USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of the activities of the people of Lackawanna County in the world war : under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety > Part 6
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Chapter IV.
Industry and Labor.
In the great war the Government needed the enthusiastic support of every one of its hundred million citizens. It was the war of the citizens, not the war of the Government; and it was for this very fact that the war was fought with such stupendous success both in the field and at home. We built ships, raised wheat, made munitions, on a scale one hundred times greater, or faster, than ever before. And here in Lackawanna County we mined anthracite coal faster and consumed it more slowly than we ever hed in the past. The task of war needed the whole energy of every man,
woman, and child. Ignorance, carelessness, and indifference
would have caused huge losses and delays. Because public opinion was so aroused that patriotism drove the Nation at full speed the message of the war reached the people.
A Domestic
Problem.
At the very beginning of the war it was known to the people of Lackawanna County that war in these ultra-modern times meant not the blare of the trumpet -- but work. It was well known that a very small proportion of the men, and an infinite- simal number of the women of Northeastern Pennsylvania would be so fortunate as to hear the roar of cannon, the rattle of musketry, or smell the smoke of powder. The eleven thousand who first and last entered the service of the United States was a much greater number than was anticipated in the spring of 1917. The Executive Committee of the Council of National Defense and the whole Commit-
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tee of Public Safety were well aware that their problems would not arise from the fighting part of the war; and they wore equally well aware that their duties and responsibilities were to support the fighting forces in all the ways that industry could support them, and at the same time to take the best of care of the people who remained at home; so that nothing might sap the energy or destroy the enthusiasm of the people of the community. The elements that go to make up the machinery of civic and social and industrial or- ganization must be better oiled than they ever had been before; and greatly in addition to that, an ever increasing surplus of utilities, based on labor, must be exported from this County.
Civilian
Service.
The whole question of industry and labor was a vital problem to the Committee of Public Safety from the beginning of the war, and it was a problem that continually became more compli- cated. Mr. Paul B. Belin was made chairman of the Committee on Civilian Service. Under his administration, which lasted through to the end of the war, a great many different arrangements wore made as to the management of the infinite number of details con- nected with employment of labor, filling positions, the guidance of industry, and the supplying of all sorts of demands. It was under
his direction that the different managers of the Farm Tabor Bureau, already referred to in the preceding chapter, conducted their
oporations. It may be said that the questions relating to industrial and mining labor came to be important and complicated problems a little later in the war than did farm labor questions. At any rate it was taken up as a great big question later. And this is true, that until a certain point was reached in the
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shortage of labor for he industries and the mines, the industries and mines were able to handle their own labor problems without the assistance of governmental or quesi-governmental agencies of supervision.
War
Industries.
The correspondence of Colonel Watres and the files in the war offices are full of letters and their replies offering the ser- vices of individuals in certain types of industrial work; and of industries themselves in regard to turning from their regular opera- tions to the manufacture of war munitions. Many individuals did engage in special work because of their special training; but in almost every case it was necessary for them to leave Lackawanna County in order to do so. There was no large war industry, with two exceptions, located within the County. True, some plants en- gaged in the manufacture of munitions, notably industries engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel products; on what must be con- sidered in comparison with the great industrial plants throughout the country, a vory small scale. The two exceptions were the silk
mills and the coal mines. In regard to the labor problem it was never necessary for the officials of the Committee of Public Safety to pay any attention to the silk mills. The operators, supplying the ordnance department and at the same time the domestic markets throughout the country with silk products, worked twenty-four hours a day most of the time, and were able to supply themselves with labor This was not remarkable, for most of the hands in the silk mills are women, who were naturally unprepared to engage in other industries, we're not called into the army, could not go into the mines, and were not tempted away into the ship yards and big munition plants.
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Labor for the mines, however, was at all times, but principally during the two winters of the war, a very vital and a very serious problem. To repeat, then, during the first months of the var, industrial labor practically took care of itself; and the Commit- tee of Public Safety watched it.
The members of Mr. Bolin's Committee on Civilian Service wete Mir. H. F. Hartman, Mr. Boyd A. Musser, Mr. Jams Gaylord, Mr. Herman F. Stender, Mr. E. S. illiams, Mr. B. E. Watson, and Mr. E. H. Davis.
Information.
Various registrations during the war placed in the hands of the Committee of Public Safety valuable information concerning labor conditions. The Scranton Board of Trade, through years of effort on the part of Mr. C. S. Seamans and Mr. Mark K. Edgar, was in a position to supply much information in regard to industries and mines at any moment.
Employment Bureau.
There was a registration of women in June, 1917.
In July, the members of the Committee of Public Safety under direcion of the Executive Committee, conducted a thorough registration of persons, occupations, and an inventory of personal property. On
August 3rd, Mr. E. C. Felton, Director of the Department of Civilian Service and Labor for Pennsylvania, made known to Colonel atres his plan for the establishment of sones in which administrators would cope with the employment problem. Scranton was to be the central office for the counties of Lackawanna, Hontour, Columbia, Wayne, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon, Monroe,
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and Pike; and he sent Mr. Jacob Lightnor, State Director of the Employment Bureau, to Colonel Metros to make arrangements for the arganization of the central office of the rone. On Infect 17, 1937, Mr. Joseph M. Stevenson was appointed Examiner-in-Charge by the Executive Committee, and later say his appointment approved by Mr. Felton.
For about a year Mr. Stevenson occupied the two posi- tions of Executive Secretary of the Committee of Publin Safety and Examiner-in-Charge of the Employment Bureau; and during his encumbency most of his interest was in the Employment Bureau. It seemed that just enough of his interest was given to the affairs of the Committee of Public Safety proper, to destroy his one-hundred-per-cent effectiveness in the Employment Bureau It must be said that the management of the Labor Bureau by Ir. Felton and Dr. Frazee did not make it possible for the combined offices of the two departments with one executive satisfactory to any one concerned, and probably least satisfactory to Mr. Stevenson him- self, The importance of the work in Lackawanna County of either the Executive Secretary of the Examiner-in-Charge wa proved later to be equal in point of service required and rendered, to that of a fairly high offiser in the army; but Mr. Stevenson accepted a com ission as first lieutenant in August, 1918. What he did in trying with limited means and under adverse circumstances to cope with the labor problem that was daily becoming more and more dif-
ficult ist not be lost sight of or minimized. He received re- quisitions from the mines for labor; he received roquisitions from local industries for labor; and he and his successor received the most ridiculously exaggerated requisitions for labor almost every day for weeks from Mr. Pelton's office in Philadelphia, to go to the ship yards and big munition plants. He did what he could to
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fill these requisitions. Unable to follow all the changing re- quests of Dr. Frazee, Mr. Stevenson resigned from another position he held, even before he went into the army, that of Director of the United States Public Service Reserve -- a title that turned out later to have meant nothing.
Executive Secretary.
The management of the several branches of war work under the direction of the Committee of Public Safety was never on a workable basis until the writer became Executive Secretary of the Lackawanna County Committee, August 5, 1918. This statement can be made with sincerity and frankness because the credit of putting all the affairs connected with conducting the war at home on a business- like foundation is not to be given to the writer. In a very short
time after he came into the war office, the whole department dealing with the employment of labor was taken into another office, under so able and experienced an executive that the Executive Secretary had nothing to do with the Employment Bureau except to supervise its co-ordination with the Committee of Public Safety, just as it was his duty to supervise the co-ordination of all other departments.
Labor Scouts.
In the brief time that the writer occupied both positions he performed one act of some importance to the cause of industry and mining in the County. At this time the mine operators could have utilized, at a conservative estimate three thousand, at an exag- gerated estimate five thousand, more men in the mines. There were all the time and there had been for months labor scouts in Scranton representing industries in other localities, whose very successful
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operations consisted in enticing workingmen away from Sc: anton, and whose compensation was at so much "a head". Every time they got a man the mines of the farms suffered, directly or indi- rectly. Most, perhaps not all, of these scouts were unscrupulous and insignificant, personally. Very inconsistently with the cause that all were trying to serve, they carried cards purporting to permit their activities, signed by E. C. Felton. The writer assum- ed an authority he had not, forbade their operations, invoked the aid of the strong-armed Mayor, Alexander T. Connell, and of the loyal and able publisher of the Times, Mr. Edward J. Lynett; and
ran all such labor scouts out of town. It was just as necessary to protect our mines as it was to protect our food supply. Also, the writer advised, which advice was followed by Mr. Stevenson's suc- cessor as Employment examiner, Mr. Seamans, to disregard requisitions from Philadelphia for labor for the time. It is impossible to say what the result would have been had the war lasted for a long time; but this policy of holding our own labor noticeably relieved the situation between August and December.
Superintendent of Employment.
One of the most noteworthy acts of the Executive Committee was the appointment of Mr. Charles S. Seamans Superintendent of the Employment Bureau. Mir. Seamans was a man of mature years, of the widest business experience, and of a complete understanding of the nature of the work expected of his office and of the difficulties which it mus t overcome . It was to be no side issue and no adjunct of other administrative duties. Mr. Seamans had been acting presi- dent of the Scranton Board of Trade, had served as managing secre- tary of the Board of Trade, and was at the time a director of that organization. He knew practically every manufacturer in Scranton
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and most of those outside the City. By training, experience, and knowledge, he had every qualification for the position; and he had all the information necessary from the point of view of the employer and from the point of view of the employee. His only desire was that he might take some part in the war against Germany; and when, on account of his past experience and known aptitude the Executive Committee asked him to assume the duties of Superintendent of the Employment Bureau, he just dropped every other interest where it stood. Moreover, because of his maturity and influence, he was able to have the Employment Bureau established on so large a seale, with plenty of assistants, that it could handle the work of several counties thoroughly, systematically, and promptly. The satisfac- tion to those seeking labor and those seeking work can hardly bo overestimated.
Mir. Seamans, his first assistant, Mr. John P. Gownley, and four others, put their whole time from September 3rd until the following summer upon the labor problems presenting themselves. Up to the spring or summer of 1919 the problem was to find men to do the work. Thereafter, as the pendulum began to swing in the other direction, and the boys were mastered out in increasing numbers and the men came drifting back from their highly paid positions in the ship yards and munition plants, the work of Mr. Seamans' department consisted of finding jobs rather than in finding men. He did it. Mr. Seamans continued in charge of the Department and he is still Superintendent without salary of the institution he founded. Un- der the Pennsylvania Commission of Public Welfare the Employment Bureau is still finding positions for those who apply, free; but, of course, with a very much smaller force.
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Labor
Questions.
Mr. Seamans' broad views on public matters gave him the opportunity, with the co-ordination of the Executive Committee and the Executive Secretary, to go much farther in his operations than to find men and women to fill positions and to find positions for men and women. For instance, he was called upon on several occas- ions to adjust labor disputes; and the writer knows, for he was called into consultation, that at least one difficulty that might have resulted in a most uncomfortable strike, was quietly settled by the wisdom and patience of Mr. Seamans.
Community Labor Board,
At about the same time that Mr. Seamans took office there - came directions to Colonel Witres to have organized a Community Labor Board. In October, 1918, the Honorable M. F. Sando, Judge of the Orphans' Court of Lackawanna County, was appointed Chairman, and Mr. W. H. Hughes, representing labor, and Mr. George G. Brooks, 70- presenting the employers, were appointed members of the Community Labor Board. On October 23, 1918, Dr. John C. Frazee approved
The Board met two or three times, always with these appointments.
Mr. Seamans, and twice with the Executive Secretary present. This Board was organized a very short time before the war came to an end. If the war had lasted a long time the Board might well have had im-
portant duties to perform; as it was, its members found that Mr. Seamans was in such close touch with the whole situation, that about all they could do was to stand ready to advise and assist Mr. Scamans in every possible way. The personnel of this Board was excellent;
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but it can not be said that it was over really called into action.
Vocational Education.
Another mattor in which Mr. Seamans and the xecutive Sec- rotary wore deeply interested was Vocational Education. Soon after the Armistice was signed the offices of both were flooded with lite- returo on the questions of moment concerning the education and manu- al training of the soldiers. that were being mustored out; particu- larly those who had been maimed or had contracted chronic diseases. Officials connected with the department of Vocational Educ tion, particularly Mr. Jerome E. Scott, called an Mr. Soaman and the Executive Secretary, and many employers of labor were visited by them. The following bulletin was issued, it was repsonded to gene- relly, and important results were expected from it. Unfortunately, the policy of the Government in regard to Vocational Education changed so frequently or seemed to be so without definiteness of purpose, that the local Committee of Public Safety was eventually unable to render any important assistance in this direction. office of the Executive Secretary, however, sent several young men to Vocational Schools.
Executive Office, Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety, Scranton, Po., November 18, 1918. 1
Reconstruction Bulletin Number One.
Employers of all kinds of labor are carnestly and urgent- ly requested to read this statement.
Mr. C. S. Seamans, Superintendent of the State and of the United States Employment Bureau, Mr. Jerome B. Scott, Field Of- ficer for the Federal Board for Vocational Education, and the Executive Secretary of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety of Lackawanna County, have in conference agreed that the following statement of plans for the more immediate replacing of men disabled in the service of the United States back into civil employment be made known
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to the employers of labor ir Northeastern Pennsylvania. Truch of the detail work will devolve upon Mr. Seamans, who, with the advice and assistance of the Committee of Public Safety and its executive offices, will have charge of the movement to place those who have been soldiers and sailors back into civil employment.
The question under discussion at present is only the fore- runner of the very large question of labor readjustment. It is the finding of employment for those soldiers and sailors who have suffered disability from wounds or disease.
It is the purpose of the Government to ascertain in re- gard to every man in the hospitals at present or in the future every item of information concerning his former employment and his future intentions and probable aptitude for profession- al or vocational service. Since we have no institutions hore at which men are trained for the professions it is within our spheres to treat of the vocations alone.
If the disability of one of our boys in the service is of such a nature that he can return to his former trade or work without a loss of efficiency it is desired that he be allowed to do so, unless he desires to take advantage of the Govern- ment's offer to fit him for a higher type of work.
If his disability is of such a nature that he can return to the same industrial plant at which ho worked before he went to war, but is disabled in such a way that he is not as effic- ient and can not become as efficient as he was before the war, employers of labor, if they can possibly do so, are requested to give him work at which a partly crippled man can earn some money and be ef some use to his employer. In such a case the Government stands ready to give him financial aid,
If his disability is of such a nature that he must seek absolutely new employment the intention is to give him anop- portunity to learn a new trade. He may be sent to a vocation- al school. Perhaps the employers of labor may agree with me that the best vocational schools are the departments for appren- tices in their own shops, It so happens that with the oxcep- tion of the new Johnson School they are the only ones in Lacka- wanna County, and the only ones we are called upon at the pre- sent time to take under consideration.
After the information has been gained from the soldier or sailor in the hospital, if he was inducted into the service from Lackawanna County and it seems proper to send him back to Northeastern Ponnsylvania, Mr. Seamans will be informed fully in regard to the individual and what his capacity for labor is; and Mr. Soamans will also be informed exactly when the man will return home.
The employers of labor have been consistently and intense- ly patriotic during the war. Considering, as they are, what honor and benefit is to be conderred on those who have been in the active service of the Nation, they know that the duties of patriotism are to be as insistent and difficult during the
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coming period of reconstruction as they have been during the war o The Committee of Public Safety believes that probably the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon a soldier or sailor -- very particularly a disabled soldier or sailor -- is to have a job waiting for him when he steps off the rail- road on his return.
You are asked, therefore, to consider whether or not you can find room amongst your apprentices, and in other places in your industrial plant, for a few men who are not one-hundred- per-cent effective. You are asked to pay these men only what they are worth, in proportion to what you are paying other men. The Government proposes to pay men who because of their disa- bility are obliged to begin life over again, a sufficient wage to enable them to live comfortably until they can command journeyman's wages.
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Che details in connection with seeking employment for these men will in each individual case rest with us. I am at the present time simply placing before you a brief outline of this first question concerning reconstruction. I respectful- ly suggest that you give the matter your deepest consideration, and be ready to discuss the matter with Mr. Seomans when he desires to consult with you.
Yours very sincerely,
( Signed) Eugene H. Fellows.
Public Service Resorve.
The national and state organization known as the Public Service Reserve had a very unimportant place in the affairs of Lackawanna County. The first Director was Mr. Joseph M. Steven-
son. After his resignation, Mr. Paul B. Belin informed the Ere- cutive Committee that Dr. Frazee intended to reorganize the Public Service Reserve; and on August 5, 1918, Colonel Frank M. Vandling was appointed Superintendent for the County. Comerring with the Executive Secretary, under orders issued by Dr. John C. Frazee, Colonel Vandling nominated the following enrollment agents of the Public Service Reserve. They were commissioned by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson under date of November 30, 1918. They were at all times ready to perform the duties of their positions, and would have been of groat help in the work of reconstruction
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and readjustment had the Public Service Reserve taken upon itself such duties. For Lackawanna County, this organization wos complete,
covering every community. These very individuals did engage in
other capacities in all sorts of war affairs; but not as enrollment agenst of the Public Service Reserve.
At Large -- Colonel Frank M. Vandling, Superintendent; Eugene H. Follows.
Scranton, at Large -- Mayor Alexander T. Connell, Thomas
F. ^uinn, Charles F. Hartman.
First Word -- Avan J. Lowis; Second Tard -- Carl W. Ziegler; Third Ward ~~ John C. Culkin; Fourth ard -- 17. C. Bruning; Fifth Tard -- John :. Howell ; Sixth Tard
Congressman Patrick McLane; Seventh Fard -- Kenneth Burnett; Fighth. Tard -- Major W. S. Millar: Ninth ward -- George N. Haak; Vonth Tard -- George S. Joncs; Eleventh Ward -- Peter J. Noll; Twelfth Ward -- Anthony A. Walsh;
Thirteenth Ward -- Androw S. Muir;
Fourteenth Ward -- Francis E. Gurroll; Fifteenth Tard -- David
Phillips; Sixteenth Ward == Jacob Smith; Seventeenth Ward
Joseph E. Allen; Eighteenth Fard -- John M. Beaumont; Nineteenth
Ward -- Selder J. Notz; Twentieth Fard -> Andrew Brown; Twenty-
first Ward -- Rhys Powell; Twenty-second hard -- Luther Price.
Archbald -- P. A. Philbin; Benton Township -- G. A. Post; Carbondale -- William H. Masters, H. G. Likely;
Clark's Green -- Albert J. Broig; Clark's Summit -- Frank J. Stanton; Clifton Tovm=
Ship -- Milton Heller; Covington Township -- W. Ve Jonos; Dalton -- Dr. E. A. Fullor; Dunmore -- E. E. Ferris; Elmhurst =- George A. Emery; Fell Township == Isaac Baldwin; Glenburn -- Joseph S. Waite; Greenfield Township -- Sanford Vedoman; Jefferson Township -- Henry Hoffman; Jessup - Joseph M. McAndrew; Jermyn -- Robert Hall: Lackawanna Township -- James Mangm; La Plume -- illiam
Thomas; Lehigh Township -
A. A. Chamberlain; Madison Township
Charles Noack; Mayfield J. M. Kennedy; Moosic -- Joseph J.
Jennings; Moscow -- Joseph E. Loveland;
Newton Township -- Oscar
Coon; North Abington Township -- Charles Pick; Old Forge -- Pronk
R. Coyne ; Ransom Towaship -- Frank Coon;
Roaring Brook Township
=- James MoDade; Scott Township -- Bert Ball; South Abington Town-
ship -- George Ash; Spring Brook Township -- A. 3. Kilmer; Taylor
James Powell; Throop -- Joseph Birtley; Vandling -- Richard
Llewellyn; Waverly -- John G. Hill;
West Abing on Township --
Alvah Ross.
Man
Power
In connection partly with the Public Service Reserve, part -; ly to rectify the lack of knowledge in the man power of the County 1 that had been displayed on Mr. Felton's request for it early
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in the summer, partly to lend assistance to the Liberty Loan Com- mittee, and partly to help the Employment Bureau, a registration of women and a complete census of Seranton and Dunmore should be mentioned here.
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