The Cordova daily times., 1919-05-29
SOLDIERS ARE
 FINDING WORK
 IN THE W EST

lent condition, according to B. A. Hunter, superintendent of the federal employment service here. MT. Hunt CT, whose office here supplies timber workers for the camps and mills in this section, miners for the Occur d'Alene mines, farm laborers for the wheat ranches and workers for con- struction work and miscellaneous ac- tivities, has it as part of his duties to keep in touch with the pulse of the labor market and inform the gov ernment of conditions.
 It is only in the woods that there is any disarrangement in the labor market, Mr. Hunter said, and this is due, not to a shortage of labor nor to a surplus of workers, but rather to the constant strife among rival organ izations of mill and timber men. For this reason the turnover" of labor is far in excess of what the conditions in this field justify, he declared.
 
 is not now proving to be any problem at all in this section, MT. Hunter de- clared. The worst of this difficulty presented itself several months ago, he said, shortly after the signing of the armistice, and now has readjusted itself.
 we are having no trouble now in placing all the returning soldiers who are seeking employment" he said. "The fact is, few of them are hunting for work. Shortly after the signing of the armistice, we were receiving, on the cards we sent to the men from this section requests for jobs, with two or three preferences marked. Now these cards are coming back, some of them from France, with the notation across their face, Don't need any help in getting job,' or Have a job waiting for me-
 'The fact is, that most of the men who are now returning had worked themselves into business somewhere or were skilled in some trade. The man who has regular trade or oc- cupation is never long out of a job. It was the high school students and graduates, discharged from the off cers' training camps shortly after the armistice was signed, who presented the problems. Few of these have ever had practical experience of any sort, and yet they expected to get desirable employment at good wages.
 Returning soldiers are being ab- sorbed by the labor market as fast as they get back For instance, during recent week we had applications in this office from 35 soldiers for jobs, and placed 32 of them. The week be- fore that, we had 37 applications and placed all of them, besides four others from the preceding week. That, be- lieve, represents the general labor situation as we'll"
 The absence of war industries in this section and the fact that women are giving up their war time jobs to returning soldiers are believed by MT. Hunter to be responsible in part for the lack of surplus of labor here.
 While there is big demand for mine labor from the Occur d'Alene district of Idaho that cannot be sup piled, MT. Hunter said this is due to the low wages being offered. When common labor receives $4 day for outside work, men will not work in the mines for s4.25 day, he said. He predicted that wages in this district will be advanced shortly to $5.25 g day for miners, and said that then the men who have been. working on roads or at other employment will return to the mines, and the demand will be satisfied.
 Another instance of labor waiting for the sort 1t wants is offered in the case of contemplated road construc- tion work, MT. Hunter said. An i'm mense amount of road construction will be done this summer by the coun- ty, state and federal governments, he predicted, and said there are 500 to 700 men now in this city, waiting for this work to open to get the sort of employment they desire
 Aside from the big program of road building, there is little construction work in sight, the employment super intendent said. Few buildings are going up and reclamation projects are still in so preliminary a state that they afford little prospect of offering employment soon, he declared.
 Would whoever borrowed Louis Hile's wagon from in front of the