The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1919-01-23
HIGH WAGES SEEN
FOR ANOTHER YEAR
Railroads Are Warned of a Labor
Shortage.
100000 MEN STILL IN ARMY
Employment Officials Warn Rs;;way
Representatives of Conditions
Thousands Released From Mu-
nitions Factories Absorbed
in Shipbuiding Work.

Chicago, Jan. 21.-A continued labor
shortage with resultant high wages.
for at least the period of 1919 was
forecast at a conference here between
some 10 men representing the various
railroads centering in Chicago and gov
eminent and state employment bu-
reau officials.
Charles ]. Boyd general superin.
tendent of the Illinois free employ
ment Offices, warned the railroad men
that they were going to find it difficult
to get workers i'm competition with
other industrial demands, and adj
vised them that 1t would he very I'M
wise TO advocate a reduction of wages.
He pointed out that in 1913 the inn
migration of laborers amounted To
anly 10000, as against an influx Of
1,041, 00o in 1910; that the United
States had lost 100000 men in the war,
and that $4,000 more were in need of
rehabilitation before they can return
TO work. Adding to this the 100000
actually in the federal service with
little prospects of complete demohili-
cation for n year, he declared that the
reasons for a continued shortage were
obvious.
Expected Relief Not Seen.
Sanford II. f. Freund director of
the clearance division Of the United
States employment service ut Wash
ington, also declared that the relief
expected to follow the armistice had
not materialized. He told of how 80.
600 men released from the powder
works at Nashville, Tenn, and anoth-
er $4,000 released from the works at
Nltre, w. Va, had already been abb
sorbed In shipbullding work.
eve had before the armistice," he
said, 1.-THE hard problem of finding men
for jobs. For a short time aftcrward
the situation was reversed and we had
hard time finding Jobs for the men.
But the demand for men in the indus
tries that have renewed their activi-
ties since the armistice has about alb
sorbed the surplus from the closed
munitions factories.
Until the last two weeks there has
been a great shortage of common la
Dor. Since then the demand has
eascd up somewhat. hut this can be
,lly temporary. With the seven
months of the year for open work
ahead, the demand is bound to be
more acute"
Pleads for Cooperation.
Freund urged upon the railroad men
the necessity of cooperating with the
$50 branches Of the government
agency. He told them that competi-
ton between the federal bureau and
the railroads would be harmful TO both
and would Increase the labor turnover
by which he meant the number Of
times men are changed in jobs
w. G. Beird, federal manager of the
Chicago and Alton railroad, admitted
that the labor situation is a grave one.
The roads are uncertain as TO what
they are going to be able to do in the
coming year, he said, He also de-
clared that while skilled labor is fair
~ plentiful, unskilled is comparative
~ scarce
"The worst part Of it is" he con
tinued, that the available labor is
more inefficient than it was formerly.
one Of our gravest problems is how
restore it to its former efficiency.
with most roads facing a general cut
in their budgets and with the contn-
ued drift toward strict eight-hour
day, it is something for which | must
confess that | have not as yet, been
able to think out a solution"