Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/285

Rh But experience shows that the more completely organized labor is, the less its violence. This is shown by the experience of England, of the excellently organized trainmen and the ill-organized I. W. W. The skilled labor on the Pacific Coast is now well-organized as compared to other states. And in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco, organized labor is a strong force. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics at Washington, D. C., show that in general organized labor draws slightly higher wages and works slightly shorter hours here than elsewhere. Similarly, the laws are favorable to organized labor.

The conditions of the unskilled and the unorganized laborers are not so favorable on the Pacific coast. This is partly due to the nature of some of the main industries such as lumbering, wheat harvesting, the raising of fruit and hops, and construction work. These industries are seasonal to a high degree and the jobs last only a short while. This means that the living conditions are of the roughest sort. As the distances are great, the laborers are peculiarly migratory. The railroad tracks are their highways and one may here see at almost any time these migratory workers walking the railroad ties, and always with blankets rolled in bundles on their backs. The blanket pictures symbolically their crude home conditions and social life. These conditions breed the I. W. W. Here is a great need for the state to extend its functions to bring a real liberty and tolerable living conditions. Much depends on the possible success of these unskilled migratory workers in organizing. So far there has been little success. California has recently made an investigation of labor camps and has enforced better living conditions. The free public employment bureau thoroughly developed and publicly controlled would greatly help the situation. The private employment agencies of the present time are greatly criticized with reference to their private nature, the number of them, their fees, their relation to employers. What is needed is an organized labor-market with adequate machinery for finding jobs and filling vacancies. Many of the cities have free employment bureaus; but, comparatively, they are small in number, and have not been able to compete successfully with the private agencies. California has a law, in effect in 1913, which regulates the private agencies by license and bond and by returning fees under certain conditions. The situation was so bad in Washington that the people voted at the 1914 election to abolish altogether the private agencies; the measure adopted did not even provide for public bureaus. A measure providing for labor exchanges is being prepared for the Oregon legislature meeting in 1915.

The great industries of the Pacific coast are highly seasonal and there is very little dove-tailing of them. This means that in the winter months there are large numbers of unemployed. Their numbers by industries are given in the federal census. They leave their summer