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Show Barometer of Industrial Ck)nditions CHICAGO, April 21 By A. P. General Gen-eral Improvement In tha Industrial alt-uatlon, alt-uatlon, described In . several Instances aa slow but steady, particularly over conditions aa they existed In the winter win-ter months, waa Indicated In report fathered by the Asaociated Pre from ederal, at at, labor and Industrial lesdera In many states of ths union. Iabor commissioners and other officiate offi-ciate In virtually every state from : which reporta were received, not only, declared that unemployment had ma- terlally been lessened In the last few montba. but nearly all were optimistic concerning the future, holding that the opening of seasonable lines of work, six'h ss agriculture and road and building build-ing conatructlon. would help greatly In absorbing: the surplus of workers. 1 While no definite figure on the present pres-ent number of unemployed waa available, avail-able, approximately 1.160.000 peraons were reported Idle In sixteen atates from which estimstes were received. Iarge Industrial at a tea such as New York. Pennsylvania and ftlassachueett contributed more than l.oon.ooo to thla total. New York leading with an estimated esti-mated COO. 000 out of work. The total population of the alxteen stat waa to aace of 43.0Oe.O00. STRIKE KICMDCD. ftamuel Gompere. president of the American Federation of Iabor, estimated esti-mated the unemployed at 1,000.000. Mlnera and other workers on atrike which several conatructlon unions have refused to accept, and vr which there appeara to be no present prospect or settlement. Although In Kentucky the number of calls for farm labor wke described m the omslleat la year. Colorado reported Inability to meet the demand for re-' liable farm workers. Whl'e no short- I sge of farm labor was Indicated In ' the Middle West, om atatea reported that there was work for everybody I who wanted this type of employment, and Kansaa declarations were that only good weather waa needed to reduce unemployment un-employment to a minimum. Farm labor la-bor wagea generally wer around $33 a month, with board and lodging. Considerable unemployment waa declared de-clared to ex let among- Pacific coaat marine workers, with no Indication of Improvement. The moat adverse statement from a tat employment ' head came from Iulatani, where F. K. Wood, commla-eloner commla-eloner of labor, declared that "the employment em-ployment situation In Louisiana waa had." Mr. Wood said he eatlmatsd .-ooo .-ooo men were unemployed In that state, 70 f"0 of them In New Orleana. A reduction In wagea waa noted In statements from several atates. along with dec larat lone that the efficiency of labor waa Increasing. Several staea reported that the recent campaign of the American legion to place former soldiers In positions had met with considerable con-siderable success and had helped materially ma-terially to decreaae unemployment. RK PORTS ENOOl RAGING. Statements from aome of the large Industrial canters were encouraging. etrott reported that employment In the automobile Industry waa 70 per cent of norma), while the general percentage per-centage f employment waa t per eent of normal, a, compared with SO per cent a year ago. Among- th brightest reports were thoee from New Jersey North Dakota. Ohio, Idaho. I tan and Nebraska, although al-though they were accompanied In one Inatance by the warning that no outsiders out-siders were la demand. Nebraska waa Hated May I, 121, among the atatea with conalderahle unemployment, with 13.000 est i ma led as out f work. Thla year Frank A. Kennedy, aeretary of the Nebraaka atate department of labor aald "Nebraaka will b enabled to take care of all Ita unemployed In another four week, atate and federal agenclea are beginning to have difficulty in fj 11-1 11-1 Ing calia for laborer, reporta from th etate Indicate no unusual or aerloue condition." He added, however, "Nebraaka "Ne-braaka will need no outside labor, un-leaa un-leaa possibly some harvest handa lata In the aummer." There la "a Job now open for everybody every-body who wants to work" la New Jersey, Jer-sey, according to Russell Kldredge. federal director of employment In the atate department of labor. He added that there la a shortage of aktlled mi-chanlca mi-chanlca all over the atate. were not Included In the state estimates.' esti-mates.' The miners' strike, which union officials estimated aa Involving nearly TOO.oou men, waa the largeat Industrial controversy In progress as May day approached, with a conelderable number num-ber of workere affected by testlla and ton cutting atrike in shutdown In New England and In minor walkouts In other porta of the country. In aome cities there waa declared to be a demand for akllled workera, although al-though the supply of common labor, generally waa declared to be larger than the demand. Some state labor de- Partment officials definitely stated that he unemployment crisis had been paesed In ihelr atatea and that a move toward nor-nal conditions waa In pro-gresa. pro-gresa. Aome localltlea reported that conditions already virtually were normal, nor-mal, but from moat of the atates reporting re-porting there waa declared to be un emplnvment In many llnee. Only In a few Isolated Inatance. however, wa It declared to be acute, and the general tenor of the atatementa waa one of optimism, op-timism, particularly with reference to the future. A prog-ram of intense bulldlns; activity activ-ity and city and atate Improvement work waa outlined In report from virtually vir-tually every state, and It waa expected that many Idle workera would find employment em-ployment In a gigantic construction boom which waa Indlcatsd from many aourcea BVII.D1XO ACTIVK. Monthly record of building- activity Joeeph A. Kitchen, director of the North Dakota atate federal employment employ-ment axenry, declared at Rlamarrk that next month there will not he a farm worker In th state who wanta to work who will be out of a Job. Mr. M B i Powe, tn chars of the Faro state-1 federal employment agency, declared that there waa no acute unemployment problem In North Dakota, and that th tat continued to abaorb much labor from the South and East. The demand la almoat entirely for farm labor, aha added. In Idaho, where It waa eatlmated 1.-000 1.-000 were unemployed May 1, 121, unemployment un-employment haa virtually become a minua quantity. Normal condition by June were predicted In t'tah. Th belief that before aummer t over there will be a nor tare of all kind of labor waa expressed by B. C. Helple, superintendent of the city employment em-ployment bureau at Cleveland. Km-ployera Km-ployera at Cleveland are advertising for skilled labor. . 114 were broken by the total valuation valua-tion of hulldtnc permit at leading cities for March, and the aggregate of IM3.2U.2M for 10 cltlea waa believed be-lieved by that publication to be the largest for all time. The number of permlta leaned laat month In thoee cltle waa 02.444. Aa compared with March, Itfl, when th permlta numbered ftS.MS and the valuation amounted to 1 1 l.OOA.tn, the fain In value waa ft per cent. New ork eatabllehed an unprecedented record rec-ord of I104.fc9tt.64ll. Chicago permit were the largeat ln nine year, according accord-ing to the Illinois department of labor, deepite ths handicap of unsettled labor condition In aom building trade. They amounted to $1.J,00. an In-creaae In-creaae of $12,033,100 over March of laat year. The Chicago build In controveray hlngea on the Tandls wage award. |