The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-10-11

trolling Board Is Made Up-Oiffieul-
ties of American Work Seekers.
BY LOUIS HEATON FINK In Survey.
Hard times bring serious lack of
work. But when the country is rea-
sonably prosperous the difficulty is not
so much lack of work as inability to
find it. In New York. Chicago and all
our great cities we have countless va
cant positions and thousands of car
penters, masons, laborers, walters. ele-
vator men, porters, drivers, seeking
them lindly cropping for a cleW.
What is more disheartening than to
see men lined up before a factory
door day after day endlessly waiting.
For most work seekers the want
ads" in the daily papers are the usual
source of information. BY the time
the man out of work gets to the ad-
vertised job he finds a line of others
ahead of him. One of the other men
is taken, or the work or pay is not as
represented. The day is lost Day
after day is spent in searching. The
heart is eaten out, ambition is killed,
temper is soured, the seeker for work
is less a man after repeated expert
ences He loses his nerve.
There are private employment agen-
cies, but many cannot pay the fee.
At best these agencies are as drop
in the bucket. They exist to supply
their clients. Their view is that of
the employer. 1t is only incidentally
that they find jobs for men.
Given New York or Chicago or Phil
adelphia, an average of 10000 men
seeking work and 10000 jobs seeking
men, given the erection of huge build.
ings, development of suburban areas,
docks and warehouses, thousands Of
factories, steamers coming. going, load.
ing. unloading; work shifting, now here,
now there-does it require more than
the most ordinary intelligence to know
that the only way to do away with the
heartrending and fruitless search for
work is to have a systematic network Of
labor centers, where the job can seek
the man and where all men ont of work
can register for the job? Each center
should be in communication with ev-
cry other, under a central control, so
that if the demand for carpenters in
one section is greater than the supply,
men can be sent from another neigh.
bOrhoOd. where there are more carpen-
tiers than jobs. Such system must,
of course. be under national or state
control. No fee should be paid by the
men. and only a small charge should
be made the employer 1t would be
almost self supporting, and might be
made entirely so. And what greater
economy could there be in the self re-
spect of men, the hunger of women
and little children, the prevention of
The city agencies should be in touch
with similar employment centerS
throughout the state and nation. The
ldl mel vi llt W Ccls III lllS III an
for men to harvest the crops, could
then be supplied from the overflow of
the cities. The great railroads, stretch
ing the bands of steel across the west,
ern mountains and prairies, could get
their help from the east and would not
have to import Chinese and MeXicans
Unemployment in Germany has been
robbed of it's worst terrors by the es-
of state labor exchanges
and labor colonies. A visit to the la
Dor bureau of Berlin, Munich or Ulm
makes the American wish that we
We're a bit more methodical and logical
in our care for the unemployed.
Take the good old medieval city Of
Ulm as an example. The office is
light. clean and cheerful. The man at
the desk who interviews applicants
does it very much as an American law
yer would talk with one of his clients.
Courtesy is marked After all the
facts are learned they are tabulated
and filed. The index Of employers is
an opening is found for
which the applicants experience would
seem to fit him. He is given a card to
the employer. who fills it out, stating
and. if not. why. If, after diligent eff
fort, suitable employment cannot be
found in Ulm, the exchange at Augs-
burg. Munich or some other city is
called upon the phone, and whenever
there happens to be a place for the
man in question there he is sent.
Third and fourth class railroad tickets
are very cheap in Germany, but the
man out of work is given a card which
entities him to ride for one-third the
regular fare.
Thus is unemployment robbed of its
worst worry.
We are often told that the German
way of doing things is too mechanical.
Every effort is made to keep the labor
exchanges from drifting into machines.
In each city the controlling board is
made up Of employers, government Off
Gals and trade union leaders, SO that
all sides are represented and the angles
are rubbed out.
Perhaps the German scheme is not
the best. Certainly it is better than the
chaos and Indifference which prevail
here. We must provide common
ground for the meeting of jobs and
men.
Oil is distributed where it Is needed ;
80 are sugar and tobacco. There is no
no clogging of the wheels,
no needless loss Why not labor?
Ii is so simple that our present help
Iessness would make one wt~