PURPOSE.

The United States Housing Corporation realized clearly that in these days of extensive and intensive industrial combinations, no large construction enterprise could hope to be successful without administrative machinery for working out the innumerable intricate and complex problems involved in the employment and management of large numbers of men. It was the recognition of this fact that was the basis of the organization, as a part of the corporation, of the Industrial Relations Division.

Industrial management to-day has become essential to efficiency-just as much as has town planning, or architecture, or engineering—and its problems demand the attention of trained minds in order that its complex problems may be worked out successfully. Especially is this true with the trades or crafts engaged in house construction organized in great national and international unions, with their constitutions and by-laws, their rules and regulations of employment, their jurisdictional agreements, and

so on.

Thus it was realized at the very outset that if the United States Housing Corporation was to be successful in carrying out its extensive program, provision must be made in its organization for taking care of the innumerable labor problems that were inevitably to arise problems involving employment, wages, hours of work, and general working and living conditions of thousands of skilled and unskilled employees. This was the field of operation of the Industrial Relations Division. Its object and scope may be briefly summarized as follows:

The Industrial Relations Division was charged with analyzing labor conditions, supervising and directing industrial relations.

It functioned with reference to the employees of the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation and those of all contractors employed, and in

some instances indirectly with the various war industries.

A large percentage of labor troubles being the result of misunderstandings and of failure to provide a common meeting ground, it was among the duties of this division to keep in close touch with all labor conditions, with the view of preventing misunderstandings, and to report to the director of the bureau any signs of labor troubles.

The division handled all matters relative to health and recreation for the benefit of employees of the bureau and of the contractors, and of employees of war industries living in temporary quarters provided by the bureau.

It investigated and adjusted, on behalf of the bureau, any complaints or disputes that might arise between the various divisions of the bureau and contractors.

It dealt on behalf of the bureau with all questions of wages, labor, and employment affecting the production of contracts being supervised by the bu

reau.

This work included:

1. Investigation and adjustment of disputes between contractors and employees.

2. Employment problems, including the providing of adequate labor supply and the training of employees.

3. Establishment and maintenance of proper standards of working conditions and wages, supervision over the observance of provisions of acts of labor and over the temporary housing of contractors' forces, etc.

The division investigated and reported on and made suggestions for decreasing the labor turnover of contractors, with the view of the possibility of increasing production by adopting new methods. It also worked out from wage scales collected by its investigators charts establishing what rents employees could afford to pay, and what limit should be placed on the development of houses.

ORGANIZATION.

In the organization machinery for the administration of this extensive program, there were special representatives, welfare directors, field agents, personnel representatives, labor scouts, and the necessary office force. Quite frequently the division, whose headquarters were in Washington, operated directly through the works superintendent, this official being the authorized representative of the corporation at the head of a particular housing project

The duty of the special representative of the division was to make a thorough survey of all the labor conditions in the vicinity of a proposed housing project a month or more before actual construction began, having in view particularly the amount and character of the labor supply. He was to study near-by sources of supply and the possibility of transporting it to and from the project; he reported upon temporary housing facilities for workers engaged in building the houses; he reported also the wage scales of all building trades, and in general made the division familiar with all the factors that were likely to affect or govern the securing and employment of labor in that locality.

The welfare directors of the division investigated conditions adversely affecting the employment of men on the housing project and recommended action by the division that either would remove an undesirable factor from operating or inject into the situation an entirely new and wholesome element. They planned and provided for the necessary comfort and entertainment of the worker to keep him satisfied and contented; they saw to it that there were sufficient facilities in case of sickness and accidents. It was their business to know if the contractor had taken out workingmen's insurance for the workers on the houses, and in every other direction was carrying out the provisions of the contract affecting the employees. It was also the function of the welfare director to make certain the observance by the contractor of State laws and local regulations.

These special representatives and welfare directors were constantly traveling about from one housing . project to another in all parts of the country and were the means by which the manager of the division was able to keep in constant and instant touch with the varying and changing local conditions on all the housing projects.

THE LABOR SUPPLY.

It requires an intimate acquaintance with the conditions surrounding the depleted labor supply in the country during the summer and fall of 1918 in order

to enable one to appreciate fully the difficulties of the situation that confronted the United States Housing Corporation at the very outset of its operations in August of that year. All common labor had long since been absorbed by the other war industries of the Government that had been operating before the Housing Corporation began its work, and the Corporation thus came into the markets for labor with the supply almost completely exhausted. It entered these markets, too, under rules and regulations formulated by the United States Employment Service of the Department of Labor which had just been organized.

These regulations, as applied to the recruiting of labor, were as follows:

1. Employees may continue to hire workers 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 recruiting 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 General of the United States Employment Service upon the recommendation of 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 application through the Federal director of employment for the State in which the labor 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 number 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 recruiting labor must in no case use any feecharging 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, newspaper, handbill, or any other medium, is prohibited after August 1, 1918. This applies to all employees engaged wholly or partly in war work, whose maximum force, including skilled and unskilled laborers, exceeds 100.

In compliance with this policy of the Employment Service, instructions were issued by the Industrial Relations Division to the works superintendents and contractors of the Housing Corporation as follows:

The labor policy of the Industrial Relations Division of the United States Housing Corporation will be governed by that adopted by the United States Employment Service and the War Labor Policies Board.

The plan the contractor should follow as to labor supply is: First, make application to the nearest local agency of the United States Employment Service. If this agency can not meet the request, the contractor should. Second, have the local agency ask the Federal director of the United States Employment Service in the State to supply the men. If the Federal director in the State is unable to secure them, the contractor should. Third, request the Federal director to have the Director General of the United States Employment Service in Washington authorize recruiting for the men in other States. At the same time the contractor should transmit to the Industrial Relations Division his request that his application be referred to the director general.

The contractor should not attempt to secure his common or unskilled labor from any other source than the officially authorized agencies of the United States Employment Service. If men apply on the ground for employment without

The contractor should keep the Industrial Relations Division of the United States Housing Corporation thoroughly informed as to his applications for labor other than those made of the local agency. The contractor should also supply the Industrial Relations Division with a statement covering his probable future demands for labor at monthly intervals, over a period of six months from the time the contract is let. This statement should be revised monthly, and more frequently when found necessary. The contractor is especially instructed not to ask at any one time for more workers than he can actually and profitably use.

The contractor must put forth his best efforts to have conditions of employment and of living such as will tend to keep the men on the job. The policy of the United States Housing Corporation is for all contractors to conform, as much as possible, to standard rates of pay, hours of work, and conditions of employment.

At the outset of its work the Industrial Relations Division prepared a blank form to enable all contractors of the Housing Corporation to make out their requirements for labor. These reports were to be sent in weekly. The schedule provided in the first column for the total number of men needed, and this was explained as meaning the number needed at any specified time and not accumulatively by weeks. That is, if the contractor needed 200 workmen the first week and 300 additional the second week, he was to report his requirements on each corresponding date as being exactly these numbers and not a total of 500 on the second week. He was also instructed to eliminate from his total requirements the number of men he already had at work. These reports being revised weekly, it was thought that the division would be able to keep in close touch with the labor demand on all its projects. The form provided in its second column for the date when specified number was needed; the remaining 14 columns of the blank permitted the enumeration of specific workers required, such as common laborers, carpenters, electricians, lathers, plasterers, steam fitters, and painters. Several blank columns were left for writing in at the top particular trades required which were not designated in the blank itself. The schedule indicated the location of the particular project as to its number, city, State, and, of course, the name of the contractor.

The instructions sent to the contractors covering the filling out of the schedule contained the following:

It is expected that each contractor will ask only for the number of men that he can actually and profitably use on the dates specified. Do not ask for more than will be needed with the expectation that not all of them will be sent you. Our policy is, as far as possible, to send the exact number requested. While we may not be able to do this in every case, the aim is to supply the number needed.

One contractor failing to carry out these instructions asked for 20 painters on a specific date. These painters were brought all the way from Kansas to Maryland on the date specified. Upon their arrival at the project it was found that the contractor would not need painters for two or three weeks. It was necessary either to retain these men on the project in idleness at regular day wages or else return them to Kansas, no other housing project in the immediate vicinity being in need of painters at that time. The result was that this contractor had to meet the trans

portation expense of these 20 painters from Kansas, their expense for food and lodging for several days, full day wages while the men were there and in addition the cost of their transportation back to Kansas. It proved a very expensive experiment to the contractor. This instance was cited to other contractors in order to prevent a repetition of this method of reporting their labor needs and it had a very salutary effect.

As is the case with nearly all attempts to measure conditions by means of blank forms or schedules, a close watch had to be kept not only on the filling out of the form by the contractors but also in seeing that the schedule was sent in regularly to the division.

It was quite a difficult task to secure uniformity of procedure from so many different contractors engaged on the housing projects who were accustomed to conducting business in their own way and in accordance with their own methods. This difficulty was encountered especially in the direction of securing accurate and frequent reports and in particular at the beginning of the project. Instead of complying with the policy of the division, contractors frequently failed to send in these forms weekly but would wait until their need for labor was pressing and then would excitedly telegraph in their requirements.

The progress of housing construction measured by the demand for labor of various kinds as outlined in this blank form by the contractor is illustrated in the schedule from the New Brunswick, N. J., project. Work on the houses there began October 1, and the anticipated requirements for labor were given as common laborers and carpenters for the first two weeks; masons and painters the following week; bricklayers, plumbers, and steam fitters at the beginning of the third week; plumbers and electricians were in demand by the end of the month. Lathers were required within a month after the contractor began work and plasterers and roofers were added within five weeks to the other crafts. Assuming no interruption to the progress of the work, the demand for employees increased steadily from 50 on the first day to 1,257 on the forty-fourth day. This latter marked the peak of employment which was to continue approximately three weeks. By the end of that time construction was to have progressed far enough to permit a gradual laying off of the workers until at the beginning of the fifth month the project would be ready to be turned over to the Housing Corporation for operation. On this theoretical basis the employees first dismissed would be the masons and bricklayers, next the lathers, then the steam fitters, the plasterers, roofers, plumbers,

and electricians, while the last to go were carpenters, painters, and a few common laborers.

So many conditions arose to interfere with this outline of labor requirements that it was found necessary to keep a close check on the actual needs each week. Such a schedule did not permit of ascertaining on any particular date how many men in the different crafts were already engaged on the project, and for this reason such a schedule did not prove satisfactory for the purpose of making requests of the United States Employment Service. It was found necessary to insist upon a weekly revised statement as to the number of men at work and the additional number required, by occupations.

The requirements for labor on the housing projects as ascertained from these revised reports of the contractors were compiled and immediately transmitted to the United States Employment Service after inquiry had developed that the contractor was unable to secure the labor needed from the local or State supply. Applications were made at first almost daily for particular projects and usually each week for all the projects together. The extent of this demand is indicated in the weekly application made under date of October 26, 1918, at which time the total number of workers required on all housing projects of the corporation reached 12,356. Of these, common laborers and carpenters comprised about 80 per cent of the total, common laborers alone making up as much as 58 per cent. The other building trades in demand by the Housing Corporation usually comprised bricklayers, cement finishers, concrete workers, electricians, heaters, hod carriers, lathers, linemen, masons, painters, plasterers, plumbers, rock men, roofers, sheetmetal workers, steam fitters, stucco finishers, teamsters, and helpers in many of these various crafts.

Notwithstanding the efforts of the United States Employment Service, labor was coming to the Housing Corporation projects in such small numbers and the situation was so unsatisfactory on virtually every project that the Industrial Relations Division found it necessary to endeavor in various other ways to secure the necessary labor. To this end it established field agents or labor scouts in New York City and Boston, employed traveling field agents on its staff, and instructed all the Housing Corporation contractors to employ one or more labor scouts to take care of their own particular needs. The activities of these representatives comprised an area as far west as North Dakota and Arizona and as far south as southwestern Texas, labor being brought all the way from these distant points to as far east as Norfolk, Va. The division also operated directly

through constant touch with officials of the various unions of skilled labor. It caused letters to be inserted in the newspapers of the unions calling upon the members voluntarily to refrain from engaging in nonessential work and to take up the more essential work on the nearest Housing Corporation project. Addresses were made at the Sunday meetings of the various skilled trades by representatives of the division, urging upon the members the importance of carrying through the housing projects to an early completion. Advertisements conforming to the regulations of the United States Employment Service were also inserted in the newspapers.

The difficulties in the way of securing an adequate supply of labor for carrying on the projects of the Housing Corporation were innumerable but not insurmountable. By November, 1918, within four months after actual work had commenced, the housing projects were about 50 per cent manned. This means, of course, that some projects had a much larger supply and others, especially those just starting operations, a smaller working force. The largest number on the pay rolls of all the projects at any one time exceeded 17,000 employees.

EXPERIMENTS IN SECURING LABOR.

Prior to the armistice all the housing projects were being held back very considerably and their cost was being largely increased by inability to secure the necessary labor. Some of the factors bringing these results are indicated in these extracts from the report of a works superintendent:

The labor situation on this operation has daily become more and more serious until it is now acute. The temporary quarters and commissary are being held up, freight is rolling in, but the yard is far from being completed and the car congestion is being cumulative. The agencies through which we are permitted to seek labor are seemingly unable to furnish the same. Of the 50 carpenters, 50 plumbers, 50 plumbers' helpers and 50 laborers that they telegraphed they could furnish and which we are assured would reach us

yesterday, only 10 arrived. The plumbing work on the commissary is practically at a standstill. Unless laborers can be secured at once to unload cars the demurrage expense will be a serious item and in addition there is always danger of an embargo by the railroads against the project if the cars are not handled promptly and as promptly released. There are now 25 loaded cars on one siding, 19 on another, and other cars are rolling in at the rate of 15 a day. We suggest that further shipments be retarded until labor can be secured to unload the cars. Immediate and drastic action is necessary.

Coupled with this serious lack of sufficient labor on the one hand retarding house construction were the insistent and almost imperative appeals for houses and more houses for workers in munition and