PER CENT OF CHANGE IN NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AND PAY ROLLS IN VARIOUS KINDS OF EMPLOYMENT IN WISCONSIN, APRIL, 1924, OOMPARED WITH MARCH, 1924, AND APRIL, 1923-Concluded

Problem of Unemployment Among Intellectual Workers Abroad

T_THE_general meeting of the International Association on

A Unemployment, held in Luxemburg September 9-11, 1923,

a general report on the subject of unemployment among intellectual workers 1 was submitted by Dr. Imre Ferenczi, a digest of which is here given.

Social Aspect of the Problem

A LTHOUGH this problem, particularly as it relates to overcrowding in the learned professions, has been acute in several countries for some time, its full extent and alarming nature became apparent only with the advent of the World War. The prevention and alleviation of the unemployment of intellectual workers has since become a public duty, as the spiritual development of any nation may be seriously retarded if the interests of this section of the population, so important to civilization, continue to be neglected. Definition of "intellectual workers."-Theoretically the term "intellectual workers" covers groups of persons who earn their living mainly by intellectual rather than by manual work. In practice, however, certain organizations include under the term foremen and cutters, clerks, and subordinate railroad employees; others include only persons who carry on independent work in the sciences or arts, such as scientists, artists, technicians, doctors, lawyers, clergymen, editors, journalists, etc.; while still others include, besides independent intellectual workers, persons employed by the State or private employers on intellectual work, such as professors, legal advisers, hospital physicians, etc., but exclude all clerks.

Association Internationale pour la Lutte contre le Chomage. Assemblée générale, Luxemburg, 9-11, Septembre 1923. Geneva, 1923, pp. 470-506.

Whether intellectual work is carried on independently or under private or public employ can make no difference in determining the nature of the work itself. If there be adopted as distinguishing features of intellectual work those frequently described disinterested choice of a profession, an extended period of training or practice, closely connected professional and private interests, and an attitude of personal independence because of individual talents-only a certain proportion of private salaried employees and civil-service employees can claim to be intellectual workers. As a matter of fact such classes of workers have, for tactical reasons, organized themselves into independent associations because of similar social relations, such as working for the same employer, working together in offices and factories, their common difficulties as consumers, and perhaps also the prevailing belief of the higher standing of the "white collar" professions. These workers may thus be distinguished from manual workers on the negative ground that they are not organized in workers' unions.

Position of intellectual workers.-The growing tendency of modern industry to proletarianize all classes not responsible for the management of enterprise or for the issue of money or credit has placed intellectual workers, if not in the same position as the working classes, at least in one closely related thereto. This tendency was accelerated by the war and its results were much greater among intellectual than among manual workers.

In the first place, since either the intellectual workers were not organized at all or their organizations were weak, they were not able to secure increased compensation corresponding to the rising cost of living. While in certain countries, such as Austria and Germany, private salaried employees and civil-service employees have lately joined with manual workers, with success, in their attempt to secure stability of remuneration, in other countries they have fallen far below the most primitive levels of subsistence in spite of receiving remuneration partly in kind. In Hungary, for instance, the income of private salaried employees, according to figures of their own association, allows them a standard of living only 25 per cent of their pre-war standard, while the income of subordinate civil-service officials in the eleventh salary class allows them only 30.6 to 37.7 per cent of their pre-war standard of living and that of the higher officials whose average length of service is 20 years is sufficient for only 7.1 to 11.9 per cent of their previous standard of living.

Nowhere has the relation of supply to demand become so disproportionate as among independent intellectual workers, because their work is of a kind which can be most easily dispensed with. Engrossed as they were in their work, unprepared, uninfofed, and unorganized, these workers became aware of their material dependence on the community only when extreme need opened their eyes. In consequence, particularly in countries with depreciated currencies, many clergymen, lawyers, scientists, and artists are, in their spare time, working in factories or banks, selling newspapers or matches, or acting as messengers, etc., to add sufficient to their income to keep them from hunger and distress; permanent commercial employment is welcomed by doctors and scientists.

In India, in particular, the situation of the educated classes appears to have become extremely serious. Silent endurance of famine conditions has become the chronic state of many members of these classes and, in their hopeless condition, they are becoming desperate and taking to political agitation.

To a certain extent this danger has arisen in other countries where a materialistic valuation of men according to their outward standard of living has replaced the former esteem for intellectual professions and the civil service. This revolution in public opinion furnished the final impetus to the organization of intellectual workers.

Organization. Private salaried employees, because they worked in close contact with manual workers in factory and office, were the first intellectual workers to follow the trade-union example. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, local and national and even international organizations had been formed among them. These unions, however, considering themselves as belonging to the middle classes, held aloof from the central trade-union federations.

not until the war, when their increasing distress and the fear of unemployment drove them to it, that the salaried employees' organizations began to adopt trade-union principles and to affiliate with central trade-union organizations of manual workers. This was particularly the case in Germany, where the three great federations of salaried employees, having a combined membership of nearly 1,500,000, have either affiliated or acted in close cooperation with the manual workers' central trade-union organizations. The manual workers' organizations aid the salaried employees' organizations not only by their example but also by cooperating in their efforts to improve their social and political condition.

The successes won by the private salaried employees after the war by means of collective bargaining with employers induced civilservice employees to follow their example. Organization started among subordinate officials, and in most countries extended to judges, university lecturers, clergymen, and administrative officials.

There were many obstacles to modern organization of civil-service employees, such as class consciousness, the refusal in certain countries of the right of association and its limitation in others on personal and technical grounds, and such economic privileges as security of tenure of office and right to pensions. Conditions during and after the war have, however, removed most of these obstacles. Security of tenure of office was practically lost when after the war large scale reductions of the civil-service personnel (enormously expanded during the war) became necessary, and confidence in the State was destroyed by the depreciation in currency. Legal obstacles were removed everywhere by the war or by revolution, and in nearly all countries the civil-service employees are now organized for the purpose of strengthening their influence on governments and public opinion.

It is only among independent intellectual workers that modern. organization, and consequently the foundation of a systematic unemployment policy, meet with almost insurmountable difficulties. While certain groups, such as physicians and lawyers, have maintained organized bodies, they have been devoted solely to the intellectual interests of the profession and not to the improvement

of the economic position of their members. Organization on a modern basis has succeeded only in the case of groups of persons employed on a 'contract basis, such as journalists, authors working for a publisher or a theatrical manager, physicians employed by sick funds, and musicians and artists working for impresarios and private employers.

The intellectual worker is conscious of his individuality even in carrying out his work and refuses to allow the trade-union to interfere in this work unless it can facilitate the accomplishment of it. He is often willing to work without remuneration because of devotion to his ideals, and this is even more so when, as with some scientists, officials, etc., his intellectual work is carried on in addition to other work for which he receives a fixed salary. For these reasons there is not as yet sufficient solidarity between the members of associations of independent intellectual workers.

Nevertheless, because all intellectual workers desire to secure a more equitable share of the national income and to protect themselves against professional risks, the various professional associations have united to form central bodies. The bases of this centralization vary from country to country. In certain countries, such as France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Switzerland, the particular nature of the profession and the necessary academic training serve as the connecting link, without considering whether or not the persons are employed under contract. Such organizations regard intellectual workers as a middle class, standing between employers and workers. In other countries, however, the constitution of a central association of organizations of intellectual workers is based on their private or public contracts of employment and the interpretation of the degree of training required may be very liberal. The title of the English federation formed in 1920, the National Federation of Professional, Technical, Administrative, and Supervisory Workers, indicates its composition. This federation cooperates with the Labor Party and the trade-unions. In Germany the Federation of Unions of Salaried Employees ("Afa") adopts the standpoint that all intellectuals are workers or employees and must be organized as such, but neither the "Afa" nor the English federation excludes members of the liberal professions.

The social composition of the central organizations also influences their political attitude. The labor parties maintain that no distinetion should be made between manual and intellectual workers in economic matters, but these attempts at leveling can not be altogether harmonized with the elementary interests of really individual work. Even in countries where the influence of the social democratic party in parliament is as powerful as in Germany and Austria at present, the higher employees in business enterprises and members of the liberal professions find themselves compelled to form special organizations of intellectual workers which do not belong to the central trade-union bodies. Often the higher civil-service employees join these middle-class organizations.

The International Confederation of Intellectual Workers was organized at Paris, April 5-7, 1923, eight national organizations with an approximate membership of 1,000,000 being represented, and decided to investigate such important social questions as

the international organization finding employment for intellectual workers, the moral and legal position of civil-service employees, the protection of degrees, artistic and literary property rights, etc. This international organization covers all types of intellectual workers. Civil-service employees of all kinds have joined the International Federation of Civil Servants, which was formed in Vienna July 2-3, 1923, by representatives of the associations of civil-service employees in Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, and is based on trade-union principles. A. new International Federation of Teachers was formed in 1923 by the teachers' associations of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.

While the unions of private salaried employees organized on a trade-union basis have for some time had employment exchanges, relief funds for the unemployed, etc., the financial weakness of unions of independent intellectual workers prevents them from organizing similar institutions. Intellectual workers who belong to the liberal professions had no particular reserves behind them when the present period of depression set in and were from the first dependent on the relief work undertaken by the State and community.

INT

Extent and Causes of Unemployment

INTERNATIONAL survey.-Information as to the extent and nature of unemployment among intellectual workers is still quite fragmentary. Satisfactory up-to-date figures can be given only for countries in which intellectual workers themselves carry on a system of employment exchanges and relief funds, or in which they generally resort to the public employment exchanges and to unemployment relief. Reports from countries with widespread unemployment and from those where the rate of unemployment is low show that unemployment is much more prevalent in the intellectual professions than among manual workers.

In spite of the low rate of general unemployment in Germany up to July, 1923, the unemployment of intellectual workers continually increases. There is particularly a very large number of unemployed physicians, owing to a surplus in the profession and the poverty of the public. In Berlin there are 12 doctors to every 1,000 persons, in Munich 20, and in Wiesbaden 36, and the number of doctors continues to grow disproportionately, the increase from 1921 to 1922 being 3,876. Even the position of technicians, who could find work on productive unemployment relief schemes, has become worse recently. There was last year a 35 per cent decline in demand and a 46 per cent increase in supply of chemical workers. The number of engineers seeking employment was 314, only 62 of whom found work.

In Great Britain in 1922 the number of unemployed among 200,000 organized salaried employees ranged from 14 to 25 per cent, according to the industry or service.

In France, according to information supplied by the Association of Chemical Engineers, the number of chemists completing their training is from 600 to 700 per year, more than twice as many as are required in industry.