THE EXPERIENCE OF THE NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT

EXCHANGE

EDWARD W. CARPENTER

Manager, National Employment Exchange, New York City.

The unemployment problem, to be treated properly, must be divided according to classes. Existing conditions pertaining to some occupations may not be the same with respect to others. I shall speak only of the various classes which have come directly under my observation as manager of the National Employment Exchange since its opening in May, 1909, taking up first the class of office helpmen and women.

There is a great over-supply of people in New York City seeking office work. A goodly portion of this over-supply is caused by this class coming to New York City from other parts of the United States with a view to bettering themselves, but lured on also by the attractions of the city. This surplus is the main cause of the extremely low salaries paid to most of the clerks-salaries so low that it is inconceivable how they get along.

A large number of those seeking clerical work are not fitted for it, with the result that if they do secure a position they are unable to hold it, and would have been much better off had they learned a trade. This is especially true of the boy who does not remain at school long enough to get sufficient education to fit him for clerical work. What is the result? He is obliged to enter occupations in which his chances for advancement are poor. Children should be given a more practical education or manual training along lines that would be of direct benefit to them in earning a good living. There are thousands of widowed mothers working day and night to support their children until the law permits them to leave school, and looking forward to the time when the older ones can help to support the family with the little three or four dollars they are able to earn per week. What a relief these children would soon be had they been taught a trade, thereby enabling them to earn fair wages! If every state would pass a law making manual training compul

sory in the public schools, much of the handicap that now exists could, no doubt, be avoided.

With reference to manual labor, one of the reasons for some men being out of work for longer periods than industrial conditions warrant is the lack of a proper medium for bringing employers and employes together. A central place of information is needed, such as they have in Berlin and London. The National Employment Exchange has been trying to establish such a place, but it takes time. and we have a great deal of competition. For the year ending September 30th, 1911, we recorded requests for 3890 men at our manual labor branch. We were obliged to decline a number of orders during the summer months, knowing we could not fill them, and some were declined on account of the small wages offered. We placed during the year 2398 men and gave many more an opportunity to obtain work, but they either did not accept the work or the employers did not accept them.

New York is full of naturally idle, irresponsible men, who will not work unless driven to it, and then only for a very short time, either leaving voluntarily, or being discharged for incompetency or worthlessness. Such men are a detriment to the honest workingman. They will often ship out with a gang for work in another state with no intention of going to work, merely to see the country. The result is that employers are loath to advance railroad fares. It is safe to say that there are employers throughout the country who are in need of help today, but who do not want to take the chance. of advancing fares and not securing men who are sincere in wanting work. We find it is not an easy matter to secure men for given trades, which would indicate that those who have trades keep employed when there is work for them. Nor are good, reliable men always available for porter work, or for any other occupation for which no particular skill is required. The demand for farm hands exceeds by far the supply during the season. We have never been able to meet the demand made upon us for common laborers during the summer months. Still the parks are filled with the unemployable-a class consisting of men unfit for work and of those who will not work. We have on several occasions sent representatives through the parks explaining to the men there what we had to offer, but we have never met with much success in inducing them to go to work.

Each year we read of the hundreds of foreigners returning to

their native countries with their savings of five hundred to a thousand dollars to buy farm land. The park loafers have the same opportunity to save money. If there were more men given to farm lives here, it would help to lessen the number of unemployed and to increase wages.

Although the unemployment problem may never be solved, I believe present conditions could be improved upon. There will always be some who will lead lives of idleness in spite of all that can be done, but the number may be reduced. When a man gets a taste of a life of idleness, and finds that he can exist on what he obtains by begging, or receives at the hands of charity, or earns by working a day or two now and then, it is hard to break him of that habit. His state of mind soon becomes torpid; he loses all ambition and cares little what he does or what becomes of him. Feeding him and giving him a place to sleep occasionally are not what he needs; nor are you going to break him of the habit by sending him to prison, where he will be stamped as a criminal and blacklisted, where he will be with crooks and have his mind further poisoned with their experiences. What is needed is a preventive, a strictly enforced vagrancy law in each state,—to keep him, if possible, from becoming a vagrant. We are all creatures of habit; do not let him get out of the habit of working. As has already been suggested, provide a large farm where a man can be sent,-whether he is unable to find work, or is unwilling to work,-a place he can leave when he is ready to accept work, and that will not reflect on him and be a detriment to his chances of securing employment. This farm should not be made attractive to the men so that they would not care to leave it. They should be made to work longer hours than men in commercial enterprises, so that they will prefer to work outside of the farm. The expense of conducting such a place could be partially offset by supplying the various state institutions, such as hospitals, prisons, and asylums, with provisions produced on it. Many of the men, after learning farm work, could obtain employment with farmers, who are constantly in need of help during the season, and who have acres of untilled land because of the lack of sufficient help. On this farm a factory could also be maintained where some of the articles used in the public institutions could be made. These factories would provide work for many men during the winter months.

The unemployment problem is becoming more serious each year; the steady increase of population alone adds to it. Any action taken now may not be of great benefit at the present time, but will, no doubt, be of benefit in the future. The problem is fast becoming a great issue in this country, and, if action is not taken soon by passing a law to better the situation, it will be a grave problem to handle in later years. As the number of vagrants increases each year, they will find it harder to live, and more will resort to begging, stealing, and robbery. We have many criminals now and, if vagrancy is permitted to continue, we will have more.

In conclusion, it seems to me the great need to-day is to impress on the minds of the state legislators the importance of the unemployment question and to urge them to some action. Few legislators have had the necessary experience to enable them to draw up a feasible plan to better the situation, and therefore, because of the lack of a definite plan, it is not likely they will voluntarily take any action. If a committee were appointed, composed of people familiar with the problem in its various phases, which would draw up such a plan and present it to the legislatures of the states, the chances for action would be much better.

RECENT ADVANCES IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST

UNEMPLOYMENT1

CHARLES R. HENDERSON.

Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago.

THE MEASUREMENT OF PROGRESS

Progress in the struggle against unemployment must be tested and measured in three directions: statistics, preventive measures, and insurance.

I. Statistics: We have need of more adequate and uniform statistics of the facts of unemployment, (1) to correct our national beliefs about the evils and dangers of unemployment-to arouse the nation, and even wage-earners themselves, to the evils and miseries of unemployment; (2) to map, locate and measure the phenomena according to seasons, cycles, trades, and localities; (3) to present the uniform conditions under which wage-earning is suspended, so as to isolate the causes and measure their relative importance; (4) ultimately to give us the relative risks in the several trades, with averages of very large numbers, through considerable time, and over wide areas, as the basis for actuarial calculations of the cost of insurance.

But we cannot wait for complete statistics before we introduce ameliorative methods. It is in connection with the employment bureaus and insurance funds that the most useful statistics will be furnished. Workingmen, philanthropists and public officials are not interested in keeping records and making costly returns simply to bury figures in a dusty library; they must be able to see the value of their tables in relation to their tasks, or to some immediately useful social end.

II. Preventive Measures: (1) The point of starting ameliorative effort is the employment agency or "labor exchange". The function of the employment bureau is to bring together those who offer a supply of labor and those whose idle capital seeks human

'This is merely an outline of Professor Henderson's interesting and valuable speech upon this subject.