The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-06-22
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
MO R M ALTON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director
Washington. D. c.
OUR NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT
AGENCY
Warrington. D. c

the department OF labor has now
reached that stage in its development
tirely the work Of recruiting and dis
tributiEg labor of all kinds for war
production. The aim of this gov
ernmental agency is to provide an or
ganization for making the industrial
and agricultural man power of the
nation in war service as effective in
its accomplishments as is the war de-
partment's organization for placing
men in the fighting line.
This must not be taken to mean that
anything akin to the CONSUMPTION of
labor has any part in the policies of
the government at this time. The
most Elective distribution of the labor
supply thru the voluntary co-opera-
ton of worker and employer, to the
benefit of both and the welfare of the
nation, is the purpose to which the
United States employment service has
devoted itself since its reorganization
as a separate division Of the depart
ment Of labor.
To observe the waste of energy in
the placen ent of war workers at the
present time one has only to turn to
the Help Wanted advertisements in
almost any newspaper. There are
columns and columns of appeals for
men wanted to work on war contracts,
to create those supplies and munitions
of war without which our soldiers in
the trenches would be powerless. Now
consider the inefficiency and the loss
of precious time involved in those
thousands of printed lines. They are
waste Tor the workingman because,
after trampfng city streets and stand
ing in line for hours, he will often be
assigned to a job beneath his ability.
or told that he position for which he
asks is filled. 1t IL also wasteful for
the employer because he has no way
OF gauging an applicants ability be-
forehand, and will often find later that
, men hired under this haphazard sys-
tenn are inefficient or unsuitable. It
Is waste for the nation in it's time of
greatest need because every expert
ence of this kind interferes with
maximum war production, and is
that much rust on the bearings of
Americas war machine.
/ Now consider the substitution of
great free national employment
agency for this hit-or-miss, outworn
method of connecting employers and
employe. Such an agency, with head
quarters in Washington and branch
tural center of the land, is found in
the newly organized governmental
service for labor supply.
The United States employment ser
vice, organized by decree of Secretary
of Labor Wilson, as a separate arm
$50 branch offices and thousands of
enrolment agents: 1t penetrates to
every part of the United States and
offers to employer and employe alike
systematized nationwide service of
labor hiring.
When millions of men are sum-
moned by their nation to serve in bat
tie the efficient distribution of those
who are left to man the industries at
homo becomes an all-important mat
ter. What has already been accom-
plished is the best indication of the
| future of the federal employment SER
+, vice. Almost all shipyards. the west
ern railroads and hundreds of indi-
vidual employers have agreed to OBJ
| tain their labor exclusively thru the
| service. By an agreement which has
! just gone into effect all dock labor
ships engaged in carrying war sup
plies to Europe will henceforth be
supplied by the United States employ
ment service. Thomas ". OConnor,
president of the Longshoremen's
union, has been appointed on officer
of the service for this purpose, with
the title of director of stevedores and
| marine workers.
| Altogether about 1000 workers
daily are now being placed by the
| service in the shipyards, munition
| plants, mines, on the farms and in
| Quality as we'll as quantity supply
Is assured by the federal employment
| service. Every man on the rolls has
the service to insure that he will make
good in the particular line OF work for
which he is listed. The employer
knows that the men he hire S
thru the service will be patriotic.
faithful and intelligent. The cmploye
knows that he is going to a permanent
job where he will be treated squarely
with standard pay and government
supervision OF his working and living
conditions. Both sides are protected
and the service Is gratuitous to all
In this respect the work Of the United
epoch in the Industrial history OF
America.
The activities Of the United States
employment service fan naturally into
two divisions-labor finding and labor
placing. With the generI disorgan-
ization and reimbursement which faced
\ the nation in passing from peace tc
a war footing the necessity of intel
ligently placing labor was evident
Important as the recruiting of labor
was from the start and all-important
as it will become as the war goes on
the first step. nevertheless, was ths
conservation OF existing supply and
the development of a nationwide ma
chinery for placing labor wherever
the need is greatest. The recruiting o,
additional labor would have been o.
little avail without the development
Of machinery whereby labor supply
could be distributed among the vart
Gus war industries according to need
To this end the federal employment
service proceeded Immediately to linl
up all existing state and municipa
free emplo. ment agencies, thus pro
viding the groundwork of a nationa
organization. There were some state
and many cities where the problem O.
labor supply had always been left tt
the old haphazard method of adver
Using and private employment agen.
cies, and in these districts the reor
!. ganized gov ,nment service lost NJ
time in establishing new branch Of
fees.
AS a result there is today a nationa
employment office system covering
the entire country with branch of
fees in every state and the territorie
: CT Alaska and Porto Rico. Radiatinl