All forms of construction were considered, but conditions in the building industries are of the most general interest. In these industries the committee finds that beyond question there is much unemployment, and that much of this is preventable.

Typical instances studied in this survey indicate that the building industries, with over 2,000,000 workers, are so operated that many crafts are out of work three months each year. Few workers have an opportunity to work more than nine months. Earnings in 9 months must be sufficient for 12 months' living, else the craft is depleted. Seasonal unemployment is great even among the crafts in which there is the greatest apparent shortage of men during the active construction period.

The worker, the building industry, and the public all suffer through this irregular employment. Good mechanics are "out of work and looking in vain for work during three or four months, using up the savings laid by in the good season, and becoming less skilled at their trades through lack of practice.' Striving to rush all the building work of a year into a brief season, employers bid against each other for workers and pay the highest seasonal price for materials, congestion on the railroads may delay delivery when every day wasted means a heavy loss, and the desire for speedy output militates against good work. All through the industry runs a waste for which the public must eventually pay in higher prices.

For most contractors, 12 months' overhead cost of maintaining their offices and staff must be charged against the jobs carried on actively during seven or eight months.

Building supply dealers must maintain establishments big enough to handle a large amount of work during four or five months. These establishments are practically idle during at least three months, and are operating at only a fraction of their capacity during the rest of the year. Building material manufacturers also have to maintain unnecessarily large plants and equipment or else stock up materials during dull seasons in order to meet peak demands. This of course adds to the cost of their product.

Architects find their office work crowded largely into the first six months of the year, although their field work is often active for some months later.

Intermittent employment conditions keep young men from taking up the building trades, and account in large part for the high hourly wage rates which have lately attracted so much public attention, and give a false impression of actual earnings.

The committee does not attach much importance to the contention that weather conditions are responsible for the seasonal irregularity of employment. It is a matter, it holds, rather of custom than of climate. Changes in the kind of materials used and in building methods have made it possible to carry on work practically throughout the winter. A very careful study was made of the actual number of days when weather conditions made it impossible to work to advantage, data being collected for a number of years; of the loss through overhead during these periods; of the cost involved in protecting workers and materials from winter weather; of the comparative efficiency of labor during the winter season, and of the expenses directly due to winter conditions, such as the cost of removing snow and ice, and the like. Against these were set the savings involved in the lower cost of materials bought for winter delivery, the greater speed and certainty of delivery, in spite of the occasional risk of a tie-up of the roads by storms, the larger supply of labor, making it possible to select the best workmen, instead of

being obliged to take any worker who could be secured, and the saving in time, and therefore in interest on capital involved, by working straight ahead through the winter, and as a result of the survey, the conclusion is reached that winter building is not only practicable but profitable as well.

Summarizing the question of winter construction, it may be stated without fear of contradiction that both from an engineering and quality standpoint any type of modern building construction can be accomplished and most classes of engineering construction fully as well in the winter months as at other seasons if the proper protection during the progress of certain parts of the work is provided. The increased cost of providing this protection, clearing away snow and ice, and all expenses incidental to such work will vary from 5 per cent of the total cost of a building to something less than 1 per cent, depending on the severity of the winter and the size of the job, the relative expense being proportionately lower the larger the job.

*

The available data indicate that even for those types of work primarily affected by weather conditions there is a decrease in the labor cost. On the remainder of the work not primarily affected by winter conditions it is also fair to assume at least a similar saving in cost due to increased productivity at seasons of relative inactivity. Analysis of the figures * * confirms the conclusions of the contractors experienced in winter work that, under average conditions, where the structural frame of a building of steel frame or reinforced concrete construction is carried on during winter months increased labor productivity during the winter months amounting to some 22 per cent of the total cost of the building. practically offsets the 1 to 5 per cent addition to total expense involved in proper protection of the work.

When there are also taken into account the pecuniary advantages of more continuous operation of forces and equipment, the lower material cost and the saving to the owner of capital time charges through quicker occupancy, it is evident that these latter can be considered as almost entirely net savings.

Methods of regularizing construction activity are considered at length. Determination of facts and cooperation of different groups involved are prime essentials. For every locality data should be gathered showing what weather conditions may be reasonably expected. Studies should be made to show at what times each of the building trades is most or least fully occupied. Such studies have been made in some cities-Boston and New York, for instance and for these charts are given showing in what months a contractor can be surest of obtaining labor in a given trade.

Such data, checked by records of retail sales of materials and records of architects, contractors, and labor organizations, must be available to furnish the framework for any thoroughgoing campaign to eliminate seasonal idleness. The factfinding survey should include a study of construction, maintenance, and repairs by classes, such as residential, industrial, business and commercial, hospitals, church buildings, public utilities, public buildings, public works, and streets and roads to show which can adjust its program with benefit to the community. The costs of present practice should be set forth in terms of time lost, of money wasted, and of new construction needed.

Given such data the regularization of employment within the industry is only a matter of intelligently applying them, but to induce intending builders to make the application all the interests concerned should cooperate. Examples are given of the part which may be taken by engineers, architects, dealers, contractors, subcontractors, equipment manufacturers, material producers, labor and the general public, and in addition to their individual efforts there must be concerted group action. The report gives many instances showing how this can be effectively utilized.

THE

Employment of Negroes on Railroads

HE United States Department of Labor has recently issued a statement' dealing with the employment of negroes on railroads which shows that at present there are 136,065 engaged in one capacity or another in railroad work. The largest group consists of laborers, with train and Pullman porters as the second, but they are found in practically every occupation connected with railroad operation. Numerically their distribution by occupation is as follows:

The miscellaneous group includes such workers as ticket agents, station hands and the like, who are not separately classified in official returns. No figures are given for the distribution by sex, but it is stated that the total "includes an appreciable number of female employees who work as porters, laborers, telegraph operators, etc. The New York State rail lines, in fact, boast of four female negro telegraphers.'

Geographically, these 136,065 negro rail hands are well distributed throughout every State in the Union. Georgia leads, with 10,865, and is followed by Louisiana, with 9,141; Virginia, 9,010; Alabama, 8,844; Texas, 8,381; Tennessee, 8,100; Mississippi, 7,744; North Carolina, 5,321; Florida, 5,091; Illinois, 4,554; Arkansas, 4,184; Kentucky, 3,916; South Carolina, 3,858; Missouri, 3,706; Pennsylvania, 3,569; Ohio, 3,219; Maryland, 2,221; West Virginia, 2,052; Oklahoma, 1,807; Indiana, 1,167; New York, 1,127. Each of the remaining States has less than 1,000 negro rail workers, New Hampshire, with its 1 brakeman, 2 laborers, and 1 switchman, completing the list.

As a result of the study, it is indicated that the prospects for colored workers on the railroads are promising.

The summary plainly shows that avenues of employment in the transportation industry are rapidly being opened to the colored worker and that his future in this phase of employment has a particularly bright aspect.

1 Press release of Sept. 20, 1924.

A

Recent Employment Statistics
Public Employment Offices

Illinois 1
1

SUMMARY of the reports of the public employment offices of Illinois for August, 1923, and August, 1924, is given in the table following:

LABOR SUPPLY AND DEMAND AT THE ILLINOIS FREE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES, AUGUST, 1923, AND AUGUST, 1924

The number of persons registered per 100 jobs was 113.4 in August, 1923, and in August, 1924, the ratio had reached 151.9.

Iowa

The following report on the operation of the Iowa public employment offices for August, 1924, is taken from the Iowa Employment Survey for that month:

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ACTIVITIES IN IOWA FOR AUGUST, 1924

The work of the four public employment offices of Massachusetts for July, August, and September, 1924, for the same months in 1923, and for the whole of 1923, is reported as follows by the State department of labor and industries:

OPERATIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES FOR CERTAIN MONTHS IN 1923 AND 1924 AND FOR THE YEAR 1923

Illinois. Department of Labor. The Labor Bulletin, September, 1924, p. 32.

Ohio

The following data on the activities of the State-City Employment Service of Ohio for August and September, 1924, were furnished by the department of industrial relations of that State:

RECORDS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES IN OHIO FOR AUGUST AND SEPTEM

The placements of the public employment service of Oklahoma for August, 1924, compared with those for the previous month and for August, 1923, are reported as follows:

PLACEMENT WORK OF THE OKLAHOMA PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT OFFICES FOR JULY AND AUGUST, 1924, AND AUGUST, 1923

The cost to the State for placement, by years, is shown below:

AVERAGE EXPENSE TO THE STATE FOR EACH PLACEMENT MADE BY THE FEDERAL-STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, 1919 TO 1924

The placements for the first six months of 1924 include those of harvest labor in June.

1 Oklahoma. Department of Labor. Oklahoma Labor Market, Oklahoma City, September, 1924.