The Detroit times., 1916-01-24

Usually The makers begin 90 las
men off In July I'm 1914 the slump
came sooner than was expected
long before the war did-so tina.
when culd weather came the street-
were fgIl OF men who had spent
their savings.
The Board OF Commerce viii con
slider the labor situation
The reporter who printed that
paragraph iu a Detroit paper built a
great deal better than he knew or
than any one thanked him for a,
the time That day 90 men invaded
The lobbies of the Board of Com
merce building. The next day more
came. They did not ask for help
They wanted work Al one time 81
is estimated that there were SO,OUo
men ont Of jobs The Board OF
Commerce tackled the job before IL
maniully.
A Genius With an Idea
one day G. b. Warren. president
of the board had an inspiration.
This isn't "a charitable or so.
Geological problem" he wrote TO his
fellow members These men don
want the board 10 play Lady Bouuti-
tai 20 them. with pals OF hot soup
and red flannel mufders II is an
industrial problem We have gwen
these men work in good times II is
up to us 10 stand by them when
times are hard
To put it briefly that is what De-
troit did The manufacturers gave
work TO the men who most needed
it. instead OF tons OF coal and pounds
oi liver. oh, yes, coal and food were
given, too. but the main thing was
the work the men wanted FactO-
riDs ran ON part time instead of be
ing closed Repairs were made that
would usually have beer put OFF TO
The busy season when plenty OF
money was coming in. Some had
faith enough 10 build additions.
Makers piled up mountains oi spare
parts They had no more use for
those spare parts than a blind man
has for a butterfly net, but the men
got the work until il was gone. No
one was pauperized by charity
Then the United States suddenly
decided that it wanted millions of
dollars worth of automobiles. Just
The other day the statesmen of one
of these companies that turn out
cars like a housewife does cookies
met at dinner and ordered so 5OU,-
600 worth. Detroit could not have
supplied the demand if 10 had not
been for that winter work. Her fac
tories were ready for a capacity out
put A cordillera Of spare parts
waited for an army of assemblers.
Then the workman seemed 10 do
better work and NOR of it. lie had
/ been relieved OF a worry Detroit
thinks it has taken a step, at least,
toward working out the solution OF
one of the most veXing questions OF
/ iudustrialism today
"The square deal pays" says De-
troit, smacHng it's lips
There are other strictly local rea.
sons why Detroit prospers. It is a
new. clean city, with no tenement
problem, and no grades that balk
street car transportation and nc
slum factories to impede dividends
II goes at big questions in a biz
way. just as 10 does at its immtgra
tiou kink Three-fourths of Detroit S
population are foreign born or OF
/ foreign extraction Siyty-one per
cent of the applicants for work In
The 1914 slump could not speak Eng
ush NO. half the foreign born are
nauraizcd. There could easily be
a problem" here.
Doing Big Things IN a Big Way
SO Detroit is trying 10 educate
7 her workmen She isn't doing Che
best she can. Of course. but she i-
at least doing something They are
given course in citizenship and