) 639 
 .L2 V)6 
 
 Copy ^ 
 
ORGANIZED LABOR AND THE UNITED 
 STATES PUBLIC SERVICE RESERVE. 
 
 vA' ^. Department of Labor, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 To Members of Local Trade- Unions: 
 
 Sirs : This is in large part labor's war. 
 Seventy per cent of aU of the huge ex- 
 penditures to be made to supply the men 
 at the front goes to labor. About five 
 men must work to back up each man 
 who fights. If we are to win our way 
 through war to a peace that will last, 
 labor must do it. Labor will do it! 
 
 HOW TO GET THE MEN. 
 
 The problem is a big one. A vast 
 number of trained artisans, for example, 
 will be needed in building ships for the 
 Shipping Board and an almost equal 
 number for the Navy. As many more 
 are wanted for munitions. To get them 
 where they are needed, men must be in- 
 duced to leave their peace-time jobs and 
 serve the country in industry essential to 
 war. 
 
 Somehow the men must be had. Ships 
 must be built and yet more ships, or our 
 boys at the front will fail for lack of 
 munitions and supplies — some brave lad 
 you know over there may lose his life 
 irom our failure to back him up. To 
 build ships needs men. To make arms 
 and equipment requires men and ever 
 more men. 
 
 29452°-17 
 
How to get them? Conscription of 
 labor is not officially contemplated — will 
 not be necessary if labor responds to the 
 patriotic appeal and terms of employment 
 are made fair and reasonably attractive. 
 In the faith that labor is ready to do its 
 share, the Department of Labor has 
 created as a part of its official organiza- 
 tion, but with no compulsion on its mem- 
 bers, the United States Pubhc Service 
 Reserve. If its plans succeed, no form 
 of compulsion will be necessary and the 
 war labor problem will be solved with the 
 least possible disturbance of existing 
 industry. 
 
 WHAT MEMBERSHIP IN THE RESERVE 
 
 MEANS. 
 
 The Public Service Reserve enrolls as 
 members men of all classes who want to 
 serve to win the war. It asks them mere- 
 ly to state their readiness and to put on 
 record a brief description of their train- 
 ing and ability. It imposes absolutely 
 no obhgation. When the Reserve sets out 
 to ^et men for the Government, it merely 
 notifies those of its members who seem 
 qualified — telling them all about the job, 
 the wages, and the terms of employment. 
 The individual member may take it or 
 leave it, as he likes. All that is required 
 of him is that he look at the question from 
 a patriotic standpoint — realizing that we 
 are at war. If he undertakes the work 
 he is free to leave at will, if he thinks he 
 is justified in view of our country's need. 
 
 The Reserve has no connection with any 
 troubles between laboiL^and capital. It 
 
 JAN 2f 1918 
 
will not undertake to speak either for em- 
 ployees or employers. It will not use its 
 influence to foster the cause of either. It 
 aims simply to have a great reservoir of 
 men ready to go, at the suggestion of the 
 Department of Labor, when the terms of 
 employment are reasonable and satisfac- 
 tory, to the posts where the country needs 
 them most. It will, too, endeavor to use 
 every possible means to so distribute the 
 burden that no industry will be crippled or 
 imf airly taxed to meet the needs of war. 
 Membership in the Reserve does not 
 affect the draft. What forms of active 
 labor in war industry will entitle a man to 
 exemption is for the Ai*my to determine. 
 
 WORK AND PATRIOTISM. 
 
 The man who works on building ships 
 or making arms or equipment should 
 see in it something more than merely a 
 chance to earn high wages. It is patri- 
 otic service. It is working for some- 
 thing infinitely bigger than himself. It is 
 work to win a triumph of democracy and 
 civilization over brute cunning and force. 
 It is work that deserves comparison with 
 that of the soldier fighting at the front. 
 The fundamental pm-pose of the Public 
 Service Reserve is to get men into war 
 work and to keep them working up to 
 their maximum of efiiciency, through an 
 organized appeal to thek^ patriotism. 
 
 DEMOCRACY'S CALL TO AMERICANS. 
 
 In France, in England, in the lands of 
 others of our alhes, there scarcely can 
 be f oimd to-day a man who is not devot- 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 
 
 * 020 930 203 2 
 
 ing his all to the cause oi nis counxry. 
 The wonderful resistance of our common 
 foe is due in large measure to the complete 
 consecration of the individual to the serv- 
 ice of the state. If Germany is to be con- 
 quered it can not be solely through su- 
 perior resources in material and in num- 
 bei^ of men. To win an enduring tri- 
 umph, democracy must show its capacity 
 to light the world with a hotter and 
 whiter flame of patriotic devotion than ^ 
 autocracy can inspire. ^ 
 
 WHAT YOU CAN DO. 
 
 To can^y out its plans the United States 
 Public Service Reserve needs and asks 
 the full cooperation of organized labor. 
 It wants each local union to recommend a i 
 man to act as enrollment agent of the 
 reserve, to help enroU men engaged in 
 their trades, to help get them ready to go, 
 when the caU comes, to the posts where 
 our country needs them. It wants mem- 
 bers of your trade and your union as 
 members of the reserve. 
 
 The situation requires cooperation. 
 Neither organized labor nor unorganized 
 labor, nor anything short of harmonious 
 action by the Nation as a whole, can meet 
 the need. Patriotism is confined to no 
 class. Disloyalty, apathy, and selfish- 
 ness are confined to no class. The rising 
 tide of patriotic devotion must carry afl 
 classes and aU men into an overwhelming ^ 
 demonstration of fervent patriotic en- 
 deavor. Each man who reads this leaflet 
 can do his part. 
 
 WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1917 
 
\ 
 
 LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 020 930 203 2