The Denver Jewish news., 1924-05-22
The Jew Seeking a Job
in New York City
Only Solution in Hands of Jewish
Employers, Says Employment En-
pert.
BY SIDNEY ID. KRUGER

Twenty-seven years of untiring effort
business career and stamp out the OBJ
e Slucles in his path have convinced
| NOmcr Gray, Director of Placements of
/ the High School of Commerce Of New
York City that his is an almost i'm
possible task. Instead of watching the
. employers become more favorable to
. the Jewish technically trained lad, he
finds that the situation is gradually be-
coming worse, and unless the Jewish
employers come to their aid, Mr.. Gray
secs no relief in the situation.
NOmer Gray, although himself n nom
jew, has spent the best years of his
life training young Jewish boys of the
East Side to become good American
citizens. For seventeen years he was
an instructor in Public School 62, now
the jacob Schiff ii. s., and had charge
of placing the hundreds of graduates
of that school in their first position.
His work for the most part has been
with that type to which the Ameri-
can employer offers his greatest objec-
tion. Mr.. Gray also served as Secretary
of the National Conservation Associa-
tion and has lived to see commissions
established in in the majority of the
states and regulations passed in prac-
tically every state in the Union. He
was the author of the Tenants Rights
I Va ON in rity- nd hns
favorable legislation passed at Albany
in behalf of the tenant. He has par
taken in n score of other civic enter
priscS and has seen them carried to a
succcssful end He admits, however,
that his present job, that of putting the
Technically trained Jewish lad on an
equal footing with his non-Jewish COM
petitor, is being fought against almost
|hopeless odds, and sees little in way
of hope in the future.
The High School of Commerce grad
uatcd in January, 300 technically train
rd young men who qualified as office
assistants, stenographers, bookkeepers,
junior accountants, commercial de-
SignerS and statesmen. OF this num-
bcr, about % entered higher schools
of learning Immediately This left Mr..
cray with about 275 pupils who wished
o hc placed in positions which promise
h future in the commercial world.
llighty per cent of this graduating class
were Jews. Mr.. Gray knew that he
would have no trouble placing the twen-
Y per cent Christians. He, however,
lad man-sizcd job in finding suit
ble employment for about DO ambiti-
DuS Jewish lads ranging in age from
IL to 20. About $50 members of the
lass We're qualified to accept positions
Is junior accountants. Many are still
10king for positions with accounting
irmS where they can work under cer-
flied public accountants for about two
Years and continue their studies at
night. At the end of this time, they
will be prepared to take the eNamina-
ions TO qualify as senior accountants.
kIr. Gray sent out n letter to every
Iccounting firm Of Importance in New
placement brought single response.
4 letter appealing to the High School
If Commerce Alumni, who number
bout 5000 strong. was printed in the
Alumni Spirit" Mr.. Gray asked for
he cooperation of the Alumni in his
.rcat work seeking to get a list of the
irmS who employed graduates of the
school. Information sought of the
lumni was The firm that employed
hem. nature of business, and oppor>
unity offered This letter which
cached thousands of young men, al
ready started on Il successful business
Hrcer, did not bring one reply. That
the kind of cooperation that Mr..
ray is getting in his work.
Il have reached the end of the rope
n an effort to solve the problem" said
Nir. Gray. Il have gone TO the biggest
ncn in the country but they admit that
he problem is beyond them Louis
MARSHALL. the one man who could exert
IN influence if anyone could conferred
With me recently on the situation. When
asked him for IL possible remedy.
ic said, IFS too big for me- l wish
on could give me the solution After
he signing of the armistice. thousands
# soldiers returning from France were
quest of employment. They carried
with them the patriotic appeal to the
mploycr, about the most forceful ap-
zeal l know of. These men who had
ought on the battletclds of France,
Omc of whom were wounded, came
puck to this country seeking work from
he men for whom they had riSked their
ives. Even with such an appeal, thou
.nnlS of .InMiSh Nounm mon wont