&T-B Report on Unemployment 8 3 6 6 3 TO HIS EXCELLENCY Governor Hiram W. Johnson BY Commission of Immi ^ration and Housin* of California (SUPPLEMENT TO FIRST ANNUAL REPORT) DECEMBER NINTH, 1914 I \U.IKi HNIA Si \ IK PRINI ;NG OFFICE 1914 Report on Unemployment TO HIS EXCELLENCY Governor Hiram W. Johnson Commission of Immigration and Housing of California (SUPPLEMENT TO FIRST ANNUAL REPORT) DECEMBER NINTH, 1914 CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE 1914 14524 Commission of Immigration and Housing of California UNDERWOOD BUILDING 525 MARKET STREET, SAN FRANCISCO COMMISSIONERS: SIMON J. LUBIN, President, Sacramento RT. REV. EDWARD J. HANNA, D.D., Vice President, San Francisco MRS. FRANK A. GIBSON, Los Angeles ARTHUR H. FLEMING, Pasadena PAUL SCHARRENBERG, Secretary, San Francisco GEO. L. BELL, Attorney and Executive Officer. PREFACE. Unemployment, as far as state action is concerned, presents two distinct aspects : First, the immediate alleviation of suffering and want, a charity problem; second, the ultimate or industrial solution, looking toward the elimination of unemployment. Our main report deals with the latter problem. But, since the experience of the last few winters has taught us that we may expect the presence of great numbers of destitute, unemployed people in the state during the coming winter, we submit along with this report some brief suggestions concerning the former problem. 214524 CONTENTS. PAGE. PREFACE 3 REPORT ON PERMANENT, OR INDUSTRIAL, PROBLEM OF UNEM- PLOYMENT 5-24 REPORT ON TEMPORARY, OR RELIEF, PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT 67-70 INDEX TO APPENDICES. A. DIGEST OF LETTERS SENT TO THE GOVERNOR 2.5-2 G B- 1. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF UNEMPLOYMENT 27 B- 2. DIGEST OF SEVERAL BOOKS ON UNEMPLOYMENT 28-29 Summary of reports of investigations conducted by Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. C- 1. SUMMARY OF REPORT ON THE FLOATING LABORER IN CALI- FORNIA 30 C- 2. SUMMARY OF REPORT ON BERRY PICKING AND FRUIT CAN- NING IN SONOMA COUNTY 31 C- 3. EPITOMIZED STATEMENT OF REPORT ON THE SAND CREEK ROAD SITUATION IN FRESNO COUNTY 32 C- 4. A DIGEST OF A REPORT ON THE EMPLOYMENT AGENCY SIT- UATION IN CALIFORNIA 33-39 C- 5. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGISLATION CONCERNING PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES 40-42 C- 6. BRIEF OF REPORTS ON THE ORANGE INDUSTRY OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA 43 C- 7. CONDENSED STATEMENT OF A REPORT ON A LUMBER CAMP IN THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS 44 C- 8. BRIEF OF REPORT ON ALASKA SALMON FISHING INDUSTRY.. 45 C- 9. BRIEF OF REPORT ON SOUTHERN EUROPEAN FARMERS IN THE BAY REGION 46 C-10. STATISTICAL TABLES FROM LIFE HISTORY SCHEDULES SE- LECTED AT RANDOM AMONG CASUAL LABORERS IN CALI- FORNIA 47-53 C-ll. TABULATION OF REGISTER OF COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY THE COMMISSION 54-56 C-12. STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF INSPECTION OF 801 LABOR CAMPS BY THE COMMISSION 57-58 C-13. SYNOPSIS OF REPORT ON THE LABOR MARKET IN SONOMA AND MENDOCINO COUNTIES 59-61 ADDITIONAL APPENDICES. D. REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS BY COMMONWEALTH CLUB_ 62-63 E. JOINT CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A NATIONAL MARKETING COMMISSION 64 F. BRIEF OF REPORT ON HOME EDUCATION BY THE COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING 65 G. QUOTATIONS FROM ADDRESS BY HON. JOHN P. MCLAUGHLIN, COMMISSIONER OF BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS 66 H. THE CHICAGO PROGRAM FOR IMMEDIATE RELIEF..: 71-72 I. REPORT ON PLAN OF TEMPORARY RELIEF BY COMMONWEALTH CLUB . 73 REPORT ON UNEMPLOYMENT. SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, December 9, 1914. To His Excellency, HIRAM AV. JOHNSON, Governor, Sacramento, California. DEAR SIR: On January 28, 1914, you addressed to our Commission a letter in which you asked us to direct our attention to the problem of unemployment, with the object in view of suggesting to you what, if any. remedy might be applied by the State. From a second letter, dated March 17, 1914, we quote : "The problem, apparently, is one that will be ever recurring, increas- ing in intensity and acuteness, and therefore I think it the part of wisdom for all of us charged with the administration of the govern- ment to find, if we can, some sane and rational solution. * * May I ask you, therefore, * * * to suggest what remedial measures may be taken by the government?" Upon receipt of your request, we so arranged our work that we might submit some fairly comprehensive report. The task you assigned to us fitted in admirably with our general program. In its most fundamental aspect, the problem of immigration is almost identical with that of employment. Practically without exception, the newly-arrived immi- grant is a man in need of an immediate job. The federal laws will not permit him to contract for work before he is admitted. The moment he comes among us, in a very real sense he is one of our unemployed. Whatever forces tend to keep him out of a job make for his discontent, dissatisfaction, and the likelihood of his becoming a public charge. Whatever factors incline to give him an economic foothold assure his becoming a useful citizen. In fairness to the immigrant, assuming that the federal officers at the port of entry have done well their task of segregation, it must be said that he falls within the class of the employ- able, rather than within either of the other two groups completing the army of unemployed, the unemployable and the vagrant. Further- more, the work we have done directly among immigrants in cur com- plaint bureau and the extensive investigations in municipal housing and among labor camps throughout the State, have given us many sidelights upon the problem of unemployment. Field of Investigation. Over and above this general information, we have extended our study into three fields: (1) You were kind enough to turn over to us some thirty letters addressed to you on this subject of unemployment. These we have 6 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. considered carefully, embodying some of the suggestions made therein in our final recommendations. A digest of the most important letters appears in Appendix A to this report. (Pages 25-26.) (2) We have consulted the best available material on the subject, giving both Eastern and European experience. It would be blindness to ignore what older states have discovered through many well thought out experiments. Appendix B gives a bibliography of the most helpful sources with a digest of the more important conclusions. (Pages 27-29.) (3) In cooperation with the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, we have conducted an intensive investigation within our own State, under the following headings: (a) Study of special localities to show methods of obtaining labor ; (6) Study of several hundred life histories of migratory and casual workers to learn causes of unemployment and methods of obtaining jobs; (c) Study of available material in United States census, report of United States Immigration Commission, report of State Com- missioner of Labor Statistics, reports of labor unions in California ; (d) Investigation of eighty-one private employment agencies within the state to determine their real status and value. The results of our own investigations are epitomized in Appendix C. (Pages 30-61.) Conclusions and Recommendations. As a result of all this study, we are prepared to submit for your consideration these recommendations, which we explain and defend in the following pages: (1) The creation of a state bureau of labor exchanges, under a rep- resentative board or commission, with an annual appropriation of not less than $75,000; this bureau to have branch offices in the centers of population to gather and disseminate labor intelligence, to be a clearing house bringing the man to the job, and the job to the man ; the value of the bureau to be judged by both the extent and the thoroughness of its accomplishments. The bureau should cooperate with the Railway Commission to provide special low transportation rates to those for whom it finds positions ; this bureau should have authority to regulate private and philanthropic employment agencies, to issue licenses to them and to revoke same at pleasure. In the light of the experience of last winter, and of the probable happenings of the season we are now entering, we strongly urge the wisdom of passing this act as an emergency measure as early as possible during the first session of the coming legislature. (2) The enacting of more stringent laws for the regulation of pri- vate employment agencies. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. I (3) The passing of definite laws governing sanitation and housing in labor camps, based upon our experience during the past year; the enforcement of these laws to be placed in the hands of a bureau of camp sanitation and housing, under our Commission, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or under a reorganized State Board of Health; with a special appropriation of $25,000 per year. (4) The complete revision of our housing laws, broadened to take in family dwellings as well as tenements and lodging houses; the enforcement to be in the hands of a bureau of housing, under our commission or under a reorganized State Board of Health; with a special appropriation of $20,000 per year. (5) The appointment of a special committee or designation of some (\isting commission to conduct an extended investigation into (a) The wisdom of devising some scheme for out-of-work insur- ance that will not have the effect of drawing into our state the unemployed of the nation; (&) The best methods for dealing with the unemployable and the vagrant; (c) Possible schemes for regularizing and dovetailing private enterprise, not in cities alone but in the rural districts as well, so that the burden may be justly and fairly borne by the state as a whole ; (d) Ways and means for providing public work during periods of deprevssion. (6) The encouraging of some mode of rural credits along the lines of European experience, to make farming more attractive and more profitable ; and the creation of rural organization after the type of the German Landwirtshaftsrat, with the same object in view. (7) Laws that will make more difficult fraud and misrepresentation in the sale of rural lands, and that will bring to speedier justice the violators of the same and give equity to the exploited. (8) A state land bureau, preferably cooperating with the University of California, to supply prospective purchasers with all needed informa- tion regarding the best economic uses of land, its value, approaches to market, etc. The Problem. In your letter of March 17, 1914, quoted above, you say that the problem of unemployment "apparently is one that will be ever recur- ring, increasing in intensity and acuteness, and, therefore, I think it the part of wisdom * * * to find, if we can, some sane and rational solution." You have untold evidence from the highest authorities to support this view. Mr. Oscar Straus, when Secretary of Commerce and Labor, said: "The question of unemployment is one of the inci- 314524 8 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. dents of the great commercial development of our age. It is the reverse side of the shield of prosperity, if you please. What the remedy should be is the great problem of our civilization." Irregularity of employ- ment, in the opinion of Mr. Louis Brandeis, is "the worst and most extended of industrial evils." Mr. Cyril Jackson, one of England's foremost students of this question, says: "Of the social problems of the moment, unemployment is the most intense in its claim upon public attention. * * * Whereas, a generation ago unemployment was regarded as the result of economic forces beyond the control of the state, today the prevalence of unemployment is attributed to defects in the organ- ization of industrial life which it is the business of statesmen to rectify." A still more eminent English authority, W. H. Beveridge, holds that "the problem of unemployment lies, in a very special sense, at the root of most other social problems. * * Reasonable security of employment for the bread-winner is the basis of all private duties and all sound social action." The seriousness of the problem of unemployment did not appeal to us in America until after men in Europe had devoted to it years of study. It is easy to understand why. Until recently, overcrowding and economic stress found relief in the mandate, "Go west, young man." But now we have come up against the limits of the West, which rudely at last have turned us back to face our problem, to solve it, if we would not fall before it. Observe to what extent our own state is recognized as an outlet; whereas, in the decade 1900-1910 the population of the United States as a whole increased 21 per cent, Cali- fornia showed a growth of over 60 per cent. We fear that the economic power to absorb hardly kept pace with this increase. We fear that there is a likelihood that the census figures do not tell the whole story, for it is improbable that they enumerate all of the floating population, of which the number is growing year by year. California offers peculiar attractions to the man in the Eastern States or in Europe who, for one reason or another, desires to migrate. It is the farthest goal of him to whom "go west" becomes an active motive. It is the natural destination of him who merely is carried with the stream of migration. Our kindly climate and beneficent hospitality are known to the peoples of the world. "You cannot freeze to death in California; you cannot starve to death in California." is a by-word among the migratory workers of the country. And they have sensed the truth. And yet, against this there is the fact that in this comparatively new state' of ours we hardly have had time to adjust conditions to absorb with economy all these new-comers. Industry is but meagerly developed, and nowhere does it exist on a large scale. During the past few years, extensive grain ranches have given way to intensively cultivated fruit KEPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 9 farms, which require large numbers of men for but short periods. The problem of the migratory and casual worker is accentuated here prob- ably more than in any other part of the United States. A Clearing- House Needed. AVe turn our attention first then to the migratory and casual worker, who is here in response to a demand that is a concomitant of the status of industry and agriculture in our state. When he has com- pleted a job, where is he to look for another? Today he may (a) answer an advertisement in some newspaper; (&) wander from place to place seeking employment; or (c) apply to a private employment agent for a job. If he reads a newspaper advertisement, how is he to know that the demand has not been satisfied over and over again? Indeed, how is he to know that the purpose of the advertisement is not to flood the local market with men, to multiply the fees to the agent and keep down wages? A Valencia orange district several months ago sent out through the press a pitiful appeal for labor long after it had all the men it could employ. An employment agent, with branches throughout the state, persists in advertising in the San Francisco "Examiner" for cotton pickers to go to the Imperial Valley long after the demand is fully met. Then there is the problem of transportation a very serious matter for a low-paid casual worker, for he cannot beat his way unless he be unusually agile. Closely allied to the newspaper advertisement is the placard posted broadcast, such as that used by certain hop growers to get pickers for the 1913 season. If the man wanders from place to place, from door to door, see what a waste of time is involved. The general response to the applicant is, "Come back in a week or ten days." What is he to do meanwhile? (See Appendices C-l and C-2.) But he can resort to the private employment agent. The uutrust- worthiness of private agencies is now a matter of common knowledge. The State of Washington, on that account, has just legislated them out of existence. We have recently made a careful investigation of 81 of the 247 licensed agencies in the state. Of the 81, our investigators give it as their opinion that 52, or 64 per cent, are of doubtful honesty; and that 51, or 64 per cent, are of doubtful efficiency. Forty-two agents admitted the prevalence of the following abuses: illegal reten- tion of fees, misrepresentation, shipment where there is not work, advertising where there is no job, splitting fees with foremen (see Appendix C-3), extortion, shipment of unfit applicants, operations in connection with a saloon ; and acknowledged these abuses on the part of the employer : misrepresentation, giving orders to several agents at the same time, retaining fee collected from employees. Needless to say. these 42 employment agents claimed severally that their offices 10 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. were innocent of such practices. Of the 39 agents who professed ignorance of any abuse, we must say that we suspect their trustworthi- ness as witnesses, or at least their knowledge of conditions. (See Appendix C-4.) In his report of July 1, 1913, the Chief of the Division of Informa- tion of the Federal Bureau of Immigration said: "A federal weather bureau, receiving its information from many sources throughout the world, is enabled to inform the inhabitants of the United States of coming storms and other changes in the w r eather. The work of the weather bureau was not deemed necessary at first and not appreciated until long after that bureau was in operation. It is just as important to all the people of the United States, and more especially the working people, that changes or coming changes in industrial life should be speedily and accurately recorded." (p. 161.) After two years' experience through the Bureau of Industries and Immigration, the Commissioner of Labor of New York State strongly recommends the establishment of state free labor agencies and the creation of a state bureau to deal with the matter of the regulation of private employment agencies. (12th Annual Report, Xew York Com- missioner of Labor, p. 150.) In the report of the New York Commission of Immigration made to the legislature in 1909 after an exhaustive investigation, we read, "It would seem axiomatic that some means should be devised by which these laborers in a state of enforced idleness might be informed of the opportunities which await them in other parts of the state and country where employment can be found." (p. 130.) On March 21, 1914, the Massachusetts Commission on Immigration made its report. The commission had this to say on the matter of state free employment offices: "The economic waste that results from the failure to offer the immigrant the guidance he needs in obtaining employment has never been appreciated. * [ There is also the eco- nomic waste that comes when the foreigner, skilled in a trade in his home country, finds it impossible to follow that trade here. * * * The -first step toward the reduction of the evils of the present system of distribution is a state employment agency, * * which shall make a comprehensive study of the labor market, shall give special attention to the casual labor problem, shall do the practical work of placing the individual man in the individual job, and shall develop a follow-up system, so that subsequent work shall be increasingly efficient. * * * An employment bureau should be created * * and placed in charge of a supervisor of employment, who should be especially qualified to develop this work." (pp. 47-51.) On February 25, 1914, the Commission of Immigration of New Jersey made its report. Concerning the need of establishing state free employ- REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 11 inent agencies, the commission said: "It often happens that unemploy- ment exists in one part of a state, while demands for labor in another .section are unfilled. This is due to improper coordination between workers and jobs. The man without a job and the job needing the man must be brought together, and only a central information agency, such as the state can furnish, is able to do this. "The private individual cannot go to all the factories, as this involves a waste of time and money. Nor can he afford to register at all of Hie agencies. It frequently happens that men are registered at one agency while positions are awaiting at another. Employers, on the other hand, cannot apply to all of the private agencies in the state for their help. In New Jersey there are approximately 200 of these agencies. "The public agencies, properly managed, serve as clearing houses for both employer and employee and save the time of both. Figures in New York State indicate that nearly forty per cent of all workers are out of employment at some time during the year, owing to the seasonal occupations and lack of information of trade conditions. The state agency, properly conducted, will eliminate a considerable amount of this unemployment. "Private agencies may find men jobs, but they can never perform the larger function of distribution agencies. Only a central agency, municipal or state, can serve this purpose." (p. 66.) William AT. Leiserson, Superintendent of the Wisconsin State Employment Office, says of the activities of that office: "The Milwaukee office is the only one located in a city large enough to permit of great expansion. During the first year its business was increased almost four-fold over preceding years, when it was conducted as the majority of employment offices in the United States have been managed. Appli- cations for employment increased from 6,300 to 23,000; help wanted, from 6,200 to 29,000; and persons referred to positions, from 6,000 to 24,000. Of the 24,000 referred, it was positively ascertained that 11,400 had actually been hired. During the second year the business increased over the first by about 40 per cent. The cost per verified position secured the first year was 60 cents. The second year it was less than 50 cents. We shall not be satisfied until this has been much further reduced. Our other three free employment offices are located in cities with population of less than 45,000. While they have not shown such remarkable results, they have substantially increased their business.'' Free Public Labor Exchanges. If we would be of service, then, to the great number of our migratory and casual workers, we must devise some machinery for obtaining im- mediate knowledge of opportunity for labor, and then spread that infor- ]2 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. mation without charge when and where it will reach those out of work ; then we must gather data as to those unemployed, showing their experience, ability, trustworthiness, etc., and put it within reach of prospective employers. In this field, private enterprise has broken down completely. The multiplicity of private employment agencies complicates the situation; there is no one place to which a man might apply to obtain a list of available jobs; it is conceivable that a man might register with one agent while his job is in the hands of another agent twenty or thirty feet away. Private agencies must charge fees, which the most needy are hardly in position to pay, and which rise and fall with the increase and decrease in the demand for positions. The fee is an inducement to encourage conspiracy between agent and job- boss, resulting in the ridiculous labor turnover we witness in many occupations. We believe that private agencies should be further regu- lated and have made certain suggestions for legislation along this line in Appendix C-5. However, regulation will only curb flagrant abuse, it will not supply that one absolute requisite a common clearing house of labor intelligence. Private agencies are competitive; it is part of the game for one to keep his knowledge from the others. It is to the advantage of the man out of work, of the employer, and of the public at large that friction be removed between the man and the job. Knowledge of demand and of supply, in its most helpful form, can be supplied only by the state. This is as legitimately a piece of public work as is the supplying of weather reports, crop statistics, soil surveys, knowledge of foreign markets, methods of cultivation, and the like. We therefore strongly recommend, as a first step in attacking the problem of unemployment, the establishment of a state bureau of labor exchanges under a representative board or commission, with an appropriation of at least $75,000 a year. There should be branch offices in the centers of population. The bureau should be given facilities for providing low fares. Supervision and regulation of private and philan- thropic agencies, with power of issuing and revoking licenses, should come under this bureau. The act to create free public labor exchanges in England was passed in 1909. At the expiration of five years, there were 430 employment exchanges in operation. These exchanges with their branches are so distributed that any man out of work can file his application for work by traveling not more than five miles. This same convenience is at the disposal of the employer. Germany has between 400 and 500 municipal exchanges which find jobs for over a million men and women a year. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 13 Under a Representative Board. The bureau should be under a commission, the members of which represent labor, the employer, and the general public. Only then can it be successful. A labor transaction involves two elements the appli- cant and the employer. Unless the bureau possess the unqualified con- fidence of both, it is doomed to failure from the start. A one-man bureau could not win this confidence ; supervised by a representative of labor, it would be suspected by the employer ; directed by a nominee of the employers it would not be patronized by the men. (See Appendix D.) German experience has emphasized the wisdom of having this repre- sentative governing body. "Perhaps the most important feature of the organization of the bureaus and of the composition of the com- mittees in charge of them is that the bureaus are in almost all cases controlled by representatives of the employing and employed classes in equal numbers. * * * This is considered so important that they have used or adapted the word ' Paritatische ' to express the idea, and so universally is this characteristic found that the 'Paritatische Bureau' is the term very frequently used to denominate a public employment bureau. * * * It is considered of prime importance that they be con- trolled and managed by representative committees in which labor and capital can have equal confidence. * ! * It is for this reason that, although the trade unionists of Germany commenced by opposing and usually bitterly denouncing the public employment bureaus, they now increasingly make use of them and have their representatives on the committees in charge of them. In many cases also the unions which formerly maintained employment bureaus of their own for their dif- ferent crafts have handed over these bureaus to the public bureaus." (What is Done for the Unemployed in European Countries; W. D. P. Bliss, Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Labor No. 76, May, 1908, pp. 773-774.) With Sufficient Appropriation. Then the appropriation should be sufficiently large to cover the state. The gathering, synchronizing, and disseminating the necessary data is an expensive task. Unless the work be done thoroughly, it is better that it be not attempted at all. The amount we suggest, $75,000, is only a small part of the total fees annually paid out to private agents. For the year ending March 31, 1912, 194,400 jobs were reported by licensed agencies, and fees totaling $403,064.29 were collected, accord- ing to the last published report of the State Commissioner of Labor Statistics. At the First National Conference on unemployment held in New York City during February, 1914, William H. Farley, Superintendent of the Rhode Island Free Employment Office (Report, page 247), said: "The state legislatures will devote an enormous amount of money to 14 COMMISSION OP IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. state prisons, but they devote a very small amount to running public employment offices. You can readily understand that such an office can not a*mount to a great deal unless it has the money to fight to fight the private employment office. Men who have not studied the question do not know for a minute the hardships that are created and the injustice that is done by the private employment agencies. Unless the legislature will give you enough money to run it right. I would advise you not to open a state bureau. ' ' The New Jersey Commission of Immigration has this to say regarding the wisdom of granting sufficient appropriation to state free employ- ment agencies: "The impression is quite general that state agencies have been a failure. This apparent failure has been due in no small measure to the smallness of the appropriation. Five states have limited the staff of employees to a superintendent and assistant, and have set the salary of the superintendent at $1,200. Five others have placed the maximum salary at $1,500. Only a pittance has been allowed for the office expenses and for what is most important, advertising and canvassing firms for positions and bringing the work of the agency to the public notice. Colorado has $666 available for each of its three offices. Connecticut has $2,500 remaining for expenses for four offices after salaries are paid. Oklahoma has $300 for the expenses of each of its offices. For the small consideration offered, it has been im- possible to secure men capable both of organizing such an important piece of w r ork and of securing the confidence of the employing public. In several states the sums available for rental and equipment have com- pelled superintendents to utilize dingy, unsuitable quarters without separate facilities for men and women. As a result, self-respecting workers preferred to patronize commercial agencies, even though a fee were charged. In other instances the employment work has been carried on by the office force in the department of labor and there has been no way of developing the work. In Kansas the law formerly provided that the first and second class cities, under the supervision of the Director of Free Employment Bureaus, should open and conduct such agencies, but that by joint resolution of the mayor and city council these agencies may be dispensed with. As a result, the only work carried on was that done in the office of the director. By a statute just passed, the employment work is to be carried on by a clerk in the new Department of Labor and Industry, for whom a salary of $1.000 is provided." (p. 67.) Transportation at Low Rates. Often, the knowledge of the existence of a job does not place the applicant where it is available. Distances within our state are great, and transportation is expensive. In several European countries special low rates are given migratory workers upon order from the labor ex- REPORT OK PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 15 . In Germany, the state railways grant to all workmen seeking work a 50 per cent reduction on third-class fare (making it about half a cent per mile), provided that orders for this are given workmen by the public employment bureaus. Stuttgart in 1904 gave out 1.960 such orders. We suggest the wisdom of enabling the proposed bureau to ! n. vide low fares, by arrangement with the railway companies. Supervision of Private Agencies. Having representatives throughout the state, this bureau should logically be given supervision over all private employment agencies, with authority to issue and revoke licenses. If experience should show that the competition of public exchanges along with power to regulate would not eliminate the prevailing abuses, then we should be prepared to recommend that private agencies be prohibited by law from receiving fees from applicants, as the State of Washington has recently done. We fully realize that a system of state labor exchanges alone would not solve completely the unemployment problem. In one sense, they could not create work. Yet. in the true economic sense, by bringing man and job together through dispelling the ignorance one possesses in reference to the other, they would perform a service that practically amounts to the creation of jobs. A further pertinent point in this connection is the fact that the state, through the medium of the proposed bureau, would be in a position to warn men not to come into the state when there is no work or demand for labor. At present there is no central agency equipped to perform this service. Furthermore, the bureau could bring official pressure to hear on large corporations, who employ great numbers, to prevent them from importing labor from other states when the supply is sufficient within the state to meet the demand. This latter suggestion has been put into practice in a local way. by the authorities in the city of Los Amreles. and the employers have so generally cooperated that the effort has been successful. We would not have it understood that state labor exchanges would be of value only to the migratory and casual worker. There are thou- sands of others who to-day have to depend upon the newspapers, tramp- ing, or private employment agencies. To these, the state exchange would prove of incalculable service. A Basis for Unemployment Insurance. A by-product of the centralized exchange would be a tendency to raise the wages of the most poorly paid among our working population. The great number of private agencies practically means a multiplicity of labor markets. Meeting disappointment after disappointment, the applicant is likely to accept the first job offered, no matter how low the wauv. A properly organized and thoroughly efficient exchange 414524 16 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. would list all available jobs. The applicant could then choose the most favorable. The wage would then tend to the true equilibrium resulting from demand and supply, and would no longer be able to hide behind ignorance as it can to-day. Furthermore, the data gathered by such an organization would supply the material upon which we could build an intelligent judgment as to the practicability of unemployment insurance. A labor exchange is a necessary concomitant of an insurance scheme, enabling men to be placed in jobs with the least possible delay. For the same reason, it supplies the work test during periods of depression for those claiming public aid. In closing under this heading of state free labor exchanges, it is well to quote from an address made by William M. Leiserson, Super- intendent of Wisconsin Employment Offices, before the First National Conference on Unemployment held in New York City in February, 1914: "Public employment offices are now in existence in eighteen of the United States, in about sixty cities. The circumstances which led to their establishment have in the main been three: the abuses of private employment agencies, the lack of farm labor in agricultural states, and the presence of great numbers of unemployed wage-earners in the industrial centers. To these must be added the example of foreign governments and the growing belief that it is the duty of the state to prevent unnecessary idleness. Whatever the reasons for the establish- ment of the offices, the results have in most cases been the same. The administration has been placed in the hands of people unfamiliar with their design and purpose. These officials have either mismanaged the offices so that they had to be discontinued or else they performed their duties perfunctorily and in a wholly ineffective manner. "This, in short, has been the history of public employment offices in the United States. * * * The lesson is obvious. If we want suc- cessful public employment offices we must follow the example of the larger German cities, and put people in charge of them who under- stand the business, who know its principles and its technique, and who will work with vigor and energy to make their offices successful. "The function of an employment office is best expressed by the British term 'labor exchange.' Exchange implies a market. It is an organization of the labor market, just as the stock market, the hog market, the wheat market are organized to facilitate the buying of these products. * * * The labor market is still in the peddling stage. While dealing in almost all the important articles of trade is now systematically organized, with exchanges and salesmen and trade papers, labor must still be peddled from door to door by each individual worker. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 17 "Employers will not patronize a trade union office except when the trade is completely organized. * * * Wage-earners, on the other hand, will not go in great numbers to an agency maintained by employers because of its possible use for blacklisting, breaking strikes and beating down wages. If there is any one condition that is basic in the -success- ful management of an employment office, it is that it must be impartial as between employers and workers in their struggles over conditions of employment. * * * The gathering and the distribution (of informa- tion) must be absolutely impartial. Wage-earners and 'employers must have faith in the accuracy and reliability of the information. "As part of an effective administrative machine, a system of repre- sentation of the interests involved should be worked out in order to insure confidence and impartiality. * * * At the head of the public employment offices a person should be placed who understands not only the technique of the business but also the principles on which the offices are based, and their relation to the whole industrial life of the state, and to the pressing problem of unemployment. "It is because the welfare of society depends upon the widest pos- sible distribution of reliable information of this kind that the state is justified in giving the service free. * The importance and the essentially public nature of the information gathered by employ- ment offices make the performance of this service a public function. "As institutions for furnishing information, public employment offices have as one of their greatest functions to stand at the entrance to the industrial world and point the way to children and immigrants. The public employment offices should employ clerks who speak the languages of the newcomers. These clerks should prepare, in the native tongues of the immigrants, bulletins describing the industrial opportunities in the state, and should advise and direct, the newcomers into the most promising field. "Little can be done by employment offices directly to remedy time maladjustment. But they are able to furnish the information on which any adequate remedy, such as unemployment insurance, must be based, and for the unorganized workers they will have to supply the adminis- trative machinery for testing the validity of any wage-earner's claim that he is unable to secure employment. * * * No wood pile or rock pile can be such a test. The worker must be offered bona fide employment such as is fitted to his abilities and to his station in the industrial ranks. Only a well organized system of employment offices can offer such employment, and it is only through such an organization of the labor market that we can ever .tell positively that there is no opportunity for the idle wage-earner to secure employment. "In conclusion, it must be pointed out that these most important functions of employment offices, namely, to reduce unnecessary idle- 18 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. ness and to serve as part of the administrative machinery of dealing with the problem of unemployment will never be undertaken by private labor agents because there is no incentive for them to do it. It involves expense for which there is no return except to the state as a whole in securing the fullest application of its labor force, and in placing the burden of unemployment on industry, where it belongs." We would reiterate that we are not so optimistic as to be deluded into the belief that the proposed state bureau of labor exchanges would finally and conclusively solve the problem of unemployment. But it is our firm conviction that the establishment of such a bureau would be the first step in a constructive program to get workers in touch with work, and in the encouragement of new enterprises. Even if more opportunities are provided for labor, the proposed bureau will be neces- sary to maintain the confidence of employers and employees in a stable labor market. Causes of Unemployment. However nearly perfect we may make state labor exchanges, for some time to come we shall still have unemployed men and periods of unem- ployment. In some instances, the cause is to be sought in the indi- vidual; at other times, in the circumstances. Sickness is a common cause of unemployment. Child neglect is another cause. In the en- vironment, we observe the seasonal occupations, in which overtime work is followed by regular periods of slack. Then come economic depres- sions whitih overthrow all our calculations. The seat of sickness is most often found in the home or place of residence. (See Appendix C-8.) To hit this evil at the root we have several definite suggestions, and two or three recommendations. Labor Camp Sanitation. Thousands of casual workers spend much of their lives in labor camps or on farms. Our recent investigations, covering about 900 labor camps equipped to house 62,000 men, have revealed deplorable conditions. And our experience has shown that good living conditions tend to stop "floating" and make for a steady working force. (See Appendix C-7.) What we have accomplished in the field of camp sanitary and housing reform should be but the beginning of a larger movement. We therefore urge the passing of definite laws governing sanitation and housing in labor camps, based upon our experience during the past year; the enforcement of these laws to be placed in the hands of a bureau of camp sanitation and housing, under our commission, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or under a reorganized State Board of Health ; with a special appropriation of $25.000 a year. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 19 City Housing. Proper city housing- is even of greater importance, for children are involved. We therefore recommend a complete revision of our housing laws, broadened to take in family dwellings as well as lodging houses and tenements ; the enforcement to be in the hands of a bureau of housing, under our commission or under a reorganized State Board of Health ; with a special appropriation of $20,000 a year. We favor enlarging the powers of the bureau for the prevention of tuberculosis under the State Board of Health, for our investigations have revealed to us the prevalence of the white plague both in city slums and among the class of casual workers. Education and Vocational Guidance. We urge the passing of legislation making it possible for public schools to take up the task of home visiting, for again our experience during the past year has shown us how r needful are lessons in decent living, particularly among the foreign born. (See Appendix F.) The fate of the adult is determined in great part during childhood. The unguided or badly guided child has a not very promising future. Therefore we recommend that your Excellency request the State Board of Education, or some other existing board, to study the question of vocational guidance and training ; this with the object in view of reduc- ing for the future the number of ill-adapted workers and unemploy- ables. There is nothing that contributes more to the helplessness of an able- bodied immigrant laborer, than ignorance of the language of the country in which he seeks work. In California we are not meeting the educational needs of the alien who is being enticed to us in increasing numbers. A large proportion of foreign born in this state is unable to speak the English language. By stimulation a large percentage of the non-English speaking people could be taught our language and so put upon a self-respecting and self-protecting basis. The temporary Commission on Immigration in Massachusetts found 280,000 illiterates in their state of whom only 80,000 were receiving instruction. That Commission recommended that children from four- teen to seventeen and all on work certificates be compelled to attend school one half day until able to read and write; that children from seventeen to twenty-one be compelled to attend evening school until literate; that all possible short cuts be made to teach English to adults; that no city should be obliged to bear the full expense of educating this shifting population but that the state should bear one half of all such expenses. Though the act creating our Commission specified the field of immi- grant education as a place for our activity, we have been able to do 20 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. little more than make a rough survey on account of our limited appro- priation and the urgency of other work that forced itself upon our attention. It is our hope that the legislature will see fit to make our appropriation sufficiently large to enable us to take up this very important work. Unemployment Insurance. For the worker in seasonal trades, and in fact for all who labor for a wage, we suggest unemployment insurance, though we are not pre- pared to recommend any particular form. The success of this state in handling industrial accident insurance is one argument that warrants our looking more deeply into the whole field of social insurance. We urge that your Excellency designate some existing board or commission to investigate this subject thoroughly, to report, say in two years. Data supplied by the proposed bureau of labor exchanges would be of inestimable value in any such investigation. We commend to your attention the experience of England and certain continental countries, particularly Denmark and Belgium, which has invented the Ghent system of subsidizing labor unions to conduct the machinery for unem- ployment insurance. Unemployables and Vagrants. We recognize the possibility of dividing the unemployed into three groups: (a) the employable; (&) the unemployable; and (c) the vagrant. But we realize the practical difficulty involved in making the distinction in particular cases. The suggestions made so far, and those to follow, have to do mainly with the employables. We suggest that you request some existing commission to devote special attention to the problem of the unemployable and the vagrant, to report to you in a year. Our own belief is that the unemployable are a proper charge upon the state, and that if private charity is to assist in their care, the state at least should guide and control such private enterprise. Regularizing Industry. We believe that fruitful effort might be expended in the direction of inducing employers in agriculture and in industry to regularize their work. This is an indispensable feature in any solution of the problem of unemployment. We understand that certain farmers in the vicinity of Sacramento and in the south have selected crops with this object in view, and that in some districts the plan has been tried with good results. (See Appendix C-6.) What they require is a program supported by intelligent advice and guidance. We recommend that you assign to some board the task of studying and reporting upon this question. The logical organization would be the bureau of labor exchanges, or the commission under which it might be placed. To this REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 21 same body you might give the duty of reporting upon the possibility of reserving certain public works for the winter months or for periods of depression. Improvement of Rural Conditions. In these days we hear much talk about "back to the land" and "forward to the land." The proponents of these movements show us with alarm the exhibit from the census presenting the facts that during the decade 1900-1910, while our rural population increased by 34.5 per cent, the population in towns of 2,500 or more increased 81.4 per cent, or nearly two and one half times as rapidly. During this same decade, the number of farms increased 21.6 per cent against an increase of 60.1 per cent in the population; the total farm acreage, however, decreased. Perhaps there is some good ground for their alarm. Per- haps a different situation might prove a relief in this problem of unem- ployment. The relative unattractiveness of the land is shown particu- larly in the ease of white foreign born. Though 24.2 per cent of our population in 1910, they formed 28.1 per cent of those living in towns and only 20.5 per cent of our rural population ; and this in spite of the fact that most of our immigrants come from rural districts in Europe. We believe that the cause of this phenomenon is to be sought in the unwarranted high price of agricultural land, too often based upon speculative valuation with no regard to its productivity, and upon the lack of organization among our farmers, leaving each to wage his battle for credit and markets alone and single-handed. (See Appendix C-9.) A few weeks ago, when several enthusiasts advocated bringing op- pressed Belgians into this state, Mr. Gavin McNab, the proponent of the scheme, was quoted in the San Francisco "Bulletin" of October 21st as saying, "Too long the custom has been to place speculative values on the land in this state and thus prevent the taking up of cer- tain sections by investors." In the same issue, Mr. A. S. Baldwin, of the firm of Baldwin & Howell, was quoted: "The main difficulty in work of this kind is that in colonization the land is figured so far in advance of its true value that the farmer is beset with troubles from the outset. There is too much greed among the landowners in most of these colonization projects. Also exorbitant commissions are paid for promotion, with the result that the settler finds himself saddled with the tremendous burdens." Colonel Harris Weinstock, in an address delivered November llth before the California State Fruit Growers' Convention at Los Angeles, said: ' ' Great fortunes have been expended throughout the nation and else- where, inviting people to engage in California agriculture, and horti- culture, but our methods have been so crude and so unscientific and the love of greed on the part of land promoters has been such, that a very 22 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. great proportion of those who have been induced to come here, and to buy our acreages, have failed, with great misfortune to themselves, and with serious injury to the state. "A frightfully large proportion of such investors have come to grief, have been forced back to the cities, many of them as unskilled laborers, to swell the ranks of the casual unemployed and many of them have cursed the state as a delusion and a snare, have shouted their misfor- tunes from the housetops, and have thus injured California in the eyes of their sympathizers here and elsewhere." Evidence of this sort could be cited ad infinitum. The complaint bureau of our Commission has evidence sufficient to show that many of these land deals are attended by downright fraud and misrepresenta- tion. (See Appendix C-ll.) There seems to be no one who would take the case against those who advocate making easier and more attractive the approach to the land. The farm is the natural outlet for our overcrowded cities. It is out of the rural districts that w r e must hope to get the backbone of our citi- zenry. Almost all proposed unemployment solutions that pretend to thoroughness look to the land for relief. Assuming the desire to get on the land, along with the means and the ability, the first requisite is knowledge of available holdings. Today practically all information of this sort is compiled by railroads, cham- bers of commerce, boards of trade, or the promoters of some land project. These are naturally interested parties. There is nothing to show the prospective purchaser just how much and wherein he should discount their enthusiasm. State Land Bureau. During October, 1914, the College of Agriculture of the l : niversity of California issued a pamphlet, "Some Things the Prospective Settler Should Know." That was a start in the right direction. We should like to see the enterprise enlarged into a state land bureau, to supply at cost to prospective purchasers all needed information regarding the best economic uses of land, its value, approaches to market, and the like. It is more essential to start the settler right than to guide him after he may have taken up an almost impossible proposition. Closely related to the work of a state land bureau is a comprehensive land law that will make more difficult fraud and misrepresentation in the sale of rural lands, and that will bring to speedier justice the vio- lators of the same, and give equity to the exploited. We have our regu- lation of weights and measures, and our pure food laws, but it is of vastly greater importance to the community as a whole that the pros- pective purchaser of farm lands be protected, both against exploitation and against his own ignorance. The enforcement of such a law might. be given over to the proposed state land bureau. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 23 National Marketing Commission. If a merchant go into a new town to open a business, he need not feel entirely strange, for he is soon invited to join a chamber of commerce or a merchants' association, which, though recognizing the proper place of competition, attack with vigor the problems which all merchants have in common. If a skilled mechanic move to a new city., he finds common ground in the labor union, and he does not feel alone. But for the farmer there is no organization that compares with the merchants' association or the trade union for strength of influence and efficiency. To overcome this deficiency and to provide a competent organization, there is pending in the national congress a joint resolution calling for the creation of a national marketing commission to be composed of twenty-nine members, fifteen of whom shall be farmers and fourteen of whom shall be selected with reference to their eminence in commerce. law. finance, and transportation, said commission to adopt a plan of net ion for the effective organization of the states, counties, and localities of the United States for the economic distribution of the products of the Farm. (The complete text of the joint resolution is given in Appendix E.) The type of this proposed commission is the Landwirtschaftsrat of Germany. It is conceivable that such a semiofficial body, taking the place in reality of all the so-called national farmers' organizations, would wield great power. Within its hands, and in the hands of the subordinate state, county and local branches, could well be placed the solution of all those problems that today vex the unorganized farmer. To them it would be advisable to commit the working out of some sane scheme of rural credits. From such an articulate body we should have the right to expect some aid in the solution of our problem of unem- ployment, through their cooperation with the proposed bureau of labor exchanges. Therefore we trust that your Excellency will see fit to support the above-mentioned congressional resolution in such ways as you may deem wise, and that you will urge upon our state legislature to memorialize congress to the same effect. Commission of Immigration and Housing. In closing this report on unemployment, we deem it but just that we indicate to your Excellency the part our commission has taken and is prepared to take in the solution of the problem in question. As we said above, the immigration situation has much in common with the question of unemployment. The newly-arrived immigrant is a man looking for a job. But, furthermore, the alien who can not get located, who falls prey to abuse and exploitation, soon becomes a ready candidate for the army of unemployed. Whatever protects the stranger from land sharks, unscrupulous employment agents, shyster lawyers, thieving notaries. 514524 24 COMMISSION OP IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. and crooks in general; and whatever smooths his path to economic bet- terment, social and educational welfare and good citizenship, attacks this problem of unemployment at its very roots. This is just that ounce of prevention which is better than the pound of cure. We point particularly to the hundreds of labor camps which, volun- tarily, have complied with the standards we established; to the work we have done in the field of municipal housing reform; to the accom- plishments effected through our complaint bureau, which, during the last six months, has received 1,500 complaints (Appendix C-ll) ; to the light we have thrown on the iniquitous practices prevalent in the treat- ment of a large portion of our unskilled labor; to the data we have gathered on the whole subject of migratory and casual workers. But much of our proper field still remains practically untouched. To broaden out, a larger appropriation will be required. Then we shall be enabled to enlarge the scope of our complaint work ; to delve into the question of immigrant education and citizenship (see Appendix F) ; and to make proper provision for the care and protection of immi- grants at the docks and in transit. Respectfully submitted. COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING OF CALIFORNIA. EDWARD J. HANNA. MRS. FRANK A. GIBSON. PAUL SCHARRENBERG. SIMON J. LUBIN. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 25 APPENDIX A. Digest of Letters Sent to the Governor. During the past year, your Excellency referred to our Commission certain com- munications addressed to you on this subject of unemployment. We herewith append the chief recommendations made in the more important letters : 1. ED LAMBBECHTS, general delivery, San Francisco, a laborer (June 17, 1914) suggests the public posting of available jobs in convenient places. 2. GEOBGE STANLEY, St. Helena (March 22, 1914), tells how Australia put some unemployed to work in gold mines. 3. MRS. A. S. NICELY, Fruitvale (March 24, 1914), suggests that strikes and lockouts be limited to 48 hours duration, and that the liability law be modified so as not to militate against married men. 4. A. J. PILLSBUBY of the Industrial Accident Commission (March 25, 1914), favors (1) state labor exchanges, (2) handling vagrants as felons, (3) unemploy- ment insurance some time in the future. 5. HABRIS WEINSTOCK, member Industrial Accident Commission and United States Commission on Industrial Relations, recommends, ''that state legislation be passed, authorizing the purchase of certain acreage of arable land to be used as a state farm or farms ; that such farm or farms be placed under the direction of the Agricultural Department of the state, or under the Agricultural Department of the State University. These state farms to afford employment primarily to the migratory unemployed, who are to receive in return for their labor, food, shelter, and a small per diem. The reason for allowing only a small per diem is to avoid making the employment too attractive, so that applications may be confined to those unable to do better elsewhere. This per diem to be placed to the credit of the worker on the books of the state farm and to be held and used in the manner here- inafter set forth. "The plan in mind further contemplates the creation of a state employment exchange with branches in various parts of the state. Daily or weekly reports on the condition of the labor market are to be sent by the branches to the headquarters of the State Employment Exchange. This information to be tabulated at such headquarters and bulletins prepared which will show where there is a surplus and where there is a demand for labor ; the headquarters will thus serve the purpose of a clearing house for labor information. The central labor exchange is also to be kept advised of the number of unemployed at the various state farms with a view of supplying whatever demand may from time to time arise at other places. When men are to be furnished from these state farms, the central labor exchange will issue requisitions on such state farms having a supply of the unemployed. The head of such institution will select the men who have been with him longest and who are most likely to prove efficient, using the amounts to their credit from their per diems to cover transportation, paying them in cash whatever surplus may be left to their credit. "The first problem is how to segregate the sheep from the goats among the unem- ployed. That is, how to determine which among the unemployed are fit and worthy and willing to work and which are professional bummers. The plan as outlined above would enable the authorities to distinguish between those who will and those who will not work. It will rob the unworthy of the pretext to beg or to willfully remain in idleness. On the other hand, it will make it possible for the decent, sober worker, in exchange for his labor to at least get food and shelter, so that hs may not be forced below the poverty line and degenerate speedily into the mendicant.'' 6 P. J. PETERSON, 1590 Broadway, San Francisco (March 26, 1914), recom- mends (1) minimum wage. (2) making summer employer deposit with the state enough money to keep men throughout the winter, (3) state to find summer work for every resident. 26 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. 7. J. R. CUNNYNGHAM, of Cunnyngham Realty Syndicate, 26 Montgomery street, San Francisco (March 24, 1914) suggests that the state improve land, sell it for net cost, issue bonds for selling price secured by land, and give these bonds to the purchasers. 8. ALBERT EHRGOTT, Vocational Employment, San Francisco Young Men's Christian Association, advocates (1) federal labor exchanges, (2) county labor exchanges, (3) listing of decent private agencies, (4) industrial farm colonies, (5) temporary shelters, (6) campaign for vocational guidance, (7) shortening the work day, (8) power of the governor to provide state work for the idle. 9. GEORGE W. MARTIN, 1217 Nineteenth street, Sacramento (March 21, 1914) suggests that the state or national government acquire laud, fully improve and equip it, and sell it on twenty years' terms to citizens or to those who have declared their intention of becoming citizens. 10. MRS. ANNA Ross, Annette, California (March 20, 1914) advises that the state sell land on easy terms. 11. CALIFORNIA LAND FOR SETTI.KMKNT LKAGUE suggests adoption of New Zealand land law authorizing a county board of supervisors to lease at low rentals municipally owned lands to actual settlers, in small tracts, the county to supply auxiliary jobs for three days a week. REPORT OX PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 27 APPENDIX B-l. Bibliography of Unemployment. 1. Bibliography on social insurance. See American Labor legislation Review, Vol. Ill, No. L>. June. 1913, "Social Insurance," pages 287-292. '2. The Future Problem of Charity and the Unemployed, John Graham Brooks; American Academy of Political and Social Science, publication No. 12'J. 3. The Theory of Public Employment Offices and the Principles of their Pract 1 '- cal Administration, William M. Leisersou ; Ginn & Co., 1914. 4. The Unemployment in European Counties, W. D. P. Bliss ; Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau of Labor, No. 70, May 1908. 5. The Break-up of the Poor Law. S. & B. Webb : Longmans & Co.. 1909. 6. The Public Organization of the Labor Market, S. & B. Webb ; Longmans & Co., 1909. 7. Unemployment, A. C. Pigou ; Henry Holt & Co., 1913. S. The Elimination of the Tramp, Edmond Kelly ; Putnam's, 1908. 9. Unemployment, B. S. Rowntree & B. Lasker, Macmillan, 1911. 10. Problems of Poverty, J. A. Hobson ; Methueu & Co., 1913. 11. Unemployment and Trade Unions, Cyril Jackson ; Longmans, Green & Co., 1910. 12. The Prevention of Destitution, S. & B. Webb ; Longmans, Green & Co., 1912. 13. Report of First National Conference on Unemployment ; American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. IV, No. 2, May 1914. 14. Unemployment. W. H. Beveridge ; Longmans, Green & Co., 1912. (See pages 270-278 for bibliography on Unemployment.) 15. Reports of the United States Immigration Commission appointed in 1907 ; 41 volumes ; 2 volumes contain abstract of report. 10. Free Public Employment Offices. J. E. Conner; Bulletin of the U. S. Bureau <>f Labor. No. OS, January, 1907. 28 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX B 2. Digest of Several Books on Unemployment. 1. Unemployment, by W. H. Beveridge. 'Unemployment arises because, while the supply of labor grows steadily, the demand for labor, in growing, varies incessantly in volume, distribution and char- acter. This variation, in several of its forms at least, flows directly from the control of production by many competing employers. * * Unemployment, in other words, is to some extent at least part of the price of industrial competition part of the waste without which there could be no competition at all. * * * If the solution of the problem of unemployment means that every man should have the certainty of continuous work throughout life, then no solution is to be expected, or. indeed, desired. If, however, by a solution is meant that no man able and willing to work should come to degradation or destitution for want of work, then a solution is not indeed within sight but by no means beyond hope. Its direction is certain and its distance not infinite. The demand for labor can not be stereotyped save in a stagnant industry. The supply of iabor may be made immeasurably more capable of following and waiting for the demand. "The policy outlined in this book is a policy of industrial organization ; of meet- ing deliberately industrial needs that at present are met wastefully because without deliberation. Fluctuations of demand are now provided for by the maintenance of huge stagnant reserves of labor in varying extremities of distress. There is no reason in the nature of things why they should not be provided for by organized reserves of labor raised beyond the reach of distress. To be able to follow the demand men must possess greater powers of intelligent movement from place to place ; they must possess also power to move from trade to trade, or a more essential point they must have better guidance in the first choice of occupations. To be able to wait for the demand men must have a reserve for emergencies ; they must not be living from hand to mouth ; they must through insurance or its equivalent be able to average wages over good and bad times and to subsist without demoralization till they can be reabsorbed again after industrial transformations. These two meas- ures are complementary and, in some sense indeed, alternative to one another." 2. Prevention of Destitution, by S. & B. Webb. Sickness, as a cause of unemployment and destitution, should be attacked through (1) better slum sanitation and instruction; (2) visiting nurses and hygienic instruc- tors; (3) school hygienic instmction ; and (4) organized crusade against sickness with specialized central department. There should be careful segregation of the unfit. Child neglect should be remedied by (1) school authorities, through care com- mittees and attendance officers; and (2) part time instruction for children from 14 to 18 years old. Cyclical fluctuations could be met in part through regularization by government orders; seasonal variations, by (1) use of public labor exchanges, and (2) short time supplement by insurance. Underemployment of casuals partly overcome by use of labor exchanges. The residuum to be reached by (1) reducing hours, (2) half time for those under 10 years, (3) pensions for widows. (4) supporting adequately and training the balance by lunacy boards, invalidity pensions and detention colonies. Four kinds of insurance tend to relieve the unemployment situation: (1) Old age, (2) invalidity, (3) sickness. (4) unemployment. The directing mind within this whole field should be the state, which should find all men requiring assistance of any sort, classify them properly, and then indicate the proper measure and source of relief ; establishing the organic connection between state and voluntary agencies. REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 29 3. Unemployment, by Rowntree & Lasker. Experience shows that SO per cent of those under 19 have begun badly. Correc- tion should be through (1) medical inspection in schools, (2) removal from bad homes, (3) school care committees. (4) labor exchanges cooperating with schools, with advisory committees on juvenile employment, (5) training schools for the unemployed and one third time for boys in blind-alley trades. For regular workers there should be (1) labor exchanges, (2) regulation of public employment, (3) afforestation, etc., (4) short time, and (5) the training of youths. For the casual w r orker there should be (1) decasualization of the labor market through shortening hours, part time in industrial schools, and mothers' pensions. (2) unemployment insurance, and (3) land cultivation as in Belgium. For the building trades, (1) labor exchanges, (2) decasualization, (3) alternative employment, (4) insurance, and (5) country residence. For the work-shy, whatever of the above is applicable, along with labor colonies. 4. The Elimination of the Tramp, by Edmond Kelly. For those in search of employment, way tickets and casual wards ; For the temporarily unemployed, in exceptional periods of depression, temporary relief work ; For the unemployables, free labor colonies wherever possible ; forced colonies wherever necessary ; these colonies should be small and agricultural rather than large and industrial ; paying their own expenses ; not competing with free labor. 30 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C-l. Summary of Report on the Floating Laborer in California by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. This is a report of an investigator's experiences concerning a subject of more than passing importance. Some valuable suggestions are made. The opinion of the investigator is that there are perhaps 20,000 men in California who have no fixed residence, and wander from place to place seeking seasonal labor ; that these men are idle far more days than they work ; that many of them will not work more than a few days at a time, or just long enough to get a "stake." There are various causes that make tramps out of what were once steady workers ; intemperance being one of the greatest. A lack of information regarding work is given as a great drawback. Much time is spent "on the road," beatinu: trains, etc., between jobs. They get insufficient food and contract sickness and debility from sleeping out. They soon lose all ambition. Very few carry blankets. They are often ill treated by farmers and others. The local constables make life miserable. Any officer is an enemy. Their social life is demoralizing. CONCLUSIONS. That the floating laborer is necessary to production in California that his mode of life is against his efficiency ; that his attitude towards his work and his employer, and society in general, is detrimental to his usefulness and that the lack of interest in his welfare by those to whom he is necessary is responsible, to some extent, for the attitude taken by him. Out of 100 floating laborers, the following nationalities were represented : American (white), 66; German, 14; English, 11; Italian, 2; Mexican, 2; negroes, 2 ; unclassified, 3 ; total, 100. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 31 APPENDIX C-2. Summary of Report on Berry Picking and Fruit Canning in Sonoma County, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. This report is devoted mainly to the Sebastopol berry region and the canneries at. or near, Santa Rosa in Sonoma County. It gives the output, wages, hours of labor, etc., and the demand for labor in that vicinity in this line of work. The investigator finds that the demand for labor is heaviest in the latter part of August, and after the opening of schools after the summer vacations ; also, that there is no way for the "jobless man" to know of this work, as even the one former private employment agency in the district has been discontinued. The demand for labor is irregular and seasonal. The investigator reports a public employment office would be of great benefit to employer and employee in this section. 614524 32 COMMISSION OP IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C-3. Epitomized Statement of Report on the Sand Creek Road Situation in Fresno County, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. This investigation was made on account of numerous complaints received from foreign laborers. It was found upon investigation that one contractor, by name of Griffith, had employed local help and had had no trouble in employment or keep- ing his men. Also that the sanitary conditions were excellent, and the food abund- ant and good. This was in Tulare County. A man by the name of Ball had the contracts in Fresno County and employed Armenian, Hindoo and Mexican laborers. His men were obtained from a Fresno employment agency, and were being constantly discharged for laziness or ineffi- ciency, it was said. As the work was semi-public and the complaints numerous the investigation was made, and while it revealed no actual collusion between Ball and the employment agency, the fact remained that workingmen were migratory, staying scarcely a week in the camp, and that many of them could work only two or three days. It was freely charged, however, that Ball received fifty cents from the fee charged by the agency. The report contains recommendations regarding a system of placing men where they are wanted and where they will "fit." REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 33 APPENDIX C-4. A Digest of a Report on the Employment Agency Situation in California, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. The organization of the labor market in California as regards the work of con- necting man and job, is a complex of several different agencies acting in different ways through different channels. The skilled organized element have their own method of obtaining work job control. Each labor council is a center through which these men obtain information as to work, and are placed at their different jobs. Very seldom does the union man have recourse to employment agencies of any kind in seeking work at his trade, though, if forced out of his own line, he may utilize them. The unskilled, unorganized migratory casual worker (a distinctive type on the Pacific coast), the domestic worker, the unorganized hotel and restaurant worker, have several methods of obtaining work. Personal application to the employer is, of course, a much utilized method practiced both by the itinerant worker and those more fixed in their way of living. Again, there are countless unorganized methods of spreading and obtaining information as to jobs. Saloons and boarding houses, pool rooms, coffee clubs, all the places at which idle men are to be found, have come to be used by employers after men, and by men after work. Many abuses impossible to expose or to stamp out, have sprung up in connection with these. It is impossible to state just what proportion of work of this nature, that of finding men and work, is done by the employment agencies proper. Though relative to the other agencies they are probably not all-important in this respect, the volume of their business is enormous. For the year ended March 31. 1912, 194,408 jobs were reported filled by the licensed agencies, fees totaling $403,064.29 being received. The actual figures doubtless far exceed the above numbers, as the system of state supervision and regu- lation prevailing at the time they were obtained was admittedly lax and inadequate. ORGANIZATION OF PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT SYSTEM. Number and Kinds. The division of the private, licensed fee-charging agencies as to location and character of business, at the time this report is submitted, is as follows : Domestics General H H I Clerical . H | Colored Teachers Nurses H 11 17 g 10 5 11 1 2 65 Oakland 4 5 3 12 Los Angeles 6 17 5 9 3 15 4 5 64 2 2 1 2 3 Fresno 6 1 1 8 Pasadena 2 2 1 5 1 9 4 14 San Diego 3 9 12 3 3 6 ^ 7 Cities below fourth 37 15 52 Totals -_ 26 111 13 20 8 54 1 8 6 247 34 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. The distribution of business as to cities is shown by the following figures, which ;iiv based upon the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 1912. The figures are for the license year ended March 31, 1912. (The report of the Bureau of Labor Statis- tics for 1914 will be published in a few months. Figures for last year are not as yet available.) San Francisco and Los Angeles did 69 per cent of the total employment agency business of the state. The third and fourth class cities, including Oakland, did 26 per cent, while but 5 per cent was done in the smaller towns. Or, again, 92 per cent of the total state business passed through six cities : San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sac- ramento. Stockton, San Diego and Oakland ; and only S per cent was done in the rest of the state. This proof of the natural centralization of the work of employment agencies is of value as an indication of the possibility of establishing a centralized fed- eral or state system of employment offices or exchanges. Abuses and Frauds by Agents. While many agents claim that all fraud has been stamped out since the passage of the new regulations a year ago, there is still, without the slightest doubt, a vast amount of fraud, misrepresentation, extortion, splitting of fees, and all the other evils that seem to go hand in hand with a private system of employment agencies. It is charged that several agencies of Los Angeles act practically as procurers for restaurants, hotels, etc., of questionable character. The average casual worker will tell of numerous cases of fraud. Half of the employment agents investigated stated that frauds were numerous, always of course stating that other agencies were guilty. It seems safe to say that not more than 10 per cent of the actual cases of fraud ever get to the ears of the Labor Commissioner. There are offices in only four cities ; it is practically impossible for a man defrauded in other towns to reach a repre- sentative of the Commission and have his plea heard. District Attorney McCormick of Fresno County states that numerous cases have been brought to him, but that he cannot act. He telLs of several men who were discharged from a job at Big Creek, other men being sent to take their places and no refund was secured, although there is a strict state 7-day law. Again, the Labor Commissioner and his representatives refuse to take action unless an injured worker makes a personal complaint. This is in many cases impossible. We have on file records of many flagrant abuses, especially in regard to splitting fees. Detailing the cases is needless. The practice of these abuses would appear to be confined largely to the small, medium sized agencies. Practically every case coming to our knowledge concerned the ksser agencies, the large ones in each town in general being free from suspicion. The possibility of reform through a high license which would eliminate the small man. who is also generally the inefficient man, is touched upon later. Methods of Doing Business. Some information as to their business methods is given in the statistical results. These, however, do not indicate the absolute lack of business method, the absence of uniformity as to accounts, and records, the haphazard, accidental ways in which the offices are conducted. Regular state business forms are prescribed. In a few offices these are well kept ; in quite a few others they are not used at all, while most of the offices post them up months after the business is done, putting in figures absolutely false and misleading, merely to show a representative of the Labor Com- mission when he visits them. Of forty private agencies I visited personally, I would say that two were conducted in an efficient manner, with carefully kept up files and indices. The average office is conducted in a grossly inefficient manner. General Character of Employment Agents. The men in charge of this important social work of connecting employer and employee, are in the main men of a type that could not succeed in a modern business office. Operating a hole-in-the-wall in a back alley or basement, they stand ready to undertake a business of which they know nothing, and which has been so neglected as a field for organized business enterprise that they can succeed. The location of REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 35 a great many of these offices in such accidental holes as the agent may secure, the absence of any sense of business organization in most of them, and the general inefficient character of the men who conduct them, offer a vitally interesting com- mentary on the whole private employment agency system. State Regulation. The Commissioner of Labor Statistics has sole charge and supervision of all matters pertaining to employment agencies which exact a fee. Applications for license must be made to the Commissioner who reviews the facts and may refuse the license on certain specified grounds. If a license is granted, the prospective agent must furnish a bond and pay a license fee. These vary according to the size of the city. Uniform receipts for fee charged prescribed by the Commissioner must be used. No attempt is made to regulate the amount of fees. No distinction is made on the basis of difference of labor furnished, the statute merely saying that all agencies charging a fee come within its clauses. Method of Regulation. All licensed agencies must make monthly reports to the Commissioner of Labor on forms prescribed and furnished by the Commission. The largest agencies are also required to make monthly reports on the condition of the labor market. All delegated officials of the Commissioner of Labor Statistics have power to inspect the records, registers, books, or papers kept by any agent pursuant to the 1913 law. Inspectors have only made inspections in cases where agents were sus- pected of fraud. Periodical inspections are not made, the Commissioner being satis- fied with the monthly reports. The power to revoke licenses is not clearly defined. The Commissioner must get possession of the license by physical force. The agent must then quit the business or try to obtain the license from the Commission by writ of mandamus. Of the twelve occurrences of seizure and revocation only once was a license returned. The success of this method is due to the fact that the Commissioner has always waited until a clear case was had against the agent, who therefore felt constrained to go out of business. Full power of revocation is desired by the Commiisioner. All prosecutions are theoretically handled by the attorney of the Commissioner but as a matter of fact the district attorney of the county in which the alleged offense is committed actually prosecutes. Cases are tried before the state and county courts, according to the amount of money involved, not the amount of the bond. Of the six prosecutions for operating without a license, four were convictions.. The remain- ing two defendants procured license either before or during the trial and the cases against them were dismissed. PHILANTHROPIC AGENCIES. Such philanthropic agencies as exist in California are of negligible importance when viewing the broader aspects of the employment agency problem. The Salva- tion Army, the Associated Charities, the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association, and several minor societies engaged in philanthropic or private enterprises, have employment offices in various cities. Most of them confine their business to providing odd jobs for a few hours or a few days. The business they do of a general character is of no practical importance as to volume, and of little illuminative importance as to business methods. In fact, most of them represent a greater degree of inefficiency than the average private office does. Many of them, moreover, though ostensibly philanthropic, are really coinmer- cialistic in spirit. Christian associations that give jobs only if one becomes a mem- ber, a Salvation Army boarding house which will not give a man a job unless he is a boarder, and like organizations, are demanding a fee just as much as is an agency run for private profit. It is worthy of note that most of these philanthropic agencies object to the idea of federal regulation or to any providing of reports of their business to any authori- ties, state or federal. For practically all of them either abolition or strict supervision and regulation is just as necessary as it is for a profit seeking office. 36 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. MUNICIPAL OFFICES. There are in California three recognized municipal offices, situated in Los Angeles. Sacramento and Berkeley. A public wood yard conducted by the city of Oakland furnishes odd jobs for such men as come to it for beds or meals, but cannot be con- sidered as an employment agency proper. The office in Sacramento is admittedly a failure. But a very few positions, relatively, are filled through it, and these are in the main of the lowest type of manual labor. It appears to be frequented chiefly by the kind of man who is neither willing nor able to accept steady employment. Unsubstantiated charges of partiality have been made against the manager. It is such offices as this that bring all free offices into disrepute, and lose for them the confidence of both employer and employee. Charges against free offices that one hears on every hand are based upon experience in offices that do not represent the best of the free agency type. The office in Berkeley would appear to be efficiently conducted, but it does not deal at all with any of the larger movements of the labor market. It has been said that it. is more in the nature of an office to place unemployables than one dealing with the real laboring class. The Los Angeles office has been in operation since January 1. 1914, and has placed in that time, according to its statistics, 14.514 men and 2.128 women, a monthly average of over 2,500. Much of its winter work is in the nature of relief work furnished by the city to the unemployed, so the figures are apt to be misleading. The average cost per position furnished, twenty-five cents, is somewhat understated for the same reason. The private agents of Los Angeles make many charges against it. but in the main these seem to be unfounded. It is doubtless a mistake to run it under the control of the Municipal Charities. Connection such as that gives basis to the fear tkat men looking for work regard a free office as a charity. But from a broad point of view, the office has been a success. Some trouble was experienced through a man- ager who recently resigned, who evidently failed to realize the social importance of the work he was doing. Those in charge find that their main task is to convince employers that they can furnish efficient and skilled men of the better class of workinfmen. They state that they have any number of such men. but have troubli- placing them. This class of men is now handled through the office at which women applicants are received, as it has been found that this works better than forcing the better class of applicants to use the office frequented by laborers. The office is con- ducted in a systematic, efficient manner, and is the most attractive employment agency in Los Angeles. It appears to be doing much to live down the reputation gaiaed by inefficiently conducted free agencies elsewhere, and to prove that the use of a free office is not necessarily confined to the down-and-outer and the won't-work. The office will go under a civil service merit system within a few months. Mr. Donoho, the present manager of this office, is heartily in favor of a system of federal exchanges, or any plan by which cooperation and uniformity can be obtained in the employment agency system. SUB ROSA EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES. There are many methods apart from the organized employment agencies, by which man and job find each other. Hotels, boarding houses, saloons, are places at which men can be secured by employers. Japanese, Chinese and Mexican labor contractors control their gangs, little or big, securing work for them and demanding a regular monthly commission from each man. Most of these are outside the scope of any possible regulation, but certain evils connected with them are worthy of noto. In some cases, the work of saloons in this regard has developed into a regular business. One saloon in Bakersfield is said to receive orders from farmers, ranchers, etc., by telephone, take the men out in a machine, and then bring them in when the job is done. Needless to say. the bringing in of "live ones" is worth all the trouble they go to. But little objection can be made to the hotels and boarding houses that REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 37 perform this service for their boarders, inasmuch as none of them charges an extra fee for it. The most notable instance of this kind encountered was met with in San Jose, where five or six Japanese boarding house keepers operate regularly in this way in securing work for their boarders. The padrone system is very hard to touch. Among Orientals it is doubtless dis- appearing, though there is still a very appreciable amount of this in the central valley of the state. The system grows naturally as a result of the need of an inter- preter a Japanese or Mexican who can speak the English language, and who takes over the task of securing work for others who can not. Control of the work often, of course, follows. With the increased knowledge of English, and the lessened num- ber of common Oriental laborers, due to the restriction of their immigration, the Japanese and Chinese contractors are becoming of less importance. The average commission is said to be from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of all earnings of each indi- vidual in the gang. The padrone system still exists among Mexican laborers, though to what extent is very hard to ascertain. Some men in touch with the situation claim that it is a beneficent system, in that it provides a way by which an ignorant immi- grant is taken care of by men of his own race versed in the ways of the country. Agencies charging fees and operating without licenses are, of course, directly breaking the law. Some of these do exist, either carrying on business directly or through some system of concealed fees. As to volume of business, they are of incon- siderable importance. Flagrant abuses by these sub rosa agencies should, of course, be wiped out. The system as a whole is beyond any possible regulation. A law prohibiting saloons from cashing pay checks is an absolute necessity. Such an ordinance is now in force in Los Angeles and has proved to be of value. THE LABOR UNION AS AN EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. Terming a labor union an employment agency is a misnomer. As a means by which men secure work and through which employers secure men, they should be mentioned. The majority of California towns are strongly unionized, Los Angeles being the notable exception. Applications for men from employers are filled in some unions according to priority of registration, except where only certain men are fitted to do the particular work called for. Union men, members both of trade and industrial unions, are violently opposed to the private employment agency system. Many of them have rules prohibiting members from using these agencies to find work, and all have an unwritten law against it. They are resorted to only by members who can secure work in no other way, or who are forced out of the ranks of their trade. With the pressure of unem- ployment in winter union men often resort to them. The general attitude toward federal system and toward a free state system appears to be one of indifference, as far as they themselves are concerned. They feel that for their purposes they are unnecessary, inasmuch as they get their work through their union. But in the main they favor the abolition of the "employment shark" system a.s a move that will benefit their unorganized brothers. SUCCESS OF STATE REGULATION OF PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES. Have the present regulations as carried out under the Labor Commiss : oner been a success'.' The answer depends upon the point of view. If we restrict ourselves to the view held by the Labor Commissioner that the laws of 1913 merely intended that all private agencies should be brought under the immediate supervision of the Labor Commissioner and that open abuses and frauds be eradicated, then the present regulations are a success. But if we accept the view that private agencies as an integral and essential part of the social organism must adequately and conscien- tiously fulfill the wider duty of connecting job and man at the least expenditure of time and money without fraud or abuse, then the present regulations are far from successful. It is the opinion of Commissioner McLaughlin that no system of private agencies can ever be a success in this larger sense. This Commissioner believes that fraud, misrepresentation, and extortion are inherent qualities in our private system: 33 COMMISSION OP IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. that it is next to impossible to get sufficient evidence for conviction against the agencies, and that therefore the state should undertake the business. The important point here is that fraud and abuses of all descriptions are ingrained in the private system and can not be eradicated. It is likewise the opinion of all persons inter- viewed on this point, including many employment agents, that the regulations now in effect have not removed and will not remove the abuses practiced befoi'e they went into operation. The only solution lies in the establishment of municipal, stan-. or federal bureaus each working in close connection with the other. SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS OF REGULATIVE MACHINERY. The legal powers vested in the Labor Commissioner of California for the ivsrnla- tion of employment agenices charging fees are in the main clear and sufficient. The Commissioner and his deputies have the power of sheriffs to make arrests and serve processes. The California statutes provide for the appointment of an attorney whose duty it is to represent the Commission in all cases falling within its jurisdiction. In regard to the organization and administration of the regulative machinery, it was the opinon of the Commissioner of Labor that the present system needed no improvement. Complaints are brought directly to the office of the Commissioner by the injured party. The Commissioner then tells the agent complained against to report at his office. The facts are reviewed and the settlement made at once. No- delay is incurred. No agent has refused to refund a fee nor pay the necessary expenses of the worker when called upon to do so by the Commission. The agents have come to regard the office of the Commissioner as a place of fairness and integrity. Not infrequently an agent will send a complainant to the Commissioner rather than settle the dispute in his own office. That a high license would bo advisable only in case it drove a great many of the- smaller agents out of business, is the opinion of the Labor Commissioner. Many believe that the present bond requirements have done as much in this respect ns a higher license. Undoubtedly a higher license is advisable as it would force out of business the small agent, with his attendant abuses, because he is small. The remaining large agents, not depending upon fraudulent methods for an existence. can be easily regulated. Their efficiency will be greater than in the present system. A worker will not have to exhaust his strength in a continuous hunt from agency to agency for his job. The power to revoke licenses is not now clear. This is perhaps the main feature of the present regulations which needs immediate attention. The Commissioner expressed the hope that the next legislature will give him absolute powers of revoca- tion. This in connection with the present machinery for prosecutions will bring the employment agents more directly and completely under the Commissioner's personal supervision. In this connection it might be stated that a more whole-hearted cooperation is desired from the district attorney in whose county prosecutions against labor agents are conducted. POSSIBILITIES FOR REGULATION. Assuming that one of these alternatives or some other of the same nature is acted upon, several features of the private agency system should be changed. A uniform system of bookkeeping and reports should be kept in each private employment office. Under the present state law, it is the duty of each agent to register the names of applicants for work and of employers seeking help. This provision could be utilized in gathering data as to the condition of the labor market, the number of available jobs, kind of help wanted, etc. This data should be sent to a clearing house and published in bulletin form, similar to the method proposed by the Industrial Com- mission. At present these registers are not kept in accordance with the law. as there is no means of distribution of this information, no clearing houses being in existence. Where prescribed registers are used, they are for the benefit of the agent himself and merely give the name of the applicant who has obtained a job and the employer who has had his order filled. This method shows an absolute misuTi'Ier- REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 39 standing of the essential features of the entire system of employment agencies, as it does not in any manner take the steps necessary to supervise and control the laborer or the employer. A strict system of inspection of all agencies should be instituted. At present, inspections are made only when flagrant cases of fraud or abuse are reported. This means that few agencies ever feel the pressure of rigid inspection. Even the methods of detectives might have to be employed at times. Agencies located in small towns should be under the same observation as those where offices of the Labor Commission are not established. The personal or direct contact between the agent and the regulating power must not depend upon complaints to this power, as at present. An aggressive system of inspections would bring all agents under strict supervision. Complainants should be allowed to carry their disputes to some local person delegated with authority to handle the same. That these complaints should be bandied in person is absolutely essential to the success of the system. Some arrange- ment by which efficient authorities, state or federal, are located in every city and town of importance and are readily accessible to those with complaints of any kind, should be provided for. If the private agencies are to stay in business, something should be done to eliminate the present type of agents and clerks. In the main, these men are ineffi- cient, unscientific, unscrupulous, and uninformed as to the real nature of their business, considering it only as a means of acquiring money. The social aspect is neglected. An opportunity for selection is afforded under the California laws at the beginning of each license year. Applications for license could be refused undesirable agents and only the type of man desired need be granted a license. A uniform fee should be charged and every agent should be made to conform to it strictly. Credit fees should be eliminated. A fixed scale or maximum percentage is advisable. All fees should be publicly posted in the office of the agency. The suggestion that each agency should handle only one type of labor has met with some approval. The question of determining the number of agencies dealing with each particular kind of labor seems insurmountable if favoritism is not shown. 40 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C-5. Recommendations for Legislation Concerning Private Employment Offices, by Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. A. Hi'jh license. The great prevalence of abuses among the smaller offices, the great degree of inefficiency prevailing among these agencies, and the exceeding diffi- culty of enforcing a strict system of regulation, points to the need of a license high enough to keep out any agencies but those operating on a large enough scale to guar- antee efficiency and the ease of regulation. The license fee for agencies in cities of the first, first and one half, and second class, should be $100 per annum ; in cities of the third and fourth class, $50 per annum; and in all other cities and towns, $25 per annum. If a comprehensive system of state agencies be established, the above fees could be doubled. B. Regulation of the employer. The employer should be made to refund fees and expenses of men not employed, if one of the following reasons be the cause thereof : 1. Duplication of orders for men at various offices, unless each agent be given the names of the other agents attempting to fill the same order. 2. Serious misrepresentation by the employer as to the character, duration or accommodations of the job. The state regulating authority should be given power to compel such refund by the employer, as well as to take action against employers acting in collusion with employees in "fake refund" tricks. C. Uniform fee schedule. A uniform schedule of fees to be charged by all pri- vate employment agencies for various kinds of work, should be worked out by the state regulating authority, and power to enforce the law providing for the same vested in that authority. In no case should the fee for day labor exceed $2.00, nor the fee for jobs paid by the month exceed 8 per cent of the first month's salary, above any charge for board. Provided, however, that regulating authority may establish a higher schedule of fees than indicated above for teachers', nurses' and theatrical agencies, and agencies supplying office help exclusively. D. Prohibition of credit fees. The credit fee system by which a man may secure a job without making any payment, an order on his wages being sent to the employer, works a hardship on both the employer and the employment agency, and leads to many abuses by employment agent and applicant. With a comprehensive state system of free offices the applicant who has no money will be taken care of, so the need for a credit system would be largely done away with. Such a prohibition would, moreover, give a competitive advantage to state offices, an advantage that would be great at the inception of such a system. If a free system were not established, such a prohibition would not be advisable. E. Introduction card or letter. Every applicant referred to a position by an employment agent should be furnished with a card of introduction, giving such details as to the nature of the job, including name of employer, duration, hours, wages, etc.. as the regulating authority shall demand. A letter giving this informat'on should I" written to the applicant it a card can not be personally given to him (as per attached form of card). This should be made with carbon duplicate; copy to be kept in the employment office for reference. Such forms should be in English and in the language of the applicant if he be an immigrant alien. F. Written orders. Before an employment agent refers an applicant to a posi- tion, he must have a written order from the employer, giving full details as to the character of the job ; the specific information to be demanded to be prescribed by the REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 41 state regulating authority. Provided, however, that men may be referred to positions upon a call by telephone or telegraph, if the employer promises to confirm the order in writing within two days. G. An aggressive method of inspection to be instituted. Every agency, whether in large cities or in small towns, should be inspected at least four times a year. H. Every employment agency, whether state or private, to keep a register of all applicants, whether given jobs or not. I. Everj" employment agency, whether state or private, to endeavor, in records, to separate the employable from the unemployable, so that the problems of the bona fide casual laborer may be accordingly determined. J. If the applicant reports to the employer according to instructions given him by the employment agency, and within the time designated by said agency, and if refused employment, then said agency shall refund to the applicant the amount of (a) fee paid; (6) the fare and expenses to and from the place where he was instructed to report; (c) a sum for the time lost, according to the rate of wages promised. K. If applicant is employed but discharged within ten days for any cause, other than his inefficiency or because the employer is actually reducing his working force, the employment agency shall refund to the applicant (a) the fee paid; (b) the fare and expenses to and from the place where he was instructed to report. Provided that this section shall not apply if the applicant is informed in writing, which he clearly understands, that the work is to last for only ten days or a shorter time. L. Make it a misdemeanor for an employment agency to publish, or cause to be published, any fraudulent or misleading information, representation, notice or adver- tisement regarding employment to be had, kind of employment to be had, or wages paid. M. No employment agency shall divide fees with any superintendent, manager, foreman, or other employee of any person or firm to whom he furnishes employees. And it shall be a misdemeanor on the part of both the employment agent and other employees to divide such fees. Fine, $500 and six months imprisonment. N. No employment agency can furnish or supply laborers to any firm or corpora- tion if a manager, superintendent, foreman, or other employee of such firm or cor- poration owns stock or any interest in such employment agency where a fee is charged. Misdemeanor on part of employment agent and the owner of stock. O. Any misrepresentation by an employment agent concerning the (a) nature of employment; (b) duration of employment; (c) place of employment; (d) wages paid, shall be misdemeanor, punishable by fine of $200.00, one half of which shall go to person to whom misrepresentation is made, other half to support of state employ- ment agencies. P. Pmj checks, cashing of, by saloons. The cashing of pay checks by saloons should be prohibited. Power to enforce such a law to be vested in the State Labor Commissioner. Some of the worst evils arising from the saloons acting as sub rosa employment agencies as well as other very palpable evils, could be eliminated by such a law. An ordinance to this effect has worked very successfully in Los Angeles. 42 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. FORM FOR EMPLOYMENT AGENCY. It shall be the duty of every licensed person conducting an employment agency to give to every applicant for employment, from whom a fee shall be received, a receipt in which shall be stated in this form. Order No. Receipt No. NAME OF AGENCY. Street and number. Phone. (City) 191__ Received from the sum of dollars, for which I agree to furnish correct information by which shall secure employment as with located at Under these conditions. Rate of wages $ per board lodging ( advanced Transportation I free I refunded Hours per Employment authorized by how when Report for position to how when (Signed) Signature of applicant. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 43 APPENDIX C-6. Brief of Reports on the Orange Industry of Central California, by the Commis- sion of Immigration and Housing of California. Two reports, the second supplementary to the first, on probably the most impor- tant of California seasonal industries, the harvesting and packing of the orange crop, are unusually complete and touch on every phase of the industry. The investiga- tion was made in the vicinity of Lindsay, Tulare County, where several thousand persons are employed and the conditions found there are typical of the rest of the state where oranges are grown. There are two classes of workers in the orange industry, known as "packers"' and "pickers." The former are largely women living in the neighborhood of the pack- ing houses and the latter made up of mixed races, largely migratory. Although the work is classed as seasonal, it has been made to last from six to seven months each year by growing two different kinds of oranges, Valencias and navels, ripening in different seasons, and the pay is regular and over the average. Working conditions and sanitary arrangements are good. The packers are almost exclusively Americans, or fully Americanized, and they have no union or other organized labor movement. This is an instance where, in a seasonal industry, the labor market has been made fairly stable by rotating the crops, training the work- ers, and encouraging their return by offering good living conditions. The pickers are male and consist of the migratory class as a rule. Many Japanese. Mexican and other foreign races are represented. There is usually no trouble in securing help, although the report shows that at odd times there is a scarcity of labor and a system of state labor exchanges would probably solve the problem. 44 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C-7. Condensed Statement of a Report on a Lumber Camp in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. The report deals with the employment of some 350 men at the lumber camps and mills of the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company at Sanger, Fresno County, and shows a very satisfactory condition among the workers. The season is from May 1 to November 1. The report shows a most satisfactory condition in regard to housing and feeding of mill and wood workers and that men willing to work can obtain employment in the woods and save money, because there is no opportunity to spend it. The men are encouraged to return each season and a large percentage do so ; therefore, a more or less regular or steady working force as to personnel is main- tained. The men attribute this to the fact that they are well treated and furnished with good living conditions. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 45 APPENDIX C 8. Brief of Report on Alaska Salmon Fishing Industry, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. This report reveals a most deplorable contract labor situation from which much trouble is bound to arise. It affects directly several thousand employees of the canneries, and indirectly many thousands of California's laboring men. Seven thousand men are shipped from and return to California each year for the Alaska fisheries. The 1,800 "Class A" men in the fishing industry are largely Scandinavian, and are comparatively well paid and well treated. The "Class B" men are all immigrants. 87 per cent being illiterate, only 7 per cent of them being able to read and write English. They are all members of the Alaska Fishermen's Union and receive the .same pay, but being hired under the contract system by a padrone, are subject to much exploitation and abuse. They fear the Italian boss and can not be made to testify against him. There are 1,700 Chinese, 1.700 Japanese and 1,200 mixed Filipino, Mexican and Porto Ricans, who are hired by a Chinese contractor, who has full control of wages, payments, board, etc. The deplorable condition of these laborers is more fully set forth in the Fifteenth Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the State of California. This and other reports show that these men are miserably housed and fed and always mistreated and exploited. During the winter months they accentuate the housing and unemployment problem in San Francisco. They do much to swell the army of vagrants and criminals who infest California in the winter months. This is one of the serious problems that confronts labor and immigration authorities and one that demands immediate attention. 46 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C-9. Brief of Report on Southern European Farmers in the Bay Region, by the Com- mission of Immigration and Housing of California. This is ;i limited investigation of a few cases in a limited locality. It deals with the Italian, Spanish, Greek. Austrian, Portuguese and Russian small farmers. The conclusions reached by the investigator are : That the immigration to California consists almost exclusively of farmers ; that they are all eager to become landowners ; that foreign farm ownership will absorb a large amount of the migratory farm labor, and tend to decrease migratory habits among the laborers ; that inflated land values and the inadequacy of farm credits tend to retard development more than any other factor ; that it is important that the newly arrived immigrant find work on farms before coming to the cities, and that dishonest practice by real estate agents and owners have retarded progress. The recommendations are : A state labor exchange and the establishment of some system to enable the immigrant to get on to land, such as agricultural credit banks on the plan of those operating successfully in France and Germany. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 47 APPENDIX C-10. Statistical Tables from Life History Schedules Selected at Random Among Casual Laborers in California, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. 1. Number of men from whom histories obtained, 222. 2. Age 16 to 20 years 5 2.3 % 21' to 25 years 37 17.0 % 26 to 30 years 60 27.6 % 31 to 35 years 34 15.7 % 36 to 40 years 38 17.5 % 41 to 45 years 17 7.8 % 46 to 50 years 8 3.7 % 51 to 55 years 7 3.2 % 56 to 60 years 6 2.7 % 61 to 65 years 3 1.3 % Over 65 years ___ 1 .46% No data 1 .46% 3. Marital condition A. Number that have been married. (1) Number now in married state 15 6.8 % (2) Number widowed or divorced 8 3.6 % (3) Number not living with wives . 1 .4 % B. Number unmarried 169 76.2 % C. Number from whom no data obtained 29 13.0 % 4. Nationality (see note at end). American born 105 48.4 % Foreign born 112 51.6 % Irish 15 Swedish 14 German 12 English 9 Italian 9 Norwegian 7 French 7 Russian 6 Canadian 5 Finnish 4 Danish 4 Portuguese 3 Mexican 3 Welsh _ 2 Australian 2 Belgian 2 Greek 1 Swiss . - 1 Scotch 1 Austrian 1 Dutch 1 Polish Jew 1 Spanish 1 Bohemian 1 Born in California 26 12.0 % 5. Political status- United States citizens 136 61.3 % Aliens with first papers Aliens with no papers 52 62.0 % Total aliens 84 37.8 % No data Foreign born, naturalized Foreign born, not naturalized 84 75.0 % 48 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. (]. ''Years as casual laborer (see note at end). Under 6 years 90 41.5 % 6 to 10 years 49 22.6 % 11 to 15 years 30 13.8 % 16 to 20 years 15 6.9 % 21 to 25 years 7 3.2 % 26 to 30 years 5 2.3 % 31 to 35 years 3 1.4 % 36 to 40 years 41 to 45 years 1 .46% No data 17 7.8% 7. Nature of last regular job- Teamsters 17 Ranching 12 Railroad laborers 7 Waiters 7 Cooks 7 Dredgermen 6 Fishermen .__ 6 Longshoremen 5 Machinists 5 Ironworkers 5 Lumberjacks 5 Dishwashers 4 Clerks 4 Fruit pickers 4 Miners 4 Bargemen 3 Carpenters 3 Electricians 3 Muckers 3 Steamboatmen 2 Millworkers 2 Painters 2 Brickmakers 2 Orange pickers 2 Sailors 2 Firemen 2 Sausagemaker 1 Hay baler 1 Thrasher 1 Molder 1 Butcher 1 Barber 1 Horse trainer 1 Timekeeper 1 Sheet metal worker 1 Porter 1 Cannery hand 1 Stableman 1 Rugmaker . 1 Lookout in gambling joint 1 Stonecutter Life guard Chauffeur __. Orange packer Gardener Elevator man 1 Tailor Peddler _ _ Bartender Brick mason 1' Messenger Night watchman Janitor _ 1 REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 49 Deck hand 1 Cigarmaker 1 Donkey flunkey 1 Surveyor 1 Hotel worker 1 Caretaker 1 Baker 1 Common laborers 56 No data .. 8 Total number of kinds of last regular jobs 61 8. Location of last regular job In same locality as questioned _ 59 26.6 % Elsewhere in California 105 47.1 % On Pacific coast outside of California 17 7.7 % Elsewhere in the United States 30 13.5 % Outside of the United States 3 1.5 % No data . 8 3.6 % 9. Earnings per day at last regular job Under $2.00 33 14.8 % $2.00 to $3.00 124 56.0 % $3.00 to $4.00 37 16.7 % $4.00 to $5.00 7 3.1 % $5.00 to $6.00 1 .4% 10. Duration of last regular job- Less than two weeks 25 11.1 % Two weeks to one month 31 14.0 % One month to three months 35 15.8 % Three months to six months 31 14.0 % Six months to one year 35 15.8 % One year to three years 31 14.0 % Over three years 18 8.0 % No data 16 7.3 % 11. Cause of leaving last regular job- Left voluntarily 78 35.0 % Work gave out 65 29.3 % Discharged for other reasons _. 31 14.0 % Locked out 6 2.7 % Left on account of strike 4 1.8 % Accidents or sickness 9 4.1 % Arrested 2 0.9 % Still working 14 6.3 % No data 13 5.9 % 12. *Earniugs at best time per day Under $2.00 12 5.5 % .*_'.! 10 to $3.00 77 35.5 % $3.00 to $4.00 66 30.4 % $4.00 to $5.00 31 14.3 % $5.00 to $6.00 8 3.7 % Over $6.00 8 3.7 % No data 15 6.9 % 13. Work at which earnings were made- Miners 14 Teams tors Longshoremen 13 Lumberjacks 9 Ranchers Harvesters 6 Cooks 6 Fishing 6 50 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. 13. Work at which earnings were made continued. Ironworkers fi Sailors 3 Dredgermen 1 Muckers 4 Waiters 4 Carpenters __ Butchers Steamboat men Engineers Cannery hands ', Painters . Railroad labor '. Electrical engineers . Brickmakers _' Orange pickers Bakers 2 Machinists 2 Boilermakers 2 Watchmen 2 Firemen 2 Gardener 1 Molder 1 Janitor 1 Barber 1 Grocery clerk 1 Lumber clerk 1 Clerk 1 Sheet metal worker 1 Pattern maker 1 Cement worker 1 Sheep shearer 1 Shoemaker 1 Train master 1 Rug maker 1 Business 1 Stableman 1 Stonecutter 1 Chauffeur 1 Orange packer Grading foreman Fruit picker 1 Cook's helper Blacksmith 1 Peddler Tailor Ticket seller Gunman Brick mason Office work Porter Machinist's helper Mill worker Glass worker Pottery hand Cigarmaker Surveying crew Solicitor Common laborers No data Total number of jobs represented 66 REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 51 14. First jobs Ranch work 30 Sailors -.. 15 Teamsters 13 Mill work 9 Lumberjacks 7 Clerks 6 Miners 6 Newsboys 6 Restaurant workers 5 Machinists 55 Longshoremen 4 Errand boys 4 Railroad construction workers 3 Carpenters 3 Ironworkers 3 Railroad workers 3 Bakers helpers 3 Factory hand 3 Butchers 2 Firemen 2 Electricians 2 Packing house workers 2 Fishermen 2 Porters 2 Mess boys 2 Printers 2 Molder 1 Dredgennan 1 Peddler 1 Sheet metal worker 1 Patternmaker 1 Laundry hand 1 Hostler 1 Tobacco worker 1 Rugmaker 1 Boilermaker 1 Chauffeur 1 Cook 1 Stonecutter Cook's helper Blacksmith 1 Tailor >ffice boy Independent business Painter Breaker boy Machinist's helper Glass worker Pottery hand "i Carmaker Mucker Locksmith Lumber yard hand Gardener Baker ' Vimmon laborers No data - 17 Total number of jobs represented 56 52 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. 15. Training for first jobs- No training 116 .32.3 % Have served apprenticeship 60 27.0 % Farm training for ranch work 27 12.2 % School education 1 .4 % Studied for doctor 1 .4 % Training school 1 .4 % No data 16 7.3 % 16. Membership in labor organizations- Belong or have belonged to trade union 95 42.7 % Belong or have belonged to the I. W. W 18 8.1 % Non-members 114 51.4 % No data 4 1.8 % Percentage represents the proportion of the whole num- ber. Some men were members of both a union and the I. W. W. 17. Lodge membership- Belonging or haA'e belonged to a lodge 49 22.0 % Non-members 131 59.1 % No data 42 18.9 % 18. Church membership- Members of a Protestant church ._ 64 28.8 % Members of the Catholic church 41 18.5 % Members of the Jewish church __ 1 .4 % Members of the Mormon church 1 .4 % Non-members _ 85 38.4 % No data 30 13.5 % 19. Membership in political parties- Profess membership 83 37.4 % Non-members 107 48.2 % No data 32 14.4 % 20. Years in California if born out of state, per cent of total- Under 6 years 127 58.5 % 6 to 10 years 36 16.6 % 11 to 15 years 14 6.4 % 16 to 20 years 1 .46% 21 to 25 years 3 1.4 % 26 to 30 years 4 1.8 % 31 to 35 years 3 1.4 % 36 to 40 years 41 to 45 years 1 .46% No data 2 .92% 21. Tears in United States if foreign born per cent of foreign born Under 6 years 48 42.8 % 6 to 10 years 30 26.7 % 11 to 15 years 12 10.7 % 16 to 20 years - 6 5.3 % 21 to 25 years 2 1.7 % 26 to 30 years - 9 8.0 % 31 to 35 years 2 1.7 % 36 to 40 years 1 .89% No data . 2 1.7 % 22 Age at which left school No schooling 12 5.5 % 6 to 10 years 12 5.5 % 11 to 15 years 118 54.4 % 16 to 20 years - - 45 20.7 % No data . 30 13.8 % REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 53 23. Relations with parents and relatives A. Number visiting relatives 26 11.7 % B. Number writing to relatives 80 36.0 % C. Number maintaining relations , 91 41.0 % D. No relatives 14 6.3 % E. No data 11 5.0 % 24. Time worked during last twelA r e months A. Under 4 months 16 7.3 % B. 4 to 6 months 66 29.7 % C. 7 to 9 months 95 42.7 '; D. 10 months 17 7.7% E. 11 months 5 2.2 % F. 12 months _ 7 3.1% 25. Average number of months worked per year Under 3 months _ 3 1.4 % 4 to 6 months _ 49 22.6 % 7 to 9 months 91 41.9 <; 10 months 28 12.9 % 11 months 10 4.6 % 12 months 11 5.1 % No data 25 11.5 % 26. Status in regard to independence of position A. Number with others dependent upon them 21 9.5 c ; r B. Number with none dependent upon them.. 192 86.4 % G. No data 9 4.1 % 27. Patronage of employment agencies A. Number patronizing employment agencies 116 52.3 % B. Number refusing to patronize employment agencies 97 43.6 % C. No data 9 4.1 % 28. Physical condition A. Number in good physical condition 97 43.6 % B. Number in fair physical condition 68 30.6 % O. Number in bad physical condition 54 24.3 % D. No data 3 1.5 % 29. Personal habits A. Use of alcohol and drugs 171 77.0 % 1. Number using alcohol 171 77.0 % 2. Number using tobacco and snuff... 189 85.0 % 3. Number using drugs (opium, cocaine, etc.) 6 2.7 % 4. Number of non-users 11 5.0 % 5. No data 10 4.5 % B. Personal cleanliness 1. Number clean in clothes and person 89 40.0 % 2. Number unclean in clothes and person... 48 21.4 % 3. Number from whom no data obtained 86 38.6 % 30. Jail record A. Number admitting jail record 57 25.6 % B. Number professing never to have been in jail 1 IS tifi.7 '. C. No data 17 7.7 % 31. Plans for future A. Number looking for steady work 62 28.0 % B. Number planning to continue "floating" 56 25.2 r /< O. Number with no plans for future. 94 42.3 % D. No data _ 10 4.5 % 32. Attitude on political and economic questions- Radical 80 36.9 % Conservative 56 25.8 % Indifferent - 61 28.1 % No data 20 9.2 % Only those are classed as "Radical" who believe in complete destruction, either through political or direct action, of the present social system. Statistics on these points were compiled from 217 Life Histories. 54 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX C 11. Tabulation of Register of Complaints of the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. The total number of complaints received and filed from January 20th to November 27, 1914, inclusive, was 1,379. The Complaint Bureau of the Commission, however, was not organ- ized and in active operation until April 25, 1914 ; the Sacramento com- plaint office was not opened until August 1, 1914, and the Los Angeles complaint office has been open only since August 15, 1914; therefore, this table, in fact, shows only the results of a maximum period of about seven months. In San Francisco 765 In Sacramento 537 In Los Angeles 77 Up to November 27th there were still pending or unsettled, from various causes, 242 cases. They are as follows : Miscellaneous 170 Curtis-Howell Aviation Company 36 Ravenswood Land Company 6 Alta California Land Company 15 C. Giaovanni 6 West Sacramento Land Company 9 Total 242 The complaints of fraud and crime were disposed of as follows : Convictions _ 4 Adjustments 52 Compromised 20 Fees returned 20 Claims paid in full or settled 52 Total 148 Other complaints were disposed of as follows : Police department 9 Public prosecutor 9 Referred to an attorney 11 Legal advice given 68 Board of Health _ __ 4 Board of Medical Examiners 21 United States Immigration Commissioner Industrial Accident Commission 45 State Labor Commissioner 251 Inspector of Weights and Measures 2 State Railroad Commission United States Shipping Commissioner 1 Camp Inspection Department 30 Referred to employment agency Sent to charitable institutions 19 General information given 290 Dropped by complainant Miscellaneous .. 95 Total REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 55 TRANSCRIPT OF COMPLAINT REGISTER, SHOWING NATURE OF COMPLAINTS. Attorney defrauding client Assuming to be an attorney Accidents (industrial) 9-~> Auto driver overcharge Auto accidents 2 Abuse and threats ._ Admission to hospital desired Abatement of nuisances 2 Annoyance of tramps 1 Blacklisting 3 Business frauds 102 Breach of promise 2 Boarding house frauds 1 Business misrepresentations 50 Breach of contract 12 Contributing to delinquency 9 Cruelty to animals 2 Conversion 3 Charity frauds 2 Complaints against police 2 Complaints against landlords 2 Detention on Angel Island 2 Destitution 17 Desertion 4 Deportations 7 Detention of children 1 Employment desired Employment agency frauds 85 Exclusion from unions 2 Ejections 1 Evictions 2 Exorbitant railroad rates 1 Excessive storage charges 2 Financial assistance 3 Fraud in automatic piano sales 4 Failure to provide 4 Fraudulent interpreter 4 Gambling frauds 4 Hospital com]) la in ts Hop pickers' bonus trouble 6 Insanitary living conditions 14 Information wanted 172 Immigration detention Illegal medical practice 24 Immorality 12 Insanitary labor camps 19 Impure food 3 Improper guardianship Interference with witness 1 Inadequate camp water supply 10 Interpreter desired Incompetent dentist 2 Insurance fraud 13 Land frauds Legal advice (52 Libel 1 Lost letters Lost baggage Labor bureau troubles Lottery frauds Mailing indecent pictures Misrepresentation in sale of transportation tickets Marital complaints Malpractice Misrepresented work Malicious prosecution Naturalization fi Neglect of children 56 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. Probation desired 1 Physical abuse 1 Partnership difficulties 3 Pawnshop frauds 1 Pension claim 1 Personal property lost 6 Papers withheld Prostitution 6 Refusal to pay loans 4 Refusal to surrender property 3 Refusal to pay debts Refusal to deliver gas 1 Refunds on tickets Seduction 2 Sanitary conditions of ship Saloon complaints 1 Short weights 3 Short hop weights 9 Spite fence 3 Sickness 3 Suspicious organizations Tenement law violation 1 Thefts Transfer company frauds 3 Time check abuse 4 Unjust detention as insane 1 Unlawful detention of children 1 Unjust fines Undesirable aliens 7 Undertaker's extortion 1 1 Unfit medical referees 2 Unjustified detention Unjustified arrests '2 Wage claims 218 White slavery 5 Worthless checks Worthless contracts 8 Total . 1,379 REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 57 APPENDIX C-12. Statistical Summary of Camp Returns of 801 Camps. INSPECTED BY COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING OF CALIFORNIA. Permanent camps 545 Temporary camps 256 Capacity With present capacity 745 No data as to present capacity 56 With ultimate capacity 776 No data as to ultimate capacity 25 Women and Children Camps with women 261 With doubtful returns as to women 86 Camps with no women 454 Camps with children 137 With doubtful returns as to children .__ 86 With no children 578 Sleeping Quarters Where sleeping quarters and living conditions of alien and American laborers are separated 90 Where sleeping quarters and living conditions are not separated 433 Where laborers are of one nationality 197 No data as to separation of sleeping quarters, etc 81 Bathing Facilities- Camps with no bathing facilities 320 Camps with tubs, shower baths, or both 341 Where bathing facilities are located on stream, lake, bay, etc 105 No data as to bathing facilities 35 Toilets- Camps with fly-proof toilets 184 With slightly exposed toilets 172 With filthy toilets 331 With no toilets 104 No data as to toilets 10 Separation of Toilets for Sexes- Camps with separate toilets for sexes 93 With no separation of toilets for sexes 125 No data as to separation of toilets 129 Note. Total, 347. Where returns on women doubtful (see above) entered here as no data. Washing Facilities- Camps with adequate washing facilities 635 With inadequate washing facilities. 125 No data as to washing facilities 41 Stables- Camps with stables or corrals 502 Camps with no stables or corrals 295 No data as to stables and corrals 4 58 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. Distance of Stables from Kitchen Where stables are less than 100 yards from kitchen lit' \Vh>re stables are more than 10(1 yards from kitchen 26fi No data as to distance of stables 44 Manure Disposal Camps with sanitary methods of manure disposal 241 Camps without sanitary methods j:',7 No data as to manure disposal 24 Note. Total, 502. See number of stables. Screening on Kitchen and Dining Quarters- Camps with screening on kitchen and dining quarters 3!M With no screening 288 No data as to screening 119 Garbage Disposal Camps with sanitary methods of garbage disposal 537 With insanitary methods 199 No data on methods of disposal 6G Garbage Containers- Camps with fly-proof garbage containers 329 With uncovered containers HiO With no containers 165 No data as to containers 1 !7 Cubic Air Capacity in Sleeping Quarters- Camps with less than 350 cubic feet of air per sleeper 144 With 350 to 500 cubic feet of air per sleeper 168 With over 500 cubic feet of air per sleeper 350 No data as to cubic feet of air per sleeper 139 General Classification- Number of camps classed GOOD by inspector 249 Number of camps classed PAIR by inspector 301 Number of camps classed BAD by inspector 248 No data on classification .. 3 REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 59 APPENDIX C13. Synopsis of Report on the Labor Market in Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. SONOMA COUNTY. The county is almost entirely an agricultural one and the manufacturing activi- ties in it may be neglected. The situation as to manufacturing is the same for both Mendocino and Yuba Counties. In Sonoma the chief interests are in fruits ;in far as fruit and berry picking is concerned, the demand is reduced to zero during half the year, from December to May. In the canning and packing plants, a con- siderable amount of labor is needed during a more extended period, many fruit packing establishments running nearly the whole year in prosperous years and when the crops are good. In all these cases there is a considerable portion of each year when there is but a very slight, even a negligible, demand for labor. 2. Not only are there the expected "slow" months in even the best years, but also there are extremely wide variations within the active season for fruit picking, canning and packing. A certain and predictable cause of these subseasonal changes is seen in the fact that the different fruits and berries ripen at different periods, and that one fruit may ripen before pickers can leave an earlier one, or may ripen so late as to leave a slack period when there is not enough picking for the pickers on hand. An equally certain but unpredictable cause of variation is the wide variation in the time from year to year that a given fruit may be expected to ripen, and in the amount of the crop to be figured upon when it does ripen. 3. For the fruit and berry picking, local help (families, very largely), is used almost entirely on the small orchards and berry patches, and to a considerable extent on the large places. In so far as this is done, no very serious labor problem arises. 4. The supply of labor, however, for all the ranches and orchards where picking is done on a large scale, and in the canneries and fruit packing plants, must and always will be very largely an imported supply. This supply is made of a great variety of types, the most predominant of which are as follows: Family picking groups from various cities and towns in other parts of the state. Many of these are foreigners, Portuguese and Japanese especially : Floating laborers who come from periods of unemployment or various winter jobs ; Groups of boys from welfare institutions or industrial homes. These picking groups under the supervision of their own superintendent, take the contract for the picking season, camp out on the place, and the whole crop is handled in this fashion by these contract pickers exclusively. In this case, too, there is no social loss in the way of unemployment, as the vacation periods of the institutions concerned are adjusted so that the boys make the picking season their vacation. This plan is growing in favor in the Gold Ridge berry district of Sonoma County. Local help. Young people of both sexes from the neighborhood and also a good many adults. r>. On the whole, the supply of fruit and berry workers (including pickers, cannery employees, and fruit packers), is ample to supply the demand, although there are times when growers in a certain locality cannot get enough pickers. Even when this is so. however, there are usually numerous other places where there is a surplus of workers which cannot be employed. 60 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. 6. There are no employment agencies of any sort whatever in the county. The- growers get their help in a very hit-and-miss fashion and seem to bank on the usual excess of the supply of pickers. Some of them advertise in the San Francisco papers and often in the local papers. They very rarely resort to the employment agencies of San Francisco. 7. The demand is almost entirely for children, women and such men as are not able to get other work. This is especially true of the picking. Fruit picking is not an ideal means of livelihood for an able-bodied man. In the canneries and fruit packing establishments, a few men are needed as superintendents and to tend machines, but the great bulk of the force is composed of women. MENDOCINO COUNTY. The county contains almost no urban territory. There are three towns, ranging in population from twelve hundred to thirty-five hundred. The area of the county is thirty-four hundred square miles. Chief industries : Lumbering, railroad con- struction and agriculture. Of these, the railroad construction work has for the past few years been the most important from the labor market point of view. The work is, of course, not of the same permanent nature as that of the two primary extractive industries of lumbering construction and agriculture, but just now it merits attention. 1. The work involves the construction of about two hundred miles of new track for the Willits-Eureka extension of the North Western Pacific. During the past year there has been a very large force of workmen (chiefly unskilled laborers) engaged on this construction. The number has varied from five hundred to three thousand. The greater part of the work has been done by contract by the Utah Construction Company, which firm alone has at some periods had as many as two thousand laborers at work here. 2. The number of men who have been engaged on this construction work undoubtedly runs high into thousands each year. That is, the average laborer works but a very short time. Some idea of the constant flux in the labor ranks here as well as the extent of it, may be had from the fact that the North Western Pacific Company is now and has been for some time sending on an average forty men a day to replenish their own working force of one thousand men on this piece of construction. This means that more than ten thousand men are hired each year to keep up a working gang of one thousand. These one thousand men work right alongside the Utah Construction Company's men. They are usually more steady or less unsteady than the Utah Construction Company's men, so that it is pretty clear that men are constantly quitting and others being taken on. Evidence from various sources indicates two chief reasons for this flow of men onto the job and off again. (a) Sanitary and wage conditions. Hospital charges. Poll tax assess- ment. Excessive charges for inferior board, etc. (ft) The desire to quit so soon as a small "stake" has been accumulated. In connection with this, the very human distaste for long hours of toilsome and monotonous work and the desire to drown the curse of it in liquor. 3. The evidences and stories of employment agency graft are here exceedingly numerous. Evidence of collusion between construction bosses and superintendents is abundant but not conclusive, and extremely hard to prove. It is significant that several of the camps hire all their men exclusively from particular agencies in San Francisco and will not take on men who come from other agencies or men wha "beat their way" up to the camp and strike for the job on their own initiative. 4. This year, especially this summer, the demand has been very considerably falling off, on account of the fact that the work is nearing completion. For this reason the supply has been especially excessive and the unemployment situation far more acute. REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 61 The lumbering industry is one requiring far more skilled labor than does con- struction work. In fact, almost all workers in logging camps and saw mills are more than unskilled laborers. Most of the operations in a logging camp, tree "barking," "falling," "timber rigging," etc., requires a certain degree of skill. The same applies to the saw mills and to a less degree to the lumber yards. It is noticeable that the lumber men are more steady and stay on the jobs better than the bulk of construction workers. Comparatively few floaters drift into lumbers. The industry is seasonal, especially the logging and milling. In the yards the labor force is more uniform throughout the year. In the logging camps, the busy season is from December to March. Most of the camps continue to run through the rest of the year, but the labor force is reduced to a minimum. The supply of labor for lumber work is secured almost entirely through personal application and arrangement with the men, a great proportion of whom are known to the employers. Employment agencies or newspaper advertising are almost never resorted to. There is less trouble here with an excessive labor supply than in the construction camps. During the winter season there is very seldom any difficulty about maintaining full crews, but in tbe summer many agricultural openings for labor make it difficult very often to secure even the needed minimum for the logging camps. The lumber companies are sometimes embarrassed by a shortage of help, but it is seldom or never serious. 62 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOl'slMi. APPENDIX D. Report on Employment Bureaus by Committee on Employment Bureaus, Section on Unemployment, Commonwealth Club of California. (Pages 678 to 680.) MK. WOBMSEK: The causes that have brought about the establishment of free employment bureaus in nineteen states of the union are practically identical with those that call for such establishments in our own state, namely, the abuses of private employment agencies, the scarcity of hands for the feathering of crops, the congestion of the unemployed during the certain periods of the year in the large cities, and the need for collecting and disseminating statistics relative to unemploy- ment and opportunities for employment. The private employment agencies, purely commercial enterprises, and selfish in their aims, cannot be depended upon for the gathering of information about the places where work may be had, or for the distribution of this information to those in need of it. For this purpose there is need for a centralized organization to which can be brought all inquiries for labor and all applications for employment in a word, an employment clearing house. The existence of many private labor agencies defeats this very purpose of centralization, where employer and worker may find one another, as in the haphazard unorganized workings of the private agents, demand for help is frequently registered at one place and applicants for work at another. The fee, often out of all proportion to the service rendered, and equally often not procurable by the applicant, is another factor against the efficiency of private bureaus. The voters of Washington have just adopted, by a substantial majority, a law forbidding employment offices from collecting a fee from an employee. They may, if they can, collect from the employer. It is expected, however, that this measure will make an end of the private employment office. With the opening of the Panama Canal the establishment of free employment offices becomes more than ever urgent. It is well known that many private agencies take advantage of the ignorance of the foreign immigrant w r hose lack of knowledge of our language and customs makes him an easy prey to the exploiter. It seems obvious that if this class of labor is admitted to our state, it should be protected from exploitation and provided with free information regarding the market for this labor. The fruitgrower and all employers of agricultural labor would be enormously benefited by such free bureaus. At their most critical seasons it is often impossible for them to secure hands to handle their crops, and under the present lack of system there is no place where they can apply for help. Through a system of cooperation between the agricultural districts and the free labor offices of the cities, agriculturists would be relieved from this difficulty and placed in immediate touch with a reliable source of supply. The Wisconsin Commission supplied the farms with approximately 3,000 laborers in 1913. This work was accomplished principally through the cooperation of the state's country banks. It is proposed to follow this method in our own state for supplying fruit and farming districts with laborers through an arrangement with a bank in each town to accept orders for help from agriculturists, and then mail or telephone them to the nearest free employment office. Of the nineteen states that have established free offices, Ohio, Massachusetts and Wisconsin may be mentioned as being the most progressive. Wisconsin has four offices, the most important of which, in Milwaukee, found position in 1913 for 15,600 out of 29,300 applicants, at a cost of only 43 cents for each position secured. A thoroughly organized system of public employment exchanges, as the English call them, is to be found in Great Britain, where there were in operation in 1913, 430 REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 63 exchanges. The function of these is to collect and distribute information to employers and employees, regarding demand and supply in the labor market. Germany has in operation 323 exchanges conducted on most efficient lines. Many of these combine social features with their regular work of placing employer and employee into com- munication with one another. One especial social feature should be embodied in any plan that may be outlined for California, that is. a commodious reading room, stocked with standard books, newspapers and maga/im's. an attractive waiting room for applicants, pending the securing of another job. It might be added that France, Switzerland and other countries of Europe are operating free labor exchanges with equal success. The fear that by furnishing free service in finding labor the state might under- mine the self-reliance of the workman has proved groundless. A system that shortens the out-of-work period for any man and enables him to find a job quickly if he loses his place, makes for independence. Your Committee therefore recommends the establishment of public employment bureaus in California, and offers the following outline of the provisions of a measure that should be urged before the coining session of the legislature : 1. The bureaus to be managed and controlled by the Commission on Housing and Immigration. 2. An advisory committee of fifteen to be appointed for each bureau by the Governor, each member to serve two years and without compensation. 3. The advisory committee to investigate the affairs of the local bureau and submit reports and recommendations to the Commission on Housing and Immigra- tion, which shall make rules for the bureaus with a view of obtaining efficiency in conduct of same. 4. Certain social features to be provided for those seeking employment, such as reading rooms, daily newspapers and magazines, so as to make the bureau attractive, and enable it to furnish competent and desirable help to employers. 5. An appropriation of $50,000 to establish two offices, one at San Francisco and one at Los Angeles. S. I. AVoRMSER. Chun-man. THEODORE JOHNSOX. J. E. BAKER. COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX E. Joint Resolution for the Appointment of a National Marketing Commission. (H. J. Res. 344, Sixty-third Congress, second session.) IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. September 10, 1914. Mr. Goodwin of Arkansas introduced the following joint resolution ; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture and ordered to be printed. Joint resolu- tion for the appointment of a National Marketing Commission. WHEREAS, It is patent that there are defects in the economic system of the United States which affect adversely the producers and the consumers of agricultural products ; and WHEREAS, These defects have been accentuated by the European war, and to a degree justifying the recent utterances of the President of the United States in the matter of the high cost of living ; and WHEREAS, Various attempts have been made from time to time to overcome these defects, mainly through non-governmental agencies, and recently under governmental agency under the Bureau of Marketing of the Department of Agriculture ; and WHEREAS, Experience has, however, proven that the solution of this question is not to be found in non-governmental agencies nor is it to be found in a governmental agency. It is to be found in a semiofficial governmental agency, as is here proposed, as witness the success in the European countries of such a system, a system which has swept aside the trusts in food products and which renders the trust an impossi- bility ; and WHEREAS, The present abnormally high prices for food products not alone offers an opportune time for the establishment of a semiofficial governmental agency as a means for the temporary solution of this problem but also for the organization of the agricultural forces of the United States on the lines indicated as a means for the permanent solution of this problem ; Now, therefore, be it Resolved, "by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President be authorized and requested to appoint a National Marketing Commission to be composed of twenty-nine members, fifteen of whom shall be farmers and fourteen of whom shall be selected with reference to their eminence in commerce, law, finance, and transportation. Section 2. That such National Marketing Commission shall meet in the City of Washington at a time designated by the President and organize by the election of officers, and adopt a plan of action for the effective organization of the states, counties and localities of the United States for the economic distribution of the products of the farm, with power to act in so far only as affecting individuals and organizations that shall elect to become a part of this national marketing system. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 65 APPENDIX F. Brief of Report on Home Education by the Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. The general housing and social surveys conducted by the Commission of Immigra- tion and Housing of California, have shown that : The immigrant mother who does not speak English is even more helpless than the man, for even his failures give him education and slowly help him to adjust himself to the new life. With the woman in her poor home there are few points of contact with educational opportunity. The Americanization of the children in the public schools often adds to her difficulties. The child takes command of the home and becomes ashamed of the mother. By statistics we find that this is adding to our delinquency and filling our juvenile courts. The quickest and surest way of dealing with this problem is by educating the mother in our language, our laws and our standards of living. For this purpose it would seem to be necessary to provide some kind of visiting teachers who will, as rapidly as possible, connect these mothers with the public schools and our civic life. The whole subject of immigrant education holds tremendous possibilities and should be carefully standardized and supervised. As the object of the Immigration Commission is to devise ways to assimilate the incoming mass, it can not lay too much stress upon ultimate citizenship for both men and women. 66 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. APPENDIX G. The following is quoted from aii address made by Mr. John 1'. McLaughlin, Com- missioner of the State Bureau of Labor Statistics, before the Conference of State Immigration, Land and Labor Officials held in Washington. I). C.. November 1(1 and 17, 1911 : "California, until recently, has been a state of large land holdings, due to the fact that when the United States acquired its western possessions it recognized as valid the Spanish land grants. These land grants of which there are about 000 con- tained immense areas. When agriculture succeeded gold mining, some of the owners turned to cultivating these lands, while others held them and are still holding them until such time as they shall be divided up into small farms. This led to two prob- lems that have confronted the people of California for the past thirty or forty years. The former called for a large amount of cheap labor, while the latter prevented the American farmer from the eastern states and the European immigrant agriculturists from obtaining small acreages at reasonable prices.'' "Probably the most important point in farming in California, and the one I desire to call your particular attention to. is that it is highly specialized. It was early demonstrated that certain crops could be grown to great advantage in certain locali- ties, with the result that practically everybody in that locality went into the raising of that particular crop, thus calling for a large amount of labor during the season when such crop was harvested." "An important point regarding white farm labor in California is that they are not shown the respect that, in my estimation, is due them. This is accounted for largely by the fact that the short period of time they work on any one farm does not seem to justify the owner in providing accommodations for them, with the result that they are required to carry their blankets on their backs and use the sky for a roof. This condition is not conducive to the development of a good class of farm labor, but rather to a class of 'hoboes.' For six months of the year they have the sheriff chasing them out of town for refusing to work and the other six months they get chased out of t&wn for asking for work. Personally, I sympathize with the man who is migrating from place to place, sometimes looking for work and at other times trying to dodge the tax collector or the sheriff. Perhaps, I can not help that, owing to the fact that my life has been spent in close contact with the man who toils." "At the last session of the legislature a bill was introduced providing for a free employment bureau, but owing to the fact that it did not carry with it an appro- pr'ation, the Governor did not see fit to sign it. However, we have hopes that it will be provided for by the next legislature, and I know the Governor is inclined to favor it as an experiment. A free employment bureau would be of invaluable assistance in securing work upon the farms of our state for the incoming immigrants." REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 67 REPORT ON A PLAN FOR TEMPORARY RELIEF. SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, December 9, 1914. To His Excellency, HIRAM AY. JOHNSON, Governor, Sacramento, California. DEAR SIR: In the following pages we present a tentative plan for dealing with the destitute unemployed in the state during the season which has now begun. While this is presented in compliance with your written and oral requests for suggestions on the unemployment problem, it is entirely separate from the report we have submitted this day on the question of the ultimate solution of the unemployment problem. Suggestions for a Method of Dealing with the Destitute Unemployed During the Winter of 1914-1915. An entirely separate and distinct problem is the question as to how to handle the unemployed of the state during the coming winter. There is every indication that we shall have many roving, unemployed and destitute men in the state. Since any possible state legislation looking toward an alleviation of the situation could not become effective in time to meet the needs of this winter, the burden of the problem must rest upon the different communities and municipalities, and they must deal with the problem locally. However, we deem it advisable that some uniformity should be established in the method of handling the various unemployed groups, and therefore suggest that some existing state board or a spe- cial, representative committee, to be appointed by your Excellency, undertake the formulation of some plan of action and urge the adop- tion of the plan by the various authorities. It would seem that the work of meeting the problem this winter is largely a work of charity, therefore we suggest that this task be undertaken by the State Board of Charities and Corrections, or a special committee appointed by your Excellency for this purpose. Merely as a tentative suggestion we submit the following general program which such a state board or committee might follow : I. It is essential that the various local authorities be first impressed with the fact that the practice of driving the unemployed out of one town and on to the next is not a solution but an aggravation. It has been the custom to employ these tactics in the past, and this treatment has resulted in the development of a spirit of rebellion and anarchy 68 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. in the unemployed, leading them to form into rovingj incorrigible "armies." Merely passing these "armies" on from one town to an- other creates a vicious circle throughout the state and encourages the members in the acquisition of wandering, irresponsible habits. These restless, roving groups are breeding places for petty crimes, and the problem of prevention and control by the state is made more difficult because the offenders are transient and ever moving. Therefore each municipality or community, in proportion to its pop- ulation and facilities for charity work, should bear the burden of pro- viding for the immediate needs of the unemployed in the state during the coming winter. II. However, after the local authorities are persuaded to aid in the attempt to stem the restless, swaying tide and to establish some sem- blance of stability, careful and discriminating methods must be worked out for providing relief. The mere announcement that all California municipalities are to care for the unemployed would bring hordes of applicants for charity from all the western states, eager to spend a winter in our mild climate, and many who are not in genuine need would be tempted to try their luck at enjoying our munificence. In order to provide against such a pre- dicament any scheme that is devised to meet the situation should include the strict application of a work test. The board or committee which your Excellency might designate to handle this matter could render incalculable service to the state by carrying on a nation-wide campaign of publicity, warning: (a) The employable unemployed that there is no work to be had in California; and (b) the unemployable vagrants, that there will be a rigorous application of the work test in all relief or aid provided. In order to show that people interested in this problem are unani- mously of the opinion that a uniform and discriminating method must be adopted, we have appended to this report a program in concise form, drawn up at a recent national conference in New York of exec- utives of general charitable societies. This program has been proposed to the authorities in Chicago by Mr. Eugene T. Lies, general superin- tendent of the United Charities of Chicago. III. As a basis for discussion and action by any board or com- mittee your Excellency might appoint to put in operation a uniform plan, as we have suggested, Ave submit the following concrete sugges- tion: (a) The City Council, or governing body, in every incorporated city or town should be urged to establish a municipal lodging house, furnishing sleeping quarters and food. REPORT ON PROBLEM OP UNEMPLOYMENT. 69 1. All homeless and destitute men in the community who apply voluntarily should be furnished accommodation in return for work for a certain number of hours a day. Provision should be made for registering all these unemployed and destitute men by a given date. This would give a census and set a time limit for applicants. The work referred to could be in the form of labor on the streets and roads, cleaning up vacant lots, work in public buildings and institutions, etc. The result of this work would not meet the cost to the municipality, but the cost of caring for these men must ultimately be borne by some organization or individuals, and the loss would be more equitably dis- tributed than if it were placed upon the private charitable agencies or philanthropic individuals, who (as we point out below) have a suffi- ciently difficult task in caring for destitute resident families. 2. All homeless men who are brought into court and convicted as vagrants, merely because they have no means of support, should be given suspended sentences and sent to the municipal lodging house, and also put to work. If such men break this semi-parole they should be sent to jail and put at enforced work. (b) The Associated Charities of the different communities should be awakened to the critical problem at hand and urged to organize carefully for the coming season. These organizations should be advised to provide adequate funds, and organize volunteer personal service to caiv 1'or destitute resident families. The attention of these private organizations should be directed entirely to the needy residents, and only incidentally should they aid the municipality in providing for the homeless destitute. (c) Tn those cities that have no Associated Charities organization (such as Sacramento) strong pressure should be brought to bear upon the citizens to organize one. (d) Specialized charities, churches, social settlements, etc., should be urged to make additional efforts to meet the emergencies of the season and to continue the work in their distinct fields with redoubled efforts. Past experience has shown that such organizations are apt to become panic-stricken and to even curtail their work and throw it off on larger and more general organizations. NOTE If the municipal lodging house becomes overcrowded the homeless men should be sent to the Associated Charities, or other agency, having a "wood yard." or some sort of work test. 70 COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING. (e) Looking more toward industrial relief measures, all state and local public departments should be encouraged to enlarge their work wherever possible, such as state highway and county construction, sewer construction, erection of public buildings, etc. The commence- ment of public work for which appropriations have been voted might be hastened; and public work which is usually done in the summer season might be done in the winter, where the climate permits. In conclusion we respectfully suggest that if your Excellency deems it wise to attempt to formulate a plan for uniform action throughout the state in this matter, more immediate and satisfactory results might be obtained by a special committee than by any existing state board. Other business of state would necessarily demand the attention of any existing board, while a committee appointed especially for the purpose could concentrate its efforts upon this one problem. This is a ques- tion of great moment, and we feel that your Excellency could request some of the state's ablest citizens to serve upon this committee and, in this emergency, to devote their entire time and thought to this work. If action is to be taken along the lines herein suggested, it is obviously essential that the task be undertaken at once. Respectfully submitted. EDWARD J. HANNA, MRS. FRANK A. GIBSON, PAUL SCHARRENBERG, SIMON J. LUBIN, Commissioners. NOTE. A survey could be made by the state board or committee of the possi- bilities in this connection and definite recommendations made to the different municipalities and counties. NOTE. On December 18, 1914, Governor Johnson designated the Commission of Immigration and Housing to act in behalf of the state in carrying out the program suggested in the above communication. REPORT ON PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENT. 71 APPENDIX H. The Chicago Program. Program for relieving and heading off unemployment, as adopted at a conference of executives of general charitable societies, recently held in New York City, in the form presented to the municipal authorities in Chicago by Eugene T. Lies, general superintendent of the United Charities of Chicago : 1. Philanthropic Measures. A. Discourage such things as soup kitchens and bread lines for the unemployed, since they are mass methods, as a rule undiscriminating, and do more harm than good. B. Discourage the creation of new charitable machinery to fill a temporary need. 1 [!)( let the city council avoid appropriating a large fund for charitable purposes this winter. Since the very announcement of such an appropriation would very likely defeat its purpose, for it would bring hordes of applicants from every direction outside the city and many people in the city who are not in genuine need would also be tempted to try their luck at getting a share of the money. In other words, it would mean a congestion of applicants, a large force to handle them, and undiscrimi- nating treatment Furthermore, it would be exceedingly difficult to keep politics out of the scheme. 1 tat her. encourage existing public and private agencies to expand and strengthen their machinery if necessary. Let the county board put larger means at the disposal of the county agent, and let the general public give adequately in funds and volunteer, personal service to the private organizations that have proved their efficiency and reliability through the years and that are necessary to supplement the work of the county, doing these many things both in the way of material relief and personal service called for by the limitations in public official charity departments. Further- more, public appropriations out of the tax funds to subsidize private societies would be unwise. C. Let the private charities take pains to avoid one of the mistakes often made in the past of advertising that they are about to raise large funds to take care of the unemployed for the same reasons as stated with reference to the announcement of lar^r publ'c appropriations. D. Adequate preparation should be made to take care of such homeless men as may properly claim the city as their residence. This may mean planning to build or enlarge municipal lodging house facilities both as to sleeping quarters and food. It also means proper equipment of men with training in social work to deal fittingly with each applicant according to his peculiar needs, physical, mental, moral and economic. r.y all means a work test should be applied. This can be in the form of labor on the streets or odd jobs in public institutions so many hours a day for so many days' accommodation at the municipal lodging house. Such adequate facilities to care for tliis