The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-10-31
GOOD WORKS OF STATE
LABOR DEPARTMENT
(By A. 7. Edmonston.)

jefferson City, Mo-, Oct. 22.--Over
a half million dollars were saved for
217,362 unemployed men and women
of Missouri during the fiscal year
which closed September 30, 1919, by
the State Free Employment branches
of the Missouri Bureau of Labor in
st. Louis, Kansas City and st. Joseph,
in cooperation with a similar gratis
service of the United States Govern
ment, through supplying work to that
many jobless toilers of both sexes.
Had it not been for the activities of
this philanthropic State-Federal SER
vice the unemployed men and women
would have patronized pay-as-you-
register private employment agency,
and, at an average of $3.50 head the
217,362 gratiously supplied with work
through the dual government func-
ton, would have been mulct out of a
total of $543,405. For the majority
of the unemployed the registration
fee exacted by private employment
agents would have represented the
last dollars the unfortunate possessed,
constituting money which was the
only barrier between them and starva-
/ tion until work was found.
Labor Commissioner William H.
Lewis stated today that men out of
work and applying in course of the
fiscal year considered to the co-opera-
tive State-Federal free employment
service bureaus totaled 25S,445, and
of this vast army 198,827 were imme-
diately put in touch with paying sit
uations. The masculine gender out of
work and utilizing the combination
free service outnumbered unemployed
women and girls applying to the same
agency for situations, nearly eleven to
one.
A total of 30,592 of the gentler spe-
cies applied for employment at the
three cooperative State-Federal bu-
reaus of st. Louis, Kansas City and
st. Joseph during the same fiscal
year, and 1885 at once were placed
in positions of some character. In all,
1928 places were offered women and
girls by employers through the three
bureaus from October /, 1918, to
September 80, 1919. The conclusion
of the State employment officials is
that the 1918 places open to female
toilers recorded at the close of the
year as being left untitled" were par
TALLY filled by 12,057 women and girls
carried on the records as being I'M
supplied with work, and if such was
the case the calls for help during the
fiscal year exceeded the supply by
1881.
A total of 270,092 places were of
fered through the dual government
service during the fiscal year of 1913
1919 to men and youths and boys, and
when 198,825 of the sex had been put
tx, work there remained 72,024 places,
still officially recorded as being left
untitled at the close of the twelve
months. But many of the $1,000 male
toilers not supplied with work the day
they registered finally filled these open
places.
Applications of employers for male
| help at the three State Federal bu-
reaus were the most numerous in July,
1919, when, the records show, total
of 30,153 calls for toilers were regis
tered. Farmers of Missouri, Kansas
| and Nebraska then badly needed har-
vest hands to gather in wheat. On
| ly 20,493 men and youths were avail
able to be sent out, leaving 1850
chances to work which went begging.
In October, 1918, 1859 calls for male
toilers We're received by the three bu-
reaus and 21,291 men and boys were
| put to work, leaving 6,298 places I'M
| filled at the end of the month of jan
uary, 1919, the third best month in
this respect saw 26,242 places open for
| males, but only 1898 workers could
be drafted to answer the call.
Applications for employment were
more numerous for men and boys in
June, 1919, than during any Of the
other eleven months of the year. The
registrations at the st. Louis, Kansas
City and st. Joseph bureaus totaled
| &c, 1859, the army of men unemployed
then being swollen by the influx of
men and youths from eastern states
anxious to work for big wages as har-
vest hands. That month 21,516 of the
sex were put to work and chiefly as
harvesters.
The demand for women and girl
| workers during the fiscal year was the
heaviest during October, 1913, when
the calls for such toilers of the three
bureaus totaled 4,112. But only L.
1868 workers could be supplied. In
August, 1919, 1912 places were Of
Tered the sex, with only LABS coming
forward to accept. In September,
1919, 1892 places were offered women
and girls by the three bureaus but on
| ly 1892 could be supplied.
On October 10, 1919, the Federal
Free Employment Service ceased to
cooperate with State bureaus all ov-
er the country, Missouri as well as
elsewhere, owing to the failure of
Congress to appropriate funds to
longer meet the cost of this valuable
State Federal philanthropic function.
The Missouri Bureau of Labor, how
ever, without interruption, continued
the service and will do so indefinitely
as it did for years before the excess
sive emergency demands of the war
made the cooperative State-Federal
bureaus necessary.
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