Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1909)
' , i IK jffe?!. 1 ; fL YiiiiiMiiii'(-'- niiniVi iiinw mr i " -- .i,..iijiitoitiiiuMBaga ? ' ' . . PORTLAND, OREGON. SUNDAY MORNING. JUNE 13, 1909 f 0, IT? !rH Ml 4C 1 i: t. t 1, - -J J (a 4 A " v cope of the New Exchange that Capital Has Created I J ill 11 BBSBKM more than a million men 11 have gone to work during the revival of trade during the last few months there are still 2,000,000 wage-earners idle, America's army of the unemployed equaling the combined fight ing forces of Russia and Japan in their late uar. . They should be earning at average rates, about $1,100,000,000 a year con siderably more than the national debt. On the wrong side of the ledger they represent a drain of almost that much on the nation's prosperity. They should be purchasers. But they are, perforce, borrowers. Some of i them are beggars. Capital looks askance at this showing. 1 1 is "bad business." It is doubly bad be cause it is unnecessary. There is work for every one, homes for all. The only thing necessary is to transport the labor where it is most needed. To do this to put labor on the market like stocks and bonds the National Em ployment Exchange has been incorporated under the laws of New York, with head quarters in New York city and with $ioo, OOO subscribed to defray the preliminary ex penses. The exchange is going to begin at the bottom. It is first going to provide work and homes for New York's army of ap proximately 00,000 unskilled workers who are now subsisting from hand to mouth. After it has done this it will enlarge its activities. , The leading men. of Wall street are backing the exchange. Through them it will be in touch with the foremost financiers and manufacturers of the entire country. Once fairly started in New York it is to have branches in all the larger industrial centers of the nation. From this it can be seen that its possibilities are unlimited. When employed every man is an asset to a nation; unemployed, he is a liability. And to convert 2,000,000 men from liabil ities to assets means an increased purchas ing capacity sufficient to have bought every dollar's worth of American products ex ported last year. ! 1 1 . IV.l "-tot at t - 1; JM 1 m MY gf ft .:) 1 Hi r V. f'TpHIS EXCHANGE is not n charity. I It is not to be run as a charitable 1 " institution. It is to be conducted as a business, on business principles." The statement was made recently by Otto Tremont Bannard, president of the New York Trust Company, who was the guiding spirit in the organization of the exchange and who, after its incorporation, was niade its president. He is a thorough type of the successful financier sharp, Bhrewd and-practical, concise in speech, decisive in manner, with- a (tool Lead , and a clear eye. There is nothing of the vision ary about him, and regarding the plans and pur poses of his project he is disposed to be ex tremely conservative. Of it he said at the time of its incorporation : "Tins- is the first practical step of a move ment to establish labor bureaus which will in spire confidence alike in employers and em ployes, and whilo it is to be a self-supporting business, in order to insure its permanence, our motives are purely philanthropic. There is mueh suffering in the country at the present time, and we hope to relieve some of it through this organ ization." Naturally, the men most affected by the late financial flurry were the unskilled laborers, and these will be aided first. An office has been opened at 17 State street, in charge of Charles Carpemter, and others will be established as s they are needed. "We are going to ship these men where they can have work and good homes," said Mr. Bannard. "But we are not going to operate as a charity. If a man gets a dollar's worth of good out of the exchange make him pay. his dollar for it, and that's the only way to, keep up the organization: , "The whalo Iroublo- witfv similar ntet ) prises has been that they wore conducted as charities. Business men wouldn't apply for labor. They were afraid of getting the maimed, the halt and the blind. In fact, they usually did get a pretty worthless lot. "We want to avoid this error. We want to conduct this exchange as a business. Then we will have the confidence of business men. We want them to know that if th:,y send us orders they will get what they want nothing more, nothing less. ATTRACTS MUCH ATTENTION "We are starting with the unskilled labor ers because they are most in need of aid. When we have attended to them we will take up the various trades. In time we expect to take care of all of them. But we are going to take caro of the unskilled men before we do anything more." Because it promises to fill a long-felt want the National Labor Exchange has attracted at tention all over the country. The 2,000,000 citi zens who are out of work, according to the esti mate, of the American Federation of Labor, represent the entire population of Wisconsin. They equal the entire wage-earning -population " Alere figures give no adequate idea of how materially the country jwould benefit were thee 2 ,000.000 unemployed put to work. The $l,lu0, 000,000 they would earn in a year would buy tho equivalent to every dollar's worth of manu factures and products exported from this coun try during the year 1908. The same sum would buy outright the state of Virginia and every thing in it, according to the last census val uation. Just imagine how the mercantile and man ufacturing concerns would boom if the pur chasing power of the peoplo were increased $1,100,000,000 a year. Then you will gain some idea of how tremendous is the probleui of the unemployed; then you will realize why the astute Wall street financiers are so anxious to solve it. Eor it means as much to them as it does to the poor, unskilled laborer who is wear ing out shoe leather he can't replace in a vain effort to find the necessaries of life for a hungry family. Yet the problem is not so serious as it. was somewhat more than a year ago. Then more, than 3,000,000 wage:earnera were idle, according to the report of the representatives of the In dustrial Workers of the World.' In the last year more than, a, million -men have gone to work. But they were mainly the skilled laborers the artisaiw and tradesmen. These classes are rai idly 'being re-employed. Everything tends to show a return to normal conditions in the near future. The unskilled men, huddled together in tenements in the big cities, are the ones who will be last to rind work. And they are the one who will first be aided by the National Labor Exchange. There is plenty of work for them to do, bu they are never where they are neekd. There ar millions of acres of land to be tilled, but they can't get to it. There are new communities forming which are crying for men, skilled of unskilled, but the helpless urbanites profit AS little from them as if a reservation on themooa were opened to settlement. To put these men where they belong1, where they will contribute to the prosperity of th eountry instead of retarding it that is the ta.k to which the new labor exchange Km let itself. And that it will not lack co-operation eemi as sured. ' " ; , ' Lv , . ..' j "Why, from, a single newspaper afUcler " (COJITlJrUED OS INSIOH TAGS,) 4-
