August UK 



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Eliminating Recruiting Labor 



Announcement from the Department of Labor over the signature of 

 Felix Frankfurter, chairman of the war labor policies board, prohibits 

 since August 1 the private recruiting of unskilled labor except under 

 the direction of the United States Employment Service. The announce- 

 ment says that orders and estimates for unskilled labor received to 

 date by the employment service show a shortage of approximately 

 500,000, and that these figures will be largely augmented when all 

 returns are in. It says it will be necessary to recruit a considerable 

 number of workers needed from men now employed in non-war work 

 and that the machinery for securing them is being extended through- 

 out the country by the United States Employment Service. 



The announcement says: 



The successful operation of the central recruiting program can be as- 

 sured only through the loyal co-operation of all whom it affects. Inevit- 

 •ably it will impose at the outset, and until it becomes fully effective, a 

 degree o£ hardship upon some employers, though in the end its benefits will 

 be shared by all. The utmost effort will be made to minimize and in so 

 far as may be possible to equalize the burdens. Of necessity that effort 

 will for some time fall short of complete success. 



Those who suffer temporarily will, we feel assured, accept the burden as 

 part of their contribution to the cause to which the President has pledged 

 our all. They will realize that only through the enforcement o( such a 

 program can there be achieved the full utilization of our forces whereby 

 that pledge may be redeemed and whereby there may be maintained the 

 uninterrupted flow of food, munitions, and supplies which is the first 

 essential to the winning of the war. 



The following are the regulations which govern private recruiting of 

 unskilled labor: 



1. Employers may continue to hire worliers who apply at the plant 

 without solicitation direct or indirect. 



2. The federal director of employment in each state is authorized to 

 grant permission to employers to use their own field agents for recruit- 

 ing unskilled workers under his direction and control for war industries 

 located within the state. 



3. Permission to recruit unskilled laborers in states other than the 

 one in which the work is located may be secured from the director gen- 

 eral of the United States Employment Service upon the recommendation 

 o£ the federal director of employment for the state in which the men are 

 needed. Such permission will be communicated by the director general to 

 the federal directors for the states in which the labor is needed and from 

 which it is to be recruited. 



4. No unskilled labor may be transported from one state to another 

 without authorization from the director general, to be secured by applica- 

 tion through the federal director of employment for the state in which 

 the laljor is recruited. No laborers may be moved from one employment 

 district to another within a state without authorization from the federal 

 director of employment for the state. 



5. Employers who receive permission to transfer workers from one 

 state to another or from one district to another within any state must 

 file a statement with the nearest employment service office, of the num- 

 ber of men transferred, the wages offered, and other terms and conditions 

 of employment promised to the men. 



6. Employers who are permitted to use their own field agents for re- 

 cruiting labor must in no case use any fee-charging agency, or use any 

 agents or labor scouts who are paid for their work on a commission basis. 



7. All advertising for unskilled labor, whether by card, poster, news- 

 paper, handbill, or any other medium, is prohibited after August 1, 1918. 

 This applies to all employers engaged wholly or partly in war work, whose 

 ma.^inium force, including skilled and unskilled laborers, exceeds 100. 



No restrictions are for the time being placed upon employers engaged 

 in war work in recruiting their own skilled labor, other than that they 

 should conduct their efforts so as to avoid taking or causing restless- 

 ness among men who are alreadj engaged in other war work of any 

 kind. Employers in war work are at present under no restrictions 

 as to advertising for skilled labor other than that all advertising 

 should be designed and conducted so as to avoid creating restlessness 

 among men in war work. 



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3^ Southern Log Movement Much Freer W 



The movement of logs into Memphis and otlier points on the 

 Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Bailroad during July was heavier than 

 for any month this year, reaching approximately 1,500 cars. The 

 movement of logs on the Missouri Pacific reached approximately 

 250 ears, making a total of 1,750 cars loaded on these two roads by 

 the Valley Log Loading Company. 



The appreciable gain in log loading on the former was due pri- 

 marily to the greater number of ears available for the log handling 

 service. During the latter part of May and the greater portion of 

 June there was material decrease in the rate of loading because of 

 substantial decrease in the number of cars. Some weeks ago, how- 

 ever, the management of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley put more 

 than 200 additional ears into this service and results since that 

 time have been highly satisfactory to the log loading company 

 and to the mills themselves. 



The increased movement of logs has been partly due, too, to the 

 increased quantities available for loading. This increase has grown 

 directly out of the larger supply of labor for work in the woods 

 and for delivering logs to the rights of way of the railroads. 

 The laying-by of crops has released large numbers of farm labor- 

 ers and these have come to the assistance of the timbermen at a 

 most opportune time. The best is being made of this increased 

 help because it is clearly recognized that it is only a short timi 

 until these farm laborers must return to the farms for the harvesting 

 of cotton, corn and other crops maturing during the early fall 

 months. Owners of hardwood timberlands, timber-cutting com- 

 panies and mill interests all recognize that the present supply of 

 labor is only temporary and that, when the farm laborers are nn 



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longer available, the shortage of help is going to_ be more acute 

 tliau ever. Thousands of men are being drafted into the army from 

 the southern hardwood producing territory and the outlook for 

 adequate supplies of timber for the mills this fall and particularly 

 this winter is regarded as anything but encouraging. 



In the meantime the increased supplies of both labor and logs 

 are contributing to substantial gain in hardwood lumber manufac- 

 ture. Many of the smaller mills which have been practically out 

 of the running during the past few months are now cutting gum 

 and some other hardwoods in a quite liberal manner while the 

 larger manufacturers are able to operate their mills on fuller time. 

 Still, with these favoring conditions, it is pointed out that the out- 

 put of hardwood lumber is still below normal for this time of the 

 year and that, in the ease of at least two important items, oak and 

 gum, sales and shipments are in excess of current production, with 

 further impairment of stocks. 



There were spruce forests in Wisconsin 500,000 years ago, accord- 

 ing to the interpretation put on the discovery of a spruce log buried 

 in gravel of the ice period when arctic cold covered that region. 



The base of measurement of timber and lumber in England is thi 

 cubic foot, but in America it is the square foot. In theory one 

 cubic foot equals twelve square feet, but that does not hold ii 

 practice, for the saw kerf and other waste must be accounted for; 

 and allowance must be made for thicknesses less than one inch. 

 Our theory is that lumber is an inch thick, but much of it is thinner, 

 though it is still measured by the square foot. 



