Denver labor bulletin., 1917-09-01

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ing a man to take a farm job, pro-
vided the wages are considerably
above what farmers have heretofore
been paying. This matter of the ad-
justment of farm wages to meet the
competition of the high wages paid to
men in factories and industrial plants
is a serious one. 1t does not, however,
mean that there is a scarcity of men
to do farm work. 1t simply means
that they refuse to do it at the wages
offered"
Not one case of actual scarcity
of labor in organized occupations has
been brought to the attention of any
trade union official in the American
Federation of Labor building.
10. Applications have been made to
the committee on labor, advisory COM
mission, council of national defense,
for the extension of the hours of
women in. the days work and the
lowering of the legal age for the en-
ployment of young persons, with the
expectation that the council of ma
tional defense, as SO empowered by
the president, might in these respects
modify existing statutes. The per-
sons making these applications were
informed that they would be obliged
to prove scarcity of women's and
children's labor in an entire occupa-
tion, not only in a single locality but
in a region within reasonable trav-
cling distance of the place where
shortage should be alleged to exist
Furthermore, an investigation would
be made as to the wages paid and as
to whether somewhat higher wages
might not bring the desired help. As
vet no applicants for modification of
the labor laws have proved their case.
IL. The editors of labor papers in
fifty of the leading cities of the coun-
try have recently been asked to send
in the testimony of the columns of the
situation want ads" of the leading
daily papers of their localities relative
to the labor supply. From the returns
in response TO this inquiry it is evi-
dent that while on the average not so
many of these want ads" are now
published as when immigration choked
the channels of labor supply, there are
every week in the large cities thou
sands of persons seeking situations
through this method.
IL. What is called "a very high
labor turnover" may be the cause OF
much of the talk of shortage of Ia
! Dor" among a certain class of employ
ers. In one plant, TO keep up force
Of 200 men not less than 1000 men
were taken on during thirteen months,
l according to an Investigator recently
reporting TO the department Of labor.
l3. From labor editors a common
report to this Office is in effect: There
/ is no shortage Of labor where living
wages are paid
Il. From New Orleans a letter
says: There are at present hundreds
Of able-bodied negro men idle IN the
fault Of their own
From Newark, New Jersey: Come
and look at the public squares of this
/ city and see the benches occupied by
hundreds of men who might be at
work"
one of the trade unions whose men,
bers work on articles of luxury writes:
Upon your request, we can provlde
thousands of men able to do useful
work"
is. The New York state depart
ment of labor reports for June, 1917,
a decrease of so per cent in the esti-
mated cost of work in the building
trades as compared with June, 1916.
For May, 1917. the decrease was 81
per cent less than May, 1916. Here,
as in the large cities of the country
generally. is Indicated the release of
thousands of men for work of another
character.
l6 The comprehensive fact that
among our population of more than
100. .Oo0.O 900 a considerable percentage
of the wage workers are at any given
time unemployed while there exists
somewhere an unsupplied demand for
for labor of one kind or another, with
no adequate public attempt at solution
of this problem, was the reason for
conferences held within the last month
in the assembly room of the labor com
mittee. advisory commission. They
were attended by representatives of