Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-11-20


 of the great Northwest, hauling it to the railroad, transporting it 1000 or 5000 miles to Gulf and Atlantic ship yards, formed an epic feat of labor that deerves celebration by a great poet.
 Moreover, America had to get ready to make the ships. The building of the great ship yards was race against time and the German subma- rine; but they were completed thru American genius and the devotion of American labor, and the submarine menace no longer existed.
 The Nations 5O,OOO factories next needed help; those and the farms. While the wheat fields of the West were clamoring for men to harvest the great crop that must feed not only this country but it's armies and the armies and civilian populations of the Allies; the munitions works in many parts of the country were beginning to feel keenly the losses they had sustained through the draft Here was a double program, which the United States Employment Serv- ice was at once called upon to solve.
 This great organization, through it's farm labor officials, succeeded first of all in mobilzing all the spare labor of the wheat countrywide older men and the boys who could give effec- tice service Next, men out of jobs or expecting calls to the Army with in month or so were collected from all parts of the country. 1n one way and another, a great harvest army was created, which worked it's way north through the Mississippi and Missouri valleys to the Canadian border with all the precision of d victorious army on the battlefield. The American wheat crop was say ed, and that of Canada as we'll. Be- fore the army was demobilized, the American corn crop was also gath cred.
 While this great project was under way, the Employment Service was guiding men into esential occupations. There was a splendid response to the Nations need when men ill full strength and vigor were summoned from non-essential jobs to wartime production. AS loccupatiOns were added from time to time to the non essential list. the munitions factori- es and other war work received a supply of recruits who have given excellent service to the country.
 Here again came all instance of CO., operation between employer and em- ployee. At first a few factory own- CTS felt some apprehension about placing young men without experi- ence in machine work. Nevertheless the factory gates were opened for their reception and everything possi ble was done to instruct them ill the work required to turn out war ma terials.
 Labor has kept the stream of guns and projectiles, of foodstutfs, ard clothing moving forward steadily dur ing the past year and half. So efficiently has they American work man performed his task that Ameri- ca has practically supported the world, and yet the people at home have suffered no real hardships. E :. Coal presented one of the great problems of the war. Coal is a vii tai necessity to all forms of war work ito the factories that produce war materials, the homes of the work IlCIl, LlO ldlllO lOduo 6tAu CuuL transport goods to all parts of this country, and to our soldiers abroad. Many miners had been called into the Army, the depleted number that remained must produce more coal than had ever been mined before, to supply the wartime need.
 Miners who had long considered 1 themselves "on the shelf', who had accumulated money enough to tide over their declining years. volunteer cd to come back to the mines to help defeat the Germans. Miners in the South gave up their Labor Day holi- day-a day which means more to the workman than almost any other ill ! the year. They remained steadily on the job, and have accomplished a great task.
 But the job is not finished. The Labor Department keeps this mes sage before the workman: Not until peace is actually signed will we have peace. The process of production must go on and one; there must be food, coal, and clothing enough for the world"
 In all these mighty feats of labor the production of the worlds sup ply of wheat, the building of count l less tons of shipping,the mining of i coal for thousands of industries and a great army and navy-American / employers have, on the whole, stood firm with labor. Such men as Van