By far the largest employer of labor within the United States is Uncle Sam himself, who had, about the time when America entered the war in 1917, 520,000 employees in the civil service, besides near 150,000 soldiers and sailors. Besides thus furnishing a livelihood to one person in a hundred and fifty of the whole population of the United States, the Government carries on a Bureau of Labor, which gets together all kinds of information about labor conditions in this country and in other countries. In 1916, the Government passed a special statute for settling the troubles between the railroad men and the railroads, commonly called the “Adamson Bill,” under which a strike was averted and wages were raised.
MOTOR EQUIPMENT FOR “STAR” POSTAL ROUTE 14233
Fredericksburg to Kinsale, Virginia—Two long trucks and working staff of four; Driver, Assist. Postmaster, Clerk, and Delivery Messenger
During the war, a National War Labor Board was set up to adjust troubles between employers and their hands working in munitions factories and other war industries; and many serious difficulties were settled by this official arbitration board. Thousands of workmen and workwomen of every degree of skill were drawn into the war service of the Government, as clerks, as workers in factories, and in many other capacities.
Up to the time of the war, the Government was much opposed to allowing its employees to join in trades unions, but when, in 1917, the railroads and later the telegraph and telephone operatives were transferred to Government control, they carried with them their existing unions, and even formed some new ones. Uncle Sam therefore takes a large responsibility for labor conditions both inside and outside of the Government service.
Uncle Sam as a Farmer
A DIFFICULT POSTAL TRAIL
Only about three feet wide, and running along the Hoko River from Clallam Bay to Royal, Washington