Republican farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1810-1920, 1918-02-08
HEADS
STATES LABOR
SERVICE DEPT.
Hartford Man is Chosen Di-
rector of Conn. Branch
For Big Work.
OFFICE OPENED
IN STATE CAPITOL
Will Assist in National Dis
tribution Of Men Among
War Industries.

Hartford, Feb. 5-The Connecticut
division of a national employment
service whose eventual task it will be
to distribute millions of workers
among various war industries was es-
tablished today in the State Capitol
by the federal government and the
Connecticut State Council of Defense.
Upon the nomination of the state
council, Leo A. Korper, treasurer of
the Capitol City Lumber Co., of this
city, was today appointed Federal Di-
rector for Connecticut of the United
States Employment Service, the
United States Public Service Reserve
and the2 United States War Exchange
Service.
Mr.. Korper has opened an office in
the capitol and has appointed as as
sistant state director Allen B. Lin
coin of New Haven. In the near flu
ture he will establish four or five la
Dor employment offices in the chief
cities of Connecticut, each of which
will be in charge of a superintendent.
The prime object of the Public Ser
vice Reserve will be not to bring in
dividual employers and employees to-
gether, but rather to enroll in a
workingmen's reserve a force of men
who shall have signified their willing
ness to be transferred from whatever
work they are engaged in to essential
war industries. 1t has been estimated
that by next August between $780,
900 and 100000 workers will be
I'D -, 1,I,s- Il
munitions making Sand other essential
industries.
The work of the United States EN-
ployment Service, however which
will be done under the same admins
tration, will be more along the lines
of an employment bureau. It will en-
deavor to learn the labor needs of en-
ployers and the employment needs of
workingmen and find work for the
unemployed and employees for indus
| tries and companies which need more
help.
The establishment of this new en-
ployment service under the United
States Department of Labor was
brought about through a realization
that there is no real labor shortage
in this country but that. while there
exists scarcity of workers in a few
of the trades, the apparent general
! shortage is due to a lack of proper
| facilities for the distribution of labor,
Many industries, especially munitions
industries in this state, have been
| hampered by heller skeIter drifts of
labor from one plant to another,
which have in some cases put the most
essential industrieS at a disadvantage
and has created q considerable body
of labor temporarily out of employ
ment while seeking transfer from one
place to another. It is hoped that
these and other faults in the present
| labor situation will be remedied and
that important problems due to war
! conditions will be efficiently solved.
One of these problems is the housing
problem, which has resulted in cases
where large numbers of workingmen
have found positions open for them
| in isolated factories where there are
not sufficient dwelling houses avaiIa-
BILE for themselves and their families
Among the activities to be taken up
by the new labor service are the fol-
| lowing: Furnishing adequate and
staple supplies Of labor to war indus
tries; providing for immediate and
equitable adjustments of disputes;
safeguarding conditions of labor; safe
guarding conditions of living; gath
ering labor facts and statistics essen
tial to proper distribution of labor,
etc.
Mr.. Korper, in explaining today
that the chief function of the new
service at the present time is to en-
roll ali mobile labor that is ready to
be transferred when needed said
that the most patriotic thing a man
can do after being enrolled is to '+sit
tight and wait where he is until he
is called for his new service"
The movement has been endorsed
by the American Federation of Labor
and it's president, Samuel Gompers,
| who says.
There is no more fundamental
service in the interests of the wage
Garner than the organization of a
labor market at which unemployed
Tiers may exchange skill, experience,
and labor power with invested capt.
tai The country has long needed
such a service, and the American
Federation of Labor has been insist
ing upon its establishment. I shall
watch the progress of the service as
now organized with the deepest inter
est, and shall always be glad to render
a helping hand and word of counsel. -