New-York tribune., 1918-07-03
Putting Labor Into 1t

If labor were a commodity, as econo-
nists were pleased to call it long ago, it
could be priced and commandeered by
the government like steel, any raw ma
terial or transportation. But labor is
human. and the problem of bending it to
war is extremely difficult, not by reason
of any inherent perversity, but mainly
because we had never bothered in time
of peace to perfect the technique Of
scientific employment. That is to say,
we had treated labor as a commodity
that would somehow appear on demand.
1t was an extremely haphazard and
wasteful performance. AT the top of an
industrial boom there would be more
Jobs than men, and wages would go up,
and then when the boom collapsed there
would be for a while more men than
jobs.
Now in war time we are beginning to
see the folly of wasting labor. We are
paying terrific price for our past in
difference. Labor is the final limit on
our participation in the war, because
only by labor can the means to war be
produced; yet, because there was no
scientific technique of employment, in
dustrial man power has been wasted in
the most fatuous manner. The Presi-
dent described conditions clearly in his
recent statement on the need for the
United States Employment Service. He
said
There has been much confus on as 20
essential products. There has been igno-
rance of conditons-men have gone hun
dreds of miles in search of job and
wages which they might have found at
their doors. Employers holding govern
ment contracts of the highest Importance
have competed for workers with holders
Of similar contracts, and with the
government itself. and have conducted
expensive campaigns for recruiting labor
in sections where the supply of labor
already exhausted California draws its
unskilled labor from as far east as Buf-
falo, and New York from as far west as
the Mississippi. Thus labor has been
induced to move fruitlessly from one
place to another, congesting the railways
and losing both time and money.
In view of this state of facts the Pres
ident calls upon all employers engaged
in war work to refrain from recruiting
unskilled labor in any manper after
August /, next except through the state
agencies of the United States Employ
ment Service, which is the machinery
that has been devised to systematic war
employment on a nationwide basis
It's Forthcoming has been slow and
laborious.
First there was the War Labor Con-
ference Board called into existence in
January by the Secretary of Labor to
consider the whole labor problem. The
Conference Board recommended that it
be reconstructed as War Labor Board,
to settle industrial disputes during the
war and lay down the principles on
which settlements should be made. 1t
has laid down the following principles
to govern relations between workers and
employers in war time:
No strikes or lockouts in war time
The right of workers to organize
and bargain collectively recognized
and affirmed.
The eight-hour day recognized as
applying in all cases where existing
law requires it.
There shall be no limit on produc-
tion either by employers or labor, at
least where unlimited production is
not inconsistent with health and safety.
The right of all labor, including
common labor, to living wage de-
clared, with declaration that a min
imum wage will be fixed for all
workers.
Next appeared the War Labor Policies
Board, which applies the principles. 1t
is concerned not with abstract ques-
tions, but with the practical task of
putting the shoulder of labor to the
wheel Of war. The records of the Labor
Department show that from 25 to 40 per
cent of the common labor in the country
is not productivity employed. Private
employment agents steal labor and re-
place it elsewhere at high commissions.
The skilled trades in war work are con-
stantly being shifted by accidental con-
ditions that offer themselves to control,
but have not yet found it.
The first problem of the War Policies
Board was to work out plan for the
systematic recruiting Of labor, especially
unskilled labor. For that purpose there
has been devised the United States EN-
ployment Service. 1t will go into effect
August j.. 1t will be supported with all
the powers of the government Every
department of the government, through
the strength at it's disposal. whether It
be by the mechanism ofscontract or by