Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-10-29
Millions Out of
Jobs All the Time
Sage Foundation Completes
Five-Year Survey.

New Notwithstanding good and
bad years, 10 to Il per cent of all
the workers in the United States, sew
eral millions of men and women, are
out of work all the time, and wide
spread unemployment is now a con-
slant phenomenon with far-reaching
economic, social, psychological and
moral bearings. These are some of
the facts brought out in the introduce
ton to the report of five-year study
of employment methods, needs and
agencies made public here by the Rus
sell Sage foundation.
In seeking work through certain
types of commercial or fee-charg-
ing employment bureaus, particularly
those dealing with unskilled and cas-
ual labor, thousands of men and wom-
en- are being exploited, and public en-
ployment bureaus or exchanges can
make material contribution toward
the solution of this and other phases
of the ever-recurring problem of I'M
employment, the report continues.
1t is made clear in the report that
the figures on unemployment, while
representing the average of the coun-
try's experience during the last two
decades, are not necessarily indicative
Of present conditions or of the last
year.
Completed Report Voluminous.
The investigation, which extended
into more than seventy cities in thir-
ty-one states and Canada, has just
been completed. The full report, COW
ering more than 600 printed pages,
will be issued shortly. The survey
was conducted by staff of trained
field investigators, all of whom had
previously been engaged in employ
ment work, under the direction of
Shelby NJ. Harrison, director of the
foundations department of surveys
and exhibits.
Practically every known means for
bringing work and the worker tOgeth-
err was studied. The want ad" pages
of newspapers, the fee-charging labor
agencies, the free public employment
office, the labor unions method of Sc
curing work for its members, the fra
ternal orders activities in this field,
the practice of applying for work at
the factory gate or the office door all
were investigated. The report points
out the advantages and disadvantages
to employer and employee in each of
these means and its effect on the gen
eral employment situation.
iul
situation in Ohio, Wisconsin, Massa-
chusetts and New York, where there
has been the greatest development Of
organized public employment work.
Separate studies were made also Of
the special problems of farm labor
migratory and casual workers, junior
workers, handicapped workers, immi-
grants negro workers and profession
al workers.
Workers Resent Insecurity.
After citing the fact that each year
from 100000 to 100000 persons are
out Of work for weeks and sometimes
for months at a time the Introduction
to the foundations forthcoming report
says:
There is something which we are
Just beginning to recognize, a resent
ment on the part of the workers
against an industrial situation in
which such insecurity and uncertainty
of employment are possible 1t is not
only unemployment but the fear of I'M
employment, the knowledge that any
Job is uncertain and insecure, subject
to the fluctuations of economic change
which are responsible for much of our
present industrial unrest"
This situation, the report says, has
been aggravated by the fact that the
unskilled worker who has sought en-
ployment through certain types of la
Dor agencies in many cases has been