The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-12-12
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKN, Director,
washington, d. @.
IDA TARBELL ON UNEAIPLOY-
AFENT

bell. delegate to the conference. the
( other day.
Thirteen regional directors are at
1 work in different sections of the
| country" Miss Tarbell explained,
| showing communities how to- meet
I their problem of jobless men. The
/ committee has to report to Mr.. Hoover
| regularly. So you see we are not
| dead organization.
when we came to Washington and
did not at once arrange to put all the
unemployed to work, we were accused
! of passing the buck. But what could
1 sixty-odd persons do to feed 100000?
! We sent out word that it IS the BUSH
| ness of every community to study its
I local conditions and do something and
| that we would help them. That is
what we are still doing
! States and cities -.are still being
| urged to speed up construction and
I repair work. 1t is estimated that
/ 100000 men could be at work ION
! the building program that is needed
! by the country because of the housinA
| shortage. Construction is held back
! because perhaps materials will be
| cheaper later
The conference holds that it is bet
| ter economy to have work done now.
( whether building costs go up or down
/ and put men to work., than to leave
! their families destitute thru unem-
ployment, and have to provide charity
| for them.
Road building, sewer work, cleaning
up of factories and homes are giving
men work in communities that are CO.
| operating with the conference dele
| gates. Even the small matter of pay
| ing a jobless man to rake the lawn
or paint the front porch is regarded
now as an importaS1t contribution
which the individual can make toward
/ relieving the want of the unemployed.
There is much suffering and unem-
plOyment is still acute according to
Miss Tarbell. Some men have been
out of work, except for pickup jobs,
! for a year, and many have been I'M
able to find even temporary work all
| summer.
People do not realize that wide
| spread unemployment is a disease of
! Tarbel explained. I'VE have ad-
vanced beyond the stage where we re-
! gard an epidemic of typhoid as fate
| and take no steps to safeguard our
! selves against disease. But we allow
| 100000 men to go tebless without
seeing that this is as great catastro
/ phe as an epidemic. People still think
| that perhaps it is inevitable that
periods of depression and want must
come
Local Problems.
The conference left the usual emer-
!
| houses, and charity funds-to local
unemployment committees. 1t tried,
and is still trying, to get at the funda
| mental defects in the industrial sys-
tenn which bring about business cycles
/ and make unemployment ON a large
scale inevitable.
1t recommended among other
things, lower freight rates, reduction
| of ornaments, a fair tariff, and less
! difference between the cost of food
production and the price paid by the
| consumer. Along these lines it could
! only suggest, as-the power to act lies
| with congress and other branches Of
| government. Some of the suggestions
made to congress, for bodybuilding
| appropriations and money for recla-
| nation projects, have been adopted.
| 1t was said that 100000 workers could
| be employed in state highway con-
struction by means of the funds re-
| leased by congress.
Miss Tarben says that unemploy-
ment could be considerably reduced
! if industry would esta bliSh a more
efficient system of hiring and firing.
| The short-sighted system by which
| a factory owner has a thousand men
working for him in a time of pros
perity, and at the first sign of a drop
fires several hundred of them without
warning, is too costly to everybody
! concerned. Workmen: store up re-
sentiment and become aggressive. The
employer complains that labor is so
unstable that he cannot count on it
when he really needs it. And stabil-
ity is necessary if there is to be any
sound progress in industry.
Miss Tarbell believes that employ
ers are beginning to find that they
must adopt more scientific methods
of dealing with employees.
81 remember one factory she said,
IL,
Saturday that they would not be need
| ed Monday. They had refused to
| think that a slump was coming, and
the despair they showed was terrible.
They had no warning, but they had
no redress.
"An intelligent handling OF similar
situation occurred in a big Chicago
plant. The employees and officials
| here realize that in a few months they
would have to shut down. The com
| pany is organized on what IS known as
| the shop representation plan They
said, we want the whole body of work
! ing people to know that things are
| slowing up and to consider what can
be done if the factory has to close.
When man goes out we will not hire
a new one Then they advised the
| men to get other work if they could.
The factory soon began to work
| only four days a week, then three,
| then two, and finally they closed
down Tor month. But the spirit OF
the men was different from that
shown in plants where summary dis
missals were made. They had had
time to plan and save
! Employment Management.
Getting the individual employer to
use scientific methods of handling his
employees is largely a matter of eduea-
ton, and can only be accomplished
gradually, it is realized
/ The most practical scheme which
| the conference has urged upon the
country for quick results is 10 estab-
/ lish organizations in the states ana
| cities to study the local labor condi-
tons. Some of these organizations
have established public employment
bureaus. Jobless men are registered
| and connected with such work as the
city and employees of labor can find
| for them.
/ About half of the states have en-