Affected by the War. Bui. 170. Foreign food prices as affected by the war. Bui. 219. Industrial poisons used or produced in the manufacture of explosives. Bui. 221. Hours, fatigue, and health in British munition factories. Bui. 222. Welfare work in British munition factories. Bui. 223. Employment of women and juveniles in Great Britain during the war. Bui. 230. Industrial efficiency and fatigue in British munition factories. Bui. 237. Industrial unrest in Great Britain. Bui. 249. Industrial health and efficiency. Final report of British Health o f Munition Workers Committee. Bui. 255. Joint industrial councils in Great Britain. Bui. 283. History of the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, 1917 to 1919. Bui. 287. History o f National War Labor Board. Safety Codes. . Bui. 331. Code o f lighting factories, mills, and other work places. Bui. 336. Safety code for the protection o f industrial workers in foundries. Bui. 338. Safety code for the use, care, and protection o f abrasive wheels. Bui. 350. Rules governing the approval of headlighting devices for motor vehicles. Bui. 351. Safety code for the construction, care, and use of ladders. Bui. 364. Safety code for mechanical power-transmission apparatus. Bui. 375. Safety code for laundry machinery and operations. Bui. 378. Safety code for woodworking machinery. Bui. 382. Code of lighting school buildings. Industrial Relations. Bui. 349. Industrial relations in the West Coast lumber industry. Bui. 361. Labor relations in the Fairmont (W. Va.) bituminous coal field. Bui. 380. Postwar labor conditions in Germany. Bui. 383. Works council movement in Germany. Bui. 384. Labor conditions in the shoe industry in Massachusetts, 1920 to 1924. Bui. 399. Labor relations in the lace and lace-curtain industries. [In press.] Miscellaneous Series. * Bui. 117. Prohibition of night work of young persons. * Bui. 118. Ten-hour maximum working-day for women and young persons. * Bui. 123. Employers* welfare work. * Bui. 158. Government aid to home owning and housing of working people in foreign countries. * Bui. 159. Short-unit courses for wage earners and a factory school experiment. * Bui. 167. Minimum-wage legislation in the United States and foreign countries. Bui. 170. Foreign food prices as affected by the war. * Bui. 174. Subject index o f the publications of the United States Bureau o f Labor Statistics up to May 1, 1915. Bui. 208. Profit sharing in the United States. Bui. 222. Welfare work in British munition factories. Bui. 242. Food situation in central Europe, 1917. * Bui. 250. Welfare work for employees in industrial establishments in the United States. Bui. 254. International labor legislation and the society of nations. Bui. 263. Housing by employers in the United States. Bui. 266. Proceedings of Seventh Annual Convention of Governmental Labor Officials o f the United States and Canada, held at Seattle, Wash., July 12-15, 1920. Bui. 268. Historical survey of international action affecting labor. Bui. 271. Adult working-class education in Great Britain and the United States. Bui. 282. Mutual relief associations among Government employees in Washington, D. C. Bui. 295. Building operations in representative cities in 1920. Bui. 299. Personnel research agencies: A guide to organized research in employment management, industrial relations, training, and working conditions. Bui. 307. Proceedings o f the Eighth Annual Convention of the Association of Gov ernmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada, held at New Orleans, La., May 2-6, 1921. Bui. 313. Consumers’ cooperative societies in the United States, 1920. * Supply exhausted. (t o ) Miscellaneous Series— Continued. Bui. Bui. Bui. Bui. 314. 318. 320. 323. Bui. 326. Bui. 340. Bui. 342. Bui. 346. Bui. 347. Bui. 352. Bui. 368. Bui. 372. Bui. 386. Bui. 389. Bui. 393. Bui. 397. Bui. 398. Cooperative credit societies in America and foreign countries. Building permits in the principal cities o f the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics: Its history, activities, and organization. Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Convention o f the Association of Govern mental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada, held at Harris burg, Pa., May 22-26, 1922. Methods of procuring and computing statistical information o f the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Chinese migrations, with special reference to labor conditions. International Seamen-s Union of Am erica: A study of its history and prob lems. Humanity in government. Building permits in the principal cities o f the United States in 1922. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention o f Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada, held at Richmond, Va., May 1-4, 1923. Building permits in the principal cities of the United States in 1923. Convict labor in 1923. The cost of American almshouses. Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Convention o f the Association of Governmental Labor Officials o f the United States and Canada, held at Chicago, 111., May 19-23, 1924. Trade agreements, 1923 and 1924. [In press.] Building permits in the principal cities of the United States in 1924. [In press.] Growth o f legal aid work in the United States. [In press.] (vrn) SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BY THE BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS Description of occupations, prepared by the United States Employment Service, 1918-1919. * Boots and shoes, harness and saddlery, and tanning. * Cane-sugar refining and flour milling. Coal and water gas, paint and varnish, paper, printing trades, and rubber goods. * Electrical manufacturing, distribution, and maintenance. Glass. Hotels and restaurants. * Logging camps and sawmills. Medicinal manufacturing. Metal working, building and general construction, railroad transportation, and shipbuilding. * Mines and mining. * Office employees. Slaughtering and meat packing. Street railways. * Textiles and clothing. Water transportation. * Supply exhausted. O (IX)
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