The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-11
OF ALLNONESSENTIAL PLANTSPRED|CTED Director U. s. Employment
 Service Outlines Plans to Concentrate Labor
CHECKING UP SYSTEM
 PROVES EFFECTIVE
Employers of Labor Gather to Hear Government Plans to Speed Up the. Production of War
 Essentials

| Representatives of all employers of lab or in the Birmingham district were invited to luncheon yesterday to meet Clin Williams. director of the South Atlantic and Gulf States district of the United States employment service, and State Director George B. Tarrant at
 the Tutwiler at 1880 o'clock in the aft ernoon when luncheon was served on
 the mezzanine floor.
 There were 50 or 50 heads and rep resentatives of the employing corpora tions present. and they were treated to three very interesting talks made by
 Mir. Williams, Sidney Story. district di-
 rector of the national service section of the United. States shipping board, and Lieut.. F, G. Milsom of the Canad ian army
 The meeting was called for the pur- pose of discussing the production sit uation in this district as it pertains to war, and to impress upon the employ greatest possible quantity of materials needed by the government in the prose- cution of the war.
 NONESSENTIAL INDUSTRIES | MT. Williams explained that all non- ] essential industries would in time be ! eliminated and labor concentrated in
 the plants that are working on essen tial products. He said that labor not | needed in the essential industries in any one district would be transferred 1 to districts where shortages existed; !; 1 that the administration was determined I to utilize the entire man power and all
 the resources of the country in the win
 ming of the war. and that no slackers CT stacking would be tolerated | He explained his scheme, which he ! said had worked well in Mississippi and | parts of Alabama, for getting six days l work out of every man in his district. I A system of checking up employees at all paints and on the farms and in the mines had been devised, and that the
 system also included an investigation
 of men apparently idle. Men without l jobs. he said. would be put to work,
 and made to work six days in the week. | No loafing will be permitted.
 MT. Story told of his connection with l shipping covering period of many years; declared that for 15 years there | had heen no American merchant ma
 rine; told of an arrangement made with south American countries Dy American ship owners and of the machinations
 of foreign owned shipping companies
 combining to defeat the programme.
 SHIPPING COMPANIES | When the shipping companies, for
 eign owned and controlled, made it i'm
 possible for American vessels to bring
 cargoes on their return trips to this
 country, MT. Story said. he went to
 Europe, as agent of the shipping in-
 terests in this country, to make an in
 yestigation, and upon the submission of his report the shipping bill was intro-
 duced in Congress. The shipping lobby
 at Washington prevented its passage
 at first, said MT Story, but at later session of Congress it was adopted l Be fore the passage of the shipping
 bill we had 50 ship building plants and l 50,000 employees Mir. Story said, but now we have 200 shipyards with 500, 1 900 employees, and within the last year 1 they have turned out more tonnage 1 than was built in this country in sew I eral years prior to 1917.
 | Lieutenant Nilsson related some of
 the experiences of himself and his Can- adian regiment on the western battle front, stating that they went into one battle with 1o32 men and came out with 1 60 and one officer.