The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
washington, ID. G.
UNEMPLOYMENT.
Washington, D. G.

Out cam I1n0 a JOD, Is with US again.
Unemployment is in evidence almost
everywhere in the United States. ac-
cording to reports reaching the United
States Employment Service. In some
| little factory towns it means only a
few hundred men Nout of work. In
New York it means 100000 men out
of work in a single industry So far
| it has not meant bread lines nor other
symptoms of acute distress. And no
one can tell how bad it is going to be.
That depends upon how quickly and
easily the price-readjustment is made
| or rather, makes itself.
But the man out of a job is a sig
nificant figure. He is the hardest of
all radicals to answer. You may say
| institutions talks bosh, but the man
who wants to work and knows how to
work and cannot find the chance,
surely has a real case against society.
He is the man of all men who will
listen when someone tries to tell him
that the nation is organized on the
wrong principle and ought to be made
over There is no use asking him to
be content, when his stomach is empty
and the door to his job is closed.
To prevent unemployment is worth
more as a step toward suppressing
radicalism than any amount of red
batting and anarchist-exporting. Yet
unemployment hits us periodically and
we have never yet made any intelli-
gent effort to take care of it.
The Employment Service
The nearest sthing to an effort in
| that line was the creation of the U. S.
Employment Service during the war as
part of the labor department. 1t
was not provided to take care of un-
| pl0yment, but rather to help in over
coming a labor shortage. Neverthe-
| less, it was an organization for study
ing labor conditions, and its machipery
could be used against unemployment
as well as against shortage.
At present this government bureau
| is just barely alive. During 1919 it re-
ceived appropriations of $500, 900.
| For 1920 and 1921 congress has given
it 100000 and $225,O00 respectively.
In other words, it has received just
| enough to keep it in existence with a
skeleton organization. Even that ex-
| iStence is dependent upon further leg
islation. The Nolan bill, which has
been reported favorably by the house
committee on labor, would make it a
! permanent bureau. Unless this bill is
passed it will presumably go out of
| existence.
How would the employment service
| go about preventing unemployment, if
| it were made a permanent bureau
The most direct and effective way
| would be for it to open employment
offices in every industrial city of the
| country, with it's Washington office
acting as d clearing house. BY such
a system, it could bring the man and
! the job together. and reduce unem-
ployment to a minimum. If a thou
sand. men were thrown out Of jobs by
| the closing of a factory in Massa5
| chusetts at the same time that thDd-
/ sand were needed for a state road
building project in Pennsylvania, the
employment service would know it,
and move the men where they were
needed.
This would not solve the problem,
of course. 1t would not create jobs.
| But it would give the man out of a
| job recourse, a hope. 1t would make
the size and nature of the problem
| evident. 1t would be an immense adj
mixed with futile philanthropy with
which we have always met the unem-
ployment problem before.
This national employment system,
as it was operated during the war,
collides with our political ideals. = 1t
is regarded in many quarters as a vio-
lation of states rights, and an extern
sion of the evil of paternalism. There
| is no present prospect of re- establish
| ing such system. Sentiment, as the
saying is, goes against it.
State and Federal Cooperation.
But a very similar system can be
established by cooperation between
the federal government and the state
| governments. 1t is such system that
| is contemplated by the Nolan bill, and
which the present officials of the en-
ployment service hope to establish.
| Thirty-three states already have en-
ployment services, with offices in
about 200 cities. If some federal aid
were offered, it Is probable that the
rest of the states would establish en-
| ployment services, and that all of the
principal industrial centers would be
served. In return for a small federal
| appropriation, these state services
would be bound to furnish the employ
ment service in Washington with all
available information concerning labor
conditions, and they wouldAalso per-
| haps, be compelled to maintain GER
tain standards of efficiency in order to
| get this federal aid. In this way q sys-
tenn similar to the federal system. with
| washington acting as a clearing house
would be established without violat-
| ing states rights or extending very
much the authority of the federal
government.
A Labor Survey.
The United States employment serv.
ice, while waiting to see what the new
| congress is going to do to it, is pre-
pairing to make a survey of the labor
situation Such a survey is made once
a month now by the bureau of labor
statistics, but the employment servict
| contemplates a much more intensive
and extensive effort. The country will
be divided into nine geographical divi-
sionS, and agents will be established
| in the principal Industrial cities Of each
These will make bi-monthly reports
showing the exact conditions of tht
labor market in all of the fundamental
industries in all parts of the United
States This information will make
clear to employers, to labor leaders, tc
congress. the exact conditions at al
times. It will supply the facts. which
is certainly the first step toward solv-
ing any problem. The Chamber OF
Commerce of the United States is un-
! derstood to have endorsed this pro
ceeding. Manufacturers are beginning
to realize that the man out of q jol