Evening star., 1939-06-13
brandeis Proposed
Employment Spread
Is Years Ago
Lincoln FiIene Has
Original Of Four-Point
Memorandum on Subject
D the Associated Press.

- the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. June ia number
Of the best minds in private industry
today again are tussling with the
problem of irregular employment of
workers, which many observers con-
slider the greatest obstacle to orderly
distribution of goods and services.
The automobile industry has been
doubling efforts for employment
stabilization within its ranks. Cot
ton mill operators, building con-
struction companies and others with
operations tending to bulk in Ger
tain seasons of the year, have been
shifting schedules and trying to
make jobs steadier. But the battle
is not yet won. Some economists
are suggesting a guaranteed annual
wage for workers, rather than a
daily or hourly rate, to provide a
steady flow of income into the work.
ers pocketbook the year round.
The auto makers, in efforts to
iron out peaks and valleys in fac
tory employment, have been intro
ducing their new models earlier. to
spread car-assembly operations over
longer period and give regular
work to employees over a greater
number of months.
Memorandum From Brandeis.
While it is only since the depres-
sion that the fight against irregular
employment has been intensified,
Lincoln Filene, president and chair
man of the board of William Filene's
Sons & Co., Boston, says as long as
Is years ago thinking men were
aware of the problem and suggest
ing solutions Mr.. Filene, to be ex-
act. has in his desk a memorandum
on the subject drawn up in 1911 by
Louis D. Brandeis. then practicing
attorney and now a retired justice
Of the United States Supreme Court
Had we business men in general
paid heed to Mr.. Brandeis' simple
and fundamental analysis and given
thought to the remedy that he pro-
posed. I believe that the history of
unemployment compensation in this
country would have been quite diff
ferent,' Mr.. Filene says.
The Brandeis memorandum calls
1rregularity of employment "the
greatest of industrial wastes and
lone of the main causes of social
decentralization" Even in 1911, JUS
tice Brandies found through a study
of Mex York trade union reports
that average idleness for many
trades was about 20 per cent of the
year, with idle time in some lines
rising to nearly so per cent.
Prevents Prudent Expenditure.
THE loss to the employees from
this condition cannot be measured
merely by multiplying the average
wage by the number of idle days"
Justice Brandeis said. The real
value OF the aggregate years earn
ings coming from irregular work is
less than if it comes from regular
work, the irregularity preventing
prudent and reasonable expenditure
of money, and leading on the one
hand to extravaganza and on the
other hand to the high cost incident
to Indebtedness.
ITO the employer the irregularity
means an important loss not only
on account of the continuing over
head charges. but of Generalization
in the force incident to the irregu-
larity."
Made Four Proposals.
Justice Brandeis proposed the fol-
lowing method of avoiding the bad
economic consequences of irregular
work:
l. Determine what the average
number of days' employment is.
2. Provide for the payment by
the employer of wages at the exist
ing rate with the proviso that
certain part of this wage shall not
be paid to the employe, but shall
be deposited in trust company.
g. If the employer does not pro-
vide a larger number of days work
than the standard fixed, the whole
of the amount in the trust COM
pany, with the interest accumulated
during the year, is to be paid over
to the employe. If the employer
does provide a larger number of
days work. a certain portion of the
deposit, with the accumulated inter-
est, is to be paid to him, the bal
ance only going to the employe.
4. AS the terms of the deposit in
the trust company would be such
that if full employment were given
for each working day of the year
the employer would be entitled to
the whole deposit in the trust COM
pany, with accumulations of in