The Irish standard., 1919-05-10
K. OF c. Make
SCIENCE OF JoB-FlnbIne
War-Wark Organization Has What ls
Probably Most Perfect Machinery
for Battling Unemployment Of
Ex-Service Men.
(sy John q. kennedy3

rAuuAu6 d JOO mas always been, from
time immemorial, harder task than
keeping job when found. 1t seems
to have remained for the knights of
Columbus to elevate job-f1nding from
a more or less haphazard art to an
exact science. This has been done
by hard work, careful study and the
whipping into shape of nationwide
organization with all the necessary
machinery for intensive and extensive
search for employment and registra-
tion and analysis of applicants.
AS soon as the armistice was signed
the Knights of Columbus opened up
their job-fnding activities, for thou
sands Of young men lined up for the
new drafts and quit their jobs for
camp, only to be turned back into
civilian life. The Knights helped them
back to the jobs wherever help was
sought.
When it was definitely known that
homeward movement of the A. E. F.
would start promptly and be contin.
ued vigorously, the more urgent ne.
cessity Of finding employment for
these fighting men who have been re-
moved for many months from the
American labor market, impressed it.
self upon the Knights. Cooperating
closely with the United States En-
ployment Service, the knights devised
plan for aiding in the search and
ALLEGATION Of jobs for returned soldiers
and sailors-first attention being CIV
en- to overseas veterans because they
had been least able to help them.
selves in the matter of employment.
The Knights initial system was,
briefly, this: They issued cards
marked with spaces to contain all in
formation in tabloid form regarding
the soldier or sailor applicant for the
job. He was asked what kind of work
he wanted and where he wanted it,
and the K.-C. worker assisting the man
to fill out the card was given the
white back of the card for whatever
comment he might have to make re-
garding the applicant, for the infor.
nation of prospective employers.
The Knights distributed these cards
in parcels to their various camp build
ings and to their overseas secretaries,
who, in turn, distributed them to the
soldiers who required employment on
their return to civil life. The cards
were filled in and returned to New
Haven X. of G. national and interna-
tional headquarters. In New Haven
the cards were copied; the originals
filed and the copies forwarded to the
Knights Of Columbus Councils in To-
calities where the men desired employ
ment. These Councils had canvassers
who explored the local field for jobs
and their explorations were energetic
enough to secure, within two weeks,
jobs for twothirds of the applicants.
This was an efficient and effectual
system. But when unemployment
among service men seemed to be on
the increase, the Knights sat aroud
the council table and decided upon a
scientific intensification of their en-
ployment work.
They engaged Peter w. Collins of
Chelsea, Mass, to install the scien-
tific system. Collins is one of the
best known industrial experts in the
country. For years he was a labor
leader, and for other years he was
employed by the Knights of Columbus
in their lecture campaign against ex-
treme radicalism and militant social
ism in this country.
When the war came Collins offered
his services to the United States Gov.
eminent and was engaged as an in
dustrfal expert, his job being to visit
large munitions and shipbuilding
plants and devise ways and means for
the stimulation of production. His
record was remarkable, as he COM
bined diplomacy with aggressiveness
and could bring both employers and
employees to pull together as unit in
making their mills and factories and
yards to double and triple and quad
ruple the work done in times of peace.
The war ending, Collins accepted
the K. Of G. offer to participate in their
reconstruction work. He made a sur.
vey Of the entire labor situation in the
country and came to this conclusion: !:
There is no better machinery in
America for the work of job-fndine
than that which the Knights Of Co.
lumbus had established before they
wet into the work." he says. with
over eighteen hundred local units,
known a. subordinate councils, with
state jurisdictions in each state ia
coalesce these local units, with what
are known % chapters in each Kreaf