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THE U.C. C.QUARTERLY VOLUME 3. NO. 4 FALL 1945 cry "«« ••«£» SMfliJ^Ww — *C^,« iTj *~ iMORYifflS^' fWff FROM TY LIBRARY Serving Travelers on Vacation or Business—An Important State Industry PUBLISHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA PAGE 86 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 The U. C. C. Quarterly Volume 3 ; Number 4 Fall, 1945 Issued four limes a year al Haleigh, N. C, by the UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA Commissioners : Mrs. W. T. Bost, Raleigh; Judge C. E. Cowan, Morganton; C. A. Fink, Spencer; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; R. Grady Rankin, Charlotte; Dr. Harry D. Wolf, Chapel Hill. State Advisory Council: Capus Waynick, High Point, Chair-man; Willard Dowell, Raleigh; Marion W. Heiss, Greens-boro; H. L. Kiser, Charlotte; Dr. Thurman D. Kitchin, Wake Forest; Robert F. Phillips, Asheville; Mrs. R. J. Reynolds, Winston-Salem; Mrs. Emil Rosenthal, Goldsboro; W. Cedric Stallings, Charlotte A. L. FLETCHER Chairman R. FULLER MARTIN Director MRS. FRANCES T. HILL Editor Cover illustrations represent typical North Carolina industries under the unemployment compensation program. Cover for Fall. 1945—Serving Travelers on Vacation or Busi-ness —An Important State Industry. Illustration prepared by Hemmer, N. C. State News Bureau. Such figures as are available show that the travel industry is of the greatest economic importance to North Carolina. It provides em-ployment for thousands of persons and contributes millions of dollars to the income of the state, both directly and in-directly. In the years immediately preceding the war, the travel industry had shown a phenomenal growth in North Carolina. Prospects for its development in future years indicate much greater expansion. This issue of the Quarterly includes articles pointing out the economic possibilities of travel, considered as an industry, and the allied business of hotel services. Sent free and upon request to responsible individuals, agencies, organizations and libraries. Address: V. C. C. Informational Service. Raleigh. N. C. All material published in the U. C. C. Quarterly may be re-printed without special permission. CONTENTS Common Sense Regarding Unemployment 86 Facts, Figures, and Policies 87 Purchasing Power and Unemployment 87 Unemployment Compensation By The States ._ 89 Veterans Create An Airline, By E. Carl Sink 90 Vocational Training For World War Veterans, By J. Warren Smith ____ Ti_„l. 91 The Dogwood For Luck :z __.. 94 A Banker Appraises The South, By Robert M. Hanes _____,,__„_,.___, 95 U. C. C. Chief Looks To "North Carolina's Future '. 97 The Travel Industry __.:_.: .. 98 Tourism Is Big Business, By Felix A. Grisette 99 Memo On Travel In North Carolina, By Bill Sharpe 100 Tips As Wages 103 Suitable Work In The Post-war Period, By Irene M. Zaccaro 104 The Law In Action, By Bruce Billings 108 Unemployment Benefits, By S. F. Teague 109 Notes On U. C. C. Operations 112 Keeping Up With Industrial Expansion And Contraction 115 Honor Roll For Industry 119 THE LAW IN ACTION With this issue of the Quarterly, we introduce a new feature, to be carried regularly in future issues. This is a section, under the heading of THE LAW IN ACTION, in which our Senior Attorney, Mr. Bruce Billings, discusses cases which have come be-fore the Commission for decision and how various aspects of the Unemployment Compensation Law apply to them. His analysis shows the manner in which the Commission's administrative practices and policies work when particular sets of facts are presented for consideration. Mr. Billings is a grad-uate of the Duke University Law School. He has been with the Unemployment Compensation Com-mission since December 1937, and became Senior Attorney in November 1944. Editors note. COMMON SENSE REGARDING UNEMPLOYMENT Plenty of common sense will be needed by both management and labor during this reconversion period from war to peacetime work. We have already had many problem cases where war workers have lost highly paid jobs and have sought job insurance when they could not find em-ployment that used their highest skill at wages re-ceived in war work. During the period of readjust-ment when living costs are still high, employers should pay as high wages as are reasonably possible under the conditions they must meet. Full employ-ment cannot be maintained unless there is also full purchasing power. All elements lose when national purchasing power is reduced by lower earnings of the workers. On the other hand, there probably will not be enough high-wage jobs, at least immediately, to go around for all who have learned new and special skills in war work. It now appears that the recon-version is to be less drastic in North Carolina than it may be elsewhere in the country, because of the character of our major industries. However, there will be many readjustments, and we expect many workers to file claims for unemployment insurance during the readjustment period before they become re-employed. Most workers should accept the best jobs that are available at the wage rates prevailing in their communities. This will mean that some will necessarily have to return to former occupa-tions, even though their pay is less than earned in war work. It will be far better for most displaced workers to accept reasonable wage offers rather than to depend on the temporary job insurance provided by our law. The highest weekly benefit is $20 a week—available to workers who have earned $2,080.00 or more in their base-period year. Our average payment for total unemployment is now around $12.00 a week. Almost any productive job should pay a good worker better wages than he would be eligible to draw in benefits. The N. C. law requires a worker to be able and available for work, in order to be eligible for unem- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 87 ployment compensation. A refusal of an offer of suitable work will disqualify a claimant. Each case considered by the Commission on its individual merits and with due regard to job opportunities and to wage rates that prevail in the particular com-munity. In many cases, however, it will be neces-sary to consider a job offer as suitable work even though the wages are less than the individual has earned during the war years and even though the offered work requires less skill than was required in his former job. FACTS. FIGURES. AND POLICIES After two months of reconversion, questions arose throughout the state as to the large number of un-filled jobs and whether or not too many released war workers might not be drawing unemployment bene-fits— preferring loiter to labor. An analysis of the situation at the end of Septem-ber revealed a very different picture. Although some 16,000 war workers had been reported laid off in North Carolina, less than 30 percent of them were claiming unemployment checks. Presumably the great majority had found re-employment quickly. The Commission was then paying benefits to 7,010 unemployed workers, of whom 1,221 became unemployed before the end of the war. Most of these people were skilled workers, and four out of five of them were women. Meanwhile, the employment offices located throughout the state were listing a total of 40,500 job openings. Hence the questions. The Unemployment Compensation Commission pays benefits to covered workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. To be eligible for benefits, a worker must register for work at an em-ployment office and must be able, available and will-ing to work. He is not eligible for benefits if he refuses to accept suitable work. If he quits work voluntarily, without good cause attributable to the employer, or if he is discharged for misconduct connected with his work, or if he re-fuses to accept suitable work, the worker is disquali-fied for benefits for periods ranging from a minimum of four to a maximum of twelve weeks and his earned benefit amount is reduced accordingly. The Unemployment Compensation Commission of North Carolina believes that the North Carolina worker, who has worked in war plants in the state and out, and who has acquired skills that he did not have two or three years ago, ought to be given a reasonable time within which to find a job calling for that skill, or to have the Employment Service find such a job for him. During this time our Commission thinks that he should draw benefits as provided by law. If it turns out that no such work is available and if the worker refuses to accept "suitable work", then benefits should cease. Everything hinges on what consti-tutes "suitable work". Obviously, work suitable for one person may not be suitable for another. There were 7,010 people drawing compensation benefits in North Carolina, and scattered over the 100 counties of the state according to U. S. Employment Service figures, were 40,500 jobs—60 percent of these for common labor. Of the claimants, 5,475 were women. How many, even of the less than 2,000 men, should be required to accept pick and shovel jobs? The issue of suitable work varies from claimant to claimant and every claimant's case must be decided on its own merits. There is one sure thing about North Carolina's unemployment compensation which claimants are quick to discover : None is going to get rich on the benefits. In no case can a benefit exceed $20 a week. That is the maximum and goes to a person with earned credits of $2,080 or more in his benefit year and who has been earning $40 or more per week. North Carolina's schedule of payments provided for benefits of approximately 50 percent of a worker's weekly earnings. The duration of pay-ments is up to sixteen weeks, or up to sixteen times a benefit amount within a year, should the claimant remain totally or partially unemployed. The only exception to this applies to a veteran, who may be entitled to draw checks for twenty weeks, or up to twenty times his benefit amount, within a given year. In so far as the policy of the Agency is concerned, it has undertaken to guard jealously the safety of the fund against the unscrupulous attempt of any who might prefer loiter to labor. To this end it goes further than practically any other state by main-taining in the field competent claims deputies with judicial qualifications, competent to pass upon any legal aspect which might affect the rights of the claimant or the safety of the "fund from fraud". A. L. F. PURCHASING POWER AND UNEMPLOYMENT An increase in wages, aimed at an expansion of purchasing power, is a fallacious policy to the extent that such increase results in higher price levels and increased living costs. Everyone will agree that to have a high level of employment there must be a high level of produc-tion; and that a high level of production calls for a high level of purchasing power, which in turn means relatively high, but of greater importance relatively uniform, wage levels. That this uniformity is of prime importance can be illustrated by a simple hypothesis. Assume a working force of 48 million with wages which are fairly adjusted to production and living costs. One-fourth of these workers, engaged in producing con-sumer goods, are able, through their bargaining power to obtain wage increases which raise total wage payments by 50 percent. Since wages were originally adjusted to produc-tion costs this increase in wages must be reflected in increased prices of consumer goods, so that the 25 percent of the workers whose wages were increased are able to buy no more with higher wages, than be-fore the increase, while the other 75 percent can buy much loss. Thus, the economic balance is immedi-ately upset. Total consumer demand does not rise PAGE 88 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 in proportion to the theoretical increase in purchas-ing power. In volume, it is less because of the de-creased purchasing power of 75 percent of the workers. Production is reduced, unemployment fol-lows, and increases in proportion to the disparity in wages. The single instance in which the income of only one segment of the labor force can be raised without disturbing the economic equilibrium is in the case of farm products consumed in their raw state. When farmers receive good prices for their products the burden of the increase falls equally on all in propor-tion to their consumption needs, without increasing manufacturing costs and without regard to a high or low wage level. At the same time it increases the purchasing power of the large agricultural popu-lation for manufactured goods, the increased pro-duction of which means increased employment in industry, trade and transportation. One important group of economists holds that there is a wage level—a low level—at which all labor could be employed, and they contend that high wages are responsible for unemployment, in that unemploy-ment results from lack of capital, which in turn is due to the presence of too high wage rates. This is known as the capital scarcity theory, and apparently is based on the assumption that low wages make for more profits, and consequently more capital which (they assume) will be invested in increased produc-tion. The fallacy of this theory lies in the demonstrated fact that low wages and greater profits lead to in-creased dividends, and often, instead of reducing ad-ministrative and executive salaries to correspond with reduced wage levels, it is more apt to result in an increase of the take-off by both administrators and executives. In this case the purchasing power of the masses is reduced without a corresponding reduction in price levels. Even if it should make for increased output, it provides the opportunity for monopolistic production, which leads to adminis-tered rather than to wholly competitive prices. Under such conditions the large producer during a cyclical decline merely holds approximately to his old price levels, and curtails production, thereby in-creasing unemployment, and diminishing purchas-ing power. This places the small producer under a severe handicap, if it does not force him out of busi-ness ; for hq must sell his products purely on a com-petitive basis when decreased purchasing power forces him to reduce his selling price, and at the same time reduces his ability to purchase adminis-tered price goods that go into his production. Organized labor, of course, contends that unem-ployment can be prevented by the payment of higher wages, since purchasing power is thereby increased and greater production made necessary. If the present disparity in wage levels could be remedied, and an increase in wages be made to apply uniformly to all classes of wage earners this theory would hold water to the extent that such increase could be ab-sorbed in production costs without raising price levels. Beyond that point wage increases would fail to increase purchasing power, or reduce unem-ployment for with every increase in wages a corre-sponding increase in prices would follow. On the other hand, if it be assumed that the prin-ciple of labor organization is sound for one group it must be admitted that it is good for all groups. If that principle be carried to its logical conclusion and the strength of all labor be used to force wages up as high as its bargaining power would permit it, would only create a vicious circle in which every in-crease in wages would necessitate a raise in the price structure. Purchasing power, therefore, would be no greater at high than at low wage levels. It should be patent to all that such an increase in wages would make competition in world markets impossible, and such competition is necessary be-cause of our increasing productive capacity. It would force a reduction in output, and an increase in unemployment without placing the wage earner in any better position than he occupied at a lower wage level. On the other hand, if lowering real wages could increase production, and thereby employment, the same result could be achieved through a monetary policy which raises prices ; but, according to promi-nent economists, the supply curve of labor is not a function of real but of money wages, and such mone-tary manipulations are calculated to frighten busi-ness enterprise and discourage capital. This intro-duces the question of whether and to what extent government should undertake to control wages and prices. For it must be admitted that with the decay of the laissez-faire economy some wage-price con-trol must be substituted for the unbridled power of organized labor to raise wages on the one hand and the monopolistic rule of the large-scale producer on the other, before there can be a proper relation be-tween wages and purchasing power. Granting that increased purchasing power is the remedy for unemployment, the two questions which demand the prompt consideration of government and economic experts are (1) Shall organized labor be allowed to enforce its demands for higher and higher wages, with no corresponding relief for the 40 mil-lion unorganized workers? (2) Shall larger pro-ducers be permitted to market their products under an administered price policy which enables them to hold prices up regardless of reduced production costs, while the small producer must sell his products on a competitive basis when his own purchasing power is reduced through administered price con-trols? These are not questions for the layman or the amateur, but the very fact that there is disagree-ment among leading economists, and between eco-nomists and organized labor as to the effect of wages and prices on unemployment points them up as the No. 1 and 2 problems of our postwar economy. It is apparent, however, even to a layman, that you can't raise the income of 10 percent of the popu-lation to the point of increasing living costs without reducing the purchasing power of the other 90 per-cent of the population, which in turn means reduced production and increased unemployment. It is like- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 89 wise apparent that an administered price control that maintains high price levels with a lowering of real wages will produce the same result, and that these two factors working together contain the potentialities of disaster for both industry and labor. Silas F. Campbell. Unemployment Compensation Progress—By the States Critics of the federal-state program of unemploy-ment compensation generally claim that the indi-vidual states have not done enough to broaden the provisions of their laws so that the protection offered workers through this insurance system kept pace with the times. This is the basis for various bills introduced into Congress, from time to time, with the approval, if not at the instigation of officials of the Federal Government, aiming to liberalize the program and make it nationally uniform. However, unemployment is a local community problem even more than it is a national one. The worker's job is localized, and any national unem-ployment problem cannot be solved unless regular employment is provided in the home communities. This is the nub of the demand for public employ-ment services geared to operate in local situations. Let's examine the record. The Social Security Act of 1935 did not set up the state system of unemployment insurance, although it was designed to assist the states to provide their own systems in conformity with certain minimum standards. These levels, as suggested by the Social Security Board included : (1) coverage of employers of eight or more workers; (2) a maximum weekly benefit of $15 ; and (3) a maximum duration of pay-ments of not less than 12 weeks. Starting from there, the states began immediately to write their laws upward. Many of the original state .laws were broader than conformity required. Successive legislatures have continually liberalized the state programs of unemployment compensation in response to their local publics. At the close of 1945 legislative sessions the over-all picture is very different from that ten years ago. It looks like this : COVERAGE Of 51 state laws (inclusive of Hawaii and the District of Columbia), or more than half now apply to workers for smaller establishments than those having eight or more employees. In 16 states, the coverage is all-inclusive, and workers for employers or one or more have unemployment insurance pro-tection. WEEKLY BENEFIT AMOUNT At the present time over 50 percent of the states (27 out of 51) pay a maximum weekly benefit of $20 or more; 11 states have an $18 weekly maximum: — whereas originally only three states paid more than $15 per week and their top figure was $16. A significant aspect of these liberalized benefits is that the 27 states paying a maximum of $20 or more contain more than 77.5 percent of all covered workers. Over 90 percent of all insured workers are in the 38 states where a weekly maximum of $18 or more applies. BENEFIT DURATION 32 states now provide for the payment of benefits up to 20 weeks or more, when the unemployed worker does not find a job sooner. These 32 states have over 79 percent of all covered workers. NORTH CAROLINA This state is grouped with the liberals in respect to providing a maximum weekly benefit payment of $20, but it lags behind the majority in coverage by size of firm (still eight or more) as to the duration of payments (16 weeks only). The larger states, with the more liberal unemploy-ment compensation laws, generally had the greatest concentration of war-production contracts and workers. Therefore, the more liberal state pro-visions apply to even larger percentages of workers displaced following the end of the war than has been indicated above. After a review of what the states, as a whole, have done to improve the unemployment compensa-tion program, the arguments in favor of federalizing the system as a prerequisite to liberalizing it, grow dim. The same groups who favor outright federali-zation have suggested also, the enactment of federal supplementary funds. Under any such plan, the effect would be to coerce state legislatures and state administrators into acceptance of the views of federal officials. The imposition of federal standards could retard future state action in further strengthening their own laws ; a direction in which they have made com-mendable progress in the past few years. As an example of state pioneering in the field of extending insurance protection to another type of unemployment than that which results from eco-nomic disruption, there is the Rhode Island Cash Sickness Compensation Act. Under this act, a trust fund has been established from contributions by workers. The Unemployment Compensation Board which administers it, pays benefits to workers, ac-cording to the same schedule in effect for unemploy-ment compensation, but when the reason for the unemployment and loss of wages is temporary sick-ness or disability. Many other states have, and are debating similar action. A million casualties on battle fronts; thirty-six million casualties on the home front. Such is the National Safety Council's report of our country's human tragedies between Pearl Harbor Day and V-J Day. Of our total war casualties, the record shows 261,608 killed; the home front accident score lists 355,000 killed. PAGE 90 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 Veterans Create an Airline By E. Carl Sink A bunch of the boys were talking it up in the ready room of Consolidated-Vultee's test pilot's bar-racks. The times between tests were getting longer and longer ; the war was obviously coming to a close. It was high time to talk of many things ; of how, for example to make a living. They all agreed that staying in the air was proper, and, possibly, as profitable as other things a man could do. When the talk got around to details, then the boys split up into groups. There were four from North Carolina, the Teague brothers, the fellow Fly who's gotten into Ripley with his name and his job, and Harris, big, rawboned, a wizard at the controls. Earl Teague was for setting up an airline in his home state, but all were dubious that the residue of war wages would get the line going. Their argu-ments came to a focus with the name of another North Stater, R. B. Babbington, Jr., of Gastonia, in-surance man and organizer, who agreed to look into the possibilities. He looked, and the boys got ready to go into busi-ness as Southeast Airlines, Inc. First, they went to the Army Surplus Board and got lined up on fly-ing equipment, which turned out to be scouter Cessnas which could be converted readily into cabin cruisers, and had engines hardly more than broken in by Army service. The war wages went in a hurry, for airplanes come high at any time, but they figured they were better off than the average guy, some of whom hadn't even salvaged their own lives from the war effort. Next job was the converting of the ships into five-place, four passenger transports which would not only come within regulations as safe flying vehicles but also furnish a maximum of comfort to passen-gers. This was really a job for gentlemen who had left such menial labor to the ground crews, but they pitched in, and ended up with two good jobs, with never a tremor in the cords nor a vibration in the engines. With these they established the two-a-day, criss-cross schedules which uncover all of North Carolina in a day, and get you back home by bed-time. The routes were flown, the airports landed on and found safe, before the schedules ever saw print. That's the way the boys planned it; they had the Army idea of doing a thing right. Three weeks and 26,000 flying miles after the first ship went up on the first flight, the boys and SEA were ready for the post-war world. This writer, with a handy cameraman in the co-pilot seat, climbed aboard on an October Tuesday and headed East into a rising sun. Within an hour, he was at the coast, at Carolina Beach, 150 miles from Raleigh. Within minutes, in which he could have had a dip or thrown 20 casts into the booming surf, the schedule called for the trip back, and he was at his desk again at 10 :20, one hour and twenty minutes from desk to desk. But that wasn't all. Not all, by a big margin, for the next leg and the same ship took him over twenty towns (and they are big towns, rich towns) straight through the heart of the Piedmont, Raleigh to Durham to Greensboro to Winston-Salem to Charlotte. But there's some-thing else. That last leg of the flight took out from Charlotte and winged right straight into the moun-tains of western North Carolina. It was a thrill ride from end to end, although the plane, flying on stabilizer controls, moved steadily forward and up. The ground below erupted into little mountains, big mountains, and then monstrosities, which, even from above, looked like stairs to Heaven. It is the grand-est sight-seeing in America, those mountains of Car-olina. Which is not bad from the viewpoint of the boys of the Test Pilot Line. For they have the best scenery in America to see from an angle not yet covered, and they have short hauls through the richest industrial section of the They reconverted. While America talked of an airborne world, R. B. Babbington, Jr., and U. L. Fly, shown here, and associates started a strictly North Carolina airline. The gigantic plant of Cannon Mills is a sight worth seeing from the air at Kannapolis. (Photos by State News Bureau) FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 91 Southeast. They have, too, arrangements with air-ports whereby radio tells a plane overhead if passen-ger business is there, which means smaller port bills, since the business is arranged on a basis of rent for landings made. These are important things, because you don't start an airline on a shoestring. Compara-tively, you start an airline on strings, shoes, suit, hat and an allowance for about eight pairs of extra drawers. But, definitely, the air world has come to North Carolina with the Test Pilot's Line. The boys have put it on the line. What will happen may be a hint as to the fate of air enthusiasms in the brave new world. Vocational Training for World War Veterans By J. Warren Smith, Secretary, State Veteran's Education Committee The problem of veteran's education is one of the most important of our postwar projects. Our government by congressional acts has made ample provision for additional education or training varied enough to be suitable for all veterans who are eligi-ble and will ask for assistance. Provision for this education is made possible by two laws. Public Law #16 provides education and training of war service connected handicapped veterans, and Public Law #346 makes provisions for education and training for veterans without physical handicap. The latter law is commonly referred to as the G.I.Bill of Rights. This article will be limited to the below college level vocational training of veterans or for those for which the principal need is for educational oppor-tunities of less than collegiate type. By data se-cured from those now returned, we know that the group who want vocational training will be much larger than the group who will want college educa-tion. Very little attention has been given to the vocational group by the writers of the articles that have appeared in our periodicals. Therefore, the public seems to have a much clearer conception of the provisions and the mechanics of securing educa-tion as provided by colleges. For those eligible it is important that young men who had their plans in-terrupted by the war take advantage of the oppor-tunity afforded them to complete their college edu-cation; however, for those not eligible for college, every effort should be made to furnish for them a type of education best suited to their needs. For many this will be school vocational training or on-the- job training furnished by industry. HOW MANY TO BE TRAINED For all types of military service men and women, white and Negro, 350,000 persons have been in-ducted into service from North Carolina; 82%, or 287,000, will return to North Carolina. According to estimates made by E. V. Hollis from the U. S. Office of Education, 31/2 million of the 15 million in-ducted from the United States (at that time) would want some form of education. Two-thirds of this number, or 2^3 million, will want some form of voca-tional training. By applying the same ratio to the number returning in North Carolina, we will be faced with the problem of providing some form of vocational training to 45,000 returned veterans. More recent data than that furnished by Dr. Hollis has proved that his estimates were too high, how-ever, we do know that our problem is too large for the facilities we have to furnish the training. PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED VETERANS Ample provision for education or training of the service-connected physically handicapped veteran has been made by Public Law #16. The personnel of the Veteran's Administration are responsible for carrying out the provisions of this law. Every effort must be made to make possible for a veteran who, because of his disability, cannot continue in his former occupation, to be trained in a new occupation equivalent in rank and earnings to his former job. The matter of hospitalization or physical restora-tion for the veteran needing this type of service is taken care of by the government before his release to civilian status. After eligibility for training has been established the veteran is referred to a counsel-ing bureau for guidance. At this time the veteran's bureau has four bureaus well staffed with experts. The four centers are Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Salis-bury and Asheville. By special tests and counseling an intelligent approach is made to the selection of a new occupation. After the selection has been made a veteran's training supervisor places the veteran in a training situation. These supervisors complete all the necessary arrangements, including an agreement or contract with the training agency. For this public law, prior approval by the State Veteran's Education Committee is not necessary. Veterans of World War II with handicaps may be served by the Department of Vocational Rehabilita-tion, operated by the State Department of Public Instruction. Although the vocational rehabilitation of civilians and veterans are provided for in separate acts, veterans may be accepted in the civilian pro-gram, either because the Veterans Administration may judge that the disability is not a service-con-nected one and therefore not covered by Public Law #16, or if the veteran wants to elect voluntarily to be served by the civilian program. The main point for the veteran to know is that our government has provided amply for his welfare. He should be en-couraged to avail himself of the opportunities that are his. REGULATIONS FOR EDUCATION OR TRAIN-ING OF VETERANS—PUBLIC LAW 346 For regulations concerning education or training of veterans, I am inserting a quotation from Colonel Hines. 1 This statement is easier to interpret than the law itself. "The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs stated on 60 Monthly Labor Review 1222 (June 1945). PAGE 92 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 January 18, 1945, that under the Servicemen's Re-adjustment Act of 1944, any veteran of World War II is entitled to education or training (or a refresher or retraining course) in an approved educational or training institution for a period of 1 year, or for such lesser time as may be required for the course of instruction chosen by him. To qualify for such edu-cation or training, the applicant must have (1) been in active service on or after September 16, 1940, and prior to the termination of the present war, (2) been discharged or released "under conditions other than dishonorable," (3) served 90 days or more, exclusive of assigned education or training periods or (if less than 90 days' service) been released from actual service by reason of a service-incurred injury or disability, and (4) must make application for and initiate the course of education or training within two years following discharge or release from active service, or from the date of termination of the war, whichever is later. Eligibility for Education or Training Beyond One Year.—In order to be entitled to education or train-ing other than a refresher or retraining course be-yond one year, satisfactory completion of such course according to regularly prescribed standards and practices of the institution is required. Further it must be shown that the person's edu-cation or training was impeded, delayed, inter-rupted, or interfered with by reason of his entrance into service. Such conditions are assumed as exist-ing in the case of the person who was not more than 25 years of age at the time he entered active service (or September 16, 1940, whichever is the later) but must be proved by persons over 25 years of age at the time above specified. Veteran learning to be auto mechanic by on-the-job method. Payment of Expenses of Veterans.—The regula-tions issued by the Administrator make provision for subsistence allowance and the payment of author-ized expenses incurred by the veteran in his educa-tion or training under the Servicemen's Readjust-ment Act of 1944. Under this measure, expenses of the veteran—if he is in an educational institution — that will be defrayed by the Government include the "customary cost of tuition, laboratory, library, health, infirmary, and other similar fees as are customarily charged, and other necessary expenses * * * as are generally required for the successful pursuit and completion by other students in the institution * * * or those charges which have been approved by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs. Board, lodging, and other living expenses and travel are not to be included." The Government also meets the charges for "books, supplies, equipment, and other necessary expenses customarily incurred for or by any student." If the eligible discharged serviceman selects some type of institution other than one of an educational character, expenses defrayed by the Government in-clude "the charges for supplies, and other necessary equipment customarily furnished other persons be-ing trained by the establishment in the given trade or position." Full-time subsistence allowances are $50.00 per month for men without dependents, and $75.00 per month for those having dependents. If the veteran is not taking a full-time course, subsistence is measured in fractions of three-fourths, one-half, and one-fourth of the above amount according to the fraction that his course is of a full course. No such allowance is to be paid when the payment is barred because the veteran is engaged in full-time gainful employment in a part of his course of education or training. When the veteran is receiving compensation for productive labor performed as part of his appren-ticeship or other training on the job, the amount of subsistence plus his current monthly salary or wage (based on the standard workweek exclusive of over-time) shall not exceed the standard beginning salary or wage (similarly based) payable to a journeyman in the trade or occupation in which training is being given." From the above quotation we offer the following interpretations : 1. Refresher or retraining courses which may be apprenticeship or on-the-job training, are open to any honorably discharged veterans with the required period of active service on request. 2. Veterans older than 25 at time of induction must prove training was interrupted in order to be eligible for more than one year of training. 3. Veterans entering upon on-the-job training requiring less than a year to reach their objective are eligible for subsistence for only the length of the training period. 4. Veterans who were under 25 years of age at the time of induction may serve a full apprenticeship if they are making satisfactory progress at the end FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 93 of first year and have a service record long enough to be eligible for the full period of apprenticeship. 5. Veterans in training by apprenticeship or on-the-job training plan are eligible to be furnished by the veterans administration supplies and other necessary hand tools customarily furnished to other persons being trained in peacetime. 6. It is up to the veteran, he must make his own application for the type of education or training he desires. SCHOOL OR BUSINESS APPROVED FOR TRAINING The matter of approving schools or other institu-tions for training rests with the different states. Governor Broughton designated the State Depart-ment of Public Instruction as the approval agency. Dr. Erwin appointed from this department a com-mittee of six, known as State Veterans' Education Committee. The committee members are: Dr. James E. Hillman, Chairman; J. Warren Smith, Secretary ; Dr. J. Henry Highsmith ; Dr. N. C. New-bold; Charles H. Warren; and C. L. Beddingfield. This committee is charged with the responsibility of deciding whether or not a school or other insti-tution should be approved to participate in the veteran's educational program. This applies to col-leges (public or private), business schools, trade or technical schools (public or private), and other in-stitutions such as banks, stores, manufacturing com-panies, garages, business or industrial concerns. A school or business seeking approval must file an application and include a written plan of training; after the application and plan of training has been received a member of the committee makes a per-sonal inspection of the plant, then for final action each application is reviewed by the whole committee. If approval is given, the company or school and the Veterans' Administration are notified. This committee feels keenly the responsibility of trying to be certain that the money involved will be spent wisely and that the veteran will receive an equitable return for his time and effort. The com-mittee knows that it must be on the alert for appli-cations from private schools designed to make ex-cessive profit without rendering adequate service to the veteran, and for industries who are not sincere about training. To date nearly all of our A grade colleges, a large number of business schools, several private trade schools, and several hundred industrial establish-ments have been approved for training. As the need becomes more urgent special voca-tional public school shops will be operated for veterans to provide short intensive training pro-grams in subjects such as electric motor repair, radio and electric appliance repair, general welding, machine shop practice, automobile mechanics and drafting. Since the offerings in our public schools are limited and we do not have any State Trade Schools or private vocational or technical schools, it is im-portant that we make optimum use of the on-the-job or apprenticeship plan. By this plan, the number of our places of training is limited only to the fitness of Veteran learning to be motor repair mechanic by on-the-job method. the place and the willingness of the personnel of the industry to cooperate. APPRENTICESHIP OR ON-THE-JOB TRAINING If well organized, the apprenticeship or on-the-job plan affords the best possible method to learn a trade. For many of the skilled trades and all of the semi-skilled occupations there is not any better place to learn the necessary skills than on the job in the industry. By this method the veteran will be learn-ing under actual working conditions in the environ-ment of the trade itself. He will be instructed on real jobs, jobs that must be finished well enough to be accepted by the trade. He will have as instructors men accepted as skilled craftsmen and considered expert. These instructors, because of their positions in the commercial trade, will be up-to-date in the newest developments and practical working knowl-edge of the trade. The veteran will have the ad-vantage of learning in a shop well equipped with up-to-date machinery and tools, and the necessary supplies. The veteran, in addition to the skills, must learn to work with others, and learn the rules of industry, proper work habits and attitudes—these too can best be learned in industry itself. SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING On-the-job training should be supplemented by organized class instruction. The complete learning of a job includes manipulative skills, science, draw-ing, math, industrial knowledge, safety and morale. The manipulative features are learned easiest on the job. All other features can also be learned that PAGE 94 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 way; however, the learning process can be speeded up by organized class instruction. This is particu-larly true for the related technical information. For example, the theory of the operation of a carburetor, what makes a battery charge, or what makes a motor run. For any group of veterans learning by on-the-job method, the local school administrator, with the assistance and cooperation of the Department of Industrial Education of the State Department of Public Instruction, will organize and operate, free of charge, supplementary classes for any industrial trade. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOB AND TRAINING There is a difference between having a work job in industry and being in training, and a large num-ber of industries make little effort at organized training. The worker in an industry that gives little attention to training after acquiring an initial skill is too often kept performing this opera-tion for an indefinite length of time, thus he is denied the opportunity to learn the various operations necessary to his trade. It is the responsibility of the committee mentioned above to determine whether it is training or just a job the veteran will be getting if the place of business is approved. Training of veterans by on-the-job method will be most apt to be successful if the following conditions are met : 1. The company personnel is sincere in its desire to really train veterans. 2. A written statement of the training plan has been pre-pared and all parties concerned with training understand and agree to it. 3. The written statement includes a schedule of the opera-tions to be learned, with the approximate amount of time necessary for learning each step. 4. There is a schedule of pay with regular increases as the learner progresses. 5. An attempt will be made to select veterans with aptitude and interest for the different trades to be learned. 6. Skilled men with instructional ability will be designated as instructors. It will be the duty of these instructors to guide these veterans in their learning. They should by telling how and by demonstration make learning easy for these veterans. Managers of industry in North Carolina can, if they will, make it possible for a large number of veterans to get excellent training in the trade of their choice. Let's give those men the opportunity they so justly deserve. THE DOGWOOD FOR LUCK HHii Turned a Handcraft Into a Business. Stuart Nye, Asheville War I Veteran, shown instructing an employee. Working out simple jewelry designs, he teaches women to do the production. Veterans of World War II who are wondering how to recognize Dame Opportunity when they take up civilian pursuits might be interested in the ex-perience of Stuart Nye, veteran of World War I. Lady Luck wears various visages, but she ap-peared to Nye, at that time a patient in the veterans hospital at Oteen, as a disgruntled hobbyist figura-tively wearing a dogwood blossom. This improbable combination threw Nye into a silversmithing busi-ness which has risen from a $500 per year gross enterprise into a thriving business with an annual payroll alone of over $30,000. Nye, while convalescing, had dabbled indifferently with woodworking, and then one day a fellow-patient, leaving the place, offered to sell him his metal-working tools. Nye reluctantly bought the stuff, and began tinkering with silver, later launch-ing his novelty-jewelry business. He did only moderately well until one day he fashioned his first dogwood blossom. Instantly, the new design caught on, and every week since then the business has steadily increased. Pins, rings, brace-lets and other ornaments featuring the delicate petals became and continue a fad. Nye also worked out pine cones, pansies and other designs, and today his products are sold in every state and in many foreign countries. Nye, a pleasant, placid person, says he is as sur-prised as anyone at the success of his business. He scoffs at the notion that he is a creative genius. "I made a discovery," he says. "Or rather, just in-vented an idea. There's nothing to it—everybody's making dogwood now." Nevertheless, Nye's designs are widely sought under his name and he seems not to have suffered from competition. His production formula has been FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 95 Starting alone a few years ago, Nye now employs 30 girls who are kept busy trying to meet demands for the silver ornaments. All his employees learn the trade in the shop and Nye insists it's "simple". (Photos by State News Bureau) unchanged from the beginning. He produces only pieces from his own original designs, and he refuses to speed up production by introduction of machinery. Each piece must be cut, filed, finished by hand. Housed in a bright little workshop in his back-yard, his workers are mostly young girls, all of them 3^ trained in the shop itself. "It's easy," Nye insists casually. "A girl starts some simple operation, like filing, and soon picks it up. Of course, some are better than others." As to the magical properties of dogwood which he firmly believes started him on success, he has no particular theory. "It's pretty," he says simply. A BANKER APPRAISES THE SOUTH (By Robert M. Hanes, of Winston-Salem, N. C, president of the Reserve City Bankers Association, EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS BEFORE A MEETING OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES IN NEW YORK.) No region in the nation has had such a wide divergence of interpretation as has the South. It has been called America's economic problem No. 1. In film and fiction it has been depicted as an area inhabited by barefoot, pellagra ridden share crop-pers, a land eroded by one crop farming, a section where low wages and sub-standard educational and living conditions prevail. Other interpreters of the South ignore its handi-caps and picture it as a land of golden promise with a rich and easy harvest. They wax eloquent against a background of mint juleps, soft flowing streams and Stephen Foster sentiment. They, too, lack a sense of realism. I shall attempt here to evaluate, in terms of busi-ness outlook, the South's problems and its opportuni-ties; in other words, to make a banker's appraisal of the South. On the credit side, the South has an abundant supply of many raw materials—cotton, tobacco, timber, petroleum, coal, iron, natural gas, minerals, naval stores, and a wide variety of other products. Of the country's total production, the South ac-counts for 95% of the cotton, 90% of the tobacco, 75% of the natural gas, 60% of the crude petroleum, 50 % of the bituminous coal, 40 % of the lumber, and 12% of the iron ore. Turning these raw materials into finished products has been the basis of the South's industrial progress for decades. While at times this progress may have seemed somewhat slow, when we review the gains over a period of years the figures provide some sense of satisfaction. At the turn of the century in 1900, total industrial production in the South was valued at $1,564,000,000. For 1939, the last year for which data from the Bureau of Census are available, this figure had increased to $11,190,000,000, a gain slightly in excess of 700%. During the same period, the national gain was 400 %>, while states outside the South increased 366%. Today, 80% of the active cotton spindles are in Southern mills and we manufacture 90% of the nation's tobacco products. Electric power development in the South has con-tributed substantially to its industrial growth. In 1943, we produced 26% of all the electric power out-put in the country, including both water power and power from fuels. In 1943 the South accounted for 40% of the national farm crop income. In 1900 the South's cotton crop brought $370,- 000,000; in 1943, $1,322,000,000. Our tobacco crop of 1900 sold for $40,000,000 ; in 1943, $514,000,000. Of special significance is the South's financial pro-gress. In 1910 the banking resources of this region were only $3,275,000,000 ; today they are more than $23,000,000,000. Savings deposits in the same period have increased from $575,000,000 to $3,500,000,000. Life insurance in force increased from 3!/2 billions to more than 30 billions. One of the South's leading natural advantages is its climate. It is a land of mild temperatures, relatively free from extremes of heat and cold, with ample rainfall and an abundance of sunshine throughout the year. This provides a long growing season for agriculture and attracts workers and others who seek relief from the rigors of harsher climates in other regions. The South's white population is composed largely of native-born stock, direct descendants of the early independent, pioneer settlers, almost wholly pure Anglo-Saxon. It is a homogenous population. It is predomi-nately rural and therefore possesses those inbred characteristics of stability and resourcefulness so valuable in the development of industrial enter-prises. Although not highly skilled, it has been con-clusively demonstrated that Southern labor can readily be taught skilled trades. Our people are not crowded together in large cities, but scattered in smaller cities and towns PAGE 96 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 where living and working conditions are more at-tractive. The South has few metropolitan cities ; it has thousands of small towns whose people are sup-ported partly by industry and trade, and partly by agriculture. This pattern fits perfectly into the current trend of dispersal of large industries. The South has excellent transportation facilities. Today 81,473 miles of railway lines crisscross the Southern states. We pioneered in the development of concrete highways, and now approximately 350,000 miles of modern highways spread through-out the South. Twenty-one airlines serve this re-gion and supply direct connections with other routes throughout the nation and overseas. Through our excellent ports and harbors and our inland water-ways flows a steady stream of domestic and foreign commerce. Now let's look at the debit side—some of the South's problems and needs. We have relied too much on one crop—cotton—in our agriculture and have not had sufficient diversi-fication in industry. Too much reliance on the grow-ing of cotton and tobacco and the processing of these raw materials has made us too vulnerable to sudden market changes affecting these products. The result has been that farmers in normal times have had to sell much of their cotton and tobacco in an unpro-tected world market and buy much of their food, machinery and clothing in a well protected domestic market. The freight rate structure, which for many years favored producers in the East at the expense of Southern producers and shippers, has undoubtedly greatly retarded the South's development. Nothing has happened in the past 50 years of such tremendous significance as the recent decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission to correct those freight rate inequities. The beneficial results will not appear immediately, but in the next five to ten years this change in freight rates will greatly stimu-late Southern progress. It will mean that the nation's great distributing and merchandising companies will establish more distribution centers throughout the South, and finished products from Southern plants will move to markets throughout the nation on an equal basis with products from other sections of the country. The trend towards the South, which has been evident now for some years, will be greatly accelerated by this momentous decision. The South has not produced enough foodstuffs and clothing to supply the needs of its own region, thus necessitating the more expensive procedure of bring-ing in these basic supplies from distant sources. If the South is to provide a broader market for its own products, it must continue to raise the average per capita income of its people. To meet the challenge of the future, I believe we shall need more business and industrial leadership, constantly improving management, to help develop our resources and opportunities. We also need many more technically trained men. We have produced our share of leaders and tech-nicians, but many of them were so good that they were lured away to responsible positions in other sections of the country. We must provide full op-portunity for our own young men and also import leadership from other sections to broaden our busi-ness viewpoint and add new types of experience. These are some of our problems and needs. There are others, but I believe that most of them are re-lated to these main points. Recently there have been unmistakable trends and developments which give an entirely new color to the picture of the South, factors which can greatly accelerate its progress. The impact of war upon the South is of particular significance. In the four years ending June 30, 1944, $5,187,- 000,000 had been spent in Southern states for war production facilities alone—plants, shipyards, tools, etc. This does not include other billions spent for airports, camps, and purely military. installations. WAR CONTRACTS During the same period war supply contracts awarded in the South totaled $25,532,402,000. They included ships, plans, guns, shells, ammunition, ex-plosives, high-octane gasoline, textiles, synthetic rubber, food, paper and pulp, steel, aluminum and cement, to name some of the more important items. There has been a substantial accumulation of re-serves, savings, and war bonds by industry, business and individuals throughout the South. The intensified need for foods and raw materials has forced improved methods, diversification and in-tensive cultivation in agriculture. Farm mortgage debt has been greatly reduced, the use of more farm machinery has been stimulated and the farmer has been obliged to learn new techniques and better farm management. Farming in the South is rapidly getting away from the one cash crop system and in the future we shall produce more of our own foodstuffs, especially poultry, eggs and a wide variety of dairy products. The war production program has brought new and diversified industry to the South, developing a large supply of skilled labor. This has been one of our great needs—the training of labor in high precision work. In the textile field the South once had the reputa-tion for producing largely coarse goods and low quality products. This picture has changed ma-terially in recent years as many refinements and im-provements have been made in our textile industry. For example, we have one producer in North Carolina making fine combed yarn with counts as high as 160, which is probably the finest yarn made in this country. Many of our mills are already placing orders for improved machinery and equipment when available. There is a substantial program now under way for the expansion and improvement of rayon weaving facilities and the enlargement and refinement of spun rayon production. There is also taking place FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 97 an expansion of woolen yarn and woolen fabric pro-duction. In furniture manufacturing we have many plants turning out high quality furniture products, and we have demonstrated that these products will compete in durability and appearance with high grade furni-ture made in any other section of the country. The paper and pulp industry is moving South where it has been attracted by huge supplies of raw materials and favorable working conditions. In 1943 we produced 47% of the nation's wood pulp and 26% of its paper and paperboard. While much of this production is in the coarser paper goods made from our pine forests, other types of paper mills are being developed in the South. We have a notable example of this in the Ecusta Paper Corporation in North Carolina which now supplies nearly all of the cigarette paper for the nation and in addition makes high grade writing papers. There has been a tremendous shifting of the hosiery industry to the South. In the past 10 or 15 years many plants from the middle Atlantic belt have moved into the South, and there has been a dramatic development of new plants within the area, many of which started with two to five knitting machines. The South is rapidly overcoming its handicap in education, research and technical training. For ex-ample, in 1910 the South spent $80,000,000 for public schools. In 1943 it spent $511,000,000. There is much yet to be accomplished, but we are making rapid progress in raising our educational standards. Of special interest to industry is the establishment of excellent facilities for the technical training of young men to operate and manage industrial plants. There are now being established at the North Caro-lina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, three foundations—the Textile, the Dairy and the Agricultural Foundations—Which will do much to broaden our technical training. In the field of research we are also making out-standing progress. There will be ample bank credit available to meet all sound industrial credit needs in the South during the reconversion period. We have in recent years developed many sizeable regional banks which work closely with local community banks, thus providing, through correspondent relationships, a combination of financial resources adequate for all needs. As a special aid to small business, credit groups are being formed throughout the country under the leadership of the American Bankers Association. The combined credit being offered by groups already formed in the South totals over $250,000,000 and the amount is being continually increased. Summarizing this appraisal, the South has made great progress. We still have far to go to equal the economic attainments of some other regions, but I venture to predict that the rate of progress in the South during the next decade will equal or surpass that of any other section. I, therefore, leave with you the slogan of one of our great southern rail-roads, "Look Ahead—Look South!" U.C. C. CHIEF LOOKS TO NORTH CAROLINA'S FUTURE A newspaper man asked me not so long ago what was going to happen in North Carolina during re-conversion. I answered that in so far as North Carolina's textile, tobacco, hosiery and furniture in-dustries are concerned, any displacement of labor would be temporary and that steady employment over a long period of time is fairly certain. Recon-version to goods for civilian use, of which there is a distressing shortage throughout the world, will take only a few days for our textile plants. Tobacco, furniture and wood-working plants generally have no problems at all. If the old world can be kept on an even keel, North Carolina will be all right. In the matter of establishments that may be classi-fied as 100 percent war plants, we experienced the effects of mass lay-offs. About 16,000 people were laid off in North Carolina after the announcement of the end of the Japanese War. Most of these people have found jobs among us somewhere, and it is my hope that North Carolina industry can absorb the rest of them. But as has been pointed out, industry should not be called upon to absorb all ex-war workers, includ-ing boys and girls of high school age; housewives who had never worked before and should now go back to home-making and many older workers who were called back to machine and work bench for the emergency and who should now take retirement. In every community where one of the war plants mushroomed into vast proportions over-night and collapsed just as suddenly, there is considerable fear and uncertainty. In over a dozen North Carolina communities great factories, filled with expensive machinery, stand idle. There is no sign of life around them, except for passing watchmen or care-takers. One Of the biggest of these plants, with over 7,000 workers a few weeks ago, has three people in the office, three watchmen and six mechanics. What to do with these great plants is a problem. Left vacant, everybody knows what will happen. In a year, stones from the hands and sling-shots of boys will have smashed most of the windows and the fine buildings will be the haunts of rats and bats. It seems to me that our Department of Conser-vation and Development and our State Planning Board ought to be thinking and planning to make use of these buildings and of as much of their machinery as can be used for peace-time production. I think we should encourage the establishment of small shops, manufacturing the tools and gadgets that North Carolina buys in such huge quantities. One of these huge war plants might easily be con-verted into 20 or more such small establishments, all offering gainful employment to skilled mechanics and profitable enterprises for men of business and executive ability. Let's not wait for "Big Business" from the out-side to come in and take over these big plants. Let's take them over ourselves for the establishment of a vast number of small industries so badly needed right now. A. L. Fletcher. PAGE 98 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY Before the war, travel ranked high among the major industries of the United States. The vacation and business travel dollar had become an important factor in state and national economy. But the travel industry became a war casualty, with the many restrictions that were necessary. However, vacation travel is now due for a boom. In fact this has already started, with more people planning to go farther afield, to spend more money and to take more time, or more frequent vacation and business trips. To arrive at some measure of the relative im-portance of the travel industry to North Carolina, one has to refer to pre-war figures. Looking back to the year 1938, it appears that tourist travel in North Carolina yielded $64,350,000, according to a National Park Service report. This is a dollar crop of more than $5,000,000 a month—double the value of the cotton crop and over one-third the value of the tobacco crop. Everyone in North Carolina benefited from this money as it went into immediate circulation through filling stations, restaurants, hotels, tourist homes, merchants, and other trade channels. If such a sum as $64 millions could have been set aside in a special fund, it would have operated the schools in the state for more than two years. There would have been more than enough to operate all state governmental activities, including schools, institutions and depart-ments for one year and still leave a balance of $25 millions. The accepted standard for estimating tourist travel showed that at least 1,750,000 persons spent an average of $6.00 per day in North Carolina in 1939. Supposing one-half of this was spent at buy-ing at retail, a conservative estimate, approximately $1,000,000 went into the state general fund from sales taxes alone. Immediately prior to the war, the state's travel industry was increasing rapidly. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1941, there was an increase in gasoline tax revenue of 39.8 percent, over the year 1937, although the national increase in gasoline con-sumption during the same period was listed as 14.6 percent. North Carolina collected $8,655,696 more in gasoline taxes in 1941 than it did in 1937. The difference between what the state would have col-lected on a national average and what it actually netted—nearly $6,000,000—must be credited to the larger increase in travel in North Carolina. Similar indicators are found in the increase in non-resident hunting and fishing licenses, and in the recorded number of visitors to national park and forest areas. Between 1937 and 1941, out-of-state hunting and fishing licenses rose 85 percent. In 1937 there were 727,243 visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but in 1941 there were 1,247,919; while visitors to the Pisgah and Nanta-hala Forests increased 600 and 280 percent re-spectively. HOTELS In spite of the war's restrictions on travel gen-erally, the state's hotel business did not suffer materially during the war. Many of the larger re-sort hotels were taken over and operated by the Federal Government for the quartering of military and diplomatic personnel; and a relatively small number of the seasonal resorts located in out of the way places were forced to close. Most of the hotels in North Carolina, however, have been crowded to capacity throughout the war years. With the large number of Army and Marine camps located in the state, servicemen on furlough and their visiting families more than filled available accommodations. Most communities, in fact, were called upon through U. S. O. offices to furnish lodgings in private homes when the hotels just could not take any more guests. This situation is reflected in the reports on em-ployment made to the Unemployment Compensation Commission. In 1941, there were 134 hotel estab-lishments, operating with eight or more workers for at least 20 weeks in the year, reporting an average total employment of 4,033 persons. In the first year of the war, only 115 hotels reported 3,795 employed in various services. But by 1944, with no resort hotels reporting to the Commission, the number of establishments filing returns had increased to 141, and their employees to 4,875. These people received in wages a total of $4,471,901.00 last year. Taken altogether, these facts amply bear out the statement of a leading North Carolina editor : "The travel industry of North Carolina is of the utmost economic importance. It provides employment for thousands of persons. It directly determines the prosperity of many Tar Heel communities. It con-tributes substantially to the support of the state and local governments." Bringing in the baggage—here we have a "Bell-hoppess". FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 99 Tourism is Big Business By Felix A. Grisette, Managing Director North Carolina State Planning Board The tourist industry is big business. Competent students of the industry estimate that it offers a potential yield of $150,000,000 annually in North Carolina. The magnitude of this income can best be appreciated by remembering that the com-bined cash receipts from all livestock and livestock products in North Carolina during 1944 was only $107,000,000, or that the total value of all sales of the North Carolina cotton crop was less than $85,- 000,000. There are two widespread fallacies about the travel business which should be corrected in the public mind. One is that the cash income derived from tourists is limited to a very few agencies, such as hotels, restaurants, and filling stations. The other is that the whole business is thought of in terms of a pastime or as an appendage to some pleasure rather than as an industry in itself. It should not require any considerable knowledge of economics to realize that any such sum as $150,- 000,000 annually, when turned loose in a state, will benefit far more people than any very few businesses. This money will be equally as valuable to the entire economy of all the people as any other industry with an equal volume of revenue. With an adequate pro-gram of overall state promotion, the entire State can benefit from this volume of travel business. Gen-erally speaking, travelers on vacation do not go to any one specific point, but to a section or region. There is every reason to assume that the visitor going to the mountains can also be persuaded to visit the sandhills and the coastal areas. Obviously, while going from one point to the other within the State, the traveler leaves his expenditures all along the way. Clearly, an industry with such possibilities should not be thought of in terms of play. It is equally clear that any industry holding forth such possibilities will be the object of keen compe-tition between different states and sections of the country. North Carolina must be prepared to obtain its fair share of this business. The State Planning Board, in line with its policy of recommending courses of action in terms of the needs of the people, more than a year ago asked ex-Governor J. Melville Broughton to appoint a Tourist-Travel Committee to advise with the Board and to coordinate the efforts of all interests con-cerned with travel. The following persons were appointed : Coleman W. Roberts, Chairman Thomas H. Briggs D. Hiden Ramsey H. S. Gibbs Charles E. Ray, Jr. Felix A. Grisette, Ex-offi- Bill Sharpe cio, Secretary Richard S. Tufts Robert I. Lee Lionel Weil J. B. McCoy As the committee studied the situation, it became increasingly obvious that a state-wide, non-govern-mental agency should be created to work with the Department of Conservation and Development and others concerned. Accordingly, the establishment of an organization to be known as the North Carolina Travel Council was recommended. This recommen-dation received favorable reactions from all inter-ests directly concerned with the travel industry, with the result that plans are now under way for completing the organization of the Council. As now proposed, the Council shall be an organi-zation of those agencies serving the traveling pub-lic in the State of North Carolina, and shall be de-voted to the improvement and development of all phases of the industry within the State. The Council shall represent the best interests of its members in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the travel industry as a whole and shall, through exchange of information, educational campaigns and by other means endeavor to improve the services of-fered to the traveling public by the industry, and to expand and develop these facilities as may be needed to meet demand, and shall cooperate with established promotional and advertising groups such as motor clubs, travel agencies, chambers of commerce, the North Carolina Department of Conservation and De-velopment, etc. There shall be two classes of membership : Active and associate. Associate members shall be those companies, organizations or businesses operating pri-marily to serve the traveling public and any who may be so classified shall be eligible for membership. The principal financial support of the Council's ac-tivities shall be from the various dues paid by asso-ciate members, the amounts of such dues to be fixed by the directors, but associate members shall have no voting rights in the Council, nor shall they hold of-fice in the Council. Active members shall be elected by the Board of Directors and shall be limited to individuals who are officers or employees or other designated represen-tatives of a company or organization which is an associate member of the Council. At all general meetings of the Council each active member shall be entitled to one vote, and all officers and directors of the Council shall be active members. Dues for ac-tive members shall be $10.00 per year for each per-son. Three members of the 15-member board of direc-tors have already been named: Former Governor Broughton, representing the East ; Coleman Roberts, representing the West ; and Richard S. Tufts, repre-senting the Central section of the State. These three members have also been authorized to serve as a nominating committee to select the remaining mem-bers for presentation to the incorporators of the Council. Ex-Governor Broughton is preparing the necessary legal documents incident to obtaining a charter. Thus, North Carolina is on the way in a program to develop this potentially powerful industry for the benefit of all the people of the State. PAGE 1 00 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 Room clerk registers a new-comer. Long established as a travel state, North Carolina currently sees prospects of doubling its tourist trade in immediate years. The travel situation had remained somewhat static until 1936 when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was opened. Until then, the Blue Ridge country, headquartered at Asheville, had been the traditional summering place of a steadily grow-ing number of midwesterners, southerners, a few northerners. The new national park, embracing the little- known climax of the Appalachian system, quickly climbed m favor, and in 1941 was the most popular park m America, outstripping Shenandoah by a substantial margin. Returns from the tourist busi-ness rose from an estimated $35,000,000 in 1936 to an estimated $175,000,000 in 1941. Future trade prospects have been enhanced by the fact that Cape Hatteras National Seashore, authorized by Congress, is due for development within the next few years. At the same time, the Blue Ridge Parkway, America's first "highway park with many links already open, will be com-pleted within an estimated three years. Resumption of Paul Green s famous "Lost Colony" is expected to stimulate travel into northeastern North Carolina Other major state and federal-supported travel- enticmg projects have been approved. WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Western North Carolina already is a well-known playground, with varied resorts and a large summer children s camp industry. Substantial developments are planned for postwar years. The Park Service Memo on Tra By Bill Sh> has recently announced plans for new roads giving; more convenient access to the Great Smokies Park Additional camp and trailer grounds and lodge ac- commodations are contemplated. The TVA program has changed the face of many western North Carolina communities, where sky-blue lakes are filling mountain coves. While TVA itself plans no recreational developments, it is coop-erating with local, state and federal agencies to utilize advantages offered by the lakes. Recently, the Park Service acquired additional land for the Great Smokies so that new Fontana Dam will pro-vide a shoreline for part of the park, with oppor-tunities for lake fishing, bathing, boating in the heart of the Smokies. Towns and counties are ac-quiring park rights along TVA shorelines, with S-vT 5* dev f loPment- Through agreement IV with A, the Park Service plans a new highway from Fontana Dam to Bryson City, providing a new park entrance. A PARK 500 MILES LONG Most spectacular development in western North Carolina will be the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was started several years ago. With several stretches already muse, the completed parkway eventually will join Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain rarks. It is difficult to describe adequately this pleasure boulevarde to one who has not driven it Rights of way have been acquired on each side so that there are no disturbing commercial elements in S 7^° SlgnS ' hot dog stands> souvenir peddlers if or 500 miles one can ride over an easily graded, softly curved highway which soars with the ridges at an average altitude of 3,000 feet. Designed for pleasure and not for engineering utility, the Park- way bores through mountains, across great fills over valleys, winds miles away from "practical" routes to bring the traveller to breath-taking views. Along the route are bulges which will provide rest facilities —picnic areas, turn-outs, overlooks, and other con-veniences and pleasures. The National Park Service once estimated the Parkway would handle 3,000,000 tourists a year. North Carolina officials think postwar travel de- mands will up that figure by another million. The Parkway will take visitors through the upper Blue Ridge Country into the Grandfather region on past Mt. Mitchell, thence to Craggy Gardens, past Asheville into the Pisgah and westward, through boco Gap into Indian land, and so on to Clingman's Dome, highest peak in the Smokies. NATIONAL FORESTS A large part of Western North Carolina lies within the purchase and development areas of the National Forest Service. In both Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, recreational areas have been completed and are open. Especially in the Sapphire country, along Rt. 64, are camping, swim- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 101 North Carolina te News Bureau ming, fishing, picnicking areas, and more are due to be opened. Managed fishing and hunting are per-mitted on thousands of acres of these public lands. More vacation spots are being made accessible by a network of state park and forest roads, and places denied the wheeled visitor also have been opened up by a system of marked and graded trails. In the Smokies alone are 500 miles of these trails, forming a great outdoor communication system for the hiker or horseback rider. In Pisgah and Nantahala, the Forest Service has also developed a trail system which is used extensively. The Appalachian Trail, which is marked from Maine to Georgia, follows the highest ridges of North Carolina, with log lean-to shelters spotted a day's journey apart, with firewood, water and toilet, and other facilities nearby. Several dude ranches have been established to take ad-vantage of the outdoor areas. An active youth hostel loop is in operation. EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina beaches in the past largely have been patronized by upstate Tar Heels. In the last few years, however, sportsmen have discovered the good fishing grounds lying at the capes and off the banks, and the excellent waterfowl shooting at famed Mattamuskeet and Currituck, and elsewhere. A few years ago, the National Park Service, after a survey, selected the Banks of North Carolina as the site for the first National seashore park. The area would extend from Currituck bank to Ocracoke Inlet, and would comprise eventually some 100,000 acres, much of it on unspoiled beaches or sound fronts. The State of North Carolina has created a Sea-shore Commission to acquire the necessary land. In the area—one of the most romantic and iso-lated in this country—lies Kill Devil Hill, Fort Raleigh, Cape Hatteras, and other historic points. The Park would take in most of the Outer Banks — jutting 30 miles into the Atlantic, with Pamlico Sound on its back—and comprise one of the greatest sport fishing areas in America. Here loll the cop-pery channel bass, the flashy dolphin, the amber-jack, bonita, the fighting Hatteras blue, as well as a host of good panfish—mackerel, trout, flounder, sheepshead. The banks will soon get an "experimental" road from Oregon Inlet to Hatteras—forerunner, per-haps, of a hardsurface highway. Bridges across Alligator River and Croatan Sound, to make the park area more accessible, are contemplated by the State. But more than shorebirds, fishing and surf-bath-ing are contemplated. Paul Green's symphonic drama, "Lost Colony", presented at open air Water-side Theatre on Roanoke Island each summer until 1941, is to be revived. Former Governor Broughton heads a committee to raise $100,000 to rebuild the theatre. In the kitchen of Pinnacle Inn. Presented nightly from July 1 to Labor Day, "Lost Colony" is an outdoor spectacle performed in a unique theatre where scene shifting is done through use of lights and different stage levels. Over 150 persons are in the cast. From 1937 to 1941 the play attracted 400,000 spectators. Nearby is historic Kill Devil Hill, surmounted by the Wright Memorial. Now it is planned to bring the original Wright plane back to the site of its first flight and to house it in a suitable building, where it will be another attraction of the Seashore park. Also planned: a Coast Guard Museum; fishermen's cabins at the cape ; a bicycle trail. North Carolina is talking of more things for the traveller. Recently, the Department of Conserva-tion and Development accepted the offer of a generous woman who proposes to restore Tryon's Palace at New Bern, on Trent and Neuse Rivers. Only one wing of the original palace, once called "the most beautiful building in America," is now stand-ing, but the original plans have been discovered, and rebuilding of the royal governor's palace will com-mence as soon as possible. $300,000 already has been made available ; $500,000 or more eventually will be expended for the restoration which will be one of the show places of America. The state has appro-priated $100,000 to acquire adjacent land for the project. STATE PARKS Resumption of state park services, now largely curtailed, with expansion of facilities, and the addi-tion of other areas has been recommended. Cabins, to be rented for moderate fees, are to be erected at PAGE 1 02 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 J Waitress takes the luncheon order. : '': -K ', Caring for hotel grounds. This girl took on a man's job during the war. Chambermaid on duty at mountain resort. the parks and a lodge with cabins attached is Planned at Mt. Mitchell State Park, atop eastern America's highest peak. Cabins also are planned at Mt. Morrow and Hang- iB p^ At Pettigrew State Park, on Lake 16,000-acre Phelps m eastern Carolina, the Pettigrew plan-tation home has already been restored, and the 16- room mansion will be available to vacationists and sport fishermen who come to the lake for the fine iTn^t r? ^n§ - F°rt Macon ' on the banks opposite Beaufort, is now occupied as a military in-stallation but plans for its conversion into a State Beach will be resumed after the war. Cape Hat teras State Park, with its modern cabins for surf fishermen, will be incorporated in the National Sea- shore area. STATE LAKES North Carolina owns a chain of clear-water lakes m eastern Carolina, and some of these already are m use Smgletary Lake, a beautiful cypress-shaded body of water now is used for group camping, and has dining halls, cabins and shelters. Jones Lake nearby, has been set aside as a resort for Negroes' The government recently turned Crabtree Creek area over to the state, and the 80 cabins there are available the year around for vacationists. The legislature authorized the parks division to take over Cliffs of the Neuse, near Goldsboro, as a riverside and developed 6 " *** "^^^^* Mquired SANDHILLS The oldest winter resort country in North Caro- line—the gandhil! pine lands—have been partly occupied by the military, but all hotels now have been returned to private operation, and this winter golf capital of America, noted for its five so]f courses at Pinehurst and Southern Pines, and for its fox hunting, quail, and horse activities, are open in winter Full programs, including the many golf and tennis tournaments and the well-known steeplechase, will be resumed. HUNTING AND FISHING Anticipating an unprecedented crop of outdoor enthusiastics returning to normal civilian life, North Carolina is seriously concerned with the prob- lem of providing game. On federal-state wild-life management areas a large program of stocking of fish and game is being carried out. Deer are trapped m over-populated areas and released in other sec-tions. An attempt now is being made to return deer to the Piedmont area, where they long since had been shot out. Hatcheries are restocking streams On management areas, public bear, deer and boar hunts are held. An extensive game and fish propa-gation program is being blue-printed. STATE AID +>1 T !; e State of North Carolina is backing plans of the National Forest Service, the Park Service, TVA Sam Pn Tfc te dr?TY ? ln thG P0Stwar travel P™: grain, ine state highway department's large and growing surplus will be thrown into a large postwar FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 03 highway construction program. Roads will be widened, and new highways built to make attractive spots more accessible. A new two-way road, running from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the summit of Mt. Mitchell al-ready has been approved. A road now crosses Lake Mattamuskeet, and the banks will be brought within the range of new bus lines by bridges across Alli-gator River and Croatan Sound. A road is now being roughed out to Hatteras. Long ago, the state made all bridges toll-free, and also operates general toll-free ferries. The state's Advertising Division estimates that postwar travel in North Carolina will amount to nearly half a billion dollars a year, making the state among the leaders in travel volume. A subcommittee has been named to interest capital in building more resorts to meet the anticipated demands of a travel-hungry nation. The State Planning Board is coop-erating in the enterprise. HOTEL SERVICES Basic to the travel industry are the types of service rendered by hotel employees. The pictures which accompany this article were taken by Mr. Hemmer of the State News Bureau to illustrate such services. These show summer activities at Pinnacle iiiiiiii -': :';:-: . . ' ..: v. f; : v;v" Life-guard at Wildcat Lake. Inn, which is a unique resort in that during the winter months it is in reality Lees-McRae College. During the summer season the college buildings provide hotel accommodations, and the students render all the service operations as part of a self-help program. TIPS AS WAGES Up until March 6, 1945, the Commission had a great deal of trouble in trying to get reports from operators of hotels and restaurants and similar estab-lishments, upon the tips received by bellboys, wait-resses and other such employees. For the last few months before the 6th of March, and for the months between the 6th of March and the 1st of July, the traveling auditors examined a great many accounts. Sometime in the winter of 1945 a committee of hotel keepers and their attorney, Mr. J. C. B. Ehringhaus, appeared before the Commission in an effort to find some fair and equitable way to tax employers on tips received by their employees. The discussion was both pro and con, and the Commission finally determined that it was so diffi-cult to account for tips that it could not fairly tax the employers for tips received by employees, so the Commission passed the following regulation : Rule 2. Gratuities: (A) Any gratuities custo-marily received by an individual in the course of his work from persons other than his employing unit shall be treated as wages paid such individual and shall be added to any other remuneration paid to such individual by such employing unit for the pur-pose of preparing reports required by and in calcu-lating the contributions due the Unemployment Compensation Commission ; provided, such gratuities are reported by such individual to the employing unit on forms prescribed by the Commission and fur-nished to the individual by the employing unit, with-in three days after the end of the pay period in which received. (B) If the employing unit deems the amount of gratuities reported in accordance with Section (A) of this rule to be unreasonable or excessive, the em-ploying unit shall include such amount in his reports to the Commission under protest, and any protest so made shall be investigated and determined in such manner as the Commission may prescribe. (C) Neither this rule nor any regulation or in-struction issued pursuant thereto is to be construed as authorizing any employing unit to demand of any individual performing services for it a report or ac-counting of gratuities received, or to require such in-dividual to render such report or accounting. If any individual fails to report gratuities received as pro-vided in Section (A) of this rule, however, such gratuities shall not be considered as wages, except on a showing of good cause to the Commission within 45 days of the end of the applicable pay period for such failure to report such gratuities. This will permit the bellboys and waitresses and others receiving gratuities in the performance of their duties to make reports to their employers. The employers will then have to include such amounts in their quarterly wage reports to the Commission and will have to pay contributions upon these amounts. The employees receiving tips and gratui-ties will thus have these credits to their wage rec-ords and included in subsequent calculation as to the amount of weekly benefits to be paid them if unem-ployed. The Commission thought that this was the fairest way out of a very difficult situation. The hotel men, restaurant keepers and others employing people who receive tips or gratuities, agreed with the Commis-sion. This regulation went into effect July 1, 1945. C. U. HARRIS. PAGE 104 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 READJUSTMENT PROBLEMS From now on, thousands of workers in North Carolina, and millions throughout the country, will be changing jobs. Skills learned in wartime may be of little use to them in the peacetime economy. Jobs may develop in places far from the cities or town where they now live. They may work shorter hours, and their take-home pay may be less. Unemployment compensation will help many of them to bridge the gap between jobs. But unem-ployment compensation is not a subsidy for idleness. It can be paid only to workers who are seeking jobs they cannot find. Our law in North Carolina, like those of other states, has safeguards to prevent payment of bene-fits to people who do not want to work or who are unable to work. But in the present situation, ad-ministrators are faced with many questions in de-termining whether an individual is eligible for benefits. Refusing suitable work, being unavailable for work or unable to work, and quitting a job volun-tarily, are the three principal reasons for disquali-fying a worker. Following are some of the basic questions of policy that will have to be decided : 1. What is suitable work? Should "suitability" be determined as a job for which a person is qualified by recent experience, or should it be related to a worker's pre-war job or should both recent and earlier experience be considered in the light of what jobs are available? Examples : A mechanic who earned $1.80 an hour during the war is offered a job at 65 cents an hour. If he re-fuses it, should he be denied unemployment in-surance benefits? A drug store clerk has become a skilled machine operator in a war plant and his wages have amounted to about $80 a week. After he is laid off, he is offered a job as a clerk at $20 a week. If he refuses it, should he be disqualified for unemploy-ment insurance benefits, or should he be given time to look around for a job in his line at higher pay? Many women took industrial jobs during the war. Some of them will want to return to homemaking, but some will want to continue to work. If they are laid off, what sort of work should be considered "suitable" for them? Should they be required to take housework or other work at much lower pay if factory jobs cannot be found? If jobs at high pay are not available, how much time will unemployed persons be given to appraise the situation before being offered whatever work is available, or denied benefits? 2. When is a worker able to work and available for work? Must he be able to take any job regard-less of its physical requirements? Must he be avail-able for work on any shift, regardless of home con-ditions? How far from home must the worker be willing to go, to be considered available for work? Examples: A 58-year-old man is laid off his war job. The only work to be had involves heavy lifting. Should he be disqualified for unemployment insurance bene-fits because he is unable to take the job, because he cannot do heavy lifting? A woman is laid off from a plant in her home town. The only work to be had is 35 miles away, in another town. She cannot adjust her household schedule to include the 3-hour travel time involved in taking such a job. Should she be considered un-available for work and denied benefits? 3. Should a worker be disqualified if he quits his job voluntarily for good personal cause? In North Carolina, if a worker quits his employment for a reason not connected with the work or the employer, he forfeits benefit payments for from 4 to 12 weeks. Example: A widow quits her job to take care of a sick child at home. When the child is well and going back to school, should she be denied her unemployment in-surance benefits while looking for another job? Suitable Work In the Post-War Period By Irene M. Zaccaro, Referee for Unemployment Compensation Board of Maryland The question of what is suitable work can be ap-proached from more than one viewpoint—that of the claimant, the employer, the labor union, the un-employment compensation board or commission and perhaps the employment service. Our specific prob-lem, as unemployment compensation personnel, is to coordinate these often conflicting views in an at-tempt to obtain the perfect answer—that attainment is well nigh impossible. Specifically we are confronted with the opinion of the claimant in contrast to, what we hope is, our impartial opinion. The claimant has a keen personal *The substance of this article was delivered as a paper at a Regional Meeting of the Interstate Conference of Em-ployment Security Agencies held in Richmond, Va., July, 1945. interest in what is suitable work for him and he is not interested in definitions of suitable work. If he does not think a job is suitable he has many reasons why and frequently his reasons have little relation to the suitability of work as we consider it. The un-employment compensation law gives us a definition of suitable work or rather an outline to follow in determining suitable work. An examination of the laws of the states (North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland) in this Region, including the District of Columbia, shows a similarity in this regard, so that in follow-ing the Maryland Law practical application is being made of the laws of these other states. To interpret these provisions of the unemploy-ment compensation laws equitably and to the under- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 05 standing and satisfaction of the claimant, in this post-war period, requires the wisdom of Solomon and the courage of Daniel. WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK Work is considered unsuitable for a claimant "if the wages, hours, or other conditions of the work offered are substantially less favorable to the in-dividual than those prevailing for similar work in the locality." (Maryland Law, Sec. 5(c) (2).) WAGES What will be the basis for comparison in order to determine suitable wages for particular types of work in the post-war period; will it be the pre-war period beginning with the effectiveness of the un-employment compensation laws to the middle of 1940 when the defense program began; or the period of intensive war work ; or the post-war period ? Will a comparison of the pre-war wage scale and the wage scale during the war assist in reaching an average wage, which will represent the post-war wage scale ? Or, will it be an average wage derived from a comparison of the pre-war wages and the wages offered after the war? Or, will the war time wage be the basis for determining a reasonable wage in the present post-war period. One view is that the last wages received by the individual (in war work) will not be a fair basis for reaching a wage rate in the future because of the abnormally high average weekly earnings, but that from an analysis of the wages offered for particular types of work after the war an average rate can be determined. Another, and this is the view I incline to, is that the war work rates, because of restrictions imposed by the Federal Government, did not represent a sub-stantial increase, if any, in rates and should be the basis for any reasonably fair determination of the post-war wage rates. Actually, the high wages paid to war workers were not due in the main to an increase of hourly or piece work rates, but to the long hours which resulted in time and a half and double time for over-time work, plus a bonus for work on the night shifts. There has been a substantial decrease in the pay envelope because of reduced working hours (and for thousands of workers there is not even any longer a pay envelope) , but in considering a wage rate it is the rate per hour for straight time, or on the weekly basis of wages for a 40-hour week. HOURS Hours of work during the war were long and changing; all war industries exceeded 40 hours a week ; there were three shifts in most plants ; work-ers in many instances had to take their turn on all three shifts. We remember the objections raised by claimants against six and seven days a week work; against shift work. Then came the complaint, as hours of work were reduced, that unless they have overtime work their earnings would be reduced ; applicants be-gan objecting to work which did not present the op-portunity for overtime. The demand for overtime cannot be considered as legitimate reason for refusing employment, when there is not the need for overtime; generally, there will be very little overtime, if any at all. The con-sensus of opinion, so far as I have been able to gather, is that normal hours of work will be 40 hours a week. The out-of-state claimant who quit employ-ment when hours were reduced, with the consequent decrease in earnings, placed himself in the position where the suitability of work for him must be judged from the circumstances surrounding work which might exist in his home community. A demand by a claimant for shift work, with the bonus for night work, will be unreasonable when, probably, there is no occasion for more than one shift in most industries. There will be some shift work in isolated plants, and if an individual can be placed therein so much the better, otherwise day work is suitable work. The tendency back to day work for women should not be disqualifying, unless it is the custom and practice of the industry to which she applies to operate on two or more shifts. During the conversion period there will be a con-siderable reduction in hours of work, as one of the results of conversion might be the spreading of hours of work so as to provide employment for dis-charged war workers and returning veterans. Peace time production may, however, provide not only regular full-time employment, but a great deal of overtime. If there is a tendency to overtime work, a refusal of employment requiring overtime will be unreasonable. An exception is noted in regard to women workers, where family and household respon-sibilities again can be given more consideration. During the war period family and household duties, except where very young children were involved, were not considered as good cause for refusing other-wise suitable work, but now the swing is back to a more liberal attitude in this connection. However, it is probable that many women will return to their homes or change over to employment other than in-dustrial, but where the worker holds out for a type of work (which there is little likelihood of obtaining) which requires overtime or shift work meanwhile ob-jecting to either, her objection would be without good cause. CONDITIONS OF WORK The subject of conditions of work will be treated generally, since it is impossible to go into each ques-tion which might arise. There was a general im-provement in working conditions during the war, al-though Labor says some of its privileges were re-laxed so as not to hinder the war effort. Whether Management will drop all or some of these improve-ments time will tell. No doubt Labor will try and re-gain the privileges it suspended or gave up during the war, as well as struggle to retain the gains made. However, when we consider the question of work-ing conditions, I believe the manner in which we handled it in these past years will be as safe a means PAGE 1 06 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 as any. Comparing the conditions the claimant ob-jects to with similar conditions in the industry; here, as formerly, it will be the obligation of the claimant to prove to the satisfaction of the unemployment compensation agency that the condition or conditions complained of are bad, whether he refers to safety, sanitation, lighting, location, etc., or whether he does not like the shape of the foreman's nose. If the ob-jection is that the machine he must operate has a left foot pedal rather than a right foot pedal, then the claimant ought to start using his left foot (unless he has only a right foot). PROSPECT OF GETTING LOCAL WORK VERSUS OUT-OF-TOWN WORK Several questions raise their heads here ; the work-er whose work had been entirely in the area where he lives; the worker who never has had industrial employment in his home area ; the worker who had a low paying job in his home locality and removed tem-porarily to a place where there was industrial em-ployment ; and the worker who always has travelled from place to place in the practice of his trade. The worker who never has had industrial em-ployment or regular employment of any kind, ex-cluding odd jobs, in his home locality, who returns home after employment elsewhere has terminated and who refuses to leave his home for suitable work in another area removes himself from the labor mar-ket and is unavailable for work. He never had work in his home area and the likelihood is that he never will have work there; if unemployment compensa-tion benefits were a reward for past employment, then he would be paid; but unemployment com-pensation benefits are for persons unemployed through no fault of .their own. The continued unem-ployment of such an individual would be due to his voluntary act in refusing to go to a place where there is work. It is not unreasonable to offer that person work which may require him to leave his home locality, if the other conditions of suitability are met in the work offered to him. It would be unreasonable to offer work out-of-town to an individual who has lived and worked in one place if there is prospect of work for him in his locality. If his type of work leaves the town or city, he will not be expected to follow it immediately ; he ought to be permitted a period of time (which will vary with the circumstances of each case) in which to find other suitable work. Then either he ought to change his work requirement or accept out-of-town employment. He cannot demand benefits if he refuses to change to other employment locally, while insisting that he remain fixed in his residence. The applicant who had a low paying job in his home locality before the war and returned home, after having had employment in war work elsewhere, must be available for work similar to that which he had before the war or work which is to be had in his locality at the wages, hours and under the cir-cumstances prevailing for that work, or he must be willing to accept employment out-of-town. To re-fuse local work because his last employment in war work away from home was of a different kind, with higher earnings, etc., while preferring to remain at home where work within his immediate prior expe-rience is not available would disqualify the claimant. If he is willing to accept work locally and the work exists, although there may not be any immediate openings, the claimant would be eligible for benefits. Where it has been and is the custom of the trade for a worker to travel from place to place, in the performance of his work, a refusal of work because it is out-of-town would be sufficient to disqualify the claimant. IMMEDIATE PRIOR EARNINGS IN WAR INDUSTRY VERSUS NORMAL PEACE-TIME INDUSTRY EARNINGS What are "normal peace-time industry earnings?" This will be an important and recurring question in the years just ahead. My opinion is that we do not have any criterion to follow. In the years preceding the war we were not so much in "normal peace-time" as in the tail end of a depression period with govern-ment- created jobs and a somewhat artificial wage structure. In the discussion under "Wages" the opinion was expressed that the war industry wages would be the best gauge for ascertaining industry earnings in this period of post-war conversion. There will be necessary adjustments in wage rates, and a gradual development of peace-time wage rates in in-dustry. Our tendency should be, where a wage rate for comparable work drops considerably below the war-time rate, to make comparison with the rate prior to the war, at the same time remembering the increased living costs and increased income taxes still confronting the worker. Many workers will have to return to work which does not pay and did not pay them the earnings they had in war industry. A demand for earnings in the former work equal to their war earnings is not justified. Even those workers who remain in work similar to that which they had in war industry, per-haps for the same employer, may complain that their earnings have been reduced, not in the rate, but in reduction of hours or smaller volume of work (piece work) ; such complaint if offered as reason for quit-ting or refusing any offer of otherwise suitable work is without merit. The working hours in war time have been abnormal; the volume of work also was abnormal. The ratings held by many workers were abnormal in that persons of limited qualifications had been in either supervisory capacities or in jobs that in normal times would be considered beyond their skill and experience. With a return to peace-time standards, the worker should adjust himself accordingly; any contrary demand might be cause for disqualification. Considered from the standpoint of wage scale, there will not be much difference between the war time and the post-war wage. There will be a dif-ference, often quite substantial, due primarily to the decrease in working hours, which neither the em-ployer nor the applicant can control, and the worker should conform to existing circumstances. The problem of providing jobs in substantial volume dur-ing this period will depend, to some extent, upon whether one worker will be employed long hours so he can maintain a high earnings level, or whether FALL. 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 107 more than one worker will have a job for a normal work week. The demands of the claimant will be considered in the light of the policies and practices which develop in industry after the war, and their reasonableness determined. REQUIREMENT AS TO JOINING UNION This question must be approached from two angles—whether the claimant is to retain his free-dom of choice regarding union membership, or whether he should accept (involuntarily) the benefits of union membership in order to obtain employment. The unemployment compensation laws are silent on this point, so that by inference and interpretation it can be held that refusal to accept work because union membership is required constitutes a refusal of suitable work. There has always been some doubt whether the unemployment compensation laws are not discriminatory in this matter. If an applicant cannot be required to "resign from or refrain from joining any bona fide labor organization," then why should he be disqualified for failure to accept work which would require him to join a bona fide labor organization ? If a claimant does not want to belong to a union, he may have many good or even foolish reasons for his attitude, depending upon the other person's point of view, but he ought to have the privilege of making a free choice without the shadow of a possible dis-qualification hanging over him. PRIOR TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE This is a problem which will come up with fre-quency in the era of peace ahead. The individual who was in an industry before the war may not be difficult to handle ; there will be some place for him in that industry when it reconverts, and a short period of time may be the only element involved. The persons who went from school or work far re-moved from industrial employment into war work will be faced, many of them, with the question of re-adjustment. This applies, too, to many who were not employed at all prior to the war. The first effort should be to try and refer the claimant to the same type of work he was doing ; sec-ondly, refer him to related work ; thirdly, divert his abilities into work where he can be readily trained ; and finally, if the training and experience gained in a war industry cannot be utilized in peace-time, then the applicant must be diverted into new work or to work performed prior to the war. This will be a matter of education, and a real job is here for the em-ployment service. From the standpoint of suitable work, however, the claimant should be permitted a reasonable length of time, during which he is receiving benefits, within which to obtain work in line with his training and experience. The period of unemployment will vary with the circumstances of each case, but after that time it will be up to the claimant to cooperate by go-ing into new and related work. A claimant cannot hold out indefinitely for work which may have ceased entirely or where the pros-pects of obtaining such work are remote. An offer of work is suitable if the claimant's training and ex-perience can be utilized and the employer is willing to afford him the necessary training. Offering a claimant work in line with his pre-war experience would be an offer of suitable work, if the chances of employment in work similar to "his war work experience are meagre. NATURE OF DISQUALIFICATION There is no definite yard stick for the measure-ment of disqualifications. The possibility does exist that in the post-war period an individual's failure to accept, what under the circumstances of his case would be, suitable work will necessitate a determina-tion of unavailability ; however, such a determination will be based on all facts surrounding him and not merely because the claimant refused employment. Where an individual persists in refusing to accept suitable work the maximum disqualification in num-ber of weeks will be warranted, perhaps on more than one occasion. If during what is considered a reasonable period of unemployment an individual refuses work, which might subsequently be considered suitable because his chances of securing other work have decreased, then there should not be any disqualification. Later on, beginning with a moderate penalty, a disqualifi-cation would be necessitated. Those individuals who because of lack of work in an industrial area return to their former homes, where employment opportunities do not exist, will be eligible for benefits so long as suitable work (again the circumstances of each case will be controlling) is not available or offered to them. Disqualifications will follow failures to apply for or accept work offered. RESEARCH REPORT America has a good chance of getting through the present reconversion period without mass unemploy-ment or severe business dislocation, according to sub-stantial opinion among the country's leading econo-mists who are participating in a symposium on "Financing American Prosperity." The Twentieth Century Fund, an institute for scientific research in current economic problems be-lieves that "the great majority of war workers" were doing exactly the kind of work during the war they will do in time of peace. The average amount of un-employment during the first year after the war with Japan will be around 4.5 million. Only about five million war workers were em-ployed in plants which will make large permanent lay-offs and approximately 10 per cent of war work-ers were in plants where engineering problems of conversion will halt production as long as 4 months. To safeguard the country against deflation, the government should facilitate a quick shift from war production to civilian production, reform the tax system, extend and liberalize unemployment com-pensation schemes, and plan prompt expenditures on the repair and maintenance of public property. To guard against a disorderly rise in prices, the govern-ment should retain price controls and the regulation of consumer credit throughout the period of conver-sation and probably for a year or two longer. PAGE 1 08 THE U. C C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 The Law in Action By Bruce Billings, Sen During the three months period ending August 31, 1945, the Commission handed down decisions in ten cases involving benefit rights of claimants. In six of these cases, the question of the availability of the individuals for work under the Unemployment Compensation Law was presented. In two of these cases, the claimants voluntarily separated from their employment and had been denied statements of availability by the War Manpower Commission for a period of sixty days. The Commission held such individuals to be ineligible during the period for which they were denied statements of availability under Commission Statement of Policy Number 9 which at that time provided, "That any claimant who as a prerequisite to employment is required to possess a statement of availability or its equivalent under the rules and regulations of the War Man-power Commission shall not be considered available for work within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Law during any period with respect to which he does not possess or is unable to procure such statement or its equivalent * * *" It is well to note in this connection that this statement of policy is now obsolete and ineffective since the recent lifting of the manpower restrictions. In two cases it was found that the claimants had so restricted the conditions under which they would accept employment that the possibility and prospect of such individals securing employment was practi-cally eliminated, and it was therefore determined that such individuals were not available for work within the meaning of the law. In one of these instances, the claimant refused to accept any work except with her last employer on the first shift and in one particular department in which she formerly worked. The claimant in the other case referred to had been unemployed for thirteen months and had never earned more than $18.00 a week in employ-ment, but made it a condition that she receive at least $35.00 per week in any work offered her. In view of the length of claimant's unemployment and her previous earnings, it was held that she was not available for work. It was decided, however, in an-other case that a claimant who was the mother of two small children had not unreasonably restricted her availability when she was willing to accept any suitable work on the first shift and had made ar-rangements for the care of her children during the working hours of the first shift. In the only other instance involving availability it was determined that the mother of a small child who could not make ar-rangements for the care of the child in case she was offered suitable work and for that reason could not accept suitable work, did not meet the eligibility re-quirement of availability. In the only case involving a procedural question, the Commission upheld the decision of the Appeals Deputy dismissing the claimant's appeal when such appeal was not entered within the time required by statute and when the claimant could not show any good reasons for not noting the appeal within the time required by statute. ior Attorney, U. C. C. When a claimant was offered work as a sander at 50c an hour, and it appeared that such individual had recently undergone an operation and was un-able to perform work of such arduous nature, and when it further appeared that such person had good reason to believe that he would secure work of less arduous nature within a short time at a rate of 85c an hour, it was held that he did not refuse available suitable work without good cause and no disqualifi-cation was inflicted. In a case in which the claimants—employees of a full fashion hosiery mill were unemployed due to a labor dispute between the knitters in the plant and the management, the Commission determined that all such claimants-employees were ineligible for bene-fits for the reason that the work performed by all such individuals was of the same general type and that their jobs were part of a chain of production and that the operation of one group depended upon the continuance of the work of the others. The Commis-sion found that the relationship existing between the jobs of the claimants-employees and the jobs of those who voluntarily quit work placed the claimants and those workers in the same class of workers, and that such individuals were therefore ineligible for benefits under Section 96-14 (d) (2) of the Law which pro-vides that any individual shall be disqualified for benefits for any week with respect to which it is found that his unemployment is due to a stoppage of work which exists because of a labor dispute at the factory at which he is or was last employed un-less such individual shows to the satisfaction of the Commission that he does not' belong to a grade or class of workers of which immediately before the commencement of the stoppage there were members employed at the premises at which the stoppage oc-curred any of whom are participating in or financing or directly interested in the dispute. The Commission handed down opinions in ten cases involving interpretations of the coverage sec-tion of the law. In eight of these cases the employ-ing units were held to be liable under the statute for contributions on wages earned by employees. Three of the cases involved the question as to whether the employer had worked eight or more individuals in twenty different weeks in a calendar year. In two cases liability was found to exist and in one case the Commission found there was no liability. There were three cases decided which involved interpretation of what was formerly the contractors clause in the law. (Amended 3-13-45). In two of these cases the em-ployer was found to be liable for contributions on the earnings paid to employees of a contractor who was performing services for such employer in the course of the employer's usual business and in the other case of this kind the Commission found no liability for the reason that the services being performed by the contractor were not in the principal's usual trade or business. One employer was liable under the law by virtue of having acquired substantially all the assets, organization, and business of an employer who at the time of such acquisition was a covered employer under the Act. In another opinion, the FALL, 1945 THE U. C C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 09 Commission determined and held that gratuities and tips were taxable wages under the Law. In one instance, it was decided that solicitors for a laundry who owned their own trucks and who were paid on a percentage basis according to the amount of laun-dry brought in by them were performing services in employment under the Act. In interpreting the sec-tion of the law relative to termination of coverage it was determined that when an individual once be-comes an employer under the act and subsequently sells his business to another and then later reenters business, that such individual continues to be a cov-ered employer if he has never applied for and been granted termination of coverage as provided under the law. In defining what is agricultural labor under the statute, it was determined that where an indi-vidual bought hogs and livestock and maintained a place where he fed them until they were in a mar-ketable condition, and then sold them to various packing companies, when such activity was not con-nected with a farm and no grain or other feed was grown by the individual to feed such livestock it was concluded that the persons in the employ of such in-dividual who performed services in the furtherance of this business were not engaged in agricultural labor but were engaged in a commercial enterprise and therefore, wages earned by such individuals were taxable under the law. Unemployment Benefits-Picture Story from Claim to Check By S. F. Teague, Chief Claims Deputy Mr. S. F. Teague at his desk in the Central Raleigh Office. As head of the Commission's Claims Department all claims operations and business relating to claimants is under his supervision. (Photo by R. C. Yates, Jr.) Unemployment compensation is filling the gap be-tween war jobs and peace jobs on an increasing scale. The unemployment compensation program is espe-cially suited to play this major role during industrial reconversion—it is designed to provide a partial in-come for covered workers during periods of tem-porary unemployment. For many workers, the filing of a claim for un-employment benefits is a new experience. Their knowledge of the procedure for filing, at the best, is of a general nature only; they know little of how a claim is taken and processed by the Commission and the benefit checks finally mailed. This illustrated article is intended to aid public un-derstanding of the procedure followed in handling unemployment benefits, from the time a claimant ap-plies at a local employment office until he receives his check for weeks of no work. First Step. When a worker is unemployed and un-able to find another job, he should go to the nearest Employment Service Office. The Unemployment Compensation Commission of North Carolina has claims-takers located in all these offices throughout the state. A basic test as to whether or not a particular work-er is unemployed—is whether or not he is seeking work which he cannot find. Under the Unemploy-ment Compensation Law, registering for work at a public employment office constitutes evidence that the worker is seeking work. A requirement for eligibility to unemployment compensation is that the claimant be able to work and available for work. Consequently the first step for any worker who loses his job is to register for work at an Employ-ment Service Office. If the Employment Service has a job order for which the worker is reasonably fitted, he will be referred to the new employer. Second Step. While he is making his first call at the Employment Service Office, the unemployed worker also files his claim for unemployment insur-ance benefits. He should be sure to do this, before he leaves the office, so that the process of looking up First step—register for work. Registration for work comes first in the unemployment claims procedure. At the registra-tion desk, an applicant's work history is taken, and if there is a job order on file which his work background indicates he can fill, he is given a referral to that employer. Pictured here is the reception of an applicant in one of the local Employment Offices. PAGE 1 1 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 his wage record account and determining the amount of his weekly benefit check may be started. It may be several weeks before he actually begins on a new job. If he delays in filing a claim, he may lose out on benefits that would otherwise be due him. Time lost in filing a claim for insurance, is not compen-sable. The date on which a first claim is filed, is the date from which insurance payments are figured. There is a one week "waiting period," and benefits begin with a subsequent continued claim covering the second full week of unemployment. Filing a claim means that the worker is inter-viewed by a claims-taker for the Unemployment Compensation Commission, and asked, among other things, to give his name, address, Social Security number, name of most recent employer, and cause for unemployment, the amount of his earnings for the week for which he is filing, and if he is able and available for work. This information is entered on an initial claim which serves as an application to determine benefit rights. The claim is s
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Title | U.C.C. quarterly |
Date | 1945 |
Publisher | Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Unemployment Compensation Commission,1942-1946. |
Rights | State Document see http://digital.ncdcr.gov/u?/p249901coll22,63754 |
Language | English |
Digital Characteristics-A | 36 p.; 5.59 MB |
Digital Collection | North Carolina Digital State Documents Collection |
Digital Format | application/pdf |
Title Replaced By | E.S.C. quarterly** |
Audience | All |
Pres File Name-M | pubs_serial_uccquarterly19421946.pdf |
Pres Local File Path-M | Preservation_content\StatePubs\pubs_serial_escquarterly |
Full Text | THE U.C. C.QUARTERLY VOLUME 3. NO. 4 FALL 1945 cry "«« ••«£» SMfliJ^Ww — *C^,« iTj *~ iMORYifflS^' fWff FROM TY LIBRARY Serving Travelers on Vacation or Business—An Important State Industry PUBLISHED BY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA PAGE 86 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 The U. C. C. Quarterly Volume 3 ; Number 4 Fall, 1945 Issued four limes a year al Haleigh, N. C, by the UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION OF NORTH CAROLINA Commissioners : Mrs. W. T. Bost, Raleigh; Judge C. E. Cowan, Morganton; C. A. Fink, Spencer; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; R. Grady Rankin, Charlotte; Dr. Harry D. Wolf, Chapel Hill. State Advisory Council: Capus Waynick, High Point, Chair-man; Willard Dowell, Raleigh; Marion W. Heiss, Greens-boro; H. L. Kiser, Charlotte; Dr. Thurman D. Kitchin, Wake Forest; Robert F. Phillips, Asheville; Mrs. R. J. Reynolds, Winston-Salem; Mrs. Emil Rosenthal, Goldsboro; W. Cedric Stallings, Charlotte A. L. FLETCHER Chairman R. FULLER MARTIN Director MRS. FRANCES T. HILL Editor Cover illustrations represent typical North Carolina industries under the unemployment compensation program. Cover for Fall. 1945—Serving Travelers on Vacation or Busi-ness —An Important State Industry. Illustration prepared by Hemmer, N. C. State News Bureau. Such figures as are available show that the travel industry is of the greatest economic importance to North Carolina. It provides em-ployment for thousands of persons and contributes millions of dollars to the income of the state, both directly and in-directly. In the years immediately preceding the war, the travel industry had shown a phenomenal growth in North Carolina. Prospects for its development in future years indicate much greater expansion. This issue of the Quarterly includes articles pointing out the economic possibilities of travel, considered as an industry, and the allied business of hotel services. Sent free and upon request to responsible individuals, agencies, organizations and libraries. Address: V. C. C. Informational Service. Raleigh. N. C. All material published in the U. C. C. Quarterly may be re-printed without special permission. CONTENTS Common Sense Regarding Unemployment 86 Facts, Figures, and Policies 87 Purchasing Power and Unemployment 87 Unemployment Compensation By The States ._ 89 Veterans Create An Airline, By E. Carl Sink 90 Vocational Training For World War Veterans, By J. Warren Smith ____ Ti_„l. 91 The Dogwood For Luck :z __.. 94 A Banker Appraises The South, By Robert M. Hanes _____,,__„_,.___, 95 U. C. C. Chief Looks To "North Carolina's Future '. 97 The Travel Industry __.:_.: .. 98 Tourism Is Big Business, By Felix A. Grisette 99 Memo On Travel In North Carolina, By Bill Sharpe 100 Tips As Wages 103 Suitable Work In The Post-war Period, By Irene M. Zaccaro 104 The Law In Action, By Bruce Billings 108 Unemployment Benefits, By S. F. Teague 109 Notes On U. C. C. Operations 112 Keeping Up With Industrial Expansion And Contraction 115 Honor Roll For Industry 119 THE LAW IN ACTION With this issue of the Quarterly, we introduce a new feature, to be carried regularly in future issues. This is a section, under the heading of THE LAW IN ACTION, in which our Senior Attorney, Mr. Bruce Billings, discusses cases which have come be-fore the Commission for decision and how various aspects of the Unemployment Compensation Law apply to them. His analysis shows the manner in which the Commission's administrative practices and policies work when particular sets of facts are presented for consideration. Mr. Billings is a grad-uate of the Duke University Law School. He has been with the Unemployment Compensation Com-mission since December 1937, and became Senior Attorney in November 1944. Editors note. COMMON SENSE REGARDING UNEMPLOYMENT Plenty of common sense will be needed by both management and labor during this reconversion period from war to peacetime work. We have already had many problem cases where war workers have lost highly paid jobs and have sought job insurance when they could not find em-ployment that used their highest skill at wages re-ceived in war work. During the period of readjust-ment when living costs are still high, employers should pay as high wages as are reasonably possible under the conditions they must meet. Full employ-ment cannot be maintained unless there is also full purchasing power. All elements lose when national purchasing power is reduced by lower earnings of the workers. On the other hand, there probably will not be enough high-wage jobs, at least immediately, to go around for all who have learned new and special skills in war work. It now appears that the recon-version is to be less drastic in North Carolina than it may be elsewhere in the country, because of the character of our major industries. However, there will be many readjustments, and we expect many workers to file claims for unemployment insurance during the readjustment period before they become re-employed. Most workers should accept the best jobs that are available at the wage rates prevailing in their communities. This will mean that some will necessarily have to return to former occupa-tions, even though their pay is less than earned in war work. It will be far better for most displaced workers to accept reasonable wage offers rather than to depend on the temporary job insurance provided by our law. The highest weekly benefit is $20 a week—available to workers who have earned $2,080.00 or more in their base-period year. Our average payment for total unemployment is now around $12.00 a week. Almost any productive job should pay a good worker better wages than he would be eligible to draw in benefits. The N. C. law requires a worker to be able and available for work, in order to be eligible for unem- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 87 ployment compensation. A refusal of an offer of suitable work will disqualify a claimant. Each case considered by the Commission on its individual merits and with due regard to job opportunities and to wage rates that prevail in the particular com-munity. In many cases, however, it will be neces-sary to consider a job offer as suitable work even though the wages are less than the individual has earned during the war years and even though the offered work requires less skill than was required in his former job. FACTS. FIGURES. AND POLICIES After two months of reconversion, questions arose throughout the state as to the large number of un-filled jobs and whether or not too many released war workers might not be drawing unemployment bene-fits— preferring loiter to labor. An analysis of the situation at the end of Septem-ber revealed a very different picture. Although some 16,000 war workers had been reported laid off in North Carolina, less than 30 percent of them were claiming unemployment checks. Presumably the great majority had found re-employment quickly. The Commission was then paying benefits to 7,010 unemployed workers, of whom 1,221 became unemployed before the end of the war. Most of these people were skilled workers, and four out of five of them were women. Meanwhile, the employment offices located throughout the state were listing a total of 40,500 job openings. Hence the questions. The Unemployment Compensation Commission pays benefits to covered workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. To be eligible for benefits, a worker must register for work at an em-ployment office and must be able, available and will-ing to work. He is not eligible for benefits if he refuses to accept suitable work. If he quits work voluntarily, without good cause attributable to the employer, or if he is discharged for misconduct connected with his work, or if he re-fuses to accept suitable work, the worker is disquali-fied for benefits for periods ranging from a minimum of four to a maximum of twelve weeks and his earned benefit amount is reduced accordingly. The Unemployment Compensation Commission of North Carolina believes that the North Carolina worker, who has worked in war plants in the state and out, and who has acquired skills that he did not have two or three years ago, ought to be given a reasonable time within which to find a job calling for that skill, or to have the Employment Service find such a job for him. During this time our Commission thinks that he should draw benefits as provided by law. If it turns out that no such work is available and if the worker refuses to accept "suitable work", then benefits should cease. Everything hinges on what consti-tutes "suitable work". Obviously, work suitable for one person may not be suitable for another. There were 7,010 people drawing compensation benefits in North Carolina, and scattered over the 100 counties of the state according to U. S. Employment Service figures, were 40,500 jobs—60 percent of these for common labor. Of the claimants, 5,475 were women. How many, even of the less than 2,000 men, should be required to accept pick and shovel jobs? The issue of suitable work varies from claimant to claimant and every claimant's case must be decided on its own merits. There is one sure thing about North Carolina's unemployment compensation which claimants are quick to discover : None is going to get rich on the benefits. In no case can a benefit exceed $20 a week. That is the maximum and goes to a person with earned credits of $2,080 or more in his benefit year and who has been earning $40 or more per week. North Carolina's schedule of payments provided for benefits of approximately 50 percent of a worker's weekly earnings. The duration of pay-ments is up to sixteen weeks, or up to sixteen times a benefit amount within a year, should the claimant remain totally or partially unemployed. The only exception to this applies to a veteran, who may be entitled to draw checks for twenty weeks, or up to twenty times his benefit amount, within a given year. In so far as the policy of the Agency is concerned, it has undertaken to guard jealously the safety of the fund against the unscrupulous attempt of any who might prefer loiter to labor. To this end it goes further than practically any other state by main-taining in the field competent claims deputies with judicial qualifications, competent to pass upon any legal aspect which might affect the rights of the claimant or the safety of the "fund from fraud". A. L. F. PURCHASING POWER AND UNEMPLOYMENT An increase in wages, aimed at an expansion of purchasing power, is a fallacious policy to the extent that such increase results in higher price levels and increased living costs. Everyone will agree that to have a high level of employment there must be a high level of produc-tion; and that a high level of production calls for a high level of purchasing power, which in turn means relatively high, but of greater importance relatively uniform, wage levels. That this uniformity is of prime importance can be illustrated by a simple hypothesis. Assume a working force of 48 million with wages which are fairly adjusted to production and living costs. One-fourth of these workers, engaged in producing con-sumer goods, are able, through their bargaining power to obtain wage increases which raise total wage payments by 50 percent. Since wages were originally adjusted to produc-tion costs this increase in wages must be reflected in increased prices of consumer goods, so that the 25 percent of the workers whose wages were increased are able to buy no more with higher wages, than be-fore the increase, while the other 75 percent can buy much loss. Thus, the economic balance is immedi-ately upset. Total consumer demand does not rise PAGE 88 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 in proportion to the theoretical increase in purchas-ing power. In volume, it is less because of the de-creased purchasing power of 75 percent of the workers. Production is reduced, unemployment fol-lows, and increases in proportion to the disparity in wages. The single instance in which the income of only one segment of the labor force can be raised without disturbing the economic equilibrium is in the case of farm products consumed in their raw state. When farmers receive good prices for their products the burden of the increase falls equally on all in propor-tion to their consumption needs, without increasing manufacturing costs and without regard to a high or low wage level. At the same time it increases the purchasing power of the large agricultural popu-lation for manufactured goods, the increased pro-duction of which means increased employment in industry, trade and transportation. One important group of economists holds that there is a wage level—a low level—at which all labor could be employed, and they contend that high wages are responsible for unemployment, in that unemploy-ment results from lack of capital, which in turn is due to the presence of too high wage rates. This is known as the capital scarcity theory, and apparently is based on the assumption that low wages make for more profits, and consequently more capital which (they assume) will be invested in increased produc-tion. The fallacy of this theory lies in the demonstrated fact that low wages and greater profits lead to in-creased dividends, and often, instead of reducing ad-ministrative and executive salaries to correspond with reduced wage levels, it is more apt to result in an increase of the take-off by both administrators and executives. In this case the purchasing power of the masses is reduced without a corresponding reduction in price levels. Even if it should make for increased output, it provides the opportunity for monopolistic production, which leads to adminis-tered rather than to wholly competitive prices. Under such conditions the large producer during a cyclical decline merely holds approximately to his old price levels, and curtails production, thereby in-creasing unemployment, and diminishing purchas-ing power. This places the small producer under a severe handicap, if it does not force him out of busi-ness ; for hq must sell his products purely on a com-petitive basis when decreased purchasing power forces him to reduce his selling price, and at the same time reduces his ability to purchase adminis-tered price goods that go into his production. Organized labor, of course, contends that unem-ployment can be prevented by the payment of higher wages, since purchasing power is thereby increased and greater production made necessary. If the present disparity in wage levels could be remedied, and an increase in wages be made to apply uniformly to all classes of wage earners this theory would hold water to the extent that such increase could be ab-sorbed in production costs without raising price levels. Beyond that point wage increases would fail to increase purchasing power, or reduce unem-ployment for with every increase in wages a corre-sponding increase in prices would follow. On the other hand, if it be assumed that the prin-ciple of labor organization is sound for one group it must be admitted that it is good for all groups. If that principle be carried to its logical conclusion and the strength of all labor be used to force wages up as high as its bargaining power would permit it, would only create a vicious circle in which every in-crease in wages would necessitate a raise in the price structure. Purchasing power, therefore, would be no greater at high than at low wage levels. It should be patent to all that such an increase in wages would make competition in world markets impossible, and such competition is necessary be-cause of our increasing productive capacity. It would force a reduction in output, and an increase in unemployment without placing the wage earner in any better position than he occupied at a lower wage level. On the other hand, if lowering real wages could increase production, and thereby employment, the same result could be achieved through a monetary policy which raises prices ; but, according to promi-nent economists, the supply curve of labor is not a function of real but of money wages, and such mone-tary manipulations are calculated to frighten busi-ness enterprise and discourage capital. This intro-duces the question of whether and to what extent government should undertake to control wages and prices. For it must be admitted that with the decay of the laissez-faire economy some wage-price con-trol must be substituted for the unbridled power of organized labor to raise wages on the one hand and the monopolistic rule of the large-scale producer on the other, before there can be a proper relation be-tween wages and purchasing power. Granting that increased purchasing power is the remedy for unemployment, the two questions which demand the prompt consideration of government and economic experts are (1) Shall organized labor be allowed to enforce its demands for higher and higher wages, with no corresponding relief for the 40 mil-lion unorganized workers? (2) Shall larger pro-ducers be permitted to market their products under an administered price policy which enables them to hold prices up regardless of reduced production costs, while the small producer must sell his products on a competitive basis when his own purchasing power is reduced through administered price con-trols? These are not questions for the layman or the amateur, but the very fact that there is disagree-ment among leading economists, and between eco-nomists and organized labor as to the effect of wages and prices on unemployment points them up as the No. 1 and 2 problems of our postwar economy. It is apparent, however, even to a layman, that you can't raise the income of 10 percent of the popu-lation to the point of increasing living costs without reducing the purchasing power of the other 90 per-cent of the population, which in turn means reduced production and increased unemployment. It is like- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 89 wise apparent that an administered price control that maintains high price levels with a lowering of real wages will produce the same result, and that these two factors working together contain the potentialities of disaster for both industry and labor. Silas F. Campbell. Unemployment Compensation Progress—By the States Critics of the federal-state program of unemploy-ment compensation generally claim that the indi-vidual states have not done enough to broaden the provisions of their laws so that the protection offered workers through this insurance system kept pace with the times. This is the basis for various bills introduced into Congress, from time to time, with the approval, if not at the instigation of officials of the Federal Government, aiming to liberalize the program and make it nationally uniform. However, unemployment is a local community problem even more than it is a national one. The worker's job is localized, and any national unem-ployment problem cannot be solved unless regular employment is provided in the home communities. This is the nub of the demand for public employ-ment services geared to operate in local situations. Let's examine the record. The Social Security Act of 1935 did not set up the state system of unemployment insurance, although it was designed to assist the states to provide their own systems in conformity with certain minimum standards. These levels, as suggested by the Social Security Board included : (1) coverage of employers of eight or more workers; (2) a maximum weekly benefit of $15 ; and (3) a maximum duration of pay-ments of not less than 12 weeks. Starting from there, the states began immediately to write their laws upward. Many of the original state .laws were broader than conformity required. Successive legislatures have continually liberalized the state programs of unemployment compensation in response to their local publics. At the close of 1945 legislative sessions the over-all picture is very different from that ten years ago. It looks like this : COVERAGE Of 51 state laws (inclusive of Hawaii and the District of Columbia), or more than half now apply to workers for smaller establishments than those having eight or more employees. In 16 states, the coverage is all-inclusive, and workers for employers or one or more have unemployment insurance pro-tection. WEEKLY BENEFIT AMOUNT At the present time over 50 percent of the states (27 out of 51) pay a maximum weekly benefit of $20 or more; 11 states have an $18 weekly maximum: — whereas originally only three states paid more than $15 per week and their top figure was $16. A significant aspect of these liberalized benefits is that the 27 states paying a maximum of $20 or more contain more than 77.5 percent of all covered workers. Over 90 percent of all insured workers are in the 38 states where a weekly maximum of $18 or more applies. BENEFIT DURATION 32 states now provide for the payment of benefits up to 20 weeks or more, when the unemployed worker does not find a job sooner. These 32 states have over 79 percent of all covered workers. NORTH CAROLINA This state is grouped with the liberals in respect to providing a maximum weekly benefit payment of $20, but it lags behind the majority in coverage by size of firm (still eight or more) as to the duration of payments (16 weeks only). The larger states, with the more liberal unemploy-ment compensation laws, generally had the greatest concentration of war-production contracts and workers. Therefore, the more liberal state pro-visions apply to even larger percentages of workers displaced following the end of the war than has been indicated above. After a review of what the states, as a whole, have done to improve the unemployment compensa-tion program, the arguments in favor of federalizing the system as a prerequisite to liberalizing it, grow dim. The same groups who favor outright federali-zation have suggested also, the enactment of federal supplementary funds. Under any such plan, the effect would be to coerce state legislatures and state administrators into acceptance of the views of federal officials. The imposition of federal standards could retard future state action in further strengthening their own laws ; a direction in which they have made com-mendable progress in the past few years. As an example of state pioneering in the field of extending insurance protection to another type of unemployment than that which results from eco-nomic disruption, there is the Rhode Island Cash Sickness Compensation Act. Under this act, a trust fund has been established from contributions by workers. The Unemployment Compensation Board which administers it, pays benefits to workers, ac-cording to the same schedule in effect for unemploy-ment compensation, but when the reason for the unemployment and loss of wages is temporary sick-ness or disability. Many other states have, and are debating similar action. A million casualties on battle fronts; thirty-six million casualties on the home front. Such is the National Safety Council's report of our country's human tragedies between Pearl Harbor Day and V-J Day. Of our total war casualties, the record shows 261,608 killed; the home front accident score lists 355,000 killed. PAGE 90 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 Veterans Create an Airline By E. Carl Sink A bunch of the boys were talking it up in the ready room of Consolidated-Vultee's test pilot's bar-racks. The times between tests were getting longer and longer ; the war was obviously coming to a close. It was high time to talk of many things ; of how, for example to make a living. They all agreed that staying in the air was proper, and, possibly, as profitable as other things a man could do. When the talk got around to details, then the boys split up into groups. There were four from North Carolina, the Teague brothers, the fellow Fly who's gotten into Ripley with his name and his job, and Harris, big, rawboned, a wizard at the controls. Earl Teague was for setting up an airline in his home state, but all were dubious that the residue of war wages would get the line going. Their argu-ments came to a focus with the name of another North Stater, R. B. Babbington, Jr., of Gastonia, in-surance man and organizer, who agreed to look into the possibilities. He looked, and the boys got ready to go into busi-ness as Southeast Airlines, Inc. First, they went to the Army Surplus Board and got lined up on fly-ing equipment, which turned out to be scouter Cessnas which could be converted readily into cabin cruisers, and had engines hardly more than broken in by Army service. The war wages went in a hurry, for airplanes come high at any time, but they figured they were better off than the average guy, some of whom hadn't even salvaged their own lives from the war effort. Next job was the converting of the ships into five-place, four passenger transports which would not only come within regulations as safe flying vehicles but also furnish a maximum of comfort to passen-gers. This was really a job for gentlemen who had left such menial labor to the ground crews, but they pitched in, and ended up with two good jobs, with never a tremor in the cords nor a vibration in the engines. With these they established the two-a-day, criss-cross schedules which uncover all of North Carolina in a day, and get you back home by bed-time. The routes were flown, the airports landed on and found safe, before the schedules ever saw print. That's the way the boys planned it; they had the Army idea of doing a thing right. Three weeks and 26,000 flying miles after the first ship went up on the first flight, the boys and SEA were ready for the post-war world. This writer, with a handy cameraman in the co-pilot seat, climbed aboard on an October Tuesday and headed East into a rising sun. Within an hour, he was at the coast, at Carolina Beach, 150 miles from Raleigh. Within minutes, in which he could have had a dip or thrown 20 casts into the booming surf, the schedule called for the trip back, and he was at his desk again at 10 :20, one hour and twenty minutes from desk to desk. But that wasn't all. Not all, by a big margin, for the next leg and the same ship took him over twenty towns (and they are big towns, rich towns) straight through the heart of the Piedmont, Raleigh to Durham to Greensboro to Winston-Salem to Charlotte. But there's some-thing else. That last leg of the flight took out from Charlotte and winged right straight into the moun-tains of western North Carolina. It was a thrill ride from end to end, although the plane, flying on stabilizer controls, moved steadily forward and up. The ground below erupted into little mountains, big mountains, and then monstrosities, which, even from above, looked like stairs to Heaven. It is the grand-est sight-seeing in America, those mountains of Car-olina. Which is not bad from the viewpoint of the boys of the Test Pilot Line. For they have the best scenery in America to see from an angle not yet covered, and they have short hauls through the richest industrial section of the They reconverted. While America talked of an airborne world, R. B. Babbington, Jr., and U. L. Fly, shown here, and associates started a strictly North Carolina airline. The gigantic plant of Cannon Mills is a sight worth seeing from the air at Kannapolis. (Photos by State News Bureau) FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 91 Southeast. They have, too, arrangements with air-ports whereby radio tells a plane overhead if passen-ger business is there, which means smaller port bills, since the business is arranged on a basis of rent for landings made. These are important things, because you don't start an airline on a shoestring. Compara-tively, you start an airline on strings, shoes, suit, hat and an allowance for about eight pairs of extra drawers. But, definitely, the air world has come to North Carolina with the Test Pilot's Line. The boys have put it on the line. What will happen may be a hint as to the fate of air enthusiasms in the brave new world. Vocational Training for World War Veterans By J. Warren Smith, Secretary, State Veteran's Education Committee The problem of veteran's education is one of the most important of our postwar projects. Our government by congressional acts has made ample provision for additional education or training varied enough to be suitable for all veterans who are eligi-ble and will ask for assistance. Provision for this education is made possible by two laws. Public Law #16 provides education and training of war service connected handicapped veterans, and Public Law #346 makes provisions for education and training for veterans without physical handicap. The latter law is commonly referred to as the G.I.Bill of Rights. This article will be limited to the below college level vocational training of veterans or for those for which the principal need is for educational oppor-tunities of less than collegiate type. By data se-cured from those now returned, we know that the group who want vocational training will be much larger than the group who will want college educa-tion. Very little attention has been given to the vocational group by the writers of the articles that have appeared in our periodicals. Therefore, the public seems to have a much clearer conception of the provisions and the mechanics of securing educa-tion as provided by colleges. For those eligible it is important that young men who had their plans in-terrupted by the war take advantage of the oppor-tunity afforded them to complete their college edu-cation; however, for those not eligible for college, every effort should be made to furnish for them a type of education best suited to their needs. For many this will be school vocational training or on-the- job training furnished by industry. HOW MANY TO BE TRAINED For all types of military service men and women, white and Negro, 350,000 persons have been in-ducted into service from North Carolina; 82%, or 287,000, will return to North Carolina. According to estimates made by E. V. Hollis from the U. S. Office of Education, 31/2 million of the 15 million in-ducted from the United States (at that time) would want some form of education. Two-thirds of this number, or 2^3 million, will want some form of voca-tional training. By applying the same ratio to the number returning in North Carolina, we will be faced with the problem of providing some form of vocational training to 45,000 returned veterans. More recent data than that furnished by Dr. Hollis has proved that his estimates were too high, how-ever, we do know that our problem is too large for the facilities we have to furnish the training. PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED VETERANS Ample provision for education or training of the service-connected physically handicapped veteran has been made by Public Law #16. The personnel of the Veteran's Administration are responsible for carrying out the provisions of this law. Every effort must be made to make possible for a veteran who, because of his disability, cannot continue in his former occupation, to be trained in a new occupation equivalent in rank and earnings to his former job. The matter of hospitalization or physical restora-tion for the veteran needing this type of service is taken care of by the government before his release to civilian status. After eligibility for training has been established the veteran is referred to a counsel-ing bureau for guidance. At this time the veteran's bureau has four bureaus well staffed with experts. The four centers are Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Salis-bury and Asheville. By special tests and counseling an intelligent approach is made to the selection of a new occupation. After the selection has been made a veteran's training supervisor places the veteran in a training situation. These supervisors complete all the necessary arrangements, including an agreement or contract with the training agency. For this public law, prior approval by the State Veteran's Education Committee is not necessary. Veterans of World War II with handicaps may be served by the Department of Vocational Rehabilita-tion, operated by the State Department of Public Instruction. Although the vocational rehabilitation of civilians and veterans are provided for in separate acts, veterans may be accepted in the civilian pro-gram, either because the Veterans Administration may judge that the disability is not a service-con-nected one and therefore not covered by Public Law #16, or if the veteran wants to elect voluntarily to be served by the civilian program. The main point for the veteran to know is that our government has provided amply for his welfare. He should be en-couraged to avail himself of the opportunities that are his. REGULATIONS FOR EDUCATION OR TRAIN-ING OF VETERANS—PUBLIC LAW 346 For regulations concerning education or training of veterans, I am inserting a quotation from Colonel Hines. 1 This statement is easier to interpret than the law itself. "The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs stated on 60 Monthly Labor Review 1222 (June 1945). PAGE 92 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 January 18, 1945, that under the Servicemen's Re-adjustment Act of 1944, any veteran of World War II is entitled to education or training (or a refresher or retraining course) in an approved educational or training institution for a period of 1 year, or for such lesser time as may be required for the course of instruction chosen by him. To qualify for such edu-cation or training, the applicant must have (1) been in active service on or after September 16, 1940, and prior to the termination of the present war, (2) been discharged or released "under conditions other than dishonorable," (3) served 90 days or more, exclusive of assigned education or training periods or (if less than 90 days' service) been released from actual service by reason of a service-incurred injury or disability, and (4) must make application for and initiate the course of education or training within two years following discharge or release from active service, or from the date of termination of the war, whichever is later. Eligibility for Education or Training Beyond One Year.—In order to be entitled to education or train-ing other than a refresher or retraining course be-yond one year, satisfactory completion of such course according to regularly prescribed standards and practices of the institution is required. Further it must be shown that the person's edu-cation or training was impeded, delayed, inter-rupted, or interfered with by reason of his entrance into service. Such conditions are assumed as exist-ing in the case of the person who was not more than 25 years of age at the time he entered active service (or September 16, 1940, whichever is the later) but must be proved by persons over 25 years of age at the time above specified. Veteran learning to be auto mechanic by on-the-job method. Payment of Expenses of Veterans.—The regula-tions issued by the Administrator make provision for subsistence allowance and the payment of author-ized expenses incurred by the veteran in his educa-tion or training under the Servicemen's Readjust-ment Act of 1944. Under this measure, expenses of the veteran—if he is in an educational institution — that will be defrayed by the Government include the "customary cost of tuition, laboratory, library, health, infirmary, and other similar fees as are customarily charged, and other necessary expenses * * * as are generally required for the successful pursuit and completion by other students in the institution * * * or those charges which have been approved by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs. Board, lodging, and other living expenses and travel are not to be included." The Government also meets the charges for "books, supplies, equipment, and other necessary expenses customarily incurred for or by any student." If the eligible discharged serviceman selects some type of institution other than one of an educational character, expenses defrayed by the Government in-clude "the charges for supplies, and other necessary equipment customarily furnished other persons be-ing trained by the establishment in the given trade or position." Full-time subsistence allowances are $50.00 per month for men without dependents, and $75.00 per month for those having dependents. If the veteran is not taking a full-time course, subsistence is measured in fractions of three-fourths, one-half, and one-fourth of the above amount according to the fraction that his course is of a full course. No such allowance is to be paid when the payment is barred because the veteran is engaged in full-time gainful employment in a part of his course of education or training. When the veteran is receiving compensation for productive labor performed as part of his appren-ticeship or other training on the job, the amount of subsistence plus his current monthly salary or wage (based on the standard workweek exclusive of over-time) shall not exceed the standard beginning salary or wage (similarly based) payable to a journeyman in the trade or occupation in which training is being given." From the above quotation we offer the following interpretations : 1. Refresher or retraining courses which may be apprenticeship or on-the-job training, are open to any honorably discharged veterans with the required period of active service on request. 2. Veterans older than 25 at time of induction must prove training was interrupted in order to be eligible for more than one year of training. 3. Veterans entering upon on-the-job training requiring less than a year to reach their objective are eligible for subsistence for only the length of the training period. 4. Veterans who were under 25 years of age at the time of induction may serve a full apprenticeship if they are making satisfactory progress at the end FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 93 of first year and have a service record long enough to be eligible for the full period of apprenticeship. 5. Veterans in training by apprenticeship or on-the-job training plan are eligible to be furnished by the veterans administration supplies and other necessary hand tools customarily furnished to other persons being trained in peacetime. 6. It is up to the veteran, he must make his own application for the type of education or training he desires. SCHOOL OR BUSINESS APPROVED FOR TRAINING The matter of approving schools or other institu-tions for training rests with the different states. Governor Broughton designated the State Depart-ment of Public Instruction as the approval agency. Dr. Erwin appointed from this department a com-mittee of six, known as State Veterans' Education Committee. The committee members are: Dr. James E. Hillman, Chairman; J. Warren Smith, Secretary ; Dr. J. Henry Highsmith ; Dr. N. C. New-bold; Charles H. Warren; and C. L. Beddingfield. This committee is charged with the responsibility of deciding whether or not a school or other insti-tution should be approved to participate in the veteran's educational program. This applies to col-leges (public or private), business schools, trade or technical schools (public or private), and other in-stitutions such as banks, stores, manufacturing com-panies, garages, business or industrial concerns. A school or business seeking approval must file an application and include a written plan of training; after the application and plan of training has been received a member of the committee makes a per-sonal inspection of the plant, then for final action each application is reviewed by the whole committee. If approval is given, the company or school and the Veterans' Administration are notified. This committee feels keenly the responsibility of trying to be certain that the money involved will be spent wisely and that the veteran will receive an equitable return for his time and effort. The com-mittee knows that it must be on the alert for appli-cations from private schools designed to make ex-cessive profit without rendering adequate service to the veteran, and for industries who are not sincere about training. To date nearly all of our A grade colleges, a large number of business schools, several private trade schools, and several hundred industrial establish-ments have been approved for training. As the need becomes more urgent special voca-tional public school shops will be operated for veterans to provide short intensive training pro-grams in subjects such as electric motor repair, radio and electric appliance repair, general welding, machine shop practice, automobile mechanics and drafting. Since the offerings in our public schools are limited and we do not have any State Trade Schools or private vocational or technical schools, it is im-portant that we make optimum use of the on-the-job or apprenticeship plan. By this plan, the number of our places of training is limited only to the fitness of Veteran learning to be motor repair mechanic by on-the-job method. the place and the willingness of the personnel of the industry to cooperate. APPRENTICESHIP OR ON-THE-JOB TRAINING If well organized, the apprenticeship or on-the-job plan affords the best possible method to learn a trade. For many of the skilled trades and all of the semi-skilled occupations there is not any better place to learn the necessary skills than on the job in the industry. By this method the veteran will be learn-ing under actual working conditions in the environ-ment of the trade itself. He will be instructed on real jobs, jobs that must be finished well enough to be accepted by the trade. He will have as instructors men accepted as skilled craftsmen and considered expert. These instructors, because of their positions in the commercial trade, will be up-to-date in the newest developments and practical working knowl-edge of the trade. The veteran will have the ad-vantage of learning in a shop well equipped with up-to-date machinery and tools, and the necessary supplies. The veteran, in addition to the skills, must learn to work with others, and learn the rules of industry, proper work habits and attitudes—these too can best be learned in industry itself. SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING On-the-job training should be supplemented by organized class instruction. The complete learning of a job includes manipulative skills, science, draw-ing, math, industrial knowledge, safety and morale. The manipulative features are learned easiest on the job. All other features can also be learned that PAGE 94 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 way; however, the learning process can be speeded up by organized class instruction. This is particu-larly true for the related technical information. For example, the theory of the operation of a carburetor, what makes a battery charge, or what makes a motor run. For any group of veterans learning by on-the-job method, the local school administrator, with the assistance and cooperation of the Department of Industrial Education of the State Department of Public Instruction, will organize and operate, free of charge, supplementary classes for any industrial trade. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JOB AND TRAINING There is a difference between having a work job in industry and being in training, and a large num-ber of industries make little effort at organized training. The worker in an industry that gives little attention to training after acquiring an initial skill is too often kept performing this opera-tion for an indefinite length of time, thus he is denied the opportunity to learn the various operations necessary to his trade. It is the responsibility of the committee mentioned above to determine whether it is training or just a job the veteran will be getting if the place of business is approved. Training of veterans by on-the-job method will be most apt to be successful if the following conditions are met : 1. The company personnel is sincere in its desire to really train veterans. 2. A written statement of the training plan has been pre-pared and all parties concerned with training understand and agree to it. 3. The written statement includes a schedule of the opera-tions to be learned, with the approximate amount of time necessary for learning each step. 4. There is a schedule of pay with regular increases as the learner progresses. 5. An attempt will be made to select veterans with aptitude and interest for the different trades to be learned. 6. Skilled men with instructional ability will be designated as instructors. It will be the duty of these instructors to guide these veterans in their learning. They should by telling how and by demonstration make learning easy for these veterans. Managers of industry in North Carolina can, if they will, make it possible for a large number of veterans to get excellent training in the trade of their choice. Let's give those men the opportunity they so justly deserve. THE DOGWOOD FOR LUCK HHii Turned a Handcraft Into a Business. Stuart Nye, Asheville War I Veteran, shown instructing an employee. Working out simple jewelry designs, he teaches women to do the production. Veterans of World War II who are wondering how to recognize Dame Opportunity when they take up civilian pursuits might be interested in the ex-perience of Stuart Nye, veteran of World War I. Lady Luck wears various visages, but she ap-peared to Nye, at that time a patient in the veterans hospital at Oteen, as a disgruntled hobbyist figura-tively wearing a dogwood blossom. This improbable combination threw Nye into a silversmithing busi-ness which has risen from a $500 per year gross enterprise into a thriving business with an annual payroll alone of over $30,000. Nye, while convalescing, had dabbled indifferently with woodworking, and then one day a fellow-patient, leaving the place, offered to sell him his metal-working tools. Nye reluctantly bought the stuff, and began tinkering with silver, later launch-ing his novelty-jewelry business. He did only moderately well until one day he fashioned his first dogwood blossom. Instantly, the new design caught on, and every week since then the business has steadily increased. Pins, rings, brace-lets and other ornaments featuring the delicate petals became and continue a fad. Nye also worked out pine cones, pansies and other designs, and today his products are sold in every state and in many foreign countries. Nye, a pleasant, placid person, says he is as sur-prised as anyone at the success of his business. He scoffs at the notion that he is a creative genius. "I made a discovery," he says. "Or rather, just in-vented an idea. There's nothing to it—everybody's making dogwood now." Nevertheless, Nye's designs are widely sought under his name and he seems not to have suffered from competition. His production formula has been FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 95 Starting alone a few years ago, Nye now employs 30 girls who are kept busy trying to meet demands for the silver ornaments. All his employees learn the trade in the shop and Nye insists it's "simple". (Photos by State News Bureau) unchanged from the beginning. He produces only pieces from his own original designs, and he refuses to speed up production by introduction of machinery. Each piece must be cut, filed, finished by hand. Housed in a bright little workshop in his back-yard, his workers are mostly young girls, all of them 3^ trained in the shop itself. "It's easy," Nye insists casually. "A girl starts some simple operation, like filing, and soon picks it up. Of course, some are better than others." As to the magical properties of dogwood which he firmly believes started him on success, he has no particular theory. "It's pretty," he says simply. A BANKER APPRAISES THE SOUTH (By Robert M. Hanes, of Winston-Salem, N. C, president of the Reserve City Bankers Association, EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS BEFORE A MEETING OF BUSINESS EXECUTIVES IN NEW YORK.) No region in the nation has had such a wide divergence of interpretation as has the South. It has been called America's economic problem No. 1. In film and fiction it has been depicted as an area inhabited by barefoot, pellagra ridden share crop-pers, a land eroded by one crop farming, a section where low wages and sub-standard educational and living conditions prevail. Other interpreters of the South ignore its handi-caps and picture it as a land of golden promise with a rich and easy harvest. They wax eloquent against a background of mint juleps, soft flowing streams and Stephen Foster sentiment. They, too, lack a sense of realism. I shall attempt here to evaluate, in terms of busi-ness outlook, the South's problems and its opportuni-ties; in other words, to make a banker's appraisal of the South. On the credit side, the South has an abundant supply of many raw materials—cotton, tobacco, timber, petroleum, coal, iron, natural gas, minerals, naval stores, and a wide variety of other products. Of the country's total production, the South ac-counts for 95% of the cotton, 90% of the tobacco, 75% of the natural gas, 60% of the crude petroleum, 50 % of the bituminous coal, 40 % of the lumber, and 12% of the iron ore. Turning these raw materials into finished products has been the basis of the South's industrial progress for decades. While at times this progress may have seemed somewhat slow, when we review the gains over a period of years the figures provide some sense of satisfaction. At the turn of the century in 1900, total industrial production in the South was valued at $1,564,000,000. For 1939, the last year for which data from the Bureau of Census are available, this figure had increased to $11,190,000,000, a gain slightly in excess of 700%. During the same period, the national gain was 400 %>, while states outside the South increased 366%. Today, 80% of the active cotton spindles are in Southern mills and we manufacture 90% of the nation's tobacco products. Electric power development in the South has con-tributed substantially to its industrial growth. In 1943, we produced 26% of all the electric power out-put in the country, including both water power and power from fuels. In 1943 the South accounted for 40% of the national farm crop income. In 1900 the South's cotton crop brought $370,- 000,000; in 1943, $1,322,000,000. Our tobacco crop of 1900 sold for $40,000,000 ; in 1943, $514,000,000. Of special significance is the South's financial pro-gress. In 1910 the banking resources of this region were only $3,275,000,000 ; today they are more than $23,000,000,000. Savings deposits in the same period have increased from $575,000,000 to $3,500,000,000. Life insurance in force increased from 3!/2 billions to more than 30 billions. One of the South's leading natural advantages is its climate. It is a land of mild temperatures, relatively free from extremes of heat and cold, with ample rainfall and an abundance of sunshine throughout the year. This provides a long growing season for agriculture and attracts workers and others who seek relief from the rigors of harsher climates in other regions. The South's white population is composed largely of native-born stock, direct descendants of the early independent, pioneer settlers, almost wholly pure Anglo-Saxon. It is a homogenous population. It is predomi-nately rural and therefore possesses those inbred characteristics of stability and resourcefulness so valuable in the development of industrial enter-prises. Although not highly skilled, it has been con-clusively demonstrated that Southern labor can readily be taught skilled trades. Our people are not crowded together in large cities, but scattered in smaller cities and towns PAGE 96 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 where living and working conditions are more at-tractive. The South has few metropolitan cities ; it has thousands of small towns whose people are sup-ported partly by industry and trade, and partly by agriculture. This pattern fits perfectly into the current trend of dispersal of large industries. The South has excellent transportation facilities. Today 81,473 miles of railway lines crisscross the Southern states. We pioneered in the development of concrete highways, and now approximately 350,000 miles of modern highways spread through-out the South. Twenty-one airlines serve this re-gion and supply direct connections with other routes throughout the nation and overseas. Through our excellent ports and harbors and our inland water-ways flows a steady stream of domestic and foreign commerce. Now let's look at the debit side—some of the South's problems and needs. We have relied too much on one crop—cotton—in our agriculture and have not had sufficient diversi-fication in industry. Too much reliance on the grow-ing of cotton and tobacco and the processing of these raw materials has made us too vulnerable to sudden market changes affecting these products. The result has been that farmers in normal times have had to sell much of their cotton and tobacco in an unpro-tected world market and buy much of their food, machinery and clothing in a well protected domestic market. The freight rate structure, which for many years favored producers in the East at the expense of Southern producers and shippers, has undoubtedly greatly retarded the South's development. Nothing has happened in the past 50 years of such tremendous significance as the recent decision of the Interstate Commerce Commission to correct those freight rate inequities. The beneficial results will not appear immediately, but in the next five to ten years this change in freight rates will greatly stimu-late Southern progress. It will mean that the nation's great distributing and merchandising companies will establish more distribution centers throughout the South, and finished products from Southern plants will move to markets throughout the nation on an equal basis with products from other sections of the country. The trend towards the South, which has been evident now for some years, will be greatly accelerated by this momentous decision. The South has not produced enough foodstuffs and clothing to supply the needs of its own region, thus necessitating the more expensive procedure of bring-ing in these basic supplies from distant sources. If the South is to provide a broader market for its own products, it must continue to raise the average per capita income of its people. To meet the challenge of the future, I believe we shall need more business and industrial leadership, constantly improving management, to help develop our resources and opportunities. We also need many more technically trained men. We have produced our share of leaders and tech-nicians, but many of them were so good that they were lured away to responsible positions in other sections of the country. We must provide full op-portunity for our own young men and also import leadership from other sections to broaden our busi-ness viewpoint and add new types of experience. These are some of our problems and needs. There are others, but I believe that most of them are re-lated to these main points. Recently there have been unmistakable trends and developments which give an entirely new color to the picture of the South, factors which can greatly accelerate its progress. The impact of war upon the South is of particular significance. In the four years ending June 30, 1944, $5,187,- 000,000 had been spent in Southern states for war production facilities alone—plants, shipyards, tools, etc. This does not include other billions spent for airports, camps, and purely military. installations. WAR CONTRACTS During the same period war supply contracts awarded in the South totaled $25,532,402,000. They included ships, plans, guns, shells, ammunition, ex-plosives, high-octane gasoline, textiles, synthetic rubber, food, paper and pulp, steel, aluminum and cement, to name some of the more important items. There has been a substantial accumulation of re-serves, savings, and war bonds by industry, business and individuals throughout the South. The intensified need for foods and raw materials has forced improved methods, diversification and in-tensive cultivation in agriculture. Farm mortgage debt has been greatly reduced, the use of more farm machinery has been stimulated and the farmer has been obliged to learn new techniques and better farm management. Farming in the South is rapidly getting away from the one cash crop system and in the future we shall produce more of our own foodstuffs, especially poultry, eggs and a wide variety of dairy products. The war production program has brought new and diversified industry to the South, developing a large supply of skilled labor. This has been one of our great needs—the training of labor in high precision work. In the textile field the South once had the reputa-tion for producing largely coarse goods and low quality products. This picture has changed ma-terially in recent years as many refinements and im-provements have been made in our textile industry. For example, we have one producer in North Carolina making fine combed yarn with counts as high as 160, which is probably the finest yarn made in this country. Many of our mills are already placing orders for improved machinery and equipment when available. There is a substantial program now under way for the expansion and improvement of rayon weaving facilities and the enlargement and refinement of spun rayon production. There is also taking place FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 97 an expansion of woolen yarn and woolen fabric pro-duction. In furniture manufacturing we have many plants turning out high quality furniture products, and we have demonstrated that these products will compete in durability and appearance with high grade furni-ture made in any other section of the country. The paper and pulp industry is moving South where it has been attracted by huge supplies of raw materials and favorable working conditions. In 1943 we produced 47% of the nation's wood pulp and 26% of its paper and paperboard. While much of this production is in the coarser paper goods made from our pine forests, other types of paper mills are being developed in the South. We have a notable example of this in the Ecusta Paper Corporation in North Carolina which now supplies nearly all of the cigarette paper for the nation and in addition makes high grade writing papers. There has been a tremendous shifting of the hosiery industry to the South. In the past 10 or 15 years many plants from the middle Atlantic belt have moved into the South, and there has been a dramatic development of new plants within the area, many of which started with two to five knitting machines. The South is rapidly overcoming its handicap in education, research and technical training. For ex-ample, in 1910 the South spent $80,000,000 for public schools. In 1943 it spent $511,000,000. There is much yet to be accomplished, but we are making rapid progress in raising our educational standards. Of special interest to industry is the establishment of excellent facilities for the technical training of young men to operate and manage industrial plants. There are now being established at the North Caro-lina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, three foundations—the Textile, the Dairy and the Agricultural Foundations—Which will do much to broaden our technical training. In the field of research we are also making out-standing progress. There will be ample bank credit available to meet all sound industrial credit needs in the South during the reconversion period. We have in recent years developed many sizeable regional banks which work closely with local community banks, thus providing, through correspondent relationships, a combination of financial resources adequate for all needs. As a special aid to small business, credit groups are being formed throughout the country under the leadership of the American Bankers Association. The combined credit being offered by groups already formed in the South totals over $250,000,000 and the amount is being continually increased. Summarizing this appraisal, the South has made great progress. We still have far to go to equal the economic attainments of some other regions, but I venture to predict that the rate of progress in the South during the next decade will equal or surpass that of any other section. I, therefore, leave with you the slogan of one of our great southern rail-roads, "Look Ahead—Look South!" U.C. C. CHIEF LOOKS TO NORTH CAROLINA'S FUTURE A newspaper man asked me not so long ago what was going to happen in North Carolina during re-conversion. I answered that in so far as North Carolina's textile, tobacco, hosiery and furniture in-dustries are concerned, any displacement of labor would be temporary and that steady employment over a long period of time is fairly certain. Recon-version to goods for civilian use, of which there is a distressing shortage throughout the world, will take only a few days for our textile plants. Tobacco, furniture and wood-working plants generally have no problems at all. If the old world can be kept on an even keel, North Carolina will be all right. In the matter of establishments that may be classi-fied as 100 percent war plants, we experienced the effects of mass lay-offs. About 16,000 people were laid off in North Carolina after the announcement of the end of the Japanese War. Most of these people have found jobs among us somewhere, and it is my hope that North Carolina industry can absorb the rest of them. But as has been pointed out, industry should not be called upon to absorb all ex-war workers, includ-ing boys and girls of high school age; housewives who had never worked before and should now go back to home-making and many older workers who were called back to machine and work bench for the emergency and who should now take retirement. In every community where one of the war plants mushroomed into vast proportions over-night and collapsed just as suddenly, there is considerable fear and uncertainty. In over a dozen North Carolina communities great factories, filled with expensive machinery, stand idle. There is no sign of life around them, except for passing watchmen or care-takers. One Of the biggest of these plants, with over 7,000 workers a few weeks ago, has three people in the office, three watchmen and six mechanics. What to do with these great plants is a problem. Left vacant, everybody knows what will happen. In a year, stones from the hands and sling-shots of boys will have smashed most of the windows and the fine buildings will be the haunts of rats and bats. It seems to me that our Department of Conser-vation and Development and our State Planning Board ought to be thinking and planning to make use of these buildings and of as much of their machinery as can be used for peace-time production. I think we should encourage the establishment of small shops, manufacturing the tools and gadgets that North Carolina buys in such huge quantities. One of these huge war plants might easily be con-verted into 20 or more such small establishments, all offering gainful employment to skilled mechanics and profitable enterprises for men of business and executive ability. Let's not wait for "Big Business" from the out-side to come in and take over these big plants. Let's take them over ourselves for the establishment of a vast number of small industries so badly needed right now. A. L. Fletcher. PAGE 98 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY Before the war, travel ranked high among the major industries of the United States. The vacation and business travel dollar had become an important factor in state and national economy. But the travel industry became a war casualty, with the many restrictions that were necessary. However, vacation travel is now due for a boom. In fact this has already started, with more people planning to go farther afield, to spend more money and to take more time, or more frequent vacation and business trips. To arrive at some measure of the relative im-portance of the travel industry to North Carolina, one has to refer to pre-war figures. Looking back to the year 1938, it appears that tourist travel in North Carolina yielded $64,350,000, according to a National Park Service report. This is a dollar crop of more than $5,000,000 a month—double the value of the cotton crop and over one-third the value of the tobacco crop. Everyone in North Carolina benefited from this money as it went into immediate circulation through filling stations, restaurants, hotels, tourist homes, merchants, and other trade channels. If such a sum as $64 millions could have been set aside in a special fund, it would have operated the schools in the state for more than two years. There would have been more than enough to operate all state governmental activities, including schools, institutions and depart-ments for one year and still leave a balance of $25 millions. The accepted standard for estimating tourist travel showed that at least 1,750,000 persons spent an average of $6.00 per day in North Carolina in 1939. Supposing one-half of this was spent at buy-ing at retail, a conservative estimate, approximately $1,000,000 went into the state general fund from sales taxes alone. Immediately prior to the war, the state's travel industry was increasing rapidly. This is evidenced by the fact that in 1941, there was an increase in gasoline tax revenue of 39.8 percent, over the year 1937, although the national increase in gasoline con-sumption during the same period was listed as 14.6 percent. North Carolina collected $8,655,696 more in gasoline taxes in 1941 than it did in 1937. The difference between what the state would have col-lected on a national average and what it actually netted—nearly $6,000,000—must be credited to the larger increase in travel in North Carolina. Similar indicators are found in the increase in non-resident hunting and fishing licenses, and in the recorded number of visitors to national park and forest areas. Between 1937 and 1941, out-of-state hunting and fishing licenses rose 85 percent. In 1937 there were 727,243 visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but in 1941 there were 1,247,919; while visitors to the Pisgah and Nanta-hala Forests increased 600 and 280 percent re-spectively. HOTELS In spite of the war's restrictions on travel gen-erally, the state's hotel business did not suffer materially during the war. Many of the larger re-sort hotels were taken over and operated by the Federal Government for the quartering of military and diplomatic personnel; and a relatively small number of the seasonal resorts located in out of the way places were forced to close. Most of the hotels in North Carolina, however, have been crowded to capacity throughout the war years. With the large number of Army and Marine camps located in the state, servicemen on furlough and their visiting families more than filled available accommodations. Most communities, in fact, were called upon through U. S. O. offices to furnish lodgings in private homes when the hotels just could not take any more guests. This situation is reflected in the reports on em-ployment made to the Unemployment Compensation Commission. In 1941, there were 134 hotel estab-lishments, operating with eight or more workers for at least 20 weeks in the year, reporting an average total employment of 4,033 persons. In the first year of the war, only 115 hotels reported 3,795 employed in various services. But by 1944, with no resort hotels reporting to the Commission, the number of establishments filing returns had increased to 141, and their employees to 4,875. These people received in wages a total of $4,471,901.00 last year. Taken altogether, these facts amply bear out the statement of a leading North Carolina editor : "The travel industry of North Carolina is of the utmost economic importance. It provides employment for thousands of persons. It directly determines the prosperity of many Tar Heel communities. It con-tributes substantially to the support of the state and local governments." Bringing in the baggage—here we have a "Bell-hoppess". FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 99 Tourism is Big Business By Felix A. Grisette, Managing Director North Carolina State Planning Board The tourist industry is big business. Competent students of the industry estimate that it offers a potential yield of $150,000,000 annually in North Carolina. The magnitude of this income can best be appreciated by remembering that the com-bined cash receipts from all livestock and livestock products in North Carolina during 1944 was only $107,000,000, or that the total value of all sales of the North Carolina cotton crop was less than $85,- 000,000. There are two widespread fallacies about the travel business which should be corrected in the public mind. One is that the cash income derived from tourists is limited to a very few agencies, such as hotels, restaurants, and filling stations. The other is that the whole business is thought of in terms of a pastime or as an appendage to some pleasure rather than as an industry in itself. It should not require any considerable knowledge of economics to realize that any such sum as $150,- 000,000 annually, when turned loose in a state, will benefit far more people than any very few businesses. This money will be equally as valuable to the entire economy of all the people as any other industry with an equal volume of revenue. With an adequate pro-gram of overall state promotion, the entire State can benefit from this volume of travel business. Gen-erally speaking, travelers on vacation do not go to any one specific point, but to a section or region. There is every reason to assume that the visitor going to the mountains can also be persuaded to visit the sandhills and the coastal areas. Obviously, while going from one point to the other within the State, the traveler leaves his expenditures all along the way. Clearly, an industry with such possibilities should not be thought of in terms of play. It is equally clear that any industry holding forth such possibilities will be the object of keen compe-tition between different states and sections of the country. North Carolina must be prepared to obtain its fair share of this business. The State Planning Board, in line with its policy of recommending courses of action in terms of the needs of the people, more than a year ago asked ex-Governor J. Melville Broughton to appoint a Tourist-Travel Committee to advise with the Board and to coordinate the efforts of all interests con-cerned with travel. The following persons were appointed : Coleman W. Roberts, Chairman Thomas H. Briggs D. Hiden Ramsey H. S. Gibbs Charles E. Ray, Jr. Felix A. Grisette, Ex-offi- Bill Sharpe cio, Secretary Richard S. Tufts Robert I. Lee Lionel Weil J. B. McCoy As the committee studied the situation, it became increasingly obvious that a state-wide, non-govern-mental agency should be created to work with the Department of Conservation and Development and others concerned. Accordingly, the establishment of an organization to be known as the North Carolina Travel Council was recommended. This recommen-dation received favorable reactions from all inter-ests directly concerned with the travel industry, with the result that plans are now under way for completing the organization of the Council. As now proposed, the Council shall be an organi-zation of those agencies serving the traveling pub-lic in the State of North Carolina, and shall be de-voted to the improvement and development of all phases of the industry within the State. The Council shall represent the best interests of its members in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the travel industry as a whole and shall, through exchange of information, educational campaigns and by other means endeavor to improve the services of-fered to the traveling public by the industry, and to expand and develop these facilities as may be needed to meet demand, and shall cooperate with established promotional and advertising groups such as motor clubs, travel agencies, chambers of commerce, the North Carolina Department of Conservation and De-velopment, etc. There shall be two classes of membership : Active and associate. Associate members shall be those companies, organizations or businesses operating pri-marily to serve the traveling public and any who may be so classified shall be eligible for membership. The principal financial support of the Council's ac-tivities shall be from the various dues paid by asso-ciate members, the amounts of such dues to be fixed by the directors, but associate members shall have no voting rights in the Council, nor shall they hold of-fice in the Council. Active members shall be elected by the Board of Directors and shall be limited to individuals who are officers or employees or other designated represen-tatives of a company or organization which is an associate member of the Council. At all general meetings of the Council each active member shall be entitled to one vote, and all officers and directors of the Council shall be active members. Dues for ac-tive members shall be $10.00 per year for each per-son. Three members of the 15-member board of direc-tors have already been named: Former Governor Broughton, representing the East ; Coleman Roberts, representing the West ; and Richard S. Tufts, repre-senting the Central section of the State. These three members have also been authorized to serve as a nominating committee to select the remaining mem-bers for presentation to the incorporators of the Council. Ex-Governor Broughton is preparing the necessary legal documents incident to obtaining a charter. Thus, North Carolina is on the way in a program to develop this potentially powerful industry for the benefit of all the people of the State. PAGE 1 00 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 Room clerk registers a new-comer. Long established as a travel state, North Carolina currently sees prospects of doubling its tourist trade in immediate years. The travel situation had remained somewhat static until 1936 when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was opened. Until then, the Blue Ridge country, headquartered at Asheville, had been the traditional summering place of a steadily grow-ing number of midwesterners, southerners, a few northerners. The new national park, embracing the little- known climax of the Appalachian system, quickly climbed m favor, and in 1941 was the most popular park m America, outstripping Shenandoah by a substantial margin. Returns from the tourist busi-ness rose from an estimated $35,000,000 in 1936 to an estimated $175,000,000 in 1941. Future trade prospects have been enhanced by the fact that Cape Hatteras National Seashore, authorized by Congress, is due for development within the next few years. At the same time, the Blue Ridge Parkway, America's first "highway park with many links already open, will be com-pleted within an estimated three years. Resumption of Paul Green s famous "Lost Colony" is expected to stimulate travel into northeastern North Carolina Other major state and federal-supported travel- enticmg projects have been approved. WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA Western North Carolina already is a well-known playground, with varied resorts and a large summer children s camp industry. Substantial developments are planned for postwar years. The Park Service Memo on Tra By Bill Sh> has recently announced plans for new roads giving; more convenient access to the Great Smokies Park Additional camp and trailer grounds and lodge ac- commodations are contemplated. The TVA program has changed the face of many western North Carolina communities, where sky-blue lakes are filling mountain coves. While TVA itself plans no recreational developments, it is coop-erating with local, state and federal agencies to utilize advantages offered by the lakes. Recently, the Park Service acquired additional land for the Great Smokies so that new Fontana Dam will pro-vide a shoreline for part of the park, with oppor-tunities for lake fishing, bathing, boating in the heart of the Smokies. Towns and counties are ac-quiring park rights along TVA shorelines, with S-vT 5* dev f loPment- Through agreement IV with A, the Park Service plans a new highway from Fontana Dam to Bryson City, providing a new park entrance. A PARK 500 MILES LONG Most spectacular development in western North Carolina will be the Blue Ridge Parkway, which was started several years ago. With several stretches already muse, the completed parkway eventually will join Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain rarks. It is difficult to describe adequately this pleasure boulevarde to one who has not driven it Rights of way have been acquired on each side so that there are no disturbing commercial elements in S 7^° SlgnS ' hot dog stands> souvenir peddlers if or 500 miles one can ride over an easily graded, softly curved highway which soars with the ridges at an average altitude of 3,000 feet. Designed for pleasure and not for engineering utility, the Park- way bores through mountains, across great fills over valleys, winds miles away from "practical" routes to bring the traveller to breath-taking views. Along the route are bulges which will provide rest facilities —picnic areas, turn-outs, overlooks, and other con-veniences and pleasures. The National Park Service once estimated the Parkway would handle 3,000,000 tourists a year. North Carolina officials think postwar travel de- mands will up that figure by another million. The Parkway will take visitors through the upper Blue Ridge Country into the Grandfather region on past Mt. Mitchell, thence to Craggy Gardens, past Asheville into the Pisgah and westward, through boco Gap into Indian land, and so on to Clingman's Dome, highest peak in the Smokies. NATIONAL FORESTS A large part of Western North Carolina lies within the purchase and development areas of the National Forest Service. In both Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests, recreational areas have been completed and are open. Especially in the Sapphire country, along Rt. 64, are camping, swim- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 101 North Carolina te News Bureau ming, fishing, picnicking areas, and more are due to be opened. Managed fishing and hunting are per-mitted on thousands of acres of these public lands. More vacation spots are being made accessible by a network of state park and forest roads, and places denied the wheeled visitor also have been opened up by a system of marked and graded trails. In the Smokies alone are 500 miles of these trails, forming a great outdoor communication system for the hiker or horseback rider. In Pisgah and Nantahala, the Forest Service has also developed a trail system which is used extensively. The Appalachian Trail, which is marked from Maine to Georgia, follows the highest ridges of North Carolina, with log lean-to shelters spotted a day's journey apart, with firewood, water and toilet, and other facilities nearby. Several dude ranches have been established to take ad-vantage of the outdoor areas. An active youth hostel loop is in operation. EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA North Carolina beaches in the past largely have been patronized by upstate Tar Heels. In the last few years, however, sportsmen have discovered the good fishing grounds lying at the capes and off the banks, and the excellent waterfowl shooting at famed Mattamuskeet and Currituck, and elsewhere. A few years ago, the National Park Service, after a survey, selected the Banks of North Carolina as the site for the first National seashore park. The area would extend from Currituck bank to Ocracoke Inlet, and would comprise eventually some 100,000 acres, much of it on unspoiled beaches or sound fronts. The State of North Carolina has created a Sea-shore Commission to acquire the necessary land. In the area—one of the most romantic and iso-lated in this country—lies Kill Devil Hill, Fort Raleigh, Cape Hatteras, and other historic points. The Park would take in most of the Outer Banks — jutting 30 miles into the Atlantic, with Pamlico Sound on its back—and comprise one of the greatest sport fishing areas in America. Here loll the cop-pery channel bass, the flashy dolphin, the amber-jack, bonita, the fighting Hatteras blue, as well as a host of good panfish—mackerel, trout, flounder, sheepshead. The banks will soon get an "experimental" road from Oregon Inlet to Hatteras—forerunner, per-haps, of a hardsurface highway. Bridges across Alligator River and Croatan Sound, to make the park area more accessible, are contemplated by the State. But more than shorebirds, fishing and surf-bath-ing are contemplated. Paul Green's symphonic drama, "Lost Colony", presented at open air Water-side Theatre on Roanoke Island each summer until 1941, is to be revived. Former Governor Broughton heads a committee to raise $100,000 to rebuild the theatre. In the kitchen of Pinnacle Inn. Presented nightly from July 1 to Labor Day, "Lost Colony" is an outdoor spectacle performed in a unique theatre where scene shifting is done through use of lights and different stage levels. Over 150 persons are in the cast. From 1937 to 1941 the play attracted 400,000 spectators. Nearby is historic Kill Devil Hill, surmounted by the Wright Memorial. Now it is planned to bring the original Wright plane back to the site of its first flight and to house it in a suitable building, where it will be another attraction of the Seashore park. Also planned: a Coast Guard Museum; fishermen's cabins at the cape ; a bicycle trail. North Carolina is talking of more things for the traveller. Recently, the Department of Conserva-tion and Development accepted the offer of a generous woman who proposes to restore Tryon's Palace at New Bern, on Trent and Neuse Rivers. Only one wing of the original palace, once called "the most beautiful building in America," is now stand-ing, but the original plans have been discovered, and rebuilding of the royal governor's palace will com-mence as soon as possible. $300,000 already has been made available ; $500,000 or more eventually will be expended for the restoration which will be one of the show places of America. The state has appro-priated $100,000 to acquire adjacent land for the project. STATE PARKS Resumption of state park services, now largely curtailed, with expansion of facilities, and the addi-tion of other areas has been recommended. Cabins, to be rented for moderate fees, are to be erected at PAGE 1 02 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 J Waitress takes the luncheon order. : '': -K ', Caring for hotel grounds. This girl took on a man's job during the war. Chambermaid on duty at mountain resort. the parks and a lodge with cabins attached is Planned at Mt. Mitchell State Park, atop eastern America's highest peak. Cabins also are planned at Mt. Morrow and Hang- iB p^ At Pettigrew State Park, on Lake 16,000-acre Phelps m eastern Carolina, the Pettigrew plan-tation home has already been restored, and the 16- room mansion will be available to vacationists and sport fishermen who come to the lake for the fine iTn^t r? ^n§ - F°rt Macon ' on the banks opposite Beaufort, is now occupied as a military in-stallation but plans for its conversion into a State Beach will be resumed after the war. Cape Hat teras State Park, with its modern cabins for surf fishermen, will be incorporated in the National Sea- shore area. STATE LAKES North Carolina owns a chain of clear-water lakes m eastern Carolina, and some of these already are m use Smgletary Lake, a beautiful cypress-shaded body of water now is used for group camping, and has dining halls, cabins and shelters. Jones Lake nearby, has been set aside as a resort for Negroes' The government recently turned Crabtree Creek area over to the state, and the 80 cabins there are available the year around for vacationists. The legislature authorized the parks division to take over Cliffs of the Neuse, near Goldsboro, as a riverside and developed 6 " *** "^^^^* Mquired SANDHILLS The oldest winter resort country in North Caro- line—the gandhil! pine lands—have been partly occupied by the military, but all hotels now have been returned to private operation, and this winter golf capital of America, noted for its five so]f courses at Pinehurst and Southern Pines, and for its fox hunting, quail, and horse activities, are open in winter Full programs, including the many golf and tennis tournaments and the well-known steeplechase, will be resumed. HUNTING AND FISHING Anticipating an unprecedented crop of outdoor enthusiastics returning to normal civilian life, North Carolina is seriously concerned with the prob- lem of providing game. On federal-state wild-life management areas a large program of stocking of fish and game is being carried out. Deer are trapped m over-populated areas and released in other sec-tions. An attempt now is being made to return deer to the Piedmont area, where they long since had been shot out. Hatcheries are restocking streams On management areas, public bear, deer and boar hunts are held. An extensive game and fish propa-gation program is being blue-printed. STATE AID +>1 T !; e State of North Carolina is backing plans of the National Forest Service, the Park Service, TVA Sam Pn Tfc te dr?TY ? ln thG P0Stwar travel P™: grain, ine state highway department's large and growing surplus will be thrown into a large postwar FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 03 highway construction program. Roads will be widened, and new highways built to make attractive spots more accessible. A new two-way road, running from the Blue Ridge Parkway to the summit of Mt. Mitchell al-ready has been approved. A road now crosses Lake Mattamuskeet, and the banks will be brought within the range of new bus lines by bridges across Alli-gator River and Croatan Sound. A road is now being roughed out to Hatteras. Long ago, the state made all bridges toll-free, and also operates general toll-free ferries. The state's Advertising Division estimates that postwar travel in North Carolina will amount to nearly half a billion dollars a year, making the state among the leaders in travel volume. A subcommittee has been named to interest capital in building more resorts to meet the anticipated demands of a travel-hungry nation. The State Planning Board is coop-erating in the enterprise. HOTEL SERVICES Basic to the travel industry are the types of service rendered by hotel employees. The pictures which accompany this article were taken by Mr. Hemmer of the State News Bureau to illustrate such services. These show summer activities at Pinnacle iiiiiiii -': :';:-: . . ' ..: v. f; : v;v" Life-guard at Wildcat Lake. Inn, which is a unique resort in that during the winter months it is in reality Lees-McRae College. During the summer season the college buildings provide hotel accommodations, and the students render all the service operations as part of a self-help program. TIPS AS WAGES Up until March 6, 1945, the Commission had a great deal of trouble in trying to get reports from operators of hotels and restaurants and similar estab-lishments, upon the tips received by bellboys, wait-resses and other such employees. For the last few months before the 6th of March, and for the months between the 6th of March and the 1st of July, the traveling auditors examined a great many accounts. Sometime in the winter of 1945 a committee of hotel keepers and their attorney, Mr. J. C. B. Ehringhaus, appeared before the Commission in an effort to find some fair and equitable way to tax employers on tips received by their employees. The discussion was both pro and con, and the Commission finally determined that it was so diffi-cult to account for tips that it could not fairly tax the employers for tips received by employees, so the Commission passed the following regulation : Rule 2. Gratuities: (A) Any gratuities custo-marily received by an individual in the course of his work from persons other than his employing unit shall be treated as wages paid such individual and shall be added to any other remuneration paid to such individual by such employing unit for the pur-pose of preparing reports required by and in calcu-lating the contributions due the Unemployment Compensation Commission ; provided, such gratuities are reported by such individual to the employing unit on forms prescribed by the Commission and fur-nished to the individual by the employing unit, with-in three days after the end of the pay period in which received. (B) If the employing unit deems the amount of gratuities reported in accordance with Section (A) of this rule to be unreasonable or excessive, the em-ploying unit shall include such amount in his reports to the Commission under protest, and any protest so made shall be investigated and determined in such manner as the Commission may prescribe. (C) Neither this rule nor any regulation or in-struction issued pursuant thereto is to be construed as authorizing any employing unit to demand of any individual performing services for it a report or ac-counting of gratuities received, or to require such in-dividual to render such report or accounting. If any individual fails to report gratuities received as pro-vided in Section (A) of this rule, however, such gratuities shall not be considered as wages, except on a showing of good cause to the Commission within 45 days of the end of the applicable pay period for such failure to report such gratuities. This will permit the bellboys and waitresses and others receiving gratuities in the performance of their duties to make reports to their employers. The employers will then have to include such amounts in their quarterly wage reports to the Commission and will have to pay contributions upon these amounts. The employees receiving tips and gratui-ties will thus have these credits to their wage rec-ords and included in subsequent calculation as to the amount of weekly benefits to be paid them if unem-ployed. The Commission thought that this was the fairest way out of a very difficult situation. The hotel men, restaurant keepers and others employing people who receive tips or gratuities, agreed with the Commis-sion. This regulation went into effect July 1, 1945. C. U. HARRIS. PAGE 104 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 READJUSTMENT PROBLEMS From now on, thousands of workers in North Carolina, and millions throughout the country, will be changing jobs. Skills learned in wartime may be of little use to them in the peacetime economy. Jobs may develop in places far from the cities or town where they now live. They may work shorter hours, and their take-home pay may be less. Unemployment compensation will help many of them to bridge the gap between jobs. But unem-ployment compensation is not a subsidy for idleness. It can be paid only to workers who are seeking jobs they cannot find. Our law in North Carolina, like those of other states, has safeguards to prevent payment of bene-fits to people who do not want to work or who are unable to work. But in the present situation, ad-ministrators are faced with many questions in de-termining whether an individual is eligible for benefits. Refusing suitable work, being unavailable for work or unable to work, and quitting a job volun-tarily, are the three principal reasons for disquali-fying a worker. Following are some of the basic questions of policy that will have to be decided : 1. What is suitable work? Should "suitability" be determined as a job for which a person is qualified by recent experience, or should it be related to a worker's pre-war job or should both recent and earlier experience be considered in the light of what jobs are available? Examples : A mechanic who earned $1.80 an hour during the war is offered a job at 65 cents an hour. If he re-fuses it, should he be denied unemployment in-surance benefits? A drug store clerk has become a skilled machine operator in a war plant and his wages have amounted to about $80 a week. After he is laid off, he is offered a job as a clerk at $20 a week. If he refuses it, should he be disqualified for unemploy-ment insurance benefits, or should he be given time to look around for a job in his line at higher pay? Many women took industrial jobs during the war. Some of them will want to return to homemaking, but some will want to continue to work. If they are laid off, what sort of work should be considered "suitable" for them? Should they be required to take housework or other work at much lower pay if factory jobs cannot be found? If jobs at high pay are not available, how much time will unemployed persons be given to appraise the situation before being offered whatever work is available, or denied benefits? 2. When is a worker able to work and available for work? Must he be able to take any job regard-less of its physical requirements? Must he be avail-able for work on any shift, regardless of home con-ditions? How far from home must the worker be willing to go, to be considered available for work? Examples: A 58-year-old man is laid off his war job. The only work to be had involves heavy lifting. Should he be disqualified for unemployment insurance bene-fits because he is unable to take the job, because he cannot do heavy lifting? A woman is laid off from a plant in her home town. The only work to be had is 35 miles away, in another town. She cannot adjust her household schedule to include the 3-hour travel time involved in taking such a job. Should she be considered un-available for work and denied benefits? 3. Should a worker be disqualified if he quits his job voluntarily for good personal cause? In North Carolina, if a worker quits his employment for a reason not connected with the work or the employer, he forfeits benefit payments for from 4 to 12 weeks. Example: A widow quits her job to take care of a sick child at home. When the child is well and going back to school, should she be denied her unemployment in-surance benefits while looking for another job? Suitable Work In the Post-War Period By Irene M. Zaccaro, Referee for Unemployment Compensation Board of Maryland The question of what is suitable work can be ap-proached from more than one viewpoint—that of the claimant, the employer, the labor union, the un-employment compensation board or commission and perhaps the employment service. Our specific prob-lem, as unemployment compensation personnel, is to coordinate these often conflicting views in an at-tempt to obtain the perfect answer—that attainment is well nigh impossible. Specifically we are confronted with the opinion of the claimant in contrast to, what we hope is, our impartial opinion. The claimant has a keen personal *The substance of this article was delivered as a paper at a Regional Meeting of the Interstate Conference of Em-ployment Security Agencies held in Richmond, Va., July, 1945. interest in what is suitable work for him and he is not interested in definitions of suitable work. If he does not think a job is suitable he has many reasons why and frequently his reasons have little relation to the suitability of work as we consider it. The un-employment compensation law gives us a definition of suitable work or rather an outline to follow in determining suitable work. An examination of the laws of the states (North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland) in this Region, including the District of Columbia, shows a similarity in this regard, so that in follow-ing the Maryland Law practical application is being made of the laws of these other states. To interpret these provisions of the unemploy-ment compensation laws equitably and to the under- FALL, 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 05 standing and satisfaction of the claimant, in this post-war period, requires the wisdom of Solomon and the courage of Daniel. WAGES, HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF WORK Work is considered unsuitable for a claimant "if the wages, hours, or other conditions of the work offered are substantially less favorable to the in-dividual than those prevailing for similar work in the locality." (Maryland Law, Sec. 5(c) (2).) WAGES What will be the basis for comparison in order to determine suitable wages for particular types of work in the post-war period; will it be the pre-war period beginning with the effectiveness of the un-employment compensation laws to the middle of 1940 when the defense program began; or the period of intensive war work ; or the post-war period ? Will a comparison of the pre-war wage scale and the wage scale during the war assist in reaching an average wage, which will represent the post-war wage scale ? Or, will it be an average wage derived from a comparison of the pre-war wages and the wages offered after the war? Or, will the war time wage be the basis for determining a reasonable wage in the present post-war period. One view is that the last wages received by the individual (in war work) will not be a fair basis for reaching a wage rate in the future because of the abnormally high average weekly earnings, but that from an analysis of the wages offered for particular types of work after the war an average rate can be determined. Another, and this is the view I incline to, is that the war work rates, because of restrictions imposed by the Federal Government, did not represent a sub-stantial increase, if any, in rates and should be the basis for any reasonably fair determination of the post-war wage rates. Actually, the high wages paid to war workers were not due in the main to an increase of hourly or piece work rates, but to the long hours which resulted in time and a half and double time for over-time work, plus a bonus for work on the night shifts. There has been a substantial decrease in the pay envelope because of reduced working hours (and for thousands of workers there is not even any longer a pay envelope) , but in considering a wage rate it is the rate per hour for straight time, or on the weekly basis of wages for a 40-hour week. HOURS Hours of work during the war were long and changing; all war industries exceeded 40 hours a week ; there were three shifts in most plants ; work-ers in many instances had to take their turn on all three shifts. We remember the objections raised by claimants against six and seven days a week work; against shift work. Then came the complaint, as hours of work were reduced, that unless they have overtime work their earnings would be reduced ; applicants be-gan objecting to work which did not present the op-portunity for overtime. The demand for overtime cannot be considered as legitimate reason for refusing employment, when there is not the need for overtime; generally, there will be very little overtime, if any at all. The con-sensus of opinion, so far as I have been able to gather, is that normal hours of work will be 40 hours a week. The out-of-state claimant who quit employ-ment when hours were reduced, with the consequent decrease in earnings, placed himself in the position where the suitability of work for him must be judged from the circumstances surrounding work which might exist in his home community. A demand by a claimant for shift work, with the bonus for night work, will be unreasonable when, probably, there is no occasion for more than one shift in most industries. There will be some shift work in isolated plants, and if an individual can be placed therein so much the better, otherwise day work is suitable work. The tendency back to day work for women should not be disqualifying, unless it is the custom and practice of the industry to which she applies to operate on two or more shifts. During the conversion period there will be a con-siderable reduction in hours of work, as one of the results of conversion might be the spreading of hours of work so as to provide employment for dis-charged war workers and returning veterans. Peace time production may, however, provide not only regular full-time employment, but a great deal of overtime. If there is a tendency to overtime work, a refusal of employment requiring overtime will be unreasonable. An exception is noted in regard to women workers, where family and household respon-sibilities again can be given more consideration. During the war period family and household duties, except where very young children were involved, were not considered as good cause for refusing other-wise suitable work, but now the swing is back to a more liberal attitude in this connection. However, it is probable that many women will return to their homes or change over to employment other than in-dustrial, but where the worker holds out for a type of work (which there is little likelihood of obtaining) which requires overtime or shift work meanwhile ob-jecting to either, her objection would be without good cause. CONDITIONS OF WORK The subject of conditions of work will be treated generally, since it is impossible to go into each ques-tion which might arise. There was a general im-provement in working conditions during the war, al-though Labor says some of its privileges were re-laxed so as not to hinder the war effort. Whether Management will drop all or some of these improve-ments time will tell. No doubt Labor will try and re-gain the privileges it suspended or gave up during the war, as well as struggle to retain the gains made. However, when we consider the question of work-ing conditions, I believe the manner in which we handled it in these past years will be as safe a means PAGE 1 06 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 as any. Comparing the conditions the claimant ob-jects to with similar conditions in the industry; here, as formerly, it will be the obligation of the claimant to prove to the satisfaction of the unemployment compensation agency that the condition or conditions complained of are bad, whether he refers to safety, sanitation, lighting, location, etc., or whether he does not like the shape of the foreman's nose. If the ob-jection is that the machine he must operate has a left foot pedal rather than a right foot pedal, then the claimant ought to start using his left foot (unless he has only a right foot). PROSPECT OF GETTING LOCAL WORK VERSUS OUT-OF-TOWN WORK Several questions raise their heads here ; the work-er whose work had been entirely in the area where he lives; the worker who never has had industrial employment in his home area ; the worker who had a low paying job in his home locality and removed tem-porarily to a place where there was industrial em-ployment ; and the worker who always has travelled from place to place in the practice of his trade. The worker who never has had industrial em-ployment or regular employment of any kind, ex-cluding odd jobs, in his home locality, who returns home after employment elsewhere has terminated and who refuses to leave his home for suitable work in another area removes himself from the labor mar-ket and is unavailable for work. He never had work in his home area and the likelihood is that he never will have work there; if unemployment compensa-tion benefits were a reward for past employment, then he would be paid; but unemployment com-pensation benefits are for persons unemployed through no fault of .their own. The continued unem-ployment of such an individual would be due to his voluntary act in refusing to go to a place where there is work. It is not unreasonable to offer that person work which may require him to leave his home locality, if the other conditions of suitability are met in the work offered to him. It would be unreasonable to offer work out-of-town to an individual who has lived and worked in one place if there is prospect of work for him in his locality. If his type of work leaves the town or city, he will not be expected to follow it immediately ; he ought to be permitted a period of time (which will vary with the circumstances of each case) in which to find other suitable work. Then either he ought to change his work requirement or accept out-of-town employment. He cannot demand benefits if he refuses to change to other employment locally, while insisting that he remain fixed in his residence. The applicant who had a low paying job in his home locality before the war and returned home, after having had employment in war work elsewhere, must be available for work similar to that which he had before the war or work which is to be had in his locality at the wages, hours and under the cir-cumstances prevailing for that work, or he must be willing to accept employment out-of-town. To re-fuse local work because his last employment in war work away from home was of a different kind, with higher earnings, etc., while preferring to remain at home where work within his immediate prior expe-rience is not available would disqualify the claimant. If he is willing to accept work locally and the work exists, although there may not be any immediate openings, the claimant would be eligible for benefits. Where it has been and is the custom of the trade for a worker to travel from place to place, in the performance of his work, a refusal of work because it is out-of-town would be sufficient to disqualify the claimant. IMMEDIATE PRIOR EARNINGS IN WAR INDUSTRY VERSUS NORMAL PEACE-TIME INDUSTRY EARNINGS What are "normal peace-time industry earnings?" This will be an important and recurring question in the years just ahead. My opinion is that we do not have any criterion to follow. In the years preceding the war we were not so much in "normal peace-time" as in the tail end of a depression period with govern-ment- created jobs and a somewhat artificial wage structure. In the discussion under "Wages" the opinion was expressed that the war industry wages would be the best gauge for ascertaining industry earnings in this period of post-war conversion. There will be necessary adjustments in wage rates, and a gradual development of peace-time wage rates in in-dustry. Our tendency should be, where a wage rate for comparable work drops considerably below the war-time rate, to make comparison with the rate prior to the war, at the same time remembering the increased living costs and increased income taxes still confronting the worker. Many workers will have to return to work which does not pay and did not pay them the earnings they had in war industry. A demand for earnings in the former work equal to their war earnings is not justified. Even those workers who remain in work similar to that which they had in war industry, per-haps for the same employer, may complain that their earnings have been reduced, not in the rate, but in reduction of hours or smaller volume of work (piece work) ; such complaint if offered as reason for quit-ting or refusing any offer of otherwise suitable work is without merit. The working hours in war time have been abnormal; the volume of work also was abnormal. The ratings held by many workers were abnormal in that persons of limited qualifications had been in either supervisory capacities or in jobs that in normal times would be considered beyond their skill and experience. With a return to peace-time standards, the worker should adjust himself accordingly; any contrary demand might be cause for disqualification. Considered from the standpoint of wage scale, there will not be much difference between the war time and the post-war wage. There will be a dif-ference, often quite substantial, due primarily to the decrease in working hours, which neither the em-ployer nor the applicant can control, and the worker should conform to existing circumstances. The problem of providing jobs in substantial volume dur-ing this period will depend, to some extent, upon whether one worker will be employed long hours so he can maintain a high earnings level, or whether FALL. 1945 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 107 more than one worker will have a job for a normal work week. The demands of the claimant will be considered in the light of the policies and practices which develop in industry after the war, and their reasonableness determined. REQUIREMENT AS TO JOINING UNION This question must be approached from two angles—whether the claimant is to retain his free-dom of choice regarding union membership, or whether he should accept (involuntarily) the benefits of union membership in order to obtain employment. The unemployment compensation laws are silent on this point, so that by inference and interpretation it can be held that refusal to accept work because union membership is required constitutes a refusal of suitable work. There has always been some doubt whether the unemployment compensation laws are not discriminatory in this matter. If an applicant cannot be required to "resign from or refrain from joining any bona fide labor organization," then why should he be disqualified for failure to accept work which would require him to join a bona fide labor organization ? If a claimant does not want to belong to a union, he may have many good or even foolish reasons for his attitude, depending upon the other person's point of view, but he ought to have the privilege of making a free choice without the shadow of a possible dis-qualification hanging over him. PRIOR TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE This is a problem which will come up with fre-quency in the era of peace ahead. The individual who was in an industry before the war may not be difficult to handle ; there will be some place for him in that industry when it reconverts, and a short period of time may be the only element involved. The persons who went from school or work far re-moved from industrial employment into war work will be faced, many of them, with the question of re-adjustment. This applies, too, to many who were not employed at all prior to the war. The first effort should be to try and refer the claimant to the same type of work he was doing ; sec-ondly, refer him to related work ; thirdly, divert his abilities into work where he can be readily trained ; and finally, if the training and experience gained in a war industry cannot be utilized in peace-time, then the applicant must be diverted into new work or to work performed prior to the war. This will be a matter of education, and a real job is here for the em-ployment service. From the standpoint of suitable work, however, the claimant should be permitted a reasonable length of time, during which he is receiving benefits, within which to obtain work in line with his training and experience. The period of unemployment will vary with the circumstances of each case, but after that time it will be up to the claimant to cooperate by go-ing into new and related work. A claimant cannot hold out indefinitely for work which may have ceased entirely or where the pros-pects of obtaining such work are remote. An offer of work is suitable if the claimant's training and ex-perience can be utilized and the employer is willing to afford him the necessary training. Offering a claimant work in line with his pre-war experience would be an offer of suitable work, if the chances of employment in work similar to "his war work experience are meagre. NATURE OF DISQUALIFICATION There is no definite yard stick for the measure-ment of disqualifications. The possibility does exist that in the post-war period an individual's failure to accept, what under the circumstances of his case would be, suitable work will necessitate a determina-tion of unavailability ; however, such a determination will be based on all facts surrounding him and not merely because the claimant refused employment. Where an individual persists in refusing to accept suitable work the maximum disqualification in num-ber of weeks will be warranted, perhaps on more than one occasion. If during what is considered a reasonable period of unemployment an individual refuses work, which might subsequently be considered suitable because his chances of securing other work have decreased, then there should not be any disqualification. Later on, beginning with a moderate penalty, a disqualifi-cation would be necessitated. Those individuals who because of lack of work in an industrial area return to their former homes, where employment opportunities do not exist, will be eligible for benefits so long as suitable work (again the circumstances of each case will be controlling) is not available or offered to them. Disqualifications will follow failures to apply for or accept work offered. RESEARCH REPORT America has a good chance of getting through the present reconversion period without mass unemploy-ment or severe business dislocation, according to sub-stantial opinion among the country's leading econo-mists who are participating in a symposium on "Financing American Prosperity." The Twentieth Century Fund, an institute for scientific research in current economic problems be-lieves that "the great majority of war workers" were doing exactly the kind of work during the war they will do in time of peace. The average amount of un-employment during the first year after the war with Japan will be around 4.5 million. Only about five million war workers were em-ployed in plants which will make large permanent lay-offs and approximately 10 per cent of war work-ers were in plants where engineering problems of conversion will halt production as long as 4 months. To safeguard the country against deflation, the government should facilitate a quick shift from war production to civilian production, reform the tax system, extend and liberalize unemployment com-pensation schemes, and plan prompt expenditures on the repair and maintenance of public property. To guard against a disorderly rise in prices, the govern-ment should retain price controls and the regulation of consumer credit throughout the period of conver-sation and probably for a year or two longer. PAGE 1 08 THE U. C C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 The Law in Action By Bruce Billings, Sen During the three months period ending August 31, 1945, the Commission handed down decisions in ten cases involving benefit rights of claimants. In six of these cases, the question of the availability of the individuals for work under the Unemployment Compensation Law was presented. In two of these cases, the claimants voluntarily separated from their employment and had been denied statements of availability by the War Manpower Commission for a period of sixty days. The Commission held such individuals to be ineligible during the period for which they were denied statements of availability under Commission Statement of Policy Number 9 which at that time provided, "That any claimant who as a prerequisite to employment is required to possess a statement of availability or its equivalent under the rules and regulations of the War Man-power Commission shall not be considered available for work within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Law during any period with respect to which he does not possess or is unable to procure such statement or its equivalent * * *" It is well to note in this connection that this statement of policy is now obsolete and ineffective since the recent lifting of the manpower restrictions. In two cases it was found that the claimants had so restricted the conditions under which they would accept employment that the possibility and prospect of such individals securing employment was practi-cally eliminated, and it was therefore determined that such individuals were not available for work within the meaning of the law. In one of these instances, the claimant refused to accept any work except with her last employer on the first shift and in one particular department in which she formerly worked. The claimant in the other case referred to had been unemployed for thirteen months and had never earned more than $18.00 a week in employ-ment, but made it a condition that she receive at least $35.00 per week in any work offered her. In view of the length of claimant's unemployment and her previous earnings, it was held that she was not available for work. It was decided, however, in an-other case that a claimant who was the mother of two small children had not unreasonably restricted her availability when she was willing to accept any suitable work on the first shift and had made ar-rangements for the care of her children during the working hours of the first shift. In the only other instance involving availability it was determined that the mother of a small child who could not make ar-rangements for the care of the child in case she was offered suitable work and for that reason could not accept suitable work, did not meet the eligibility re-quirement of availability. In the only case involving a procedural question, the Commission upheld the decision of the Appeals Deputy dismissing the claimant's appeal when such appeal was not entered within the time required by statute and when the claimant could not show any good reasons for not noting the appeal within the time required by statute. ior Attorney, U. C. C. When a claimant was offered work as a sander at 50c an hour, and it appeared that such individual had recently undergone an operation and was un-able to perform work of such arduous nature, and when it further appeared that such person had good reason to believe that he would secure work of less arduous nature within a short time at a rate of 85c an hour, it was held that he did not refuse available suitable work without good cause and no disqualifi-cation was inflicted. In a case in which the claimants—employees of a full fashion hosiery mill were unemployed due to a labor dispute between the knitters in the plant and the management, the Commission determined that all such claimants-employees were ineligible for bene-fits for the reason that the work performed by all such individuals was of the same general type and that their jobs were part of a chain of production and that the operation of one group depended upon the continuance of the work of the others. The Commis-sion found that the relationship existing between the jobs of the claimants-employees and the jobs of those who voluntarily quit work placed the claimants and those workers in the same class of workers, and that such individuals were therefore ineligible for benefits under Section 96-14 (d) (2) of the Law which pro-vides that any individual shall be disqualified for benefits for any week with respect to which it is found that his unemployment is due to a stoppage of work which exists because of a labor dispute at the factory at which he is or was last employed un-less such individual shows to the satisfaction of the Commission that he does not' belong to a grade or class of workers of which immediately before the commencement of the stoppage there were members employed at the premises at which the stoppage oc-curred any of whom are participating in or financing or directly interested in the dispute. The Commission handed down opinions in ten cases involving interpretations of the coverage sec-tion of the law. In eight of these cases the employ-ing units were held to be liable under the statute for contributions on wages earned by employees. Three of the cases involved the question as to whether the employer had worked eight or more individuals in twenty different weeks in a calendar year. In two cases liability was found to exist and in one case the Commission found there was no liability. There were three cases decided which involved interpretation of what was formerly the contractors clause in the law. (Amended 3-13-45). In two of these cases the em-ployer was found to be liable for contributions on the earnings paid to employees of a contractor who was performing services for such employer in the course of the employer's usual business and in the other case of this kind the Commission found no liability for the reason that the services being performed by the contractor were not in the principal's usual trade or business. One employer was liable under the law by virtue of having acquired substantially all the assets, organization, and business of an employer who at the time of such acquisition was a covered employer under the Act. In another opinion, the FALL, 1945 THE U. C C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 09 Commission determined and held that gratuities and tips were taxable wages under the Law. In one instance, it was decided that solicitors for a laundry who owned their own trucks and who were paid on a percentage basis according to the amount of laun-dry brought in by them were performing services in employment under the Act. In interpreting the sec-tion of the law relative to termination of coverage it was determined that when an individual once be-comes an employer under the act and subsequently sells his business to another and then later reenters business, that such individual continues to be a cov-ered employer if he has never applied for and been granted termination of coverage as provided under the law. In defining what is agricultural labor under the statute, it was determined that where an indi-vidual bought hogs and livestock and maintained a place where he fed them until they were in a mar-ketable condition, and then sold them to various packing companies, when such activity was not con-nected with a farm and no grain or other feed was grown by the individual to feed such livestock it was concluded that the persons in the employ of such in-dividual who performed services in the furtherance of this business were not engaged in agricultural labor but were engaged in a commercial enterprise and therefore, wages earned by such individuals were taxable under the law. Unemployment Benefits-Picture Story from Claim to Check By S. F. Teague, Chief Claims Deputy Mr. S. F. Teague at his desk in the Central Raleigh Office. As head of the Commission's Claims Department all claims operations and business relating to claimants is under his supervision. (Photo by R. C. Yates, Jr.) Unemployment compensation is filling the gap be-tween war jobs and peace jobs on an increasing scale. The unemployment compensation program is espe-cially suited to play this major role during industrial reconversion—it is designed to provide a partial in-come for covered workers during periods of tem-porary unemployment. For many workers, the filing of a claim for un-employment benefits is a new experience. Their knowledge of the procedure for filing, at the best, is of a general nature only; they know little of how a claim is taken and processed by the Commission and the benefit checks finally mailed. This illustrated article is intended to aid public un-derstanding of the procedure followed in handling unemployment benefits, from the time a claimant ap-plies at a local employment office until he receives his check for weeks of no work. First Step. When a worker is unemployed and un-able to find another job, he should go to the nearest Employment Service Office. The Unemployment Compensation Commission of North Carolina has claims-takers located in all these offices throughout the state. A basic test as to whether or not a particular work-er is unemployed—is whether or not he is seeking work which he cannot find. Under the Unemploy-ment Compensation Law, registering for work at a public employment office constitutes evidence that the worker is seeking work. A requirement for eligibility to unemployment compensation is that the claimant be able to work and available for work. Consequently the first step for any worker who loses his job is to register for work at an Employ-ment Service Office. If the Employment Service has a job order for which the worker is reasonably fitted, he will be referred to the new employer. Second Step. While he is making his first call at the Employment Service Office, the unemployed worker also files his claim for unemployment insur-ance benefits. He should be sure to do this, before he leaves the office, so that the process of looking up First step—register for work. Registration for work comes first in the unemployment claims procedure. At the registra-tion desk, an applicant's work history is taken, and if there is a job order on file which his work background indicates he can fill, he is given a referral to that employer. Pictured here is the reception of an applicant in one of the local Employment Offices. PAGE 1 1 THE U. C. C. QUARTERLY FALL, 1945 his wage record account and determining the amount of his weekly benefit check may be started. It may be several weeks before he actually begins on a new job. If he delays in filing a claim, he may lose out on benefits that would otherwise be due him. Time lost in filing a claim for insurance, is not compen-sable. The date on which a first claim is filed, is the date from which insurance payments are figured. There is a one week "waiting period," and benefits begin with a subsequent continued claim covering the second full week of unemployment. Filing a claim means that the worker is inter-viewed by a claims-taker for the Unemployment Compensation Commission, and asked, among other things, to give his name, address, Social Security number, name of most recent employer, and cause for unemployment, the amount of his earnings for the week for which he is filing, and if he is able and available for work. This information is entered on an initial claim which serves as an application to determine benefit rights. The claim is s |
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