COLLEGE MEN SHOULD STUDY UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEMS SAYS GREEN

William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, which is now convening in Boston at the Hotel Bradford, in an interview recently declared that undergraduates of Harvard College should turn their attention to economic subjects and particularly to a study of the causes and remedies of unemployment which he believes is one of the vital problems facing America today. Green stated that he believed students would obtain a better and more complete perspective of unemployment as a whole if they were familiar with the philosophy of the organization that he heads.

Throughout the interview, Green discussed the demoralization of the textile industry, child labor legislation, business depression, the lack of organization of "white-collar" workers, and union racketeering in Chicago, and emphasized that the aim of the unions is cooperation--not domination in industry.

"What the American workingman wants is work, not insurance," was Green's reply to the suggestion that some system of insurance might be a solution for unemployment. In a recent speech made in Boston, Green put the problem of the idle workers up to the employers and public officers of the United States. A division of labor which will guarantee the laborer steady work even if it is occasionally part-time employment is what the Federation hopes to put into effect in place of the present system that supplies full-time work at irregular intervals with complete lay-offs in between.

Complete unionization is the chief aim of the Federation at present, with special emphasis being laid to unionization of the South. Progress is slow; opposition has taken a new turn. Where formerly labor had to contend with definite and sometimes brutal antagonism, now, according to Green, this antagonism is more subtle sometimes taking the form of rival or "company" unions, mands of the unions have strangled the New England textile industry in the face of low wage competition from the South, Green replied that the textile business was economically unsound at the time and that unorganized labor conditions in the South brought about wage cutting, price slashing and unfair competition. The payment of low wages, he pointed out, failed to revive the industry.

That country-wide business depression will give way to a steady and general improvement next Spring is Green's hope at present. He foresees distressing conditions nevertheless among unemployed workers during the winter.

Prevention of child labor by the means of state legislation and trade union, activity, with a uniform federal law as the final goal, is one of the planks of the Federation's platform. The text of the proposed law will be so prepared as to apply only to industry, not to the farm or home. Another aim of the Federation is to unionize wherever possible the white-collar workers--stenographers, book-keepers, and accountants. Green told of the union's never-ending fight for higher wages and better living conditions, and also outlined a national 48-hour law which would equalize industries throughout the United States, yet permit the payment of varying wages to suit the conditions and caliber of workers in the various states. By this method of uniform working hours no company would be forced to compete against the longer hours of another, and yet the more efficient workers of an industrial city could receive wages commensurate with their ability.

Concerning labor racketeering as it exists in Chicago, Green declared that press accounts have been greatly exaggerated. Whenever such activities are discovered they are promptly suppressed. The charter of the offending union is revoked, the local disbanded, and complete reorganization effected, excluding the former officials of the racketeer union.

Mr. Green's career in many ways is a parallel of that of James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor. The former Pittsburgh from puddler is an outstanding example of a man who has risen from the ranks to a position of authority, while Green worked his way up from the Ohio mines to his present position at the head of what is perhaps the greatest labor organization in the world.