tndamental purpose of i seroation of the human resources of the nation. AMERICAN LABOR LEGISLATION No. 2 PUBLICATION 25 i mm HI I n mill m mm mmtn ! vi in m mmtn uitji mil!! A Problem of IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSALS PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BIBLIOGRAPHY MAY, 1914 PROCEEDINGS FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE C UNEMPLOYMENT, NEW YORK : , ; AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEGISLATION 131 CAST 23d ST., NEW YORK CITY Entered as second-class matter February 20, 1911, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of July 16, 1894 PRICE ONE DOLLAR AMERICAN LABOR LEGISLATION REVIEW Vol. IV, No. 2 Princeton University Press Princeton, N. J. AMERICAN LABOR LEGISLATION REVIEW Vol. IV MAY, 1914 No. 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY NOTE: ORGANIZATION TO COMBAT UNEM- PLOYMENT JOHN B. ANDREWS 209 I. IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT Introductory Address JOHN P. MITCHEL 221 Reports of Official Delegates on the State of Employment 223 II. PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY GENERAL DISCUSSION 257 III. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT The English Method of Dealing with the Unem- ployed HENRY R. SEAGER 281 The Struggle against Unemployment C. R. HENDERSON 294 The German System of Labor Exchanges F. C. HOWE 300 GENERAL DISCUSSION 305 IV. CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSALS Introductory Address 311 Public Employment Offices in Theory and Prac- tice W. M. LEISERSON 314 GENERAL DISCUSSION 332 V. RESOLUTIONS 353 VI. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES IN THE UNITED STATES SOLON DE LEON 359 VII. PRESENT STATUS OP UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE 375 VIII. NEW LEGISLATION ON EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES 389 IX. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ON UNEMPLOYMENT 401 The American Labor Legislation Review is published quarterly by the American Association for Labor Legislation, 131 East 23d St., New York, *N\ Y. The price is one dollar per single copy, or three dollars per year in advance. An annual subscription includes individual membership in the Association. 517479 INTRODUCTORY NOTE ORGANIZATION TO COMBAT UNEMPLOYMENT "Its sessions marked a new attitude in America toward the unemployment problem", said a well known editor in reporting our First National Conference on Unemployment. "The deep interest with which the proceedings were followed, and the sense of responsibility manifest in the discussions and the resolutions, all bear evidence that an acute situation exists and that it is national in scope." Whether or not there has been an unusual amount of unem- ployment during the past winter, this much is certain : Thousands of people now realize as they never realized before that there is in this country during every year, at every season of the year, a tremendous amount of wasteful, demoralizing irregularity of employment. It was the condition behind and responsible for this growing realization that brought together in New York city at the end of February representatives from fifty-nine cities and twenty-five states, having vital concern in the out-of-work problem. In the course of the two days' discussion, despite the great diversity of view-points represented, five main points of agree- ment became clearly defined. These were : ( i ) the necessity for accurate labor market statistics; (2) the necessity for a wide- spread system of efficient labor exchanges; (3) the necessity for regularizing business; (4) the necessity for industrial training and vocational guidance; and (5) the necessity for unemploy- ment insurance. At the close of the conference, following the adoption of resolutions expressing the conclusions of the dele- gates, active steps were taken to put the resolutions into effect. In New York state, on March 6, Governor Glynn sent to the legislature a special message urging the immediate establishment of a state system of employment bureaus. The administration's bill was introduced on March n, and passed on the closing even- ing of the session, March 28, after a vigorous campaign. On March 21 Mayor Mitchel of New York city sent a special mes- 2io American Labor Legislation Review sage to the board of aldermen urging the creation of a municipal employment bureau, and the ordinance was adopted on April 28. Meanwhile work was continued on proposals to carry out sec- tions of the resolutions recommending that the American Association for Labor Legislation, in affiliation with the Ameri- can Section of the International Association on Unemployment, initiate and promote public action for the establishment in the federal Department of Labor of a bureau with power to establish employment exchanges throughout the country to supplement the work being done by state and municipal bureaus, to act as a clear- ing house of information and promote the distribution of labor throughout the country. A bill for this purpose has been intro- duced at Washington, and is printed, following the New York city and New York state measures just mentioned, on page 397. It is recognized that after these first practical steps have been taken careful investigation must be made into conditions of employment, as outlined in the remaining resolutions. A special fund for this purpose is being raised and part of the pre- liminary investigation is accomplished. It is hoped that the bibliography at the end of this REVIEW will be found helpful to all who may wish to cooperate with these Associations in the purpose as expressed in the by-laws adopted in 1912: To coordinate the efforts made in America to combat unemployment and its consequences, to organize studies, to give information to the public, and to take the initiative in shaping improved legislation and administration. A PROBLEM OF INDUSTRY That the problem of unemployment is a serious one can no longer be doubted. "We cannot find work !" is the cry of thou- sands of able-bodied men, who, especially in mid-winter, besiege the relief societies in our great cities. "We cannot find enough help!" is the complaint of manufacturers and farmers at some seasons or in some years. Even in prosperous times, we have had mills closing down in Pittsburgh and advertising that workers could not be found. At the same time in other parts of this country, men were tramping from shop to shop that had no use for them, generally ignorant Introductory Note 211 of the needs of Pittsburgh and unable, in any event, to pay the railroad fare that would take them to jobs that wanted them the jobs they sought in vain. The labor market is unorganized, resulting in confusion, waste and loss to employers and employees. It means suffering to in- dividual workers and their families, a lowering of the standard of living, impaired vitality and efficiency, and a tendency for the unemployed to become unemployable, dependent, degraded. In fact, the demoralizing effect of unemployment upon the indivi- dual is matched only by its wastefulness to society. "This question of unemployment is one of the incidents of the great commercial development of our age," said Mr. Straus as Secretary of Commerce and Labor. "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." A FEW FIGURES After investigation in New York city during the winter of 1913-1914, the superintendent of the employment bureau of an old and conservative organization the Association for Improv- ing the Condition of the Poor estimated on February 2, 1914, that "on any given day this winter there are at least 325,000 men unemployed in this city." This estimate has been questioned, but not authoritatively disproven. At the same time relief agencies in many other cities were swamped. Municipal lodging houses were turning away many genuine seekers after work' to sleep on bare boards at the docks, in warehouses, even in morgues. But while relief agencies struggle with their problems of emergency relief, we do not forget that serious irregularity of employment is not temporary in America. It is continually one of our most wasteful industrial evils. The United States Census for 1900 showed that 6,468,964 working people, or nearly 25 per cent of all engaged in gainful occupations, had been unemployed some time during the year. Of these 3* 1 77>753 lost from one to three months each, representing on the basis of $10 a week a loss in wages of approxi- mately $200,000,000 ; 212 American Labor Legislation Review 2,554,925 lost from four to six months' work each, representing a wage loss of approximately $500,000,000; and 736,286 lost from seven to twelve months' work each, repre- senting a wage loss of approximately $300,000,000. Thus approximately $1,000,000,000 was lost in wages in the year. On this subject the Census statistics are very unsatisfactory, but they are the figures gathered and published at great expense by the United States Government. Similar data were collected by the government in 1910, but they are still unpublished. In 1901 the federal Bureau of Labor investigated 24,402 working class families in 33 states, and found that 12,154 heads of families had been unemployed for an average period of 9.43 weeks during the year. The New York State Department of Labor collected reports each month during the ten years 1901- 1911 from organized workmen averaging in number 99,069 each month, and found that the average number unemployed each month was 14,146, or 18.1 per cent. The federal Census of Manufactures, for 1905, gives the "average number of wage-earners each month, and the greatest and least number employed at any one time." At one time 7,017,138 were employed, while at another time there were only 4,599,091, leaving a difference of 2,418,047. That is to say, nearly two and a half million workers were either unemployed or compelled to seek a new employer during the year. These figures were drawn from the manufacturers' own records. REMEDIES SUGGESTED "What should be done when thousands of skilled workers in a trade are furnished employment during only twenty-eight weeks out of fifty-two?" as was the case in a New York trade recently investigated. "What shall we say of a factory that hires and discharges a thousand men in one year in order to keep up a steady force of three hundred?" These are pertinent questions now, being asked by discerning men. In the interest of the general welfare, we have penalized workers for working over-time. The question has been raised : "Shall we penalize employers for working under-time?" Introductory Note 213 The problem is so vast, the rights of individuals affected so fundamental, that the proper organization of the labor market is not to be lightly undertaken. But American society cannot afford indefinitely to postpone serious consideration of this problem. This complex question of the jobless man and the manless job is already one of the most important and exasperating social questions. Irregularity of employment is a problem of industry ; it is, in fact, as Mr. Louis Brandeis has said, "the worst and most extended of industrial evils." The first step in the organization of the labor market is largely the responsibility of the employers of labor, who, if not directly penalized as already suggested, should perhaps be offered some additional inducement properly to regularize business. Fortunately, a few progressive employers have already recog- nized this responsibility and in their own factories have so regu- larized their business throughout the twelve months of the year as to do away with former "seasonal fluctuations" in their own labor force. One of several plants in a highly seasonal industry, which used to run feverishly and consequently inefficiently for a few months each year, with long slack periods between, has for the past six years so regularized its business that work on a season's new goods is begun twenty-four months in advance, thus insuring continuous and efficient work the year around. Nevertheless, of the accomplishment possible in this direction we have only a be- ginning. And complementary to this first step is, of course, the problem of industrial training which is now receiving wide attention and is the frequent subject of legislation. The second step toward the organization of the labor market is the strict supervision of private offices and the establishment of free employment bureaus all knit together into an efficient system of labor exchanges. Of this step, too, we have had merely the halting beginnings. To be sure, nineteen states and fifteen municipalities have already provided for public employment bureaus. But only a few of these have yet been established on a basis that can be regarded as really efficient. For the few public employment bureaus within any one state the struggle for effective management has been crippled, partly at least by insufficient appropriations. Cooperation between the bureaus of different states is difficult. Many of their prob- 214 American Labor Legislation Review lems are national in character. It is apparent that carefully worked out legislation, on the basis of the best experience in this and older countries, will be required to make a satisfactory begin- ning in this important field. There are jobs without men and men without jobs. It is the purpose of this second step to bring together the jobless men and the manless jobs. The third step in dealing with this problem must depend in i large degree upon the ultimate success of the first and second. When employers have done their utmost to smooth out the curve of employment, when workers have been trained to the demands of industry, and when efficient labor exchanges record and an- nounce and direct throughout the nation the ebb and flow of the tide of employable labor, there will still remain for the statesmen of our land the task of developing a just and economical system of insurance for those who, though able and willing to work, are yet unable to find it. Meanwhile encouragement is to be given to the study of com- plex forces involved in the migrations of peoples, in the diffi- culties of transportation over wide areas, in the demands for industrial training, in the selection of occupations, into the extent of seasonal industries, and into the perplexing problem of casual labor. AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION Gigantic and complicated as the problem is, however, one of the encouraging signs of the times is that the nation-wide, and even international, movement against unemployment is already launched. At the fifth annual meeting of the American Associa- tion for Labor Legislation in 1911 one half-day was devoted to the discussion of "The Unemployment Problem in America." At the close of the session the president was authorized to appoint a committee to represent the organization in its relations with the International Association on Unemployment which had been or- ganized in Paris in iQio. 1 President Henry R. Seager then 1 Delegates from the American Association for Labor Legislation at the Paris conference in 1910 were : Henry W. Farnam, Charles P. Neill, Edward T. Devine, Lee K. Frankel, John B. Andrews, Irene Osgood Andrews, William Leiserson, and Helen L. Stunner. Introductory Note 215 appointed the following committee: Charles R. Henderson (Chairman), Jane Addams, William Hard, William Leiserson, and John B. Andrews (Secretary). Immediate contact between this committee and the International Association on Unemployment was established through a request for information which led the committee to send an inquiry to the mayors of the principal cities and to the presidents of many of the important railways in the United States to ascertain "the nature and the extent of any efforts made by them so to adjust their contracts and their works of repair or of construction as to avoid, so far as possible, the general discharge of employees in slack seasons and in times of industrial depression." The infor- mation thus secured was published by the international organi- zation with the proceedings of its international conference at Zurich in September, 1912. At that conference the committee was represented by Mr. Henderson, Mr. Lee K. Frankel, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, and Mr. Charles H. Verrill. Growing out of that "social week" at Zurich where interna- tional conferences were held by the three great international associations on unemployment, social insurance, and labor legis- lation, a plan for close cooperation to avoid wasteful and an- noying duplication of effort in all nations was developed. The executive committee of the International Association on Unem- ployment submitted to the American committee by-laws which, when adopted in December, 1912, formed the American Section of the International Association on Unemployment in close affilia- tion with the American Association for Labor Legislation. The purpose, as expressed in the by-laws of the Association on Unemployment, is (a) To assist the International Association in the accomplishment of its task (Section i, ss. 3 and 4, of the Statutes of the International Association) : The aim of the Association is to coordinate all the efforts made in different countries to combat unemployment. Among the methods the Association proposes to adopt in order to realize its object the following may be specially noticed; (a) The organization of a permanent international office to centralize, classify and hold at the disposition of those interested, the documents relating to the various aspects of the struggle against unemployment in different countries. 216 American Labor Legislation Review (b) The organization of periodical international meetings, either public or private. (c) The organization of special studies on certain aspects of the problem of unemployment and the answering of inquiries on these matters. (d) The publication of essays and a journal on unemployment. (e) Negotiations with private institutions, or the public authori- ties of each country, with the object of advancing legislation on unemployment, and obtaining comparable statistics or informa- tion and possibly agreements or treaties concerning the question of unemployment. (b) To coordinate the efforts made in America to combat unemployment and its consequences, to organize studies, to give information to the public, and to take the initiative in shaping improved legislation and administration, and practical action in times of urgent need. CHICAGO COMMISSION It was through the activity of the chairman of the committee that Mr. Carter H. Harrison, Mayor of Chicago, appointed the Chicago Unemployment Commission, with Mr. Charles R. Crane, Chairman, and Prof. Charles R. Henderson, Secretary. The Chicago commission divided its members into seven com- mittees each charged with a study of some important aspect of the question: ( fac- tory and clerical workers. 2. Those who normally, in their own trades, shift from job to job, and from one employer to another ; c. g., workers in the building trades. 3. Those who normally earn a bare sub- sistence by casual jobs; c. g-> dock workers, "lumberjacks." II. THE UNEMPLOYABLE 4. Those who have been ousted, or have wilfully withdrawn themselves, from the ranks of the workers; e. g., the aged, the infirm, the criminal. For the employable the need is construc- tive work regularized business, efficient labor exchanges, and adequate unemployment in- surance. The care of the unemployable is the task of the relief agency, the hospital and the reformatory I IRREGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT Presiding Officer: HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation NEW YORK CITY INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS JOHN PURROY MITCHEL Mayor, New York City It gives me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction to extend to you, as the mayor of the city, the welcome of New York, to come here to hold this conference on this important subject of unemployment. My understanding is that you purpose to consider the causes of unemployment here, and the means of avoiding a recurrence of the conditions which confront us to-day, through a study of the causes and of means of relief. New York believes that it finds itself confronted with an unusual condition of general unemployment. Various estimates were made as to the number of unemployed men in this city. I notice you mention in your program, and I believe I myself used the figure, that the total number of unemployed men may approximate 300,000. While an investigation appears to show that that figure was in large measure an exaggeration, nevertheless I think we all agree that this year in the city there was a condition of unemployment that was abnormal. The city government, realizing that a duty devolved upon it in this matter, undertook to study the means of relief which, through its agency, could be brought to bear. We called a con- ference, and out of that conference grew the suggestion for the establishment of a municipal employment agency. That has been established under the jurisdiction of the commissioner of licenses. Up to the present time all we have been able to attempt was to bring together the unemployed people of the state and employers seeking employees, through the cooperation of the private agencies. Whe- ther we shall go further in the expansion of the activities and func- tions of this municipal employment agency is a question that we are now studying. In order that we might have the best information on this question, we invited here Mr. Leiserson, who has directed the study of unemployment and is at the head of the state employment bureaus of Wisconsin, and we have in our hands now the results of 222 American Labor Legislation Review the study of the local situation which Mr. Leiserson has made here. We must now go on and determine how far we shall extend the functions of the municipal employment agency, which I believe is going to be a permanent institution in this city. Of course, at a time such as we have just been passing through, various suggestions of an extreme nature are always made. There are people who want the city government to withdraw its funds from the banks, and to devote them to the employment of the men and women who have not been able to find work. Others have sug- gested that we engage in some new public works which would necessitate large expenditures of money and consequent distribu- tion of the city's funds over a large radius. We know, of course, that it is the history of every government which has undertaken that policy that bankruptcy follows upon such a course, and of course it has been impossible for the city of New York to commit itself to a course of folly of that kind. But everything that the city gov- ernment can do legitimately within the exercise of its proper func- tions, and with a view to the duty that its officials owe to the tax- payers and to the great body of citizens in the city, it will do, to relieve this present pressing condition, and to avoid its recurrence in the future. I trust that out of your conference will grow many useful sug- gestions ; useful to the country at large, but particularly, from our point of view, useful to New York. And I can assure you that we will be glad to take under careful consideration any suggestion that you may wish to make to the local government, for its guidance in this matter. I wish your conference great success. REPORTS OF OFFICIAL DELEGATES ON THE STATE OF EMPLOYMENT CHAIRMAN SEAGER: In planning the details of these two large conferences, the committee has proposed to attempt this morning a sort of old-fashioned experience meeting. We have representatives from all parts of the country, and all parts of the country have been aroused as to this problem of unemployment this winter. At the outset we would like to assemble the information that all of you have brought here as to local conditions, so that we may have it in our minds as a basis for the more constructive part of the program to follow. We had invited to the conference Mr. W. H. Beveridge, who has done such valuable work in connection with the effort to solve the problem in England, and M. Max Lazard, the secretary of the Inter- national Association on Unemployment. Both have written express- ing their great interest in the American situation, and regretting that they will be unable to be present. I shall call first upon a representative of the city which appears to have attacked this problem in the most aggresive way, namely, Chicago, which created a commission on unemployment which has already made a report. Next we shall want to hear from the other locality which seems to have been most concerned with the unem- ployment problem San Francisco, away across the continent and I shall call upon the official representative to the conference appointed by the governor of California and by the mayor of San Francisco. I think that perhaps the fairest way to proceed to get light on this subject from other states, is to take up the commonwealths in their alphabetical order. I have before me the list of the known delegates from the different states. I will, with your permission, call on those who I have reason to believe are in the room, and, having heard one spokesman from each state, we will then perhaps have time for additional speakers approaching the problem from other angles in the different states. CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON, Secretary, Chicago, Illinois, Unemployment Commission: I shall endeavor to tell you briefly what we in Chicago who are working on this problem of unemploy- American Labor Legislation Review ment have found, and what we are attempting to do. We have found, in the first place, that the situation, as far as we can discover, is not abnormal. The reports to us from the trade unions and from the administrators of charities are somewhat conflicting, but on the whole our unemployment commission, which has been at work for over two years at the request of our mayor and council, believes that there is nothing this year very different from what we ordin- narily have. The trade unions that we asked this year to report say, with one exception, that they have not an unusual number of per- sons unemployed. The county out-door relief agent reports that he has not an unusual number of families to assist. The united charities, which is our largest charitable organization, reports that it has a larger number than usual, due not altogether to unemployment, but also to the operation of a certain law which has thrown upon it a number of families which were formerly assisted by out-door relief. In regard to the agencies that we have been studying, we have found, as usual, a wrong and chaotic condition. The private employ- ment bureaus have done most of the work, at an enormous cost, with great waste of resources, and sometimes with grave abuses on all sides. The usual effect of leaving a matter of such great public interest to private profit-making agencies is found. As far as our free public agencies are concerned they are ineffi- cient to a very high degree. I can blame I am blaming no per- sons; but the circumstances have been so deplorable, the agencies have been so ill-fitted for their work, and they have been supplied with such inadequate resources, that we may say they are almost a failure. Our public employment agencies need enormous improve- ment if they are fairly to represent the intelligence and the force' of our commonwealth. In regard to private efforts to relieve the distress, what we have actually done is very little. The dispatches show one picture: 400 Jewish garment workers, immigrants, yesterday invaded the city hall and demanded not charity but a job, and no job could be found for them. We employed for two months a vigorous young man, who was to go to all the great employers of labor throughout the state, and appeal to them in the effort to find jobs for the thous- ands and tens of thousands of men who could not get work, and I think he succeeded in finding places for about 250 persons simply Reports of Official Delegates 225 a bagatelle! It was an utter failure, and although the young man was appointed on the advice of the commission and of the mayor, they discharged him at the end of two months. His results, how- ever, were worth all the cost of the experiment for we learned that it is true that men cannot always get a job in America when they want it. Here were thousands of honest men, eager to work, and unable to find work on any conditions whatever. We also thought we would try a new experiment. On the sug- gestion of the federation of labor we have opened one house and probably may open one or two more in proper quarters of the city, for the sale of the necessaries of life food and fuel substantially at cost. I found, however, that it was an experiment that the legis- lators of Hamburg had tried in 1788. Of course it will help a few families; but it is just a little drop in the great ocean of suffering and want. We purpose, however, to improve our public agencies if it is possible to do so. We have already offered a bill which was last year submitted to a committee but never got out of the committee. The legislature seemed to care nothing about it. I will not take time to give statistics. Of course our commission, as is usual, collected a great many figures. They are, as usual, also, confusing. But if any member of this conference desires a copy of the report, he can have it upon application to the mayor ; he will then have figures to his heart's content. But recurring to my first point and I think it is the essential point for us I said that the conditions were not very abnormal. But the tragedy of our situation in Chicago is that it is just the ordinary, inevitable, steadily recurring situation of every great center of industry throughout the world. That is the fact which we have discovered. Our unemployment is not simply spasmodic, nor spectacular, nor unusual, nor peculiar to this year, nor due to the change of administration, nor to any of the causes to which it is usually attributed. We have in Chicago, as throughout the world, wherever men are gathered in great industries, the fact of the great reserve army of workers without jobs; men who must eat; men who must live over those times at their own cost, in order that our great industries may continue. That is the problem which we have confronting us in Chicago, and which we do not think that any legal means can solve. And I have come here from the middle 226 American Labor Legislation Review west, from a great industrial city, to learn what I can, and to unite with you in the effort not only to help our American agencies, but to bind ourselves together in a national enterprise, with municipal, commonwealth, federal, and even international organizations, at least to mitigate, if we cannot altogether prevent, the suffering that inevitably comes through the conditions of the great industries in our time. That is the message that I bring from our commission and its two years of study in Chicago. ANDREW J. GALLAGHER, President, San Francisco Labor Council, California: San Francisco's experiment in the matter of taking care of the unemployed this year was only sort of a panacea; it did not do any good; it was merely an effort to relieve the situation temporarily. I shall say for California that we had an extraordinarily large number of unemployed. In the winter a good many of those who are unemployed, and who can do so, move toward the west because the weather conditions there are better, and because the man who is down and out the migratory laborer so-called has a better op- portunity in that climate, at least as far as climate is concerned, than he has elsewhere. So that this winter we found our unusually large local unemployment problem complicated by an unusually large number of unemployed who migrated to our state as a result, we believe, of a larger amount of unemployment throughout the coun- try generally than formerly. In San Francisco we treated the prob- lem as best we could. We found ourselves with from 3,000 to 6,000 men who had come to San Francisco, and who clamored for work and for bread. The city council gave to the limit of its resources, and every man who applied was taken care of. The citizens sub- scribed to a fund and work was piovided, at very low wages, how- ever, not at all commensurate with the work performed. There was one idea we did destroy, and that is the idea that these men were worthless, that they were unworthy of assistance, that they would not work if work were provided, that they simply migrated to California in winter because the weather was somewhat pleasant, and that they cared to stay there just long enough to wear off the chill of some other place. I can say to you that our experience in the matter of providing employment for men, that is, as to their acceptance of it, was remarkable. The reports which reached Reports of Official Delegates 227 us through five different sources the departments having charge of the men were to the effect that the percentage of men unwilling to work was a very, very small one, so small that it was surprising. We have an idea that central employment offices, provided by the cooperation of all of the governors of states and mayors of cities, might very much relieve the situation. W. R. FAIRLEY, Organizer, United Mine Workers of America, Alabama: While a member of the United Mine Workers of Amer- ica, I am here representing the state of Alabama. As far as un- employment in Alabama is concerned, it is not more acute at this time than in any previous winter that I know of. There has been no effort made, however, in the state, for municipal employment agencies. The licensed employment agent is doing his work as he has done it for many years; the state has taken no interest in the matter, nor attempted to alter that condition. As far as charity is concerned, and helping men who are out of employment, charity is greater now than it has ever been, more assistance is being given to those who need help than I remember in my lifetime. I want to say, however, that people do not desire charity, they desire employment. I hope that there may be some- thing done in this convention to give some impetus to the matter of giving employment, instead of doling out charity when times are hard. When I get home I shall certainly advocate the institution of municipal labor agencies, so that men who are out of employ- ment may depend on having a fair deal when they are seeking employment. WILLIAM J. GHENT, Phoenix, Arizona: In the municipalities of northern Arizona the number of unemployed persons this last winter and spring has apparently been about normal. In the southern half of the state, on the other hand, in spite of a gener- ally brisk condition of business, there has been a great surplus of labor. The mild and healthful winter climate here always draws large numbers of unemployed from the north and east. The unusual surplus this year came largely from California a receding wave of the tide of workers who sought the Pacific coast for employment last fall. 228 American Labor Legislation Review Most of these workers, after trying out the southern towns and cites, moved on to the east and north. Bisbee, Tucson, Douglas and Yuma report about the same condition as has been witnessed in Phoenix. In spite of this movement, however, the permanent surplus of labor for the winter and spring has been abnormal. Little has been done in the matter of official measures for relief. A heavy drain has been made upon charity organizations, trade unions and fraternal associations in giving aid to the destitute, but the municipalities have in the main ignored the problem. In some of them the "move-on" policy has been adopted and rigorously carried out. In Phoenix and in Bisbee the Socialist platforms in the spring elections demanded official relief, but it has not been forthcoming. In Phoenix, following a visit of committees from the Trades Council and the I. W. W., the common council established a free employment bureau, which has done some good, but in no place has public work been extended in order to give employment. WILLIAM C. CHENEY, Cheney Brothers' Silk Company, South Manchester, Connecticut: I can say only a few words, coming from what might be called the rural community of Connecticut in a somewhat industrial center. It is my understanding that this condition of unemployment has not existed or does not exist in Connecticut to any alarming extent. I can say, as an employer of labor, that it was very hard last fall to get help. However that condition has disappeared somewhat, and employers in the textile industries now have a much better op- portunity of choosing their class of help. This, of course, naturally throws out many people who perhaps are very anxious to obtain work, but with very slight letting up in business. The employer has reached a point in Connecticut, I believe, where he is obliged to discriminate somewhat in the new help which he takes on. I do not think any concerted effort has been made outside of what is always done in municipalities and towns to modify this condition, because, as I said before, it has not taken an acute form just yet, although in cities like Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport I believe there is perhaps an unusual amount of unemployed labor at this time. This is a natural condition which seems to come about at different periods. I shall be very glad to take back to our most respected governor of Connecticut, or to any one else Reports of Official Delegates 229 in that state, any recommendations which may be adopted by this gathering, or any plan which may come out of this meeting. Because, no doubt, if this thing continues, Connecticut, being very largely a manufacturing community, will have to face this problem as other communities have. The representative from New Haven may throw some more light upon the condition in the larger cities of the state. WILLIAM S. PARDEE, New Haven, Connecticut: I do not think I can add anything to what Mr. Cheney has said. I am in the manu- facturing business also, and we have had very few who came to us for help the last two months. I am located in New Haven and it is true that New Haven is pretty well employed. It is also true that during this last heavy snow storm the men they had to employ to clear the streets were large, able-bodied men. Ordinarily they have to employ the poorer class. Now that might indicate that the able- bodied men were out of work, but it was not so. They had to go and get the able-bodied men to do the work. EMILY P. BISSELL, Delaware Child Labor Commission: Dela- ware is the smallest state of the United States in population, but in a smaller state we get closer to facts than in larger ones, where we cannot grasp all the facts. Delaware is divided into two parts one part, the city of Wilmington, which has the problem of unemploy- ment industrially, and the country, which has the problem agri- culturally. We assume that the problem is most vital in the large cities, on the whole; but in Delaware we get the out-of-works coming from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and even from New York, while our unemployed go to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, so that I know from my experience the situation is interwoven there is no city that lives to itself alone. Unemployment in our town is said to be not as great as in 1893, but almost as great as in 1907, and greater than in other years between those times, so that I would say it is a little more than normal. We have very few seasonal occupations, which make things worse, and laborers have been in demand in the farming communities even in the winter for certain work, so that ought to relieve our situation. We have no public employment bureaus or exchanges, but private agencies help some. The iron and steel works form 230 American Labor Legislation Review the greatest of our Wilmington industries, and the leather indus- tries are second. In our largest industry, the foundries, we have worse conditions than in 1907, and no relief is in sight. At our shipyards we average only fifty hours of work a week, and only employ half the regular force. Of course these figures do not mean that these men are destitute. Some of them earn good money and are able to tide over these times, and many of the people tell us that by the first of March the conditions will be better. Another large machine shop is averaging only forty hours a week, with 25 per cent unemployed, which is about the same as it ran in 1907. Another large shipyard is putting in only a third of its usual time and about 50 per cent of the men are unemployed. The large cotton mills are running the same as usual. We have no help for this condition. The city council has been asked to appropriate money for public work, but as it had a deficit it cannot do so. The one thing that may be of interest to this gathering is that Delaware suffers in its agricultural section from seasonal troubles. We could use a great many men in summer. Delaware has become a garden and blossoms as the rose, but we have to import labor under a sort of padrone system, from Philadel- phia and Baltimore, to do the work. This is the worst kind of labor. The same condition prevails in New Jersey and Maryland. JOHN F. CONNELLY, Maine Commissioner of Labor and Industry: In the paper-making industry employment has been steady this winter. A new working agreement has just been signed between the leading companies and their employees calling for a general average increase in wages of n per cent. The textile industry has as a rule been working the average number. I have heard it stated that the only exception to this would be among the manufacturers of the cheaper grade of woolens. The boot and shoe industry has employed about the average, with a slight slackness the past two months. The lumbering operations have employed not quite so many as the pre- vious seasons, but about the average. The winter has been unusually severe, thus adding to the possibilities of hardship. No organized effort has been made to relieve unemployment out- side of what was done by the usual local charitable and similar associations and officials. The only exception that has come to my notice is at Bangor, where for the past week free meals have been Reports of Official Delegates 231 served to the unemployed by the city authorities; free beds were also provided at the county building by the county commission- ers and the county sheriff. This has been necessary to relieve a tem- porary situation caused by the lumbering operations closing slightly earlier than usual and the continued cold weather of the past few weeks making the "river driving" season late in starting, thus in- creasing by about two weeks the "waiting period" between the two seasons of the lumbering industry. Large crews are now being shipped daily. JOHN H. FERGUSON, President, Maryland State Federation of La- bor: The state of Maryland is practically composed of one city and a number of villages. Baltimore is facing a great problem of unem- ployment. We have to-day approximately 25,000 men in Baltimore out of work. This would perhaps not seem such a great problem, if it were not that when these men are at work they receive such a meager wage that it is practically impossible for them to save any- thing to tide them over the period of unemployment. Baltimore is a large clothing manufacturing center. It would hardly be fair to bring into the question the clothing workers who are not now employed, because the clothing industry is a seasonal one, and there are a great many clothing workers unemployed now who will soon go to work and work three months, only to loaf again, and then go to work for three months longer. They consider six months' work in the year a fairly good year. In the building trades in Baltimore there are a great many men out of work due to the season of the year. There is no reason why there should be an extra number of building trade employees out of work because we have had an exceptionally open winter, and there have been more building operations than usual, but the fact re- mains that they are out of work. The building trades in Baltimore are not highly paid as in other cities, like New York and San Fran- cisco. The miscellaneous trades in the state are fairly well employed. The printing industry, of course, holds its own it always does, because it is indoor work and we have very few men unemployed in that trade. The lady from Delaware mentioned the number of people, and the class of people, who come from Maryland into Delaware. I would like to say that that is one of the gravest problems with 232 American Labor Legislation Review which we have to struggle in our state. In the garment working trade the workers were at one time almost entirely German. Then the Hebrews came into the trade, and the Germans were driven out. Now Baltimore is being overrun with Lithuanians, Poles and Ital- ians, who are driving the Hebrew people from this trade, and it seems to me that the next step in this great industry will be the driving out of the Italians and the Lithuanians and the Poles, and the taking of their places by colored people. Baltimore is being exploited in the dumping of unskilled laborers. They are crowding our poorer sections, they are rilling up our cities, and they are creating a condi- tion in which we have not ten men for nine jobs, but where we have fifteen men for nine jobs. When that condition confronts the work- ing people in any city you will find that there will be a continual driving down of the wage; and if the wages are driven down, when the person finds that he is unemployed, he has nothing to tide him over the distress period. The present distress is therefore very great in Baltimore. We have state provision for a bureau for the employment of men and women who are out of work. Unfortunately, our state is not only a low wage state, but it is also a very parsimonious state. The bureau of statistics and information, which is supposed to take care of this out-of-work feature, is hampered through lack of funds. We have a very able chief and yet this man is supposed to take care of the child labor law, the factory inspection laws, and of all the other laws pertaining to a bureau of labor besides, and he is supposed to look out for the unemployed people in the state of Maryland, and he is allowed $10,000 per annum with which to do it. Out of this there are many salaries to be paid ; one of $2,500, one of $1,600, three of $900, leaving $3,200 for rent, printing, incidental expenses, etc., in taking care of 25,000 unemployed people. It is a tremendous amount of money to entrust to one man ! In the trades unions we have various ways of taking care of the men. In my own union, the typographical union, we have a way of taking care of our people, and other unions are trying similar plans, but there are many people who have not yet seen the light, and who have no one to take care of them. We are very much interested in this problem of unemployment, and if I can carry back to my people in Baltimore some solution of this problem, I shall think that my trip has not been in vain. Reports of Official Delegates 233 WALTER M. LOWNEY, Director, Boston, Massachusetts, Chamber of Commerce : I am here under instructions from the Boston Cham- ber of Commerce, of which I am a director. I am here to learn. I am personally interested very much in the state of unemployment. I have no figures, and can give you no special information, but in my opinion there is not at the present time in Massachusetts, or in Boston, any larger number of unemployed people than is normal. I would rather incline to believe that at this time there are less unemployed in Boston and in that immediate vicinity than there were a year ago. JAMES V. CUNNINGHAM, Michigan Commissioner of Labor: This matter of unemployment is one in which Michigan as a state is interested, and since 1905 there has been some work done along the line of securing employment in the state of Michigan for the unemployed. The state operates five public employment bureaus. There have been other bureaus created by the legislature, but no fund provided with which to carry on the work. The condition in Michigan at the present time is not what we consider bad. In Detroit, the largest city of the state, which is the great automobile manufacturing center, we have a large number of men unemployed. We have had them with us for -ome time. They all seem to strike out for Detroit, with the idea that there is a position open there in the automobile factories, and when they get there they seem to think so well of us that they hang around. It gives the employers in that line of business and others an opportunity to select the best material, perhaps, that comes to Detroit, and we have a large number of what they term up there "low speed men" who are out of work. The manufacturers' association secretary figures that there are somewhere around 40,000 unemployed in Detroit. The superintendent of the poor figures that there are about 15,000 unemployed. There seems to be some discrepancy between Mr. Whirl, of the employers, and the superintendent of the poor. Then Mr. Whirl also claims that there are perhaps 20,000 other men who are out of a job temporarily for a day or so, by reason of moving around from one place of employment to another. The poor commission in Detroit maintains an employment bureau. I happened to be the first man in charge of it, and they did really good work there in the way of taking care of the boys of widowed 234 American Labor Legislation Review mothers who ordinarily cannot handle the boys themselves. They got hold of the boys and secured employment for them and tried to keep them in the straight and narrow path. My experience there was that the daughters of women who were being assisted were usually employed; they seemed to be better workers than the boys. Along with the boys the poor commission cares for those who apply for help there. There are men who are employed during certain parts of the year and they may apply for coal and provisions during the winter months. The bureau makes an effort to secure work for these men. Some of them may not be able-bodied, not able to do hard work, but there is an effort made on the part of the man who has charge of this particular department to secure some particular work for the men who cannot do all kinds of work. They try to get a job to fit the man. The free employment bureaus operated by the state are located in five of our cities. On February 6th of this year I wrote all the county clerks in the state in whose counties there are no public employment offices, asking them to cooperate with us by maintaining a free bureau in connection with their regular work, in the absence of any law, and without any additional remuneration for their ser- vices. I said to them that I believed the satisfaction they would derive from the fact that they were assisting the unemployed and also those who wanted workmen would be a fair remuneration, for the present at least. Possibly later on some laws might be arranged whereby they would be paid for their services. Within two weeks over one-half of the county clerks in the state had agreed to take up the work, and I forwarded to them the necessary equipment. I am in hopes that through those agencies in the different farming communities we will be able to get a lot of the farm workers who are at present in the state back out to the farms, and that after they once get out there they will be kept out there. At present when we send a man out fifty, sixty or seventy-five miles to a farming job, when he gets through with that job he comes back for another posi- tion. Now I am in hopes that when a good man gets through with one position there, the county clerks arid farmers may make an effort to keep him in the locality. This week we advertised in the Detroit papers for all men desiring to go to work on farms either to send their names and addresses to us, at our offices, or preferably to call there and register with us, in order that we might be able to Reports of Official Delegates 235 know where to find farm help ; and I hope that a great deal of good will come from that. I have all kinds of confidence in public employment bureaus. I know a lot of good can be done through them. I have no particular desire to state who should carry on this work. I may find, perhaps, that some think the federal government should carry on the work; others, that municipalities should; others, that it should be taken out of the hands of the state labor department, and so forth. I do not agree with people who think it should be separated from the state labor department, but as I say, I am not seeking to convert anybody. I believe that it is a matter pertaining strictly to labor and I believe that if your labor departments in your states amount to anything, that is the place where this employment department posi- tively and strictly belongs. I believe if the man at the head of the labor department is honestly interested in the welfare of humanity, he is the fellow who can handle this with less expense than anybody else. MARIA L. SANFORD, University of Minnesota: As I have been in New York since the first of November, I am not able to give testi- mony in regard to local conditions. But there is one thing in Minne- sota that it seems to me is worth while to mention in this conference. The city of Duluth has been digging sewers through the winter, for the purpose of keeping employed the men of the city who need help, employing first the men with families and after that men who have been residents of the city for some time. I understand that the experiment has been found successful. L. A. HALBERT, Superintendent, Board of Public Welfare, Kansas City, Missouri: In Kansas City the board of public welfare made some study of unemployment in 1911, and has made a small study of it lately, with a view to giving some information here. The study in 1911 was more careful, and we got from the employers of labor in manufacturing industries and in contracting work a statement with regard to the fluctuation in the number that they employed at different seasons of the year, which showed that there was a con- siderable difference between the summer and the winter. We also estimated the number of unemployed homeless men who came into Kansas City in the winter time, who were ordinarily engaged in farm labor, and in railroad construction work, and we made an 236 American Labor Legislation Review estimate of 6,000 unemployed from usual changes in seasonal occupations. Lately we wanted to find out the number of unemployed and went to the places where men seek employment in the larger industries. In that way we made an estimate from about one-half of the large manufacturing cities and other cities in the state where people usually apply for employment; we added to that the homeless men who come in from outside of the city, and we arrived at the figure of 10,000 out of employment. But only half of the places where people usually are employed were running when we went to count, so that there should be 3,000 or 4,000 added if the proportion re- mained the same throughout the whole number of establishments, which would make the number of unemployed 13,000 or 14,000. And that takes account only of wage workers, and does not take in the professional and clerical classes. There may be some always unemployed in those classes, which would tend to show a total volijn, of unemployment in the neighborhood of 15,000. The trade unions reported to us a total of 5,000 men out of employment. The maximum number of labor union men in Kansas City is 20,000 or probably less, so that their estimate would show 25 per cent of the union men out of employment. Of course if that condition extended throughout the wage workers of the state, it would again justify an estimate of about 15,000, because the average amount of unemployment among union men is at least no larger than the unemployment that would prevail among wage workers generally. The amount of relief that has been asked for at the Provident Association, which is the one great relief agency of the state, is one- third larger than it has been in other winters ordinarily, and the- amount of relief that we have been required to grant through the Helping Hand Institute has been nearly twice as large as it was before. The number of jobs that we have been able to secure through our employment bureau is smaller this winter than last, and is much smaller in the winter than in the summer. Last summer it reached as high as 300 jobs a day, but at present it is about forty. It is very difficult to tell to what extent our experience is repre- sentative. We have had a system of providing for the able-bodied unemployed at a municipal quarry, where they are paid a small price Reports of Official Delegates 237 for breaking rock used for construction purposes. But that system has a tendency to cause men who do not like to meet that kind of a test to go to the other cities where they hear that a large amount of free lodgings and free meals are being distributed. St. Louis opened a municipal lodging house which had 200 or 300 men the first day, and the number increased to over 1,000 that were being given free lodgings at one time ; the men were furnished one meal a day when the officials were unable to offer thm employment. I stated to the superintendent that the accommodations were very crude, and he told me that the men liked it better than they did in Kansas City. I said that that was good for us, commenting on the fact that the men knew they had to work for what they got in Kansas City. It is doubtful if unemployment in Kansas City is worse than in other places. Still, it is a railroad center, where thirty-two railroads have lines, and a good deal of construction work is carried on, so uiat we have a rather undue proportion of transient laborers. W. J. SWINDLEHURST, Montana Commissioner of Labor and In- dustry: I have just completed, at the governor's request, a ten days' investigation in the cities of Great Falls, Billings, Butte and Missoula, during which, in addition to making a thorough personal investigation in the cities mentioned, I endeavored to ascertain, by inquiry among large employers of labor, representatives of labor unions and officials of charitable and philanthropic organizations, the conditions prevailing not only in the cities actually visited, but also in adjacent territory. In any survey of labor conditions at this time of year it should be borne in mind that, not only in Montana, but in other northern latitudes, there are many large avenues of employment which are necessarily closed during the winter months. Climatic conditions compel the cessation of activities in practically all outdoor con- struction work, a class of work which has been unusually heavy in Montana during the past few years. In addition, the demand for farm labor in winter is much lighter than in the summer; and in fact, this statement will hold true with many other lines of industry in which unskilled labor is largely employed. This condition is, of course, appreciated by the great body of workingmen, and is, as far as possible, provided against. Reviewing present labor con- ditions in Montana in the light of these facts, it is my pleasure to 238 American Labor Legislation Review report that the situation in this state not only fails to present any unusual or alarming features, but is, I can conservatively say, better than the average found at this time of year. While there is plenty of labor to meet the present demand, there is comparatively little idleness, and recent newspaper statements regarding the number of unemployed have been exaggerated. The only place in the state where idle men are to be found in any great number is in the city of Butte, where there are estimated to be 2,000 unemployed, and this condition is apparently due to the activity of the copper min- ing industry in that locality, with its comparatively short hours and high wages, which has attracted a considerable number of unem- ployed from other states, especially from the copper mining district of Michigan, now suffering from a prolonged and bitter strike. Considerable new railroad building has been going on in the northern part of the state during the summer and fall of 1913, and practically all this class of work is now necessarily closed for the winter season. This has resulted in the enforced idleness of many men, and a large proportion of this class of laborers naturally drifts into the larger towns tributary and adjacent, adding to the number of unemployed. Despite this condition, however, I was informed by reliable authorities at Great Falls that there were not to exceed 100 idle men in that city. In practically all of the larger cities of the state, the police department freely gives lodging and breakfast to unemployed men who are entirely without means of support. It is interesting to know that in the city of Great Falls there were only 68 requests for this kind of accommodation during the month of December a number no higher than usual during the winter months, according to the chief of police. In Butte, while conditions are somewhat unusual, they are not at all alarming. I spent several days in that city, and made a very thorough canvass of the situation. I visited the Butt Free Employ- ment office, the Salvation Army headquarters, and talked with many laboring men. When asked about the number of idle men in Butte at the present time, Mr. J. B. Savage of the Butte Free Employ- ment office said he thought 2,000 would be a conservative estimate. In this connection, however, attention is invited to the fact that even in normal times, there are in Butte, according to Mr. Savage, an average of from 500 to 600 idle men, the inevitable floating population which centers in a large industrial community. A large Reports of Official Delegates 239 proportion of the present force of idle men are miners from the Calumet and Hecla district in Michigan, and many of them are given rustling cards, and make the rounds of the mines daily in search of work. With the Butte mines working to full capacity, many of these men secure employment, either temporary or perma- nent, while those failing, leave for other localities, thus gradually lessening the number of unemployed. It is satisfactory to note that the situation has not been sufficiently bad to warrant the establishment of soup houses, and in nearly all cases, the men have been able to provide for themselves. The Salvation Army has established relief stations throughout the city, and other charitable organizations have done their part, and assisted materially in fur- nishing help in extreme cases. Compared with the large number of men who find daily employment in our industries, the percentage of those now subject to enforced idleness is gratifyingly small. With approximately 16,000 men working for daily wages in Butte, even the 2,000 unemployed in that city is not alarming; while re- membering that there are at least 2,500 wage workers in Great Falls, the idleness of less than 100 appears infinitesimal. HARRY J. GOAS, New Jersey Department of Labor: I desire frankly to confess that I have come here for information, with regard to possibly establishing a permanent state employment agency. Our state has done practically very little in the way of helping unemployed people, particularly at this season of the year; but I assure you that we are very much interested in the problem. Our commissioner is unfortunately absent, but he is very much interested in the establishment of a proposed central system of offices to take care of this problem of unemployment. He has had the question under consideration for a long time. There are one or two things I thought of bringing to your attention for what they are worth : In the city of Newark quite a large body of unemployed working men made a stampede, demanding employ- ment, and the condition seemed to be so utterly desperate that they were almost prepared to do some damage to property. What was our surprise to find, a very few days afterward, when a new street was being opened, that instead of a large army of men applying for the work, at fair wages, there were only about half of the number. In other words, I frankly believe that this question of unemployment 240 American Labor Legislation Review has been to some extent overestimated. In going around to the various shops in New Jersey, I have made it a point to inquire whether the conditions have been unusual, and I find, to my satis- faction, at least, that there are constantly recurring times of unem- ployment in all lines of business, in the largest enterprises as well as in the smaller enterprises. I think you will find that characteristic in all parts of the world. But that does not solve the problem. The question is to relieve that ever-recurring condition as much as possible, and that is our purpose in New Jersey. In connection with that I may mention that the commission on immigration made its report this past week to Governor Fielder. The commission was looking up some of the abuses that had crept into the private employment agencies, the 1 padrone system and other questions connected with the incoming immigrants, and among other things they call attention to two features that I think are very apropos. One is that the private agency law should be enforced, and free employment bureaus with special provisions for immigrants should be opened. At the present time there is a deplorable lack of information as to where work is in the United States. Where are these people to go to find out where work can be obtained? That applies only to one class the immi- grants entering the United States. The second recommendation is that the government should furnish information about agricultural opportunities, describing the land, the condition of the soil, its nature, etc. This will turn many con- sumers into producers for the New York market. The intention of the average immigrant on landing seems to be to go to some shop or factory, and this makes the problem very acute. H. H. WHEATON, New York Board of Industries and Immigration: For some months I have had many applications made to me for positions, principally, of course, by aliens, and we have been put immediately against the problem of securing positions for these applicants. But in very few instances have we been able to place these men in the vicinity of Buffalo. About four months ago our labor situation was so tied up, with our steel industries and foundries in the vicinity of Buffalo, that I will refer to this as an instance. Our largest steel industry, which ordinarily employs about 5,000 or 6,000 men, discharged all but about 1,000 or 1,200. Since that Reports of Official Delegates 241 time it has increased its force to about 35 per cent or 40 per cent of the original number employed. Most of the men employed in this plant are aliens, Poles, Russians and other men of the Slavic races. One plant for several months has been running two to three days a week, just enough to carry its regular force along so as to give them some employment and some income. I called up the manager of a metal ware specialty plant and asked him how many he had employed at the present time, and he was absolutely unwilling to state. He said that he did not want to commit himself, that it was bad enough and that he did not want to give any figures, for fear of giving an erroneous impression about their business. Such, I believe, is the general attitude of the employers at the present time. They fear if they give out the exact figures of the number of men employed they will lose business prestige. So that all of the reports of employment which we got from employers in the vicinity of Buf- falo are somewhat magnified. I am beginning to think they are employing a far less number than they claim to employ at the present time. Then I canvassed another phase of the situation. I took up this matter with the Charity Organization Society and asked them for their figures. Of course they touch only families and homeless men, but particularly families. They said that out of all the families they were providing provisions for or assisting in other ways, a large number contained able-bodied men willing to work. They declared that whereas last year they treated something like 125 to 130 families in which there were able-bodied men willing to work, at the present time they are carrying along 300 or 400 such families, an enormous increase over those they have carried along in previous years. They brought to my attention one interesting fact, and that is that the families they are caring for now are largely American, the Germans coming second, and English, Scotch and Irish coming third. The other alien families were in the minority, and have not applied so generally for assistance. It seems, therefore, that the oldest established population, as one might say, has been struck the hardest, and that they are applying for charity now more generally than the aliens at least in Buffalo. The Charity Organi- zation Society gives the figures of men out of employment at the present time as something like 10,000 in the city of Buffalo alone. Labor unions and those directly connected with the labor union 242 American Labor Legislation Review interests state that the number will reach about 15,000 or 16,000 in Buffalo, whereas I have it from the Buffalo Local Aid Bureau, which touches the problem from another angle, that there are at least 20,000 to 25,000 men out of employment in that city. I am inclined to think that the labor unions' estimate is perhaps the better and more conservative. As to what we are doing in Buffalo, I may say there is some effort on the part of the Erie county lodging house to place men in posi- tions. It runs a kind of public employment agency, but not on any scientific or well worked out basis, because it has not the equipment, the funds, or the men to carry out the work efficiently. The city has no employment officer and the Charity Organization Society endeavors to place only the able-bodied men who are in the families it is caring for. So that we have no scientific or definite organized plan of handling our unemployed in Buffalo and vicinity. There is one attempt in East Buffalo, the Polish section, to build up a public employment exchange, and they are setting out now to raise a fund of $15,000 to carry on this work. But outside of these two or three features we have no definite or organized effort to reach our un- employment situation. I want to say one thing in closing, and that is that it seems to me we shall never be able actually to solve this problem of unemploy- ment until we are able to reach and organize our industries upon a better basis. I conceive that the problem of labor depends for its solution upon the solution of the greater problem of organizing our industries on a better basis. You may have public employment of- fices, you may have private employment offices, you may have a fairly well organized labor market; but until you have a more stable industrial condition you will never be able really to solve the question. Labor depends for its subsistence upon industry, and until we have taught industry how to conduct itself, and to see to it that it does not employ 10,000 men one season and 2,000 the next, over-produce at one time, and under-produce at another, you will never be able to solve scientifically this unemployment phase of the situation. FRED C. CROXTON, President, American Association of Public Employment Officials, Ohio: We have very few actual figures in Ohio showing the conditions of unemployment. Probably the most Reports of Official Delegates 243 significant figures are those secured from our public employment officers. In January, 1914, 16 per cent of the applicants were sent to positions ; one year ago 37 per cent of the applicants were sent to positions. Speaking for the American Association of Public Em- ployment Officials, the particular object of that association is to increase the efficiency of the public employment offices. One of the methods by which we hope to increase that efficiency is to secure some uniform system of making and keeping records, so that when figures are given they will mean exactly what they are intended to mean. MARIE D'EQUi, Portland, Oregon, Unemployment League: In November of last year there were 10,000 or more unemployed in the city of Portland. When an effort was made to call the attention of the city and county authorities to the problem they got together and thought the best way to deal with it was with a wooden club. They thought the unemployed should be driven out of the city of Portland. The unemployed then visited the different labor organizations and asked that delegates be sent to a mass meeting which was to be held on the first Sunday in December. Notices were inserted in the papers, and although it was a rainy, miserable day, there was an immense gathering. It was right before Christmas and all the charity places were filled, some having to stand up all the night through. In a store that would accomodate only about fifty people there were 185 sleeping on the floor at a time, and the basement was packed. No relief could be procured from either the city or the county. It seemed impossible. When we tried to get state relief work we were hampered because we had a Democratic governor. There was an effort made to give work to the men on the roads, but the emer- gency board got together, and there were enough Republicans on the board to stop the move, so that fell through. Of course the papers did not want to say that there were 10,000 unemployed men in Oregon ; it doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound good to say that there are 300,000 unemployed in the state of New York either. The Portland Chamber of Commerce sends out litera- ture inviting people to come out there to settle; but when there is unemployment the fact must not get out; it is bad for a new country, and it is bad, too, for an old country, like New York. 244 American Labor Legislation Review Last year we had a little strike in Portland, and there was an immense turmoil, as they are against organized labor in Oregon. A very bad feeling had been engendered during the summer months. There had also been the free-speech fight, so-called, and a parade started out on a rainy Sunday. They didn't ask permission from the mayor, and it was a different parade from the parade of the little tannery girls there were 8,000 unemployed, hungry men, who meant business, and said they meant business. They were hungry, they asked for work, and they said they were going to get food, and they rushed the restaurants, and when they were arrested what could be done? The jails were not large enough to hold 8,000 unemployed men. We have what is called the Gipsy Smith Tabernacle. The state pays $75 a month toward that tabernacle. They had no use for this building; they never could rent it, and they never made a dollar on the investment. We have a commission form of government now, presumably made up of business men, and still this investment would not pan out. And so we asked that the Gipsy Smith Tabernacle be given over to the unemployed, and we had to fight until long after November before we could get these premises, and then we did not get them until five men lay dead in the morgue at one time. That was too much to be told on the streets of Portland, so they opened the tabernacle. Every time you ask for something you are an I. W. W. I call the I. W. W.'s the muck-rakers of the world ; they are not afraid to get up and tell of a thing that is wrong when they find that it is wrong. It is the duty of the state and of the health officers to tell of it but the I. W. W/s tell it. I want to say right here that I am a radical Socialist. They said that we had to go to the representatives and to the wealthy business men to get work for the unemployed, that the men did not know how to get work for themselves. Well, we tried this too, but the men are still out of work. Of course a good many of the lumber camps were closed down because of the new currency law. After a time the state and county officials said that we could not have all these men congregate in Portland, and therefore the young men started in armies of 100 to go out of Portland and leave the Reports of Official Delegates 345 field open for the older men. They found when they got to certain towns, like Albany, for instance, they were given their breakfast and then the firehose was turned on them. And they sent for me. I went down, and I changed the psychology of the towns toward the unemployed. I was arrested five times, but I didn't mind. In the big towns I am not noted, I am notorious. In the little towns I am noted, because I am the friend of the workman. While I was down in the country the men were driven out of the tabernacle, on the ground that they had to be vaccinated, as a case of smallpox had been found. So when I got back, we had to have it reopened. Since then we have had less crime in our city, and less vagrancy. I have heard very little said here about shortening the working day and the working week. I think we ought to get down to business. I think your hope will come from the west, because we will shorten the work day long before you will, and we will emancipate you. LEW R. PALMER, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry: Pennsylvania wishes to say that she will cooperate very heartily in this movement against unemployment, and we welcome the oppor- tunity. We are a new department and we are busily engaged in organizing it, taking up some of the more elementary steps in our organization. I wjsh to say that I agree with the gentlemen who have said that the work of conducting public employment bureaus belongs with the state labor departments ; not because I am a member of such a de- partment, but because through our business training I believe it can be more efficiently operated if handled in that way. I also believe that it should be effected in cooperation with the federal authorities. This is a new subject, and it will save the various states a great deal of time and money to be able to start with a commonly ac- cepted standard. We find in sending out our present blanks that there is considerable opposition to duplication of reports. That can be avoided by carrying on your work through the existing or- ganization. I think that the departments of agriculture should also be consulted. They are in touch with the farming conditions. The Industrial Relations Commission also would welcome the work and the information that will grow out of this organization. As an officer and director of the National Council for Industrial 246 American Labor Legislation Review Safety, I wish to say that if we can keep our working force more constant it will eliminate many accidents. One of the features that increases the number of accidents is the new-man element. If a plant is connected with an efficient labor exchange there will not be the necessity of continually getting new men when they are needed, but the men will be experienced in the work of the plant, and will not be so liable to injure themselves or their fellow workmen. As to cooperation with the municipal organizations, that is essential, and will add to the efficiency of the state bureaus. WILLIAM H. FARLEY, Superintendent, Rhode Island Free Employ- ment Office: I was rather surprised, at the beginning of this session to-day, to hear so many men and women speaking of the conditions as being so good; but the last few speakers have changed the situation. In Rhode Island the condition is worse than it has been since 1907. We have in Rhode Island the manufacture of jewelry, the most expensive and the cheapest, I guess, manufactured in the world. There are about 30 per cent of the total employees in the jewelry trade working to-day. Seventy per cent walk the streets about three- quarters of the time. In the metal trades 50 per cent are out of work. In the textile industries 35 per cent are out of work. Still, we think we have not seen the worst of it yet. In Rhode Island we attribute it especially to the change in the tariff. We feel and think that the tariff has interfered with the industries of Rhode Island to such an extent that the state will be hit harder than it has been hit yet. r Now we understand that while we are here trying to advise ourselves how to help the unemployment situation in America the capitalists of this country are putting the most up-to-date American machinery into China. I do not see how Rhode Island will be benefited by this. We are a fifty-four hour state and we have had a pretty hard time competing with other states that have sixty and sixty-two hours in their working week. The wages in Rhode Island have been higher than those they have been competing against in other parts of the country, notwithstanding the shorter hours. So that I don't look at this thing as being solved in the near future. I think we are going to get it good and hard before we get through with it. Reports of Official Delegates 247 I think that the government should establish employment offices at all ports of entry, so that when farmers come here, instead of letting them go into the places already overcrowded, they could be sent out to parts of the country that would need their labor, because when you send a lot of men to places already overcrowded, it has a tendency to reduce wages, and this brings about hardship. The state legislatures will devote an enormous amount of money to state prisons, but they devote a very small amount to running public employment offices. You can readily understand that such an office cannot amount 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. W. L. MITCHELL, Tennessee Commissioner of Workshop and Factory Inspection: It is not for the reason that Tennessee is con- fronted with any serious problem involving the unemployed, but rather as a delegate from the International Association of Shop and Factory Inspectors that I am with you on this occasion. We are endeavoring, as an international association, to solve these problems in our annual conventions and this of course, is one of the serious propositions with which the industries of our country are confronted. I feel that uniform legislation is one of the real foun- dation principles on which we can best regulate this evil and establish a remedy. The amount of unemployment is affected very largely by the con- dition of the industries. There is another factor, however, that has not yet been mentioned this morning. In the last analysis, if I may be permitted to express a personal opinion, the shortening of hours by legislation is one of the real basic principles on which to combat this unemployed situation. By legislation a minimum wage scale has been established. This should, in my opinion, be made uniform by state legislation throughout the continent, and should be supplemented by an eight-hour day. We ought, by legislation or otherwise, to compel the fellow who is getting the major portion to kind of divide up a little bit. 248 American Labor Legislation Reinew H. T. HAINES, Utah Commissioner of Immigration, Labor and Statistics: The labor situation in Utah for the winter of 1913-14 may be said to be slightly under but near normal. Covering a period embracing the past four winters, the percentage of building mechanics out of employment during the past winter, may be said to be 15 per cent greater. The unemployed among railroad mechan- ics and train men was also slightly larger. In mining and other activities, labor conditions were about normal, likewise in railroad construction, street, canal and reservoir work. No extra efforts were required by our regular charitable, munici- pal or state agencies to care for the unemployed. About the same amount of relief was extended by the regular charitable organiza- tions to persons out of employment as has been given the past four years. GEORGE G. GROAT, University of Vermont: The conditions of unemployment in Vermont are not very acute. The population is but little better than holding its own. The agricultural and manu- facturing output shows an increase, so that, for that reason probably, the situation in the state as a whole is not very serious. The state being largely agricultural there is, as is true in most agricultural sections, rather a demand for labor than a surplus, particularly during the summer seasons. The nature of the industries, however, has changed somewhat, in the agricultural states, so as, to a certain extent, to standardize those industries through the establishment of creameries and dairies, making it all-year-round work. I think it is true that such labor as the state needs for the summer work comes to-day from the southern New England states and from New York state. Such other added labor as may be needed in the state is also of a migratory nature. The organization of agricul- tural activities by county units is indicating what may be called social welfare work, and this all has the effect of checking unem- ployment as far as it may become a serious problem. The other characteristic industries of the state are the marble and granite industries. In connection with the granite industry it may be said that the workers are very generally organized, and are able to take care of themselves. The activities in that section of the state are unusually good for this time of year. The unemployment Reports of Official Delegates 249 is severe only at times when the cutting of the granite is uneconomic. In the marble section the employees are not so highly organized, but the employment is more under the control of the benevolent em- ployer, where perhaps everything that can be done is done toward the relief of any unemployment. So that, taking those two industries, the agricultural and the quarrying industries, the situation is no more acute than at any other time, and the method for meeting this is the same as has been used for many years, namely, the work of charity organizations through the town units. There are no large cities in the state, as we would speak of large cities outside. The largest city is only 20,000, and that city is not very actively industrial. The other two cities that are comparatively large are Barre and Rutland, and they are the centers of the granite and marble industries, and the conditions are as I have indicated. The work of harvesting the ice is just now calling for more labor than we can procure. The fact of a strike that lasted a little over a day among the ice cutters a day or two ago would indicate that the employees themselves feel quite sure that their services are indispensable. There are indications that the situation may become more serious, and for that reason a representative has been sent, for the purpose of taking back any suggestions that may develop in the conference in order to apply them to the situation before it be- comes very acute. JAMES BUCHANAN, General Secretary, Associated Charities, Rich- mond, Virginia: I believe we always ought to look facts squarely in the face. We are probably much worse off in Virginia than in some of the other states here represented. We have the problem of unemployment there, and as I look upon it it is one of the most grievous problems with which social forces have to contend. We have a branch of the American Locomotive Works, that usually employs about 2,500 people ; it now employs only a few. It is always almost an impossibility to approximate, even loosely, the number of unemployed in the state. I disburse local charities in Richmond, although I am here representing the state of Virginia. Our women nobly come to the rescue and hold the family together when many of the wage-earners are unemployed. Therefore for the casual observer it is impossible to find out what the actual situation 250 American Labor Legislation Review is. However, any observer knows that increase of the labor supply forces out the least efficient help. But the wives and children of this class must live, "as well as the wives and children of the more efficient class. There is a question before us this morning, and it is, Who is responsible for the care of the man who has a wife and children dependent upon him, when he is out of a job? An employment bureau does not get jobs, and the practical proposition is how to find jobs for the men who are looking for them who have families de- pendent upon them. Now, how are we going to get at that, and are the city and the state responsible ? These are the questions that are thundering at our doors for a proper and legitimate answer. Have we a share in the responsibility? Has our commonwealth a share in the responsibility? Is it a fundamental, legitimate, economic proposition that the man who is willing to work ought not to starve ? That is a question that our civilization must face, as well as advocate the other aspect of the same principle, that the man who will not work ought not to eat. This is a two-sided proposition. Let us face squarely the responsibility that comes to us, look the facts squarely in the face, and see if there will be a solution for the question. WILLIAM M. LEISERSON, Wisconsin Superintendent of Employ- ment Offices: The state employment offices in Wisconsin reported in January of this year 250 applicants for every 100 jobs. In Janu- ary of 1913, a year ago, they reported 107 applicants for every 100 jobs. That represents as 'close as we can get to the situation in the state of Wisconsin. We found it not only inadvisable, but likely to be entirely erroneous, to try to estimate the number of the un- employed. You can see from the various estimates that were given here to-day that there seems to be no basis for it. But when you have an agency established that works from year to year, you can, by comparing one year with the next, get at some idea of the extent of unemployment. The people of Milwaukee, which is our largest city, do not think that this state of affairs 250 applicants for every 100 jobs is a serious enough situation, or an unusual enough situation, to take any further steps in regard to helping the unemployed. One reason for that is that they know that out of every 100 jobs that are avail- able during any year, normal or abnormal, many must go unfilled Reports of Official Delegates 251 for a large number of reasons. First, the people who fit the jobs are not there; second, many of the applicants are unable to work, they are old, or they are sick; third, some are unwilling to work, and there is a large number of these; and fourth, there is a large number who are willing and able to work only three or four days or a week or so at a time. They cannot stand it any longer than that because of the manner of life which they have been leading. That is the condition you find in normal years, and we have a large number of unemployed people of that kind always around. And so now, when we have two and one-half times as many unemployed as we have jobs for, the people do not think that it is unusual enough to take any further steps. In Milwaukee, through the cooperation of the city of Milwaukee, the county of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, we have established an efficient public employment office that can tell absolutely, or almost absolutely, where there are any jobs to be had in the city. We do not have to go any further than that now. The question of knowing where jobs and men can be brought together is practically solved for Milwaukee, and the office is open to the people of that city. So when the public employment office of Milwaukee gave out to the community the statement that we have 250 men for 100 jobs, the logical thing to ask was, Can not the city do some work now that it would have to do next spring? And the city answered that it could not do it now. Whether it shall take these steps or not is a question that rests with the people of the city,- but the step to be taken is indicated. The point has been raised that we can solve the problem of un- employment only by reorganizing the industries. I do not believe that we can solve the problem of unemployment for many, many years. I have it on good authority that, ages ago, Pericles started all his public works to give work to the unemployed. They had the problem even at that time, and we may have to wait as many years more before we can get the entire problem solved. But the point is that we ought to have the steps ready when the people make up their minds to take them. In representing the American As- sociation of Public Employment Officials, I should like to bring this message here, that the first step in any plan of dealing with unem- ployment is to register the unemployed ; to find out what kind they are, and then to gather and register your demands for help for the 252 American Labor Legislation Review same place, to find out how much work actually is available. Until you do that it is absolutely absurd to try to think of doing anything on the question of unemployment. Whatever remedy you may bring along, you have to do that first. When you have that well organized then the next step comes, the shaping of public work. And when your public is ready to take up that question, then the question of insurance against unemployment will come up. But you have to take these up one at a time, because it takes years to work out each remedy adequately. Now the American Association of Public Employment Officials wants to make the public employment offices of this country, of which there are now about seventy, efficiently able to do the work for which they were established. They are not doing that work, and there is no use talking about establishing new offices unless you put those already created on an efficient basis. JORGE BEREA AYALA, Committee on Social Affairs, Havana, Cuba: [Address in Spanish.] DELEGATE from Newark, New Jersey: I happen to be at pres- ent the representative of the Newark Municipal Employment Bureau. This bureau has been doing excellent work for the past four years. In Newark we have not 300,000 people unemployed, but only 6,000, but we have an acute situation of about 1,500 more men unemployed than we had last year, or in previous years before 1907. We have the problem of immigration, and we have no ade- quate system of distributing immigrants. They assemble in Ho- boken, in Jersey City and in Newark, and that adds greatly to our problem. JAMES M. LYNCH, New York Commissioner of Labor: I came here rather to listen than to say anything on this subject. I do not care to hazard a guess as to the amount of unemployment in New York state. I don't believe there are 300,000 unemployed in New York city, and I doubt if there are 300,000 unemployed in the state. I do not know as to the relative amount of unemployment at this time, but I agree with the general opinion that if there are only 3,000 unemployed there are 3,000 too many out of jobs. I think Dr. Leiserson has contributed some very valuable sug- gestions to the conference. I have had this proposal up with the governor of the state, and the governor expects to send to the Reports of Official Delegates 253 legislature during the coming session a special message, accompany- ing it, if possible, with a draft of proposed legislation, imbuing it with some of his ideas and some of the best thought of the state. I do not believe this conference can do very much for the unem^ ployed of to-day, but it can do considerable for the unemployed of a year from to-day. New York is not a penurious state, and if this proposition is taken up by the state I feel confident that it will be adequately financed, so that whatever we may do will be placed on a proper footing. ALEXANDER LAW, International Brotherhood Welfare Associa- tion: If there is any one city in this world where we should have no unemployment, that certainly is the city you are meeting in to- day New York. And the most practical solution to meet unem- ployment that occurs to me just now is to put the entire transporta- tion system of this city on an eight-hour basis. I hold in my hand clippings from the papers these last few weeks, containing state- ments from the employees of our public service corporations, especially the men employed, in the subway, who complain that they are supposed to be working ten hours, and yet are compelled to work from ten to fourteen hours a day. I have it on the authority of the editor of the World, that New York city owns the subways. If New York city owns the subways, why we, the citizens of New York, own those subways, and if there is anybody who represents the city of New York it certainly ought to be the mayor of the city who opened this conference, and the public officials of this city ; and I am pretty certain that I voice the sentiment of nine- tenths of the citizens when I say that the entire transportation system of this city should be put on an eight-hour basis, especially the subways. Not only the health of the employees demands this, but the safety of the traveling public demands it. The talk about farm work here to-day reminds me of something I once read about the boy and the cow. The boy fed it and he cared for it, but some- body else milked it! And that is the position we are in to-day, as far as our subways are concerned. Untold profits are being taken by the handful of men who control our subways. If there is any one thing we ought to go on record as doing, it is to serve notice that we insist that these subways, and the rest of the transportation of this city, be put on the eight-hour basis. That will furnish employ- ment for at least two-thirds of the present force of unemployed 254 American Labor Legislation Review men. I hope that some of you ladies and gentlemen who are strangers here will make it a point to walk about a mile to the north and east and take a look at the tenements of this city. It is a disgrace to the civilized world and to the citizens of the state that we should stand for the tenement system of the city to-day. There are 8,000 vacant lots on Long Island, and two-thirds of the area is as innocent of any builing as years ago when Hendrick Hudson discovered the Hudson. And why? Because the specu- lators have it. I will just close with saying that as long as we will stand for private property in land, it is only a humbug to have these confer- ences and think you are going to solve the problem of the unem- ployed. Unless you change all that, make up your minds that the unemployed, like the poor, will always be with us. CHAIRMAN SEAGER : In summing up the discussion of this morn- ing, the points that have impressed themselves upon me are, first, the general impression that the extent of unemployment this winter has been exaggerated; I am sure we are all very glad if that is the case. I am sure we all agree, however, that if there is any matter in connection with which the stirring up of the public is justified, it is this problem of unemployment. If it has been exag- gerated, it is not in the sense that there has not been widespread unemployment, but solely in the sense that widespread unemploy- ment is a usual and regularly recurring phenomenon. The second point is the vital importance in any constructive pro- gram of reformation of public employment bureaus, that they will register completely the information gained. I think we were all impressed by Mr. Leiserson's insistence on this point. The third point, and the point which we will make the topic of this afternoon's discussion, is the fact that unemployment is an industrial problem, that it reflects the chaotic, unorganized way in which industries are now carried on. To some extent, unfortu- nately, it is really to the advantage of employers that there should be unemployment, for under those conditions they can select their employees more carefully and improve their labor force, and they are also, under those conditions, less liable to encounter labor dis- putes. That aspect, and the need it points out of trying to regular- ize employment on the industrial side, is the one we will consider chiefly this afternoon. II PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY Presiding Officer: HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY CHAIRMAN SEAGER : The topic we are to turn to this afternoon is that of the irregularity of employment in normal times, and particularly the industrial causes of this irregularity, and the things which may be done with our industries to regularize them. WALTER M. LOWNEY, Director, Boston Chamber of Commerce: I think we want to take up this matter coolly, sensibly. I do not think we want to go into hysterics over the matter, as that will not accomplish anything. Let us try to find out what the conditions really are, and then try to find a remedy. In Massachusetts we have the textile industry; that runs pretty nearly uniformly all the year around, as far as the employment of labor is concerned. The second largest industry in Massachusetts is the shoe manufacturing industry. That is a seasonal industry. There are some shoe manufacturers, who make particular lines, who may work practically the year around, but as a rule the shoe manufacturers have two dull seasons and two busy seasons a year. The shoe employees, especially the women, earn large wages when they work. I know for a fact that many girls and women have left a regular employment and gone into the shoe industry, where they received a higher rate of wages for a shorter number of weeks, because they preferred to work part of the time and earn in the aggregate for the year substantially as much money. The gentleman from Rhode Island referred this morning to the number of unemployed jewelry employees in his state. I have no doubt that that statement was absolutely true; but the jewelry busi- ness is one that has seasons. It has as a rule two busy and two dull seasons, the same as the shoe business. The skilled male jewelry employees earn, as a rule, very large wages when they work, so that they, if they are not employed for a month or two or three, are not necessarily public charges. They have money to live on during that dull period. I presume that the unskilled em- ployees, perhaps some of the female employees, packers, etc., might find it a hardship to lie off. But one of the dull periods in the jewelry industry is through the months of December and January. In Boston we had some very heavy snow storms, and our street 258 American Labor Legislation Review department and the elevated railway company employed a great number of extra hands to cart snow. I do not remember what the wages were, but we had, I understand, several strikes. The men. insisted on having a full day or they would not work. That would indicate to me that there certainly were not so many unemployed men in Boston. Of the industries that I am especially familiar with, one, the chocolate manufacturing industry, which is quite a large one, works practically uniformly all the year around. I think that statement would apply to all similar factories in the country. I am also in- terested in a confectionery manufactory, in which we employ in our Boston plant about 2,000, a large proportion of whom are women. In that industry we average about 50 per cent more employees dur- ing the latter part of the year, from August on. Naturally we keep, the year around, the better class of employee. The shoe industry has taken very many women and girls who were formerly in the confectionery industry. Many whom I know of are receiving not more money than they did with us, but they get as much by work- ing for a smaller number of weeks. They seem to prefer to loaf part of the time. Perhaps you are not aware that Massachusetts has the distinc- tion of being the only state in the union which has an election and a session of the legislature every year. The result is that we have about six or seven months of law-making every year. You can imagine what we manufacturers are up against. One of the laws that was foisted upon us last year was that no minor under the age of sixteen years should be employed over a certain number of hours a day. It was a shorter number of hours than our regular local schedule for women and minors. The result of that has been, as far as I can judge, that very many of the girls over fourteen and not yet sixteen who formerly were employed, are now walking the streets. Many of these girls are foreigners, who are women at fourteen; they will not go to school; that law enforced simply means that so many more of these women are on the street. We have before us now in Massachusetts a minimum wage proposition. The manufacturers of Massachusetts I think will prac- tically all agree that a reasonable minimum wage would not per- haps be objectionable. But what I personally should be afraid of is that unless it is very carefully adjusted, that is, if the minimum Public Responsibility 259 wage is made too high, it will operate directly against the unskilled workers. That, I think, is a great danger. I mention the matter of minimum wage, and of the sixteen-year law, because I think those things have a direct bearing upon the question of irregular employment. In our factory, for instance, we have very many girls and women who earn $12 to $20 per week. Our scale of wages runs all the way from $4.50 up, but the cheapest employee we have is the one who earns $20 that goes without saying. If a minimum wage were established in our industry of even $6, we should have to stop running a training school at our own expense, as we have been doing for years, paying the apprentice $4.50 a week from the start. We could not afford the expense. We figure that it costs us, starting at $4.50 a week, from $40 to $70 for every new hancl we take on, before they get to be chocolate dippers. We should be obliged to stop this practice if a minimum wage were established at even $6, unless we could get the girls to come in and give us their time for nothing ifor two or three or four weeks, while they were learning. QUERY: Will you kindly inform me, Mr. Lowney, what did these girls of fourteen and sixteen years of age to whom you re- ferred do? At what were they employed? MR. LOWNEY : Under the state laws, they were employed in any and all industries. QUERY: May I further ask, how were these positions filled, after the girls were thrown out? MR. LOWNEY : Well, in our case, we did not discharge the girls we had at that time under sixteen. But we did arrange a definite scale of shorter working hours, and decided not to hire any more girls under sixteen, so that after a certain time we would employ none under sixteen. QUERY : I took it from your statement that the people who were discharged were walking the streets? MR. LOWNEY : I did not intend to say that they were necessarily discharged; they would not be taken on. QUERY : Have you a compulsory educational law in Massachus- etts? MR. LOWNEY: Yes, we have. QUERY: Have you a truancy law? MR. LOWNEY : That is one of the very many laws which are not properly enforced. 260 American Labor Legislation Review ROBERT R. P. BRADFORD, The Lighthouse, Philadelphia: We have thousands of people continually out of work in Pennsylvania, and at the time when United States senators are elected we generally have more. We have just that much additional unemployed labor to-day, if not more. Coming down to Philadelphia, where I am particularly interested, the conditions are about the same as usual 'for this time of year. Our lace mills, the Cramps' shipyard and other shops are working on almost full time. The steel works and the Baldwin locomotive works are running. These are our great industries. Still the rescue missions of Philadelphia have been kept busy looking after the unemployed. We have come in contact with this situation for some twenty years, of our own experience. Those who have had experience with working people know how constantly it is before us. It is getting worse. We went through the time of 1903, when we spent some $3,000 helping the men with families to live. In 1907 and 1908, when we had another panic, we did the same thing. We have a constantly increasing tide of immigration which we catch in Philadelphia, and which you must catch here, which is constantly displacing our labor that is already situated and could get along, but that is being pushed out by the incoming tide. We have a great many industrial accidents in our neighborhood ; in our state some thousands every year are maimed from among the employed. We have a great number of occupational disease cases, and the great army of the unemployed is being fed constantly by the maimed and the diseased. We have also those who have no ability, no capacity, no training for work. Moreover, the com- munity is allowing a great class of people to grow up without the ability to work. They, too, join the army of the unemployed. But the serious thing about this, that you and I need to address our- selves to, is the growing sentiment among the working people that this thing cannot be endured, and that unless the intelligent people of this country, and especially the government, which is our agent, find some way to enable the honest man to marry and raise a family decently, as a return for his labor, then labor itself will find the way. Those of us who are coming in contact with the working people know that this thing is pressing on them and is fast pro- ducing a situation of desperation, and we must find some way out of it. We must change our standards of personal rights, if neces- . Public Responsibility 261 sary. We must change anything and everything. Nothing should be sacred behind which this condition of things can hide. JOHN MITCHELL, United Mine Workers of America: It goes without saying that unemployment is a problem in which all rep- resentative working men are keenly interested. Unemployment in the coal industries does not affect the individual as seriously as it does in many other branches of private industry. The coal mines of the United States, even in prosperous periods, operate approxi- mately only two-thirds of the time. In the anthracite coal fields the employers have so adjusted the operation of their mines that the work is distributed about evenly during all the months and weeks of the year. All of you who live in New York city and consume anthracite coal know that you can buy it in April fifty cents a ton cheaper than in November. That is to say, the mine owners use the coal sheds and basements of the consumers for store-houses, and by so doing regulate the sale of coal so that you buy it cheapest at that season of the year when it is least used. But whatever may have been the motive of the anthracite coal mine owners, the system they have introduced has been of great value to the men who work in the mines, because the production and sale of anthracite coal is distributed about evenly throughout the year. In the bituminous coal fields, however, which employ some 550,000 men, the atmospheric effects upon bituminous coal are such that for domestic purposes the coal must be consumed shortly after it comes from the mines, and the consequence is that bituminous miners work sometimes quite steadily in the winter months, and are idle a large part of the time in the summer months. However, it may be interesting to state that the coal miners of the United States are so thoroughly organized that they are able to take care of their own men without calling for assistance from outside sources. When a mine is closed down in one community, if there be another mine in that community the men frequently divide their work. That is, the men employed in one mine will voluntarily remain at home and permit the men from the mine that closed down to work in their places. It seems to me that that system might be applied in other industries. Of course it requires a pretty high form of idealism for 262 American Labor Legislation Review men voluntarily to give up their jobs in order that their fellow men may have a chance to work. It seems to me that this problem of unemployment is one that deserves the attention of our state and federal governments. Un- der a truly humane order of society there could be no unemploy- ment in the sense of able-bodied men who desire to work being without work. There is an old saying that the world owes every man a living. I am not prepared to subscribe to that general state- ment. I do not believe that the world owes any man a living, but I do believe that society owes to every one of its people the op- portunity to earn a living under fair and reasonable conditions. And I believe that this conference may outline some plan that may lead to a systematic study of unemployment, and may eventually lead to the adoption of such measures by our state and federal governments as will in the future at least mitigate the sufferings that come from unemployment. I cannot conceive of any spectacle so sad as that of an able-bodied man having depending upon him a wife and children, searching here and there and everywhere for an opportunity to work. We should see to it that something is done that will reduce the oversupply at all periods of the year in our seasonal labor. It has already been found by a federal com- mission, and I may say a federal commission unfriendly to labor, that even in normal times there is in the United States an over- supply of unskilled laborers. We must find some system of dis- tributing our laborers, to get them out of the cities, to get them back to the farms. Nearly every evil which society suffers from has been accentuated by the fact that to a greater and greater ex- tent our population is concentrated in cities and our farm popula- tion is growing relatively less. BASIL M. MANLY, Federal Industrial Relations Commission: The iron and steel industry is generally recognized as belonging to the basic trades. As the production of the iron and steel industry varies, so it is generally recognized does the entire industry of the country vary. This arises from the fact that this is an age of iron. The variations in the iron and steel industry of which I have the figures are those of 1909, when at the maximum time of employment there were 45,000 men employed. That was during the latter part Public Responsibility 263 of the year. During the earlier part of the year there was a maxi- mum of 30,000 men ; in the steel works and rolling mills there was a maximum of 270,000 and a minimum of 210,000, making in the whole industry 75,000 employed at one time during the year who were out of work during another. All the establishments slack up their operation at the same time, and this variation means therefore that that number of men are out of work at one given time. These figures were taken in 1909, but in every year since 1907, with the single exception of 1911, there has been an equally great variation. This variation arises from two central causes outside of the industry. The first is speculation. In building construction and railroad construction and machinery construction, everybody waits to place orders until prices drop. Then when the orders are placed prices go up and the industry booms. The second cause is that in the iron and steel industry we have concentrated the vari- ations in all the other industries which depend upon the iron and steel industries for machinery and raw material. Inside the industry we also have a cause, which can be remedied. It is the policy of the steel industry, and has been for years, to operate the mills at top speed when prices are good, to put every possible pressure on and run the mills to the limit. Up until 1910 the custom was to run straight through the week whenever prices got high, run Saturday, Sunday and everyday. Since 1910 that has been somewhat abated, but the policy still remains of running the mills to the top of their capacity, and then shutting down, closing the department, letting the men go, and letting them hang around until prices come back to a profitable level. The first effect of that system is perfectly obvious reduction in the actual income of the worker. We do not need to discuss that. The second effect is the effect on the wage level. The industry in this way requires about one-third more men to run than it would need if the irregularity of operation was smoothed out; and that one-third more men who are in the iron and steel towns bidding for jobs are just enough to tend to depress the wage level. There is another and less known effect of this policy, and that is the increase in the cost of producing iron and steel products. It is cheaper during a given time to run a mill to the top level, to put the pressure on and get every unit of product out of that mill that you can. You get a low cost for a month, but when you compare 264 American Labor Legislation Review a whole year in which these variations are going on, with a year in which operations have been regular, the costs are in favor of regular operation. Furthermore it is almost impossible to estab- lish this fact absolutely, but an iron manufacturer, Mr. George H. Hull, makes the statement in his publication, and backs it up with some pretty good figures in pig iron manufacture a manufacturer would have profited if he had operated his blast furnaces through every period of depression, stacked his pig iron, and sold it at the best prices during the prosperous period. He would have profited, even with the expense of stacking pig iron at something like sixty cents a ton, by having a lower cost "for regular operation. EDWARD P. FITZGERALD, Superintendent, Cooperative Employ- ment Bureau, San Francisco: I was just getting a bit anxious as to whether the conference was going to continue the indefinite dis- cussion of this question. If the conference wishes to consider the question of unemploy- ment from the point of public safety, it is from that angle that I would be of most assistance to you. My position in connection with work of this kind in San Fran- cisco is as superintendent of what is known as the San Francisco Cooperative Employment Bureau, an organization composed of four branches of various churches the Roman Catholic, the Protes- tant, the Episcopal , in connection with the Association of Churches. Our work is to minister to the wants of the single unemployed men. This is the third winter that I have been connected with the work, and in that time I have come in personal contact with some- thing like 7,600 men. As a result, two or three observations have forced themselves on my mind that possibly may strike you as being original. I have met nearly every one of these 7,600 men individually. We have put them to work sawing, chopping and sacking kindling wood. This wood has been sold on the best terms possible, but the insti- tution is by no means self-supporting. The first year it cost about $12,500 to keep it going. In the second year it gave out 40,000 more meals and about 6,000 more lodgings; our losses were cut down to $7,000, but there is still a loss. We are not able to fill the bill in San Francisco. We have beds for something like 200 Public Responsibility 265 men. At the present time there are in San Francisco about 1,600 men sleeping in one building alone, on the floors. Registration at our bureau begins on December 24th, and in three weeks 7,500 men were registered. The city government subscribed to the fund $30,000, nearly all of which was used exclusively for food for these men. There were other subscriptions of about $40,000, nearly all of which was expended in the giving of work. This work lasted six hours a day, at twenty cents an hour, the theory being to give the single men four days' work at a time and the married men more. The funds ran out before I left San Fran- cisco. Our unemployed formed in armies they demanded to be fed. We are going to try to avoid that if possible next year. A great number of those men have no legitimate reason for consider- ing San Francisco as their home. They should not all be carried by San Francisco, at least not on that basis. Some method of pruning down, by some kind of a work test, has to be adopted. In the ordinary course of our business our institution would not be able to handle all the men who would come to us. The charity or- ganizations are able to do what they do because they are able to segregate those who are willing to work for what they get from those who are not. If we had accommodations for 1,000 I believe we could have handled the situation in San Francisco, by applying the work test. Two years ago when the men went to the mayor and demanded that they be provided with accommodations, he told them to go down to us and go to work, and they never came. This winter they threatened just the same as they did in Seattle and Portland. Up to the closing of the kitchen, 4,017 meals were given out. One of the elements we constantly face is that a certain percentage probably 50 per cent are more or less perpetually unemployed. Remember that in any discussion you are going to have. I can say truthfully that 50 per cent of the men who have come to me in the course of the last three winters could not hold a permanent job. Even if they were satisfied with the work, the employer and the hours, they could not remain permanently on the job. For ten months after taking the position of superintendent it was my policy when I needed a clerk, bookkeeper, or other employee, to take the most likely man from the wood yard. After ten months I stopped it, and when I needed a teamster or other help, I sent 266 American Labor Legislation Review outsider From the cases of defective hearing, impaired eye-sight, and defective mentality I came across, I have come to the con- clusion that any institution like ours has a great deal in common with the deal and dumb, blind, and insane asylums, and these defects are regarded by physicians generally as the cause of 50 per cent of all the unemployed in San Francisco who come for institutional help. I believe that 90 per cent would be by far a more appropriate figure than 50 per cent. The same faces that have been seen in that institution for the last three winters, are in the army demanding work. I had to employ fifteen cooks in two years; either because of petty larceny, drunkenness, general nervousness, or some similar cause. I wish to point out to those who come from chambers of com- merce, to those who are men of influence in their home towns, the practical benefits of maintaining a place of the kind I am running, and how it will pay them to run such an institution. Before this in- stitution was in existence in San Francisco, these men had to sleep some place. When night came on they would go into vacant houses, into the railroad yards, into lumber yards, into every nook and place where they could possibly crawl. In ten years, from 1903 to 1912 inclusive, the total loss by fire in San Francisco was $12,- 150,000, an average of $1,250,000 a year. With the opening of our wood yard and lodging house that loss fell to $706,000 a difference of $500,000 in a year. The year succeeding that it was $800,000. The most frequent type of fire in San Francisco results from the "hobo" element. The same applies to crime. Petty larceny went down to the second lowest figure in fifteen years ; vagrancy dropped by 600. The reflex of that trend is that you can keep your police force down another means of keeping up the agency. If some institution of this kind is not provided, men are compelled to do one of two things to ask or to take. Don't give a man a meal for nothing. While the highest number of meals served in the wood yard reached 500 when the men worked for the meals, it reached 7,000 when they did not have to work. I believe, therefore, that it pays to prevent a man from sleeping in a barn or in an empty house. I believe it pays a locality to see that a man is fed twice a day. A man can be fed a fairly good meal, when he himself helps in the cooking of it, for five cents. Public Responsibility . 267 Three substantial meals would cost fifteen cents. The price of housing would never be more than five cents. The total keep of a man under those conditions would be twenty cents per day. J. W. MAGRUDER, General Secretary, Federated Charities, Balti- more, Maryland: Having been on the west coast since last July, I know from first-hand observation the conditions that obtain in Seattle and in Portland, and although I did not go to San Francisco, I think I appreciate the fact that the conditions there are, as com- pared with the east coast, much more acute. I have listened with the greatest interest to the statements of the last speaker, and also to the statements of the speaker who comes from Portland, Oregon. The statements in regard to the causes of unemployment in San Francisco are startling, and they remind some of us of the statement made by Major Pangborn, one of the officials of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, at a conference in Minnesota about five years ago, to the effect that the vagrants of the country I think my figures are correct destroy in railroad property alone each year $25,000,000. The death list and the in- jury list, according to his statement, mount into the thousands I am afraid to say tens of thousands, but my recollection is that the number was between 20,000 and 30,000 men, dead and injured. The statement has been current for some time and I think it has not been challenged that there are in all probability in this country, the richest country in the world, about 500,000 vagrants and beggars. Now, these 500,000 were not originally mendicants; originally they were as any of us. But they have been recruited from the ranks of this large group to which we are giving attention in this conference. Coming up to the meeting this morning, I was interested in a statement made by my fellow citizen Mr. Fergu- son, president of the state federation of labor, that the seasonal occupations, even of those workers engaged in skilled lines and commanding high wages, are utterly demoralizing to the men, in that they spend not only weeks, but months out of work. And then he described in detail how the demoralization proceeds until man after man becomes undermined in the very fabric of his life and character, and these men furnish recruits to this army of mendi- cants. Let us assume that there are half a million of them in this country. I think we are all ready to agree with our San Francisco 268 American Labor Legislation Review friend that there is no reason why the able-bodied man who is able to crack rock, or split wood, or saw wood, should not do it. The most any able-bodied man could claim for himself would be the right to make a living honestly and honorably. We have in Baltimore a similar sort of equipment; this work has been done in Baltimore for about fifteen or more years, substantially the same as described in San Francisco. After you care for the able-bodied man who is out of work, you have still a larger contingent of men who are not able-bodied, who cannot do these things ; and it is a crime to compel a man in that condition to do the thing for which he is not fitted physically. Now then, what are you going to do with that man ? I dare say that in San Francisco you do not exact from a man the impossible? MR. FITZGERALD : No sir ; we cannot use a man without any legs, without any arms, or with only one arm. MR. MAGRUDER: Even so, after having made that allowance, there still remain a number of men for whom there is nothing fitted. And furthermore, after the man has done the job, have you done anything for the man? You have no diversity of occupation. You have not gotten anywhere with your problem, and you are still up against the problem as regards the overwhelming majority, as regards men who are classed as vagrants and beggars. What are you going to do with them? A year ago last July a conference was held in Baltimore of the city magistrates, the police commis- sioners, and over sixty men and women engaged in the various branches of social service that are doubtless represented here, as a result of which there was developed a plan which none of us in Baltimore will say is the final solution but of which we do say that it indicates the direction that we have to travel. It is an arrange- ment of this kind : The police department details certain plain-clothes men to con- stitute the "mendicancy squad". I believe you have such a squad in New York, whose function is to go up and down the streets on the outlook for beggars and vagrants who are "touching" men and women for ten cents for a night's lodging, and to run them in. The mendicancy squad in Baltimore, instead of watching for the vagrant and the beggar to run him in, is on the street to pick up the beggar and the vagrant, to be sure, but only in this sense: Along comes the mendicancy officer, and falls in with the man he has caught Public Responsibility 269 begging. He stops without attracting any attention, enters into a private conversation with the man and notifies him that as far as Baltimore is concerned he is out of business. Begging is against the law with us, as I presume it is against the law in every city in this country, and the officer says to the man, "If you try to do this thing I will put you out of business, as an officer of the law. But instead of running you in I am going to stay alongside until I have connected you with the people who will give you an oppor- tunity to go into another business." If the man proves to be a bona fide resident of Baltimore, the plain-clothes officer, instead of taking him to the station house, goes home with him and nobody is the wiser. They talk matters over on the way home and he leaves the man there with the injunction that he is no more to be found on the streets of Baltimore in the capacity of a beggar, but is to remain at his home, and that the representative of some of the organized charities will be communicated with at once to go to his home and sit down quietly and talk over the whole situation. These societies have entered into a public agreement that they will guar- antee to every man or woman who is in such a condition that he has been forced to beg, a chance either to get a job fitted to his capacity, by which to make an honest living, or in case of his inability to care for himself along regular lines of occupation, they will stay alongside until he has gotten into a place where he will be properly cared for as a man who is helpless and must be looked after as a needy applicant. On the other hand, the man who is not a resident of Baltimore, and therefore is a vagrant in the eye of the law, can not be taken to his home. That man is taken to the station house, not under arrest, but under detention, and with the information that he is there under detention and not under arrest. There he is kept until the representative of the proper charity organization society can get to him and go at his problem in precisely the same way, and give him as square a deal and the same human consideration as if he had been born and brought up in the city of Baltimore. If the man is from the west coast, we stand good for him until the con- nections can be made with the west coast, for him to be returned there. It developed that the first man who was found in this predica- ment was an escaped inmate of the hospital for the insane at Mare 270 American Labor Legislation Review Island, California. He was sent to where he belonged, under a proper custodian. As we have said, a large proportion of this vagrant population must be cared for institutionally, nothing but institutional care will do. Then there is a large proportion of them who are deserting husbands, and a large proportion are mere runaway boys. A large proportion is young fellows. But all of this accentuates the fact that these men are human they need the same discrimination and attention as the residents of our com- munities. The plan went into effect not in mid-winter, when conditions are acute, but on the i6th of July, in mid-summer, when the conditions are the most favorable. The result was that when we came up to mid-winter the begging and vagrancy problem had been worked out, and was manageable. The first year 1,500 beggars and vagrants went under the care of the federated charities organizations; the next year there were something over 1,200. This year we do not know what the number will be, but the effect has been this: that with unusual conditions of cold and unemployment, as described by Mr. Ferguson at this morning's session, we have been all but free of this population that makes a problem of its own, and we have been able to concentrate our time and attention upon the bona fide problem of unemployment. Now we would like to supplement what we have, with what Mr. Halbert and his friends in Kansas City have, in the way of in- dustrial relief. I am not sure about that; but anyhow the ideal condition is where men can be sent, not to a rock pile, not to a wood pile, but where they can be sent for commitment under an indeterminate sentence, as persons that need to be trained to a definite occupation, and to be restored ultimately to citizenship where they can make good. These men are mentally afflicted or diseased; they are psychopathic cases, in other words, and if we can have a consistent policy, beginning where you began in San Francisco, and where we began in Baltimore fifteen years ago, and coming right down the line, and then having it supplemented with these other provisions that we have and you have not, why the man who is really down and out can be pulled together, re-educated, and put on his feet again. We ought to see the beginning of the end of the national vagrancy problem that is a disgrace to the richest nation in the world. And I will close with this, that after Public Responsibility 271 you have dealt with unemployment, you have not dealt with all of the causes that make for vagrancy. Back of this lie the industrial questions that are really the root of the trouble. JOHN H. WALKER, President, Illinois Federation of Labor: I suppose that most of you have heard the old saying, "Beware of the Greeks when they come bringing gifts," and as one of the army of workmen, I put myself in the category of those who have had to fight for just about everything they ever got. Consequently, when promise of relief from possibly the worst problem that we have to deal with are held out from a source not actually the work- ers, the old saying comes to my mind. And still the problem is so acute, and it does mean so much, and the possibilities are that there are so many people in this world who are not actually workers themselves but who would like to see it all on a just basis, that I felt I would like to be at this meeting. Anyhow, I figured, it is a vital problem; and whether those who attend are friends or ene- mies in disguise, to have the problem brought home to all of the people of our country in such a way that they can not help under- stand something about what it really is, will be worth while. But the unemployment problem, in so far as it affects the honest workers, is not going to be solved ultimately by charity. It is not going to be solved, either, by the voluntary action of humane indi- viduals who are not directly involved in the industrial questions of our country. You know we have been double-crossed and deluded so often that when anything is held out to us the first thing we look for is to see where we are going to get the worst of it; and one of the first things that came to my mind was that it was possible that these well-intentioned people, taking an interest in this question of unemployment, might organize the labor exchange bureaus in such a way that the entire unemployed army would be mobilized and that the employers would have such access to it as to be enabled to use it at any point, at all times, to break down the things that the organ- ized workers in our country have already established by fighting for them hard and long. I do not like to see suffering. I do not like to suffer myself. But there is a doubt in my mind whether I would be doing the most honorable thing, if I were out of employment, if I took a job where I had to work four hours a day to enable me to earn twenty cents. 272 American Labor Legislation Review I know that it is well-intentioned people who furnish that revenue of relief to men who are out of employment; but I tell you frankly that I believe that the man who has to work four hours a day for twenty cents for any length of time, will soon get to the point where he will not only be worthless, but will be a menace to the community. If this problem is going to be solved properly, we are going to have to go to the root of it, and to deal with the employers with- out considering their feelings very much, or the amount of money they are to make out of their industry. One of the things that brought this point home to me was the statement made by our friend from the Boston Chamber of Com- merce. He said a law had been enacted which took the girls be- tween the ages of fourteen and sixteen out of the factories but made no further provision for them, and that instead of helping, that had added to the complications of the unemployment problem. I might say that it was about a hundred years ago since they enacted laws in Great Britain that took the women and children out of the mines, and for the same reason it could be said that that law ad- ded to the problem. In Illinois we have a law that prohibits a boy from going into the mines until he is sixteen, and I suppose that is going to add to the complications of the unemployment problem. But I dare say there is not a man or woman in this meeting but will agree that if it were his or her child that was under consider- ation, sixteen years would not be thought an excessive period for that child to spend in acquiring the education it would need to give to the world the best that is in it and not to become a burden to itself and to the nation. We have taken up this unemployment problem in our state. We sent out a circular to ascertain the extent of it; and I say to you it is difficult to find out how many men are unemployed and how many women and children are suffering, for the ones who are suffering the most would die almost rather than allow the fact to become public property. For that reason we cannot find out just what the actual conditions are. But everybody who deals with this problem knows from the things they meet in everyday life that in- dustrial conditions are serious in our country to-day, more serious than they have been for a very long time. We have asked each local union in Illinois to find out which of its members are out of work, and to try to arrange matters so that they won't need to Public Responsibility 273 starve or freeze. The organizations are doing this, but I say to you that they are being taxed to their utmost. I suppose there are hundreds of ways of solving this problem. I have in my own mind something I am going to give you for what it is worth. In the first place, I believe that we should have em- ployment agencies established in the different municipalities to take care of the immediate local problems. I think we should have a bureau established under the direction and in charge of the different states, and I think we ought to have an organization of that kind under the charge of our federal government. I believe that there should be an insurance provision providing that men who could not find employment would be paid, not as a matter of charity, but as a matter of right, enough to keep them and their families and enable them to live decently. But to prevent these bureaus from being a curse instead of a help, they should not be allowed to ship a man where there is any labor trouble, where there is a strike on either for better conditions or against a reduction of wages, or because employers have refused to allow their working people to organize, or for any other good cause. I believe that in order to have this thing operate right, the government itself should endeavor to em- ploy in the federal, state and municipal undertakings every man and woman who is unemployed. In the event that this cannot be done without reducing hours beyond the minimum necessary for practical operations, those who still cannot find work should be maintained by a tax levied on all industry. That will mean that in so far as the government can give it to them, the men and women of the country will have employment; and in so far as the government with the undertakings it has in charge, and the private employers who own the other industries, are not able to furnish employment for these men and women, the private em- ployers and the other citizens will be required to keep them until they are furnished employment. I feel that it is the private owners of all industry in our country, and not the workers, who are really responsible for the conditions existing which make it impossible for a man or woman willing to work to get a job; and I think they should be required to keep the unemployed until they do find work. The workers themselves, also, having the right to vote and the right to make laws and to select men to enforce them, indirectly have a responsibility in this matter, and if they were made to pay their 274 American Labor Legislation Review share of the penalty for a man's or a woman's being unable to get work, I think it would help bring the responsibility home to them. The gentleman from Virginia this morning made a plain state- ment of the case. The only reason that people are out of a job at the present time is because there is not a job for them. Im- mediately providing jobs is the thing that will immediately furnish relief. We have a considerable number of projects that could be utilized by our federal government. But first I want to say that as long as there is an unemployed working man or woman in our country who cannot get a job there should be no further labor immigration allowed. If they will stop labor immigration into our nation for the next ten years, we will solve the unemployment problem by the development of our industries. In the meantime I believe that there are a considerable number of forms of employ- ment that can be furnished through our national and state govern- ments, and through the different municipalities, and that they won't have to go into bankruptcy while they are doing it. The labor furnished will pay back to the people at least all that it has cost them, in the very near future; and, ultimately, it will be almost impossible to compute the value that it might be to our nation. We need water-ways I suppose if there was a deep water-way made from New Orleans to Chicago there would be millions of acres of our land replanted. The cost of transportation would be reduced and that would be a permanent source of revenue to our nation. I suppose 200,000 or 300,000 of the unemployed could be put at that work immediately, and I do not know of anything that would pay greater returns to the people than to have this done. Those water routes could be used for generating power, and the installing of that equipment would almost absorb, for years and years, if we cut out the immigration now, all the unemployed of our nation. As has been mentioned by Professor Sanford, home projects, sewage, drainage, etc., could be started, so that it really is possible to improve conditions. In closing I want to emphasize what the representative of the mayor of Philadelphia said: The intelligent workers and the in- telligent humane people outside of the workers' ranks are either going to solve this problem on the basis of reason in an orderly, progressive way, some time in the near future, or this feeling of bitterness that is being engendered in the minds and hearts of the Public Responsibility 275 workers of our country will precipitate a condition that will make the solution still more costly. JOHN PRICE JACKSON, Pennsylvania Commissioner of Labor and Industry: I believe that one of the best things that can be done in these great United States to-day to prevent the most serious phase of the problem of unemployment, is rapidly to add what we call vocational education to our school systems throughout the country. In every community, big and little, there should be a vocational school, where the boy of fourteen or sixteen or eighteen may go a day a week, and where, while he works and gets enough to pay for bread and butter and lodging, he can also get the brain inspiration that is going to make him a useful man throughout life, and where a man of any age may go in the evening, or at such times as he has available, to improve his capacity. I think there is no other matter of greater importance to us to-day in this great prob- lem of unemployment, than this one of vocational education. A. L. GRAHAM, Society for the Protection of Life, New York City: New York is suffering more than ever before from down- and-outs, and the question arises, What can we do to stay this thing ? I have something up my sleeve, and I call it the "Good Samari- tan." The Samaritan did his work at the time when it was needed, and he did it properly and right and completely, and I trust that this conference in dealing with the unemployment question will take every proposition up that will help the under man, give him an op- portunity to work and make him self -providing. How can this be done? It is a problem. The Industrial Home, I think, is one of the institutions that did the first real work for the down-and-outs; they gave a man a bed, but he earned it. It was a good proposition. Then there is the Bowery Mission that has a field. New York city and Jersey City also are harboring many men who are out of work. The great problem is to take the man who is not working and be concerned in him yourself. I always have on tap a down-and-out man, and try to help him. Have you ever watched the down-and-out? If he has not the price for a bed himself, he always walks the streets with another, and their fellow- ship is closer than that of brothers. Let us give them fellowship, such as they need. 276 American Labor Legislation Review S. A. STODEL, New York City: The unemployment question is considerable of a problem, but the unemployment problem flows from a far deeper, a more significant problem. We have the unem- ployed with us not because they are desirous of being unemployed, but, as the speaker from Virginia this morning, and Mr. Walker this afternoon made clear, because they cannot get a job; and the reason they cannot get a job is that the fellow that owns the job wants to play whole hog and get all he can out of the job. It has been said that many of the unemployed are unemployed because they are industrially unfit. Of course they are industrially unfit. While at work they are under-paid and over- worked. They become physically unfit ; they become charges in institutions, and in this way furnish employment for a lot of people who otherwise would not be employed. These people put them through a long process of exploitation, for instance, getting them to work four hours for twenty cents. Now just imagine what possibility there is for these poor unfortunates who have been kicked down the in- dustrial line why they have not a chance on earth, or any other place. They are industrially unfit because they have been robbed, they have been devitalized, due to the manner in which they have been compelled to live. And then you come here and discuss this problem, without giving this poor unfortunate an opportunity to speak for himself. I say the time will come when this poor un- fortunate will come here and tell you that you are the problem, and not he. You refuse to pay any attention to this thing except when it becomes so acute that you must pay passing notice to it. You can form all the employment agencies you want, and these men will build your railroads, they will build your tunnels and your water systems, and as long as you are going to furnish these men to be robbed by the contractors and other exploiters of labor, you are going to have this problem on your hands. I tell you that the time is coming, is nearly at hand to-day, when this problem, as you choose to call it, will turn around and in- vestigate you to find out why you have been doing it. FRANK HAMILTON, New York City: As far as I can gather from what has been said, there seem to be two ends to this question: Where you are going to, and where your problem came from. Now I don't know anything about where you are going to; where the Public Responsibility 277 problem came from is what interests me. I believe that the bot- tom of this whole thing lies more than anything else, in the public school. We are teaching in the public schools and in the high schools, and in the colleges, for that matter, everything under the heavens except character. When I was at school I had a school- mate who would go up to the blackboard and write his name beautifully, and he drew beautifully. The last I heard of the poor fellow he was in the penitentiary. One of the results of this kind of education is the kind of thing we are having to discuss here to- day. It has been said that one province of the public school which has been overlooked is industrial education, with which I thoroughly agree. But I think that back of all that the Bible should be put into the public schools, and character should be taught in the public schools, because the vital interests of the nation depend more than anything else on the character of its citizens, as we are finding to-day in Mexico. Ill THE STRUGGLE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT JOINT SESSION WITH THE PEOPLES* INSTITUTE Presiding Officer: HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation NEW YORK CITY THE ENGLISH METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE UNEMPLOYED HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation. The United Kingdom is the one country in the world that has had the courage to attack unemployment as a great national prob- lem, and with the conviction that it is a problem which it can solve. As usually is the case with pioneers in social legislation, this dis- tinction comes to England not because of any greater intelligence, perhaps, than other countries have displayed, but from the sheer necessity of the situation. With the return of the soldiers from South Africa after the close of the Boer war, the United Kingdom was brought face to face with an unemployment problem more serious than that experienced by any other country in the world, and it was out of those years of continual distress and unrest in consequence of unemployment, that public opinion was educated to carry out the program which I shall try to describe. In England, as in all countries that have been confronted with a serious amount of unemployment, the first remedies were merely palliative; the usual plans were adopted, distress committees were organized in the different cities, money was raised from charitable people, the government made contributions ; and through these com- mittees relief was afforded, sometimes with work. That was the policy pursued for several years. When improvement did not follow, it was found that the ma- chinery was not sufficiently comprehensive, that greater distress committees should be organized, and that larger sums should be ex- pended in furnishing work for the unemployed, or supplying them with relief. Working on that theory, in 1905 the unemployed work- men act was passed, a measure which provided through govern- mental machinery for these distress committees in the different cities of the country, and provided from the government treasury some revenue for the work of the committees. Still working on 282 American Labor Legislation Review the basis of relief, but making work for the unemployed in air artificial way, these committees expended hundreds of thousands of pounds. I think it is no exaggeration to say that though their in- tentions were of the best, they did on the whole more harm than good. At any rate, it certainly is true that during the period that effort was directed in these channels the evil of unemployment was not materially relieved. The one important service these distress committees rendered was to impress upon public opinion the need of some sort of a clearing house for labor. They emphasized the need for an organi- zation of the labor market so that the jobless man and the manless job, to use the committee phrase, could be brought together, no matter how far they might be separated, and so that the country as a whole might be informed as to how extensive unemployment was, as to how much there really was behind the complaint of men in this or the other city that they were looking for work and could not find it. The present conference has brought out very clearly how little real information on this subject we have in this country. The state- ment has often been made that 300,000 men were unemployed in New York city. The commissioner of labor states that that would be an exaggerated statement as applied to the whole state, to say nothing of the city. But we do not know, and he does not know. Exactly that same ignorance was experienced in the United King- dom, and finding that the Committees were not giving the relief needed the government decided upon the important next step. This was the creation of a chain of connected, free public employment bureaus bureaus or exchanges that should serve as the intermediary between the men and women looking for work and the employers looking for employees, bureaus which should be found not merely in London or Liverpool or Manchester, but in every corner of the United Kingdom, and that should be so connected by telephone and telegraph, and by the interchange of weekly reports, that it would be possible to get in touch with every bona fide seeker for work on one hand, and with every employer looking for. workers on the other hand. The act creating these free public employment labor exchanges was passed in 1909. It took some time to get the machinery or- ganized,.but after four or five years as many as 430 of these em- English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 283 ployment exchanges were opened in different parts of the country, and it is now true that these exchanges, and the subsidiary offices connected with them, are within five miles of every considerable group of workers in the United Kingdom; so that any man out of work, by going not more than five miles, can bring his situation to the attention of these bureaus, and employers with equal necessities can be put in touch with the workers whom they require. How important these bureaus have become as agencies for con- necting the worker with the work that is available, is shown by the monthly reports, the last of which refer to the month ending De- cember 1 2th of last year. During the month preceding that date at these exchanges there were registered 221,179 applicants for work. It was in mid-winter and England was beginning to exper- ience some of the industrial depression that we have experienced in this country. For only 68,671 of these applicants, accordingly, was work found. This is of tremendous value as a step toward relieving unemployment. The discrepancy between the number of applicants for work and the number who are found work, however, brings out very clearly that the organization of employment exchanges is not a remedy for unemployment. It is not a solution of the prob- lem. If these exchanges did their work perfectly and they are working better and better all the time the most they could ac- complish would be to bring workers to such jobs as offered them- selves; they could not supply jobs that were not there. The chief reason for such unemployment as we have been suffering from in this country in recent months is not the lack of means of bringing the worker to the work that offers itself, though we lack those means conspicuously. The chief reason is that the work itself is lacking, that industries are slack, that there are no jobs for the jobless men, and that the most perfect machinery that could be devised in the form of labor exchanges, though it would lessen the evil, would not cure it. In other words, this part of the solution that is being worked out by the United Kingdom can serve, as it works more and more perfectly, only at best to minimize the num- ber of the unemployed, and reduce to the minimum the number who cannot find work it cannot find work for all unless work is actually available for all. Why is there not work enough for all ? That is a large question, and I do not intend to go into it except as it relates to one phase 284 American Labor Legislation Review of the problem which illustrates, at any rate, other aspects of the problem. One reason is, as we all know, that industries are sea- sonal. Many industries have their periodic rise and fall in the course of a normal year. Active during part of the year, they are then slack, to become active during a subsequent part of the year, and perhaps have again a dull period. That is the cause with per- haps a majority of industries, because where the industry is not directly affected by the seasons it often is affected indirectly be- cause it is related to other industries that are affected by the seasons. The building trades, agricultural industries, 'longshore work, the clothing industry, and a long list of our industries are thus affected. In these seasonal industries obviously there must be enough workers to meet the demand at the height of the season, and if there are enough workers at the height of the season, then, clearly, there will be too many workers when the dull season comes along and there will be unemployment at such time. Those who have thought out the problem in the United Kingdom have come to the conclusion that there are just two ways in which this part of the evil can be met. One is to dovetail seasonal industries together so that one in- dustry will release its workers in its dull season, to be employed in the busy season of a related industry. So far as that is possible that is one line of solution. But it is unnecessary for me to empha- size the fact that that is possible only to a very limited extent. It is more possible for unskilled manual laborers than for skilled workers, because the former can turn to other unskilled work readily. The very fact that a man is a skilled worker means that he is not prepared to go into another industry for which he is untrained. The other remedy is some device by which income will continue through the dull season, so that the man who is out of work will not at the same time be entirely out of pocket; so that when his wages cease because his trade is marking time, an income, cur- tailed somewhat, but still some income, will continue to come to him and he and his family will be relieved -from the anxiety and destitution and demoralization that usually go with unemployment in the absence of any such system. In this country we thus far have looked to wage-earners them- selves, by their savings, to provide this resource during the period English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 285 when their wages stop, and doubtless the unemployment through which we are now passing has not inflicted nearly as much suffer- ing upon the wage-earners as it would have inflicted if so many of them were not saving and had not resources on which they could draw while work is slack. But this method is a very unintelligent one. It is unintelligent because unemployment is a risk to which all of us are more or less exposed, but which some of us escape. Every contingency that is a risk can most economically be provided for through the machinery of insurance, through a plan that causes the whole group of people who are affected to combine their resources, so that out of that combined fund payments can be made to the few or small number in the group who meet the contingency, and have to be provided for. It is common knowledge that, by paying a very moderate amount into a common fund, those whose prop- erty is destroyed by fire can receive compensation for loss. That same machinery is the intelligent machinery to apply to this risk of unemployment, and this second remedy, insurance against unem- ployment, was the remedy which the English government courage- ously adopted as a part of its national insurance act of 1911. This act is all the more significant because it was the first time that a government introduced national insurance against unemploy- ment. It was not, however, a leap in the dark, a blind experiment. There was a great deal of experience on which the British govern- ment based its plan, and I think you will agree with me that that plan was carefully thought out and capable of adaption to meet the various difficulties of the problem. The experience on which the United Kingdom drew in working out its insurance plan was the experience of the labor organizations. Labor organizations are the bodies that have shown a capacity to deal with this problem along insurance lines for their members. In the English colonies, particularly, more than in our American communities, out-of-work benefit had become a common feature. Some eighty of the one hundred principal British unions at the time the national insurance plan was adopted were paying out-of-work benefits regularly to their members; that is, they collected dues from their members sufficiently high to supply a fund out of which these out-of-work benefits could be paid to members who were out of work, and through which the worst consequences of unemployment were re- moved. The unemployed member of a British trade union looks 286 American Labor Legislation Review upon unemployment not as a calamity, but merely as an incident. Trade unions are peculiarly able to administer out-of-work bene- fits because they can prevent their members from taking unfair advantage of the system. The great difficulty of unemployment in- surance is that it presents such a great temptation to the man who would rather live by his wits than by his hands, to live at the ex- pense of the insurance fund. Work is so monotonous, and over- work is so common, that the possibility of getting a day's wage without doing a day's work presents a certain temptation to a cer- tain kind of man. The trade unions have the advantage that the members have a sense of loyalty to the union, which deters them from taking advantage of the union funds. In the second place, the members know one another very well, and that makes it diffi- cult for one to live at the expense of the other, to pretend to be out of work because he cannot find work, when he is out of work mainly because he does not want to work. Thirdly, the trade union secretary is himself usually an employment agent. He is the man to whom the employer in an organized trade looks when he wants workers. Under these conditions, if the trade union secretary has reason to suspect that this or that member is living at the expense of the fund, and does not really want to work, he can apply the work test by putting a job in his direction. If the man refuses to take the job he is not only out of the job but out of grace. He can be shut off from the out-of-work benefit because in all of these plans refusal to take work disqualifies the man from continuing to draw out-of-work pay. The famous "Ghent system" is a system under which the trade unions were looked to to administer the unemployment insurance, but were subsidized by the municipality for this purpose. Part of the cost of providing out-of-work benefits was taken up by the municipal board. The trade union had still the opportunity of seeing that the system was administered economically and fairly, but the entire expense did not fall on the union part of it fell on. the municipality. It is very much better, from the Ghent point of view, that the worker draw these benefits in a way that maintains his self-respect and efficiency, than that he be forced to become a recipient of charity. That was the progress that had been made in the direction of unemployment insurance when the British national insurance act English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 287 was passed in 1911. That act undertook to introduce into Great Britain on one hand the Ghent system that is the system of gov- ernment subsidized unemployment insurance through labor organi- zations and on the other hand a national government administered system of unemployment insurance. Under the law, which was the same law that introduced the illness insurance system, seven great trades, including the building trade, ship-building, construction work, construction of vehicles, and other trades of related nature, were chosen as a sort of experiment ground. The law required em- ployees in these seven great trades, some 2,500,000 men and women, to carry on unemployment insurance. The machinery of the sys- tem was very similar to the machinery used in connection with all of these great national insurance plans. On the employee rested the obligation to procure an unemployment insurance book, which on taking employment must be deposited with the employer. On the employer rested the obligation of pasting in the book at the end of each week, or at the regular pay day, the stamps representing the unemployment insurance premium. The premium for an adult was set at five pence a week, irrespective of wages. Of these five pence (ten cents in our money) one-half comes out of the em- ployer's pocket, one-half comes out of the wages of the employee. To this sum is added a contribution of the government equal to one-third thereof, so that as the system works out, the employer and employee together contribute three- fourths and the government one- fourth, the employer and the employee dividing their contribution. These small weekly payments are transmitted through the post office, which sells these stamps, into an unemployment insurance fund, the total amounting, for these 2,500,000 odd workers, to just about 2,500,000 a year, a very large sum of money in the aggre- gate, although the individual payments are so small. If the in- sured worker becomes unemployed he receives back his book from his employer and he must then deposit that book, with the stamps attached to it, in the nearest labor exchange or insurance office connected with the labor exchange; and, as I said, there is now a network of these exchanges and insurance offices that brings one of them within five miles of every considerable group of workers in the United Kingdom. During the first week of unemployment the worker can claim no benefit. That is considered a waiting period, it being assumed that 288 American Labor Legislation Review most workers can experience unemployment for one week without very great hardship, and that moreover, that would save so much in connection with the administration of the plan and in other ways that the hardships must perhaps be borne for the first week, for the benefit of the larger needs. If the unemployment continues after the first week, the insured worker is entitled to the benefits under the system. If he is insured only through the national insur- ance fund this benefit is seven shillings or $1.75 a week a sum not very large from our point of view, but apparently sufficient in Eng- land to keep a family from outright destitution under ordinary con- ditions. If the worker is in an organized trade which has developed unemployment insurance by itself he can receive in addition to these seven shillings from the government fund as much more as the trade union will provide from its own funds, the only limitation being that the trade union must provide at least one-quarter of the total amount received that being necessary to give the trade union a strong incentive to administer the plan economically. There are limitations of the period during which this unemploy- ment benefit may be received. Those limitations in practice have not proved a very serious burden on wage-earners. One of them, for example, is that no one may draw unemployment benefit for more than fifteen weeks in any year. In the actual experience of the United Kingdom last year 30 per cent of those unemployed found em- ployment during the first week; 69 per cent in addition found re- employment before the time had expired during which they might claim unemployment benefit; so that only i per cent of the very large number of men who were employable were unemployed so long that they could not contiue to receive this unemployment benefit. The purpose of the whole plan is to provide relief for honest wage-earners who want work and not charity, and in administering this relief the labor exchanges, of course, play a vital role. It is through them that the worker is brought into touch with an oppor- tunity to work. In administering that part of the system the managers of these exchanges naturally try to find work for those who need it most. Of course they have to consider the efficiency of the worker and his qualifications for the particular job that offers, but other things being equal they would give the work to the man who needed it most, the man who had been longest unemployed. English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 289 Consequently though the limitation to fifteen weeks in a year looks like a pretty serious limitation, as a matter of actual experience it has shut out of benefits only i per cent of those who were un- employed. In connection with the administration of any such plan as this there are very serious difficulties to be met and solved. One of them is presented by labor disputes. The government cannot very well subsidize strikers and in that way take sides against the em- ployer. Therefore it merely withdraws from the arena and leaves it to the trade unions to provide strike benefits for their members, and when the strike is over and employment is resumed those who cannot get work become once more entitled to the benefits of the system. Another difficulty is extending a system of this kind in a way that will not discourage trade unions. The government has been extremely careful, instead of substituting this for what the wage- earners are doing themselves through their organizations, to make it a supplement to what the wage-earners are doing. This is shown most clearly by the special provisions for those organized workers receiving benefits in trades that are not brought under the compul- sory provision of the law. The government, following the Ghent system, offers a subsidy to trade unions in trades which will thus provide unemployment insurance. The government contributes not more than one-sixth of the out-of-work benefits to the members of trade unions in trades not under the compulsory section of the act, and this amount cannot in any case be more than two shillings a week; that is, the maximum amount is twelve shillings a week alto- gether, ten shillings from the trade union treasury and two shillings from the government. That payment is a subsidy from the govern- ment itself, and is a meaus of encouraging voluntary insurance. When the act went into effect some 500,000 organized workers were in trade unions that paid out-of-work benefits. That number has increased to over a million in this comparatively short time, as a result of this encouragement. Along with it, of course, is a certain amount of advice and supervision to see that the trade unions adopt wise plans that they do not, for instance, promise to pay larger benefits than they can afford to pay from the dues which they col- lect from their members. A third difficulty, and a very serious one, grows out of the fact 290 American Labor Legislation Review that unemployment is a risk to which we are quite unequally exposed. As a college professor I am in an occupation where the risk of unemployment is comparatively slight. The same is true of indi- viduals even in occupations which are highly seasonal. Some indi- viduals, namely the highly skilled, steady-going workers, are always worth more than their wages to their employer, and therefore the employer is very reluctant to let them go. In the present period of unemployment we have found cases where employers were keeping on the payroll their more highly paid men when there was absolutely nothing for them to do, as a better alternative than not to have the benefit of their work when they were needed in turning out a large volume of product. The steady-going, trustworthy, skilled worker who is so satisfactory to the employer that he is the last man to be discharged, would be at somewhat of a disadvantage in a plan that compelled him to pay, week after week, these contributions to an insurance fund when the chances were that he would not be unem- ployed at all. Moreover, he is the man who would be likely to have a savings bank account to look forward to and the rainy day would look to him like a period of needed rest, because even if he lost one job he could get another job with comparative ease. Tha English plan meets that difficulty in a way that is quite satisfactory. It provides that after a man has paid in 500 weekly contributions, has been insured under the system for at least ten years and has reached the age of sixty, he may then claim a refund equal to all that he has paid in, less all that he may have taken out during periods when he has been unemployed, with compound interest at 2^2 per cent. For him therefore the system provides unemployment insurance up to the age of sixty and government guaranteed savings for old age after the age of sixty. A fourth feature of the system, which in my judgment is per- haps the shrewdest feature of all and one that ought to commend it to thoughtful people, is the provision that employers who have kept their employees employed continuously, week after week, for a year, may claim a refund at the end of the year equal to one-third their contribution. That gives them the inducement, which our em- ployers so conspicuously lack, to regularize their employment. It makes it worth while, from the point of view of dollars and cents, for an employer to keep a stated number of men constantly on his payroll, instead of constantly dropping men and taking on new English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 291 men. That regularization of industry is an indispensable feature in any satisfactory solution of the problem. Now as to the operation of this system. It became effective, as regards the payment of benefits, on January 15, 1913. The only complete report that has yet been made on its operation covers the first six months of last year. During these six months the United Kingdom enjoyed unusual general prosperity, and the conditions were highly favorable to the success of the system. This may have been due to some extent to the operation of these labor exchanges, which brought men and work together more promptly, but it was due mainly, undoubtedly, to other causes. Even in that period of general prosperity or less unemployment on the whole than the country had known for the preceding thirty years, there were 560,000 applicants for unemployment benefit, and it was estimated that 400,000 of these came from different individuals, that is to say, every one in five to one in six of these men and women who were insured under the system became unemployed in that period, at least for a time. That means a shifting about in these industries, a constant changing from job to job. That one-fifth of the workers in these trades, in a period of unusual prosperity, should have suf- fered the loss and inconvenience and anxiety involved in changing from one job to another, shows what a chaotic condition our indus- tries are in from the point of view of regularity of employment. In this country the proportionate number of changes must have been very large. That part of the national insurance plan which makes it profitable to the employer to keep in his employ the same men right through the year, tends to lessen that changing from job to job, to the benefit of all concerned, and incidentally, of course, to the reduction of the drains on the insurance fund, because the smaller the number of changes, the smaller the amount of unemployment. Because of this prosperity the payments were very much less than the government had estimated. The total income was on a schedule of 2,400,000 a year. The total payments for benefits amounted to only 700,000. In this period the government accumulated a very substantial surplus, so that when a period of depression conies there will be a reserve fund of millions of pounds sterling to draw upon to insure the continuance of the unemployment benefits. The surplus on the first of July last was 1,600,000, and it has been accumulating since. 292 American Labor Legislation Review On the financial side, then, the system has been highly suc- cessful much more so than was anticipated. Moreover, the gentle- man who deserves the greatest credit for its introduction and administration, Mr. W. H. Beveridge, the director of the labor exchanges and of the unemployment insurance work on the board of trade, states that there is no evidence of any considerable number of frauds upon the fund. There is no evidence that workers are taking advantage of the system to get payments when they profess to want work ; when the work is offered them they take it and show a desire to have the work, rather than to have the payments. That is doubtless for two reasons, aside from the essential honesty of the average man, which is the chief reason : first, that the payment is not large and means a substantial loss of income to the wage- earner; second, that with the limitation on the number of weeks during which he can draw the out-of-work-benefit in a single year he is anxious not to draw the benefit for too many weeks when he can get work, because he may happen in the same year to be unable to get work, and will then have drawn all the benefits he is entitled to in that year. So the workers have responded to the system in the most satisfactory way. Now, has the United Kingdom solved the problem of unemploy- ment? We are very much inclined to see with rose-colored glasses things that are happening a long way off. Our information about them really comes from enthusiastic advocates, and we are very easily misled. We do not wish to make any extravagant claim for this policy, but I do wish to say that it seems to me the United Kingdom is on the road to a solution of the probem of unemployment. It has first of all this connected chain of labor exchanges that connect the jobless man with the manless job. That is the neces- sary basis of any plan. Secondly, it has these distress committees, which have become more and more efficient as time has gone on, and who are devoting their efforts not to running soup kitchens, but in trying to get employers to regularize employment, and trying to adapt public work in the different parts of England so that that will take up the slack when private industry is dull. Finally, and most important, it has this system of unemployment insurance. Those embraced in this system can now look forward to unemployment free from that terrible dread and anxiety which English Method of Dealing With Unemployed 293 the wage-earners must ordinarily feel free from the fear that through it they will be reduced to outright destitution, that they will see their children actually wanting for bread. For those under this plan, unemployment, while still a menace, is a greatly lessened one. We in America are at present under a cloud of unemployment. Just how terrible that cloud is is a matter of difference of opinion, as has been brought out in our sessions this morning and afternoon. In closing I would like to express the hope that the silver lining of that cloud may prove to be such an arousing of public opinion to this evil that measures will be taken in this country that will soon put us abreast of the best that is being done in Europe, and enable us to take the lead as regards this evil, as we have, I am happy to say, as regards some evils that have troubled us in the past. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON Secretary, Chicago Commission on Unemployment We have just heard an admirable description of the largest and most complete system of meeting the problem of unemployment. But our problem in America is a very different one from that of Great Britain or Germany or France. Our problem is to make people feel that we have a problem at all. I do not mean those of us who are out of a job they know very well what it means to be unemployed but our people who are in comfort. I am not saying that they have not pity and humanity and justice that is not true. Some one has said of America, however, that characteristically America is generous, large-hearted and sympathetic when it thinks ; but very often it does not think. This conference is the first national conference to face this awful problem of unemployment. The reason why this prob- lem did not come home to Americans at once, or so early as it came home to the people of Europe, is made plain in a letter which I hold in my hand from M. Leon Bourgeois, former minister of France and president of the International Association on Social Insurance and also of the International Association on Unemploy- ment. In this letter he calls attention to the fact that hitherto in America there has always been room further on. In this great city once a great man said, "Young man, go west." Now the ques- tion is where the west lies. We have gone on along toward the west until the only step that is left is to step out into the Pacific ocean. We feel also that with better methods and better adjustment we ought to be able to remain nearer to the scenes with which we have grown familiar, for I presume that most of us are like the Colorado man who asked the visiting Bostonian how he could bear to live so far away from home. We want sometimes to choose our homes. Many of us are not easily moved about. Some are moved about until at last they get the roving habit, the homeless man's habit. The Struggle Against Unemployment 295 It is bad enough to be out of a job, bad enough to be unemployed alone; it is worse still to be unemployed with a dear wife and little children roaming in the cold and sleet and saying, "Daddy, can't I have something to eat ?" To see that, to feel that once as a human being, makes this not a bare scientific and statistical and local prob- lem, but a problem of the human heart, of human tragedy. And there is something worse than to be merely unemployed. Oh, to see the bread line in our great cities, to see these young men who at first, without any fault of theirs, were forced on from place to place until at last they not only could not get a job, but could not hold a job when they got it ! They had become unemployable through hav- ing been unemployed so long. That is the tragedy of life! We are here in this great city, this center of intellectual and finan- cial power, to discuss with you and to carry back to the Golden Gate and to the south and middle west a definite program on this subject, based on the experience of the past and the needs of our country. A plan of battle is what we have come here to gain and to diffuse, a program practical, common-sense, based on facts of experience, to carry back with the enthusiasm of conviction. Some people say of this problem, "It is as old as our civilization and you cannot do anything about it you cannot solve it at all." But we believe that if this is a problem for men to confront, if this is a battle to be fought, then, because it is difficult and long, we should begin at once, and carry it on until we gain the victory, as we have over other great evils in the past. We have fought with the evil of tuberculosis, of typhoid, and we feel that we have conquered them. Why are we to say that we cannot take hold of this gigantic ser- pent evil and throttle it? We who have fought the battle of the union to free the slaves of the south, cannot we free ourselves as a nation of this evil? When men are suffering and their wives and babies are crying for bread and shelter, it is no time for a man with red blood in his veins to say, "It is something we cannot help! It has always been and always will be." There are a great many things that always have been and which ought not to be, and by the help of Almighty God shall not be ! Antiquity does not give respectability to misery; antiquity does not make sacred the wrong. If this is wrong, then let us, as brothers and sisters, work together until the problem is solved. The preceding speaker has told you of how Great Britain has tackled the problem and is in the way of conquering in this battle 296 American Labor Legislation Review with unemployment. "Oh yes," it is said, "they can do that on the other side of the Atlantic in Germany, because they are accustomed to being led about, in England because they are used to being managed!" Now, we either were born in this coun- try or have adopted it as our country, and we are not here to say that there is any government on earth that can do better than the government that we make for ourselves. Democracy is an awkward thing to get along with ; but when it gets there it stays. Some one has described a monarchy as being a good deal better master or administrator than a republic. But we cannot go back, we must go on. A monarchy is like a great ship. It sails over the sea, it is not afraid of wind or tide; but if it strikes a rock it goes down at once with all on board. A republic is like a huge rock; you cannot sink it, although your feet may be always in the water. We frequently have in our western cities a kind of municipal administration that we do not quite like. We have out there what we call "graft"; perhaps you have heard of it here in New York. They say you cannot administer such public enterprises as we are talking about here, because they will get into "politics." Politics is a good word, and if anybody has fastened on it any bad meanings, let us scrape them off and have pure politics just politics. If we cannot manage our machinery as it stands, then I say we would better crawl out of this country. We have no business here if we cannot believe in our country and in the possibilities of its institutions. x We are undertaking a great task, which will put to the strain all the business ability, all the political sagacity, and all the adminis- trative skill that this great country can command. But the skill and ability and the sagacity are here, and you can count on them in time of peace as well as in those days that I remember in my boy- hood, when brave men went out to battle for unity and for liberty. To-day we have heard from men of all shades of political belief, but we have unity on certain great and definite principles which may be worked out in detail afterward. To some of those principles let me call your attention. Mr. Lieserson, who is one of our best young administrators in this field, told us to-day, "Begin with this simple thing, and stick to it until you get it done : make a record of every man who applies for a job; put him down his name and his address. Put down also every position that you get." What good will that do? It The Struggle Against Unemployment 297 won't make any jobs? No. But suppose you have 100,000 men in a state who have come and said, "I want work," but there are only 95,000 places, and for 5,000 there are no places. Well, if I am going to starve to death, I, for one, want to know it as soon as possible. I do not want to wear out my shoe leather finding out that I must starve. It is not my object to go up and down the streets until my clothing is in tatters and my strength has given out and my hope and manhood are impaired. I am ready to serve the com- munity; if the community has work for me, let me know it. If there is work for me in one single place in a city let me know it, and if in this wide land there is no room for me, and the people say "starve," then starve I must. But I want to know it ; I do not want to be driven down into desperation. I would rather die now than go through what I have seen thousands of our young men go through in the bread lines of our cities. But you haven't any figures. People say there are so and so many thousands of people out of a job. You should have heard the guesses to-day as to the number ! I think it was one of the most brilliant specimens of guess-work I have ever heard in my life. They all had down in black and white that there were 300,000 men out of a job in New York city, and the mayor said, "I don't believe it." Then some other people said "You are a liar if you don't believe it !" Nobody knows ; therefore everybody can guess. Adopt, then, this little first principle, which we understand, and which you will find probably in our resolutions to-morrow, that every man who applies shall be registered. Then the public will guess no longer they will know. Now for these remaining 5,000 out of the 100,000 there is either room on this planet or there is not. Let us call on the federal gov- ernment and ask it to distribute such labor as there is to be dis- tributed, and not hand it over to padrones. I am not going to discuss to-night the problem of immigration. But this I do say, that if we do invite and permit men to come over from Europe to work for us, we cannot hand them over to be destroyed by those who leach upon them and suck their blood. It is our duty to rise to our responsibility, and from the Atlantic shore take them to the places where they must go, and see that from the very moment they enter our country the stars and stripes stand for truth, veracity, justice, rather than for imposition and fraud and destruction. 298 American Labor Legislation Review To do this work properly, we must have local employment agen- cies managed by society, and not by private parties; not local agencies as they are now, miserable, futile things, without scientific records, without adequate resources to advertise to make it known that they exist, and without means to send a man to the job where the work is to be done, when he is penniless. And we hope to make local, state and federal agencies that will be worthy of us as a people, and adequate, complete, sufficient for the task which we shall impose upon them. For another thing, we shall in times of prosperity, as far as possi- ble, say to our governments, federal, state, and municipal, "Look ahead a little. You know that the times of hardship will come. Spread your contracts over ten-year periods, provide your plans and finances for them." It was my duty, as secretary of our Chicago commission which has been studying this matter betwen two and three years, to write to the mayors of our great cities and the presidents of our great railways. Every one of the mayors said that he could not do such a thing not one single president of a great railway thought it could be done. But they gather their men from the ends of the earth, bringing them together by the tens of thou- sands, and discharging them and what happens ? A man may have a job, but he does have a stomach he must eat. And when the wages stop, what then? He ought to save up money, enough to protect him at such time? Sometimes he ought. That is true of some of us it is true of myself. But I do not apply it to the man who gets $1.50 and $1.75 a day, already living within the $700 minimum limit on which a family can exist decently in our country. How could he save unless he robs his body and the bodies of his children of what they ought to have? He could not do it. Then, I say, if you cannot spread the work over several years by careful planning, we must provide something else. We have heard about that to-night because Great Britain has done it. Some political economists have said, "You can do it, but then, you know, it would spoil the character of these working people." I wish I had adequate language to express myself. But I cannot pay my respects to that way of looking at things, because my mother taught me not to swear. But there are times when there are no jobs to be had. Well, Emerson has said that every man is as lazy as he dares to be. Let us be frank, my friends, it is not always the job you want so much, The Struggle Against Unemployment 299 it is the money to buy bread and clothes. And there are times when you cannot work. If it is because of sickness, let us have sickness insurance ; if it is because of accident, let us have accident insurance ; if it is because of old age, let us have old-age insurance; and for unemployment let us pile up the fund when we are all at work then the money will be there when the time of need comes. We are just getting started. As Professor Seager has said, the trade unions have taught the nation how to do it, and we are going to take the idea which the workingmen of Europe and America wrought out, and nationalize it for the workingmen of the whole country. The complete outline of the plan is now before us. I want to dwell upon only one point more. When all of us are paying into an unemployment insurance fund the "captains of industry" will have to earn their title. It is not enough to manage men and things so as to make money. We are beginning to feel the burden of it, and the inspiration of it that to be a captain of industry it is not enough to bring men and machinery and raw material together and make profits ! Out of that must come another profit, and that is MANHOOD manhood not for a class, but for a nation. And when we have taken that ground, when we have seen that accom- plished then we will look ahead further, and will plan so that not only will a maximum of profit be ensured, but a maximum of manhood will still remain. And so we are among you to discuss these matters, and when we have parted from you we shall carry away with us the inspiring message that comes, we are sure, from your hearts also, that in our federal, state and municipal governments we shall band ourselves together for the combat against the common foe, the foe of our nation, of all civilization. In this work every intelligent man shall have his part and all of us shall glory in the result, and hand down to those who are to come after us a better life, a joyous, beautiful life, not a life of riches for a few, but of opportunity for all, of safety for all in time of accident, sickness and old-age. Then no longer shall man hear the howl of the wolf and the scratch of his feet against the door, but the howls shall be removed far away, until they shall die in the dim distance, and a new scene shall arise, and there shall be a united nation, with each man standing for all men, and all men standing for each. THE GERMAN SYSTEM OF LABOR EXCHANGES FREDERICK C. HOWE Director, Peoples' Institute I am glad that Professor Henderson fixed the discussion of this problem on so high a plane. I am glad, too, that he expressed so much confidence in democracy and in the American people. I al- ways like to hear the prevalent suggestion challenged, "Oh, Germany can do these things, yes, and England can do these things, but we in America cannot do these things." For I know from what we have already done, that when a democracy, when the people once free themselves from the tyranny of privileged interests, on the one hand, and from an antiquated and almost insurmountable political ma- chinery on the other, America will do things better than Europe has even thought of. It cannot be otherwise. It is impossible for a free people, in whom the effects of advancement of ideas and thoughts have been felt, not to do better than any of the countries of Europe, no matter how efficient they may temporarily be. I believe in the right to work. I believe in the right of a man to be free from private charity. I believe the right to work ought to be included with those three fundamental rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. For of what possible value are these three rights of a man on the bread-line, to a man who has to go petition- ing to a private charity for the right to live, when his spirit craves for work? For we all want to work. We want the work that our instincts, our training, we ourselves demand. And I do think that the time will come and come quicker in America than in Germany or in England when we shall recognize that a man has no right to be degraded when he wants the dignity of self-respect and work. We all recognize that these questions we are considering to-night do not solve the industrial problem; for the industrial problem is largely traceable to the fact that there are more men seeking jobs than there are jobs seeking men; and until we create a condition where there are more jobs than men, labor will be at a disadvantage it will be the weak brother in the contract. The German System of Labor Exchanges 301 But that is no reason why we should decline to take the next, and to my mind very important steps ; -for society will progress in the future, just as it has in the past. There will be no violent leaps no great chasms between to-day and to-morrow. It seems to me clear that society must progress as a child learns to walk and as a man learns to run. We must proceed from this step to the next; and the first steps, and important steps, are those which have been taken so successfully by monarchical Germany. The labor question is not new in Germany. It has existed there for thirty years. It was recognized by Bismarck's social legislation, inspired partly by the desire to check the Socialists, partly by the scientific intelligence with which Germany approaches her problems. The distinguishing thing about this legislation in Germany is its absolute sincerity. In that respect I think it differs from much of the labor legislation in the United States. But this, to me, is the interesting part of it. If you go into a German factory, or German labor exchange, or any place where working men gather together in Germany, the men look at you with a different look in their eyes than they have in England, than they have in the bread-line of the American cities. Germany has saved the self-respect of her people, and that is the dearest possession of all. Even the worthless man is not so bad as one who has lost his self-respect. A man who has lost his self-respect has lost caste even with his fellows, and it does not take many days or weeks for the self-respecting mechanic, who may have been earning $4 or $5 or $6 a day, to lose caste with himself, because he is not making good. He leaves his family and drops into tramping he takes to the road. He feels just as any man does, in any class of life no matter even if he is not responsible for his failure. Germany has taken precautions against this, intelligently, scien- tifically and humanely, I think. They have a commission there; and in the last twenty-five or thirty years a number of legislative acts have been directed to the efficiency, improvement, betterment of the all-round life of the working class. Two or three years ago I was in Frankfort, and I went to dinner in the Rathskeller one evening. The waiter had been in America and recognized me, and I asked him why he had left this country. Well, he said, he was out of work in America, and he went first to a boarding house, and then to the lodging house, and finally he got back to Germany. "I 302 American Labor Legislation Review don't get very much pay here," he said, "but I am sure of a pension, I am sure that in case of accident I will receive a small payment. I live, by-the-way, in a municipal lodging house and I am happy here and there is no fear for to-morrow, of sickness or old age, the fear that haunted men whom I knew in America. And that," he said, "is why men do not leave Germany any more. They are not even lured by the high wages; for they are happier, more comfortable, more secure at home." A few days later I was in Berlin and I went to the labor exchange which has been conducted there for nearly twenty-five years. It is maintained partly by the state, partly by the municipality. It is a great four-story building, rather comfortable. By mistake I got into the women's department, which opened on one street, and I was courteously told to go to the other side. Then I got into the unskilled department. It was a great hall, capable of seating 1,400 men. There were probably 800 men sitting on the benches, which were arranged across the hall. In the opposite side was a restaurant where for two or three cents a small luncheon could be secured beer was served, sandwiches and the universal sausage. Right next to this was a cobbler's booth, where for two or three cents a man could have his shoes repaired. Nearby was a tailor who repaired the men's clothes at a small charge. Downstairs was a public bath house and laundry, and elsewhere in the building was a dispensary to which men went who were sick or ailing. On the other side was the women's department, which was largely for domestic service and for women engaged in industries, while up- stairs was a department for the skilled workers. After a time I went back to the large hall where the unskilled workers were gathered, and sat among them and watched the men playing checkers, backgammon, chess and cards. They seemed to treat this great institution as a club. The thing that surprised me was that in Berlin, a city of two million people, almost all the men looked so well, looked so self-respecting. They were not oppressed as I expected to find the workless men of a great city, and as I had seen them in London, oppressed by the hopelessness of life. They were not unlike any other gathering of 600 or 700 men. They laughed and joked and played, and seemed to expect, as a matter of course, that within a few hours, or days at the most, the clerk at the other end of the room would call out their names and they would get a job. The German System of Labor Exchanges 303 At the far end of the room there was a long table with clerks, and to those clerks calls came from all over Berlin. The clerk took out his card catalogue, ran through it, and took out the name of the first married man on the list who was fitted for the job. The mar- ried man was chosen in preference to the unmarried man. He called him to the desk and questioned him and found out whether he was fitted to take that job or not; and if all was satisfactory he gave the man a card and told him to report to the employer, with whom, if conditions were satisfactory, he made a contract. If he was not satisfied he returned and reported at the desk, and his name was put on the list again. In the course of a year that exchange found 120,000 jobs for jobless men, for men who would have wasted shoe leather and valuable time coursing up and down the streets of the city, and more important still, they would probably have gotten into the wrong jobs. That is the terrible waste that waste is almost as great as that of temporary unemployment. Through this great clearing house, by classifying the jobs and classifying the men, the $4 man gets into a $4 job, and so is able to produce to his maxi- mum; while the $2 man gets a $2 job. Such a system is the means also of preserving whatever training or skill a man might have spent his life in acquiring. Each state has sixty labor exchanges between 400 and 500 separate municipal exchanges scattered all over Germany. They find jobs all told for over a million men and women a year. If men are wanted in one place they are sent from another place. In each capital city there is a capital clearing house to which reports are made. Firms are supplied with men during thei'r seasonal needs. This is one of many ways in which Germany has taken the first step toward reducing the costs of modern industry the costs that society ought to bear. Society ought to pay for that cost, which we do not pay for under existing conditions. But Germany does a lot of other things, all directed to the same intelligent end. Each city has a lodging house not the kind of municipal house that we know about, that you would be ashamed to be seen in but a clean, attractive place to which any wandering, self-respecting laboring man is willing to go. For the state says, it is a good thing for industry to have men wander from place to place. It is a good thing, and industry would suffer if they did not. 304 American Labor Legislation Review So, say the Germans, if it is a good thing for men to wander, we will make wandering easy by making it easy to find a lodging house. But we in America reverse that practice. We say a man without a job is a vagrant, and if he wanders from place to place without any visible means of support he is frequently arrested and sent to the workhouse, because he is seeking work. We punish him, fine him, imprison him for the vicissitudes of industry. Well, Germany is more humane in that regard than we are, and far more intelligent. Around about these Herrberger, as they call them lodging houses , they give men temporary work, and if after a few days' time they do not find a job in that town they are sent on to another. A man told me that all over southern Germany men had ceased to be tramps, that Germany had so organized this wonderful industrial machine that for the most part a peg was placed in its hole with the minimum of waste to society and to the men. And think what it means to a million wives, to have a million men find jobs! It means home saved, children protected, all society growing up to a higher state of efficiency and comfort than would otherwise have been possible. Now, I don't think that in Germany they realize the ideal state of society by any means. They have not recognized the right to work; they have not produced more jobs; but they have arranged so that ninety or ninety-five men out of a hundred find the jobs for which they are fitted, with the least possible friction and delay. I am content to believe that we must proceed in that way much more rapidly than we have in the past, and the experiences of the last four or five years demonstrate that we will so proceed. But Germany has made a demonstration that to me is sufficient, just as Denmark has made a demonstration that to me is sufficient, that poverty can be cured, but that it can be cured only by law. We have already proceeded to exterminate disease by hygiene, and other legitimate methods. This is the next step in the social program: the cure and extermination of involuntary poverty by law. GENERAL DISCUSSION A VOICE: Why does not the government of this country limit the misleading advertisements of American conditions appearing in all the southern and eastern European papers, which bring people here in ship-loads into a market where there are already too many? CHAIRMAN SEAGER: I am glad to say that the government is trying to stop this practice; but it is not easy to regulate things that do not happen in this country. A VOICE: One of the speakers said to-night that cholera has been wiped out, and small-pox, and tuberculosis are being wiped out, and that unemployment can be wiped out in the same way if we all get to work at it. Now I want to tell you that cholera and small-pox and tuberculosis have been wiped out because they are no respecters of victims. The germs of cholera and small-pox find their way into the homes of the rich as well as the homes of the poor; and it is to the interest of all, rich and poor, to get together and wipe out cholera and small-pox ; but it is not to the interest of the rich to wipe out unemployment. It is to the interest of one class to see that there is an army of unemployed. It is the importa- tion of underpaid labor which is responsible for our condition. In other words, you cannot solve unemployment as long as there are people who are remunerated for no services rendered. CHAIRMAN SEAGER: I should say that the answer to the gentle- man's statement is that the workers are the ones, after all, who must find the solution of this problem. A VOICE: Alexander Law to-day made an address in which he stated that the subways are overworking the employees, and he insisted on an eight-hour schedule. That struck home to me. I believe that that is an important point. How can it be obtained? CHAIRMAN SEAGER: That might be obtained by legislation, through the state legislature if the courts would uphold an eight hour day. They have upheld other hour limits on railroads and public service companies, but the legislature as yet has not tried an eight-hour day. I think that is the direction in which we are mov- ing, and perhaps it is the solution that we will sometime gain. 306 American Labor Legislation Review A VOICE : Don't you think it is necessary for the government to take over the railroads, the telephone and the telegraph lines, so that they might be managed interlocking with the labor exchanges, as in Germany? CHAIRMAN SEAGER : That has not been necessary in other coun- tries. In Canada, for example, the Canadian Pacific railroad transports workers from the east to the west free of charge. A VOICE: There is only one remedy for the unemployed and that is -for the unemployed to get educated to the fact and fitted industrially and politically to overthrow the rotten system in this rotten country; to take the land, get possession thereof, to own their own jobs ! A VOICE : Is there any fixed policy of the American Federation of Labor on this subject, and if so what is it? CHAIRMAN SEAGER : As far as I know, the American Federation of Labor has no definite program with reference to this subject, except the general policy of shortening the workday, and in that way enlarging the field of employment. A VOICE: Is there any one thing more than another, that will prevent the disrespect for the working class by the ruling class ? Is there anything more disrespectful than the method of handling our unemployed and bread-liners which has been going on here for years? If a cyclone affected a city far away, or there were a famine, they would contribute to that 'foreign city generously. But the wage-earners of the United States, the producers of all the wealth, are neglected, and treated with contempt. You may recall that in 1905 they sent the men into the morgue, to sleep with the dead. That shows what contempt they had for the working class in this city, state and nation. CHAIRMAN SEAGER: It is just that condition that we are trying to get away from. A VOICE: I would like to correct an impression given to this audience by Professor Henderson. I and some of my associates are interested in very large tracts of western lands. We have General Discussion 307 several millions of dollars invested in this land, and we find it im- possible to market it at any price. I say we need immigration. A VOICE: I wish to discountenance this misrepresentation of conditions in California and in San Francisco. I say as between the two men, the one who has the large acreage of land that he de- sires to sell, and the man who complained that workers by the thousands were being invited to the state without jobs being pro- vided for them, the man who spoke about the jobs is right. There is no work out there for one-half of the people who are being in- vited, and I would not advise anybody to go out there before having good prospects before he starts. A VOICE: We all know that a lot of men in the city of New York are out of work. I would like to ask you what are these men who are in the bread-line at the present time going to do in the meantime? CHAIRMAN SEAGER : I think there should be no "meantime." We ought to get to work right off on this program, on the part of it that affects the bread-line, for this is the part that relates to trying to find employment for those men who are in need of it, and sift out from the bread-line those who are ill and unable to work, and provide them with the care they should receive. IV CONSTRUCTIVE PROPOSALS Presiding Officer: HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation NEW YORK CITY INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS HENRY R. SEAGER President, American Association for Labor Legislation. I believe that notwithstanding the fact that so many different aspects of the problem of unemployment were touched upon in the addresses yesterday, notwithstanding the confusion of mind resulting therefrom, all of us have nevertheless had our thoughts somewhat clarified on this subject. As speaker followed speaker yesterday I felt that the whole matter stood out more and more clearly, and that what ought to be done in this country, following, to some extent, what has actually been done in other countries, became more and more obvious. The aspect of the question most impressed upon my own thought was the necessity for regularizing employment. It is still true that nine out of ten employers employ and discharge their wage-earners with very little consideration for the welfare of the wage-earner. That is to say, they look upon loss of work as a risk which the employee takes, and they have taken it for granted that the worker, on his side, can face that risk, and that he is in a position to find re-employment if he is discharged. It is notorious, however, that that is not the case with the average worker, and this brings out the second aspect of the situation, that along with the chaotic and inconsiderate method of conducting industry which we have been following in this country, we have failed to develop any adequate machinery to help the discharged man to get another job. We have put it up to him to tramp the streets until he finds re-employment. Aside from the injustice,, the cruelty of that system, the lack of economy must impress every one, the loss of time, the loss of efficiency, and the loss of ambition that result from putting upon the individual worker the responsi- bility of finding a new job. That makes very clear, I believe, as the first need of this whole situation, the organization of the labor market in a way that will compare, as far as is possible, with what we have already achieved in the organization of commodity markets. 312 American Labor Legislation Review The labor market is the only market in which the burden is thrown upon the seller. All other markets throw the burden upon the buyer. Our stock exchange, our commodity markets, are all organized on the latter plan; but the labor market, which from every other point of view is vastly more important than any com- modity market, is organized on the former plan. The buyer sits back and puts a notice in his window, "Boy wanted," or "Girl wanted," and throws upon the seller the necessity of coming to him and offering his services with a large chance of having the offer rejected. On that point all European countries are ahead of this country, because every one of them has developed some sort of machinery for relieving the laborer of this great and cruel necessity of tramping the streets in search of work when he falls out of employment. Dr. Howe last night described in a very attractive way the man- ner in which Germany is meeting this need. After hearing him speak, I think we almost felt that in Germany it would be rather nice to be unemployed, to be able to go to one of these clubs, and to play checkers, or chess, while waiting for another job to be offered. Germany, as regards this phase of the situation, leads the world, not because its plan is more comprehensive than is proposed in the United Kingdom, but because it has been in oper- ation longer. The third aspect of the situation impressed upon my thought is the need of some sort of guidance that will assist the young boy and girl, on leaving school, to make a first choice of employment wisely, and to assist the more advanced worker to choose wisely when he is thrown out of employment; and in regard to this voca- tional guidance it is clear also that we need better machinery for trade and industrial education. Finally, the aspect that was not brought out so clearly in the conference during the day, but that was emphasized in the addresses in the evening, is the need of machinery to insure those in seasonal trades against the financial consequences of unemployment, some plan by which 'the workers can pool their small savings in a common fund out of which they can draw out-of-work benefits when they are out of work. Such a plan is needed, furthermore, so that the wage-earner can enjoy each year the holiday which the salaried em- ployee regards as one of the most important parts of his compen- Introductory Address 313 sation. It is really true that the only way for the wage-earner to get a holiday is to be unemployed. Every man employed ought to have a holiday of from two to four weeks in the year, and we ought to have machinery by which the wage-earner can draw his out-of-work benefit in the meantime and be assured of re-employ- ment when he is ready to go back to work. Through a system of unemployment insurance such as many of the trade unions have worked out and are operating successfully we may approximately cover this ground. England has demon- strated that what the trade unions have accomplished can also be undertaken on a national scale, through the national government. That is the fourth and last plank in the program of solution that has impressed itself upon my mind. This morning we want to have other suggestions put before us. We want to have the all-important question decided as to what we should do immediately, and what measures we should take to secure these developments that must come only after further study and further education of public opinion. For as Professor Henderson said last night, one of our greatest difficulties in this country still is to persuade the ordinary, comfortable citizen that there is any real problem of unemployment. Many people still believe that if a man wishes to, he can get work, and if he cannot there must be something the matter with the man. That was said at a meeting on unemployment I attended recently that the unemployment prob- lem was not an industrial problem, but a relief problem, the prob- lem of the hobo and the vagrant. That view is still common and it is only through persistent educational campaigns that we can educate our comfortable fellow-citizens out of the notion, and get general support for the complete program which is necessary for anything like an adequate solution of the problem. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN THEORY AND PRACTICE WILLIAM M. LEISERSON Wisconsin Superintendent of Employment Offices 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 agri- cultural 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 establishment 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.- In theory they were designed to furnish clearing houses for labor, to bring the job and the man together with the least delay, and to eliminate the private labor agent, whose activity as middleman is so often accompanied by fraud, misrepre- sentation and extortion. In practice, far from supplanting private agencies, the free offices have not even maintained an effective competition against them. With few exceptions their operations have been on a small scale, their methods unbusinesslike, and their statistics valueless if not unreliable. Four states and about half a dozen cities have discontinued their public employment offices, and most of those now in existence are constantly on the defensive to maintain their existence. ARE PUBLIC OFFICES A FAILURE? Shall we say, then, that public employment offices are a failure, and give up all attempts to establish them? If we do, we should Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 315 have to say that our state labor departments, our factory inspec- tion departments, our health departments should also be given up; for their history in the United States has been about the same as that of the employment offices. They have been manned without merit and their work is crude and ineffective. The fact of the matter is, however, that employment offices, like factory inspection and the health work of our governments, are based on sound principles, and their lack of success has been due mainly to the general administrative inefficiency of our government work. In Europe, where public labor exchanges have been most successful, they are by no means all equally successful. Some German cities have active, business-like labor exchanges, but in other cities the work of the offices is as sleepy and inefficient as any of our own. The lesson is obvious. If we want successful public employment offices we must follow the example of the larger German cities, and put people in charge of them who understand the business, who know its principles and its technique, and who will work with vigor and energy to make their offices successful. Do WE WANT PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES? But do we want public employment offices at all? Is the state justified in maintaining such offices? These questions must be set- tled at the beginning. Many thoughtful people see no necessity for such public agencies. Samuel Gompers in the American Feder- ationist recently stated that the existing agencies were ample for distributing the labor forces of the country. A Massachusetts commission to investigate employment offices, argued that "for well- known reasons we never think of establishing governmental grocery stores and governmental dry goods shops in the hope of having the community better served than by private enterprises. The same reasons should clearly govern our attitude towards employment offices, unless it is shown that the employment office business is different from other businesses." Public employment offices, in the opinion of the commission, should not be established to com- pete "with the private office in placing regular domestic, mer- cantile or other skilled labor." The trouble with these views is that they are held by people who do not understand the nature of the employment business. That the three months spent by the Massachusetts commission in study- 316 American Labor Legislation Review ing employment offices was not sufficient to learn the business is evident from the comparison with groceries and dry goods stores. As a matter of fact the comparison should be with the post office, the school system, and the distribution of weather and crop re- ports. The unfortunate thing is that not only the publ : c at large but most of those in charge of our employment offices have not understood the nature of the business. WHY WE NEED EMPLOYMENT OFFICES In order to judge correctly of the public employment offices we must know the principles upon which they are based. What, then, is an employment office, and what are its purposes and functions? In a sentence, an employment office may be defined as a place where buyer and seller of labor may meet with the least possible difficulty and the least loss of time. 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. Now, why do we need an organized labor market? Employers are constantly hiring and discharging employees. Workers are constantly looking for employment. The New York Commission on Unemployment reported in 1911 that four out of every ten wage-earners work irregularly and have to seek employment at least once, probably many times during the year; and it found un- employment and unfilled demand 'for labor existing side by side. Census returns, manufacturing statistics and special investigations all reveal the intermittent character of the demand for labor which necessitates a reserve of labor, employed not steadily, but shifting from place to place as wanted. How does a wage-earner find employment? Interesting light is thrown upon this question by statements made to the New York Commission on Unemployment by 750 employers. Of these 458, or over 60 per cent, stated that they could always get all the help they needed, and practically all of them hired their forces from people who made personal application at their plants. Two hundred ad- vertised in newspapers, and also hired from among those who made personal application at the plant. About fifty used employment agencies and ten depended upon trade unions. The main reliance, Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 317 therefore, is placed upon wage-earners calling at the plants, and upon the newspapers. What this means is well illustrated in a com- munication sent to the Chicago Tribune by a working girl. She wrote : "For the last ten days I have been going to the loop every day to look for work. I am there at eight o'clock in the morning. I look for work until eleven. From eleven to twelve is the lunch period in most big establishments, and it is useless to try to see anybody at that time. My lunch in a cafeteria gives me a rest of fifteen or twenty minutes. Then I am back again on the sidewalk. The chase from building to building during the morning and the constant dodg- ing of automobiles tire me. Is there a place where I can go to rest up?" The girl's question does not concern us so much here as her method of seeking employment. Think of the waste of time and energy and the discouragement in going from door to door to ask if any help is needed. She had been doing this for ten days with- out success: and the significant thing about her search for work is that the demand for women workers is generally greater than the supply, and this was in a busy month, July, during a fairly prosper- ous year, 1913. What must be the waste and discouragement of men whose labor is not so much in demand? This is the price we pay for lack of organization in the buying and selling of labor. The reason most employers can get all the help they need at their gates or by inserting an "ad" in a news- paper is because there are thousands of such men and women going from door to door and hundreds responding to each cue given in the newspapers. 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. A recent investigation in the Philippines de- scribed how chair makers and box makers after working up a stock of goods take them to sell on a peddling tour in ox carts. When they want wood for their manufacture a member of the household sets out on the road and buys the first tree that suits his purpose. Our industries have developed far beyond this, but in the buying and selling of labor they are almost all in this primitive stage. American Labor Legislation Review The economic waste from lack of intelligent organization of the labor market shows itself in the development of many small markets. Each factory gate and industrial district of a city tends to become a market. Each draws a reserve of labor ready to meet the fluctuat- ing demands of employers. This reserve is increased by the multi- plication of markets, and a maladjustment is caused between supply and demand. The manless job and the jobless man often fail to meet. There is an oversupply of labor in one place, and a shortage in another. Some occupations are overcrowded while others have not a sufficient supply. An organized market for labor is needed for the same reason that other markets are organized, to eliminate waste, to facilitate exchange, to bring the supply and demand quickly together, to develop the efficiency that comes from special- ization and a proper division of labor. The good workman, like the good manufacturer, may be a poor merchant or salesman. An organized labor market will enable workers to attend to their busi- ness of working and will develop efficient dealers in labor who will be specialized as employment agents.- PUBLIC OR PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS? Granting the need of an organized labor market, is it the duty of the state to organize it? Can we not depend upon private enter- prise to perform, this function as we do in the grocery or in the dry goods business? It would seem a sufficient answer that private enterprise up to the present has not undertaken so to organize the labor market. Business men have let the distribution of labor lag more than a hundred years behind the general development of industry, not without good reasons. The main reason has been that the entire burden of the maladjustment is borne by the wage-earner. It is he who suffers from the loss of time and energy; and moreover the failure to get a job quickly makes him willing to take work at any price, tends to keep wages down. Wherever employers have felt a lack of labor they have developed some form of organized search for help. Thus railroad and lumber companies and other large em- ployers of labor do have labor agents, and private labor agencies cater mainly to such employers. But there are other reasons why private enterprise has failed to organize this service properly. The nature of the business is such Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 319 that to be successful it really needs to be a monopoly. It is like the post office and not like the grocery business. The service is a public utility. Little capital is required, the operations are simple and the profits are large. A labor agent who ships to a railroad one hundred men a day, which is a comparatively small number, makes $100 or more profit. This tends to multiply labor agencies and keep each business small. In New York city alone there are almost a thousand labor agencies and yet 85 per cent of the em- ployers never use them. In Chicago there are over 600. The multiplication of agencies has the same evil effect as the multipli- cation of labor markets. They merely make more places to look for work, and the more places the more are the chances that man and job will miss each other. The agencies, being in competition, will not exchange lists and an applicant for work may register at one while another has the job which fits him. Furthermore, the fee which private labor agents must charge for their service precludes them from becoming efficient distributors o the labor force of a state. At the very time when labor is most overabundant, when there are many unemployed and it is import- ant that those who can shall go to work at once, then the fees for securing employment are highest. A barrier is thus interposed to the proper flow of labor into the channels where it is needed. Moreover there is ever the temptation to the agent to fill his po- sition from among people who are already employed. This practice is universal among private labor agents. It enables them to create new vacancies and to earn more fees. But besides private employment agencies which charge fees for their services there have been attempts by trade unions, employers' associations and philanthropic societies to organize the placing of labor without charge. These, too, have failed, and for obvious reasons. Employers will not patronize a trade union office except when the trade is completely organized. It gives the union too powerful a weapon in the struggle for control. Wage-earners, on the other hand, will not go in great numbers to an agency main- tained by employers because of its possible use for blacklisting, breaking strikes and beating down wages. If there is any one con- dition that is basic in the successful management of an employment office, it is that it must be impartial as between employers and workers in their struggles over conditions of employment. As for 320 American Labor Legislation Review philanthropic agencies, the tinge of charity has been fatal to them. No self-respecting wage-earner wants to apply at a charitable agency, and no employer will call for efficient and steady help at such an agency. The state, and not private individuals, then, must be relied upon to organize the labor market, because the gathering of information about opportunities for employment and the proper distribution of this inforrnation to those in need of it require a centralized or- ganization which will gather all the demand and which will be in touch with the entire available supply. The gathering and the distribution must be absolutely impartial. Wage-earners and em- ployers must have faith in the accuracy and reliability of the in- formation. There must be no tinge of charity to the enterprise, and fees big enough to interpose a barrier to the mobility of labor must be eliminated. PHILANTHROPIC AND REGULATED EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES Now it may be true that employment offices perform a public function, and that they are in the nature of public utilities, and yet the weaknesses of state activity may be such as to make it impossible for any American state to perform the service properly. Perhaps we ought to induce enterprising business men to organize the labor market on a large scale and then regulate them as we do our railroads and street car companies. This is the view of a recent French writer on unemployment, M. Bellet. Perhaps we ought to rely upon philanthropists to invest in this business, as they have done in provident loan societies and model tenements, with the expectation of a moderate return on the capital. This idea was expressed by Dr. E. T. Devine at the International Con- gress on Unemployment in Paris in 1910, and the National Em- ployment Exchange established in New York with an endowment of $100,000 is an embodiment of the idea. It is not necessary here to enter into the relative merits of gov- ernmental regulation and of governmental operation. Suffice it to say that if this important function be left in private hands it will require the very strictest regulation to insure just treatment of all patrons and impartiality between employers and workmen in labor disputes. The regulation can never be effective until it establishes the confidence of both employers and workers in the fairness and Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 321 impartiality of the private labor agents. To accomplish this the state would have to employ honest, energetic and capable men to do the regulating who would understand the employment business thoroughly. But if the government had the services of such a set of men there could be no doubt of its ability to manage employment offices on its own account with more success than private enter- prise could, if for no other reason than the fees which the private agency would have to charge. In addition, however, it must be remembered that this is a business which lends itself easily to fraud and imposition, as every one has found who has studied the ques- tion, and if left in private hands it can never be possible to prevent the multiplication of agencies which plays against their efficiency. As for a philanthropic enterprise, it is bound to be considered a charity unless it charges fees. However reasonable it may make its charges, to a certain extent it is bound to defeat its own purpose by keeping the man who hasn't the fee from a job. But its greatest handicap will be that it must be supported by men with money to invest, that is, employers of labor. Workmen will always look upon it either with suspicion or with the disdain they commonly attach to paternal enterprises. As a matter of fact many of the municipal employment offices in Germany did start as philanthropic enter- prises and it was found more effective to turn them over to the cities and give capital and labor representation on a parity in their management. Much the better solution, it seems to me, would be for the state frankly to assume the responsibility of providing wage-earners and employers with information as to the location and condition of labor demand and supply. The function would be no different from that assumed in the maintenance of schools and libraries. SHALL THE SERVICE BE FREE? But will not the furnishing of this service free of charge by the state tend to undermine the self-reliance of the workers? Is it not in fact a charity although every one may take advantage of it? This fear has been expressed whenever the state proposed to enter upon any new enterprise. In the present case it is due to a mis- conception of the nature of the employment business, and experience has shown the fear to be groundless. An employment office does not give work to anyone. It merely tells the applicant where there 322 American Labor Legislation Review is a job. To secure a position the applicant must have the same qualities of fitness and efficiency as if he had got in touch with the employer after a day of pounding the pavements. It is information and not jobs that employment offices distribute. The employer is directed to the supply of labor, the worker is informed as to the location and condition of the demand. It is because the welfare of society depends upon the widest possible distribution of reliable information of this kind that the state is justified in giving the service free. What information could be more important to a people than to know exactly where opportunities are open for men to apply their energies to make a living? It is the same sort of information that the government distributes to business men in its consular reports, geological sur- veys, and its publications on the natural resources of the states. It distributes the information free for the same reason that it main- tains free schools and distributes crop reports and weather reports free. The importance and the essentially public nature of the in- formation gathered by employment offices make the performance of this service a public function. ARE THE ADMINISTRATIVE DIFFICULTIES INSURMOUNTABLE? It remains now to show that an American state can actually or- ganize the labor market and administer the organization efficiently and effectively. To begin with, I have no defense to make of the free employment offices in the United States. All the criticism that has been directed against them is well deserved, but it is not final, because some states have been successful with them. More- over, it is far more true of private employment agencies than of public, that most of them have been frauds as well as failures. The first requisite of successful employment offices is that the people who manage them shall know their business. This would seem axiomatic, but it has been a weakness of all governmental activity that officials are placed in positions for political reasons rather than for their efficiency. It is not necessary, however, that the office force should be made up of economists and sociologists. This business can be learned by ordinary people as well as any other business. All that is necessary is that the public shall insist that officers be appointed for merit alone and that their tenure of office be permanent as long as they attend to business properly. Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 323 Also there must be some system of promotion, so that the ambitious clerk in a public employment office may be advanced both in po- sition and in salary. This is nothing more than a well organized system of civil service. That an American state can establish such a system of civil service and can conduct employment offices on the soundest prin- ciples of management is proved by the experience of Wisconsin. In 1911 the industrial commission reorganized the four free em- ployment offices in the state and proceeded to work out a system of civil service. The force of employees was selected by an examining board on which the industrial commission, the state civil service commission and organized employers and workers were represented. 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 prob- lem of unemployment. He should be depended upon to train the staff, supervise its work and to develop an administrative machine that will be permanent. The subordinate officials must know that they are selected because they seem most promising, and that their tenure of office depends upon the character of their work. Their salaries should be increased as they improve in efficiency, and when vacancies occur the most fit should be promoted. 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. A managing committee of employers and workmen should be organized, with each side equally represented, the state and local governments also having members. This committee decides all matters of policy, especially the attitude of the office during industrial disputes. It sees to it that neither one side nor the other is favored at such times. It should be established as a principle of the management that the offices are not charities but pure business propositions to facili- tate the meeting of buyers and sellers of labor. Fitness for posi- tions should be the prime test in all dealings. If applicants are unemployed because of old age, inefficiency or disability of any kind, it will be no help either to them or to the community to refer them to positions which they cannot hold. On the other hand, it is liable to kill the office. 324 American Labor Legislation Review Finally it must be strictly maintained that information, and not jobs, is distributed by the public employment offices. No one is assured of a position by applying for work. No employer is as- sured of help. The offices merely bring to the notice of working people the opportunities for employment for which they are fitted, and connect employers with the available supply of labor of the kind they need. Employers and workers are left to make their own bargains. No responsibility is assumed by the management beyond the accuracy and the reliability of the representations that are made by the office force to applicants for employment or help. The result of this system in Wisconsin has been unusually suc- cessful. 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 fourfold over preceding years when it was conducted as the majority of employment offices in the United States have been managed. Applications 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 ac- tually 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 populations of less than 45,000. While they have not shown such remarkable results, they have substantially increased their business. MANAGEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT OFFICES Coming a little farther into the details of management we found an accurate system of record keeping essential. The temptation is ever present to minimize the importance of records and to say that the securing of employment is the chief function. But it is not possible to run an employment office properly without a careful system of records any more than any other business can be con- ducted without a set of books. A proper selection of applicants for positions available is possible only by a careful system of regis- tration. Moreover, the applicant must be followed to the place of employment and an accurate record kept of the positions to which Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 325 he is sent. On the employer's side a list of the applicants referred to him must be kept. Often men do not report for work; sometimes they hire out and fail to appear the next day, or they work a few hours and quit without reason. Employers, too, are not careful to represent con- ditions as they are. They may promise more wages than they pay, or if board and lodging are a part of the remuneration they may not provide proper food or accommodations. Often they promise steady work when they need but temporary help, and some em- ployers fail to pay wages promptly. These facts with regard to both employers and employees must be carefully noted in order that each applicant may be sized up correctly, and the character of the positions accurately represented to those seeking employment. It is easy to overload the office with bookkeeping, but our managers studied the work of the offices thoroughly and were not afraid to make changes from time to time, as new methods suggested them- selves. A simple card system has been worked out which is easily understood and requires little time to maintain. Care is taken to give applicants as full information as possible about trie positions to which they are referred. Discrimination is made only on reliability and fitness, and such discrimination is al- ways openly made and the reasons frankly given to the persons discriminated against. Here the records of the office are of the greatest value in offering proof of unreliability or unfitness, and, in the case of employers, of misrepresentation or unfairness in treat- ment of former applicants. As employers have found an office careful in selecting applicants they have placed more and more value on its introduction card. Sometimes they refuse to hire anyone without such a card and this is a recognition that the staff is developing specialists. Work- men soon learned the value of the introduction card, and by the consistent refusal of such a card to the unfit and unreliable they were soon separated from the able and willing workers. There is, however, no rigid rule of unfitness, and the office force does not pass judgment on applicants from the one-sided stand- point of the employer. A man may be unfit for a steady position, but he may be the best kind of a person for a short job of a day or a week. An applicant may refuse employment if wages or other conditions do not suit him as many times as he pleases, provided 326 American Labor Legislation Review he does not say he will accept the position and then fail to keep his promise, thus keeping another man from the work. Just as the employer may hire whom he pleases or for as short a period as he pleases, so the worker may accept what position he pleases and for as short a period as he pleases, provided in both cases that they make their intentions known to the office force and thus do injury to no one. Of course, the prime test of the successful management of an employment office comes in times of industrial disputes. Experience has shown that to take sides with either party to the dispute is fatal. Following the most widely accepted German practice, the Wisconsin employment offices have adopted the policy of listing demands for help from employers whose workmen are on strike. Then if the applicant wishes to be referred to the employer he knows the conditions and goes on his own responsibility. We have passed through several strikes with this policy, and it has been satisfactory to both employers and union members. EMPLOYMENT OFFICES AND UNEMPLOYMENT We have considered thus far the functions of the public employ- ment office as an organization of the labor market of a state and the practical administrative problems of such an organization. Public employment offices have, however, an additional important function as an agency for dealing with the problem of unemploy- ment. In any intelligent attempt to deal with the unemployed an efficient system of employment offices must be the first step. We have already seen how lack of organization in the buying and selling of labor causes maladjustment between demand for labor and supply. If we look more deeply into the problem of un- employment we shall find that it is entirely a problem of maladjust- ment. In the United States at least, there is no permanent surplus of labor in excess of the demand. There are places and industries where at times the supply exceeds the demand, and at other times in the same places and industries the demand exceeds the available supply. If we consider the maximum demand for labor of all employers there is no evidence at all to show a surplus of labor. The trouble is that the demand is not a steady one, but fluctuates from season to season, from year to year, and with the vicissitudes of competing employers. Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 327 The problem is akin to the electrical engineer's difficulty of se- curing a constant load curve. The maximum demand for electric light comes during the long nights of the winter months. The capacity of the power house must be able to meet this demand, but for a large part of the year from one-fourth to one-half of the capacity will not be called upon. Just so with labor. The labor force is not in excess of the capacity demand. The demand, how- ever, is a fluctuating one, and at times from one-fourth to one- half of it is not wanted. Demand for labor is, as in the case of electricity, really the combined demands of thousands of individual buyers, each with a different and a fluctuating demand. While the total supply is not in excess of the total maximum demand, there are constant malad- justments. These maladjustments are of three kinds: (i) In re- spect to place. Wage earners may be scarce in one place and over- supplied in another. (2) As between industries or occupations. Some may be overcrowded while others are undersupplied. (3) In respect to time. The winter months usually show an excess of supply over demand, and some years there may be a scarcity of labor while others show an excess. Public employment offices, scientifically managed, may be used to reduce these maladjustments, and, where they cannot entirely abolish them, they can give the facts which will enable us to devise means of mitigating their effects and compensating those who must bear the burdens. The offices must be conceived as power houses for labor. They must be organized in each state and country as one unified system, with one central power house and branches as sub-stations. The current of labor must be directed away from the districts and industries which show a slackening demand to where the demand is quickening, just as electric power houses shift the current in the evening and on holidays from the business districts to the residence sections. This may be accomplished by the exchange of lists of vacancies and by the frequent circulation of labor market bulletins. Not the least of the evils of maladjustment in the labor market is caused by the circulation of false reports by employers and private labor agents as to the demand for labor. With an accurate system of statistics and daily reports from each public office there is no reason why the conditions and the transactions of our labor markets 328 American Labor Legislation Review cannot be as reliably reported on the market pages of our news- papers as are the transactions of the stock markets, wheat pits, or produce exchanges. This will go far toward eliminating malad- justment in regard to place. EMPLOYMENT OFFICES AND THE LABOR RESERVE Our analogy to an electrical plant suggests a more fundamental remedy for unemployment, namely, the reduction of the reserve of labor necessary to meet the fluctuating demands of industry. A reserve of labor must ever be present to allow for the extension of industrial enterprises and for new undertakings, to meet the de- mand of the busy months in seasonal industries, and to supply the casual workers or temporary help who are required by every in- dustrial undertaking. Electrical engineers have discovered that it is not necessary to maintain a plant capable of supplying current to all consumers in all their connections at the same time. Such a demand is never likely to occur, and all that is really necessary is a safe reserve to meet the actual greatest demands as shown by experience. The principle is the same as that of a bank reserve. Just so in the labor market. Without a centralized employment agency each plant tends to keep around its gates the reserve that it will need during its busiest period and to meet sudden demands for labor. The total reserve of all the employers, therefore, tends to become great enough to meet the demand of all the employers at the same time. As a matter of fact this maximum demand is not exerted by all employers at the same time, and if a centralized public employment office were established the reserve could be greatly reduced; for the same workers could be used to supply the tempo- rary demand of different employers. Each individual employer would have his necessary reserve available, but the total reserve labor force would need to be only large enough to meet actual de- mands rather than possible demands of all employers at the same time. We are not here concerned with what will become of those who are squeezed out of the reserve. That requires separate study as a problem of unemployment. When the reserve is larger than is actually needed, earnings are insufficient for all. We want to elimi- nate the excess so that the best may be conserved and utilized. Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 329 EMPLOYMENT OFFICES AND CASUAL LABOR Probably the most perplexing complication of the unemployment problem is the system of casual labor. The underemployment suf- fered by the large number of short-job workers gives us our greatest difficulty. Few people realize the amount of work in every industrial community that consists of short jobs. In Wisconsin fully one- fourth of the total demand for labor registered at the employment offices is for work lasting less than a month. These jobs are ordinarily scattered among a lot of laborers far in excess of the number actually needed. Each laborer manages to get a small part of this work and none has an adequate income. We have undertaken to concentrate as much of the casual work as pos- sible on the better workers. Our system of records enables us to pick out the most efficient and to give them a preference in dis- tributing this work. The aim is to keep a smaller number practi- cally steadily employed by sending them from one short job to another, and to squeeze out the less efficient. Because casual work requires little reliability, skill or intelligence, it offers a field for the handicapped, the aged, the inefficient, the partially disabled, and the drunks. These get a wholly inadequate income for themselves, and they reduce the earnings of the others. By concentrating the casual work on the better workers, they might be made self-sup- porting, and the problem of dealing with the aged, the disabled and the unreliable will be simplified. VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE Maladjustment between industries and occupations may also be partially remedied by a well-organized system of public employment offices. In the United States the ignorance which causes some trades to be overcrowded while others are under-supplied, comes from two sources. First, children enter industry wholly unadvised and take the first work that offers itself after leaving school, regardless of their fitness for it, or of the opportunities for an adult to make a living at it. Secondly, our immigrants act equally blindly. They are uninformed regarding possibilities of securing employment at work similar to what they did in their native lands, and they enter the overcrowded fields already occupied by their countrymen. As institutions for furnishing information, public employment offices have as one of their greatest functions to stand at the entrance 33 American Labor Legislation Review to the industrial world and point the way to children and immigrants. For the former, cooperation with the schools is necessary. Before quitting school, children and their parents should be furnished with bulletins of information describing the requirements of various callings and the opportunities in them. These can be prepared by the officials of the employment offices, for they are constantly in touch with employers and know the demands of industry. The teachers can inform the parents of the aptitudes of the children, and with this information a careful and intelligent choice can be made. Similar measures can be devised for 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. To this end the clerks must keep constantly in touch with the evening schools for foreigners and with the resi- dence sections and boarding houses for immigrants. With intelligent and energetic efforts by the officials of the public employment offices thus to direct the stream of new labor that comes from the schools and from the farm lands, much of the maladjustment between industries arising from ignorance might be obviated. WORK TESTS 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 administrative machinery for testing the validity of any wage- earner's claim that he is unable to secure employment. As already intimated in our discussion of the reserve of labor, unemployment is as much a permanent risk of industry as are accidents or industrial disease. The extent of the risk can be measured by the transactions of the labor exchanges. When measures for compensating workers for this risk are devised they will have to be coupled with an adequate work test. 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 emplovment offices can offer such em- Public Employment Offices in Theory and Practice 331 ployment, 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 idleness 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. GENERAL DISCUSSION FRANCES A. KELLOR, North American Civic League for Immi- grants: There were two phases of the discussion yesterday which impressed me very much. The first was that the unemployment problem is much beyond anything that the city or state can relieve, and that at the present time we have no nation-wide system of dealing with the nation-wide problem. The second fact brought out was that we have practically no information on unemployment. Representatives from one com- munity will say that the unemployment is not unusual and those from other communities will say that a large number of industries are closed and many men are out of work. In the matter of nation-wide distribution, the federal Department of Labor has under consideration at the present time three bills for the establishment of a federal Bureau of Distribution. The first bill provides that there shall be a Bureau of Distribution for the purpose of distributing labor throughout the country, and that the bureau shall have power to establish employment agencies, espe- cially at certain reserve points which are primarily concerned not with the city or with the state, but with the shipment of large numbers of men from one part of the country to another. The bureau is to have wide powers of investigation and, to a certain extent, a supervision of transportation, as any plan of distribution of labor must take into consideration the transportation problem. One of the greatest difficulties has been providing transportation for men who were really willing to go from one point to another. It is also necessary that a bureau of this kind should have the investigation of interstate distribution. In the shipping of a large number of men from one point to another many difficult questions will constantly arise. In my judgment any bureau of distribution that the federal government might see fit to establish will not be successful unless along with it we have the regulation of employ- ment agencies that do an interstate business. The history of state legislation on the question of unemployment shows that unless the agencies can be standardized a bureau will not be successful, because it is unable to compete in any intelligent way with the private agencies. General Discussion 333 Therefore the second bill provides for the regulation of employ- ment agencies that send employees from one state to another, and also those which furnish laborers to persons or corporations doing an interstate business. That is very essential. We believe further, that any nation-wide distribution of labor, and particularly of the labor which will be the first and immediate problem that must be taken up involves the question of treatment of immigrants. As you know, large numbers of immigrants are sent out as colonists to different parts of the country, and therefore the Secretary of the Interior, in conjunction with the Department of Labor, is working on a plan for investigating the frauds in connec- tion with land. At present large groups of immigrants who have no way of knowing what conditions prevail are sent to different points by representatives of private land companies. Therefore any bureau of distribution should consider the land question in its relation to the distributing from the congested centers of people who have a small amount of money. The second matter, the lack of information, has led some of us to feel that there ought to be a thorough study of the question of unemployment in this country ; that it ought not to be an investiga- tion extending over only one or two months, but that it should be done in a thorough way, a sound investigation covering from three to five years. The whole question is so complicated, and there is so little reliable information, that it seems worth while to take up only an investigation which will cover the whole field in a detailed and comprehensive way. Now, that investigation, in my judgment, ought to lead to several different things: First, the classification of the employables and the unemployables. At present we are making the unemployables a charge upon industry when they ought to be a charge upon the city or upon the relief organizations, and we are making the men who could be sent into industries if they were properly classified a charge upon relief societies when we ought not to. The second thing would be to gather reliable statistics. We have at the present time no reliable statistics. I received word from the librarian of Congress the other day that as far as American condi- tions are concerned there are practically no data since 1908. Such an investigation ought also to lead to a reorganization of the civil service work. There is a great deal of labor in the city 334 American Labor Legislation Review departments. They carry large reserves, they have a great deal of departmental unemployment, and such an investigation ought to look toward the establishment of some kind of a bureau of employ- ment for city employees, so that the work could be regularized. It ought to look also toward vocational guidance. At the present time in but one or two cities which I know of is any effort being made to direct the children leaving schools into the proper industries. Very often the schools have no industrial feature at all. I do not know how many of you know about the experiment in Cleveland. The new city charter there provides for an unemploy- ment division which has three main functions. The first function is maintaining a city immigration bureau. Cleveland provides officers to go to the stations to direct the newly arrived immigrants and help them to find out what they want to know. A similar system is in operation in New York city, in connection with Ellis Island, but that is conducted by private workers. The second function of the division is to deal with unemployment. They have taken up the question of furnishing employment, and they are now creating for the civil service commission a bureau of unskilled labor. The third function is vocational guidance. They are making a study of the industries into which the children go, and in cooperation with the educational authorities they hope to establish some kind of a system by which children may be wisely guided. They have not a large appropriation, but they have a fine group of union men on this work. DAVID VANALSTYNE, former Vice-President, Allis-Chalmers Company, New York City: During the recent period of great commercial activity many complaints were heard of the difficulty in getting skilled men. The chief cause of the scarcity of skilled labor, however, is the extreme fluctuations in business, creating at one time an abnormal demand and at another throwing both skilled and unskilled labor out of work. There are more skilled men and there is skill of a higher order than ever before ; but by the nature of things their number is more or less adjusted to the average demand. There is always available a nucleus of these good men who have comparatively steady work, General Discussion 335 and during the times of extreme activity the only men available are those who spend a considerable portion of their time in idleness. In times of great activity there is no good opportunity to train this generally unemployed increment and in dull times idleness en- courages laziness, indifference and a loss of the little skill men acquire while at work. We are inconsistent in throwing as many men as possible out of work as soon as business begins to decline and then complaining that they are not capable of the highest effi- ciency when they are employed. In my opinion this is the greatest evil for which our present social system is responsible, and it is also the most difficult to regulate. Apprenticeship, trade schools and like efforts to train skilled workmen are all good to a certain degree, but their influence is insignificant as compared with the influence of long periods of enforced idleness to which the laboring class is subjected. It is important to develop skilled workmen, but it is of much greater importance to develop loyal American citizens who are in- terested in promoting the welfare of the state and consequently that of the employer. It is of such employees that the employer makes the greatest profits in the end. There is not much encouragement for a man who spends a con- siderable portion of his time in idleness to become either the right kind of citizen or the right kind of employee. This ever-present fear of being thrown out of work makes men hold back their output in order to make the work last as long as possible. Aside from the inhumanity of periodically depriving a considerable percentage of our citizens of the means of earning a living, it would seem good business policy in the long run for em- ployers to find some way to keep a large percentage of their em- ployees on the pay roll at at least a living wage during periods of dull business, whether there is work for them or not; and it is probable that a great deal more could be done in this direction than is done. It is to be hoped that some day it may be found practicable for the law to require employers to take care of a certain portion of their idle employees during periods of depression, and for the gov- ernment to give employment to the rest on public improvements. 336 American Labor Legislation Review LEE K. FRANKEL, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City: Some of the municipal schemes of unemployment in- surance that have been tried abroad have been distinct failures, and comparatively few have shown any very brilliant success. I want to speak particularly of the one form of unemployment insurance that to my mind has shown some rather interesting re- sults. Just how valuable they are still remains to be determined. I have reference to the scheme of 1907 in Denmark. This is the first plan I recall under which there is actual subvention from the treasury of the government. The man now in charge of the scheme, Dr. Sorensen, inspector of unemployment, has been connected with it from the beginning, in 1907, and was unanimously selected by the labor organizations. Dr. Sorensen did in Denmark what was found later to be impossible in Norway. The very same scheme, tried in Norway, failed there. I would like to read a few extracts from Dr. Sorensen's latest report, to show what might be accomplished in the United States in a similar way. He says: From March 31, 1912 to April I, 1013 the number of authorized unem- ployment funds has grown from fifty-three, having 111,187 members, to fifty-five, having 120,289 members. Of these, 55,078 (45.8 per cent) live in the capital, 45,538 (37.8 per cent) in provincial towns, and 18,529 (15.4 per cent) in country districts. The members have paid in 1,317,496 kroners in contributions. The state, according to the act, pays a subsidy computed on the basis of half the sum of the contributions and the voluntary subsidies by communities. The communities, during the fiscal year 1911-12, paid in 374,114 kroners and the government's subsidy was 822,536 kroners, the total income of all the funds being thus 2,514.16 kroners. The various expenditures were as follows, in kroners: Benefit paid per day of unemployment i,55i,34i " " to unemployed for removal to places where work might be found 40,112 Benefit for Christmas 33,2io " " removal within the same city 21,171 in merchandise 2,541 Expenses of administration 240,409 Total 1,888,785 To the municipal employment bureaus the sum of 48,343 kroners has been paid. During the five years in which the funds have been in operation, the members themselves have paid 58.7 per cent of the total income, the state General Discussion 337 28.4 per cent, and the communities 12.9 per cent. The cost of administration has averaged 9 per cent of the income, or 2.08 kroners per member. While the benefit per day varies from one to two kroners, the amount of contribution fluctuates from 4.80 kroners to 26.00 kroners. This, however, is the natural consequence of the widely differing risk of unemployment within the various trades, and the difference in contributions paid is there- fore the best possible proof of the necessity of organizing insurance against unemployment on a trade basis and not as has been done in several foreign countries dividing the country into districts embracing all the various trades. Twenty-four of the fifty-five funds have increased the number of days in which aid is granted. In view of the fact that hitherto not much more than half the days of unemployment have been indemnified, it would seem desirable to follow the plan of increasing the number of days of payment, rather than to increase the indemnity per day. Another evolution which is taking place automatically, as it were, is ex- pressed in the movement away from a uniform rate of benefit, and toward a rate determined by the duration of insurance. It is evident that by this measure the members are stimulated to keep up their insurance without interruption. According to the report of the cooperative trades unions for 1912, 139,012 workmen belong to these organizations. Of these no less than 120,291 are members of the insurance funds, and if about 20,000 are still outside the workings of the insurance, this fact is explained almost entirely by the special character of these workers. (They include railroad, municipal and traction employees, and sailors.) The Danish people have on the whole been so satisfied with this plan that they are continuing it. It is tending to reduce unemploy- ment, and the tendency at the present moment is not to increase the per diem benefit, but rather to increase the number of those to whom benefit is paid. It seems to me that here may be the opportunity for an attempt in the United States. If unemployment insurance is really con- sidered favorably, the labor unions are the organizations through which it should be conducted, and the Danish scheme, of all that I have had any opportunity of studying, does seem to have given, so far at least, the best results. ROYAL MEEKER, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics : I want to pledge my loyal support to any movement that will make for the coordination of the work of the various federal, state and municipal agencies in respect to unemployment. Since I have had charge of the Bureau of Labor Statistics I have planned, among other American Labor Legislation Review things, a very complete investigation into unemployment. In that investigation it is my purpose to cooperate as fully with the state agencies and the other governmental agencies as they will allow me, in getting at just the figures that are demanded by the speakers who have addressed you the figures on the amount of unemployment in the country. One of the speakers said that such an investigation should not be completed in five or six weeks, but that it should run over a period of from three to five years. I do not agree with that. I think it should be made a permanent job, and it seems to me that the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics is the organized agency which should undertake that job. We know actually nothing about unemployment in this country. I do not know why the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics does not tackle that job first of all. It seems to me that it is vastly more important that we should know the number of jobs in existence, and of men, than that we should undertake to investigate as to labor and wages. Congress does not think so, evidently. I hope that this conference may present to our Congressmen additional light on the subject, so that they may have another "think" in that direction. As soon as it is at all possible, the survey of employment condi- tions will be put into active operation. I prefer to call it by that name, because such a survey should be a survey not merely of un- employment, but also of employment, of under-employment, of over-employment, of health and accident conditions in industry. By cooperation with the state agencies I mean just this : If a state has covered the question of employment properly, I see no reason why the federal agencies should duplicate the work. On the other hand, where states are making no effort to find out how much un- employment exists within their borders, there is a motive and a field for the federal agency to enter. The same applies to the invesci- gation of accident and health conditions in industry. Another investigation that should be carried on is an investigation into vocational education. There has been a tendency to put faith in panaceas. Personally I do not believe very much in panaceas of any kind. I do not believe in these universal patent remedies that are warranted to cure everything, from corns to consumption. I do not believe that there is any one panacea to be applied to solving the unemployment problem. There are a great many things we need to know a good deal more about before we will be ready to say that we General Discussion 339 are in a position 'to solve unemployment. One of these things is vocational education. Just what trade can be carried on in the public schools, what trade must of necessity be carried on within the industries themselves, must be determined. Such an investigation 1 am ready to undertake. I do not believe in too much investigation. In some respects we are suffering from over-investigation. We all know that there are unemployed, and we know some of the remedies to be applied to unemployment, in order to mitigate the evil influences of this condi- tion. Let us by all means begin to apply the remedies that we know of. Let us not wait until we get the minutes from the last meeting held on the Great Judgment Day before we begin to do anything at all. We also know that there are occupations which may be described as unfit occupations. Let us apply the knowledge that we have in our possession at once. We also know that there are unfit occupiers of certain jobs. We know the remedy. Let us apply the remedy now before investigating further, so that we may have a completer knowledge, and more adequate remedies. MILES M. DAWSON, Consulting Actuary, New York City: As secretary of the International Congress on Social Insurance, to be held in this country in 1915, which will take up as one part of its program insurance against unemployment, I am very glad to add a few remarks to what Dr. Frankel has said. There is in active operation now in Norway a system similar to that in operation in Denmark. There was very active opposition by the labor organizations originally to such a scheme. In Denmark a very large proportion of the men and women who work for wages are organized; in Norway a considerably smaller proportion are organized. In my opinion it is not at all impossible for us to realize many of the things that have been done in Europe, at least as well as they are doing them there. I am quite confident that in my home state of Wisconsin they can add to the splendid system of labor exchanges they have established a system of insurance against unemployment, and that the system will in that state be quite as successful as in any other place in the world. I am confident likewise that this can be done soon, and that it can be done soon in the state of New York as well as in Wisconsin. 34 American Labor Legislation Review We have already seen within the last three years a mcist re- markable development of public insurance, of workmen's compen- sation, which five years ago was believed by everybody, including those who thought it might be the best solution of the problem, to be absolutely out of the question. It was stated to Dr. Frankel and myself in London over five years ago by Mr. John Burns, of the cabinet, that anything like compulsory insurance of any char- acter was utterly out of the question in Great Britain. And scarcely more than a year later, bills were introduced by Lloyd George, in favor of compulsory insurance. We are moving quickly. It is very desirable that we should have such a development. The chances are that if we do not have something done rather promptly by some state, there will be an effort to deal with it in a small way in relatively small communi- ties. These experiments have never been very successful anywhere in the world, and they cannot be, because they do not provide for the mobility of labor, which is absolutely essential for a correct system. Moreover, they get very little opportunity for a study of the causes of unemployment. If we to-day knew thoroughly the cause of unemployment, a very large proportion of it could be alleviated, and we cannot get at this through schemes of insurance applied to a single community. A state is none too large, and after a time our nation would be none too large. Louis I. DUBLIN, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York City: Previous speakers have already pointed out, with ref- erence to Great Britain and Denmark, the developments in un- employment insurance to cover the situations in those two countries. But other countries have realized for some ten years the fact that unemployment is one of the hazards of industry, and that, like sickness and accident, such a hazard can be covered by some form of insurance. The German imperial statistical bureau, under the direction of Dr. Zacher, has kept in touch very closely with the situation in several countries, and has, on the basis of official reports, brought together a statement showing the exact condition of the several countries with regard to unemployment insurance. It was a very great pleasure to have this opportunity to serve the Association and to make available for American readers this General Discussion 341 very valuable report of Dr. Zacher's. He has divided the field under the followhig heads: First he has considered those coun- tries where there is a legal regulation of unemployment insurance that is, Great Britain, Norway and Denmark Great Britain being the one country with a compulsory scheme, nation-wide. Norway and Denmark both have voluntary insurance schemes. For these countries the summary gives the nature of the insurance laws, the scope that is, the industries covered , the form of the insurance, indicating the administrative control, the dues and the benefits, and, finally, the methods of appeal. Second, reference is made to those countries which have volun- tary unemployment insurance by workmen's societies, with legal regulation. Luxemburg, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy are included under that head, and data are given as to the so- cieties which control this unemployment insurance, the extent of the membership, the dues and benefits, the number of persons unem- ployed, and other points. Third are given the countries with provision for voluntary unemployment funds without subsidy. That is somewhat different from the voluntary unemployment insurance. Fourth are the communal unemployment insurance funds which are subsidized for particular industrial societies. These apply to the provinces of Germany alone. Finally, there are public voluntary unemployment insurance funds, which apply especially to Bavaria, Prussia and Wurttemberg. The table also gives the significant statistics for the last year. 1 MRS. HAVILAND H. LUND, National Forward to the Land League, New York City: While we are groaning about the high cost of living, and the organizations are marching in the streets and invading our churches, it seems that we have overlooked one very simple thing that would solve this problem for perhaps three classes. I am interested in the Forward to the Land League. As you are all city people I suppose you think I mean that I want everybody to go out of the towns to the farm. I do not. I think that kind of a farm proposition will never attract any one, and will never hold city people. I believe, however, that farm life can be made attractive, and *For this table, see Section VII, The Present Status of Unemployment Insurance. 34 2 American Labor Legislation Review that the social life of the farm may be developed so that it will be attractive. I do not think we ought to send people out to the land unless we create the right kind of a community for them, and they should only be sent with an instructor from an agricultural college, to teach them what to do. I know there are a great many people who are anxious, and also some who are not anxious, for this kind of a life. There is the man who is too old to hold his job; he would be glad of a chance to go out on the land. Then there is the man who is not well enough to remain in the city, but yet has a certain amount of strength ; while he cannot stand a full working day he can put in a number of hours of good open-air work, and that would restore his health. The Salvation Army has several very successful colonies made up of people from the cities. Of course there were some who had to be weeded out, but the vast majority of those going out with money loaned to them have made good. San Diego is furnishing the ground, the construction and the housing for its "hoboes", and a very heavy percentage of those "hoboes" have made good. Why? Because they were not working for the city, they had the opportunity of buying their own piece of land, and they made good through the loan of funds. We are busy in our organization perfecting a system of farming and rural credits, so that there will be money available for people who have to start on money loaned to them. Many business people have said that the plan of taking people upon the land in groups, so that they are not lonely, and of loaning them money for their stock, is an advisable thing. Here we are with acres and acres of vacant land, all of us paying too much for everything that we eat, and we are wondering what to do with these people. Why cannot municipal funds be used in fitting up tracts of land within easy access of markets, and putting these people out with instructors and giving them their start ? I am very sure that an organized effort to bring about a development of that sort would meet with an immense response from many of the unemployed. SIMON LUBIN, California: I happen to be a member of the California Commission of Immigration and Housing, which is de- voting some attention to the matter of the protection of the im- migrants from exploitation, and a great deal of attention to the General Discussion 343 education of the immigrant through public and private sources. We feel that fundamentally the immigration question is not very differ- ent from the unemployment question. There is this difference: in general we have the right to divide the unemployed into two groups, the employable and the unemployable; but assuming that the federal government has thus divided the immigrants at the port of entry, there is then only one group among them the employable. We see nothing but problems so far in our work. We wonder whether your state or your federal employment bureaus, if they received word that 3,000 men were demanded on one ranch in the state of California, would send the men particularly when the bureaus knew that that demand would be for only twenty-one days, picking hops. We hope that a great deal will come of the discussion of insur- ance, and then we wonder to what class the 3,000 hop-pickers who, as such, work twenty-one days a year, should belong in your in- surance scheme. We hope that the United States Industrial Relations Commis- sion which, it has been announced, is studying this problem, will get somewhere. Meanwhile, we are trying to prepare our end of the game. JOHN MARTIN, New York City Board of Education: Education is related to this problem, as Dr. Meeker suggested. The schools should, if their functions are properly performed, prevent the further increase of the unemployable. Of course the schools cannot touch the imbecile, the defective-minded; but if we fulfill our function properly the child who comes to us with normal mental equipment should be sent out in such condition as to be safeguarded against becoming unemployable. We are trying in New York city to go beyond that, by giving such vocational training and guidance as will give to the scholars a great advantage in industrial work, and give them an advantage over others that may prevent them from becoming unemployable. We are finding various grave peculiar difficulties which very few conferences ever discuss. For a year now I have been en- gaged with some school superintendents in trying to discover some industrial process common to a number of occupations, so that it 344 American Labor Legislation Review could be taught to children in the schools. We do not want to try to teach trades to the children who have not been graduated, but we may teach some industrial processes which, being common to a variety of occupations, and being of a simple character, can be mastered by the children and can be taught in such a way as to develop their industrial intelligence. Miss Alice P. Barrows has. been trying, by making a survey of a number of occupations in New York city, and by examining minutely into the processes in a variety of occupations, to get for us a list of the specific things that can be taught with simple machinery in the class room, to children of fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years of age, so that those children would be adaptable in industry, would be able to turn regularly from one simple occupation to another and would also have their intelligence developed so that they would be better equipped to fit in with the inevitable fluctuations of occupation. So far we have not had very much success in that search. However, we are going ahead experimenting and we are going ahead also developing such experiments as have proved successful. Only this week we have decided to establish in a school which is attended exclusively by children of the seventh and eighth grades the following experiment : We will install simple machinery which will cost $5,000. There will be six courses, one commercial course and four industrial courses machine work, wood work, plumbing and electrical work. In addition there will be the usual academic course. Each child submitted to this experiment will be put for nine weeks in each of these courses, to determine as far as possible the aptitude of the child, whether for commercial, for specific industrial, or for the academic work. When the child's special aptitude, after nine weeks' pretty intensive trial in each one of these departments, is determined, there may be the opportunity of concentrating on that variety of work for which he may be best fitted, for the remainder of the school year. Some educators, including the city superintendent, are quite doubt- ful about the desirability of such a course on the ground that no child should begin to specialize until at least eight years of school work in the ordinary academic subjects have been completed. But so anxious are we to do everything that the schools can properly do in preparation for industrial life, that we are going to run the risk of offending those who hold this position. Only this last week I General Discussion 345 have examined two loft buildings in Brooklyn, where we shall establish by September, I hope, a trade school for girls and a trade school for boys, on tne pattern which has already proven successful here in Manhattan. We have opened this year an evening school of industrial art; we have opened a trade school at Murray Hill. These things have a relation to the subject especially under dis- cussion this morning, because it is increasingly evident that for continuous employment there must be great adaptability on the part of the worker. If you are going to dovetail employments the workers evidently must not be of the highest skill in one occu- pation and incapable of adopting another, but must have industrial intelligence and wide acquaintance with machinery and industrial processes, so that they may be able easily to pass from one to the other. JOHN A. KINGSBURY, New York City Commissioner of Charities: I regret that I cannot make any definite contribution as to present and immediate remedies except, perhaps, to say that since this problem has been agitated, during these past two months, I think that almost every conceivable suggestion, from all parts of the country, looking toward a solution, immediate and ultimate, of this problem, has been sent to the mayor of New York, who has, because of his other troubles, passed them on to me. I have con- sidered most of these suggestions with great care, and the thing that has impressed me above all is that the so-called plans for im- mediate solution, all the immediate proposals, have seemed to me to be, without exception, unsound. I do not feel that I can speak with any authority on this sub- ject, but I have read Mr. Beveridge's book and also Mr. Leiser- son's report ; and most of the things which I was ready to suggest, such as temporary work and a few similar things, I found by ex- amining this literature had all been tried in other places and failed in most instances. The thing that has been borne in upon me is this : that this is one of the biggest problems that we have to face in this country, and that thus far America has failed lamentably we have almost disgraced ourselves in our failure to tackle it be- fore this time. I want to echo the hope that has been previously expressed, that this conference will get somewhere. I should like to tell you a 346 American Labor Legislation Review story I heard in Chicago. I understand there was a conference held there by some very wealthy persons to consider this general problem. There was a rich banquet, and after the toasts were over one gentleman rose to make a few remarks. He said : "When I came into this beautiful banquet hall, and looked around at these gorgeous draperies, and these fine furnishings, and saw this ex- pensive linen and silverware, I looked about and I thought of the poor unfortunate persons in Chicago, and I thought of the poor unemployed persons in Chicago and and I am so overcome with feeling for the poor unfortunate persons in Chicago who are unem- ployed, I am so overcome that that I sit down." And he sat down. Another diner arose and said, "I also couldn't help thinking all the time of the poor unemployed persons in Chicago. But I do not sit down! I move that we do something for the poor unem- ployed persons in Chicago ! I move that we give three cheers for the poor unemployed persons in Chicago!" Now, I hope that this conference will get somewhere, as I said before, and that it won't simply be a case of giving three cheers for the unemployed. If any present would like to visit the municipal lodging house I would be glad to arrange to have them see how we are trying to take care this winter of from 1,500 to 2,000 men and women, how we have met the situation, and doubled the capacity of the municipal lodging house in a few days after Mayor Mitchell came into office. I want to say also that there is no need of opening the churches or the armories at all. It is absolutely the most absurd thing that can be done at this time, because it will attract people here who are unemployable. We are handling the situation as iar as we can. F. C. LEUBUSCHER, President, Society to Lower Rents and Re- duce Taxes on Homes: The admirable purpose of your confer- ence, to reduce unemployment, commends itself to all right-minded citizens. The fact that in 1900 over 6,000,000 working people, nearly one- fourth of all those engaged in gainful occupations, were at some time of the year out of work and that, of these, some 3,000,000 lost from one to three months each, is alarming. While the figures for the last census are not available, there is no reason to believe that there is any material improvement in the labor situation. General Discussion 347 Naturally your conference is seeking the causes of unemployment. We submit for your consideration the following facts : This country has given away or bartered most of its natural resources. We have given to a few corporations and individuals the right to levy tribute upon the users of these natural resources, the capital- ization of which they are constantly increasing. We are increasingly shutting people out from access to the soil. While perfecting the machinery of bringing jobless people to jobs is important, the number of jobs is too limited to permit this feat to settle the problem. More jobs are needed. President Charles R. Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin in his Conservation of Natural Resources says : The better part of the public domain has now passed to private parties, and during the closing years of the nineteenth century the land hunger of hundreds of thousands of the citizens of the United States was for the first time unsatisfied. President Van Hise states that the good lands were gone a score of years ago. Out of the original public domain of the United States, amount- ing to 1,441,436,160 acres, 571,631,482 acres had been disposed of to individuals or to corporations by June 30, 1909, and 153,505,500 acres had been granted to states for various purposes. Thus a total of 725,136,982 acres, including most of the best land of the country, had been disposed of to individuals or to corporations, or for specified purposes. There are still 324,478,060 acres included in reservations, 363,338,943 acres are unreserved and unappropriated, and 28,483,075 acres are unaccounted for. Of the 571,631,482 acres of desirable land, disposed of to indi- viduals and to corporations, 123,718,338 acres were granted imme- diately to corporations; while out of the grants under the home- stead and similar laws, only 105,555,790 acres were taken by small holders, while 163,718,338 acres were taken by corporations and other large holders. Not fewer than 100,000,000 acres of coal land were disposed of as agricultural lands. Much of this land was disposed of by the' gov- ernment for a tenth, or less, of its true value. President Van Hise is also authority for the statement that the United States Steel Corporation owns over 50 per cent of the available iron ores of the country. 34^ American Labor Legislation Review Former Commissioner of Corporations Smith states that 195 holders have over a third of the privately owned timber of the country. The value of the timber, exclusive of the land, is at least $6,000,000,000. The value of farm lands in the United States increased by 118.1 per cent from 1909 to 1910. The Senate Committee on Agricultural Credit, discussing the burdens on the small tenant farmer, says: Under these conditions rising land values and cumulative taxation the land is slowly but surely passing away from resident ownership to landlord ownership. Farm tenancy is undeniably on the increase. In 1911, the total revenue receipts in 193 cities of the country having a population of 30,000 or more, was $805,720,133, while the total receipts from taxes were $552,798,570. The chief other sources of revenue were earnings of public service enterprises, $85,416,575; subventions and grants, $32,944,465; earnings of gen- eral departments, $17,270,578. Of the nearly $553,000,000 of taxes, $485,000,000 was paid by general property and over $50,970,000 in direct business taxes. The funded and special assessment debts of these cities at the close of the year was $2,505,000,000, the net debt $1,880,306,926; while the interest charges were over $101,000,000 more than an eighth of the total expenditure. The land of these cities, with a population of 28,559,142, was worth at least $18,000,000,000 full value. The ground rent, calcu- lated at 6 per cent upon this value, amounted to $1,080,000,000, while an annual increase in value of the land of only 3 per cent would give the owners a bonus of $540,000,000; i.e., the ownership of land in these 193 cities was worth to the lucky people about $1,620,000,000, or more than twice the total revenue receipts, and nearly three times the receipts from taxes. The total taxes paid by land, plus assessments upon land, did not exceed, at a most con- servative estimate, $325,000,000, or less than one-third of the ground rent and less than one-fifth of the worth of land ownership. During this year these cities increased their net debts by over $148,000,000. On nearly two-thirds of the total debt 4 per cent interest or higher was being paid. It is evidently of supreme and immediate importance therefore that we should recognize that the solution of the problem of unem- General Discussion 349 ployment involves not merely national and subsidiary employment agencies, and the organization of seasonal industries to complement each other. The solution of the problem of unemployment involves the re- moval of present restricting and paralyzing taxes upon industry and the levying of heavy taxes upon the land, including the mines, so that the wealth of the country may not be monopolized for the benefit of the few to the injury of the vast majority. At present natural resources land and mineral wealth are taxed at a very low rate and are held out of use and unproductive, while energy, initiative and industry are restricted by the heavy taxes levied thereon. As President Van Hise stated in 1912: A conservative administration now indorses the principle that private inter- ests should not be free to levy such tribute upon the people as they may determine in reference to so fundamental a necessity as coal. Conservative but constructive statesmanship must not merely in- dorse but act upon this principle with reference to all natural resources. In conclusion, we submit that the most important factor in the solution of unemployment is the following finding of the London Conference on Unemployment in 1908: That drastic legislation for taxing land values and for enabling public authorities to compulsorily acquire land on the most favorable terms, is urgently needed to bring all land into useful and productive occupation. MANUEL F. BEHAR, National Liberal Immigration League, New York City: In view of the sentiment frequently expressed here that relief from unemployment is to a large extent to be sought through further restriction of immigration, I would like to read the following letter on the subject which I received only a day or two ago from President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard, and of which the closing paragraph is particularly significant: Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 24, 1914. Dear Sir: At your request, I declare that I see no reason to change any of the state- ments in my letter to the National Liberal Immigration League of Jan. 10, 1911, in regard to either fact or theory. The same scarcity of labor which I described three years ago still persists in the United States, and will persist for many years to come, because of the sparseness of our population and the 35 American Labor Legislation Review enormous unused resources of the country which require for their develop- ment both new capital and additional labor. The inexpedient congestion of population in some American cities is not yet sensibly relieved ; but there are many signs of improvement in this respect, such, for instance, as in the placing of new industrial plants in the country or in small cities and making these plants moderate in size. The telephone and telegraph, the automobile, the parcel post, and the local electric railways for both passengers and freight will surely relieve this congestion in time. Due consideration for the public health and the national efficiency requires the better distribution of factories and their operatives. The unemployment in the industries which have an active season followed by a dull one is also being relieved by the practice of the laborers themselves and of the railway and steamship companies. Laborers by the thousands nowadays are carried where they are needed in the active season and when they are no longer wanted they go home, or even back to Italy, for the dull season. Thus, the immense majority of the laborers in seasonal trades have learned, or are learning, to take care of themselves, although the weak or improvident among them have still to be aided for brief periods at the public expense, or by private charities. The activities of benevolent and patriotic persons should be directed to the permanent relief of the city congestions, and to the temporary relief of the unfortunate, incompetent, or improvident unemployed. Not a single argument for further restriction of immigration have I yet seen which does not violate the plainest principles of sound American industrial development, and also propose to abandon or maim the noble policy of the United States, which has made this country the refuge of the oppressed, the hope of the multitudes who cannot yet find freedom and comfort in their native lands, and the best school in the world for the safe development of free institutions. Is this generation of Americans to be frightened out of this noble policy by any industrial, racial, political or religious bogies? Has this genera- tion forgotten or never heard Lowell's description of "Oh, Beautiful! My Country ! Ours once more" in his "Commemoration Ode," written at the close of the civil war? She that lifts up the manhood of the poor, She of the open soul and open door, With room about her hearth for all mankind! Very truly yours, CHARLES W. ELIOT. MEYER BLOOMFIELD, The Vocation Bureau, Boston, Massachus- etts: There are two matters which, it is my impression, have not been considered thus far in the conference, or, if they have, they de- serve perhaps a few words more. One is the nation-wide effort which England is making to prevent, as far as possible, the future under- General Discussion 351 employed, misemployed, and particularly the unemployable, by its vast network of juvenile labor exchanges. The other matter deals with the aggravation of the unemployment situation by our present methods of hiring and discharging workers in the average establishment. Before I take these topics up briefly, I wish to say a word in support of the caution sounded with regard to the qualifications of those who are placed in charge of public employment offices. I found that the character of the service rendered by the English labor exchanges varied as the fitness of the officials in charge varied. If New York city purposes to open a labor bureau, it is to be hoped that the best qualified man in the country will be se- cured for its management. If the usual type of office-holder is put in charge, then it is better not to open such a bureau. New York is fortunate in the character of the men and women now in charge of its city affairs ; they could earn their salt in private em- ployment, and in this regard they differ from the average politician : a politician is one who is unfit for employment by any one except the public. As part of the labor exchange scheme which was started in the United Kingdom four years ago there is an extensive scheme of labor bureaus for boys and girls who seek work, and in connection with these juvenile exchanges there is always an advisory com- mittee of social workers, educators, employers and employees. These committees are watching over that perilous transition stage between school and work when youth, at a time of life when most of our social safeguards are so shaky, finds itself in a job-jungle. A vast machinery of protection and service to those wandering children is being organized with a view to ending the wholesale manufacture of the future "unemployable". This work is helping toward a classification of the vague unemployment problem, which is a composite of problems inherent in our present industrial or- ganization and of problems which are remediable and preventable through more thoroughgoing social supervision of the young work beginners. Mr. Andrews points out in his report that in one establishment three employees are taken on to every one retained. The annual turn over of the working force in the average large establishment, the constant leakage out of the jobs, is not only costly to every 352 American Labor Legislation Review employer and employee, and a complication of the unemployment problem, but is a sign of deep-rooted inefficiency in the present scheme of hiring. As far as I know, just one organization in this country, the Employment Managers' Association of Boston, made up of those who engage help in about fifty of the largest plants in greater Boston, is looking into this matter. It seems to me that some day social scrutiny will be directed toward this source of human waste, this managerial inefficiency. Without the active and regulated cooperation of every one who employs others, the attack on the unemployment situation must, in the very nature of things as they are, be more or less ineffective. t RESOLUTIONS Professor Charles R. Henderson, as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, presented resolutions to the meeting, which after discussion and amendment were adopted as follows: WHEREAS the reports presented to this national conference, by delegates representing 25 states and 59 cities, show a complete lack in most sections of the country of accurate statistical information in reference to the extent and nature of unemployment; and WHEREAS notwithstanding some difference of opinion as to whether unemployment this winter has been more widespread than usual in all sections, there is general agreement that there is a large amount of unemployment and that this and irregularity of em- ployment at all times are among the most serious problems of modern industry; and WHEREAS there is also general agreement that the first step toward a solution of the problem is the organization of a connected network of free public employment exchanges and that other steps should be taken as soon as agreement can be reached as to what they should be; therefore be it 1. Resolved, That this conference urge the establishment in the federal Department of Labor of a Bureau of Distribution, with power to establish employment exchanges throughout the country to supplement the work of state and municipal bureaus, to act as a clearing house of information and promote the distribution of labor throughout the country, provided that such distribution shall not cause the deterioration of the present standards of wages, condi- tions and hours of employment of American workers, or impair their efforts to improve them. 2. That we also urge upon the legislatures of the various states the establishment or reconstruction of free state employment agen- cies conforming to the following essential principles: First: That appointments and tenure of office be governed by the merit system and be placed beyond control of political parties ; Second: That appropriations should be sufficient to make the agencies effective in the highest possible degree; Third : That the agencies constitute a network of central bureaus and branch offices under central control and direction; 354 American Labor Legislation Review Fourth: That these agencies be so administered as to cooperate with municipal and federal bureaus so as to constitute a truly national system; Fifth : That every bureau or office be required to register every application as well as every position secured; Sixth: That frequent reports, publications and other notices give prompt information as to those seeking employment; Seventh : That these agencies may be held true to their character as belonging to the public and remain neutral in all trade disputes. 3. We recommend that municipalities direct their attention to the local problem of unemployment, closely defining its relief and in- dustrial phases with a view to dealing with the latter in a business- like, efficient way through a central labor bureau which shall dis- tribute employees to its various departments. 4. We recommend that private employment agencies >for profit be brought under the inspection and control of the federal govern- ment, where they send labor from state to state or to persons or corporations engaged in interstate commerce in case of interstate business, and of the state authority where they are engaged in distributing labor within a state. 5. We recommend that the American Association for Labor Legislation, in affiliation with the American Section of the Inter- national Association on Unemployment, prosecute a thorough in- vestigation of the following aspects of the problem of unemploy- ment, and at the same time initiate and promote public action: First : The labor market, exchanges, statistics, facilities for special classes, advertising, emergency measures, relief agencies; Second: Regularization of industry seasonal industries, dove- tailing of industries, adjustment of large contracts to run longer periods, casual labor, civil service methods; Third: Vocational guidance; Fourth: Legislation employment agencies, unemployment insurance. ir ftabor ECONOMY RELIABILITY EFFICIENCY I. Some agency for the distribution of information as to oppor- tunities for employment is indispensable. "It is impossible for wage-earners themselves to discover the opportunities for employment for which they are best fitted. They cannot call at every factory in a large city, and they can- not know what distant farmer or construction company needs their services, or where railroads and lumber companies are maintaining camps. Some agent must make a specialty of gathering information about opportunities for employment and rounding up the available supply of labor." WM. M. LEISERSON. II. The private employment agency duplicates work, is marked by serious abuses, and requires expensive regulation. "Private employment agencies, which charge a fee for their services, are found in every city of any size in the United States. The nature of their business is such as to make possible most iniquitous practices. Their patrons are frequently men and women with only a dollar or two, which they are eager to give up for the opportunity of earning more. Stories of how these agencies have swindled and defrauded those who sought em- ployment through them are universal." U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR, Bulletin 109. III. The public employment exchange, with state and interstate connections, presents the most efficient, economical and expeditious method of bringing workers and work together. Great Britain started in 1910 with 82 public exchanges, which by July, 1913, had grown to 430. In 1912, 2,423,213 applications for work and 1,286,205 applications for help were received. A total of 1,051,861 positions was filled, or 77 per cent of all notified. Germany has 323 public exchanges, 267 of which in 1911 filled 1,055,784 positions. France has 162 public exchanges, most of which were estab- lished since 1900. The point for comment is not that public labor exchanges should be advocated, but that they should never have been systematically organized before. In every other branch of eco- nomic life the need for markets and the wastefulness of not having them have long been recognized. Chicago (111.) The Public, Jan. 30, 1914. Every man out of a job is an interrogation point, pro- pounding to society this question: "What are you going to do about me?" Washington ( D. C. ) Herald, Dec. 30, 1913. It is well for us to face the problem squarely before we are in the final throes of it. New York (N. Y.) Sun, Feb. 2, 1914. The situation has never called for more constructive and intelligent handling than at pres- ent. Washington (D. C.) Times, Jan. 23, 1914. It is strange that the world does not better recognize the great waste of unemployment. To organize the productive means so that they will be kept at work; to provide overhead management; to realize just what all this would (0mm?nt mean in alleviating the problem of poverty and of high living cost this is the greatest problem of so- ciety today. There is managerial capacity enough in the world to solve the riddle, if only it were set to work. A broad social and eco- nomic perception of the problem is the first requisite. Chicago (111.) Tribune, Dec. 9, 1913. The United States is the only intensely industrial country in the world which persists in taking anything but a rational view of un- employment. We persist in look- ing upon joblessness as a reflection upon the individual whereas it really is a reproach to the nation. Boston (Mass.) Advertiser, Jan. 20, 1914. There is a veritable army of the unemployed in New Eng- land at the present moment, and signs multiply that the army is on the increase. (ttommettte from prnmwettt Hon. John A. Kingsbury, New York City Commissioner of Chari- ties The handling of the unem- ployed is one of the big failures of this country. J. G. Hallimond, Superintendent, The Bowery Mission, New York Bread lines are only a symptom. They reveal the existence of a ter- rible disease in the body politic. That disease is unemployment. Professor Henry R. Seager, President, American Association for Labor Legislation More good men have been turned into embit- tered advocates of social revolu- tion by unemployment than by any other single cause. Prof. Charles R. Henderson, Secretary, Chicago Commission on the Unemployed With a sort of blind optimism and smug comfort which is not justified by facts, our legislators fail to realize the suf- fering caused by unemployment in our own cities. The anxiety and terror of vast numbers of fami- lies have not yet touched our na- tion. To bring the facts home to our national conscience we need adequate statistics and, at the same time, an effort to extend and per- fect such measures as are even now practicable. Frederick L. Smith, General Manager, Olds Motor Works From your own knowledge you must have dozens of instances where unemployed labor is within a few hundred miles of unemployed capital seeking to get names on its payroll and offering solid in- ducements to solid men who are in ignorance of the fact. T. W. Meachem, President New Process Gear Corporation, Syra- cuse, N. Y. The question of un- employment is perhaps the most important as well as the hardest that civilization requires shall be solved. VI PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES IN THE UNITED STATES OPERATION OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES IN THE UNITED STATES 1 Provision for public employment exchanges has already been made in the United States by nineteen states and by fifteen munici- palities (see map facing Introductory Note). The nineteen states which have made such provision, with the year of the law and the number and location of the offices, are : Colorado, 1907, four offices Colorado Springs, Denver (two offices), Pueblo. Connecticut, 1905, five offices Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Norwich, Waterbury. Illinois, 1899, e ig nt offices Chicago (three offices), Rockford, Rock Island, Springfield, East St. Louis, Peoria. Indiana, 1909, five offices Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend, Terre Haute. Kansas, 1901, one office Topeka. Kentucky, 1906, one office Louisville. Maryland, 1902, one office Baltimore. Massachusetts, 1906, four offices Boston, Fall River, Springfield, Worcester. Michigan, 1905, five offices Detroit, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kala- mazoo, Saginaw. Minnesota, 1905, three offices Duluth, Minneapolis, St. Paul. Missouri, 1899, three offices Kansas City, St. Joseph, St. Louis. Nebraska, 1897, one office Lincoln. New York, 1914 (Not yet in operation). Ohio, 1890, five offices Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo. Oklahoma, 1908, three offices Enid, Muskogee, Oklahoma City. Rhode Island, 1908, one office Providence. South Dakota, 1913, one office Pierre. West Virginia, 1901, one office Wheeling. Wisconsin, 1901, four offices La Crosse, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Superior. During the last two years Colorado has increased from three offices to four, Illinois from six offices to eight, Indiana from one office to five, and Massachusetts from three offices to four. * Prepared by Solon De Leon. 36 American Labor Legislation Review The employment exchanges maintained by municipalities are located in Phoenix (Arizona), Los Angeles and Sacramento (Cali- fornia), Kansas City (Missouri), Butte, Great Falls, and Missoula (Montana), Newark (New Jersey), New York (New York), Cleveland (Ohio), Portland (Oregon), and Everett, Seattle, Spo- kane and Tacoma (Washington). The information contained in the following table on the opera- tion of these exchanges has been collected by correspondence with the various state and city officials concerned in this work, sup- plemented by the published reports of the exchanges. The descriptive data in columns VII to XIV, inclusive, of the table afford a valuable insight into the differences between the several exchanges in matters of policy and in methods of opera- tion. These data are comparable throughout. The statistical data in columns II, III, IV and VI, on the other hand, are given because they indicate, in a very general way, the activity of the respective bureaus, and because they form a basis upon which to start work for the uniform terminology, the uniform interpretation of termin- ology, and the uniform method of keeping records and accounts which are essential to harmonious and coordinated work. In the absence up to the present time, however, of any such uniform agreement, it cannot be too emphatically stated that the figures presented are not strictly comparable. In dealing with them it is necessary to observe the following cautions in order to guard against drawing erroneous conclusions : (1) The term "Applications for work" (Column II) is in some offices interpreted literally, regardless of the number of persons by whom the applications are made, while in others it is interpreted to mean the number of applicants, regardless of how often each one of them has applied. In one state no record is kept of the number of applicants, but only of those who are registered as applying for positions which have been offered by employers. It would there- fore be highly misleading to use figures under this head as a basis for comparison between offices. (2) The same warning holds with regard to "Applications for help" (Column III). While this term is usually employed as synonymous with the British term "Vacancies notified", there is danger that in some cases it may be taken to mean the bare number of times applications have been received from employers, regard- less of how many workmen were each time applied for. More- Operation of Public Employment Exchanges 361 over, even where the more explicit term "Persons applied for by employers" is used by an office, the best efforts have not entirely prevented employers from asking for more workmen than they wished, so as to have a choice. Hence the figures will not bear interpretation as indicating how many chances to work were really available through the exchanges. (3) A still more serious laxity affects the figures under "Posi- tions filled" (Column IV). In some exchanges every position is recorded as filled to which an applicant has been sent, without effort being made to learn whether or not the applicant was accepted by the employer. Generally, however, employers are required or requested to notify the office of the acceptance of applicants. This system works with varying degrees of completeness, its best develop- ment being seen in one state which presents in its reports data for persons "Referred to positions" as well as for "Positions se- cured". Unless these differences are borne in mind grave injustice will be done to those offices which have kept the most careful records. (4) The figures under "Per capita cost of filling positions" (Column VI) are in all cases as given by the offices or as mathe- matically deduced from their reports, but must be accepted with many allowances. The methods of computing expenses vary widely. In at least one state all expenses connected with the running of the labor exchanges, including rent and publication of reports, are included in this cost. In many if not most of the remaining states, the cost of printing reports is defrayed by a separate departmental Jo informa- tion No informa- tion No informa- tion No informa- tion No informa- tion No informa- tion Yes Applicants notified of ex- istence of dis- pute Fitness No Some effort to get men on farms No Yes Indefinitely No strike breakers fur- nished Fitness No No No Yes Most cases 30 days No strike breakers fur- nished Fitness, num- ber of depen- dents Advice by manager Information from other offices utilized Yes Yes Indefinitely / Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute Fitness No No No Yes Indefinitely "Neutral" Fitness; if. equally fit, residents and married men given pref- erence Occasional ad- vice by su- perintendents Applications exchanged between of- fices No Yes 1 month Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute * Figures for 1912. 11 Twelve months, October 1, 1911-September 30, 1912. 1 Figure for Indianapolis office, year ending September 30, 1912. J Figures for two yearo, 1909-1910. "Year ending June 30, 1913. B. I City II III IV Operations for 1913 V Appropriation, Current Fiscal Year VI Per Capita Cost of Filling Positions VII Separate Departments Maintained for Applications for Work Applications for Help Positions Filled Phoenix (Ariz.) Los Angeles (Calif.) No informa tion No informa tion 9,704 b $10,000 $ .18 Men Women Juveniles Sacramento (Calif.) 3,488 2,785 2,785 $1,800 $ .646 (Estimated) Men Women Kansas City (Mo.) No informa- tion No informa- tion 31,146 Included in Board of Public Wel- fare budget; cost last year $5,226.68 $ .17 None Butte (Mont.) 3,450 3,659 3,276 $2,500 $ .75 Men, Women; Skilled Unskilled Great Falls (Mont.) (Inactive) None \> Nissoula (Mont.) Newark (N. J.) 3,406 C No informa- tion 1,174 C Included in general ap- propriation for city clerk's office "Nothing" Men Women New York (N. Y.) (Not yet in operation) Cleveland (Ohio) (Not yet in operation) Portland (Ore.) No informa- tion 17,659 (11 months) 17,659 (11 months) About $5,000 $ .283 (Estimated) tfen Women MUNICIPAL VIII Basis of Selection in Sending Applicants to Positions IX X Is Effort Directed toward XI Is Transporta- tion Advanced by Offices? XII Are Applica- tions from Outside the State Accepted? XIII Period for which Appli- cations are Valid XIV Policy During Labor Disputes Vocational Guidance? Industrial Removal ? Fitness, residence No No No Yes 30 days "No distinc- tinction whatever" Fitness No No No No Until position is secured No special policy Residents with families first; others in alphabe- tical rotation No No In exceptional cases No 2 weeks Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute Fitness No Information from other offices utilized No Yes 3 months No strike breakers fur- nished Priority of ap- plication No No No No Six months Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute - Fitness No No No Yes One week Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT I City II III IV Operations for 1913 V Appropriation, Current Fiscal Year VI Per Capita Cost of Filling Positions VII Separate Departments Maintained for Applications for Work Applications for Help Positions Filled Everett (Wash.) No informa- tion No informa- tion 3,185 $1,000 $ .314 None Seattle (Wash.) (2 offices) No informa- tion 33,342 31,150 $2,570 $ .082 Men Women Spokane (Wash.) 4,889 No informa- tion 5,212 d $2,100 $ .354 Men Women T 'ftTalh.) No informa- tion 19,152 17,147 $3,305 $ .1369 Men Women * Information of existence of the exchange received too late to permit of securing detailed information. b Four months, January 1-March 31, 1914. i EXCHANGES MUNICIPAL VIII Basis of Selection in Sending Applicants to Positions IX X Is Effort Directed toward XI Is Transporta- tion Advanced by Officer? XII Are Applica- tions from Outside the State Accepted? XIII Period for which Appli- cations are Valid XIV Policy During Labor Disputes Vocational Guidance ? Industrial Removal ? Residents with families first; others in order of application "Public schools at- tend to this matter" [nformation from other offices and from trans- portation companies utilized No Yes Until position is secured "Absoutely non-partisan" Fitness No No No Yes Men, 2 weeks; women, up to several montks, de- pending on kind of work Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute Fitness No No Sometimes Yes Laborers, 1 week; others, 1 month Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute For laborers, married men; for mechnics, fitness No No No Yes Until position is secured or applicant leaves city Applicants in- formed of ex- istence of dis- pute c Figures for 1910. d Includes a number of cases in which the same applicant was sent to several short jobs. VII PRESENT STATUS OF UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE On the Basis of Official Sources and of Reports Prepared for the General Convention at Ghent of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION ON UNEMPLOYMENT. Special Supplement to Reichs-Arbeitsblatt, No. 12, December, 1913. Cf. previous memoir, Die bestehenden Einrichtungen zur Versich- erung gegen die Folgen der Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland und im Deutschen Reich, Berlin, 1906; as also, in connection with legislation discussed below, for Denmark: Dr. Zacher, Die Arbeiterversicherung im Ausland, No. la, p. 30; No. Ib, pp. 49, 47*. 69* ff.; Reichs- Arbeitsblatt, 1911, p. 182; 1912, p. 190 ff.; 1913, p. 590. For Norway, cf. Zacher, ibid., No. Illb, pp. 43, 19*, 23* ff.; and Reichs- Arbeitsblatt, 1911, p. 276 ff. For Great Britain, cf. Zacher, ibid., No. Va, p. 51; No. Vb, pp. 6, 84, 91 ff., and Reichs-Arbeitsblatt, 1909, p. 830; 1910, p. 357; 1911, pp. 448, 560, 702, 860; 1912, PP . 55, 140, 160. Prepared by the GERMAN IMPERIAL STATISTICAL BUREAU DIVISION OF LABOR STATISTICS, BERLIN Translated by the STATISTICAL BUREAU METROPOLITAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY EXPLANATORY NOTE A number of reports of progress in the field of unemployment insurance have recently been published in the German Reichs- Arbeitsblatt. 1 The reports prepared for the General Convention at Ghent of the International Association on Unemployment, in Sep- tember, 1913, furnish a new stimulus to issue a statement with regard to the present status of unemployment insurance. In order to facilitate a summary view of the situation, an attempt has been made to arrange the most important information in the comparative tables which follow, on the basis of the resumes of social insurance in Europe. 2 Use has been made of official publications, as well as of the reports prepared for the meeting at Ghent. 8 Attention has been paid solely to the arrangements made by public bodies (states, provinces, communities), leaving out of con- sideration measures for self-help on the part of workmen. The latter will be treated in detail for Germany, and briefly for other countries, in Special No. 8 of the Reichs-Arbeitsblatt* This will appear shortly, and will be devoted to the status of unions of em- ployers, workmen, and other employees in 1912. Moreover, we have left out of consideration the philanthropic work of employers, as well as that of funds and societies. In the arrangement of the tables Germany has been placed at the end of the series. Interpreting the term "insurance" in its broadest sense, the sys- tems of unemployment insurance which have thus far found appli- cation are three in number, as follows : *Cf. Supplement to No. 4, April, 1913 (Index for 1903-1912), p. 10. 2 Supplement to No. 12, December, 1912, of the Reichs-Arbeitsblatt. 3 For Germany, cf. Der gegenwdrtige Stand der Arbeitslosenfiirsorge und -Fersicherung in Deutschland, Publications of the German Association on Unemployment, No. 2, prepared by Dr. E. Bernhard. The reports for other countries are at hand in the form of publications of the conference ; they will appear in the Bulletin Trimestriel de V Association Internationale pour la Lutte contre le Chomage. 4 Cf . Statistisches Material zur Frage der Arbeitslosigkeit, prepared by the Imperial Ministry of the Interior (November, 1913), p. 52 ff. For foreign countries, cf. Statistisches Jahrbuch fiir das Deutsche Reich, 1913, p. 16* f. 376 American Labor Legislation Review I. The system of subsidies paid by public bodies to the unem- ployment insurance funds of industrial unions. This is usually called the "Ghent system," after the city in which it was first applied. It has been introduced more generally than any other. In this con- nection it is important to determine whether the payment of sub- sidies is left entirely to the communities 'or other public bodies, or whether additional sums are given by the state, and, in the latter case, whether these sums are dependent upon the budget or are determined by law. The system of subsidization is left entirely to the communities (or provinces) in Germany, in Belgium (where its development is oldest and greatest), in Holland, in France (where, besides a num- ber of communities and departments, the state has set aside the sum of 100,000 francs in its budget, which amount has never been fully utilized, as the slight importance of the industrial benefit system in that country does not seem to have been influenced by subsidiza- tion), in Luxemburg, and in a number of cantons of Switzerland (in the form of cantonal subsidies). Legal regulation for the whole country has been instituted in Norway, in Denmark, in Great Britain (besides the compulsory insurance which has been introduced into some industries), and, if we take the Swiss cantons into consideration, in Geneva and in the city of Basel (besides the voluntary unemployment insurance fund). It is noteworthy that, in Norway, Denmark, and Great Britain, the system of labor exchanges has been regulated by law, hand in hand with insurance. (Cf. the Norwegian law of June 12, 1906, the English law of September 20, 1909, the Danish law of April 29, 1913, and the international report to the Ghent confer- ence, September, 1913, printed in the Reichs-Arbeitsblatt, 1913, p. 761 ff.) The results of the Ghent system must in general be designated as slight. Its purpose, "training in self-help," has been fulfilled almost nowhere, either in the sense that the industrial unions have received a greater influx of members because of the subsidies, or in the sense that they have introduced or further developed unemploy- ment benefit. Only this has been attained the benefits given by these unions have been increased. However, those who have re- ceived them constitute a comparatively small portion of the total number of unemployed, even where, as in Denmark, the organization Present Status of Unemployment Insurance 377 of workmen was far advanced before the introduction of the sub- sidy system. In Belgium, moreover in the mother country of the system comparatively few workmen reap its benefits. It is true that the organization movement has forged ahead in Germany much farther than in Belgium or in France, and that unemployment benefit has attained a much greater development there than in other coun- tries. (Cf. Special No. 8, Reichs-Arbeitsblatt.) Yet it has thus far been impossible to determine any effect upon the strength of organization, and upon the development of unemployment insur- ance, in the cities which have introduced the Ghent system. Further- more, it cannot be denied that conditions are less favorable to success in Germany than anywhere else. While in other countries industrial unions are preponderantly organized on a local basis, the German bodies are invariably strongly centralized. Moreover, their benefit system is, in general, unified and adapted to the entire empire. The light financial burdens which, according to the tables, are necessitated by the Ghent system (in 9 German cities for which we know at least the amount of the annual grants, they add up to only a little more than 40,000 marks) have aided its adoption greatly, but have at the same time contributed to decreasing its efficiency in the campaign against the consequences of unemployment. Hence its ardent champions have become convinced that at least a partially compulsory insurance system should be instituted. The subsidization of industrial unions is frequently, as in Ghent, associated with the subsidization of savings societies or of individual savers, which, however, has almost universally turned out to be a failure. We have still to consider the payment of subsidies to voluntary unemployment funds. II. The system of state or communal voluntary unemploy- ment funds. The best-known funds of this class are those of the city of Berne, of the canton of Basel, and of the city of Cologne (formerly a free society with a considerable municipal subsidy). Recently, on the basis of the modern charters worked out by the Bavarian government, the cities of Kaiserslautern, Bavaria, and Schwabisch Gmiind, Wurttemberg, have associated with the sub- sidy system the institution of voluntary unemployment insurance funds. However, we have no reports as yet concerning their experience. 378 American Labor Legislation Review In general, the voluntary unemployment funds are hampered by the fact that only a comparatively small number of workingmen join them. In the case of almost all of these the danger of unem- ployment is especially great, or lack of work is a regularly recurring phenomenon. The greatest number of voluntary insured belonged to the Cologne fund in its earlier form. Since its modern recon- struction, with increased dues, it has been able to obtain but few members. Greater success has been experienced by the Cologne fund in its new activity, the reinsurance of industrial unions. This is akin to the Ghent system, but is distinguished from it by requiring pay- ment from the unions in return for subsidization. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of advancing self-help, Cologne has obtained better results than other cities by means of the Ghent system. It has been able to win over four industrial unions to the introduction of unemployment benefit on the basis of reinsurance. It is true that the unions in the building trades, upon whom the greatest reliance had been placed, have thus far declined to participate the free industrial unions for the reason that they are organizations for combat and not for unemployment benefit, and the Christian unions because they feel no need. III. The system of compulsory insurance. Aside from the unfortunate and rapidly abandoned experiment of 1894, in the city of St. Gall, there has never, as yet, been a system of compulsory insurance for all workmen, nor was there such an institution for particular industries until the enactment of the English national insurance act of 1911. So short a time has elapsed since the enact- ment of this law, which extends compulsory insurance to about 2,500,000 workmen, and its enforcement was begun in a period so favorable from a commercial point of view, that no final judgment can be given. This fact has been recognized by the Convention at Ghent of the International Association on Unemployment, in agree- ment with the report of the English Section. The plan for compulsory insurance of workers in the watch and clock industry in the Swiss canton of Neuenburg is still in the preparatory phase. * * * Tables I, II, and III refer to arrangements outside the German Empire. The first treats of the three countries which have legal Present Status of Unemployment Insurance 379 regulation. The second table contains the data for those countries in which state subsidies are provided for in the budget, and for those in which there is no state subsidy (or, in Switzerland, no federal subsidy). The third is devoted to the two voluntary unemploy- ment insurance funds of Switzerland. The tables for Germany are so arranged that Table IV con- cerns subsidies to industrial unions; Table V, subsidies to savers and to savings societies ; and Table VI, public voluntary unemploy- ment insurance funds. Thus some cities occur in two tables; they are those which associate subsidies to industrial unions with similar payments to individual savers or to voluntary unemployment funds (Berlin-Schoneberg, Stuttgart, Feuerbach, Freiburg i. B., Kaisers- lautern, Schwabisch Gmund). Those cities are not included which give free unemployment benefit, which differs from poor relief only in the fact that it is governed by special legislation, and that, accord- ing to the local statutes, it is not to be considered as such relief. Where benefits are paid to those who are not included in the subsidy system (particularly the unorganized), this has been especially indicated (Berlin-Schoneberg [food stamps], Erlangen, Mannheim). A. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE I. COUNTRIES WITE Nature jScope Form (b) Voluntary insur- ance for (Article 106) Statistics of compulsory insurance 1 : (July 12, 1913) (a) Compulsory insur- ance for (Law of Dec. 16, 1911, in force be- ginning July 15, 1912) All wage workers (above age 16) in: Building trades, Machine manufac- turing, Ship building and wagon building, Iron moulding. Saw-mill industry. All industrial societies the statutes of which call for unemployment ben- efit. 45,200,000 inhabitants; 14,000,000 wagework- National unemployment fund, with national system of laboi exchanges (Law of Oct. 20, 1909): 1,066 agents, 430 local labor bureaus (2,500 officials), 8 district bureaus (749 officials), 1 central bureau (287 officials). July 12, 1913: 275 societies with 1,100,000 members (in eluding 500,000 subject to compulsory insurance). 2,500,000 compulsorily insured (63 per cent, skilled la borers), as opposed to about 500,000 formerly voluntaril; insured. Unemployment fund: 1,600,000 Voluntary insurance for (Laws of June 12, 1906-Dec. 31, 1911, and Aug. 15, 1911- Dec. 31, 1914) All industrial societies the statutes of which call for unemployment ben- efit. Statistics (1912) 2,400,000 inhabitants; 400,000 wageworkers. "Recognized unemployment funds" in connection wit! public labor exchanges (Law of June 12, 1906). Requirements for state recognition: 1. Administration of fund independently of occupations society. 2. At least half of income of fund must consist of members dues. 3. Benefits must be so regulated by statute that: (a) No benefit is paid in case of unemployment whe: there is information of suitable work or throug: the fault of the insured (including strikes and lock outs); no double insurance or insurance for th first three days of unemployment is permitted; (b) benefit is not paid until the insured has been ; contributing member for 6 months, the maximur being half of the normal daily wage in his occupa tion, and the maximum period being 90 days pe annum; and (c) there will be a special assessment, or reduction i: the rates of benefit, in case of insufficient resources 19 funds (17 workmen's funds, 2 employers' funds), wit 27,000 members (about 50% of the organized workmen; Voluntary insurance fo (Law of April 9, 1907, ii :orce beginning August 1, 1907) Workmen's industrial so- cieties the statutes of which call for unem- ployment benefit. Statistics (1912), 2,800,000 inhabitants; 500,000 wageworkers. "Recognized unemployment funds," in connection wit public labor exchanges (Law of April 29, 1913). Requirements for state recognition: 1. Administration of fund independently of industry society; 2. Occupational or local limitation of fund; 3. At least 50 members; none below age 18 or abov age 60. 4. Benefits must be regulated by statute so that: (a) No benefit is paid in case of unemployment whe there is information of suitable work, or throug the fault of the insured (including strikes and lock outs); no double insurance or insurance for th first three days of unemployment is permitted; (b) benefit is not paid until the insured has been contributing member for one year, the maximur being two-thirds of the normal daily wage in th occupation or locality. However, this must no be less than K kroner or more than 2 kroners, an must not be paid for more than 70 days in th year; and (c) there must be extra dues in case of insufficien funds. 53 funds, with 111,187 members (60% of those capable c being insured). OUTSIDE OF GERMANY LEGAL REGULATION Dues Benefits Appeal Regular weekly dues, 5 pence (2}4 pence paid by employer, 2K pence by employee). Fur- thermore, there is a state subsidy amount- ing to one-third of the annual receipts from dues. State subsidy by repayment to the society of a maximum of one-sixth of the annual expenditure for weekly benefit, not in ex- cess of 12 shillings. (The budget of 1913- 1914 provides for an expenditure of Annual' dues, 1,700,000. State subsidy, 600,000. Total income, 2,300,000. 7 shillings per week (through the labor bu- reau 1 ), from the second to the fifteenth week of unemployment in each year, pro- vided that (a) the insured has worked at least 26 weeks in the year, for the last 3 years, in an occupation subject to compulsory insurance; (b) he has not become unemployed through strike or through his own fault; and (c) he does not receive from the labor bureau information of work of equal value. (Persons aged 17-18 receive half benefit; persons below age 17 receive none.) Expenditures: 236,458 pounds for about 400,000 cases (an average per case of about 10 shillings for 10 days, with 16 days of unemployment, as almost one-third of the cases were disposed of during the waiting period of one week). Average rate of unemployment: 3.5 per cent, (building trades, 5.0 per cent.; shipbuild- ing, 3.1 per cent.) Appeal may be made, without expense, to (a) insurance official; (b) court of ar- bitration; and (c) non-parti- san arbi- trator. Of 420,802 appli- cations, 37,424 (8.9%) were re- ferred to (a). 2,907 (8.0% of the previous number) to (b) and 49 cases to (c). Dues vary according to the statutes of the fund. According to Section 6 of the law, the unem- ployment fund must admit unorganized members of the occupation (without the ne- cessity of giving them the right to vote); however, their dues may be increased by 10%-15% in consideration of the admin- istrative expenses borne by the occupational society. State subsidy amounting, under the Amend- ment of July 25, 1908, to one-third (pre- viously one-fourth) of the annual expendi- tures for benefit, with an assessment of two- thirds of this subsidy paid by the commu- nity in which the insured resides. No dues are paid by employers, as they are called upon to aid in the support of accident and sickness insurance. Members' dues, kroners 186,252 Subsidy from state and commun- ities, kroners 36,309 Benefit varies according to the statutes of the fund. However, it is legally limited to Nor- wegian citizens and to persons who have been resident in Norway for 5 years (Cf. Column 3). Appeal may be made, without expense to: (a) executive of fund; and (b) ministry. Expenditures : ployed. 144,781 kroners to unem- i Total income, kroners 222,561 Total capital, kroners '. . . 387,545 Dues vary according to the statutes of the fund. (In 1912 they varied between 4.80 and 26 kroners, the average being 12 kron- ers). State subsidy (compulsory) : one-third of dues. Community subsidy (voluntary): up to a maximum of one-sixth of dues. Benefits vary according to the statutes of the fund. (Daily benefit of K kr.-2 kr. for 70- . 160 days, according to length of member- ship). Dues, kroners 1,300,000 State subsidy, kroners 800,000 Community subsidy, kroners 400,000 Total income, kroners 2,500,000 Reserve fund, kroners 2,400,000 Total income, 1907-1912: 9,600,000 kroners (54% dues, 32% state subsidy, and 14% Compensation: 1,700,000 kroners. (Average unemployment, 26 days, for about half of which compensation was paid.) Total compensation, 6,500,000 kroners. Appeal may be made, without expense, to: (a) executive of fund; (b) committee; and (c) minister. II. VOLUNTARY UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE BY WORKMEN'S Scope Societies Membership Dues Benefits Persons Unemployed 260,000 inhabitants; 55,000 workmen (1909) 8 800 2400 fr. 1800 fr. 40,000,000 inhabitants; 10,000,000 workmen, (a) State (1912). . . 114 1141, J 209 49,595 148,089 209,564 fr. (193,578 fr.) 224,159 fr. (206,747 fr.)* 8,429 8,609 (b) State (1911) (c) 12 departments (1911). (d) 51 cities' (1911).. . ':':' Total, (b) (d) 5,900,000 inhabitants; 1,500,000 workmen (1912) 281 29,313 .... 50,191 florins ; (92,261 florins, including subsidy) 7,400,000 inhabitants; 2,100,000 workmen (1,000,000 industrial work- ers) (1912) [Societies sup communities, .organizations. 4011 3D See footnote* 7 savings socie- ties 439 ported by] and other > 103, 537 in 370 [ societies ren-j dering report. I (a) State. . . . (b) 5 Provinces (c) 61 communities 290,187 fr. 20,394 fr. 481 fr. 775 fr. 29,203 (27,081)* 1,569 (1,569)6 22 40 (d) 31 communities (e) Communities (9) (f j Communities . Total (a)-(f) 3,800,000 inhabitants; 800,- 000 workmen: Canton of St. Gall (Law of May 19, 1894): (1913) 8 4 12 10 5 3 3 (1911) Canton of Geneva (Law of Nov. 6, 1909): (1911) (1910) Canton of Basel City (Law of Dec. 16, 1909): (1912) Canton of Appenzell Canton of Appenzell (1912) 34,700,000 inhabitants; 10,- 500,000 workmen: (a) 2 cities (b) 1 city (1910) ... . Savings fund 795 savers About 12,000 liras 542 III. PUBLIC VOLUNTAB Scope Societies Membership Dues Benefits No. of Unemployet Canton of Basel City (Law of Dec. 16, 1909) (1912). City of Berne (1912) Unemploy- ment fund Unemploy- ment fund Unemploymen industry in has not yet 1,214 636 ; fund for the w Berne Jura (fou jegun activity). 9,434 fr. 8,773 fr. atch and clock ndation which 34,512 frJ 19,130fr. 605 (563)8 321 1 Not including cantonal legislation. 8 Benefits toward which subsidy was paid. 8 Including 21 cities which have passed general legislation with regard Bill of August 9, 1907. with regard to state subsidy, not disposed of. to subsidies. OCIETIES WITH PUBLIC SUBSIDY BUT WITHOUT LEGAL REGULATION* Subsidies Days of Unemployment (with Compensation) Expenses of Administra- tion Remarks Community State Credit of 1500 fr. each Division into thirds according to member- ship, dues, and benefits. 112,423 47,542 fr. 50,726 fr. 18,550 fr. 102,795 116,373 .... Since the enactment of the Finance Law of April 22, 1905, the state has granted an annual credit of 100,000 fr. Maximum state subsidy (for benefit up to 2 fr. and 60 days), 20 per cent, of benefit for local funds and 30 per cent, for occupational funds. Total, 181,699 42,070 fl. See foot- note 4 .... Subsidy of 50-60 cents toward benefitfor50 to 60 days. Also voluntary fund in Dordrecht, as yet without members, not mentioned in Table III, below. : 134,157 fr. | 12,546 fr. 289 fr. 393 fr. 147,385 fr. 24.911 fr. 49,830 fr. 74,741 fr. 229,089 (208,890) * 11,797 (9,145) 8 481 522 19,448 fr. State and provinces partially support com- munal unemployment funds. Besides the five provinces under b, another province voted a credit of 2,500 francs, but did not pay it. Under (c) subsidies are paid to those receiv- ing aid from industrial unions. Under (d) subsidies are paid directly to the industrial unions. Headings (e) and (f) do not include com- munities giving subsidies to individual savers and savings organizations, which come under (c) and (d). These figures account for about 252,000 workmen organized in industrial unions. Total 222,126 fr. '.'.'.'. 2,669 fr. 475 fr. 1,953 fr. 2,343 fr. 3,412 fr. Credit: 2,000fr. 1,601 fr. (for 2,584 days of unemploy- ment) .... Besides the cantons specified hi the first column, Zurich and Thurgau granted small subsidies to an industrial union fund in 1911. Subsidy of 50 per cent, of benefit. Subsidy of 60 per cent, of benefit. Subsidy of 40 to 50 per cent, of benefit. Subsidy of 50 per cent, of benefit. Interest on 300,000 liras '.'.'.'. 5,977 (1909) .... Subsidies are also paid under the Ghent system by a private foundation in Milan (Societa Umanitaria). NEMPLOYMENT FUNDS Subsidies Days of Unemployment (Compensated) Expenses of Administration Remarks Community State 27.000 fr. 12,000 fr. .... Lottery granted; subsidy of 5,000 fr. under con- sideration. * Number of unemployed, and number of days of unemployment, for which communal subsidy was paid. ' Individual savers. 1 Also subsidies from voluntary aid fund: 420 fr. Benefit obtained for 15,407.5 days. B. COMMUNAL UNEMPLOYMEN1 IV. SUBSIDIES T( "3" H 0U City and Year of Installation of System Requirements for Payment of Subsidy Amount and Duration of Subsidy Year of Report Classes of I Workingmen Excluded Period of Residence Required Waiting Period In Proportion to Society Benefit Maximum per Day Maximum per Year Berlin-Schoneberg, 1910. 1912 1 year Maximum 7 days. 50% 1 mark 60 days Bavaria Erlangen, 1909. . . Kaiserslautern, 1913. 1912 Unskilled 3 years 7 days 50% To be deter- mined monthly 0.60 m. 0.60 m. 6 weeks M f. Stuttgart, 1912. . . Feuerbach, 1913.. SchwabischGmttnd 1911 (Entered into force Mar. 1, 1913) Esslingen, 1913 (Entered into force Oct. 15, 1913) 6 months, Oct. 1, 1912, to Mar. 31, 1913 Occupationally and physically suited for pub- lic relief work 1 year 1 year 2 years 1 year As in in- dustrial society As in in- dustrial society As in in- dustrial society 50%; with children, 5%-25% more As in Stuttgart Unmarried : 0.40 m. Married: 0.50-0.60 m. 50% 1 m.; with chil- dren, 1.50 m. As in Stuttgart 1m. As in in- dustrial society As in in- dustrial society 6 weeks As in in- dustrial society Baden Freiburg i.B.,1910 Mannheim, 1913 (Entered into force July 1, 1913) 1912 Occupationally and physically suited for pub- lic relief work 1 year 1 year 5 days As in in- dustrial society 50% 0.70m.; for each child, 0.10 m. more 1m. 1 m. 40 days 60 days d Offenbach a. M., 1913 .... 1 year 5 days Unmarried : 0.50 m. Married : 0.70 m. For each child, 0.15 m. more 1.30 m. 78 days Alsace-Lorraine Strassburg, 1907.. Illkirch-Grafen- staden, 1910 Schiltigheim Bischheim 1911-1912 1912 1 year As in in- dustrial society 50% 1 m. As in in dustria! society As in Strassburg Mtilhausen, 1909 Amendments, 1913 1911 .... 1 year 1 year As in in- dustrial society As in in- dustrial society 70%; families, 80% 0.80 m.; families, 1m. 1 m. 1m. As in in dustria society As in in dustria society i Number of cases. The number ot individuals rece * Only days for which communal subsidy was paid. 93 of this number received aid from the city, i Only days for which communal benefit was paid. >JSURANCE IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE JDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES Industrial So- 1 cieties Affected Benefits Paid dumber of umber of Mem- dumber of Days for Amount of Community Remarks Societies x>cal Ad- ainistra- tions) ber- ship Unem- ployed Receiving Benefit which Compen- sation was Paid Benefit, in Marks Subsidy, in Marks 59 620 15,770 12,631 Subsidies are also paid to individual savers; cf. V. There is also non- 3 contributory benefit to the un- V* employed through food stamps. 18 73 1 797 1,033 ffl P 5,000; also subsidy for insurance fund As regards Kaiserslautern insur- ance fund, cf. VI. P" 44 776 36,568 (incl. 66,022 (incl. Annual grant, 10,000; 9,746 Stuttgart and Feuerbach: Mutual agreement. For subsidies to sav- savers) withdraw- als by savers) paid out (incl. payments to savers) ers, cf. V. Schwabisch Gmtind: As regards in- surance fund, cf. VI. Annual grant, 1,000 (incl. sub- n sidy to.savers) rt- Annual grant, EJ 1,000 (incl. rr insurance fund) 8 oo. 10 1,892 518 7,227 10,291 1,861 Freiburg: For subsidies to savers, (9 so- cf. V. cieties) W Mannheim: Non-contributory bene- a fit to unemployed not members J3 of societies. .... .... .... For subsidies to savers, cf. V. ffl 36 7,444 6271 7,499 19,951 6,086 Mutual agreement between Strass- burg, Illkirch-Grafenstaden, Schil- tigheim and Bischheim. .... 1 36 7.50 IT 1 i r 3 20 .... 194 2,460< .... 2,316 65 .... .... .... J 22 2 .... 22 S ee Table IV .... Cf. IV Wurttemberg .... 8 133 66.50 1? ^EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUNDS Amount and Duration of Number of Insured Dues in Marks Benefits in Marks Subsidy aount r Day Marks Maxi- mum per Year in Marks Individ- ually Insured Re- insured Societies Mem- ber ship Individ- ually Insured Soci- eties Individ- ually Insured Soci- eties Com- munity Sub- sidy, in Marks Remarks Insured : Maximum, 25 11,105 5,124 19,170 6,002 23,798 60,377 Benefit paid First 1 Next 189; 38 to 14 indiv- 20 days|40 days V 1.50 0.75 dropped because of idually in- sured, 2,121 3 2.00 1.00 non- re-insured. hfl ^insured: 0.75 payment; Compensa- J2 1.50, accord- remainder, tion paid CD g to number 151 for 472 days weekly pay- of unem- 3* ntsmade;max- ployment to ium, 60 times individually tese rates insured; for 31,731 days to re-insured Un- 60 days See For sub- arried, ).80; Table IV sidies to in- dustrial ! arried, societies, 1.20 Cf. IV. 1 Un- arried, ).50; 6 weeks See Table IV For sub- sidies to In- dustrial I rried, societies, t 0.75 Cf. IV. o 1 VIII NEW LEGISLATION ON EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES NEW LEGISLATION ON EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES Following is the text of the measures referred to in the Introduc- tory Note as having been enacted by New York city and New York state and introduced in Congress subsequent to the First National Conference on Unemployment : ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A MUNICIPAL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU Adopted by the Board of Aldermen, New York City, April 28, 1914, and Approved by the Mayor May 4, 1914. Be ii Ordained by, the Board of Aldermen of The City of New York, as follows: Section i. There shall be a Public Employment Bureau in and for The City of New York, attached to the Department of Licenses, with the principal office in the Borough of Manhattan, and a branch office in such other boroughs as may be deemed necessary and designated by the Commissioner of Licenses for the purpose of aiding unemployed persons in securing employment and employers of labor in securing employees but no fee shall be charged by said Bureau, or any officer or employee thereof for such purpose. Section 2. The employees of said Public Employment Bureau shall consist of such Assistants and Clerks as may be found neces- sary for properly carrying on the work of said Bureau, and they shall be appointed and removed by the Commissioner of Licenses in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Municipal Civil Service Commission, and shall be paid such compensation as shall be fixed and established pursuant to section 56 of the Greater New York Charter. Section 3. There shall be kept in the principal office of said Bureau and in each and every branch office thereof such systems of records as may be necessary properly to record and classify, accord- ing to trade or profession, (i) all applicants for positions; (2) all positions to be filled as reported to said Bureau; (3) all persons sent American Labor Legislation Review to those seeking employees ; (4) all such persons who secure employ- ment, and (5) such other records as the Commissioner of Licenses deems necessary. A report of the transactions of each branch office shall be transmitted each day to the principal office of the Public Employment Bureau in the Borough of Manhattan. Section 4. The Public Employment Bureau shall, in so far as it is feasible, cooperate with such employment bureaus or intelligence offices as now exist, or which are now or may hereafter be established and conducted by the United States or the State of New York. Section 5. This ordinance shall take effect immediately. LAW ESTABLISHING A STATE BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT Passed by the Legislature of the State of New York, and Approved by the Governor April 7, 1914 (Chapter 181, Laws 1914) The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: * * * 66. Director. The bureau of employment shall be under the immediate charge of a director who shall have recognized ex- ecutive and managerial ability, technical and scientific knowledge upon the subject of unemployment and administration of public employment offices and recognized capacity to direct investigations of unemployment and public and private agencies for remedying the same. The civil service examination for the position of director shall be such as to test whether candidates have the above qualifi- cations. As a part of such examination each candidate shall be required to submit a detailed plan of organization and administration of employment offices such as are contemplated by this article. 66-a. Public employment offices. The commissioner of labor shall establish such public employment offices, and such branch offices, as may be necessary to carry out the purpose of this article. 66-b. Purpose. The purpose of such offices shall be to bring together all kinds and classes of workmen in search of employment and employers seeking labor. 66-c. Officers. Each office shall be in charge of a superintendent, who shall be subject to the supervision and direction of the director. Such other employees shall be provided as may be necessary for the proper administration of the affairs of the office. 66-d. Registration of applicants. The superintendent of every public employment office shall receive applications from those seek- ing employment and from those seeking employees and shall register every applicant on properly arranged cards or forms provided by the commissioner of labor. 66-e. Reports of superintendents. Each superintendent shall make to the director such periodic reports of applications for labor 394 American Labor Legislation Review or employment and all other details of the work of each office, and the expenses of maintaining the same, as the commissioner of labor may require. 66-f. Advisory committees. The commissioner of labor shall appoint for each public employment office an advisory committee, whose duty it shall be to give the superintendent advice and assist- ance in connection with the management of such employment office. The superintendent shall consult from time to time with the advisory committee attached to his office. Such advisory committee shall be composed of representative employers and employees with a chair- man who shall be agreed upon by a majority of such employers and of such employees. Vacancies, however caused, shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointments. The advisory commit- tees may appoint such subcommittees as they may deem advisable. At the request of a majority either of the employers or of the employees on advisory committees, the voting on any particular question shall be so conducted that there shall be an equality of vot- ing power between the employers and the employees, notwithstanding the absence of any member. Except as above provided, every question shall be decided by a majority of the members present and voting on that question. The chairman shall have no vote on any question on which the equality of voting power has been claimed. 66-g. Notice of strikes or lockouts. An employer, or a repre- sentative of employers or employees may file at a public employment office a signed statement with regard to the existence of a strike or lockout affecting their trade. Such a statement shall be exhibited in the employment office, but not until it has been communicated to the employers affected, if filed by employees, or to the employees affected, if filed by employers. In case of a reply being received to such a statement, it shall also be exhibited in the employment office. If any employer affected by a statement notifies the public employ- ment office of a vacancy or vacancies, the officer in charge shall advise any applicant for such vacancy or vacancies of the statements that have been made. 66-h. Applicants not to be disqualified. No person shall suffer any disqualification or be otherwise prejudiced on account of refus- ing to accept employment found for him through a public employ- ment office, where the ground of refusal is that a strike or lockout exists which affects the work, or that the wages are lower than those New Legislation on Employment Exchanges 395 current in the trade in that particular district or section where the employment is offered. 66-i. Departments. The commissioner of labor may organize in any office separate departments with separate entrances for men, women and juveniles; these departments may be subdivided into a division for farm labor and such other divisions for different classes of work as may in his judgment be required. 66-j. Juveniles. Applicants for employment who are between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years shall register upon special forms provided by the commissioner of labor. Such applicants upon securing their employment certificates as required by law, may be permitted to register at a public or other recognized school and when forms containing such applications are transmitted to a public em- ployment office they shall be treated as equivalent to personal regis- tration. The superintendent of each public employment office shall co-operate with the school principals in endeavoring to secure suit- able positions for children who are leaving the schools to begin work. To this end he shall transmit to the school principals a sufficient number of application forms to enable all pupils to register who desire to do so; and such principals shall acquaint the teachers and pupils with the purpose of the public employment office in placing juveniles. The advisory committees shall appoint special committees on juvenile employment which shall include employers, workmen, and persons possessing experience or knowledge of education, or of other condi- tions affecting juveniles. It shall be the duty of these special committees to give advice with regard to the management of the public employment offices to which they are attached in regard to juvenile applicants for employment. Such committees may take steps either by themselves or in co-operation with other bodies or persons to give information, advice and assistance to boys and girls and their parents with respect to the choice of employment and other matters bearing thereon. 66-k. Co-operation of public employment offices. The com- missioner of labor shall arrange for the co-operation of the offices created under this article in order to facilitate, when advisable, the transfer of applicants for work from places where there is an oversupply of labor to places where there is a demand. To this end he shall cause lists of vacancies furnished to the several offices, as herein provided, to be prepared and shall supply them to news- 39^ American Labor Legislation Review papers and other agencies for disseminating information, in his discretion, and to the superintendents of the public employment offices. The superintendent shall post these lists in conspicuous places, so that they may be open to public inspection. 66-1. Advertising. The commissioner of labor shall have power to solicit business for the public employment offices established under this article by advertising in newspapers and in any other way that he may deem expedient, and to take any other steps that he may deem necessary to insure the success and efficiency of such offices ; provided, that the expenditure under this section for advertising shall not exceed five per centum of the total expenditure for the purposes of this article. 66-m. Service to be free. No fees direct or indirect shall in any case be charged to or received from those seeking the benefits of this article. 66-n. Penalties. Any superintendent or clerk, subordinate or appointee, appointed under this article, who shall accept directly or indirectly any fee, compensation or gratuity from any one seeking employment or labor under this article, shall be guilty of a misde- meanor and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hun- dred dollars, or by imprisonment in jail for a term not exceeding six months, or both, and shall thereafter be disqualified from holding any office or position in such bureau. 66-0. Labor market bulletin. The bureau of statistics and in- formation of the department of labor shall publish a bulletin in which shall be made public all possible information with regard to the state of the labor market including reports of the business of the various public employment offices. 66-p. Information from employment agencies. For the pur- poses specified in the foregoing section every employment office or agency, other than those established under this article, shall keep a register of applicants for work and applicants for help in such form as may be required by the commissioner of labor in order to afford the same information as that supplied by state offices. Such register shall be subject to inspection by the commissioner of labor and information therefrom shall be furnished to him at such times and in such form as he may require. 3. This act shall take effect immediately. BILL TO ESTABLISH A FEDERAL BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT Introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Murdock, April 29, 1914, and Referred to the Committee on Labor Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a bureau to be known as the Bureau of Employment} shall be established in the Department of Labor. SEC. 2. That the Bureau of Employment shall be under the direction of a commissioner of employment, who shall be appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. SEC. 3. That the purpose of this bureau shall be to lessen the amount of unemployment in the United States by studying the causes and extent of unemployment, by regulating the interstate employment business of private employment agencies, and by bring- ing together workmen of all kinds seeking employment and employ- ers seeking workmen. SEC. 4. That to this end the bureau shall establish, in connection with its central office at Washington, a system of free labor exchanges at such important industrial and commercial centers as may seem desirable to the commissioner. Each exchange shall be in charge of a superintendent, who shall be subject to the supervision and direction of the commissioner; and such other employees shall be provided as may be necessary for the proper administration of the work of the office. These exchanges shall use such methods, keep such records, and make such reports as the commissioner may require. They shall cooperate with each other by exchanging reports through the central office showing the fluctuations in the labor market in their respective districts. The central office and the branch exchanges shall cooperate as fully as possible with State, municipal, and private employment agencies. SEC. 5. That the bureau shall investigate the methods and work of persons, corporations, and associations conducting private em- ployment agencies which do an interstate employment business. American Labor Legislation Review After January first, nineteen hundred and fifteen, no person, cor- poration, or association shall conduct an employment agency doing such interstate business without having procured a license from the Commissioner of Employment. Application for the license must be made upon blanks furnished by the commissioner, and must contain such information as he may require. Each application must be verified and must be accompanied by affidavits of the good moral character of the applicant, or, if the applicant be a corporation, of its officers. The commissioner shall investigate the character of the applicant, the premises to be used, and the methods of the agency. Such license shall be granted upon approval of the application and payment to the commissioner of a fee of $25. The license, unless sooner revoked by the commissioner, shall run until the first day of July next ensuing the date thereof, and shall be renewable annually on payment of a like fee and on compliance with any rules adopted by the commissioner. Every license shall contain the name of the licensee, the address at which he is authorized to carry on business, the number and date of such license, and such further particulars as the commissioner may prescribe. Such license shall not authorize the licensee or his agents to transact business, or to hold himself or themselves out as authorized to transact business, at any place other than that prescribed in the license without the written consent of the commissioner, nor shall the license be transferred or assigned without such consent. Such licensee shall not send out an applicant for any employment within the provisions of this Act without having first obtained a bona fide order therefor in writing stating the terms and conditions of employment and whether a strike of the employ- ees of the person or corporation making the request is in progress. Such order shall be kept on file by the licensee and shall at all times be open to the inspection of the commissioner. If a licensee is guilty of fraud or misrepresentation, or violates any of the provisions of this Act or the rules adopted thereunder, the commissioner may revoke the license, after giving such notice as he deems sufficient to the licensee and an opportunity to answer the charges. Any viola- tion of the provisions of this Act or of the rules thereunder shall be a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500 or by imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. The Secretary of Labor, on the recom- New Legislation on Employment Exchanges 399 mendation of the Commissioner of Employment, shall make the necessary rules to carry out the purposes of this Act. SEC. 6. That the bureau shall issue bulletins giving the informa- tion it has gathered through the labor exchanges about the state of the labor market in different parts of the country. It shall also issue from time to time whatever recommendations it believes to be advisable with reference to changing the conditions that cause unemployment or to providing means for bringing the men and the work together. SEC. 7. That as used in this Act the term "interstate employ- ment business" means the business of securing work to be performed outside the State where the business is carried on and which involves the transportation of the workman from one State to another. IX SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ON UNEMPLOYMENT BRIEF LIST OF REFERENCES ON UNEMPLOYMENT, EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE Prepared by the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEGISLATION UNITED STATES BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ON UNEMPLOYMENT This select list of titles is here printed in the hope that it may be found immediately useful by the growing numbers of Americans who now realize as never before that there exists in this country a permanent and demoralizing problem of unemployment. Effort has been made to present only those works which will most readily put the American seeker after information in touch with the latest facts and the best thought upon the various phases of the problem. Additions will be made to the list during the year. Copies of all publications on the subject are therefore urgently solicited in order that from this beginning there may be prepared a comprehensive bibliography, conveniently arranged and classified and fully annotated, for the guidance of all who wish to make future work more effective. BIBLIOGRAPHIES Beveridge, W. H. Unemployment; cago press, 1910. 282 p. "Unem- a problem of industry. London, ployment", p. 205-208. .., " . . .' discher, italienischer. norwegischer. Bibliographic der sozialwissenschaf- portugiesischer, spanischer und n> u 1 Dresd c en ' . Bohme rt, 1906 tschechischer Sprache gesammelte Monthly. See in each number Berichte. Grunewald-Berlin, 1904. Section vin. cjj p : . J&hrbuch, 1906-1908. Taylor, F. Isabel. A bibliography of Dresden, Bohmert, 1907-09. No unemployment and the unemployed, more published . London, King, 1909. Bullock ED. Selected articles on Verband deutscher arbei tsnachweise. compulsory insur^n e. ^^ "Bibliography," p. [xvii]-xxxv. Foerster Robert F. Unemployment .. .Bibhothek des Verbandes and vagrancy. [Bibliography] deutscher Arbeitsnachweise. Ber- (Harvard University. ^ A guide % to lin, 1911. 42 p. reading in social ethics and allied Wagner, Moritz. Beitrage zur frage subjects. Cambridge, 1910. p. der arbeitslosen fursorge in 157-162.) . Deutschland. Berlin-Grunewald, Journal of political economy. Bibh- 1004. 95 p. "Bibliographic der ar- ography of economics for 1909. beitslosen-versicherung": p. [90]- Chicago, 111., University of Chi- 95. 404 American Labor Legislation Review GENERAL WORKS Abbott, Edith. Municipal employ- ment of unemployed women in London. (Journal of political economy, Nov. 1907, v. 15:513-530.) Adams, Thomas Sewall, and Sumner, H. L. Labor Problems: A Text Book. "Poverty, Earnings and Un- employment", p. 142-174. Brief descriptive and statistical discussion. Addams, Jane. Solving the problem of the unemployed. (Ladies' home journal, Sept. 1913, v. 30:23.) Alden, Percy. The unemployed, a national question. London, King, 1905, 199 P.. Discusses rise of the unemployment prob- lem, indirect and direct remedies for various types of unemployment, and principles of labor colony administration. The unemployable and unem- ployed. London, Headley, 1908. 155 P- Outlines of the problem, definitions, sug- gested remedies. American association for labor legis- lation. Unemployment: A prob- lem of industry. Program and an- nouncement issued by the Ameri- can association for labor legislation National Conference on Unem- ployment, New York city, February 27-28, 1914. 16 p. Data on unemployment in the United States, and American and international or- ganization to combat the evil. American social science association. The Relief of the unemployed in the United States during the winter of 1893-1894, 52 p. (Journal of social science, Nov. 1894.) A report made at Saratoga, September 7, 1894. Association natipnale francaise pour la protection legale des travailleurs Les problemes du chomage. Rap- porteurs: MM. F. Fagnot, Max Lazard, Louis Varlez . . . Paris, 1910. 215 p. La lutte centre le chomage . . . Rapports de M. de Lauwe- reyns de Roosendale . . . Discus- sions et voeux. Lille, 1910. 56 p. Association of neighborhood work- ers. Committee on unemployment. Unemployment. New York, 1908. 24 p. Gives reasons for supporting bills provid- ing for a state commission to report on remedies for unemployment. Australia. Bureau of census and sta- tistics. Labour and industrial branch. Trade unionism, unem- ployment, wages, prices, and cost of living in Australia, 1891-1912. G. H. Knibbs. Melbourne, 1913. 77 P. Barnett, S. A. The problem of dis- tress among the unemployed. (In- ternational, Nov. 1908, v. 3:265-270.) Bellamy, Edward. How to employ the unemployed in mutual mainten- ance. Boston?, 1893?. Outline for a permanent, state-controlled establishment for the co-operative self sup- port of the unemployed. Beveridge, William Henry. Unem- ployment: a problem of industry. London, Longmans, Green, 1912. 405 P. The "Bible of unemployment." Discusses the problem and its limits, sources of infor- mation, seasonal fluctuations, cyclical fluc- tuation, the reserve of labor, loss and lack of industrial quality, the personal factor, remedies of the past, and principles of fu- ture policy. Valuable appendix on public labor exchanges in Germany. Unemployed workmen act in 1906-07. (Sociological review, Jan. 1908, v. 1:79-83-) Bicknell, Ernest P. Problems of philanthropy in Chicago. The Academy, Philadelphia, 1903. 37-46 P. Bilgram, Hugo. Involuntary idleness. An exposition of the cause of the discrepancy existing between the supply of, and the demand for, labor and its products. Philadel- phia, Lippincott, 1889. 119 p. * A paper read at the meeting of the Ameri- can economic association, Philadelphia, Dec. 29, 1888. Bliss, William D. P. Unemployment. (Encyclopedia of social reform, p. 1243-1246. New York, 1908.) Bowley, A. L. The measurement of employment: an experiment. (Royal statistical society. Journal, July, 1912, v. 75:791-822.) Brandt, Lillian. The causes of pov- erty. (Political science quarterly, Dec. 1908, v. 23:637-651.) Brewster, A. R. Early experiments with the unemployed. (Quarterly journal of economics, 1895, v. Q, p. 88-95.) Broda, Rodolphe. The campaign General Works 405 against unemployment. (Interna- tional, Nov. 1909, v. 6:223-228.) Brooks, J. G. The future problem of charity and the unemployed. 27 p. (From American academy of political and social science. The annals, 1894, v. 5.) The unemployed in German cities. (Quarterly journal of eco- nomics, v. 7, p. 353-358.) Burke, Lot F. If the unemployed go to work. Haverhill, Mass., Wade, 1897. 82 p. Channing, F. C. Oversaving and the unemployed. (Economic review, 1898, v. 8, p. 215-224.) Chapman, Sydney J. Work and wages, in continuation of Lord Brassey's 'Work and wages' and 'Foreign work and English wages'. Ft. II, Wages and employment. London, Longmans, Green, 1908. 494 p. "Unemployment", p. 34- 384. Chapman, Sydney John, and Halls- worth, H. M. Unemployment; the results of an investigation made in Lancashire and an examination of the Report of the Poor law com- mission. Manchester, 1909. Intensive study by age, trade and sex of organized and unorganized workers in the district, with program for amelioration. Chicago (111.). Commission on the unemployed. Report. Chicago, 1914. Results of two years' intensive study. Charles R. Crane, chairman, Ckarles R. Henderson, secretary. Citizens' relief committee, Boston (Mass.). Report. Boston, 1894- 62 p. Results of efforts to provide relief work during the depression of 1893-94. Closson, C. C. Notes on the history of unemployment and relief meas- ures in the United States. (Jour- nal of political economy, 1895, v. 3, p. 461-469.) Unemployed in American cities. (Quarterly journal of eco- nomics, v. 8, p. 168-217, 453-477-) Collett, Anthony. A letter to Thomas Sherlock Gooch, esq. M. P., upon the present ruinous system of re- lieving unemployed men with money instead of providing them with work; detailing a legislative plan, for the employment of the poor, with provisional enactments. Halesworth [Eng.], 1824. 65 p. Coman, Katharine. Unemployment, a world problem, and the congress at Ghent. (Survey, Feb. 28, 1914. v. 31:667-669.) Sympathetic report of the transactions of the first general congress on unemployment, at Ghent, September, 1913. Commercial club (Indianapolis) re- lief committee. Relief for the un- employed in Indianapolis. Report of the Commercial club, relief com- mittee and its auxiliary, the Citi- zens' finance committee. 1893-1894. Indianapolis, 1894. 68 p. Constructive proposals. (American labor legislation review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2:309-354.) General discussion of an immediate pro- gram, with resolutions. Convention of the unemployed, New York City. (New York standard, March 15, 1872.) Dague, R. A. An act to give employ- ment to the unemployed, widely 'known as the Dague tramp bill. Chicago, Kerr, 1899. 20 p. (Unity library no. 96.) Proposes state wide public relief work on county farms or on highways. Daniels, Percy. Swollen fortunes and the problem of the unemployed. Carthage, Mo., 1908. 74 p. Discusses the distribution of wealth, the unemployed, and the effect of industrial trusts. Davison, R. C. Employment and un- employment: the latest phase. (Westminster review, Sept. 1912, v. 178: 270-276.) Dawbarn, Climenson Yelverton Charles. Liberty and progress. London, Longmans, Green, 1909. 339 P.. Contains sections on the employed, the principles of employment, and the under- paid and unemployed. Dearie, Norman Burrell. Problems of unemployment in the London building trades. London, Dent, 1908. 203 p. Detailed study of variations of employ- ment in the building trades, causes, effect of trade unions, and methods of meeting the fluctuations. Detroit (Mich.) Agricultural com- mittee. Report of Committee on the cultivation of idle land by the poor and unemployed, 1896. 14 p. Devine, Edward Thomas. Misery and its causes. New York, Mac- millan, 1909. "Out of work", p. 113-146. The maladjustments which lead to unenv ployment and proposed remedies. 4 o6 American Labor Legislation Review Dcwey, Davis R. Irregularity of em- ployment. (American economic as- sociation. Publication no. 5-6, 1894, p. 53-67.) Dibblee, George Binney. The laws of supply and demand, with special reference to their influence on over- production and unemployment. London, Constable, 1912. Theoretical discussion. Contains sections on the sale of labor and the right to work. Drage, Geoffrey. The unemployed. London, Macmillan, 1894. 277 p. Classified discussion of agencies dealing with unemployment, accomplishments in tke past and outlines of future policy. Dreiser, T. Men in the dark. (American magazine, Feb. 1912, v. 73:465-468.) The effect of tariffs on unemploy- ment, by an economist. London, Cassell, 1910. 35 p. Ethical social league. Statement of unemployment. New York, April 7, 1908. Fisk, A. C. The solution of the un- employed. New York?, 1910?. Proposes a joint stock company for the purchase of land. Flynt, Josiah. (pseud, for J. F. Wil- lard). Tramping with tramps: Studies and sketches of vagabond life. New York, Century co., 1899. 398 p. The author's experiences in Germany, Russia, England and the United States. France. Commission des crises eco- nomiques. Rapports presentes au nom de la commission par MM. Georges-Cahen et Edmond Laurent . . . sur les indices des crises eco- nomiques et sur les mesures finan- cieres propres a attenuer les cho- mages resultant de ces crises. Paris, 1910. 78 p. Gaylord, W. R. Unemployment; the problem and the remedies pro- posed. Milwaukee, 1909. 39 p. Definition, statistics, causes, and the So- cialist analysis. General kommission der gewerkschaf- ten Deutschlands. Die Arbeitslosen unterstutzung im Reich, Staat und Gemeinde. Berlin, 1911. 112. Gokhale, Shankar Laxman. The un- employment problem, by "Analyti- cus". Albany, N. Y., 1912. 3-38 p. Great Britain. Board of Trade. Six- teenth abstract of labor statistics of the United Kingdom. London, 1913. Contains especially fluctuations in em- ployment, unemployment insurance, Board of trade labor exchanges, women's employ- ment bureaux, distress committees, trade union unemployed benefits. Labour gazette. London, monthly, 1893 . Regularly contains sections on the labor market, unemployment insurance, employ- ment in the principal industries, and Board of trade labor exchanges. Great Britain. Local government board. Annual report. London, 1905 to date; 1912-13 issued in 3 parts. "The Unemployed workmen act," pt. i. Return as to the proceedings of distress committees in England and Wales and of the Central (un- employed) body for London under the Unemployed workmen act, 1905. London, 1909-12. Great Britain. Parliament. House of commons. Select committee on distress from want of employment. First[ third] report from the Se- lect committee on distress from want of employment, together with the proceedings of the committee, minutes of evidence, appendix[es] and index. London, 1895. 3 v. Great Britain. Royal commission on poor laws and relief of distress. Report of the Royal commission on the poor laws and relief of dis- tress. Part VI. Distress due to unemployment. London, 1909. 303- 445 P. The Minority report of the Poor law commission . . . London, Printed for the National committee to promote the break-up of the Poor law, 1909. 2 v. Grenfell, Arthur P. Afforestation and unemployment. London, Fabian society, 1912. 14 p. Hard, William. Unemployment as a coming issue. (American labor legislation review, Feb. 1912, v. 2:93-100.) Argues for a thorough study of the problem. Hardie, James Keir. John Bull and his unemployed. A plain statement on the law of England as it affects the unemployed. London, Inde- pendent labour party, 1905. 15 p. Hatch, E. F. G. A reproach to civi- lization. Treatise on the problem of the unemployed and some sug- gestions for a possible solution. London, 1907. General Works 407 Henderson, Charles Richmond. The struggle against unemployment. (American labor legislation review, May, 1914, v. 4, no. 2:294-299.) Popular appeal for vigorous and united action. Recent advances in the strug- gle against unemployment. (Amer- ican labor legislation review, Feb. 1912, v. 2: 105-110.) Progress in statistics, preventive measures, and insurance. Hendrick, Burton J. A scientific em- ployment plan. (American review of reviews, Nov. 1913, v. 48:567- 576.) Hobson, John Atkinson. The prob- lem of the unemployed, an enquiry and an economic policy. London, Methuen, 1896. 163 p. Treats of the meaning of unemployment, minor causes, the root cause, palliatives, and the economic remedy. Hope, A. T. Canada and the unem- ployed problem; some suggestions for its solution. London, 1909. 76 p. International association on unem- ployment. Bulletin trimestriel de TAssociation internationale pour le lutte -contre' le chomage; edited by Max Lazard. Paris, 1911 Contains articles by European and Ameri- can specialists, in English, French and Ger- man. The issues which have appeared to date have dealt with the following topics: 1911, no. 1: unemployment insurance; no. 2: employment bureaus. 1912, no. 1-2, rela- tion of child labor to unemployment; No. 3 relation of emigration and immigration to un- employment, employment bureaus for agri- cultural workers; no. 4: proceedings of the third session of the International committee on unemployment. 1913, no. 1, aid to the unemployed; no. 2, statistics of unemploy- ment; no. 3. results of the international study of public employment exchanges in 1911; no. 4, reports on unemployment and migration. 1914, no. 1, international reports on the operation of unemployment insurance systems, reports on unemployment and public works. First general meeting. Ghent, 5-6 September, 1913. 30 p. Contains reports in French, German, Eng- lish and Dutch. .Belgian section. Brochure No. 1-2, Gand, 1911-12. No. 1 is on "Les institutions centre le chomage en Belgique," and No. 2 deals with La contribution beige a la statistique internationale du chomage." Hungarian section. Publica- tions. Budapest, 1911 The contents of the publications so far issued are 1. szam. A munkanelkuliseg elleni kuzdelem. Tajekoztato a mozganlom kelet- kezeserol. t 2. szam. A munkanelkuliseg es a munkasvankorlasok. 3. szam. A muna- piac megszervezese es a munkakozvetitei. (Elokeszites alatt.) 4. szam. A gazdasagi helyzet es a munkanelkuliseg. (As egyesiilet szaktnacskozmanyanak j egyzony ve. ) International conference on unem- ployment, ist, Paris, 1910. Compte rendu de la Conference interna- tionale du chomage. Paris, 1911. 3 v. The "Compte rendu" is almost entirely in French; the "Rapports" in French, English, or German, with a summary in the other two languages. The International conference on un- employment, 1910. (Royal statisti- cal society. Journal, Dec., 1910, v. 74: 67-70.) Irregularity of employment. Reports of official delegates to the First national conference on unemploy- ment, New York, 1914. (American labor legislation review, May, 1914* v. 4, no. 2:219-254.) Statements from representatives of twenty- five leading industrial states on conditions in the winter of 1913-14. Irwin, Will. The floating laborer. (Saturday evening post, May 9, 1914. v. 186, no. 45: 3-5, 41-50.). First of a series of three articles. Jackson, Cyril. Unemployment and trade unions. London, Longmans, Green, 1910. 92 p. Proposes remedies, and argues for the trade unions as the instruments of gov- ernmental effort. Jackson, Cyril and Pringle, J. C. Re- port on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "Unem- ployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress outside of the poor law. London, 1909. 757 p. Jevons, Herbert Stanley. The causes of unemployment. (Contemporary review, May, 1909, v. 95:548-565.) The sun's heat and trade ac- tivity. London, King, 1910. 35 p. Discusses the relation between bad har- vests and unemployment. Insurance and training for the unemployed. (New Zealand. Department of labour. Journal, 1911, v. 19:610-621.) Jonas, Alexander. Why workmen are unemployed. An answer to a burn- ing question. New York, New York labor news co., 1894. 10 p. (Labor library no. 9.) Kellogg, Arthur P. The man put of work to-day. (American review of reviews, Mar., 1908, v. 37:336-339.) Kellor, Frances Alice. Unemploy- ment: A program for relief. New American Labor Legislation Review York, 1914. 8 p. (Reprinted from the Survey, Feb. 7, 14, 21, 1914.) A discussion of conditions in New York city, with recommendations. Kelly, Edmond. The elimination of the tramp, by the introduction into America of the labor colony system already proved effective in Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. New York, Putnam, 1908. in p. Describes systems in use in Europe, with suggestions for their adaptation to America. Keyser, J. H. How shall the surplus labor of the country be employed? The limitation of wealth and land the last hope of the republic: how to break monopoly. New York, 1888? (National limitation associa- tion, Educational series no. 4.) Kingsbury, John A. Our army of the unemployed. (American review of reviews, Apr. 1914, v. 49, no. 4:433- 439-) A popular statement of the problem and of recent efforts to solve it. Labor conference. Proceedings of the conference with the representatives of labor held in the office of the secretary of commerce and labor> Feb. 10-11, 1909. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1909. 133 p. Addresses by trade union leaders, partly on relation of immigration to employment. Lavergne, A. de. Le chomage; causes consequences remedes. Paris Riviere, 1910. 420 p. Lazard, Max. Le chomage et la pro- fession, contribution a 1'etude statis- tique du chomage et de son coeffi- cient professionnel. Paris, Alcan, 1909. 379 P. . Study of relative degrees of unemploy- ment in various occupations. Leach, R. A. The "Unemployed workmen act, 1905". With the or- ders and regulations issued by the local government board under the provisions of the act; and notes. Rochdale, 1905. 192 p. Leiserson, William Morris. Unem- ployment in the state of New York. New York, 1911, p. 25-199. A careful study of conditions, made for the New York state commission on employ- ers' liability and unemployment, 1911. The Duluth rock pile. (Sur- vey, Sept. 20, 1913, v. 3o:729-73i-) The laborer who refuses to invest. (Survey, Nov. 8, 1913, v. 31: 164-165.) Discusses the problem of the drifter. Letourneux, Georges. L'action so- ciale des municipalites allemandes. Paris, Rousseau, 1911. 410 p. "Le role des municipalites allemandes dans la lutte contre le chomage", chap. 4, p. 141-198. Bibliographic, p. 197-198. Lloyd, C. M. The evil of casual la- bour, and how to meet it. (New Zealand. Department of labour. Journal, Oct. 1910, v. 18:823-828.) La Lutte contre le chomage, organe de la Section beige de 1'Association internationale. Gand, 1912 Five numbers annually discuss unemploy- ment conditions and unemployment insur- ance. McAnally, David Rice. The unem- ployed. Who they are, why they are idle, and what is their outlook. St. Louis, 1889. 92 p. McLean, F. H. Our many Iliads. (Survey, Nov. I, 1913, v. 31:141- 142.) Mackay, Thomas. Relief by means of employment. (Economic re- view, 1896, v. 6, p. 183-192.) Mallock, W. H. The facts at the back of unemployment. (Nine- teenth century and after, June, 1911, v. 69: 1104-1123.) Marsh, Benjamin C. Causes of vag- rancy and methods of eradication. (American academy of political and social science, pub. no. 419.) Martin, John. The remedy for un- employment: a sympathetic review of the minority report on the poor law. (Survey, Apr. 17, 1909, v. 22: II5-II7.) Massachusetts. Board to investigate the subject of the unemployed. Re- port of the Massachusetts board to investigate the subject of the un- employed. Boston, 1895. Contains sections on relief measures, way- farers and tramps, public works, and causes of unemployment. Massachusetts. Bureau of statistics. Quarterly report on the state of em- ployment. Boston, 1912 Reports for 1908 in Labor bulletins no. 59, 61, 62, 63. Reports for 1909-1911 are Labor bulletins no. 64, 66, 69, 71, 72, 74, 77, 79, 80, 82, 85, 89. Massachusetts. Bureau of statistics of labor. Unemployment. Boston, 1894. 267 p. Mavor, James. Labor colonies and the unemployed. (Journal of po- litical economy, 1894, v. 2, p. 26-53.) General Works 409 Michels, Robert and Michels- Lindner, Gisela. Das Problem der Arbeits- losigkeit und ihre Bekampfung durch die deutschen freien Gewerk- schaften. (Archiv fiir Sozialwis- senschaft und Sozialpolitik, Sept. 1910, v. 31:421-497.) Mitchell, John. Protect the work- man. (Unemployment and immi- gration.) (Outlook, Sept. ii, 1909, v. 93:65-69.) Moody, W. G. Our labor difficulties: The cause and the way out; includ- ing the paper on the displacement of labor by improvements in ma- chinery, by a committee appointed by the American social science as- sociation . . . read before the as- sociation in Cincinnati, May 24, 1878. Boston, 1878. 9-96 p. Moore, Harold E. Our heritage in the land. London, King, 1906. 136 p. Deals with a scheme for using the land, results of unskilled labor on land, manage- ment of a hand husbandry farm, the training of men unskilled in rural work, settlement on English land, poor law guardians and the land. Most, Otto. The problem of unem- ployment in Germany. London, Cassell, 1910. 24 p. (Reprinted from the English review, Sept. 1910, v. 6:342-360.) Mullenbach, James and Henderson, C. R. The problem of unemploy- ment. (City club of Chicago. City club bulletin, Mar. n, 1912, v. 5: 49- 58.) Nagel, Charles. Introductory address, The unemployment problem in America. (American labor legisla- tion review, Feb. 1912, v. 2:91-92.) Brief argument for constructive action. National committee for the preven- tion of destitution. The case for the national minimum. London, 1913. 89 p. "Prevention of unem- ployment", c. vi. National conference on the unem- ployment of women dependent on their own earnings, London, Oct. 15, iQO?. Report. London, Wo- men's industrial council, 1907. 39 p. Proceedings of a conference called by the Women's industrial council, London. Nearing, Scott. The extent of un- employment in the United States. (American statistical association. Publications, Sept. 1909, v. 11:525- 542.) Netherlands. Staatscommissie over de werkloosheid. Verslag. 's-Gra- venhage, 1913. 8 v. Detailed reports on unemployment in var- ious groups of important industries, by even sub-committees of the government commis- sion on unemployment appointed in 1909, with a general introduction and recommenda- tions. New England association for the re- lief of the unemployed. Those that own the soil own the country. The ownership of land is the basis of true wealth. Land is the founda- tion of all security. New Haven, 1877. New Jersey. Bureau of statistics of labor and industries. The problem of the unemployed. (Twenty-fifth annual report, 1902, p. 213-257. Somerville, N. J., 1903.) New South Wales. Labour bureau. Regulations for the classification and registration of the unemployed. (Sydney, 1900. 6 p.) New York. Commission on employ- ers' liability and other matters. Third report, Unemployment and lack of farm labor. Albany, 1911. 245 P. Study of conditions in New York state and brief description of unemployment insur- ance plans in force abroad. New York. Department of labor. Bulletins, series on unemployment. No. i: Idleness of organized wage earners on September 30, 1913. New York association for improving the condition of the poor. New York city. Report on the question of unemployment in New York city. New York, 1913. Cultivation of vacant city lots by the unemployed. (A. I. C. P. Notes, v. i, no. i. 48 p.) Petersen, Jens Christian. The solu- tion of the labor problem; how the workers may organize and take off the market the unemployed; how to get control of the jobs. Butte, Mont., 1912. 46 p. Plan for a system of voluntary, demo- cratically managed employment agencies among the workers. Picard, Roger. Les crises econom- iques et le chomage. (Revue social- iste, June 15, 1912, v. 55:512-521.) Post, H. Untersuchungen uber den umfang der erwerbslosigkeit inner- halb der einzelnen berufe und berufsgruppen. Jena, Fischer, 1914. 174 P- 4io American Labor Legislation Review Pringle, J. C. Report on the effects of employment or assistance given to the "Unemployed" since 1886 as a means of relieving distress out- side the Poor law of Scotland. London, 1910. 193 p. Public responsibility. (American la- bor legislation review, May, 1914, v 4, no. 2:255-277.) General discussion of methods in opera- tion in the United States for preventing un- employment and for alleviating the distress consequent thereto. Raine, G. E. Present-day Socialism, and the problem of the unemployed; a criticism of the platform pro- posals of the moderate Socialists; together with some suggestions for a constructive scheme of reform. London, Nash, 1908. 207 p. Final chapter deals with unemployment and proposed remedies. Rhode Island. Bureau of industrial statistics. Rhode Island's unem- ployed breadwinners. Providence, R. I., 1908. 50 p. The right to work. (Edinburgh re- view, Jan. 1911, v. 213: 180-199.) Ring, Henry F. The problem of the unemployed. Houston? Tex., 1905. 280 p. A work on political economy, in which an attempt is made to show the underlying cause of involuntary idleness and the failure of wages to keep pace with the increasing wealth-producing power of wage earners. Roberts, E. Experiments in Ger- many with unemployment. (Scrib- ner's magazine, Jan. 1911, v. 49: 116-120.) Rowntree, B. Seebohm and Lasker, Bruno. Unemployment, a social study. London, Macmillan, 1911. 317 P. An account of a detailed investigation of unemployment in York, together with sug- gestions for remedying the evils which it disclosed. St. Clair, Oswald. Low wages and no wages; an essay on the economic causes of poverty, unemployment and bad trade. London, 1908. 9- 240 p. Attributes unemployment to under-con- sumption. Salter, William Mackintire. What can be done for the unemployed? Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1894. i6p. Samuelson, James. Unemployment and its proposed remedies. (Civili- zation of our day, 1896, p. 167-181.) Sargent, Frank Byron. Statistics of unemployment and the work of em- ployment offices. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1913. 147 p. (Bul- letin of the United States Bureau of labor, whole no. 109. Miscellaneous series, no. I.) Results of a comprehensive investigation into unemployment statistics and the opera- tion of employment exchanges in the United States. Seager, Henry Rogers. The English method of dealing with the unem- ployed. (American labor legisla- tion review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2: 281-293.) Popular description of the British em- ployment exchange and compulsory unem- ployment insurance systems. Smet, Robert de. Le risque-chomage. Gand, 1913. 28 p. Solenberger, Alice Willard. One thousand homeless men: A study of original records. New York, Charities publication committee, 1911. Sections on the occupations of the men studied and on seasonal and casual labor. Strong, Charles. Unemployment in Victoria. (International, Apr. 1909, v. 5:38-41.) Suthers, Robert B. My right to work. London, Clarion press, 1906. 143 p. Discusses unemployment. Tawney, Jeanette. Women and un- employment. (Economic journal, Mar. 1911, v. 21:131-139.) Unemployment conference, New York, 1908. The Union Square demonstration and the unemploy- ed conference. New York, 1908. United States Bureau of labor statis- tics. Statistics of unemployment and the work of employment offices in the United States. (Its Bulletin, no. 109.) Systematic relief work for the unemployed of Diisseldorf. (Its Bulletin, no. 93: 616-621.) United States Department of com- merce and labor. Labor confer- ence. Proceedings of the confer- ence with the representatives of labor, held in the office of the sec- retary of commerce and labor, Feb- ruary 10 and n, 1909. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1909. 133 p. Varlez, Louis. "Unemployment: an international problem. (Interna- tional, Dec. 1908, v. 4: 59-65.) Le statistique de chomage. G. Von Mayr joint author. See next title. General Works 411 Von Mayr, G. and Varlez, Louis. La statistique du chomage. Gand, 1913. 186 p. Report of the special committees appointed by the International statistical institute and the International association on unemploy- ment, with recommendations for more fre- quent, general and uniform gathering of statistics. Wadlin, Horace G. Unemployment. (Massachusetts. Bureau of statis- tics of labor, twenty-fourth annual report, 1894, P- 1-268. Boston, 1894.) Historical examples of public aid to the unemployed, modern plans, current statis- 1 tics, foreign data, recommendations. Ward, F. W. Orde. Unemployment a national disgrace and danger. (Westminster review, May, 1912, v. 177:523-528.) Warner, Amos G. Some experiments on behalf of the unemployed. (Quarterly journal of economics, 1891, v. 5, P. 1-23.) Washington, Booker T. Man at the bottom in London. (Outlook, May 6, 1911, v. 98:21-26.) Watts, J. Hunter. Agriculture and un- employment. (International, Sept. 1909, v. 6: 106-113.) Wayland, Francis. A paper on tramps; read at the Saratoga meet- ing of the American social science association before the conference of state charities. New Haven, 1877. Webb, Sidney. Seasonal trades, by various writers, with an introduc- tion by Sidney Webb. London, Constable, 1912. 410 p. The outcome of a seminar at the London school of economics and political science during the session of 1910. Contains chap- ters on seasonal trades, by J. S. Poyntz; the tailoring trade in London, by Barbara Drake; the waiter, by Barbara Drake; the cycle in- dustry, by G. R. Carter; the gas industry, by Frank Popplewell; the London millinery trade, by C. K. Saunders; the skin and fur trades, by Marguerite Bourat; the boot and shoe trade, by Constance Calver; the building trade, by A. D. Webb. The problem of unemploy- ment in the United Kingdom; with a remedy by organization and train- ing. (American academy of politi- cal and social science. Annals, Mar., 1909, v. 33:420-439.) Webb, Sidney, and Webb, Beatrice. The break-up of the Poor law: be- ing part one of the Minority re- port of the Poor law commission. London, Longmans, Green, 1909. 601 p. Contains sections on the general mixed workhouse of to-day, outdoor relief of to- day, birth and infancy, children under rival authorities, curative treatment of the sick by rival authorities, the mentally defective, the aged and infirm, charge and recovery by local authorities, settlement and removal, grants-in-aid, supervision and control by the national government, scheme of reform, and summary of conclusions and recommen- dations. The public organization of the labour market: being part two of the Minority report of the Poor law commission. London, Long- mans, Green, 1909. 345 p. Contains: The able-bodied under the poor law, the able j bodied and voluntary agencies, the able-bodied under the unem- ployed workmen act, the distress from un- employment as it exists to-day, proposals for reform, summary of conclusions and recommendations. The prevention of destitution. London, 1911. 348 p. The subject of the book is destitution as it exists in the United Kingdom to-day. It treats of destitution as a disease of society, how to prevent the destitution that arises from sickness, destitution and _ eugenics, how to prevent the destitution arising from child neglect, sweating and unemployment as causes of destitution, how to prevent un- employment and under-employment, insur- ance, the enlarged sphere of voluntary agencies in the prevention of destitution, the need for a common registrar of public assistance, the "moral factor." Each chap- ter is followed by an appendix with notes and references. What I went through in trying to get a position. (Ladies' home journal, Mar. 15, 1911, v. 28: 15-16.) Wheeler, Everett P. The unemplov- ed: education of the worker. (In Peters, John P. Labor and capi- tal, p. 419 424. New York, 1002.) Williams, R. The Liverpool docks problem. Liverpool, Northern pub- lishing: co., 1912. 44 p. Wyckoff, Walter A. The workers: An experiment in reality; the west. New York. Scribner's, 1899. 3?8 p. Experiences among the tmemploved from Chicago to the Pacific in 1891-1893. 4 I2 American Labor Legislation Review EMPLOYMENT EXCHANGES Abbott, Grace. The Chicago employ- ment agency and the immigrant worker. (American journal of so- ciology, Nov. 1908, v. 14: 289-305.) Adler, Georg. Arbeitsnachweis und Arbeitsborsen. (Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaft, 3d ed., v. i: 1130-1140. Jena, 1909.) Andrews, John B. Report of the committee appointed by the trustees of the City club of New York . . . to inquire into the need of public employment exchanges in New York. Morris L. Ernst joint author. New York, 1914. 35 p. Der Arbeitsmarkt. Halbmonatsschrift der Centralstelle fur arbeitsmarkt- berichte. Zugleich organ des Ver- bandes deutscher arbeitsnachweise. Berlin, 1897 The leading source of information on the condition of the German labor market and on the operations of the German labor exchanges. Baab, August Zur frage der arbeits- losenversicherung, der arbeitsver- mittelung und der arbeitsbeschaf- fung. Leipzig, Deichert, 1911. 389 P. Becker, Otto. Die gesetzliche rege- lung der arbeitsvermittlung in den wichtigsten landern der erde. Ber- lin, Heymann, 1913. Beveridge, William Henry. Labour bureaux. (Economic journal, Sept. 1906, v. 16:436-439.) Public labour exchanges in Germany. (Economic journal, Mar. 1908, v. 18: 1-18.) Birmingham. Education committee. Report on the Birmingham system of care committees and juvenile em- ployment bureaux. Adopted by the Education committee, i6th Decem- ber 1910, and 26th May, 1911. Bir- mingham, 1911. 34 p. Bliss, W. D. P. What is done for the unemployed in European coun- tries. (United States Bureau of labor. Bulletin, May, 1908, no. 76: 741-934.) Discusses principally employment bureaus. Bloomfield, Meyer. The school and the start in life: A study of the rela- tion between school and employ- ment in England, Scotland and Ger- many. (United States Bureau of education, bulletin 1914 no. 4, whole no. 575-) Washington, Govt. print, off., 1914. 146 p. Contains much information of value in regard to metkods of juvenile labor ex- changes and juvenile placement work. Bogart, E. L. Public employment of- fices in the United States and Ger- many. (Commons, John R. Trade unionism and labor problems, p. 603-626. 1905.) Bourgin, Georges. Contribution a 1'histoire du placement et du livret en France. (Revue politique et parlementaire, Jan. 10, 1912, v. 71: 105-126.) Brcssler, David M. The distribution of Jewish immigrants in industrial and agricultural pursuits; agencies and results. New York, 1907. 32 p. California. Labor and capital commit- tee. Evidence taken before the Senate committee . . . upon the fraudulent practices of employment agencies, Friday, February 27, 1891. Also, evidence taken before Assem- bly Committee. Sacramento. 1891. A number of cases of alleged abuses by private agencies. California. Labor and employment exchange. Report of the transac- tions . . . from April 27, 1868, to November 30, 1869. Sacramento, 1870. 1 6 p. Early experiment with a voluntary, jointly-managed labor exchange. Carpenter, Edward W. The experi- ence of the National employment exchange. (American labor legisla- tion review, Feb. 1912, v. 2: 101-104.) f Conditions in New York city. Citizens' association of New York. Report ^upon the condition, etc. of the institutions under the charge of the commissioners of public chari- ties and corrections; with sugges- tions in relation to organizing a bureau of labor statistics and em- ployment^ and depots in the west for the distribution of labor. New York, 1868. 27 p. City club of New York. Committee to inquire into the need of public . employment exchanges in New York. Report. New York, 1914. 35 p. Findings of the committee appointed by the trustees of the City club of New York on December 17, 1913. Morris L. Ernst and John B. Andrews. Description of condi- tions in New York, public labor exchanges in Europe and America, and recommenda- tions. Employment Exchanges 413 Commons, John Rogers. Labor and administration. New York, Mac- millan, 1913. 431 p. "School house in a state system of employment of- fices", p. 358-362. Brief statement of proper methods of con- ducting public employment exchanges, show- ing opportunity for cooperation by the school system. Conner, J. E. Free employment of- fices in the United States. (United States Bureau of labor. Bulletin, Jan. 1907, no. 68: 1-115.) Co-operative employment bureau for women and girls, Cleveland, O. Annual report. Cleveland, 1909 Cotton, F. W. Labor exchange solu- tions. Olathe, Kan., 1895. 39 p. Dawson, William Harbutt. The Ger- man workman; a study in national efficiency. (London, King, 1906. 3 C 4 o Contains chapters on labor registries and the Munich labor bureau. Deutsche gesellschaft von Chicago. Jahresbericht. Chicago, 1910^- Contains the reports of the committee on employment bureau. Devine, Edward Thomas. Employ- ment bureau for the people of New York city. (American academy of political and social science. An- nals, Mar. 1909, v. 33:225-238.) Report on the desirability of establishing an employment bureau in the city of New York. New York, 1909. 3-238 p. "A partial bibliography": p. 232-238. Gives data on methods of finding employ- ment in New York city, with recommenda- tions for a philanthropic private bureau. Edlmann, E. Juvenile labour ex- changes and apprenticeship bureaux in Germany. (Contemporary re- view, Aug. 1913, v. 104: 230-239.) Ernst, Morris L. Report of the com- mittee appointed by the trustees of the city club of New York ... to inquire into the need of public em- ployment exchanges in New York. John B. Andrews joint author. New York, 1914. 35 p. France. Direction du travail. Les bureaux municipaux de placement a Paris en 1009. Paris, 1910. 30 p. Report to the minister of labor and social providence by Numa Raflin, permanent investigator. Les bureaux muncipaux de placement en Allemagne. Paris, 1910. 46 p. Enquete sur le placement des employes, ouvriers et domestiques a Paris, depuis la promulgation de la loi du 14 mars 1904. Paris, 1909. 200 p. Franck, Charles. Les bourses du tra- vail et la Confederation generate du travail. Paris, 1910. 517 p. Franklin, R. Schoolhouses as employ- ment agencies. (Technical world magazine, Apr. 1913, v. 19:268-270.) Freund, Richard, and Zacher, G. Pro- jet de statistique Internationale sur les offices de placement. 1912. 8 p. Good, T. A labour view of labour exchanges. (World's work, Lon- don, Jan. 1911, v. 17:135-139.) Gordon, Maria Matilda (Ogilvie). A handbook of employments specially prepared for the use of boys and girls on entering the trades, indus- tries, and professions. Aberdeen, 1908. 444 P; Juvenile employment bur- eaux. (Contemporary review, June, 1911, v. 99:723-732.) Great Britain. Board of trade. La- bour exchanges act, 1909. General regulations made by the Board of trade in pursuance of section (2) of the Labour exchanges act, 1909. London, 1910. 4 p. Board of trade labour ex- changes. Statistical statement with regard to the work of the Board of trade labour exchanges. London, 1911. 16 p. Sixteenth abstract of labour statistics of the United Kingdom. London, 1913. "Board of trade la- bour exchanges'* and "women's em- ployment bureaux", p. 22-35. Report of operations. Fourth abstract of foreign labour statistics. London, 1911. 462 p. "Labour registries", p. 401-418. Memorandum with regard to cooperation between labour ex- changes and local education authori- ties exercising their powers under the education (choice of employ- ment) act, 1910. London, 1911. 6 p. Great Britain. Royal commission OB the poor laws and relief of distress. Reports on visits paid by the La- bour colonies committee to certain 414 American Labor Legislation Review institutions in Holland, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, 1910. 120 p. Great Britain's labor exchanges. (Chautauquan, May, 1911, v. 62:300- 301.) Greenwood, Arthur. Juvenile labour exchanges and after-care. London, King, 1911. 112 p. Argues for comprehensive cooperation of agencies for the protection of adolescent workers. Heath, J. St. G. German labour ex- changes. (Economic journal, Sept. 1910, v. 20:337-346.) Howe, Frederick C. The German system of labor exchanges. (Ameri- can labor legislation review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2:300-304.) Brief popular description. Industrial removal office, New York (City). Annual reports. New York, 1904 . Reports of work in distributing Jewish im- migrants to sections of the country wkere there are industrial openings. Keeling, Frederic. The labour ex- change in relation to boy and girl labour. London, King, 1910. 76 p. Proposals and experiment in juvenile la- bor exchanges, with recommendations. The unemployment problem in 1913. (Crusade, Jan. 1913, v. 3, no. 13: 227-242.) Kellor, Frances Alice. Out of work; a study of employment agencies: their treatment of the unemployed, and their influence upon homes and business. New York, Putnam, 1904. 292 p. Results of a first kand investigation in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston. Kerby, William J. Labor bureaus in the United States. (Catholic uni- versity bulletin, July 1899, v. 5:345- 356.) King, Fred A. Citizens' free employ- ment bureau. Milwaukee, Wis., 1911. 15 p. Knowles, G. W. Junior labour ex- changes (a plea for closer coopera- tion between labour exchanges and education authorities). London, 1910. 32 p. Brief study of conditions, with recom- mendations for juvenile exchanges. Labor information office for Italians, New York. Bollettino d'informa- zioni. New York, 1910 . Aids in distributing Italian immigrants and in securing employment for them. Leiserson, William M. The theory of public employment offices and the principles of their practical admin- istration. New York, Ginn. 1914. 27-46 p. (Reprinted from Political science quarterly, March 1914, v. 29, no. I.) Looking for a job. (Catholic world, Feb. 1911, v. 92:605-611.) Public employment offices in theory and practice. (American la- bor legislation review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2:314-331.) Comprehensive review of the subject, with suggestions for operation of efficient exchanges. McLaren, Charles, and Cox, H. La- bour exchanges and compulsory in- surance. (Financial review of re- views, June 1909, v. 7:5-21.) Massachusetts. Bureau of statistics of labor. Free employment offices. (Its Bulletin, June 1907, v. 11:330- 343-) Gives list of employment offices in the United States up to that time. Free employment offices in foreign countries. (Its Bulletin, July- Aug. 1907, v. 12:36-40.) Contains data, for the year of publication, on Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Luxem- burg, Netherlands, New South Wales. Nor- way, Sweden, Switzerland, Western Australia. Massachusetts. Commission on em- ployment offices. Report of the Commission to investigate employ- ment offices. Boston, 1911. 130 p. Matteson, E. L. Shop of the maid to order. (Woman's home companion, Mar. 1913, v. 40:28.) Merkle, Benno. Arbeitslosigkeit, ihre statistische Erfassung und ihre Be- kampfung durch den Arbeitsnach- weis. Miinchen, Duncker & Hum- blot, 1913. 121 p. Milwaukee. Citizens' committee on unemployment. Annual reports of the Citizens committee on unem- ployment and the Milwaukee Free employment office. Madison, Wis., 1913 . First report in Wisconsin. Industrial commission Bulletin, vol. 2, no. 9. May 20, 1913, p. 220-232. Mischler, Ernst. Die gesetzliche Regelung des Arbeitsnachweises in Osterreich. (Annalen fur soziale Employment Exchanges 415 Politik und Gesetzgebung, 1912, v. 1:519-532.) Moses, Mabelle. The regulation of private employment agencies in the United States. (In Labor laws and their enforcement, New York, 1911, PP- 335-406.) Detailed study of existing legislation. National employment exchange, New York. Annual reports. New York, 1910 . New Jersey. Commission of immi- gration. Report. Trenton, 1914. 201 p. "Private employment agen- cies", p. 57-66. "State free employ- ment agencies", p. 66-71. Brief description of abuses by private agencies, and comparative statement of state exchanges in the United States. New legislation on employment ex- changes. (American labor legisla- tion review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2: 389-399.) Text of ordinance adopted in New York city, of law enacted in New York state, and of bill introduced in Congress, March-April, 1914. New York (city) Commissioner of licenses. Report of the Commis- sioner of licenses. N. Y., 1005 . This office licences and regulates private employment bureaus in the city of New York. New York. Public charities and cor- rection commission. Report of the free labor bureau and proposed im- provements for the same. July 30, 1873- New York. Statutes. An act to authorize the formation and main- tenance of free public employment bureaus. Albany, 18 ? An act to regulate the keep- ing of intelligence offices, employ- ment agencies, or other places where a fee is charged for the procuring of employment or situations in the city of New York. Approved May 26, 1888. Albany, 1888, ch. 410, laws of 1888. An act to amend chapter 432 of the laws of 1004 entitled: "An Act to regulate the keeping of em- ployment agencies in cities of the first and second class where fees are charged for procuring employment or situations" generally and to limit its application to cities of the first class. Albany, 1906, n p. New York state charities aid associa- tion. Agency for providing situa- tions in the country for destitute mothers with infants. Annual re- ports, 1894-1907. Operation of public employment ex- changes in the United States. (Am- erican labor legislation review, May 1914, v. 4, no. 2:357-371.) Tabulation of data, with descriptive text. Pennsylvania. Statutes. The laws relating to the relief and employ- ment of the poor in the city of Philadelphia. 1835. Persons, Charles E., Parton, Mabel, and Moses, Mabelle. Labor laws and their enforcement, with special reference to Massachusetts. New York, Longmans, Green, 1911. 419 p. "The regulation of private em- ployment agencies in the United States, by Mabelle Moses", p. 335- 406. Detailed study of existing legislation. Philadelphia. Board of guardians for the relief and employment of the poor. Rules for the government of the board of guardians, its officers, business and affairs, etc. Decem- ber, 1835. Philadelphia, 1835. Plan to check unemployment. (Sur- vey, Sept. 9, 1911, v. 26:830-831.) Public labor exchanges, United States. Reports. Data on the operation of public labor ex- changes in the United State can be secured in the reports issued at various intervals by the bureaus of statistics or departments of labor in the states in which state exchanges are maintained, and in the reports issued by the municipal exchanges. State labor ex- changes are already provided for in Colo- rado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kan- sas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rkode Island, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Municipal exchanges are provided for in Phoenix, Ariz.; Los Angeles and Sacra- mento, Calif.; Kansas City, Mo.; Butte, Great Falls and Missoula, Mont.; Newark, N. J.; New York, N. Y.; Cleveland, O.; Portland, Ore.; and Everett, Seattle, Spo- kane and Tacoma, Wash. The bureau of statistics in Massachusetts and the industrial commission in Wisconsin issue monthly labor market bulletins. Real co-operative community at a country cross-roads. (Survey, May 24. 1913, v. 30:282-283.) Ritchie, George M. The labor ex- change. A plan to adjust the labor problem. Chicago, Woman's tern- 4 i6 American Labor Legislation Review perance publishing association, 1894. 88 p. Roberts, Elmer. Labor exchanges in Germany. (Scribner's magazine, Jan. 1912, v. 51: 111-116.) Ruiz Castella, Jose. Municipalizacion de las bolsas de trabajo. Barcelona, 1912. 23 p. Sargent, Frank Byron. Statistics of unemployment and the work of em- ployment offices. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1913. 147 p. (Bul- letin of the United States Bureau of labor, whole no. 109. Miscellaneous series no. i.) Results of a comprehensive investigation into unemployment statistics and the opera- tion of employment exchanges in the United States. Schloss, David Frederick. Unem- ployed in foreign countries. Re- port to the Board of trade on agen- cies and methods for dealing with the unemployed in certain foreign countries. London, 1904. 236 p. The countries dealt with in this report are the German empire, Austria. Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Holland. Siegfried, Jules. Free municipal labor bureau of Paris. (Social service, April 1004, p. 75-76.) Stevens, B. M. Vacations through an employment bureau. (Survey, July 22, 1911, v. 26:610-612.) Stone, H. W. J. Labour exchanges in England. (Fortnightly review, Oct. 1913, v. 94:688-698.) United States Bureau of education. Juvenile labor bureaus and voca- tional guidance in Great Britain. (Its Bulletin, 192, no. 482: 13-17.) The school and the start in life: A study of the relation between school and employment in England, Scotland, and Germany. (Its Bulle- tin 1914 no. 4, whole no. 575.) Washington, Govt. print, off., 1914, 146 p. Contains much information of value in regard to methods of juvenile labor ex- changes and juvenile placement work. United States Bureau of labor statis- tics. Free employment offices in the United States. (Its Bulletin, Jan. 1007, no. 68: 1-115.) Situation at the time, text of legislation then existing, and recommendations. What is done for the unem- ployed in European countries. (Its Bulletin, May, 1908, no. 76: 741-934.) Treats principally of employment ex- changes. Statistics of unemployment and the work of employment offices. (Its Bulletin, Oct. 1913, no. 109.) 147 P. Comprehensive study, including work of private and of philanthropic exchanges. United States. Chief of the division of information. Annual reports to the commissioner general of immi- gration. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1907 . Give data on the distribution of immi- grants through the activity of the division. United States Department of agricul- ture. Division of statistics. List of free employment agencies for farm- ers. Washington, Govt. print, off., ipoo. 42 p. United States Industrial commission: Final report. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1902. Volume 19 contains sections on unemploy- ment, p. 746-757; employment agencies and bureaus, p. 757-763. Various types of teachers' agencies. (Elementary school teacher, Jan. 1913, v. 13:215-216.) Verband deutscher Arbeitsnachweise. Schriften. Nos. 1-12. Berlin, C. Heymann, 1899-1912. Contents: No. 1: Was konnen die arbeits- nachweise dazu beitragen der landwirtschaft arbeitskrafte zu erhallen und zuzufiihren? Arbeitsnachweisstatistik. Empfiehlt sich die gehiihrenfreiheit bei der arbeitsvermittelung? Verhandlungen der ersten verbandsversamm- lung und arbeitsnachweiskonferenz, 1898, Miinchen. 1899. No. 2: Geschaftsbericht des verbandes deutscher arbeitsnachweises fur die jahre 1898 und 1899. 1900. No. 3: Zweiter verbandsversammlung und arbeits- nachweiskonferenz, Koln. 1901. No, 4: Dritte verbandsversammlung und arbeits- nachweiskonferenz, 1902, Berlin. 1903. No. 5: Vorberichte fur die vierte verbands- versammlung und arbeitsnachweiskonferenz, 1905. Wiesbaden. 1905. No. 6: Vierte verbandssammlung und arbeitsnachweiskon- ferenz, 1905, Wiesbaden. 1906. No. 7: Funfter deutscher arbeitsnachweiskongress, Leipzig, 1908. 1909. No. 8: Sechster deut- scher arbeitsnachweiskongress, Breslau, 1910. 1911. No. 9: Die einrichtung von pari- tatischen facharbeitsnachweisen fur das gastwirtsgewerbe konferenz, 1911, Berlin. 1911. No. 10: Die gesetzlicke regelung der arbeitsvermittlung in den wichtigsten lan- dern der erde, von O. Becker und E. Bern- hard. 1913. No. 11: Siebenter deutscher arbeitsnachweiskongress, 1912, Hamburg. 1913. No. 12: Die neuere entwicklung der facharbeits nachweise im gastwirtsgewerbe. Stenographische niederschrift der sitzung des arbeitsausschusses des verbandes deut- scher^ arbeitsnachweise. 1912. Vocation bureau for educated women. (Survey, Aug. 31, 1912, v. 28:681- 682.) Warner, Brainard Henry, Jr. Die Unemployment Insurance 417 Organisation und Bedeutung der freicn pffentlichen Arbeitnachweis- amter in den Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika. Leipzig, 1903- 99 P. Webb, Sidney, and Webb, Beatrice. The public organisation of the la- bour market: being part two of the Minority report of the Poor law commission. London, Longmans, Green, 1909. Contains: the able-bodied under the Poor law the able-bodied and voluntary agencies, the able-bodied under the Unemployed workmen act, the distress from unemploy- ment as it exists to-day, proposals for reform, summary of conclusions and recommenda- tions. Willoughby, William Franklin. Em- ployment bureaus. Boston, 1900. 16 p. Wisconsin. Industrial commission. Wisconsin free employment offices. (Its Bulletin, May 20, 1913, v. 2, no. 9.) Madison, Wis., 1913. 1.93-23? p. Concise report on the foundation, princi- ples and operation of the Wisconsin system of public labor exchanges. Zacher, G. Projet de statistique Inter- nationale sur les offices de place- ment. 1912. 8 p. Richard Freund joint author. Zentralverein fur arbeitsnachweis, Berlin. Geschaftsbericht. Berlin, 1901. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE Annan, W. The duties of employers under the national insurance act, 1911. Edinburgh, 1912. 231 p. "Unemployment insurance", p. 37- 218. Baab, A. Zur frage der Arbeitslosen- versicherung, der Arbeitsvermittel- ung und der Arbeitsbeschaffung. Leipzig, Deichert, 1911. 389 P- Beauchamp, W. Insurance against unemployment. (Westminster re- view, Mar. 1911, v. 175: 257-268.) Bellet, Daniel. Le chomage et son remede. Paris, Alcan, 1912. 282 p. Bellom, Maurice. L'assurance contre le chomage. (Revue d'economie politique, Nov.-Dec. 1908, Feb., Apr. 1909, v. 22: 759-771; v. 23: 118-136; 260-283.) Bliss, W. D. P. What is done for the unemployed in European countries. (United States Bureau of labor, Bulletin, May, 1908, No. 76: 741- 934-) Carr, A. S. Comyns, and others. Na- tional insurance. London, Mac- millan, 1912. 587 p. A commentary upon the insurance act. Numerous citations of cases; interpretation and discussion of various phases of the law. Chapman, Sydney John and Halls- worth, H. M. Unemployment; the results of an investigation made in Lancashire and an examination of the Report of the Poor law com- mission. Manchester, The Uni- versity press, 1909. 164 p. Clarke, Orme. The national insur- ance act, 1911. London, Butter- worth, 1912. 338 p. A treatise on the scheme of national health insurance and insurance against unemploy- ment created by the act, with the incor- porated enactments, full explanatory notes, tables and examples. Coman, Katharine. Insurance against unemployment in Norway and Den- mark. (Survey, Mar. 14, 1914, v. 31 : 742-744.) Brief, popular discussion. Great Britain's experiment in compulsory unemployment insur- ance. (Survey, Mar. 28, 1914, v. 31: 799-802.) Brief, general discussion of the only com- pulsory national system of unemployment insurance. Congres international des assurances sociales. Rapports. Paris, 1889; Berne, 1891; Milan, 1894; Brussels, 1897; Paris, 1900; Diisseldorf, 1902; Vienna, 1905; Rome, 1908; The Hague, 1910. The name of this confess has gone through several changes. The name given is the latest. The proceedings contain val- uable articles by specialists, in English, French and German. Comite permanent. Bulletin des assurances sociales. Paris, 1889. Contains articles by specialists in English, French and German. Dawson, William Harbutt. The Ger- man workman; a study in national efficiency. New York, Scribner, 1906. 304 p. "Insurance against worklessness", see chapter 3. Du Cormier, Crosson. Questions 418 American Labor Legislation Review ouvrieres. Lea caisses syndicates de chomage en France et en Belgique. Paris IQO"; 246 O a unemployment in- Dupont, Paul L'assurance centre le chomage. Paris, Giard & Briere, 1908. 363 P. Fagnot, F. Le chomage. Paris, Bel- lais, 1905. 2 v. Results of subsidized trade union unem- mite. Arbetsloshetsforsakringen i utlandet. Ofversikt utarbetad af Oskari Autere. Helsingfoers, TOOO TTT n SSrt F. P The British na- und im Deutschem Reich. Berlin, 1906. 3 v. CONTENTS. Vol. i. Die versicherung ge- gen die folgen der arbeitslosigkeit. Vol. n. Der stand aer gemeinnutzigen arbeitsvermit- tlung offentlicher und privater verbande im Deutschen Reich. Vol. HI. Anlagenband zu teil 1: Statistik, gesetze, verordnungen, statuten. Ghent. Fonds de chomage. Dea moyens d'etendre 1'action du Fonds de chomage. Systemes complement- aires pour les ouvriers non assures centre le chomage. Rapport pre- sente a la Commission mixte com- munale pour 1'extention et 1'ameli- oration des service du Fonds de Louis Varlez, presi- de chomage et de la Gand, Foley, Frank Settle. The national in- Stirance act, I9H, as it affects em- ployers and workmen. London, Sherratt & Hughes, 1911. 61 p. "As to Unemployed insurance", p. X study of the rarious schemes of unem- ployment insurance in continental Europe, with the author's conclusion of the necessity Fr ? d ' , LcC ,,r K ^ fer an , d Dawson Miles M. Workingmen s insurance in Europe. New York, Charities publication committee, 1910. 477 p. "Insurance against unemployment", p. 367-377. Insurance against un- employment in various countries", p. 378-391. Results in Great Britain, Norway, Swe- den, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Austria. Oar?^ W^nrv Wliinr>#>n A o-ni^< fr ? ' *? *^ Wlllppell. A guide to the National insurance act, 1911. London, Wilson, 1912. 140 p. "Un employment insurance", p. 107-130. Germany. Statistisches Amt. Ab- teilung fur Arbeiter-statistik. The present status of unemployment in surance. (Special supplement to Reichs-arbeitsblatt, no. 12 Decem- ber, 1913. Tr. by the . . . Metro- politan life insurance company for American association for labor leg- illation "> New York ion IJ n isiation.; i\ew FK, 1913. 15 p., tables. Valuable statement on the basis of official sources and of reports prepared for the first general meeting of the International association on unemployment, Ghent, Sep. tember 5-6, 1913. ........ Die bestehenden Einrichtun- gen zur Versicheriing gegen die fol- gen der Arbeitslosigkeit im Ausland *}on of private voluntary insurance associa- tipns, and of labor exchanges to cooperate with the state system, is discussed. Compulsory insurance against employment. (Economic journal, j une , I9 i O v 20- 173-181 ) Great Britain Board of Trade. Unem- ployment insurance. First report on t h e proceedings of the Board of trade under Part II. of the National insurance act, 1911. London, Dar- i:,. T T/ Q/-. lin &' I 9I3- o2 p. A complete descriptive and statistical state- ment of the operation of national unemploy- ment i nsurance i n Great Britain during the year ending July, 1913. Sixteenth abstract of labour statistics of the United Kingdom. London, 1913. "Unemployment in- surance", p. 12-21. National insurance act, 1911, Part II. Unemployment insurance. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1913. 82 p. ---- ....Unemployed benefits of trade unions. London, 1911. 327 p. Gives unemployed benefits of trade unions and ?arnings in j nsured trades, with tables showing the rules and expenditure of trade unions in respect of unemployed benefits and also showing earnings in the insured trad. TJnprrmlovmpnr i n Q it r a n r " ', ---- : Un 2l iP\ r S (umpire regulations). London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1912. 6 p. 10 ontai 2 s Tf elaton dad 26th March ^fflfili Unemployment Insurance 419 Unemployment insurance. Regulations made by the Board of trade under Part II. of the National insurance act, 1911 London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1912. 27 p. Great Britain. Treasury. Insurance legislation in Germany. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1911. 13 p. Memorandum containing the opinions of various authorities in Germany. Harris, Henry John. Workmen's in- surance in Germany. Washington, 191 1. (Reprinted from twenty- fourth Annual report of United States commissioner of labor.) 975- J 493 P- "Unemployment Insur- ance", sec. 4. Henderson, Charles Richmond. In- surance against unemployment. (American labor legislation review, June 1913, v. 3, no. 2: 172.) Necessity for and methods of unemploy- ment insurance. Israels, B. L. Poverty and insurance for the unemployed. (Charities, June 6, 1908, v. 20: 343-347-) Jastrow, Ignaz. Kommunale Arbeits- losenversicherung. Denkschrift und Materialsammlung vorgelegt dem Magistral Charlottenburg. Berlin, Reimer, 1910. 228 p. Jevons, H. Stanley. Insurance and training for the unemployed. (Con- temporary review, Apr. 1911, v. 99: 415-424.) Kennedy, J. M. National insurance and labour unrest. (Fortnightly re- view, Mar. 1913, v. 99: 465-477.) Langsberg, Otto. Zur neuesten Ent- widclung der Arbeiterslosenversich- erung im Deutschen Reichs. (An- nalen fur soziale Politik und Ges- etzgebung^ 1911, v. i: 325-339.) Laprade, William Thomas. National insurance in England. (South At- lantic quarterly, July, 1912, v. II : 224-233.) Lefort, Joseph Jean. L'assurance contre le chomage a 1'etranger et en France. Paris, Fontemoing, 1913. 2 v. Lloyd-George, David. The people's insurance. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1912. 303 p. "Insur- ance against unemployment", p. 57-63. Contains the text of the national insur- ance act, 1911, and the explanations of the insurance commissioners. McLaren, Charles and Cox, Harold. Labour exchanges and compulsory insurance. (Financial review of reviews, June, 1909, v. 7: 5-21.) Money, Leo George Chiozza. A na- tion insured. London, Liberal pub- lication department, 1911. 68 p. Explanation of the national insurance bill. National insurance and la- bour unrest. (Fortnighly review, Oct. 1913, v. loo : 763-774.) New York (State). Department of labor. Unemployment insurance in Denmark. (Its Bulletin, Mar. 1909, no. 40: 69-72.) Porritt, Edward. The British na- tional insurance act. (Political science quarterly, June, 1912, v. 27: 260-280.) Roberts, Elmer. Experiments in Ger- many with unemployment insur- ance. (Scribner's magazine, Jan. 1911, v. 49: 116-120.) Rubinow, I. M. Social insurance, with special reference to American con- ditions. New York, 1913. 525 p. "Insurance against unemployment," p. 441-480. The problem, and the beginnings of com- pulsory insurance. Subsidized unemployment in- surance. (Journal of political econ- omy, May, 1913, v. 21 : 388-399.) Argues for compulsory, subsidized unem- ployment insurance. Studies in workmen's insur- ance: Italy, Russia, Spain. (Re- printed from twenty-fourth Annual report of the United States commis- sioner of labor.) 1669-2382 p. "Un- employment insurance", Italy, p. 1904-1933. Schanz, Georg. Arbeitslosenversicher- ung. (Handbuch der Politik. Ber- lin, 1912-13. v. 2:510-516.) Arbeitslosigkeitsversicher- ung. (Elster, Ludwig, ed. Wor- terbuch der Volkswirtschaft. 3d ed. Jena, 1911. v. i, p. 203-211.) Schloss, David Frederick. Unem- ployed in foreign countries. Report to the Board of trade on agencies and methods for dealing with the unemployed in certain foreign coun- tries. London, 1904. 236 p. See index under Insurance against un- employment. Insurance against unemploy- ment. London, King, 1009. 132 p. "Appendix v. List of principal pub- 420 American Labor Legislation Review lications dealing with the question of insurance against unemploy- ment", p. 126-129. Suggestions for organizing a national sys- tem of unemployment insurance, by trades, in cooperation with labor registries. Seager, H. R. Social insurance, a program of social reform. New York, Macmillan, 1910. 175 p. "Unemployment: causes and reme- dies", p. 84-114. Concise statement of causes, extent and various steps towards the solution of the problem. Sellers, Edith. An insurance against unemployment scheme; Basle sys- tem. (Nineteenth century and after, Feb. 1909, v. 65: 272-282.) Compulsory insurance against unemployment. A Swiss 'scheme. (Nineteenth century and after, May, 1910, v. 67: 882-893.) Shepard, Walter James. The British national insurance act. (American political science review, May, 1912, v. 6: 229-234.) Smith, Llewellyn. Economic security and unemployment insurance. (Eco- nomic journal, Dec., 1910, v. 20: 513- 529.) Smith, Thomas. Everybody's guide to the insurance act. London-, Knight, 1912. 304 p. "Unemploy- ment insurance", p. 175-206. Thompson, John Walter. State insur- ance against unemployment. (In Faculty of actuaries. Transactions. London, 1911. Vol. 5, pt. viii, no. 52, p. 323-372.) United States Bureau of labor statis- tics. , Workmen's insurance and compensation systems in Europe. Washington, Govt. print, off., 1911. 2 v. ^ (Annual repart of the com- missioner of labor, 24th, 1909.) See index vol. 2 under Unemployment insurance. Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway and Sweden. British national insurance act, 1911. (Bulletin of the United States Bureau of labor, whole no. 102. Workmen's insurance and compen- sation series, no. 2.) Washington, Govt. print, off., 1912. 87 p. "Un- employment insurance", p. 66-87. United States Legation. Copenhagen. Report on the recognized unemploy- ment associations of Denmark, 1910. 14 p. Varlez, Louis. Die bekampfung der unfreiwilligen arbeitslosigkeit. Glad- bach, [Prussia] Soziale kultur, [1908-1909] [2 v.] Select bibliographies grouped by language interspersed. Webb, Sidney. The national insur- ance act at work: what it is effecting and where it needs amending. (Crusade, Feb. 1913, v. 3, no. 14: 271-278.) Webb, Sidney and Webb, Beatrice. Industrial democracy. London, Longmans, Green, 1897. 2 v. "The me hod of mutual insurance", v. I, p. 152-172. Brief analysis of advantages and disad- vantages of trade union insurance. Willoughby, W. F. Insurance against unemployment. (Commons, John R., ed. Trade unionism and labor problems. Boston, 1905. p. 589- 602.) Workingmen's insurance. New York, T. Y. Crowell, 1898. 386 p. "Insurance against unemployment", p. 361-378. Wolff, Hellmuth. Arbeitslosenver- sicherung. (Kommunales Jahrbuch, 1911-12. Jena, 1912. p. 414-424.) Die frage der Arbeitslosen- versicherungin den deutschen Stadt- en. (Jahrbiicher fiir Nationaloko- nomie und Statistik, Mar., 1910, 3d ser., v. 39:368-371.) Zacher, Georg. Die Arbeiter-versiche- rung im Auslande. Berlin, Verlag der Arbeiter-versorgung, 1900-1907. <51j Afl00rtatt0tt f0r Saber fftgiatatiim INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN SECTION President: H. SCHERRER, Councillor of State of the Canton of St. Gall, Councillor of State of Switzerland. Vice-President: A. LACHENAL, ex- President of the Swiss Federa- tion, Councillor of State of Switzerland. General Secretary: STEPHEN BAUER, Professor at the University, Di- rector of the International Labor Office, Vice-President of the Permanent Court of Conciliation and Arbitration at Basle. President: HENRY R. SEAGER, Co- lumbia University. Vice-Presidents: JANE ADDAMS, Chi- cago ; Louis D. BRANDEIS, Boston ; ROBERT W. DE FOREST, New York City; RICHARD T. ELY, Madison, Wis. ; SAMUEL GOM- PERS, Washington, D. C.; MOR- TON D. HULL, Chicago; J. W. JENKS, New York City; PAUL M. WARBURG, New York City; WOODROW WILSON, Washington, D. C. ; STEPHEN S. WISE, New York City. Secretary: JOHN B. ANDREWS, 131 East 23rd St., New York City. [Individual membership, including American Labor Legislation Review (Quarterly) $3*] INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN SECTION President: LEON BOURGEOIS, Sena- President: CHARLES R. CRANE, tor, ex-President of the Council Chairman of the Chicago Com- of Ministers, Paris. mission on the Unemployed. Vice-President: RICHARD FREUND, President of the German Union of Employment Offices, Director of the Bureau of Invalidity, Berlin. General Secretary: Louis VARLEZ, President of the Unemployment Fund and of the Labor Ex- change of Ghent. Executive Committee: HENRY S. DENNISON, Boston; CHARLES P. NEILL, New Brighton, S. I.; JOHN MITCHELL, Mt. Vernon, N. Y.; CHARLES R. HENDERSON, Chicago; and the President. Secretary: JOHN B. ANDREWS, 131 East 23rd St., New York City. [Individual membership, including International Bulletin on Unemploy- ment (Quarterly) $2*] '"Address the Secretary. THE AMERICAN LABOR LEGISLATION REVIEW The only Scientific Labor Magazine in America Four numbers yearly, devoted to : Reports of National Conferences Industrial Hygiene, Social Insurance, Unemployment, and kindred topics of immediate importance. Proceedings of Annual Meetings expert opin- ions of leaders in industrial thought. Annual Summary of New Labor Laws im- mediately after adjournment of legislative sessions. Proposed Legislation economic facts for legis- lative action. Illustrated with maps, charts, tables and photo- graphs. Special bibliographies. Characterized by : Expert, unbiased opinion. Progressive, scientific spirit. Indispensable to writers, lecturers, progressive em- ployers, students of the Labor Problem, and to all who take an intelligent interest in improving the conditions of labor. Published Quarterly $1 per copy $3 per year AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR LABOR LEGISLATION 131 East 23d Street, New York, N. Y. Annual subscription includes individual membership In the Association, special Legislative Reports, free use of Information Bureau, etc. PUBLICATIONS American Association for Labor Legislation No. i : Proceedings of the First Annual Meeting, 1907. No. 2: Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting, 1908.* No. 3: Report of the General Administrative Council, 1909.* No. 4: (Legislative Review No. i) Review of Labor Legislation of 1909. No. 5: (Legislative Review No. 2) Industrial Education, 1909. No. 6: (Legislative Review No. 3) Administration of Labor Laws, 1909.* No. 7 : (Legislative Review No. 4) Woman's Work, 1909.* No. 8: (Legislative Review No. 5) Child Labor, 1910. No. 9: Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting, 1909.* No. 10: Proceedings of the First National Conference on Industrial Dis- eases, 1910.* No. ii : (Legislative Review No. 6) Review of Labor Legislation of 1910. No. 12: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. I, No. i.) Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting, 1910. No. 13: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. I, No. 2.) Comfort, Health and Safety in Factories. No. 14: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. I, No. 3.) Review of Labor Legislation of. 1911. No. 15: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. I, No. 4.) Prevention and Reporting of Industrial Injuries. Scientific Accident Prevention, John Calder. Practical Safety Devices, Robert J. Young. The Wisconsin Industrial Commission, John R. Commons. Safety Inspection in Illinois, Edgar T. Davies. The Massackusetts Board of Boiler Rules, Joseph H. McNeill. The Beginning of Occupational Disease Reports, John B. Andrews. Accident Reports in Minnesota, Don D. Lescohier. Advantages of Standard Accident Schedules, Edson S. Lott. A Plan for Uniform Accident Reports, Leonard W. Hatch. No. 16: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. II, No. i.) Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Meeting, 1911.* Relation of State to Federal Workmen's Compensation and Insurance Legislation: Introductory Address, Henry R. Seager. Compulsory State Insurance from the Workman's Viewpoint, John H. Wallace. Accident Compensation for Federal Employees, I. M. Rubinow. Constitutional Status of Workmen's Compensation, Ernst Freund. Uniform Reporting of Industrial Injuries: Report of Special Committee on Standard Schedules, Leonard W. Hatch. * Publication out of print. Unemployment Problem in America: Introductory Address, Charles Nagel. Unemployment as a Coming Issue, William Hard. Experience of the National Employment Exchange, E. W. Carpenter. Recent Advances in the Struggle against Unemployment, C. R. Henderson. Safety and Health in the Mining Industry: Introductory Address, Walter Fisher. Work of the United States Bureau of Mines, J. A. Holmes. Occupational Diseases in the Mining Industry, S. C. Hotckkiss. A Federal Mining Commission, John R. Haynes. No. 17: (American Labor Legislation Review Vol. II, No. 2.) Proceedings of the Second National Conference on Industrial Diseases, 1912 Symposium on Industrial Diseases: Classification of Occupational Diseases, W. Gilman Thompson. Compressed-Air Illness, Frederick L. Keays. Occupational Skin Diseases, John A. Fordyce. Occupational Nervous and Mental Diseases, Charles L. Dana. Occupational Eye Diseases, Ellice Alger. Industrial Poisoning, David L. Edsall. The Need of Cooperation in Promoting Industrial Hygiene, Henry R. Seager. Investigation of Industrial Diseases: Intensive Investigations in Industrial Hygiene, Frederick L. Hoffman. Compulsory Reporting by Physicians, Leonard W. Hatch. Lead Poisoning in New York City, Edward E. Pratt. Health Problems in Modern Industry: The Function of Hospitals and Clinics in the Prevention of Industrial Disease, Richard Cabot. Temperature and Humidity in Factories, C*-E. A. Winslow. Air Impurities Dusts, Fumes, and Gases, Charles Baskerville. Effects of Confined Air upon the Health of Workers, George M. Price. State Promotion of Industrial Hygiene: Education for the Prevention of Industrial Diseases, M. G. Overlock. Notification of Occupational Diseases, Cressy L. Wilbur. Medical Inspection of Factories in Illinois, Harold K. Gibson. Compressed-Air Illness in Caisson Work, L. M. Ryan. Legal Protection for Workers in Unhealthful Trades, John B. Andrews. Bibliography on Industrial Hygiene: American Titles. Titles Other Than American. No. 18: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. II, No. 3.) Review of Labor Legislation of 1912. No. 19: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. II, No. 4.) Immediate Legislative Program. One Day of Rest in Seven, Prevention of Lead Poisoning, Reporting of Accidents and Diseases, Workmen's Compensation, Investigation of Industrial Hygiene, Protection for Working Women, Enforcement of Labor Laws. No. 20: (American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. Ill, No. I.) Proceed- ings of the Sixth Annual Meeting, 1912. The Minimum Wage: The Theory of the Minimum Wage, Henry R. Seager. Factory Inspection and Labor Law Enforcement: How the, Wisconsin Industrial Commission Works, John R. Commons. A Laborer's View of Factory Inspection, Henry Sterling. An Employer's View of Factory Inspection, Charles Sumner Bird. The Efficiency of Present Factory Inspection Machinery in the United States, Edward F. Brown. RETURN TO the circulation desk of any University of California Library or to the NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY Bldg. 400, Richmond Field Station University of California Richmond, CA 94804-4698 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 2-month loans may be renewed by calling (510)642-6753 1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books to NRLF Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior to due date. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW JUN132000 12,000(11/95) In the present day it is not so much lack of sympathy as lack of knowledge that is the obstacle to reform. The great complexity of the unemployed problem causes it to be neglected by many 'who would be most inclined to help if they saw the way out.