EM EM : monthly magazine - 01.09.1941, Page 5

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Stewart Says—
Getting Unemployed
On Uncle Sam’s List
To Be Advantageous
----------------------------4
By CHARLES P. STEWART
i Central Press Columnist .
UNCLE SAM’S Office of Pro-
duction Management recently
launched its campaign to get all
available defense workers listed
with the United States Employ-
ment Service more with a view to
maximum plant
activity t h a n
for the actual
c r af tsmen’s
benefit.
At any rate,
it was output
that Production
Chief William
S. Knudsen un-
q u e s t ionably
had in mind.
Maybe Co-Chief
Sidney Hillman,
Wm. S. Knudsen who particular.
ly represents la-
bor in the OPM set-up, was think-
íng considerably of the registra-
tion system’s obvious advantages
from the standpoint of the work-
ingman also. It promises to be an
excellent thing for ’em in the long
run, anyhow. v
The scheme’s to get all unem-
ployed workers on the list; like-
wise to get onto it all workers em-
ployed in non-defensive índustries
who have, incidentally, the neces-
sary skills, of variou3 sorts, to
make ’em useful, by changing
jobs, in defensive ones.
Of course, each registrant’s
place of residence, as well as his
name, will be recorded. Thus, if a
defense manufacturer at Podunk,
for instance, needs men and ap-
plies to the U. S. Employment
Service for ’em, the service will as-
sign them to him from his own im-
mediate neighborhood. He won’t
have to scout about the couhtry
for ’em and theý won’t have to
travel perhaps long distances to
report tó him for duty. , V
This will count materially. It’s
worse than a bother for a newly-
hired employe to have to trans-
port himself and his family from
one place to another and re-settle
in a strange neighborhood. It’s a
near - impossibility frequently, at
nresent.
Where to Live
Right where he’s been living for
quite awhile, a workingman usual-
ly has a home—rented, quite like-
ly, but b.e’s in it and can stay
there. But he may not be able to
find one at some defense center
that he’s just trying to move into;
such centers are frightfully o.ver-
crowded under existing circum-
stancesi
I know personally of a working-
man in Washington, where he had
a job and a passably comfortable
domicile. Washington’s crowded
to the point o£ suffocation, too, but
this chap was already installed and
in no danger of being evicted to
make room for some later arrival.
We!l, he heard that he could
make more money at Norfolk, Va.
Defense work there is fairly per-
ishing for fresh hands, the bird re-
ferred to wa3 technically equipped
for certain required tasks; so 'ne
visited Norfolk to apply for a
billet. •->
He found that, with overtime, he
could earn $14 daily, which was
highly satisfactory. Then he be-
gan to- look for bed and board.
Soon he discovered that the best
he could do was at the rate of $17
weekly. That doesn’t seem to be
excessive -on a $14 daily wage
basis. However, while the board
was O. K., the bed was in one room
with seven others—and he has a
wife and three children. He
couldn’t find accommodations for
that outfit in Norfolk under about
twice $14 daily. Naturally he re-
turned to his job in Wasfiington.
To be sure, the government’s
building houses a3 fast as it can,
for war workers, but it hasn’t got
’em yet. That’s why OPM is so
anxious to avoid enforced migra-
tions of defense-making availables.
There’s ng room for ’em where
they’re needed.
Eligibles don’t register directly
with the U. S. Employment Serv-
ice. They register ■'with the state
employment exchanges, but the
latter are affiliated with thé U. S.
service and tum their lists in to it.
OPM’s clamor for registrations,
then, at today’s juncture, is to fa-
cilitate defensive production, and
the howl for workers ís due to gain
volume as the program progresses.
As yet the famine for craftsmen is
only local, as at places like Nor-
folk, butit’s u safe bet that it’ll
become national and a deal more
acute not more than comparatively
a few weeks hence.
Piize Novelíst Hefe^
Enrique Gil, Ecuadorian author of
“Nuestro Pan” (Our Daily Bread),
prize-winning novel in a contest
conducted by New York publishers,
arrives in New York. He is one of
four winners in the contest for
Latin-American authors.___
Backs Ship Seizures
4)
4
Commander F. F. Reynolds, repre-
senting the chief of naval opera-
tions, is shown before the House
merchant marine committee hear-
ing on two bills to accelerate the
acquisition of foreign ships in
American ports. He declared the
ships would be used to replace ton-
nage taken over by the Army and
i Navyfor transport and supply.