DEPTV 
 
OOCUMEWR 
 DEPT. 
 
STATE OFJSIEW YORK 
 EXECUTIVE^ CHAMBER 
 
 REPORT 
 
 OF 
 
 Governor Smith's .Reconstruction 
 Commission 
 
 on 
 
 A Permanent Unemployment 
 Program 
 
 JUNE 17, 1919 
 
 ALBANY 
 
 .1. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 
 1919 
 
DOCUMENTS 
 DEPT. 
 
REPORT ON A PERMANENT UNEMPLOYMENT 
 
 PROGRAM 
 
 Herewith the Reconstruction Commission begs to call to your 
 attention the desirability of framing, as a part of the State's recon- 
 struction program, a permanent program for dealing with the prob- 
 lem of unemployment in the State. 
 
 It is unnecessary for your Commission to point out that unem- 
 ployment is a chronic feature in the industrial life of the State. 
 This was clearly pointed out by the Wainwright Commission., 
 which was appointed to inquire into the question of employers* 
 liability and other matters, one of which was unemployment. In 
 the report submitted by it to the Legislature of the State that Com- 
 mission declared: 
 
 " We find in the industrial centers of this State, at all times 
 of the year, in good times as well as in bad, wage-earners who 
 cannot secure employment."- - Report to the Legislature of 
 the State of ]N~ew York Employment and lack of farm, 
 labor. Page 2. 
 
 Hitherto the problem of unemployment, despite the insistence of 
 all investigators of the subject upon its continuous and normal 
 character, has been prone to be regarded by our government as an 
 occasional emergency requiring, if anything, only emergency 
 measures. 
 
 But the time has come for the State to consider what it may do 
 in a permanent way to ameliorate if not to prevent this permanent, 
 chronic ill of the industrial system. 
 
 The chronic unemployment which exists in the State, independ- 
 ent of business conditions, is attributable in the main to two 
 factors (1) the physical impossibility, in the present industrial 
 organization, of connecting worker and job without loss of time in 
 the interim, and (2) the seasonal fluctuations in the demand for 
 labor in the several industries. In addition to these continuous 
 and normal causes of unemployment, we find the variations in the 
 demand for labor in one or another industry due to the incessant. 
 
 9801)66 
 
play of business conditions. Finally there are the cyclical depres- 
 sions of the whole industrial system causing widespread and severe 
 unemployment, These cyclical depressions are due to a number 
 of causes among which are generally mentioned fluctuation in 
 supply of gold and silver, misdirection of productive energy, under 
 consumption, excessive competition, etc. For each of these factors 
 a remedy must be sought. 
 
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES 
 
 The problem of reducing to a minimum, if not wholly elimin- 
 ating, the loss of time which now ensues in connecting the worker 
 and the job is purely a problem of organization, of machinery. 
 Were it possible to establish a system of labor exchanges which 
 would record in a single unified register every vacancy and every 
 seeker for work, this loss would be reduced to a minimum. It is 
 the impossibility of securing even an approach to this condition 
 under the system of competitive privately operated, fee-charging 
 employment agencies that is responsible for the development of 
 the public employment office. But unless the system of public 
 employment offices is established upon an adequate basis it con- 
 tributes nothing substantial to a solution of the problem. It merely 
 adds another office to those already in the field. There is no more 
 assurance than before that the man and the job will come together 
 with a minimum of delay. In short, the system of public employ- 
 ment must be so fortified and extended that it comes to enjoy a 
 substantial monopoly of the business of employment exchange. 
 Only thus can the basic purpose of the system be realized. 
 
 This is not to say that there is not in so complex an industrial 
 commercial community as this State a legitimate and permanent 
 place for privately operated employment exchanges of certain 
 types. There are certain classes of employment involving highly 
 specialized qualifications, both professional and personal in which 
 the employment exchange acts, in great measure, as the trusted 
 agent of the employer. Schools, colleges and business colleges 
 conduct employment bureaus in the larger cities which are of sub- 
 stantial benefit to graduates. In these limited fields, it is ques- 
 tionable whetH^T the State exchange can ever displace the privately 
 operated exchange, nor is it at all clear that it would be desirable 
 
for it to do so. Again, in certain trades in which the " closed 
 shop " prevails, the trade unions are the recognized employment 
 exchanges of the industry. In these cases, the trade union fur- 
 nishes a wholly efficient employment exchange within the field and 
 there is no reason why it should be superseded by the public 
 employment exchanges. 
 
 For the great run of employments, however, the ideal condition 
 will be attained only when the State system of exchange becomes 
 in effect the exclusive source of supply for labor. To that end the 
 permanent legislative policy of the State should be carefully 
 directed. 
 
 The British government in 1911 attacked the problem with 
 characteristic thoroughness. Prior to that time there were only 
 a few small exchanges operated under the " Unemployed Workmen 
 Act of 1905." Having decided to enter upon the establishment of 
 such offices, the government proceeded so rapidly that within a 
 short time there had been established so many offices that it has 
 been said that no worker in the United Kingdom is more than a 
 short distance from an office.* 
 
 Utterly different has been the policy of this State. The public 
 employment office system of the State was established by an act 
 of 1914 and began operations in 1915. At the end of 1917 it was 
 virtually taken over by the U. S. Employment Service created by 
 the National government to meet the war emergency. It may thus 
 be said to have had an existence of three years under normal con- 
 ditions. Its appropriations have four times been passed on by the 
 Legislature. In the City of New York there has been maintained 
 but one real office in the Borough of Brooklyn obviously 
 wholly useless as a solution of the situation, and serving the sole 
 purpose of furnishing without charge, to a limited number of citi- 
 zens who happen to be in a position to use it, a service performed 
 equally well for a fee, by numerous private agencies. In its four 
 up-State offices the service has doubtless approached much nearer 
 the ideal of a central, monopolistic exchange, but even here it has 
 been organized on a scale by no means adequate. 
 
 * The decision to make these offices the agencies of the unemployment insur- 
 ance system inaugurated at the same time was of course partly responsible 
 for the thoroughness with which the country was organized. 
 
6 
 
 On March 21st last this Commission submitted to you a report,, 
 recommending that you urge upon the Legislature the allowance of 
 an additional appropriation for the State employment service for 
 the ensuing fiscal year sufficient to bring the total annual appro- 
 priation by the State to about $400,000 with a provision for the 
 acceptance by the State of a federal subsidy if the next Congress 
 should make such a subsidy available. An additional appropria- 
 tion on substantially this basis was made by the Legislature. The 
 amount now available will in the judgment of your Commission 
 enable the State Industrial Commission to place the service for the 
 first time upon a basis in some degree commensurate with the size 
 of the problem to be solved. But even this amount will be insuffi- 
 cient unless the State with or without federal aid stands ready still 
 further to enlarge the service, as its development warrants, until 
 it becomes in effect substantially the sole employment exchange of 
 the State. 
 
 The Commission recognizes, however, that the time is perhaps 
 distant when the State system will reach a point of efficiency suf- 
 ficient to warrant its completely superseding all the privately op- 
 erated employment agencies excepting those of a professional and 
 personal character mentioned above. !N"or when that time is 
 reached, will it be necessary to enact legislation to terminate the 
 activities of these private agencies. The competition of the free 
 public agencies will of itself make impossible the continuance of 
 most of the competitive privately operated, fee-charging agencies. 
 
 Until that time comes, however, the operation of the private 
 employment agencies should receive a far more vigorous super- 
 vision on the part of the State than now obtains. Under existing 
 laws* an employment agency is not required to obtain a State 
 license, but cities of the first and second classes are permitted to 
 require a license and to impose a fee of not more than $25 in con- 
 nection therewith. Of ten cities in the first and second classes, 
 all except Troy and Binghamton have exercised the power thus 
 vested in them. Even in these cities an employment agent, par- 
 ticularly one engaged in supplying common labor, who above all 
 others requires close supervision by public officers has but to 
 establish himself in headquarters just outside of the city limits in 
 
 * General Business Law, Section 170. 
 
order to escape completely the operation of the local ordinance. In 
 the smaller towns and cities of the State all classes of employment 
 agents are wholly without governmental supervision. Your Com- 
 mission is strongly in favor of the view, taken by the Industrial 
 Commission of the State, that all employment agencies in the State, 
 regardless of their location, should be licensed, and should be 
 required to sign a penal bond, the license to be for a short period 
 of time and to embody provision for the revocation or non-renewal 
 of the license in the event of improper conduct on the part of the 
 licensee. 
 
 Your Commission understands that the Industrial Commission 
 drew up proposals for a bill to be introduced in the last Legis- 
 lature* requiring all employment agencies in the State to be 
 licensed by the Industrial Commission, and to pay a fee of $250. 
 Your Commission is disposed to doubt whether anything is to be 
 gained by disturbing the efficient system of licensing and regula- 
 tion of employment agencies which has been built up under 
 existing law by the municipal authorities in the cities of New 
 York and Buffalo respectively. It seems to us that the pro- 
 posed bill should be modified so as to provide that first class 
 cities shall collect the license fees, returning half the fees to 
 the State. With this reservation, they are heartily in ac- 
 cord with the proposal of the Industrial Commission. There 
 should also be a provision that in all first and second class cities 
 information and reports on standard forms should be submitted 
 by the local licensing authority to the State Industrial Commis- 
 sion. 
 
 As there are 672 private employment agencies in New York 
 city and 71 licensed agencies up-State and a considerable number 
 of unlicensed agencies, the returns in revenue to the State and the 
 localities will be considerable. Believing that the interests of the 
 working population and of the business community are promoted 
 by a reduction in the number of small, inefficient and temporary 
 agencies, your Commission wishes to record its approval of this 
 proposed increase in the amount of the fee as a measure that will 
 
 * In addition a bill (see Assembly Bill 412) was introduced by Mr. Youker, 
 January 31, 1919, providing that in all cities of the first and second class 
 employment agencies shall pay a fee of $250 to the Mayor or Commissioner 
 of Licenses. This applies only to cities of the first and second class. 
 
8 
 
 tend to discourage the multiplication of needless employment 
 offices of inadequate financial and business stability. 
 
 The present State law provides for the maintenance of a stand- 
 ard type of register by the private employment agencies, and for 
 the submission of figures from this register to the Bureau of 
 Employment of the State Industrial Commission. At the present 
 time the supervision of these registers is not vigorously exercised. 
 It must however be borne in mind that it is very difficult to obtain 
 accurate figures from private employment agencies. Notwith- 
 standing this difficulty, the State Industrial Commission could 
 make considerable progress by testing the figures submitted by 
 several agencies and making an example of such agencies as make 
 false returns. It would also be desirable to strengthen the present 
 law so as to provide that the books of private exchanges should be 
 open to audit by the State Industrial Commission as well as by 
 first and second class cities. 
 
 In connection with the development of the State employment 
 service and the control and gradual supplanting of most of the pri- 
 vate employment agencies there are a number of important prob- 
 lems, which the Industrial Commission through the Bureau of 
 Employment -should study with a view to development of a definite 
 program. The following subjects are among the most important 
 which should be studied: 
 
 1. The organization of the labor market to bring about exten- 
 sive dovetailing of winter and summer trades and to stimulate the 
 use of subsidiary trades. 
 
 2. Directing labor to new occupations when changes of indus- 
 trial structure result in displacement from chosen occupations. 
 
 3. Reserving certain places in industry for older men and 
 women and leaving the younger generation the task of finding and 
 forcing fresh openings for themselves. 
 
 4. Concentrating attention upon the need for industrial train- 
 ing, including " vestibule " or preliminary training, training in 
 plants to increase efficiency while gainfully employed, and train- 
 ing in trade and business schools. This should be done with the 
 State and local departments of education and with private edu- 
 cational institutions. An annual bulletin should be published, 
 similar to that published by the Clearing House for War Time 
 
Training for Women, describing the courses of training in schools, 
 trade schools, colleges, etc., for those seeking a vocational education. 
 
 5. Directing boys and girls away from " blind alley " employ- 
 ment, and issuing monthly bulletins based on the most complete 
 figures which can be obtained. 
 
 6. Testing periodically and comprehensively the amount of 
 unemployment. 
 
 7. In cases of seasonal employment or depression, urging 
 employers to shorten hours rather than discharge employees. 
 
 REGULATION OF INDUSTRY 
 
 Much of the seasonal employment which is characteristic of so 
 many industries notably the garment industry could doubt- 
 less be eliminated by a more rational organization of the market 
 and of the relations between manufacturer and distributors. This 
 problem should be carefully studied especially by the Bureau of 
 Employment of the State Industrial Commission in conjunction 
 with the industries wherever possible. 
 
 Similarly, it has been urged, with apparent truth, that even the 
 cyclical depressions to which the economic order is subject could 
 be in a large measure prevented or at least ameliorated by edu- 
 cating the public and the business community to continue in the 
 face of threatening depression to spend on the usual scale, and 
 indeed to advance purchases at such times. Suggestions have been 
 made for other forms of action by producers having the same end 
 in view.* 
 
 Your Commission has not deemed it worth while to inquire with 
 any thoroughness into suggestions of this character for the reason 
 that, assuming their value, they can be made effective only if 
 applied on a national, if not an international scale. Action in this 
 field, if it is to be undertaken at all, is peculiarly the province of 
 the national government and of the national organizations of indus- 
 try, labor and commerce. It is not a matter in which action by the 
 State would be appropriate or useful. 
 
 * See especially " How to Meet Hard Times," a " Program for the Preven- 
 tion and "Relief of Abnormal Unemployment," issued by the Mayor's Committee 
 on Unemployment. Xo\v York City, January 1917. 
 
10 
 
 CONTEOL OF PUBLIC WOKKS CONSTRUCTION 
 
 The periodic depressions to which the industrial order is subject 
 are of course attributable to underlying economic forces which lie 
 wholly outside the control of the State. It is to be questioned 
 whether even the sphere of influence of the national government is 
 sufficiently broad to enable it to cope with these forces; but that 
 they are beyond the power of the State is unquestionable. 
 
 For some years however the suggestion has been urged that in 
 the control over public works the State and its local subdivisions 
 possessed a potential economic power which they might employ 
 measurably to ameliorate the severity of these periodic industrial 
 depressions. It has been urged that many of the public works pro- 
 jects of the states, counties and municipalities, as well as of the 
 national government and of the great public utilities such as the 
 railroads, are not of a character imperatively requiring their exe- 
 cution at 'a given time, as they are not produced to meet a market 
 demand. If projected on a long-term basis, it would be possible to 
 defer the execution of a portion of the annual program of such 
 projects from year to year, a corresponding reserve fund being set 
 up. Thus, when a period of general industrial depression menaced 
 it would be possible for the national, State and local governments 
 and the railroads to forthwith, with funds and plans already avail- 
 able, proceed to the execution of the defense program. Such a pro- 
 cedure, if extensively followed, would, it has been urged, greatly 
 reduce the extent of the unemployment which a depression would 
 normally involve, not merely by directly giving employment to a 
 considerable number of men, but by steadying the market for con- 
 sumption of goods. The buying power of the men given employ- 
 ment would exert a most wholesome effect on a market suffering as 
 it always suffers in times of depression from lack of confidence in 
 the future. 
 
 It has been pointed out that this plan involves in effect a reversal 
 of the practice now commonly followed by public officials and rail- 
 roads, of discontinuing improvements in times of depression. For 
 this practice there exists however no justification in reason or 
 experience. On the contrary it is certain that the plan would be 
 of financial advantage to the governmental bodies and the rail- 
 roads though this is not its purpose, for it would of course enable 
 
11 
 
 them to buy materials and perhaps labor at lesser prices than in 
 times of industrial activity. 
 
 Your Commission is of the opinion that there is little if any 
 improvement contemplated by the railroads and other large public 
 utilities which can be deferred without serious detriment or danger. 
 
 It has been questioned whether this plan, even if admitted to be 
 practicable so far as government agencies are concerned would be 
 effective whether the amount of public works construction which 
 could be deferred in this way is sufficiently great to have any influ- 
 ence on the general economic situation. Only a long-term test 
 could furnish a reliable answer to this question. Mr. John R. 
 Shillady, who investigated the subject for the Mayor's Committee 
 on Unemployment created during the crisis of 1914, has made per- 
 haps the most careful detailed examination of this subject. His 
 conclusion was that "If an employment reserve approximating 10 
 per cent, on the average, of the ' outlay ' of federal, State, county 
 and municipal governments on the acquisition and construction of 
 permanent properties and public improvements, added to a like 
 one-tenth of the annual railroad expenditures for roads and per- 
 manent equipment, be erected by means of such a deferred improve- 
 ments program as has been suggested there will result, on the most 
 conservative estimate, a fund for use during the tenth year suffi- 
 cient to employ at least one-tenth of the working population of the 
 country engaged in trade, transportation and manufacturing and 
 mechanical pursuits, for a period of twelve weeks, at an average 
 weekly wage, for all ages and kinds of labor, of $12 for males and 
 $7 for females." Pie believed that this potential reserve was suffi- 
 ciently large to exert a most beneficial influence upon the employ- 
 ment situation. His average weekly wage would of course be far 
 from a living wage under present conditions. 
 
 Whatever may be the actual importance of the influence which 
 the general adoption of this plan in this country would exert, it 
 seems clear that, if it would have any beneficial influence what- 
 ever it is the duty of the State to apply it within the limited field 
 over which it has control, and to urge and assist the cities and 
 counties of the State to do likewise, unless there exist administra- 
 tive reasons which render its execution impracticable. 
 
 It must be admitted that despite the advocacy of the suggestion 
 muler discussion for some years past, there is but little precedent, 
 
12 
 
 either in this country or abroad, for concrete action by which it 
 may be put in effect. The British Development Commission, 
 which recommends to the treasury allowances of funds (by grant 
 or loan) to government departments or local authorities for the 
 development of agricultural and other rural industries, including 
 roads, has followed the plan of designating some of the projects 
 approved by it for execution only if " distress arising from lack 
 of employment, should occur/ 7 and has set aside a very consider- 
 able portion of the funds under its control to be used only for 
 grants for projects of this class. 
 
 It is said that in Germany certain of the cities have followed 
 the practice of setting up financial reserves for the accumulation 
 of improvement funds and that recently such reserves, originally 
 merely a fiscal expedient, for making possible the construction of 
 costly works, have demonstrated their value in facilitating the 
 rapid execution of such works in times of unemployment. 
 
 The experience in foreign countries in providing public works 
 merely for purposes of charity is of no value in the consideration 
 of a logical deferred public works program. 
 
 In this country, the only action thus far taken is that embodied 
 in the Pennsylvania law of 1917, providing for the creation of a 
 State Board of Public Works, and making a small appropriation 
 therefor ($40,000) ; said board being empowered upon the cer- 
 tification by the Industrial Commission of a state of unemploy- 
 ment, immediately to allot the funds at its disposal to the several 
 departments of the State having public works projects ready for 
 execution but no funds available therefor. In effect this plan is 
 the German one of accumulating a reserve fund to be immediately 
 available when the emergency arises; but the wholly inadequate 
 size of the initial appropriation is strongly suggestive of the 
 extreme difficulty which should be encountered in attempting to 
 build up reserves of this kind in the present condition of the 
 finances of most of our states. 
 
 Turning now specifically to the conditions in our own State, we 
 find that there have been unusually largo expenditures for public 
 works, including public buildings, during the past years by the 
 State, the counties and the cities. How much of this expenditure 
 could have been deferred for a period of years, against such an 
 emergency as threatened the State during the months following 
 
13 
 
 the termination of hostilities is a question of the greatest difficulty. 
 In some of the branches of public work, as for example in the con- 
 struction of school buildings in the City of Xew York, it is 
 notorious that construction has lagged far in the rear of actual 
 need, so that no deferment, for however good a cause, could have 
 been made. Again, in the case of the Barge Canal, we have an enor- 
 mous public work most of which could not be put to any substan- 
 tial use until the whole of it has been completed. Obviously defer- 
 ment here could economically have been employed only within 
 very narrow limitations. On the other hand, much of the State 
 road work, some of the city work, and doubtless even much of the 
 county work, could readily have been deferred for a period of 
 years. 
 
 Without attempting any estimate of the amount of expenditure 
 which could be deferred and accumulated an attempt which 
 could produce only the merest guess it seems clear to your Com- 
 mission that, in the absence of parallel action by the national gov- 
 ernment and the railroads, the influence which could be exterted by 
 the State and its local subdivisions would be a minor one. Still 
 more minor would be the effect produced if, as seems necessary, 
 the action of the State were confined to works executed by the 
 State itself. It is difficult to see how the State could effectively 
 compel the action of the local authorities in this respect except 
 perhaps as to works financed jointly by the State and the locality. 
 
 In view of the minor effect which action by the State could thus 
 at best produce, your Commission has not felt justified in recom- 
 mending recourse to any new and untried methods of public works 
 administration and finance. For the present it would seem that 
 the most that can practically be done is to impress upon the vari- 
 ous State departments and the local authorities the desirability of 
 planning public improvements upon a long-term basis, and to 
 designate some authority in the State to keep currently in touch 
 with the execution of the several local and State programs, with a 
 view to urging upon the city, county and State authorities, and 
 where necessary upon the State Legislature, prompt action in 
 pushing forward the work outlined with especial vigor whenever 
 industrial depression threatens. In addition the work of the War 
 Department on employment of soldiers has clearly demonstrated 
 the possibilities in guiding the unemployed to work, and providing 
 
14 
 
 men for contractors through the careful analysis of public works 
 contracts and close co-operation with the authorities responsible for 
 letting contracts. We are of the opinion that an annual confer- 
 ence of all public works authorities in the State would be of great 
 benefit not only for this purpose but also for the purposes of 
 co-operation in the purely engineering and contracting problems 
 of the several administrations. In its investigation of the status of 
 existing public works projects throughout the State, your Com- 
 mission has been impressed with the absence of concrete and exact 
 information on this subject upon which any official policy might 
 be formulated, and with the absence of any central official au- 
 thority which might, upon such information, attempt, if only by 
 exhortation, to enlist the co-operation of the several local and 
 State authorities in carrying out any policy that might seem 
 expedient in view of the current business and employment situa- 
 tion. Your Commission believes that had such a body been in 
 existence prior to the cessation of hostilities it might have done 
 a very great service in procuring the initiative or resumption of 
 construction on a number of projects some months earlier than 
 has actually been the case. With this experience in mind your 
 Commission recommends that (1) In the absence of a single recog- 
 nized State Public Works Director the Legislature authorize 
 and require the State Industrial Commission through the 
 Bureau of Employment to obtain during the first three months 
 of each year from the several State departments and locali- 
 ties information regarding all public works projected and 
 under construction, and to publish this information annually 
 in April, in a summary form similar to that adopted this year by 
 the Reconstruction Commission in its report to you on public 
 improvements. (2) An informal body be set up consisting of 
 representatives of the State departments principally concerned 
 with public works including the State Engineer, Superintendent 
 of Public Works, Commissioner of Highways, State Architect and 
 Conservation Commissioner, and of representatives of the State 
 Industrial Commission, which shall study the data thus obtained 
 in conjunction with the data regarding employment and business 
 conditions currently gathered by the State Industrial Commission 
 and shall call in April or May an annual conference of all public 
 works authorities throughout the State to discuss engineering. 
 
15 
 
 financial, employment and other common problems and to endeavor 
 by counsel and suggestion to effect the vigorous prosecution of all 
 works already planned for and financed, and the prompt financing 
 of works projected whenever severe business depression and unem- 
 ployment threaten. At this conference arrangements should be 
 made by the representatives of the Bureau of Employment with 
 the various public works authorities, whereby the Bureau could be 
 instrumental in supplying men to officials and contractors when 
 work actually commences. Were such a board instituted, its opera- 
 tions over a period of a few years would disclose, more effectively 
 than any speculation which may now be advanced by your Commis- 
 sion, precisely what if anything may be accomplished by more posi- 
 tive and compulsory action of the State in securing an actual 
 deferment of public works construction against periods of 
 depression. 
 
 UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 
 
 Even were all the measures suggested and referred to in the 
 foregoing taken and vigorously prosecuted not only by the State 
 but by the nation as well, there would still persist, as a chronic 
 feature of the industrial system, a certain amount of unemploy- 
 ment. The industrial mechanism is too complicated to be entirely 
 within the reach of such measures. Against the unavoidable idle- 
 ness, which is impossible of elimination, unemployment insur- 
 ance has been the remedy resorted to in other countries. 
 
 But were any plan of unemployment insurance to be put into 
 effect in the near future in this State, before the policies outlined 
 can have been developed and matured, or before any consistent and 
 widespread attempt is made to develop them, the insurance prob- 
 lem presented becomes of far greater magnitude and difficulty. 
 
 Before unemployment insurance can be put into effect, the State 
 employment service must be greatly extended, must be practically a 
 monopoly and must be so efficient as to be capable of administering 
 a law which involves complete supervision of all employment 
 throughout the State. 
 
 In view of these considerations, this Commission does not 
 recommend any immediate action by the State looking toward 
 unemployment insurance. We are of the opinion that the adop- 
 
16 
 
 tion of our other recommendations will lead in a short time to the 
 accumulation of experience which will clearly demonstrate whether 
 or not unemployment insurance is the next logical step. 
 
 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE GOVERNOR 
 
 1. Continue to develop the State employment service looking 
 toward an ultimate State monopoly in this field, excepting possibly 
 a small number of Union agencies and private agencies supplying 
 service of a personal and professional character. 
 
 2. Revise and introduce the bill drawn up by the Industrial 
 Commission providing for licensing at a fee of $250 of all private 
 employment agencies. The State Industrial Commission should 
 license all agencies excepting those in first class cities. In such 
 cities the licensing should be done locally, but the State should 
 divide all fees equally with the cities. The State's fees should go 
 into a fund for the support of the Bureau of Employment. 
 
 3. Enforce the present State law providing for the maintenance 
 of standard registers and the submission of figures by private 
 employment agencies, extend the supervision of private employ- 
 ment agencies, and draw up legislation opening the books of pri- 
 vate exchanges to audit by the State Bureau of Employment. 
 
 4. Direct the Industrial Commissioner, through the Bureau of 
 Employment, to develop a program which should cover the follow- 
 ing subjects : 
 
 (a) The organization of the labor market to bring about 
 extensive dovetailing of winter and summer trades and to 
 stimulate the use of subsidiary trades. 
 
 (&) Directing labor to new occupations when changes of 
 industrial structure result in displacement from chosen 
 occupations. 
 
 (c) Reserving certain places in industry for older men and 
 women, and leaving the younger generation the task of finding 
 and forcing fresh openings for themselves. 
 
 (d) Concentrating attention upon the need for industrial 
 training, including " vestibule " training where such training 
 does not lead to blind alley employment, training in plants to 
 increase efficiency while gainfully employed, and training in 
 trade and business schools. Issue in co-operation with the 
 State and city departments of education annual bulletins out- 
 
. 17 
 
 lining the courses of training in schools for all schools, col- 
 leges, etc., open to persons seeking vocational education. 
 
 (e) Directing boys and girls away from " blind alley " 
 employment. 
 
 (/) Testing periodically and comprehensively the amount 
 of unemployment and publishing bulletins based on the most 
 complete figures which can be obtained. 
 
 (g) In cases of seasonal employment or depression, urging 
 employers to shorten hours rather than discharge employees. 
 
 5. Authorize and require the State Industrial Commission 
 through the Bureau of Employment to obtain during the first three 
 months of each year from the several State departments and locali- 
 ties current information regarding all public works projected and 
 under construction and to publish this information annually in 
 April in summary form. 
 
 6. Appoint an informal committee composed of representatives 
 of the State departments principally concerned with public 
 improvements and of the State Industrial Commission to study 
 data thus obtained in conjunction with data regarding employ- 
 ment and business conditions currently gathered by the State 
 Industrial Commission, and to call in April or May an annual 
 conference of all public works authorities throughout the State to 
 discuss engineering, financial employment and other common prob- 
 lems. This committee should vigorously prosecute all 'public 
 improvements whenever business depression and unemployment 
 threaten, and report upon the need, if any, of compulsory action 
 to secure the deferment of public works and the establishment of 
 public works reserves. 
 
 ABRAM I. ELKUS, 
 
 Chairman Reconstruction Commission. 
 JOTTN G. ARAR, 
 
 Chairman Committee on Unemployment. 
 CHARLES P. RTETNMETZ, 
 MRS. WALTER W. STEELE, 
 !N"oRMAN E. MACK, 
 SARA A. CONBOY, 
 PETER J. BRADY, 
 MICHAEL FRIEDSAM, 
 
 Committee on Unemployment. 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 
 FORM NO. DD7, 5m, 1 1 778 BERKELEY CA 94720 
 
Gaylord Bros., Inc. 
 
 Stockton, Calif. 
 r. M. Reg. U.S.Pat. Off. 
 
 989966 
 
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