Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-16
War and Labor
THE PROBLEM
BY Frederic ]. Haskin

es The present plans of an army OF five
million fighting men indicate therefore
that there will have To he between 30 and
40 million engaged in wnr production
/ here at home But at the present time
there are only about 35 million men.
women and children engaged in gainful
| occupations in the entire country. The
inference is plain. War industries require
| evrry sblebodied worker who because OF
age, scx or dependents is not called by the
army. To keep mp with the army pro
gram the nation must be placed on
| 100 per cent war basis without exception
| or DELAY.
Demand for and production Of Injuries
must cease altogether Employers sngag-
| cd in work classified as non-essentIal must
| be prepared To give up their employees
| wright and left, even 10 the extent of going
| into ar work Themselves and shutting
down business which they have spent their
| lives in building up. In cases where non
war production ~ allowed 10 continue,
| inferior workmen and women must be
| substituted 10 release highly trained men
| for work Of vital Importance to the ma
| ton.
REORGANIZATION WAS vEcyssAHY.
To handle war labor problems the
| Department Of Labor has been completely
| reorganixcd New divisions, To meet the
| new demands Of war, have been created
and are now taking over various phases OF
| the labor situation II ia the war duties Of
| these divisions, which are the subject ~
| this series of articles and the three Of them
| winch are particularly concerned with the
problem Of Keeping the war projects Of
| the nation fully manned will be discussed
today. T'hese three are the United States
| Employment Service. the Training and
| Diltition Service, and the DIVISION OF
| immigration
II Is the vital responsibility Of the Fcd-
eral Employment Service n keep the
war plants Of the nation adequately sup
piled with workers, no matter bow the
action ri the draft may drain the avail
able manpower supply To clear the
field for this task il has been granted
virtual monopoly on the recruiting and
supply of all labor for war projects
NO MORE PRIVATE RECRUITING.
Private recruiting Of labor BY tho war
employer is thing of the past. on penalty
of having his supplies Of fuel and raw
material cut off he must obtain his men
through this Federal agency. In the words
of the resolution If the War Labor
Policies Board, which inaugirated this
policy on August "all recruiting of IN
delstral labor for public or private work,
, connected with the war shall be conduct
cd through or IN accordance with moth
ois authorized BY the United States I'm
plovment Service
1'hc cause for this drastic exercise Of
| Federal authority was the condition of
anarchy which prevailed IN the labor
market after tho outbreak Of war. Every
4. a rgr
| production and every private employer
| with war contracts went ont after labor,
no matter what effect their actions might
| have upon other Industries equally inn
portant 10 the prosecution Of the war
| Those were halcvon davs for the private
| recruiting agent who got n commission
on every man he placed and therefore
| had a pertinent interest in seeing that
| labor was kept shifting from place 70
| place. One instance out of thousands is
| illustrative.
In Knoxville, Tennessee. a few months
/ ago there were a number Of war Industries
| IN need Of unskilled workers. A colored
| labor scout, carving his office under his
| hat recruited 200 coiored laborers from
war plants in Nashville, getting a com
| mission OF 81 for each man, and took them
| to knoxville Then, in order hat his re-
| turn trip might be fruitful, he recruited
| 200 more men from war plants IN Knox
vile and took them back to Nashville.
also at 81 apiece On investigation II WAS
| found that over three-fourths of the second
| 200 had filled jobs vacated by the first
200 a few days previous.
SAME THROUGHOUT COUNTRY.
The same condition, magnlhed, was
| prevalent throughout the country. In
! Detroit. street car advertisements called
| for war workers 10 90 TO Plttsburg IN
| Pittsburg. street car advertisements called
| for war workers to go to Detroit. Work
| ing men were deceived into wasting their
own time and money BY trapeslng the
| country looking for war jobs and wages
which they might have found at their own
doors Labor turnover scaled at some
! plants to 100 per cent week and an IN
! tolerable situation of waste. discomfort
and delav was created which paved the
way for the rigid monopoly Of war labor
supply now concentrated in the United
States Employment Service.
The Employment Service has now al
most 600 branch offices IN every part OF
the country and recruiting agents in
practically every county and township IN
the As States Through its efforts, thou
SailuS Ot Hit4t anu NO4AiSAi art bNiitEe ktaNt0
IN war work daily, not only IN plants en-
gagged on government contracts, but IN
farming mining and transportation as
we'll No worker IS recruited at the eN-
pense Of other war Industries and every
effort is being made TO eQualize the present
war labor shortage by transfers from non
essential Industries.
The Training and Dllution Service IS
another instrumentahty directly concern
ed with the effective manning of the ma
tons war plants. Organization of this
work is now going forward IN cooperation
with the activities of the Employment
Service in placing workers. What Is
meant by training" war workers Is evl-
dent "Dllution," demands line Of ex-
pIanaton 1t is the process Of filling skilled
labor shortages by assigning partially
trained men and women TO the execution
OF a single simple process in manufacture
thus leaving the valuable skilled hands free
to concentrate on the more complex pro-
cesses.
DILUTIoN NECESSARY.
1t is certain that dlution viii have to be
used to very large extent as the war con
tinues The common labor shortage can
doubtless be made up by transfers from
non-war industries, but in skilled labor
the reserves are already very largely ex-
hausted. 1t is estimated that four-fifths
of the machinists in the country, to take
n