Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-11-23
NATIONAL LABOR
, AGENCY IS URGED
Cooperative System Sug-
gested to Replace U. S. EN-
:, pIoyment Service.

Establishment of a nationwi de
system OF public employment offices,
in which the Federal, State and local
Government would cooperate. to be
administered by a board made up of
the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary
of Commerce and the Secretary OF
Agriculture. with the assistance of a
National advisory council and local
committees representing employers
and employees. is recommended in "A
report on public employment offices,
made public by the Russell Sage
Foundation.
Such service, the report said, would
take the place of the present United
States Employment Service, whose
administration has been marked, re-
cardless of whether the criticism is
justified. as partisan agency in the
minds of employers. because of its
association exclusively with the De-
partment of Labor
Control of the United States EN-
ploymant Service by the Department
of Labor" the report declares, has
given rise to a storm of protest from
employers generally. The charge is
that the department is organically
partisan Whether the service has or
has not been administered impartial
ly is beside the point Its associa
ton with the Department of Labor
and through the Secretary of the De-
partment with organized labor, has
been enough to mark it in the minds
of employers partisan agency.
This in itself is sufficient to render
its effective development in that de-
partment in the immediate future
well nigh impossible"
Praise for Service.
After discussing the numerous
criticisms directed against the exist
ing United States Employment Serv-
ice, the report says: ANY Judgment
OF the performance of this service
must take into consideration the fact
that it was first and foremost ii war
emergency organization, projected at
the eleventh hour and shot up in
reckless speed. Notwithstanding the
gigantic handicaps which the service
encountered, it has not been without
it's positive contributions. In the
first place, it has given to the people
of the country an insight into the
possibilities, not only of local en-
ployment offices. but also of a nation
wide service.
Outstanding conclusions reached in
the report follow:
employers arc either Indifferent
or suspicious of private employment
agencies class, while workers
both organized and unorganized-are
definitely hostile. Most of tn. en-
ployers interviewed regarded private
agencies as a last resort for getting
workmep.
"Organized labor has long been OPP
posed to the private employment bu-
reaus, charging that they are used
as strike-breaking agencies. that
they favor the employer, and that
their sole purpose is to exploit the
worker
Southern States, in an effort to re-
strict tho emigration of negro labor
to the North, are, through legislation
and license fees making it increas-
ingly difficult, and in some States i'm
possible, for private agencies to send
workers out of the state.
Some of the employment bureaus
operated by employers associations,
boards of trade and similar organi-
cations are being operated chiefly, if
not exclusively, in the interests of
employers who desire to control the
means through which contracts be-
tween the worker and the job are
made. and who feel that these bu-
reaus foster their interests in other
important related matters.
Some trade unions have similarly
set up bureaus which seek to keep
members of the union employed, and
which may be of service in placing
men in plants where they can help
the cause of unionism.
Newspaper Ads Used.
The use of newspaper want adver-
tiSement columns as means of Sc
curing employees has become prac-
tically universal, but the advantages
OF this method are almost wholly on
the side of the employer.
"Puh1jr Seotjy,1ent 70 70
public employment service has been
increasing for 90 years or more, the
two most important reasons for this
sentiment being the belief that an
efficient public employment service
Will tend to eliminate the abuses of
private fee-charging agencies, and
that 1T will reduce the evil of unem-
pigment.
1Fhere are in the United States
from two to three million migratory
workers. mostly unskilled, and fire.
au4ntly shifting from one type of
werk to another. These men, COM
prising the labor reserves of the
lumber, railroad. construction and
agricultural industries. present a spe-
cial and difficult. problem. Private
fee-charging employment agencies
have found in the migratory worker
an easy prey for exploitation. A
more Intelligent distribution of mi
gratory workers, according to the
needs at different times of the vari-
Gus sections of the country or of the
industries, such as could be effected
by an efficiefit National public en-
ployment Service, would be of great
benefit to this large group of work.
ers, to industry, to the Nation. gen.
orally and to the particular COM
munities in which migratory work.
ers congregatc in large numbers