^m""'' i^m mw mm 11 mm !i ill ) I JfeuJ fork i^tate (folbge of JKgriCttUute At {Jnrnetl MniaBraitH ffiifanirg Cornell University Library HD 6270.R4 Junior wage earners; prepared especially 3 1924 013 853 027 p ^ Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013853027 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTOlt • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATXANTA ■ SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limitbd LONDON • BOMBAY ■ CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS PBEFARED ESPECIALLY FOR THE INFORMATION AND USE OF BUSINESS MEN. NORMAL SCHOOLS, TEACHERS' COLLEGES, PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS, AND EMPLOYEES OF THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE BY ANNA Y. REED, Ph.D. ASSISTED BT WILSON WOELPPER Wefa gotft THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1920 AU rigMt ruervtH COFTBIOHT, 1020, Bt the macmillan compakt. Set up asd electrotyped. Published October, 1930. Nsiteooli p»eis J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Masa., U.S.A. TO WILLIAM EDWIN HALL PBBSIDBNT BOYS' CLUB FIDEKATION TO WHOSE FORESIGHT AND INITIATIVE THE JUNIOR DIVISION OP THE UNITED STATES BUPLOTMENT SERVICE OWES ITS OBIOIN AND TO JOHN B. DENSMOKE DIREOTOB GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE TO WHOSE SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT IT OVTBS ITS OPPOR- TUNITY TO DEVELOP ALONG SCIENTIFIC AND PBOOBBSSrVE LINES AUTHOR'S PREFACE The purpose of this book is definite — to respond to an increasing demand for verified data on the status of voca- tional guidance and to indicate the aim, policy, and methods of the national organization which has been instituted to guide and assist local agencies in this phase of community service. The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service is a new governmental agency. It was instituted to aid in one of the most serious problems of reconstruction — the replacement in school or in industry of its young war workers. The call came suddenly. The country faced facts, not theories. There were probably less than a dozen persons in the United States who had given serious, concerted study to the junior problem — it had been an avocation for many, a vocation for few. From its very inception the Division has been called upon to furnish printed material indicating the status and the field of vocational guidance, the relation of placement to guidance,of educational guidance to vocational guidance, and of employment supervision to both coimseUng and education. There has been a constant demand that the aim of the Division be definitely defined and that methods by which its aim might be realized be suggested. Lack of printed matter has been a handicap to the development of the service, and the Division itself, after ascertaining that outside parties could not be secured for the task, has undertaken to supply this need. Sources of information are indicated in the context. No new investigation has been conducted for, this publica- vii Viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE tion. Material for a similar publication had been collected and the preparation of the manuscript was about to be undertaken when the call to national service was received. A year of experience with national administrative prob- lems, a year of close association with problems incidental to types of placements passing throtlgh adult employment offices, and a year of association with men who came from the business world in response to war demands has crys- taUized the problem, broadened my vision, confirmed or altered some of my earlier conclusions, and greatly in- creased my interest in the work and my belief that ulti- mately vocational guidance and placement will become a national function for all wage earners. _ Material for Part I is based upon personal observation supported by sufficient printed data to permit each reader to test for himself the accm^acy of its statements. Part II is, of a necessity, based almost entirely upon personal observations and experience, not personal observation and experience of the author alone but personal observation and experience of that small group of students with whom it has been my privilege to be associated and whom, although other interests claim their first attention, I am pleased to consider advisers and co-workers in this national service. The ultimate valve of the conclusions dravm from these facts depends upon their practicability when tested by many offices manned by students who can alter generalizations to meet specific conditions and report the results for the scientific advancement of employment methods. Methods employed in preparing material for presenta- tion have been far from satisfactory to the author and hence I could hardly claim for them, or expect to receive, the indorsement of trained research workers. Scientific methods of presentation, as well as scientific methods AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix of securing data, require both continuity of study and thought, and freedom from interruptions and diversions. This is impossible for officials whose duties are largely administrative. The material is presented in the hope that defects in presentation will be overlooked and that it may serve a useful purpose xmtil such time as a larger and better trained corps permits editorial work on a Uterary and scientific basis which will meet all the requirements of research. It has, at times, been difficult to preserve an absolutely logical arrangement and at the same time introduce state- ments and facts where they appeared to be most effective. In such cases arrangement has been sacrificed to effective- ness. Considerable prominence has been given to decentral- ized vocational guidance efforts and to facts relating to the failiire of educational systems to fimction in this direction. This has been done from a constructive point of view, in the hope that definite progress would result from the revelation of the extent and the causes of failure. Footnotes have been introduced rather freely to indicate important related topics and to furnish additional infor- mation. In this way the same publication is made to serve the purpose of students who seek sufficient informa- tion to permit them to draw their own conclusions, or at least to test the validity of those presented, as well as of the casual or general reader who is cpntent to accept statements at their face value. No general bibliography has been included. The bibliographies mentioned on page 36 are as complete as is possible to date, and repeti- tion is useless. Footnotes contain references which the author has found most helpful and which are recommended for limited study. To my co-workers in the United States Emplpyment X AUTHOR'S PREFACE Service and to the office force which has assisted me I express my thanks and appreciation. For my co-workers outside of the Service, to whom I have long been bound by community of interest in what has, at times, seemed to be a hopeless cause, and who have contributed and are contributing to the success of the work a type of ability not otherwise at our command, and for all those who have read this manuscript and contributed to its preparation I bespeak the appreciation of the pubUc and offer them my own. Finally I make no effort to eniunerate the many ways in which I am under obligation for assistance and encouragement to Mr. Wilson Woelpper, Director of Planning and Statistics, my colleague in developing the Junior Division, and my associate in the preparation of this publication. If any reader finds within its pages suggestions which assist him to help boys and girls in making the right start on life's journey, I trust that «ach one of these contributors may find it sufficient reward. In dedicating this book to William E. Hall and to John B. Densmore, I have been influenced by two facts: (1) My personal gratitude to the two men who, one at great personal sacrifice, the other under difficulties of various kinds which I may at times appear to have dis- counted, have made it possible to undertake this vital social-economic study, to so conduct it that we need offer no apology for our standards or pohcies and who have so protected us in our work that we have been enabled to develop a type of leadership not often encouraged, and frequently discouraged, in pubhc imdertakings ; (2) Be- cause, in the interests of historical accuracy, it is right that the names of the two men who originated and de- fended the Division until the Public had time to appreciate its importance shall stand alone on the pages of its first publication. CONTENTS PART I THE PROBLEM AND THE BEGINNINGS OP VOCA- TIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT FAQB Chapter I. Magnitttde op the Problem ... 3 1. Quantitative analysis 4 2. Qualitative analysis 8 Chapter II. Efforts to Solve the Employment Problem 34 1. Philanthropio agencies 36 2. Educational agencies 37 3. Business organizations 56 4. Public empl03nnent offices 57 5. Federal government ....... 61 PART II FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OP VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT Chapter III. Educational Guidance . 1. In analyzing and developing character 2. In selecting academic courses . 3. Through occupational information courses 4. In selecting vocational courses . 5. In salesmanship of ability and sMU . 6. In factors which make for success 69 74 78 80 83 84 89 Chapter FV. Functions and Methods op Placement 91 1. Character of public employment offices ... 92 2. Requirements for success 94 A. Trained personnel 94 xu CONTENTS B. Satisfactory location and equipment (1) Office location The reception room The consultation room . a. The desk and its equipment &. Files and filing systems The testing laboratory . The workroom The day's work (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) 101 101 104 105 105 106 108 109 110 Chaptee V. Functions of a Junior Employment Office . . . . ~ . . . . 112 Marketing the product of the public schools Pooling the entire junior labor supply and demand A. Pooling the junior labor supply . (1) and (2) Juvemle workers and transfers . (3) Permanent workers directly from school (4) Replacements B. Pooling the junior labor demand . Distributing the junior supply and demand A. The interview (1) With the employer (2) With the applicant B. The referral C. The placement D. Employment supervision, or follow-up 113 126 126 126 127 128 129 131 131 131 135 145 147 149 PART I THE PROBLEM AND THE BEGINNINGS OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT THE BOY ON THE FENCE' " Upon whose selection and swxes^l pursuit of a vocation depends the welfare of the industrial and political future of the world." 1 We »re permitted to use this cut through the courtesy of the Ony M. Jones Company of Indianapolis. It appeared in " Trade PoiudatlonB " published by that Oompany in 1919. JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS CHAPTER I MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM The best method of preparing our young people for occupational life is attracting the increasing interest of progressive business men, demanding more serious atten- tion from educators, and challenging the best pubhc thought of the da;y. The public schools are continually assuming greater responsibility for the preparation of satisfied and satisfactory employees. The business world is becoming willing and even eager to contribute voca- tional information for school curricula and for the use of employment bureaus, and young people themselves are beginning to realize that a job is not a position and that real service can be measured neither by wages nor by the clock. Here and there a Voice in the Wilderness is call- ing for employment supervision as a substitute for school- room education for boys and girls who enter occupations in which vocational school training cannot be substituted for training in employment, or for those who enter juvenile occupations from which, without mature assistance, they find it difficult to advance. The time has come for employer, educator, parent, and public to unite in intelligent analyzation of the problem of its boys on the fence, and to formulate some plan for aiding them in the solution of their many problems. The problem of junior wage earners has both a quanti- tative and a qualitative aspect. When we attempt to 3 4 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS analyze it, we find ourselves facing a series of questions, all of which may be summed up ^ — How many boys and ^rls are there on the fence? What kind of boys and girls are they? 1. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS The latest authoritative information relative to the quantitative phase of the problem of junior guidance and placement is foimd in the Census of 1910, the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1919, the Report of the Federal Board for Vocational Education, 1919, and local educational and industrial data. The census of 1920 now in progress will doubtless increase our statistics by at least 10 to 15 per cent. If the scope of our problem be limited to wage-earning boys and girls, the census of 1910 gives us the following facts — 61. S per cent of our total hoy and girl population from 14 to 21 years of age is in wage-earning occupations. Group I indicates that out of a total population of 3,569,347 boys and girls 14 and 15 years of age, 1,094,249 are wage earners. Many of these, because of their age and educational status, because of the fact that they are wage earners, and because of the conditions which prevail in modem industry, are habitually "on the fence." * This group of boys and girls may legitimately be called 1 The United States Commiasioner of Education in 1917 (p. 7) estimated that 1,000,000 14- and 15-year-old boys and girls left school every year to become wage earners. This estimate does not include the number under 14 who are permitted to become wage earners under the laws of some of our states. He also estimated that approximately 2,000,000 school children arrive at a given age annually. For 1915 he estimated that half of the 16-year-olds had left school in that year or earlier, two thirds of the 17-year-olds, and three fourths of the IS-year-olds. A still higher estimate for school elimination is made by Leonard P. Ayrea in "Laggards in Our Schools" : "It is safe to count on ten per cent of the children leaving on reaching the age of thirteen, forty per cent by the time they are fourteen, and fifty per cent of the remainder at fifteen, and again fifty per cent of the remainder at the age of sixteen," p. 34. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 1 8 ■<*eo "^ CO* t^i-i ^f *H lO" ■a la to" °a ■§§'„ ^ ^ ^ ?3^ 00 05 eo OJ OJ Tji g-g 1-1 CO CO fi^y § o S 1 1 o t>r s 3 ^- T-H s i-T N pq "Sg. ^ ^ ^ p 6^1 ■^ (§ ^" U3" g t^ eo" •*" If I> Q I^ !> to «5 05 «o H-g lO i-< 1> PQ co" oT c N T-t S .a 00 oo_ t-_ o o" A t» •a ■< t> CD ^ 1—) TiT to §. H o OJ 00 ^ t^ N p 1-1 <£> ^ o 00 N m 03 to b^ U3 CO r-T TjT * lotal Boys & Girls-* ' CHART Showing Distribution of Wage Earners in United States (Census 1910) 60X 40i< 20)< I Public Schools 2 Parochial Schools a Continua- tion Schools 4 Private Schools 6 No Educa- tional Training Reached Thru Jr. Division ( a $125 £100 1 f. f 76 $60 «26 i H 1 ■nin 1 LEGEND: fl Indicates i of Juniors 14 to 20 n Per Capita Cost 1^ .s § g H " S U Chart showing percentage of Juniors 14 to 2Q in Pittsburgh receiving educational training relative to total number of Juniors. Also cost per capita. 10 JinsriOR WAGE EARNERS and under, 50 per cent are of American parentage and 60 per cent of foreign parentage. Ayres * tells us that : Cm OP Providence, R. I. PUBLIC SCHOOLS Parochial ^hool Private School i 0ftt.0M.B.- eKtlaaal kid li irhocub. HMhsd thru th* Jr. 4 ofthM. ~TMwiTlllC no ktd or Ednctlon nachad thronih tha JUDlOT Elementary Giadea School { School m 1 ! 1 1 IS & s 1 1 1 ! ^ i t 1 1 ■ ■ j 1 1 1 ! ^ Ra n I 1 n ■ ra n 1 1 LEGEND: ■ Indicates Jrg. 14 to 18 Tr. g " ". 14 ■■ Ifi •• Q •■ " 16 '• 18 ■' Chart showing percentage of Juniors 14 to 18, 14 to 15, and 16 to 18 years of age attending the various schools and the percentage employed in Providence, Rhode Island. "The study of the bearing of nationality on school progress has been fruitful. In general there is little relation between the per- centage of foreigners in the different cities and the amount of re- tardation found in their schools. Some of our most foreign cities make very good records, while in some of our most American cities school (Conditions are very bad indeed. In the country as a whole there are more illiterates proportionallys among the native whites of native parents than among native whites of foreign parents, and ^ Ayiea, Leonard F., "Laggards in Our Schools," 1909, pp. 6, 105 ff. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 11 school attendance is more general among the latter than among the former." "Among native white children of native parents 44 in every tOOO are iUiterate, while among native white children of foreign parents 9 in every 1000 are illiterate." He concludes that the public schools of the country do not reach every child, but that in the country as a whole they reach the child of the foreigner more generally than of the native born. According to recent figures given out by the Children's Bureau, American" children in surprising numbers are growing up illiterate. Statistics covering five states in which large nmnbers of children are employed indicate that out of 19,696 children between 14 and 16 years of age more than one foiu-th could not read or write their names legibly; nearly 10 per cent had not advanced beyond the first school grade ; more than half were in the fourth grade and lower when they left, and only about 3 per cent had gone as far as the eighth grade.^ Study of school records of children of foreign parentage does not permit the conclusion that they are either inferior or superior to the children of native bom in the matter of scholarship. Different nationalities differ radically as to ability in school work. (2) What is their home environment ? The influence of the home has long been recognized as one of the most potent factors in determining the develop- ment, invoking the interest, and controlling the activities of children. The economic condition of the home is not, however, the strong factor that it has usually been sup- posed to be in drawing children from the school into the wage-earning world. Several studies are available which ' United States Children's Bureau, 7th Annual Beport, 1919. "Literacy oi Children Certificated," pp. 23-24. 12 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS indicate that not over 50 per cent of the young wage earners are in industry because of economic pressure.' In moral and social influence my own observation and study has indicated that the home is the strongest factor in determining a boy's standards and ideals and that it is the mother's influence which predominates in shaping his choice.'' (3) What was their educational status when they left school 1 "Much statistical information has been collected to prove that the great majority of pupils are eliminated from school at fourteen years of age prior to having reached the seventh grade. In states where Uteracy tests are prerequisite to employment certification, it is often with great diflBculty that the barest education require- ments can be met. Many children have not been able to acquire the fundamental tools of education; many leave school before reaching the grades in which standards of citizenship are emphasized. The general tendency of the American city school systems is to carry all of the children through the fifth grade, half of them to the final elementary grade, and one in ten to the final year of the high school." '' (4) To what extent do these children leave the public schools branded as "failure" ? As a generalization, one is safe in assuming tha,t 50 per cent of the pupils who close their school accounts annually are, from the narrow academic viewpoint of the average educator, "failures," or would be so ranked on thfe school ' Hiatt, James S., "The Child, the School, and the Job," Philadelphia, 1912, p. 4. Eyan, W. Carson, "Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools," United States Bureau of Education, Bxilletin, 1918, No. 24, p. 41. * Gilson, Mary B., " The Helations of Home Conditions to Industrial Efficiency," American Academy of Political and Social Science, Annals, May, 1916. Reed, Anna Y., "Newsboy Service," World Book Co., 1917, pp. 76-79. Chicago, Dept. of Public Welfare, Bulletin, 1919, contains very important con- clusions on family influence as a factor in recidivism. • Ayres, |/eonard P., "Laggards in Our Schools," p. 65. A study now being made by the Bureau of Education indicates an increase in high school attendance. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 13 records had they remained m school long enough to receive their final rating. The waste product of- our educational machinery is tremendous. Business men who discover their plants to be branding as "imperfect" or as "waste" 50 per cent of their product seek the cause and provide an immediate remedy or admit their failure and go out of business. Changing the school army of "failure" into an army of "success" has been a continuous demand on American education for years. There is as yet little tangible progress to report. The fact that so many chil- dren are branded "failure" when after events prove clearly that they are often possessed of unusual ability judged by the practical standards of the business world is bad enough in itself. When, however, we consider the influence upon the individual of being constantly reminded of his shortcomings, when we realize that he is shoved out into the world prepared to admit that he is a failure and anticipating that he will be so considered by others, the rank social injustice and tlie great economic danger cannot be overestimated. O'Brien warns us that : "The pupil who accumulates failure^ may soon cease to be alive and active; he is in danger of acquiring a conforming attitude of tolerance toward the experience of being a failiu-e. . . . Most of the failing pupils lack neither the abihty nor earnestness. . . ." With reference to the large number of school "repeat- ers" he states that 33| per cent of the repeated grades are repeated failures, which tends to fix more permanently the habit and attitude of faiUng and bequeaths to society the fruits of such maladjustments which cannot fail to function frequently and seriously in the production of industrial dissatisfaction and misfits later in Ufe.i ' Francis P. O'Brien, "High School Failures." Vocational Survev of Minneavolia, published by the Minneapolis Teachers' Club, 1913, p. 69 14 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS In McClwre's magazine for April, 1913, there is a story of 500 factory children who were interviewed personally regarding their interest in school and in employment. When asked how many would prefer school to the factory provided there were money in abundance in the home, 412 out of 500 expressed a preference for the factory. Reasons for such preference are full of significance for education. I quote but one : "When you works a whole month at school, the teacher she gives you a card to take home that says how you ain't any good." ^ In 1914 Prof. F. M. Leavitt, speaking of the change which was coming about in progressive school systems, stated : "... the fundamental philosophy of the movement is based on a frank recognition of the fact that the school has too frequently taught children how to fail, and has convinced them that 'education' was something in which they could never have any possible iiterest because it bore no relation to any life of which they had any con- ception. It further recognizes that the chief_ duty of the public schools is to develop in all children, especially in those who must sooniace the problem of self-support, the habit of successful effort." ^ Few would be willing to admit that the public schools are a failure, many are forced to admit that the facts show that they are allowing far too many pupils to leave school branded "failure." (5) Why, in a country which offers free pvblic education to all under 21 yecfrs of age, does so large a group fail to take advantage of J^e educational facilities at its command? We live in a country which prides itself on offering free public education to every boy and girl under 21, and ' Todd, Helen M., "Why Children Work. The Children's Answer." * Leavitt, Frank M., "Cooperation of the Schools in Reducing Child Labor," address before National Child Labor Committee, March- 19, 1914. In VoaUianal Education, May, 1914. MAGNITUDE OP THE PROBLEM 15 through its state colleges, state universities, and evening schools to many who are over 21. In theory our plan is 100 per cent perfect. In practice its opportunity for efficiency is reduced 50 per cent — a reduction which would be much greater were it not for our compulsory attendance laws. Why? For many reasons. Each eliminated pupil offers a different problem, or a series of different problems. One boy or girl may lack native ability, another may be physically handicapped; one may be keenly sensitive to the rank of "failure," the other may be too indifferent to care what estimate is put upon his ability; economic pressure may be the dominant factor influencing one pupil, general dissatisfaction with school the dominant factor influencing another. Our educational system has not yet learned to deal with its charges as individuals. Pupils who for any reason do not fit into "the system" are eliminated.^ It is the duty of employment advisers to find out to what extent the school has discovered the individual problem of each applicant and dealt with it. If the type of personal service which is the most essential element in vocational guidance has not been offered by educational agencies then it is the duty of counselors to see that it is supphed at once by the employment service. O'Brien quotes a very significant remark : "It is not unrecognized that the school has many notable -failures to indicate how even the fittest do not sometimes survive the school routine." Gulick says that children quit because they are humili- ated, their confidence in their own abiUty is destroyed, and the soul-destroying conviction is ground into them » "Look-Step Sohooline and a Remedy," San Francisco, State Normal School, 1913. This should be read by every student who desires to know the evils of our "class system" and the advantages of an "individual system." 16 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS that they are "failures," "stupid," "dumb,' ward." 1 In general we may conclude that there are two main reasons why pupils do not care to take advantage of the maximum of educational opportunity: First, the edu- cation which we offer is too limited in kind to appeal to the majority of youth. It does not encourage initiative, imagination, or independence, nor does it indicate to pupils specific ways in which it is vitally connected with practical life. The hours during which it may be secured are too arbitrary and in the main it has as yet recognized but one avenue through which it may be secured — the schoolroom. Discontent with the material and method of education is one great cause of pupil elimination^ Some five or six years ago the writer made a careful study of school elimination in comparison with industrial ehmi- nation. It was found that 50 per cent of school elimina- tion was due to "dissatisfaction" and that approximately the same per cent of youthful workers were either un- employed or dissatisfied with their positions. Conclusions at that time were that — In many cases 'dissatisfaction' was not based on legitimate criticism. The positions were desirable, the conditions of service favorable, the prospect of permanency good, and remuneration all that could be expected considering education, native ability, and personality." ' Just as the habit of failure acquired in the schoolroom is bound to be a handicap in occupational life, so also is this habit of discontent bound to be a second liabiUty in the business world. Fifty per cent of failure and dis- 1 Gulick, Luther D., "Why 250,000 Children Quit School," Russell Sage Founda- tion, Department of Child Hygiene, Bulletin 77, p. 4. 'Reed, Anna^., "Seattle Children in School and Industry," Seattle, Board of Education, 1915, p. 51. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 17 content carried from the schools into industry means frequent changes in positions, the growth of pessimism, chronic failure and discontent, unemployment, undesir- ables, social unrest, and possibly anarchy. The second main cause of elimination is best explaiaed by Dr. Gulick : "A change ought to and does come over children at that time (14 years) which demands a less materialistic environment than that of the elementary school. They are gripped by a new spirit of energy and independence which demands either the larger liberty of the high school or the obligations of business. Even the best of children are restless and unsuited in the elementary school after fourteen. With a wonderful uniformity the average age of leaving school ranges from 14 to 15 all over the country. This is true whether they have graduated or not, whether they are native- bom or foreign-born, white or black; whether the course of study is easy or hard, or even whether the teachers and the teaching equipment are good or bad. It is a great biological fact with which we are dealing. When the wings of the nestling are grown it leaves the nest. The same kind of force drives children out of the elementary school soon after they are fourteen. The elementary form of school is suited to children but not to adolescents. This, is the first reason why children drop out of school at fourteen, no matter in what grade or part of the coimtry they are." * School elimination is primarily a problem for school administration, irrespective of where the primary respon- sibiUty may rest ; it is a problem which must be under- stood in aU of its phases by those who expect to render satisfactory employment service. It is easy to criticize the teacher but not easy to fill her place more efficiently. The small degree of success yet attained by employment advisers should le3.d us to avoid destructive criticism of other agencies which are dealing with similar problems and should warn us that there can be no ultimate success except through Coopeeation. « Gulick, Lather D., "Why 250,000 Childrei Quit School," pp. 10-11. C 18 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS (6) What percentage of the group is pursuing continuation school courses ? By choice or under compulsion? If the latter, let us remember that legislation may compel the body and fail utterly to compel the mind. There is reason to suppose that, in the name of compulsory education, we have "educated" many "intellectual hoboes" who are even more dangerous to the welfare of society than are "indus- trial hoboes" and illiterates whom we have failed to "educate." (7) What are their ideas as to the purpose and benefits of continuation classes and what educational guidance has been at their command in the selection of such classes ? Continuation schools have been established by law in twenty-five states.^ In the near future they will probably be a recognized factor in every state system of education. Their uniform purpose is increase in general education, in civic iatelUgence, and in vocational laiowledge and occupational efficiency. They were instituted to deal with the type of pupil who, for one reason or another, is eliminated from the elementary system at fourteen years of age without sufficient general education to prevent the waste of the little already acquired ; too yoimg to enter apprenticeship, although not too young to enter juvenile occupations, but too immature of mind to grasp the fundamentals upon which good citizenship rests. Ap- proximately two million boys and girls enter this No Man's Land of Education annually — a territory which for years has not been considered sufficiently valuable to be even disputed ground, but which is now acknowl- edged to be neither distinctly the field of the public schools I "State Laws Requiring Attendance Upon Part-Time or Continuation Schools" (Summary), School Li/e, Dec. 15, 1919, pp. 1^16. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 19 nor the field of the employment service, but to require the cooperation of both. The character of continuation schools, their purpose, the type of pupil they enroll and the double character of their responsibiUty, makes them the most important point of contact for educational and vocational effort. The boys and girls whom they enroll are gradually leaving behind the period of their lives in. which the school has been the dominant influence and are passing into a period wherein their occupational interests are to be the controlling factor. Education still holds, or should hold, the field, but education in the broader sense which includes the occupational interests of the young. Both the school system and the employ- me,nt service should be omnipresent, seeking at every opportunity to serve either individually or cooperatively. No member of the employment corps, especially if assigned to the placement of boys and girls of continuation school age, can hope to be an efficient adviser without a thorough understanding of the continuation school problem in all of its phases. It is one of the duties of advisers to collect information which is useful in the employment office as the basis for advisory work and it is their privilege to make such information available to continuation and elementary schools. It. is also the duty of advisers to have at their command all the information which is avail- able to aid applicants of school age in selecting the courses best calculated to contribute to their progress. The continuation school age is the critical age in the lives of boys and girls. If the efforts of our school departments and our employment departments be inteUigently cdr operative at this period, they wiU be able to make a great reduction in the juvenile army of "failure" leaving the elementary schools and a great increase in the junior army of "success" as it passes from the continuation school 20 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS into the adult occupational field. During the year since the organization of the Junior Division of the Uiiited States Employment Service, advice along the Une of cooperative functions of the continuation school and the employment service has been solicited more frequently than any other phase of the junior placement service. (8) What percentage are pursuing business, evening or correspondence courses, what purposes have they in view, and what background have they upon which to estimate the return on their investment ? One of the most suggestive series of publications re- garding business courses pursued by young boys and girls is the Eaton-Stevens group of research reports on com- mercial work.i From one of these we learn that 40 out of 67 private commercial schools in Manhattan and the Bronx register 7000 day and 6000 evening pupils. The majority of pupils are 15 and 16 years of age and have completed the elementary school. The average period of attendance is" six months ; the uniform expense, $10 per month. Nearly all of these schools operate employpaent departments and feel responsible for securing the first position, although no particular effort is made to know the character of the position to which pupils are referred. SoHcitation of pupils for private school courses is a common practice. Many solicitors work on a commission and have no other connection with the school which employs them. The best schools admit that they registered many children who chose their courses wrongly, who are too young, too un- ^ Stevens, Bertha M., " Private Commercial Schools : Manhattan and the Bronx," New York City, Public Education Association, 1918. Stevens, Bertha M., "Boys and Girls in Commercial Work," Cleveland, C, Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, 1916. Stevens, Bertha M., and Eaton, Jeannette, " Commercial Work and Training for Girls," New York, The Macmillan Company, 1915. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 21 prepared academically, too immature, and too undesirable personally to secure and hold positions in the lines of work for which their ambition is influencing them to prepare. Commercialized education of this type, more or less preva- lent in all of our larger cities, means that hundreds of young people upon whom the public schools have lost their hold are investing time, money, and effort in vocational training which foretells , discouragement, discontent, and enormous labor turnover, or acceptance of work which they could have done equally well without training^ Employment records, in one instance, show that 23 per cent of the positions held could have been filled equally well with no training other than that offered by the ele- mentary school. In ,a second instance we find that out of 697 placements more than one fourth were retained less than one month. "School children need to be shown in graphic, concrete ways that the average eighth-grade graduate is not ready for stenographic training; that there are many positions in office work which do not demand stenography ; and that, since the advent of the socialized free employment bureaus for juveniles, it is no longer necessary to attend a private commercial school in order to be helped to a posi- tion. . . ,"1 The public schools, through their continuation schools, should be able to control to a great extent the education of those under 16, 17, or 18 years of age, and the Junior Division of the United States Employment Service should be able to do away with the evils of placement found in the employment bureaus of private schools.'' ' The type of young person who attends the public eve- ning schools and the advantages and disadvantages of such ^Stevens, Bertha M., "Private Commercial Schooli: Manhattan and the Bronx," pp. 16, 18, 34, 88. ' Every counselor should read the chapter on "The Fate of the Grade School Children" in Eaton and Stevens, "Commercial Work and Training for Girls." 22 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS schools from the point of view of educational and occu- pational guidance has been discussed in several modern publications.^ Our own experience in handling evening school pupils convinced us that pedagogical procedure cannot be trans- ferred from the day to the evening school. The problem of evening school guidance involves elements entirely different from those of day school guidance. "Mary may have been well understood last year by her teacher in the seventh grade, but when she comes back to the evening eighth grade with her new wage-earning experience she is disappointed to find that her viewpoint is not understood as it used to be and be- comes discouraged. It is experience with life that helps us to understand and interpret evening school pupils correctly. Too few of our teachers have the background for evening school success and our little wage-earner knows it better than we.^' ' (9) What records are available through educational agencies which indicate aptitudes, developed abilities, potential abili- ties, and the type of characteristics or qualifications which are universally recognized as either- assets or liabilities in occw- pational life ? Several pubUc school systems have estabhshed guidance and placement departments. Their initial move has usually been preparation of a complete and elaborate system of record cards, including a "personal history sheet." The uniform difficulty with school records is that they have been evolved from theoretical knowledge of industry combined with practical academic knowledge 1 "The School and the Immigrant," Survey Committee, Cleveland Foimdation, 1916. Van Kleeok, Mary, "Working Girls in Evening Schools," New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1914. Reed, Anna Y., "Vocational Guidance Report," pp. 43 £f. Schneider, Herman, "Education for Industrial Workers," pp. 55 £E., Yonkers- on-Hudson, World 3ook Company, 1915. • Reed, AnnaJY., "Vocational Guidance Report," p. 60. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 23 of boys and girls, and much which is called for by these various record sheets is non-essential, cumbersome, and very difficult to secure. The purpose of a personal history sheet during the period of school Ufe is two-fold : (1) to furnish data, including both developed and potential abiUties, upon which each successive teacher may assist her individual pupils to formulate a definite program for progressive advancement ; and (2) to furnish data upon which the abihties and interests acquired in school life may be transferred into occupational life and utiUzed to the best possible advantage. Study of the schedule of values agreed upon by business men indicates that char- acteristics most valued in the business world are the very same quaUties that the educational system declares to be of prime importance but still does almost nothing to discover and develop. Character is, the first demand of the business world and stands at the head of the hst of qualifications demanded for its record sheets. Academic knowledge and technical skill are given fifth rank. On the other hand, while industry demands moral capacity and criticizes the schools and colleges for failure to recog- nize and develop it, it does very httle in its own field toward solution of the same problem.^ Selecting data for record cards is a very responsible and a very important part of vocational guidance and placement. Essentials should be carefully selected and should be secured ; * non-essentials mean useless record * Dr. Mann of Camegie Foundation made a very comprehensive and very aug- gestive study along this line for the National Association of Corporation Schools. Results are published in the Report of the Association for 1917, p. 228. This same subject has been discussed in the Vocational Report of the Seattle Public SchoolSi 1916. See pages 74-75 of this manuscript. 2 The type of records in use in business houses is the best guide in selecting essential data for personal record sheets. Comparison of the rating of boys and girls on character qualities by the schools and by industrial ht>U8es is yery helpful. "Newsboy Service" contains a comparison of character ratings given boys by teachers with the ratings of the employer, pp. 62-65. 24 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS making, involving waste of time, effort, and money. Re- view of files in various school offices confirms the results of our Seattle experience — data of great importance for intelUgent advice and placement are not easily secured for record cards, while much material of no practical value is frequently incorporated. There are several reasons for this condition. Possibly one of the most potent is the fact that the classroom teacher has little or no conception of how these data are to be used for employment purposes and resents the additional burden of preparing it. A second reason is found in the fact that teachers have long been accustomed to a mechanical system of grading whereby they felt, although facts hardly warrant the assumption, that absolute justice was being afforded each pupil. It is comparatively easy to grade examination papers in such subjepts as arithmetic, spelling, grammar, and geography, but rather difiicult to rate pupils on such qualities as adaptability, initiative, accuracy, cooperation, reliability, etc. Some teachers lack the comprehension necessary to handle such a record system and disapprove it most heartily. A third, and possibly even a more common reason, is found in the fact that teachers hesitate to evaluate moral qualitiesdn ".black and white," especially when such ratings are based so largely upon personal observation. They fear that their estimates m^iy not be correct and that they will cause some injustice to their pupils. We need not go into details on this phase of the problem. Teachers do not hesitate to place a low rating on academic subjects in "black and white" on the record cards, nor do they hesitate by means of these same recorded data to brand as "failures" some 50 per cfent of their charges who, had they been educated differently, might have developed all the elements of success., The only difference is that one type of data MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 25 is new and receives more careful consideration as to results, whereas the other is old and teachers' consciences have become somewhat hardened to results. Our own expe- rience has indicated that the most helpful data for record cards are secured by giving each pupil an opportunity for self-analysis along the hnes which make for success and permitting him to be the final judge as to what data shall be added to his personal record sheet. Development of abilities for self-analysis and self-control are an important part of education arid will be immensely valuable to boys and girls after school days are over. (10) What industries do these junior wage earners enter ? The class of industries which prevail in any given city is a prime factor in determining the amount and type of both juvenile and junior employment. It is a much more important factor than is the total population of the city. If metal factories predominate, assorting, inspecting, assembling, wrapping, hght grinding, etc., offer wage- earning oppprtunities to a large mmiber of youths. Wherever hosiery, neckties, bead necklaces, suspenders, and similar articles are made, junior employment is bound to be above normal. The national offices of our large insurance companies pro-vide positions for a good many juvenile employees of the type discussed in the Report of the Committee to investigate Private Commercial Schools in New York City. The same maintains with reference to our large mail-order houses. Wrapping soap, yeast cakes, and similar articles are typical juvenile employments. Comparative statistics on juvenile em- ployment in Milwaukee and in Pittsburgh submitted by Mr. Frank M. Leavitt, Associate Superintendent of Schools in Pittsburgh, who is also in charge of the Junior Division of the United States Employment Service in 26 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS that city, illustrate very clearly how types of industries which prevail in these two cities is a decisive factor in juvenile employment. Compulsory continuation schools operate in both cities; Milwaukee age limits are 14 to 17, Pittsburgh age limits 14 to 16 ; Milwaukee's estimated population for 1919 was 445,008, Pittsburgh's 586,196; Milwaukee enrolls approximately 10,000 continuation school pupils, Pittsburgh approximately 2100. Doubt- less there are law violations in both cities, hence when we deduct 5000 Milwaukee pupils who are between 16 and 17 we have remaining 5000 juvenile workers (14 and 15) in Milwaukee in comparison with 2100 of the same age in the Pittsburgh group. Milwaukee is a child-em- ploying city, Pittsburgh is not. Providence, R. I., is another city operating a Junior Division of the Employ- ment Service. Its estimated population for 1919 is 259,895, whereas the School Committee Report for 1918 calls attention to the fact that of the city's children be- tween 14 and 16 approximately 2900 are in school and 3800 at work. In proportion to total population Provi- dence has a much larger juvenile employment problem than either Pittsburgh or Milwaukee. Boys and girls over 16 years of age find it a much easier matter to select good employment openings. Both are ehgible to apprenticeship training and many high class business houses are glad to employ and promote earnest conscientious workers between the ages of 16 and 21. (11) How did they secure their first positions? What influenced their choice or did they just drift ? If the latter, where are they drifting ? When one seeks to know how workers secure positions, it is sometimes wise to reverse the question and inquire how and where business houses secure employees. For MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 27 many years, progressive employers have been seeking to ascertain the "most complete and the most satisfactory sources of labor supply." A good employment depart- ment is expected to keep in close connection with promising sources of supply, such as heads of technical schools, technical periodicals, graduating class lists, newspaper advertising, and the various types of employment agencies.' Several tabulations of the various sources to which em- ployers turn for the purpose of obtaining new employees, accompanied by their comment on such sources, lead us to two conclusions, (1) that there is no general satisfaction with any of the present sources of labor supply, and (2) that personal application at the office, advertising, and "scouting" are the most common and the most satis- factory methods of securing employees. Turning to the employee side of the problem, we find that personal application, suggestions from friends, and newspaper advertising are the most helpful employment agencies. Signs in windows rank higher as an efficiently functioning employment service for boys and girls than does tfie assistance of the public schools. It is estimated, and there is sufficient evidence to prove that the estimate is approxi- mately correct, that less than 1 per cent of the junior employees in this country receive guidance and assistance from the public school or from any other qualified agency in selecting their positions or in succeeding therein after the initial choice has been made. Apropos of the above statements, I offer a significant quotation from the Com- mittee on Employment Plans, National Association of Corporation Schools, 1916 : "When help is badly needed, signs posted conspicuously often bring satisfactory applicants, as 'Boy Wanted,' with a description of the work." > Report of the National Association of Corporation Schools, 1916. Sources of obtaining new employees. 28 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS "Scouting" for employees in colleges and universities is quite common, but of course, many such employees are beyond the junior age limit. A certain per cent of college men are bound to be failures in business, but taking them as a whole there is good reason to suppose that potential abiUties coupled with college training offer material worth testing. In spite of the fact that the sifting process of our educational system has eliminated a large part of our junior population long before college is reached ; in .spite of the fact that less than 2 per cent of our total school enrollment is in schools of collegiate rank and many who are so enrolled are never graduated, we are appalled to learn that quite recently one of our large business houses conducted a series of personal inter- views with 800 college graduates with a view to obtaining new employees. Two hundred and eighty-seven passed the interview test, the remainder wer^ rejected.' Lack of originality and initiative was the uniform basis of re- jection. Is it possible that the schools of our country, from kindergarten through the university, not only do nothing to discover and develop initiative and origiaaUty but that they also either eliminate, those who possess it or kill it in the process of development to such an extent that approximately two thirds of the college graduates are without this type of abiUty? In other words, is it impossible in this country to secure secondary or higher education and at the same time retain or develop initiative and originality? Usually juvenile, and frequently junior, applicants take the first job offered without regard to the industry, the process within the industry or the employer, and without any consideration of what it has to offer him or > Relation between supply and demand always conttola acceptance or rejection to some extent. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 29 his fitness for its needs.^ Often it is the first job which makes or mars a boy for life ; often, too, a high-class boy with definite abiUty to meet definite requirements accepts a third or fourth rate "boy wanted" job when a first- class opportunity to utiKze and develop his talents is close at hand, seeking just what he has to offer. Nearly all of the studies cited in footnotes give statistical evi- dence as to periods of unemployment, amount of wage loss, intellectual and moral deterioration, and social unrest involved in junior employment. The writer has often found 100 or more applicants waiting "at the gate." Boys have reported that frequently from 50 to 300 boys, 14 to 18 years of age, are waiting in Une for a chance to apply for the two or three positions advertised. The discouragement and humihation of such boys when the gate opens and one or two promising looking boys are beckoned to enter and the remainder told "Nothing today for you boys," is very real and very keen. The same incident repeated several times changes humihation and discouragement to dissatisfaction with everything and general resentment toward that "which is." Is it any wonder, if older and more radical leaders be also waiting at the gate, that seeds of discontent and anarchy are sown on very fertile ground ? Nor is this all — young girls and young boys both, al- though the matter is far more serious for girls, who are cast adrift at 14 to 16 years of age, are often placed in ' The slow progress in pooling Junior supply and demand and the great difficulties involved in persuading boys and girls to utilize an employment service is indicated in a recent letter from the Employment Department of Great Britain issued as this publication goes to press. The quotation is particularly significant when we recall that England has had approximately^ten years of public employment experience. "Even now a common method of recruitment is to take on boys at the gate, and choice is limited to the boys who happen to apply. The boys are selected according to their face value and no attempt is made to ascertain the nature of their previous training or to secure that they are even physically suited for theii work." Ministry of Labor, March, 1920. 30 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS great moral danger while seeking emplojrment. Blind ads are an ever present danger in our methods of employ- ment. Sohcitation of girl employees on the streets is constantly carried on and many girls totally unprepared for the dangers involved are glad to receive offers of higher wages if they care to change positions. Educators and social workers who have been interested in junior problems covering a period of years will readily recall the prose- cution, a decade or more ago, of a group of twenty persons, mostly men as I recall it, who were convicted of carrying on a regular and profitable business of leading young girls astray. Their victims were almost always appUcants for employment. They were followed to "the gate," watched until the results were known, and met after refusal, when discouragement and humihation made them more ready to accept any proposal offered. Some years ago progressive legislators enacted statutes forbidding the presence in court rooms of other than those immediately concerned when hearings on juvenile delinquency were on the calendar. Such legislation was based largely on known facts relative to a certain type of men and women who frequented the court for the express purpose of spot- ting easy game. Many boys and girls released on proba- tion with every promise of reformation gave it up in de- spair when they found that the story of their fall was well known to men and women of the underworld. Public hearings branded these children as criminals for Ufe. Are our present methods of employment branding boys and girls for life ? If girls and boys seeking employment were to be properly guided and protected in the beginning of their economic independence, there would be less demand for trial of juvenile delinquents. In time we shall leaFn that prevention is better than cure. MAGNITUDE OP THE PROBLEM 31 (12) What is the labor turnover in this group and how is it affecting the progressive development of each boy and girl ? One of the main objects of a federal employment service is the stabilization of employment. But, as Mr. Leavitt has well said, there are certain low-grade jobs where there is danger in too great stabilization. We have had one very interesting study along this line which is of national interest. In it we are told that upon the basis of nine years of statistical study it has bleen proved that a boy in a low-grade job who changes his job three times a year has a better earning capacity at the end of the year than has the boy who sticks -to one job ; but if a boy changes his job six times in one year he has a lower earning capac- ity. In other words the low-grade job is educative for about one third of a year ; the boy who reaHzes that the job has nothing more to offer increases his capacity by leaving it, whereas the boy who changes twice as often reveals instability which is dangerous for his future safety.* In Pittsburgh Mr. Leavitt is trying to combine the in- crease in earning capacity which comes from three changes with job stabihty by explaining the situation to employers and attempting to make the shift from one process to another within the same plant rather than to permit change in employers. Occupational instabihty is a universal and a serious problem. It is increasingly common from 14 to 18 years of age and contributes its full share toward creating an army of unemployables. The wasted time and irregular financial returns are leading to great economic and social waste.* > Woolley, Helan T., "Cincinnati Reseaioli Studiei under the Auspiou of the Public Schools." * Nearly all phases of the qualitative problem of Junior education and employ- ment are touched upon in local reports. Typical Work Records are included. 32 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS (13) What general and what specific information have they acquired in the schoolroom which has equipped them to understand their relation to one another and to society as a whole ? (14) To what extent have they shown initiative and leader- ship, or if they have not the qualities of leadership, have they shown ability to select leadership intelligently and to follow it discriminatingly ? A summary of replies to questions 13 and 14 would indicate much of value for the future welfare of our country. The above questions indicate, although they do not cover, the field of the qualitative phase of our subject. They indicate also the broad general knowledge which is required of the guidance and placement worker. Obvi- ously, individual analysis of this type cannot be accom- plished by the group system which is in vogue in the Bloomfield, Meyer, "Readings in Vocational Guidance/' Boston, Ginn & Co., 1915. Bloomfield, Meyer, "Youth, School and Vocation," New York, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1915 ; Chap. II : "The Wasteful Start and Inefficiency." Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, " Finding Employment for Children Who Leave the Grade Schools to Go to Work," by Breckinridge and Abbott, 1911. Hartford, Conn., Vocational Guidance Committee, Report, 1911-1913, Hartford, January, 1914. Hiatt, James H., "The Child, the School and the Job," Philadelphia City Club, Bulletin, December 27, 1912. Reprinted by the Public Education Association, Study No. 30. Lewis, Ervin E., "Work, Wages and Schooling of Eight Hundred Iowa Boys in Relation to the Problems of Vocational Guidance," Iowa University Extension, Bulletin No. 9, February 6, 1915. Minneapolis Teachers' Club, Vocational Survey of Minneapolis, 1913. Talbert, Ernest L., "Opportimities in School and Industry for Children of the Stockyards District," University of Chicago Press, 1912. WooUey, Helen Thompson, "Charting Childhood in Cincinnati," Surveti, August 9, 1913. Newark, N. J., Board of Education, "Vocational Overview of Newark," pre- pared by Charles H. Winslow, Newark, 1916. Reed, Anna Y., "Seattle Children in School and in Industry," Seattle, Board of Education, 1915. Pages 22, 24, 51, 59, 93 give the result of the writer's personal study is Seattle. MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 33 classroom of the average city system today. The six and a half million boys and girls under consideration repre- sent six and a half million individual social, educational, and occupational problems. The fact that they have not been so treated is one of the main reasons why they are "on the fence" today. \ The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service must profit by, not repeat, the errors of the educational system. Obviously, also, no agency is prepared to' furnish accurate individual data which would afford the placement department of the Service rehable information upon which to suggest the position which seems to offer the applicant the best oppor- tunity for personal development and at the same time supply the position with the worker best equipped to meet its demand. It will be many years before scientific record making of this type can be instituted in the public and private schools of this country, and many years before scientific placement systems will be at hand to build upon the foundation so offered. In the meantime, however, it is well for students of educational and employment problems to familiarize themselves with the beginnings which have been made in this direction. The careful reader will be surprised to find so much data from which generalization can be made and so many generalizations which contain suggestions for local progress. CHAPTER II EFFORTS TO SOLVE THE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM (Vocational Choice) "We live in the end and the beginning of an age. The forces of destruction and the forces of construction are traveling side by side." Great national movements are not born overnight. They are not the cfeild of a single brain nor are they the enterprise of a single agency. Theory and practice, prac- tice and theory, the real and the ideal, the ideal and the real, fact and fiction, fiction and fact, science and quackery, quackery and science — the forces of destruction and the forces of construction are ever traveling side by side. Each new movement in its evolution passes through stages in which now one and now the other is boimd to dominate. If the principle upon which the movement rests be sound, if there be a fundamental truth involved, then there is also an element of immortality. Sooner or later theory and practice, the real and the ideal, fact and fiction, science and quackery, are bound to be merged and human- ity receive the benefit of the merging. The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service is a national movement. Sometime it will become a great national movement. Whether or not that time be now depends entirely upon the vision of the American people and upon their abUity to put into practical operation the fundamental lessons of the great war. The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service was not born overnight. It is not the child of a 34 EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 35 single brain, nor is it the enterprise of a single agency. The contest between theory and practice, the real and the ideal, fact and fiction, science and quackery in their efforts to control the occupational choice of the young, makes just as interesting reading from the pages of ancient history as from the pages of a modern magazine. After all, hu- manity progresses slowly. It takes no prophetic vision to foresee that this contest will contiaue and that record making of a similar character will fill the pages of modem as well as of ancient history, until some reasonably prac- tical solution of the problem of employment be found — a solution which is sufficiently elastic to meet the demands of a progressive .civilization. Let us pass over the annals of ancient days and scan the pages of the last decade. Many agencies have been involved. Some altruistically, others selfishly; some inteUigently, others sentimentally. The point is that each has been interested and each has sought to formulate some theory of vocational selection or to establish some practical method of guidance which was the child of its own brain. Five agencies, or groups of agencies, have instituted efforts to help in the solution of the problem of "the boy on the fence" : (1) Philanthropic agencies, (2) Educational agencies, (3) Business organizations, (4) Pubhc Employment Offices, and (5) the federal government through the United States Employment Service estabUshed in the Department of Labor. As is the custom in this country, private or- ganizations have led the way,* the public schools have followed, and finally the federal government has become interested. It is without the province of this manual * In both England and Germany very valuable experimental guidance and placement was conducted under private auspices prior to the organization of the work on a national basis. 36 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS to go into details as to the origiir of the vocational guid- ance movement. Moreover, it is useless to do so. Several available pubhcations contain complete historical data on this phase of the subject, and the references cited may be augmented to whatever extent is desirable from the general bibliographies listed below.* 1. PHILANTHROPIC AGENCIES For those who have time, the history of philanthropic efforts is very interesting ; so also is the history of the organizations installed under the auspices of business associations and later turned over to the educational systems. Motives, purposes, and viewpoints have been varied ; naturally such variations have been reflected in methods and results.* The first conscious effort toward the organization of vocational guidance began with the work of E. W. Weaver in the Boys' High School of Brooklyn and of Frank Par- sons in his social settlement work in Boston, 1908-1909. In 1910 the first national vocational guidance conference was held in Boston and in 1913 a National Vocational Guidance Association was formally organized at Grand Rapids. Meetings have been held annually; profitable and pleasant associations have been formed, reports have been interesting, and discussions have, at times, been inspirational, but something has been lacking which was * Brewer, John M./and Kelly, Roy M., "Selected Bibliography of Vocational Guidance," Harvard Bulletins in Education, No. 4. Cambridge, Harvard Univer- sity, 1917. Bloomfield, Meyer, "Readings in Vocational Guidance," Boston, Ginn & Co., 1915. Compilation of the best Articles which appeared during the seven years prior to its publication. United States Bureau of Education, "Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools," W. Carson Ryan, Jr., Washington, 1918. (Bulletins, 1918, No! 24.) 2 The excellent pioneer work done by philanthropic agencies in Boston, Chicago, New York, Omaha, Cleveland, and elsewhere is referred to later, and more detailed information may be secured from the bibliographies. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 37 needed to vitalize the movement. The convention in St. Louis, February, 1919, practically terminated the existence of the first National Association for the Pro- motion of Vocational Guidance. A new national asso- ciation with the same purpose in view was announced at the Chicago meeting of the National Society for the Pro- motion of Vocational Education, February 21, 1920. 2. EDUCATIONAL AGBNCIES Information regarding the installation of vocational guidance departments in city schools is so incomplete and so unreliable that it is worthy of consideration only because it is indicative of a genuine interest in the idea and the ideals of vocational guidance and of a desire on the part of educators to make a start by incorporating this new phraseology in the school vocabulary and possibly also in the school curriculum. In June, 1914, about fifty cities reported the organization of vocational guid- ance in connection with their public school systems. In 1918, Dr. Ryan made a post-card inquiry as to the number of schools maintaining "departments or bureaus designed to assist young persons in securing employment." The object of the inquiry was definite information, for war use, as to the extent of placement work in connection with high schools. His inquiry was sent to 10,400 high schools ; 6628 replied, 932 reported vocational bureaus, employ- ment departments, or similar devices for placing pupils. A considerable number of those reporting were getting their first experience through the federal farm placement system known as the Boys' Working Reserve ; 53 explained that their employB(ient work was confined to the United States Boys' Working Reserve.' I Ryan, W. Carson, Jr., "Vocational Guidance and the Public School," Bureau of Education, Washington, 1919. 38 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS So much for statistical data on the progress of voca- tional guidance between 1914 and 1919. When we turn to the qualitative facts involved in the estabhshment of 932 school placement bureaus we are confronted with a dearth of information and a rare confusion of terms : (1) There is no agreement as to what constitutes voca- tional guidance. Vocational addresses given to groups , of high school students at stated intervals constitute vocational guidance for one system. The teacher who arranges these talks is often mentioned as director of vocational guidance. In another system, the same terminology may* be appUed to occupational informa-. tion classes or to individual conferences on vocational, choice. (2) There is no agreement as to what constitutes vocor tional placement. The writer has visited some cities advertising vocational guidance and vocational place- ment departments in charge of regularly appointed vocational advisers only to find that vocational advice was included under the general advisory duties of directors of girls' and boys' clubs, or advisers for boys and girls along all lines of guidance — educational, moral, social, physical, etc. Vocational placement was Umited to the placement of school boys and school girls where they might be self-supporting while completing their education. In such cases guidance meant helping the pupil to select a position which would give him or her the best opportunity to progress in school. Guidance may be well applied to this type of advisory work and placement should surely include positions ofifering "student aid," but unless the positions be selected with a vocational purpose it is difficult to see how "vocational" can legitimately be appUed to either function. At the other extreme of place- ment departments we find school clerks receiving tele- EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 39 phone messages, indicating that student help of some kind is wanted, and posting notices on the bulletin board where students who desire may keep informed on the prospects of employment. Guidance in such cases is entirely omitted ; the student aid feature is retained but there is no effort to include a vocational element. (3) There is no definite distinction between educational and vocational guidance, nor is there any general under- standing of the qualifications necessary for conducting either or both of these lines of work. Much of the work done under the name of vocational guidance is educational guidance and is coming more and more to be so recognized. (4) There is no uniformity in practice regarding the inclusion of placement in " Vocational Guidance, " and no statistics indicating the total volume of placement by school bureaus are available. (5) As a rule there is no centralization of labor supply and demand, and apparently no idea that such centraH- zation is one of the first requisites of "scientific place- ment." This is especially true of our city high schools. (6) In no instance has guidance and placement been extended to all the city's boys and girls. It is almost uniformly confined to school boys and girls and it is not uncommon to refuse assistance to pupils who have been out of school for any length of time or to boys and girls who are strangers in the city. (7) There is no central organization equipped for the collection and dissemination of facts relative to the suc- cess and failure of vocational guidance, no group of expert advisers and organizers prepared to aid systems in install- ing vocational guidance departments which are adapted to local heeds and at the same time based on the best national experience, and no agency through which accurate data as to present status can be secured. 40 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS Immediately after the completion of three years of research in vocational guidance for the Seattle Public Schools (1917) seven months were spent visiting twenty- five of the largest cities in the country which had reported the operation of vocational guidance, vocational place- ment, or similar departments. The following year, just prior to entering the federal service, a second national tour was made. A few school systems were found which had programs for vocational guidance; a few officials were designated as "directors of Vocational Guidance"; several were making, or had made, excellent research studies of a semi-vocational nature, including elimination, retardation, and the occupations entered by "drop outs," but not a single school system was found which had the remotest idea of what constituted an all-inclusive system of vocational guidance reaching every boy and girl in its domain distinct from, but closely cooperating with, educational guidance ; and finally, at the close of school life, offering the educational system an opportunity to function under the most favorable conditions through a centraUzed placement department. Nor do I know of more than two or three cities in the United States today which have any such inclusive plan in operation. A num- ber of individual schools were found in which very excel- lent guidance was offered by one or more persons who had had practical experience with business life. Quite a large number of technical and commercial high schools were doing satisfactory placement /or their own pupils. Several departments of attendance were offering guidance and employment assistance to such pupils as came to the office for emplojnnent certification, while the best organized continuation schools were assuming the responsibility for both guidance and placement without official titles or financial recognition. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 41 Minneapolis. Minneapolis offers one of the best illustrations of the wide breach existing between paper programs from which quantitative data are secured and actual operating facts acquired by local observation and analysis. The Vocational Survey, 1913, recommended the establishment of a Department of Vocational Guid- ance with a very complete program of operation. Such a department was estabhshed comprising School Census, School Attendance, Employment Certification, Voca- tional Guidance, Placement and Employment Supervision. A director was appointed, as were also vocational teachers and home visitors. Several years have passed since this program was drawn up. During this time a number of visits have been made to MinneapoUs for the purpose of studying the progressive development of the work. The school census is unusually well handled, so also is school attendance and employment certification, but I have not yet been abl^ to discover any real system of vocational guidance in connection with the pubhc schools, nor have those most interested in the work ever assumed that there was such a department functioning in the manner that was anticipated when the program was made. Th^re have been three or four changes in directors and one or two olher rather serious handicaps, but the fact remains that the Minneapolis school system, with one of the most complete programs ever instituted and under what pos- sibly have been the most favorable conditions ever offered*, has not developed a real vocational guidance department. The results of "guidance" are intangible. No one of us is able to know what real assistance has been rendered those who seek our offices for advice on occupational life. There is, however, one very accurate test by which we may judge the results of guidance offered during the period of school life : if we are operating a placement department 42 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS and if our knowledge of occupational life and our methods of guidance are such that they have won the confidence of our pupils, they will instinctively turn to us for placement at the close of the school days. If the small number of pupils who are introduced to business houses through school departments indicates that guidance and place- ment workers know how to analyze the personnel of different houses and use selective abiUty in recommend- ing young workers, then business houses too will instinc- tively turn to the school when they are in need of a second or third' employee. As a general rule, then, we may say that whenever school systems have instituted departments of guidance and placement, and have supposedly been in operokion two or more years and have failed to he able to pool both the labor supply and demand, at least in so far as it con- cerns the supply of labor coming directly from the school- room to industry, they have fdnled to be successful depart- ments. Placement statistics for MinneapoUs for the last year show that but 1800 placements have been made through the combined efforts of the central office and the various high schools. Obviously the vocational depart- ment of the MinneapoUs schools is not functioning. MinneapoUs has been mentioned in detail because, if aU the facts were available, it has probably made as good if not a better record than other cities. The possible and probable reason why such well-programmed ventures have shown such poor results wiU be discussed later. At this point it is well to note that none of the school placement bureaus have made what could be called a minimum of success of the placement feature of vocational guidance. It is fair to assume, therefore, that they have also failed to a considerable extent in the advisory features. Omaha. The Omaha bureau operated by the Associa- tion of CoUegiate Alumnse under the Board of Education EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 43 was apparently well handled, yet its report for 1917 indi- cated only 510 new applicants for advice and assistance, 275 placements^ and 657 calls from employers. The bureau did a limited piece of work well, but for a mmiber of reasons its efficiency was continually kept at the minimum. Flace- ments 1 S 8,000 2 000 1 1,000 400 200 1 " . 1 1 1 1 1 1 Boston 1913 Cleveland 1915 Omaha 1917 Minneapolis July 1, 1918 to Jane 30, 1919 Cincinnati July 1, 1918 to Jane 30, 1919 Chart showing comparison in number of placements in five cities during 1913, 1915, 1917, and 1919. Boston.'^ The Boston bureau, organized in 1912, had in 1919 hardly scratched the surface of the junior employ- ment problem in that city and still it would be hard to find a more comprehensive or more logical vocational ' Boston : Brewer, John M., "Vocational Guidance Movement: Its Problems and Poafli- bilities," New York, Macmillan, 1918. Brooks, Stratton D., "Vocational Guidance in Boston Public Schools," Address at First National Conference on Vocational Guidance, Boston, 1910. Aleo in Bloomfield's "Keadings in Vocational Guidance," pp. 83-91. 44 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS gmdance program than that contained in the Report of the Superintendent for 1913. The more one reads this report, the more one feels that it offers very little oppor- tunity for either destructive or constructive criticism. It is a 'program, a very complete, very logical, very progressive program, for vocational guidance in all its phases. The fault lies in the fact that to too large an extent it has always remained a program. I know of no better class assignment for college and normal schools than analysis of this Boston report of 1913 as the basis of a complete practical prograim for vocational guidance as we are hoping to develop it today. The superintendent's " next steps in vocational counsel " foretells the value of a placement bureau " when compulsory continuation schools are organized " and indicates full realization on his part that the continuation schools are to be th,e pivotal point for the solution of the problem of " the bojrs on the fence." The continuation schools have come, but the " next steps " have not been taken except in so far as they have been effected by the principals and teachers in charge of the continuation schools. There has been no central leadership such as was suggested in this excellent report; on the other hand, a recent report on placement of pupils in the continuation schools indicates that the Boston Placement Bureau has secured positions for only 1.8 per cent of the pupils enrolled in those schools.* Ryan, W. CaTaon, Jr., "Vocational Guidance and tlie Public Schools," Wash- ington, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1918, No. 24, Boston, pp. 83-84. "Vocational Counsel," reprinted from the Report of the Boston High Schools, 1913. Vocational Guidance Bureau, Boston, "Vocational Guidance and the Work of the Vocational Guidance Bureau of Boston," Boston, 1915. Greener, George C.\ "An Experimentation in Vocational Guidance and Place- ment." Reprint from the February and March, 1919, Induetrial Arts Magazine. This is an excellent article containing statistics on Boston wage earners and other information desirable for teachers or placement workers. > Brewer, "Vocational Guidance Movements," p. 109. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 45 The Boston Placement Bureau was organized in 1912 as a cooperative a,gency — social agencies and the public schools. Its first annual report contains the following information : Placement Bureau. Brief statistical summary, May 20, 1912-June 30, 1913. 1. Total number of schools represented . . 90 Elementary 66 High 12 Industrial 2 Parochial and miscellaneous 10 2. Total number of firms investigated and ap- proved 1034 3. Total nimiber of applications from em- ployers 941 4. Total number of 1912 graduates and 1912- 13 "drop outs" followed up and re- ported to masters of schqols . . . 431 5. Total number of placements of 1912 grad- uates and 1912-13 drop outs ... 279 The author has been presenting Boston facts for 1912-13 when guidance and placement was largely under the direc- tion of private agencies rather than imder the direction of the public schools. The author visited the Boston schools several times between 1912 and 1920. In view of the program of 1912-13 and in the fight of facts regarding the progress of the program of vocational guidance and placement during the first year of operation, some facts are now offered which were noted on the author's first visit to Boston after entering the federal service, when most of the guidance and placement instituted in 1912 under private auspices had passed under the control of the public schools. 46 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS The following is quoted from notes taken on December 16, 1918, during conference with those who are in charge of the work : "Guidance is available to all children of the Boston public schools who seek its assistance and advice, but not available for private schools or boys and girls who come from out of town." "We win not permit boys and girls who come in to Boston from other cities to register here. They should go to the federal offices and stay there." "1200 boys and girls used the bureau in 1917." "Boys and girls under 21 must get a new certificate every time they change occupations. 54,861 certificates were issued in 1917. Some were renewals." "The federal and state offices send boys and girls under 16 up here and we expect to take care of them if they have not been out of school over one year." At the federal public employment offices we found some interesting facts relative to junior placement : ^ (1) Approximately 30 per cent of women applicants were girls under 21 years of age, all of whom would be obliged to go to the school office to secure employment certificates before they could enter upon employment. (2) Examiners in charge had no special knowledge of Boston educational agencies, of the educational require- ments for entering positions, of the advanced study neces- sary for progress in the different lines, nor of the funda- mental requirements for vocational training of different kinds. Advice was eagerly sought on a number of prob- lems involving combined knowledge of education and employment. What could be done with the young girls who came back time and time again because they fell below the minimum wage standard? One girl who had commenced to work at fourteen had just secured her sixty- fifth position. She was then nineteen years of age. Seven- teen girls had been sent to the same position in an effort EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 47 to meet the needs of the employer and the last girl had just been refused. A visit to the employer indicated that the type of young girl needed required careful selective ability but that he was not particularly hard to please. The type of placement clerk handling adult women does not often have the discriminating abUity essential to the selection of these younger workers. One very con- scientious placement clerk was all at sea regarding advice for bright young girls sixteen to nineteen years of age who were " too good " for factory work but who had had no office training. She was advising such girls to go to a business college and prepare for stenographic positions. Together we went over her record cards only to discover that there was not one single instance in which such advice had been given where the girl had gone beyond the grammar school! Advice on such problems should be given by the educational system or at least by those who are thoroughly informed on educational subjects. (3) In the men's office we learned that during the first two weeks of December approximately 800 boys, 14 to 18 years old, had applied for positions and 237 had been placed. November statistics showed 312 boys placed. Placement records indicated that nearly all of these boys were Boston grammar school graduates and quite a number had been through the second year of high school. All were obliged to go to the school department for employment certification. Examiners reported boys from 14 to 18 exceptionally difficult to handle and regretted that there was not some distinct provision made for them where they could, be registered by men who understood their peculiar needs and tendencies. In addition to the evil results of high war wages there was constant drifting from job to job with criticism on every position which they attempted to fill. Very few realized the importance of 48 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS steady work, and most of them had no conception of what constituted a good job. In view of the elaborate vocational information pro- gram of 1913 whereby elementary pupils were to be given the benefit of courses in this subject one may well ask : Is vocational guidance functioning in the Boston public schools? In view of the fact that a placement biu:eau has. been in operation since 1912 and is registering about 1200 per year, whereas an ordinary adult pubhc employ- ment office will register approximately the same number per month, one may well ask: Is the Boston Vocation Bureau functioning efficiently? Did it have a market in the earher days and lose it, or has it never been able to create one? If the Boston public schools want to know how education isJunctioning today, they cannot find out from their own vocation bureau but are forced to go to the public offices which are placing adult workers. The 'Boston bureau in its inception was the beneficiary of unquestioned leadership, but the sum total of its experiences seems to indicate that it has deteriorated in vision, in scope, in purpose, in methods, and in the prac- tical realization of its earlier ideals. Perusal of the printed material from the days of Mr. Parson's initial experience down to the present shows a much broader vision, a more inclusive scope, a more definite purpose, and more scientific methods in 1912-13 than anything which Boston is operating today. The vocational guidance and placement system of the Boston schools seems to have incased itself in a big educational thermos bottle from which it will not emerge and which it has hermetically sealed to the great majority of Boston youths, especially to those who have be- come contaminated by one year of experience with "life." New York City. While Boston was centralizing many of her philanthropic beginnings within her academic EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPtOYMENT PROBLEM 49 thermos bottle, New York City was proceeding in exactly the opposite direction. The vocational guidance move- ment in New Yprk City is susceptible neither to analysis nor to synthesis. H. G. Wells' description of " heavenly beginnings " — a " countless number of heavenly begin- nings " — is strangely appUcable to the inception, prog- ress, and present status of vocational guidance and placement in New York. And they have been " heavenly beginnings." Some very superior advisory work has been done by the philanthropic organizations of New York City.^ Several of these organizations do no placement work. The public schools have made some excellent beginnings but have been no more successful than other agencies in centralizing their efforts. The work of the Boys' High School and of the Vocational Guidance Asso- ciation of Brooklyn have acquired a national reputation due to the fact that they were operated under the direc- tion of Mr. E. W. Weaver.' The Washington Irving * New York : Bairows, Alice P., "Vocational Giiidance Survey," New York City, Public Education Association, 1913, Bulletin No. 9. Odencrantz, Louise C, "Placement Work for Women and Girls in New York City," New York, Vocational Guidance Association, 1915. Ryan, W. Carson, Jr., "Vocational Guidance, and the Public Scliools," Wash- ington, Biu-eau of Education, 1918, Bulletin No. 24, New York City, pp. 87-89, 93-94. Stevens, Bertha M., "The Placement of Average Children," New York Voca- tional Guidance Association, Proceedings of Second Conference, 1912, pp. 18-20. United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York, Report of Committee on Vocational Guidance, New York, 1917. Vocational Guidance, Report of Committee on High Schools and Training Schools, New York City, Board of Education, 1914. Excerpts in Bloomfield's "Readings in Vocational Guidance," pp. 288-345. Women's Municipal League of the City of Ne^w York, "When All Life is Before You," in Women and the City*a Work. Leaflet publications, vol. 3, No. 33, 1918. Summarizes study of 42 agencies in New York City engaged in placement and vocational giiidance work. ' No student of vocational guidance and placement can afford to be ignorant of the work of E. W. Weaver, who has contributed more than his share to the progress of both the theory and practice of vocational guidance, and who is undoubtedly one of the leading authorities on this subject today. E 50 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS High School graduates approximately 800 girls annually. In 1918 it placed about 250 through its own bureau. The Manhattan Trade School for girls operates a bureau for its own graduates. This was aflSHated with the federal service during the war. There are many other similar bureaus in New York. Miss Louise Odencrantz, who has been closely associated with the development of junior offices in New York, and who was one of the sponsors for the State Juvenile Employment law in the November, 1915, issue of Manual Training and Vocational Educa- tion, lists sixty-two organizations doing some sort of philanthropic placement work; forty-six in an incidental way, and sixteen in a more or less systematic manner. She closes her presentation of conditions as follows: "The mere fact that so many organizations with such widely differing objects have found it necessary or expedient to divert a part of their limited time, funds, and efforts to such work emphasizes the need of some organized effort in this direction. "Moreover, the settlement worker is usually jiist about as limited in her opportunities for finding an opening for a girl as the girl herself. The result is that a girl who happens to apply to a social worker who knows a foreman in a brush factory thus becomes a brush maker." Miss Odencrantz's statement admits of no comment. The situation has not changed materially since 1915. There is now a State Employment Service authorized to provide juvenile employment offices, but little has yet been done by the state authorities toward the estabUsh- ment of such juvenile offices, to say nothing of any attempt to solve the entire junior problem. State development in this direction has been limited by lack of funds, re- striction as to number and location of offices, and lack of trained personnel which knows the character of the " gap " between school and industry, why it exists, and how to bridge it. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 51 Prior to the war there was a movement under way to coordinate the non-comniercial employment agencies, and the juvenile offices were beginning toreaUze the importance and necessity for such a scheme. The labor problem involved in the equipping of our military machine required centralization of the labor supply and demand under some national organization. This organization was the United States Employment Service. The juvenile offices responded patriotically to the demand for consolidation under the federal government, although after events indi- cated that the government had nothing to offer in the shape of trained leadership whUe the efficiency of the offices for their original purposes was seriously handi- capped by certain changes in location of offices, personnel, etc. The task for New York today is to find some one with a sufficiently inclusive grasp of its junior employ- ment needs to take hold of the vast problems presented and combine all the splendid beginnings into one city-wide organization responding to all the needs of all the city's youth without sacrificing the benefits of the countless movements which have been so helpful to the children of the various districts. Chicago. Vocational guidance and placement have received considerable attention in Chicago. The Women's Clubs, assisted by the Association of Commerce, instituted the movement which was privately financed from 1911 to 1916, when it became a part of the public school system. Although the present effort is designated by the Board of Education as a " Bureau of Vocational Guidance " and the official in charge as " Vocational Adviser for the Chicago Public Schools," the Bureau comes in contact with comparatively few of Chicago's school pupils and then only such as are under control of the compulsory attendance law and therefore seek its office for employ- 52 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS ment certification. Commercial placements in the Chicago high schools have been fairly well centralized through the supervisor of commercial education for the , city. So far as we have been able to ascertain the official handling this work has won and is holding the confidence of the business houses. The technical high schools also have made a reputation for selective ability in placing their pupils. The main difficulty in Chicago is the lack of reahzation of the necessity for systematic guidance and of the value of a centraUzed placement system which provides an opportunity for guidance to fimction and affords an agency by means of which the market value of the educational product can be accurately estimated and suggestions for the reorganization or modification of school curricula be transmitted to administration officials. Chicago, hke New York City, has many " heavenly beginnings " with " no leading, no correlation, no plan." ' Cincinnati. The Vocational Bureau and Placement Office of the Cincinnati Pubhc Schools is the only bureau of its type in operation. Research has always been the dominant factor. Careful mental and physical tests, accompanied by accurate statistical records, have been its methods of ascertaining the comparative influences of work life and of school life upon juvenile workers. Al- though this investigation has, of necessity, been narrow in scope and limited in results, it has afforded some valuable fundamental information, and its methods have 1 Information on the Chicago bureau may be found in : Bloomfield's " Readings in Vocational Guidance," "School and the Working Child," Breckinridge and Abbott, pp. 485-503. Ibid., "The American Child in the Stockyards District," Montgomery, pp. 454-484. Ibid., "Opportunities in School and Industry for Children of the Stockyards District," Talbert, pp. 396-453. Ryan, W. Carson, Jr., " Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools," Washinp- ton. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1918, No. 24, p. 89. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 53 been far more scientific than those in vogue in most school bureaus. Placement records for Cincinnati are available from the date of inception and are very valuable as definite proof of the very limited amount of placement done by even the best of the school bureaus ; of the failure of such bureaus to be of assistance to the majority of young wage earners " at the port of entry " ; of the lack of confidence which older pupils seem to have in their abihty to advise and place eflSciently, and of their failure to function as agencies for readjustment and replacement.' Table I Cehtificateb Granted NuMBsR Regis- TEHED IN, Place- ment Office Ntjmbek op FLACEUENTa 1915-16 . . . 1916-17 . . . 1917-18 . . . 1918-19 . . . 1919-20 . . . 1,888 2,102 2,845 2,468 912 1,199 986 1,074 1,197 328 741 848 370 1,022 346 10,215 4,784 3,827 Table I indicates that approximately 36 per cent of certified pupils have secured their positions through the bureau, while i there is nothing to indicate that the use- fulness of the bureau as an agency for pooling the junior labor supply and distributing it economically and effec- 1 Statistical information secured from the Cincinnati Bureau, December 16^ 1919. The most complete information on the organization, operation, and service of this department is found in : Bloomfield's " Readings in Vocational Guidance," pp. 129-142. Ryan, W. Carson, Jr., *' Vocational Guidance and the Public Schools," "Washine- ton, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1918, No. 24. WooUey, Helen T., ** Charting Childhood in Cincinnati," Cincinnati Child Labor Department of the Public Schools, The Survey^ August, 1913, also in Bloomfield's " Readings in Vocational Guidance," pp. 220-233. Fischer, Charlotte R., ** Mental and Physical Measurements of Working Chil- dren," Princeton, N. J., Psychological Review Co., 1914, Vol. XVIII, No. L. 54 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS tively at the source has been accomplished. The same fact is discernible in all of our school bureaus, although fe^ have records which afford definite proof of the extent of the validity of the charge. Table II gives us a total placement, covering four years and four months, of 4791, 3382 being 15 and 16 years of age or the ages included in the compulsory education laws. Comparison of placement statistics year by year is of Uttle value, as the industrial conditions have been so varied during the period under discussion that many unavailable factors would have to be taken into con- sideration before legitimate conclusion could be drawn relative to the increasing or decreasing influence of the bitteau as a placement agency. We are, however, war- ranted in assuming that four years of research has had little or no influence in the advancement of scientific placement methods which tend to win the confidence of Cincinnati junior workers or of Cincinnati business houses. The Cincinnati bureau has tabulated statistics which indicate that the median wage of boys and girls placed by the bureau is higher than the median of those who secure their positions either for themselves or through other agencies. As we have seen no study similar to this and have often desired to secure statistics along the same line, it is worthy of mention for those who may be interested in the same problem. A number of junior placement offices are attempting to secure data on this subject and it may be well to issue a warning regarding the danger of incorrect interpretation of statistical data without sufficient general knowledge of the type of appUcant placed by the bureau relative to the type which seeks its own position, and without making due allow- ance for industrial conditions which alter the ability of young wage earners to secure positions more or EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 55 o H u EQ § O ^ 2 ■< s t" n o I 3 I Ph 00 _ i-t E 00 to 1 1 CO 1 t- t^ CO ^ »H N |tS 1 1 1 ■* r^ 'tH iH 00 3 o CO '^ '4< rH rH T-i SS!'*^; rH . '^iS (N rH CO ^ t,S o» rH N 0» >0 M "3 T»l CD t- ■* ■* § -iS IM rH 00 rH CO rH rH &I to i lO OS .^ CO "3 ■* (N lO rH t- tH J2oo-*oo "3 CO rH rH rH rH S rH "1 CO >0 N t- ffl O 1 1 1 1 1 1 00 t« CO CO CO ^ 1 1 1 1 1 1 >* e^ X ■* OS U3 rH CD CO Q (N 0> 05 Co O C» lO 1-H O OS CO •* (N 05 CO N rH rH ^ CO ■* in CO y-t i J:i 00 rH tH N U3 CO t» U3 t~ O "O o M ■* CO (N CO o CD U3 O 1> rH £ "iS T— I CO y-t CD 3 rH O OJ lO tH CD o OS ■* t~ OS rH t- ■* "O 03 N t^ rH t> "3 ■* 1> "|S N 05 (N rH (N (N 00 CO "3 t» lO 00 CO O CO lO CO 1 1 1 1 1 1 Tfl CO CO CO CO rH 1 1 1 1 1 1 |x rH* • .... • • • . . . . • • i !« CO 09 Q § ■ .... 1^ .... ■ tl =Q3 ss S-^ ss M 1 CO t- 00 05 1 CO t- 00 OS a r^ 1-* i~t 1-^ 1-i rH y-t 1-i 1-^ tH y^ rH DQ J) CD I> 00 -e • lO CD t> 00 +j J y-t i~t ^^ T^ Q< rH rH rH rH Oi d Oi Oi Oi Oi ST c3 OS OS OS OS ST OS rH rH rH rH CQ Hj rH rH rH rH OQi-9 56 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS readily without assistance of any kind. At the present time we have one office in which nearly aU the place- ments of the very young average a lower wage than for those who seek their own positions. Local investigation revealed that the bureau was best known by the various social agencies to which those who are below the minimum of efficiency apply and who were sent by them to the junior placement bureau. Tests indicate that efficiency is below normal and lower salaries are accepted. In this city the higher class of wage earner is in such demand that no assistance is necessary in securing positions ; all are readily placed " at the gate." 3. BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS Business men's interest in the vocational guidance movement has been of two types : (1) general apprecia- tion of the idea of vocational guidance and the necessity for the school functioning as a more efficient selective institution, (2) the practical reaUzation that immature minds are too often the prey of radicahsm and the cause of excessive labor turnover. Interest of this type has resulted in various organizations assuming the initiative in the installation of vocational guidance departments which have later been turned over to the schools. Chicago affords an excellent example of this type. The National Association of Corporation Schools, and to some extent the National Association of Employment Managers, has taken a more definite, more scientific, and more pro- fessional interest in studying the problem first hand. The inability of education to take the initiative in solv- ing the intensive training problem due to war pressure increased the active interest of such organizations, and it is only fair to admit that leadership along the lines of practical guidance is now coming from the National EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 57 Association of Corporation Schools rather than from the public schools. The best available material in print today on practical vocational guidance is found in the reports of the National Association of Corporation Schools. Their discussions afford much helpful sug- gestion for educational systems. 4. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES No historical outline of the development of the voca- tional guidance movement is complete which faUs to include the general interest taken by the National Associa- tion of Public Employment OflB.ces and the few instances in which intelligent local interest has culminated in practical placement bureaus. Review of the Proceed- ings of the American Association of Public Employment Offices from December, 1913, to the present indicates that the problem of the young wage earner has never been entirely neglected by public employment officials, but the responsibility for guidance and placement has ever been recognized as a cooperative function shared alike by the educator and the placement worker and that, all things taken into consideration, the one office which has probably done the best junior placement work in the United States is a public employment office, al- though it was organized under private auspices. I refer to the Girls' Vocational Bureau of Cleveland, which was instituted by the Consumers' League of that city, in December, 1908, operated privately for six years, and on July 1, 1915, made a part of the Cleveland system of labor exchanges, the state subsidizing it to the extent of $2500. This office seems to me to be the nearest approach to a genuine public vocational guidance and placement department that has yet been attained. It has been reasonably successful in centralizing junior 58 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS labor supply and demand, it has had a definite program for vocational information, vocational guidance and placement, and it has cooperated with the public schools. 40,000 1915 80.000 1 ■1 i 20,000 1 1 10,000 m 00 1 ' 1 New SegibtTfttion Renewals Referred to FositioiiB 1 Placed Chart ehowing new regiatrations, renewals, referred to positions and placed in Girls' Vocational Bureau in Cleveland, Ohio. It has made vocational studies and has done efficient placement work. Its report for 1915 indicates that its usefulness as a placement bureau far outranks that of any bureau operating under educational leadership. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 59 At present the Girls' Vocational Bureau is operating in connection with the Municipal-State-Federal Depart- ment for Women ; the boys have been provided for in the men's division. Those in charge of both sexes are well-trained placement workers with the educational as well as the industrial viewpoint, and I have yet to see any work for juniors in the country which is more satis- factorily done. Steps have been taken toward uniting these junior departments with the pubHc school through the Junior Division of the United States Employment Serv- ice. Mr. Alfred P. Fletcher, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, in charge of Vocational Work, has been appointed Superintendent of Junior Placement for the city of Cleve- land, and as time goes on and the work of the government becomes more permanent it is hoped that the experience of the trained women who are handling the public offices will be available for cooperation with the educational workers and that one of the best departments in the country may result. Some state legislation has been enacted which gives prominence to the importance of junior placement. In 1913 the pubhc employmrait offices of Boston reported a juvenile department and in 1918 a bill was introduced into the state legislature providing for state-wide voca- tional guidance under the State Board of Education. Section 4 of this bill declares that " The term vocational guidance, wherever used in this bill, shall mean that form of vocational information and education which deals with systematic advice concerning the vocational capacity and prospects of pupils, the choice of schools, the investigation of occupational advantages and disadvantages, the placement in employment, to the end that the young worker may be guided and directed towards progressive eflSciency, both as a worker and a citizen." The bill failed of enactment. 60 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS New York State emplojrment legislation and the development of juvenile oflSces under state supervision h^ already been mentioned. Recently enacted legislation in Indiana and in Kansas has made provision for placement of juniors. Kansas provides for the placement of " men, women, and juniors." Indiana not only has made provision for guidance and placement but has permitted her employment service to assume some of the functions usually assigned to the field of education. Both states have followed the federal department in substituting " junior " for " juvenile " and in extending the age limit to 21 years.* Several cities in states which have never made any legal provision for separate junior offices operated junior offices during the war. Boys under 18 were found es- pecially difficult to handle in connection with over- crowded adult offices, and economy of time and effort led to their segregation. Chicago affords a good illustration of this type of junior placement office. Its volume of work was large. Such offices were a part of the Federal- State Service and hence were a part of the United States EmplojTnent Service, but when the Junior Division was organized the majority of their officials were not trans- ferred to the Junior Division corps, therefore they have not been rated as bona fide departments of the Junior Employment Service. In 1917 the Children's Code Commission of Missouri called attention to the fact that in Missouri in normal times approximately 15,000 industrially untrained children , go to work annually at 14 years of age. It suggested that youth over 16 could be placed through adult offices and < Classes making a study of methods of organizing and administering employ- ment systems should be familiar with the various methods in use in this and other countries. Indiana is the only state which has an Employment Commission. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 61 recommended that the State Employment Service or- ganize a division for the placement of the juvenile group of wage earners between 14 and 16. The recommenda- tion was not included in the report.^ 5. FEDEBAL GOVERNMENT Although various national organizations, notably the National Vocational Guidance Association, the National Education Association, the Bureau of Education, the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, the Y. M. C. A., K. of C, Y. M. H. A., Y. W. C, 4., American Federation of Labor, National Association of Corporation Schools, National Federation of Women's Clubs, etc., have taken considerable interest in vocatibnal guidance and place- ment, their interest has been expressed almost entirely in discussion and pubUcations. There has never been any concerted national interest in vocational guidance and placement which has resulted in a practical, central- ized information agency prepared to offer leadership in collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and disseminating vocational information or in aiding communities to institute local departments. "Whatever of practical value has come about through the influence of any national organization has been very largely the result of inspira- tional propaganda combined with local initiative, or of financial ' contributions due to interest of the parent society which the community too often has not appre- ciated or utilized to the best advantage. Local initiative assisted and guided by national experience might have accomplished much ; or financial assistance accompanied by inspiration and wise direction might have resulted ' "Missouri Children's Code Commission," a complete revision of the laws fOT the welfare of Missouri children, Jefferson City, Mo., 1919. "Becommendations . . . not included in the Code," pp. 61-6S. 62 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS equally advantageously. As it is, most local ventures have been obliged to carry the burden of certain in- herent weaknesses which have handicapped their de- velopment and tended, to discredit their efforts. There has been nothing to vitalize the movement. It has savored too much of a philanthropic or social service proposition and too little of a practical commercial ven- ture. Its officials have been social rather than practical minded; have been uniformly low paid; have lacked occupational information, ability to interpret industry, and foresight in anticipating industrial change. Un-f certainty regarding permanency of the service has made the best talent unavailable. Employers have been tolerant, in certain instances indulgent, in a few cases very helpful, but they have never been enthusiastic and have never had much confidence in ultimate results. When the armistice was signed the situation relative to the replacement of junior war workers either in school or in industry was one of the most serious problems of reconstruction. No national organization was prepared to take the initiative in its solution. The situatioii at the close of the war may be summarized somewhat as follows : I (1) There had been much interest in and much general discussion on vocational guidance and placement, dating from 1908. (2) Many educational systems had instituted " some kind of vocational guidance program " — many of these programs were excellent but in the great majority of cases progress had not proceeded beyond the program. (3) No school system had been able to attain a minimum of success in vocational guidance, while the placement featmre was either entirely omitted or too small in volume to merit attention. (4) No school system had had sufficient vision to open EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 63 its biireau to all the city's children. After years of criticism of an educational policy which has been so se- lective that it has managed to eliminate 90 per cent of its charges before completion of the course, educators dehberately chose to institute a new educational agency based on the same type of class distinctions — their vocational guidance and placement departments were for their school boys and girls, not for wage-earning boys and girls. Statistics from vocational bureaus show that the schools have been fully as successful in eliminating juniors from the benefits of vocational guidance and placement as from the classroom. Obviously, even the few school bureaus in operation could not be expected to function as readjustment and replacement bureaus for the thousands of junior war workers. (5) Philanthropic organizations had made many excellent experiments but had established no central organization for pooling their experience and efforts and were not available as a large factor in replacement and readjustment. (6) The Boys' Working Reserve ^ which was organized to meet the agricultural emergency arising from the war, had fulfilled its mission, and was to be closed as Soon as possible with a minimum of injustice to boys who had anticipated service during the next season. If the boys 16 to 21 years old who had enrolled as agricultural wage earners were to be dropped without positions after the armistice, what was to become of the thousands of boys and girls who had enrolled in other war-essential industries? With these and other pertinent facts in mind the Jun- ior Section of the United States Employment Service was created by order of the Director General, December 6, 1918, ' The Boys' WorkinB Reserve was organized by Mr. W. E. Hall, President of Boys' Club Federation, and made a Division of the United States Employment Service. Mi. Hall was National Director from the date of organization until ita termination, October 1, 1919. 64 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS and was charged with the duty of caring for wage-earning boys and girls under 21 years of age. Mr. J. B. Davis of Grand Rapids, Mich., was appointed Chief in Charge of Boys' Work, and Mrs. Anna Y. Reed, of Seattle, Wash., Assistant Chief in Charge of Girls' Work. Other duties claimed Mr. Davis' attention and he was unable to assume responsibilities for national organization work. He therefore tendered his resignation February 10, 1919, and Mrs. Reed took charge of the entire section, retaining the title of Assistant Chief until the completion of the work of the Boys' Working Reserve made more definite plans possible. With the closing of the Boys' Working Reserve, Mr. Hall returned to private business and Mrs. Reed was appointed as Assistant to the Director General in Charge of the Jxmior Division. The first federal department was established in Provi- dence, R. I., March, 1919, in cooperation with the educa- tional system. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh followed. At the date of writing there are nominal departments in eleven large cities but neither the national nor the local offices claim complete organization or entirely satisfactory work. Providence, Pittsburgh, and South Bend are functioning in a most creditable manner, i.e., they are laying the foundation upon .which we all feel that a comprehensive, scientific, modern vocational guidance and placement department is in process of being built. Statistics from these combined federal- educational offices indicate that a much larger volume, of work is being handled than was the case when they were educational offices only, and that the introduction of the practical viewpoint has increased rather than decreased their educational value. Statistics prove that employers are using the offices more generally than are the schools — something which educators must remedy. EFFORTS TO SOLVE EMPLOYMENT PROBLEM 65 They also prove that educators have an excellent oppor- tunity to advise and inform young wage earners prior to school leaving, which up to date they have not utilized. The main advantages in the Junior Division of the United States Employment Service lie in the facts that it is the first practical national expression of national interest in the problems involved in the employment of the young; that it combines theory and practice ; that it is equipped for scientific research ; that its plans include leadership in the collection, analyzation, interpretation, and dis- se^nination of information;' that it offers advice and assistance in the organization of local offices; that it refuses to include in its national membership junior offices which fail to institute and maintain definite place- ment standards ; that its personnel is thoroughly familiar with the educational functions most intimately related to its own — continuation schools, compulsory attend- ance, boys' and girls' clubs, etc. The Junior Division has not yet accomplished very much. It has proceeded very slowly and has attempted to lay a safe foimdation. It has a very limited trained personnel, but by means of fellowships, of which it has offered four, and by training on the job, it is attempting to overcome this deficiency. Three semi-reorganizations of the United States Employment Service have taken place during the year of its existence, each, to some extent, handi- capping it in continuity of pohcy. Its handicaps have, however, been more than neutralized by the support and encouragement received from the Secretary of Labor and the Director General of the Employment Service and by their faith in its ultimate success. If Congress decides to make the Employment Service a permanent governmental institution, the future of the Junior Division promises well. p 66 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS A list of cities cooperating with the Federal-State Serv- ice August 21, 1920, and the agency through which cooperation is effected is offered. Development is in all stages of progress, varying from the mere appointment of a Superintendent in charge of organization to a fairly complete organization conducting a training center. Berrien County, Michigan Boston, Massachusetts . . Qeveland, Ohio . . . Detroit, Michigan . . . Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Minneapolis, Minnesota . New York City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Providence, Rhode Island Seattle, Washington . . South Bend, Indiana . . St. Paul, Minnesota . . Washington, D. C. . . Worcester, Massachusetts County School System. Public Schools. Dropped July 1, 1920, owing to the desire of the Board of Education to eliminate leadership through the Superintendent in Charge of Vocational Education and substi- tute cooperation with the Public School Vocational Bureau and limit registration to Public School pupils. Public Schools. PubUc Schools. Catholic Community Service. Public Schools. Possibly to become a training center. PubUc Schools. Public Schools and White-Williams Eoundation. Closed temporarily AprO 16, 1920, due to lack of trained personnel and imcertain conditions in the schools. Public Schools. A training center. PubUc Schools. Young Women's Christian Association (girls only). Public Schools. PubUc Schools. Independent Jimior Service. Dropped temporarily probably to be reestab- Ushed as a training center. PubUc Schools. PART II FUNCTIONS AND .METHODS OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE AND PLACEMENT CHAPTER III EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE "Vocational guidance is a bit of new and popular phraseology which carries with it a variety of meanings and is open to a variety of interpretations." No one can definitely define the functions of ~ voca- tional guidance, indicate the one best method of procedure, or enumerate the exact results to be attained by it. "In the minds of some it is an indefinite something which is too intangible to attempt to define, much less to utUize. It is some- thing to be avoided. In the minds of others it is something decidedly definite but means nothing more scientific than free employment. Somewhere between these two extremes there is to be found a logical, purposeful, vocational guidance program, which sooner or later will be incorporated in our educational system." ' The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service does not claim to send out "experts" in voca- tional guidance nor does it believe that experience in voca- tional guidance has yet been broad enough or scientific enough to venture to advocate any " system " of vocational guidance. Progress in vocational guidance is in its infancy. Its development depends on elasticity and adaptability, factors rarely found in any " system." Progress in vocational guidance also depends on progress in psychology and sociology, sciences which are stUl in their infancy. The Junior Division does believe, however, that the time has come for the few workers who have had extended practical experience in vocational guidance to 1 Reed, Anna Y., "Vocational Guidance Report," 1913-16, Seattle, Board of Education, 1917, p. 13. 69 70 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS o, o O O o o ^ O 9 111 — 1 SchoolB and CoUegu — O o EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 71 g lij- a Si o J ai ..0. 1 °!| ; h S' ^ 5i a 1 liL W 9 1 ** §1 J B Q 72 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS summarize the results of that experience in such a way that more recent recruits may avoid their errors and profit by their successes. Vocational guidance comprises two distinct types of functions — educational functions and employment func- tions. Although we are free to admit the impossibility of drawing any hard and fast lines between these two func- tions, it does seem to us quite clear that the major re- sponsibility for educational functions should be assigned to the school system, while responsibility for placement should be taken by the employment system. The educators' assumption of responsibility for the educational functions of vocational guidance implies the use of the entire school system in such a manner that it consciously and systematically offers to each pupil : 1. Guidance in analyzing and developing characteristics or qualities which make for success in life — occupational life included. 2. Guidance in selecting general education courses, accompanied by a more conscious effort on the part of educators to see that instruction in the " fundamentals " is more closely related to life. 3. Systematic occupational information, accompanied by definite assistance in analyzing general and specific occupational demands in conjunction with general and specific abiHties of pupils. 4. Guidance in selecting vocational training and con- stant guidance while pursuing it. 5. Guidance in the type of salesmanship which is essen- tial in selling skill and ability, including the type of advertising which results in satisfactory or unsatisfactory 6. Guidance in understanding what factors make for success after positions have been secured. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 73 This, or a similar program, put into effect in every public educational system for every pupil prior to elimina- tion, or graduation, is fundamental to the success of any national system of guidance and placement. The method of introducing such a program is less easily determined because so much depends upon local conditions. At the very outset there is apt to be more or less confusion regarding the relation between educational guidance and vocational guidance. The term " vocational " is com- paratively new whether applied to guidance or to educa- tion. Unless very discriminating judgment be exercised, a new agency entering any field is inclined to encroach upon the functions of older agencies and assume responsi- bUities which do not legitimately come within its domain. The subject of this thesis is vocational guidance. Natu- rally the vocational phase of guidance is being emphasized, but that does not mean that it is the most important phase. In other words, the method of presentation may suggest that vocational guidance is paramount to- educa- tional guidance and includes it within its field. Such is not the case. " Educational " is a legitimate term for the entire field of guidance, while vocational guidance, or guidance specifically connected with occupational life, is but one of its phases. Social guidance, moral guidance, physical guidance, etc., are other phases of educational guidance. On the other hand, since the one basic element common to all phases of guidance is character develop- ment, just in so far as vocational guidance deals with character development, educational guidance and voca- tional guidance may appear to be, and in reahty are, synonymous. The same is true with reference to general education and vocational education. I hope that this point has beeh clearly explained because I know from personal experience that many teachers have not been 74 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS able to visualize the place of vocational guidance in the general scheme of educational guidance. In a brief treatise of this type it is not pos^ble to discuss ia detail vocational guidance curricula, but a few sugges- tions will help to interpret the points enumerated above and may be of value to n'ovitiates. 1. GUIDANCE IN ANALYZING AND DEVELOPING CHAR- ACTEBISTICS OR QUALITIES WHICH MAKE FOR SUCCESS IN LIFE — OCCUPATIONAL LIFE INCLUDED. " What can the schools do to make more efficient workers? " was asked of many employers who deal with large numbers of young workers. Employers' replies were almost identical with those of the workers themselves. Capital and labor, employer and employee, no matter what their point of view, were unanimous in asking for greater emphasis along three different lines : (1) Accuracy, rapidity, and neatness in arithmetic, writing, and spelling. (2) Honesty, industry, and ability to follow instructions. (3) PersonaUty — hygiene, proper business dress, courtesy and refinement in speech and manner.' The National Association of Corporation Schools, Report of 1917, summarized the opinions of employers on junior quahfications as follows : " After all, it appears to be a fact that employers lay less stress on the educational qualifications of their employees than on char- acter, appearance, skill, personality, willingness to work, adapta- bility, and other similar assets. From this it would seem that the personnel of a teaching force, the type of mind, and the character of the people with whom the child is brought in daily contact is of even more importance than the method of instruction or even than the subject to be studied." 1 Reed, Anna Y., "Seattle Childien in School and Industry," p. 63. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 75 The studies indicated above are not my only original sources of information. The following is quoted from the second Seattle publication : "Last year we collected and classified the same type of informa- tion from over 200 of the leading business houses, and from about fifty of the largest schools of the country. In not one of the 200 business replies did we find any mention of what we are ordinarily pleased to term 'education.' A large number mentioned general intelligence, but the only specific educational requirement was 'correct use of English.' This appeared a number of times. By far the most common type of expression was 'an educational system that win develop gumption, initiative, independence, imagination, alertness, and sfelf-reliance.' "We have suflBcient evidence to standardize the opinions of business houses as to character essentials. Their requirements are also the requirements of society in general. With unanimity in demand, concerted action should be made to meet the require- ments." * My opinion has not changed since the Seattle study was made — concerted action should be made to meet the require- ments of society and of occupational hfe. But how? Systematic character development should be a regular part of the elementary school curriculmn, beginning in the first grade. I offer a few suggestions which have been useful to me and which may be of assistance to others. (1) Class discussion as to the meaning of positive or success, and negative or failure qualities. (2) Have pupils Ust as many positives as possible, with the corresponding negatives. (3) Select 8 or 10 positives which are so universally required for success in any line that they may legitimately be termed " general." (4) Select a few negatives universally undesirable. > Reed, Anna Y., "Vocational Guidance Beport," 1913-1916, p. 85.' 76 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS (5) Furnish each pupil with copies of 3 and 4. (6) Ask each pupil to check the positives and negatives which he possesses. (7) This furnishes him definite information as to which quaUties he must develop and which overcome if he hopes to be a success in hfe. (8) Grades indicating progress or failure should be entered regularly by the pupil after conference with the teacher. The average fifth grade pupil will be able to handle character development on this basis without preliminary- study ; there are, Ability Action Endurance however, a number of helpful devices which may be intro- Eeliability duced by teachers who so desire. I have used with a considerable degree of success a little device picked up in a lecture on salesmanship.^ Second and third grade pupUs are not too young to respond to its appeal provided it be presented in suitable form, and upper grade pupils who have had " areas " are delighted with the conclusion of the lesson. Every pupil knows what it means to be called " square " or " on the square." If he is to be " square " he must make himself so. How? One at a time the lines may 'be drawn and named with full discussion as to how a longer or shorter side may be developed. The full meaning of Ability, Reliability, Endurance, and Action should be understood and the seriousness of failure to develop any one side should be emphasized. Normal school supervisors where this has ' By a lepresentative of the Sheldon School. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 77 been used for demonstration lessons have reported that the " square " was worth its weight in gold. Benjamin Franklin's method of estimating his char- acter assets is given in full in his autobiography and makes a different form of appeal to a different type of pupU. "I made a little book in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginnings of each line with a first letter of one of the virtues, on which line and in its proper column I might mark by a little black spot every fault I found upon examination to have been com- mitted respecting that virtue upon that day." Ralph Parlette's "Story of the nuts and beans" or " Are you shaking up or rattling down? " cannot fail to have a message for every pupil from the primary room to the university.* The old Japanese story in which each finger is assigned a character quality which if not developed will spoil the hand and transform it into a club, has been very useful to me in the kindergarten and primary grades. If the primary grades are to study and grade themselves on character development it would seem wise to concentrate on one fundamental quahty — neatness, promptness, or some simple essential, and not attempt to take up a second until the meaning and importance of the first is fully- mastered. As has been indicated under " The Magnitude of the Problem," this type of vocational guidance which is essentially educational guidance may be offered to all school children ; to those from 14 to 20 or to any group ' Parlette, Ralph, "It's Dp to You! Are You Shaking Up or Rattling Down?" Published by Parlette-Padget Co., 122 So. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111., 35^ 78 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS desired. We may broaden or narrow the field as we please so long as we fit the content and method to the type of pupil whom we include. We can hardly claim to have done our full duty to the children of this country if we do not offer each pupil, at some time previous to school- leaving, an opportunity to master this simple form of self-analysis so that he can readily estimate his own assets and Uabilities as well as determine the vaUdity of suggestions and criticisms which may be made by co- workers and superiors.^ 2. GUIDANCE m SELECTING GENERAL EDUCATIONAL COUBSES ACCOMPANIED BY A MORE CONSCIOUS EFFORT ON THE PART OF EDUCATORS TO SEE THAT INSTRUCTION IN THE "fundamentals" IS MORE CLOSELY RELATED TO LIFE. This subject was discussed in som^ detail in the Seattle Report 1913-1916. Since that date much valuable infor- mation has been collected. One illustration will suffice. It can be duplicated by almost any school system in the country. I was visiting an eighth grade recitation in arithmetic. The lesson assignment was parcel post. Parcel post was rarely utUized by either teacher or pupil, the zone system had no connection with any life which interested either, no one in the room had ever visited a real parcel post department, and no one had any interest in the recitation. Upon invitation, I took charge of the class. Within five minutes every pupil was keenly inter- ested in the parcel post. Why? Because within a few ' It is now very generally recognized that the schools have not done their duty in character development ; that they have said too little about the qualities in demand by the workaday world ; that they have done almost nothing to evaluate the rdle played by tact, initiative, personality, etc., and that they have neither realized nor taught that different occupations require di0erent abilities. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 79 months I had seen several boys and girls just the age of these pupils lose positions in parcel post service because they could not classify packages accurately within the various zones. Wage earning is a vitally interesting topic to boys and girls of this age ; stories of other boys and girls, especially if they ring true, are also vitally interesting. Long before the close of the period the class was busily engaged in estimating how rapidly it would be necessary to figure zone rates in order to retain a position. I gave them the business requirements for speed and accuracy, and explained why place geography must be " on the end of their tongues." Finally, I called off the names of cities while the pupils engaged in a brisk contest to see which could send out imaginary packages with the greatest rapidity and accuracy. Failure in arithmetic had been turned into success in both arithmetic and geography, to say nothing of the opportunity for connecting classroom problems with business requirements. Why? Not because I was a better teacher than the regular instructor, but because my " parcel post " connected with life and hers did not ; because her material was dead whereas mine was very much aUve. Approximately 50 per cent of our pupils lose their first position because they fail in something which is supposed to be included in the school curriculmn. Is it not time for instructors who are handling general education to ascertain just what such failures are and to make a more conscious effort to connect the fundamentals of education with the require- ments of everyday business life? ' ' A recent effort to aid teachers in offering more practical classroom assignments is "Modem Jmiior Mathematics" in 2 vols., by Marie Gueie, published by the Gregg Pub. Co., New York City, 1920. McAndrew, William, "The Public and Its School," Yonkers, N. Y., World Book Co., 1916, should be read by every teaohei. 80 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS 3. SYSTEMATIC OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION ACCOM- PANIED BY DEFINITE ASSISTANCE IN ANALYZING GENERAL AND SPECIFIC OCCUPATIONAL DEMANDS IN CONJUNCTION WITH GENERAL AND SPECIFIC ABILITIES OF PUPILS. It would seem that the time has come when a systematic course in occupational information should be offered every pupil prior to leaving school. No definite grade can be designated 'as the best grade for such a subject — the best grade is the grade in which it will reach all the pupils, therefore it is quite obvious that it will not always be the same grade. In some systems, or in some schools within some systems, it should be introduced as low as the fifth grade ; in other systems the Seventh or eighth grade would be sufficiently early. In no system should it be deferred until the high school or the ninth grade.' Naturally the content, material, and method should be adapted to the age, educational status, and employment prospects of the pupils. It is obvious also that instruction of this type should be given by specially trained teachers and not by the regular classroom teacher. This does not imply that the regular teacher is exempt from all responsibility for vocational information. Every teacher, as indicated in the parcel post assignment, should be able to connect her daily recitations with the facts of life, but she could hardly be expected to be a specialist in occupa- tions. Occupations selected for study should vary from city to city, depending upon local conditions and the type '1 Boys and girls who are eliminated before or at the close of the grammar school period are in greater need of vocational assistance than are high school pupils. If definite information be deferred to the high school period, they lose it entirely. If vocational information be offered in the grammar school, both the pupil who goes on and the one who drops out secure the benefit. The pupil who goes to high school should have acquired basic information and should have established habits of thought which will assist him to guide himself, reinforced as be will be by the better mental background. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 81 of pupil forming the group. In the high school group local conditions would be of less importance than abilities, ambitions, and advanced opportunities for study. Legis- lation enacted for the benefit of wage earners — by municipaUty, state, or nation — should form a part of the vocational curriculum. So also should business standards and responsibilities. The last topic is especially necessary for girls, who are finding their way into the higher lines of business with much more difiBculty than are boys. It is not uncommon to be told that " men are standing in the way of women's progress in occupational Ufe," and the statement is too generally accepted as a fact by our young women workers. Careful observation of facts,, reinforced by my own experience, leads me to feel that women are standing in their own way, whereas the average man is very ready to lend a helping hand to any earnest, conscientious business woman who has a definite objective and some conception of the road to be traveled in reaching it. Women are entering industry in increasing numbers. The educator who handles occupa- tional courses for girls has a heavy responsibility and an excellent opportunity for service.^ A thorough student of occupational life will evolve her own methods for classroom use. For ^he small school in which one person must handle many subjects, a tentative program is suggested which may be used in lieu of something better : (1) Select 4, 6, 8, or any nimiber of occupations common to the locality or of such general interest that they may serve as model studies. Wl;iere time is limited it is well 1 Placement agencies realize and college faculties are coming to realize that the educated, unskilled woman is very difficult to place. Young college men under- stand that general education without skill has not a high initial market value, but yoimg college women are apt to place a value on their services which is altogether out of proportion to their commercial value. G 82 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS to select occupations upon which considerable printed material of recognized value is available.* (2) Master the printed material and outline facts and processes which are essential for pupils. Visit one or more local industries, comparing observable facts with general information from printed material. Great care should be used in questioning business houses on things which they are Ukely to regard as " none of yom- business," and even greater judgment should be exercised in express- ing personal opinions on individual houses or in making comparisons between competing houses. Teachers are peculiarly prone to study occupations from the point of view of their own ideal for the prospective wage earner, rather than from the point of view of business, and hence are regarded as impractical and untrustworthy. (3) Select the points which are important for class use and prepare a definite plan for presentation. I have frequently utilized the following list of points in junior high school demonstrations where pupils had had no preliminary vocational preparations. It must not be assiuned that any such tentative outline is all-inclusive, but that it suggests a method of approach which may be varied to suit varying conditions. Gradually, as job specifications and man specifications become more gen- eral and more scientific, we shall eliminate this and other similarly crude substitutes. * A certain type of occupational study well made for one city can very easily be utilized by any other city. There has been far too much time and energy wasted on surveys which contain no new material and offer no new suggestions. There ia another type of survey which is far too common and which brings great discredit on our public school systems — I refer to surveys made by groups of volunteers who have no background of industrial information and whose final conclusions are a mere summary of conversations held with employers and employees. The "Girl and the Job,' ' recently published, is an excellent example of occupational information which is based on such survey methods. Hoerle, Helen C, and Saltzberg, Florence B., "The Girl and the Job," New York, Henry Holt, 1919. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 83 Outline for Testing Occupations (1) Constant or variable. (2) Seasonal or regular^ (3) Temporary or permanent. (4) Skilled, semi-skilled, unskilled. (5) Supply and demand. (6) General and specific demands (both character and education). (7) Union or open shop. (8) Method of remuneration — piece, time, bonus, profit-sharing, etc. (9) Time and expense for preparation. (10) Hours, long, spUt, evening, night, Sunday. (11) Character of co-workers. (12) Physical advantages and disadvantages (work- men's compensation, industrial diseasq, etc.). (13) Moral influence. (14) Social standing. (15) Laws controlling. (16) Opportunity and demands for advanced study. (17) Opportunity for financial promotion and system of promotion — within or without the institution. (18) Insurance, sick benefits, pensions, etc. (19) Employment methods — or how services are secured. 4. GUIDANCE IN SELECTING VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND CONSTANT GUIDANCE WHILE PURSUING IT. A general vocational course similar to that outlined under 3 should be a sufficient basis either for choice of courses in vocational training or for choice of occupa- tion without specific training. It should have indicated with some degree of accuracy why certain pupils fit the 84 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS demands of some occupations better than of others, and why some occupations offer more advantage to one pupil than to others. Guidance in the selection of voca- tional courses should comprise the combined knowledge of class teachers, vocational teachers, and the instructors in the vocational lines under consideration. All the information at the command of each, both on the in- dividual and the occupation, should be at the service of the pupil when he makes his choice. Nor is it sufficient that such assistance should be pooled in the interests of his first choice — vocational guidance should be his con- stant companion throughout his entire preparatory course, it should assist him at every i\irn to test the wisdom of his choice and if for any reason he should question the judg- ment of pm-suing his first choice, it should be at hand to assist him in making a new selection. 5. GUIDANCE IN THE TYPE OF SAIiESMANSHIP WHICH IS ESSENTIAL IN SELLING SKILL AND ABILITY, INCLUDING THE TYPE OF ADVERTISING WHICH RESULTS IN SATIS' FACTORY OR UNSATISFACTORY SALES. Salesmanship should be included among the funda- mentals of the elementary school curriculum. Every pupil, irrespective of age, grade, ability, or final occupation enters the business world in the capacity of a salesman. Unfortunately, his first sale is too often his most important sale — the sale of his own abUity. It is to be regretted that oiu" public school system permits him to make this sale with no preparation whatever, without even realizing that he is making a sale and that successful advertising is prerequisite to successful selUng. He does not realize that his prospective employer must be dealt with as a prospect, that his fayorable attention must be attracted and his interest won before he will desire to employ any EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 85 applicant. He has never been told that there are many types of prospects, many methods of approach and many apparently unimportant factors which tend to acceptance or rejection. He does not know the market value of his talent and he has, at best, a very vague idea as to how its sales value is influenced by the relation between supply and demand. If he is rejected and a mate employed he does not know, enough to ask, " Why have I failed to sell my service where another has succeeded? Is it because I offer an inferior article? Is it because I do not under- stand my goods and did not advertise to the best advan- tage? Is it because I did not understand my prospect and made the wrong approach? If my article is inferior in the estimation of others, what makes it so? " Before a second application is made the above questions should be asked and answered, and whatever of educational value can be derived from the faUure should be secured. For a number of years I have been giving careful attention to the reason for refusal o'f junior appHcants who are referred to positions for which placement officers have every reason to assimie that they are qualified. General conclusions are that refusal to employ is not due to lack of technical qualifications so much 'as to lack of personality and to the wrong method of approach. Personahty is a difficult subject to discuss and a very vital factor for success in the business world. Some- times it is lack of personality, sometimes too much per- sonality, sometimes a personality which appeals to one man will antagonize another, and still there is quite gen- eral agreement that personality is nine tenths in securing junior positions of the educative type.^ What then is personality and how can the right personality be de- 1 This would not apply to Juvenile occupationB or to occupations requiring only physical strength. 86 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS veloped? I quote from a previous discussion of this subject : "What is personality? It is certainly more than mere outward appearance. Possibly we might say that it is character and abUity revealed in outward appearance. Whatever it is, it is worth culti- vating and is one of the most valuable assets a pupU has in seeking vocational opportunities. Over and over I have been told by em- ployers that personaUty "controls nine tenths of the decisions in selection. Specific criticisms as to dress, manner, and methods of presenting qualifications are easy to obtain. "If only we could realize that the moment our pupils enter the door they begin to express their personality. How do they enter? Are they neatly dressed? Are they ladylike in manner and con- versation? Do they lay a wet umbrella on our oflBce table? Do they put their feet on our table ? "I have often tried to explain to pupils that every salesman must advertise his goods before he can sell them. The most im- portant sale they will ever have to make is the sale of their own abiUty. How are they going to advertise it? Gum chewing may make a child very happy, but ability advertised by gum chewing is not ability advertised to the best advantage. "Last week a mother called with her daughter to consult regard- ing employment. She explained to me, in the presence of the girl, that the child was now 15 years old and must earn her own living in some way ; she was undersized, which of course would not appeal to employers, and she was very slow mentally or she would have been through the grades long ago. I watched the child as the mother enumerated her poor qualities. She concluded with the remark that the teachers had done nothing to make the child worth more financially. Both mother and child were chewing gum, both had unclean teeth, the little girl was very unbecomingly dressed, and her hair completely covered both forehead and ears. As I drew the child out in conversation she became quite attractive and I wondered whether she lacked desirable personaUty or whether personality was advertised to the worst possible advantage. We have to learn to advertise our personality, as well as to acquire it. In this particular instance the mother seemed to be the worst offender, and I told her that I should feel discouraged neither by age nor size, but that there were a few things which would be de- cidedly disadvantageous in the eyes of the employer. They were EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 87 not things for which either Providence or the teacher were re- sponsible, but things which came within the province of the home. I then mentioned gum chewing, unclean teeth, the child's dress and hair. "Awkward and clumsy boys, over-confident boys, timid and self- conscious girls, over-dressed and under-educated girls, each type must be studied at close range. The problem cannot be solved all at once. Sometimes a pupil comes to the office several times before I make a suggestion, and sometimes I make it during the first call. This phase of vocational guidance is closely related to character study and requires the same type of methods — those which can neither be explained nor taught." ' Some teachers have thought that there was a tend- ency on my part to overemphasize the importance lof personal appearance. I have been a teacher myself and can readily understand their viewpoint. A year or more of intimate association with any individual tends to emphasize his most desirable characteristics. A pupil may be very deficient in personality and still possess many desirable characteristics. The teacher gradually forgets her first impression and even comes to forget that there is any such thing as a first impression ; in other words, she expects prospective employers to see her pupils through her eyes, rather than through the eyes of a stranger whose future interest in the individual depends almost entirely upon the manner in which less obvious qualities are advertised. The abstract interest of an employer in securing an employee is not apt to ripen into concrete desire for a specific applicant unless there be some surface indication that possession will be advan- tageous. Teachers can do less to assist pupils in "method of approach " than in personality. The final suggestions for approaching each employer must come from the place- ' Reed, Anna Y., "Vocational Guidance Report," 1913-1916, pp. 88-89.1 88 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS ment worker, who deals with employers frequently enough to have observed and analyzed their peculiarities, and who is familiar with house rules regarding hours for and methods of application. At one time I tried an interest- ing experiment on methods of approach. Junior appli- cants were numbered consecutively. Odd numbers were referred to positions after careful instruction on method of approach, both general method and with specific refer- ence to the position sought. Even nimibers were per- mitted to use their own judgment. After 200 applicants had been referred and reported on the results were com- pared. Ninety per cent of the odd numbers had been accepted and sixty per cent of the even. I then called upon the business houses involved. The names, faces, qualifications and manner of approach of the odd n\mibers were fairly well remembered by the employment managers and in a number of cases my attention was called to the intelligent or dignified or clever manner in which these various applicants had presented their claims. A few of the even ntmibers, who were obviously superior persons, had made a lasting impression, but the interest of employers in one group was very different from that in the other. Appreciation of the service rendered by our office was very marked in one case and not noticeable in the other. Certain fundamentals of psychology are com- mon to all methods of approach, and abihty to size up others quickly is a valuable asset at all times. The longer pupils are in school the greater the opportunity to serve them in the solution of such problems. The immature mind of the average boy or girl 14 years of age can grasp very httle in comparison with the high school student. EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE 89 6. GUIDANCE IN UNDERSTANDING WHAT FACTORS MAKE FOR SUCCESS AFTER POSITIONS HAVE BEEN SECURED If it is important for pupils to realize that personal appearance is frequently nine tenths in securing a posi- tion, it is equally important for them to understand that appearance mil not count nine tenths in retaining a position; that it may deceive for them at the start, but that it will not continue to do so. When it comes to winning the approval and retaining the confidence of employers, nothing takes the place of industry, " loyalty, honest determination to succeed and being eternally on the job. The point is — positions must be secured before they can be retained. Personality is a most important factor in obtaining a position, although not as important as some others in retaining it. Any wide-awake employment office can give specific instances in which common causes of success or failure have come to its attention. Time-serving rather than whole-hearted interest sums up many elements of failure. Fear of doing too much for the salary, frequent and inter- minable visits to dressing rooms after the work day has commenced, are very common faults among women.' Anticipating an employer's needs, studying and adapting to his peculiarities, assuming his minor responsibilities and saving his time in every possible way, are important factors for success. Unfortunately, one occasionally finds an employer whom no self-respecting person would care to continue to serve. Teachers who do placement work are inclined 1 The National Cash Register Company has prepared a series of motion pictures in which actual shop scenes indicate various ways in which time is wasted in the factory. One of these shows a young woman powdering her face fifteen minutes after she is supposed to be at work, — title, "That One Long Last Retouch That Costs So Many Thousands a Year." A second picture entitled "Again?" or "Still? " shows the same or other girls powdering their noses a half hour later. 90 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS to blacklist such employers and defend their methods as the only way to protect their pupils. I have always felt that this is both an unwise and an ineffective method of protection. Unwise, because sooner or later libel suits may follow and involve, not the indiscreet individual concerned, but the public school system whose represent- ative she is. Ineffective, because no one can possibly guarantee that all have been blacklisted who should be. I know of but one absolutely effective and efficient method of protection, and that is to teach our boys and girls at all times and under all circumstances to respect themselves and the respect of others will be sm-e to follow. This is not only a legitimate function of education but should be one of its first requirements. CHAPTER IV FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS A VOCATIONAL guidance program has been suggested ior public school pupils. It has been indicated that much of the content of this program was educational in char- acter and social and economic in purpose, in other words, that vocational guidance is an educational device for conducting an economic movement. It has also been indicated that this program should be offered in the grade or grades where it would be most certain to benefit all school attendants. At the close of the period during which these general information courses are given, pupils tend to separate into two groups ; one will piu"sue general high school or vocational courses, the other will enter wage-earning occupations, and in some states will attend continuation school. The needs of the former remain primarily educa- tional—guidance in selecting courses and educational supervision. The needs of the latter become primarily vocational — guidance in selecting wage-earning positions and employment supervision* Guidance in selecting wage-earning positions and employment supervision is just as much a public function and a public responsibility as is guidance in selecting school courses and educational supervision. Numerically the group involved in the former is more important than is the group involved in the latter — 6,557,472 belong to the wage-earning grou^ and 5,094,678 to the educational group. We may call this public fimction by any name we wish — placement, 91 92 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS occupational service, or public employment. Terminology does not matter so long as we realize in practice that boys and girls from 14 to 20 years of age who cannot, or who do not, avail themselves of public assistance within the school are entitled to equally desirable public assistance without, and that the welfare of society demands that they have it, if we are to check the increase in economic iUiter- ates and industrial hoboes. 1. CHARACTEE OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES An employment agency is a sales agency dealing with two groups of people : (1) employers who desire to secure services, and (2) employees who desire to secure positions. Private employment agencies may encourage the use of methods which discourage registration of applicants who fall below the minimum standards of efficiency and con- centrate their efforts on attracting promising material. Their motive is commercial and their methods adapted to financia^l gain. The public agency must furnish place- ment facilities for every applicant who wants to work, irrespective of the degree of his efficiency. It must not only attract promising material but must attract, learn how to hold and educate |the undesirable until he becomes desirable. No agency can make the labor market, but an efficient sales agency can often create a market for desirable appUcants — private agencies should not be permitted to outclass the public agencies in this respect; No agency can justify the placement of known unemployables, nor should it attempt to force employers to accept workers below the efficiency Une. This has been one of the most serious and most justifiable criticisms on public placement bureaus operated by charitable organizations — the need of the individual, not the value of the service, has been the basis of place- FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 93 ment. There are also certain placement restrictions imposed by legislation, tradition, labor unions, etc. All are iniportant because they indicate the limitations within which a public employment agency can be a monopoly and in order to be a success it must be a monopoly — it must pool the entire labor supply and demand, and its methods of distribution must be characterized by the most economical assignment of both workers and positions. Sometimes, as has been intimated above, a public em- ployment oflB.ce must function as a salvage department. This is especially true with reference to jimiors 16 to 20 years of age who seek the assistance of placement oflfices. I quote from personal experience : "A third ts^pe is represented by the youth who, eliminated from school in his younger years, js now eUminated also from industry. Embittered by his failure in school, and sobered by his experience in industry, he turns to the vocational department as the last hope, or is forced to turn to it by some employer who refuses to consider his application without a central office recommendation. More parents have come to us asking advice for this eUminated-from- school, eliminated-from-industry type than for all other types together. Many of these boys and girls have had little to offer when they left school and have steadily degenerated in manners and morals since leaving. The attitude of the individual suggests the method. Some are required to report to us regularly after working hours for discussion and advice; the office is kept open in the evening for that purpose. Others are more in need of sympa- thetic interest than anything else and to assure them of our con- tinued assistance will bring them back frequently of their own volition. Whatever method is employed, these are the most trying cases that come into the office. No sincere vocational director can fail to reaUze that possibly each individual applicant is offering society, through his instrumentality, its last chance for educational guidance. The burden of responsibility for this type of callers is very great. I think I may safely say that no boy or girl within this category ever leaves the office without my pausing to ask: Have I done my best to help him ffixd the way out ? 94 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS "In many instances casual remarks indicate how our schools have helped or hindered these boys on life's journey. We need this kind of reaction in order to help us to realize what our schools really mean in terms of success or failure, and we need it in order to interpret correctly the statistics of elimination. "Just what we have accomplished for this type of pupil I do not know — perhaps it is not intended that we shall know — but I beUeve that the effort is worth continuing and I have sufficient faith in humanity to beheve that the results will be commensurate with the responsibility." ^ 2. REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS Successful conduct of any employment agency depends upon two factors, trained personnel and satisfactory mechanical equipment. A. Trained personnel. What do we mean by trained personnel?^ That the superintendent of every office shall approach the problems involved in emplojrment from a professional point of view. That he shall see to it that his own services are professional in character and shall understand how to develop a corps of professional assistants. Carried to its legitimate conclusion this means that the entire personnel will be scientific students of employment problems and that it will be able to make definite contributions toward the solution of the labor problem.' The following fundamental requirements for junior placement superintendents are enumerated — not be- cause such requirements are as yet standardized or even generally agreed upon — not because we have been able 1 Reed, Anna Y., "Vocational Guidance Report," pp. 16-17. ' Native ability counts for much, but it can be made far more useful by training. At present all enter more or less as apprentices. Leaders and led are, as Miss ' ■ Odencrantz implies, almost equally ignorant and inexperienced. • It is assumed that every trained employment worker will be able to, and will, distinguish sharply between the labor problem and labor controversies; that he will make his full contribution to the solution of the former and avoid all participa- tion in the latter. FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OP PLACEMENTS 95 to secure superintendents who meet such specifications — but because it is desirable, as rapidly as possible, to standardize specifications as a working hypothesis : (1) The placement oflBice is the functioning agency for both education and occupations ; therefore, office superin- tendents should understand the value of both educational opportunities and emplojonent opportunities. If this combination of qualifications cannot be found it is some- times difficult to determine which is the more essential. Local conditions must be considered, but, on the whole, the man trained in business requirements is probably the better risk: (a) because changes in the business world are occurring more rapidly than in the educational field, and (6) because the prospective labor supply is already pooled under e<^ucational specialists who can easily supply pedagogical deficiencies, whereas there is no other poiilt of contact with the business world. The limited experience of the junior division indicates that the average educator and the average social worker are ill equipped for junior employment service. This conclusion is emphasized by the fact that educators and social workers have had the monopoly of the field for 15 years and have accomplished relatively little.^ It would seem fair to assume that future progress depends upon the introduction of an element which the schools do not command and have never attempted to introduce. (2) Office superintendents must have the courage and the initiative of pioneers — must realize the constructive value of mistakes and know how to profit by them ; (3) They must realize that economic and social progress depend upon expert diagnosis and community education ; ^ Th« value of the iervico rendered by schools, philanthropic oreanizations, and business men has been mentioned on pages 36 to 59. That they have indicated the need rather than accomplished the task is due to certain factors discussed on pages 62 to 66. 96 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS (4) Understand their own functions in relation to the functions of employment managers and be able to co- operate with such officials, as well as with the schools, in reducing labor turnover and introducing progressive employment methods ; (5) Maintaiii a strictly neutral attitude in the un- fortunate, and possibly inevitable, conflicts between two parties traditionally opposed to one another ; (6) Possess organizing and executive ability (a) in meeting the immediate demands of both classes of patrons, and (b) in making their offices permanent laboratories for the scientific study of problems of employment and un- employment ; (7) Maturity of judgment, personality which com- mands respect and invites confidence, practical knowledge of .psychology involving keen analysis of human nature * and ability to secure confidential information often given private, rarely public employment agencies, are all im- portant assets for an office superintendent ; (8) Finally, office superintendents occupy a position more or less similar to that of school superintendents and should be extremely careful of the example of personal habits. If an employment office is to gain the confidence and support of business houses by supplying the type of workers who fit positions ; of workers by referring them to positions suited to their abilities ; and of schools by the collection and sympathetic use of employment reactions, it must not be forgotten that in the final analysis, success depends upon the knowledge and judgment used in mak- ing each individual placement. Certain prime qualifi- ^ No diaciisaion as to the value of specialists in character analysis is necessary. Psychologists have not yet indorsed their methods, nor found value in their results. FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 97 cations must not be overlooked in selecting a corps of assistants : a. Absolute impartiality in dealing with capital and labor. Only such employees as can win the confidence of both should be retained in the corps. h. Qualified employees should be protected in their tenure and should be required to make definite contribu- tions toward estabhshing the service on a professional basis. c. Ability to find out what the young applicant has to invest in order that the office may help him to capitalize his powers and develop his potentiaUties, whether by advanced educational courses or by other means. d. Realization of their responsibility for preventing the waste of human ability which comes from misdirected child energy. e. Realization of the fact that jobs as well as people have personality. Ability to visualize positions to which they refer applicants ; and abihty to visualize the person whom they refer, in the jobs to which referred. ' Business men want to deal with agencies which are capable of analyzing, interpreting, and meeting their needs. /. Ability to distinguish between profitable and un- profitable customers (employers and employees alike) and to acquire methods whereby many of the latter may be transformed into the former. g. AbiUty to appreciate, or to like, every employment. No organization can pool employment opportunities if there^ be mental reservations in the minds of the corps as to the desirability of any line of work which is necessary for the welfare of society and is recognized as a legitimate occupation. Not all occupations are vocations; not all workers are fitted for vocations, but every boy or girl who has been educated at public expense should be pre- 98 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS pared to make a success of some occupation which will make him economically independent and at the same time a contributor to the social and economic needs of his country. It is the first duty of a placement secretary to find out which one of all the recognized occupations is the best occupation for the individual applicant under consideration, and then, for the time being, vocational psychology demands that that one occupation become to him the most desirable of all occupations, and that he have the ability to transfer his own estimate of its value to the apphcant. No course in vocational information is truly educational until it has been transformed into vocational inspiration — until a new type of educator is on the market, much of this task must be performed by the placement secretary. In more than one instance complete and inexcusable failure to meet the needs of industry has been directly traceable to the fact that the occupation was distasteful to the placement agent. Ability to put oneself in the other fellow's place is a very rare quality, whether applied to interpretation of acts and motives or to employment values. Lest my viewpoint be misunderstood, I offer an illus- tration demonstrating the theory which I have advanced in actual practice. The superintendent of one of our offices called my attention to the fact that, whereas his office was doing an exceptionally fine piece of placement work as a whole, for some reason or other large numbers of requests from employers representing one specific occupation were unfilled, and his placement secretary who handled that specific industry had declared it im- possible to get apphcants of the better class, which was what had been asked, to even consider the positions. The industry was desirable, the salary satisfactory, but high school boys and girls would not take the positions. As FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OP PLACEMENTS 99 he analyzed the problem, he detected one obvious reason and suspected a second. The first and obvious reason was due to the fact that the placement secretary saw noth- ing in the occupation for herself, and hence was unable to see that it might offer valuable opportunities to another. She not only failed to recognize and capitalize the possible interest of any applicant in that industry, but by her very attitude toward it she killed any enthusiasm which any applicant might have possessed. This phase of the problem might be solved by changing the attitude of the placement secretary, by transferring responsibility for placement in that industry to another secretary, or if personal antipathy were obvious with reference to other in- dustries, by discontinuing her from the service. The sus- pected reason for distaste relative to this industry appeared to the superintendent as social. If the occupation was recognized as desirable, if the salary were commensurate with abilities sought and demands made, if promotional opportunities were present, might it not be that the social character of the personnel was in question ? The facts, re- vealed by careful statistical investigations, illustrate how impossible it is for a public employment office to function efficiently without utilizing research abilities,^ and it also indicates why I have included in the crude outline for test- ing occupations in the classroom. No. 11 -^ Character of co-workers, and No. 14 — Social standing. Among other facts, research revealed that 77 per cent of the em- ployees in that occupation over 23 years of age had never gone beyond the 8th grade. Employers were very quick to see that it was not reasonable to ask high school gradu- ates to accept positions which to so great an extent had not been able to attract workers of more than sixth and ' In this particular instance tlie employers made the study, but had they not done so the employment office should have been prepared to do so. 100 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS seventh grade qualifications. The result of this study is a cooperative agreement between the Superintendent' and the industry for the type of vocational training vhich will raise the standard of the personnel and offer better opportunities to better educated boys and girls. And still, there \ remain many who claim that if a public empl^ment oflS,ce meets the demands of industry it is bound to exploit the worker ! A scientific placement office studies the employment situation and uses its facts for the betterment of American economic life. It realizes that personal prejudice against any occupation on the part of its corps is just as unfair to the applicant who might be successful and happy in that occupation, as is the employer who subordinates the welfare of his em- ployees to his personal whims and desires. fe.. Realization of the importance of the employment office as an agency for finding and solving the problems involved in labor turnover. i. Personality, knowledge of psychology, care in per- sonal habits, etc., are prerequisites for any employment position.^ ' The Superintendent of Junior Placement for tlie United States Employment Service is Associate Superintendent of Schools with entire charge of vocational education. The desirability of such an arrangement is obvious and is fostered by the United States Employment Service whenever the public schools have a practical vocational expert in the system who is available. * No mention has been made of the use of volunteers as counselors because we have already outgrown the volunteer stage of vocational guidance. The use of volunteers has been rather common in the initial stages and is widely in use in Great Britain. Lack of professional counselors, lack of fimds to employ them, and the general type of those who have regarded volunteer eflforts as their "bit" of social service contribution have been the controlling factors in the past. We know now that vocational guidance and placement is not an incidental occupation but a profession ; that it is a great public responsibility and not a bit of social serv- ice, and that those of us who indorse untrained volunteer workers are piling up more crimes against boys and girls in the name of education. Business men who volunteer expert advice are not included in this class. They are a very desirable and a very important asset in supplementing the work of counselors. The Occu- pational Guidance Service of the Y. M. C. A. has a very valuable system of securing and utilizing this type of expert service. FUNCTIONS .AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 101 Assuming a trained personnel and ability to pool and distribute the labor supply and demand in such a manner that any given employment ofiB.ce makes the closest possible approach to a monopoly, there is still one very essential prerequisite to success — desirable location, satisfactory physical arrangement within the office, and necessary mechanical equipment. B. Location and equipment of office. If, in any com- munity, it is impossible to have both trained personnel and a satisfactory office, without any hesitation let us aU choose the trained personnel. Sooner or later cus- tomers will seek an efficient salesman who has something of value to offer irrespective of his location. On the other hand, satisfactory location and standardized ' office conditions make for increased efficiency, and should be secured whenever possible. They eliminate duplication of effort, facilitate procedure, avoid waste, and create an atmosphere comparable to that of high class business offices. The location and equipment of employment offices will be treated briefly under the following heads : (1) Office location. (2) Reception room. (3) Consultation room. (4) Testing laboratory. (5) Work room. (6) The day's work. (1) Office location. Certain fundamental principles gov- ern the selection of a location for any business purpose. Abihty to apply these principles in the selection of a location in any ^ven city for any specific purpose requires one toi keep" constantly in mind : (a) the character of the business, (6) the type of customer to whom appeal is to be made, and (c) the overhead in proportion to net re- 102 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS turns. In deeiding upon the relative value of locations for public employment offices we must remember that the character of our business is retail selling ; that our goods (positions and workers) are neither standardized nor self-selhng; that personal inspection prior to closing a sale is desirable if not absolutely essential, and that we are engaged in a new business venture with no established reputation to fall back upon. Moreover, we aim to become a monopoly in a field wherein we shall encoimter much keen and skillful competition ; and the pubhc expects us to establish and conduct om: business as cheaply as is possible, with no definite standards by which to determine how cheaply that can be. The best location, then, is the location which permits our business to be self-advertising to the largest number of possible customers, to catch both types of customers as they travel to and from their places of business, and to afford easy access diu-ing business hours. Most of om- larger cities will maintain at least two junior offices, one for 14 to 16 years old apphcants ; the other for those 16 to 21 years of age. Junior workers between 14 and 16 are now almost imiversally obhged to secure employment certificates and register for continua- tion-school classes prior to legal employment. Both of these functions belong to, or have usually been delegated to, the school system. Employment advice and place- ment is a third fimction so closely related to the other two that it is neither desirable nor logical to attempt to separate it from them. One after another young wage earners from the same family go through the same processes — certification — continuation-school registration — employ- ment. They come to feel very much at home in the office, hence it is highly reconamended that, whenever local con- ditions permit, one junior employment office be located FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OP PLACEMENTS 103 in the building in which continuation school pupils regis- ter. There are other advantages in housing these inti- mately related departments under the same rOof . Coun- selors use the same records, they keep in closer touch with the schools and can anticipate to a larger degree the number of pupils who contemplate leaving school or changing positions, and they can do much to encourage pupils to seek advice before applying for positions. At the present time the weakest point in our junior service is failure of the schools and the service to function co- operatively in pooling the 14 and 15 year old labor supply before it has distributed itself without advice and often to great personal disadvantage. The office for juniors 16 to 21 should be centrally located for both employees and employers and without any especial reference to the educational system. Some advocate groimd floor locations, v The advantage of the ground floor is also its disadvantage — pubhcity. Some insist upon entire sieparation of sexes even to entrances on different streets. Separation of sexes should be en- couraged wherever such separation is necessary in order to protect women and girls from impleasant association with large numbers of the rougher element which is apt to accumulate about oflSces placing common labor. Separ ration of women from girls, and men from boys, wherever physical or moral well-being is involved, is also desirable, but I am not yet ready to vote aflBrmatively for the sepa- ration of sexes in junior offices purely on a sex basis. Our boys and girls are accustomed to being together in the public schools, they attend continuation and evening schools together, they obtain employment certificates in the same office, and they will work side by side after positions are secured. Why require complete separa- tion at the time of applying for positions ? In some sec- 104 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS tions of large cities it might be desirable to have offices for certain classes of junior labor 18 to 21 where no other class was registered. Placement of juniors in the same office with adults has both its opponents and its advocates. If an adult office be organized on a professional basis and permits inter- change of workers, sharing of overhead, better distribu- tion of positions and workers, the reactjon on both junior and adult is desirable. Junior workers will obtain a much broader idea of the occupational field and of the various lines of promotion by contact with older men and women. Branch offices are desirable in those portions of the city in which the supply of junior labor is greatest, usually in school buildings, both high and elementary. Y. M. C. A.'s and other welfare organizations are desirable from the standpoint of contact with juniors, and their efforts in this direction should be encouraged and coordinated. Reports from these branch offices should, however, be centralized daily in the Administrative Office for Junior Work. Proper signs on the outside of the building should indicate clearly the class of work performed within, and should designate the exact location of the office in terms comprehensible even to those of yotmger years. (2) The reception room. The reception room should be large and airy, admitting as much natural light as possible. The eqmpment should consist of a large table upon which magazines and literature pertaining to and of interest to boys and girls may be placed. Sufficient chairs to accommodate the normal volume of applicants should be placed around the room. The arrangement of this room and its first impression on the youth is of vital importance. Its object must be to inspire confi- dence in the applicant, thus reducing to a minimum the nervousness usually found in any young boy or girl. FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 105 Appropriate signs on the walls attract considerable atten- tion, and sometimes are retained in the minds of the applicants long after leaving the office. Their use is strongly recommended. The Counselor at the close of each interview should appear in the reception room and cordially greet the newcomers, requesting them to patiently await their turn. An action of this kind, accompanied by a few words of greeting, will go far toward securing the good will and confidence of the appficant. All possible efforts should concentrate in this room to place the boy or girl at ease, and thus facifitate the interview which is to follow. It hardly need be stated that this room must be kept orderly and neat at all times and that familiarity and unbecoming conduct must not be tolerated. (3) The consultation room. The most desirable location for this room is quite naturally adjoining the reception rocan, or as contiguous as possible. It should, of course, afford full privacy and be so located as to be free from noise or other distractions. It is here that the Covmselor is* seen at his best, and must place his appficant at his best. The arrangement and equipment of this room is, therefore, of utmost importance. The impression made upon young minds is determined largely by the type of office equipment and the orderfiness and efficiency of its use. It is from this that the jimior will receive his first, and sometimes lasting, lessons in business efficiency — something which is of primary importance in the indus- trial world. For this reason alone, it seems pertinent that each unit of equipment should be taken up in detail. a. The desk and its equipment. The desk is the business "work bench." A flat-top desk fully satisfies the requirements of the work. It must be remembered, however, that this desk is a work bench and not a storehouse. " The busier the man, the clearer 106 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS the desk" has been well said. It must always be cleared for action, both inside and outside. Its appearance very naturally reflects the state of mind of its occupant — cleared for action. All unnecessary papers, pens, implements, appliances, etc., shoifld be kept in their proper place in the equipment drawer. A glass top may be used, under which telephone numbers, engagement lists, and other data frequently used may be filed for ready reference. Letters, papers, cards, etc., should never litter the desk, but be placed immediately in their proper places, otherwise they create confusion, each one prodding the mind for solution and diverting the atten- tion. The constant use of the "work organizer," an ingenious device which provides a ready pocket for each letter or paper, practically making an appointment with each task, is indispensable in desk efficiency. Stock forms and files in constant use should be within the reach of the coimselor, thus relieving the necessity of constant moving and interruption of thought. b. Files and filing systems. For the effective and proper conduct of the junior work it seems advisable to install seven separate files, namely : the applicants' file, employers' file, placement and follow- up file, educational file, school record file, letter fiOie, and suggestion file. The first four of these files can be con- veniently stored in a cabinet acconnnodating four 5" x 8" drawers. It is recommended that the suggestion file be placed on the desk readily accessible for suggestions or ideas received during the course of the day's work. The applicants' file should contain the card filled out by the counselor in the interview with the applicant. All necessary information which it is deemed advisable to secure should be included, due consideration being given to the needs of the district or community. This is an FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 107 active file from which referrals are to be made. Cross- indexing according to occupations or qualifications may or may not be desirable — volume of work is a controlling factor in deciding. The employers' file should contain requisitions from the employer filled out on an appropriate card ^ with full information regarding necessary quaUfications for the position, and the advantages it offers. An index according to occupations may be used whenever desirable. The placement and follow-up file may be one or two files, as best meets the needs of the office. It includes the cards of apphcants who have been reported placed, filed alphabetically ready for follow-up. It also includes the cards of employers whose orders have been fiOiled, filed by firm name. If one file be used, the front section may contain placements and the rear section orders filled. Some offices combine applicants' file and employers' file in the same manner. The educational file should contain the names, addresses, and other neces'sary data with reference to the school systems — public, private, apprentice, technical, etc. It should contain information regarding the . probable number of pupils to be released at certain periods who would register at the employment office. The school record file should contain all the information secured from educational institutions, and probably from other social agencies also, which is of value in guidance and placement. If continuation, evening, or other school be attended subsequent to placement, all additional in- ' Adult ofSces connected with the United States Employment Service use a standardized federal set of, forms and reports. Several cities were using junior forms prior to connection with the government, and since there are no data upon which to base decisions as to what facts are nationally essential and what of local value only, it has seemed best to permit each city to use its own forms, or the adult forms, until experience furnishes a broader basis for standardization. Probably within the ne^t few months an effort will be made toward partial standardization. 108 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS formation secured from such sources should be placed in the same file. Letter files should be indexed by correspondence folders arranged alphabetically. As these files become full, their contents may be trans- ferred to larger files for permanent records. While it is thought that these seven files will cover the requirements of an office, the needs of any particular office will in a large measure determine what constitutes efficient fihng. The three essentials of an efficient filing system are: availabihty of records, simplicity, and suitability. Cards and other material must be filed daily in their proper places. Left-overs are unnecessary and preclude efficiency. The private telephone, chairs, bookcase, and possibly office table, complete the ' equipment necessary for the consultation room. The telephone shoWd be readily accessible to the occupant at his desk. It should be used only for outgoing and emergency incoming calls, as dis- tractions of any kind interfere with the proper analysis of the applicant. Chairs sufficient to accommodate two or more applicants should be at hand. The multiple-unit bookcase for books on vocational subjects, trade tests, employment psychology, office management, and other pertinent literature is essential for scientific counseling. The table furnishes a convenient place for the display of charts, graphs, periodicals, and other material not in constant use on the desk.^ (4) The testing laboratory. Webster defines " testing " as " trying the truth, genuineness or quality of, by experi- ment, or by some principle or standard." The testing laboratory, therefore, becomes the limelight of verification, > The suggestions offered in this section are subject to changes of any kind which meke for local efficiency. The main thought never to be lost sight of is — economy of time, energy, space. FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 109 and transforms the theory " I think " into the practice " I know." It eliminates the guess, the untruth, or the exaggeration, and places the applicant's qualifications on a squarely salable basis. Occupational misfits, finding their Waterloo here, can be spared the humiliation of an unsatisfactory interview with a prospective employer. Through this laboratory, vocational guidance may have its inception in eliminating the misfits and pointing the remedy. Through its testing apparatus, — practical in every sense of the word, — applicants can be assured of at least the opportunity of a business contact with a certain standard rating, and employers spared unnecessary try- outs and inconveniences incident to the newcomers. The equipment of this laboratory will be limited by space and funds available, but such mechanical appliances as typewriters, dictaphones, mimeographs, calculating machines, and other office equipment are requisite. Factory and shop machines are too cumbersome to in- stall, but by the close application of the Army Trade Tests and the technical interviews developed by the United States Employment Service, a very good idea of the scope of the applicant's knowledge can be obtained. The numerous tests, both practical and mental, could go on ad infinitum. Each counselor must, therefore, select those that will most meet his needs and those of his prospective customers. Only those bearing the highest indorsement as " standard " should be utilized. (5) The work room. An increase in the volimie of business may necessitate what the writer terms a " work room." It serves a very useful purpose in accommodating secretaries, stenographers, typists, statisticians, and other office assistants. The permanent records and files should be kept here, and also all work of a mechanical nature could be performed here in order that the counselor's 110 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS room may contain only that which is in constant use. The necessity of this room, however, is strictly limited to the larger offices and does not constitute a prereqmsite of the majority of junior offices. (6) The day's work. Too much importance cannot be laid on planning ahead the day's work. " He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan, holds a thread that will carry him through the labyrinth of' the most busy life." An analysis of the day's work is essential to every well-conducted office. " Precision is impossible without prevision." Each task should be allotted its own time, and a schedule of work, resembling a timetable, should be on every counselor's desk as his daily guide. The hours of a junior office should correspond to the biisiness hours of the community. It must be remembered that a junior division serves employers as well as employees, prospective and real; therefore neither school hours nor school holidays should control jimior office hours. As a very general statement, it would seem that the hours from eight o'clock in the morning to five-thirty or six in the evening are advisable. Shifts within the offices can be made to accommodate this schedule. It is important and essential that the office be accessible to employers during their full business hours. Employ- ment plans are usually developed in the early morning and late afternoon. Every possible effort should be put forth to estabUsh cordial and intimate business relations with employers of labor and to meet their demands. They are the market for " the goods " that are for sale. The early morning hours also afford ample opportunity for planning the tasks of the day, securing requisitions from employers, making appointments, following-up, etc. Interviews can then be conducted without interruption, FUNCTIONS AND METHODS OF PLACEMENTS 111 except in extraordinary cases. The day's sciiedule can be so systematized that the unexpected will be unusual. By this means only can attention be concentrated on thd task at hand. It has been said by the president of a well-known corporation, " I believe in knowing just what I am doing and where I hope to land." So should the counselor. The question of consultation after office hours, on Sundays and holidays, must be left to the wise discretion of the counselor. The needs of the community should always guide in poHcies of the office, keeping in mind that the junior division always stands primarily for " Service." CHAPTER V FUNCTIONS OF A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE Trained personnel, satisfactory physical equipment, practical realization of the fact that in character a pubHc employment office is a sales agency and should be a monopoly, is the foundation upon which we hope to build an efficient public service which will pool and distribute the entire labor supply and demand of the country. The next step is detailed analysis of the main functions of a junior employment office : (1) Marketing the product of the pubHc schools. In other words, pooling the junior labor supply at its source and distributing it in such a manner that each individual may reahze his best possibilities and contribute his utmost to the welfare of society; (2) PooUng the entire junior labor supply and demand. (3) Distributing the entire junior labor supply and demand. (4) Collecting and disseminating information which will help the schools to estimate more accurately the social and economic value of their product and to intro- duce such curricula changes as may be necessary to meet the changing demands of industry. (5) Forecasting, in so far as is possible, changes in industrial methods, or the enactment of legislation which will have a direct bearing on the number and type of opportimities open to junior employees. 112 A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 113 (6) Bringing back under educational influence boys and girls to whom further educational services can be rendered. (7) Cooperating with other agencies in such a way that duplication of effort and service may be avoided. 1. MARKETING THE PRODUCT OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ' The most important group comprised in the junior labor supply is the product of the various educational systems as it comes directly from the schoolroom into the labor market. If the educational machinery of any given city has been set in motion and has been operating effi- ciently, this group of junior workers will be easily pooled at its source. It will include: (1) part-time and con- tinuation school workers, (2) after-school and Saturday workers, (3) vacation employees, and (4) full-time workers. Analyzed from another point of view, it wiU comprise : (1) youth of exceptional ability with specific talents, frequently including executive or inventive abiHties, (2) youth of average abilities who offer desirable qualities but who are followers or imitators rather than leaders, and (3) boys and girls of low-grade abilities who never exert themselves mentally or physically unless forced to do so.* 1 Public schools include all educational agencies. > No one has yet offered a satisfactory classification of workers. Mr. Weaver finds the following by a French psychologist " helpful and crude " : 1. Human beings who work to eat — biological specimens — vegetative class. 2. Imitative class. 3. Inventive class. 4. Executive class. We have already noted the tendency of the_flchool to stifle genius and initiative. If we follow Mr. Weaver's classification we have a right to assume that there is also a tendency to retain in the vegetative class a certain number of pupils who possess latent talents and should be forced to develop them. Some pupils cannot progress, but whenever teachers permit boys and girls who belong to the higher groups, to remain in the lower, they are creating causes of discontent and sowing the seeds of anarchy. I 114 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS Every public-school pupil should pass from the school- room to the placement office accompanied by definite specifications indicating his abilities, aptitudes, ambi-' tions, etc. ; whether potentialities be present or lacking ; whether he be generally intelligent and efficient, or whether he will probably never be so. The antiquated grading system in vogue in the educational field whereby " excellents," "goods," "fairs," "poors," and "fail- ures," based upon a sort of imscientific certainty, are rather promiscuously distributed, does not furnish the type of specifications the employment office wants. The method has been previously discussed by which more valuable grading systems have been instituted in a few schools, and could be instituted in others. The method by which the educational function was connected with the employment function in Seattle proved fairly satis- factory and has met with equal success elsewhere : A school-leaving report for every pupil who left school came automatically to the vocational office. Estimates on qertain character qualities were included in this report. Pupils caUing at the vocational office for placement were not recommended for positions until such reports had been received and gone over point by point with the pupil. Occasionally a teacher filled in the record with- out consultatioii with the pupil. When this occm-red it radicated that the teacher was missing one of her greatest opportunities for pedagogical service, and the vocational office attempted to supply the deficiency by discussing in detail the assets and liabiUties which the pupil himself felt that he was carrying from school into business life. Sometimes it was necessary to alter teachers' estimates before they were transferred to emplojmient introductions. The remainder of the Seattle procedure is self-explanatory, if the recommendation blank be carefully read. Were I A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 115 to have the privilege of being a classroom teacher again, I would never permit myself to deprive any pupil of the responsibility of grading himself on character qualities.' As the Seattle report is no longer available, a description of the method employed is copied from page 86 : "The second plan was instituted by our oflBce for the express purpose of forcing pupils to realize that education in all forms has a meaning for life; that habits formed in school will be carried over into business life and will make for either success or failure. A recommendation blank was prepared summarizing the require- ments for which there seemed to be a unanimous demand. Every pupil who has come to our ofiSce has been obliged to bring the school estimate of his quahfications as indicated in the blank. Of course there is much diiference in interpretation of terms, and much di- versity in grading systems, but we have been more than pleased with the returns on the experiment. Principals and teachers feel that it has been especially helpful : " (1) In indicating the importance of right habit formation. " (2) In connecting school with Ufe. " (3) In lessening trouble with discipline. " (4) In broadening the service of the teacher. "When the pupil brings his estimate to the office it forms the basis of our conference. We obtain our best results when the pupil and teacher have already been over the strong and weak points, discussing the value of one and the disadvantage of the other. No matter what our ideal, American life is stiU very largely controlled by the dollar, and there are several very teUing questions which every pupil understands: Would you be willing to hire yourself?' What does any business house want of a boy who ranks 'fair' in co- operation? What can an employer afford to pay a girl graded 'poor' in courtesy, when his success in business depends upon a high understanding of this same quality ? Who wants a boy marked 'fair' in promptness or in accuracy? How did you happen to get such marks? What specific things must be done for improvement? "In a few cases a poor record has been returned by an employer marked: 'Can't use this type of boy.' When this happens, every boy in school seems to know it and the effect is excellent. ' Seattle blanks were made out in 1913'and the department was closed in 1916. Seveialchanges should be made were they to be used in 1920. 116 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS "Employers have been uniformly kind about sending back the lower halt of the blank, and there are now several of our best firms who will not consider the application of boys and girls under 18 without our recommendation. Nearly every day pupils come to the office, often those who have been out of school a year or more, asking these recommendations for employers. "Under this plan twelve pupils whose school records were 'poor' have returned to school to better their standing. One young boy who brought an unusually bad report was astonished to find how much value we placed upon it. He very readily selected his own weak points, told me that he deserved it all and would bring me back something next year that 'would make me sit up and take notice when he wanted a place.' "I have used these character blanks freely in public meetings, and many parents have asked for them for home use in order to co- operate with us in our study. "This phase of vocational guidance is one of the lines mentioned before in which success is due to contact between mind and mind; its methods can neither be explained nor taught, but it is the back- bone of the whole vocational guidance system. If counselors can- not handle effectively this side of the work, they cannot hope to be more than employment managers." Mr. Leavitt has developed a plan for Pittsburgh which is very similar to the Seattle plan, but has the advantage of being much more inclusive and strictly up to date. It is too elaborate and comprises too many forms to be included in this manual, but a full set of forms and records indicating his methods will be mailed upon request. Eventually educational administration will come to reahze the importance of some such system of evaluation and ^will insist upon it. When that time comes results are easily foretold : placement offices will have complete pictiu'es of all the young workers who are to come into the labor market at given periods of each year and will be constantly looking ahead for placement opportunities ; employers, anticipating favorable opportunities for exer- cising selective ability in obtaining junior labor, will make A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 117 advanced orders, especially for apprentices and trained workers; pupils wUl realize that education has a vital bearing on employment and that the schoolroom is the best place from which to obtain positions. Three, out of the four classes of junior workers which we desire to pool at their source, offer much the same type of Co-operation Bosmesa Contacts^ THE BUSINESS WAY THEORY EDUCATION PLACEMENT OCCUPATION School Syetem Counsellon Vocational Advisors Fi:onx Theoretical Knowledges to Practical Knowledge throagh Scientific Placement occupational problems, afford much the same type of oppor- tunities for service, and require similar methods of place- ment and supervision. The expression, part-time workers, in some cities, is synonymous with continuation-school pupils; in other cities it includes elementary and high school pupils who attend academic or vocational courses part time and are employed the remainder of the ■ week. After-school, Saturday, and vacation workers may be classed with continuation-school and part-time pupils from the point of view of difficulties involved in place- ment, as well as from the point of view of opportunities for combined educational and vocational service. We 118 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS cannot emphasize too strongly that this group of semi- wage earners, semi-students is composed of thousands ' of the most promising youths of oiu- country whose abUities are, at one and the same time, to be commercial- ized, capitalized, and conserved, and that we are one of the national agencies which has been designated to lead in this movement. We cannot remind ourselves too often that this is the only junior group pooled at one and the same time both educationally and occupationally which offers an opportunity to test the interaction of two vital factors in the life of the young — supervised study and supervised work ^ — and that we are one of the national agencies appointed to test these interactions and make the results available for improving the material and method of education. Our responsibility is tremendous, our opportunity for service unexcelled. Even the most casual observer of employ- ment methods will readUy understand that there are certain problems involved in the placement of student wage earners which are not involved in the placement of full-time permanent workers. A brief discussion of these problems precedes discussion of the universal prob- lems involved in placement. On the occupational side we find several rather serious difficulties : (1) There are comparatively few juvenile occupations which are vocational or educative in character per se, and up to date there has been no effort on the part of educators ' to make these apparently non-educative ' Our largest cities should pool as high as 30,000, 40,000, or 50,000 of these student wage earners while still in the formative period of life. In June, 1915, there were approximately 4000 pupils in the Seattle public schools who were employed out of hours. (" Newsboy Service, " p. ix.) * Unsupervised study has been found to be an intellectual handicap, unsupervised play a moral menace — why should we assume any uniformly good result from unsupervised work? » The Curtis Publishing Company has made a splendid effort to make its news- A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 119 Reinlii PRIMARY SCHOOLS Besnlts GRADE SCHOOLS VocKtional 1 Guidance ^ - — Office,^ — ResoltB HIGH AND CONTrNTTATION SCHOOLS Jteanlts. /Plaeame nt \ Office , COLLEGES Oeeupational ^formation INDUSTRY Corporation Schools I I Failure I * I Bad Training I _ziir Good 'Raining _^ Indicates the Cooth of a Boy or Girl thra School to Industry — Indicates the Coarse of Indaatrial Information flowing back to Schools Chart showing the result of linking education and industry. 120 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS employments of educational value either by employment supervision or through more intelligent distribution of juvenile workers. Uniformly we have branded them " blind alley " and have gone happily on our way in- creasing the number of " blind-alley " pupils.^ (2) There have been many industrial changes in recent years. For , one reason or another the number of em- .ployers who care to employ boys and girls under 16 is steadily decreasing. Apprenticeship in several trades is closed to those imder 18. (3) Many industries are so organized that they cannot use split-time, odd hour, or less than full week workers. The peak load in a desirable occupation may come at the very period of the day when the student employee must be free for educational demands; team-work processes boy service of real educational value, but it has received very little assistance from educational systems. Newsboy service is a typical juvenile employment offering great opportunities for combined educational-vocational service. 1357 Seattle schoolboys engaged in newsboy service were studied in 1916 and the results pre- sented from the educational, social, economic, physical, moral, and vocational view- point. ('• Newsboy Service," World Book Co., 1917.) Those who feel that the average employer is not interested in the inSue|ice of juvenile employments upon the juvenile employees are asked to read "The Wards of Golf, " an address by Burridge D. Butler at the annual dinner of The Winter Golf Association of Advertising Interests at Pinehurst, N. C, Jan. 14, 1916. Mr. Butler tells us that 300,000 to 400,000 boys in this country were caddying regularly that year. His brilliant appeal to fellow players to utilize "one of the greatest educational opportunities that civilization has ever offered, because caddie char- acter is made on the links" should lead us all to ask if any occupation which affords any "freckled-face future man" an opportunity to receive such a "man message" from any man can be legitimately called a "blind alley." 1 "No occupation is a blind alley for some boys, if some boys find the way out, is it fair to call the alley blind f Would it not be m.ore logical to say that we have some boys who are blind-alley hoys f "I am not ready to admit, radical as this may appear to some, that there is any su(^ thing as a blind-alley occupation. There is always a future, provided there be ability to see it and perseverance to pursue it. The highest educational service that the schools can render the boy of to-day is'assistance in the development of the character qualities which will show him how to find the light in any occupational alley which he may enter to-morrow. This is one of the prime functions of Voca- tional Guidance Departments. When they know their mission, accept it, and fulfill it, we shall have/etoer blind-alley boys." ("Newsboy Service," p. 141.) A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 121 cannot always provide for part-time workers; Saturday may be the dullest day in the entire week in the industry most helpful to students; very frequently it is almost impossible to find vacation employment for any kind of high school pupils. In some states minimum wage rulings have increased the diflELculties of student placement. Many positions which used to be open for after-school workers were sufficiently remunerative tO/give the neces- sary student aid and at the same time bring a commercial return to the employer. Wage ruUngs requiring that any fraction of a day must be paid for by the hour, [on the basis of the daily wage, exclude boys and girls who could work only between 3 and 6 p.m., because service during these hours is usually less valuable than during the early hours of the day. In some occupations Saturday work can be very easily secured. Every placement agent should have definite information on' all the subjects mentioned. (4) Sometimes a student's financial needs clash with his vocational needs. An occupation may afford him an excellent vocational opportunity, but monetary considera- tions may forbid his acceptance. (5) Danger of divided interest causing failure in both education and industry is ever present. The educational system occupies a strategic position with reference to placement problems. Student wage earners are crossing the bridge which transforms them from closely supervised children into self-directing adults. This is the great and the final opportunity for educational guidance — practical guidance which indicates how self- control and self-direction are essential in solving the problems of life. It is at this point that educational agencies and employment agencies can cooperate most effectively, in aiding the young to recognize, analyze, and 122 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS solve their problems.^ Such service cannot be rendered by amateurs — only those who know life's road and its turnings should venture to advise pupils who stand at the cross-roads of life. Supervision of present student wage earners is not the only employment problem for educators. "We live in the end and in the beginning of an age — the forces of ,. destruction and the forces of construction are traveling side by- side. The old education is dying, the new is still unborn." We hve in the end of an age ia which juvenile employ- ment has been an industrial asset and an educational liability; we live in the beginning of an age in which juvenile employment is fast becoming an educational asset and an industrial liability. In the old age, those who desired to conserve the youth of our country worked strenuously for legislation which prohibited the young from entering industry. They have done their work well. Prohibitive measures have about reached their limit. They are now turning to constructive thinking and are beginning to realize that taking boys and girls out of industry is not the final solution of the child labor problem. They are beginning to realize that too long, too many boys and girls have been legislated out of industry at the expense of personal development; too long, too many boys and girls have been legislated out of industry — not into a school which had something better than in- dustry to offer, but ori to the streets which had worse than nothing to offer.^ They are beginning to realize that the ^ The first-hand occupational information which the student wage earner brings back to the classroom vitalizes the material and improves the method of education. It should be freely, but critically and intelligently, used in the vocational informa- tion courses previously mentioned. ^ The following letter indicates the problem. It appeals to the United States Employment Service for a solution : "I am writing you for advice and assistance. I am the mother of six boys, three were in Service during the war, one yet in the Navy. Since these have returned, as most soldiers, they left this rural dull country life. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 123 educational system which, by its methods of lesson assign- ment, teaches pupils to do just so much and no more is vicious, and that legislation which indicates that the general public prefers its youth to do nothing rather than to work, is even more vicious.* In the old age, educators assumed that juvenile employ- ment was a legislative problem ; in the new age, they are coming to see that it is an educational problem — that it means the recognition of juvenile employment as a legitimate and constructive factor in education. Unfortunately just as we are beginning to see that there is a constructive side to juvenile emplojrment, just as we are beginning to realize that the new education "Now I have three younger boys. Since this law preventing child labor on public work only one boy is old enough to work. We have only three months school. Now what are we to do with our boys? They are not able to have teams or farming implements, nor even rent land. Then, too.Jfarming will not begin until the first of the year. Now tell me what can we do with the vast number of idle boys? First, no school, next no work. Please consider our condition. Any advice, still better, any help you may give would do much to relieve us just now." Mr. Leavitt at New Orleans, before the Child Labor Commission, 1914, said : "I am convinced that the influence of the National Child Labor Committee might well be lent to reducing not only the suffering of children in factories and mills but also the suffering of children in schools. Both ends will be furthered, I am BUie, if the public school systems can be induced to assume this new function of giving vocational information and training and of exercising employment super- vision, during two years at least, for the benefit of the other children." The trend of the discussion in the recent Child Welfare Conference called by the Children's Bureau in 1919 indicates that social workers are coming to under- stand that work is of educational value. Mr. Claxton, page 104, calls attention to the fact that work has an educational value if it is properly directed in the right measiu-e and intelligently done. He adds, "I think we shall realize that the whole matter is not merely one of prohibition, nor merely one of negation, but one of positive construction in the right way." Mr. Lovejoy, page 84, recognizes that "it is difficult to confine oneself to"" legislative prohibitions when the whole trend of cl^ild labor effort and education work in this country is in the direction of con- struction rather than prohibition." 1 *' A debilitating by-product of measuring out of uniform lessons is the estab- lishment, early in the child's plastic mind, that the thing to do in life is to do what is measured out for one to do — never any more under any circumstances, and as much less as possible under all circumstances. This soul-withering dogma hammered by the class system into the growing mind, becomes the life doctrine which is largely accountable for prevailing iuefliciency in life work." ("Lockstep Schooling and a Remedy.") 124 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS recognizes every industry as a vocational center, industry declares that a youth under 16 years of age is a liability and is not wanted, i.e., just as we have come to feel that no youth is an educated youth unless he has had the benefit of supervised study, supervised work, and super- vised play, employers have closed our best vocational avenues and Verboten boards stare us in the face. Is there a possibihty that in the new age we shall come to believe that all boys and girls over 14 years of age are entitled to work experience as a legitimate part of the new education? Is there a possibility that we shall do away with certain make-believe types of vocational training and decide that the place to learn industrial processes is in industry — that the corporation school will supersede the public vocational school? Is there a possibility that we shall cease to look upon the employment of the young as a commercial proposition and, knowing how much work and what kind of work makes a definite contribution to the education of each, we shall subsidize industries which are willing to assume responsibility for offering work experience under educational supervision ? Possibly in the new age we shall kgislate work experience as a factor in the new education and shall require pubHc education to make good any financial loss suffered by cooperating industries. Such suggestions may seem revolutionary but they are by no means impossible of reahzation. We might find them more practical and possibly less expensive than the present system. Educators, at present, know little about the influence of work on boys and girls. We have done considerable guessing along these lines and as a result there is a belief that the influence of work is bad. Until we have facts from which to draw legitimate conclusions the only con- clusion at which we may safely jump is that the effects of A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 125 work are rarely negative — they are positive for good or for evil ; to utilize the one and counteract the other is both the duty and the privilege of education.^ Methods employed in the placement of student wage earners do not differ materially from general methods apphcable to aU juniors. Older women who can easily secure the confidence of both boys and girls make the best counselors.^ Counselors must understand the vices and virtues of young wage earners, must be specialists in the types of industry open to student employees, and know how to cooperate with education. • Pupils seeking employ- ment for the first time are entitled to! the most careful consideration and to all the assistance possible in solving their perplexities and tiding them over the discourage- ments and disappointments of the first few days. Em- ployers who patronize public agencies should be assured that all legal requirements are being complied with when applicants are referred and that age certificates, labor permits, health certificates, etc. will be promptly forwarded if the placement is made. Employment supervision for the student group gives the best possible facilities for observing the interaction of education and employment. • Mrs. WooUey's studieB on the influence of-work are very valuable for students of employment problems. The effects of employment on children have been studied in considerable detail by the Baltimore Board which issues Labor Permits. The Physical Welfare of Employed Children ia "discussed in the Child Labor Bulletin, February, 1918, pp. 219-229 (Florence I. Taylor). There are many other sources of information on health hazards in industry. 2 Boys between 14 and 16 are as well placed by women as by men. Older boys are frequently better placed by men. We do not, however ,^advocate the separation of boys and girls for placement. Clerical positions for both sexes may be well handled by women ; some lines of factory work for women are better handled by men, eto. An ideal office will employ both men and women. 126 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS 2. POOLING THE ENTIRE JUNIOR LABOR SUPPLY AND DEMAND Pooling and distributing the junior labor supply as it comes from the schools is fundamental to success. It strikes at the heart of the problem of employment and unemployment. Five years hence, if this phase of junior placement has been mastered on a scientific basis, pre- ventive vocational guidance will have been accepted as a school function ; corrective guidance as a function of the employment service. Until education does assume its share of responsibility for vocational guidance the employment service must be prepared to offer both pre- ventive and corrective guidance as well as to perform the more Umited functions usually included in the distribution of labor. A. Pooling the junior labor supply. The bulk of the junior labor supply, youth between 16 and 21, wUl natu- rally be pooled in a downtown central office. It will comprise (1) juveniles 14 and 15 years of age who for one reason or another are not placed through the school office ; (2) transfers from other cities ; (3) full time permanent workers directly from vocational or other schools; and (4) replacements. (1) and (2) Juvenile workers and transfers. Juvenile workers have already been discussed at some length. One of the most important functions of a national system of jimior labor exchanges should be the perfection of a transfer system whereby boys and girls may be transferred from one public employment exchange to another accom- panied by their school and employment record or personnel sheet. Such a national inter-city school transfer system has been an educational need for years and is practiced to some extent without any national system. At the last A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 127 annual convention of the National League of Compulsory Education Officials, December, 1919, the necessity of an inter-city transfer system was favorably discussed. All of these functions are more or less intimately connected and all could be conducted with greater efficiency were they operating under a uniform system. Young wage earners, who may have entered upon an occupational career under favorable auspices in their home town, change their residence, break old ties, and find no agency at hand to assist them in forming new employment ties of equal value. They drift downward. It is not uncommon for business houses, operating on a national basis, to maintain a regular transfer system whereby they may retain in their service valuable and trained employees and use their entire working force to the best national advantage. If business houses find a national transfer system desirable why is it not legitimate to assume that it would be desirable in distributing our entire labor supply? The advantages seem obvious, but the administrative details have never been worked out. One thing is certain — we cannot pool the entire labor demand unless we can also pool the entire supply and, after it is pooled, we cannot distribute it with the best ultimate results unless we have all possible information regarding it. This means inter-city transfers accompanied by personnel history and job specifications.' (3) Permanent workers directly from schools. A fairly careful survey of the character and amount of placement carried on by high schools leads us to the general conclu- sion that the average high school does not do sufficient placement work either to do it well or to warrant the expense of continuance. Many of the purely vocational * Note the vicious system mentioned in the Boston reports whereby employ- ment registration ia refused to out of town boys and girls because the bureau knows nothing about their qualifications. 128 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS high schools do considerable placement work and do it exceedingly well. Of course, it is done sporadically with two or three definite periods when a considerable supply is known to be pooled and the demand is therefore apt to be pooled simultaneously. Whenever facts indi- cate that it is desirable to permit individual schools to maintain local branch offices there is no reason why this should not be done, either with or without financial assistance from the federal government. It is useless to attempt to indicate the various methods whereby such branch offices are installed, financed, and operated because local conditions, volume of work, character of the employ- ment ability at command, etc., are all controlling factors. The danger in the branch office is not that it will not place its pupils, but that it will not have the full benefit of the clearing house and hence will neither place pupils to the best advantage nor serve its employers on the basis of the best possible candidate for every position. Our aim is — the best pupU for each position. In order to attain this aim, each pupil, irrespective of which school he is in, should have an opportunity to consider all the positions which demand his type of abihties. Statistics prove that the great majority of pupils prefer to get their positions in the open market rather than through the meager facihties of the average school placement office. (4) Replacement. Under present conditions, the re- placement group will probably make application without recommendation or records.of any kind and there will be no school-emplojmient cumulative record in our files for our assistance. We shall have to classify largely accord- ing to the information secured in our interviews a;nd it may take several interviews before we feel competent to make a referral. The replacement group will comprise discontented workers of aU kinds. Some who have A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 129 decidedly superior abilities will be occupying positions which afford no legitimate use for real ability, hence another outlet for its use, sometimes anti-social, may be found ; some will be occupational misfits ; some confirmed drifters, etc. To pool, analyze, classify, and distribute this heterogeneous mass of human abihties is no small task. The pooling phase of the problem may be initiated by publicity, always using the utmost of care not to adver- tise anything upon which we cannot make good.^ After the office is once under way the best method of attracting customers is efficient service, — satisfied customers who will return and bring friends with them. B. Pooling the junior labor demand. PooHng em- ployers' demands is the second phase of the collective side of the employment function. Just as we pool, analyze, classify, and distribute the labor supply, so we pool, analyze, classify, and distribute the labor demand. Just as we classify workers as high, average, or low, so do we classify positions. Just as we analyze each individual to determine how well he fits the position, so we analyze each position to determine how well it fits the individual. Just as it is of vital importance to be able to distinguish between a good and a poor worker, so is it of equally vital importance to be able to distinguish between a good and a poor position. A successful employment agency must learn to test both workers and employers very carefully A successful employment agency must be able to« teach employers how to select workers carefully, and workers how to select employers carefully. This is one of the very best methods of contributing to reduction in labor turnover. ' Some very clever and very effective circulamation has been done by our local offices. Samples may be secured from the national office on request. If the government frank is used in their distribution sample copies must be submitted to the national office for approval before publication and distribution. The na- tional office is prepared to advise its local offices in the preparation of such material. K 130 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS Employers' initial orders may be secured by means of publicity but in the final analysis they, too, must be secured by means of efficient service — satisfied customers. Pittsburgh has been able to secure an agreement from a large number of its best business houses whereby the Junior Emplojrment Service is to be given precedence over all other sources of labor supply. This is an ex- cellent plan until the Service has time to estabUsh itself in such a manner that it will be recognized as the one best source of junior supply, without agreements or con- tracts. Newspaper advertising is a good source of in- formation regarding opportunities for pooUng, or neg- lected opportunities to pool, both the supply and the demand. Letters to employers indicating the type of workers available at any given time, or the type which will be, available at the close of the school, are very helpful in securing advance orders. One pertinent fact must never be forgotten — distribution cannot possibly be satis- factory to both parties unless the proper balance be maintained between pooled supply and pooled demand — not only pooled supply and demand in toto, but with reference to specific abihties and industries. Although it is not always an easy matter this apparently uncontrollable feature of employment can be controlled to a much greater extent than is usually admitted if the central clearing house be adequately and intelligently manned. The desired relation between supply and demand indicates the type of publicity advisable, the amount and character of solicitation, etc. 3. DISTRIBUTING THE JUNIOR LABOR SUPPLY AND DEMAND Abihty to pool the labor supply and demand is pre- requisite to success on the collective side of the employ- ment problem. Ability to distribute both satisfactorily A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 131 is a second and equally important phase of the same prob- lem. Placement is the distributive side of the employment function. It is also the Alpha and the Om^ga of Vocational Guidance. We have already implied that methods of placement vary according to the type of applicant and to individual abilities and needs within the type — it is not enough to know junior workers, we must also know each individual junior worker. The same, of course, is true of business demands. It is not enough to know the general demands of mercantile houses and business offices, we must also know the individual peculiarities and requirements of each specific mercantile establishment. Anything, there- fore, which may be offered in this publication on processes and methods of distribution must be regarded as tentative and subject to any modifications which may be necessary to adapt it to local demands. The processes of distribution and suggestions for accom- plishing them are as follows : A. The interview — with employer and applicant. B. The referral. C. Placement. D. Employment supervision. A. The Interview. (1) With the employer. The inter- view is the crucial point with reference to both employer and apphcant. Ability to secure permanent customers depends upon abihty shown in conducting interviews, coupled with the grasp of employment problems revealed and exercised therein. Possibly circulars have been sent out announcing the opening of a junior office and soliciting patronage. Responses begin to come ia by letter, by phone, or by person. The method of initial contact is not nearly so important as is seizing the first opportunity to visit every estabUshment and size up its personality. 132 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS If a letter be the method, an employment official may indicate its receipt and his appreciation by a personal call during which he accumulates much or little inside in- formation ^ but during which he always creates a favorable impression of his occupation and of himself as its public representative. Sometimes it is well to make appoint- ments for such interviews by telephone or by letter. It was my custom at one time to reply to letters promising cooperation, stating that I would call on at o'clock unless I received a message, telephone , that some other day and hour would be more convenient. If initial response to our circular comes by telephone it is very easy to ask if we may not have the pleasure of callmg personally so that we can understand as com- pletely as possible his needs and the type of personnel which best pleases him. Any employer who seeks assist- ance from an employment office will be pleased' and flattered by personal attention to his needs ; he is very apt to rate our efficiency as public servants by the abilities shown in imderstanding his problem and helping him to solve it. If employers caU at the office to place their orders, the personality and the courtesy of the reception room attendant and the general appearance of the room will be an exceptional opportunity for expert advertising. Most of the callers in a junior office are boys and girls, hence, whenever mature men or women enter the reception room their very presence should be taken as prima facie evidence that they have come on important business of some kind and should receive immediate attention. The office attendant who is prompt to note the entrance of ^ Great tact and Judgment is necessaiy in seeking information from business houses. No one person can tell another how to conduct such an interview and how much or how little information to attempt. Sooner or later a good solicitor wjU get what he wants — sometimes during the first call, sometimes during the tenth. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 133 such visitors and rising, greets them with an inquiry as to what service can be rendered, creates a very favorable impression and advertises the employment service to good advantage. The same is true with reference to women callers in offices registering only men and manned by men, or with reference to men callers where women are in charge, registering women. A stray member of the opposite sex feels at ease immediately, if his or her presence be observed and attention be given. Employment managers are usually very busy men and should be served as soon after announcement as is possible. The personal interview is the opportunity to study the personahty which we are trying to win for a permanent customer and which, as an individual type, we have a right to assume is acceptable, to the house which it repre- sents. No matter by what method an interview is con- ducted it is very important to secure all the information at the time. Later calls to fill in facts which we knew were necessary and should have known enough to secure do not indicate efficiency and are more or less of an annoyance to business men. It is not always wise to insist on knowing the salary to be offered — sometimes it depends very largely upon the type of applicant re- ferred and men do not care to be quoted in advance. Some employment officials always include wage or salary as a question and feel that it should receive a definite reply if the employer is dealing in good faith. I do not ask this question myself and beKeve that I secure the confidence of employers more readily and more uni- versally by omitting it; however, I always have a very definite idea of what the position wUl probably be worth before I close the interview. Care in making inquiries which belong to factory inspection rather than to job 134 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS analysis should be exercised. Sometimes we will be told of, or be shown, working conditions which are far from ideal. Let us remember that the man who gives us the information is doing so of his own volition and that all establishments grow old and cease to be entirely satis- factory long before we would be warranted in suggesting or expecting their demolition, and let us not express horror or even surprise. Some of our antiquated school buildings which the public builds and maintains are just as bad or worse than the business houses which the same public is so eager to condemn. Even if a given industry be not the most desirable, we should remember that we are trying to become a monopoly — trying to pool the en- tire labor demand, and that if society recognizes any in- dustry as a legitimate business we want its trade. This, however, does not mean that in meeting industry'p needs we should sacrifice our boys and girls mentally, morally, or physically. If there be a good reason — based on fact, not on sentiment — why we should not, or cannot, send any industry the junior help it seeks, we should state it frankly and try to fill the order in some other way. Sometimes an older woman, or a boy, can be substituted for a girl; sometimes an older woman or an older man for a young boy, etc. A good junior employment office will not he extensively used by employers whose business standards are recognized to be below those accepted by the community in which they live. The influence of an efficient junior service is about as follows : (a) The best business houses are glad to cooperate and many will agree to secure junior employees from no other source, provided their orders can be promptly filled, (b) the cream of the ap- phcants are sent to such houses, (c) steady progress in pooling all the supply and the best of the demand follows, (d) inferior industries find it diflScult to secure satisfactory A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 135 employees because a selective agency which pools the better grades of both is bringing them together, (e) un- desirable industries eliminate objectionable features and attempt to enter " the pool." I have had considerable personal experience in dealing with employers and I have found it necessary neither to blacklist industries nor to place boys and girls in unsatisfactory positions. The type of employer to whom I am unwilling to refer juniors does not care to deal with me. On the other hand, I have frequently added new patrons who have explained that their reason for tardy cooperation was due to desire to reach a higher standard before they asked for our endorse- ment. A diplomatic junior superintendent who is strictly on his job can eliminate much that is undesirable in in- dustry without bringing criticism of any kind on any industry or employer; without bringing any criticism upon himself ; and without usurping the functions of any other public service. An office can do its own job so well that business houses will be anxious to seek its advice and secure its service. (2) With the applicant. The interview with the ap- plicant is the great opportunity to analyze, or to complete the analysis, of his mental, moral, physical, and vocational needs and abilities. Data secured from his personnel sheet, combined with data obtained from the interview and from tests, furnish the necessary material. The skill of the interviewer will be indicated in many ways, such as the method of approach, the amount and type of information secured, the length of the interview, the dis- covery of latent talent, the use made of the opportunity for service of any kind, etc. If the applicant be very young, if his educational status be low, and if he be seeking employment for the first time, there is considerable danger that the counselor may ap- 136 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS proach his problem from the " back to school " point of view, thereby eliminating him from the benefit of the employment service as well as from the benefit of school. The pupil has left school. Let us put ourselves in his place. He has come to the employment ofiice — not to be advised to go back to school — he has already had plenty of such advice — bid to get a job. Possibly the interview may indicate that it is best for him to return to school. Possibly he may go back, but he will go back in a much more receptive attitude if he goes back as a result of his ovm conclusions based on facts brought out by a skillful interviewer rather than as a result of con- clusions jumped at by the counseler and forced upon him. At the present time employment ofiices are receiving very little help from teachers in their efforts to pool 14- and 15-year-old workers. If the pupils are to be be- lieved, they are unwilling to inform teachers when they anticipate leaving lest ,they be overurged to continue. It is not to be supposed that a second agency approaching their interests from the same viewpoint will be any more successful in winning their confidence.' It seems wiser to assume that the applicant knew what he wanted when he came to the ofiice. If after events prove that the counselor had something to offer which was of more value, good salesmanship on her part will probably bring him to see it. A good placement office will have an opportunity to secure many part-time positions and thereby help to retain in school many pupils who without its assistance would be forced to leave. Pittsburgh statistics show that out of 180 pupils seeking work certificates for full time, 1 The danger of ovemrging pupils to remain in school is a peculiarly difficult subject for intelligent discussion because many well-intentioned teachers are obsessed with the idea that great benefits are derived by prolongation of the school period, irrespective of what the school may have to offer or of the manner in which a pupil may spend hia time during the period of prolongation. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 137 90 were offered and accepted half-time employment. Quite a number of the 90 are being lost from the part- time schools but about one third of the loss has gone back to full-time education. If the teacher, the certifica- tion office, and the continuation school are functioning cooperatively in their educational undertaking, guidance and placement departments will not draw pupils out of school, but will help to retain them in school.* If inter- views are so conducted that the school point of view is uppermost, that the counselor's attitude savors of phi- lanthropy rather than of business, that what she wants rather than what the applicant wants is emphasized, we shall not make rapid progress in pooling the junior labor supply, nor shall we make many permanent customers. Whenever paternaKstic methods result in forcing our own opinions upon imsold applicants, discontent and labor tm-nover are apt to increase rather than to diminish. " Seating " is an important item in conducting a suc- jcessful interview. Opportunity to study the appUcant is the main thing. AppUcants often study interviewers very carefully and the effect of everything told is noted. The question as to how much it is wise or necessary to tell is always uppermost. An untrained worker, or one deficient in psychological insight, is always in danger of allowing the interviewed to become the interviewer. There is considerable difference of opinion as to whether filling ovi the application blank should be regarded as a ^ Dr. Meeker, Commissioner of Labor Statistics, in a recent address classified "unemployment" among industrial accidents. If we accept his statement, then what form of compensation should society offer Junior unemployed? UNEM- PLOYMENT SCHOOLS, and make them compulsory. The Denver Opportimity School is not compulsory and it is not confined to juniors, but it is an excellent example of how unemployment compensation might operate. Students of this subject should be informed on the laboratory for unemployed operated in New York during 1915 and 1916. Report of the Mayor's Committee on Unemploy- ment, New York City, 1916. 138 JtJNlOR WAGE EARNERS legitimate part of the technical interview or as a mere mechanical process to be performed by a clerical assistant or by the applicant himself. Economy of time for the comiselor is the only apparent advantage in delegating this fmiction. Much valuable information can be secured informally and incidentally while tabulating what, at &st sight, appear to be purely mechanical details. The length of the interview is another problem which troubles some counselors. The length of the necessary interview depends entirely upon the problems involved in placement. An hour is often insufficient for the best service; sometime five minutes answers every purpose. An average of fifteen minutes to an applicant is a good time record, provided efficiency in other more essential elements be included. Abihty to win the confidence of junior applicants is sometimes accompanied by inability to close the interview without affront when the counselor feels that all possible service has been rendered and all necessary information secured. This is an even greater problem in adult offices. The best methods for dismissing callers who overstay is an unsolved problem in many of om' large business houses. There are a few real artists in this line. Rising as the introduction card is presented is usually effective, but if the applicant persists, an in- vitation to return when others are not waiting may be given. Occasionally young wage earners seek vocational interviews merely to be assured of a sympathetic hstener. The coimselor cannot tiu-n these callers away, neither can she permit them to monopoUze her time. A spirit of restlessness is quite prevalent among young wage earners and it is not unconunon for those who have real or imaginary reasons for discontent to make applica- tion for a new position while retaining the old. Their experience with the business world is very limited. The A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 139 disadvantages of their own work are known and seem to them greater than those which would be found in other lines. Occasionally one finds a public employment office which refuses to register such apphcants. This practice, if known, results in employed apphcants concealing the fact of employment, in counselors making an effort to secure a position and in labor turnover which is often unnecessary and very unwise. One of the main objects of an employment office is increase in occupational and social stabihty, hence, counselors should urge young wage earners to consult them prior to determining upon a change, should be prepared to analyze present and pro- spective positions and assist apphcants to decide whether the advantages in changing are as great as may appear. It requires considerable abUity to weigh the possibiHties of positions and decide when it is best to change. Re- fusal to register employed juniors is bound to increase labor tm-nover. After analysis from the card has been completed, after it has been supplemented by observation and conversation, we stm have tests of various types which are being used with more or less success as guides in the selection of employees, and promise to become an increasingly im- portant factor in reducing labor ttirnover. Properly used they should assist a labor-distributing agency in protecting its registrants from needlessly applying for positions for which they cannot qualify and employers from peedlessly trying out and discharging incompe- tents. Physical Testa are very essential if we would protect juniors from entering occupations which tend to stunt them physically and, in later life, make them unem- ployables in the adult labor market. Physical tests for school children are increasing in favor, health certificates 140 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS are prerequisite to emplojTiient certification in some states, many business houses require physical examination prior to employment and periodical examinations after employees have been accepted.^ Fatigue elimination, which is closely related to indus- trial health, is being studied scientifically by Major Frank B. Gilbreth and his wife lilUan M. Gilbreth, who are pioneers in the work and are adding definite information to our knowledge of fatigue, its causes, effects, and prospects of elimination.^ Psychological Tests are frequently assumed to be synony- mous with general intelUgence tests — tests which ehm- inate mental defectives and determine native abiUty. A more inclusive use of the term permits the psychological test to comprise the trade test, as well as the general intelli- gence test. General intelUgence tests are coming into very general use in connection with school systems and are fmrnishing a means for comparing the relative accuracy of teachers' judgments. So much material is in print on this phase of testing that it is unnecessary to go into detail.* In view of the fact that up to date school tests have been based almost entirely on the acquisition of a large number of facts, it is interesting to note a movement ^ For the value of periodic examinations and the work of the Life Extension Institute from the employer's point of view, see Twentieth Annual Convention of National Association of Manufacturers, New York, May 25, 26, 1915, pp. 190 i. 2 "Fatigue Study," Macmillan Company, New York. "Papers on Fatigue," Transactions of the Society of Industrial Engineers, 1919-20. "Motion Study for the Handicapped," E. P. Dutton, New York. "The Three Position Plan of Promotion," Annals of the American Academy, May, 1916. (On the selection of employees.) Major and Mrs. Gilbreth are also pioneers in the subject of "motion study." I was pleased to learn from them recently that they are hopeful regarding ultimate returns on efforts to perfect tests which will indicate potential abilities. ' * One of the most recent books which is of great interest is "Classes for Gifted Children" by Dr. Whipple of Carnegie Institute of Technology, Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, III., 1919. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 141 to add tests which will determine practical ability, grasp of fundamental principles, capacity for growth and fit- ness to undertake the various lines of training required by the business world. It is also interesting to note the recent entrance tests offered by Columbia University. Students were permitted to choose between the old aca- demic examination and the newer tests. One hundred and eighty-seven chose the old and 200 the new, which required (a) a school record on moral qualities and (6) a test comprising four parts : one and two on powers of perception and observation, three and foiu; on applied cultural knowledge. Trade or occupational tests are tests which determine the degree of training, education, and experience of the applicant — acquired rather than innate abiUty. They may be subdivided into : a. Technical interviews — specific questions about spe- cific elements ; h. Pictures and blueprints ; c. Demonstrations. Simple tests of any kind which reveal abilities may be considered a legitimate part of the technical interview — tests to determine alertness and courtesy — academic tests to determine handwriting, accuracy in mathematical processes, spelling, typing, filing, making change, etc. A more formal series of questions based on detailed job analysis, made out by experts to be used in testing applicants who advertise to be experts, is also termed a technical interview. It is needless to state that such in- terviews are more useful in adult than in junior placement ofiices and that their utility anywhere depends upon the use of a technical vocabulary, universally understood, and questions so framed that exact and unmistakable 142 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS answers can be secured by a^ examiner who has little knowledge of the trade "■ — standardized questions based upon concrete knowledge of the job.' The use of pictures and blueprints as a method of testing is self-explanatory, as is also trade demonstrations.' "^ A few references which indicate where tests which have been tried out by business houses may be found are in- cluded in footnotes.^ In general we may conclude that the use of mental tests is already recognized as a part of modern employment psychology and that neither employ- ment manager, nor public employment office can afford to ignore progress in devices of any kind which tend to contribute to the selection of men on a more scientific basis. On the other hand, there is a tendency to make psychological tests a f^d, to use them indiscriminately, and to overlook the fact that they are a dangerous tool in the hands of untrained men. a. Psychological tests should be devised, evaluated, and prescribed by experts. They should have a definite pur- pose and should be given -by trained men. b. Psychological tests have no value in testing appU- cants for given positions unless by their appUcation to present occupants of the same positions it has been proved 1 The United States Employment Service made a very definite contribution to the scientific development of technical interviews in its office at 22d Street and Broadway, New York. > "The Descriptions of Occupations" published by the Bureau of Labor Sta- tistics for the United States Employment Service are of great assistance in job specifications. ' For those who can read but one book on this subject, "Employment Psychol- ogy," Link, Henry C, Maomillan, 1919, is by far the best of which our department has knowledge. It should be known to every student of employment problems. • Link, Henry C, "Employment Psychology." Cody, Sherwin, "Commercial Tests and How to Use Them," World Book Co., 1919. Henderschott and Weakly, "Employment Department & Employee Re- lations," La Salle Extension University, Chicago, 1918. Chapter on "Vocational Laboratory." "Hiring and Firing," Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1918. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 143 that they are an accurate guide in separating the success- ful from the unsuccessful. c. There is no particular advantage in selection by test unless there is a definite follow-up system which includes an estimate of the ultimate results of testing. Here, as elsewhere, education and employment have much the same problem. When education selects the wrong boy for a certain line of vocational training and employment agencies select the wrong boy for a certain occupation, the result is much the same, — misfits, drifters, unemployed, unemployables, social unrest, intellectual and industrial hoboes, and anarchy. I repeat again, when the preventive side of vocational guidance has been made a definiifi responsibility of the educational system there mil be less corrective guidance for employment agencies. Recently the MetropoHtan Life gave an examination for clerical workers. Seventy-five per cent was the passing grade. One thousand forty-three were tested and 839 failed. These 839 failures represent the tj^pe of apphcant who comes to public employment oflices seeking corrective guidance. The Manhattan Trade School for Girls operates a testing bureau in which grammar school pupils are given a two week test prior to graduation. The pur- pose is to give pupils some idea of the various kinds of work for which they may prepare. Such tests should be regarded as preventive vocational guidance — to prevent selection of the wrong lines of vocational education. After the result of the tests is known and the occupation has been determined upon, there is still a sort of residuum of need which good interviewers will find and meet. If this be the young wage earner's first position, she may need information supplemental to that acquired in school on labor legislation, such as the eight-hour law, minimum wage, health permits, physical examination, etc. If the 144 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS position involved requires dexterity and speed, it may be that a little assistance in determining the difference between soldiering and speeding in relation to good steady output will be helpful. It is sometimes rather difficult to discuss this subject with factory employees until after they have had at least a minimiun of experience, but counselors can ask them to keep a record of their production for three or four days and then come back to the office to talk it over. If the daily record indicates speeding, the counselor may approach the subject of volume of work from one point of view; if it indicates undergrade work it will be handled differently. Of course we are assuming that every counselor will know just what a daily output record indicates, interpreted in terms of potential success or failure. ' Budget making, including habits of thrift, wise expenditure of money, etc., make a very strong appeal to those who are about to receive their first wages. Carelessness in the use of material of all kinds, pencils, bags, string, paper, etc., involves an overhead expense for which employees are responsible.* In short, the expert counselor will not close her interview until she has rendered every service which her own experience has taught her will increase the applicant's chances of success. If the appUcant be a more experienced worker, the interview may have re- vealed some elements of weakness or of strength which will indicate how it will be possible to acquire and offer that little something more which employers do not include in job specifications but which they are very quick to recog- nize and which distinguishes the really high class employee from the average and the good. B. The Referral. The Junior Division of the United States Employment Service does not refer its applicants ^ The waste of paper bags in 10-cent stores amounts to a large sum. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 145 as average boys to average jobs, but as individuals selected to fill individual positions. At the completion of the interview when the employer has been selected, an intro- duction card, accompanied by any other desirable informa- tion, is given. Unless there be regular hours for inter- viewing applicants, it is always wise to telephone the employment manager prior to a personal visit. Occa- sionally a position will have been filled since the order came to the service or an appHcant will fail to meet the manager because of selecting an inconvenient hour. If for any reason our applicant seems to us to be either above or below specification, a prospective employer should be so informed. It does not seem wise at all times to permit applicants to overhear these appointment conferences with employers. The counselor may step into another room to telephone or better still when the interview is completed she may ask the appUcant to return to the reception room and wait until the introduction is prepared. Who is the referral clerk? The counselor or a second person who specializes in that phase of employment service? This is not a problem either in the one-person office or in the very large office, but sometimes it presents an administrative problem in the average office placing from 50 to 300 juniors per week. In many ways, the one- person office operates under ideal conditions. Information and responsibility for its effective use are centralized in one person; the counselor knows both employer and applicant personally and she checks up on the value of her own placements. When the volume of work is suffi- cient to warrant enough coimselors to make placement assigmnents on an occupational basis, the problem again becomes comparatively simple. A reception-room at- tendant may conduct a preliminary interview and, if the applicant has already chosen an occupation, refer her or 146 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS him directly to the placement clerk for that occupation. If the applicant has not chosen an occupation, she should be referred to a general counselor whose main function is aiding in vocational selection and who, when the selec- tion has been made, will refer her to the proper placement expert. The small ofl&ce lying between these two extremes is the really difficult office to organize. Upon what basis shall the 50 to 300 placements per week office assign its duties among the members of its corps? Shall a counselor and a placement clerk work in pairs — the counselor a,dvising all applicants and the placement clerk making all referrals — or shall two counselors divide the applicants, each counseling and referring her own group? If the latter, on what basis shall division of applicants be made — occupations, age, or sex? There seem to be many advantages in working in pairs : (1) Counseling, to be of value, should be done by men and women who combine educational and industrial experience and whose age and personality is such that they can win the confidence of both sexes, as well as of parents and teachers. Their advisory work really includes leader- ship in methods of interpreting and handHng the young. Married women, other things being equal, make excellent counselors. As long as it is so very difficult to secure good counselors, economy in utilizing the few who can qualify as experts seems desirable. (2) Referral clerks may be much younger and have had much less experience with life. They do not need to know the life history of applicant, nor do they need to counsel on social-moral problems, but they do need to be bright business women who can visualize each worker in the position to which she is referred. As they take incoming calls and deal with employers over the telephone, a pleasing tone of voice and abihty to secure the most information in a short time A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 147 are vital factors for success. (3) Employers object to more than one point of contact — they like the same operator to take every call. Usually the placement clerks will do much of the sohcitation and follow-up and this gives employers an opportunity to meet them per- sonally. (4) If the referral is not accepted, the applicant returns directly to the placement clerk, who knows the type of position for which she is prepared and refers her again without taking the time of the counselor. The counselor and the placement clerk work very intimately and an exchange of opinions is desirable at the close of each day. Many details secured by the placement clerk are valuable for the counselor in keeping her methods of interview up to date, while the more mature abiUty of the counselor which is demanded in reading character and in interpreting industrial facts is an asset in increasing^ the experience of referral clerks. The one great disadvantage in working in pairs is found in the fact that it affords an opportunity for divided authority in referral and hence divided responsibihty for results. C. The Placement. Social sciences have the disad- vantage of possessing no technical vocabulary. This is one of their great handicaps in conducting the type of in- vestigations which justify their claim to be ranked as sciences. " Placement " is used with equal frequency and equal legitimacy to indicate either the entire emplosrment process or the mere mechanical process of closing the deal between the applicant and the employer. Both inter-- pretations of the term have been used in this publication. In the main, placement has been used to indicate all the processes involved in assisting juniors to make their occupational start. In this section it is applied to one of the fimctions of the employment process — closing the deal. 148 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS The referral has been made. The applicant's registra- tion card and the employer's card are clipped together and put in a desk basket, or a file, to await returns. If the employer accepts the applicant and the applicant accepts the position, a placement has been made; - if either party refuses to close the bargain, so far as numerical results are concerned, the process of employment has not advanced beyond the referral stage. It is the duty of the referral clerk to secure the results of her effort in some way. The right way is through return of the referral card upon which the employer or the applicant has checked " Yes " or " No." Unfortunately, this method of seciu-ing returns depends for success upon the cooperation of outside parties over whom the employment service has no control. If the card is not returned within 24 to 48 hours, then it becomes the duty of the referral clerk to secure the information in some other way — by telephone, by letter, or in person. If a placement has been made the fact is so recorded on both cards, the applicant's and the employer's. The cards are separated and placed in the proper file and a placement is recorded on the daily report. If no place- ment has been made the cards are separated, returned to the active file, and the process repeated. Returned referral cards are filed, alphabetically or by date, and offices which so desire may maintain a separate file for this purpose. Placement, as a mechanical process, is now complete, but placement as the process of employment cannot be considered complete until we know that our selective judgment has been vindicated — until we are sure that we have two satisfied customers. This information is obtained through the final process of employment — Employment Supervision, or Follow-up. D. Employment Supervision, or Follow-up. Em- A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 149 ployment supervision or follow-up comprises two distinct functions : research functions and supervisory functions. The research function of employment supervision's the function which : (1) Helps us to determine the effectiveness of our service by, a, number of placements relative to number of referrals — number of apparently satisfied customers — period of retention — percentage of annual labor turnover, and b, financial expenditure relative to qualita- tive and quantitative returns. (2) Furnishes statistical and other data from which to draw scientific conclusions regarding the status of employ- ment, unemployment, seasonal employment, under-em- ployment, unemployables, etc., and the progress which is being made in the solution of these problems. (3) Furnishes vocational information needed by the schools in order to carry out their part of the vocational guidance program outhned in Part II, Chapter III. It is through this phase of the follow-up program that we make good oxir claim that " Placement is the Alpha of Vocational Guidance." The success of the educational effort toward better preparation of pupils for occupational responsibilities depends very largely upon the abiUty of emplojTuent offices to recognize and secure facts which are of educational value, and to make them available for educational pm'poses. The number of placements relative to the number of referrals is the most immediate and probably the best mechanical standard by which to test the efficiency of employment offices. Mere volume of placement as a standard might easily tend to increase labor turnover, hence the niunber of satisfied customers, the period of retention of positions, and the percentage of annual turnover, should always supplement placement statistics. 150 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS Service is the ultimate test of any employment agency. Sometimes service begins and ends with the interview ; no placement is desired. Sometimes service ends with deci- sion to retm-n to school, and, if education can do more for the applicant than industry, then efficiency is indicated by the fact of returning to school. Again service may result in determination to retain the present position — if this means ultimate gain then service is indicated by our ability to help the appUcant, to see it. If real service has been rendered, any one of the three outcomes men- tioned may be equally, or more, advantageous than place- ment. For this reason, we are including on our National Junior reports — Ntmiber calling for consultation only — Number returned to school — Number advised to retain present position. Number of placements alone can never be a satisfactory test of the efficiency of the Junior Division of the United States Employment Service. Cost per placement is an equally unsatisfactory basis upon which to estimate efficiency. In the first place there is a great variety of interpretations to be placed upon the term " placement." If placement means the process of employment including guidance in selecting a position and employment supervision, it will entail far greater expense than will mechanical placement the details of which can be transacted over the counter. If placement statistics include a large number of common labor or group placements relative to the number of skilled and professional workers, then the average cost per placement will be low. If the bulk of the placements be skilled, professional, or junior — all requiring private interviews and individual attention — then the average cost will run high.^ ^ In determining acourate placement coata, consideration should always be given to the modal figure or unit of greatest frequency in any placement group. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 151 It has been assumed that public employment agencies will never be in a position to place skilled and professional workers satisfactorily and a^t the same time come within the cost limits allowed by appropriations for employment purposes. Private agencies justify their existence as pubhc servants quite largely on this basis. Comparison of the cost per placement among private agencies with the cost under public auspices, as well as comparison of the amount -which public appropriation indicates as the esti- mated cash value of such service with the net incomes of privately operated agencies, tends to support this assump- tion. There are, as yet, no statistical data which afford sufficient basis for attempting to standardize the cost of satisfactory placements. Private agencies serve as the best guides because they operate on a commercial basis — they must give satisfaction in order to keep their doors open. The cost per placement in public offices in California in 1916 was 75j!, in private offices $2.25. In Illinois, 1917-18, 205,178 positions were filled by the public offices at a total cost of $76,570 or 32^^ per placement. A recent report from an Employers' Association agency which registered skilled, semi-skilled, and common labor shows an average of 67 jf per placement. A good Y. M. As an illustration, suppose the data register the following placements: 300 mes- sengers, 10 clerks, and 5 stenographers. The cost of such an ofi&ce is $500. The average cost per placement is $500 divided by 315, or $1.58. However, in these figures are included 300 messengers, the modal figure. They comprise more than 95% of total placements ; require little or no skill and a minimum of time. Elim- inating these or giving them only due weight, the cost per placement is consider- ably higher and would not reflect as highly efficient an organization as the figures SI. 58 would seem to indicate. Due weight should, therefore, be given to group placements or modal units in each case in order that real placement cost can be accurately determined. The time element affords a more accurate index of placement costs but its methods are still too uncertain to warrant its common use. Junior oflSccs which desire to co- operate with the National Office in testing methods for determining the occupational cost per placement can obtain suggestions and forma &om this office, and their co- operation will be welcomed. 152 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS C. A. office in 1919, registering clerical and sales positions, operated at an average cost of $3.50 per placement. The private agencies in Illinois, in 1917-18, fiUed 593,482 posi- iil ^1 CALIFORNIA TTJ.TNOIS Employers AsB'n y. M. C. A. Public Office 1916 Private Office 1916 Public Office 1917-18 Private Office 1917-18 (recent) 1919 {3.60 3.00 2.E0 2 00 1.50 1.00 .M 1 1 1 Chart showing average cost per placement 1916-19 by various employment offices. tions. Their net income is not available but their list of classified agencies permits us to draw some conclusions : 37,639 domestic servants paid a $2 fee, total $ 75,278 ^ 274,887 laborers paid a $2 fee, total . . . 549,774 In other words, 37,639 domestic servants paid private employment agencies in registration fees in 1917-18 ap- proximately the same sum as was expended by public offices for the placement of 205,178 persons in positions of all types. I Domeatic agencies and agencies placing conunon labor, charge fees of $2 to applicant and $2 to employer. In some cases this double fee is not coUectedt hence both types of positions have been estimated at the S2 rate only. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 153 The value of such statistics is questionable, but grant- ing their validity, what an awful reflection on our estimate of the economic and social value of human ability, energy, and skill ! Just as long as 52^^ per capita is permitted, not to say encouraged and applauded, just so long may we expect to reap our reward in social unrest and anarchy. Our pubUc ofBces do not yet attract the cream of our labor supply. The greater part of their task is the place- ment of the disappointed, the discontented, the misfit, the casual laborer, etc. They hold a strategic position with reference to unrest and anarchy. Do oiu' legislators reaUze this? Do they want and do they expect these offices to be operated in the interests of stabUized em- ployment? 32^(4 per placement is their reply. It tells the whole story. If the present estimate of the appropriation necessary for operating federal-state employment offices coopera- tively were to be indorsed and granted by Congress, how much more nearly would the pubhq expenditure in Illinois approach that of the private agencies? The United States Employment Service seeks approximately $1,500,000 for operating its share in a service equipped to make 65,665 placements per week, an average of 44 cents per placement. When^ $1,500,000 is shared by the various states, the additional amount granted the state of Illinois — probably on the 50-50 basis — would give her a total of $150,000 for operation of public em- ployment offices. It costs 274,887 laborers $549,774 to secure the same type of service from private agencies, and the sum may exceed $1,000,000 provided the double fee allowed be collected. Approaching the subject from a slightly different point of view we offer a complete roster of positions secured through Illinois private agencies in 1917-18. 154 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS Ttpb or AaBNOT Theatrical Domestic . Barbers . Automobile Hotel . . Labor . . Clerical . General . Teachers . Engineering and Technical Nurses POBITIONS SXCUBXD 167,457 (3» 10% of salary 37,639 « $2.00 or $4.00 4,854 4,966 10,532 274,887 34,043 46,057 3,694 1,376 7,977 593,482 @ $2.00 or $4.00 @ $2.00 and up ® 5% of salary @ Percentage of salary @ 10% of salary Cost to Euruyrmu $ 75,278.00 549,774.00 68,086.00 The private agendes in Illinois collected a larger total for service to 593,482 applicants than the federal employment service is contemplating for service to all wage earners of the entire United States. Expenditure of l&rge sums will not always result in efficiency, but if public offices are to be operated, it is well for those who are responsible for their operation to have at least a general understanding of the expense which should ie involved and which is involved in offices under private control. The educational Council of the International Committee of the Y. M. C. A. has recently arranged for vocational guidance and placements for discharged soldiers and sailors. Fortunately for the organization and for the young men who are to receive its benefits, Mr. E. W. Weaver has been secured to organize and direct the move- ment. After careful study of such material as could be secured as a guide in determining the necessary cost of scientific employment the following plan was adopted : ^ "The local Associations which are prepared to give to applicants who have been honorably discharged from the army, navy, marine * Grants were available January 1. 1920. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 155 service, or from the war industries assistance in planning their futures, are to receive for each applicant so assisted a grant of $5. The Associations which through properly organized Employment Departments place such appUcants in positions shall be reimbursed for the cost of this service, but grants for this purpose shall not exceed $5 for each appUcant so placed. "... Careful distinction must be made between these two kinds of service. The candidate who applies to the employment office, knowing what he wants and being prepared for the kind of work which he expects, is to be considered in claiming the second grant. AppUcants for whorn well-defined plans are made, either in the way of preliminary education for vocational purposes, or in the way of employments for apprenticeships which prepare for promising occupations, may be considered in claiming the Occupa- tional Guidance grants." The plan of the Y. M. C. A., it will be noted, is almost identical with that advocated by the Junior Division of the Employment Service. The distinction between voca- tional guidance and assistance in securing a position is clearly defined and the; relative importance of the two functions evaluated. However interested we may be in securing accurate data on number and cost of placements, we are still more interested in research studies which will point the way to the solution of the great social-economic problems which are omnipresent in connection with pubUc employ- ment offices. Junior offices have the best opportunity to show leadership in this direction. Whether or not they wiU have the ability and foresight to make use of their opportunity remains to be seen. The 14 to 16 year old period is the place to begin. For a decade or more 14 to 16 have been spoken of as wasted years. To what extent can this claim be justified ? If there be waste, how much and how can it be prevented at its source? Jacob Riis estimates that there are 8,000,000 men in this country who began their wage- 156 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS earning career below the eflSiciency line and are living below it for their entire life. Robert Hunter makes the number 10,000,000. Data offered in support of their statements permit the conclusion that every 14-year-old boy who leaves our public schools has an even chance of being one of these unfortunates. One of the functions of an employment service is to find out why these boys enter industrial life below the efficiency line and to see that their chances for so doing are reduced. Part of the responsibility will go back to education, but the fact that many of these young wage earners, who are on the border line and might, by proper encouragement and supervision during their first month of employment, be made permanent contributors to production, are, by neglect and discouragement, permitted to lay the founda- tion for unemployment and unemployables, is a problem for employment supervision. The mechanical process of placement, or even the entire process of placement com- pleted to acceptance of a position, will not accomplish our purpose. Boys and girls are often well and apparently satisfactorDy placed. They like their positions and mean to meet their requirements but they have come from homes in which they were the center of attraction, from schools where every act was supervised, every success praised, and every failure noted. In the industrial world they are the yoimgest, the newest, the lowest paid, and the least essential employees in the establishment. They cannot understand the change. They are resentful, dis- couraged, or indifferent as the case may be, and the closed accoimts of industry begin to compete with the closed accounts of education. A series of facts available to all, ignored by most, and known to a few, result. At the joint session of the American Association for Labor Legislation and the American Association on Unemploy- A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 157 ment, December 28-29, 1914, data were oflFered to indicate that in large cities one fourth of all the boys and girls who had secured labor permits were always unemployed. In the same year Mr. Hiatt submitted data indicating that New York City was harboring 70,000 youthful floaters, Chicago 30,000, Boston 12,000, and Milwaukee 6,000. " One expert in the study of these conditions has made it a rule of thumb in average industrial cities of 20,000 and up, that one eightieth of the total popula- tion^will be found to be these 14- to 16-year old loafers or untrained workers." ^ He adds that in the year preced- ing his study Philadelphia spent more than $1,500,000 for high school instruction for 13,039 boys and girls and nothing for the 13,742 between 14 and 16 who were eliminated from school and employed. Retardation and elimination in school is paralleled by juvenile labor turnover in industry — these are two factors which lie at the bottom of any scientific solution of the problem of unemployment.^ Again statistics tell us that from 10 per cent to 15 per ' England long since traced the origin of its unemployment problem to neglect of its young wage earners. In 1909, boy labor was cited by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws as " the most serious of the phenomena which we have encountered in our study of unemployment." It was further pointed out "that one of the most prolific sources of" casual labor with its evil of chronic underemployment, is the employment of boys" in occupations which leave them unemployables at manhood. Beveridge, W. H., "Unemployment — A Problem of Industry," p. 212. "In any thoroughgoing attack upon unemplpyment there must be included, on the one hand, the better guidance of boys and girls in the choice of careers and, on the other hand, the extension of industrial training." "... The guidance of boys and girls in the choice of careers means simply the extension of labour market organiza^ tion in connection with the schools. It means substituting for the haphazard entry into indvistrial life — the taking of the first job that offers — entry informed by wider knowledge of possibilities and prospects. Moreover, in order to be effective this guidance must be fairly general. It implies a Juvenile Labour Ex- change dealing with a substantial portion both of the supply and of the demand for boys and not one starting out with the ideas of rigidly prescribing all but the best employments. No general effect can be produced by sending a few selected boys to the best employers and ignoring all the other employers. The latter simply get their boys in other ways ; the evil is ignored not cured." ' A good discussion of the^problem of unemployment is found in Lescohier, Don b., "The Labor Market," Macmillan, 1919. 158 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS cent is a fair average of discharge for incompetency. Such a generalization does not mean very much in the way of removing incompetency and reducing labor turnover. The Jimior Division of the Employment Service wants to know what kind of incompetency — it wants all the facts which employment managers can give relative to types and degrees of incompetency. If it 11,500.000 For Instruction in High School • 13,039 X 13,742 » Chart showing number of boys and girls provided for by Philadelphia and number between 14 and 16 years of age unprovided for that were eliminated and employed. cannot secure this information, it cannot make use of educational facihties for remedying the types of incom- petency which are within its power, nor can it overcome incompetency due to its own errors in analyzing and advis- ing employers and applicants. Employment Managers need this information themselves in order to assume industry's responsibility for labor turnover and to remove its causes. What is the matter with the schools and the employment office that so many are branded incompetent or unsatisfactory? What is the matter with industry that so many want to leave? The types of responsibiUty involved in the supervisory function of follow-up are as varied as are the social problems involved in employment. Such problems will probably never be entirely eliminated ; surely he who at the present time advocates their elimination betrays thereby his ignorance of the employment function, his inabihty to grasp the interrelation of all social-economic problems and his unfitness for employment service. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 159 Systematic employment supervision strikes at the heart of many of the junior problems. If it be conducted by the case method ^ it is bound to be welcomed by the employer, employee, the home, and the school and it is bound to become a powerful factor for good in any com- munity. (4) ; Collection and dissemination of information which will help the schools to estimate.more accurately the social and economic value of their product and to introduce such curricula changes as may be necessary to meet the changing demands of industry. Knocking the schools is one of our favorite national pastimes. ^Sins of omission and sins of conmiission vie with one another in providing faciUties for such diversion. The schools with great endurance and rare forbearance, make no effort to resist the knocks and by their silence are assimied to have assented to the charge that they do not prepare boys and girls for the occupational responsi- bilities of life.^ It has long been obvious that the educa- tional systems either could not, or would not, uncover and overcome their own weaknesses. And still it is most interesting to note that the type of research supervision which indicates educational weaknesses has come from within as well as from without. Dr. William McAndrew, Associate Superintendent of Schools in New York City, has given us the most brilliant presentation of the failure of the elementary schools to prepare for business life. * The case method of teaching originated in the Harvard Law School in 1871 and has been adopted by all the leading law schools of the country. Mrs. Rich- mond was the pioneer in adapting the method to analysis of social problems and formulation of adequate plans for their treatment. A small pamphlet, "Social Case Work and Better Industrial Conditions" by Shelby M. Harrison, Russell Sage Foundation, 1918, is worthy of a place in any library covering employment problems. 2 In a recent public address a speaker of national reputation scored his educator audience for permitting; wholesale condemnation of the teaching profession without 160 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS The entire pamphlet is so valuable that it is useless to quote selections. No teacher, or counselor, who con- templates employment supervision can afford to miss its humor, its inspiration, its facts, and the message which it carries from an educator to educators.* The business world has long been justifiably dissatisfied with the type of commercial education which is afforded by public high schools. From time to time commercial organizations have protested against traditional curricula which excluded the subjects and forbid the methods which were most needed in practical life." They have resented applications for technical positions from high school grad- uates who brought with them grades of " good," " fair," and " poor " when it is well known that modern cn mm pr- cial tests are available which would give definite infor- mation regarding the quality of technical abiUty possessed. Business houses have often led in the introduction of such tests. A number of commercial surveys have been made locally. They have been read. Their statements have been neither refuted nor acted upon. The Cleveland Survey, the Eaton-Stevens Studies, Mr. Thompson's book entitled " Commercial Education in PubUc Secondary Schools," and the returns on employment supervision in Seattle, all indicated defects in present commercial educa- tion and suggested differentiated courses for boys and girls if the logical aim of commercial education were to be realized. We now have a national study which confirms attempts to defend it. A newspaper editorial commentins on the same passive acceptance of criticisms says, "teachers grin at each other out of th« tails of their eyes" when their work is criticized. » McAndiew, Wm., "The Public and Its Schools," World Book Co., 1916. Section II of the "Seattle Report," 1913-16, eives a brief summary of our findings through the medium of employment service. > Reports of National Trade Council, Corporation School Cuirioula, Chambera of Commerce, etc. A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 161 local conclusions and substantiates the demands of the business world. Statistics indicate that secondary com- mercial education has no definite aim; that its courses are still in the grip of tradition and many features are almost static ; that its methods are weak, as often wrong as right, because they are not devised to accomplish definite aims. The Report suggests that guidance for educators in reorganization of courses is possibly the greatest need. It concludes, " There is need for such a quantity of evidence and for such evidence for every locahty as will make the objects of business training too apparent to be overlooked." ' Immediately following this national survey the Federal Board for Vocational Education announced a study cover- ing 24 cities in order to determine just what kinds of commercial positions are held by boys and girls 14 to 17 years of age, the type of training most desirable for pres- ent positions and the lines of promotion.* Recognition of the failures of education and the type of survey mentioned above are very significant for the solution of the practical problems of the Junior Division of the Employment Service. Applicants who are not trained for the work which they desire will be dissatisfied workers and have dissatisfied employers. Labor turn- over and corrective vocational guidance, or unemployables, result. From the selfish point of view, if from no other, every junior counselor is vitally interested in helping to make commercial education courses, or any other school courses, as eflacient and as practical as is possible. Much of the information which vocational surveys seek is in the employment service files. It is rapidly increasing in ' Lyon, I*verett S., "A Survey of Commercial Education in the Public High Schools of the United States," University of Chicago, 1919. I " The Vocational Summary," March, 1920, outlines this survey and lists the cities included. M 162 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS quality and quantity and it has the advantage of being available through a national centralized department. Securing and furnishing educational agencies data which permit them to so plan and execute the curricula that appUcants come to employment oflSces prepared, not for something, but for something which business wants, which they want to do and which they know how to do, is the Alpha of Vocational Guidance. (5) Forecasting, in sorfar as is possible, changes in indus- trial methods or the enactment of legislation, which will have a direct bearing on the number and type of oppor- tunities open to junior employees. The statement is made on Mr. Weaver's authority that between 1900 and 1910 there were 19,000 girls in New York City who were eliminated from industry because of legislative or industrial changes and that there were in all about 30,000 juniors who did not realize that social and economic changes were making it harder for them to find emplojntnent. Six years of experience with minimum wage and eight- hour-for-women legislation has provided an experience in forecasting the results of such legislation which is of invaluable service in industrial placements. The probable and possible industrial change which will follow the enact- ment of legislation is a factor which every employment office should be able to analyze and for which it should be prepared. Variations in influence on juniors of either sex are determined largely by the general industrial conditions throughout the country. If the labor supply be abundant, boys over 18 years of age whose wage is regulated by supply and demand can be employed at a lower rate thah girls whose wage is regulated by law. The employment office will pool a large supply of female help for which it will be impossible to create a demand A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFFICE 163 at the legislated wage. On the other hand, if the labor supply be not abundant, boys over 18 will be employed in other and higher paid lines and age-sex competition con- trolled by the difference in industrial and legislated wage will be reduced to the minimum. Employment supervision, which transfers juvenile workers to junior work as they approach the age when they should become estabUshed as permanent workers, has been and always will be important, but wherever legislative enactment provides that adult wages be re- ceived at 18 years of age, it becomes doubly so. Offices operating in states which have enacted minimvim wage legislation, especially if there be also an eight-hour law for women and not for men, should keep a careful record of all placements imder 18 and should seek the coopera- tion of employers in seeing that each individual worker reaches the efficiency standard necessary to receive the adult minimum. If the occupation be a juvenile-em- ploying industry, offices should see that a transfer be effected and a younger worker be supplied to fill the position. Constant repetition of apprenticeship is another problem which accompanies the enactment of wage legislation. There are girls whom it seems almost impossible to keep employed under any legislated wage, but half the battle is won if there be an opportimity to anticipate and pre- pare for changie. The introduction of la,bor-saving machinery is another industrial factor in change which is vital to employment offices. When an office is once well and favorably known in its community, employers will usually notify in advance when they contemplate introduction of labor-saving devices which will release workers. It is not uncommon for employment managers to take the initiative in assisting 164 JUNIOR WAGE EARNERS counselors to provide for reabsorption of all released em- ployees prior to the date of release. (6) To bring back under educational influence boys and girls to whom, future educational service can be rendered. (7) To cooperate with other agencies in such a way that duplication of effort and service may be avoided. Education is a continuous process. Vocational Guid- ance is a continuous process. No worker can be at his best unless education be a constant factor in his daily life. To every placement office there will come boys and girls similar to those mentioned on page 93. If their expe- rience has indicated that further education offered by any local agency would be of vocational assistance, this information should be in employment offices, and its dis- semination should be regarded as a legitimate function of the service. If the mechanical act of placement be considered the final step in Vocational Guidance, then this opportimity for service will be lost. Logically it is the Omega of Vocational Guidance. Placement is the main function of any employment system. Coimter placement, without effort to analyze positions or applicants, is job hunting. There is nothing scientific about it and there never will be. It has been going on for years and has made no contribution to the solution of the labor problem and it never will. It begins nowhere and ends nowhere. Vocational Guidance is not in its vocabulary nor are Vocational Guidance functions within its comprehension. Placement which is accompanied by that type of employment supervision which accumu- lates data from practical hfe for, the advancement of edu- cation and gUjarantees its applicants constant advice and assistance until they have, through all the available chan- nels, realized their best possibihties, is both the Alpha and the Omega of Vocational Guidance. It is scientific and A JUNIOR EMPLOYMENT OFPICfi 165 will become progressively so. It is capable of making valuable contributions to the solution of the labor prob- lem, and properly supported and organized, it is bound to do so. It begins with the schools and ends with all possible service toward a successful vocational life, and it cooperates with every other agency interested in com- mimity welfare. INDEX Advertising, 131, 133 Aiaerican Association of LaboT Legislation, 157 ' American Association of Unem- ployment, 157 American Federation of Labor, 61 Applicants, 92, 93, 106 card, 106, 148 classification, 92, 93 file, 106, 148 interview, 129, 131, 135, 143, 144 methods of approaching em- ployers, 84, 85, 87, 88 referral, 88, 107, 145 refusal of, 85, 86, 139, 147 Application blanks, 138 Apprenticeship, 26, 121, 163 Army Trade Tests, 109 Association of Collegiate Alumnae, 43, 61 Association of Commerce, 51 Bibliographies on vocational guid- ance, 36 "BUndaUey," 120 Board of Education, 43 Boston, vocational guidance and placement, 36, 43, 45, 59 Boys' Working Reserve, 37, 64 Branch offices, 104, 128 Brooklyn, 36, 49 Bureau of Education, 61 Bureaus of vocational guidance,'37- Business organizations, 35, 56, 160 Centralization of supply and de- mand, 39, 51, 101, 110, 112, 113, 126, 127, 131 Character, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 72, 74, 99, 115, 141 Charts, 5, 9, 10, 43, 58, 70, 71, 118, 119, 152, 158 Chicago, 37, 60 vocational guidance in, 51, 52 women's clubs, 51, 52 Children's Bureau, 6, 11 Cincinnati, 31 \ vocational bureau in, 52, 53, 54, 56 Cleveland, 57, 59 Clubs — boys and girls, 38 Columbia University, 141 Commercial education, 18, 20, 160, 161 Compulsory education, 15, 44 Consultation room, 105 Consumers' League, 57 Continuation schools, 18, 26, 44, 91, 102, 107, 113, 117, 121, 137 Cooperative agreements : education and employment ser- vice, 18, 19, 20 education and industry, 102, 124, 130 Corporation schools, 124 Cost per placement, 150, 151, 152 as test of efficiency, 150 private offices, 153, 154 public offices, 151, 152 value of statistics on, 153 Counselors : duties of, 125, 137, 138, 144, 145, 146, 160 requirements for, 17, 18, 32, 33, 95, 96, 146, 147 Cross-indexing, 107 Davis, J. B., 64 Department of Labor, 35 Desk and equipment, 105, 106 Director General Employment Ser- vice, 65 167 168 INDEX Economic pressure, 12, 15 Education, 22, 23, 2i and supervised work, 117, 124 group system, 15, 32, 33 Educational : agencies, 35, 37, 66 files, 107 guidance, 18, 39 Educational courses — general, 18, 72,78 in vocational information, 80, 84 Eight-hour legislation, 162 Elimination, 31, 33 from industry, 16, 93, 94, 156, 157, 162, 163 from school, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 93, 94, 136, 137, 156, 159 of fatigue, 140 Employers : file, 107, 148, 149 interview with, 131, 145 orders, 107, 130 Emplojrment, a constructive fac- tor in education, 69, 72, 122 Employment agencies, 33 philanthropic, 36, 37, 45, 63, 92 private, 20, 21, 35, 47, 48, 151, 155 public, 21, 22, 46, 59, 92, 151, 155 Employment certification, 12, 40, 51, 52, 102, 125, 126, 137, 140 Employment legislation, 59, 162 in Indiana, 60 in Kansas, 60 in Massachusetts, 59 in Missouri, 60 juvenile in New York, 50, 60 Employment managers, 96-101, 133, 142, 145, 158 Employment methods, 26, 27, 91- * 94, 143, 144 Employment offices, junior, 101 adult combined, 60, 103, 104 arrangement of, 101 branch, 104, 128 equipment, 105,, 106 functions of, 93, 94, 112, 165 hours of service, 110, 111 location of, 102, 103 sex separation, 103 Bigns in, 104 - Employment psychology, 142, 143 Emplo3?ment service, 20, 31, 61 Employment supervision, 29, 30, 91, 92, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 142, 143, 150, 159, 160, 163, 164 research functions of, 99, 149, 155 value of systematic, 91, 92, 143, 144, 156, 157 Fatigue elimination, 140, Federal Board for Vocational Edu- cation, 4 Files: active, 106, 148, 149 applicants', 106, 148, 149 educational, 107 employers', 107, 148 follow-up, 107, 148, 149 letter, 107, 108 placement, 107 school record, 107 suggestion, 106 Filing system, 106-108 Fletcher, Alfred P., 59 Franklin, Benjamin, 77 Gilbreth, Frank B, 140 LiUian M., 140 Grand Rapids, 36 Guidance : educational, 18, 37, 38, 72, 122, 149, 159 in continuation schools, 122 in evening schools, 21 occupational, 35, 73, 83, 84, 149, 150 testing results of, 41, 42 vocational, 38, 65, 73, 84 Gulick, Luther D., 16, 17, 18 Hall, W. E., 64 High schools, 91, 117, 121, 157, 160 placement in, 39, 40, 48, 127 Illiterates, 10, 92 Index — occupational, 107 Indiana, employment legislation in, 60 INDEX 169 Industry : elimination from, 16, 31, 33, 93, 44, 156, 157, 162, 163 opportunities in, 25, 99, 113, 117, 118, 120 Interviews, 106, 131, 139 length of, 138, 151 method of conducting, 133, 134, 137, 138, 144 technical, 138, 141, 142 with applicant, 106, 128, 129, 135, 145 with employers, 131, 132, 145, 146 Job analysis, 129, 141, 142 Junior Division, U. S. Employ- ment Service, 8, 20, 21, 25, 33, 59, 60, 65, 69, 130, 145, 150, 155, 158 character of work of, 64, 65, 92, 93, 110, 111, 129, 130, 134, 135 cities cooperating with, 64, 66 nvunber served by, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 organization of, 63, 65 purpose of, 6, 7, 19, 20, 63, 64, 65, 92, 93, 111, 134, 135 success of, 65, 135, 150 Junior wage earners : economic pressure and, 12, 15 educational status, 11, 12, 16 elimination from industry of, 16, 21, 22, 29, 30, 156, 157, 162 elimination from school of, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 136, 137, 158 home conditions, 11, 12 industries entered, 25, 26, 120, 162, 163, 164 influence of work on, 125 methods of securing employ- ment, 25, 29 number of, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 parentage of, 9 supervision of, 29, 30, 91, 92, 120, 121, 122, 124, 125, 142, 143, 150, 159, 160, 163, 164 types of, 14, 15, 46, 49, ^2, 93, 99, 114, 127, 156, 157 Juvenile employment, 124 Juvenile wage earners, 4, 8, 17, 18, 60, 61, 120, 121, 122, 156. 157, 163 Kansas, 60 Knights of Columbus, 61 Labor : certificates, 41, 52, 53, 102, 125, 126, 136, 137, 139, 140 Secretary, 65 supply and demand centraliza- tion of, 39, 51, 101, 110, 112, 113, 126, 127-131 turnover, 14, 15, 19, 20, 29, 30, 94, 96, 100, 130, 137, 139, 149, 158, 162 Laboratory, testing, 108, 109 Leavitt, F. M., 14, 25, 31, 116 Legislation, 30, 113 compulsory attendance, 15, 18, 41 eight hour, 144, 162 I employment, 144 minimum wage, 121, 162 prohibitive, 122, 123 Letter file, 106, 107, 108 Manhattan Trade School, SO, 143 Massachusetts vocational guidance legislation, 59 McAndrew, Dr. William, 160 Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- pany, 143 Milwaukee, 25 Minimum wage, 121, 162, 163 Minneapolis : Department of Vocational Guid- ance, 41, 42 Director of Vocational Guid- ance, 41, 42 progress of vocational guidance, 41, 42 success of, 41, 42 vocational survey, 60 Missouri, 60 National Association of Corpora- tion Schools, 27, 56, 61, 74 National Association of Employ- ment Managers, 56 National Association of Public Em- ployment OflSces, 57 National Child Labor Committee, 9 170 INDEX National Education Association, 61 National Federation of Women's Clubs, 61 National League of Compulsory Education Officials, 127 National Society Promotion Voca- tional Education, 37 National Vocational Guidance As- sociation, 36, 61 New York City : public school placement, 49, 50, 51 value of philanthropic agencies, 60 O'Brien, Francis P., 13, 15 Occupations : information classes in, 80, 91, 98, 150 legitimate, 134, 135 open to juveniles, 25, 26, 117, 118, 120, 162, 164 testing, 83 Odencrantz, Louise, 50 Office attendants, 133, 134, 145, 146 Office location, 101 junior, 102, 103, 104, 126, 127 juvenile, 101, 102 Office superintendents, 94-97 Omaha, 43 Parsons, Frank, 36 Part-time pupils, 113, 117, 137 Personality, 85-88, 132, 133, 146 of jobs, 97, 132 Personnel : of business houses, 99, 100, 1^2 of pubUo employment offices, 94, 95, 96, 112 Personnel records : character of school, 22 difficUty in obtaining, 23 object of, 21, 22 use of, 127, 136 Philadelphia, 64, 157 Philanthropic agencies, 35, 36, 50, 63,92 Physical tests, 140 Pittsburgh, 25, 31, 64, 116, 130, 137 Placement : by public schools, 37, 38, 41, 42, 43, 45-50, 127-128 cost per, 150, 155 files, 107-108 location and equipment of office, 101 of applicant, 84, 89, 91, 92, 125 meaning of, 147, 164, 165 methods, 125, 149 public employment offices, 41, 57, 92, 93, 94 statistics on, 9, 10, 43, 45, 58, 150 Placement bureaus in schools, 37, 39, 41, 42, 47, 48 limitation of registration in, 40, 41, 48, 49 success of, 40, 41, 42, 48, 49, 126, 127 volume of work in, 40, 41, 42, 48, 49, 126-127 Private employment agencies, 20, 21, 35, 45, 48, 151, 155 Providence, 9, 26, 64 Psychological tests, 140-141 Public employment offiices, 21, 22, 46, 57, 59, 61, 92, 94, 101, 111, 142, 151, 155 character of, 57, 94, 101 requirements for success, 94 Reception room, 104, 132, 133, 146 Recommendation blanks, 115 Records : employment, 107, 108, 127, 148, 149, 150 school, 22, 25, 127, 128 Reed, Anna Y., 12, 15, 64 Referral : by counselors, 107, 145 mechanics of, 107, 146 records of, 107, 148 Refusal of appUcants, 85, 86, 139, 147 Replacements, 128, 139 Ryan, W. Carson, Jr., 36 Salesmanship, 72, 84, 85, 136, 137 Saturday workers, 113, 117, 121 INDEX 171 School : attendance departments, 40 grading system, 23, 24, 112, 113, 140, 141, 160 niimber attending, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 26, 158 population, 4, 158 records, 32, 107, 108, 114, 115, 160 School elimination, 13, 15, 16, 17 amount of, 11, 12, 24, 28, 159 reason for, 9, 12, 15 reports on, 9, 34, 114, 158 Schools, private, commercial, 20 employment departments, 19 positions secured by, 20, 21 type of pupils, 19, 21 School system : cooperation with Employment Service, 57, 63, 64, 69, 72 "Scouting," 27, 28 Seattle, 34, 40, 78, 114, 115, 116, 161 Secretary of Labor, 65 Self-analysis, 25, 75-78, 114, 115, 122 Social agencies, 50, 107 Social workers, 95 South Bend, 64 "Speeding," 144 St. Louis, 38 State employment service, 50, 59, 61, 63 Students' aid, 37, 39, 117, 118, 121 Student wage earners, 38 importance of, 117, 118, 122 problems of, 118, 120 Supervised study, 118, 124 Supervised work, 118, 124 Teachers, 22, 24, 81, 82, 84, 87, 88, 90, 114, 115, 136, 137, 140, 160 Technical interview, 110, 142 Telephone, 108, 132, 145, 147, 148 Tests: Army, 109 business, 142, 143, 144 dangers in using, 142 general intelligence, 140, 141 laboratory for, 108, 109 of occupations, 83 physical, 52, 140 psychological, 52, 142, 144 technical interview, 110, 142 trade, 110, 111, 142 value of, 136, .137, 139, 140 Transfer system in placement offices, 126, 127 tJnemployables, 7, 30, 92, 93, 139, 143, 149, 166, 162 Unemployment : amount of junior, 27, 28, 30, 31, 149, 156, 157 compensation, 156, 157 U. S. Employment Service, 34,- 60, 65, 109 Vacation workers, 113, 117 Vocational guidance : agencies offering, 35 bibliographies of, 36 centralization of, 39, 61, 56, 67, 58,59 corrective, 125, 142, 143, 162 functions of, 38, 39, 84 importance of, 78, 79 limitations by schools, 40 organizations interested in, 36 origin of movement, 34, 36 preventive, 121, 126, 142, 143 progress of, 36, 37, 65 public school departments, 36 scope of, 37, 39, 50, 51, 69, 72 Vocational information, 68, 72 character of course in, 80, 91, 98, 160 importance of, 80 place in schools, 91, 128, 129, 142, 143, 160 responsibiUty for, 77, 78, 91 Vocational placement, 38 Vocational training, 19, 83, 91, 161 Weaver, E. W., 36, 49, 154 Woolley, Helen T., 31 Women's Clubs, 61 Work — influence on juniors, 123, 124 Work room, 109 Y. M. C. A., 61, 104, 154, 156 Y. M. H. A., 61 Y. W. C. A., 61 Frintad in the United States of Amerioa.