IV.

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE ORGANIZED INDUSTRIES.

1. INTRODUCTORY.

Annual summaries of the statistics relative to unemployment among the organized wage-earners of Massachusetts have been published by this Bureau in its "Annual Reports on Labor Organizations.”1 The present summary, therefore, constitutes virtually the Seventh Annual Report on the subject of Unemployment.

No attempt has been made in this report to cover the wide range of topics which should be considered in a comprehensive and detailed study of the subject of unemployment, but the main facts as to the development of the principal phases of this problem have been briefly reviewed. We have also discussed at some length a graphic representation of existing statistics of unemployment among organized wage-earners in the United Kingdom, Germany, New York State, and Massachusetts, in order to show to what extent the periods of industrial inactivity have corresponded in the several countries considered. Following this discussion is presented an analysis of the statistical data relative to unemployment of organized workpeople in Massachusetts, obtained during the seven-year period, 1908-1914.

2. GENERAL REVIEW OF THE IMMEDIATE PROBLEM. Although there are no comprehensive statistics showing the normal amount of unemployment in the United States, it appears to be the opinion of those most conversant with the subject that the problem of

1 The summary information for 1908-1913 was published in the Annual Reports on Labor Organizations as follows:

1908- First Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Part II of the 39th Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor), pp. 182-184, 205, 206.

1909 Second Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Part III of the 40th Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor), pp. 303-307, 339, 340.

1910 Third Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Labor Bulletin No. 87), pp. 28-33.

1911Fourth Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Part II of the 42d Annual Report on the Statistics of Labor), pp. 89-100.

1912- Fifth Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Labor Bulletin No. 96), pp. 22-38, 110-113.

1913 Sixth Annual Report on Labor Organizations (Labor Bulletin No. 105), pp. 24-46, 56-59.

Quarterly reports on unemployment have been issued as follows:

1908 Labor Bulletins Nos. 59, 61, 62, and 63.
1909- - Labor Bulletins Nos. 64, 66, 69, and 71.

1910
1911

Labor Bulletins Nos. 72, 74, 77, and 79.

Labor Bulletins Nos. 80, 82, 85, and 89.

1912, 1913, and 1914 - Quarterly Reports on Unemployment.

Each quarterly bulletin or report contains the returns for the quarter just ended previous to its publication, together with comparable returns for earlier quarters and several pages of descriptive text.

unemployment became more pressing in 1914 than in any year since the financial and industrial depression which occurred during the Winter of 1907-1908. In two states, New York and Massachusetts, which publish, periodically, statistics of unemployment based on returns received from labor organizations, the comparative percentages for 1913 and 1914 show that there was a decided increase in the amount of unemployment during the latter year. In New York City a committee appointed by the Mayor made a thorough canvass of employers, and from the results obtained concluded that the number of wage-earners employed in that city during the week ending December 13, 1914, was less by 200,000 than the number employed during the corresponding week in 1913, notwithstanding the fact that 1913 was considered an abnormal year. Reports from other sections of the country, while not, in most instances, of an official character, indicated that there was also much suffering in many of the principal industrial centers, due directly to unemployment.

During the early months of the year, there was, according to such reports as are available, rather more unemployment than is ordinarily observed during the winter months. The outbreak of the war served to prolong the period of depression and to render the situation more acute, but it cannot be fairly assumed that the great amount of unemployment. observed in this country during the latter part of the year was due solely to the European war. On the contrary, it must be acknowledged that nearly every year there is, in this country, much involuntary unemployment, particularly during the winter months.

Unfortunately, it has been generally assumed, until within very recent years, that unemployment exists only during prolonged periods of industrial depression and, therefore, that temporary expedients for relieving distress are all that are required. Heretofore attention, when, given to the matter at all, has been confined mainly to the furnishing of local emergency relief, but the recent appointment of official and unofficial committees charged with the function of determining the amount of unemployment, its incidence and causes, and of devising measures for more permanent relief, marks a new attitude in this country toward this important problem.

The great number of books, reports, and articles1 issued during the year and treating of the subject of unemployment is evidence that the importance of this problem is at last being realized. A considerable part of the literature on this subject issued during the year, had reference,

1 A list of the more important books, reports, and magazine articles issued in 1914 and treating specifically of the subject of unemployment included about 170 titles. See Massachusetts Labor Bulletin No. 111, entitled "Labor Bibliography, 1914", pp. 79-87.

it is true, to the more or less spectacular demonstrations by the unemployed (of which the church raids in New York City, early in March, and the establishment by the unemployed in Seattle of a co-operative boarding house known as the "Hotel de Gink", may be cited as the more important examples); yet much that was written dealt with the larger phases of the problem and discussed constructive measures for the ultimate solution of the problem, both locally and nationally.

The State legislation in 1914 on the subject of unemployment is briefly summarized in the following paragraph:1

Spurred on by the experiences of the winter of 1913-1914 three states made provision for public bureaus to put employment givers and employment seekers in touch with each other. Louisiana authorized its municipalities to open such bureaus free of state tax or license, and Maryland authorized an office primarily for immigrants. The most comprehensive measure of the year in this field is that of New York, which created a bureau of employment in the state department of labor, with branches throughout the state in the discretion of the commissioner of labor, and carefully regulated its operation. By popular vote Washington adopted a measure which practically means the elimination of private employment agencies in that state.

The work of the American Association for Labor Legislation and the American Section of the International Association on Unemployment in arranging, jointly, for national conferences on unemployment, the first of which was held in New York City on February 27 and 28 and the second on December 28 and 29 of this year, is but one expression of the wide-spread interest which is being manifested by organizations of publicspirited citizens in this problem. These conferences were well attended, many States and cities being represented by delegates, and they have not only greatly stimulated interest in the study of the subject but they have borne fruit in a definite constructive program for the solution of this most urgent of industrial problems.

3. COMPARISON OF CHARTERED RETURNS FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM, GERMANY, NEW YORK STATE, AND MASSACHUSETTS FOR THE YEARS 1908-1914.

For a long period of years the principal European countries have collected and published statistics on unemployment. Owing to the varying methods of collecting these statistics and the differing sources from which they are obtained the absolute figures obtained in the several countries are not directly comparable with similar data obtained in this country, but they may be used in plotting curves showing the fluctuations in unemployment in the several countries during a period of years.

1 Quotation from the "Review of Labor Legislation of 1914" in American Labor Legislation Review, Vol. IV, No. 3, November, 1914, p. 484. A digest of the several Acts appears on pp. 484-486 of the same publication.

For purposes of making such comparison this Bureau has prepared the chart appearing on the preceding page, showing, graphically, the extent to which the periods of industrial prosperity and depression in Massachusetts and New York State correspond with those in the United Kingdom and Germany. An examination of the chart shows a remarkable correspondence in the fluctuations of the curves for Massachusetts and New York State during the entire period, 1908 to 1914, with some degree of correspondence between these curves and similar curves for the United Kingdom and Germany. It will be observed that the fluctuations in the curves representing the returns for Germany and the United Kingdom are by no means as violent as the corresponding fluctuations in the curve. representing the conditions in New York State and Massachusetts. This, no doubt, may be explained by the fact that the British and German returns refer to far larger numbers1 of employees than do the returns for New York State and Massachusetts, and consequently a large variation in the number unemployed in a few industries does not affect the general percentages in the one case as noticeably as in the other.

On comparing the fluctuations of the curves, year by year, it will be noted that with the exception of the year 1908, when the curves for the United Kingdom and Germany showed a gradual upward trend during the year while the curves for New York State and Massachusetts showed a rapid downward trend, there was, in general, a rather close correspondence in the fluctuations of the curves, and it will be noted that the upward rise during the winter periods of each year is common to each curve. In the main, the Massachusetts curves correspond more closely in their fluctuations during the period with the curves for New York State than with the curves for the United Kingdom and Germany. The violent fluctuation upward of the British curve at the close of March, 1912, represents the effect of the strike of coal miners in England, while a similar fluctuation of the Massachusetts curve (for all causes) represents the effect of the notable strikes' in Lawrence, Lowell, and other textile centers, which occurred early in 1912. Following the outbreak of the war in August, 1914, the German curve showed a violent upward fluctuation, while the British curve showed also a similar, but less pronounced, upward fluctuation. At the close of the year both curves showed a rapid downward trend toward normal, this representing, no doubt, the with

1 At the end of December, 1913, returns relating to unemployment were furnished to the Labor Statistics Division of the German Imperial Statistical Office by a trade union membership of over 2,000,000.- Reichs-Arbeitsblatt, Jan., 1914, No. 1, p. 10. The British returns for December, 1914, represented a net trade union membership of 917,580.- Board of Trade Labour Gazette, Jan. 1914, p. 1. The returns for New York State at the end of December, 1914, were supplied by 236 representative unions with an aggregate membership of 139,515. — New York Labor Bulletin No. 69, March, 1915, p. 19. The returns for Massachusetts covered 1,024 unions with an aggregate membership of 165,762 (see Table on p. 38).