{"value"=>"<p>Gertrude Beeks Easley, chairwoman. Proposed to operate the so-called \"vestibule schools\" to train employees in different trades. It was also active in the national movement to upgrade skilled and semi-skilled workers, train the unskilled, and train demobilized soldiers and sailors. In 1919, the department held a conference on the subject of training workers and general education.</p> <p>The files include correspondence between Gertrude Beeks Easley and Herbert E. Miles of the Department of Labor's training service. Also included are letters to businessmen, union officials, government officials, and others, informing them of a proposed conference and inviting their attendance, and indicating the necessity for promoting industrial training. There is also correspondence of the same period relating to a meeting of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Included among the correspondents are Max Ferrand (The Commonwealth Fund), Hugh Frange (American Federation of Labor), John Golden (United Textile Workers of America), Samuel Gompers, Arthur E. Holden (Federal Board for Vocational Education), and C. Edwin Michael (president of the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company). There are also miscellaneous papers including lists of members, annual budgets, and meetings.</p>"}