The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1919-01-07
PLANNING FOR WORKERS

Tn a statement received by the
local office of the State Federal
Employment service, Secretary
of Labor Wilson discusses the
matter of providing employment
for workers during the postwar
period, making the suggestion
that public improvements may
appropriately be undertaken as
one part of the program. The
secretary says in part:
81 am of the opinion that
from the time we restore our
selves to our normal postwar
activities the demand for peace
time production will be so great
that there will not be the re-
motest possibility Of securing
any reduction in the wage rates
from their present basis. ! feel
further, that the manufactures
who fails to take into considera-
ton the prospects Of the future
and who, in hope OF securing
cheaper labor or cheaper raw
material, does not build up his
organization and maintain it
during the possibly brief period
of readjustment, will be handi-
capped in securing his share of
the business afterwards; because
he will be handicapped through
lack Of working forces in his
factory.
''It therefore seems to me that
the situation resolves itself into
taking care Of the possible prob
lem in the interim between our
ceasing war activities and the
time when we have assumed our
natural postwar activities.
"With the attitude Of mind
that | have expressed as exist
ing on the part of some manu-
facturers relative to waiting for
a lowering in the prices of raw
material and the price of labor,
it may be that the restoration OF
industry will take place as rap
idly as the rehabilitation takes
place. We are not sure Of that.
There ought to be provision
made for reservoir that would
absorb the demobilized workers
and the demebilized soldiers, not
in doing the things which there
is no need to have done, but in
doing the things that ought to
be done-that are valuable for
peace-time purposes-a reservoir
that will take care Of them for
the brief period between their
dismissal from the army or the
dismissal from the war indus
tries until they can be reab-
sorbed into the natural postwar
industrial activities.
"The department of agricuI-
ture is taking steps to accom-
plish part of that purpose in the
matter of road improvement,
highway improvements, on the
theory congress has acted on in
the past, that for military pur-
poses and for postal routes,
ROADS are necessary all over the
country. Where men are en-
ployed in road-building, they do
not have to be taken from their
own home communities to en-
gage in the work. The depart
ment Of agriculture, therefore,
has asked or is about to ask for
an increased appropriation
which will enable it, in cooper
alton with the respective states,
to engage in a nationwide pro-
ject of road-building that will
absorb, if need be, some of these
workers temporarily until indus
try resumes its natural course.
During the period of the
war, by virtue of the shortage
of workmen, there has been little
or no municipal activity in
building operations, in park ex-
tensions, in sewage extension,
water-works; or any other of the
public utilities. They have been
delayed and postponed because
of the shortage of man-power
and because of the inability to
finance. We are suggesting, |
through the department of la
Dor, 20 the various municipali-
ties throughout the country, the
advisability of their resuming