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/S~.27 ~ —




RUSSELL        SAGE
FOUNDATION
Lo   I
REPORT ON THE DESIRABILITY OF
ESTABLISHING        AN EMPLOYMENT
BUREAU IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
BY EDWARD T. DEVINE
SCHIFF PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL ECONOMY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY,
GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE CHARITY ORGANIZATION SOCIETY OF
THE CITY OF NEW YORK
NEW YORK
CHARITIES PUBLICATION


I




COMMITTEE
MCMIX




2.v
COYIGHT,    109 B
THE RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION
PRESS OF
Wm. F. FELL COMPANY
PH ILADELPHIA




Report on the Desirability of Establishing an
Employment Bureau in the City
of New York


X <D2 ^71C.8
-Z   -c-  -~








INTRODUCTORY NOTE
On October 27, I908, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, who had previously
suggested on several occasions the establishment of an unofficial
employment bureau on a business basis, definitely proposed that
the Charity Organization Society should invite to a conference
several gentlemen who might be interested in the plan, for the purpose of securing their co-operation and the necessary financial
support. The President and General Secretary of the Society
conferred with Mr. Schiff in regard to the matter on two occasions,
Mr. Cyrus L. Sulzberger, President of the United Hebrew Charities,
being present at the second conference. Mr. Schiff's proposition
submitted in writing at this conference was as follows:
The proposition is to organize in the City of New York an Employment Bureau under a board of trustees composed of experienced
men, preferentially from the mercantile and industrial classes.
The Bureau should be placed under a manager of great executive ability, with two or three assistants, the latter to be thoroughly
conversant with the classes and their peculiarities which compose
New York City's working population.
The Bureau is to establish an organization covering all sections
of the United States, so that it shall be in immediate and constant
touch with requirements for labor and employment wherever such
may exist, but its benefits are to accrue primarily to the unemployed
of the City of New York.
The Bureau is to charge a reasonable fee to the employer for
the procuring of labor, for which the latter may reimburse himself,
gradually, if this is deemed well, from the wages of the employee.
It is hoped that by this the Bureau will in time become self-supporting; but to assure its establishment and maintenance for a
number of years, until it shall have become self-supporting, a
working fund of $ioo,ooo ought to be assured at the outset.
It was the opinion of Mr. de Forest, in which view the others
3




4


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


present concurred, that before calling such a meeting there should
be a careful examination of the need for such a bureau and inquiry
into the reasons for the discontinuance of the Free State Employment Bureau, the Cooper Union Labor Bureau, and other similar
agencies which under various auspices have attempted to deal
with the same problem, and, if it is found expedient to recommend
that a bureau be established, that a somewhat fuller statement
should be made of the lines on which the proposed bureau is to be
conducted.
Mr. de Forest offered on behalf of the Russell Sage Foundation
to meet any necessary expense of such a preliminary inquiry, and
the undersigned was requested to undertake the preparation of the
report.
Although the Employment Bureau is not intended as an emergency measure to deal with an existing temporary situation, it was
thought to be desirable to reach a conclusion in time to permit the
undertaking of the enterprise during the present winter, if it is
decided that it is to be undertaken at all. For this reason the inquiry has been made in the briefest possible time and has rigidly
excluded everything which does not directly bear upon the immediate question in hand, namely, whether it is desirable to establish a bureau substantially on the lines indicated in Mr. Schiff's
memorandum.




REPORT ON THE DESIRABILITY OF ESTABLISHING
AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU IN THE CITY OF
NEW YORK
That there are in New York City in good times as well as in
periods of depression a very considerable number of employable
persons who need work who are not actually employed, may be
taken for granted. Immigration, migration from other communities, irregularity in building operations and in other industries,
and the seasonal character of many trades, are causes which operate in all communities, but in New York City in a wholly extraordinary degree. Besides such causes affecting large masses of
people, individuals, of whom there is a large number in the
aggregate, lose much, to them, valuable time in finding work after
illness, or when from any other cause they have been compelled
to give up their work. For our present purpose it has not been
thought necessary to make any estimate of the unemployed.
Common observation and the testimony of trade unions, charitable
societies, and the daily press sufficiently establish the fact that in
normal years the total number who lose a substantial part of the
working year is very considerable, and that in every depression,
however local or temporary, the number is sufficiently large to
become a matter of grave concern.
The question which is pertinent and important is whether the
unemployed are so (i) because they are unemployable, (2) because
there is no work to be had, or (3) because of mal-adjustment, which
an efficient employment bureau could at least to some extent overcome. It is obvious that if they are unemployed because they are
unemployable, the employment bureau is no remedy. The only
adequate remedy for a lack of efficiency would be education and
training. If, again, they are unemployed because of a real and
5




6


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


permanent surplus of supply over the demand for labor, it is plain
that an employment bureau could not remedy the difficulty. The
bureau does not directly create opportunities for work, and its
success will therefore depend on the possibility of finding it. In
so far, however, as the lack of employment is due to mal-adjustment, that is to the inability of people who want work to get quickly
into contact with opportunities which exist and to which there are
no other equally appropriate means of access, the employment
bureau will be justified. This mal-adjustment between labor and
opportunities for labor may either be local, i. e., within the community itself, or it may be as between communities. That is, if there
is an actual surplus of labor in New York City there may still be a
deficiency in other towns or cities, or on farms in New York or
other states, and the employment bureau may therefore find a
field for usefulness in equalizing these conditions as between
communities.
The time at our disposal has not permitted an original investigation of the extent to which there is an unfilled demand for labor,
either in New York City or in other communities, nor, even had
there been more time, would the present be a favorable period for
such an investigation. I have, however, addressed a careful letter
of inquiry to about thirty persons who would be in position to give
definite information on these points, if it were to be had, and whose
opinions at least would be worthy of special consideration. The
most striking fact about the replies to these inquiries is the complete
demonstration that they give that there is no definite information
on these matters and that the views of those who have evidently
considered them most carefully are apt to be diametrically opposed.
Professor Edward A. Ross, for example, of the University of Wisconsin, has "a growing impression that local labor markets are
not sections or provinces of a general labor market, but markets
of a considerable individuality," while Professor John R. Commons,
of the same institution, referring to present conditions, says
that "the depression in industry and resulting unemployment is




THE NEED


7


general throughout the country"; and the only ground on which
it appears to him that it would be worth while to establish such
an employment bureau is as a model for other employment
bureaus, and as a means of driving out the unreliable ones. He
assumes "that the existing bureaus are adequate to make the transfers and the interchanges needed for those employers who actually
are looking for workmen."
There is, however, a general consensus of opinion among
economists and authorities on labor problems that even in periods
of active trade there is by no means a complete adjustment between
seekers after work and opportunities for employment even within
the city. Professor H. R. Seager summarizes the cause of this
mal-adjustment as follows:
(i) Irregular employment in many trades:
(2) The rise and fall of particular employing firms causing a
constant shifting of employees from employer to employer:
(3) Immigration and the unadjusted immigrant worker resulting from it:
(4) The absence of any satisfactory agency or agencies for
properly classifying workmen in search of employment
so that employers can be relieved in part of the task of
trying out new hands.
The contrary view of Dr. A. F. Weber, chief statistician of
the New York Public Service Commission, speaking from an
experience gained in part in the New York Labor Department,
should be recorded:
"As to local mal-adjustment of demand and supply in the labor
market, I should be disposed to say that the existing agencies and
methods do on the whole meet the requirements of the situation;
that is to say, in a period of normal activity there are relatively few
workers without employment at a time when employers are seeking help of the same grade or class. There is much room for improvement in the methods of the private employment offices, which
may be obtained through more careful public regulation and




8


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


possibly through the example of a well endowed bureau, but that
the latter could find local situations for the unemployed in any considerable numbers to me seems doubtful."
On the other hand, Mr. Robert A. Woods of South End House,
Boston, writes that he has known of many instances in which the
evidence of mal-adjustment in the matter of employment was convincing, and he thinks that there cannot be any doubt that employers and workmen both lose a great deal of time and meet with much
embarrassment which an employment bureau could remedy if it
went at its work with something of the scope and detailed accuracy
of the weather and crop reports.
Professor Frank A. Fetter of Cornell University is led by
general considerations, in the absence of exact figures, to the belief
that unemployment is to a considerable degree due to mal-adjustment.
Professor E. L. Bogart of Princeton holds the same view, and
adds that the lack of adjustment differs greatly in different branches
of labor.
Professor J. B. Clark of Columbia holds emphatically the
view that loss of employment by large bodies of men personally fit
for it is invariably due to mal-adjustment, but admits that the rearrangement may be too extensive to be made within the neighborhood within which the men reside.
Mr. Sidney Webb, the historian of the trade union movement
in England, writes that "unemployment in large cities can only
in a restricted sense be said to be caused to any great extent by the
mere failure of employers to find workmen or of workmen to find
employers. They do find each other now, even in the worst of
times, though only after some delay. If there were no unemployment, in the sense of there being exactly as many vacancies as there
were men to fill them, there would still be a certain proportion of
time lost in shifting situations. This, even if no more than one
day in each case, would appear in the statistics as a percentage of
men uneriployed. Experience of the best organized trades in




THE NEED


9


England, at the very busiest of times, rather points to the fact that
minimum of unemployment, if it can be so called, due to time lost
in shifting from job to job, and analogous causes, may amountto
something like one per cent of the whole of the working-class
population, indicating an average loss, from this cause alone, in
the best of times, of three days per annum."
Turning to mal-adjustment as between communities, practically all differences of opinion disappear. Even Professor Commons, whose opinion concerning the general character of the present industrial depression is quoted above, admits that if the Bureau
had capable agents in the several cities to which surplus labor is
sent, and these agents are able to thoroughly master the local situation and get beneath the representations both of employers seeking
cheap labor and trade unionists hostile to imported labor, it might
be possible to avoid the difficulties to which he refers, although he
thinks that the expense of securing this kind of competent help
would be so great that it is impracticable.
All others from whom opinions have been obtained, economists,
employers, trade unionists, social workers, and government and
state officials who have had to deal with labor questions, are firmly
convinced that surplus labor is a feature of congested communities
and not a general phenomenon, that in ordinary times anurgent
demand for both skilled and unskilled labor may exist, and does
exist, in many communities at the very moment when the unemployed are congregating in other communities, and especially that
labor is needed at remunerative wages on farms at the very time
when the already overcrowded cities are increasing in population.
The conclusion to which I am forced to come from a painstaking examination of all of the data on this subject available in print,
and from correspondence and personal conference with those
whom I have thought most competent to advise on the subject, is
that there is a need at all times, and in periods of even slight depression a very urgent need, of an efficient system of bringing together as quickly as possible those who are seeking work and those




IO


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


who are seeking workers. For the reason suggested by Mr. Sidney
Webb, I am inclined to think that such an agency would actually
increase to an appreciable extent the effective demand for workers.
Whether such an agency is the Employment Bureau which we are
considering, or the system of labor exchanges advocated for England, we may be equally confident that they would, in Mr. Webb's
language, "not only greatly increase the worker's chances of improving his or her position, greatly lessen the time lost between
job and job, greatly diminish the wearing anxiety of looking for
work, and greatly facilitate the employer's getting all the labor he
can profitably employ. It would not only increase the mobility
of labor, but would actually increase the aggregate volume of demand, to the extent of the opportunities for profitable employment that the employer now lets slip because he can't get just what
he wants when he wants it."
I have dwelt upon this aspect of the inquiry at length because,
as Dr. J. H. Hollander of Johns Hopkins University pointed out in
a personal conversation, it is the crucial and fundamental point
to be considered. If it is established, or if there is reason to believe
that there is such failure of adjustment resulting in a considerable
addition at any one time to the total number of the unemployed,
then there is no doubt of the necessity to meet this need, and the
only questions are whether it is sufficiently met by other existing
agencies, and whether it can be better met by some different type
of agency from that which is proposed. It is not necessary to inquire whether the number of the unemployed at present is ten
thousand or one hundred thousand. There is no doubt that the
number is large enough and the distress and hardship involved are
great enough to lead to prompt and energetic action in theestablishment of some suitable means of dealing with the problem. It
may be pointed out also that the distress and hardship are by no
means measured by the number who would register themselves
in any public or official way as unemployed. Besides those who
would thus appear, there are many who are irregularly employed,




THE NEED                       II
or who accept employment at lower wages than they are capable of
earning or whose particular place and kind of work do not fully
utilize their powers and capacities. While some of this is no
doubt inevitable, it remains true that an employment bureau could
help many individuals to avoid these hardships and could place
them in positions where society would get a better return from
them.
The proposed Employment Bureau would certainly be one
means, and as I shall hereafter show, probably the best means, of
meeting this great and permanent need by mediating between work
and workers in that large number of instances for which no other
especially appropriate means of communication has been established.




IS THE NEED MET BY EXISTING INSTITUTIONS?
I have not thought it necessary to make
Commercial     an independent investigation of the existing
Employment     commercial agencies for the reason that
Agencies      numerous investigations have been made,
and one, which is official and doubtless
exceptionally thorough, is in progress at this writing under the
direction of the New York State Immigration Commission. Moreover these agencies are now licensed by a municipal License Bureau
under authority of state law, so that there is more or less continuous supervision of them, and knowledge of their methods and
results is readily obtainable. Unfortunately there is no room for
doubt that the grave abuses in these bureaus still prevail, although
naturally under official inspection and oversight they are somewhat
less serious than in former years.
Without anticipating the findings of the State Commission
it is within bounds to say that the private commercial agencies do
not meet the need which has been described, that their standards
of integrity and efficiency are low, that their real service to employers and employees, except in a few occupations, and in the case of
a few well conducted agencies, is exceedingly slight. Operated
primarily for profit, they have a constant temptation to over-charge,
to misrepresent, and to encourage frequent changes for the sake of
the fee. Miss Kellor in her volume "Out of Work" estimated
that two-thirds of the 732 employment agencies visited in New
York at the time of her study five years ago resorted to these dishonorable practices and fraudulent methods; that a very small
proportion conducted an honorable business by efficient methods;
and a somewhat larger number, without being open to the unreserved strictures justly made on the lowest class, were still so unsystematic and inefficient as to be practically worthless from the
12




IS THE NEED MET?


13


point of view of the community. Probably because of prosecutions, revoked licenses and official scrutiny, these proportions would
be somewhat modified at present,* but with.the exception of the
few agencies constituting Miss Kellor's first class, the whole business
is conducted on so low a plane, with so much of extortion, misrepresentation, fraud, and direct affiliation with immorality and vice, as
to afford one of the strongest arguments for the establishment of an
efficient bureau conducted primarily in the interests of working
men who seek its services, even though in the expectation of obtaining a moderate return upon the investment. It is a striking
fact that the principal argument for the establishment of free state
labor bureaus has always been found in the abuses of the private
commercial agencies. In Europe as well as in America there has
even been a demand for their suppression by law, and though this
demand has come from a minority there has frequently been a
sufficient recognition of the evils in them to secure legislation requiring them to be licensed and supervised by the state. The
situation is not unlike that which was disclosed by the investigation made by the Charity Organization Society in I892 regarding the
evils of the old-time unregulated pawnshop. It was then decided
that in addition to any possible police supervision, there should be
brought to bear upon the recognized abuses of the pawnshop system the pressure of competition from an agency which, strictly upon
a business basis, would enter their own field and demonstrate that
the business could be conducted without either fraud or extortion.
The three most important attempts in
Charitable (Free) New York City to conduct a free employEmployment      ment bureau under the auspices of philanBureaus       thropic agencies are the Cooper Union Labor
Bureau, conducted by the New York Asso* It is the opinion of the Commissioner of the License Bureau that at present
60 per cent of the private employment agencies do an honorable and straightforward
business, but others think this estimate unduly optimistic. It is said that two-thirds
of those whose licenses are revoked continue in business under another name, or as
nominal employees of other agencies.




14        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
ciation for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the Employment
Bureau of the United Hebrew Charities, and the Employment
Bureau of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. All of these have
been discontinued; and all for this reason, among others, that the
maintenance of a general employment bureau is not the proper
function of a charitable society, and that from the point of view of
the success of the employment bureau the connection with a charitable society is disadvantageous. No one of these three employment bureaus ever had at its command an adequate working
capital or a superintendent of the executive capacity suggested
in Mr. Schiff's memorandum, and it can hardly be said that the
responsible managers of any of them ever seriously proposed to
themselves that their employment bureau should fill the large
place contemplated in the present plan. If the underlying ideas
and policies of these bureaus had been different, if they had had
at their disposal a superintendent and staff really qualified to deal
with the task in its larger social aspects, and if they had been in
position to invest a large capital in creating a mechanism and establishing proper trade relations, it is possible that they might
have overcome the handicap of connection with a charitable agency,
however serious and embarrassing such an affiliation may be.
Their experience, therefore, while instructive and illuminating in
many respects, cannot be regarded as conclusive.
Still less importance can be attached to such free agencies as
the Free Employment Bureau now maintained at the Barge Office
by the German Society and the Irish Emigrant Society. This
Bureau deals almost exclusively with immigrants from the British
Islands and northwestern Europe. Its patrons are chiefly those
who have been accustomed for many years to rely upon the Bureau
for occasional laborers, and the volume of work done by the Bureau
is not sufficiently great to throw very much light on the need for a
bureau which shall seriously attempt to overcome the lack of adjustment between work and workers in the city. Excellent service
has been rendered for many years by this Bureau for the particular




IS THE NEED MET?


I5


class for whom it is intended, and there need of course be no attempt
to displace it. The same is true of the employment bureaus which
deal with immigrants of other nationalities, like the Italians* and
Slavs, and those conducted by the various religious organizations,
which do in the aggregate a considerable amount of work in
finding employment for their beneficiaries, although as a rule in
so unsystematic a manner and with such meagre results that it
is difficult to draw any conclusions from their experience.
There are no statistics as to the total number of persons who are
placed in employment by these free agencies. Although the aggregate number of persons affected and benefited is of course considerable, the fact remains that the work of these bureaus is so fragmentary, so unco-ordinated and so meagre when compared with the
number of persons in the city who require such assistance that it
could scarcely be seriously maintained that they meet the need.
No one of them is conducted on a broad, unsectarian basis with a
sufficient clientele of employers and a staff sufficiently well organized to do the work that is proposed.
By authority of act of Congress of FebDivision of Infor- ruary, 1907, dealing with the general subject
mation of the     of immigration, there has been established
Federal Bureau of in the Bureau of Immigration of the DeImmigration      partment of Commerce and Labor a special
division for collecting and distributing information to aliens and others interested. Mr. T. V. Powderly,
the former Commissioner-General of Immigration, is at the head
of this Division, and on the theory that the only information which
is of interest to aliens or others interested is information concerning a particular job suitable to their own individual needs,
the Government has established at I7 Pearl Street what is virtually,
though not in name, an employment bureau. In co-operation with
the Post Office Department and the Department of Agriculture,
* Of these the most important is the Labor Information Office for Italians,
59 Lafayette Street, which is subsidized by the Italian Government.




I6


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the Division of Information has undertaken a very comprehensive
plan for obtaining information from farmers and others concerning
their need for workers, and places this information at the disposal
of the superintendent of the local bureau for the benefit of aliens
or others who may call at the office. Having the franking privilege
and the advantage of co-operation with other Federal bureaus, it
would naturally be expected that such an employment bureau
might develop large proportions and to a measurable extent supply
the need for such service as we have been considering. There are,
however, grave reasons to doubt whether such a Federal bureau
can, unaided, appropriately supply the need. It requires a liberal
construction of the act to justify the maintenance of a thoroughly
equipped employment bureau, and although the act may be modified to meet any possible obstacles on this score, it is difficult to see
on what grounds the Bureau of Immigration could properly conduct an employment bureau which would equally be at the service
of citizens and aliens. If it should become a general labor bureau
for all alike it should logically be transferred to the Bureau of
Labor or conducted as an independent bureau within the Department of Commerce and Labor. Independently, however, of these
considerations, which might be met by supplementary legislation,
there are objections to the assumption of this duty by any branch of
the Federal Government. It is impracticable for the Government
to distinguish between citizens who would seek to use the bureau
as employers, and yet such discrimination is necessary if applicants
are not to be sent at unreasonably low wages or to positions where
the conditions are unsatisfactory. Questions arise as to calls from
employers on the occasion of strikes or lockouts, and even when
there are not such acute disturbances, there would often be reason
to anticipate that labor was being engaged in anticipation of a
lowering of wages or other changes adverse to the interests of labor.
A voluntary agency could properly insist upon full and accurate
knowledge on all such questions before undertaking to supply a
demand. For the Government to do so would be to invite friction




IS THE NEED MET?


I7


and antagonism which might have very regrettable consequences.
It is an open question how much of the demand for agricultural
labor is a bona fide demand for efficient labor at sufficient wages,
and how much is merely a demand for cheap labor at low wages,
or under other very unfavorable conditions. The same is true of a
part of the demand for labor in railway construction, and other
similar occupations. No Government official should ever be placed
in a position where it is necessary to discriminate between citizens,
who, apparently in good faith, are demanding a service which the
Government has undertaken to supply. Without such discrimination, however, an employment bureau operating on a large scale
over a large territory would inevitably become merely a factor in
reducing wages and lowering standards of living. If a generous
response to inquiries on behalf of the general Government means
that employers are seeking immigrant labor because it is cheap
labor, and if the Government by advising immigrants to accept such
offers or by facilitating their acceptance becomes a party to such
lowering of standards, it may easily do harm which would vastly
outweigh the services given in finding employment for a given
number of people. This is a danger against which any employment bureau should take ample precautions, but it will be easier
and more practicable for a voluntary, unofficial agency to take such
measures than for any branch of the Federal Government.
If, however, the actual work of acting as intermediary is
assumed by a voluntary agency properly equipped for the purpose,
it is quite possible that co-operation between such an agency and
the Federal Government might be mutually advantageous. If
the Federal Government with the resources at its command, acting
in the interests of employers and employees alike, and in the
interests of citizens and aliens whose labor is really in demand,
would collect such information as is apparently contemplated by
the Immigration Law, and would place such information at the
disposal of reputable voluntary agencies or make it available in
some suitable way to the general public, this would enormously
2




i8


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


increase the usefulness of the voluntary bureau, and of course
precautions could be taken to see that this advantage did not
accrue to any one who might exploit it merely for selfish business
purposes, but on the contrary to the workers and thus indirectly to
employers and to the community.
After conference with the Secretary of the Department of
Commerce and Labor and with the Chief and Assistant Chief of the
Division of Information, and with the Superintendent of the local
bureau, as well as with the Commissioner of Labor and many others
who have given attention to the subject, I am convinced that while
there is a great field of usefulness for the Division of Information,
it is not and cannot wisely become an effective intermediary between workers and employment to an extent that will make unnecessary such an employment bureau as is under consideration.
The State Department of Agriculture
The Labor Bureau
The Labor Bureau  conducts in its branch office at 23 Park Row,
of the State
e  h mta    New York City, a special Labor Bureau for
Department of
DAgrt      the purpose of supplying farmers of the
Agriculture 
State with farm hands and transplanting
families as tenants on New York farms. The Assistant Commissioner in charge of this office will report to the Department that in
the past fiscal year go families have thus been sent to the country,
and about 900 single men as farm laborers.
The Department learns of these opportunities through the
Farmers' Granges, Institutes, advertising and news notices in the
daily papers, and by correspondence. The primary purpose is
to help the farmers of the state to find the labor of which, especially
for certain portions of the year, they are in urgent need. The
limitation in the usefulness of this plan from the point of view of
the unemployed in New York City is that comparatively few of
the opportunities are for work during the entire year, the wages
are as a rule comparatively low, and the Bureau naturally restricts
its activities to this state. Nevertheless the principle which the
Bureau represents is sound, and in connection with a general




IS THE NEED MET?


I9


Employment Bureau its services could be greatly extended. It is
possible that this Labor Bureau of the Department of Agriculture
might be expanded into a comprehensive and effective plan for
transplanting individuals and families from New York City to
the country. Whether, if it is developed in this way, it should
remain a branch of the Department of Agriculture may be a
question, but certainly as long as it is so conducted it represents
only one aspect, although a very important aspect, of the problem
with which the Employment Bureau would attempt to deal.
Neither the Division of Information conducted by the Federal
Government nor the Agricultural Labor Bureau of the State
Government would be in any way hampered or displaced by the
Employment Bureau, but both could and doubtless would cooperate with it to the mutual advantage of all concerned.
It is sometimes thought that the cheapWant Advertise-    ening of daily newspapers, and the developments         ment of the want advertisements, afford a
means of supplying the need in question.
Such advertisements have, of course, a distinct field of usefulness,
although one perhaps more restricted than is ordinarily supposed.
The most superficial examination of the want columns of any
newspaper which has developed this feature on a large scale discloses the fact that many of those which are nominally for help are
"fake" advertisements, that is, that they do not represent a bona
fide opportunity for employment of the kind indicated in the heading. Many others are intentionally vague and misleading, and
frequently, after eliminating such padding, an exceedingly small
remnant of bona fide requests for help remains. The system at
best throws entirely upon the advertiser the responsibility of
sifting out from among the replies to advertisements the one which
suits his needs. To ascertain whether advertisements by employers
and by applicants for work respectively vary in accordance with
well known conditions of trade activities and depression, and to
get some idea of the nature of the "wants" thus advertised, I have
had a careful examination made of the want columns of two news



20


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


papers in New York City on selected days in I902 and I905,
representing what may be considered normal conditions of trade,
and in the winter of 1907-08, covering the transitional period
from the activity of the early autumn to the depression of the
winter. The sharp change that occurred between October and
November in I907 in all kinds of positions and especially in the
skilled trades, is very clearly reflected in the advertising columns.
Detailed tables with diagrams and a full report covering nearly
40,000 classified want advertisements from New York papers are
to be found in an Appendix. This study of New York newspapers is supplemented by a similar examination on a slightly
different plan of the files of Chicago newspapers.
My conclusion, based upon personal examination of want
columns, upon this detailed examination of the files of New York
and Chicago newspapers on certain selected days, and on conference with others who have been in the habit of following such
advertisements in connection with the work of the Free State
Employment Bureaus, is that the want columns, although a factor
in the general mediation between employers and employees in
clerical occupations, in certain kinds of miscellaneous odd jobs,
and in some of the skilled trades, do not by any means meet the
entire need, and that the question of their usefulness is by no
means to be ascertained merely by measuring the space which
they occupy on the padded page of many newspapers.*
* It is possible that the successful operation of an employment bureau which has
a national organization for securing positions might have an appreciable effect on the
policy of publishing articles which seriously misrepresent local demands for labor.
The cruelty involved in the glowing and exaggerated accounts of industrial expansion, the re-opening of mills, the demand for harvest hands, can be appreciated only
by those who are compelled to turn away applicants for work attracted from a
distance by such articles at a time when working men are idle in the very locality
thus misrepresented. Although such stories have no direct connection with want
advertisements, they are closely akin to the "fake" advertisements which similarly
mislead. The motive may be entirely different, but the hardships which they inflict
upon those whom they mislead are similar. In this connection see the letter in the
Appendix (p. 91) from Frederick L. Smith, of Lansing, Mich.




IS THE NEED MET?


21


At my request the Director of the Bureau
Trade Unions    of Social Research in the New York School
of Philanthropy assigned one of the Fellows
of the Bureau to the task of interviewing the secretaries of a number
of representative trade unions to ascertain what are their methods
for finding work for their unemployed members, and incidentally
to obtain their views as to the desirability of establishing an employment bureau so far as concerns its possible usefulness to
their own members. This inquiry was supplemented by similar
interviews with representative employers, with the officers of
associations of manufacturers and other employers and with representatives of the important railways.
It appears that in those trades which are completely organized
and in which there is practically no non-union labor, the union is
itself the ordinary means of communication between employer and
employee. The business agent or walking delegate, on being
notified that a certain number of men are wanted for any particular
job, in turn notifies the unemployed members of the union in order
of priority. This applies, however, only to the building trades,
the newspaper pressmen, the pattern-makers, and a few other
highly organized trades. In general the system of finding work
for unemployed members of trade unions is exceedingly haphazard.
An out-of-work list or book is usually kept, with the help of which
men are sent to any job which happens to be reported to them.
Sometimes the men who happen to be at the union headquarters
at the time when a call is received are sent. In other cases the men
are notified in order from the list, or in some instances in accordance
with their fitness for the position which is to be filled. Sometimes
information regarding possible employment is placed on a blackboard and any one who sees the notice and wishes to do so may
respond.
The general opinion of the representatives of trade unions
interviewed in the course of this inquiry appeared to be that their
mechanism was not sufficient to deal with the situation as a whole




22


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


or even within their own trades, so far as it is a matter of distributing labor to other communities. There is no doubt that the cooperation of union labor can be secured in carrying out the plan for
an employment bureau, if that is desired, and it would seem on
many accounts to be very desirable. The state and municipal
Employment Bureaus of Germany and other European countries
which are most successful are conducted by boards of managers
on which both employers and employees are represented. Suspicion and hostility are thus disarmed, and the use of the Bureau
either to injure or unfairly to promote the interests of either class
is prevented. While there may not in the present instance be the
same reasons for anticipating such hostility or actual injury to
either party in the labor contract, there are obvious reasons why a
favorable attitude from both employers and employees would be
most advantageous.
Interviews with employers were on the whole rather unsatisfactory because of the indefinite and tentative manner in which
the proposition could be explained, but the two interesting results
of such interviews are first that there would be no lack of disposition
to use the services of the Bureau as soon as it was shown that it
was in position to do its work, and second that even among the few
whom we visited there were some who had reasons of their own for
instant hostility to any plan which would by arrangement with
higher officials deprive them of their present prerogatives of hiring
labor. One service which the Employment Bureau would be led
to undertake, though perhaps not at the beginning, would be the
investigation of conditions under which contract labor is engaged
and managed on some of the railway systems.
There are no doubt still to be found
By Individual   some who look with misgiving on any plan
Responsibility  for helping people to find work, even though
they are expected directly or indirectly to
pay for the service, lest the feeling of personal responsibility should
thereby be undermined. Valid objections may indeed be urged




IS THE NEED MET?


23


to the establishment of a labor colony or of relief work on this
ground, and, as we have already seen, the free services of an employment bureau conducted by a charitable society does in practice
encounter difficulties of this kind. A bureau, however, conducted
on a business basis, expecting eventually to pay reasonable dividends on the capital invested in it, would scarcely be open to this
objection, whether fees were charged to employers only, to employees only, or to both. If employers are in such need of help that
they feel warranted in engaging the services of the Bureau to find
workers, certainly the latter in responding to such calls from the
Bureau are in no danger of deterioration of character merely because they make such response. If, on the other hand, the workers
themselves pay a fee, which I believe on the whole to be advisable,
and if they learn to insist upon getting a return worth the fee which
they pay, they have not only avoided the danger but may easily in
the process have developed a higher degree of personal responsibility. What is proposed is not a paternalistic assumption of responsibility for employees, but the rendering of definite economic
service in return for suitable compensation. Workingmen out of a
job may now look to their unions or advertise in a want column, or
register in a commercial employment agency, or tramp about from
place to place applying personally for work. It is the last method
that is ordinarily in the mind of those who favor "throwing persons
upon their own responsibility" in the matter of finding work. It
is the time-honored method of finding something to do, but it
requires no argument to show that it is expensive, time consuming,
physically laborious, and mentally depressing. Any man out of
work should of course be willing to resort to it in case of necessity,
but it would be difficult to show that it is in any superior or more
praiseworthy degree meeting "one's personal responsibility" than
to seek work in any one of the three other methods. To patronize
a well conducted employment bureau which gave a full equivalent
for the fee charged-though the collection of the fee might be
postponed until wages should be received-would be only a very




24        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
sensible and commendable manner of meeting this responsibility.
The dearth of such agencies and the lack of any conducted with the
motives and on the plans under consideration is, then, only an
obstacle in the way of educating workingmen to meet their responsibility.




CAN THE NEED BE MET ON ANY OTHER PLAN THAN
THAT PROPOSED?
It would perhaps be sufficient to recite
Free State Employ- the bald fact that New York State has
ment Bureau     within three years discontinued a Free Employment Bureau "on the ground that it
has not become a reliance of or indispensable to any particular
group of unemployed, that such discontinuance can be effected
without detriment to the interests of any individual or group of
individuals, and that the functions it now performs can be as well
performed by private agencies."
As, however, it has been suggested that the Free State Employment Bureau might advantageously be re-established, and as it is
generally believed that the experiment has been more successful in
several other states, I have thought it expedient to visit personally
the Free State Employment Bureaus in Boston, Columbus,
Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, and have
obtained such information concerning these and other state and
municipal bureaus as is contained in their annual reports and is
available in the United States Labor Bureau and elsewhere.
While some of these Bureaus are of course better than others,
I regret to report that so far as I can ascertain they are everywhere
in politics, and are too perfunctory and inefficient in their methods
to become factors in bringing about any real adjustment between
work and workers. I have visited one private commercial agency
in a western city which has obviously done more work in finding
remunerative and permanent, although largely seasonal employment, than all of the Free State Employment Bureaus put together;
and it seems actually to have done more free work, i. e., free to
employees, than the three branches of the State Employment
25




26


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Bureau in the state in which it is located. It has, moreover, an
equipment and system by the side of which the best managed of
the State Bureaus makes a sorry showing. Purely for business
reasons its statistics are better kept, its information concerning
contracts more accurate and reliable, and the interest of its managers and employees in its beneficiaries more in evidence than in
the case of the best managed State Bureaus which I had the
pleasure to visit. I have no reason to consider that this private
agency is greatly superior to others which can be found in New
York and elsewhere. The difference is primarily one of efficient
administration and of adequacy of compensation for the head of
the Bureau. The salary paid to the Superintendent of a Free
State Bureau is $I200 or less-usually less.  He has often only
one assistant, and sometimes none. No funds are ordinarily
available for advertising, for the sending of agents into the field,
for interpreters to look after the interests of special groups of
immigrants who do not speak English, or even, as a rule, for the
keeping of adequate records. Judging from the experience of
New York and other states, these fundamental defects are not
easily to be overcome. The peculiar relation between organized
labor and the State Employment Bureau and the temptation to
utilize the Bureau merely to make it appear that the administration of the day is "doing something for labor" are apparently
ineradicable obstacles in the way of efficient service. The Municipal Bureaus in Duluth and Seattle appear to be free from the
defects of the State Bureaus, and it would be easy to make favorable
comment on particular features of certain of the Bureaus, especially
those in Massachusetts and Wisconsin, but I have been unable
to find in any of these State Bureaus as now conducted warrant
for the belief that the re-establishment of the New York State
Bureau would be advisable in itself or that it would in any appreciable degree serve the purpose of giving substantial and
practical aid to the community in solving the problem which we
have in mind.




OTHER PLANS


27


Every step in advance in the elimination
Further Regulation of fraud and extortion in the ordinary
of Commercial    commercial agencies only increases the
Agencies      need of a general agency which shall be in
position to command public confidence and
shall unquestionably be free from the abuses which state regulation is intended to prevent. At however high a price and with
whatever fraudulent practices, these agencies, even the disreputable
ones, do to some extent serve the purpose of an intermediary.
To deprive them of their license or to maintain over them such an
oversight as puts them practically out of business, is to impose
some injury along with the undoubted benefit. The high-grade
agencies already in existence might conceivably fill the gap thus
created except that for the most part they have an entirely different
kind of patronage, and have not developed the mechanism for dealing with the people who have been the patrons and too often the
victims of the less reputable agencies. Stricter regulation and
supervision, therefore, while desirable on their own account, do
not lessen the increasing need for an agency which will be conducted primarily for the good that it will do rather than for the
profits that it can earn.
Fortunately there is no general agitation
Labor Colonies     in this country at present for the establishand Public       ment of labor colonies or relief works
Relief Works      for the unemployed. The proposed penal
colony for the open-air custodial care of
vagrants, inebriates, and others who require such special treatment,
has of course nothing to do with our present problem. The
objections to the establishment of relief work organized not
because the undertaking is justified on its own account, but for
the sake of giving employment, are so obvious and so familiar
that they need not here be recapitulated. Even those who advocate them would certainly prefer that as an earlier intermediate
step employment should be found in ordinary occupations under




28        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
ordinary economic conditions for as many as possible. To use
a forcible figure originally applied to a different proposition, the
opening of public relief works as a means of helping the unemployed
is like tying on the flowers, while the opening of an employment
bureau on a business basis is like watering the plant.




RECOMMENDATIONS
I have approached this inquiry with an entirely open mind,
with no prejudice against a State Bureau or in favor of any Bureau
at all if it were found not to be needed. The plan for distributing
immigrants by the Federal Government and of transferring city
residents to the farms of New York through the State Department
of Agriculture have both been considered, with every inclination
to recommend that they are sufficient for the purpose if this were
found to be the fact.
As a result of a month's careful study of the whole subject,
involving a considerable amount of reading, visits to several
states and to the national capital, and extended correspondence,
the co-operation of the Bureau of Social Research, and numerous
personal interviews, especially in regard to the reasons for the
failure of experiments which have been made in New York City,
I am of the opinion that the establishment of an Employment
Bureau substantially on the lines indicated in Mr. Schiff's memorandum is desirable, that the need for such a Bureau is very great,
that it is not met by other existing agencies, and cannot be met
by other plans more effectively or economically than by that
proposed.
The only serious modification which I would recommend is
that a fee should be charged to employees rather than to employers,
unless it is found practicable and advisable to charge a fee to both.
I believe that eventually the Bureau could make such a position
for itself that large employers would be willing to make contracts
with it, perhaps on an annual basis, which would be mutually
advantageous, but I doubt the wisdom of charging a specific fee
for each employee furnished, especially in the initial stages of the
experiment. I have no doubt, however, that from the very be29




3~


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


ginning it could be made apparent to employees that in paying a
reasonable fee for the services of the Bureau they would be making
a good investment. I am much impressed by the reasons given
for this view by Mr. Herbert S. Brown in his communication
included in Appendix II. If employers were charged and not
employees, my fear would be that the tendency of the Bureau
would be to serve the interests of employers, rather than those of
employees. It is of course our desire that it should serve both,
and primarily the community.
There is complete unanimity of opinion that the success of the
whole enterprise will depend upon the capacity of its executive
officer, although it is also conceivable that a board of trustees or
managers might be created that would contribute very materially
to its success. My suggestion would be that the board should consist of not more than nine members, and that among them there
should be at least one labor representative, and one social worker
or university instructor interested in the problem on the scientific
side. This suggestion is made simply in the interest of efficiency
and public usefulness, but if those who provide the capital feel
that they should exercise exclusive control over the Bureau, some
part of the advantage which I have in mind might be secured by
creating an advisory board with an even larger representation of
such elements as I have proposed for the board of managers.
The general plan on which the Bureau should be conducted
has perhaps already been sufficiently indicated. Recapitulating,
however, for the sake of clearness, I would recommend:
That there be organized in the City of New York an Employment Bureau under a board of trustees composed of experienced
men representing the mercantile, academic, philanthropic and
industrial classes, each member of the board, however, being
selected not so much in his representative capacity as because of
his probable usefulness as an active working member of the
board. The control should of course remain with those who
furnish the working funds, but need not be exclusively limited to
them.




RECOMMENDATIONS


31


The Bureau should be placed under a manager of great executive ability, with the necessary number of assistants, and the
staff should be thoroughly conversant with the peculiarities of the
various groups that compose New York City's working population.
Herein lies the special strength of the small and often badly conducted employment agencies, that those who manage them really
know their people. The Employment Bureau cannot be expected
to succeed unless it can secure similar intimate knowledge of the
peculiarities, and especially of the valuable qualities of particular
groups. It would be necessary to have interpreters, men to
take charge of gangs in transit, and to perform virtually the functions now exercised by the padroni-although without the abuses
of that system.
The Bureau should establish an organization covering all sections of the United States, so that it shall be in immediate and
constant touch with requirements for labor and employment
wherever such may exist, but its benefits should accrue primarily
to the unemployed of the City of New York. It may not be necessary to maintain agencies permanently in particular localities outside of New York, although it might be advisable to have one or
two branch headquarters. For the most part the agents in the
field would be moving from place to place, establishing relations
with employers, looking after the interests of men who had been
sent to work, and ascertaining when they would be free from
particular engagements, so that there would be little loss of time
in transferring them to other places where they were needed.
The Bureau should charge a reasonable fee to employees,
although waiving this, as private employment agencies do, whenever it is necessary in order to supply particular demands, and
postponing it, whenever employees are entirely without funds,
until it can be paid from wages. Eventually the Bureau might
make contracts with employers on the basis of compensation to
the Bureau for its services, but my suggestion would be that the
service be free to employers until it had been demonstrated that
the Bureau is in position to do this work as well as other agencies or
better.
On account of the general dissatisfaction with all existing
systems-free employment bureaus, ordinary private commercial
agencies, want advertisements, employers' exchanges, trade




32       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


union registers, etc., and for other reasons already indicated, I am
of the opinion that an Employment Bureau conducted as has been
proposed, with a working capital of $ioo,ooo, would eventually
become self-supporting, and would pay a reasonable, or even,
if that were desired, a very substantial dividend on the capital
invested. As the motives of those who would establish the Bureau
are not, however, pecuniary, but public-spirited, I would recommend that the Bureau be incorporated on a plan similar to that of
the Provident Loan Society, limiting dividends to six per cent and
providing that the surplus, if any should be accumulated, be devoted
to some appropriate public purpose.
Aside from the main purpose of helping the unemployed to get
work, I would expect that a Bureau of the kind that is under
consideration would have three indirect and incidental but exceedingly important functions:
(i) By competition it would help to eliminate the evils of the
ordinary commercial agencies.
(2) By opening up opportunities for employment in other
communities, both urban and rural, it would contribute to the
solution of the overshadowing and increasingly serious problem
of congestion of population in New York City.
(3) It would gradually establish standards of work which
might eventually, if the establishment of a State Bureau or even
a National Bureau is found expedient, be taken over in the management of such official bureaus. Conditions in this country do not
at present seem favorable for establishing high standards in official
bodies of this kind. This is greatly to be deplored, and it is doubtful whether voluntary agencies in the field of social work can
render a better service than by working out at private expense and
under the more favorable conditions of private initiative, standards
of work which will subsequently modify the work of public agencies
if they become desirable. Without attempting to anticipate
whether social legislation in this country will follow the course
which it has taken in all European countries, including Great
Britain, we may at least feel it to be a patriotic duty to do anything




RECOMMENDATIONS


33


that is possible to be prepared for such legislation by unhampered
experiment with the problems which elsewhere have already
become governmental functions. If on the other hand it is found
that recent tendencies in these directions are modified or reversed
and that such activities are to remain indefinitely in private hands,
then nothing is lost but everything is gained by such pioneer work
as is now proposed.
(4) It would help to decasualize labor, if we may use a phrase
which has become more familiar in England than in this country,
but which implies a lamentable condition towards which a large
part of our unskilled labor is unfortunately tending. Any employer
in undertaking a new job would prefer, other things being equal,
to secure laborers who have been at work, rather than men who
have been demoralized by idleness or underemployment.
(5) Eventually the Employment Bureau might exert an important influence on the critical period in the lives of boys and
young men when they first begin work. We have child labor
committees and a widespread interest in protective legislation,
but not enough attention has been given to the kind of work in
which working boys from fourteen to twenty years of age are engaged. It is largely lost time, paying relatively high wages at
the start but leading nowhere. While it could not become the
main function of the Employment Bureau to deal with the problem,
it might incidentally contribute materially to its solution.
The strongest, and to my mind conclusive, argument in favor
of the establishment of an Employment Bureau is to be found
in the very dearth of information and even of views which this brief
and necessarily superficial inquiry has disclosed. There appears
to be no way of finding out how much mal-adjustment actually
exists either in our own city or between this and other communities,
or of discovering remedies except by trying the experiment. At
the end of a year or two of actual work by such an Employment
Bureau as has been proposed we would have a body of experience
and information from which conclusions could be drawn in regard
3




34        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
to many important questions of public policy and of private social
effort. It may seem extravagant to say that the mere collection
of such information and its proper interpretation would be worth
all that it is proposed to spend in the experiment even if it should
prove to be an utter failure, but I believe this to be a moderate and
reasonable estimate. I do not believe that it will be a failure, and
have indicated what appear to me to be convincing reasons for
believing that it will be a success.
I have thought it advisable to incorporate in Appendices
several special reports on particular aspects of the inquiry and
other material which will repay examination by those who desire
to be in position to form their own conclusions.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
EDWARD T. DEVINE.




Appendices








Appendices
PAGE
APPENDIX     I. LETTER OF INQUIRY CONCERNING NEED FOR AN
EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.................... 39
APPENDIX    II. REPLIES TO LETTER OF INQUIRY:
Reply from Mr. William H. Baldwin, Washington, D. C...  41
Reply from Mr. Frank L. Baldwin, Attorney-at-law, Youngstown, Ohio.......................................  43
Reply from Prof. Ernest L. Bogart, Princeton University....  45
Reply from Mr. Herbert S. Brown, New York City......  50
Reply from Mr. H. L. Cargill, New York City........... 56
Reply from Prof. John B. Clark, Columbia University....  58
Reply from Prof. John R. Commons, University of Wisconsin 60
Reply from Prof. H. J. Davenport, University of Missouri.. 62
Reply from Prof. Henry W. Farnam, Yale University...... 68
Reply from Prof. Frank A. Fetter, Cornell University...... 69
Reply from Prof. (Emeritus) Wm. W. Folwell, University of
Minnesota..............74...............  74
Reply from Prof. J. E. Hagerty, Ohio State University....  76
Reply from Mr. James Mullenbach, Superintendent of the
Municipal Lodging House of Chicago............    78
Reply from Prof. E. A. Ross, University of Wisconsin..... 84
Reply from Prof. Henry R. Seager, Columbia University.... 86
Reply from Mr. James B. Seager, General Manager of the
Olds Gas Power Company, Lansing, Michigan........ 89
Reply from Mr. Frederick L. Smith, Vice-president and
General Manager of the Olds Motor Works, Lansing,
M ichigan.........................................  91
Reply from Mr. Sidney Webb, London.................. 96
Reply from Mr. Adna F. Weber, Chief Statistician of the New
York Public Service Commission.................... I04
Reply from Mr. Robert A. Woods, South End House, Boston Io6
Letter from Mr. James W. Van Cleave, President of the
National Association of Manufacturers.............. I07
APPENDIX III. PLAN FOR AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR MEN
UNFAMILIAR WITH THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
BY MR. CYRUS L. SULZBERGER........... I09
APPENDIX   IV. STATEMENTS IN REGARD TO THREE FREE PHILANTHROPIC BUREAUS CONDUCTED IN NEW
YORK  CITY.............................  112
Cooper Union Labor Bureau. Extract from the Report
of the New York Association for Improving the Condition  of the Poor...................................  I2
Bureau of the United Hebrew Charities. Statement by Dr.
Lee K. Frankel....................... II3
37




38                      APPENDICES
PAGE
Bureau conducted by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
Statement by Mr. Thomas M. Mulry................ 117
APPENDIX    V. EXPERIENCES OF MR. BENJAMIN C. MARSH IN
TRYING TO GET WORK IN NEW YORK CITY
ON DECEMBER I7 AND i8, I908............  9
APPENDIX VI. STUDY OF NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS AS A
MEDIUM FOR SECURING WORK AND HELP... 130
Report by Mr. H. G. Paine on New York papers.......... I30
Report by Mr. Arthur I. Street, editor of Street's Pandex of
the News, on Chicago papers....................... 157
APPENDIX VII. REPORTS PREPARED IN THE BUREAU OF SOCIAL
RESEARCH OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL OF
PHILANTHROPY, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
DR. R. C. MCCREA...................... 59
On Trade Unions as Employment Agencies.............. I59
Notes on Interviews with Trade Union Officials.......... 164
On the Attitude of Employers toward a General Employment Bureau..................................... 18I
On Unemployed Men at the Municipal Lodging House of
New York. By Mr. E. E. Pratt.................... I86
Character of Lodgers in Municipal Lodging House. By
Hon. Robert W. Hebberd.......................... 201
On the Mobility of Workers. By Dr. R. Brodsky......... 202
APPENDIX VIII. STATEMENT IN REGARD TO AN EXPERIMENT BY
THE JOINT APPLICATION BUREAU IN FINDING
WORK FOR MEN IN THE COUNTRY. BY MR.
CHARLES K. BLATCHLY, SUPERINTENDENT
OF THE BUREAU......................... 2I6
APPENDIX IX. EXTRACT FROM THE SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT (FOR
I908) OF HON. OSCAR S. STRAUS, SECRETARY
OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, IN REGARD TO
THE WORK OF THE DIVISION OF INFORMATION
IN THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION........... 218
APPENDIX   X. THE VALUE OF LABOR EXCHANGES. EXTRACT
FROM A PAMPHLET BY MR. W. H. BEVERIDGE,
OF LONDON.............................  221
APPENDIX   XI. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS BY THE RT. HON.
WINSTON CHURCHILL, M. P., PRESIDENT
OF THE BRITISH BOARD OF TRADE......... 224
APPENDIX XII. EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER BY MR. CYRUS L.
SULZBERGER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE
NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION, IN REGARD TO THE WORK OF THE
INDUSTRIAL REMOVAL OFFICE..........  227
APPENDIX XIII. A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE SUBJECT OF
EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS.................. 232




APPENDIX I
Letter of Inquiry Concerning Need for Employment Bureau
105 EAST 22D STREET, NEW YORK CITY,
November 20, I908.
It has become my duty to make a somewhat comprehensive
report on the advisability of establishing an Employment Bureau
in New York City, substantially on the lines indicated in the accompanying memorandum.* A sufficient sum of money has been
placed at my disposal for this purpose to enable me to offer modest
payment-such as would ordinarily be made for a magazine article
-for such statements from competent authorities on the labor
situation as will be of special aid in making this report. If, therefore, you will submit your views on the following questions, together with any information, statistical or other, that you think
would be serviceable, I shall be very glad to have them and will at
once send you in payment therefor not less than ten dollars, and in
case of exceptionally valuable communications, or in case much
time is expended in collecting new information, some reasonable
additional compensation.t
Time is, however, an important element in this inquiry, and
unless by special arrangement, I would not be able to use any reply
received later than November 30, and I would very much appreciate a much earlier reply. The questions on which information and opinions are desired are the following:
i. To what extent is unemployment in our large cities due
* Mr. Jacob H. Schiff's memorandum, given in Introductory Note, page 3.
t Several of the correspondents declined compensation.
39




40        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


merely to mal-adjustment, i. e., to the failure of men out of work to
find in their own neighborhood existing opportunities for employment?
Distinguish different kinds of work, clerical, skilled, unskilled,
etc., organized or unorganized. Would the fact that the Bureau
charges employers a fee be a hindrance or an advantage, etc.?
2. To what extent is there mal-adjustment as between communities, i. e., how far could the surplus of labor in a large city like
New York find employment in other communities?
The reference here is not to a change of occupations as from industrial to agricultural, but merely to change of locality. Is the
apparent over-supply of labor in cities a local, or a part of a national
situation? Is it a feature of "congested populations"?
3. What are the natural limits of mobility of labor as to changes
from one occupation to another, and what bearing has this on the
possible usefulness of an Employment Bureau?
It is obvious, for example, that a tailor cannot readily ordinarily
become a dairyman. But within what limits might an over-supply
of labor in one occupation be relieved by finding other reasonably
similar occupations? In other words, discuss occupational mobility, as distinct from geographical mobility.
You will gather from the above that the fundamental question
is as to the real need for and the probable utility of an Employment
Bureau. The above questions are intended as suggestions, and
are not exhaustive. Anything which you wish to say on the general
subject will be appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
EDWARD T. DEVINE.




APPENDIX II


Replies to Letter of Inquiry (Appendix I)
REPLY FROM MR. WILLIAM H. BALDWIN,
OF WASHINGTON, D. C.
I approve heartily of the proposal to place the Bureau under a
manager of great executive ability. Anything done in a perfunctory way by salaried officials, certain of their pay at the end of the
month whether any good is done or not, is not likely to be of much
practical value. Nothing, in my opinion, can take the place of
the stimulus which the responsibility for success or failure puts
upon men who must account to stockholders or others from whom
they receive their position. I believe such a bureau as you propose would in this respect be far more efficient than any government agency, such as is proposed in Pennsylvania, is likely to be.
The fee is quite proper, but the undertaking would have to be
worked up like any other enterprise and by its conduct show that
the fee is not the principal purpose of its establishment. Employers would patronize it as they do the advertising columns of
newspapers if experience proved that it was worth while for them
to do so.
i. As to the local mal-adjustment in cities, I do not know. So
much depends upon a man's make-up as to his getting employment
or keeping it after it is obtained; and I imagine that the quality of
work done by those who have grown up in New York City, and by
many of the emigrants, is not of a high order. Unquestionably an
efficient agency, which keeps up a knowledge of the wants of employers of various lines in different quarters of the city, would
4I




42       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


be of great assistance in enabling men to find quickly some employment which they were fitted for.
2. The wider question of mal-adjustment as between communities presents some of the same difficulties, but undoubtedly
much good could be done in supplying workmen for other communities which need them. It is not probable that some of the
men from New York could stand up in the wheat fields of Kansas
where men are so much needed at times, but I believe that there is
a good deal of work throughout the country for which these men
would be fitted if they could be properly placed.
The congestion seems to be a part of the national situation, a
result of the tendency to crowd together, but is apparently worse
in New York than elsewhere and an intelligent effort to get large
numbers of people past this dead-point, and enable them to exercise this crowding tendency in other communities, would be of great
benefit.
3. The limit of mobility of labor as between occupations depends largely upon the man. One of ordinary intelligence who is
anxious to work has considerable range. To illustrate: In the
plant of the Ohio Steel Company, with which I was connected, the
men earning more wages than common laborers had their positions,
and a man capable of running a steam engine, for instance, could
not be given a place off-hand. Ilwas our custom to let any man
who applied for work go into the labor gang, from which men were
assigned to different tasks as necessities arose. These men were
watched and if any one displayed a commendable industry or capacity in any direction, he was given the first chance at any desirable
work. In this way there was a constant promotion of those who
were fit for anything better; and we were just as anxious to get
men for these better positions as they were to get them. Of course
there were many men whose habits were bad, or who were indolent
or incapable of doing anything more than common labor; but the
opportunity was there, and my experience is that a man of ordinary
capacity, but with the will to do, could adapt himself to quite a




FRANK L. BALDWIN


43


range of diverse tasks which might present themselves in such a
large plant.
The men presented by such a bureau as you propose to employers for work to which they were not accustomed might not at first
earn the highest wages, but if they could get something to do, and
be learning, there could be a progress towards better work and
permanent employment which would be well worth while. Any
occupation sorts out the capable men. Those who are first dropped
or who first drop out, and are compelled to seek something else,
are the incapable.
Finally, such a bureau in charge of a man of ability, similar
to that required to run a railroad, for instance, would develop the
possibilities of the situation and not only find work for large
numbers of those desiring work, but would take away the excuse
which many now seem to have for not working, and I believe that
in this last respect, as a sifting agency eliminating one large element in the problem of dealing with the unemployed, it would be
well worth while.
The newspapers last week reported a shortage of workmen in
Sharon, Pa. From what I know of this work I believe that a man
of ordinary capacity, if sent out from New York, could soon learn
to do the work in one of the positions in question, even though he
had known nothing about it previously.
NOVEMBER 24, I908.
LETTER FROM      MR. FRANK L. BALDWIN,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW IN YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO,
SUPPLEMENTING THE PRECEDING LETTER FROM MR. WILLIAM H.
BALDWIN
I have just had a short talk with one or two of our employers of
labor, and they seem to think that it (the Bureau) would probably




44


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


work well in the larger cities, but seem to doubt its usefulness in
places like Youngstown and vicinity. Good positions in towns of
this size are pretty well filled, and the men go along up from the
ranks below as fast as places become vacant. What is needed in
the industries in this vicinity is the unskilled laborer with brawn
and muscle and good health. Men of this class here are largely
foreigners, principally Italians and Austrians, such as the Slovaks,
Hungarians, and men from other neighboring districts in Europe.
This class of men begin as laborers here, and as they show improvement are advanced to better positions. Our larger industries have
departments that keep in touch with that class of labor, and when
men are needed have no difficulty in getting as many as they want
by going to their padrones or leaders.
Men are badly needed at the present time in the coke regions and
also in the industries of the South. Whether the unemployed of
New York City could be utilized is questionable. For the coke
regions sufficient men could probably be obtained without much
difficulty from a city like Pittsburgh and its vicinity.
Unemployment in our large cities is due principally to maladjustment. Men who are out of work find it difficult to find employment in their own neighborhood, and also find it extremely
difficult to look for work elsewhere, by reason of lack of means
and necessary information. An Employment Bureau such as is
contemplated would be a great benefit to such men.
The unemployed of New York City are more numerous in the
winter months when work on the large enterprises is suspended.
Whether such unemployed could be moved out of New York City
to work elsewhere is a serious problem. Most of such men probably have families dependent upon them, making it extremely
difficult to transfer them. Clerical and skilled labor usually fill
such positions locally, and there would be places only for the unskilled laborer or workingman.
NOVEMBER 30, I908.




PROFESSOR ERNEST L. BOGART


45


REPLY FROM PROF. ERNEST L. BOGART,
OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Some years ago I had occasion to look up the matter quite
thoroughly in connection with an article on Free Public Employment Agencies in the United States for the Quarterly Journal of
Economics (Vol. XIX, pp. 34I-377). From that and subsequent
studies I am convinced that the problem of mal-adjustment of
labor is not at all adequately met by existing agencies, and that
there is real need of an institution that shall attempt to meet the
problem on broader lines than has yet been attempted-perhaps
national. New York City is certainly the strategic center from
which such an effort should be made.
I. Is there a lack of adjustment within New York City between workers and existing opportunities for work?
Yes, there is, although this differs greatly in the different
branches of labor. It is probably greatest in domestic service,
owing partly to the temporary and shifting character of this employment. But in this field the need is probably fairly well met
by existing commercial agencies. If the proposed Bureau were
established, it would be necessary to guard carefully against being
swamped by this kind of labor, as has occurred in the various State
bureaus. Skilled labor, especially where organized, has generally
depended upon its own agencies, often very specialized, to bring
about an adjustment in the labor market. It would be very difficult to meet the peculiar needs of employers or workers in this
field, and I personally should doubt the wisdom of trying to do so.
There is of course a large amount of unemployment among skilled
workers, but so far as this is caused by the seasonal character of
their work, the generally accepted economic view is that they receive a sufficiently higher wage during the period of employment to
compensate them for the period of unemployment. A great deal
of the unemployment among this group is undoubtedly due to




46


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


absolute lack of work to be done. Thus the Twentieth Annual
Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of New York State reported the amount of idleness among the members of labor organizations in the State for the year 900o as due to the following causes:
Idleness due toLack of work.......7...............755 per cent
Bad  weather, etc.....................5
Strike or lockout.................... 3.o
Sickness, etc.......................  4.7
Other........................ 6.3
How to deal with this is a very difficult problem, but it would
certainly seem undersirable to try to secure any considerable occupational shift to other occupations or any geographical shift to
other places. The difficulty is probably a temporary one, at least
on any such abnormal scale as presented in the above table.
The proposed Bureau would probably deal principally with the
unskilled and unorganized laborers. Here the need of a bureau
seems, too, most evident, and in dealing with these classes the free
public employment bureaus have achieved their greatest successes.
The technical and skilled trades have their trade organizations
or special agencies; but this group, numerically far surpassing
the others, is taken care of in rather haphazard fashion. The
first problem to be met in dealing with this group, however, is
the strict separation of the "won't-works" and the unemployable
class from the unemployed. It would be the duty of the Bureau
to try to solve only the problem of mal-adjustment, and to hand
over to other organizations the care of the unemployable. Charles
Booth calculated for London that over 8 per cent of the population
belong to the unemployable group. Nor, as I have said before,
does it seem to be feasible for the Bureau to deal with such unemployment as arises from seasonal fluctuations due to the character
of the work, bad weather, etc. But, on the other hand, industrial
mal-adjustment due to industrial depression, changes in fashion,




PROFESSOR ERNEST L. BOGART


47


the introduction of new machinery, etc., must be met by the
Bureau and an attempt made to introduce the unemployed laborers
to some other occupation. Possibly the greatest problem in
connection with this class, and the one which would keep the
Bureau busiest, would be the treatment of the casual laborers.
Forced by the very nature of their occupations to find a new job
at periodic intervals, they would have constant recourse to the
Bureau. It would be necessary, therefore, to keep in touch with
large employers of labor and to secure their co-operation with
the Bureau.
The question as to whether the Bureau should charge a fee
or not is an administrative one, which I should unhesitatingly
answer in the affirmative. It should be placed as far as possible
upon a business basis. It must avoid trying to "run out" other
existing commercial agencies. But an even stronger reason for
charging a fee is in the effect it has upon both employers and
employees: where no fee is charged, it is apt not to be patronized;
or, if employment is found for an applicant, little obligation is
felt because the service was a free one, and at the slightest provocation a rupture occurs. If it seemed undesirable to charge the
unemployed applicant for a position an initial fee, it could be
deducted subsequently from his wages. But it would certainly
seem desirable to make a charge to employers, quite aside from
any voluntary contributions they may make to its support.
II. Is there a mal-adjustment of labor between communities?
I should answer yes to this question less unhesitatingly than
to the former one. At bottom, it seems to me, the problem which
would confront the suggested Bureau in New York City is the
problem of congested population. There is today much less
opportunity in the far West to attract workers, now that the free
land has practically all been taken up. Many persons, too, are
attracted to the cities, quite irrespective of the existence of any
actual demand for their services. New York City has also, of
course, peculiar problems of her own, as a result of the influx




48


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


of foreigners, of whom so many remain there. But that normally
there is room and work for all the workers in this country admits,
it seems to me, of no doubt. So far, therefore, as it is a question
of mal-adjustment, especially if it be geographical, the proposed
Bureau should certainly cover as large a territory as possible. The
success of the German system is largely due to its national scope.
It should at least comprise a whole State, in which there should
be several branches, or affiliated institutions, working together.
The most successful institution of the sort in the United States,
so far as I know, is the Seattle Free Employment Bureau, which
has secured the co-operation of the large employers of labor
throughout the State, and sends men, especially unskilled workers,
to the most distant parts of the State.
There seems to be a standing demand for labor in the agricultural parts of New York State. A List of Farms Occupied
and Unoccupied in New York State, published by the Bureau
of Information and Statistics (Bulletin No. i, Department of
Agriculture), states that "probably fifty thousand agricultural
laborers can find employment on the farms of New York at good
wages. Families particularly are wanted to occupy rented houses
and work farms on shares." Perhaps some of the three hundred
thousand aliens who settled in the cities of New York State during
the year 1904-5 could be persuaded to leave them for the farms
if the matter were fairly presented to them. My own experience
as a charity worker in New York City was that many of those
asking for assistance had come from rural districts or from farms
in the Old World. It would therefore seem reasonable to suppose
that they might be willing to accept similar work here. There
is, of course, the difficulty of ignorance of the language to be met;
possibly this could be met by colonization on a fairly large scale
of farm laborers of the same nationality in the same district.
III. The relation of the mobility of labor to the proposed
Employment Bureau.
The main usefulness of the Bureau, it seems to me, must




PROFESSOR ERNEST L. BOGART


49


consist in promoting geographical mobility of labor. It is a
curious historical fact that with the increased ease of geographical
movement of labor, its occupational mobility has declined. As it
becomes easier to move bodies of men from one place to another.
there is less inducement to wage-earners to shift their occupations,
Among the native-born Americans, consequently, there is comparatively little occupational mobility. Perhaps because they
have made such a radical geographical change, there is also a
greater tendency to occupational changes among the foreign-born.
But as two-thirds of the immigrants are probably to be classed
among the unskilled, the occupational change is not very great.
The Bureau would deal very largely with this class, and would
doubtless find it feasible to promote occupational changes in
many cases, where it would mean a gain. In general, however,
such movements, especially for skilled labor, mean a social loss
rather than a gain, as it connects a sacrifice of specialized skill.
There is, however, a strong temptation to exchange the uncertain
prospect of good wages in a specialized trade for the immediate
high returns that can usually be obtained by an able-bodied,
muscular, unskilled worker. The conclusion that this leads to
is that what is needed in the last analysis is industrial training
that will promote general intelligence and thereby render possible
a certain amount of occupational mobility without at the same
time entailing loss of special training.
My own conclusion would be that there is ample scope and
need for the proposed Bureau in New York City, and that it would
fill a need that is at present met in no other way.
NOVEMBER 28, I908.


4




50        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


REPLY FROM MR. HERBERT S. BROWN,
OF NEW YORK CITY
I. Every energetic workman, so far as my experience extends,and this reservation applies to all that is said below,-knows
other workmen in his trade, and through them and through personal
visits to the various employers, he keeps in fairly close touch with
possible demands for his services. Members of trade unions
may frequent the headquarters of the union, in the chance of
getting one of the jobs that come to the union direct and are
passed out there on some uncertain plan not fully understood by
me. Strangers in the city, of course, have fewer such means of
getting located.
Similarly, every employer has lists, often very large, of applicants for work and of men who have previously worked for him.
By reference to these lists and by inquiry among his own men
it is possible for him to get about all the help he needs, in the
skilled and semi-skilled occupations, even in busy times. In the
case of unskilled labor, it is more difficult to put men where they
are wanted at the moment they are wanted. In seasonal occupations, as among the garment workers, it is not always easy to get
extra help for the few weeks it is needed,-not because of maladjustment, but because of full employment of all skilled in the
trade.
Crude and inefficient as the above-indicated methods of buying
and selling labor are, yet by their means some kind of a market
for his services is always open to the active workman, except in
"hard times" when nobody is buying labor. At such times no
amount of individual canvassing or underbidding would materially
increase the available supply of work,-the turn in the' tide of
which, in my judgment, depends primarily upon entirely different
factors. I do not think that an employment bureau, working
within trade lines, would be any more successful in remedying




HERBERT S. BROWN


5I


unemployment in "hard times" than such men as I have indicated
working singly.
II. I have little direct knowledge of possible mal-adjustment,
in the same trade, between different communities. It is my
impression that in the East we have less mobility in the working
population than obtains in the West. The influence of the trade
unions is, I believe, against such geographical mobility. Newcomers, even with the proper credentials, are not over-welcome
in any city. Witness San Francisco.
"Over-supply" of labor, so far as it exists in normal times,
is due, in my opinion, to inertia (rather than immobility) on the
part of the workman, together with a partly unconscious, partly
studied policy of very many large employers-the Metropolitan
Street Railway Company, for instance-of keeping more men on
their pay-rolls than they can possibly employ for full time. As
I take this to be an economic rather than an ethical inquiry, I
will not express my views on the responsibility of employers for
the part-time men. Distinctly, the latter is a feature of "congested" populations.
III. The natural limits to occupational mobility are, I believe,
vastly less confining than those narrow bounds set down by custom,
by habit, by employers, and by trade unions. The long apprenticeships demanded in some trades are sheer humbug, designed to
keep down the total of workmen available in the craft. That
the apprentice appears slow to learn means almost always that he
is not given the chance to learn-assuming, of course, reasonable
energy and natural fitness for the work.
Back of each skilled trade and occupation lies primarily nothing
more mysterious than a certain deftness of hand, accuracy of eye,
co-ordination of muscles, sense of rhythm, commercial instinct,
or whatever else it may be, essential to the profitable prosecution
of that occupation. Many a one of such human qualities will
open the way to success in more than one trade,-the more general
of them to a large number of trades. For example, the man who




52


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


has the "mechanical instinct," and has had sufficient training
in any one of the score or more of mechanical trades to have
acquired accurate and quick co-ordination of brain and muscle,
can and frequently does pass freely from one trade to another,
with no greater handicap than the few weeks' or months' delay
requisite to learn the special processes of the new trade and to
bring his speed up to that of the man whose longer experience has
made the work practically automatic. And the lower the grade
of skill required, the easier to make transitions. It is unreasonable
to expect, and secure, of the men who carry on the difficult work
of the world the astonishing mobility which history relates of
Julius Caesar, or Goethe, or the ex-plumber Croker, with many
another immortal not yet dead enough to mention by name, and
then deny to the deft fingers that roll cigarettes in hopeless competition with automatic machinery the chance at a dozen other occupations unknown to them but known to us where the deft finger is
a valuable asset.
I believe that it is possible to weave through the maze of
endlessly divided and subdivided craft and occupation a comparatively simple classification based on the underlying essential,
human qualification, rather than on a technical knowledge of
trade peculiarity. I believe it would be possible to pass men
properly qualified under such a classification from one occupation
to others closely allied with comparative ease. And I believe
that the encouragement of such inter-occupational mobility would
be of very great benefit to the community. It is part of my creed
in life that every man has a place, perhaps a dozen places, into
which, when at last found, he will fit with definite profit to himself
and every one else concerned. I believe that "congested" population means congested wealth, and that with proper mobility
facilitated, the tangle will resolve itself, so that ultimately we
may be able to say-the more people the more prosperity.
The proposition to establish an employment bureau that shall
amount to something is in substance a proposition to upset the




HERBERT S. BROWN


53


time-honored barter of services indicated in Section I above and
substitute for it, in New York at least, a method which shall be
modern and efficient in somewhat the same sense as are all our
great commodity markets of wheat, cotton, and money-subject to
undesirable speculation and fluctuation, to be sure, but on the
whole acting as marvelous balance wheels of industry. Again I
will say that it is unreasonable to be able to put wheat, or gold,
or telephone switchboards by less than the turn of a hand into
any part of the world where they are instanter needed, and yet
think we cannot devise means for shifting our most valuable
commodity, human service, from where it is not wanted to where
it is wanted, without waiting till sheer starvation forces that
commodity blindly to shift for itself.
The first requisite in facing this problem is to tuck any missionary notions we may have about us away in our pockets where
they will be thoroughly out of sight, and handy for reference in
private. Our transactions in themselves must be business-like
to the last degree. Men buy labor only when they can see a
profit to be made by so doing. The employer who takes on men
merely because they need work is so rare a species that he can be
left out of our count.
The second requisite is that, as salesmen, we must know our
goods. At this point every employment agency I ever heard of,
except perhaps one or two very high-class teachers' agencies and
possibly some abroad, breaks down. A hasty interview, the scanning of a few references (notoriously meaningless), and the applicant is sent out to win or lose the job as good luck and his own
native wit may determine. Result: not many employers apply a
second time to such bureaus.
It should be possible to establish an employment bureau which
would know its merchandise-its applicants-so thoroughly that
the man possessed of the bureau's certificate of fitness for work
in a certain grade would have therein the highest recommendation
available in this city. By proper care such a certificate could be




54


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


made the sine qua non of entrance to many of the larger industrial
concerns. By proper publicity young men could be stimulated
to fit themselves to obtain certificates for higher grades and better
opportunities than those they previously held.
Suppose, for example, a young man working in a street-railway
office, computing conductors' returns fifty hours a week at six to
ten dollars a week, with a family to support and a possibility of
increase after years of service to perhaps fifteen dollars. If one
of the classifications of the proposed Bureau should be, say, "accounting clerk," qualifying for positions of a certain grade in
insurance, bankers', brokers', contractors', and many other kinds
of offices, and if this young man, otherwise likely to stay put till
sheer necessity drove him out, hearing of the Bureau, pulled himself together, qualified for and secured with good credit its certificate for this grade, he might now pass, on his own initiative or on
the Bureau's recommendation, to a better position in, say, a contractor's office. Thence by successive advances in qualification,
he could take up other and higher grades of work, until he found
the place where his services were of maximum value to himself
and the community. The people in the railway office on their
part would now have room for a clerk of lower grade, or, if they
were actually underpaying their men, the mobility induced by the
Bureau's activities would soon make this evident, and justify them
in increasing wages to the market standard.
The suggestion is, broadly, to establish for industrial service in
New York a classification and standards of fitness just as are
already being worked out for the civil service. Guaranteeing
work to applicants is not contemplated. The function of the
Bureau would be simply to point out the road to those who want
to better themselves, and to indorse fitness in those who qualify
under its standards.
Necessarily this means examinations and tests, which will be
expensive, particularly at the inception of the enterprise. This
expense, and other reasonable expenses of the Bureau, should rest,




HERBERT S. BROWN


55


as in most commercial transactions, on the seller rather than on
the purchaser. I think the employer should be free from financial
obligation in the matter. Every inducement should be afforded
him to encourage co-operation with the Bureau. Let his contribution, if any, be in furnishing skilled overseers to advise with
the Bureau in preparing tests of fitness. The prospective employee
will gladly pay for the services of the Bureau (note how the padrone
prospers), and if successful in getting work he will be able to pay.
Generous latitude should be allowed as to the time of payment,
and responsibility should be put on him rather than on the employer
to see that the obligation is met when due. I believe there would
be a surprisingly small number of defaults. With reasonable
charges and a large clientele, such, for instance, as has been
built up by the Provident Loan Society, the enterprise could be
made commercially practicable, in the same sense as is that
society or the City and Suburban Homes Company. The missionary part will be in the inception; in later years the Bureau, if
rightly conducted, would be likely to become as commercial and
unsentimental a factor in the city's life as are its savings banks.
A classification emphasizing the distinguishing human quality
as a cut through the maze of occupational detail would, if found
and proved worthy, carry with it the relatively prompt solution of
the vexed and intensely practical problem of what constitutes
the right schooling for boys and girls about to enter the industrial
ranks. Years must intervene between practice and proof in attempts to work out the latter an sich: the touchstone of immediate
success or failure awaits any application of theory to the industrial
army itself.
The name chosen would be important Brevity, dignity, and
a hint of official authority are desirable. "Employment Bureau"
suggests too much the "out of a job" atmosphere. The institution must be constructive, not palliative. "Bureau" any way is
an unfortunate word in its leaning toward bureaucracy. Something like "The Service Registry," or "The Industrial Service




56


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Registry" might convey a more favorable impression, correlative
in the public mind with the "Civil Service Commission."
Verily, it is interesting ground your inquiry has entered. A
ground where you can do things.
DECEMBER II, I908.
REPLY FROM      MR. H. L. CARGILL,
OF NEW YORK CITY
Referring to that part of the question relating to a bureau
charge, while I might modify my opinion through further knowledge of your plans, my impression is that such charge to employers
would be a help rather than a hindrance. You will probably
find some reluctance on their part at first through fear that your
movement is an effort to promote the incompetent and load them
with inefficient labor. As I understand your purpose, however,
you propose a real service to employers as well as to employees,
and when that service is given or the employers are convinced of
it, most of them would prefer to pay for it. In such case they would
feel that you are under obligations to select your candidates more
carefully; and they would be freer to complain at a poor supply.
It will be more businesslike all around.
In reply to question No. 3,-Occupational Mobility. In
unskilled labor, of course, the range is pretty large and the zone of
employment wide. Such labor, for example, can be shifted from
the dock to the warehouse, can be transferred to gang work,
and could make itself useful in most forms of agriculture, etc.
Passing to the semi-skilled trades, the zone is narrower, though
still wide enough to give considerable employment, and the individual mobility, though restricted, is enough to admit of considerable
accommodation. In the purely skilled trade the limits are sharply
drawn. The modem specialized workman is apt to make poor




H. L. CARGILL


57


shift of it when he turns his hand to anything outside of his specialty.
The clerical employee is perhaps the most handicapped of all.
There is one modifying consideration, however, that is worth
keeping in mind in this connection. The American per se has more
mobility, more "jack-of-all-trades" about him, than the man of
any other race; and so far as the Bureau deals with the American
pure and simple it would find him comparatively easy to place.
From the nature of the case, however, the bulk of your unemployed
would be of foreign stock. Among skilled aliens, occupational
mobility is much less developed, in many instances entirely
wanting.
In regard to the need of this Bureau: Speaking without such
special examination as is implied in your first two questions,
but from a general knowledge of the subject, it seems plain that
there is a place for such a broad, sane, co-ordinated movement
as you suggest; and it ought to fill a large field of usefulness.
The utility of your Bureau, however, will depend upon its organization and administration, upon how efficiently and wisely your plan
is carried out. In this connection I should especially emphasize
the need of making haste slowly. From the unique character
of the venture, unusual problems that cannot be anticipated will
present themselves, and they will have to be worked out through
experience. It would therefore seem ill-considered to establish
outlying agencies until such questions had been carefully settled
through the results of the New York office.
There are two specific, vital things to be done on the start:
First, you must secure the confidence of employers. Second, you
must enlist the co-operation of the labor unions, without conceding
to them undue voice in your movement. There is a chance for
headwork right here.
It is not by any means impossible that you may have also to
overcome considerable apathy or suspicion on the part of the unemployed themselves. All this means much time and work aside
from the usual detail and work of an organization.




58


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Another important fact must be kept in mind. Employers,
in common with most business men, are shy of enterprises which are
partly business and partly philanthropic, and objection may be
made to your Bureau on this ground. From the start, therefore,
it is vitally important that the business aspects of your movement,
its efficient administration, and its real service should be so kept
in the foreground that any philanthropic purpose which attaches
to it should not be overmuch in evidence.
In reply to your question as to whether this venture can be
made a paying enterprise, I should say again that it all hinges upon
administration. As a business there ought to be a good deal in it,
but it will require unusual skill and care to prevent failure. In
any event, immediate profits could hardly be obtained. The
first year would necessarily be one of organization and experiment,
but with these well done and conducted it would not seem unreasonable to expect the second year to show some return on capital.
DECEMBER 21, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. JOHN B. CLARK,
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
In my view loss of employment by large bodies of men personally fit for it is invariably due to mal-adjustment, since there is
never a time when there is not within the limits of the society to
which the men belong a need of their labor and a chance, with
proper adjustment, to dispose of its product. The rearrangements needed may be too extensive to be made within the neighborhood in which the men reside, and herein lies the largest practical
difficulty. The change needed is occupational and, when made in
a large scale, involves a local change as well.
In the main, in the period following the recent crisis, the change
needed has been from occupations catering to the mere luxurious




PROFESSOR JOHN B. CLARK


59


wants to those producing necessaries of life and comforts of the
lower grade. The trouble would now be relieved by a migration
from manufacturing and commercial centers to the country.
Agriculture and mining would absorb a large amount of new
labor and relieve the congestion elsewhere. The change, if made
by persons specially fitted for these rural occupations, would
open the way for persons not so fitted to find employment within
their own communities. The mere increase of the output of agriculture and mining would create a demand for more products of
urban labor.
Minor changes, such as those from community to community,
would afford a valuable though less comprehensive relief. A
large system of intelligence bureaus would make known in congested centers important fields for labor, though they would be
capable of receiving fewer persons than the absolutely rural
occupations. Probably in connection with changes automatically
making, they would relieve most of the serious distress of New
York City.
It is a happy circumstance that labor, thanks to modem
methods, has become increasingly "mobile." Formerly much
of it was tied to its occupations by the fact that most trades required
long apprenticeships. The maker of shoes could not make cloth
or set type or make tools. He cannot do this now without some
instruction, but at present most mechanical trades consist of specialties that can be easily learned. Many of them involve only the
tending of certain machines, and it is not hard to learn to run different machines. Old men may not readily change their trades,
but young men can do so, and do it easily where the change is not
too great. Occupational mobility is sufficient, in these days, to
transfer a vast number of persons quickly from one trade to another.
The larger difficulty is the local one-changing work means moving, which is costly and is hazardous when no assurance of employment is afforded before the move is made.
In my view, no philanthropy could be better than one which




60


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


should seek far and wide for plans where workers are needed and
make the facts known where they are present and unemployed.
The plan of charging a slight fee is the right one in the long
run. Whether it should be adopted at the outset, while the
trouble from lack of employment is most acute, is doubtful. Anything to ensure quick employment in an emergency might be the
rule. In time-and in a short time-the fees should be charged,
in order that the system might be self-supporting.
NOVEMBER 23, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. JOHN R. COMMONS,
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
It is possible that if one were to make a thorough field investigation and to give some time to the matter he might discover features
of your proposition that would be worth taking up, but the attention that I am able to give to it leads me to question very much
whether the plan as you outline it will secure results which seem
to be hoped for.
In the first place, it appears to me that an experiment of this
kind which would attempt to distribute the surplus of labor of New
York into other cities or industrial communities (I perceive that
you do not contemplate agricultural distribution) would lead to
such great friction that its success would be doubtful. So far
as I am able to learn, the depression in industry and resulting
unemployment is general throughout the country. I should not
be surprised if it were worse in some cities, say Pittsburgh, than
it is in New York. If, therefore, New York labor were sent to
employers in other cities, objection would immediately be made
on the part of the local wage-earners and especially trade unions.
If, on the other hand, the New York emigrant secured employment,
there seems to be no guarantee possible that the employer would




PROFESSOR JOHN R. COMMONS


6i


keep him, provided he is dissatisfied with his work. In such a case
the laborer would be thrown on the local charity and would need
to be carried back to New York at the expense of your proposed
Bureau. In such a juncture the municipal authorities and the
charity organization would be after you. It is possible, however,
that if you had very capable agents in the several cities to which
you send surplus labor, and these agents were thoroughly able
to master the local employment situation and to get beneath the
representations both of employers seeking cheap labor and of
trade unionists hostile to imported labor, you might avoid the
difficulties suggested. The expenses, however, would be so great
in securing this kind of competent help, that I do not think it is
practicable.
Omitting then, the proposal to distribute the surplus labor of
New York in other cities, there remains the question of what
should be done by an employment bureau designed to make work
for the unemployed in New York or nearby.
If it is true that existing employment bureaus are unreliable,
that they take advantage of the unemployed, it might be worth
while to establish a model bureau both as an example to others and
as a means of driving out the unreliable ones. This is the only
ground on which it appears to me it would be worth while to
establish such a bureau as you propose. If you are planning
to go further than this and to provide work for the unemployed,
it cannot be done except by enlisting the State or city or private
capital in starting up public works or labor colonies or something
of that kind. I assume that the existing bureaus are adequate
to make the transfers and the interchanges needed for those
employers who actually are looking for workmen. But, seeing
that private employment cannot be increased until the general
industrial conditions start up, there remains only this alternative
of making work independent of existing establishments. In
other words, it appears to me that the best thing that could be done
under the circumstances would be to go ahead on something like




62


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the Swiss and German relief stations, labor colonies, etc., and to
plan out in co-operation with the State and municipal authorities
a large project by which, whenever private industry lets down
through panic or depression, these supplementary means of employment could be started up.
As to the occupational mobility of labor, it does not appear
to me practicable so far as private employment is concerned. A
dairy farmer certainly would not want to take on a tailor for his
work. The proper way to get at the extent of mobility in occupation would be to bring together the agents of the Charity Organization Society and get their experience in the matter. I should
think, however, that with the supplementary methods of employment which I have suggested, it would be found possible to make
work that would be suitable for all kinds of the unemployed.
I have, perhaps, stated my views with more assurance and
abruptness than are warranted; and, as I said in the beginning,
a thorough investigation, especially if there is promise of adequate
expenditure and competent managers and agents, might develop
features that would modify what I have said. The great balance
of evidence, however, seems to me just now to support the position
above taken.
NOVEMBER 24, 1908.
REPLY FROM PROF. H. J. DAVENPORT,
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
I believe it well at the outset to distinguish between normal
times and periods of panic, or of post-panic depression. Any
analysis of these last is possible only after the settlement of some
very fundamental issues in economic theory. For my own part,
I am convinced that the difficulty is not so much one of disturbed
production reacting upon consumption, as of disturbed consump



PROFESSOR H. J. DAVENPORT


63


tion reacting upon production. The period preceding the depression is one in which society has achieved a technicological development affording the possibility of a high standard of consumption;
society now turns in temper and disposition temporarily toward a
policy of postponed consumption and of saving. Emphasis,
that is, is temporarily transferred from goods for consumption to
the accumulation of purchasing power. In some measure, the
supply of goods does not now furnish a demand for other goods,
but merely a demand for the medium of exchange or for rights of
deferred consumption expressed in this medium. Each man is
trying to produce and sell more than he buys or consumes. This
-socially speaking-is an impasse. Enlarged industrial equipment is not called for in time of restricted markets for goods;
instrumental goods are in fact already in surplusage. Therefore
only soon such saving can take place for individual purposes as
connotes an increased consumption with others, and an enlarged
indebtedness against them.
And this means that the essential fact of industrial depression
is commonly a temporarily lowered standard of living in a society
technicologically equipped for a higher standard.
In times of this sort, it is not possible that the total labor force
of society be employed. The only question is whether some of the
laborers shall be fully employed, and others totally lack work,
or each shall work at reduced time. A shorter labor day is by
far the preferable alternative.
It follows, also, that this time of restricted individual demands
for goods is precisely the time in which public work should be
especially undertaken. What is accomplished by laborers who
would otherwise be unemployed, is, socially speaking, a pure
saving,-a costless accomplishment. Public debts should be
incurred in times of low interest and of lax employment, and
should be paid in times of prosperity, rather than be incurred on
terms of diverting labor from other employments and at a high
wage cost and on a high interest level, with the result that the




64


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


payment, when it does take place, takes place through taxes collected at the maximum of burden and hardship.
I am not sure how far an employment bureau can make itself
effective here, otherwise than as in some degree a force merely
of amelioration or of readjustment. Something, however, is
doubtless possible in this direction.
What would happen if the principle were to come to be generally
applied over the entire field of industry, is, I suspect, past the
theoretical reach of the economist, and must rather be referred
to the legislator, the agitator, or the revolutionist. So far as the
difficulties of non-employment are due to the fact that, in times
of stress and liquidation, prices tend to fall more rapidly than
wages, an employment bureau should be able to do something
in finding for the employer laborers who are willing to work
upon a wage level making their employment an entrepreneur
possibility. I see no reason why the employer should not pay for
this, particularly if the employment bureau accepts some responsibility in investigating and reporting upon the quality of
the labor.
Turning, however, to normal conditions: something like a
problem parallel to the foregoing is presented so far as concerns
the work of the monopoly principle, as applied (i) by employers,
(2) by employees.
No combination can raise the price of its product on any other
terms than of diminishing its output. This involves a reduction
of the labor employed. The wider spread the application of the
monopoly in production, the larger must be the restriction of the
labor market. Under present conditions the restriction of output
by the monopolized industries must result in the congestion in
those fields still backward in the application of the monoply
principle.
A precisely parallel analysis applies to the activity of labor
unions, so far as their methods involve an increase of wage costs
and of commodity prices. Higher wages can be enforced by the




PROFESSOR H. J. DAVENPORT


65


unions, and can be granted by employers only upon the basis of
a higher market price upon a restricted output. The penalties
are paid in part by the consuming public under the guise of higher
prices for goods, and in part by displaced laborers lacking employment.
But even were the problem of non-employment free of complication by industrial depression or by monopoly organization,
it would still be serious enough, though serious in aspects more
readily submitting to amelioration through the methods of employment bureaus.
Imagine yourself in a great city, even in prosperous times,
seeking employment. Ask yourself to whom you would apply.
It helps little that the demand is there if you cannot find it. The
very employer seeking further help will probably not accept you;
he does not know you. Who are you? What are your credentials? Why are you not already at work? He can wait-you
cannot. He seeks a contented, steadfast, trustworthy servant.
You may be all this, but he does not know it. For his purposes,
therefore, you are not all this. He needs more than an efficient
worker, more also than a trustworthy worker; he needs one whom
he knows to be both efficient and trustworthy. All these adjustments of supply to demand take time. An employee losing his
place and finding another within thirty days may count himself
fortunate beyond the average. The intermediate period is to be
charged up to friction, lost motion, in the interplay of demand and
supply. This loss quantity is never a small one. Consider the
transformations constantly occurring in modern industry,-new
inventions, new processes, new factories, changing demands of
time and season, new fashions, new centers of trade, bankruptcies,
retirements, restrictions of output, new schedules of tariff, speculations, booms, strikes, and lockouts,-a very kaleidoscope of change,
-and one begins to appreciate the causes which lie back of disturbances in employment. Give each change its time for completion, for the fitting of each industrial block to its new niche, and
5




66


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the phenomena of non-employment are seen to be inevitable.
The best-disciplined regiments require time for reforming after
ranks are broken. The streets are thronged with people, by the
mere going to and fro from one place of business to another;
for several hours of the day the ways are filled with passers to and
from their meals.
There is, then, a normal and, in a certain sense, healthful
volume of non-employment.
Even were seekers of employment informed of the various
opportunities for employment, and did questions of fitness and
proof of fitness present no difficulties, there would still be a great
measure of immobility in labor, resulting in non-employment.
Men dislike changes of home even if they are able to make them,
and are often unable to make them even if disposed. When, for
example, the lace factories of Nottingham close for lack of demand,
it is small help to the operative that in Glasgow or in Dublin
there is employment in ship-building or iron-working. Assume,
also, the knowledge of the opportunity and the disposition to
embrace it. But the workman cannot move his cottage. It is,
indeed, common enough that he is unable to undertake the expense
of moving his family and personal belongings. And always the
risk of misfortune or failure is menaced by new surroundings,
strange people, and new methods.
Nor have we yet done with the important influences recruiting
the army of the unemployed. The leading characteristic of the
modem industrial system is the division of labor. As has already
been remarked, this principle applies not only to individuals,
but in large degree to communities, states, and nations. In
sociology as well as in biology, specialization of function involves
interdependence. In complicated machinery, when one wheel
fails to turn, all stand still. In our present society production
depends upon exchange. The agriculturist employs the mechanic
and vice versa,-the steppes of Russia, the workshops of Germany.
So if the American Northwest ceases to produce, and in default




PROFESSOR H. J. DAVENPORT


67


of production ceases to buy, the industrial centers experience a
partial paralysis. A crop failure in several states, chiefly agricultural, works some measure of non-employment in those manufacturing centers with which the barter of commerce commonly
takes place. At the best, the manufacturer must reach out to
new and difficult markets of low profit-paying quality. Shut
out by trade restrictions from the world's currents and price
levels, the process is necessarily slow and painful. For the agricultural states the case is evidently still worse.
In short, there comes about a condition of want, of acute
necessity, which yet affords no demand for present labor, but
rather for immediate purposes a diminished demand. Ultimately,
we must remember, product furnishes demand for product.
The Northwest will not demand hats or shoes until it can produce
wheat or meat. The manufacturing states must do their exchanging with such agricultural producers as have produced. Low
prices, therefore, tend to follow for the products of the factory.
Possibly enough, also, slow or hard collections in the districts
of crop failure may permanently embarrass some centers of production. At all events, the condition is one of abnormally low
social product accompanied for a time, not by correspondingly
large outlay of productive energies, but by a reduced outlay.
The world acutely needs more grain and meat. What of it?
It must wait until another year. This larger requirement will
mean increased activity when next year comes; it means stagnation now. Agricultural production is mostly periodic. Were
the question of hats or shoes, a disproportion of product to wants
would bring about a stimulus to production. Not so with the
industries of agriculture. When these fail in product, it is an
empty mouthing of generalities to assert the adequacy of employment as the necessary corollary of hunger. Months must pass
before agriculture will renew its opportunities of employment.
Other industries are over-manned at present, in view of the abnormally restricted market. Even did they offer possible employ



68


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


ment, they are so far away as to be practically inaccessible. That
agriculture is prospering on the other side the equator helps the
agriculturist on this side not at all, and the manufacturer not much.
Recurring conditions of non-employment are thus inevitable
in society as at present organized. But the difficulty is not fairly
to be ascribed to the manner of organization. It results from the
uncertainties of climate and the periodic nature of agricultural
production. These failures of product could not be avoided under
any circumstances. Systems can differ only in their manner of
distributing the disaster.
But I take it as evident that in these later aspects of the case
there is a large field of service open to the employment bureau,
not merely in pointing the employer to a certified quality of labor,
but in directing the laborer to that industry or to that locality
having need for his services,-and possibly in some cases by extending the laborer financial aid in moving to that locality where
the call for his labor exists.
NOVEMBER 24, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. HENRY W. FARNAM,
OF YALE UNIVERSITY
My general impression is that while many of the public employment agencies are useful, especially in providing for seasonal
laborers, they have not done very much towards handling the
mass of unemployment which comes with a financial crisis, or
adjusting the supply to the needs of different occupations; for
instance, drawing the surplus labor of the cities into the country
districts where labor is often at a premium. My own view is
that a mere employment bureau cannot do very much for these
cases, but that an effort should be made to go much deeper and to
pursue the aim of giving each man two trades. This sounds quite




PROFESSOR FRANK A. FETTER


69


impossible, but the idea is not in my judgment impossible. In
itself, the main thing is to educate the public sentiment and especially labor organizations up to the idea of the double-barrelled
man. The extent to which immigrants change their occupations
and the number of individual cases, doubtless known to us all,
where a man can do more than one thing, all prove that there is
nothing inherently impossible in it.
NOVEMBER 2 I, 908.
REPLY FROM PROF. FRANK A. FETTER,
OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY
In the lack of reliable statistics on the topics you have suggested,
our dependence must be on the impressions of observers. Naturally those in contact with- the problems of the unemployed in our
larger cities, and especially in New York, are most competent
to form judgments in this matter. But some facts bearing on the
question may be evident to one with a non-metropolitan outlook
which may be either overlooked entirely or seen in a different
light by city workers.
I. MAL-ADJUSTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT IN CITIES. Certain
general considerations lead me, in the absence of exact figures,
to the belief that unemployment is, to a considerable degree, due
to mal-adjustment. This is in part a common observation. It
is apparently inevitable to some degree because of the more complicated nature of industry in large cities. There is less chance
for the city wage-earner to turn to a side occupation than there is
for a rural worker. The higher working pace in the cities more
quickly throws out a man suffering from sickness, accident, or
old age, a fact that is reflected by the figures showing the larger
proportion of old men engaged in agriculture. City industry
has more of the lottery element, giving larger prizes to the successful




70


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


at the price of more failures for the average man. The German
census of the unemployed in 1895, the only statistics on this
subject that I know of for an entire country, gives the following
result.* To one thousand inhabitants there were unemployed in
JUNE.   DECEMBER.
Cities over Ioo,ooo.....................II.2  16.9
Communes io,ooo to oo,ooo............ 4.5    10.7
Communes under Io,ooo............... 1.7      9.6
That a similar difference would be found in America as between
communities of different density of population can hardly be
doubted as is in part shown by figures to be given below. These
facts may be interpreted as indicating a permanent excess of
labor in cities as compared with agricultural districts, but it
seems reasonable to infer that in part they indicate mal-adjustment of the working force in the cities.
As to the fee I hesitate to express an a priori judgment, but I
question whether, on the whole, a reasonable fee would be a
disadvantage. With or without a fee, however, it must be recognized that a considerable portion of the unemployed will fail to
make use of an agency. A German investigation in Stuttgart
gave the remarkable result that only 19.9 per cent of the unemployed attempted to get employment through the Labor Bureau
which was (probably, though of this I am not certain) public and
free.t
2. MAL-ADJUSTMENT BETWEEN COMMUNITIES. The few facts
at hand indicate that there is a large measure of such mal-adjustment in the sense that a considerable number may be unemployed
in the cities when a paying occupation, either their own main
occupation or one which they could successfully follow, could be
found for them not far away. As suggested above, unemploy* (See Georg Schanz, Neuc Beitrage zur Frage der Arbeitlosen-Versicherung,
I897.)
t (See Schanz, Op. cit., p. 9Ig.)




PROFESSOR FRANK A. FETTER


7r


ment is a greater problem where industry has become largely
specialized. The connection would seem to be between specialization and unemployment rather than between congestion of population and unemployment, but as a matter of fact, the specialization
goes in most cases along with larger aggregations of population,
or "congestion," as your question suggests. But this is not
always the case, for a smaller population given almost entirely to
one industry, as in a mining town, or in a manufacturing city
dependent on one industry, feels the effect of hard times in an
extreme degree. Agricultural communities and smaller cities
supported in large part by agricultural trade nearly always appear
to advantage in seasons of industrial distress. The replies from
the different states to the questionnaire of the National Conference
of Charities in I908 showed that the southern and western states
in a number of cases were hardly aware of the existence of industrial
depression and had no problem of unemployment. In a general
way it appeared that the distress was most marked in proportion
to the dominance of manufacturing and large cities. On the
occasion of the state conference recently, citizens of Elmira (in
private talks) boasted of the prosperity of the community and the
freedom from unemployment and said it was the policy to attract
to Elmira a large variety of industries so that the effects of a panic
would be little felt. The city of Ithaca has had no problem of
unemployment in any special sense in the past year. Several
members of labor organizations have told me that work has been
abundant in the building trades the entire year, there has been a
relative scarcity of skilled labor and of unskilled, and only some
small reduction in the factories which caused no local distress has
taken place. The columns of Charities and The Commons have
reported that even domestic servants have been in superfluity in
New York City during the present year, but it is certain that many
of them could find employment in Ithaca and similar cities at
the present time at wages quite as high as ever have been paid here,
which are probably higher than in New York City.




72


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


3. NATURAL LIMITS TO MOBILITY OF LABOR. Mobility of
labor as found among the unemployed would seem in some cases
to indicate inferior intelligence and skill and in other cases superior
intelligence and skill in those adapting themselves to the need by
shifting their occupation. A few words of explanation of this
paradox will be ventured.
Broadly speaking, the unemployed are the relatively inefficient
in any occupation, a statement that is almost a truism. It must
happen, therefore, in many cases, that those unemployed are most
likely to be forced to change their occupations either in the perennial hope of the inefficient of bettering their condition, or from
necessity, dropping down the industrial scale when forced out of an
occupation for which they have proved unfitted. An investigation
in Dresden showed that of 1,632 unemployed men in June, 526
had been engaged just before in some other than their main
occupation, and of 3,503 unemployed in December, 1,176 had
been last engaged in other than their main occupation. This
kind of mobility is not ideal, and yet is hardly all bad if it means
in part the change from a calling for which one is not fitted to one
which can be better done. The main explanation, however, is
probably to be found in the shifting purpose and planless lives
of the cases investigated.
Mobility in other cases is the indication of superior intelligence
and skill. It takes greater natural ability to adapt one's self to a
sudden emergency such as loss of employment, and this adaptability undoubtedly can be strengthened by industrial training.
The change from agricultural to manufacturing and from rural
to city conditions has been so rapid that our education, as is now
generally recognized, has not kept pace with it. The present
degree of immobility is not to be deemed inevitable, and the
possibility of its decrease with machine workers is surely great.
Instead of a rule-of-thumb knowledge of a single machine, there
needs to be more general training in mechanical principles and




PROFESSOR FRANK A. FETTER


73


the cultivation of adaptability in the great mass of the working
population.
Mobility is affected by seasonal changes and there is large chance
for adjustment between agricultural and manufacturing occupations. We living in the country hear the constant call for
farm help from early spring to the end of summer. It is true that
the conditions of work on the farm are such as are not familiar to
the city worker, and doubtless some changes must be made in this
regard before the desired mobility as between city and country can
be obtained. The busy season in manufacturing is in the months
September, October and November,* when not only the busy
canning season, but special orders for the holidays are crowding.
The average number employed per month during these three
months exceeded the average number for the entire year by I55,ooo.t It has been the social ideal of many reformers to provide
an alternation of employment and especially to enable workers
in city factories to spend a part of the time in the country.
Therefore, anything that would reduce unemployment by increasing mobility in this regard would be a double blessing.
One of the greatest difficulties in such an adjustment is the subjective one, the inertia of the city worker and his feeling of helplessness in taking an unaccustomed occupation. Specialization
gets men out of the habit of adapting themselves to new conditions
of employment. I believe that we need to recognize that this
difficulty is more psychological than merely physical or because of
lack of manual training. In smaller cities, only a little less than is
the case on farms, the worker does many things in the course of
the week. Trade union rules perhaps help to confirm this habit of
immobility in large cities. For the past year or more a good deal
of my gardening and lawn work has been done by a stone mason,
who works regularly at his trade at full union wages when the build*See Census Bulletin 57, p. II.
tIdem. p. 23, the total given under "greatest number" is, I judge, a statistical
fallacy.




74       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


ing season is on. In the West I have known many factory workers
with their entire families to go out to work in the country, for example, in Oregon at hop-picking. I dwell on these things indicating tasks outside of the usual functions of employment agencies to
raise the question whether those functions should not be thought of
more broadly, especially in their educational aspects.
The work of such a bureau might well be directed in other unconventional lines; for example, the possibility of using public
work, as road building, etc., as a balance wheel is well worth studying, for we have not done as much in America as has been done in
other countries in this matter. The proposed Employment Bureau
will, I hope, be conducted with a larger social aim than any of the
efforts in the past. The application of sound principles of industrial
education, the developing of better relations between the different industries, the study of the individual workers and their capacities, the classifying of them in accordance with their various
degrees of adaptability, are all problems calling for consideration.
The reasonable hope of benefit from such an undertaking is great
when we consider that the change of a few workers will help to
preserve the equilibrium in industry both as between the different
occupations at a given moment in a single community, and as between the different communities making up our national economy.
The delicately adjusted employment machinery should act like a
gyroscope by shifting the free labor supply promptly to the point
where it is most needed.
NOVEMBER 28, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. (EMERITUS) WM. W. FOLWELL,
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
In regard to question i, I will suggest that since it is safe to
assume that in "large cities" many men are always out of work




PROFESSOR WILLIAM W. FOLWELL


75


because they cannot or will not find jobs, it is not important that
any precise ratio be established. The proportion should of course
be largest in your great seaboard cities where immigrants are
dumped, and smallest in our interior rapidly growing cities. In
good times there is a shortage of all kinds of labor in some of the
latter. I cannot think that employers would object to paying
reasonable fees for efficient service. They would object to paying
fees for men who would "skip out" soon after reaching destination.
As to Number 2, it seems to me that local mal-adjustment is
to some extent national, and is due to the interplay of two great
forces. One of these is attachment to home, which in spite of appearances is still powerful. A similar sentiment keeps immigrants in the places where they happen to settle soon after arrival.
I remember the wrench it took to move me from the "Lake Country" of central New York to northern Ohio. The other force is
the passion for adventure and movement felt by all of us at some
time of life.
I do not see how anybody can tell beforehand "the extent"
to which the surplus labor of New York City can be shipped to
other cities. As new industries are opened in western cities the
East is drawn on for skilled laborers. We have, for instance, in
Minneapolis, considerable manufactures of shoes, hosiery, laborers' underwear, and overalls. I suppose the operatives were mostly
imported from the East. I doubt if any considerable market will
be found for unskilled labor shipped from the East. There is
talk of the establishment here of an enormous packing plant by
the Armours. In fact they have bought near a thousand acres
of land about one mile from where I am writing. It may be that
your Bureau could "ship" out two or three thousand men when
the concern starts up.
As to Number 3, we have not statistics enough to warrant a
guess. The distribution of labor to the several industries is, I
think, beyond any calculus, and can only be solved by experiment,
or perhaps I should say, experience.




76


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


When the country comes to be completely occupied, and immigration is reduced to an inconsiderable increment of population,
and all the arts have been brought to perfection, we may begin to
guess about a normal distribution of labor.
Without any statistics or estimated ratios, we have good ground
to believe that such a bureau as you propose might do much good
service. You will, in my judgment, do well to make an experiment,
if you can find sufficient means.
I suspect that, if you undertake it, you will find very great difficulties of administration. You will be suspected of unloading
paupers and dead-beats on the western cities. You will have to
devise some means by which the men sent out shall actually stick
to work for the employers who send for them. You will need
reliable agents in many places. Competition of private employment agencies will embarrass. Advertising will be a great expense.
For one I should like to have the experiment made. It might
furnish an excellent object lesson on which some day to form a
national employment bureau. Perhaps a national "intelligence
office" would best be tried at the first.
Query: Might it not be well for your proposed Bureau to
begin as an "intelligence office"? I suspect that a force of field
agents would be necessary to keep the office advised as to actual
needs of localities. If you can get the money, try it by all means.
NOVEMBER 23, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. J. E. HAGERTY,
OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
I am very much interested in your effort to organize an employment bureau. Of course, you know we have a public employment
bureau in Ohio, with a local branch in Columbus. Up to date,
the bureau has been worthless, and an expense to the state. The




PROFESSOR J. E. HAGERTY


77


superintendent of the local branch has been, all along, a politician
who has utterly failed to appreciate the duties of the office.
It seems to me the only way to establish an employment bureau,
at least now, is to organize one under private control.
I will endeavor to take up your questions in order:
I. I believe that unemployment is due to mal-adjustment to a
considerable extent, especially in that class of labor which would
not be classified as unskilled. I presume organized labor has no
difficulty in finding employment where employment is to be had.
Clerical labor, or labor just above the unskilled sort, I think, meets
with difficulty in finding employment. In many cases such a
bureau would be of service to the unskilled. Of course, in times
like the present, when unemployment is due to industrial conditions, is would be difficult for an employment bureau to be effective.
At the outset, I believe charging the employers a fee would be a
hindrance to the development of the bureau. On the other hand,
I think that a small fee charged the employee in case he found
employment, would be an advantage. He would appreciate
the service rendered him, and I think that he could distinguish
between the legitimate employment bureau which is under private
control, and the one that is organized primarily to fleece the wageearner.
2. There is a great deal of mal-adjustment as between communities. That mal-adjustment is especially obvious between
communities like Columbus and rural districts. If frequently
happens here that there is a strong demand for labor in the country,
while men are seeking employment in the city. An employment
bureau would be of service in getting this surplus population out
on the farms. As between different communities, I think, too,
that such an employment bureau would be of advantage. Industrial conditions may create a glut in the labor market at one point,
and a dearth of labor at another point. A well-organized bureau
which engages in an aggressive campaign in learning the conditions
of the labor market, would, I believe, be of great value. I do not




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AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


think that the over-supply of labor in cities is a feature of "congested populations."
3. Of course, there are natural limits to the mobility of labor
in change of occupation, but the unskilled labor and that slightly
above it can change with ease from one occupation to another,
and it is at these points that the labor problem is a difficult one.
Here, I think you could get enough to shift from one occupation
to another to relieve the pressure at one point and to supply the
labor market at another.
I think there is a real need and that there are great possibilities
in a thoroughly organized employment bureau. Such an employment bureau, of course, I need not say, would have close relations
and a good understanding with employers of all classes, and a
knowledge of labor, upon the other hand. No individual should
be recommended for a position who is not qualified to hold it.
The principle of "first come, first served," should not apply here.
NOVEMBER 25, I908.
REPLY FROM MR. JAMES MULLENBACH,
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE OF CHICAGO
Although I have had no time to prepare a careful statement,
I am venturing to send you some information and a few opinions
based on our observation and experience at the Municipal Lodging
House. I shall take up each of your inquiries in order.
To what extent unemployment in our large cities is due merely
to mal-adjustment.
The following groups seem to be especially affected by lack of
information, or of false information as to where work is to be found.
I. Newcomers to the city from the country, naturally unacquainted with places of employment. They do not know where the
jobs are.




JAMES MULLENBACH


79


2. Immigrants, also unacquainted with the city and the customs
of the country and with the additional handicap of not knowing the
language. This is not so true of those nations that have been sending immigrants to America for so long a time that they have been
able to create their own agencies. For example, the Swedish
National Association maintains one of the most efficient and reliable agencies in Chicago. Those nations whose people have only
recently begun to come to this country, seem to be most open to
exploitation, the Bulgarians, for example. An agency in Chicago
charged a group of them as high as $5 for a job on the railroad.
3. Men who do not know how to approach an employer for a
job. The art of getting a job sometimes surpasses the skill required to do it.
4. Those exploited by regular employment agencies. The number of labor agencies and the extent of their operations, their
specialization, i. e. their division of labor, would indicate the need
of a real Employment Exchange. In Chicago we have about 200
of these offices, and they negotiate employment from lowest casual
and unskilled labor up to high salaried positions in our big business
houses,-all this in competition with the newspapers. No complaint could be made, if honesty and efficiency generally prevailed,
but I am sure that some of the unemployment in the city is due to
their inefficiency and dishonesty of the agencies. Scarcely a night
passes at our Lodging House that some victim of these agencies
does not report. While I would not wish to place a percentage estimate upon this exploitation as a cause of unemployment, I am
sure it is a very definite factor. It is my opinion that we shall
not be able to deal with the general problem of employment until
we get this matter of mal-adjustment taken care of in some intelligent way.
As to the various classes of help that you indicate,-clerical,
skilled, unskilled, etc.,-so far as my observation goes the clerical
seem to suffer less, that is, they seem to be able to know quicker




80       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


where work is to be found, probably because of newspaper advertisements.
As for skilled men, the organized trades look after their own
unemployed. In Chicago all of the leading trades are so well
organized that most of the business agents of the unions act or
their office acts, as the labor agent for the men. About one-third
of our lodgers are skilled men, but union men in good standing
have no trouble as a rule in getting work at once through their
unions. As a matter of fact, they form only a small percentage of
the number of skilled. The balance is made up chiefly of drifting
craftsmen, whose unemployment is due mainly to the present
depression, but in normal times to the increasing tendency toward
rush and dull seasons in the trades. The unorganized workers
find it much more difficult to find work on account of their lack of
knowledge as to the jobs.
The unskilled fall chiefly into three groups, the factory workers,
the casual laborers, railroad laborers, etc., and the local odd job
men. As for the first group, I believe they are only partly dependent on the employment agency, and rely mainly on the "ad" and
the legend "Ielp wanted" in the window. As for the casual
laborers,-the railroad navvies, deck hands, ice-cutters, harvesthands, loggers,-they are almost entirely dependent upon labor
agents for the jobs. The same is true of all kinds of construction
work, excavating, etc. This group is subject to all forms of
exploitation by the agents,-overcharges and misdirection. It
may be that this is peculiar to Chicago, as casual laborers, I have
been told, are not so numerous in New York. Concerning the odd
job men, only those employed in restaurants and hotels seem to
depend very much on the agencies. A good share of the others get
their "steer" for a job through the news "ad."
II. Mal-adjustment between communities.
So far as I have been able to observe, the demand for men
outside of the city is confined mainly to casual labor, construction
work and farm work, with here and there some factory demand.




JAMES MULLENBACH


8I


I believe a bureau such as you are contemplating would do much
to eliminate the exploitation of these groups by the regular agencies
in Chicago. The difficulty has been to get the employers, railroads and others, to co-operate. I know this has been our experience and also the experience of the State Free Employment Bureaus. So far as the casual labor and the farm groups are concerned, permanent withdrawal from the city cannot be expected,
so long as the present conditions of seasonal occupation continue.
Unemployed seek the city for several reasons;
i. There is always "something doing" in a city and, though
there are more men for the jobs probably, the out-of-work prefers
to take his chance.
2. One can always keep warm and alive in the city, with less
risk of social isolation and ostracism than in a small town or the
countryside. My observation at the Municipal Lodging House
is that the chances for employment in the small town or country
are not as good as in the city. If I were an out-of-work, I am
sure I would rather take my chance in Chicago than in Rockford
or Woodstock or some other well-to-do and eminently respectable
Illinois town. A good employment agency might be able to
negotiate a job for me at one of these places,-a job I could not
find myself, and I probably would be willing to take it. While
there is a good deal of feeling that a man can get a job in the country
and the farmers are in need of men all the time, I think it will be
found that they want the help chiefly during certain seasons, as
for instance, at harvesting time.
On this point of mal-adjustment between communities, I
would say that I do not believe that small communities will offer
much opportunity for taking up the surplus labor of our large
cities, and that an employment agency would be doing its best
service in placing the casual and unskilled labor that is now placed
and exploited by other agencies. On occasion opportunities for
sending out men to permanent employment in the country or
small town would arise, but they would not be so numerous as to
6




82


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


greatly affect the city's unemployed. In other words I think the
geographical mobility is confined to certain well defined forms of
labor, seasonal and casual, and that our unemployed problem is not
local but national; that the reason there is an over-supply of labor
in the city is because the state of unemployment is more endurable
in the city than in the country, having more hope for relief through
getting a job or through charity, and suffering less hardship while
waiting for either.
III. Natural limits of occupational mobility. We seem to
find these limits much narrower than we had supposed. For
example, we have found it difficult for a man trained as cabinet
maker to become a carpenter, though the two trades seem nearly
related. Good German farm hands are not acceptable on our
Illinois farms because they do not know how to milk, even when
the farms are not strictly dairy farms. In following the disintegration of trades as it has come to our observation, it is rare that
the craftsmen as a body take up the machine that is exploiting
them and use it for the foundation of a new trade. Just now the
autos are putting the cab drivers "on the bum," to use the expression of one of them, but there are few cab drivers becoming chauffeurs. The same is true of the tanners and the glass workers.
The limits of such a transfer from one calling to another seem to
be determined on the part of the man by his youth and initiative,
and on the part of the trade by the fact as to whether the disintegrating force at work on the trade or calling attacks it so suddenly
and completely as practically to supplant the craftsman. Ablebodied tradesmen seem to drift into the unskilled and casual labor
groups, while such weaker ones as printers take to such work as
restaurant, hotel, circularizing and canvassing.
On this point my opinion is that while the Bureau you have in
mind would doubtless help in placing misplaced or displaced men
in better lines of work than they might be able to find themselves,
the operation of the Bureau would be quite restricted by difficulties
inherent in the situation.




JAMES MULLENBACH


83


To sum up, I believe an Employment Bureau would do much
to cure the mal-adjustment locally. It would protect the innocent,
the uninformed and the unwary from exploitation, would set a
standard for other agencies, and render positive service to the
community as a reliable and efficient clearing office for men and
jobs. It would be able to negotiate for the transfer of unemployed
from city to country where opportunity offered, and doubtless
would turn up opportunities that are now overlooked or hidden,
In the region of occupational mobility its service would be valuable,
but somewhat restricted by the natural limits of the movement
from one calling to another. Of course, no one is supposing that
such mediation as a Bureau, even at its best, may be able to give,
will " settle the question of the unemployed," as it is commonly put;
but such an agency would eliminate some of the perplexing elements of the situation and give a better grip on it. Anything that
will remove the subsidiary and get nearer to the bona fide causes
of unemployment will help to "settle it."
As to fees and one or two other things concerning the operation,
our experience at the Municipal Lodging House leads me to
believe that it would be a good thing to charge the employer a fee.
When employers get help without charge they are apt to consider
the help as cheap, pay low wages, exact unreasonable service, alter
original terms, and to be captious. Anything that would create
the feeling among employers that the Bureau was a straight
business proposition, gotten up for the relief of no one, but for the
best service of any one who wanted good, well selected help, and
willing to pay for it, would be a good thing. I believe the fee
would help toward this. Too many employers assume that
because a man is down and out he should be "willing to work for
anything rather than accept charity." Hence it is wise to avoid
the appearance of dealing only with the unemployed or the downand-out men.
Nevertheless it will be necessary at the outset to get the active
interest and co-operation of some employers in order to make a




84


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


good start. The casual labor end of it can not be handled successfully unless the railroad and steamship managements co-operate.
Another group whose interest and co-operation will be valuable
is organized labor. One of the matters that came up for decision
soon after we began our employment bureau at the Municipal
Lodging House was the policy regarding labor troubles. It
seemed well not to send men to plants that were having trouble
with their men. In case of strike we have always refused to furnish help. I may add that this is the policy of the State Free
Employment offices of Illinois and of Ohio. Opportunities for
mutual co-operation and assistance will arise from time to time
between the bureau and the business agents of the unions.
NOVEMBER 27, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. E. A. ROSS,
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
In my judgment the labor situation in New York City is distinctly anomalous owing to the constant influx of ignorant and
helpless immigrants who lodge there and depress the labor market
because of their lack of knowledge of opportunities out in the
country. In normal times there is more difficulty in equilibrating
the supply and demand in the New York labor market than in
other labor markets. In times of depression the unemployment
there is more acute. I have long felt that artificial means ought
to be provided for distributing the surplus labor in New York out
through the country where the opportunities exist. The sending
of local unemployed a considerable distance in quest of jobs
requires, however, more conscientiousness and good faith than a
private employment agency ordinarily exercises. As few of the
seekers of employment are in a position to discriminate between
the honest and the fraudulent agency, there is an opportunity for




PROFESSOR E. A. ROSS


85


the latter to flourish and even to make difficult the survival of the
honest agency. This summer there were shocking revelations of
financial exploitation of helpless, newly arrived immigrants by
certain Chicago employment agencies.  The agencies charged
them high fees for sending them great distances in search of jobs
which were merely temporary or had long since been filled.
Besides its consciousness of a fiduciary relation to its clients an
employment bureau of the kind contemplated would be able by a
correspondence with the secretaries of local charity organizations
and the offices of similar societies to build up an organization by
means of which statements of employers in their vicinity as to the
amount, duration, remuneration, and conditions of the employment
they propose to furnish, could be promptly and reliably verified.
In this respect the agency would have a great advantage over
private agencies.
As yet state employment bureaus are subject to the dry rot of
perfunctoriness. The time may come when the state can provide
efficient machinery for getting the unemployed in congested centers
like New York out to points where their labor is desired. But it
is likely that this will not occur until some such bureau as is proposed shows the state how to do it.
Certain facts that have fallen under my observation lead me to
believe that in ordinary times unemployment is far more a local
phenomenon than is generally supposed. Last year our State
Tax Commission concluded an investigation of mortgage loans in
this state which demonstrated that the interest on such loans is
almost out of relation to the course of the general money market,
but depends upon the relation between the local supply of and the
local demand for loanable capital. In the frontier counties of
this state the rate of interest on such loans was with equally good
security about double what it is in the counties that have accumulated more capital. This astonishing exhibit turned my thoughts
in the direction of considering how far a local rate for labor or
capital are special and how far they reflect general or national




86


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


conditions. The result is a growing impression that local labor
markets are not sections or provinces of a general labor market,
but markets of a considerable individuality. There are parts of
the country where the labor market is habitually a bull market.
New York City, for the reason I gave above, is on the other hand
a bear market. It is, therefore, rational to help the unemployed
by taking advantage of the different complexion of labor markets.
NOVEMBER 24, I908.
REPLY FROM PROF. HENRY R. SEAGER,
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
It gives me pleasure to reply to the questions contained in your
letter of the 20th instant, although circumstances have prevented
me from collecting any exact information to back up the opinions
which I express. They are the fruit of some study of the labor
problem during the six years that I have lived in New York, and
some knowledge of the work of an employment bureau gathered
through a connection with the Alliance Employment Bureau during the last two years.
i. Distinguishing between unemployment in periods of active
trade and unemployment due to general business depression, and
confining attention to the first, I should say that in New York City
there is at all times a good deal of unemployment due to mal-adjustment between seekers after work and opportunities for employment within the city. The causes of this mal-adjustment are:
(I) Irregular employment in many trades; (2) the rise and fall
of particular employing firms, forcing a constant shifting of employees from employer to employer; (3) immigration and the unadjusted immigrant worker which results from it; (4) the absence
of any satisfactory agency or agencies for properly classifying workmen in search of employment, so that employers can be relieved




PROFESSOR HENRY R. SEAGER


87


in part of the task of trying-out new hands. Among working
women and girls especially, there is a great amount of mal-adjustment owing to the frequency with which employees are engaged
for work for which they are not fitted, only to be turned off after a
short trial discouraged rather than benefited by the experience.
A complete classification of employments would show, I think,
that this unemployment falls most heavily on the relatively unskilled
and unorganized workers. Women suffer from it more than men;
girls and boys more than women.
I don't believe that charging a small fee would deter employers
from applying to a Bureau like that proposed provided the Bureau
gained a reputation for supplying the type of workers needed rather
than workers many of whom would prove on trial to be unsatisfactory.
Employers complain a great deal of the service rendered by existing
employment bureaus managed for private gain.
2. In a city like New York and a country like the United States
mal-adjustment of the labor supply to the demand between different sections is, for obvious reasons, much more serious than in
older, more conservative and more homogeneous communities.
My impression is that the attractions of city life, the position of
New York as the leading port of entry for immigrants to the country
and the irregularity of many of the principal industries carried on
in the city (e. g. the clothing trades, the building trades, etc.) give
rise to a continuous over-supply of seekers after employment in
New York City and that much more could be done than has yet
been attempted to relieve the congestion of population there by
finding work for the unemployed in other sections.
3. For purposes of discussion the following very rough classification of the workers who might be assisted by an employment
bureau may be helpful: (I) Unskilled workers, (a) of the factory
operative type, (b) those with the physical strength and mental
characteristics of contented farm laborers; (II) Skilled mechanics,
(a) directed, (b) self-directing; (III) Brain workers, (a) clerks,
salesmen, bookkeepers, etc., (b) bosses, overseers, superintendents,




88


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


etc. Among these those most likely to be unemployed in large
cities are I(a), II(a), and III(a). Within each of these classes
I believe there is a large degree of mobility as industry is now
organized. The work of factory operatives, for example, is similar
for workers of the same grade, whether the product be bicycles or
sewing machines, carriages or automobiles, boxes or baskets.
Machine-tending calls for about the same qualities whether the
articles turned out are of wood or steel or whatever the ultimate
form that is to be given to them. Between these different groups
of employments, however, (e. g. I, II, and III) and between employments of different grades in each group (e. g. I(a) and I(b)
etc.) there is relatively little mobility partly because different
capacities are called for and different training but also because the
workers accustomed, for example, to farm labor dislike factory
employments and vice versa.
An Employment Bureau would need to consider these distinctions in order to succeed in its task. Concretely, the contemplated
Bureau would find in the smaller cities and towns of the country
a more promising field for the unemployed in I(a) in New York
City than on farms. At present one of the chief reasons New York
manufacturers assign for locating in New York is the ample and
varied labor market on which they can draw at will there. On
the other hand, I am assured by manufacturers in small towns in
the Middle West that one of the most serious problems with which
they contend is that of obtaining as they require them competent
workmen. An Employment Bureau that would enable such manufacturers to draw their hands from a larger area would confirm
their preference for their present locations and attract other manufacturers away from cities to the smaller towns and villages. And
what is true of I(a) is, I believe, true also of II(a) and III(a).
Without enlarging further on details along the lines of your
definite questions, I am glad to have an opportunity to record it
as my opinion that such an Employment Bureau as you describe
could render an important service towards lessening the evils of




JAMES B. SEAGER


89


unemployment. I believe there is a large amount of mal-adjustment both locally and nationally that a properly equipped and
wisely directed Bureau could remedy. I am even more certain
that such a Bureau could render an invaluable service by determining the causes of unemployment and discovering what other means
are needed to bring about a less wasteful industrial organization.
Among such means, I have no doubt that more adequate provision
for trade or industrial education will be given an important place,
and no one who has given any thought to the problem of the trade
school can fail to recognize its dependence for its efficiency on exact
information as to the kinds of workers called for in each community
-the kind of information that an Employment Bureau alone can
supply.
That an Employment Bureau like that proposed would have
been of great assistance during the year of industrial depression
through which we have just passed is so obvious that I will not
enlarge on the point. Even now, when conditions seem to be
improving almost day by day, such a Bureau could, I feel sure,
render great service in facilitating the return to normal conditions,
if it were only in existence.
As to the financial side of the undertaking I will not venture
an opinion except to say that $Ioo,ooo seems to me, if anything,
too small a sum to enter upon a task that is as gigantic as it is
socially important.
NOVEMBER 29, 1908.
LETTER FROM MR. JAMES B. SEAGER,
GENERAL MANAGER OF THE OLDS GAS POWER COMPANY, OF
LANSING, MICHIGAN. SUPPLEMENTING THE PRECEDING
LETTER FROM PROF. HENRY R. SEAGER
Your letter opens a very interesting subject and one in which
we are keenly concerned. I most heartily endorse the proposition,




90


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


and believe it would be one of the greatest steps in the right direction toward really benefiting the worker.
The difficulty is very great today of getting connections between
work and the man who is out of a job. In our own case, when we
want men, we are compelled to send personal representatives to different cities, advertise in local papers, and in fact, for the time being,
set up a bureau such as you contemplate. It always works, i. e. in
the end we get the men. Somewhere in this broad land we are
always able to find men out of work, even though in our immediate
vicinity there may be a strong demand for labor. This country is so
big and wide that conditions are not uniform and, as stated, when
one looks far enough, there is always a locality where good men
cannot find work.
It is a curious fact also that the really best men seem to be the
most helpless, if they lose a job, in the matter of getting another
one. A man who has been employed for years and never had to
hunt for work, seems utterly lost as to how to go about it, or where
to look, if he has to hunt for a new position.
A friend of mine for years operated an employment agency in
Chicago, handling only engineering talent, viz. he specialized on
draughtsmen, tracers, superintendents and managers, charging
the men good stiff commissions for positions secured, and the records
showed that he placed men all the way from a few dollars a week
to positions as high in value as $Io,ooo per annum, and his frequent
observation to me was that he knew no man so helpless as an engineer out of a job, the better he was in his profession, the more
helpless he was in hunting for a new position.
Were such a bureau in force as you outline, we would make
use of it at certain times every year. We have been so hard put to
it that we have sent men as far as New York City to collect mechanics and send them to Lansing, advancing their carfare to
secure them.
NOVEMBER 27, I908.




FREDERICK L. SMITH


91


LETTER FROM MR. FREDERICK L. SMITH,
VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER OF THE OLDS MOTOR
WORKS OF LANSING, MICHIGAN, SUPPLEMENTING THE PRECEDING LETTER
FROM PROF. HENRY
R. SEAGER.
Answering your questions seriatim:*
(I) How do we proceed to get men when we need them?
The usual process is from our application files which are kept
in the paymaster's office; to see first if the live applications will
bring forth responses, stating the qualifications of the men -and
since at a time of labor famine, so to speak, these applications are
valueless because the men are all employed, we then use the offices
of some employment agency, as, for instance, the one in Detroit
which was established by the Manufacturers' Association there and
from which fairly good results are had. In addition to this we
always send our paymaster, who is familiar through long experience
with the eccentricities of the laboring man looking for a job, to run
an advertisement in the paper first in the large cities-Detroit,
Cleveland, and Buffalo,-and select such applicants as come there
on the ground. As an additional move still when these methods
do not produce results, we send to the small towns,-Battle Creek,
Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, for example, and in addition to
running an advertisement in these papers, make it a personal matter to ferret out good men who have employment but who would
be willing to change for a slight additional compensation. The
comment on the latter process, or indeed on the whole present
process now of securing labor in time of a rush for labor during
business expansion, or for highly specialized labor which is always
in demand apparently, is very obvious. The function of a "na* This letter is addressed to Professor Seager, and the questions are not identical with those asked in the general letter of inquiry.




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AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


tional" employment agency absolutely unbiased and absolutely
commanding the confidence of the working man himself first of all,
would be that of a general distributing his forces over the field of
action and preventing an often repeated spectacle of a temporary
massing of the laboring army where there is only a field for the
efforts of half of them, entailing an unnecessary expense for transportation, and entailing what every factory manager would explain
to you as a feeling of unrest by the reason of unemployed floating
labor in the small towns, which has not always a beneficial effect
on the men in the shop,-although it would suggest itself immediately to you that the presence of unemployed labor in this town,
say, would not be apt to quiet the uneasy feelings of men in the shop
who might be fearful of losing their jobs.
(2) Would we "patronize" a well managed employment bureau
with an office, for example, in Detroit?
We most certainly should not only patronize but co-operate
with such an office to the full extent of our ability, since in our own
case no matter what effort we make, our total force will fluctuate
from five or even four hundred, low point, up to a thousand or
eleven hundred men. It is, of course, unnecessary to suggest to
you that at such times there is a corresponding increase in the demand for labor in this town as well as in other centers where we are
having material manufactured for us, and since in many cases we
create a labor famine against ourselves, it would be a very great
advantage to have some sort of a clearing house to whom you could
send in your data, the number of your men, your prospects for
increasing or decreasing weeks or months ahead, and allow such
an office to handle the entire work of reporting on conditions, the
chief requisite of such a bureau, as I have suggested before, being
in my mind its absolute impartiality. The moment anything else
was allowed to creep in, the value to both the employer and the
employee would be less than nil.
(3) Shifting of men. (a) Speaking from the standpoint of
this business only, there is a certain amount of "drifters," probably




FREDERICK L. SMITH


93


twenty or even twenty-five per cent, who, by reason of being
unattached, "free lances" regarding domestic complications, etc.,
like to change not only from the small towns to the large ones but
from place to place so that they can have the excitement and
novelty of the change itself, also get the experience of different
factories, different makes of cars, etc. This applies naturally to
the younger employees, but it is noticeable in the entire automobile
business at least. A visit through the factories will also show an
astonishing percentage of young men, the traditional gray-haired
mechanic being a rarity. At a rough guess I should say that in
our own shop the average age would be this side of twenty-seven
years of age; I have noticed the same thing in all the other factories
which I have visited, and the free masonry among young mechanics
from twenty to twenty-five leads them to recommend to each other
a shift to localities where conditions are apt to chime in with their
inclinations. Leaving aside, however, this floating element, it
would appear to me that my own experience, dating back to I899,
would lead me to say that the tendency to settle down and stay
with a good solid job is growing constantly, and the prejudice even
on the part of the younger workers against smaller towns and
cheaper living is also passing away.
(b) I take it you are inquiring as to "drifting" from one class
of employment to another. In this regard I should say that in all
mechanical lines specializing is becoming the order of the day
to such a marked extent that a change of the class of employment
is rather exceptional; in other words, from the machine shop point
of view, the lathe hand, planer hand, drill press man, etc., pretty
much follow the same tools in the same class of work wherever
they go; and also the variation between, for instance, automobile
work, small arms works, typewriter and cash register work, is not
very marked to the eye, and yet as a rule the operatives coming
from factories turning out these various lines of work, seek work
of the same kind in the same kind of factories wherever possible.
The class of work done by the two factories side by side here, one




94


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


on gas engines and one on automobile engines, is of such a different
nature that an exchange between the plants is rather an exceptional thing, and I should answer your question by saying that as
far as I know anything of the general trend it was for employees to
follow the lines of their last job.
Covering your last question as to what we think of such a
scheme, and would it do any good: I can give you a shotgun
answer to this effect, first: it most certainly would work provided
the proper men took hold of it and it was in the first place carefully
and very slowly worked out, so that the employer on the one hand
would understand that his requests in time of urgent need would
be treated on a parity with those of his brother employers; that
the employee on his side would understand that the "National
Employment Agency" on the start would not undertake to give an
estimate of the man's value or an analysis of the claims that he
made in his application, or statements that he made as to his
ability to prove of value. In other words, my own humble opinion
would be that the thing would fail of support instantly unless
the employee knew that a National Bureau in handling his name
at all would simply act as a clearing house possibly to the extent
of taking his last references and getting letters from the employers
as to his ability, etc., which in the last equation his new employer
would ask from him in any event.
I do not profess, as you know, to any expert knowledge on the
labor question per se. My own views on the many sided topic of
capital and labor I observe have been forestalled by a few eminent
thinkers, with none of whom I agree in full, and a disquisition on
this subject I will reserve until you call for it, which is tantamount
to saying that this communication will be probably final as regards
any information you may ask from this source.
Regarding, however, the often recurring problem of the senseless concentration, or rather the non-distribution of labor, I
certainly believe that a National Bureau of Employment, with the
co-operation of the employers all over the country, would be the




FREDERICK L. SMITH


95


biggest "dividend payer,"-speaking from the standpoint of
the prosperity of the country,-that has been launched for some
years past. From your own knowledge you must have dozens
of instances where unemployed labor is within a few hundred
miles of unemployed capital seeking to get names on their pay
rolls and offering solid inducements to solid men who are in ignorance of the fact. Have had the good fortune to know a very large
number of our own men personally, and in going through the
strike in I90o I certainly had my eyes opened as to the astonishing
mental capacity of the average machinist or worker in a trade
like ours; and at the same time, an equally astonishing eyeopener as to the clumsiness and ineffectiveness of the methods of
letting the fact be known to the right workers that work was
looking for them. I could cite you hundreds of cases and could
call your attention also to the fact that the daily paper is one of
the most fruitful sources for the distribution of misinformation
as to where labor is needed, and a National Employment Bureau,
without much additional expense or red tape, could have a publicity
department which the newspapers would be very glad to avail
themselves of, so that real news items would be edited and dependable instead of stating, for example, that all the steel mills in
Pittsburgh were starting up, that business at the Packard factory
in Detroit and the Olds Motor Works in Lansing, was booming,
more men being taken on, etc.,-these items having appeared
all through December and January of 1907-8 and being read by
the seeker for work, who in numerous cases begged, borrowed
or stole money enough to come out here, only to find scores of our
own men laid off temporarily and having, of course, first call on
the positions as they were thrown open.
You will observe that I am heartily in favor of such a scheme
as is being proposed, and I presume the fact that it appears to be
taken up by the bankers, gives it a special significance. This
country is in need of class harmony and a most intelligent cooperation between all the employing class and the people that




96


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


handle the money on the one hand, since it must some time dawn
on even the poor slave of an employer driving his own business
at top notch, that at some period or other the prosperity of the
whole country or even a general prosperity is apt to make or mar
his business.
NOVEMBER 28, I908.
REPLY FROM MR. SIDNEY WEBB,
OF LONDON
I
Unemployment in large cities can only in a restricted sense be
said to be caused to any great extent by the mere failure of employers to find workmen, or of workmen to find employers. They
do find each other now, even in the worst of times though only
after some delay. If there were no unemployment, in the sense of
there being exactly as many vacancies as there were men to fill
them, there would still be a certain proportion of time lost in shifting situations. This even if no more than one day in each case,
would appear in the statistics as a percentage of men unemployed.
Experience of the best organized trades in England, at the very
busiest of times, rather points to the fact that minimum of unemployment, if it can be so called, due to time lost in shifting from
job to job, and analogous causes, may amount to something like
i per cent of the whole of the working class population, indicating
an average loss, from this cause alone, in the best of times, of 3
days per annum.
At the present time, in England, the chief means used to get
situations, and to fill vacancies are the following:
(a) TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION.-This applies to about a
million of the best organized wage-earners, mainly skilled artisans
and mechanics. Each trade union branch in these trades tries




SIDNEY WEBB


97


to get situations for its unemployed members. Each member is
bound to report vacancies, and to do his best to fill them from his
branch. Sometimes a small fee by the union is paid for each
situation so filled. Among trade unions, the old-fashioned
journeymen Steam Engine Makers' Association (which has never
joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers) is specially distinguished for the trouble it takes to get its members into jobs. On
the other hand, at least half the trade unions, including those of
the unskilled laborers, and the less well-organized trades, do not
and cannot, practically, do anything in this direction.
Foremen frequently use the trade union, when they retain their
membership, as an agency for recruiting their staffs. Employers
themselves do so less frequently; but in the case of the London
Society of Compositors, in particular, it is quite usual for employers
to send or telephone to the society's offices when they want men.
This is also done in some small societies of skilled trades.
All this has an important bearing on the establishment of a
Public Labor Exchange. Alike in Germany and in London the
trade unions were at first opposed to such an institution. Gradually they realized that it need not be inimical to their interests,
whilst, if they stood aloof, it might be used against them. They
have accordingly become friendly, on receiving some share in the
management. This is indispensable to secure their support.
In London, many trade union branches already keep their "Vacant
Books" at the Labor Exchange offices, and have thereby become
subsidiary branches.
(b) NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENTS.-These, whether inserted
by employers or employed, are the principal means of getting places
as clerks, managers, porters and all sorts of nondescript occupations; together with some trades. Thus there are always advertsements of compositors wanted, or wanting places. There is
obvious mal-adjustment here, as there will be, in a single column,
dozens of advertisements of places vacant, followed by dozens of
advertisements by persons wanting exactly that kind of places.
7




98


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


(c) "CALLING ROUND."-This is the customary method of
getting work in the building trades and, in fact, among wageearners generally (especially laborers). Those who are unemployed go round from shop to shop, or from job to job, asking
whether any "hands" are wanted. The employer, or his foreman,
is apt to rely on this happening. He waits till men come along,
and then picks out'such as please his fancy. This method may
take the form, on the one hand, of the attendance of a crowd of
men at the dock gates, or at a wharf, or at any large engineering
work, from among whom the foreman picks as many as are
needed. Or on the other hand, especially in the woman's trades,
the employer puts up a notice in his window ("Blouse hands
wanted") which always brings him applicants within an hour or
two.
This "calling round" expands into the tramping from town to
town of unemployed artisans, which was the first form of out-ofwork benefit of the trade unions. It still survives among the bricklayers, compositors, stonemasons and coopers. The man draws
sixpence or a shilling at each town from the local trade union secretary, but may not draw this more than once within a specified
period. He must therefore tramp from town to town until he finds
a vacancy. This, it will be noted, is essentially the system that
breeds the Australian "sundowner," and the American "tramp."
(d) REGISTRY OFFICEs.-Mention should be made of the private adventure Registry Offices ("bureaux de placement"), of
which there are in London about five or six hundred. Under a
recent act they are all obliged to register themselves under the
London County Council, and to obey its regulations. They are
used almost entirely for domestic servants,-for which they are
practically the only medium of engagement,-but they exist also
for hotel servants, waiters, etc., musicians and music hall artistes,
and, curiously enough, also men and women teachers in high or
secondary schools, or private families. They charge a fee to
employers, and usually also one to those for whom they get engage



SIDNEY WEBB


99


ments. They do not deal much with workmen, whether skilled
or unskilled, women workers or clerks.
In spite of all these agencies there is, in England, a great lack
of knowledge among workers, of opportunities for advancement,
and even of situations vacant in their own occupations. The
persistence of the aimless and vague "calling round" system,
expanded into the tramping from town to town of the bricklayers,
compositors, stonemasons, coopers, etc., shows how little organization there is. Every morning tens of thousands of men rise up not
knowing where to go for work. They drift aimlessly about, and a
certain proportion of them eventually run up against jobs, almost
by chance, just as a cloud of flies in the sunshine will collide with
each other from time to time. (See the recent life of W. Crook,
M. P., "From Workhouse to Westminster," by George Haw, for
instance of this haphazard hunt for work.) There is a considerable
loss of time between job and job. Employers usually say they
have no trouble in getting all the help they want. But it is clear
that (a) they often put up with inferior labor rather than run the
risk of having none, (b) that they let slip opportunities of profitably using labor, particularly in agriculture, because they can't
get just what labor they want, at the moment they need it, and
without having it on their hands after the emergency has passed.
During the past two years there has been a constant demand for
labor in South Wales, at a time when nearly every English town
had unemployed laborers on its hands.
(e) LABOR EXCHANGE.-It is interesting to find that this has
existed in England in one great industry for nearly half a century,
and that resort to it is compulsory on both employers and employed.
By the Merchant Shipping Acts it is obligatory that all engagements of seamen and other workers on shipboard should be signed
before a government officer, the intention being to prevent the
abuses of "crimping." There are I o "Mercantile Marine
Offices" maintained by the government at the several ports;
each with waiting room for the sailors, etc., and messengers to




I00


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


fetch those not on hand. The captain desiring a crew goes and
picks out the men he wants, and then signs contracts with them
before the superintendent. Any engagement otherwise than before
the superintendent is a penal offence.
In London, since I905, there has been a system of Labor
Exchanges run by the Central (Unemployed) Body, a statutory
municipal authority, drawing its funds from the rates (local taxes).
The score or so of exchanges of this body now fill over 25,000
situations annually, and are rapidly increasing in popularity.
It may be expected that the president of the Board of Trade (Mr.
Winston Churchill) will propose to Parliament next spring the
development of these London Exchanges into a national system
covering the whole country; either managed by municipalities
under central control and with a government grant; or, more
probably, as municipal areas do not coincide with industrial
areas, and would not be very sympathetic with each other, managed
by the National Government (Board of Trade), as a single united
system, as the Mercantile Marine Offices already are.
These Labor Exchanges charge absolutely no fee to employers
or employed. The Mercantile Marine Offices used to charge a
shilling to the employer and a shilling to the seaman on each contract; but this was abolished in 1882 (probably in some bargain
with the shipping interest). Employers get their labor too easily
as things are (in the various ways described above) to make them
willing to pay any fee. Moreover, the great difficulty (unless
resort is made compulsory) is to induce them to make use of the
Exchange. Any fee would be a hindrance. A system of labor
exchanges at all generally used would, I am sure, not only greatly
increase the worker's chances of improving his or her position,
greatly lessen the time lost between job and job, greatly diminish
the wearing anxiety of looking for work, and greatly facilitate the
employer's getting all the labor he can profitably employ. It
would not only increase the mobility of labor, but would actually
increase the aggregate volume of demand, to the extent of the




SIDNEY WEBB


IOI


opportunities for profitable employment that the employer now
lets slip because he can't get just what he wants when he wants it.
II
The experience of Great Britain and Ireland is that, whilst
depression of trade may be universal, fluctuations in trade are very
largely local. Even within the same trade, there is usually less
surplus of labor in one town than another. This has been conspicuously true of boot and shoe manufacturing during the past
few years. Whilst Leicester and Ipswich have had numerous
workers unemployed, there have actually been unfilled vacancies,
in particular branches of the trade, in Nottinghamshire villages.
The causes of the geographical shifting of employment are various.
For instance, the whole class of "navvies" and "ground workers"
go from one engineering work to another. In one town there may
be large water works to be built, requiring hundreds of men.
These have to be drawn from other places, and when the work is
completed, they depart to other places. At Woolwich, within
the last two years, some 5,000 engineers and laborers have been
discharged from the government arsenal. These have had to
drift away to other towns, where many of them have found employment. Railway and steamship depots change from place to place,
in the course of extensions and developments; and with them
thousands of workers have to shift. At present this shifting is
left to anarchy, and the result is chaos. The workers drift aimlessly about and, after more or less delay, and more or less individual suffering, the new situations are filled, when they might have
been filled much more expeditiously and with much less suffering,
by means of a national organization of Labor Exchanges.
But there is a further and continuous shifting of the demand
for labor from place to place, even within the same year. Many
industries, especially those connected with agriculture, have a
demand for ten times as much labor at one season as at another,
for harvesting, etc. There are industries, such as gas making,




102


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the theatrical profession, the Post Office, etc., which employ
many more workers in the winter than in the summer. Other
industries, such as building and house decorating, need far more
labor in the spring and summer than in the autumn and winter.
Now, in the absence of any organized arrangements for transferring surplus workers from one industry at its slack season to
another at its busy season, each industry tends to have its own
set of workers, who are sufficient to meet the needs of the busy
times, and who remain hanging about the industry in its slack
season, half employed. Thus each of the industries that fluctuate
seasonally, contributes a large quota of workers to the ranks of the
unemployed, at the season when year after year the industry is slack.
This seasonal fluctuation really applies to practically all trades.
Careful investigation has shown that in all the industries having
well organized trade unions having out of work benefit, there has
been, during the past ten years, a well marked systole and diastole
according to the seasons of the year. The interesting fact has come
out that, among these two or three dozen industries in England
and Wales, there is no month of the year in which one or other of
these industries is not at its slackest; and similarly there is no
month of the year in which one or other of these industries is not at
its busiest. Although precise statistics cannot be obtained, there
is reason to believe that the aggregate volume of employment
among the trades taken together may quite possibly be fairly
uniform throughout the year. Nevertheless, there are in any month
of the year numerous workers out of employment, from one of
these industries or another.
But the most important utility of the Labor Exchange has still
to be mentioned. The investigations of the last few years in this
country have proved beyond possibility of doubt that the most
serious distress, and the greatest obstacle to the success of relief
works or any other form of provision for the unemployed, is due
not to unemployment at all-in the sense of the loss of definite
situations of assumed permanency, and the inability to regain




SIDNEY WEBB


I03


such-but to the existence of a vast mass of "underemployed"
labor. In London, in all the seaports, and in all the large towns,
there are hundreds of thousands of workers who never hold definite
situations, or even work for as much as a week, but who live by a
succession of short jobs, each for a few hours or a day or two,
for different employers. The typical case is that of the dock or
wharf laborer, who is engaged for a job of a few hours only. This
would present no great difficulty if, like the bricklayer and the
plumber, the dock laborer habitually got enough work in the week
to yield him complete subsistence. Unfortunately, owing to complete lack of organization, there is no correspondence between the
number of jobs and the number of men looking to them for a living.
Each wharf in London, and each dock "stand" in Liverpool,
attracts its own group of expectant laborers who wait there for
work, and who are very reluctant to look elsewhere for it, lest by
their temporary absence they lose their chance of that work.
The consequence is that each wharf in London and each dock
"stand" in Liverpool, tends to attract to itself enough men to
satisfy its demand on its busiest day. In fact, it suits the employer
to have such a number of men in waiting at his gate. Hence there
accumulates at each wharf what may be called a "stagnant pool"
of labor. And as the busiest day of each wharf does not coincide
with the busiest day of other wharves, the result is, experience
shows, that, alike in Liverpool and in London, the total number
of laborers looking for these jobs amounts to about twice the number that are ever employed on the busiest day for the port as a
whole. Thus, the whole tend to live a half-employed life, struggling among each other for the work, living partly on their wives'
earnings, and existing always at a miserably low level. This
class of casual laborers is a very large one in the large towns of
the United Kingdom; and presumably the same class exists
in New York. In times of good trade they get three or four days a
week; in times of bad trade, only three or four days a month.
This is not only bad in itself, but it stands in the way of providing




I04


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


relief works for other workmen. Whenever employment is offered,
even at four shillings a day, this horde of casual laborers swarms
in, and ruins the experiment.
Now, if all the employers sent for their casual laborers to a
Labor Exchange, those who wanted men for Monday, and those
who wanted them for Tuesday, and so on, would get them for the
days that they want them, without involving the existence of a
large army of half-employed labor. The analogy may be quoted
of trained sick nurses. A nurse is sent for by a household when
she is wanted, exactly for the period that she is wanted. But
by suitable arrangements, the nurses go from case to case, with
little interval, instead of there being twice as many nurses as there
is need for.
It is strongly argued that the very greatest of all single reforms
that could be effected in London, Liverpool, Glasgow and other
large towns would be, by means of a Labor Exchange generally
resorted to, the intermittent jobs by which so large a proportion
of the laboring population lives could be "dovetailed," so as to
secure practically continuous work and wages for such men as are
employed at all. Largely on this ground, it is expected that a
national system of Labor Exchanges will be instituted all over the
kingdom by Mr. Winston Churchill, the president of the Board of
Trade.
REPLY FROM MR. ADNA F. WEBER,
CHIEF STATISTICIAN OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC SERVICE
COMMISSION
(I) As to local mal-adjustment of demand and supply in the
labor market, I should be disposed to say that the existing agencies
and methods do, on the whole, meet the requirements of the situation; that is to say, in a period of normal activity there are relatively few workers without employment at a time when employers




ADNA F. WEBER


lo$


are seeking help of the same grade or class. There is much room
for improvement in the methods of the private employment offices,
which may be obtained through more careful public regulation
and possibly through the example of a well endowed Bureau; but
that the latter could find local situations for the unemployed
in any considerable numbers seems to me doubtful. Fees should
be charged.
(2) As to mal-adjustment between communities, this seems
to me of importance in but one industry, agriculture, so far as it is
carried on by small proprietors. The railroads and large industrial corporations find no difficulty in transferring multitudes of
laborers from one place to another and farmers on a large scale
like those on western wheat farms can obtain harvesters in gangs.
It is the isolated, individual farmer of the East who has no organization or machinery for obtaining labor, and his difficulties are being
met by the creation of state bureaus of (agricultural) employment.
In any case, the rule generally holds today that labor goes where
it is most needed and wanted as expressed in high wages or other
advantages.
(3) With reference to occupational mobility the situation is
entirely different. While the geographical inability of labor in
this country is highly developed-almost too much so for the interest of good citizenship-the capacity of the worker to take up a
new occupation is not highly enough developed. Broader training
in needed; but a high-class Employment Bureau might aid to a
degree.
The Germans have perfected an excellent system of employment bureaus, but it is a system and it has grown out of German
conditions. In this country, there is reason to look to private
enterprise rather than the government for the development of such
a system. A well-endowed Bureau, under the most capable
management, ought to elevate the tone of the business and possibly
introduce co-ordination now lacking. How successful it may be,
will, I think, depend entirely on the manager.




io6


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


REPLY FROM MR. ROBERT A. WOODS,
OF SOUTH END HOUSE, BOSTON
I cannot do more than give general results of experience in reply
to your question.
I. I have known of many instances where the evidence of maladjustment in the matter of employment was convincing. These
have occurred rather in the skilled and clerical grades so far as the
situation in the city itself is concerned. There cannot be any
doubt that employers and workmen both lose a great deal of time
and meet with much demoralizing embarrassment in this matter,
which an employment bureau could remedy if it went at its work
with something of the scope and detailed accuracy of the weather
and crop reports. In my opinion such a bureau, in order to be of
the greatest public use, should throw its emphasis strongly upon
assisting really capable men to get their appropriate opportunities
rather than upon landing the incapable in a job.
2. There is mal-adjustment in the unskilled grade of factory
workers as between the cities and towns of Massachusetts. I
have known of some significant instances of employers from
factories, in good times, trying to secure unemployed or ill-paid
people in Boston and with indifferent success. In bad times there
are always working people who, as a last resort, are willing to go
out of town. Systematic organization might bridge this somewhat complicated gap.
3. The possibility of change from one occupation to another
seems to grow less and less. Such change nearly always means a
step down, except where there is less demand for skill but more for
responsibility.
This whole subject has been pretty carefully studied by the
Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, whose employment office is.
beginning to afford some more or less suggestive statistics.
NOVEMBER 28, I908.




JAMES W. VAN CLEAVE


Xo7


LETTER FROM MR. JAMES W. VAN CLEAVE,
OF ST. Louis
PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS
Let me say that I am personally very much in favor of the
establishment of free employment bureaus, and in this I believe
that I not only express my own opinion but that of the large
majority of the members of the National Association of Manufacturers. Untold harm is being done by bogus employment
bureaus that oftentimes fleece the poor seeker of a job of the few
pennies he has left. There are, of course, noble exceptions to this
rule, but it is a fact that in many of our large cities unscrupulous
owners and managers of employment agencies carry on drinking
places in the same locality, and the amount of good that can be
carried on under such conditions for our poor and needy is very
questionable to say the least.
It is a fact that many of our states, recognizing the need for
free employment bureaus, have established such bureaus in the
larger cities; however, my own observation impresses me with
the inefficiency of such state bureaus. I do not mean to throw
the slightest reflections upon state officials in charge of such
institutions as to honesty and integrity, but the special training
required for this sort of work is missing.,
Appreciating the need for free employment institutions, some
employers' associations and citizens' organizations have established
such bureaus of their own. The Citizens' Industrial Association
of Saint Louis has maintained a free employment bureau for a
number of years. No charges whatever are made either to the
employer or workers. The bureau is sustained by the association's funds. Our bureau is in charge of an efficient specialist,
and the service is so satisfactory that many of our manufacturers
refuse to employ help direct, in all cases sending to our employment bureau for help wanted. The advantage is that some sort




Io8


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


of an inquiry has been made by our bureau into the records of all
those seeking employment. You may be interested in the system.
Any one making application for employment is sent immediately
to a man desiring help, but the person making application must
state where he has been working for the last year or two. Letters
of inquiry are sent to former employers, but this does not prevent
immediate employment of the applicant. As soon as replies are
received they are forwarded to the employer in addition to keeping
a record of them at the employment bureau. As our working
people find that a good record helps them in securing other or
better places they become stanch friends of our employment
bureau, and little by little we expect to have this bureau a clearing
house for labor, much as our regular clearing houses are for the
financial institutions.
While at the present time there are at least two or three dozen
employment bureaus of the type of ours in various cities in the
United States, they cover but a very small proportion of what
needs to be done. I said something on this question when discussing the formation of the National Council for Industrial
Defense, a year or so ago, in the pages of the Engineering Magazine of July, I907. I quote from this article the following:
As shortages and surpluses of labor may exist simultaneously in different localiities, we will create labor bureaus in all the country's important industrial centers,
and through them the council can operate a labor clearing house by which all such
abnormalities can be corrected and a balance established. Through these labor
bureaus the council could look after the better distribution of immigrants in the
regions in which the chances for their employment are greatest. It could also,
through these bureaus, secure picked labor in Europe, so far as this can be accomplished under the immigration regulations and restrictions which go into operation
on July I, 1907, and direct it to the proper localities.
I look upon the establishment of free employment bureaus
most favorably, first, from the standpoint of a man and a Christian,
and secondly, as an employer, and you are at liberty to use my
letter in any way in which it may benefit the good cause.
DECEMBER 21, I908.




APPENDIX III


Plan for the Formation of an Employment
Bureau whose Object shall be to Find
Employment for Men Unfamiliar
with the English Language
BY MR. CYRUS L. SULZBERGER
In charge of a competent superintendent, there should be
engaged eight employment agents as follows: one each for men's
and boys' clothing; women's and children's clothing; furs, caps
and leather goods; paper boxes; building trades; interior wood
workers; metal workers; and two for miscellaneous trades.
After the applicants for employment are classified according
to their trades, it will be the duty of these men to take them about
to the various possible employers and find positions for them.
In order to facilitate this, there will previously have been a letter
addressed to a large number of the chief employers of labor in
New York, setting forth the purposes of the Bureau, and signed
by half a dozen representative men, who express their interest in
the Bureau, their desire for its success, and requesting co-operation
of the employers.
The employment agent, having previously delivered this letter
and through it secured an introduction to the superintendent of
the factory, will have the entree of those places willing to cooperate with us, and if opportunity offers, will be enabled to place
the men in his charge.
It is believed that each employment agent will have daily
109




IIO


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


five persons to dispose of. Should the number prove larger, a
larger number of employment agents will be required.
The plan here outlined is an extension and elaboration of the
methods by which the Industrial Removal Office has succeeded
in finding employment for a large number of men in all parts of
the United States. It has never been tried in this way in New
York, but there is no apparent reason why it should not work
as well here, if intelligently conducted, as it has elsewhere.
The estimated expense of such a Bureau is:
Superintendent........................... $2,000
8 employment agents at $750 each............ 6,ooo
Stenographer and a boy.......................  700
Carfares...................................  1,500
Printing and stationery.......................  500
making a total of about $II,ooo per year. No item of rent is
here included, for the reason that it is expected that the necessary
premises will be secured free of charge at the Hebrew Sheltering
House.
A great labor exchange which contemplates the bringing
together with greater facility of laboring men and employers is
as purely an economic instrument as improved machinery or
methods of transportation. It facilitates production and is
quite as much in the interest of the employer as of the employed.
To bring together the man who is idle for lack of a job and the
machine which is idle for lack of a man, is to perform an act of
distinct economic value to the community, serving immediately
both the man and the owner of the machine, and ultimately
society at large, by reason of the productivity thus brought about.
The establishment, however, of an Employment Bureau for
competent workmen who are laboring under a handicap by
reason of unfamiliarity with the language of the country, is in
point of economic value equal to a general employment bureau,
and has in addition a distinct philanthropic worth. Other things
being equal, it is, economically speaking, a matter of indifference




CYRUS L. SULZBERGER


III


whether A or B is the man at the machine, but if A is a foreigner,
and by reason of his lack of English is unable to fend for himself
in procuring the job, he will, in the event of his failing to get it,
speedily become a dependent, whereas B being a native and free
from the handicap with which A is afflicted, can more readily
place himself in some other position and maintain his independence.
Employers ordinarily will not take the trouble of dealing with
men to whom they cannot readily give orders, and it is therefore
necessary to arouse their interest in that class of workmen, and
experience has shown that such interest is most readily aroused
by the co-operation of representative men in the community
influential with large employers of labor.
The Industrial Removal Office has placed over twenty thousand men at work in various parts of the United States, and fully
two-thirds of these did not speak English. The plan which has
been successful in this large number of cases away from New
York, could be applied here somewhat on the lines laid down in
the above statement, and if it were deemed advisable to put it in
effect, either as to New York or elsewhere, it could very well be
made a part of the general Employment Bureau or labor exchange
which is contemplated.




APPENDIX IV


Statements in Regard to Three Free Philanthropic Bureaus Conducted in
New York City
REPORT ON THE COOPER UNION LABOR BUREAU
EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION
FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE POOR, VOLUME
IO, —899-I900,-PAGES 81-82.
The committee in charge of the Cooper Union Labor Bureau,
after a careful review of the work of the Bureau and mature
deliberation as to the advisability of continuing it, recommended
to the board of managers of the Association for Improving the
Condition of the Poor that the Bureau be discontinued at the close
of the fiscal year, September 3o, I899. This recommendation
was approved by the board, and the office in Cooper Union was
closed on that date. Among the reasons which influenced the
committee in reaching their decision were these:
I. Improvement of business conditions in the city, lessening
the number of the unemployed. While there are still many men
out of work, the number is much smaller than when this work was
begun.
2. The announcement by some of the intelligence offices that
employers can secure help from them without charge.
3. Free labor advertisements published in a daily paper of
large circulation.
4. The establishment of a Free Labor Bureau by the state;
112




LEE K. FRANKEL


II3


also by other philanthropic agencies. One of the objects which
the committee has had in view from the first has been the fostering
of enterprises that could take up the work and carry it on successfully.
5. The growing belief that the state is able to conduct a free
employment office better than a philanthropic society can, because
of its wider sphere of influence, its ability to ascertain the needs
of different sections of the state, and also its power to secure
legislation tending to decrease the evils of the average intelligence
office. Important steps in this latter direction have already been
taken, much-needed laws having been secured since the State
Bureau was opened.
6. Lack of adequate support to compete with agencies which
have an expensive office force, employ canvassers, and insert
advertisements calling attention to their work and their available
applicants. The committee has not felt that it had a right to
ask for large sums of money given to the Association primarily
to improve the condition of the poor. Students of the labor
problem who favor a Bureau of this character say that it should
cost from $20,000 to $25,000 a year in order to insure its success.
The total expenses of our Bureau for the five years of its existence
have not reached even the smaller sum mentioned.
FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU CONDUCTED BY THE
UNITED    HEBREW     CHARITIES OF THE CITY
OF NEW YORK
STATEMENT BY DR. LEE K. FRANKEL
Immediately after the organization of the society in i875,
the board of directors authorized the establishment of an employment bureau. In the report which the committee on employment
made in I876, there appears the following: "The better class of
8




114      AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


mechanics usually avoid applying for work where charity is
connected with it."
In I879, the committee reported that "the results are no better
than last year. This is due to want of interest by the public."
The committee further stated: "Such labor as is offered by the
Charities, is not in demand. Good mechanics can find employment
without our assistance."
No further mention is made of an employment bureau until
the 1884 report, in which it is stated that an employment bureau
is more than ever needed. The previous report mentions a
conference with the Charity Organization Society at which the
establishment of a Central Labor Exchange was discussed, the
annual cost of which (estimated at $5,000) was to be raised
with the aid of all the charitable organizations in the city.
In I885, the Employment Bureau was reorganized, and immediately became very active. In the following fiscal year 2,811
positions were found, representing 80 per cent. of the applications.
As the work of the Bureau was largely among immigrant Jews,
the effort was made to send as many as possible out of the city,
to positions which had been secured for them. The need and
desirability of such a step was evidenced after I891, when the
second large influx of Russian immigration began. The establishment of the Baron de Hirsch Fund at that time, gave the employment committee the means to materially enlarge its "out of town"
activities. In fact two departments were opened, one for local
positions, and the other for positions away from the city.
Between the years 1891 and I903, the activities of the Employment Bureau were continued, and, while large numbers of positions
were found for the applicants, it can not be said that, at any time
during that period, was the work considered truly satisfactory.
For this reason, re-arrangements of the Bureau were effected
from time to time, in the hope of improving and increasing its
efficiency. The same difficulties which were mentioned in the
earliest reports of the Employment Bureau were encountered in




LEE K. FRANKEL


I"5


the subsequent years. The competent, skilled mechanic found
it possible, when work was obtainable, to secure employment
either directly or through the medium of the trades union to which
he would belong. For the handicapped, it was difficult to secure
positions, owing to the unwillingness of the average employer to
engage this class of help.
In addition, it was found that many employers refused to
accept workmen who were sent to them by charitable institutions
for obvious reasons. The claim was made in particular that
applicants sent by the United Hebrew Charities, either by reason
of incompetence, inability, or unwillingness, did not retain their
positions for any great length of time, and gave trouble to the
employer.
Since the organization of the Industrial Removal Office the
work which formerly fell on the Employment Bureau of the United
Hebrew Charities in finding positions outside of the city of New
York, was no longer necessary.
The experience of all these years of the Employment Bureau
is summarized in the report which the committee made to the
board of directors, under date of December 9, I903:
To the President and Board of Trustees of the United Hebrew Charities:
During the past year, the reports of the Employment Bureau did not show
altogether satisfactory results. The committee has given the work considerable
observation and believes that it is almost impossible to obtain satisfactory results
in securing positions for the class of people who apply to us for the following reasons:
I. A large proportion of our applicants are men who have never learned a
trade and are thoroughly incompetent. They are willing to work, but lack ability.
It is only during unusually prosperous times, when there is a great demand for
help, that it is possible to place such men.
2. We have a class of applicants who are incapacitated, either by sickness or
age. No explanation is necessary in order to understand why it is extremely difficult to obtain positions for these men.
3. We have another class to deal with who have their own ideas as to the
value of their services, and when offered a position at a lower figure than their own
estimate of value, absolutely refuse to consider it.
4. We have a number of applicants who come to us only because we are a
free Employment Bureau, and they feel that they may obtain positions through our




i 6


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


agency without any effort or expense to themselves, although able-bodied and not
subjects for charity.
5. Another class take positions which are offered to them, hold them for a day
or two, and then suddenly fail to appear, leaving with their employers a poor opinion
of the Employment Bureau of the United Hebrew Charities.
6. The employers of labor throughout the city appear to have a strong prejudice against engaging men who are recommended by a charitable organization, one
of their reasons being that sentiment enters into the question, and they feel that
they cannot deal with subjects of charity in the independent manner in which they
treat with other employees. A second reason being that they usually require men
who are able-bodied and competent, and such men should not find it necessary to
apply through our Bureau.
It has for some time been an open question in the minds of the committee
whether the United Hebrew Charities should have a Free Employment Bureau as a
branch of its work. A Free Employment Bureau, as we understand the term, is
one that is open to the public, without expense to the applicant or employer. Why
should an institution whose funds are donated by the public for charitable work
only support a Free Employment Bureau which assists men who are not proper
subjects of charity? We believe that our Employment Bureau, despite the fact
that great efforts have been made to obtain good results, has injured rather than
helped the reputation of our society. It is our opinion that the United Hebrew
Charities is slowly but surely drifting in the direction of doing executive work only,
instead of carrying on the various branches of work under its own personal supervision, and with that idea in mind we now make what we consider a conservative
suggestion for the consideration of the board.
We believe that obtaining employment for other than relief applicants is not
within the sphere of our society's work, and we therefore recommend:
That as soon as arrangements can be made with another institution, our Employment Bureau be discontinued as a Free Employment Agency, and that instead,
our organization should make efforts to secure employment for relief applicants only.
By so doing, the expense of the department will probably be decreased fifty
per cent. and the relief cases will receive far better attention than is now possible.
Application to an institution of charity brings with it a loss of dignity and selfrespect to the applicant. This would be obviated by having all but relief cases
taken in charge by an organization such as the Young Men's Hebrew Association or
the Educational Alliance.
Respectfully submitted,
THE EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE.
DECEMBER 9, 1903.
Acting upon the recommendation of the committee, the board
of trustees of the United Hebrew Charities discontinued the
Employment Bureau, and turned it over to the Independent Order




THOMAS M. MULRY


II7


of B'nai Brith, at the same time subsidizing the last-named society,
so that it would be possible for it to carry on the Bureau. Eventually the United Hebrew Charities discontinued the subsidy, and,
as the Independent Order of B'nai Brith was unable to raise the
necessary funds to keep the Bureau open, it was found necessary
to close it.
I may say, in passing, that, since the discontinuance of the
Employment Bureau, the United Hebrew Charities has had the
services of an employment agent, to secure work for the relief
cases which come to its notice, particularly for men and women
who are partially incapacitated, in other words, the so-called
handicapped class. The work of this agent has been quite successful. In my judgment, the committee on employment pursued a
wise course in recommending the severance of the Employment
Bureau from the United Hebrew Charities.
It should always be the purpose of such a society to endeavor
to secure work for those who are directly under its charge. The
general proposition of finding work for all the unemployed hardly
comes within the province of a charitable institution.
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 5, I908.
FREE EMPLOYMENT BUREAU CONDUCTED IN NEW
YORK CITY BY THE SOCIETY OF ST.
VINCENT DE PAUL
STATEMENT BY MR. THOMAS M. MULRY
The censensus of opinion amongst those interested in this
subject, bears out my own impression that it is a most difficult
matter to operate successfully a free employment bureau. Our
experience was by no means encouraging, as we found that the
majority of the applicants were superannuated or unfit to fill the
various positions which we endeavored to obtain for them. Em



II8


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


ployment was secured for a number of boys and girls who had just
finished school, but undoubtedly they could have been placed
without the assistance of an agency, as there is always a good
demand for them.
In many instances we found that the employers who sought
help through the medium of our Bureau expected to obtain men
at a lower rate of wages than was prevalent at the time. Our
Employment Bureau was, of course, principally to obtain work
for the poor families which came under the care of the conferences.
Frequently, when we had good positions on our list, we were
obliged to have recourse to other organizations, as it was only
occasionally that the applicants were qualified for these positions.
In such work as watchman the various firms, as a rule, had
some pensioners who had grown old in the service, to fill the
vacancy. In the different branches of the public service, such
positions as laborer, foreman, etc., would generally be under
the control of the political situation, for, despite the fact that there
was always a large number of applicants who were physically and
mentally capable of filling these places, it was very seldom that
such vacancies came to our notice, simply because it required
political influence to obtain these places.
To my mind, it will be very difficult to successfully operate an
Employment Bureau on a philanthropic basis. In prosperous
times there is no difficulty for a capable person to obtain employment and in times of business depression it is, as you know, a
very difficult task for anyone to secure a position. But at all
times, the class of applicants which comes under the notice of a
charitable society is generally composed of those who have outlived their usefulness and whose poor health or incapacity make
it almost impossible for them to qualify for any position. They
will always be in the category of "cheap labor" because it is
necessary to hold out some inducement in order to obtain positions
for them.
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 8, 1908.




APPENDIX V


Experiences of Mr. Benjamin C. Marsh in
Trying to Secure Work in New York
City, on December 17 and 18, 1908
On Wednesday night, December i6, I went, at about half past
twelve, to one of the cheap saloons on lower Chatham Street and
talked with several men who were drinking there about opportunities to secure work. Three of them stated that they had been
out of a job for several weeks, but one urged me to make application to the foreman of the gang laying tracks on the railway directly
in front of the saloon.
At one o'clock I went to the bread line of the Bowery Mission,
37 Bowery, on the East Side, and found a place in the line on
Bayard Street half way east on the block from the Bowery. The
man ahead of me claimed that he was a broom maker and had
never been out of employment before, but he had been ill and,
although he had been to every broom-shop in New York City,
he was unable to secure any employment. He cursed the men
in the line some of whom he said had money saved up, several
having $io at least in pocket while they still sponged bread and
coffee. Men who had been through the mission and secured their
roll and coffee kept constantly coming back and lengthening the
line.
It took about 20 minutes to get to the door where we were let in
with another line forming in the Bowery north of the mission.
When we got to the main floor there were 500 or 600 men drinking
coffee, or hanging around until they were turned out. Most of
119




120


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


them had left by a little before two. Several of them told me that
they were iron-workers, carpenters, moulders, or had other trades,
but had not been able to secure any work for a number of days.
I followed them on the street until past three o'clock. Some of
them curled up in halls, others went into the rear halls of several
saloons which were open all night, where they could get in and
stay for a five-cent drink. I found no difficulty in getting into
several of these saloons. In one of them on the Bowery a schooner
containing a pint and a half of beer is sold for a nickel. Several
of the lodging houses were marked "Full," and Mills Hotels
Numbers i and 2 were both full between 3 and 3.30 A. M., but I
was referred to Mills Hotel Number 3, where I secured a room.
Two or three of the men with whom I was talking said that they
would be willing to go to the country if they could get a job where
they would be sure of staying, and that they had applied to the
Bureau of Information of the Immigration Service, but they could
not be sent out into the country because they had no money to
pay their fare.
The first thing Thursday morning, a little after nine, I went to
R. H. Macy and Company's with a comrade I had picked up on
the street, trying to secure a job as porter. The man had suggested
that there was work in the department stores, but claimed that he
had tried several of them for a number of days without any luck.
He had been out of work for several weeks, for the first time, he
claimed, although he was a painter by trade.
On Twenty-sixth Street, I asked a policeman where work could
be secured and he held up his hands in horror, saying that if he
knew where there was any work in town everybody would be after
him. However, he suggested that I go to the manager of Madison
Square Garden for employment, but I found that I was unable to
secure any work there; the manager said that I might come around
again about the middle of next month when there would be another
show coming on.




BENJAMIN C. MARSH


12I


In response to the following notice in the "Want" columns of
the World, I went to William H. Reynold's:
SALESMAN wanted; five first class salesmen of ability and tact;
no canvassing, but hard workers wishing to make considerable
money. Bennett, 9 East 26th Street, Room 226.
I was asked to canvass for lots belonging to the company in
East New York. I was to have 7 per cent. commission on the
value of any lots that were sold. The prices are from $300 to $I400.
I promised to come back a day or so later if I wanted the job.
From there I went to the Bureau of Labor in the State Department of Agriculture and found the room full of men, but the clerk
in the office refused to give any information or to take my application and told me to come back again the next morning. At the
Information Bureau of the Immigration Department I found a
crowd of men, Italians, Poles and some Germans, and the man at
the outer counter stated that he had very little opportunity to get
men out unless they could pay their fare, as the farmers were not
advancing money. He said that men didn't like to work on the
farm because the hours were so long and they were apt to get out
of a job. He instanced cases of people who had been in to get men
and they kept them for only a week or ten days and then turned
them off as unsatisfactory, paying them only a small part of their
wages. He admitted that they had received one application from
a farmer for a man to work from 2.30 in the morning until 5 at
night, and he didn't blame the men for not wanting to take such
jobs. A man of 40 odd years, apparently a German, said that he
had been on a farm where he had to work from 5 in the morning
until Io at night and had been getting only small wages, so that he
would not think of such a job again for a minute. The attendant
said that he had a job in Illinois but that the fare out there would
be about $20, although possibly half-fare could be secured. They
would pay $18 or $20 a month with board and washing, but it is
the dullest time in the year.
A second visit to the Information Bureau of the Immigration




I22


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Service was equally unsuccessful, although Mr. Green, the manager, informed me that they had plenty of work for men in a sawmill in Alabama at wages from $I.25 to $I.50 a day. Board,
lodging and washing are about $I5 a month, so that one could
clear quite a fair amount. He suggested my going to the Joint
Application Bureau, to give a reference or tWo and see if they
would not advance me the reduced rates which would amount to
about $9, but I told him that I was not able to raise this amount.
When I was coming out of the office I was called back to meet a
Pole who wanted a boy to work on his farm to "break in." I
asked him how much he wanted to pay and volunteered to work
quite cheaply, but he said the money was no special object to him.
Several of the men in the office came up during my conversation
with Mr. Green and were evidently anxious to get hold of any job
that was considered for me.
A second visit to the Bureau of Labor in the State Department
of Agriculture, a little before noon, was almost as discouraging.
The clerk told me there was no use in my trying to get work and
they wouldn't take applications from any except married men.
I asked whether paying $i would help me in getting a job, but he
informed me with some disgust that this was a state enterprise and
that they couldn't take any money from an outsider.
The Dunham Cocoa Manufacuring Company claimed that
they were working on half time. The Thatcher Company were
planning to lay off their men from their iron works. The Berlin
Analine Works had no jobs available. The A. S. Howard Polishing Company said that they had to struggle to keep the men busy
who were working for them and that there was no chance to get in.
Three Employment Agencies along Greenwich Street all
claimed that it was impossible to get any work at present. The
Magyar Agency, at 53 Greenwich Street, claimed that they had
employment for 25 laborers at $I.40 a day, transportation paid,
but upon being questioned admitted that the work was all gone and
they simply kept up the sign.




BENJAMIN C. MARSH


123


The Dilk Draying Company said that they couldn't get any
work themselves. McRoberts and Company, contractors and
stevedores, 42 Whitehall Street, were unable to give any jobs.
Charles L. Hearst and Company, grocers specialties, at i6 Pearl
Street, had been laying off men, since it was very dull. L. Schnellfeld's Employment Agency, at 6 Greenwich Street, claimed that
they had work for everybody, Germans and all, but admitted that
they had not given out any jobs for several days.
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western and several other
railroads on the North River piers, said that they had no employment, but might possibly be putting some men on about Monday
or the first of the year. The Adams Express Company had no
opening but advised me to come back again. Wells, Fargo and
Company asked me to bring back two or three references and said
they would probably put me to work within a week or so.
The employment office of J. Block, 135 Liberty Street, also
had not sent out any man for a long time. The Laurenton Land
Company had advertised, but their jobs were evidently the same
as W. H. Reynolds, selling real estate.
The Moore Soap Company, 288 Greenwich Street, offered me
a job selling soap, a $1.25 outfit containing seven cakes, for 75
cents. The agent was to get half of this and they would let him
start with a very small stock. In addition the proprietor suggested
that he could put me on a wagon in a city in another state, probably
in Hartford, Conn., to earn $2.50 a day.
Thomas Harper and Sons, brass manufacturers, on the comer
of Lafayette and Howard Streets, were laying off men and didn't
expect work to pick up for some time. The American Brass and
Copper Company, on the opposite corner, could do nothing for me,
although I claimed to be an experienced brass maker, as they
expected to lay off help within a short time. J. Gelb and Company,
machinery, 5 Howard Street, claim that they haven't work enough
to justify them in keeping the shop open.
The Schaefer Brewing Company, Fifty-first Street and Park




I24


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Avenue, claimed that they were shutting down one day a week in
the bottling works and that some of the men were to be laid off in
the brewery so that any task was hopeless there. They thought
that most of the other breweries were in about the same condition.
R. Wolf, leather goods manufacturer, on the eleventh floor of
the block bounded by Crosby, Prince, East Houston Streets and
Broadway, were closing down to take stock until after the holidays,
and doubted whether they would take back more than a small
portion of their workers even when they opened again. Rosenthal's, eighth floor, manufacturers of men's and women's clothing,
was visited, and the manager pointed to several men who were
sitting around and said they were paying these fellows for sitting
around and being idle and that they didn't intend to pay anyone
else for doing that. There wouldn't be any more work for a good
while.
In response to an advertisement for motormen and conductors
I visited the Metropolitan Street Railway Company and was given
an application in which I acknowledged the right of the company's
officers to terminate my employment at any time without notice
and also agreed that my wages should cease at the time of such
discharge. I talked with several of the men looking for jobs and
they said the chances were not good, and that a great many applications were made but that they didn't get the jobs. Here also
references from the last places of employment were required. I
did not hand in the application although the man in charge said
there would be a chance of my getting work as they were taking on
men occasionally. An application at the repair shop of the company on Fiftieth Street was equally futile, although I begged the
man to give me a chance for a few days. A second visit on the day
following to the maintenance and construction departments of this
same company had the same result and I was told that they would
not be taking on any men for some time and they might be obliged
to lay a few off before long.
The New Idea Arc Light Company, I38 Leonard Street,




BENJAMIN C. MARSH


125


wanted me to go out selling arc lights on a unique basis, holding me
responsible for the payment under rather strict conditions.
The Enterprise Coffee Company, i6 Wall Street, wanted
canvassers and would furnish coffee at from 14 to 17 cents a pound,
which could sell for from 20 to 35 cents, and tea which they would
sell to me for 20 to 25 cents to be resold for from 30 to 60 cents.
They would give a small sample package for five or ten cents, but
they thought it was necessary to do this.
The Coston Signal Company, Moore Street, could not give
any promise of employment, but remarked that work was very dull.
Brady and Gioe, general stevedores and contractors, 1 Moore
Street, said there was nothing doing in the way of getting employment at present.
I registered at the Bowery Mission for a job, but they admitted
that they had given employment to only a few men among the several hundreds from whom they had applications and that the
chances of work were very poor. In the evening I called at the
Bowery Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, and
they said that I could register in the day time, but they gave me
very little hope of securing any employment. They advised me to
go to the Twenty-third Street Branch, although they said that they
too were not giving many jobs. A man whom I met on the street
and asked for work, mentioned the Bowery Branch of the Young
Men's Christian Association and said he had heard from several of
his companions that they took two-thirds of the first week's salary.
I didn't have any opportunity to confirm or disprove this statement.
I made an application to the Subway Construction Company on
Park Row and found that over 20 men had been making application,
but without any immediate success for most of them. Some of
the men claimed that they had had their application in for several
weeks and that they had good references, but it didn't amount to
anything.
The manager of a coach company asked me whether I could
paint and upon learning that I could said that there might possibly




126


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


be a job, but later withdrew and said that they should probably
lay off Ioo men within a few days. The Manhattan Storage
Company claimed that times were very dull and that there was no
chance of their having any work.
An application at the new building being erected on the site of
the old Fifth Avenue Hotel was futile and I was referred to the
Hedden Construction Company where the manager advised me
not to be discouraged, but that they were going to lay off most of
the force on that building shortly, and probably lay off a good
many men in other parts of the city. Coming down from the
elevator in the Metropolitan Building I overheard a man, who
gave his name as Nicholson, state that construction in the Bronx
had fallen off 70 per cent. I asked him if he could help me get a
job and he admitted that prospects were pretty bad particularly
when I told him that I was not a union member.
Several employment agencies on Greenwich Street visited later
in the afternoon did not give any better results and in not a single
case did I get any definite encouragement from any one of the employment agencies to which I applied. Following the suggestion
of my saloon friend I went to the foreman of the gang putting in
tracks on Chatham Street, but it was wet and he informed me that
they wouldn't do any work during the day so that it was no use
for me to wait for the job.
A second visit to the saloons on Thursday night enabled me to
see a number of the men whom I had seen the day before and I
talked with some of them. Two or three of them told me that
they had been looking for jobs all day and weren't able to get a
thing. A man I talked with this second day admitted that he
would go to work on a farm if he got a chance. One man, a
brakeman on the Central Railroad of New Jersey, advised me to
apply there as they were taking men for braking, but he had no
very definite statement.
Experiences in Brooklyn were fully as unpropitious as in
Manhattan. Robert Gair had a sign out "No help wanted" and




BENJAMIN C. MARSH


I27


earnest entreaties on my part did not succeed in getting any more
favorable reply to my request for work. The Union Lead and Oil
Company, the automobile works and a nearby machine shop,
although I applied at all three places as an expert machinist, had
no hopes for me.
D. T. Soper and Company, who were starting a new printing
office, said that in two weeks they might possibly have a job, but
there was no chance at present. Erbe, Crombie and Lamothe,
bindery, had no chance. The Phoenix Paper Box Company had
signs out "No help wanted" and confirmed the statement upon
application. The American Can Company claimed that they were
laying men off, but that they might possibly have a job within a
month. Two small novelty works in the immediate vicinity said
that there would not be any employment for additional men for
several weeks.
Mason, Au and Magenheimer, confectioners, had out a sign
"No help wanted" and they said that they could hardly get work
for their regular employees. The Curran Machine Company and
W. B. Conrad and Company, manufacturers of clothing in the
same building, had no work, but the latter thought they might
possibly be able to give me a job the first of the year.
E. W. Bliss and Company were not giving employment to any
men in any of their departments, either in Adams Street, Plymouth
Street or First Avenue, and claimed that they would not be able to
put anyone at work for some time.
Arbuckle's in the early morning advised me to come back at
six at night when I would probably have a chance. I was there a
little before that hour and found a crowd of 47 men, Poles, Swedes
and nationalities indistinguishable in the dark, many of them not
able to speak English. We blockaded the doorway when the men
were coming out and at the close we were told that there was no
job. Several of the men told me that they had been there every
night for a week, but that very few of the men had been successful
in getting work.




128        AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
An application at the Adams Express Company resulted merely
in the suggestion that I come back with a letter of recommendation
on Monday when I might possibly have some chance if the letter
were good enough.
The list of the 54 places at which application was made in the
two days is as follows:
Employment Agencies............................. 8
Railroad Docks............................   5
Specialties...................................     4
Express Companies......... —....................  3
Contractors...................................  3
Foundries................ —....................... —   3
Machine Shops............................   2
Printing Establishments........................... 2
Real Estate......................................  2
Clothing Manufacturers........................... 2
Cigar Manufacturers.........................   2
Automobile Works................................
Leather Goods Manufacturers......................
Showmen.......................................  i
Department Stores................................
Cocoa Manufacturing Company....................
Confectioners....................................
Analine  W orks...................................  i
Soap Manufacturer............................
Polish  M anufacturer.............................. 
Draying Companies..............................
Breweries........................................  i
Coffee and Sugar Manufacturers.................... 
Binderies...................................... 
Paper Box Companies.........................
Metropolitan Street Railway,
Subway Construction Company,
Bureau of Labor State Department of Agriculture,..  4
Information Bureau Department of Commerce
and Labor,.................................
54




BENJAMIN C. MARSH


I29


CONCLUSIONS.-As far as conclusions are possible from
the list of factories, places of business and employment agencies
which I visited, and the conversations with the men, they were as
follows: First, it was an extremely bad time of the year, just
before Christmas, for a man who could not give any references to
make any attempt to secure employment. Even making allowances for this situation, however, the position is rather desperate
and the giving of free meals, the bread line, etc., not only have a
demoralizing influence upon the men, but befuddle the real issue.
There are scores, if not hundreds, of the men who are drifting
from one place to another, getting food from missions and simply
"making out." A good many of them would not take employment
if they could get it, but in conversation with over 40 men I found
eight or nine who I believe, from their own statements, had been
making continuous and earnest efforts to secure work.
The employers may have hesitated to give me work when they
knew that I did not belong in the city as I stated to several of them.
In any event the depression in lack of employment is serious and
is aggravated by the inability of the men to get away from the city
and their fear of being exploited if they go on farms.


9




APPENDIX VI


Study of Newspaper Advertisements as a
Medium for Securing Work and Help
WANT ADVERTISEMENTS AND THE LABOR MARKET
BY H. G. PAINE
"WANT ADS" AND THE LABOR MARKET.-At the request of
the general secretary of the Charity Organization Society, the
writer conducted an investigation of the "want ads" ("Situations
Wanted-Males" and "Help Wanted-Males") in two New
York daily newspapers, at twelve selected periods from April,
1902, to November, I908, for the purpose of learning how far
they reflect the general trade conditions prevalent at those times,
and, more particularly, the relations between demand and supply
in the labor market as affected by those conditions.
PERIODS.-The periods selected were the months of April,
August and December of I902 and I908, the month of October,
1907, just before the recent disturbance in the financial market,
and the months of December, I907, February, May, July and
November, I908, following the so-called "panic." The first
six periods may be taken as representing normal conditions in
the labor market during the spring, summer and winter in years of
general prosperity. The second six periods were chosen to study
the effects of hard times on the labor market and to illustrate the
present condition of that market.
130




H. G. PAINE


I3I


NEWSPAPERS.-The New York World and New York Herald
were chosen, those newspapers printing the largest number of
a' want ads," and also effectively supplementing and complementing
each other, by attracting different classes of "want" advertisers.
The issues of the second Sunday in each of the selected months
were taken for examination. The original intention was to include the New York American in the investigation; but an inspection of two or three numbers showed that, in spite of the
large circulation of that newspaper, it was not regarded as a good
medium by "want" advertisers. Very few such advertisements
were printed, and many of those seemed to be of a doubtful and
even spurious character. Scarcely any of them gave addresses
other than some letter-box in the American office, and they were
frequently so vaguely worded as to be little likely to attract inquiries.
CLASSIFICATION OF LABOR.-For purposes of comparison and
analysis, the labor field was divided into six general classes:
clerical, skilled, unskilled, agricultural, domestic and professional.
Clerical labor comprises bookkeepers, cashiers, clerks, collectors, correspondents, salesmen, secretaries, stenographers and
typewriters, managers and superintendents of stores and offices,
and agents and representatives of reputable business houses.
Drug clerks are included under this head, as being primarily salesmen.
Skilled labor comprises all mechanics and others engaged in
trades where a recognized degree of manual dexterity is required;
chauffeurs, chefs (as distinguished from cooks in private families
and boarding-houses), designers, draughtsmen, foremen and
superintendents in factories.
Unskilled labor comprises all those not otherwise specifically
classified, "useful men," those "willing to do anything" (not
clerical), bartenders (large numbers of them), caretakers, drivers
(as distinguished from coachmen), furnacemen, janitors (of
buildings not requiring licensed engineers), laborers, waiters




I32


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


(in restaurants, mostly of the cheaper sort), watchmen, and so.
forth.
Agricultural labor comprises farm-hands, farmers, and gardeners (almost exclusively the last named).
Domestic labor comprises butlers, coachmen (as distinguished
from drivers), cooks (as distinguished from chefs), footmen, grooms,
housemen, second men, waiters (in private and boarding-houses).
Professional labor comprises actors, artists (as distinguished
from designers), dentists, editors, lawyers, ministers, musicians
and physicians.
CLASSIFICATION OF EMPLOYERS.-A classification of employers
was begun, but was abandoned as greatly increasing the labor of
investigation without adequate results. An analysis of the employers advertising in a single number of the World showed that
while some merchants wanted mechanics, and some manufacturers
and contractors wanted clerks, the balance was virtually maintained, as shown by the following figures:
Merchants advertising...................... I28
Clerks and salesmen wanted...................... 27
Manufacturers, contractors and builders advertising. 343
Skilled laborers wanted......................... 347
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.-Score sheets, one for "Situations
Wanted" and one for "Help Wanted," were prepared for each
copy of each newspaper to be examined and were furnished to the
examiner. In addition to the six classifications already mentioned
a separate heading on each sheet was made for "Boys" and on the
"Help Wanted" sheets an extra heading, "Fakes," was made for
noting down any advertisements that, on close examination, did
not appear to represent a genuine job awaiting the applicant.
The examiner read each advertisement, calling out the name
of the class within which it fell to an assistant who kept tally on the
score sheet. In the case of the "HelpSWanted" advertisements,
he noted also if the advertisement called for more'than one worker,




H. G. PAINE


I33:and if the help was wanted outside of the five boroughs. The
assistant placed a dot over the tally in the first instance and crossed
it in the second. A tally with a cross and a dot, accordingly,
signified that an out-of-town employer wanted more than one
worker.
The writer visited the Astor Library, where the examination
was carried on, twice a day, and gathered up the score sheets,
making his own additions, and tabulating the figures on other
sheets, one for each date and for both papers. The figures for
the two papers were then added together and set down in a third
column. These totals represent very accurately the relations
between demand and supply in the labor market at the specified
periods as reflected in the "want ads" of those dates, and indeed
very nearly represent the entire number of "want ads", the sum
total of "want ads" appearing in all the other newspapers being a
small fraction of those in the World and the Herald combined.
CHARTS.-For further convenience of reference, the figures
thus gathered were transferred to three charts: one for the World
(Chart No. i), one for the Herald (Chart No. 2), and one for both
papers combined (Chart No. 3). These charts are so arranged
that by reading downward it is possible to compare the numbers
of "Situations Wanted" and "Help Wanted" advertisements
in each class on any given date, and by reading across, to compare
the figures for any date with the corresponding figures on all other
dates. In Chart No. 3 the percentages were worked out and set
down in horizontal columns to show at a glance what relation the
number of "Situations Wanted" advertisements of a given class
bear to the total number of "Situations Wanted" advertisements
of all six classes on that date, and similarly for the "Help Wanted"
advertisements. In the case of the "Help Wanted" advertisements the percentages were similarly worked out and set down in
perpendicular columns to show the relation between the legitimate
and the total apparent demand for each date.




WANT ADVERTISEMENTS, NEW.YORK "WORLD" (ALL SUNDAYS)
(CHART NO. i)


1902                    1905                1907                   1908                SouMARY
CLASS OFLABOBR                                                             0        0                      0 
Situations Wanted ()...........      74      6I      45      41      77     114     52      58      93      72      51     173      911
Help Wanted (2)..................     68      75      71      47  I   08     139    132      66      89      58      46     127     1026
Clerical     More than One Wanted (3)........      4       5       o      I2      I        2      21      x       13       6       4       9      1O8
OUT OF TOWN WANTED (4).....            3       2       2      2       1       2       2       2       4       3       1       2       26
Out of Town, more than One(5).       1..       1.       1..       1       2.....         6.  Skilled


Situations Wanted..................
Help Wanted.....................
More than One Wanted...........
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
Out of Town, more than One.


260o
3go
36
7


147
2r8
68
14
5


I8I
193
59
9
6


104
139
54
17
12


247
393
21
21
3


298
365
93
7
3


176
346
io6
12
3


207
I33
30
3
1


252
157
24
6
1


284
'95
35
16
2


205
126
17
5


392
347
99
18
7


2753
2962
753
164
50


Situations Wanted..................  193  6o  153  57    193    300    9     123    96    176    9o    229    1960
Help Wanted......................  103  96  79    35    I8i    225    oo    2      39    83     5      79    096
Unskilled  More than One Wanted...........  205               8     7     4      7            7      8      I           209
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........     7      4     3      6     2      3      4            1     131
Out of Town, more than One.     2      1     2      3.............       8
Situations Wanted.................. 6  5     2     4      3     4      2            8     14     7            67
Help Wanted......................  7   5     4      4                   2..      3     5      4      6     52
Agricultural More than One Wanted.................
OUT OF TOWN WANTED......      17      5     4      4     1      1      2            3     5      4     6      52
Out of Town, more than One...      1..........2..           2,,,I,


Domestic


Situations Wanted.................     25
Help Wanted.....................       6
More than One Wanted...........
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
Out of Town, more than One...


I0


6
7


IO
I


17
4


76
4I
4..


Io3
46


131
45
1
1


26
II
4


9
2


19
2


44'
z66
o..




Professional


Situations Wanted..................
Help Wanted......................
More than One Wanted...........
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
Out of Town, more than One.


39
25
2


32
24
1
1
1


32
i6
3
3
1


19
I
1..


39
12
'1


68
41
4
1


38
26
1


66
27.o.o


52
23
2


So
24
2


44
25
3
3
1


21
II..- 


50oo
269
12
17
4


Situations Wanted..................  597      415     419     234     569      8       434     558     632      622     5o6     845      6632
Total Clas-  Help Wanted......................  569     48      370     241      696     775     647      97      356     376     254      572     557
sified     More than One Wanted..........       III      93      97       75      29     I39      48       49      45       4      25        8      093
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........            65      26       21      30      26      14                5      17      27       13      26      291
Out of Town, more than One.             9       9       9      16        3       5       3        2       3       3                7       70
Fakes, etc.  Help Wanted......................      127     92      85               91     235      72      7       263     34      257     38       2226
Total Men    Situations Wanted.................. 597     45      419      234     569     8       434      558     632     622     506      845     6632
Help Wanted......................    696       0     455     352     887              719     368     619      717     511     953      7797


w Boys
WC
Usn


Situations Wanted..................  34    35      24      13     46      41      15     23
Help Wanted......................   24     73      95      46    140     28      133     59


49      47      37      51      415
57      48      32      63     1150


Total Males  Situations Wanted..................  631    450     443     247     6i5    842     449     58i     68I     669     543     896     7047
Help Wanted....................      820     583     550     398     027    1290     852     427     676     765    543     o6      8947
Total Advertisements........................... 1451   1033     993     645    164     2132    130      oo8    1357    1434     o86    1912   15,994




WANT ADVERTISEMENTS, NEW YORK "HERALD" (ALL SUNDAYS)
(CHART NO. 2)


1902                     1905                 1907                     1908
CrAss or LABo                                o                                o                oo                   |..             SIUb Fl   C   O                                          0   S   MSituations Wanted (1)..............    299      251     324     372      288     395     492      484     508      427     328     572      4740
Help Wanted (2).................       66      227     229     304      287     322     294      I33     i66      121     122     i8i      2552
Clerical     More than One Wanted (3)........         8      17        I      22       5      22       24       I        5       I       2                49
OUT OF TOWN WANTED (4)..-                5        5       4       8        7       4       2                5        3       1       3       47
More than One out of Town (5)....                    3....  1...                3        7, Skilled
o\


Situations Wanted..................
Help Wanted.....................
More than One Wanted...........
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
More than One out of Town..


89
91
x6
10
6


86
74
12
3
1


86
6r
3
4
1


i67
125
II
2


i14
xi
2
1


107
I12
19
6
1


244     172
99      39
20       5


141
45
4
3
1


26I
35
3


I67
43
4
1


206
68
7
6


1846
897
122
45
14


7      1
3


Situations Wanted..................  145  141  141  i85  114  151  240  178  163   202   137   253   2050
Help Wanted....................  33  44  55   6     46          66    38    20           8     6
Unskilled  More than One Wanted..........  4  5    5     4     6           4            3     2     2     2 
OUT OF TOWN WANTED1                 2     2     1     2      2     2..2......                       14
More than One out of Town.....                    1..............      3
Situations Wanted.................  54   7     6     41     5    32    25    56    67    43    47    465
Help Wanted......................  4          2     I      6     2     6     8     6     5     6     99
Agricultural More than One Wanted............
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........  11     4     2    21     2     6      2     6     8     6     5     6     99
More than One out of Town....     1....................      1
I~~~~~~~~~4


Domestic


Situations Wanted..................
Help Wanted......................
More than One Wanted...........
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
More than One out of Town..


228
II
2


97
7..


IIO
8
1


319
10.o.


86
8


179
4


355
I3
13..


215
2


242
4
'1


41I
8


204
5


299
II


2745
91.6.o



Professional


Situations Wanted................
Help Wanted...................
More than One Wanted............
OUT OF TOWN WANTED........
More than One out of Town..


xu
z6
2
o..


31
20
I
2
1


38
r4
2
2
2


56
2
2


33
22


29
1
2
1


52
27.4
o..


43
z7
3
1


24
13.o


50
z7
2


26
12
I2....


50
21


458
222
II
15
4


Situations Wanted..................     84       623     706     1x60      676     876     1415     1123     134      14I8     905     1427     2,304
Help Wanted......................    328      376     369      54       480     538      5        235      256     202       95      303     4338
Total Classi- More than One Wanted............         28       36      3        3        39      60       58       29        2        8               20
fied     OUT OF TOWN WANTED........               31       17       15      34       23       20      28        8       19        9               15      226
More than One out of Town..                6       4        5        3        2       2        3..        1....         3       29
Fakes, etc.   Help Wanted....23.............     23       237     279      359      313     343      403      309      367     373      324      366     3904
Situations Wanted..................      84       623      706   1x60       676      876    I415       23     1134    148       905     1427    12,304
Total Men:Help Wanted......................       55       63       648     904      793      88      914      544      623     575        9      669     8242


c  Boys
I^


Situations Wanted..................
Help Wanted......................


21      28      21      51     26
89      63     217     I56     Ior


19
Z47


36
'7z


14
50


33      28      36
32      27      29


44
43


357
Z025


Situations Wanted..................  862     65i     727   2122      702     895    1451    'I 37    1167    1446    941     I47    12,66z
Total Males  Help Wanted......................    648     676     765     o6o     894       8      85     594     655     602     548      712    9267
Total Advertisements.........................   15x0   1327    1492    22712    596    1923    2536    173    z1822    2048    1489    2183   2,928




I38


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


For convenience in differentiation, different faces of type were
employed in making the entries under different heads. For the
figures for "Situations Wanted" advertisements No. i (plain
Roman) type was used, and No. 2 (italics) type for those for
"Help Wanted."   No. 3 (dark face) type was selected to indicate
the number of "Help Wanted" advertisements calling for more
than one worker, and No. 4 (dark face capitals) type to indicate
those coming from outside of Greater New York. No. 5 (title)
type was used for out-of-town advertisements calling for more than
one man. These advertisements formed so small a fraction of the
total number (exactly i per cent.) that they were disregarded in
Chart No. 3. On Chart No. 3 the percentages of the total "more
than one" and "out of town" advertisements to the total number
of legitimate "Help Wanted" advertisements were set down,
enclosed in brackets, in the last column.
ANALYSIS.-In studying the results obtained it will be found
best to begin at the end and to work backward. Thus, taking
Chart No. 3 and referring to the figures in the right-hand lower
corer, it will be seen that on the Sundays selected 37,992 "want
ads-Males" were printed, in the World and the Herald combined,
an average of 3,166 for each Sunday. The figures directly above
show that of this total 19,708 were "Situations Wanted" and
I8,2I4 were "Help Wanted," which would indicate an excess of
only 1,494 of the former over the latter.
BoYs.-This inference, however, is seen to be misleading as
soon as the figures next above are noted. Nearly 3,000 of the
total "want ads" refer to boys, and the figures 772 and 2,175,
show that there were 1,403 more boys wanted than there were boys
seeking situations. It is impossible from the wording of the
advertisements to classify boy "want ads," and no attempt to do
so has been made. The demand for and supply of boys may bear
some relation to the condition of the labor market, but a little
consideration will show that this relation is not likely to be reflected
in the "want ads" of the newspapers. Experience, at least,




WANT ADVERTISEMENTS, NEW YORK "HERALD" AND "WORLD." (ALL SUNDAYS)
(CHART No. 3)


CLASS OF LABOR


APRIL 13, 1902
_       a.0      V
A      u
0 


AUGUST 10,  I DECEMBER 14,
1902  I   1902
~      S    i - - -- -- -   -
1. _  _. 1
B    0    cB  i 
a    Q        I a
0    S u      I u
z               B 


APRIL 9, 1905


AUGUST 13,
I905


DECEMBER 10.
I905


OCTOBER 13,
190o7


DE3CEMBER 8,
1907


FEBRUARY 9,
x908


MAY 1o, xpo8


I.
z


JULY 12, 108


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SUMMARY
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Situations Wanted (i).........  373..  312.. 369..  43..     365..    509..    544..    542..    601..499
Help Wanted (2)........  234 z6.5  302 24.0   300 22.    351 24.1   39 20.6    461 2o.o   426 22.0  z99 19.6   255 19.2   179 13.1
Clerical  More than One Wanted (3)  12..   22..      21..       34..       20..        44527
OUT OF TOWN WANTED (4)   8..         7..       6..        10..       8..                   4..        2..        9..        6..
Percentages (5)..........25.9  26.  30.1  38... 32.8 40.6.. 29.6 44.7.. 29.3 33.6.. 30.4 35.2.. 29.4 36.8.. 32.2 37.4.. 34. 41.7.. 24.5  31...  26.9 3
Situations Wanted............ 349   233 3267..     271..    361..    405..    420..    385..393            545
Help Wanted................. 44  30.0  2223.2 254  19.3  264 i8.    48  25.9   477 20.5   445  230   172 6.8    202 15.2   230  lS    J
Skilled  More than One Wanted.   103..     80..       2..      65         99..     212.62                35..      288
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...    46..       17..       13..       19:        23..       13..       19:        4..        9..6
Percentages...............24.3 49.2.. 22.4  36.8.. 23.7 34.4.. 19.4 33.6.. 29.0 42.3.. 24.2 36.3.. 22.7 38.4.. 22.9 32.3.. 22.3  33... 26.7 39.8..  26.3 37
Situations Wanted............ 338   301 ox294.      242..    307        451..    330..    301..259            378
Help Wanted................. 136  9.o  140  11.i J 34  10.1  96  6.6  227  11.8  300  13. z66  8.5    6  6.2     59  4.4    8  7.1
Unskilled  More than One Wanted...... 24..  23..      40..       12..       43..       58.....       8..       1..        20
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...     8..        6..        5..       7..        4..        5..        6......      3..        1..
Percentages...............23.5 15.2.. 29.  17.6.. 26.2 18.2.. 17.4 1.2..  24.7 19.3.. 26.8 22.8.. 17.9 14.3.. 17.911.8.. 14.7  9.6.. 18.  16.9..  23.2 13
Situations Wanted............ 6o..  22..     9         65..44              19         34..      26..      64..      8x
Help Wanted................. 28.9  9.7      6.6     25  1.7    13.7     7.3     4.7     6.6.8.8
Agricultural  More than One Wanted........2..............................i..
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...   28..        9..        6..       25..       13..       7..        14..       6..        11..       11..
Percentages...............4.1  3.2.. 2.  1.1...8.8.. 4.7  3.2.. 3.5  1.1.. 1  *5..  i.8  1.2.. i.6  1.1..  3.6  1.8.. 4.0  1.9..  3.5  2
Situations Wanted............ 253. 107.. i6..     328..96..96..     431..    38..373.437..     S
Help Wanted................. 17 1.2  7.6      5.1.7.5      8   4      5  2.8     48 4.7     49 3719 1.5
Domestic  More than One Wanted............................                3..        I..4..
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...    2......1..............1......2..
Percentages...............17.7  1.9. 10.3  9.. 0.3...  23.5  1.4.. 7.7.8.. i.7.6.. 23.3  4.7.. 18.9  9.1..  21.1  8.0.. 2.4  3.3..  s  1
Situations Wanted.......... 65..  63..     70..     75..72..97               90..    109..      76..oo
Help Wanted................. 41  2.8  44  3.5  30  2.3    39  2.7    34.8     6o  2.5    53  2.8    44  4.3    36  2.7    41  3.0
Professional  More than One Wanted........2..5..       2......5...-                                             2
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...    4..         3..        5..       3..        1..        3..        5          12..                  2..
Percentages...............4.5  4.5.. 6.i  5.6. 6.2  4... 5.4  4.9.. 5.8  2.9.. 5.8  4.6.. 4.9  4.6.. 6.5  8.3.. 4.3  5.9.. 4.9  7.1..  5.o  8
Situations Wanted............ 1438.. 1038. 1125.. 1394.    1245..   677..    849.    i68i..766..    2040..   24
Total  Help Wanted.897            61.4    794  63.1  739 56.2   786  539   76 6.3    131356.7   i58  59.8  532  52.2  612  46.0  578  42.3  4
f                               2More than One Wanted...... 139:..  129..  128..  113..  68.. 199..  2o6..  78..       57..       72..
OUT OF TOWN WANTED...    96..      43..      36..      64..      49..      34..     49..      13..      36         36
Percentages...............ioo. 100... ioo. 100... ioo. 100... ioo. 100... 6o. 100... o000.  0.I..  oo. 100... oo. 100... oo  100... oo. 100...  0oo. 10
Fakes, etc.  Help Wanted................. 358  24.5  329  26.1  364  27.8  470  32.2  504  26.2  578  24.9  475  24.6  380  37.2  630  47.3  714  52.2  5
Total for  Situations Wanted............ 1438.. 1038.. 1125..  1394..  1245.. 677.. 849..    68i..    1766..   2040..   24
Men   Help Wanted................. 1255.. 1123.. 1103..  1256..  z68o..   1891..   1633..    912..   1242..   1295..   10
M n Percentages....................................
Situations Wanted............ 55   63..      45..      64..      72..      6o..51..       37        82..      75..
Boys     Help Wanted................. 213  14.1  136  xo8  212  Z6.0  202  13.9  241  12.5  427  18.4  304  x5.6  ioo  zo.6  89  6.7  75  5.5
Percentagesq...............
Total f r  Situations Wanted............ 1493..0i.. 1170.. 1458.. 1317..   1737..   1900..   1718..848..     2115..  24
M e   Help Wanted................. 1468 1oo.o  1259 100.0  1315 100.0  I458 100.0  1921 100.0  2318 1oo.0  1937  0oo.0  1021 100.0  1331  o0.o0  1367 100.0  10
Males  percentages2.............................8......93
Total Advertisements......................  2961  2360  2485    2916       3238       4055       3837       2739       3179       3482       a


379..        745..       S65s 
t68 154       308  t7.8     3578   1.6
6..        20..        257 2.0)
2..         5..         730.7)
r.4..  32.8 35.2..30.    36..
372..        598..      4599
69 15.4       415 24.0      3859  21 1
22..         o10..       8  (88)
6..         24               ( 2.1).6..26.3 47.4..  24. 38.9..
327..         482..      4020
59   5-5       95  5-5       573   8.6
3             1.2           29 (3!.2.12. 2.1 )0.9..21.1 16.
so50..       58..        532
9.8       12.8       151.8
9..         12..        15? (1.5).0..3.5     1.4..2.8    1.6
13..       318..       386
7.6       13.8       257   1.4
22 (0.3).6 S..  s.x 1.5.-I6.9 2.5.
70..         71            958.
37   3.4       32  I.8       49r   2.0
4......         23 (0.2)
3......       3~~32(0.3).2..  5.0   3.6..5o     4.9..II..      2272..     18,936
49 41-        875 50.7      9909  54-4
34            138..       141 (1.7)
20             41             17 ( 5.0)
0...Ioo. 100..  I00. 100. 
8i 53-3       747 43-2      6 30  33.7
II2..       2272..     I8,936
30..      1622..      6,o39
73..        95..        772 
6i  5.6       io6  6.I      275  I.9
84..       2367..      9,7o8
91 oo00.0    1728..     18,214 100.0
575          4095           37,922


NOTE.-Percentage figures in perpendicular columns refer to " Help Wanted" advertisements only, and
indicate the percentage of each division to total number printed; including "Fakes " and "Boys."
Percentage figures in horizontal columns refer to legitimate advertisements by and for MEN only.
Bracketed figures in last column indicate percentage of 'more than one" and "out of town" demands
to total number of legitimate 'Help Wanted" Advertisements.








H. G. PAINE


I39


demonstrates that the "want ads" do not reflect the real ratio
between the demand and the supply of boys. Advertise for a
boy to apply in person at your office or store, and you will very
likely have more applicants than the total number of boys advertising for jobs, while other advertisers for boys are probably
having similar experiences in various parts of the city.
The obvious conclusion is simply that boys as a class don't
advertise. There are two principal reasons for this. One is
that the average boy has no money to spend in advertising, and
the other is that as a rule he has nothing to advertise excepting
the fact that he is a boy. Probably few employers would take
the time or trouble to answer advertisements by boys. It is
easier for the employer to insert a "Help Wanted" advertisement,
and by casting his eye over the crowd who apply, to pick out a few
of the most likely looking for closer inspection; or, if the boy is
wanted for office work, to have them apply in the first instance in
writing, and then to invite those sending the best letters to call in
person. The employer is looking for brightness, for capacity to
assimilate instruction, not for experience, and he depends on his
knowledge of human nature to guide him in the selection.
For the purposes of the present consideration, accordingly,
the boy factor may and should be eliminated from the problem;
and the figures next above show that when men alone are considered there are 18,936 "Situations Wanted" to 16,039 "Help
Wanted" advertisements, a difference of nearly 2,900.
FAKES.-How misleading these figures are, however, will
instantly be seen by looking at the line above, where it is shown
that of the "Help Wanted" advertisements no fewer than 6,I30,
or 33.7 per cent., fall under the head of "fakes."
A great variety of advertisements come under this classification, which comprises every kind printed in the "Help Wanted"
columns that does not represent a legitimate wage-earning opportunity. The great majority are advertisements calling for agents,
canvassers, collectors, salesmen, solicitors and so forth (and for




140


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


managers and superintendents in those cases where a close examination discloses that these terms are merely euphemisms for agent
or canvasser), where the reward, if any, depends upon commissions
and where the "employee" receives nothing until the commission
is earned. Care was taken to differentiate these advertisements
from those of responsible business houses who might desire to
engage salesmen whose income would depend upon the amount
of trade they would be able to control.
Other advertisements comprised under "fakes" are those of
civil service schools and other offers of instruction, of employment
agencies, and those evidently coming from employment agencies,
as well as many more or less veiled efforts to dispose of various
wares under the guise of "samples," "outfits," etc., including
offers of "work to be done at home," where the dupe purchases
raw material from the advertiser to decorate or otherwise to transform, but which is never accepted as "up to the necessary standard." All requests for "amateur actors to join dramatic company
in process of formation" are classed as "fakes."
FLOURISH IN HARD TIMES.-Before proceeding to a consideration of the genuine "want ads," it may prove interesting
to pursue the study of these "fakes" a little further. Run the
eye to the left, following the line of "fake ads" printed on the
twelve different dates selected. It will be seen that under fairly
normal conditions of the labor market, they run from 24.5 to
34.2 per cent. of the total number of "Help Wanted" advertisements; but that, beginning with December, I907 (when the
excess genuine visible supply begins rapidly to increase), the percentage of fakes advances with leaps and bounds to 53.3 per cent.
in July, I908. There is a drop in November to 43.2 per cent.,
although in that month the actual number of fakes reaches its
highest mark, 747. It would appear, accordingly that, roughly
speaking, the percentage of "fake ads" varies inversely with the
actual demand for labor. The harder the times, the more the
fakes blossom out in the advertising columns. (Diag. I, p. I43.)




H. G. PAINE


I4I


AGENTS, SALESMEN AND CANVASSERS.-There are various
reasons for this phenomenon. In the first place many of these
advertisements are clearly traps to catch "suckers," and to draw
from the pockets of the desperate and the inexperienced the few
dollars they have remaining or can raise. Such are most of those
requiring "security" or necessitating the purchase of "outfits,"
etc. In the second place, many concerns which regularly employ
agents and canvassers, find their sales falling off in hard times,
and seek to stem the tide by engaging more salesmen, or find
themselves compelled to supply the places of former agents who
have given up on account of the impossibility of making a living
when people refuse to buy. In the third place insurance companies
and other concerns employing canvassers and collectors endeavor
at such periods to get in touch with men who are out of work and
who would not ordinarily seek such employment, advertising
for "managers," "superintendents," etc., from  branch offices
in different parts of the city.
Sometimes differently worded advertisements will lead to the
same office. A concern with an office in the Brunswick Building
used two forms of advertisement, each giving a different address,
one the Fifth Avenue door, the other the Twenty-sixth Street door.
This was discovered by a man who actually answered the two
advertisements.
Again, men who have themselves been thrown out of employment, try to start in business for themselves with a minimum of
capital, and adopt this way of selling their wares at a minimum
of expense. The salesman gives his time and effort, and receives
nothing if unsuccessful, although the fault may rest rather with
the kind or quality of his wares than with the salesman himself.
A MEAN FORM OF GRAFT.-Advertisements for real estate
salesmen are especially suspicious, and the experience of a friend
of the writer's shows them to be mostly "fakes" and reveals a
peculiarly mean form of "graft."  A real estate speculator engages
a man to sell lots on commission. A real estate deal usually




142


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


requires considerable "working up" before it is consummated.
The prospective purchaser must be visited two or three times,
perhaps, before he will go to look at the suburb or "addition."
His railway fares must be paid. He must be placated with lunch.
This takes time, effort and money, all contributed by the salesman.
Just about the time that the customer is ready to close, the speculator declares that it is clear from the time that has elapsed that
the salesman is not up to his job, steps in and effects the sale
himself, while the salesman gets nothing and is out his time and
expenses. Even if the salesman, through inexperience, could not
have made the sale himself, the speculator has been saved all the
trouble and cost of the "working up" process. The customer has
been told everything he is to be permitted to know about the
property, excepting the interesting fact that he is going to buy it.
To convey that information convincingly requires the intervention
of the glib and plausible real estate "expert" himself.
GENUINE SUPPLY AND DEMAND.-Eliminating, then, "fakes"
and "boys" from the "Help Wanted" advertisements, there
remains a total apparent demand of 9,909 as against a supply of
I8,936. (Diag. 2, p. I44, shows relation in each class.)
MORE THAN ONE WANTED.-These figures, however, fail
to express the actual relation of demand and supply even as
reflected in the "want ads"; for each "Situations Wanted"
advertisement proclaims the desire of only a single worker for
labor, while the figures in dark face type show that 1,46I employers wanted more than one worker. More than one means at
least two, and may mean many more. Only occasionally is the
exact number specified, as when one contractor calls for "twenty
carpenters," and another asks for "ten sailors to paint ships," or
when a tailor asks for "two bushelmen." Usually the advertiser
contents himself with the use of the plural, stating that "tinsmiths," "painters" or what not are wanted. It is clear then,
that the total "Help Wanted" advertisements should be increased




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Diag. i.-Percentage of each kind of "help wanted" among the advertisements studied. The order, reading
from left to right, is Clerical, Skilled, Unskilled, Agricultural, Domestic, Professional, Boys, and
"Fakes," "Fakes" being solid black.




I44


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK,2 IV        '                                                            i MP*U!'           1- I                   I"                            l
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Diag. 2.-Relation of situations wanted and help wanted advertisements in each
class of labor.  Black columns, situations wanted; shaded columns, help
wanted. At the top is added a section allowing one additional instance of
help wanted for each advertisement calling for more than one.




H. G. PAINE


145


to II,370 by the addition of 1,46I, as a minimum, and it would
probably be within limits to add another 1,46I, making I2,83I.
HELP WANTED OUT OF TOWN.-So far as the labor market in
the city is concerned, these figures would still further have to be
revised by disregarding the 517 advertisements from out of town
employers, although they undoubtedly offer opportunities to men
living in New York who care to or who are able to move to another
town. Although it does not appear on Chart No. 3, it is interesting
to note that of these 517 advertisements from out of town 99, or
19.1 per cent., call for more than one worker, as against a per cent.
of II.7 of "more than one" advertisements to the total number
of "Help Wanted."
APPARENT EXCESS SUPPLY.-In the period selected, however,
there is still seen to be considerable excess of supply over demand,
and a glance at the two first totals in each of the six classifications
will show that this excess has been generally maintained.
PROFESSIONAL LABOR.-Taking the different classifications in
order and still working upward, it is seen that professional "want
ads" are of small importance numerically, forming only 5 per cent.
of the " Situations Wanted " and 4.9 per cent. of the "Help Wanted"
advertisements, while inspection proves them to be of small importance professionally. Most of the "artists," "dentists" and
"musicians" sought for and seeking employment are of a grade
below many of those appearing under the head of skilled labor.
They are usually sought for singly, only 23 employers calling for
more than one of a kind, while 32 were wanted out of town,
indicating that New York is still regarded as the center of culture
and the fine arts!
DOMESTIC LABOR.-The class of "Domestic Labor," next
above, shows an amazing discrepancy between the number of
those seeking employment and these seeking help,-3,I66 to 257.
On the face of it, no such ratio of difference can exist between the
actual supply and demand. If it did, men servants would seek
other employment. The natural explanation is that as a rule
IO0




146


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


employers of male domestic labor do not advertise, but prefer to
interview servants at responsible agencies and intelligence offices,
or to answer advertisements, asking a few selected men to call at
hours when they will not encounter one another and be able to exchange notes. Experience also indicates that this great number of
servants constantly seeking situations is due in part to the ease with
which servants can get engagements when out of work, which makes
them ready to leave places on little provocation, or if things do not
exactly suit them. The servant problem has always been a difficult one, but the excess of supply has never seemed to be a factor in
it. The problem has usually stood by itself, as apart from the
general labor problem, and it would perhaps have been better to
treat it separately in this investigation. The elimination of
"Domestic Labor" from the division of classified labor in Chart
No. 3 would make the total figures for "Situations Wanted"
I4,750, and for "Help Wanted" 9,652, and counting each of those
calling for more than one to mean at least two, I4,750 to II,341.
JAPANESE AS SERVANTS.-While still considering the question
of "Domestic Labor" it is worth while to note how largely the
Japanese figure in both supply and demand columns, as valets and
houseworkers. And it may be worth noting, also, that experience
has shown that the Japanese are notoriously inconstant in their
allegiance to white employers, changing places frequently, although
usually ready to supply a substitute. The substitute, however, is
often unsatisfactory, with the result that the next day a Japanese
boy is advertising for a place and an employer is looking for a boy.
AGRICULTURAL LABOR.-Agricultural labor figures so slightly
in the "want ad" columns of the New York newspapers as scarcely
to warrant a separate classification. Gardeners form the bulk of
those noted, and it has been assumed that all were wanted for
places out of town, although it is possible that a few may have been
employed within the city limits. When an advertiser gives his address as the Herald office or somewhere in Worth Street, it is impossible to determine whether he lives in New Jersey or Staten Island.




H. G. PAINE


147


UNSKILLED LABOR.-" Unskilled Labor," next after "Domestic
Labor," shows the greatest discrepancy between supply and
demand. Even allowing for those cases where more than one were
wanted, the apparent supply was more than double the apparent
demand.
SKILLED LABOR.-"Skilled Labor," however, shows a close
balance between supply and demand. The difference, only 740,
is more than made up by the 875 cases where employers wanted
more than one worker, affording the only instance in classified
labor where the total demand exceeds the total supply. "Skilled
Labor" also shows the greatest percentage (exclusive of "Agricultural Labor") of "out-of-town" demands. Note that skilled labor
amounts to 38.9 per cent. of the total demand for labor and only to
24.2 per cent. of the total supply. It would appear that the
skilled laborer has a better chance to procure employment than
any other kind of worker. It was observed in the course of this
investigation that "housesmiths" did not figure at all in the "want
ads," and that the building trades in general made little use of the
"want" columns. There were some carpenters and painters
wanted for jobs and in shops, and for out of town demands, and
occasional masons and plasterers, but the labor for big building
operations appears to be secured independently of the newspapers.
The noticeable increase of chauffeurs, advertising and advertised
for, during the last two years prompted a rough comparison with
"coachmen," with the result that there was noticed an apparent
increase in the supply of the latter, indicating some relation between the two employments, and that the character of one kind of
service was in process of elevation from the grade of "domestic"
to skilled labor.
CLERICAL LABOR.-"Clerical Labor" bulks numerically most
largely of all the six classes in the "want ads," but only slightly
more than Skilled Labor, as will be seen by adding together the
figures for demand and supply in both cases, which is not done on
the chart. The totals are 9,229 for "clerical" and 8,458 for




I48


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


"skilled," but adding 257 and 875 respectively for "more than one"
demands, the results are changed to 9,486 and 9,333. Supply
largely exceeds demand, however, in the case of " Clerical Labor,"
as is shown by the actual figures as well as by the percentage.
Compared with "Skilled Labor," it is interesting to observe the
difference between the "more than one" demands and also that
between the "out-of-town" demands,-73 to 209. It is evidently
easier for an out-of-town employer to find the clerk that he wants
in his own neighborhood than it is to find the skilled labor that he
needs. Any one who can read, write and cipher is a potential
clerk, but skilled laborers, when the local demand is exhausted,
are naturally sought in the great centers of industrial activity.
The greater number of "more than one" demands in the case
of skilled labor is possibly due to the fact that productive labor
responds more immediately to trade fluctuations. If a manufacturer receives a sudden demand for more goods than he can normally produce with his usual force of operatives within a specified
time, he must increase his force until the emergency has passed.
The order may have come through a mercantile establishment
which will find the handling of the additional business no special
tax upon its normal force of clerks.
The average tenure of service may be longer in the caseof
clerks than of mechanics as a result of this slower response to trade
fluctuations, and this might account for the greater excess of supply
in one case than the other, without necessarily implying an inferior
condition in the labor market,-the average clerk having to wait
longer for his job than the average mechanic, but holding it longer
when he has obtained it. This is merely suggested as a subject
for possible further consideration or investigation.
A considerable proportion of those advertising for clerical
situations are foreigners, and the chief examiner in this investigation, himself of foreign birth, volunteers the comment that "many
of these men, while without any particular trade or profession, are
of more than ordinary culture and attainments." The examiner




H. G. PAINE


I49


is a man of long residence and newspaper experience in New York.
It may be noted that banks, banking houses, trust companies and
other financial concerns do not figure in the "Help Wanted"
columns. They have, as a rule, more applications on their waiting
lists than would supply them all with a full force of employees.
COMPARISON BY PERIODS.-A comparison of the totals of
classified "Situations Wanted" and "Help Wanted" advertisements printed on each of the selected dates will afford an interesting
study. If in 1902 and 1905, the misleading item of "Domestic
Labor" will be disregarded, and an allowance of one additional be
made for each "Help Wanted" advertisement calling for "more
than one" workers, the results will show much less difference
between supply and demand than appears from a superficial
examination. As these figures were not worked out in the chart,
they are given here (see Diag. 3, p. 151):
1902                 1903
April  August December  April  August December
Situations Wanted.....1185  93I   I009   io66   1149   1481
Help Wanted..........  9   96      852    888    335    504
Excess Supply.........  66   15    157     I78
Excess Demand..............         86     23
It will be seen that in August and December, I905, demand
actually exceeded supply and that there was a negligible difference
in August, 1902. The figures for 1907 and I908, however, tell a
different story:
1907                  1908
October December February  May  July  November
Situations Wanted.....  I148  1363  1393  I603  1198   1954
Help Wanted.......... I310  562    620     63     476   Iooo
Excess Supply.........  8   8       773    972    722    954
—;;;-'~!-;;7-" 1' '"I 9~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




I50


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


In October, just before the "panic," the balance was very
nearly maintained; but in December the demand had fallen off
tremendously, and it is odd to note that the supply had actually
fallen off also. This may indicate that employers were keeping
on old employees, so far as possible, but without taking on the
extra hands that the holiday trade usually calls for. The figures
for I908 seem to indicate that the conditions so far as the labor
market is concerned, have not improved, the figures for November
8 showing a greater volume of demand, indeed, but a corresponding
increase of supply.
COMPARISON BY PRINCIPAL CLASSES.-Taking up the three
principal classes of labor,-clerical, skilled and unskilled,-and
comparing them with respect to demand and supply at the selected
periods, and allowing for the advertisements calling for more than
one, it is seen that in every month up to December, 1907, the apparent demand for skilled labor was in excess of the supply: 236 in
excess in August, 1905, 184 in excess in December, I905, 151 in
excess in October, I907. (Diag. 4, p. I52.)
At the same seven periods the supply of clerical labor was
somewhat more than the demand, excepting in August, I902,
and in August, 1905, when the balance was the other way. The
greatest excess of supply was in April, 1902, when it was I27.
It was only 48 in December, I902, only 28 in April, 1905, only 24
in December, I905, and 73 in October, I907. (Diag. 5, p. I53.)
On none of these dates did the demand for unskilled labor
approach anywhere near the supply. The most favorable months
were August and December, I905. ' (Diag. 6, p. 154.)
Beginning with December, I907, each of the three principal
classes shows a persistent excess of supply, the demand being
consistently strongest in the case of skilled labor (rising to 52I
"Help Wanted" as against 598 "Situations Wanted" in November, I908) and weakest in the case of unskilled labor, falling to 62
as against 372 in July, 1908, and to 107 as against 482 in Novem



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Diag. 3.-Advertisements for and by "males" in the N. Y. Sunday World and Herald, on 2d Sunday of
each month, excluding fakes, boys, and domestic labor, and allowing two for each "more than one"
wanted. The black column represents situations wanted (total I5,750); the shaded column help
wanted (total 11,113).


M
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54




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3Cc   S  So /I   S If s                       s                             s If SS  # St S     H    4   I
/Ai  Si                         S       aC                             a. /f                   i.
Diag. 4.-Skilled labor. Relation between situations wanted and help wanted at different periods.




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UIAI      Dag.   <.l       lbor. Rlto bewen ita& io. wt, an hel wante             r     r
Diag. 5.-Clerical labor. Relation between situations wanted and help wanted at different periods.
Diag. 5.-Clerical labor. Relation between situations wanted and help wanted at different periods.


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Diag. 6.-Unskilled labor. Relation between situations wanted and help wanted at different periods.




H. G. PAINE


I55


ber, I908. At no time since October, I908, has the demand for
clerical labor equalled 50 per cent. of the supply.
OBSERVATIONS.-It is apparent, accordingly, that to some
considerable extent, at least, the "want ads" reflect the condition
of the labor market, when certain obviously misleading factors
have been eliminated. How far other factors not herein taken into
account may affect the apparent result one way or another it is
not possible from the data at hand to determine. In spite of
the large number of "want ads" published every week, they must
comprise a very small proportion of the actual labor exchange.
The actual relations of supply and demand may be quite different
from those of the want columns. It would seem as if the "Help
Wanted" advertisements would be likely to stand in a closer relation to the actual demand than the "Situations Wanted" advertisements; for no employer with an unsatisfied demand for labor
would spare the trouble or cost of an advertisement, while with
many men out work, the "want ad" is only made use of as a last
resort.
Several men who have advertised for situations were interviewed, but not enough to form the foundation of a judgment as
to the effectiveness of this means of getting employment. A great
deal must depend upon the class of labor offered, the manner in
which the advertisement is worded and the period at which it is
printed. Some said that the only answers they had received to
"Situations Wanted" advertisements were from  employment
agencies and from concerns wanting agents and canvassers.
Others have received notifications to call which did not result in
employment. A few had been successful in obtaining work by
this means. As in the case of men who depend upon answering the
"Help Wanted" advertisements, success must inevitably depend
largely upon the persistence, the personality and the capability
of the applicant.
"WORLD" AND "HERALD" COMPARED.-Turning from Chart
No. 3 to Nos. i and 2, it is interesting to note the different impres



156       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK
sions as to the relative volume of supply and demand in the different classes of labor conveyed by these two charts.
In spite of the falling off in demand since October, I907, the
World shows a slight excess of demand in its grand total, 6,664
to 6,632; while the Herald's corresponding figures are 4,706 to
12,304. Thus, it is seen that the Herald is preferred as a medium
by those with labor to sell, while more employers patronize the
World. Clerks and servants figure most largely among the
patrons of the Herald's "want ad" columns, while skilled labor
and its employers take up nearly half of the World's "want ad"
space. Unskilled labor advertises almost equally in both newspapers, but finds more than twice as many jobs waiting for it in
the World.
The arrangement and classification of "want ads" is much
better managed in the World than in the Herald. In the former,
it is easy to find what you are looking for, if it is there. In the
latter, it is necessary to read carefully every advertisement to be
sure you have not missed what you may be searching for. Other
comparisons and reflections thereon might be made; but it has
been the aim only to point out the most significant differences
between the two newspapers as labor clearing houses.
VOICELESS INCOMPETENTS.-One reflection demands expression before closing. It is on the pitiful inability of many of those
seeking work to say so in a way likely to bring it. There will be
dozens of them together, especially under the heads of "clerical"
and "unskilled labor," that are worded almost identically, and
so as to repel rather than to attract inquiry on the part of possible
employers. Willingness "to do anything," which so many
advertisements proclaim, inevitably creates the impression of
ability to do nothing worth mentioning. Perhaps some such
inferential incompetents obtain work through advertising their
putative incapacity; but it would seem as if in most instances they
were simply giving their money to the newspapers without possibility of return.




EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM MR. ARTHUR I.
STREET,
OF CHICAGO, EDITOR OF STREET'S "PANDEX OF THE NEWS."
I enclose herewith statement compiled from the Chicago
Tribune and the Chicago News. The News carries no "Situations Wanted," but specializes on "Help Wanted." The Tribune
is the only other considerable "want ad" medium in the city.
You will observe that I have taken somewhat different periods
from those upon which Mr. Paine has been working in New York,
but I made the change after going very carefully into the statistics
of the different papers here. It appears, curiously enough, that
I906 was the biggest year in Chicago in classified advertising, also,
in general, the maximum of want advertisements appears in April
and the minimum in August. The judgment of the managers of
the different papers was that you would get your best estimate of
conditions by using these two months only, except in the case of
November, I907, when the effect of the panic was first felt.
I am cautioned against laying too much stress upon the indications of "Situations Wanted" advertisements. A large percentage of these is false, the columns being "stuffed;" also a
considerable variation in the aggregate is made according to the
variations in price asked by the papers. When a newspaper wishes
to make a special run on want advertisements it cuts the price per
line.
While, of course, "Help Wanted" columns reflect more the
demand for labor than advertisements for situations, they are a
better guide to the extent to which want advertisements fill the
function of a labor medium.
The manager of the Chicago News calls my attention to the
fact that in the ten months ending October 31, I908, his paper
lost 1,564 columns of classified advertising as compared with the
totals of 1907, and of this amount 1,510 columns represented
"want ads."
DECEMBER I, 1908.
I57




I58


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


WANT ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE CHICAGO "TRIBUNE"
1902.      1906.     1907 TO 1908.
SECOND     SECOND       SECOND  ~
SUNDAY IN  SUNAY IN     SUNDAY IN
CLASS OF LABOR.                   J                _   - 
Z            z
Situations wanted.  I154  96   I58   104 I67 134 165     978
Clerical        Help wanted......368 298     442   494 25    347 351 2,551
More than one...    13    0    I     I   12....    6    62
Skilled         Situations wanted.  51   38    55    36  6o   65   54   359
le Help wanted...     147 I8    220   132   95   77  86   875
Unskilled     f Situations wanted    27   I6    65    53  53   76   59   349
Help wanted....      8    3    33    25   9    8   I3    09
Domestic        Situations wanted     3    8    29    I8  37   33   44   I82
Help wanted.          8    8     I   I5    8   12    9   71
Boys            Situations wanted.   4    4     2....    2....    3    15
Help wanted.....     94   49   123    48  35    4   29   392
Miscellaneous [ Situations wanted.  56   62    7     53  90   48   65   445
sceaneos  Help wanted......  137 II0  114  io8  45  64  62  640
All classes     Situations wanted   305 224    380   264 409 356 390 2,328
Help wanted......   785 596    954  832 455 522 556 4,700
Total number of advertisements.... I,ogo 820 1,334,096 864 878 946 7,028


WANT ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE CHICAGO "NEWS" " HELP
WANTED" ONLY


1902.       1906.      1907 T 1908. 
SECOND      SECOND        SECOND.
TUESDAY IN  TUESDAY IN    TUESDAY IN       >'
CLASS OF LABOR.                         - _       - _  
>   <U     >     OH
Clerical         One....          56   50     96    89   44    62   52   449
More than one           3....      2     7    3    3     2    20
Skilled.........324.256                           389   325 1231 208    i66 1,799
Unskilled: more than one...........    12     3    13    17     5    5    7    72
Boys............................       95   62    Io6    69   43    26   28   429
Miscellaneous....................     142 112     139    22   56   46    37   654
Total.                    6~~~~~~~~~32  93 [4  2  8     5    9,2


Total.......................


632 493


745


629 282


350


292 3,423




APPENDIX VII


Reports Prepared in the Bureau of Social
Research of the New York School
of Philanthropy
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF DR. R. C. MCCREA
TRADE UNIONS AS EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES,
BY MR. E. E. PRATT
The first fact of importance which stands out from a general
visiting and questioning of the trades unions and labor organizations in regard to methods used in finding work for their members,
is, that their systems, if indeed they can be called systems, are
exceedingly haphazard. Although many of the unions announce
that this is their reason for existing, closer inquiry reveals the
fact that they probably keep an out-of-work list or book, from
which men are sent to any job which happens to be reported to
the office of the union. This is the most common practice and
serves very well in a rough way. In some cases the men who
happen to be at the union headquarters are sent out in answer to
calls for help; in other cases the men are taken in order from the
list, or according to their fitness for the position which is to be
filled. In some unions all the information given out in regard to
employment to be had is placed on a blackboard and as many
men as wish may respond to the notice. However, the better
organized a trade may be, the more effectively it controls a particular craft or line of industry, the more effective are its methods
'59




i6o


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


in trade-union activity, the better organized is its system of providing employment. In those lines of trade in which working
agreements are in force with employers, the employment of union
men is usually obligatory, and when any employer wants a man,
he must send to the union headquarters. Non-union men have
in these trades no chance to secure a job.
Probably the most effective organizations in the city are the
Pattern-makers, the Newspaper Pressmen and the Building
Trades. The Newspaper Pressmen are Ioo per cent. organized
and control the employment of their members exclusively; if
work is short, the organization puts some of its men on half time,
in order to give some work to all, and if any increase in the force
is necessary, the organization fills the vacancies by promoting
its apprentices. The Pattern-makers and Building Trades are
about 90 per cent. organized and are very effective; the former
sends its members from city to city, when in search of work, at
the union's expense; the latter sends men to other locals in other
cities, at the expense of the local asking for the help, and any such
calls which prove to be "fakes" are paid for at exactly the same
rate as if the men went to work during the time they lost in response
to such calls. From these very effective systems, the methods of
the unions deteriorate rapidly, almost in the same proportion as
their grasp upon the trade declines, until among the garment
workers (whose organization does not by any means control their
craft), where over-supply commonly exists, and where parasitic
labor hovers on the margin of the labor supply, the means taken
to assist members in securing employment are few indeed. The
officers of most of the locals admitted that they could usually do
but little, and that the men sought work wherever and in whatever
way they could, and therefore could furnish no information as to
the numbers supplied with work through the unions.
Unskilled labor is but slightly organized, and therefore
could furnish little data for this inquiry. It is, of course, very
difficult to say exactly what occupations may be classed as un



E. E. PRATT


I6I


skilled labor; such jobs as street-paving, lamp-lighting, and the
needle trades being called crafts or trades. However, among
those occupations which are generally regarded as unskilled, the
greatest need for accurate and reliable employment intermediaries
is felt most keenly.
Any group of persons attempting to start an employment agency
will need, I believe, in order to secure the support of the trades
unions, to keep their hands strictly out of labor disputes, and
never furnish or encourage men to work in shops where the full
union standard is not openly or tacitly admitted to exist. The
unions are, as a rule, not at all opposed to such a scheme as I could
outline, i. e., a central labor exchange, with branches perhaps in
many cities. The well organized trades usually were of the opinion
that no such agency was needed, at least in their own crafts, but
were perfectly willing to co6p,rate in a friendly manner. Those
trades which were less well organized were many of them fearful
lest such an agency would furnish scab labor or, if not actually
strike-breaking labor, men who would be willing to work under
conditions inferior to those demanded by the union, which they
maintain would weaken trade-union organizations. In the majority of cases, the business agents or the secretaries would not commit
themselves upon the proposition, but were evidently willing to
cooperate so long as such an agency did not interfere with tradeunion activities. The unions of workers not so well organized
(particularly the garment workers which in all its branches controls,
according to the statements of its officers, about eighty-five thousand
members in Greater New York, United Hebrew Trades 50,000,
United Garment Workers 35,000; there are 237,648 persons
employed in the clothing and allied trades in New York City,
according to the report of the State Bureau of Factory Inspection,
I906) are willing to cooperate in any way with such an employment agency. Of course, the entire non-unionized field, largely
the unskilled workers, does not come within the scope of these
statements, and would probably be most largely benefitted by any
scheme of philanthropic employment agencies.
II




i62


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


In a very few cases, usually among the loosely organized trades,
the unions sometimes found or gave employment to non-union
members, sometimes with the pledge of joining the organization
and sometimes without any such avowed intention; these were,
however, sporadic cases, The better organized unions find
employment only for their own members.
Again, in the matter of conditions under which men are allowed
by union rules to work, those unions which control or nearly
control their trades, allow men to work only under agreements
with employers, or in recognized union shops; while in the less
effectively organized unions the members are allowed to work
wherever they please so long as they receive the union wages; in
still other unions, such as the garment workers, wherever they are
able to secure employment. There was a noticeable relaxing of
union restrictions during the recent industrial depression.
In the international and national organizations there were
usually some methods, more or less effectively organized, for
disseminating information as to conditions of the trade in different
sections of the country. This information may be sent out through
the organization periodical, or it may only be circulated through
the correspondence of the secretary. In some cases men are sent
out of the city, in others they are brought into the city, and often
both means are employed; traveling cards are provided by some
unions, while others simply give a transfer to the particular union
to which a member may be directing his course.
There are no exact data available as to the number of positions
reported, the number of applicants, or the number of positions
actually filled. This is due to a number of causes: (i) accurate
records are not kept; (2) the men return frequently for work and
several positions may be found for one man in the course of a year;
(3) men sent out to accept the positions do not report; (4) out-ofwork lists are kept, but the names are crossed off, whether the men
receive positions through the agency of the union or by their own
efforts; (5) lists of positions reported vacant are not kept.




E. E. PRATT


I63


The inclination to move about from city to city varies greatly
in the different unions, some unions reporting that their men leave
the city quite readily, while others report that their members very
rarely leave New York City. The building industry exhibited in
this respect the greatest mobility, while the garment workers and
mechanical occupations are the least mobile. The printers seem
to stand between the others.
It seems to be the opinion of the union leaders with whom I
have talked, that the greatest need for an employment agency is
between different cities, an agency which would be able to say
exactly what the state of employment is in the various labor centers,
and to place men where they are needed. Some of the secretaries
and delegates received this suggestion with some degree of enthusiasm and were willing to give support to an agency doing such
work. Most of the union officials seemed to realize their own
inefficiency in this regard.
The organizations visited in this inquiry do not, by any means,
include all the unions in the city of New York; it was necessarily
limited to those which had offices, or headquarters, open during
the day. The great numbers that had periodical meetings only,
could not be visited. A list of the unions to be interviewed was
made and classified according to localities, in order to economize
time; they were then visited in order as the convenience of their
location indicated; information was secured from the officials who
were in the office; if there was no one there, none was secured
from that particluar union. A second visit was made to a union
only in case of a large and prominent organization whose opinion
was especially desirable as representing a large body of organized
labor, or a particular class of labor.
It seems, then, from the unions visited (some thirty, selected
thus quite at random from all the trades, and representing, perhaps,
a very large percentage of unionized labor in the city) that even for
unionized trades and occupations an inter-city employment agency
would be exceedingly useful; that in the less strongly organized




I64


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


labor groups within the city itself, a general employment agency
would be able to place a large number of unemployed, and to adjust the labor supply to demands in the labor market to a considerable degree. Its functions would be, in some directions, restricted to
gathering information as to where work was slack and where there
was need for men. It would be quite necessary, I believe, to co6perate with the unions in some very intimate way, or their opposition
might prove a serious handicap.
The chief facts shown by this inquiry may thus be summarized:
I. That while employment is taken care of reasonably well
within the trade by the better organized and stronger unions, the
weaker and less efficient do not meet the needs of the situation.
2. That in most of the unions, whether well or poorly organized,
little is done toward the adjustment of labor supply as between
different localities. In this field the agency would be most effective.
3. That the trade unions will be very favorable to a General
Employment Exchange so long as it does not interfere with union
activities.
NOTES OF INTERVIEWS WITH TRADE UNION
OFFICIALS,
BY MR. E. E. PRATT
The following information was gathered in an inquiry relating
to the efficiency of trade-union methods in finding employment
for their members; in other words, the object was to find out how
far the union organizations acted as employment agencies. The
inquiry also aimed to find out what the attitude of the unions
would be toward a General Employment Bureau. The attitude
of the officers interviewed has not been put down, since such
statements as they made were purely of personal opinion and not
of trade union policy; and since all the other statements below




E. E. PRATT                    i65
are of actual facts, the attitude of the union can be better and more
fairly summarized.
In not a single instance was opposition manifest; in all cases
the proposition to establish a General Philanthropic Employment
Bureau met with approval, although in some cases a qualified
approval. The qualification usually had to do with a suspected
danger to trade-union policies or activities, and in fact approval
in every case was given with either the stated or the implied qualification that such an agency should act in harmony, at least,
with organized labor and its program. In some of the unions
which completely controlled their trades, or were very efficient
in the administration of their employment features, such an agency
was held to be unnecessary in their particular trades.
In the following summary, membership refers to Greater
New York and its immediate vicinity. The membership in the
international union is given in case of such a union being strongly
organized. No assistance is given to non-members unless specified. Unless so stated, its members are not sent out of the city
nor are any expenses paid.
I. BUILDING TRADES COUNCIL; membership 115,ooo. This
organization is the Central Federation of the Building Trades in
Greater New York. The trade is very completely organized.
The council controls the building trades in all their branches and
only a very few non-union contractors are to be found in the city.
Whenever a contractor is in need of men he sends directly to the
secretary at the central office, who refers the request to the particular trade which will be able to send the men to fill the position.
A very strict system is maintained as to the applications for men
to take positions, and for the employers to take men sent. For
example, if an employer telephones for a man, one is sent to him
and if, when that man has reached the particular address given,
another man is found at work and the man sent from the central
office is not needed, the latter receives a day's pay, whether hehas
worked or not. An efficient system of interchange of information




i66


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


between cities is maintained through a weekly paper of the building
trades, and through the correspondence of the secretary. The
transfer of workmen from city to city is accomplished in the following manner: If more men are wanted in the building trades in New
York City than can be supplied within the city, a call is immediately
sent to Philadelphia, as the nearest and most convenient city, and
then if the surplus supply of men is not sufficient to meet the
demand, calls are sent to Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and even
further. The association asking for men pays the traveling expenses.
If, for example, a Pittsburgh union asks for 50 men from New
York and only 40 receive work, the other ten receive their traveling
expenses and are paid for their time at the expense of the organization which asked for them. This precludes any fake notice of
employment. The building trades are very well organized and
have one of the most efficient systems of finding employment and
disseminating information which was found. The secretary feels
that the building trades are sufficiently well covered in the matter
of employment agencies.
II. AMALGAMATED SOCIETY OF PAINTERS AND PAPER HANGERS;
926 Third Avenue; 646 Eighth Avenue; membership Io,ooo,
United States, 75,000. This union controls about 60 per cent. of
the trade in New York City. The men are allowed to find work
wherever they can, providing the union rate is enforced. This
association maintains perhaps the largest meeting rooms and
headquarters in the city. The secretary keeps an out-of-work
list. Notices are sent out by the general secretary informing
employers that the union is ready to furnish all help required.
Employers send word when necessary and men are furnished.
The system is evidently a very loose one and the secretary himself
states that the men do most of the searching for work themselves.
The notifications of help wanted are sometimes sent to the secretary of the Building Trades Council, who then notifies the union.
About io per cent. of the men, during an ordinary year, get their
employment through the union. Men are sent to other cities




E. E. PRATT


i67


in answer to requests from employers, the latter paying the expenses. During the past year about 2,000 men have come to New
York from other cities.
III. THE CARPENTERS' DISTRICT COUNCIL, 142 East Fiftyninth Street; membership, 15,000 to i8,000, United States,
246,000. This organization controls about go per cent. of the
trade in Greater New York. The union has affiliations in other
cities and sends men out of the city or brings them in, according
to the demand. If more work is needed in one city than can be
supplied from the membership in that city, calls are sent to nearby
cities. No traveling expenses are paid. The carpenters publish
a weekly bulletin which reports the condition of business and
employment in every city in the country. This gives the members
accurate information as to where there is a probability of work
so that they can go where the need is greatest. Members do this,
however, on their own responsibility. The membership is somewhat restricted; the initiation fee is $20, a man must prove his
ability as a carpenter before an examining board, and only citizens
are accepted for membership. In Greater New York the union
employs seventeen business agents who are thoroughly conversant
with the condition of the trade employment throughout the city
and vicinity, and furnish jobs whenever possible. The system
of finding work in the carpenters' organization is rather loose.
A blackboard is kept at the central office on which the addresses
and names of employers wanting men are posted. The men come
to the assembly rooms, which are large and where the members
gather from day to day, and from which they go out in search for
work. They do not report at the office and it is impossible to keep
any record of those who find positions by this means, nor is any
record kept of the positions reported. The business agents also
report at the union meetings, held once a week, as to the vacancies
in various parts of the city. During the last year (September 1907
to September I908) about 3,000 men migrated from New York City.
IV. ELEVATOR CONSTRUCTION AND MILL OPERATORS, I54




i68


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


East Fifty-fourth Street; membership, 900. The secretary keeps
an out-of-work list, which is filled in regular order, unless one man
is especially ill adapted for a position. This organization
thoroughly controls its craft. The membership of the union is
restricted and a thorough examination before a board of examiners
is required before men are admitted to membership. Although
a record is kept of the number finding employment through the
union, this record is very unreliable because many men remain
but a short time on a particular job; the men sent out by the office
with the addresses of vacancies do not report whether or not they
receive the positions. The union is an international organization, with affiliations in other cities. Members are supplied with
traveling cards in order to enable them to find employment in
various cities. Expenses are never paid. Members are allowed
to work only under union agreements.
V. NEW YORK NEWSPAPER PRESSMEN, 74 Lafayette Street;
membership 900, United States, 25,000. This union controls
the entire trade and is probably one of the best organized in the city.
An out-of-work list, properly speaking, is not kept, for whenever
a man is unemployed he is put immediately at work, through a
very efficient regulation of the members in their respective jobs,
conducted by the union. If work becomes slack, the men who
retain their positions work fewer days a week and the unemployed
members are given the surplus which is caused by this curtailing
of work on the part of the rest. If the number of men required
increases, the supply is not enlarged from other cities but apprentices are immediately promoted to furnish the additional supply of
workers. The Newspaper Pressmen have worked out a co-operative system of employment which effectively does away with unemployment.
VI. LITHOGRAPHERS' APPRENTICES AND PRESS FEEDERS, 41
Centre Street; membership, 500. An out-of-work list is kept
and employers needing men immediately report vacancies to the
secretary's office. Report of slack work is sent from city to city,




E. E. PRATT


I69


but no regular bulletin giving the state of employment in the city
is published. An initiation fee of $io is charged and two years'
apprenticeship is necessary for membership together with a
special examination before a committee. The attitude of the
union is favorable toward an employment agency.
VII. TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION, known as "Big Six," 74 Lafayette Street; membership in this particular union 7,000, total
membership in New York 8,000, membership in United States
45,000. About 90 per cent. of the craft in New York City is
organized. A list is kept of men out-of-work and the union acts
as its own employment agency, furnishing work to its members,
information of which is sent in by foremen and proprietors, all
shops being under a working agreement. The international
union furnishes information as to the state of employment in the
different cities. About Ioo traveling cards, which indicate the
number of men usually out of work or traveling between cities,
pass through the New York office every month. Information
which these men gather in their travels from city to city, spreads
among the members at the union meetings and forms the basis
of their information as to the state of work in other cities. No
traveling expenses are paid. The initiation fee is $5, otherwise
membership is not restrictive. The men are allowed to work only
in union shops. There are two classes of shops only, union and
non-union. Union shops are those which work under an agreement with the union and under union conditions; the non-union,
where members are not allowed to work, have no relations at all
with the union.
VIII. NEW YORK STEREOTYPERS; membership, Locals I and
o00, 865, membership in United States 3,500. About 90 per cent.
of the trade in the city is controlled. A list of the unemployed
members is kept and foremen and proprietors give information
as to any vacancies. The foremen act as intermediaries between
employers and the union, being members of the union and representatives of the employers. About o1 per cent. of the membership




170


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


left the city during the recent industrial depression, while ordinarily
many more may come to New York City than leave it. This is
because a large proportion of this business is done in Greater New
York. The initiation fee is $io, and an applicant must pass a
satisfactory examination before an examining board. An international monthly journal is published which keeps the locals
in different cities informed as to the conditions of employment.
No expenses are paid when members leave the city.
IX. LITHOGRAPHERS' INTERNATIONAL UNION; membership
I,ooo. About 75 per cent. of the trade in the city is organized.
Employers send directly to the secretary's office when in need of
help. An out-of-work book is kept, and men are sent to the
positions in order, as they appear on the book. The union occasionally pays expenses for men going out of town to secure work,
but such aid is rather exceptional and usually takes the form of a
loan from the union. Transfers are furnished by the secretary
to any member leaving the city. There are no restrictions upon
the membership other than that a man must be employed as a
lithographer and have served an apprenticeship, be thoroughly
familiar with the business and thoroughly competent to do the
work. If there is any doubt about his ability, a test, before a
committee appointed by the union, is required. The initiation
fees are low, varying with the age of the man. No records are
kept of the number of positions furnished to men during the year.
Very few have left town in search of employment.
X. TYPE PRESS FEEDERS, 13 St. Mark's Place; membership
300. Notification of vacancies is sent to the union office and
members who happen to be on hand are sent out in response.
The method employed is very crude and no statistics of the number
of vacancies reported or the number of men who found employment can be had. The initiation fee is $3.50, and the membership
is limited to men over 18 who have had three years' experience
in a printing establishment. The employment work here is very
haphazard. Nothing is done outside the city nor are persons
from outside the city given employment within.




E. E. PRATT


I7I


XI. UNITED GARMENT WORKERS, International offices, Bible
House, New York City, membership 35,000, United States 80,000.
Each local has its separate arrangement for employment of the
men and any calls which may be sent to the main office are referred
to the individual locals, either in the different cities or in the particular lines of work. The garment workers, being an international
union, are affiliated all over the country. They have succeeded in
unionizing but a small proportion of the entire trade, but that
portion is well organized and under very strict supervision by the
international office. According to the secretary very few garment
workers left New York during the recent depression: (i) because
the trade is so largely concentrated in New York City, (2) because
the Jews, who largely predominate, are not apt to move from
place to place. The secretary believes that an Employment
Bureau which would disseminate information as to the state of
trade in many different cities, and would transport workmen from
one city to another would be very valuable. Men often will not
leave New York City because so many of them have been disappointed by false reports of work; if such an agency could insure
against loss through a move to another city, it would be of inestimable help to the entire trade. Membership in the garment
workers is not restricted; their initiation fee is, by constitution,
limited to $5, and in a large majority of the locals it is less than
that amount.
XII. THE CUTTERS' UNION, 41 Waverly Place; membership
3,000, United States 7,000; a local of the United Garment Workers.
The union keeps a list of the men out-of-work and positions are
found through the information of employers or members, who
keep the secretary informed as to the state of employment in the
different manufacturing establishments. Men are allowed to
work wherever they can find employment, the only restriction
being that they shall work in establishments where the salary is
fair and which have minimum union conditions. The Cutters'
Union endeavors to keep the quality of work done by its members




I72


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


up to such a standard that if an employer wishes the best help he
must send to the union for it. The secretary is very favorable
toward any movement which will attempt to provide men with
employment so long as it is not directly in opposition to union
policies and so long as it would cooperate with organized labor.
XIII. SHIRT MAKERS' UNION, 20I Broome Street; membership 800. One of the loosely organized garment working unions.
Men are allowed to search for and obtain employment wherever
they can. A list of places in which vacancies are reported is kept
in the secretary's office; members who are out of work come to
the secretary and are given the names of places where they are apt
to find employment. Information as to where work may be found
is furnished either by members or employers. Members are not
sent out of the city to find employment. The initiation fee is $I;
dues 40 cents a month, although at present they are fifteen cents a
week, owing to the relief benefit being given. In I907 this union
had a membership of I,600 which has fallen during the past year
to 800,-500 men and 300 women; only half of this number are
working in what may be called union shops.
XIV. TAILORS' UNION, 269 Broome Street; membership,
I,ooo; a local union of the United Garment Workers. An out-ofwork list is kept by the secretary, and when the employers send in
for men they are sent out in order. The union does not send men
out of New York, nor are expenses of any kind paid. Just at
present 25 per cent. of the membership is idle, but in spite of the
depression in trade membership is increasing. The union attempts
to find work for members and non-members. Employment may
be found not only in union shops but also in open shops, and this
union, like others in the garment trade, has very poor control of
the labor market in its particular sphere.
XX. JACKET MAKERS, 437 Grand Street; membership 400,
and affiliated with the United Garment Workers, controls about
40 per cent. of the trade. Men who are out of work leave their
names with the secretary and are sent to employers who apply to




E. E. PRATT


I73


the union. Employment is sometimes furnished for people outside the city and occasionally men go outside, which is not,
however, a part of the union's scheme of finding employment for
its members. The initiation fee is $5, weekly dues, fifteen cents.
XXI. UNITED HEBREW TRADES, 133 Eldridge Street; membership 50,000. This is a federated union of the various Hebrew
trades, composed in all of about sixty subordinate organizations.
Every local union in the organization acts as a bureau of employment. Any calls for help which may be sent to the central office are
referred to the particular local which handles that trade or class of
business. Secretaries of the local unions receive applications from
members, and from employers. Men are never sent out of the city
and the organization never brings men into the city as a union affair.
The restrictions as to open or closed shops are loose, members being
allowed to work wherever they can find a position. They would
also, if occasion demanded, get positions for non-union men.
This organization is the large central body for the Hebrew Trades,
a sort of loosely organized federation, which handles the affairs of
a large number of individual unions in a rather general way,
giving advice and counsel to individual locals. The United
Hebrew Trades does not by any means control the business, which
is largely garment making, clothing manufacturing, and, therefore,
is not very powerful; neither is the system of securing employment
for members systematized or efficient.
XXII. KNEE-PANTS MAKERS, 133 Eldridge Street; membership I,500. A local affiliated with the United Hebrew Trades.
Men out of work apply to the secretary who keeps a list of the
positions which are available and a list of members out of work,
from which men are taken in order. Men are allowed to work
wherever they can obtain employment, except "scab" shops or
where strikes are in progress. The uinon is not strict as to wages
or union conditions. This union is loosely organized, evidently
with very little control over the trade. It not only supplies its
members but also non-members with positions, in order to en



I74


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


courage the latter to become members. Sometimes men leave
the city; it has never happened that any have come in and found
positions through the help of the unions. Membership is in no
way restricted; the initiation fee is $1.48 and the monthly dues
forty cents.
XXIII. CHILDREN'S JACKETS (NON-BASTED) ORGANIZATION,
436 Grand Street; membership 1,200, affiliated with the United
Hebrew Trades. Employers send to the secretary for men, and
are put in touch with men who are out of work. The addresses
of employers who wish men are kept on a blackboard in the
meeting rooms. There is no affiliation outside New York City,
nor are men sent from or brought into the city. Under ordinary
circumstances the members of the union are allowed to work only
in closed shops; in a season like the present they are allowed to
work wherever they can get employment, which is at best very
difficult. The initiation fee is five dollars, monthly dues thirty-five
cents.
XXIV. THE INTERNATIONAL LADIES' GARMENT WORKERS, 25
Third Avenue; membership New York City 4,000, United States
8,000. Methods of finding employment for members out of work
are as follows: (i) at union meetings the men tell one anotherof
positions open which may be obtained; (2) the chairman, before
calling the meeting to order, asks for information as to any positions which are open; (3) the business agents employed by the
union incidentally receive information of vacancies and place men;
(4) members come to the office for information which is obtainable
from the secretary, employers having left notice of any vacancies in
their shops. The secretary believes that employment agencies,
so far as skilled employment is concerned, are frauds and fakes.
There is no interchange of information between cities, and men
are not sent from one city to another.
XXV. PATTERN MAKERS' ASSOCIATION, 192 Bowery; membership New York City and vicinity within a radius of Ioo miles
1,000, United States 7,000. Men out of work sign the out-of-work




E. E. PRATT


75


book; the employers send to the secretary, and a man is sent by
the central office immediately. The secretary allows no loafing
around the office, and when a man has once signed the out-of-work
book he need go to the office no longer, but when a position is
found for him a telegram or a message, at the expense of the
Association, is sent him. The union belongs to the National
Brotherhood and is affiliated with other cities. Transportation
expenses are paid for men going to take jobs in other cities and
likewise for men coming into New York City. The union is
composed of highly skilled men and it is their aim to control the
very best men in the occupation. A few years ago this union was
discredited by employers, but it has since changed its mode of
action and today it succeeds in entirely controlling the pattern
making trade by having a monopoly of the best men in it. If an
employer wishes a good pattern maker he must send to the Pattern
Makers' Association. The initiation fee is $I6.50. From December 14, 1907, to July i8, I908, the national association spent
$3,300 in out-of-work benefits, at a rate of $5.50 a week per unemployed member. The weekly dues are at present $I.50, ordinarily fifty cents. This union has one of the best organized systems
of any of those visited, controlling the entire trade, furnishing
employment for its members, on thoroughly friendly terms with
employers, and discouraging all strikes.
XXVI. THE SHEET METAL WORKERS, 25 Third Avenue;
membership in New York City 2,500. This is a local of the
International Metal Workers, head office Kansas City, Mo. This
union has no regularly organized method of employment work,
but when the secretary is notified of positions open, a notice with
the address of the employer is put on the blackboard which is hung
up in the union rooms; members come in and look at the blackboard, and go out to search for employment. No record is kept
either of the number of vacancies reported or of the number of
positions filled. This information is only for union men. Traveling cards are furnished which enable men to go from city to city
and obtain what employment there is. The union employs four




I76


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


business agents who, in visiting the trade in different parts of
Greater New York and vicinity, keep a list of the positions which
are open and also the men who are out of work, and act as intermediaries in finding employment for those out of work.
XXVII. PORTABLE ENGINEERS, 154 East Fifty-fourth Street;
membership 900. International affiliations. A system of reciprocal intelligence is maintained between different cities of the country
and business agents are employed to look after the interests of the
men and supply positions for the unemployed. Each business
agent keeps a list of those men who are out of work and the employers either speak to the business agent or send word to the secretary
when men are needed. This trade is very well organized and controls its craft in New York City. Traveling expenses are not paid
from city to city. The members are allowed to take employment
only under the union agreement.
XXVIII. THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS,
23 Park Row; membership 8ooo, membership United States
ioo,ooo. The union controls about go per cent of the craft.
The machinists keep an out-of-work book and the members bring
information of positions vacant; the secretary sends men out in
order as they appear on the list. Monthly reports are received
from various locals throughout the country, but there is no regular
system of publishing these reports. During the last year about
800 of the members in New York City left town. There is no
reliable data as to the number of positions filled or the number of
applications for men which have been made. The members are
allowed to work both in open and closed shops. A committee
examines applicants for membership. The initiation fee is $5.
The policy of the union is not restrictive.
XXIX. FIREMEN'S UNION, I93 Bowery; membership, 3,000.
This trade is not very well organized and controls only about half
of the craft in New York City. An out-of-work list is kept.
Engineers and superintendents send directly to the secretary, who




E. E. PRATT


I77


sends men out, in order, as they appear on the list. Members
leave the city occasionally; transportation expenses are occasionally advanced by the union as a loan. An initiation fee of $5 is
charged, membership being in no other way restricted. The
firemen are not inclined to travel from one city to another. During
the year I907 between 2,800 and 2,900 men got positions through
this office. The secretary is very suspicious of any attempt on the
part of an employment agency to secure work for its unemployed
because he feels that it would be detrimental to the interests of the
union in that men would be supplied with positions and allowed
to work at terms and under conditions lower than those of the
union and thus disintegrate the,lnion. He would, however, be
favorable if active cooperation with the union is anticipated.
XXX. THE    ACTORS' PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION, 8 Union
Square; membership I,Ioo. This association is really an employment agency, licensed as such in the name of the business agent.
The union not only finds employment for its members but also
arranges bills or theatrical programs for various entertainments
throughout the city. The membership extends to actors throughout the country. When persons are out of a job they apply to the
office, which supplies them with work. This is the only theatrical
or actors' union. During the past year about six hundred people
have been furnished employment. No positions reported to them
have gone unfilled. Positions are generally restricted to those
who belong to the association, but the policy is a very liberal one
and outsiders are taken in whenever application is made. The
association belongs to the American Federation of Labor.
XXXI. THE PAVERS' UNION, 25 Third Avenue; membership,
New York City and vicinity within a radius of 50 miles 3,000,
United States Io,ooo. This union, which controls the trade to a
very large extent, furnishes employment for all of its members;
that is, whenever a contractor wishes an employee he sends to the
secretary at the central office, who sends him any man who may be
out of work. The union sends men out of New York City and finds
12




I78


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


work in the city for men from other places. The business agents
take care of unemployment within a radius of fifty miles from
City Hall. All long distance employment, i. e., work that is
reported from other cities, is done through the central office in
New York City. The work is considered a skilled occupation and
cannot be handled by unskilled individuals. There are fourteen
locals in New York City, each taking care of its own unemployed
so far as possible. There are four business agents in New York
City. Initiation fees range from $25 to $50, according to the work
done. This system of employment seems to be entirely adequate.
XXXII. THE ASPHALT-PAVERS' UNION, 154 East Fiftyfourth Street; membership about 400. All available work is
controlled by the union, and all applications for jobs must be
made directly to the secretary, who controls the working agreements which are in force with all contractors. Membership in
the union is not restricted, but the applicant must satisfy the
secretary or the business agent that he is qualified to do the work.
About 50 per cent of the membership is Italian. About io per
cent of the members left New York during the recent depression.
XXXIII. CIGAR MAKERS' UNION, I92 Bowery; local membership I,500, in the cigar trade in the United States 44,000, in
New York city 6,200 to 6,300. This is a local of the International
Order of Cigar Makers. The union supplies employees not only
to closed shops but also to open shops if union scales are paid.
Reports of vacancies are sent to the secretary by employers or by
members who may have been informed of jobs in their shop.
Information as to the state of employment in the various cities is
sent from local to local, but the system as a whole is inefficient
and does not meet the needs of the situation.
XXXIV. THE LIBERTY DAWN, 145 East Fifty-third Street;
membership 2,000, in United States 50,000. The union organization has been for the last seven years the only employment agency
in this rather miscellaneous occupation, hackmen and drivers, who
compose the union. It is well organized, and men are not brought




E. E. PRATT


179


to the city or sent to other localities if those out of work can be
helped. In that way they control the occupations named to a
large degree, but the benefits of the association are confined to
union members. The initiation fee is $25. For six years prior
to and including 1907, up to May or June, on an average of two
hundred men a year have been provided with employment.
XXXV. BARTENDERS' UNION, 145 East Fifty-third Street;
membership 2700, United States 185,000. The union controls
about 50 per cent of this trade in the city and has working agreements with most of the establishments. Men are allowed to
work wherever they can find employment, but preferably in
establishments under agreement. An out-of-work list is kept at
the secreatry's office and calls for men are sent directly to him and
filled in order from the list. Membership in the union is restricted.
The bartenders are not strongly organized and the employment
feature is comparatively unimportant.
XXXVI. EAST SIDE WAITERS' UNION, 12 St. Mark's Place;
membership New York city 500. An out-of-work list is kept by
the secretary. The union furnishes the men with traveling cards,
and as the union is affiliated throughout the country, men are often
transferred from one city to another. The union does not pay
transportation expenses. About fifty men have left town during
the last year on account of the depression.
XXXVII. INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF BOOKBINDERS,
I32 Nassau Street; membership 2000 men, iooo women; international membership 12,000. About 80 per cent. of the bookbinding craft in New York City is controlled by the union. Each
local acts as an employment agency for its particular city or its
particular line of employment. They keep a list of the members
out of work and the first man on the list is sent in response to any
reports brought in as to vacant positions which are given by members and employers. Through the international secretary information is sent from one local to another, giving the state of employment
in different cities. Members have not left town during the past




i8o


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


year to any extent owing to the fact that employment in other
cities was as depressed as in New York. No records are kept of
the number of persons securing employment through the union,
while the secretary himself designates the system as "a haphazard
affair." The bookbinders work under an agreement with the
employers but they are not restricted to union shops. Membership is not restricted and any one employed as a bookbinder is
eligible for membership. An initiation fee of $25 is charged.
XXXVIII. THE BREWERS' UNION, 193 Bowery; membership
4500, United States 44,000. About 98 per cent of the trade is
organized. The Brewers' Union maintains a regular labor
bureau for its members to which employers may send and demand
help at any time. A very strict working agreement is enforced
between the owners of establishments and the Brewers' Union,
which enables the organization to completely control all help used
in the breweries of Greater New York. This union is affiliated
with the International Union and men leave the city when there
is news of work elsewhere, but expenses are not paid. Members
are allowed to work only in union shops. The initiation fee is
$Io, but there are no other restrictions. Very few of the men are
ever out of work on account of the complete organization which
obtains in the trade. During the past year about 200 men received
work directly through the agency of the union.
XXXIX. THE BEEF AND MEAT DRIVERS; membership 200.
Controls about 80 per cent. of the trade. The secretary keeps
an out-of-work list and tries to secure the men positions. Notifications of work are sent to different cities but expenses are not
paid. Men are allowed to work wherever they can find positions
and no agreements are made with the employers. The union is
evidently rather weak and depends for what strength it has upon
the disagreeable and difficult nature of the work.




ATTITUDE OF EMPLOYERS TOWARD GENERAL EMPLOYMENT BUREAU,
BY MR. E. E. PRATT
It is rather difficult to make progress with employers of labor
in an inquiry as to their attitude toward a general employment
bureau, for several reasons: I experienced more or less difficulty
in finding the officer who had the authority to control the policy
of hiring men; the officers in authority did not, in many cases,
actually hire the men and were not conversant with the actual
difficulties,-frequently this function is parcelled out to the heads
of departments, the superintendents of the factories usually have
charge of the manual labor. In the case of large corporations,
especially, was the hiring of the various classes of labor divided
among many officials. The chief officers were usually favorably
impressed with such a plan as that of a general labor exchange;
their part in the hiring of men had to do, however, only with a
small amount of clerical help in the New York offices of the company. All the manual or day labor is hired at the various factories,
and as it is usually exclusively in the hands of the local superintendent such questions very seldom come to the notice of the
heads of corporations or companies in the New York offices. I
also found that firms located wholly in New York City, both offices
and manufacturing, were inclined to treat such a proposition much
more lightly than those having manufacturing plants located at
some distance from the city or in the West.
Data secured in connection with another study, The Industrial
Causes of Congestion in New York City, which involved a study
of factories removing from New York City, show very clearly that
one of the chief advantages found by manufacturers in the city
is the large and abundant labor supply, not only unskilled but
skilled as well. In fact, the firms which have moved from New
York City to other parts of the country, and have returned here
I8I




I82       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


after trying to carry on a manufacturing business in a smaller
center, are those which employ the most skilled labor. This
would seem to indicate that the unskilled labor is content to go
to the small manufacturing centers, while the most skilled labor,
at least in certain lines, finds a location in New York City preeminently advantageous.
Firms with plants at various points throughout the country,
especially in the West, seem very favorable to such a Bureau.
The particular conditions existing at present make it rather difficult to approach an employer on this point, since such a Bureau
seems quite removed from his present necessity on account of the
large over-supply of labor. Many practical men are not in
sympathy with any scheme the object of which is to furnish the
unemployed with work or to assist them in finding it. Some
brand such an enterprise as paternalistic; others say that it is an
attempt to make money or to exploit the poor; others that it is
unnecessary; still others that labor which cannot help itself
should not be helped. But most of the men interviewed admit,
after the entire situation is explained, that the opportunity exists
for such an institution to do great good.
Usually the firm interviewed stated that, when the Bureau as
described had a definite proposition to make it would then be
considered. Others stated outright that they would be glad to
cooperate with our Bureau in securing labor. In very few cases
did the proposition to charge the employer a fee meet with approval.
This was due, perhaps, to the fact that most of them experience
very little difficulty in getting all the labor necessary. Representatives of some of the out-of-town manufacturers were, however,
favorable to such a scheme of fees for services rendered. That is,
manufacturers believe that if such an employment agency would
relieve them of the necessity of advertising, and furnish them with
help with speed and expedition, thus saving them the cost of
advertising and delay, they would be willing to turn a part of this
saving over to a Bureau in the shape of a fee.




E. E. PRATT


I83


A tentative proposition that an agreement should be entered
into between the various manufacturers and the Employment
Agency to keep the employers supplied with men at a certain rate
per hundred of employees, met with approval on two or three
occasions when it was proposed.
I found it very difficult to get at the proper railroad official
who was at the same time sufficiently acquainted with the details
to give any advice, and also had authority enough to give his
opinion weight. The actual employing of the very unskilled
labor is usually in the hands of the division authorities, either the
division superintendent or engineer. At present the lowest
grades of help are managed on the padrone system. That is,
the labor is supplied by agents who not only manage and control
the laborers while at work, but also keep stores and boarding
houses and supply native foremen. Large numbers of these men
are Italians who work for $I or $I.25 a day and live in box cars
which are provided free of charge. They buy provisions from
the men who hire them (the agents or padrones) at a cost of from
$I to $I.50 a week. Shoes and other clothing are sold to them
at very low prices. One superintendent with whom I talked, a
man thoroughly in sympathy with this proposition, and one who
says he has thought of a similar scheme for some time, pointed out
the difficulties of supplying the railroads with the lower classes of
labor. He spoke of the necessity for keeping to a single nationality
on a particular job, the impossibility of mixing, for example,
the Sicilian and the Neapolitan. But he declared that at any time
an Employment Bureau such as I described could bring him as
good a proposition as the Italian contractors, he would be willing
to come to an agreement. Certain unskilled labor around the car
yards, cleaning cars and various other low class jobs, could be
turned over almost immediately to such an agency. These positions
are very irregular and are held largely by Slavs. In one of the railroads there is suggestive evidence that the padrone system is in full
operation, and that the officials in charge of the hiring of men hold




I84


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


a rather lucrative position in the matter. The officer interviewed
was reluctant to give any information, but from the little he did
say it was evident that the whole thing was managed through an
outside agency which supplied all labor and that the railroad officials
had all their dealings through this one man. They were unwilling
to give out his name or allow me to see him. Another railroad
official raised the point, when I mentioned a large private agency
in the West, which has been very successful, that the western roads
were in constant need of men but that the eastern roads, especially
those entering New York City, were never in need of workmen and
that usually they could get all the labor they need. One man anticipated a little difficulty in the near future if railroad improvements
should commence, because large numbers of Italians have gone
back to Italy, but on the other hand all that is necessary to get
them again, and many more with them, is to give notice to the
agents who handle this labor, and back they come. This seems to
be a very neat device for getting around the contract labor law.
If then the proposed agency wishes to deal with the unskilled
grades of labor, it will be necessary to organize in such a manner,
and with a system so well worked out, that it can compete successfully with the padrone system. Italian officials and assistants will
be indispensable, and the system will have to correspond closely to
the present methods of the padrone. It seems doubtful, also,
whether the eastern railroads will be willing to pay for this service,
since they are evidently not paying for it now and are well satisfied.
Very few opportunities are open, however, in the general railroading business outside of this general unskilled manual labor.
Coming to manufacturing establishments, The Standard
Oil Company, with the free advertising which it constantly receives,
declares that it can at all times get more labor than it needs. The
general employment agent of that corporation was, however, very
favorable and his long and large experience makes him a valuable
ally. The labor in the plants is hired by the various superintendents and men are always referred to them for positions. Usually




E. E. PRATT


i85


there is an over-supply. Other large, well-known companies
probably have the same experience. With the less known establishments and those located at a distance from New York City,
there seems to be very little doubt that a General Employment
Agency would be effective and could with success charge the
employers a fee. In one of two cases New York offices had been
asked, during the busy season, to furnish as many as 300 men to be
sent to out-of-town factories, and the labor could not be found.
Many out-of-town employers make special arrangements for the
transporting of prospective employees. Some will furnish tickets
and then take the cost out of the employee's wages. Others
simply withhold the sum of the transportation expense until the
man has been in their employ long enough to insure reasonable
permanency. The employers then pay for the transportation.
With employers doing these things it ought to be very easy to
strike satisfactory arrangements.
Perhaps a little more emphasis can be put upon the saving in
advertising that a firm could effect through a general labor exchange,
a part of which might be paid in fees to the Bureau. This advertising, according to one of the manufacturers' associations, sometimes amounts to a considerable item, and, furthermore, employers
often find it necessary to send to quite distant localities for their
labor supply, in which case it is usually necessary to forward
traveling expenses.
The most important results of this inquiry then may thus be
summarized:
i. That employers in the immediate vicinity of New York
City do not find it difficult to secure all the labor necessary.
2. That employers outside of the largest cities (generalizing
from New York's experience) do find it difficult to get labor, that
they are at some expense to advertise and to furnish transportation
expenses, and at some disadvantage from inability to look a man
over and determine his qualifications; and that here a labor agency
could find a wide field for the surplus of the city markets.




I86


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


3. That the employers would receive such a proposition favorably and in a spirit of cooperation, even with a possibility of its
being made a business proposition when it has once proved its
real utility.
After considering the elements involved,-the labor supply, as
represented by the trade unions and the unemployed, and the
employers, the whole success of the enterprise will rest, in my
opinion, on the coordination and cooperation of the factors, and,
above all, in the most efficient, business-like, and far reaching
organization.
NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE AND THE
UNEMPLOYED IN NEW YORK CITY
BY MR. E. E. PRATT
The following facts and opinions were gathered and formulated in order to find out from those actively engaged in the work
of handling the unemployed, what the character of the men who
become the objects of charity in New York City really is, whether
they would be benefitted by a general employment agency or labor
exchange, and if such an agency would in any way alleviate unemployment as represented in the lodgers at the Municipal Lodging
House. An endeavor also was made to find out through the
Municipal Lodging House what is the status of the unemployed,
at least in the men applying there.
Mr. Yorke, the superintendent of the Municipal Lodging
House, when interviewed, was unwilling that any of his remarks
should go beyond the immediate experience which he has had at
the New York lodging house or be applied to any other class of
unemployed than those whom he has himself met in their application to the city for shelter.
Unemployment in New York City is due to the congregation




E. E. PRATT


I87


here, especially during any time of depression, of the unemployed
from other cities and the surrounding country. This is due in
part only to the great crowd of foreigners always drifting in, since
the men who apply to the lodging house for shelter are, in the
majority of cases, Americans. The propositions of the principal
nationalities, as given in the accompanying statistics, will show
that the native Americans largely predominate. (See statistical
tables attached.)
A leading cause for the concentration of the unemployed in
New York City is the generally existing opinion, perhaps not
unjustified, that if there is work anywhere it will be in the metropolis. Men who have tramped from city to city, from state to state
hear of the great railways, subways, tunnels and buildings which
New York is building, and think there should be work enough here
and to spare. They even spend their last cent to come, and when
no employment is forthcoming and they have walked the streets
day after day until their money is spent, they turn up at the Municipal Lodging House.
When a man without employment gets "down and out" in
New York City, it is pretty hard for him to get to any other place
where he can find a job if there is an oversupply of labor in the
city. There are often notices of men wanted in the West or in the
North, or down South, but the railroad fare may be $io, it may be
$25, and even then a man has no guarantee that he may not be
spending his money on a fool's errand. If a man can secure a
job in the North, in a cold climate, he cannot go unless he is
properly clothed and shod, which many of the lodging house
visitors are not. If the position offered is in the South, usually
poor clothing is no excuse. It is very difficult to get a man out of
New York City after he has once become entirely dependent.
It is in this respect that a generally organized employment
bureau, with sub-stations throughout the country from and to
which laborers might be sent, would greatly relieve the situation
and assist in adjusting the supply of labor throughout the country.




i88


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Of course the men who generally go to the Municipal Lodging
House would be unable to pay a fee and it would be quite impossible
for them to raise money for transportation or clothes. The
supplying, then, of these latter things would be quite as important
as finding the job at some distant point. Could these men be expected ever to refund the money spent in their behalf? Mr. Yorke
believes that in a large number of cases they could. In this matter
he speaks from experience, not in loaning large amounts, but small
sums which he declares are invariably returned to him after the
man has been working a few weeks. These loans are not made
promiscuously, but advanced to men who have found jobs and
haven't money enough to pay for carfare, room-rent and meals in
the meantime.
It is just at this point that a very interesting part of Mr. Yorke's
work for the unemployed comes in. A lodger finds a job, but he is
"broke" and pay day is usually two weeks in the future. What in
the meantime? The man must have food and a place to sleep.
When such a situation arises, Mr. Yorke allows the man to stay at
the lodging house and get his meals there, provides him with a
little lunch, and advances him carfare. Then for two weeks he
is in the city's home, but in these two weeks he is put on his feet.
A case in point happened as I sat in the office. A woman who had
lodged at the house for several nights came in and reported that
she had secured a position as laundress at $20 a month, but that
the work didn't begin until the following Tuesday (this was Friday)
and she would not be paid until a week from that time. What was
she to do meanwhile? The superintendent told her that she might
remain at the lodging house until she drew her first pay and, just
here, he points out, there will be a weakness in any scheme for the
employment of those out of work. He suggests that this be taken
into consideration in the formation of a plan for a general Employment Bureau.
Many of the men appearing at the Municipal Lodging House
have cards from employment agencies and evidently have had




E. E. PRATT


I89


dealings with them. Some of them, Mr. Yorke believes, are doing
a good business, but on a small scale; others are totally bad. He
gave a recent instance of men sent north on railroad work. Many
men went, but some who have drifted back to the Municipal
Lodging House report conditions inferior to those in which a horse
could live. Too often this is the case with jobs out of the city.
Many of the men do not want steady jobs, while others who do
want jobs, don't know where to go and are unable to go very great
distances for lack of carfare. Many men keep watch constantly
of the want columns in the newspapers, but their experiences are
always the same,-someone has been there ahead of them and
they became discouraged and disgusted with newspaper advertisements.
Most of the lodgers in the house are unskilled; between 30 and
40 per cent. of those lodged report as skilled; usually less than io
per cent. return themselves as clerical.
From a casual inspection of the record books of the lodging
house, it is evident that the men often change their occupations.
One of the questions asked each man is, what is your occupation?
After answering, he is asked where and in what capacity he was
last employed. In many cases a mechanic skilled in some trade
would return another occupation as that last worked at. This
occupational mobility did not appear to be great, but that some
existed there can be do doubt. The applicant is asked the name
of his last employer, who serves as a reference. A blank (see
page I90) is then sent to the lodger's former employer. The
answers on these blanks bring, when filled out, some very interesting information upon the character of the applicants.
The accompanying statistics show that a very small proportion
of the lodgers give no references. In some cases this means that
the lodger is actually unable to do so, that he is an old man, or, in
some cases, an applicant for the almshouse, of whom references are
not required. There is, however, no doubt that a large proportion
of the men are unwilling to have it found out that they have found
it necessary to ask for a night's lodging.




No. 28000
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC CHARITIES
OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE.
398 FIRST AVENUE.
NEW YORK,                        190
T o......................................................................
DEAR........................
DEAR......................
Nationality........................................ Age....
has applied to this department for assistance in his efforts to secure employment,
and states that he was employed by you in the capacity of.................
and refers to you for information as to his character and ability.
With the assurance that It will be received as confidential, will you please to
furnish, as soon as possible, the information asked for in the following questions,
together with such other facts in your possession concerning this applicant as
should be of service In defermining the question of his worthiness.
Your kind and early compliance with this request will facilitate the work of
the department, and oblige,
Respectfully yours,
WM. C. YORKE,
SUPrNI NTCNDNT................................................................................................. claim s  to  have  left  your  em ploy
about.~.~.......................ago.
Is this statement true?..................................
Was his work satisfactory?.................................................................
W hen  did  he  leave  your  employ I.................................................................................
Why did he leave your employ?........................... -....
Would you re-employ him?......................................
IS he addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor?....................
Signature of Reference,.......................
Date,......................,.......................... loo
Mlease to ive additional information on the other side of this sheet
I90




E. E. PRATT


I91


Especially during the past year (September, I907, to September,
I908), a very large number of decent men have applied at the lodging house, and their character and appearance have been exceptionally good. There is, of course, more or less falsification in the
references and returns which the men make, but Mr. Yorke
believes,-and what evidence there is bears him out,-that the
large majority give fairly truthful accounts of themselves, especially
as regards age, nationality, occupation and length of time in the
city. There can be no doubt that results are approximately
accurate. The largest opportunity, and perhaps the largest
amount, of falsification is in regard to references, although this
item is not taken as a reference, the man being asked "who was
your last employer?"  The "dead heads" or the "old timers" at
the business have a story so well made, that they are able to tell a
false one on entering in the evening and the same story again the
next morning after a bath and a good night's sleep.
In the statistics regarding references, it will be noted that very
few are found to be actually bad, while those classified under
"doubtful identification," "references not found," and "unknown
to references," may, many of them, have been due to such causes,
as a wrong street number, carelessness on the part of the employer
in answering, or perhaps confusion of names by the applicant or
in the records kept by the employer,-particularly in smaller
establishments. "Previously investigated" were those references
given by lodgers appearing on the record for the second or third
night, and therefore included under other heads. "Pending"
includes all from whom no reply has been received.
As I sat in the office, the mail came and we opened several
letters at random, answers from references. A number of employers wrote that they had discharged the particular individual in
question on account of slack work and that they would re-employ
the man if conditions allowed. No unfavorable letters happened
to be opened.




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. NATIVITY OF LODGERS BY YEARS


NTIVI1902  PER   1903     PER      1904    PER      1905     PER     1906     PER     1907     PE
CENT.            CENT.             CENT.            CENT.            CENT.            CENT.


United States............ 26,428
Ireland.....................  12,283
Germany...................   4,473
England....................
Scotland...................
H Wales......................  2,018
'  Austria.....................
Russia.....................
Italy......................
France.....................
Scandinavia................
All others..................  3,093
Total....................  48,295


54.6
25.3
09.8
04.0
06.3


29,151
12,920
4,090
*
2,359
3,853


55-7
24.7
07.8
04.5
07.3


38,332
I7,o67
7,038.'.
*
2,958
5,40I


54.2
24.I
og.g
09.9
04.2
07.6


28,523
12,357
4,748.'.
*
2,060
4,299


54-9
23.7
09.1
04.0
08.3


22,848
9,644
3,309
2,041
239
121
74
46
I89
2,274


55.8
23.5
o8.o
04.9
00.5
00.2
00.1 I
00.I
00.4
05.5


28,801
12,111
4,936
3,693
707
518
296
191
544
1,984


53.8
22.6
09.2
06.9
OI.3
00.9
oo.6
00.4
01.0
03.6


IOO.O I 52,373  lO.  70,796  100.0  51,987  100.0  40,872  IOO.O  53,74I  IOO.o




* England only, up to 19o6; not further classified.




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. NATIVITY OF LODGERS BY QUARTERS 1907-1908


1907.              1901907. 1907.     1907.              1907              1908
JANUARY TO MARCH.    APRIL TO JUNE.  JULY TO SEPTEMBER.     OBER    DEEM- JANARY TO MAR
EER.
NATIVITY.
Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.


United States...................
Ireland........................
England, Scotland, Wales........
w Germany...................
Austria........................
France........................
Russia.........................
Scandinavia....................
Italy..........................
All others...................


7,912
2,688
794
ixi8i
130
53
76
I33
49
472


59.0
20.0
05.8
08.7
00.9
00.4
00.5
oo.s
00.9
00.3
03.5


5,444
2,339
554
85I
107
21
56
92
44
35I


55-3
23.8
05.4
08.7
0I.I
00.2
oo.6
00.9
00.5
03.5


4,2 6o
2,037
596
825
89
27
59
49
37
211


52.0
24.9
07.3
10.1
OI.I
00.3
00.7
oo.6
00.5
02.5


II,i85
5,047
1,709
2,079
38I
90
327
270
i66
950


50.3
22.8
07.7
09.3
01.7
00.4
01.5
01.2
oo.8
04-3


I5,575
7,I35
2,347
3,187
867
142
I 344
57I
472
2,150


46.2
21.1
06.9
09.5
02.3
00.5
04.0
I0.7
01.4
06.4


Total...1..................... I3,488        lo.o0    9,859    I0o.0     8, 90    Io0.0   22,204    I00.0    33,790   0oo.o




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. TIME IN NEW YORK CITY BY YEARS


1902.             1903.            1904.             1905.            1906.             1907.
TIME IN CITY.
Total.    Per     Total.   Per     Total.    Per     Total.   Per     Total.    Per     Total.    Per
Cent.             Cent.            Cent.             Cent.            Cent.             Cent.


m Under 60 days..........
4  60 days-6 months........
6 months-I year...........
I year-5 years............
5 years and over...........
Natives of the City........


6,241
1,312
759
2,957
19,219
I7,807


I2.9
02.7
oi.6
o6.i
39.8
36.9


6,809
1,498
765
3,30o
20,960
19,041


13.o
02.9
oi.4
06.3
40.0
36.4


10,389
1,878
1,523
5,833
27,967
23,406


14.7
02.7
01.9
08.2
39.4
33.0


8,837
1,151
815
4,189
20,248
I6,747


I7.O
02.2
o1.6
08.i
38.9
32.2


5,275
853
689
2,579
I2,756
o1,638


i6.o
02.6
02.1
07.9
38.9
32.5


9,614
1,541
923
4,857
20,501
I6,305


17.9
02.9
OI.9
08.9
38.I
30.3


Totals............... - -   48,295  I00.O  52,373  IO.0  70,796  I00.0  5I,987  100.0  32,790  Io0.0  553,741  IOO.o
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. TIME IN NEW YORK CITY BY QUARTERS 1907-1908


1907.              1907.              1907.             1907.              1908.
JANUARY TO MARCH.    APRIL TO JUNE.   JULY TO SEPTEMBER. OCTOBER TO DECEM- JANUARY TO MARCH.
TIME IN CITY.                                                                           BER.
Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total. I Per Cent.,, i! 


H 60 days........................
^ 60 days to 6 months............
6 months to I year..............
I  to  5 years...................
5 years and over.................
Native...........................


1,77I
339
203
1,424
5,06I
4,690


I3.I
2.5
I.5
io.6
37.5
34.8


1,360
152
i6o
941
4,084
3,162


I3.8
I.5
I.6
9.6
41.4
32.1


I,099
121
112
639
3,564
2.655


13.3
I.5
I.4
7.8
43-5
32.5


5,384
929
448
1,853
7.792
5,798


24.3
4.2
2.0
8.3
35.1
26.1


8,035
3,403
i,o6i
3,121
10,425
7,745


23.9
10.I
3.2
9.3
30.8
22.7


Total.......................... I3,488  Ioo.o   9,859  100.0    8,190   I0o.o   22,204  100.0   33,790   100.0




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. AGES OF LODGERS BY YEARS


AGES                1902      Pr      1903     P        1904      P       1905      Pr      1906      Pr      1907
cent      S      cent.              cent.             cent.             cent.              cent.


Under 2 years.............
2 to 16 years..............
16 to 21 years.............
H 21 to 50 years.............
^o 50 to 70 years.............
70 years and over..........


318
242
1,466
34,907
10,657
705


oo.6
00.5
03.0
72.3
22.1
01.5


361
496
1,480
38,313
I0,909
814


00.7
00.9
02.8
73.2
20.8
oi.6


505
307
2,935
51,72I
814,386
1,042 i


00.7
00.4
04.1
73.0
20.3
OI.5


669
473
2,242
37,437
10,528
638


01.3
00.9
04.3
72.0
20.3
01.2


54I
378
1,604
28,000
9,747
602


01.3
00.9
03.9
68.5
23.9
0I.5


668
433
1,683
37,50o
12,596
860


OI.3
oo.8
03.1
69.8
23.4
oi.6


Total....................  48,295  I00.0  52,373  Ioo.o  70,796  I00.0  51,987  100.0  40,872  I00.0  53,741 o00.0
Average age, men....... 440..     39         41 -       4.
Average age, women....... 4544..      44-        42         44
~~~4.           ]4     I.  4




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. AGES OF LODGERS BY QUARTERS, 1907-1908


1907.              1907.             1907.              1907.             1908.
JANUARY TO MARCH.    APRIL TO JUNE.  JULY TO SEPTEMBER. OCTOBER TO DECEM- JANUARY TO MARCH.
AGES.                                                                              BER.
Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.  Total.  Per Cent.


2 years.........................
2 to 16 years...................
- I6 to 21 years...................
- 21 to 50 years...................
50  to  70 years...................
70 years and over.................


87
66
377
9,186
3,566
206


oo.6
00.5
02.8
68.I
26.5
OI.5


172
97
267
6,529
2,618
176


oi.8
00.9
02.7
66.2
26.6
oi.8


132
93
I92
5,402
2,218
153


oi.6
0I.I
02.3
66.0
27.1
01.9


277
'77
847
16,384
4,I94
325


01.2
oo.8
03.8
73.8
1.89
OI.5


349
297
770
27,524
4,700
I50


01.0
00.9
02.4
8I.5
I3.7
00.5


Total...........................3,488  I.o    9,859.    8,90    I00.0   22,204  100.0  33,790   100.0
Average age of men..............  4              4I              42              40              37
Average age of women...........  44             43              45              4I..        39
I                I       4       3           45 — 413




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. RESULTS OF INVESTIGATING REFERENCES OF LODGERS, BY
YEARS


RESULTS                1902.             1903              19041905.                   PR       1906      PER     1907      PE.
CENT.             CENT.              CENT.             CENT.             CENT.             CENT.


Favorable Reference.......
Bad.....................
Doubtful Identification.....
Reference not found........,\  Lodger unknown to reference...................
Previously investigated.....
Pending..................


15,920
28
1,569
2,096
1,290
I4,620
2,329


42.3.o.
04.1
05.3
03.4
38.7
06.2


17,609
i6
I,I70
1,170
I,733
1,480
I7,329
1,255


43.5
02.8
04.3
03.6
42.7
03.1


20,735
IO
IIII
1,985
1,782
24,362
I,918


40.0
02.2
03.8
03.4
46.9
03.7


I7,427
14
1,144
1,234
1,084
11,781
5,100


46.1
o3.o
03.3
02.9
31.2
13.5


I5,452
28
935
I I I
1,260
8,385
2,341


52.4
03.2
03.8
04.3
28.4
07.9


I6,095
38
1,123
1,249
I,293
11,194
6,340


43.1
00.I
03.0
03.3
03.5
3o.o
37.0
17.0


Total.............. 37,852  I00.0  40,592  I00.0  5I,903  I0o.o  37,782  I00.0  29,512  IOO.O  37,332  I00.0
Reference to last Employer  37,852  78   40,592    77   5I,903   73-3  37,782  72.7  29,512   72.2  37,332   69.3
No reference given......... IO,443   22  11,78I    23   18,893   26.7  14,205   27.3 I1,360   27.8  16,409   30.7
I.. I




NEW YORK MUNICIPAL LODGING HOUSE. RESULTS OF INVESTIGATING REFERENCES OF LODGERS BY
QUARTERS, 1907-1908


1907.
1907                1907.              1907.                                   1907.
OCTOBER TO DECEM-          1908.
JANUARY TO MARCH.    APRIL TO JUNE.   JULY TO SEPTEMBER.      BER.            JANUARY TO MARCH.
RESULTS 
Total.  Per cent.  Total.   Per cent.  Total.  Per cent.  Total.  Per cent.  Total.    Per cent.
I....


Favorable......................
Bad........................
Doubtful Identification...........
VO Reference not found.............
Unknown to reference...........
Previously investigated...........
Pending.......................


4,553
20
360
440
403
3,32I
I,304


43.8
00.2
03.4
04.2
03.9
31.9
12.6


3,591
8
211
230
276
2,185
799


49.2
00.I
02.9
03.2
03.8
29.9
I0.9


3,I44
2
i88
212
225
1,768
677


50.6
03.0
03.4
03.6
28.5
10.9


4,807
8
364
367
389
3,920
3,560


35-9
02.8
02.8
02.8
29.2
26.5


7,323
22
I,o36
973
i,o86
6,712
2,627


37.0
00.I
05-3
o5.3
05.0
05.5
33.6
I3.5


Total...................... 10,401  100.0    7,300   100.0    6,216   100.0   13,4I5   100.0   19,779    100.0
Gave Reference................   0,401    77.0    7,300    74.0    6,26     76.0   I3,415    6i.o   19,779     58.o
No Reference...................3,087     23.0    2,559    26.o    1,974    24.0    8,789    39.0   I4,OII      42.0.......




200


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


These tables show that the native residents, in spite of variations due to depressions and other causes unknown, are always
in the largest proportion, in some years more than half; that the
Irish, German, and English follow in order while other nationalities
are comparatively insignificant. The very small number of
Russians and Italians, as representing the new stream of immigrants into this country, indicate that the unemployed among
them are taken care of by other agencies and that the national
groups have not yet begun to break down. These figures may
also be taken to indicate, to a small degree, that vagrancy is not
so prevalent among our newly arrived immigrants. Taken as a
whole, the figures seem to show that in the experience of the
Municipal Lodging House the foreign element is not the greatest
among the unemployed or at least among the habitually unemployed.
The statistics showing the time within the city are quite surprising when one remembers that the lodgers who have been in
the city for five years or who are natives of New York, usually
form considerably over one-half of the total, while the floating
population, or those who have been in the city less than six months,
are in small proportion but a proportion which increases during a
period of depression, the meaning of which is that the unemployed
in New York city is largely augmented during a great period of
unemployment by those from other cities who are out of work
and who think that employment can be found here if it can be
found anywhere. These statistics emphasize the fact brought
out elsewhere that the unemployed congregate in the large cities
during periods of depression.
The age statistics are not sufficiently refined to warrant any
conclusions. There is, however, a very appreciable percentage
of lodgers over 50 years of age in which class are usually to be
put those individuals who are unemployed through invalidity
and old age, and are really hopeless paupers.
The tables concerned with the character of the lodgers should




HON. ROBERT W. HEBBERD


201


be interpreted in view of the fact presented above in explanation
of the different items named.
There is a vast amount of material in the books of this institution which could be utilized to great advantage by one interested
in the lodging house habituate, or the question of the unempolyed.
For example, each man states his regular occupation or his trade
and then gives the particular job at which he was last employed;
records which, although difficult to work up, would furnish valuable
statistics on occupational mobility.
CHARACTER OF LODGERS IN MUNICIPAL LODGING
HOUSE
AN INTERVIEW WITH HON. ROBERT W. HEBBERD
Mr. Hebberd, Commissioner of Charities, declares that the
men who visit the Municipal Lodging House, with a few exceptions, are habitually vagrant and chronically unemployed, and
that most of them would not work if given a chance. This statement he admits is not so true now, or in the present year, as it has
been in years of greater prosperity; but nevertheless the greater
proportion of them are men who are in the lower ranks of the
working classes who at any time are just on the edge of unemployment and about to be thrown off at the first sign of a depression;
in other words they are the inefficient and the casual.
It is not this class of men that will be aided, Mr. Hebberd
believes, by a general employment bureau, because they are
vagrants and in most cases so inefficient as to be undesirable in
any position.
The Department of Public Charities in conjunction with the
Street Cleaning Department is about to put in operation a scheme,
novel in many respects, to tide the unemployed over periods of
idleness. A trial of the scheme soon to be made, involves taking
a number of men from the Municipal Lodging House to Black



202


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


well's Island to break stone; they are to work there for a half day,
return to the lodging house for a good dinner, and during the
afternoon they are to be free to go where they wish,-theoretically
to search for work. Another part of the plan contemplates putting
a large number of these men at work on the streets, but at light
work, merely going about with a stick and a bag, picking up papers.
After a man has worked all the morning, he goes to the Street
Cleaning Department, presents the evidence of his labor, and
receives a card which entitles him to a dinner at the Municipal
Lodging House. The commissioner is not sanguine of the success
of this scheme because of the character of the men. No compulsion is to be exercised, the men will be asked to volunteer for
the work and if they refuse it will make no difference in their
treatment.
SUMMARY BY MR. PRATT
In summing up the results of this inquiry it appears that the
largest proportion of the lodgers in the Municipal Lodging House
are natives of this country, that their condition is due largely to
inefficiency and in a considerable degree to the use of intoxicants;
but that they are on the whole well intentioned and that the proper
adjustment might possibly be made through an employment
bureau by which many of them could be put at work and be
enabled to earn enough for their own support.
REPORT ON THE MOBILITY OF WORKERS,
BY DR. R. BRODSKY
The movement of workers from place to place and from occupation to occupation is a matter upon which one must trust for
evidence rather to general observation than to definite statistical
data. Such statistical information as is available for the United
States covers, as a rule, so limited a number of cases that generalizations based on it are quite as likely to be misleading as to be really




R. BRODSKY


203


informing. Evidence of this nature may, however, have a limited
value by way of suggesting possibilities that have been neglected
by general observers, and at the same time of affording a means of
verifying or of invalidating the results of general qualitative
observation. With this possibility in mind, an examination as
extended as time limitations would allow, has been made of the
figures presented in the United States Census Reports, reports of
state labor bureaus and free public employment offices, and of
some special investigations bearing on the following points:
I. Internal Migration (i. e., from place to place).
I. The situation.
(a) Short distance movement.
(b) Long distance movement.
2. Factors encouraging movement.
(a) Propertylessness (particularly with reference to
ownership of homes).
(b) Regional and occupational variations. Youth
and unmarried condition. Occupational variations.
II. Occupational Movement (i. e., movement from occupation
to occupation).
i. Influences compelling or strongly contributing to
occupational movement.
(a) Idleness-seasonal or otherwise.
(b) Sickness, disease and accident.
2. Duration of service in given occupations.
I. INTERNAL MIGRATION
a. SHORT DISTANCE MOVEMENT. There is a large migration
of population within limited areas, the main causes of which are
economic. This migration is made up of a movement from rural
areas to neighboring towns and cities, and between neighboring
states. This situation is general, but it is more marked the closer
the proximity to industrial centers. Boston, for instance, receives
approximately io per cent. of the addition to its population from




204       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


other towns of Massachusetts. The state of Massachusetts
receives the largest proportion of native additions to its population
from surrounding states, 14.3 per cent. coming in the aggregate
from Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut and
Rhode Island, no other state contributing as much as i per cent.
Another illustration of this fact is to be found in the experience of
the Massachusetts Free Employment Bureau which, during its
first five months of operation, received 20,454 applications for
places from inhabitants of Boston proper, 5,6o0 from 139 other
Massachusetts cities and towns, 50 from other New England
states, 5 from New York and 60 from all other states and countries.
b. LONG DISTANCE MOVEMENT. The distance travelled by
migrants varies with the degree of industrial and commercial
development of the city or section to which they go. The states
having the most developed and most varied industries receive from
other states the greatest number of migrants. Manufacturing
and commercial states draw from agricultural states. In the
interchange of people between states of these two types, there is
always a large margin or balance of migrants in favor of the more
industrial states. In the interchange between states of the same
economic type the difference is small in either direction, e. g.:


New York receives from Iowa........... 53,878
New York gives to Iowa................. 4,358
Difference....................... 49,520
New York receives from Wisconsin...... 58,520
New York gives to Wisconsin........... 6,331
Difference........................  52,007
New York receives from Pennsylvania... 114,440
New York gives to Pennsylvania......... o,868
Difference........................  3,572
New York receives from California...... 5,400
New York gives to California...........  4,544
Difference........................  856


Ratio I3 to i
Ratio 9 to I
Ratio 28 to 27


Ratio 6 to 5




R. BRODSKY


205


The total number of migrants passing between New York and
Pennsylvania aggregates 225,308 persons; between New York
and New Jersey, 273,000; between such agricultural states as
Mississippi and Louisiana, 69,463; between Iowa and Wisconsin,
57,447 -It is known that the building trades absorb many workers who
migrate from country to city. Various commercial pursuits
likewise draw many from rural to commercial and industrial areas.
An investigation of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company,
covering 200 successful applicants for employment, and showing
that I3 per cent. were formerly farmers of native birth, suggest
another line of movement from rural to surban pursuits.
2.  FACTORS ENCOURAGING MOVEMENT-(a) PROPERTYLESSNESS. The person without property, particularly of the nonhome-owning type, is likely to be more mobile than the man who
has local property attachments. Statistics of home-owning show
a small percentage of home-owners among workers in the more
industrial states or centers, a higher percentage in the less industrial
sections. For instance, the percentage of home-owners in New
York city is 12 per cent., in Fall River 18 per cent., in Jersey City
and Connecticut 20 per cent. For workers only, the percentage
would be still smaller. Fall River furnishes a particularly good
illustration. It is a town of cotton operatives, who are very
mobile. Local attachments are so weak with these workers that
fines imposed for mistakes made in work serve to drive workers
from one factory town to another. A study of 2,299 cotton
operatives in Rhode Island showed only io per cent. of home
owners. Reports of the Massachusetts Labor Bureau contain
many references to the exodus of textile operatives to Canada and
England. A sample entry records the migration of Ioo weavers
from New Bedford to Weston, Mass., where they were to be
employed on a one-year contract at slightly increased wages. In
an agricultural state like Kansas the proportion of home owners
among employees in trade and industry is higher. For instance,




206


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


a study of 390 workers, almost all members of unions, made by
the Kansas Bureau of Labor and Industry in I907, showed 15I
home-owners, a percentage of 39.
From the standpoint of occupational variations, the more
skilled the occupation, the more steady the work, and the higher
the pay, the larger in the main is the percentage of home-owners.
In Pawtucket, R. I., for instance, an investigation showed among
machinists i8 per cent. of home-owners, among workers in building
trades 15 per cent., metal workers io per cent., weavers (an
unusually mobile lot) 9 per cent., unskilled workers 7.9 per cent.
The highest percentage was for city government employees (over
i8 per cent.). Clerks showed a percentage almost as low as the
unskilled workers, 9 per cent.
Similar conclusions may be drawn from the figures for other
cities and states. For instance, reports from 99 unions in Michigan, covering 8,589 members, show the highest percentage of homeowners among the steady-working coopers (50 per cent.); the
lowest among the less steady-working, and more poorly paid cigar
makers (12 per cent.), printers (i6 per cent.), tailors (17 per cent.),
metal polishers (i8 per cent.). An investigation of 4,800 workingmen in 34 towns in Michigan showed 26 per cent. of home-owners;
another covering 5,399 in 39 towns of the same state showed 27
per cent. Of 4,948 employees in the vehicle industry in Michigan
21 per cent. owned their homes.
In the coal mines of Illinois, the percentage of homeowners
among miners is 44 per cent., mechanics 54 per cent., unskilled
workers 30 per cent.
In the electrical railway occupations, of I,o02 employees on
19 Michigan roads less than 20 per cent. owned homes. Of
1,865 employees of the Union Railroad of San Francisco, 24 per
cent. owned homes.
(b) AGE AND UNMARRIED CONDITION. Young, unmarried,
non-home-owning workers are more mobile than older, married
workers. In all cases, unskilled laborers of the same age as




R. BRODSKY


207


skilled, show a smaller percentage of marriage. In Pawtucket,
for instance, the average ages of workers and the percentage
married were as follows:
MARRIED.
AVERAGE AGE.  PER CENT.
Building Trades....................37            65
Machinists.....................        33        57
Metal Workers.....................     33        55
City Government Employees.............37         64
Bookkeepers..........................29          47
Laborers...............................37        52
Among street railway employees there is a low percentage of
marriage. Most street railway companies employ only men 35
years of age or under. The following figures covering street railway employees in five different cities, including one city and
interurban area, illustrate the situation:
30 YEARS
AND UNDER. OVER 30 YEAR MARRIED.
PER CENT. PER CENT. PER CENT.
Detroit.....................80     20      39
Scranton.........................80       20      36
Philadelphia.................   8o      20      42
Pittsburg..................... 88      I2      29.9
Connecticut R.R..............    70      30      49
Workingmen are inclined to marry at about thirty years of age
and mobility, regional as well as occupational, is in consequence
larger before thirty than after that age. The statistics of the New
York and Massachusetts free employment bureaus illustrate the
situation with regard to the relative proportions of married and
unmarried persons in skilled and unskilled pursuits. In the
New York bureau, and skilled workers placed show 40 per cent.
of married, the unskilled 32 per cent., servants 20 per cent.,
clerks, 17 per cent. In the unskilled group the occupations were
as follows:




208


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


MARRIED.
NUMBER.  PER CENT.
Drivers........................132      35
Coachmen.............................. 60  33
Laborers...........................            31
Stablemen............................... 40      25
Useful Men..........................34           i8
Handy Men....................  45    I5
Farm Hands............................ 64        I3
The figures of the Massachusetts bureau do not specify numbers
of married and unmarried by occupations. There is, however,
a general average of i8 per cent. of married persons among successful applicants. The fact that of all successful male applicants
(3,212), 75 per cent. were unskilled and io per cent. clerks (85 per
cent. in all), suggests the same situation as that afforded by the
New York figures.
Within skilled trades the percentage of marriages increases
with higher wages and greater steadiness of work.
Periodic idleness also contributes to change of residence as
well as to change of occupation. The fact that of skilled workers
who make use of employment bureaus the large proportion are
workers in the building trades tends to confirm this conclusion.
But this phase of the subject may better be treated in the next
section.
II. OCCUPATIONAL MOVEMENT
i. INFLUENCES COMPELLING MOVEMENT. (a) IDLENESS,
SEASONAL OR OTHERWISE.-Protracted idleness often leads a
person in a skilled trade to seek other temporary employment or
to change his occupation entirely. In New York City, for instance,
pressers and tailors often give up their trades for employment on
street cars, elevated or subway trains, for civil service or for business.
The inquiry into the former occupations of applicants for positions with the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., showed that 40




R. BRODSKY


209


per cent. of the applicants from skilled lines of work were previously employed in the building trades, in which seasonal periods
of idleness are, of course, very prominent. The statistics of the
free employment bureaus of New York and Massachussetts illustrate the same point. Of the skilled mechanics who applied for
positions in the New York bureau, over 30 per cent. were skilled
workers in the building trades, and in the Massachusetts bureau,
over 40 per cent.
The question whether or not idleness in the skilled trades is
more of a problem than in the unskilled cannot be answered here.
The data obtained are too incomplete to formulate a conclusion.
All we know is that the idleness in various skilled trades reappears
regularly every year, while for unskilled workers there are no
limits to the periods of idleness, forces that are less calculable
ruling there to a larger degree than elsewhere.
The consequences of idleness as to change of occupation are
very different for skilled and unskilled workers. The skilled
mechanic knows his slack times and is prepared for them, while
the unskilled man is uncertain of them, lives from hand to mouth
and in case of temporary unemployment is prepared to take up
any kind of work offered him. He changes one occupation for
another. Such is not the rule with skilled workers, who are seldom
found in the free employment bureaus or in other occupations than
their original ones.
(b) DISEASE AND INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS peculiar to certain
trades are further factors in forcing a movement of workers to
other occupations. Considering the rapid industrial development
of the United States, leading to a large amount of disease and accident in industry, the changes in occupation due to these two causes
must assume considerable importance. To determine exactly
the extent of their influence, to measure their effect upon permanency of occupation, to find their place among the other causes
of change of residence or change of occupation, one must examine
tables of sickness and accident in connection with various occupaI4




210


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


tions, and such tables have not yet been worked out with any
degree of uniformity for the Unietd States. It is also necessary to
discover what becomes of those persons who are sick or injured
but still able to work. Confining ourselves to daily observation
we may conclude that the occupations of watchmen, street-car
conductors, elevator men, handy and useful men are the dumping
ground for those persons who have previously been employed in
dangerous trades and who have suffered physical injury therein.
This conclusion is illustrated by an examination of the statistics
of sickness as a cause of idleness among applicants for employment, compiled by the New York State Free Employment Bureau,
by reports of the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics bearing
on causes of idleness among union workers, and by a hasty examination of fifty cases of workers injured in Pittsburg industries. The
Pittsburg figures show the following results: Of 24 skilled
workers, 2 (machinists) retained their former trade, 8 have been
out of work, and 14 changed their occupations as follows:
3 machinists became i street car conductor, i farmer, i laborer.
i electrician became a travelling salesman.
i painter became a porter.
i carpenter became a laborer.
i moulder became a laborer.
i boilerman became a laborer.
i ironworker became a laborer.
i steam power man became a laborer.
i steel worker became a watchman.
I gasfitter became a dealer in lumber.
2 brakemen became i fireman, I conductor.
Of 26 unskilled workers, i6 retained former occupations, i
has been out of work, i moved away, i became a prisoner, and 7
became servants and handy men at occasional labor.
Cases coming before charitable societies illustrate the same
downward tendency in which sickness, accident, the growing
incapacity due to advancing age and general inefficiency promote




R. BRODSKY


211


unusual occupational versatility. The following instances from
the case records of the New York Charity Organization Society are
typical: a driver of 56, crippled with rheumatism, was employed
as a paper-folder and as a watchman; an iron-worker found
employment as conductor, motorman, and porter; a waiter had
also been a watchman, a snow-shoveller, and a janitor; a shoemaker had worked as pantryman, wood-chopper, and paintmixer; an actress of 48 became in turn house-keeper, collector
and sample agent; and a boy of 20 had already been unsuccessfully
a designer, embroiderer, peddler, factory hand, newspaper vender and motorman.
A study of sources of information such as these, suggests that if
a skilled mechanic changes his work (not taking into account the
long unemployment period) he does it because of sickness or accident. It shows, too, that then and not before, he applies to the
free employment bureau and is willing to do any kind of work
related to his former occupation. This also partially answers the
question why free employment bureaus show so large a proportion
of applications from unskilled workers and why the unions encourage the movement toward free employment bureaus. Their
encouragement comes, not only because of solicitude for unskilled laborers who suffer from the machinations of private employment bureaus, but because the unions, although successful in
securing positions for their efficient workers, are unable to provide
employment for their own sick or injured members, and pass them
on to the free employment bureaus for easier work.
3. DURATION OF LABOR IN GIVEN OCCUPATIONS.-A high
percentage of home-owning, as well as a high marriage rate,
indicates lack of mobility among workingmen. Unemployment,
sickness or accident compel movement on the part of workers.
The conclusions reached under these heads with regard to the
relative mobility of skilled and unskilled workers receive further
verification from an examination of certain data illustrating the
period of employment in different occupations. Here again




212


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the duration is longest among skilled workers and lowest in unskilled occupations. This, of course, is to be expected. The
skilled mechanic is a specialist and he is not likely to change his
manner of work unless forced to do so by circumstances. Clerks
are mobile in response to a variety of opportunity, and they change
frequently. Unskilled workers are largely at the mercy of forces
that they cannot foresee, and by virtue of circumstances they
move in response to opportunities, which often carry them downward instead of upward as in the case of clerks.
Among skilled occupations, those which have their origin in
the handicrafts and have been modified to suit changed economic
conditions, which are not subject to seasonal variations and which
are organized, show the greatest stability. The skilled trades
which do not have apprenticeship arrangements or their equivalent,
which are not organized into trade unions and which offer seasonal
work, show the least stability. The whole policy of trade unions,
whether it be through trade agreement to check strikes and establish a uniform scale of wages for a long period over a large territory
in a particular industry, or whether it be to maintain or raise the
standard of living of workingmen to the highest possible point by
efforts to shorten hours of labor, increase wages and secure greater
responsibility from employers in cases of accident,-this policy
works always in the direction of the greatest possible stability of
labor. The following table, giving the average duration of employment of 4,800 workers in 34 towns in Michigan, is illustrative:
TRADE.                  YEARS EMPLOYED.
Cooper......................... 22.7
Blacksmith......................... 8.4
Harness-maker....................... o
Painter............................0.. o (in another investigation, 9)
Moulder............................. 7.8
Mason...........I...... 6.o
M iller...............................  6.o
Engineer.............................  5- 0
Cigarmaker......................... 2.0
Machinist..1................- 0
Tailor..............................  8.4
Barber..........I..................




R. BRODSKY                             213
TRADE.                     YEARS EMPLOYED.
Butcher...........0.........0.. I
Machine Helper....................  8.8
Woolen Mills......................... 6.3
R. R. Work.......................-   8.3
Teamster............................ 5 7
Factory.....5..................      5-0
Laborer............................  4-5
Helper............................... 4.5
Manager........................ I3.0
Foreman............................3
Bookkeeper.....................   7.6
Clerk.............................
Salesman............................  9-9
Shipping  Clerk....................... 6.5
An investigation of the duration of work in the coal mines of
Illinois showed the following results.
YEARS OF SERVICE.
OccUPATION.  NUMBER.,,   Z E  | Z  I 
INVOLVED.  P4    P     Wu
Laborers.. —     762   23.0  30.0   26.0  II.6    5.0  2-3 I.o..  1.0
Mechanics..      206   i8.o  I8.o   16.0  19.0   13.0  5.0 5-0   3  3.0
Miners.....   8,8i8    8.7  20.8   22.I  I6.7   13.9  7.2 5.7   2 3-0
Others......     473    0.2  12.2   i8.o  20.0   20.0 I0.0 6.0   3  3.6
Total.......  I0,259  10.0 00.20   22.0  I7.0   I4.0  7-0 5.0   2  2.0
That the street railways are the dumping ground for the unem-             2
ployed is illustrated by the following table:
EMPLOYED      BY   WASHINGTON      WATER POWER         CO. (1902) (107
PERSONS)
DURATION OF WORK.                              NO.
Less than I year................... 40
I-2  years...................................  9
2-3....................................... 
3-4. —......................-...............   6
4-5......... —...-     -5 —5-.-.-                6
Total less than 5 years..................... 8i or 75.7 per cent.
5-9 years........................ 3 or 12.I per cent.
Io years and over.........................     I3 or 12.I per cent.
Total...............7..... 07




214


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Similar results are shown in the cases of the United Railroad
Company of San Francisco, and of 19 electric railways of Michigan
(I,029 employes).
Little information has been obtained as to former occupations
of persons changing employment: The table given above regarding accident cases bears on the matter, as do the following figures
of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, covering 200 successful applicants for positions:
i8 per cent came from skilled industries.
20 per cent came from the commercial and professional pursuits.
58 per cent came from unskilled occupations.
4 per cent came from servant class.
SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
i. Skilled workers in trades are little inclined to change their
occupations unless forced to do so by circumstances beyond their
control. Change of residence in response to larger opportunities
of employment is not infrequent, but change of occupation in
response to similar influences is an exceptional occurrence.
2. Unskilled workers show a higher occupational mobility than
do the skilled. But here again it is the pressure of necessity more
often than the call of larger opportunity that brings change of
occupation. With reference to change of residence the figures for
age, marriage and home-owning would suggest larger possibility of
movement on the part of unskilled than of skilled workers; but
these figures may be very misleading in this respect.
3. The clerical group is particularly mobile. With them new
opportunities are more often sought and embraced than with the
other two groups.
4. Any employment agency which seeks to find employment
merely for those who apply for work, and which aims to accommodate applicants for helpers merely by sending workers from their
list of applicants for work, will encounter a situation suggested by




R. BRODSKY                     215
the first two conclusions. Except in the case of domestic servants
and of wholly unskilled workers, the activities of such a bureau
would in such case be confined to the relatively inefficient residue
of the skilled and unskilled groups, rather than to the more capable
workers. A bureau that would promote genuine mobility among
workers must find some means of reaching the mass of employees
and employers in such a way as to substitute opportunity for
necessity as a cause of movement.




APPENDIX VIII
Statement from Charles K. Blatchly,
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE JOINT APPLICATION BUREAU, IN REGARD
TO AN EXPERIMENT IN FINDING           EMPLOYMENT FOR MEN          IN
THE COUNTRY.
On May 21, 1908, the Joint Committee authorized me to send
out letters to newspapers published in the smaller towns within a
radius of fifty miles of New York City. Three hundred letters
were mimeographed and sent to the editors on June I. The letter
read as follows.
During the present financial depression when thousands of men are out of
work, it has been frequently stated by the press and at public meetings that if the
idle men of the cities were willing to go into the country, farmers would be able to
give work to these unskilled, unemployed men on their farms.
The conditions of last winter still exist, and the number of unemployed, unmarried men is still large. These men come to the office of the Joint Application
Bureau in New York City and beg for work. Many of them have no home, and
there are few city positions in which they can be placed. Possibly, if these facts
should be brought to the attention of your readers, they might secure needed labor
at reasonable wages, and so relieve distress.
We shall be glad, should any of your readers desire to communicate with us
with this end in view, to send (passage prepaid at our expense, to be refunded out of
their first wages) such men as we believe could fill the positions wanted. We would
investigate to the best of our ability the qualifications of each man, and would try
to send the best man, in each case, for the work desired.
It is almost impossible in the great majority of homeless cases, to thoroughly
establish the truth of the statements made to us, so it can be readily understood that
we would not wish to incur any responsibility for their conduct or honesty; we could
simply do our best to ascertain the facts.
We have investigated the cases of many of the men who have applied to us, and
have received favorable reports from their former employers.
May we ask you to give space in your publication-as often as you feel so disposed-to this letter, so that the opportunity of securing labor may be conveyed to
your readers.
216




CHARLES K. BLATCHLY


217


From June I to September 30, work was secured for 78 men
and we have sent out since that time enough men to make Ioo.
For the 78 men we furnished transportation amounting to
$222.28, of which we received as refunds $II8.96, or 53.4 per cent.
We received refunds on the transportation from 46 men.
The reports received were generally favorable, unsatisfactory
reports being received in only II cases.
The larger part of these men were placed at wages paying from
$Io to $i5 a month, very few of them receiving more.
A large number of letters were written by this bureau to ascertain the reliability of the prospective employers.
I feel that this work was not begun early enough in the year to
place the number of men that might have been placed had we sent
out the letters earlier in the season. Besides there is a limited
demand for farm labor within a radius of 50 miles of New York
City. If we had extended the territory over which we sent our
letters, I think we could easily have placed a much larger number
of men.
DECEMBER 17, 1908.




APPENDIX IX


Extract from the Sixth Annual Report (1908)
of Hon. Oscar S. Straus, Secretary of
Commerce and Labor-Page 23
DIVISION OF INFORMATION
Section 40 of the immigration act of February 20, I907, provided for the establishment of a Division of Information in the
Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. Its duties were
defined as follows:
It shall be the duty of said division to promote a beneficial distribution of aliens
admitted into the United States among the several states and territories desiring
immigration. Correspondence shall be had with the proper officials of the states
and territories, and said division shall gather from all available sources useful information regarding the resources, products, and physical characteristics of each
state and territory, and shall publish such information in different languages and
distribute the publications among all admitted aliens who may ask for such information at the immigrant stations of the United States and to such other persons as
may desire the same.
The purpose of this law, as interpreted by me, is twofold: first,
to bring about a distribution of immigrants arriving in this country,
thus preventing, so far as possible, the congestion in our larger
Atlantic seaport cities that has attended the immigration of recent
years; and second, to supply information to all of our workers,
whether native, foreign-born, or alien, so that they may be constantly advised in respect to every part of the country as to what
kind of labor may be in demand, the conditions surrounding it,
the rate of wages, and the cost of living in the respective cities.
2I8




HON. OSCAR S. STRAUS


2I9


PROBLEM OF THE UNEMPLOYED.-It is a subject of great interest
in all commercial countries how to provide work, especially in
periods of industrial depression, for the unemployed. There are
always two kinds of unemployed,-those who are too lazy and
shiftless to work, which we need not take under consideration, and
those who, without fault of their own, are unable to find work
because of depression or because the labor market is oversupplied.
In a country so great as ours, with its multiplicity of industries,
it is not an unusual condition that when the demand for labor is
slack in one part of the country there is a demand for additional
labor in other parts of the country, and when some industries slow
down there is a demand for additional workers in others. This
condition frequently obtains in the demand for farm laborers, and
often at seasons of the year when manufacturing industries are
slack. While these conditions apply less to skilled than to unskilled
labor, it is also true that the problem of the unemployed affects
chiefly this latter class. I regard the extension and development
of the work of this division as of the very highest importance in
meeting this problem, and the first requisite is to make accessible
the information above referred to, and the second is to facilitate
and cheapen transporattion. This may be done, perhaps without
legislation, by an arrangement with the various railroad and
transportation companies of the country for a labor-exchange rate.
I present the subject in the hope that it will receive the consideration that so important a subject demands, and as supplying a
remedy, if not a complete solution, in this country of the problem
of the unemployed.
The work of the division since its organization is described in
detail in the report of its chief, to which reference is made. I
desire to express thanks for the hearty cooperation that the department has received from the postmaster-general and from the
secretary of agriculture.
The scope of this division could be usefully extended in another
direction, which I have embodied in the recommendation for the




220


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


amendment of the law, proposed by the division. The emigration
figures to which I have referred afford evidence that most of the
immigration to this country is stimulated by false, glowing and
misleading information in regard to the opportunities here, as if
the country were an Eldorado where laziness is rewarded and large
returns await even the slothful. When such immigrants come
they find that while the rewards of labor are much greater in this
country than in their own, the American laborer is more industrious, energetic, and self-reliant than elsewhere, and that while the
opportunities in this country are greater the qualities necessary to
benefit thereby also require an increase of effective energy, and that
the same lack of qualifications which spelled failure at home are
writ even larger in this country. With their delusions dispelled,
they return to their countries sadder but wiser men.
Much of this kind of immigration could be stopped at its source
by the dissemination of correct information throughout foreign
countries from which our immigration chiefly comes. Perhaps
the best medium through which this information could be disseminated from time to time is through our consuls; also the various
labor organizations of the country could be of aid to the division,
both in the collection and presentation of the various kinds of
information referred to. I foresee great and substantial extension
that can be given to the scope and work of this important division,
and trust that Congress will enable the department to carry forward
this work in the various directions I have outlined.




APPENDIX X


The Value of Labor Exchanges
EXTRACT FROM       A PAMPHLET ON "LABOR EXCHANGES,"
BY MR. W. H. BEVERIDGE, OF LONDON
A labor or employment exchange is an office for registering
on the one hand the needs of employers for work-people, on the
other hand the needs of workpeople for employment. It is a
means not of making work but of putting those who want work
and those who want workpeople into immediate communication.
It is a market-place for labor. What is the use of a market-place
for labor?
In the first place, it may be urged that there is nothing surprising in labor exchanges being thought useful. Everything else
that is bought and sold,-corn, or wool, or stocks,-has its known
market-place. Labor is the only thing which still finds a buyer
only, or, as a rule, by being hawked from door to door. There
must, on the face of it, be as much reason for abolishing this
antiquated and wasteful method of hawking in regard to labor
as in regard to anything else. The surprising thing is not that
labor exchanges should be wanted now, but that they should not
have been established long ago.
It is, however, unnecessary to rely on general arguments.
As soon as the question is examined a whole series of practical
reasons may be seen for regarding the organization of the labor
market by a connected system of labor exchanges as the first step
in any solution of the unemployed problem.
221




222


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


I. Labor exchanges, in some form or other, are indispensable
for the abolition of casual labor. It is not possible for each
individual employer to employ only regular men. It is possible
for all employers to agree or to be compelled to take their irregular
men from some common center. The business of that central
office will then be so to distribute work as to give each man who
gets any work at all a fairly regular flow of work under several
employers in turn, where it cannot be regular under one employer
alone.
2. Labor exchanges, though they cannot, in times of depression,
make work, can reduce unemployment even in such times by
abolishing all unemployment that is merely local in character.
They, and they alone, can make it impossible for men to be vainly
seeking work in one place, while employers are vainly seeking just
those men in another.
3. Labor exchanges are necessary for any drastic treatment
of vagrancy. The excuse of the habitual vagrant is that he is
tramping in search of work. A national system of labor exchanges
using the post office, the telephone, and the railway, will gradually
relieve the habitual vagrant of the excuse and the decent workman
of the necessity for going blindly on the tramp.
4. Labor exchanges are necessary to provide a test of unemployment in the mass and in the individual. They will show at
all times what the problem is and where it lies. They will automatically register the beginning, depth, and ending of exceptional
depression, and will thus guide the administration of any special
measures that may be thought necessary. They alone will show
as to any individual workman whether he is now unemployed
against his will, because they alone will keep all men in immediate
touch with all the employment that offers. No system of insurance
against unemployment and no system of relief outside the Poor
Law is safe from abuse without such a test.
5. Labor exchanges in direct connection with the elementary
schools are necessary, in order to organize and guide the entry




W. H. BEVERIDGE                    223
of boys and girls into industrial life, to give each a wider choice of
the work for which he or she is best fitted, to study and to influence
the character of the demand for youthful workers, to accumulate
for the formation of public opinion or the framing of laws information as to the careers offered by various occupations.
It is not possible here to do more than thus state in bare outline
some of the services which labor exchanges may be expected to
render in regard to unemployment. The first alone is dealt with
at greater length in the following pages (omitted here). The
"decasualisation of labor" is at once the most important point,
in view of the admitted facts of the unemployed problem, and the
one most needing special explanation.




APPENDIX XI
Extract from Address by Rt. Hon. Winston
Churchill, M.P.,
PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE, AT THE ANNUAL GATHERING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE SCOTTISH LIBERAL ASSOCIATION, OCTOBER 9, I908
We talk a great deal about the unemployed, but the evil of
the under-employed is the tap-root of unemployment. There
is a tendency in many trades, almost in all trades, to have a fringe
of casual labor on hand, available as a surplus whenever there is a
boom, flung back into the whirlpool whenever there is a slump.
Employers and foremen in many trades are drawn consciously or
unconsciously to distribute their work among a larger number of
men than they regularly require, because this obviously increases
their bargaining power with them, and supplies a convenient
reserve for periods of brisk business activity. And what I desire
to impress upon you, and through you upon this country, is that
the casual unskilled laborer who is habitually under-employed,
who is lucky to get three, or at the outside four, days' work in the
week, who may often be out of a job for three or four weeks at
a time, who in bad times goes under altogether, and who in good
times has not hope of security and no incentive to thrift, whose
whole life and the lives of his wife and children are embarked in a
sort of blind, desperate, fatalistic gamble with circumstances
beyond his comprehension or control,-that this poor man, this
terrible and pathetic figure is not as a class the result of accident
or chance, is not casual because he wishes to be casual, is not casual
224




HON. WINSTON CHURCHILL


225


as the consequence of some temporary disturbance soon put right.
No, the casual laborer is here because he is wanted here. He
is here in answer to a perfectly well-defined demand. He is here
as the result of economic causes which have been too long unregulated. He is not the natural product, he is an acticle manufactured,
called into being, to suit the requirements, in the Prime Minister's
telling phrase, of all industries at particular times and of particular industries at all times. I suppose no department has more
means of learning about these things than the Board of Trade,
which is in friendly touch at every stage all over the country with
both capital and labor. I publish that fact deliberately, I invite
you to consider it, I want it to soak in. It appears to me that
measures to check the growth and diminish the quantity of casual
labor must be an essential part of any thorough or scientific attempt
to deal with unemployment, and I would not proclaim this evil
to you without having reason to believe that practicable means
exist by which it can be greatly diminished.
If the first vicious condition which I have mentioned to you is
lack of industrial organization, if the second is the evil of casual
labor, there is a third not less important,-I mean the present
condition of boy labor. The whole underside of the labor market
is deranged by the competition of boys or young persons who do
men's work for boys' wages, and are turned off as soon as they
demand men's wages for themselves. This is the evil so far as it
affects the men; but how does it affect the boys, the youth of our
country, the heirs of all our exertion, the inheritors of that long
treasure of history and romance, of science and knowledge,-aye,
of national glory,-for which so many valiant generations have
fought and toiled,-the youth of Britain, how are we treating them
in the twentieth century of the Christian era? Are they not being
exploited? Are they not being demoralized? Are they not being
thrown away? Whereas the youth of the wealthier class is all
kept under strict discipline until I8 or I9, the mass of the nation
runs wild after 14 years of age. No doubt at first employment is
15




226


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


easy to obtain. There is a wide and varied field; there are a
hundred odd jobs for a lad; but almost every form of employment
now open to young persons affords them no opening, is of no use
to them whatever, when they are grown up, and in a great number
of cases the life which they lead is demoralizing and harmful.
And what is the consequence? The consequence may be measured
by this grim fact, that out of the unemployed applying for help
under the Unemployed Workman Act, no less than 28 per cent.
are between 20 and 30 years of age. That is to say, men in the
first flush of their strength and manhood, already hopelessly
adrift on the dark and tumultuous ocean of life. Upon this subject, I say to you deliberately that no boy or girl ought to be
treated merely as cheap labor, that up to i8 years of age every
boy and girl in this country should, as in the old days of apprenticeship, be learning a trade as well as earning a living.
All attempts to deal with these and similar evils involve the
expenditure of money. It is no use abusing capitalists and rich
people. They are neither worse nor better than any one else.
They function quite naturally under the conditions in which they
find themselves. When the conditions are vicious, the consequence will be evil; when the conditions are reformed, the evil
will be abated. Nor do I think the wealthy people of Great
Britain would be ungenerous or unwilling to respond to the plain
need of this nation for a more complete or elaborate social organization. They would have a natural objection to having public
money wasted or spent on keeping in artificial ease an evergrowing class of wastrels and ne'er-do-weels. No doubt there
would also be a selfish element who would sullenly resist anything
which touched their pocket. But I believe that if large schemes,
properly prepared and scientifically conceived for dealing with
the evils I have mentioned, were presented, and if it could be
shown that our national life would be placed upon a far more
stable and secure foundation, I believe that there would be thousands
of rich people who would cheerfully make the necessary sacrifices.




APPENDIX XII


Extracts from a Letter Addressed by Mr.
Cyrus L. Sulzberger to the Chairman of the
New York State Commission of Immigration, in Regard to the Work of the Industrial Removal Office.
The Industrial Removal Office began in I900 its work of endeavoring to distribute Jewish immigrants who were chiefly industrial and not agricultural workers from New York throughout
the United States. Originally the attempt was made to secure from
employers in the interior requisitions for the particular kind of help
that they needed. It was soon found, however, that the difficulty of
placing a man at a job when the man and the job were separated by
many hundreds of miles was almost insuperable. After the requisition reached us it was necessary to find the man who met the required specifications, and by the time he was ready to leave a few
days necessarily elapsed, so that when he reached his destination
it was not infrequently found that the vacancy had been filled. It
was therefore determined to reverse the order of procedure and
bring the man first to the industrial center where employment was
to be expected and then fit him into a position. Accordingly,
local committees were organized, which may be called reception
committees, whose business it was to receive the immigrant upon
his arrival in the interior and care for him, pending employment
being found for him. In larger places, to which a considerable
number of immigrants were being sent, an employment agent
was engaged whose sole business it was to find occupations for
227




228


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


the new arrivals. Being acquainted in the various industries,
this employment agent put himself in communication with the
proprietors and superintendents of the industrial establishments
and upon the arrival of immigrants took them in person to places
where they were likely to find employment. Of course at this
end it was necessary that care be taken in sending the men out,
to select such places as were apt to give them occupation in their
respective trades. A careful scrutiny is made by the office here
of all applicants for removal and of the total number who apply
less than one half are sent. Only those are selected who upon
investigation give promise of making successful workers. The
shiftless, the lazy, and the incompetent are carefully weeded out
and refused consideration.
This is the eighth year of the activity of the Industrial Removal
Office and it has sent from New York during that period 42,000
persons, of whom, roughly 60 per cent are breadwinners, and the
remainder their wives and children. According to the statistical
records that we have kept from year to year we find that 85 per
cent of those whom we have sent away remained in the places to
which we sent them, and of the remainder probably one-half
located at other places away from New York. A statement made
up last year, when 20,194 breadwinners of I67 different occupations
had been sent away, showed them divided into the following groups:
NUMBER.  PER CENT.
Woodworkers.................. 2,092    9.6
Metalworkers........................  1,86i     9.3
Bldg. Trades..........................,6I8  7.9
Printing and Lithography...............  68.9
Needle Industry...................... 3,967   19.8
Leather Industry......................,425    7.1
Tobacco Industry.....................  I50.9
Men without trades.................... 6,575  32.7
Dealers in fruit supplies...............  729  3.7
Farming.............................  341      1.7
Office help, professionals, etc............  622  3.1
Miscellaneous.........................  646     3.3




CYRUS L. SULZBERGER


229


In the report of the Industrial Removal Office for the year 1906
occurs the following paragraph:
Of the total number of persons sent from New York, about
i6,000 were wage-earners, the remainder being the women and the
children of their families. What the activity of this organization
means to the industrial development of the country can be appreciated by a consideration of the earnings of these i6,000 workers.
Making every allowance for idle time and judging by the reports
received from all over the country as to the wages paid the men,
we are satisfied that they are annually earning a sum aggregating
from $8,00o,000 to $Io,ooo,oo0 at a minimum, and are adding
in that ratio to the productive capacity of the country. According
to the U. S. Census report, wages constitute, roughly speaking, 20
per cent of the finished product, and it is therefore evident that
the proteges of this office are producing not far from $50,000,000
worth of goods annually. A comparatively small part of this
product is consumed at the point of production; all the remainder
is necessarily transported upon the railroads of the country either
for home consumption or for the swelling of our foreign commerce.
Of this entire army of producers not a single individual was
earning his living at the time this office sent him away.
The number of wage-earners sent away being now 50 per cent
greater than it was at the time this report was written, the other
figures are also subject to a like increase of 50 per cent, and it
therefore follows that the amount of goods now annually produced
by those sent from New York by the Industrial Removal Office
must reach not far from $75,000,000.
This briefly gives the story of the work of the Industrial Removal Office, and I may say that the success of the entire work
rests primarily upon the organization of what I have called the
reception committees. Without such committees to receive and
look after the immigrant upon his arrival in a strange town, the
whole work would fail. It is upon the assurance that a friendly
hand of welcome will be extended to him when he arrives at his
destination, that the immigrant is willing to move on to an unknown




230


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


land. New York city with its cosmopolitan population enables
every newcomer to find himself in a congenial and familiar atmosphere, and it is the dread of the unknown quite as much as the
attraction of New York that holds the immigrant here. If
then, distribution of immigration is to proceed on a larger scale, I
should say that a condition precedent would be the organization
of committees or governmentally the appointment of honorary
commissions. 'Such commissions should exist in every industrial
locality, and should be composed as far as possible of representative men of the same races as the prevailing immigrants,
so that Italians may find an Italian, Hungarians a Hungarian,
and Jews a Jew, sympathetic with their needs and prepared to aid
them with friendly advice.
A further important requirement is a very low and merely
nominal transportation rate. I have observed in the sixth annual
report of the Commissioner of Commerce and Labor just issued,
a recommendation by him on the subject of cheaper transportation
for the unemployed. He advocates a "labor exchange rate,"
(pages 23 and 24). There should in addition to such labor exchange rate be an immigrant rate, applying only from the seaboard but not to it, and such rates should be very much lower than
the existing immigrant rate, which is io per cent less than the
usual passenger rate. Immigrants should be carried from the
seaboard at a rate of not more than a half cent per mile, and while
probably the cost to the railroads might be more than they would
thus recover, the ultimate result would inevitably redound to their
advantage. The carrying of an immigrant occurs but once.
The carrying of his products from the interior point of production
to the point of consumption or exportation occurs annually.
According to the United States Census reports, the average value
of the product of each industrial worker of the United States is
about $2,500, and as very little of this is consumed at the point of
production there would be for the transportation companies goods




CYRUS L. SULZBERGER                 231
to the value of more than $2,000 annually to be transported for
every immigrant moved from New York. On this freight shipment the railroad company would speedily recoup any loss that it
might sustain on the original transportation of the producer.
Whether the establishment of such transportation rates and the
appointment of such commissions is a matter requiring State or
Federal action is a question which it is not for me to determine.
DECEMBER 14, 1908.




APPENDIX XIII


A Partial Bibliography
ON THE SUBJECT OF EMPLOYMENT BUREAUS
The literature on the general question of the unemployed is
voluminous and this list, prepared with the assistance of Mrs.
Helen Page Bates, does not intend to cover it, though some titles
which do not deal primarily with labor registries are included
because of certain chapters or paragraphs.
In the case of official publications no attempt has been made
to present a complete list, but only those documents have been
included which have been accessible for reference in the preparation of this report.
Abbott, Grace: "The Chicago Employment Agency and the Immigrant Worker." In American Journal of Sociology, November, I908.
Adler, George: "Arbeitsnachweis und Arbeitsb6rsen." In Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 3d Ed., Jena, I909,
Bd. i, pp. II30-40.
"Arbeitsmarkt, Der," Monatschrift des Verbandes Deutscher
Arbeitsnachweise, Berlin, Dr. J. Jastrow, Ed.
"Arbeitslosigkeit uind Arbeitsvermittelung," Bericht fiber den
Sozialen Congress in Frankfurt A.M. (1893)." Berlin, I894.
Ayres, P. W.: "Free Public Employment Offices in Ohio; an Experiment in Socialistic Legislation." International Congress of
Charities, I893, pp. 124-3I.
Bartram, Charles E.: "Free Public Employment Offices."  National
Conference of Charities and Correction, 1897, pp. 207-17.
Becci, Gabriel: "Le Placement des Ouvriers et Employes des
deux Sexes et des Toutes Professions et la Loi du 14 Mars,
I904," 22I pp. 0. Paris, Rousseau, I906.
232




A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY


233


Beveridge, W. H.: "Curse of Casual Labor." In Socialist Review,
June, 1908.
"Labour Exchanges." 11 pp. 1907. To be obtained from the
Central (Unemployed) Body, 165 Temple Chambers, Temple
Avenue, London, E. C.
"Labor Exchanges and the Unemployed." In Economic Journal,
March, I907, pp. 66-81.
"Unemployment and Its Cure: The First Step." In Contemporary
Review, April, 1908, pp. 385-98.
Bliss: Cyclopedia of Social Reform, I908. Article on "Unemployment," pp. I234-47.
"Uselessness of Labor Colonies," pp. 1246-7.
Bliss, W. D. P.: "What is Done for the Unemployed in European
Countries." United States Bureau of Labor, Bulletin 76,
May, 1908, pp. 741-933 -Bogart, E. L.: "Public Employment Offices in United States and
Germany." In Commons, Trade Unionism and Labor
Problems, 1905, p. 603-26; also in Quarterly Journal of
Economics, vol. 19, May, 1900, pp. 341-77.
Bohmert: "Zur Statistik der Arbeitslosigkeit, der Arbeitsvermittelung u. s. w." In der Zeitschrift des sachsischen Bureaus,
Jahrg., 1894.
Brooks, John Graham: "Future Problem of Charity and the Unemployed." 27 pp. 1895. American Academy of Political
and Social Science Publications, 122.
Burns, John: "Unemployed." 1892 (Fabian Tracts, No. 47). Bibliography, p. 19. Reprint from Nineteenth Century, December,
1892.
Byles, A. Holden: "German Labour Bureaus." In Progress, April,
I906, pp. io6-I5.
Chance, Sir William: "Poor Law and the Unemployed." In Poor
Law Conferences, 1905-6 pp. 134-47.
Chapman, Sydney J.: "Work and Wages." Pt. 11, Chapter on
Unemployment, London, Longmans, 1908.
Clay, Arthur: "Unemployment and Legislation." In London
Charity Organisation Review, May, 1905, pp. 255-67.




234       AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


Conner, J. E.: "Free Public Employment Offices in United States."
United States Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 68, January, I907. pp. I-II5.
Conrad, Carl: "Die Organisation des Arbeitsnachweises in Deutschland." Leipzig, I904.
Cormier, Crosson du: "Les Caisses Syndicales de Chomage en
France et en Belgique." Paris, Chevalier. I905.
Dawson, William H.: "Problem of the Unemployed." In Social
Switzerland, I897, pp. I30-42.
"Unemployed." In German Workman, I906, pp. I-86. Chap.
i, Labour Registries. Chap. 2, Munich Labour Bureaus.
Devins, John Bancroft: "Report of the Cooper Union Labor
Bureau." New York Association for Improving the Condition of Poor, Report 1900, pp. 81-88.
Dewey, Davis R.: "Irregularity of Employment." American Economic Association. Publication No. 5-6, I894, pp. 53-67.
Drage, Geoffrey: "Problem    of the Unemployed." New    York,
Macmillan, I894.
Eckert: "Der moderne Arbeitsnachweis," Leipzig, I902.
Faquot, F.: "Le Chomage." 2Io pp. Paris, Soc. nouvelle de
librarie et d' edition, I905.
France, Government Publications: "Ministere de Commerce et
de l'Industrie-Office du Travail. Le Placement des Employes
Ouvriers et Domestiques en France: son Histoire, son Etat
Actuel." 734, pp., I893.
"Report, I90I." i88 pp.
"Documents sur la Question du Chomage." 398 pp. 27m. Paris,
Imprimerie nationale, I896. Resum6 in U. S. Department
of Labor, Bul. 12, September, I897, pp. 622-24.
Great Britain, Government Publications: "Report of Commission
to Investigate Distress from Want of Employment." 3 v. F.
I895.
"Report of Select Committee on Distress from Want of Employment; " with proceedings, minutes of evidence, appendix and
index. II8 pp. F. London, Eyre. I896.




A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY


235
1)


"Labour Bureaux: Report made to the President of the Local
Government Board." 32 p. F. London. Darling. 1906.
By Arthur Lowry, which see.
"Unemployed Workmen Act, I905: Return as to the Proceedings
of Distress Committees in England and Wales and of the
Central (Unemployed) Body for London under the Unemployed
Workmen Act, 1905." March 31, I906-07. 30 pp. F.
London, Wyman.
"Annual Reports of the Local Government Boards of England
and Wales, of Scotland, and of Ireland, I905 to date, for
Proceedings of Distress Committees under the Unemployed
Workmen Act of I905."
"Board of Trade Report on Agencies and Methods for Dealing
with the Unemployed, I893." By D. F. Schloss, which see.
"London County Council. Lack of Employment in London:"
Minutes of Proceedings at Conferences, held Feb. 13, April
3, I903 (No. 662). 50 pp. F. London.
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236


AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


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A PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY


237


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AN EMPLOYMENT BUREAU FOR NEW YORK


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