In pointing out the fact that, on the basis of statistics secured from delegates, the total annual sales of all the local cooperative societies in the trading territory of the exchange "undoubtedly exceed $10,000,000," while the sales of the exchange have only in 1923 exceeded $500,000, the manager of the exchange impressed upon the meeting the importance of centralization of the purchasing power of the local societies through the medium of the wholesale.

The report of the auditing department of the exchange disclosed that very satisfactory progress had been made by the affiliated societies, the majority of which were found to be in a healthier condition, financially and otherwise, than they had been for several years past," and that failures, especially among those taking advantage of the auditing service of the wholesale, are becoming an exception.

The meeting voted to increase the capitalization of the exchange from $20,000 to $75,000. The meeting of the previous year had authorized the organization of an agency for the marketing of farm produce, "provided the farmers' organizations desiring such an agency would procure and invest at least $2,000 in shares of the central body." The necessary support, however, was not received from the farmers' organizations and the agency was not established.

Farmers' Union Jobbing Association, Kansas City

THE Farmers' Union Jobbing Association was organized in June, 1914, and does a jobbing business on such things as coal, farm machinery and supplies, and household requisites.

The March, 1924, issue of Cooperation, New York, states that the association has just finished the most prosperous year in its history. No figures are available to show the amount of business done in 1923; some idea of the importance of the association may be gained, however, from the fact that in 1920, a year of unusually difficult business conditions, the sales of the wholesale reached the sum of $4,523,488.

Now

Six years ago the association was insolvent; "only a few years ago the directors reported that the value of the capital stock of the association had been entirely lost." Some of the members, however, subscribed a few thousand dollars and a fresh start was made. "after six years of uphill work, all losses have been wiped out." No patronage rebates have been returned to the member societies but it is stated that the association has saved them millions of dollars in lowered prices. "The saving in one item alone, binder twine, has saved the farmers many times the value of their capital investment."

Farmers' Union State Exchange, Omaha, Nebr.

THE exchange was organized by the Farmers' Union of Nebraska.

It was reorganized in 1919 and is now operated as an independent corporation, with paid-in share capital of $716,000. Membership is limited to members of the Farmers' Union. The exchange deals in "practically all supplies for the farm" and states that it is "perhaps the largest jobber of twine in the United States." It handles enormous quantities of salt, coal, fence posts, wire, flour and feed, tankage, and similar commodities.

The wholesale maintains a complete stock of groceries and work clothing in its warehouse at Omaha which it distributes to the local member cooperative societies, of which there are more than 200 in Nebraska, and to locals of the Farmers' Union.

A chain of seven stores is operated by the Exchange and additional stores are being opened this year.

During the first quarter of 1924 the business of the exchange showed a net surplus saving of $3,494, as compared with a loss of $3,525 in the corresponding period of 1923. Not since 1919 has the exchange shown a profit in the first quarter of the year."

THE

Foreign Wholesale Societies a

HE following table shows the sales of the cooperative wholesale societies of the various countries in 1923. For comparative purposes the figures for 1922 are also given:

SALES OF COOPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETIES, 1922 AND 1923

[Franc, lev, and markka-19.3 cents; Austrian krone=20.3 cents; mark-23.5 cents; Scandinavian krone26.8 cents; £-$4.8665; florin=40.2 cent. Exchange rate varies.]

So called from the initials of the society's name.

Society owned jointly by the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish wholesale societies.

a Compiled from International Cooperative Bulletin (London), issues of February, March, and May, 1924: The Producer (Manchester, England), March and April, 1924; Peoples Year Book (Manchester, England), 1924, p. 93; Fédération Nationale des Coopératives de Consommation, Annuaire de la Coopération, (Paris), 1922.

WORKERS' EDUCATION AND APPRENTICESHIP

THE

Campaign for More Bricklayer Apprentices

HE American Contractor, in its issue for May 3, 1924, gives an account of a drive for more apprentices in the bricklaying trade which has been undertaken by the Mason Contractors' Association of the United States and Canada. For four years past the president of the organization has been conducting an investigation into the subject, and during the last year a committee from the American Face Brick Manufacturers' Association has been cooperating, both in studying the present situation and in drawing up a plan to remedy the existing shortage of apprentices. One of the first steps was to find out how generally contractors were employing apprentices.

The first move was to get a list of contractors who employed bricklayers. The records of 5,000 contractors were listed, together with the number of apprentices they employed, if any. An accurate survey of 58 cities and towns in 1923 showed that 714 contractors had only 358 apprentices on the wall.

Investigation in the office of the International Bricklayers' Union in Indianapolis revealed that in July, 1921, the membership of the organization was 83,634. At that time there were only 1,427 apprentices employed. In December, 1923, the union had 101,690 members, and there were 9,150 apprentices indentured to contractors, besides 1,000 boys indentured to subordinate local organizations direct. This remarkable growth in numbers of apprentices is due almost entirely to the contractors' awakening interest in apprenticeship. It shows better than any argument that the attitude of the union is favorable to the training of apprentices.

Working together, the two associations have laid out a program for visiting contractors and rousing their interest in the matter of taking on apprentices. Where personal visits are not possible a campaign of circularization is undertaken. To meet the expenses of such a campaign, they are calling on the manufacturers of clay products to get behind the movement in a substantial way. This they feel the clay-products men should be glad to do because of the increased market for their goods if the supply of bricklayers were adequate to the needs of the country.

The clay-products industries have proclaimed that production was being curtailed from 10 to 20 per cent because there were not available enough bricklayers to supply the demand. They have produced figures to show this to be a fact, and to my personal knowledge St. Louis brick manufacturers once made 75,000,000 more brick in a year than they are making now.

In outlining their plans the associations stress the fact that the unions are very willing to cooperate in increasing the number of apprentices. The unions, they say, have been distrustful of schools established to teach bricklaying on a theoretical basis, but they approve of the present plans under which a boy acquires practical experience on the job, at the same time receiving training, either in night schools or during the day, in plan reading, practical

mathematics, and other subjects related to bricklaying. It will be entirely possible, they estimate, to put 10,000 more apprentices to work without any interference with the rules of the bricklayers' union. Moreover, from the first day onward, an apprentice, rightly handled, is an asset, not a liability to the contractor. "Boys on the job are a paying investment to a contractor from the start, and we are proving it to every contractor that is willing to listen." At present, the chief difficulty in the way of increasing the number of apprentices is the reluctance of contractors to employ them, and the full force of the campaign is to be directed toward overcoming this reluctance.

THE

Where Graduate Apprentices in Wisconsin Find Work

HE Wisconsin Industrial Commission recently sent questionnaires to all graduate apprentices, asking for information on various points, among which was included the present employer of the ex-apprentice. Replies were received from 200, all of whom had completed a full course in apprenticeship. The results are given in the Wisconsin Apprentice for May, 1924.

Twenty-nine per cent are still with the employer who taught them the trade. Ten per cent have worked in other places but have returned to their original employer. This means that employers who train apprentices have with them at present 39 per cent of all their graduates.

Fifty-five per cent are employed in shops other than the one in which they were apprenticed. Of this group 60 per cent are with employers who, according to our records, are employing indentured apprentices. This is significant, since it proves that Wisconsin employers are benefiting each other and themselves by a State-wide and unselfish program of apprenticeship. This lastmentioned percentage would be still higher were it not for the fact that a number of graduates are not now located in Wisconsin, as is indicated by the replies which came from various parts of the country.

The remaining 6 per cent, it is explained, have either left the trade or are working in positions in which they can not be classed as journeymen. Some, for instance, have become foremen, engineers, or trade teachers.

THE

Intensive Training for Bricklayers in New South Wales

HE subject of apprenticeship in the building trades is attracting considerable attention in Australia, and employers there are resorting to some of the methods for increasing the supply of trained workers which are being tried out in this country. The New Zealand Industrial Bulletin, in its issue of April 10, 1924, contains some discussion of the situation in New South Wales, where the scarcity of building craftsmen, especially of bricklayers, seems to have been particularly acute. Quotations from a report made at the annual meeting of the New South Wales Master Builders' Association show that the shortage of bricklayers in the early part of 1923 was so great that in a number of buildings reinforced concrete was used in place of brick. This met the temporary need, but made the shortage of plasterers even more acute, and later a shortage of both joiners and masons became apparent. The report attributed a

part, at least, of this scarcity to the failure of the members of the association to do their duty in the matter of apprentices.

Undoubtedly one of the factors resulting in the present shortage of skilled tradesmen has been the disinclination-in fact, in many cases the absolute refusal on the part of certain employers to train apprentices. Government departments carrying on building works by day labor have been notoriously blameworthy in this regard, and an instance was recently brought under notice where a leading firm in a certain section of employers who were the first to agree to a considerable increase of wages to their employees (thus forcing some of our members to do likewise) had 30 journeymen in their shops and only 3 apprentices. Some of our own members have not been entirely free from blame in this regard, though their action in refraining from apprenticing a reasonable proportion of lads is understandable from the fact that the trade is so highly competitive that many employers felt dubious of taking the responsibility for fear of not being able to secure a continuity of work, and in such case of not being able to transfer their responsibilities to another employer acceptable to the apprentice, all transfers under the apprenticeship act and under the awards having to be by mutual consent.

In an effort to increase the supply of bricklayers, the employers' association started a school in which those who showed aptitude for the trade were given an intensive training for twelve weeks, and then sent out to work at their trade. The employers apparently consider this school successful.

The class has now resolved itself into a class of continuous training, some entering, others leaving, in batches of threes and fours. There are three instructors, the cost of one being met by the Government. For the first six months the average cost of training per student was a little over £40, but since the allowances have been cut out, except in cases of absolute necessity, the average over the whole period is, roughly, £29 per student.

It may be fairly claimed that these results prove conclusively that the idea that a trade must be learned between the ages of 16 and 21 or not at all is a fallacy, and that a man who has realized the value of having a skilled trade at his command and has made up his mind to learn, can do so more quickly than a boy who has not long left school and has not realized the value of learning a trade.

A different view of the school is given in an award recently rendered by the New South Wales Board of Trade in response to an application from the Master Builders' Association for permission to apprentice four adults to the bricklaying trade. The president of the board, in delivering the award, gave a review of the school, which was stated to be for the intensive training of unapprenticed persons, principally of early adult age. They were not usually bound as apprentices before entering, and after completing the three months' course they were inclined to begin as journeymen at once. This the board did not consider helpful to the trade or desirable from the community's standpoint.

The board had determined, in the light of the evidence taken, that the skill of the bricklaying trade could not be acquired by young men who might enjoy the advantages of twelve weeks' intensive training in a shorter period than two years. The statement of the president of the Master Builders' Association that "everyone who has come out of our class over 21 has been paid award rates and has never come near us" indicated that in the industrial conflicts of the present times the master builders had gained for themselves some tactical advantage from the establishment of the school for intensive training. But behind the activities of the union and the Master Builders' Association the mischief of the bricklayers' decline in skill had had practically unrestricted play.

The unduly high labor cost of buildings, the delays experienced in their completion, the faulty quality of the work executed, and the tendency of architects and investors to substitute concrete for brick construction, all of which were

1£ at par-$4.8665; exchange rate varies.