The Washington herald., 1916-11-14
Seen and Heard by George Miner.

New YORK, NOV. I3.-Messengcr boys are a:
scarce as hens teeth. This condition has de
veloped within the last year. There used to b
a seemingly inexhaustible supply of them Fiv,
dollars week used to be the regular pay for gooe
boys and you could hire hundreds of them any day
for that rate.
| Not so any more. You are lucky to get bo,
at any price. The thousands of big law Office:
and mercantile concerns downtown are actually
undergoing messenger boy famine. So hard tc
get are bright office boys that their places are
now being taken by half wtted louts of more thar
20 and by decrepit and senile old men.
! would not be at all surprised if in few
months thousands of girls would be pressed into
service and doing the work that year so age
was considered the exclusive privilege of the tough
and freckled-faced boy
For several generations, the office boy has beer
the despised and abused and generally hated uni
in the whole business life of every big American
city He was the Patsy Bolivar of every concern
If he was able to stand the gaf and go through
this test he was pretty sure to come out in time
thoroughly sharpered and keen business man
Then he became captain of industry That is
few of them did. The majority of them, the
weaker spirits, went to the bad Just what became
of ex-office boys nobody was ever able to find
out
This scarcity of boys, they tell me, is due to the
general prosperity the country is now enjoying
| and to the great demand for workers in the mt
milton factories. Laborng men who year or SO
ago making only moderate wages are now
getting high pay and frequently overtime for near
ly every day in the week Formerly the children
had to work to help support the family. That
condition no Longer exists The grown-up mem,
bers are amply able to do it themselves and
so the children are free to go to school
1t is fortunate thing that in most American
families, matter how ignorant the head of the
family may be, there is strong desire to have the
children educated
And that is the reason to big extent for the
present shortage of office boys They are in school,
where they belong.
1t may be annoying to lot of business con-
Germs, but it is certainly good thing for the
future generation in this country.
Another source of drain from the normal Of
fee boy supply is the demand for them in the
munition plants. Boys who were bright enough
to earn from S. to $40 week in office can now
get twice that salary in the she-making factories
OF course, these jobs only temporary and as
soon as the war is over there will be wholesale
reduction but for that matter being an Office boy
is only temporary job, too, if the boy has any
thing in him.
The manager who hires the messengers for the
Western Union Telegraph Company is having a
terrible time OF it these days. Try as hard as he
can he find it impossible to keep the company
supplied with boys. On average, he says, he
hires about 100 boys day and not per cent OF
them stick to their jobs. He has them washed and
cornbcd and their hair cut, and puts them in a
nicely pressed uniform and sends them out. Within
twenty-four hours most of them have quit and
taken jobs at bigger salary. Many of them are
captured by office managers when delivering their
first message
The Young Mems Christian Association is the
largest source of supply for office boys in New
York. The manager says he has orders for 5000
more office boys than he furnish