The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-27
HARD TO KEEP THE FAMILY OF
UNCLE SAM ALWAYS EMPLOYED
Need for Comprehensive System Of Labor Exchanges
That Shall Embrace Whole Country-Nineteen States
Have Public Employment System

DldCc 10 dIOtIeT, III III VAGUE IlOpc
of finding something to do, with no
real knowledge of where work Is to
be found, or they congregate in great,
unwieldy throngs in places where
they hin work must always be plen-
tiful. How to utilize them: how to
know where to send them and how to
get them to so where they can get
the work they are looking for. is a
hard problem for the most conscien-
tious guardian. Uncle Sam is begin
ming to study it in good earnest now:
and when there is an inclination to
blame him for not having done it long
before, il is we'll to remember that
he has had a great a Of setting his
Industrial house in order, says the
New York Evening Post.
The question is not so simple a one
as an easy and theoretical statement
Of the economic value Of labor ex-
changes tends at first to make it
seem. Students OF immigration nave
been pointing to the fact that a great
stream of people, ignorant of the ways
and opportunities Of our land, nave
been flowing undirected into our
great eastern cities, and creating So
cial conditions fraught with much
danger. Students Of labor and bust
ness have shown that. while men are
out OF work and starving in one place
e''' ~ stfoy ~ pii III SCA III Ill
other for want Of men to carry them
on. Both have cried that the remedy
lay in the establishment of a national
system OF labor exchanges, the immi-
grafton reformers further asserting
that the funds were at hand in the
revenue from the $4 head tax on i'm
migrants, which brought in about
$4,000, 900, OF which only about 81
500, 900 was spent in the immigration
service.
There were many obstacles in the
way, however. The head-tax reve-
nue. fluctuates with immigration, and
can not be relied upon as a basis for
the cost Of establishing a vast sys-
tenn Of labor exchange and informa-
ton. The immigrants themselves are
hard to direct. They tend to go to
the districts where the people of their
countries who have preceded them
have settled, and it is difficult to di-
vert them. Most of the advance guard
OF the great stream Of immigration
flowing in within recent years had al
ready settled in the East. The only
hope is to control some current of
new immigration, like that of the
peasants from central Russia, and to
get the early corners started out to-
wards the great farm lands of the
Middle West, where they are really
needed, and where they can look for
ward to healthy and prosperous lives.
Again, much of this army of the
unemployed is Of ranks of unframed
workers men and women, who have
never been fitted for any one sort Of
valuable service, and who have little
idea Of what they want to do. Here
enters in the problem Of industrial
as a companion puZzler to
that of distribution. 1t is useless to
organize a system for directing and
transporting even very willing work
ers to jobs which they cannot fill. One
evil can be struck at Immediately,
however. Among the drifting unem-
ployed in past years there have been
many men able to do some definite
sort of work. but ignorant where jobs
In their trade were to be found. or
unable to get them even if they did
know. Here is a fault thai a be
eliminated. 1t would be a starting
point OF the labor exchange service
now being proposed. Agencies through
with men wanting work, and would
begin to bring these two together.
The work of the Federal Commits.
sion OF Industrial Relations is one OF
the most hopeful CLEANS on the in.
dustrial horizon today. AS yet, not
much stir has been caused by the in
vestigations which it has been quietly
oi Oil ONCI Il country. Inc
commission is gathering it's evidence
and forming its conclusions, however
1t is the body which is planning te
recommend a government system o,
abo exchanges, With it's authorit,
and information, it gives promise o.
being able to abolish much Of thu
waste and inefficiency in organization
that ha been clogging the wheels O
the American industrial machine.
Getting Men to the Grain Belt.
This year Uncle Sam took I'D in &
practical way the problem of bringin:
idle men wanting employment int,
contact with jobs. Hundreds Of thou
SANDS or men eager for work have
during the summer, been directed I,
the great harvest states of the West
n first influx was into the lowe
wheat belt of Texas, Oklahoma, Kan
sas and Missouri. AS the harvestin,
of the record crop Of 900. OOO. 90,
bushels progressed, the workers. to
gether with new arrivals from tn
East, moved northward into Iowa
Nebraska, Minnesota and the Dakota.
After the threshing of the whea,
corn cutting began in Illinois. In