Better Time

Better Times

More Jobs. An outstanding feature of the return of business prosperity is the steady decrease in unemployment in every section of the country. The latest report of the Department of Labor showed an increased demand for all classes of labor, with the building trades experiencing the greatest boom. In a survey of 65 industrial centers made by the Department, 54 were found to have decreased unemployment over the previous month.

A survey conducted by the Department of Agriculture revealed the fact that the farm labor supply in the United States is at present 12% short of the demand. The shortage is greatest in the northern belt, from New England westward to the Mississippi. But in no geographical division is the supply equal to the demand. (A year ago there was an average surplus of 11% throughout the country.) Common labor, which is always the last class to escape from the hardships of unemployment, has been rapidly absorbed in road building and other public works. The revival of business and the consequent demand for labor has resulted in a renewed effort on the part of big industrial employers to have the immigration law modified to permit the entry of more unskilled workers from Europe. More Pay. Of equal importance with the increase in employment is the general rise in wages which started in the textile industries and is now sweeping through every basic industry in the land. The United States Steel Corporation announced an increase of 4 cents an hour for unskilled labor, which will affect about 150,000 men and give them $4.00 for a ten-hour day instead of $3.60. This is said to represent a notable increase in real wages, since money wages have risen 100% since 1915 and the cost of living has risen only 60%. The independent steel companies followed the lead of U. S. Steel and granted similar increases in the same labor categories, but as yet nothing has been done to modify the twelve-hour day. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, expressed his appreciation of the wage increases, but reiterated his protest against the inhumanity of the twelve-hour day, in which he has the general support of the press. " Industrial Democracy." More important than the wage increases in the steel and textile industries, from the point of view of harmonious relations between Capital and Labor, is the operation of " industrial democracy" in the Big Five packing plants of Chicago, where the 10% wage reduction declared by the "plant legislatures" in 1921 was canceled by vote of the workers. The action of the packing house councils followed negotiations so quietly conducted that the first public knowledge of upward readjustment was the announcement that the new wage scales had been voted. About 200,000 employees of the Armour, Swift, Cudahy, Wilson and Morris companies--the Big Five--are affected by the new rates, which are based upon a 54-hour week, with "time and a half" for overtime after ten hours. The 40 hours a week guarantee is continued and double pay promised for Sundays and holidays.