The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-19

\ #543# Wkiles mucn caH pe sand justly in favor \ of the open immigra- \ ton door. as being ' the historic Ameri-
 FeasIs can policy there is
 another side of this big question. \ Some illuminating facts are given by
 James G. Davis, Secretary of Labor, in
 letter discussing this problem.
 He question whether admission of "a
 million or two more workers would en-
 able us to utilize all of the so-called
 surplus plant equipment developed dur ing the war;" and whether 'the addi-
 tion of that many workers would auto-
 matieally solve the problem of the wheat farmers ssaiss,i Some industries, declares. Secretary | Davis, were so over-deyeioped during | the war that nothing can be done to ! warrant their full time operation in | peace time production, since such pro- | either at home or, Ut present, abroad. The bitumin0us coal industry is both over-developed and over-manned. They
 are capable of producing over a billion
 tons of coal a year, which is about twice what we consume.
 | "t. would be better for the industry
 and better for the mine workers" de- clares Mir. Davis, Eff 2JO,OO0 of the
 coal mine workers could be distributed among other industries, thus giving the
 remaining 100000 work for 30S days
 in. the year."
 We can produce in seven months all | the iron and steel needed for year, and if all the plants were made as eff cient as our best plants onr iron and \ steel requirements could be produced \ with one third the men now employed, Mir. Davis emphasizes. Think of this: In the best furnaces it costs one hour and twelve minutes of I one mans time to produce ton of pig iron, and yet we have furnaces which require Il hours of one mans time to | get the same result.
 Why not solve the problem of any all leged labor shortage by making over the other pig iron plants so that they will not require five or six times the number
 of men necessary?
 In the window glass industry the hand blowing factories in 17 weeks out of the year can produce all the window E glass that can be sold, but if the ma
 chine window glass plants were to de- eide to ogoperate at fuli capacity so per ! cent of the time there would be no hand 1 blown window glass factories.
 In boots and shoes we have capacity of 75S, 100000 pairs, to produce a saleable product of 325 5,O00,O00. If all shoe factories would do what Endicott- \ Johnson is doing and get out 2 pairs E of shoes per enploye per day, 25- per \ cent of the men now employed in the \ industry could produce all the footwear we need. : t ta-. % In the distribution of food and food K products there is one wholesaler to four manufacturers, one wholesaler to each 55 retailers and one retailer to each 70 families of 316 persons In Chi 'cago we have brick making machine which produced 49,O0O bricks Der hour and is attended by one man. If the industry were equipped, with such machines 5000 men would be able to do the work now done by the B, 900 men in the industry provided of course that equally efficient machinery could be applied to the handling of the ma terial. =+s. '' II In one of our southern ports we have a shiploading conveyor and a \ spiral chute. The material handled is erated oil cans. Four. men do what 100 men Al before laborously accom- plished. Formerly in loading flour into cars \ in the great mills of the northwest | nlr nlr. -s,f. | on truck until they got load that
 would break mans back, and then they pushed the truck on blanks wheel ! ing it through the middle doors of one car and then on continuous blanks to
 car on another track so that. different
 sets of men were loading cars on two \ tracks at the same time, rushing with | loaded trucks and back with empties with an industrial accident rate that was perfectly astounding.
 Today with conveyOrs in the better \ plants, these sacks of flour are taken | from the mill, carried any distance and shot from different levels into cars \ six tracks away and in that way load | ing six cars instead of two in 40 per cent of the time that was required to load the two. When you have only 15 men employed instead of 100 you have less than one-fOurth the number of industrial accidents and you have re- duced the labor cost of loading flour, at least per sack, to practically nothing.
 The Taylor plant at Bridgeport, Conn.,, now handles hot iron canldrons by mechanical conveyor and shifting system with one man where they for
 merly had p. Accidents have been reduced 75 per cent.
 The automatic stacker or piler,
 which is practically travelling ladder
 on wheels, with jack lift, is rapidly making unnecessary the cIaSs of labor
 that only immigrant or the negro would perform.
 Mir. Davis quoOtes statement that
 fin order for the system to function
 at the peak of efficiency, capital and labor must balance.,, and he adds: That is what labor wants no more
 and no less. This was the end aimed at in the recommendation of the secre- tary of labor to Congress for immigra- tion legislation. It is the end which Senator Watson is endeavoring to nc-
 comnlish in securing the passage of Senate bill S2S65. Copyright 1924 by E. c. Forbes.
 CONFIRM WILBUR