of this kind.
Great Britain, however, after some experiments with a similar
local system, established in 1909 the first national system of
"labor-exchanges." In America the movement is developing in three
directions, through municipal, state, and federal offices. These are
united (since 1913) in an "American Association of Public Employment
Offices." In 1915 there were known to be 99 state and city employment
offices distributed through 30 states, besides federal offices
operated in 18 cities in connection with the Bureau of Immigration.
The clearly recognized task is now to cooerdinate these various
agencies into an efficient national system, eliminating partizan
politics and elevating the management of all branches to the plane
of professional service. Through these agencies can be operated an
industrial service, analogous in function to the weather bureau, and
reporting from day to day the pressure of demand and the prospects for
labor in the various parts of the country. The economic results of
a complete, exclusive, and efficient service of this kind would far
exceed its legitimate cost to the community.

Sec. 18. #Fluctuations of industry causing unemployment.# Any one of the
maladjustments in employment thus far considered may occur at a
given moment, in static conditions of industry. But there are
also maladjustments resulting from more general industrial changes
throughout a period of time. The two main types of these are seasonal
and cyclical changes, the one occurring within a year, and the other
occurring within the longer period of the business cycle. At the
downward swing of these seasonal and cyclical changes the number of
would-be workers exceeds the number of jobs [12] and the resulting
unemployment is greatest when the minor and the major swings are both
downward, about midwinter in a period of industrial depression. Thus
in 1893-94, and to a lessening degree in 1894-95, 1895-96; in 1907-08,
and 1914-15. Of course employment offices alone are no remedy for the
exceptional difficulties of such times, and the individual, whether he
be an unfortunate "out-of-work" or a more fortunate well-wisher, feels
helpless in the face of the overwhelming burden of distress. Such
a situation is declared by the radical communists to spell the
bankruptcy of the wage-system; while the most conservative students
of the subject confess that this periodic chaos in the labor market is
the strongest indictment of, and involv