Chapter X: Free Employment Agencies

Sources of information: Visits to agencies and reports.

Any study of employment agencies would be incomplete without some account of the work which is being done by various religious societies, by philanthropic and charitable organizations, and by the Government. There are so many different forms, that only a few can be indicated.

The attempts of religious organizations to furnish employment through agencies are numerous in all cities. Prominent among these are those conducted by churches. Some of the large institutional churches have pay agencies conducted on a business basis. But the majority of them are small and do not charge fees. They are usually located in the parish or mission house and are occasionally in charge of paid workers, but more often under a committee. There are all grades of equipment and methods, some being simply registry places where names are left, while others have agents in the field looking up patrons. Some limit their work to their own members, others are open to all. Some are for men, others for women; some require references, others do not; some are open part of the year and others all of the year. Usually the employment work is but a small part of the other church or mission work and does not receive any especial emphasis. One of the most common methods of church societies, instead of conducting regular agencies, is to furnish home work in the shape of sewing to women unable to take positions. Frequently, various forms of aid are combined with the furnishing of employment. One religious organization places men in factories and in workshops as apprentices and cares for the family in the meantime; secures contracts for women in homes; and sends young men out to be trained in agricultural work.

In addition to the church agencies a few of the Young Women's and Young Men's Christian Associations have free agencies, but the majority of these charge small fees. They are usually simply places of registry for members and their friends. In Philadelphia these are open to members and outsiders as well. In the other cities small fees are charged. Occasionally, as in Boston, the Salvation Army conducts a free office; in other cities, as New York, where there is an extensive system with branch offices, a small fee is charged. As a rule they have good managers, fair systems, and secure employment for a large number of people. They do not usually require references, and find positions for many domestics and general laborers.

Religious agencies are not open to the frauds described under Chapter III., and are strictly moral, and with the exception of those which are established on a business basis the charges brought against them are that they lack system, are inefficient, and are not in serious competition with private agencies. This is unquestionably true, but it may be that they are judged too harshly. Usually such employment departments are merely a small part of a whole plan of work; they are often started during emergencies and frequently seek to place only the unemployed of their own parishes or districts, or work within a narrow circle. When they depart from this plan they are usually business enterprises and charge fees. But certainly they do a considerable amount of placing, and establish personal relations of much advantage to many employees. With a unity of action, and a more active interest in the whole problem of the unemployed, these religious agencies possess an immense power for both relief and regulation of evils in pay agencies.

Another class of religious agencies is found in seaport towns. These are immigrant homes and there are several types. Some are exclusively for men, others are for women, and a few are for both. These homes are usually supported by some church or religious society. They have missionaries at the ports, who meet unprotected immigrants and take them to the home. Here they are lodged at low rates, sometimes free, and the home finds employers and sends them out to them. These homes are absolutely essential, and aside from caring for the immigrants when they first arrive, they are social centres. One has a mid-week and Sunday meeting to which all girls holding places are invited to come, and they are urged to spend their evenings there. Girls who are not ill enough to go to a hospital may come there and rest. Fifty cents a day is the charge for immigrants, and this includes board and lodging, storage of baggage, and the privilege of the laundry. In many instances this payment is not insisted upon, but girls are expected to pay it when able. In some other homes the charges are higher, and in one the rates are as high as $1.50 per day. There is no fee charged for positions as a rule. These homes require references of employers. References of employers signed by saloon-keepers are not accepted in one such home, and care is taken to protect the girls in all of them. Although for one nationality, they frequently befriend girls of other nationalities. They are not on a business basis, but have religious and social functions.

But the need of protection for immigrant women is so great that even these homes have to be carefully inspected, lest they become careless. A recent investigation by the Ellis Island authorities of one of these homes in New York revealed the fact that it was being run for private gain. The immigrants were compelled to buy cheap articles, as guide books, jewelry, etc., and the home received fees from an employment agency for turning over to them the immigrants.

It is impossible to put into this brief description of immigrant homes any idea of their value when intelligently and honestly conducted. The helplessness of the unemployed immigrants gave rise to their establishment, and the personal, sympathetic, and friendly work which they do prevents many from going astray and gives them a refuge among strangers.

The second large division of employment agencies is the charitable, which deals with the various classes of helpless, unfortunate, and dependent persons. Among these are agencies which secure work for mothers and children. In New York the State Charities Aid runs an admirable employment department, placing some five hundred persons a year. These mothers are unmarried, dependent, or deserted, and come to the society from institutions, homes, etc. They are placed only in country places, no charge is made, and transportation is usually furnished by the employer. All employers' references must bear the names of three persons and are carefully investigated. These places are secured by advertising, and by the neighborhood work done by the employers who have previously secured employees. They are placed almost entirely in households. Employers prefer mothers and children because the wages are about one third less; they remain longer, and it is hard to get country help. To the employee just coming from a maternity hospital with a baby, or deserted, it means keeping her child from an institution. The increase in wife desertion is a serious problem, and such agencies help to meet it on the industrial side. In addition, it renders such other services as, acting as bankers; social headquarters, where the women are asked to come when they have a day off in the city; redeeming pawn pledges; and making purchases for women out of town. In Boston, the Association for Aiding Destitute Mothers and Children does this work, and in addition has a lodging-house where women may stay for twenty-five cents a night. It also has an industrial department, where the women are taught sewing. In Chicago, the Illinois Children's Aid Society has a department for placing mothers and children. These agencies do a very important work and are thoroughly reliable.

For discharged convicts, the Prisoners' Aid Associations have employment departments. In New York, the Woman's Prison Association co-operates with the Isaac T. Hopper Home, which was founded for inebriate women. They are sent there by the prison visitors, and must remain one month without drinking before their pay begins, or before they are placed in households. This agency and home conducts a laundry where the women are employed while on probation. They cannot leave without permission and if they come back intoxicated are dismissed. The demand for household workers exceeds the supply even at this institution.

For men, such organizations as the Central Howard Association do the work. This covers the Middle Western States. It is supported by subscriptions, and its object is to secure employment for ex-prisoners, acting as a sort of first friend. It extends the advantages of the parole law and the indeterminate sentence. It gets into correspondence with men in prisons and helps them when they are released on parole, and it has representatives who get acquainted with employers and secure positions, and others who give their time to investigating cases and looking out for boys. Its work is peculiarly difficult, for many employers will not take prisoners. Sometimes fellow-workers refuse to associate with them, and policemen report their history and they are discharged. Such associations have well-established and-equipped offices, and of course there are no fees, though men are encouraged to return, when convenient, the amounts actually expended for them.

Industrial Aid Societies are employment agencies. They furnish both permanent and transient work for both men and women free of charge, and many are sent to the country. They especially aid persons who are able to work only a part of the time. Relief is given in homes, also, and such societies are interested in other work as vacant-lot cultivation, etc. They do much soliciting among employers, but they have a very unreliable class of employees, as they are so often inefficient or are benevolent charges. It is a class for which some agencies must exist, as pay agencies would only defraud them, for they could scarcely recommend them or secure them permanent positions.

Associated Charities have for the most part abandoned employment agencies, but they had at one time well-defined departments. The New York and Philadelphia Associations now confine their work to furnishing relief by actual employment, as in woodyards and laundries. The United Hebrew Charities in New York has an Industrial Removal Society and an employment agency with which it co-operates, but they are now independent. This Association until this year had one of the best-managed agencies in New York. In Boston the Federation of Jewish Societies have an employment agency which places few in the city, but sends families out of the city, and furnishes money for tools, furniture, and transportation. They also pay board for two weeks' instruction and send out families as boarding-house keepers. They co-operate also with Jewish boarding-houses, where immigrants may stay one day or longer without charge. Associated Charities keep a list of reliable agencies for reference.

Settlements frequently have employment agencies. They have one person in charge of this branch who takes the orders and looks up employees. Their work is confined to women who go out for days' work, or as household employees. No charge is made, and it is run as an accommodation to those working with the settlement. Many worthy persons are placed each year. Others, as in New York, co-operate with reliable agencies. A few which have large boys' clubs do especially good work in securing work for them.

Boston has a temporary home for working women which is also an employment agency. Any woman willing to work can remain a stated length of time and pay her board by doing work in the laundry, kitchen, or sewing-room, and is placed in outside positions as soon as found.

Some of the great department stores, especially in Chicago, have free employment bureaus for the accommodation of customers. One has conducted such a bureau for several years. The number of applicants for work has been as high as two hundred and three hundred per day, and places filled, or situations secured from one hundred to one hundred and fifty per day. Naturally this became burdensome, and the bureau was recently abolished. Chiefly domestic and restaurant help was registered. In another store operating a free employment bureau, during sixteen weeks there were 3957 applicants for work, and 2591 permanent positions secured, besides some ten or twelve temporary positions filled daily at restaurants. This restaurant help is not registered, but is sent out immediately on the call of any restaurant for additional help. This bureau only registers women household employees, and in this alone has averaged 247 applicants for work per week.

There are also a number of City Employment or Ladies' Employment Societies which give out work, but they find but few positions and have no offices.

The third class of free employment agencies is that established and supported by the State or municipality. The motives for establishing these appear to be three: To furnish a medium of exchange; to conciliate the labor vote; and to regulate the abuses in private agencies. Primarily they aim to bring employer and employee into communication, and by supervision to secure the best possible adjustment.

These free labor agencies have been established in fifteen States—Ohio, Montana, New York, Nebraska, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, Washington, California, Maryland, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Kansas, and Connecticut—and have been discontinued in three—Colorado, Montana, and Iowa. This year two other States have made attempts—Minnesota with a strong prospect of success, and Massachusetts, where the bill failed. The first one was established in Ohio in 1890, after a strong labor agitation. The provisions of these laws vary, but the object is the same. Three types exist. The Ohio law creates one agency in each of the five large cities. Their management is vested in the Commissioner of Labor and Statistics, and superintendents and clerks are appointed by him. The general expenses are defrayed by the State, but the salaries of officers are borne by the cities in which they are located. Each superintendent makes a weekly report. The second type is found in New York, where all expenses are paid by the State, $5000 being appropriated annually. There is but one agency of the third type, namely the municipal free office, in Seattle, Washington, under a civil service commission and a board of business men. The essential features of free employment agencies are, thus: establishment and maintenance by the Government; management by appointees of State labor commissions; absence of all fees; and collection and publication of labor statistics through them.

As a medium of exchange some of these agencies have been remarkably successful, especially in the Middle Western States. They furnish reliable places where men and women can seek positions without charge, and where an honest effort is made to furnish them with such. Where they are not so successful there are satisfactory explanations. In some cases, as New York, the appropriations are so small that they are unable to compete with the fine system and excellent field service of agencies which spend thousands of dollars yearly. Where they have been established at a distance from the labor centres, as at the capital in Nebraska, they cannot reach the supply. Where the managers are political appointees, as is so often the case, they are not, as a rule, as well qualified as business men.

The employees furnished by free agencies include general laborers, household help, some skilled workers, as mechanics, etc., and many farm hands. A new organization called the Western Association of Free Employment Bureaus promises to make this placing of farm hands very effective. Its object is to secure and distribute labor of all kinds in and between the separate States; to secure special rates from railways for idle laborers, and to provide for the distribution of help where it is most needed, especially in wheat regions. It has also the broader policy of co-operation for the betterment of other industrial conditions. This is the first attempt to model the work of free agencies upon interstate conditions.

Hitherto the success of these agencies has been judged almost entirely from statistics; and without wishing to detract from their success, or the belief that they have an unlimited opportunity for good, so much reliance has been placed on these statistics as a measure of their effectiveness that they fall short of reaching their highest possibilities. Statistics may be misleading in several ways. In one agency it was found that whenever men were given temporary jobs for a day or week, as cleaning off snow, etc., they were included in the lists. To make statistics reliable, distinctions should be made between temporary and permanent jobs, to avoid one man's being placed ten or fifteen times a year as though all were permanent.

In 1901, a report was made to the Bureau of Charities of Chicago on the workings of the three employment agencies in that city, and the following facts were brought out:

Reports are made to the Commissioner of Labor each week and published, but the law prohibits any official or private inspection, so these reports can never be verified. A man may register at the same office more than once, and each is counted as a new application. Persons who do not receive positions immediately upon application lose all prospect of employment, so there is a tendency to register, so as to be fresh on the lists. A man is encouraged to apply at all agencies, being told that his chances are better. There is no interchange of reports, and there can be no estimate of the amount of duplication. Yet, with the knowledge that men do apply at all the offices and are constantly encouraged to do so, we still find that seventy-eight per cent. of all those who apply secure positions. One would almost be justified in concluding from these figures that after duplications had been eliminated, the number of positions secured would be near or quite one hundred per cent. of the number of applications. It is to be noted in this connection that section 11 of the Statute provides that one of the causes for which a superintendent of a free employment office may be removed is 'an unexplained low percentage of positions secured to applicants for situations.'

The report further says:

"Permanent positions seem to be secured for comparatively few persons. The floating lodging-house population makes up a large percentage of those who receive employment, and the work given is ordinarily of a temporary character. Little apparent effort is made to reach employers. Some circulars are distributed and advertising done, and the law requires that factory and mine inspectors shall report to the State agencies such opportunities as they may observe in the performance of other duties. We are informed that this provision is disregarded.

"Besides the duplication which occurs in the different State agencies, as described above, other evidence of straining a point to make a showing are not wanting. For instance, it is considered important to show by the reports that persons representing a wide range of occupation register their names for positions. While substantially for the same occupations, they appear in the statistics under different names. One instance will suffice to illustrate this. The north side office classifies a certain kind of female applicants for employment as under the head of 'General Work.' The south side office uses the classification of 'Housework' for the same kind of applicants. The west side office for the same kind of applicants uses the term 'Domestics.' In the list of different occupations represented, appear the three items 'Domestics, General Work, and Housework.' In addition to these three headings, the following are found in the list of occupations of women: 'Housekeepers, kitchen help, pantry work, second work.' The applicants seem to be sent to positions with comparatively little regard for their qualifications and with no attention to priority of application. The latest applicant seems ordinarily to be the favored one.

"Our study of the situation leads us to the conclusion that whatever is good in the free employment system may be preserved and strengthened, and whatever experience has shown to be bad or unnecessary may be largely eliminated without serious difficulty. We would suggest first of all that a thorough official inquiry be made into all the details of the operation of the agencies; the investigating committee to have authority to disregard the statute which prohibits an inspection of the lists of applicants for positions. We believe that such an investigation would show that a single office in Chicago, properly equipped and managed in a business-like way will be able to do all the work required, and to do it better than it has been done. This would immediately eliminate all duplication and padding of statistics. It would reduce expenses without in any way reducing the number of persons who would patronize the agencies. We believe more attention should be given to interesting employers. At present these agencies are little more than registration bureaus."

The report closes:

"It may be of interest to add that a good many applicants for employment have been referred to the State agencies by the Chicago Bureau of Charities, and so far as we are informed not one of the number has ever succeeded in securing employment through them."

This abstract is given simply to show that too much reliance upon unexplained statistics may be misleading and that free agencies are not by any means free from evils. It is indeed a serious question if, under the present methods of management, free labor agencies reach their highest efficiency. Speaking of the New York City agency, one of the most prominent New York workers for the unemployed said:

"It is inadequate and does not meet the needs. Its head is a politician who stays in the office and does not come into contact with business men. When the office was opened, a working woman's club agency had a patronage of some two thousand people of good family. They transferred it to this office. The treatment and methods there were such that these patrons would not go there, both in manner of officials and arrangement of rooms. We have sent men there repeatedly, and they have not received work, and it has degenerated into a place where only domestics seem sure of positions. No efforts are made to get work except sending out circulars and occasionally advertising. It is a mistake to put a politician in charge when it needs a business man who can be an agent and come into contact with business men and employers and keep in touch with business life."

Of course in New York, with a Republican State office in the midst of a Tammany-governed city, the odds are tremendously against a superintendent.

It is not impossible for free State agencies to be careless in placing women employees, and from the records of a Woman's Protective Association, so late as 1902, we find that they were protesting against free agencies' sending women as employees to disreputable places. One woman was sent to two notoriously bad hotels, and it was a free agency which sent the Larson girl to a river boat where she was murdered. As a result of this protest they use more care. There is no reason why State agencies should not be as careful about employees, references, etc., as private agencies, and this evidence shows that the men at the head cannot be too vigilant.

In justice to free agencies, the explanation of their inefficiency must be placed, first, upon the small appropriation. The State expects them to compete successfully with an old established business on a sum too meagre to pay clerk hire, to say nothing of expenses for solicitors, advertising, etc. Salaries of from $1000 to $1500 for superintendents will not attract men capable of making a business success, for they are doing this at a higher figure elsewhere. Offices cannot even be fitted up in a manner to attract desirable employers. There are private agencies in New York worth $25,000 a year, and the free agency on $5000 must compete with such. Second. Inefficiency may be due to political appointments. Usually men are selected primarily for political reasons and are rarely business men having a wide acquaintance with business houses and men. The private agency keeps no employee who is not of value to it, and he is retained only so long as he hustles for the office. But political appointees are too secure, and private employment agency managers constantly outclass them by commanding more brains and money.

As successful competitors, free agencies have not reached their highest efficiency. As regulators of private agencies they are a failure. Ohio, which has succeeded in reducing the number, has recently passed regulations of private agencies; and additional legislation covering private agencies has been found necessary in other States. Boston has the best regulation of private agencies, and has no free bureau. New York has six hundred agencies, and the worst conditions while a free agency exists; and in Chicago there are about 115 licensed agencies, and many abuses, with three free agencies. Both of the latter have added special restrictions upon private agencies.

When the enforcement of the laws regulating private agencies is entrusted to free employment agents, as is the case in many States, the policy is at best a doubtful one. The free agency is a competitor and its spirit is to "run out other offices." If private agencies are licensed by the State, they should be permitted to conduct an honest business upon the fairest terms possible and are entitled to the State's protection. But when the free agency enforces the law, it has access to the books of every private agency, can study and adopt its business methods, and profit by them. We believe there are some honest offices which would co-operate with a department enforcing the law, but not in direct competition; but now, good and bad together all unite against the free agency. In the States where free agencies exist the tendency is to urge harsh legislation against private agencies. But in the present state of imperfection of free agencies, this would remove a public servant without an adequate substitute. Private agencies are performing an important and legitimate economic function, and until the State or city has tested what an adequate system of regulation and inspection will do, it is an unjust discrimination to consider all of them as bad, for any business conducted purely for gain without regulation will develop undesirable qualities, as is seen in factories, tenements, etc.

Some free agencies have been organized as a matter of political expediency and used as sources of patronage. Some, having served this purpose, have been discontinued. Only political reasons could give Chicago three independent offices when New York has but one. As a means of political expe-. diency they are less important than they promised, for they have in a measure failed to draw the unem-. ployed from other avenues. Others have been established as a popular movement, and have not justified their existence. There are some further disadvantages and some marked failures of free agencies to meet the real need of the unemployed. They have a tendency to pauperize, and for this reason many will not patronize them. Any service secured without cost is more or less underrated, and men who have money will not go there, often because they say others will think them "broke." If it costs nothing to secure a position, both employer and employee feel less obligation, and the slightest provocation tends to break the relationship. Under the present arrangement the best class of employers will not patronize free public offices. This is especially true of women. The equipment, the waiting-. rooms, the conditions under which employers must converse with and engage employees are such that employers will not submit to them. Girls will not frequent them, because they know these desirable employers are not to be found there. Such are the statements of many employers and employees who have been questioned. Thus far these agencies have not solved the great problem of immigrant labor, which is serious in all seaport towns. They are usually in charge of English-speaking officials, and if an immigrant Slav, Italian, Pole, or Jew found his way there, he would be quite helpless. Even if they understood him, he would have more faith in a humbug who spoke his own language. These agencies have not improved the conditions under which employees wait in the better offices. They are clean, not overcrowded, but here also the applicant must sit in idleness day after day, fearing to be absent lest he lose his position. The agitation of one State for a reading-room shows a realization of this condition. To a small extent these agencies attract vagrants to the cities in which they are, and they may become loafing centres, unless this tendency is carefully guarded.

If these are the defects and disadvantages, it must not be forgotten that as they stand they are of immense value. They do offer a place where a man without money can get a job, they are free from the dangers of fraud and immorality, and they have a friendly interest in the applicant. Free agencies are comparatively new and the public is often disposed to expect too much of them and so to underestimate their good work. But the municipal free agency seems to come nearer the ideal than the State agency. The only one in existence is in Seattle, Washington, and is supported by the city under the civil service commission, and is a business success. This agency differs from State agencies, in that the Labor Commissioner is in direct charge of the office and has no other work; it has general labor, domestic, and mercantile departments, and is governed by a board of business men; although local, its employees are sent to widely distant places. Such success demonstrates that the principle of free agencies is a good one, and the present defects are due chiefly to methods and management.

Advocates of free agencies in the United States argue that they are successful in France, England, and Germany, and regulate private agencies. A glance at the methods used in Germany explains the success. The system is national. Each province has a central office and there are many branch offices. All these branches send their lists to the central agency, then all the central agencies in the various States exchange bi-weekly lists. These include both unfilled places and applications. Then a list for the whole State is made and posted in each sub-agency. Not only this, but the office secures half rates on the railways, and there is an excellent police inspection of private agencies. The fundamental principle of the German agencies is equal representation, its board of managers consisting of three each of employers and employees, and its chairman is chairman of the Trades Council. Its whole atmosphere is business rather than politics. Aside from its superior organization it is adapted to existing conditions such as the concentration of population in small areas. France has a system which also covers the country, and all co-operate with the agency at headquarters. Even France has found that, with her excellent system, private agencies were not regulated, and has passed a law which provides for the suppression of all pay agencies. Under the law, free agencies may be created at will by municipalities, syndicates of working men or employers, and by laborers' and farmers' exchanges. In every commune a register setting forth offers and demands for work is to be opened at the mayor's office. Classified lists must be prepared and interchanged, and in all communes of more than ten thousand inhabitants there must be a municipal office. Theatrical and similar agencies are not included in this new law. The best that this country has is one or several offices in a State, under one commissioner, but independent in working. Such a perfect system as in Germany and France might be possible for a State, but scarcely for the country.