The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1917-06-16
No Scarcity of Workers.

ocarclty Oh TABOR is the explanation
given for all manner of projects and
changes. Every employer who can not
Immediately find person to do par
ticular kind Of work, even that of NOV
ing furniture, at once raises the howl,
Scarcity of Labor" These various
walls coming from many different
places and constantly reiterated become
in the public mind an established fact,
even without investigation, and today
there is a general impression that there
is real scarcity OF workers in this
country, but scarcity is such relative
term that this impression can not be
accepted as fact without a thorough
and scientific investigation.
This matter is of serious importance
because there are at the present time
under consideration proposals for gov
ernment policies based on the supposed
scarcity of labor
In this connection it would be we'll to
remember that the managerial part of
industry has been very poorly organized,
if organized at all. Employers have
never taken the pains to use carefully
and for the purpose of conservation
any factor in production which was not
expensive. Only when workers have
succeeded in making their labor power
of sufficient financial consideration have
they not only secured recognition of
their rights, but also for protection of
their physical strength. Cheap work
men seem to have no rights which cap
tains of industry care for or are bound
to respect.
1t has been the settled policy of large
corporations, such as the steel COM
panies, to have always available mass
of unemployed. These can be called on
whenever needed and dismissed as the
temporary needs cease. As a result,
these great corporation managers, when
they find that they can not readily pick
up hundred men for one or two hours
extra work, feel that they have been de-
MED a condition that assured cheap la
Dor, and have at once declared a search
| ty of workers.
From government departments have
come also these complains of scarcity
of workers and frequently upon grounds
equally flimsy.
Wherever a genuine need OF labor
has been presented, the trade union or
ganizations have never failed to produce
willing workers necessary for govern
ment work. However, they have found
| very great difficulty in doing this al
times because OF the practices of the
government.
In the government navy yards and
other establishments the work is not
carefully planned in order to keep their
force of workers constantly employed.
be employed few days in week, then
dismissed and then re-employed at the
end of a few days or a week. and will
| oh tn
to provide an assured income.
Government establishments sometimes
pay wages under the prevailing rate in
private industries or denote workers or
impose other hardships on them. I'm
der such conditions their inability to
secure sufficient workers is not due to
scarcity of workers but to the fact that
these establishments are trying to un-
dermine prevailing standards.
There has never been in this country
general comprehensive effort to give
information of positions open or
to enable workers out of employment
to connect with the available positions,
Until some sane. rational effort has
, been made and statistics are available
, showing that there is a real scarcity OF
workers for the whole country, there is
no basis for the demand that hours OF
labor should be increased in order to
overcome the scarcity OF workers
One OF the first steps i'll organizing
for efficient production is to abolish the
hunkies and the Wallets. Too many who
', might give productive service are en-
: gagged in useless labor that might better
!, be dispensed with. Instead OF f1unkies
Wallets and servitorS to do for able
bodied persons what they ought to dc
for themselves, let us have nation ev,
cry one OF whom shall be independent
: seli-respecting persons engaged in pro-
ductive work In addition, there are ar
amazing number OF persons who do nc
work, though physically and mentally
fit. In this, the nations emergency
each must do his part-avaunt, yor
shirkers
Nor even if there should be estab-
ished scarcity of labor would 1t nee
:: essarily follow that increasing hours oi
J. work would be desirable. 1t has been
v demonstrated by actual proof in shops
!, that decreasing hours of work increases
+ productivity Elsewhere in this issue OF
the American Federationist is published
results OF an experiment in the Mckl'
:. vain Shoe Company, showing conclu'
sively that reduction in the house o
d work from ten to eight resulted in nc
decrease in product, not even in the loss
a>y,ar;p,art !,