The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1918-10-05
WORRIED over
LABOR SHORTAGE.
United States Employment Serv-
ice Says Country Could Use
100000 Men.
UP TO STATE DIRECTORS

Wherever Possible, Those In Author
ity Locally Are Called Upon to De-
wise Means of Coping With the Sit
uation-"Non-Es Essential" Work Like
Iy to Be Sharply Cut.
The United States employment sery-
ice puts the labor shortage. at 1,000,-
900 men. This shortage is considered
artificial in the sense that the problem
is one of distribution only. Mexicans
have been imported and used in rail
road work, on the farms, etc., chief
ly in the border states. An importation
of $4,000 Porto Ricans is proposed and
registration at the employment Office
in San Juan has been so large that a
supply of 100000 is possible, but there
are no ships in which to bring them
to the United States. They would be
a mere drop in the bucket, anyhow.
The policy of the employment serv-
ice in regard to unskilled labor is to
put the burden squarely up to the
state inspectors. The director for
Georgia, as an illustration, was noti-
fed that unless 5000 laborers were
at once obtained for the picric acid
plant at Brunswick the enterprise
would be abandoned and the plant
moved to another state. He got the
men.
A similar course is being pursued
elsewhere, but it offers impossible
tasks in many cases. A table of, quotas
of unskilled laborers to be provided
by the several states calls for total
of S78, $50, but one state to which is
assigned a quota of less than 10000
requires in one industry alone more
than $4,000. Obviously that is stu
alton which a state director cannot
meet.
The employment service is in touch
with conditions such as exist in Tex
as, where in some counties as many
as 40 per cent of the population have
left their homes on account of the
drought. An effort is made to place
the exiles in essential industries.
1t is recognized here that there can
be no more "business as usual" High
officials do not hesitate to say that
the production of Injuries and non-es-
sentials must come to an end. The To-
cal community boards are relied on to
induce manufacturers Of non-essentials
to release skilled workers to plants en-
gagged in war work. L is expected that
unskilled labor can then be partly
trained in the "outside" factories, thus
providing a constant reserve of more
or less skilled labor on which to draw.
This puts it squarely up to the manu-
facturer of non-essentials. Enforce
ment of the conclusions of the local
community labor boards is made pos
sible in an indirect way by the de-
cisions of the local draft boards as
to what kinds of employment are es-
sential.
The war industries board is consid-
cred to have made the issue and set
the pace by its warning to the manu-
facturers of pleasure automobiles that
they can expect no consideration after
January /. The department of labor
appears to be relying on other agen-
cies of the government to apply such
drastic rulings on what work is essen
tial that it can force its own pro-
gram.
The entire labor policy appears to
be based on the old volunteer idea.
"a reused public sentiment, which will
brand as Stacker any man who will
fully refrains from working at some
productive job up to the full limit of
his capacity will be more effective than
any laws or regulations" Is the atti-
tude of the employment service. The
only exception to this is that since
August l the recruiting and distribu-
ton of unskilled labor for war produc-
ton have been entirely in the hands
of the employment service. Since then
about $4,000 laborers from twenty-one
states have been supplied where need
ed on essential projects.