New-York tribune., 1919-06-20
Tells Joint Committee of
Congress That Without 1t
/. War Industries Couldn't
Have Obtained Workers
Denies 1t Lacks Efficiency
Answers Criticism That He
Favored Unions, SayingHe
Complied With Demands
Ne4p York Tribune
Washfu atom Bureau

Of Labor told the Joint sitting of tn.
Senate Committee on Education ane
Labor and the House Committee or
! Labor this morning that considerable
majority Of the 4,420,720 men anc
women placed in industry during the
! war could not have been handled had
there not been q nationwide Federal
employment service. He occupied the
full time Of to-dsy's hearing, ard will
again 60 on the stand tomorrow morn
ing to complete his testimony in behalf
Of this branch Of his department.
Representative Smith, of Michigan
chairman Of the House Committee on
Labor, was invited by Senator Kenyon
chairman Of the Senate Committee on
Education and Labor, to be the presid-
ing officer for the hearing, which is be-
ing held in connection with the Kenyon
and Nolan bills introduced to provide
$4,000,00O for the establishment and
maintenance of a Federal state en-
,ployment system.
Defends Policy of Service
. The Secretary laid the foundation Of
! his testimony by sketching the work
done by the service during the war and
by answering the general criticisms of
: ineficiency and labor union affiliation
which he said had been charged against
the service.
! II would like to point out that the
Labor Department was created for the
promotio Of the welfare of the wage
earners Of the United States," said the
Secretary. "This same policy has char
acterized the functions of the employ
ment service. We have had to deal
with organized labor because many of
the wage earners are organized. We
have had to deal with the manufacture
ers and corporations because they en-
ployed labor. We have had dealings
! with the unorganized men because they
are wage earners.
81 would like to crarify the atmos-
! phere a little about the criticism di-
. rected against the service, persistent
Z " and systematically. We have been
! charged with favoring the labor unions
n our placements. Our policy has been
! that when an employer asked for labor
union men we furnished him with ap-
plicants having the union card. When
all employer requested that non-union
: men be furnished, we sent him appli-
} cants of that class. When there was
neither the one class nor the other in
7 dicated; we furnished the best we mad
taking more care for his skill and
1A g. g. L.
status, so long as that was not made
condition by the employer.
~ Denies Inefficiency Charge
as"In answer to the charge of in
deficiency would like to say that there
were some mistakes made at first. The
surve ywas an experiment and like al
new things, some things did not worl
sout just right. We had planned to la,
'out the system in regional districts lik
the Federal Reserve banks. But w
ifound that this did not make for th
sco0peration with the states which w
! .sought. So we changed over to stat
! sunit system, to more nearly coordinat
3 sssthe non-fee charging activities o
y N8erybody, Federal, state and munici
: spal.l But l do not think the servic
{ .SouadSAe called entirely inefficient i
i the numbers of our results are con
2 'sidered. Our figures, which wer
4 scompiled for the House hearings, ar
: ,as follows: Registration, 6,186 1854
g calls for help wanted, II $50, ,101; appli
4 cants for jobs, 5,696,91O; placements
s A,32o.0oo.
= I'VE did not do great deal Of mis-
= placement during the war. If ther
were demands for thousands or hun
hreds of thousands of workers in ship
yards, we went into the interior an,
recruited from various communities t.
avoid draining any one place.
Criticises Private Agencies
"For while there will be room fo
the fee charging agency as we'll a
for the Federal system. But ulti
s nnately We hope to create condition
8 Ahat will leave no room for the fe
J. charging labor exchange, because sucl
M . business will not be profitable.
+ do not like to say that this bushes
= has been dishonesty handled, but tn
e very nature Of the work makes it hav,
!. tendency toward dishonesty.
: Zone thing about this business dis
= tinguishes it from almost every othe
= pursuit Other lines draw on the rich
= the moderately we'll to do and perhap
. the poor for their revenues. But th
Zee charging labor agency gets it
= money from the class least able to af
:. ford it--the man or woman out of
job. 1t is this phase of the busines
= which makes it wicked. There hav.
) been instances Of collusion, where tn,
labor agency man and the man havin,
: 10 do with the hiring and firing of me,
i 1t the plant have arranged that me,
s would be fred 80 that they might b.
8 hired again to the profit Of the agency
Il know of no instaHce where q fe.
: eharging agency was asked to go ou
Of business during the war by the
+. state or municipal or Federal agency
& ] know that conditions were created
y by the Federal system 80 that many ot
Z them had to 90 out OF business.
!. Change in Labor Turnover
"There is significant change in the
y sYend Of labor turnover for a grea,
work. Kansas is Q good example. Ono
q yeaT we furnished 10000 people te
9 harvest the wheat crop there. Last
e year the state harvested it's own cror
= without losing q single acre and i'm.
= ported only some 5000 persons for
I. labor.
Z ut was through furnishing harvest