The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-04-08
EVERY PLANT PUTTING ON MEN
Skilled Mechanics in City Nearly All
at Work and Big Problem is to Find
Work For Common Laborers-Active
Demand for Girls in Kitchens.

The March report of the Manufact-
urer s Employment Bureau shows re-
markable gain in the number of opera
tives hired. Practically every plant
in the city notes an increase and in
some instance fifty per cent more help
has been added Comparing the num-
Der of operatives on the payroll
February 2Sth with that of March
3lst, shows a gain of over one thousand
workers. While some of those employ
ed are skilled mechanics from out Of
town, the great majority are local
workmen many of whom were idle the
greater part of the winter. AT the
present time there are very few men
with mechanical ability having homes
in the city who are not working.
Female labor, according 20 the
bureau report, is greatly in demand.
Manager Shearer states: "We are con
tinually advertising for girls and can
place them as fast as they come.
There will be first class steady posi-
tions open for at least one hundred
before June LIST. Domestics are much
sought, and very conservative esti-
mate would place the number at fifty
for whom situations are waiting. There
has not been any great call for Office
help in the line of clerks, stenographers
and bookkeepers, but with an increase
along other lines this will come also.
Kenosha has apparently been favored
with the center rush of the wave of
prosperity. Other manufacturing cities
continue to report a long list of unem-
ployed, and the local bureau finds no
difficulty in securing skilled workmen.
Advertising by the bureau for skill
ed mechanics the past fortnight.
brought hundreds of high class men to
the city, and applications by mail keeps
the clerical force of the office working
overtime in order to answer them.
These letters come from almost every
state l. the union and are from men
who are earnestly seeking locations
where they may secure steady employ
ment. The demand for mechanics will
continue to some extent, but at the
present time there are few vacancies
at any of the plants.
The great problem now is work for
the common laborer, the man without
a trade, Of which there are still a large
number unemployed This will be
solved by the opening up of building
trades, railroad work, and the city
sewer and paving contracts. For
months these laborers to the number
of several hundred have made daily
trips to the factories, but their visits
have brought them nothing but disap-
pointment A small number have gain
ed positions the past month, but much
larger proportion are still on the wait
ing list. In many cases, these are the
men whose families suffered most dur
ing the past winter of industrial de-
preston, and they are the ones who
would be. most benefited by en-
ployment.
Farm help is not much more plenti-
full than IN former years. This is due
to the fact that so few are experienced
in that class of work and the work of
the farm today demands high grade
men. The old theory that anyone can
do farm work, does not hold, and the
farmer who is keeping abreast of the
times, seeks only experienced labor.
Quite often men who cannot secure and
hold shop jobs, and then try farming,
fail. They are disappointed and dis
couraged in the start and 1acl the re-
qusite energy to make a success of the
new venture. The bureau reports the
calls for farm help averages twenty
five to thirty each week.