EXIT-OFFICE BOYS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3175, 28 August 1917, Page 6

EXIT-OFFICE BOYS

CHANCE FOR OLD MEN

It has just been discovered that the office-boy is no more; there are hardly any of them left. They don't ceem to caro for the munificent salary offered by the office-men. Their place has been token *oy old men past tho ago of careerroaking. Middle-aged men, who havo outlived their usefulness in ojther places, who.se existenco without work is a drain, on tno population, arc now bciug given n chance to support themselves at i;asy work, as long as they keep going, The New York "Times'" announces this new departure in office management by saying:— "Enter tho aged office-boy.. Gray-haired telegraph messengers havo for years been a common sight in tho city, but uot until recently, when tho shortage of office and errand boys became ncute, havo business houses, both big and small, ha.r> ricd by the lack of youngsters, resorted to the employment of elderly men in their stead. The head of one of the biggest printing and publishing houses in New i'ork is now depending almost entirely upon elderly men for work in and out of the office, previously done by boys. "For a long time," =aid this man, "our company found it practically impossible to get the boys needed ia our business. In talking over tho matter with iny wife, she suggested that the reason we could not get boys was probably duo to the fact tfl'at with increased wages and assured work, parents werp now eendin? thoir boys to high school instead of sending them out to work after completing the grammar terms, as so many have ilone in the past. After having tried for about a year, through every agency known to man, to obtain boys needed for our various departments, I finally had to agree with her. "Then an idea came to me: Why not advertise for active elderly men to act as messengers, etc.? Wo did so. Fifty applications were received in the first mail in reply to our advertisement! And such letters— -well and neatly written, proof of the ability and common senso of the applicant. At that tjmo we needed three. Wo sent postcards, to six; livo immediately 'responded. The first three were engaged. We havo now had these three men a month. We will never go back to boys. We pay these mon more money, it is true, but it is also a- fact that these men perform their duties much more effectively; their understanding, naturally, is bolter; and they are more reliable. Wo call them our 'Giant?.' "Looked at from a hunrnnitariaii point oF vimv it is giving employment to men of fifty to sixty, men who havo been thrown into the discard. There are evidently thousands of such men in this city, and the employers needing intelligent help of this character can help themselves, and the elderly men. by giviii" tho latter work. They will do all bova can do, and do it better, and do more. Try it and be convinced. Soine of my friends !iav-3 already done fo with satisfaction." Thosituation as described is apparently not exaggerated, judging from the window-signs Boys Wanted in hundreds of New York store* ami other business establishments. It is admitted that men are being employed to Ho the. work formerly done by the bop? in many' of there houren. and for the same general reasons as those quoted.