CHAPTER I.LABOR REGISTRIES

OF ALL THE SOCIAL problems of the times, that created by the existence of a large and apparently never diminishing class of unemployed is perhaps the most tragic and most melancholy. How deal with these people? In the past the policy of legislative and administrative inaction, tempered by public and private charity, has held the field. More and more, however, society, and after society the statesman and the politician, who should lead public opinion, yet in fact do so little in the domain of social reform that is original and constructive, are recognizing that the attitude of passivity is neither politic nor safe. At the moment there are signs of a rather violent reaction. “Practical measures” are now the order of the day, for we are at last all agreed that something must be done. Doubtless also we shall do that something, though whether it will prove to be a wise and well-considered thing is at least an uncertain point, and the justification for incredulity is found in our inveterate national habit of refusing to think out our problems in quiet, and of experimenting in the dark, trusting with a quite superstitious confidence that our proverbial common-sense will be justified of its offspring.

Germany enjoys no immunity from unemployment, yet on behalf of the Germans it may at any rate be claimed that they have approached the problem of worklessness in a logical and orderly spirit, and have tried to deal with it step by step, stage by stage, by measures which enlarge and supplement each other, and which together cover the whole ground, so far as a complete and systematic treatment of the problem is humanly practicable.

And granting the necessary existence of a constant amount of unemployed labor, the German’s first idea is to facilitate employment as speedily as possible, by placing the men who want work in communication with the men who want workers. Thus has come into existence the German system of labor registration, the largest and most efficient known to an industrial State.

Germany had public labor bureau long before the practical utility of these institutions became generally recognized. More than sixty years ago the Saxon town of Leipzig established such an agency, and down to the present day it has continued to negotiate work for the unemployed of all classes without charge. Of private agencies, the oldest in Germany is that at Stuttgart, which was established so long ago as 1865. While, thus, labor bureau, variously named, had existed long before, a social congress held in Berlin in the year 1893 gave the impetus which has led to the present multiplicity of these institutions, and it is noteworthy that the movement has throughout had the general support of the laboring classes, whose initiative, in not a few places, stirred the municipal authorities to action. At the present time hardly a German town of any industrial importance can be named which has not in regular operation an efficient labor registry. The executives are chosen in different ways in some cases by the municipal councils, in others by the industrial associations and trade unions, and in others by the courts of industry but employers and workpeople are generally given a place and a voice upon them. In the great majority of cases the bureau are independent departments of municipal government, with separate officials and offices, though here and there they are very disadvantageously, it is maintained associated with other branches of work. The labor bureau under private management, not having the resources at control which are enjoyed by the municipal bureau, do not so generally offer gratuitous registration, and in Berlin no less a sum than 650 is received annually from fees, which are said to be willingly paid. Both free and fee-paying bureau have their advocates, though it cannot be denied that to the extent that fees prevent the registration of unemployed labor they cause the bureau to defeat their own object. The question is, however, generally viewed as one rather of financial policy than of principle.

The period for which applicants are registered varies from a fortnight to several months, but at the end of the time registration may be renewed should work not have been found. Some bureau issue formal tickets admitting registered applicants to the waiting-rooms at all or certain hours of the day for a fixed period; thus the Berlin employment bureau has from the first charged twenty pennies. Yet the utility of these certificates of employment is largely questioned, and in practice they have been much abused, for not unseldom they find their way into the hands of vagabonds who desire work least of all things, yet who, equipped with official declarations that they have sought employment and have not found it, are able, temporarily at least, to bid defiance to the police when charged with common vagrancy. Hence some bureau have discontinued the issue of documents of any kind.

No uniform rule is followed in the consideration of applications for employment. Nominally, indeed, such applications are taken in the order of priority in the case of unskilled workmen, though the head of a household will not uncommonly be given preference before a single man. In dealing with skilled labor a man’s capacity and his fitness for the special task offered are considered, even where the employer does not make express stipulations on the point. Here the public labor bureau departs from the principle followed by the labor registries of the trade unions and guilds, which strictly allot work in the order of priority of application. It is still less usual for the labor bureau to inquire into the personal character of the applicants; here master and man are left to the test of experience. It is, however, an almost invariable rule to require an applicant for work to legitimize himself by the production of some such official document as a labor book (if under age), army discharge certificate, or insurance paper, which not infrequently has to be deposited until he either finds work or is discharged from the register. There is no rule debarring men in work from seeking new employment through the labor bureau, but it is seldom that questions are asked on the point.

A common source of difficulty in connection with the working of labor bureau, whether on municipal or private lines, is the attitude which they should assume in the by no means rare eventuality of industrial disputes. Originally it was customary to suspend operations entirely in respect of the trade or industry affected by either strike or lock-out. It was argued on behalf of employers, however, that to cease to offer work to unemployed persons on the occurrence of a strike, far from being a neutral act, was one specially and directly favorable to organized labor, and that to continue open implied no partisanship, inasmuch as it was optional for laborers to use the bureau and accept work or not as they would. Nowadays the plan most in favor is simply to preserve a neutral attitude, informing applicants for employment when a dispute exists and leaving them to act at their discretion. Naturally the organized workers and their leaders see to it in these cases that such advice and persuasion as the law permits are not wanting on their part. Nevertheless, some bureau continue to suspend operations for the trade affected in the event of a dispute occurring. In yet others, no uniform principle is followed, but the managing body acts in every case as the special circumstances may suggest. The rules of one of the Saxon bureau provide that in the event of strike or lock-out the committee of management shall immediately be

called together, for the purpose of fixing a term within which the disputing parties shall be invited to seek the services of the standing Board of Conciliation. Should they not do so, or should neither conciliation nor arbitration take place, it is left to the committee to decide whether the bureau shall continue to mediate employment for the industry or trade concerned. It is obvious, however, that where labor is able to act with unanimity this question of the closing or otherwise of the bureau in strike times creates no very serious difficulty.

One of the most noteworthy features of the labor bureau movement is the growing tendency and willingness of the independent trade union and guild registries to amalgamate with the public registries, thus bringing the entire work of employment mediation in a town under one organization and roof. Thus the Berlin Labor Registry embraces, besides its general department, no fewer than twelve guild registries for the bookbinders, butchers, bakers, painters, locksmiths, paperhangers, stucco-workers, roofers, and others; and in Munich the registries of the bookbinders, bakers, butchers, cabmen, coppersmiths, potters, painters and varnishers, shoemakers, and wigmakers are similarly affiliated to the Municipal Labor Bureau. The Karlsruhe Bureau has even been successful in bringing together the Protestant and Roman Catholic Workers’ Associations as well as the trade unions in the common interest of labor mediation.

For perfection of arrangements the Labor Bureau of Munich probably takes the first place in Germany as a municipal institution, insomuch that it well deserves separate description. On the other hand, Berlin offers an example of thoroughly efficient and successful work in the domain of labor registration conducted on non-municipal lines. The Central Labor Bureau there (Central Arbeitsnachweis), which is carried on by a society known as the Central Association for Labor Registration, is, as to buildings and their equipment, the most elaborate, as it is certainly the most costly, in the whole country. Organized over twenty years ago on what is known as...