The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-01-03
HOW SOME OF The BILLIONS
WERE SPENT IN WAR ACTIVITIES
The Truth Coming 0ut-10O,0OO Are
Drawing High Pay and are 10th
to Let Go

The war made thousands of highly
paid federal positions of one kind and
another. Many of these places are
yet held and the holders are 10th to
let go, and are importuning congress
to make their positions permanent.
A thousand or more of these are con-
nected with the federal employment
service and during the war activities
shipt men from st. Louis to Pittsburg
and from Pittsburg to st. Louis at
government expense, when the men
now admit they only wanted a free
ride and a change of scene. The fol-
lowing story, illustrating the loose
methods of the federal employment
bureau and the way they justified
their retention in the service is illus
trating:
Especial Correspondence
There has long been widespread
feeling that the U. S. Employment
service has been claiming credit for
a lot of accomplishments to which it
is not entitled, but until recently no
one has had the courage to come out
openly and express the conviction.
The department of labor has been in
possession of all the information of
definite nature, so no one on the out
side was in a position to combat its
claims with specific statements. Some
of the claims have been SO preposter-
Gus as to receive little credit, but no
one seemed to be in position to make
a sweeping denial of the credit the
employment service claimed.
Now, however, the employment SUI
pervisor of large shipbuilding COM
pany near Philadelphia has chal-
lenged the claims of the government
employment service, and it is likely
that there will be others to tell what
they know about it. C. J. brennan, of
the Sun Shipbuilding Co., is the man
who is quoted on the subject. l un-
derstand that the state bureau of the
L. S. employment service sets up the
claim that it supplied 171,803 work
men and 1924 work women to the
plants and shipyards in this state, )"
says Mr.. brennan. "Think of it,, an
impractical, inexperienced and poorly
organized labor employment depart
ment placing more employees in jobs
than there were places to fill in all
the eastern Pennsylvania war-working
plants combined. 1t is absurd and win
not down with the knowing ones"
Mr.. brennan cites two illustrations
of the manner in which laborers We're
supplied to shops. In July, 1918, the
employment service, he says, brought
five men from st. Louis to work in
the boiler shops, and in August eleven
more were brought for the same pur
pose. "These men were said to be
first class boilermakers. person
ally Investigated the complaint lodged
against these men by our foreman and
found that not one of them had ever
worked at boiler making. They ac-
knowledged to me that they had sim
ply taken advantage of an opportunity
to enjoy a first class ride at the ex-
pense of Uncle Sam. Not counting
the cost of employing an agent to
hunt up these men, the cost of trans
porting the 16 men was over $3.50
Since the armistice was signed, the
employment service has been issuing
numerous bulletins designed to i'm
press congress with the need of keep
ing up its appropriation. Undobut-
edly the records of the service will
show that it has directed large num-
bers of men to jobs, and the service
will claim credit for having secured
jobs for the men and men for the
jobs, even tho the two would have
been brought together if there had
been no employment service bureau.
The fact is that there has been such
an unlimited demand for help of all
kinds in every part of the country
lIldl HO man Ildo DCCn NitAOub q gOO
il he would accept one.
As one means of impressing the
country with the necessity of contin-
uance of its large appropriations, the
service has asked shipyards to con-
tinue to employ help thru the employ
ment service. Large employers are
to be forbidden to make direct nego-
tiations with soldiers about to be dis
charged from the army. In order to
have a reason for continuance of its
appropriations, the service must have
a sort of monopoly of the employment
business, even to the extent of dis
couraging an employer from making
his own selections of employees on his
own knowledge of men and employ
ment methods.
1t is not at all unlikely that before
congress completes the investigation
of the manner in which appropriations