New-York tribune., 1918-04-10
Hands to War
BY Theodore M. knappen
wv TASHINGTON, April 9.War has
w wrought another change of
preme national Importance that

1nlcn, @oothpr April ,,,nrS ,w's Of ha. has
premc national Importance that
viii be a permanent In times OF
peace it would be considered a revolution
airy change, and hosts of patriots would
discover that it rocked the Constitution or
something else elemental
Employment. become a national problem,
has been faced by truly national en-
ploymcnt agency. The days Of the private
employment agency arc over. Another held
of private endcavor is being monopolzed by
the state. We have come to it because we
had to. Theories disappeared before cXl-
gcncy. And that it is done, the wonder
is that we had to wait for a Notwithstanding
war to jar US into this simple reform. The
wonder further is that for the first nine
months of the war permitted the greed
and Incompetence of private employment
agencies to promote strikes and unemploy-
mont
Doubtless there are honorable exceptions,
but it has been proved that many of the
private agencies have been potent if per
maps unconscious agents of the Kaiser
They have been the pirates and vampires OF
labor and industry. They have robbed one
employer to supply another, and then they
have robbed the latter to restore to the
former. They have even expedited their
operations and their profits by inducing
strikes or cuttings Of the very men they
had previously supplied. Some agencies
have actually employed one staff Of men to
FIJI vacancies aud another to create them.
Ccascless change is the delight and pros
p"rity Of the employment agent For HIM
TO promote stability Of labor is to put him.
self out Of business. At s. man for every
man he places, he can afford to eXpend at
least 81 in displaCing every man he locates.
Having no relation to the general problem,
even his real service to his clients has been
at the expense Of some other concern en-
gagged in necessary private or government
work. Through him the countless thou
sands of plants engaged in government work
have been sniping each others employees.
The army has raidcd the navy, the navy has
raided tho Shipping Board the quartermas-
ter has robbed the Ordnance Bureau and the
air services have raidcd all the others, and
so back and forth this merry guerilla war
fare has gone on.
These dealers in men arc not yet entirely
disposed Of but the perfecting and cxtcn-
sion OF the United States Employment Ser
vice coincident with the realization by en-
poyers that the grand game Of rotation of
labor benefits none and Injuries all has
about put period to their activities. The
employment service. somnocntly existent
and barely tolerated for several years. has
been raised to supGr-service by the reor-
ganization of the Department of Labor as
q labor administration. This process
started by the President in january
and has been going for several months.
Even as late six months ago the labor
supply Of America was a dark and myster-
pool. Nobody knew what came into it or
what went out of it. Nobody knew what it
contained or what its possibilities were
Who wanted men seincd for them in
the pool and took whatever came to his
net. To-day we arc in position to know
what is required and what is offered, to
know what localities have surplus Of labor
of all kinds and what localities require
labor. and in tlI localities the wants and
sulplusages are narrowed down to ind-
vdual plants.
No longer does the joblcss man need to
pod from gate to gate or travel from city to
city, being hired and fired. Once he is reg
stercd he will be taken care of according
TO his capabilities and his character No
more will he travel hundreds of miles in
search of the non-existent job. He is en-
gagged where he is. his position is guar
anteed and his railway fare is advanced.
At last the "shipped" man is as sure of his
destination and place as the shipped freight.
He is no longer a mere object of exploita-
ton.
Does any one suppose that after the war
we are going to return to the old, blind,
ignorant, hit-and-miss system of wasting
the man power of The nation?