Free Employment Bureau.—The Kansas free employment bureau was established by the act of March 5, 1901, "for the purpose of providing employment agencies in all cities of the first and second class within the state." It was placed under the management of an officer known as the "director of free employment," with a salary of $1,200 a year and $500 for postage and office expenses. Under the law free employment agencies were established in a large number of cities, the agents being required to register the names and addresses of all persons asking for employment and report the same to the director, who was to make reports annually showing the work of the bureau.

Theodore B. Gerow was appointed director of free employment on April 8, 1901, and served until his death in 1908. His widow continued to conduct the affairs of the bureau and made the annual report for that year. In 1909 Charles Harris was appointed director. His report for the year 1910 shows that during the year there were 34,340 applications for employment, and on the other hand there were 33,153 applications from persons asking for help. Through the medium of the bureau, 29,575 found employment. One of the greatest benefits resulting from the bureau is in its aid in furnishing harvest hands to the great wheat fields of western Kansas. When harvest time comes, acres and acres of wheat in the western counties all ripen about the same time, and, it sometimes happens that men despatched by the bureau for a certain district are intercepted by wheat growers before they reach their destination. In some instances harvest hands have been almost dragged from the trains by force, so great has been the demand for help. In the establishment of this institution Kansas has shown a progressive spirit, by giving the services of a state official to the assistance of the worthy unemployed, thus enabling them to escape the clutches of private employment agencies, with which the payment of a fee is the main consideration.