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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAM ES J. D AVIS, Secretary
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
ETHELBERT ST E W A R T , Commissioner
{No. 346
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES!
BUREAU OF LABOR ST A T IS T IC S / *
M
I S
C E
L
L A
N E
O U
S
S E R I E S
HUMANITY IN GOVERNMENT
By HON. JAMES J. DAVIS
Secretary of Labor
JUNE, 1923
W ASHINGTON
GOVERNM ENT PRINTING OFFICE
1923
CONTENTS.
The Department:
Page.
The welfare of the wage earner___________________________________
1
Bureau of Immigration:
On guard at the gates--------------------------------------------------------------------5
Bureau of Naturalization:
Making new Americans___________________________________________
10
Children’s Bureau:
Americans of to-morrow___________________________________________
15
Conciliation Service:
Peacemakers in industry---------------------------------------------------------------19
Women’s Bureau:
Safeguarding the mothers of to-morrow____________________________
22
Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Finding the facts--------------------------------------------------------------------------26
United States Employment Service:
Bringing the man to the jo b - ,-------------------------------------------------------29
United States Housing Corporation:
The housing problem----------------------------------------------------------------------33
Federal Board for Vocational Education:
Industrial training and rehabilitation--------------------------------------------36
in
BULLETIN OF THE
U. S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS.
WASHINGTON
N O. M .
Ju n e . 0 2 1
HUMANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
B y H o n . J a m e s J. D a v i s , S e c b e t a b y
of
L abob.
THE WELFARE OF THE WAGE EARNER.
Introducing the Department of Labor.
The purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and
develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their
working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employ
ment.
With these words Congress in the law which created the De
partment of Labor, in 1913, fixed the high aims which govern the
activities of the branch of the Government devoted to the service of
the working folk of the Nation. This act wrote into statute law
practical recognition of the rights o f the body of workers who make
up the great majority of our people. It accepted the principle that
a happy, contented, progressive group of working men and women
was fundamentally necessary to the progress o f our country. It
demonstrated that popular government has finally and irrevocably
committed itself to the doctrine for which the working men and 4
women o f the world have struggled through all the centuries since
it was laid down by the Carpenter of Nazareth—the doctrine that
the laborer is worthy of his hire.
In the welfare of the wage earner lies the future o f the Republic.
The basis of the best patriotism lies in the homes of the people, and
the vast majority of the people of America to-day are the wage
earners. A contented, satisfied workman, happy in his work, earning
a wage sufficient to insure comfort and advancement to his family,
is a social, economic, and political asset to his community and to his
country. In the direction of making every wage earner in the United
States this kind of a citizen lies the work of the Department of Labor.
It is a task that calls for the full cooperation of every American. It
is a movement for the betterment of the individual and the Nation
that calls for concerted effort by all the people. The Government can
not accomplish it by legislative action, Executive order, or judicial
decreee. The Government representing the people can only encour1
2
HUMANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
age; the people must aid. It is with the purpose o f giving the people
a clearer understanding of the purposes and methods o f the Depart
ment o f Dabor and of enlisting tjie support of enlightened public
opinion that these articles are written. I f they serve to acquaint any
considerable fraction of our people with the opportunities and serv
ices that are offered to them through the Department of Labor they
wrill have done their duty.
In its purpose to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the
Nation’s wage earners the Department of Labor has no authority to
foster any special privileges for the wage earner. The safeguarding
o f the rights of labor, the betterment of working conditions, the
advancement of opportunities for profitable employment—these are
the objects o f the department. In the pursuit of these objects it
covers a wide field. Under its beneficent jurisdiction come not alone
workingmen and workingwomen but the children of working men
and women, and the unfortunate little ones who by press o f economic
circumstances have been forced into the stern path of labor before
their time. Its great care is humanity—men, women, and children.
The present Department of Labor with its wide field of activity
was the outgrowth and development o f an agitation that began
shortly after the Civil War, when recognition in the Federal Gov
ernment for the great group of wage earners of the country was first
sought. This agitation resulted in the creation of the Bureau of
Labor in the Department o f the Interior in 1884. The law creating
this bureau was approved by President Arthur. This bureau was
later enlarged and in 1888 was made an independent establishment
of the Government, with its head reporting directly to the President.
In 1903, under the administration of President Roosevelt, the De
partment o f Commerce and Labor was created and the Bureau of
Labor was transferred to the new department. A continued and
insistent demand that the wage earners be accorded representation
in the Cabinet of the President resulted in the enactment of a law,
approved by President Taft March 4, 1913, creating the Department
o f Labor and transferring to it the Bureau of Labor (now the
Bureau of Labor Statistics), the Children’s Bureau, and the Bureaus
o f Immigration and Naturalization. The law also gave the Secre
tary o f Labor authority to conciliate industrial disputes submitted
to him. During the war the activities o f the department were widely
extended, and many war-time bureaus were added to the organiza
tion. With the department back on a peace basis, the Women’s
Bureau and the United States Employment Service have been devel
oped as normal and necessary services, based upon the skeleton
organization left from the war work. The United States Training
Service also is continued to some extent through the junior division
THE WELFARE OE THE WAGE EARNER.
3
o f the Employment Service. O f the strictly war services only the
Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation remains in exist
ence to dispose of the many millions of dollars in property which
it acquired. To-day these make up the Department o f Labor.
Each of these bureaus pursues a definite, clear-cut line o f service
in the department purpose of fostering the welfare o f the wage
earner. The Bureau of Immigration guards the gates of the Nation,
and, under the laws passed by Congress protects the American work
man from injurious competition from abroad. It sees that aliens
coming to America fit the standard fixed by our laws as proper for
the preservation of American liberty and progress. The Bureau of
Naturalization undertakes to turn the aliens who come to us into
liberty-loving, self-respecting citizens entitled to take their place
with our great group of wage earners. The Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics keeps the finger of the department upon the pulse of labor
demand and supply, compiles the vast amount of information that
is vital to intelligent administration, and keeps the wage earner and
the public generally informed as to employment, wages, working
conditions, and cost of living. The Conciliation Service, directed
by the Secretary of Labor, seeks to avert and settle industrial dis
putes, and to foster the spirit of cooperation in industry which is
vital to the welfare of worker and employer. The Women’s Bureau
and the Children’s Bureau work for the betterment of women and
children in industry and among the wage earners. The Employ
ment Service functions to direct idle wage earners to profitable
employment, and it has developed a nation-wide organization that
seeks to bring together and keep together the workman and the job.
No single thing is of greater importance to the American wage
earner than the practice of thrift. Truly deplorable is the condition
of the worker who at the end of a year of toil finds that expenditures
have disposed of all the year’s earnings, leaving nothing for the
future. The worker who by supplementing his labor with thrift is
able to put aside out of his earnings something that will safeguard
his livelihood in the days when he can not work is serving himself,
his community, and his country. He is providing future content
ment for himself and is adding to the accumulated capital of his
community and Nation.
I have said many times that every worker is entitled to what I
call a saving wage— a wage that will do more than provide the neces
sities of life. I believe that the pay envelope at the close of the
week or month should hold something more than enough to settle
the accumulated bills for food, clothing, and shelter. I believe, as
President Harding has said, “ The workman’s lowest wage must be
enough for comfort, enough to make his house a home, enough to
4
MtJMASJlTY
m
GOVERKMJKT.
insure that the struggle for existence shall not crowd out the things
worth existing for.”
Many modern employers have accepted the principle of a saving
wage. They are realizing that the bulk of America’s great buying
power rests in the pay envelope of the American wage earner, and
that the judicious spending of the worker is the source of prosperity
for industry.
But to make the saving wage a practical economic measure the
worker must do two things. He must work and earn, and he must
save. The man who has money enough to insure plenty for himself
and his is the man who works steadily, spends judiciously, and saves
systematically. To-day the avenues of systematic saving open out
on every side of us. The savings bank offers safety and profit to the
individual who will take advantage of it. Building and loan asso
ciations offer opportunities for thrift and for acquiring a home. Life
insurance provides a sure and certain means of saving. Our great
fraternal organizations with their sick and death benefits give easy
opportunity to the small saver and at the same time they foster that
spirit of fraternalism, of the brotherhood of man, which is good for
the human souL
In all its activities the Department of Labor deals with human
beings. Its service is to men and women and children in their human
relationships. It is in daily, even hourly, touch with the intimate
life of the great bulk of our people. There its work lies.
The Department of Labor faces a great future of service and
accomplishment. With the cooperation of the people whom it serves
it can bring to American industry and American wage earners that
spirit of mutual help that will unite the interests of worker and
employer, and set both of them hand in hand on the highway to
achievement that will make for a bigger and better America.
ON GUARD AT THE GATES.
Through the Bureau of Immigration the Department of Labor
functions to guard the gates of America against the influx of a horde
of aliens whose presence in the United States might menace the
general welfare of our people. The opportunities which America
offers to the individual are precious, and they should not be bemeaned by placing them in unworthy hands. The man or woman
who comes to the United States from abroad must be of a type
mentally, morally, and physically capable of appreciating the ad
vantages of life in the Republic, and of taking the fullest measure of
success, socially, economically, and politically, under our beneficent
institutions. America’s 110,000,000 men, women, and children owe it
to themselves to see to it that only the worthy are permitted to take
up their residence among us.
A t every immigrant station on the seaboard, along 3,000 miles of
Canadian boundary, and on the Mexican border the officials of the
Bureau of Immigration are on guard. Their duty it is to test the
worthiness of every alien who presents himself as a candidate for the
high privilege of residing in the United States. The tests imposed
are fixed by law. In general their purpose is to bar those whose
physical condition might imperil the national health, those whose
moral conduct might offend or contaminate the morals of the com
munity, those who preach the downfall of the American system of
government, and, finally, those who by reason of the different eco
nomic standards under which they have lived would, if permitted to
enter in unrestricted numbers, reduce the standard of living of the
American wage earner. Here the Department of Labor is again in
full pursuit of its high purpose—the promotion of the welfare of the
man and woman who work in America. Under the law no employer
may engage cheap workers in Europe, at the low European wages,
and bring them to America to compete with or displace American
labor working at American wages and maintaining an American
standard of living. Upon one condition employers may import
skilled labor. They must establish that such labor, unemployed, can
not be found in the United States.
The immigration statutes bar aliens over 16 years old who are
unable to read in some language or dialect. This test of literacy
and the provisions which exclude the feeble-minded and the insane
are the only provisions which prescribe mental standards for these
580W°—23----- 2
§
6
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
future Americans. Special laws exclude Chinese laborers and aliens
from certain defined sections o f Asia.
With the close of the W orld War, America faced a veritable flood
of immigrants, seeking refuge from the conditions in the war-torn
countries o f Europe and the Near East. Cohgress, to stem the tide,
passed a law limiting the immigrants from any foreign country to 3
per cent o f the foreign-born persons of each nationality resident in
the United States in 1910. Under this law the United States has
checked the stream of aliens flowing to this country arbitrarily, pend
ing the framing of a policy under which only the best of those apply
ing for admission will be allowed to enter. In the first year of its
operation the 3 per cent law cut down the number of foreigners ad
mitted by more than half a million.
Nearly 1,000,000 foreigners, representing every element in the
tangled populations of the Old W orld and every race beneath the
sun, sought admission to America in the year before the percentage
law became effective. During the first year under the law less than
300,000 were admitted. One effect of the law was to cut down
materially the percentage of the total immigration which came from
southern and eastern Europe, the source of the alien stream which
the year before brought about 750,000 to our shores. The normal
immigration from northern and western Europe has been practically
unaffected by the percentage law.
One o f the peculiar features of the 3 per cent act is the favor
shown the Japanese and Chinese races. The law specifically exempts
from its operation the countries with which there are treaty agree
ments, which leaves the so-called “ gentlemen’s agreement” and
the Chinese exclusion laws in full force. The number forming
“ exempted ” classes is considerably in excess of the 3 per cent limit
placed upon nationals of other countries. In other words, these
“ excluded” races are given preference over the so-called “ most
favored.”
The greatest fault with our present immigration system is that it
gives the privilege o f selection to the sovereign powers of other
nations. This power was first given absolutely to the Japanese under
the so-called “ gentlemen’s agreement,” under the provisions of which
that Government covenanted to give passports only to certain classes
o f her people. There has always been some controversy as to
whether this power was fairly executed, although if it is not it is
likely that her authorities have been as badly duped as our own,
though they have the remedy, and we, recognizing their Govern
ment as responsible, could hardly challenge the statements appearing
on a passport issued by its officers.
The passport system at the present time is at best a clumsy piece
o f machinery and ill adapted to our needs. It is time that we our
OK GUARD AT THE GATES.
7
selves had something to say, if we are to continue to rely upon alien
labor for development of our resources, about the kind of emigrants
to be given the privilege o f taking part in our national affairs.
Instead of the passport given by foreign Governments we should set
a standard, and those qualified to be determined on the other side,
giving our certificate of qualification to those entitled to admission.
To accomplish this^ purpose I have ready for introduction at the
next session o f Congress a bill providing for the examination of
prospective emigrants giving the following tests:
1. B lood: To determine the general condition o f health, latent
diseases, etc.
2. Physical: A physical inventory of the strength and condi
tion, brawn and muscle, affecting ability to earn a living.
3. Mental: That our public institutions may not be filled with
men, women, and children eto whom we owe no national
duty, while our own are not properly cared for. But
further still, that our good American blood shall not become
polluted with imbecility, insanity, and idiocy. We must
keep the American race sturdy in mind as well as in body.
4. Character: This is not least, for no matter what examination
might be given at our ports of entry we could not be as
sured that the immigrant was not a criminal, a teacher or
believer in anarchy, or an immoral person. By having our
own representative verify the standing of a prospective
emigrant in his home community we can very nearly deter
mine the kind of citizen we may expect to make of him;
and if he doesn’t measure up after he gets here, all will
agree with me that he should be sent back to the country
from which he came.
Besides the very important departure from present laws in giving
America the right to choose her own future residents, two other good
results will be achieved. First, it will prevent the breaking up of
homes and families, all or part of which might be found inadmissible
upon arrival; and, second, it would give us a record of the individual
upon which our program for Americanization and education could be
intelligently based. Better immigration should be the watchword,
for it means better citizenship and better institutions.
In none of its wide activities does our Government come more
closely in touch with the human individual than in the work of the
Immigration Bureau. An unending procession of all the tribes of
earth, old and young, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, files
before the immigration officials, seeking the political and economic
freedom of opportunity which all the world has learned can be had
in America. From the long valleys of the Volga and Don, the
Danube and the Po, the Tigris and the Euphrates, come strange
8
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
figures, bringing with them strange gods and unknown rites. Hu
manity at its best and at its worst is in this throng. Upon the Immi
gration Bureau rests the grave responsibility of making sure that
only those who are worthy of American opportunity are allowed to
enter.
In large measure ultimate responsibility in cases where immigrants
are ordered excluded rests solely upon the Secretary of Labor. I f on
primary inspection at a port of entry an alien is not beyond doubt en
titled to land, his case is referred to what is called a board of special
inquiry. From the decision of this board in certain excluding cases,
the alien has the right of appeal, and this appeal can be passed on,
under the law, only by the Secretary of Labor himself. From 1,000
to 2,000 o f these cases monthly come to the desk of the Secretary. To
facilitate their disposition he has organized a special board at Ellis
Island, the New York immigration station, where the greatest num
ber o f immigrants land, and a board of review at Washington, which
reviews the evidence in cases appealed to the Secretary. Under a
recent law a Second Assistant Secretary o f Labor has been appointed,
and his duties are almost entirely confined to expediting the work of
the Immigration Bureau.
But with the Secretary himself rests the ultimate decision. To
him in the bald record of the evidence in these cases come men
whose shoulders are bent beneath the burden of age-old oppression
in foreign countries, women bereft of all comfort and holding alone
to the hope o f better things in the land of opportunity, children
who, with outstretched hands and tear-stained faces, plead for
refuge and a home. Here, indeed, are tales to touch the heart
strings and harrow up the soul. Here must all the urgings of pity,
charity— aye, of common humanity—be weighed in the balance with
the strict requirements o f the law. Here must the cold, hard logic
of precedent and percept sometimes yield a little to human sym
pathy.
In one class of cases the law can not be too strictly read nor too
rigidly enforced. These are the appeals of crafty missionaries o f
foreign hate and apostles of the destruction of law and order, who
seek admission to America in order to preach the downfall of our
institutions. With these we can hold no truce, with their aims we
can find no sympathy. Many of these, bold in their menace to all
that America holds dear, voice their destructive faith in accents of
violence and hate. Others seek subtly to evade the law and mystify
its agents, pleading technicalities and striving by devious word
juggling to conceal their bitter enmity to American principles. Here
the duty and service of the Department o f Labor to the Nation is
clear. I hold that no man deserves our aid and support who fails
to embrace those fundamentals upon which our forefathers built this
ON GUARD AT THE GATES.
9
Nation. I insist that all Americans must hold faith in these things—
the right to protection of life, liberty, and property, the right of
contract, and the right of free labor. Upon these principles rests the
whole fabric of our Government and the happiness and progress of
our people. I would deny our help to all men and all nations that
oppose them.
Back o f the Department of Labor in its handling of this vast prob
lem of immigration there is always the statutory mandate which
imposes upon the department the duty of promoting the welfare of
the American wage earner, and in performing this duty the depart
ment is safeguarding the life stream of the national, social, political,
and economic health.
MAKING NEW AMERICANS.
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citi
zens * * *.— Ephesians ii, 19.
Vital to the welfare of every American is the work o f making real
American; citizens out of the motley throng o f aliens who have come
to this country seeking the opportunities which America promises.
This is the task of the Department of Labor through the Bureau of
Naturalization. In the United States to-day are nearly 14,000,000
foreign born, and of these one-half have not yet accepted the privi
leges, duties, and responsibilities of American citizenship. Upon
the Bureau o f Naturalization rests the responsibility for bringing
these millions, aliens to our speech, our customs, and our institutions,
to the point where we can say to them, in the words of Paul the
Apostle, “ Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens.”
When a new baby comes into an American home it is usually a
time o f rejoicing. A ll of the relatives are interested and take the
first opportunity to see and in their own way welcome the little
helpless stranger. The baby is generally a force for good, but its
potentialities are paramount, not its present power, strength, and
ability to better the conditions of the family.
When an alien is admitted into American citizenship it should be
a source o f pleasure to the “ family.” He should be welcomed by
his “ Uncle Sam ” through his agents, who for this purpose should
be all the people. It is a rebirth of the alien. He is more than a
potential force for good to the country as a whole. He is a present
force. I f he be clean morally, regardless of whether or not his
reasons for becoming a citizen are selfish, his admission into the
body politic is a decided acquisition. If, in the old days, a slave
was worth $1,000 or $1,500, who can overestimate the value o f a
freeman who casts his lot with us?
Naturalization is as old as the Nation itself. In the Declaration
o f Independence we find as one o f the grievances of the colonies
against the King of England that he “ has endeavored to prevent
the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the laws
for naturalization of foreigners.” When the colonies had gained
their independence, they also wrote into the Constitution, section 8
o f Article I, that Congress shall have power “ to establish a uniform
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MAKING NEW AMERICANS.
11
rule o f naturalization * *
This followed as a natural se
quence the indictment referred to above in the Declaration of Inde
pendence. Then, pursuant to the authority conferred by the Consti
tution, there followed quickly the first naturalization law, passed on
March 26, 1790. History records that one of the grounds on which
we fought with Great Britain in 1812 was that the right of expatria
tion from his native land and association through naturalization with
this country was personal and inherent in the individual, and that
this Nation had the right to adopt and protect as citizens those
foreign born who complied with our naturalization laws.
On June 29, 1906, the existing naturalization statute, since
amended in some slight respects, was approved. Prior to that time
there had been little or no supervision, and naturalization had fallen
into a national and to a degree an international scandal. In some
instances it was bought and sold; without compliance with law it
was thrown as a cloak around many who had but recently come to
the United States and who possessed little or no knowledge of the
institutions of this country. In 1906 Congress established for the
first time a workable, uniform rule of naturalization and in addition
established a Federal force to control and supervise it. The lav/
became effective on September 27 of that year, and from that day
naturalization ceased to be a scandal and American citizenship
through the process of naturalization has been raised to a high
standard. The Government, recognizing the inability of the courts
to furnish personnel to investigate the legal qualifications and moral
character of petitioners, provided a force of examiners to investigate
the cases and thereafter report to the courts in order that the latter
might, before they took action on the applications, be apprised of
the worthiness or unworthiness for American citizenship of the
applicants. As notice of each application for naturalization filed
under the general provisions of the law must stand posted for at
least 90 days, the Government has the opportunity to conduct a
careful investigation. It has been the policy of the administrative
branch of the Government to assist to a realization of their desires
those who can meet the requirements of law and who are morally
qualified, but to endeavor to see that those who do not possess the
moral qualifications, or those who do not meet the legal require
ments, are denied.
The naturalization law is a special statute, passed for a certain
class, and under such circumstances those proceeding under its pro
visions must comply strictly therewith. It practically gives to those
born in a foreign land the birthright of Americans, with the excep
tion o f eligibility for the Presidency and Vice Presidency.
12
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
On May 9,1918, Congress passed the so-called soldier act, by virtue
o f which approximately 170,000 foreign-born soldiers and sailors in
the American service during the W orld War were admitted into
American citizenship without compliance with the usual formalities.
Prior to 'the enactment o f this statute it was felt by many that if
those in the service were good enough to fight and perhaps die for
this country, they were good enough to be American citizens. Con
gress evidently felt the same way. Many of these soldiers were
admitted to citizenship in the camps throughout the country and
some through applications filed abroad while in the service.
There never was a time in the history of this country when Ameri
can citizenship meant so much to the alien born as it does to-day.
Many find it difficult to find employment unless they can show that
they possess their second citizenship papers. Frequently the alien’s
wife and family are abroad and he must obtain citizenship before
he can bring them to this country.
The average alien who comes to these shores, unless he comes to
escape religious or political persecution, is not a successful man from
a material standpoint. I f he were he would in all probability remain
in the country from which he came. I f he is to become an American,
the obligation to see that he recognizes that status and attains it in
its highest degree is one resting in no small degree with his local
community. It involves the question of the application o f the
golden rule. He is the raw material, generally speaking, and the
making o f an American rests with those who claim that title. He is
the builder o f the railroads, of the factories, of the homes, and our
success depends to no small extent upon him. It is to our interest
to see he is happy and content- I f he comes to this country with
ideals, we should see they are perpetuated. I f he comes with no
ideals, we should see that he gets them, for if he comes and lives
among us without growth he is simply transplanted and might retard
our advancement. I f he doesn’t speak English, see that he learns to,
for that is a fundamental requirement o f an American. Remember
that the making of an American depends not only upon what you
teach him but the way you treat him.
Patriotic citizens throughout the country have combined with local
communities to cooperate with the Bureau of Naturalization in the
work of making the alien within our boundaries worthy o f American
citizenship and capable of taking advantage o f the opportunities
which that high estate offers. In thousands of schoolrooms across
the land night classes of the foreign born are receiving instruction in
the English language, the history of our country, and the ideals
represented in our governmental institutions. They are becoming
more familiar with our laws and customs. They are learning of the
MAKING NEW AMERICANS.
13
responsibility which rests upon the individual in American life.
They are becoming Americanized.
The Americanization process should not be left to chance or hap
hazard methods. We find the result of such procedure in every alien
community. Radicalism is bred in misunderstanding of our lan
guage, American institutions, ideals, standards, and government.
There is no immediate danger of destroying our government of
evolution by revolution, but, nevertheless, sinister forces are con
stantly at work and should be checked.
The Government itself should undertake the task of educating
the foreign born, and it should do so in a spirit of helpfulness and not
o f antagonism. From the time that he lands he should be made to
feel at home and welcome—he should be made to understand that
America wants to help him to secure a full benefit of the privileges
which residence and citizenship here affords. But the Government
must know its problem, just as an individual must know his job,
before it can succeed. The school authorities keep records of the
children they are to teach and see that education is furnished.
The Bureau of Naturalization in its Americanization program should
be no more lax in its work than the public schools. The alien must
therefore be enrolled and a record kept of his progress. A t the time
of enrolling and at subsequent annual recordings a small fee for the
service rendered should be collected, to be invested by the Govern
ment solely for the alien’s welfare. Some objection to this program
is raised because its opponents declare it would be similar to the old
espionage system of the Czar, but, it must be pointed out, the czarist
regime never had such a program for welfare and education. True,
we would be able to locate more easily the radical leaders engaged
in sinister propaganda against the Government. They ought to be
discovered and returned to the countries from which they came.
Such individuals, seeking to bring to America the conditions existing
under the irresponsible governments of part of Europe and Asia,
are no less a menace to America than to the law-loving aliens residing
here. The alien who believes in our Government of law and order
and our institutions of liberty, freedom, and equal opportunity to all
has nothing to fear from enrollment for education, and has much to
gain in happiness, contentment, and prosperity by a knowledge of our
language and full participation as intelligent citizens in our national
affairs.
These aliens come to us from nations whose system o f government
and scheme of human relations are antipodal to the ideals of America.
They come from an atmosphere where the pomp of kings and emper
ors has clashed with wild political theories that lead to anarchy and
destruction, where economic and political turmoil have given birth
53088°— 28-----3
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H U M AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT.
to vile political doctrines, fatal to human governments. These
doctrines, which menace the very existence of America as a nation,
must be barred from our national life. We must teach the foreigner
among us due reverence for those ideals of human rights, secured by
representative government, of liberty under law, which our fore
fathers wrought into the fabric o f our country when they founded
the United States of America. We must make our new citizens
worthy o f America, and America worthy of our new citizens.
AMERICANS OF TO-MORROW.
Care for the Nation’s babes, that the growing generation may be
sturdy, stanch, and truly American, fit to carry the Nation forward
in its progress toward the high ideals fundamental in the work of the
founders of the Republic, is the duty which the Department of Labor
seeks to perform through the Children’s Bureau.
The Children’s Bureau was established by an act of Congress
signed by President Taft on April 9, 1912, for the purpose, as stated
in the act, of investigating and reporting “ upon all matters pertain
ing to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our
people,” and especially to “ investigate the questions of infant mor
tality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, danger
ous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment,
legislation affecting children in the several States and Territories.”
The bureau has two different constituencies to which it reports its
findings. These are, first, the parents, more especially the mothers,
o f the country, individual mothers as well as the groups organized in
clubs and associations; second, the professional workers, experts in
one field or another of child care. While the individual mother
wants to know how to meet her own problems, the professional
workers look to the bureau for the results of research conducted on a
national scale to help them in the responsibility which is theirs of
putting into practice in their State and local communities the best
standards of child care.
The bureau’s publications, technical and popular, have been dis
tributed since its founding to the number of over 9,000,000. Its
printed material for mothers on child care is called for beyond its
funds to supply; it answers, on all subjects, a total of 86,000 letters a
year; and for nearly three years it has been sending into the less
accessible country regions a motorized child-health station, with a
doctor and nurse and equipment to examine the babies which crowds
of mothers bring.
The resources and staff of the bureau are limited, so that it has
hardly been able to do more than make a beginning in the vast task
assigned to it. It has endeavored to select for study those questions
and problems of the most practical and general import. What, for
instance, are the effects of industrial depression upon children?
When the fathers are unemployed, are the children forced to leave
school and look for work? Do the mothers of young children find
15
16
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
employment to help out the family resources? In what ways is the
family standard of living affected? What special hardships do the
children suffer?
To obtain answers to these questions, by presenting clear pictures
of typical situations, the Children’s Bureau has made studies of
child welfare in relation to unemployment in a New England and
a Middle Western city in which unemployment has been serious.
What are the effects on children of agricultural work? Do they
work as long or longer hours than they would in factory employ
ment? Is their physical development affected? Do they receive the
education which child-labor restrictions are intended to make pos
sible? These questions are frequently asked, and the bureau is en
gaged in a series of rural child-labor studies covering cotton sections
in Texas, beet-growing areas in Michigan and Colorado, and truck
farming regions of New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. A prob
lem to which these studies are calling attention is that o f the migra
tory laborers’ families, for whose education and welfare no single
community feels itself responsible. Illiteracy among them is par
ticularly high, but serious retardation is found as well among chil
dren o f landowning farmers. The bureau’s child-labor studies be
gan with a series on the employment-certificate system as the key to
enforcement o f laws, and reports on several State systems have been
made.
In cooperation with the Junior Division of the United States
Employment Service the bureau is now investigating, in several
cities where “ vocational guidance ” has been well developed, the
conditions under which children are directed into industrial life
and the opportunities offered them and the requirements made by
various occupations.
The juvenile court has had a rapid development in this country,
but in many small towns and rural districts no special provision is
made for children’s cases; and in the larger cities, where juvenilecourt organization is more nearly adequate, there is a large field for
improvement and standardization of methods. The Children’s Bu
reau has made a general survey of courts hearing children’s cases,
summarized laws, and studied 10 of the leading courts, and last year
joined with the National Probation Association in calling a confer
ence of judges, probation officers, and others interested. The con
ference nominated a committee to advise with the bureau in the for
mulation o f standards which should govern juvenile-court organiza
tions and methods of work. In addition to its reports o f special
studies and the proceedings of the conference, the bureau is publish
ing a series o f brief bulletins written by leading authorities.
The plan of mothers’ pensions, with its recognition of the principle
that in case of the father’s death or disability children should not
AMERICANS OF TO-MORROW.
17
be taken from their mothers because of poverty alone, has been
adopted in 40 States. The States, however, and sections within the
States administer the plan in widely varying ways, and conceptions
differ as to what the amounts of the pensions should be. The Chil
dren’s Bureau made compilations of State and foreign laws; it began
in Illinois—the first of the States to pass an aid-to-mothers law— a
series of first-hand studies, and at present is carrying on these studies
o f methods and standards in several parts of the country.
The strength of the Children’s Bureau has lain from the beginning
in the cooperation of the Nation’s women. The assistance of organi
zations which could be relied upon to mobilize their membership for
popular child-welfare campaigns, for the arranging of infant-health
conferences such as the staff of the^ Child Welfare Special conducts,
for the securing of community understanding and aid in the bureau’s
special studies, or for the disseminating of information to individual
mothers, has enabled the bureau to extend its activities beyond
measure.
Beginning its second year the bureau, in cooperation with the
Bureau of the Census, carried on a campaign for the better registra
tion o f births, assisted in this by various women’s organizations,
notably the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Fifteen hundred
women aiding this campaign were in correspondence with the bureau.
In cooperation with the general federation, with its more than
2,000,000 members, the bureau organized the national observance of
Baby Week in 1916, and 2,083 communities reported joining in this
observance. The campaign of Children’s Year, however, carried on
during the second year of the war, in cooperation with the women’s
committee o f the Council of National Defense, was the bureau’s
largest adventure in cooperative effort with voluntary or local organi
zations. State committees were organized in every State but two, and
71.000 local committees included 11,000,000 women.
Through the Children’s Bureau the Federal Government has under
taken the task of preserving the lives of the Nation’s mothers and
babies. Under the Sheppard-Towner Act, effective this year,
$1,240,000 has been provided for allotment among the States which
undertake seriously the conservation of infant and maternal life.
Thirty-three States have already accepted participation in the fund
and have had their places for saving mothers and babies approved by
the Federal authorities. Each year in the United States from
230.000 to 250,000 babies die in the first year of life, and about
23.000 mothers die in bringing children into the world. The Chil
dren’s Bureau has made extensive studies of the causes of this mor
tality. In various cities women associated with the bureau have
taken up the problem, in a human way, seeking real causes. These
investigators have reached the conclusion that if all children were
18
H U M AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT.
well bom and well cared for the mortality among infants and
mothers would be negligible.
Care o f the Nation’s mothers and care for the Nation’s newborn
babes' is conceded to be the real solution of the problem. It is to
provide that care that the plans of the various States seeking to
participate in the Federal funds are framed. These plans must have
the approval o f the Federal authorities and the latter insist upon
constructive and effective work. In the prosecution and extension
o f this work under the Sheppard-Towner Act lies the saving to the
Nation o f many future citizens.
PEACEMAKERS IN INDUSTRY.
Peace in industry is a condition precedent to all prosperity in
America. Industrial strife means a loss to all, no matter how small
the number o f persons directly affected and no matter how unim
portant the enterprise involved. Not only the welfare of the wage
earner but the welfare of the employer and the welfare of the whole
American public is touched when men quit work in a controversy
with those who employ them. The workers lose in wages, the
employers in profits, and the whole Nation in the service to which it
is entitled from the industry. In its task of safeguarding the wel:
fare of the wage earner and in its duty to the whole country the De
partment of Labor, through the Division of Conciliation, directed by
the Secretary of Labor, endeavors to preserve peace in industry.
Authority for.this work is derived from the act creating the depart
ment, which provides that “ the Secretary of Labor shall have power
to act as mediator and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in
labor disputes whenever in his judgment the interests of industrial
peace may require it to be done.”
Industry in America bears a close relationship to every individual
in the country. It is so closely woven into the fabric of our everyday
life that anything that interferes with the normal course of industry
seriously interferes with the welfare of all of our people. The public
in every instance is more or less of a party in interest to every in
dustrial dispute. The purpose of the Department of Labor is*
through its industrial peacemakers in the Conciliation Service, to
encourage a full measure of production, preserve the welfare of the
wage earner, and treat the employer fairly. Contented and satis
fied workers mean efficiency in industry and insure better returns to
both capital and labor. Capital is entitled to a just return on its
investment and labor is entitled to a just return for its work. Both,
if they secure these returns, go hand in hand to increase the wealth o f
the world by production and to insure greater comfort to the whole
people.
It has been the policy of the Labor Department not to inject itself
into labor disputes so long as the employers and employees are mak
ing progress tqward reaching an agreement, unless requested to by
one of the parties to the dispute or by the public directly affected.
The department has taken the position that the best settlement o f
any industrial controversy is that reached by the parties themselves,
without outside interference. Next in order of preference comes the
settlement by mediation or conciliation and finally the settlement by
19
20
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
arbitration, if both sides can agree to leave the decision in the hands
of a third party.
When the Conciliation Service began its work 70 per cent of the
disputes in which its intervention was sought had already reached
the strike stage. Eecently conditions have so improved and the
services o f the department have been so generally recognized that
less than 30 per cent of the cases before the service have reached the
point where work was suspended.
The function of the Department of Labor officials in any labor
dispute is purely that of peacemakers. The department has no
authority to make an award or hand down a decision and then
demand that the parties to the controversy abide by it. The con
ciliators have no judicial function. Their work is entirely diplo
matic. They are industrial peacemakers, endeavoring to get the
contending parties together in order that the interests affected may
themselves solve their own problems. Drawing on their fund of wide
experience, they suggest methods and alternatives which have proved
successful in other instances and which will tend to bring about a
renewed peaceful relationship between employer and employee. The
department does not endeavor to impose its ideas upon either em
ployer or worker but seeks to find a basis of just settlement that
will be acceptable to both sides, even though it may not be entirely
satisfactory to either. It has been found that this policy faithfully
pursued results in a better feeling between employers and employees
when a controversy is terminated. Through its operation barriers
that keep employers and employees apart have been removed and
the way cleared for better relations and a clearer understanding of
the respective rights and obligations of the parties involved.
The Department of Labor has, in the nearly 10 years of existence,
built up a staff of conciliators especially qualified for their delicate
task. Many of the commissioners have been drafted from business,
professional, and industrial life. Some have been managers of large
corporations, some have been Government officials, and some have
been leaders in organized labor.
The work of the conciliator can not be successfully conducted by
set rules or regulations; he works by rule of thumb. The elements
entering into a trade dispute are never exactly the same as those
that have been met in a similar controversy. The conciliator must
meet each situation in the manner best calculated to bring the con
tending parties together. I f he can get both employer and employee
to sit down around the council table and discuss their differences
man to man, he has won more than half the battle, for experience
has shown that no matter how great the differences may be between
men, if they will get together and talk over their disagreement,
obstacles which seemed impassable may quickly be overcome.
PEACEMAKERS IN INDUSTRY.
21
The conciliation work of the department has gradually become
more and more a recognized factor in America’s industrial life, as
experience has demonstrated the effectiveness of its mediation in
avoiding strikes or in bringing a quick settlement of disputes where
work has already been suspended. Labor has discovered that it has
a standing recognized by the Government whenever its demands arc
based on industrial and constitutional rights. Employers, on the
other hand, have found that the department will protect them from
unjust and unreasonable exactions. In almost all the cases where
the conciliation service has acted there has been found a fine spirit
o f cooperation on the part of both workers and employers.
The success of the conciliation of methods of the department is
adequetely demonstrated by the record of disputes in which the good
offices of the department, through commissioners of conciliation, have
been used from the beginning of the present administration, March 4,
1921, to June 30, 1922, a period of 16 months. In that time a few
more than 500 cases of strikes and threatened strikes and lockouts
have been acted upon by department officials. O f these, 345
cases were satisfactorily adjusted by the commissioners of concilia
tion; 59 were adjusted by the commissioners of conciliation in coop
eration with local officials and agencies; 39 cases are pending or in
process of adjustment, and in 59 cases the department has failed to
secure a settlement. The period of industrial readjustment through
which the country has been passing made the settlement of industrial
disputes more difficult, but despite that fact nearly 90 per cent of
the controversies in which the department used its good offices were
equitably and satisfactorily adjusted. Without doubt these settle
ments did much to aid in the stabilizing of the generally disturbed
industrial situation. Nearly a million and a half workers were
involved in the disputes under consideration.
These figures do not take into account scores of threatened dis
putes that would have involved thousands of workers that have been
quietly and effectively averted through the advice and assistance of
the Secretary of Labor and the conciliation officials; nor do they
take into consideration the assistance rendered committees of em
ployers and employees in working out agreements that mean con
tinued peace in scores of industrial plants.
The Department of Labor has no panacea for the establishment of
peace in industry; it has no formula for the institution of a millenium among the workers. But I am firmly convinced that the
intelligent and proper extension of the principle of conciliation and
mediation as practiced by the department will reduce to a minimum
those disastrous interruptions in industry which bring misery to
wage earners, loss to employers, and danger and discomfort to the
public generally.
SAFEGUARDING TH E MOTHERS OF TO-MORROW.
Great numbers of our women, the mothers of our future genera
tions, have been forced by economic necessity into industry as
workers. They present a grave problem, for their welfare is vital
to the maintenance o f sturdy American manhood, virile and responsi
ble, to meet the issues which America o f to-morrow will face. The
Department o f Labor, through the Women’s Bureau, is the agency
through which the Government is seeking to make certain that the
Nation’s women in their migration from the home to the shop and
factory are safeguarded in every direction, in order that the future
o f the race may not be impaired. The bureau was created in 1920
after the Women in Industry Service, organized to meet the necessi
ties o f the war period, had completed its work. The purpose o f the
bureau as set forth in the act o f Congress authorizing its creation is
to “ formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare
o f wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase
their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable em
ployment.” The bureau is composed o f women, directed by a woman,
and concerned specifically with the welfare o f women.
Women are in industry to stay. This is a fact that is generally
recognized in view o f the vast numbers engaged therein. Another
rapidly spreading fact is that women’s so-called pin money is fre
quently the family coupling pin—the only means o f holding the
family together. Women have been cogs in the wheels o f industry
not only because they are indispensable to the industrial world,
but because the industrial world in turn is indispensable to them
in their economic struggles. The Women’s Bureau finds that prac
tically 100 per cent o f the married women in industry are devoting
their entire wage to the support o f their families, while the unmarried
women assume fully as much responsibility as do the unmarried
men.
Careful study to produce the smooth adjustment o f the workers
in industry is essential not only for a successful industrialism but
fo r a successful society. The protection and adjustment o f women
workers is especially imperative, since they have the additional role
o f mothers and home makers. They are the producers o f future
citizens as well as o f economic goods, and America o f to-morrow
will be as strong as her women o f to-day. Moreover, the greater
necessity for control o f standards affecting women workers is due to
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SAFEGUARDING THE MOTHERS OF TO-MORROW.
23
the fact that women have been in a weaker position economically
than men. They came into industry more or less on sufferance,
and they have not yet bonded themselves together strongly enough
to insist successfully upon better conditions. Also since most women
in industry are there because o f financial necessity, they can not
afford to turn down a job because o f low wages, long hours, or unsat
isfactory conditions. Therefore it is necessary to provide an oppor
tunity for the upbuilding o f safeguards to conserve alike the indus
trial efficiency and the health o f women and to make it impossible
for selfish interests to exploit them as unwilling competitors in
lowering those standards of wages, working conditions, hours, and
industrial relations which are for the best interest o f the workers,
the industries, and society as a whole.
It is the function of the Women’s Bureau to collect and present
facts and statistics for use in throwing light on these problems; to
cooperate with other agencies in the recommendation and establish
ment of standards for the protection and advancement o f wage
earning women. About such bones of legislative contention as the
minimum wage, the 48-hour week, night work for women, and work
ing conditions the bureau necessarily has formulated definite policies
and labeled them “ the standards for women in industry.” These
have been circulated until they have become nation-wide slogans.
First, there is need for the ideal industrial week for women—that is,
the 8-hour day, the half-holiday on Saturday, one day of rest in
seven, and no night work. Equally important has been the cry of
equal pay for equal work. A woman who does a man’s work in the
factory and carries a man’s responsibilities in the home in the main
tenance o f a family obviously should receive the same pay as a man.
The minimum wage rate should cover the cost o f living for depend
ents and not merely for the individual.
O f no less interest are standardized working conditions for women
wage earners. One o f the guiding principles of modern industrial
engineering is that a working environment established on the comer
stones o f comfort and hygiene, science, and sanitation forms a strong
foundation for a superstructure o f efficiency. The bureau points
out that as long as women work in plants grimy with the accumula
tion o f dirt and lint, strain their eyes at their jobs because of glare or
insufficient light, stand all day without a seat in sight, or sit con
tinuously in a cramped posture—as long as safety is jeopardized by
unguarded machinery or lack o f fire protection—then some action
is necessary. When health is menaced by such things as the common
drinking cup and the common towel, there is urgent need for im
provement.
These questions have both their economic and sociological sig
nificance. In industrial competition those employers realizing the
24
H UM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
value of the elimination of all possible obstacles to production and
all apparent causes of disaffection naturally bid fair to come out
ahead. I f for no other reasons, good conditions in industry pay.
Were efficiency, however, the only motive for concern about the
workers’ surroundings, the matter could be left to individual em
ployers and need not become a legislative problem. A much more
fundamental necessity for the consideration of working conditions
is the sociological. Industrial conditions that affect the health and
well-being of individual workers affect the whole community. In
this connection the protection of women wage earners is particularly
important. Whatever lowers the vitality and saps the energies of
women limits their ability to bestow a good health heritage upon
their children and upon society. Another menace to the community
is the failure to establish right systems of sanitation in industry,
which means the inevitable spread of disease both through the work
ers and through the goods produced. Furthermore, the maintenance
o f the standards of working conditions at a high level promises a
corresponding rise in the standard of living. Women working in
comfortable and hygienic surroundings will have more energy, time,
and desire to live satisfactorily. The opposite is undoubtedly true.
The industrial world which with one hand offers women economic
opportunities should not with the other hold them down in the socio
logical morasses resulting from stagnant methods in industry.
Ever since woman was first admitted to a place in industry and
commerce there has been a controversy as to the right of women to
take part in the gainful vocations. This question the Women’s
Bureau does not attempt to solve. It can not be denied that personal
means of earning a living is the right of every woman having no other
means o f support, and in this right she should be fully protected.
A t the same time all will agree that women in industry would not
exist in an ideal social scheme. Women have a higher duty and a
higher sphere in life. Eve was the companion and helpmate of
Adam and in every way his social equal, but it was for Adam to pro
tect Eve and provide for their posterity. It is true that later woman
kind were considered inferior, and became, we might say, slaves of
society. A ll civilized nations are again coming to recognize the
equality o f women and men and in no country are her rights greater
than in America, where her social standing is even higher than man’s.
With all this, I personally prefer to see a woman guiding the destiny
of the Nation in the home. There is no vocation higher than that
assigned by God and woman has been called to the care of children,
the future society of the world. The position of mother is the most
honorable and the most revered. She should be protected in the
home and facilities given her to lessen the burden o f responsibility
placed upon her shoulders. She should have the recreation to which
SAFEGUARDING THE MOTHERS OF TO-MORROW.
25
she is entitled and the conditions of her employment should be such as
to remove the thought of monotony too often found in the home life
o f the mother. But because the woman is entitled to and should be
in the dignified calling of home maker, she should not be discrimi
nated against when necessity drives her to a position outside her
natural sphere.
A gradual realization of these truths is spurring many individuals
and organizations into programs of reform, and it is to the Women’s
Bureau that they turn for scientific and reliable information. From
all sections of the country S O S calls are dispatched for advice and
assistance. From all types of progressive institutions—industrial,
economic, social, legislative, political, religious, civic, and educa
tional— come requests for information.
I hope that it will be possible so to organize the bureau that 5,000
women will be in the field carrying abroad the gospel of what should
be the ideal social and industrial condition of women in relation to
our national life, perhaps not on a salary basis as agents of the Gov
ernment, but workers in their respective communities—women form
ing the best of our citizenry, who will, through women’s organizations
and all other agencies available, assist in the work of the Women’s
Bureau. I f they only read before their organizations a paper con
taining a message from the Government for their encouragement and
benefit, such cooperation would be helpful.
The spread of the activities of the Women’s Bureau into a network
throughout the country is largely the result of women’s quickened
interest in industrial conditions for women. Her new political
status has been used as a stronghold for safeguarding women wage
earners. Women are now in positions of authority in the State
departments of labor of 17 States and in the District of Columbia,
also in minor positions in 16 other States. In such ways the State
governments are joining with the Federal Government in emphasiz
ing the need for making industry safe for womanhood in America.
FINDING THE FACTS.
Facts are a fundamental need in any movement which has for its
purpose the advancement of humanity. Before we can provide any
group o f men with opportunities to benefit themselves, to improve
their social, economic, and political status, we must know their
needs, exactly and in detail. The Department of Labor in the pur
suit o f its law-imposed duty of fostering and promoting the welfare
o f the wage earner finds that its first and vital need is facts. It
must know in full and complete detail every circumstance surround
ing the work, the play, the home life, and the civic activity of the
wage earner before it can undertake to aid him in his struggle
toward better things.
It is particularly fitting that the fact-finding organization o f the
Department o f Labor should be the bureau from which the depart
ment itself grew, the bureau which had been in existence and at
work for nearly .30 years before the department itself was created.
The Bureau o f Labor Statistics was formally organized as the Bureau
o f Labor in the Department of the Interior in 1885. In 1888 it
became an independent Bureau of Labor and in 1903 it was placed in
the Department of Qommerce and Labor. With the creation o f the
present Department of Labor it became the Bureau of Labor Statis
tics, the fact-gathering, organization of the department. Its func
tion is described in the act which created it in 1884 which provides
that it “ shall collect information upon the subject of labor and
its relation to capital, hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring
men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social,
intellectual, and moral prosperity.”
In its nearly 40 years of service the Bureau of Labor Statistics has
perfected a reliable system for collecting authoritative information,
and its long experience has made it a smoothly running, efficient
organization. It gathers, collates, and reports statistics of labor and
generally disseminates labor information. It maintains a constant
and close touch with every ramification of the wide field of labor
activity, and the fruits of its researches are made immediately
available to the Secretary of Labor and the other bureaus of the
department, as well as for general publication. The department, in
its policy o f service to the whole people, makes the information
gathered by the Bureau o f Labor Statistics available to the public.
From the cost of beefsteak in New York to the hours of labor of a
harvest hand in Texas every detail that affects the wage earner
interests the Bureau of Labor Statistics. An indication of the
20
FINDING
THE
FACTS.
27
breadth o f the studies made by the bureau is given in a partial list
of its series o f publications, which includes: Wholesale Prices of
Commodities, Retail Prices and Cost o f Living, Wages and Hours o f
Labor, Employment and Unemployment, Workmen’s Insurance and
Compensation, Industrial Accidents and Industrial Hygiene, Labor
Laws o f the United States, and Foreign Labor Laws. Through its
field forces the bureau collects monthly the wholesale prices o f
commodities and retail prices. Four times a year the bureau makes
a survey o f the cost of living, covering the changes in living costs o f
workingmen’s families in 32 cities of the United States. Reports of
wages and hours of labor are collected from time to time from repre
sentative establishments in the principal industries in various indus
trial centers of the country. These statistics the bureau secures
directly from the pay rolls of the various establishments studied.
Union scales o f 'wages in 66 cities of the United States are collected
annually, and these figures cover the scales of wages o f more than a
million employees in the organized trades. Employment statistics
are gathered monthly from representative establishments in 13 of the
country’s important industries. •
The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues the Monthly Labor Review,
which is fulfilling the purpose of an authoritative medium o f all
information relating to labor. The broad range o f material published
in the Review and the exact and up-to-date statistics presented have
made it indispensable to those who seek authoritative information in
all labor lines. Many important short articles on labor subjects are
printed in the Review and the results o f investigations made by the
bureau appear in short reports on each phase o f the subject as it is
completed. Month by month developments in the whole field o f
labor are recorded, and domestic and foreign labor information is
made promptly available. Reports of the various State labor bureaus
and other agencies dealing with labor and digests and reviews of
important new legislation, court decisions, and administrative orders
affecting labor are published promptly. Statistics of immigration
and summaries of the work of the various bureaus o f the Department
o f Labor are presented, and important trade agreements and the pro
ceedings of important labor conferences in the United States and
abroad are summarized.
In addition to the Monthly Labor Review the Bureau o f Labor
Statistics publishes in individual bulletins the results of the special
investigations undertaken by the bureau.
The bureau has accomplished much in the direction o f obtaining
cooperation among the labor bureaus and similar agencies in the
various State governments. It has likewise made progress toward
the standardizing and harmonizing of State laws and administrative
practice which affect the wage earner.
28
HUM ANITY IN GOVERNMENT.
These widespread activities of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
the painstaking performance of the duties o f that bureau furnish the
Department of Labor with that fundamental basis o f fact which is
vital to the carrying out of the purposes of humanity at which the
department aims. The information in the hands of the Bureau of
Labor Statistics helps to provide the groundwork for the adminis
trative policies and practice of the department.
Such statistics, however, can be of value only when kept alive
and when they can be secured to meet emergencies as they arise.
Unfortunately the funds available will not permit of extensive inves
tigation into every case where statistics procured quickly would be
o f value. Adequate information concerning specific industries at a
stated time would go a long way in settling disturbances when they
arise. To a limited extent the Bureau of Labor Statistics has
rendered service of this special nature, but whenever it does so it
must omit some other things which the American public has come
to expect from it.
To keep its figures alive and present them in an understanding
manner for whoever is interested in the issues involved is the aim
o f this bureau.
BRINGING THE MAN TO THE JOB.
A t no time is the American wage earner in such need of intelligent
and effective attention to his welfare as when he is among the unem
ployed. When the worker is out of a job, he is more than likely to
become the victim of the fake employment agency, which fattens
upon the needs of the unfortunate. To aid the wage earner when
he is seeking employment Congress authorized the establishment in
the Department o f Labor of the United States Employment Service.
Under this authorization the Employment Service was directed to
maintain a national system of employment offices, and to coordinate
the public employment offices throughout the country by furnishing
and publishing information as to opportunities for employment and
by maintaining a system for clearing labor between the several
States.
Under this act Federal cooperation has been established with the
State employment service of 36 States and municipal employment
services in 4 other States, with the result that cooperative employ
ment services have been maintained in 40 States and 176 cities of
the Nation. Through the coordination of these Federal, State, and
municipal employment services, approximately 30,000 people are
registered for employment monthly, 170,000 requests for help are
received, 160,000 referred, and approximately 135,000 placed. These
placements are made without charge to either the employer or em
ployee.
Through these State and municipal employment services, in
cooperation with the United States Employment Service, a system
o f public employment offices throughout the country has been
coordinated for the purpose of furnishing and publishing information
as to opportunities for employment and maintaining a system of
clearance o f labor between the various States.
In addition to the maintenance of a national system of coordina
tion o f public employment offices, the United States Employment
Service conducts an industrial employment survey monthly, pro
viding an accurate index to employment conditions in the 48 States
of the Union, the leading 65 cities of major industrial importance,
and 355 cities of minor industrial importance. The scope of this
survey covers the fluctuations in employment in the 14 basic indus
trial groups as set up by the United States Census Bureau. The
organization necessary for the collection of these data consists of
district directors situated in nine geographic divisions of the
29
30
HUM AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT.
country who have selected voluntary agents located in each indus
trial center. These agents have accepted the responsibility for the
collection o f information monthly concerning the “ number o f workers
on the pay roll in industries usually employing 500 and over.” For
the purpose of comparison the actual number of workers on the pay
roll are collected from the same identical concerns monthly. These
volunteer agents have been appointed special agents. The 1,428
establishments report to this service through special agents and
representatives of their industries. These industries have been
selected from divers sections of the country and include those
who usually employ 500 and over. General employment comment
is collected by the district directors from authoritative sources,
supplemented by intelligent opinion. This information is published
each month in the Industrial Employment Information Bulletin.
This bulletin serves chambers of commerce, trade-unions, large
industrial concerns, railroads, employers of labor, and the general
public with systematic, accurate, and unbiased information which
assists them in the distribution and clearance of labor, and the
expansion of business.
For a number of years the United States Employment Service has
maintained a Farm Labor Bureau for the purpose of assisting in
caring for such crops as required especial seasonal labor help. In
performing this service the Farm Labor Bureau has cooperated with
the labor departments o f the different States. In many localities
where the bureau has directed its activities the agricultural associa
tion and county farm agents have been of great assistance and have
added materially to the efficiency and the effectiveness of the work.
The headquarters of the Farm Labor Bureau is at 2014 Main
Street, Kansas City, Mo. The bureau has no definitely defined
boundary lines, although thus far its work has been conducted
chiefly in the Midwestern States from the Mississippi River to the
mountains and from Texas and Louisiana to the Canadian line.
In all o f these States Federal directors and special agents of the
United States Employment Service assist the field representative
and constitute an organization that is rendering services that are
coming to be looked upon by farmers and business men alike as in
dispensable to agriculture. The handling of the wheat-harvest
labor problem is the largest job the Farm Labor Bureau under
takes. In 1921 the Farm Labor Bureau handled through its various
offices and field men 70,959 harvest laborers. This was only a part of
the men used in the harvesting of last year’s crop, but it was es
sential. Without these men, millions of bushels of wheat would
have gone to waste. Through the Farm Labor Bureau hands
were obtained for the harvesting of more than 30,572,800 acres of
BRINGING THE MAN TO THE JOB.
31
wheat. The wheat belt is located in the northern and panhandle
section o f Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska,
and North and South Dakota. During the harvest season, in ad
dition to the maintenance of temporary employment offices in these
States, numbering 30, employment offices are maintained in St. Louis
(Union Station), Kansas City, Sioux Falls, and Denver.
The United States Employment Service also maintains a junior
division which deals with the youth o f the country, both sexes,
between legal workings age and 21. * Its purpose is to aid the schools
in assisting boys and girls to select and prepare for some definite
occupation in which they may be efficient, productive, and con
structive workers, and offer to employers the best possible facilities
for the selection o f their junior employees. Information is supplied
to schools regarding organization requirements and changes in
industry. As an employment agency the junior division has as its
aim pooling the junior labor supply at its source and distributing it
in such a manner that each individual will realize his best possibilities
and contribute his utmost to the welfare of the society. A junior
placement office—equipped with a personnel familiar with business
conditions and trained to understand the needs alike o f industry
and o f boys and girls and the obligation o f public education to
both— does this with an immediate arid practical effectiveness.
The activities o f the junior division are devoted mainly to the
establishment and maintenance o f a number of local centers in
which methods o f junior guidance and placement have been studied
and developed. They are located in 16 cities which have been
chosen with the view o f representing various sections o f the country.
They also present considerable variety in size, industrial conditions,
and guidance and placement problems.
The United States Employment Service also cooperates with the
United States Veterans’ Bureau in the placement o f rehabilitated
disabled veterans o f the W orld War.
The United States Employment Service is in daily receipt o f appli
cations for employment from practically every State in the Union,
which are in turn referred to the Federal directors and superin
tendents o f municipal employment offices in the sections, districts, or
cities in the States from which the applications come. It is also in
receipt o f complaints o f abuses by private employment agencies,
which are promptly referred to the various States in which the
complaints are made. An example o f this was the establishment
o f a private employment agency offering future employment to
people at Muscle Shoals, for a stipulated fee. As a matter o f fact,
Muscle Shoals presented no opportunities for employment, and
32
H U M AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT*
through the agency o f the United States Employment Service in
cooperation with the War Department this agency was compelled to
cease its activities. Another example is the circulation o f an adver
tisement purporting to represent the United States Employment
Service, giving an address as Washington, N. C., which was promptly
closed through the agency o f the United States Employment Service,
Department o f Labor, and Department of Justice.
One o f the evils of American industrial life is seasonal or part-time
employment. Without going into the details of its causes and cor
rection (which should be the concern of every employer and em
ployee) here is a job which could be handled efficiently by the United
States Employment Service. In a large number of trades and indus
tries there is a known intermittency of employment. Sometimes the
exact time o f the apppearance of the period of shut down can not be
previously ascertained, but in all periods of unemployment the wage
earner should be encouraged to take up a secondary occupation. In
the building trades in the Northern States there is a certainty of slack
employment during the winter months. I f men who follow these
were all induced to learn a trade or occupation which could be fol
lowed during these slack times their earning and purchasing capacity
would be greatly increased, for it is the yearly and not the daily wage
that counts. The increased earning capacity probably would be the
difference between the living and saving wage.
What is true among the building trades o f the Northern States is
just as true of many industries the country over. Whether the
period o f unemployment be ascertainable in advance or not the doc
trine o f consecutive work should be preached. When out of employ
ment get to work, if not at your trade, then something else. This
slogan consistently carried out would result in greater earnings and
lower retail prices in the industries affected. To carry out such a
program o f education would take money, but the cost would be met
a thousandfold in greater earning power, increased prosperity, and
more contentment among American wage earners.
THE HOUSING PROBLEM.
Created during the war for the purpose of providing housing
accommodations for those engaged in war industries, the United
States Housing Corporation has furnished a permanent contribution
in the field o f industrial housing which is o f inestimable value.
Proof o f this statement may be found in a survey of the 28 model
communities which have been built under its direction in several
States throughout the country and which are practical demonstra
tions o f the fact that in the construction o f homes for wage earners it
is possible to consider the aesthetic as well as the utilitarian viewpoint.
Upon the termination of hostilities the construction work o f the
corporation ceased. Its activities at the present time may be sum
marized as follows:
1. Rentals and sales.
2. Collection from rentals and sales.
3. Liquidation o f transportation and public utility loans.
4. Auditing o f original construction accounts.
5. Operation o f the Norfolk County ferries.
6. Operation o f the Government hotels.
The properties o f the corporation comprise some 6,000 houses, as
well as several hotels and dormitories. They are scattered through
out 17 different States o f the Union. Throughout the war these
properties were rented to employees engaged in industries essential
to the national defense. With the cessation o f armed strife the
necessity o f Government intervention in this field o f business ended
and the duty o f recovering the largest possible proportion o f the
Government’s vast expenditures on this account devolved upon the
corporation. Instead o f authorizing the immediate sale o f its prop
erties to speculators, with the opportunity for exploitation o f the
ultimate purchasers which such a course would have involved, the
corporation formulated a policy which was not without a touch of
altruism and which was calculated to increase home ownership
throughout the Nation. It contemplated that an effort should be
made to dispose o f these properties to individual owners for their
own occupancy before they were offered in bulk to speculators.
A considerable proportion o f the corporation’s work to-day is
fairly comparable with that o f a huge real estate and title company
combined. It requires a knowledge of, and the application of, the
local laws governing conveyancing in each o f the various jurisdictions
33
34
H U M AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT.
in which those properties are located, and the drawing o f the neces
sary deeds, mortgages, notes, and other instruments incident thereto.
As a corollary to creating additional housing accommodations the
corporation was also charged with the duty o f improving existent
transportation and other public utilities to meet the needs o f populous
centers affected by the* war. Advances on this account amounted
to approximately $6,000,000. These advances are secured by liens
on the properties iiivolved or by collateral security bearing interest
at the rate o f 5 per cent. Periodical collections b f interest on these
loans are being made and arrangements are now under way1for the
liquidation o f . several o f them in accordance with the tcbiiis o f the
respective contracts.
.
■
Another important function o f the corporation is the operation o f
the N orfolk County'ferries. Norfolk and Portsmouth, Va., between
which cities, this Utility furnishes the principal means o f transporta
tion, were the-scene o f great war activities. Neither the city o f
Portsmouth nor the county o f Norfolk, which jointly own this utility,
was financially able to undertake the improvements necessitated by
this increased traffic. On behalf o f the Federal Government, there
fore, the Housing Corporation assumed supervision over these prop
erties and spent over $1,000,000 in their rehabilitation. It is conse
quently in charge o f their operation pending the liquidation o f its
loan. During the past fiscal year the increase in earnings over all
preceding years which the corporation has been enabled to show as a
result o f economical and efficient management has called forth the
highest commendation.
The Government hotel is, perhaps, the largest American-plan hotel
in the world. Erected to provide accommodations for employees o f
the Federal Government drawn to Washington during the war, the
hotel is still filling an urgent need in the Nation’s Capital. F or a
nominal sum per month its patrons are furnished accommodations
which far surpass those obtainable elsewhere at a similar rate. A
standard o f service is maintained which is designed to promote the
physical and moral well-being o f the guests, and which has, undoubt
edly, rendered them more efficient in their daily work for the Gov
ernment.
It has been well said that home ownership is the most effective
antidote for Bolshevism. In determining upon a policy for the
disposal o f its properties, therefore, the Housing Corporation not
only had in mind the recovery o f the largest possible amount of
money but attempted as well to encourage individual home owner
ship throughout tiie Nation. Logical benefits which may be expected
to accrue to wage earners from the successful consummation o f
this policy are: The acquisition o f a stake in the community through
.the purchase o f a home on easy terms and at a comparatively low
THE HOUSING PROBLEM.
35
cost; a stimulation o f interest on the part o f the individual in civic
affairs; increased efficiency and better living conditions for both
himself and the members o f his family. The employer, on the
other hand, is the gainer through greater efficiency in his working
force and a reduction in his labor turnover, to which inadequate
or unsatisfactory housing for his employees is, perhaps, the largest
single contributing factor. The community as a whole is the bene
ficiary through the establishment within its confines o f attractive,
wholesome, and sanitary homes for at least a portion o f its industrial
population, a resultant improvement in the relations between em
ployer and employee, and the consequent elevation of the economic,
political, and moral standards of the community as a whole.
The experience o f the United States Housing Corporation has
placed on record a vast fund o f information that can be made o f
immense value to the prospective home owner and home builder. If,
through the corporation or a similar organization, that information
can be kept up to date and available to the public, it can be made
to render a greater service to the public and to the Nation as a whole.
There is no greater patriotism than the love a man feels for his home
and throughout all time the home owner has been the best citizen.
The experience of the corporation constitutes a great step in the
direction of solving the housing problem and it should not be lost
to the country.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING AND REHABILITATION.
By virtue o f their offices the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary
o f Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor are ex officio members
o f the Federal Board for Vocational Education. This board was
created by act of Congress in 1917 to fill a growing demand in the
United States for education which will fit young men and women for
the places which they expect to occupy in the commercial and indus
trial life of the Nation. It was an outgrowth of the realization that
our public-school system as at present constituted does not meet
the needs o f more than 90 per cent of our people. In 1912, during
hearings held by a congressional committee, Dr. H. G. Williams, of
Athens, Ohio, dean of the State normal college, testified that only
about 8 per cent of our people were engaged in the professions, which
means that an educational system which does not fit 90 per cent for
industrial and commercial life is unbalanced and ought to be ad
justed. The act of February 28, 1917, provides in so many words
“ for the promotion of vocational education; to proyide for coopera
tion with the States in the promotion of such education in agricul
ture and the trades and industries; to provide for cooperation with
the States in the preparation of teachers of vocational subjects ” ;
and makes appropriations for that purpose.
Contrary to the prevalent belief among laymen, the Federal Board
for Vocational Education is not a war-time organization, and was
not created for war-time purposes. Following the war, however,
when our boys began returning from overseas, many of them crippled
and incapacitated to follow their regular callings, it was only natural
that the Government should use the facilities of the board in its
efforts to rehabilitate the men who had suffered industrial handicap
through the military service.
I have had considerable experience in vocational education. I was
brought up in an immigrant family, and at an early age helped to
supplement the family budget by working in the mills where I
learned my trade as a puddler; I learned the need o f young America
for vocational education; it was practically the only kind of educa
tion, other than my Sunday-school training, that I knew in my
early youth. Later in life when I became director general of the
Loyal Order of the Moose I put into effect, for the orphan children
o f the Moose, my ideas on vocational education and proclaimed the
slogan of that institution “ Every child is entitled to at least a high86
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING AND REHABILITATION.
37
school education a n d a t r a d e .” My experience in organizing the
school at Mooseheart, where we are caring for and educating 1,200
dependent children under that slogan, was responsible more than
anything else for my election as chairman of the Federal Board for
Vocational Education.
Hence my particular interest in the work which this board has
done in the rehabilitation of incapacitated ex-service men. I recall
as one o f the first problems presented to me a deficiency in the
appropriations for the Federal board— a failure in the amount of
funds granted to do all that we believed should be done for the
veterans of the World War. I took the estimate for needed addi
tional funds to the President and explained to him that at that time
we were spending an average of $1,000,000 a day for the relief of
those who had borne the brunt of the Nation’s war, but that we
thought that more should be done for them—that additional facili
ties should be made available to these boys that they might become
proficient in occupations for which their incapacities did not unfit
them. He said to m e: “ I f it takes every dollar in the Treasury of
the United States, if these boys have lost their opportunities for
gainful employment because of their service for the country, and it
is possible to bring them back, we’re going to do it.”
One of the biggest problems that confronted the President upon
his assumption of office was the winding up of war-time activities
and to gather up the loose ends of extravagance of the previous
few years. In the extra session of Congress called by him the Sweet
bill was enacted providing for the assembling of all Federal Govern
ment acitivities relating to ex-service men under a single adminis
trative control in the newly established Veterans’ Bureau, and into
this bureau was transferred the Soldier and Sailor Rehabilitation
Division of the Federal board, and the board is now organized upon
a peace-time basis to meet the demands upon it in the trade and
industrial fields.
The administrative serviced of the board are organized in five
units: Agricultural education service, trade and industrial education
service, home-economics service, commercial education service, and
vocational rehabilitation service. The policy set up in the vocational
education act and generally adopted voluntarily under that act in
the States is in line with the best efforts that have been made during
the past decade in the field of education in this country and in for
eign countries. Briefly stated, this policy is that public-school
education shall be made a vital factor in the everyday affairs and
interests of the communities which provide financial support for
such education, and of the citizen taxpayers and their families, in
cluding the young and old of both sexes living in these communities.
38
HU M AN ITY IN GOVERNMENT.
Under this policy education is not a thing apart, reserved for the
comparatively few who may be provided with means and leisure for
undertaking academic and university training. However great the
educational value of secondary school instruction formulated to
meet the entrance requirements of our colleges and universities may
be, such institution is only one sort of education, and it is not neces
sarily the sort o f education of greatest value to those who do not
ultimately enter our higher educational institutions. To be a vital
factor in our social life education must respond to the interests o f
every class o f citizens. Vocational education particularly must, so
far as possible, respond to the interests of every vocational class in
the broad field o f agriculture, industry, trade, commerce, and home
making. It is therefore essential that these great classes shall be
fairly represented in the administrative agencies directing and pro
moting the development of public-school education.
Consistently with this fundamental principle of education the voca
tional education act provided specifically for representation of labor,
agriculture, and manufactures in the membership of the Federal
board. Each o f these broadly defined interests is in fact given dou
ble representation on the board, once through the Secretaries of
Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor—ex officio members—and again
through three members appointed by the President to represent
labor, agriculture, and manufactures, respectively. Education in
its broadest aspects also is given representation through member
ship ex pfficio of the Commissioner of Education. This membership
is thus fairly devised to represent a wide range of practical interests
o f which public-school education, if it is to function effectively in a
democracy such as ours, must take full account.
In an article of this description it is impossible to go into details
o f the administration of a bureau whose work is as broad, as impor
tant, and as interesting as that of the Federal board. We encourage
vocational education because we believe every child has a right to
an education that will fit him for his proper place in the world’s
work, but another and equally important phase of the board’s ac
tivities is that of rehabilitation of the man disabled in industry.
Every American citizen recognizes the duty of the Nation to care for
those who have become disabled in fighting the Nation’s battles o f .
war at home and abroad. We believe this to be just because the
ex-service man has discharged a duty toward the country and has
sacrificed something as a result o f his patriotic response to protect.
the welfare of the land of his allegiance and his Government. But
the man engaged in military service is not the only person who con
tributes to the Nation’s good. The welfare of society depends as
much upon the individual who produces the prosperity o f the country
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING AND REHABILITATION.
39
or who keeps the fires of industry burning in times of war as upon
him who shoulders a gun upon the foreign field. The welfare of every
man in a community should be the concern of every other member o f
that community. The man engaged in industry is discharging his
duty toward his fellow men, and the man disabled in the pursuit of a
legitimate calling is entitled to rehabilitation, if that be possible.
In cooperating with the States, the Federal Board for Vocational
Education is placing men in industry who through misfortune had
once been deprived of their means to earn a livelihood. Truly the
Federal Board for Vocational Education is in this activity dispensing
“ humanity in government.”
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