spontaneous collective protest. The remedy lies in correcting the evil that results in such tremendous turnover. The lack of housing facilities has increased the movement of workmen from job to job so that there are some instances on record where the turnover has been as high as 100 per cent per week. No efficiency can be obtained under such circumstances. Fortunately, Congress now has the matter in hand and the likelihood is that within a short time proper housing facilities will be provided for our workmen in the war industries.

Many well-meaning individuals are continually advocating an increase in the number of working hours per day as a means of securing greater production. In some lines of activity that might be true, but in the usual processes of labor where the physical or mental strain is heavy and continuous nothing is gained by an abnormally long working day. Men must set their pace in accordance with the length of time their activities are to continue. A sprinter may run a hundred yards in ten seconds, but he would not think of such a pace in starting on a ten-mile hike.

Last summer a suggestion was made that the anthracite coal miners and operators agree to a restoration of the nine-hour workday during the period of the war, with the hope that thereby the production of coal might be increased. I investigated the subject matter at that time at the request of the Council of National Defense and found that the anthracite coal miners produced 2.9 per cent more coal per day per man in an eight-hour workday in 1916 than they had produced in a nine-hour workday in 1915. In normal times there is of course more to be taken into consideration in determining the length of the workday than simply the amount of work that can be endured and maintained from day to day by the workmen. But even in these times when the all-important question is the maximum of efficiency it is folly to increase the number of working hours when no greater production can be secured thereby, and the only effect is to create dissatisfaction in the minds of those who toil.

To summarize, then, the highest efficiency can only be obtained by the proper treatment of the workmen, the proper planning and management of the work to be done, the intelligent mobilizing of the workmen, efficient means of training the partly skilled and unskilled in the work they are to do, complete provisions for sanitation

and safety, comfortable homes, and a working day sufficiently short to enable the worker to return to his work on each succeeding day fairly refreshed for the task he has to perform. And more important than all of these is the spirit of coöperation of the man who believes he is being justly dealt with.

THE THIRD LIBERTY LOAN

May I not in conclusion say a word about the third liberty loan bond issue. Those who subscribe to it are making in reality a double investment. Billions of dollars are needed for the prosecution of the war, but only a comparatively small portion goes towards the payment of the soldier. When money is raised by taxation or by bond issue the great bulk of it goes back immediately into the channels of commerce for the purchase of supplies for the army. The business man or the workingman who purchases a liberty bond is receiving interest upon an investment that keeps him in continuous employment. But that is only the selfish side of the question. Behind it all is a sentiment, and men will do more for a sentiment than they will for all the material things on earth. Our boys in France are sacrificing their lives for a sentiment. Surely, then, we can sacrifice a few of our dollars to furnish the finance to conduct the war. The man whose income is meagre, and who at best can only purchase a small amount, may think that it is not worth while. I am reminded of the fable of the great drought that extended over the land. The crops were drying up and withering for want of rain, and a little drop up in the rain cloud sympathized with the farmers and their possible loss from the failure of their crops, and it said to one of its neighbors, "I would gladly go down to help the farmer out, but I am just one little drop, and my moisture would be of no value to him." One of the other rain drops said, "That is very true. Your going down alone would be of no value in helping out in moistening the soil for the good of the crops, but if we all go down, a multitude of little drops, we can help out." And they all agreed and they came down in a beautiful refreshing shower, and spread over the land. The crops were revived and were saved for the harvest. And so it is with the workers of our country. The amount that any one can contribute is but a drop in the aggregate that is necessary, but if all cast in their drops together the amount that would be contributed toward the liberty loan

would be valuable to our country in its hour of need. It gives courage and confidence to the fighting forces at the front and makes it forever impossible for the mailed fist of the Kaiser to impede the progress of our free institutions.

LABOR POLICIES THAT WILL WIN THE WAR

BY V. EVERIT MACY,

Chairman, Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, Washington, D. C.

Modern warfare has discredited all prophecies. Difficulties that were foreseen have been met, even when considered insurmountable, while others that were never considered as of military importance have been most difficult of solution. Among these is the mobilization of industry, which we all see now is as essential as the mobilization of the army, for without industrial organization at home, an effective army cannot be kept in the field. The foundation principles of modern industry are competition, and supply and demand. Modern warfare at once sets aside competition, for government needs immediately take precedence over those of the private consumer, while at the same time through restrictions on imports and exports the usual balance between supply and demand is destroyed.

The mobilization of an army is a simple task compared to the mobilization of industry. The principles of military science have been studied for generations and as the methods of warfare have changed, thousands of trained men have studied the varying problems and developed their plans to the smallest detail. Not so with industry. Two years ago no one in this country had given the matter a moment's thought. Now we find that to maintain a mobilized army we must mobilize an industrial army ten times as large. In the fighting army each individual is trained to his particular duty and knows just where he belongs, but in industry few are trained and each worker follows his own choice or chance occupation. War also disrupts normal industry by shutting off employment in certain · trades and creating abnormal demands in others.

The most disturbing factor, however, is that of private interests. In peace times, the employer and employes are free to pro

tect their respective interests as they may see fit without much regard to the public welfare. The consequence is a constant state of more or less acute industrial warfare. When, as during a war, the very existence of the nation is at stake, all causes for domestic strife must be eliminated. Only by substituting the national welfare for self-interest can the nation develop its full power. Our government has had to face an enormous task in creating almost over night, new industries on the largest scale, extending others, and gradually discouraging those that are non-essential. This has meant the shifting of hundreds of thousands of workers from one industry or location to another. This change has been accelerated by the self-interest of the employer and of the employe. The employer has offered higher wages to attract not only a sufficient number of men to his plant, but, if possible, the best men. The same self-interest has naturally led the workers to seek employment where the highest wages were paid. As a consequence, all industries have suffered from an enormous increase in their "labor turnover." It has not been unusual for a plant to change half its force in one month. Another equally important cause for this instability has been the introduction of tens of thousands of green men into industries with which they were totally unacquainted and for which they were perhaps unfitted.

Usually the employer and employe can be trusted to represent two divergent points of view, but when the government is either the sole or dominating customer and pays the increased wage, the financial interests of employer and worker are more or less the same. This is particularly true where the only competition is on the part of the employer to get enough men to enable him to make a good record and complete his contracts on time. There are many forms of government contracts, but those in which the contractor is paid all costs plus a 10 per cent profit have tendered to aggravate the situation described above.

As a people, we have resented any government interference into what we considered our private business, and what we do not as yet fully realize is that when we are at war the life of the nation is at stake, and in such a crisis every act of every individual is of national importance, and becomes the proper business of the government. Local pride, craft pride, personal ambition, local, craft and plant customs, sectional and industrial prejudices must all be ignored if

they stand in the way of the adoption of a national policy. Before labor can be mobilized definite standards must be developed. The necessity of centralized control for war purposes has long been recognized, yet only recently have the Allied armies been placed under one commander-general. After months of delay all purchases of supplies for the United States as well as the purchase of many articles for our Allies have been centralized in the War Industries Board. We are spending many billions of dollars on war contracts and of this stupendous sum at least half is paid out in wages. We have standardized and fixed prices for our raw material supplies, but are only just realizing that we cannot mobilize labor without standardizing conditions of employment and wages. Under war conditions there is practically only one employer and that is the government. The manufacturer, for the period of the war, is merely the agent of the government. He either negotiates with the government for a satisfactory price for the use of his organization and his plant, or he takes a contract like any agent on a commission basis. Under these changed conditions there is no occasion for any strife between employers and their employes where government contracts are involved. The government must determine policies to be followed by both employers and employes.

I do not for a moment mean that labor should be conscripted, for that is unthinkable where private profit is obtained from human labor. The time has come, however, when the government must say to employers, "If you take a government contract you must take it upon such and such terms. In this emergency all skilled mechanics must be used, whether they are union or nonunion men; you cannot discriminate against either, you must pay them certain wages and you can work them not more than sixty hours a week." The welfare of the nation demands that the standard of living of our people must be maintained while we are fighting for democracy, and their health and efficiency must not be destroyed by excessive hours of labor. At the same time, the government must say to the workers, "The nation requires the best you have, regardless of whether you are a member of a union or not. We do not tell you where you must work, or at what trade; make your own choice, but wherever you work these are the wages you will receive in your particular craft and these are the minimum and maximum hours you will be required to work. Your interests have