San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1895-12-06
NOVEL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.
A Useful Function of the Post once of
LuxembnrG.

Usefui Function OF the Post once OF
Luxembourg.
A new idea for bringing together
employer and the seeker for work is
described in the August consular re-
ports by George II. Murphy, vice COM
merciai agent at Luxembourg. The
account is of an experiment begun by
the government of the grand duchy
of Luxembourg, Belgium, to use the
post Office as a medium for the trans
mission of offers of and applicants for
employment between wage payers and
wage earners, in other words, labor
exchange. In establishing the labor
exchange as a brach of the postal
service, the Luxembourg government
makes each post office an employment
bureau, and it's advantages are offered
to everyone in need of employ
ment. The list of offers and appli-
cations are posted publicly in fifty-two
post offices, postal agencies and relay
stations, and also in lOl railway sta
tions and in also hotels, restaurants
and public houses. Applications may
be made to the nearest post office, or
to the general post Office, either in
person, or by specially prepared pos
tai card, and they are registered
gratuitously. An application can be
withdrawn at any time by notifying
the post office where it is registered.
When an offer of employment is re-
ceived, the applicant is notified by pos
tai card If he does not live near enough
for personal notice.
The post Office assumes no RESPONSE
bility in the transaction between the
employers and employees, its duties be-
ing restricted to the acceptance, trans
mission and posting of applications and
offers. An accompanying table shows
that, since the establishment of this
system in December, 1892, and up to,
and including, December, 1894, out of
1,904 applications for employment 1,7O1
were realized, 1896 employers made Of
| fers for 4,759 hands, and 3,5l4 of these
employers secured 4, 427 employees. This
| shows, also, that the number of en-
ployers wanting help during the time
was about three times greater than the
number of persons asking employment,
a condition greatly in contrast to that
existing in the United States during
the same period, when strikes and in
dustrial armies were leading issues.
Reavel Savage, consul at Nantes,
France, in the same number, gives an
account of a somewhat similar institu-
ton in his consular district, except
that it originated with the working
men themselves, and is purely a pri-
vate matter.
| An Office was established In 1893,
where working people, male or female,
out of employment, could register
their names and addresses, giving par
ticulars as to age, sex, trade, expert
| ence, etc, for ten cents, and the only
additional cost was another ten cents
when employment was secured. The
Office more than paid expenses, after
| paying cost of newspaper advertising,
and has been the means of securing
| profitable employment for large num-
Der who would probably have remained
unemployed. The employing classes
were greatly benefited by the plan,
and when one needs hand he knows
exactly where to find him, and also
his record as to character, etc. The
consul says that this scheme has been
enormously beneficial, and that strikes
in his consular district have greatly
decreas ed.-Geyer's Stationer.