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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
JAMES J. DAVIS, Secretary
BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS
ETHELBERT STEWART, Commissioner
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES \
BUREAU OF LABOR ST A T IST IC S/..............
MISCELLANEOUS SERIES
INo. 323
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH ANNUAL
CONVENTION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF
GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS OF
THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
HELD AT HARRISBURG, PA.
MAY 22-26, 192?
MARCH, 1923
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1 9
2 3
ADDITIONAL COPIES
O F THIS PUBLICATION M A T B E PROCURED FROM
TH E SU PERIN TEN DENT OF DOCUMENTS
GO VERNM ENT PRINTING OFFICE
W A SHINGTON, D . C.
AT
20 CENTS PER COPY
PURCHASER AG REES NOT TO RESELL O R DISTRIBUTE THIS
COPY FO R PRO FIT.— PU B . R E S . 57f APPROVED MAY 11, 1922
II
CONTENTS.
Page.
Officers, 1921-22.................................................................................................................... vn
Constitution........................................................................................................................ vn, viii
Development of the Association of Governmental Labor Officials...................... viii, i x
MONDAY, MAY 22, 1922—EVENINGSESSION
The administration of labor laws, by C. B. Connelley, commissioner Pennsyl
vania Department of Labor and Industry............................................................. .... 1-4
President’s address, by Frank E. Wood, commissioner Louisiana Bureau of
Labor and Industrial Statistics..................................................................................... 5,6
Efficiency of American labor, by Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner
of Labor Statistics............................................................................................................. 7-18
TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1922—MORNINGSESSION.
Boll call and reports of new legislation:
Report of Connecticut....................................................................................................19-21
Report of Delaware....................................................................................................... 21,22
Report of Louisiana...................................................................................................... 22
Report of Massachusetts.............................................................................................. 22
Report of Michigan................................................................................ , ....................22,23
Report of Pennsylvania............................................................................................... 23
Report of Virginia............. ...........................................................................................23,24
Report of Washington....................................................... . ........................................ 24,25
Report of Wisconsin— ..............................................................................................25,26
Report of Canada (Ontario)........................................................................................ 26
Appointment of committees............................................................................................... 26
Child Welfare:
TUESDAY, MAY23, 1922—AFTERNOONSESSION
The child problem in the beet-sugar industry, by Owen Lovejoy, secretary
National Child Labor Committee........................................................................ 27-32
Discussion:
W. J. Biebesheimer, chief division of labor statistics, Ohio Depart
ment of Industrial Relations.....................................
32-35
Owen Lovejoy, secretary National Child Labor Committee...........32-35
Edward Clifford, director Washington Department of Labor and
Industries..................
33
Lillie M. Barbour, special inspector Virginia Bureau of Labor and 33-36
Industrial Statistics..................................................................................
E. Leroy Sweetser, commissioner Massachusetts Department of 33-35
Labor and Industries.......... ...................................................... ..............
Fred M. Wilcox, chairman Wisconsin Industrial Commission......... 33,34
Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics.. 34
A. C. Hudson, general superintendent Ontario offices, Employment
Service of Canada..................................................................................... 35,36
Delegate (Illinois)........................................................................................ 36,37
Delegate (Pennsylvania)............................................................................
37
Shall issuance and revocation of employment certificates be under the
control of school or labor department, by Henry J. Gideon, Bureau of
Compulsory Education of the Philadelphia Board of Education.............-.. 38-41
Discussion:
Alice K. McFarland, director women’s work, Kansas Industrial
Welfare Commission............................................................................... 42,43
Louise Schutz, chief division of women and children, Minnesota
Industrial Commission...................................................., ...................... 43
Mrs. Delphine M. Johnson, supervisor of women in industry,
Washington Department of Labor and Industries...........................43,44
Frank E. Wood, commissioner Louisiana Bureau of Labor and
Industrial Statistics................................................................................. 44
Fred M. Wilcox, chairman Wisconsin Industrial Commission.........45, 46
J. J. Coffey , supervising inspector Philadelphia District.................... 46,47
Henry J. Gideon, bureau of compulsory education of Philadelphia
Board of Education.....................................................................................45-49
Owen Lovejoy, secretary National Child Labor Committee............. 48
in
IV
CONTENTS.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1922—MORNINGSESSION.
Page.
Problems and importance of factory inspection, by John P.,Meade, director
division of industrial safety, Massachusetts Department of Labor and
Industries......................................................
50-60
Discussion:
A. C. Hudson, general superintendent Ontario offices, Employ
ment Service of Canada...............C........................................................ 60
Mr. Bleach, factory inspector, Pennsylvania Department of Labor
61
and Industry..............................................................................................
Mrs. Ellen M. Rourke, factory inspector, Iowa Bureau of Labor
Statistics..................................................................................................... 61, 62
W. J. Biebesheimer, chief division of labor statistics, Ohio Depart
ment of Industrial Relations..............................
62
Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor
62,63
Statistics..........................................................
F. L. Hall, deputy factory inspector, Connecticut Department of
Labor and Factory Inspection.......................................
63
Delegate (Massachusetts).....................................................
63
G. Lloyd, chief safety section, United States Bureau of Standards. 63-65
Mr. Eals, chairman board of boiler examiners, Pennsylvania___ __ 65-67
L. T. Bryant, commissioner New Jersey Department of Labor.........67-69
Inspection, Safety, and Sanitation:
Employment:
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1922—AFTERNOONSESSION
United States Employment Service and its functions, by Francis I. Jones,
Director General United States Employment Service..................................... 70-76
Employment Service of Canada, by H. C. Hudson, general superintendent
Ontario offices, Employment Service of Canada.............................................. 77-79
Various methods used by State employment services, by Charles J. Boyd,
general superintendent Chicago Free Employment Offices, Illinois De
partment of Labor........................................................................................................80-86
Tne President’s conference on unemployment, by Otto T. Mallery, mem
ber Industrial Board, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. 87,88
Discussion:
Mrs. M. E. R. Keller, factory inspector, Pennsylvania..................... 88
C. B. Connelley, commissioner Pennsylvania Department of Labor
and Industry........................... ...................................................................88,89
W. J. Biebesheimer, chief division of labor statistics, Ohio
Department of Industrial Relations................................................... 89, 90
R. J. Peters, director, bureau of employment, Pennsylvania De
partment of Labor and Industry..........................................................
90
Mrs. Rosalie L. Whitney, member Industrial Board, New York
Department of Labor............................................................................... 90,91
Frank E. Wood, commissioner Louisiana Bureau of Labor and In
dustrial Statistics...............................................
91
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1922—EVENINGSESSION
Mediation and Conciliation:
Cam governmental labor bureaus affect the causes of labor unrest, by Mary
Van Kleeck, director department industrial studies, Russell Sage Foun
dation........................................................ ....................-...............-.................. 92-99
Mediation and conciliation, by W. M. Leiserson, chairman board of arbi
tration, men’s and boys’ clothing industry, New York.............................. 100-109
Badness Meeting:
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1922—MORNINGSESSION.
Report of auditing committee.............................................................................. 110
Report of committee on resolutions................................................................. 110, 111
Election of officers, etc.......................................................................................... I ll
Compensation Legislation:
Compensation legislation in New York, by Mrs. Rosalie L. Whitney, mem
ber Industrial Board, New York Department of Labor.......................... 112-120
Progress in compensation legislation, by Robert E. Lee, chairman Mary
land State Industrial Accident Commission.............................................. 121-124
CONTENTS.
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1922—AFTERNOONSESSION.
Minimum Wage and Hours of Labor (Open Forum):
V
Page.
Mary Anderson, director Women’s Bureau, United States Department
of Labor................................................................................................................... 125-128
Edward Clifford, director Washington Department of Labor and Industries 125-127
Mrs. Delphine M. Johnson, supervisor of women in industry, Washing
ton Department of Labor andIndustries...................................................... 126,127
Fred M. Wilcox, chairman Wisconsin Industrial Commission..................... 128,129
Alice K. McFarland, director women’s work, Kansas Industrial Welfare
Commission............................................................................................................. 129,130
Miss Von Glick........................................................................................................... 130,131
Minimum-wage administration, by Rev. John A. Ryan, director
National Catholic Welfare Councii, Washington, D. C............................... 132-135
Discussion:
Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor
Statistics.................................................................................................
136
Mary Anderson, director Women’s Bureau, United States De
partment of Labor................................................................................ 136,137
THURSDAY, MAY 25, 1922—EVENINGSESSION.
Rehabilitation and Medical Supervision:
The industrial clinic for the rehabilitation of the injured in industry,
by Lewis T. Bryant, commissioner New Jersey Department of Labor .
Medicine and industry, by John A. Lapp, director department of social
action, National Catholic Welfare Council.....................................................
Rehabilitation and the placement of vocationally rehabilitated persons
in employment, by Charles H. Taylor, chief employment service,
United States Veterans’ Bureau......................................................................
The national program of vocational rehabilitation, by John A. Kratz,
chief industrial rehabilitation division, Federal Board for Vocational
Education................................................................................................................
138-140
141-144
145-151
152-156
APPENDIX.
List of delegates at convention
157,158
Offic e r s ,
P r e s id e n t,
1921-21
Frank E. Wood, New Orleans, La.
F ir s t vice p resid en t, C. B. Connelley, Harrisburg, Pa.
S eco n d vice p resid en t, Ethel M. Johnson, Boston, Mass.
T h ird vice p resid en t, H. M. Stanley, Atlanta, Ga.
F o u rth vice p resid en t, Francisco Varona, Manila, P. I.
F ifth vice presid en t, J. N. McLeod, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Secretary-treasurer, Linna E. Bresette, Chicago, 111.
CONSTITUTION.
Adopted at Nashville, Tenn., June 10, 1914; amended at Buffalo, N. Y., July 17,
1916, and at Harrisburg, Pa., May 23, 1922.
ARTICLE I .— N AM E.
This association shall be known as the Association of Governmental Labor Officials
of the United States and Canada.
ARTICLE I I .— OBJECTS.
The object of this association shall be to act as a medium of interchange of ideas
as to what is best in labor legislation and to promote and correlate the activities of
the State, Federal, and Provincial departments of labor.
ARTICLE H I .— MEMBERSHIP.
Section 1. The membership of this association shall consist of bona fide employees
of Federal, State, and Provincial governmental departments and factory inspection
services having to do with the enforcement and supervision of labor laws.
Sec. 2. In the election of officers, selection of place of meeting, and amending con
stitution and by-laws no department shall have more than five votes in the convention.
ARTICLE I V .— OFFICERS.
Section 1. The administration of the general association shall devolve upon the
officers of this association, who shall constitute the executive committee.
Sec. 2. The officers of the general association shall be a president, first, second,
third, fourth, and fifth vice presidents, and a secretary-treasurer.
Sec. 3. The duties of the president shall be to preside over all meetings of the
association and of the executive committee and to appoint all committees. He
shall hold office until his successor is elected and qualified, and when he is absent
the vice presidents, in order named, shall act in his place and assume his duties. •
Sec. 4. The secretary-treasurer shall keep a detailed record of the proceedings of
the association and such transactions as shall be deemed necessary, and shall keep
an itemized account of all moneys received and disbursed by him during the year,
and shall present his report in writing during the convention, and for such services
he shall receive fifty dollars ($50) per annum, payable after the publication and
distribution of the annual report and transfer of all papers of the association. The
secretary-treasurer shall also publish the proceedings oi the convention within four
months from the close of the last preceding convention, the issue to consist of such
number of copies as the executive committee may direct.
Sec. 5. The secretary-treasurer shall pay out no moneys until he shall have made
out vouchers therefor, which must also be signed by the president. The secretarytreasurer and president shall sign no vouchers for expenditures of money for other
than incidental expenses and printing of report until authorized by the consent of
a majority of the executive committee.
Sec. 6. The officers of this association shall be elected by ballot for one year, or
until their successors are elected and duly qualified. The term of office shall begin
with the adjournment of the annual convention at which the officers are elected,
except that of the secretary-treasurer, which shall not expire until after the publi
cation and distribution of the annual report, which must be done within a period
not exceeding four months after the date of the convention.
VUI
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
ARTICLE Y.—FINANCES.
The annual dues of departments shall be determined upon the following basis:
When the department staff consists of one (1) to five (5) persons, ten dollars ($10);
six (6) to twenty-five (25) persons, fifteen dollars ($15); twenty-six (26) to seventyfive (75) persons, twenty-five dollars ($25); and where the staff exceeds seventy-five
(75) persons, fifty dollars ($50). The executive committee may order an assessment
levied upon the affiliated departments not to exceed the sum of one.y ear’s dues.
ARTICLE V I .— M EETINGS.
The association shall meet annually. Such meetings shall be held in the place
decided upon by the association at the last preceding convention, and at a time fixed
by the executive committee.
ARTICLE V II.— RULES OF ORDER.
The deliberations of the convention shall be governed by Cushing’s Manual.
ARTICLE vm .— ORDER OF BU SIN ESS.
1. Roll call of members.
2. Appointment of special committees.
3. Reports of officers.
4. Reports of committees.
5. Reports of States and Provinces on new legislation.
6. Unfinished business.
7. New business.
8. Selection of place of meeting.
9. Election of officers.
10. Adjournment.
ARTICLE I X .— AM ENDM ENTS.
Amendments to the constitution and by-laws of this association may be made by
the presentation of the proposed amendment in writing at a regular session of any
annual convention. A two-thirds vote of the duly accredited representatives, as
provided for in section 3 of Article III, shall be necessary for the adoption of the
amendment.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR
OFFICIALS.
ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS AND OFFICIALS OF BUREAUS OF LABOR.
No.
Date.
• l
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
0
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
10
20
September, 1883.......
June, 1884.....................
June, 1885....................
June, 1886.....................
June, 1887.................
May, 1888.....................
June, 1889.....................
1890............................
Mav, 1891.....................
May, 1892......................
1893................................
May, 1894.....................
September, 1895...........
June, 1896.....................
May, 1897......................
June, 1898.....................
July, 1899...................
July, 1900......................
May, 1901......... ...........
April, 1902....................
April, 1903.................
July, 1904......................
September, 1905...........
July, 1906...... ...............
July, 1907.....................
August, 1908........... ..
June, 1909...................
21
22
23
24
25
Convention held at—
President.
Columbus, Ohio.......... H. A. Newman.............
St. Louis, Mo............... ....... do................................
Boston, Mass................ Carroll D. Wright...........
Trenton, N. J.............. ....... do................................
Madison, Wis............... ....... do...............................
Indianapolis, Ind____ ....... d o ...... ....................
Hartford, Conn........ .. ....... do................................
Des Moines, Iowa........ No meeting......................
Philadelphia, Pa......... Carroll D. Wright..........
Denver, Colo................ Charles F. Peck.. .. . .. . .
Albany, N. Y ...............
Washington, D. C....... Carroll D. Wright...........
Minneapolis, Minn.... ....... do.............. .................
Albany, N. Y .............. ....... do..............................
Nashville, Tenn........... ....... do................................
Detroit, Mich............... ....... do................................
Augusta, Me. . . . . . . . . . ....... do................................
Milwaukee, Wis........... ____d o.............................
St. Louis, Mo............... ....... do................................
New Orleans, La......... ....... do................................
Washington, D. C....... ....... do................................
Concord, N. H ......... .. .....d o ..............................
San Francisco, Calif... ....... do..............................
Boston, Mass................ Charles P. Neill..............
Norfolk, Va.........
....... do................................
Detroit, Mich. . . . . . . . . ....... d o ..,...............
Rochester, N. Y........ ....... do....^.............
Secretary-Treasurer.
Henry Luskey.
Do.
John S. Lord.
E. R. Hutchins.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Frank H. Betton.
Do.
L. G. Powers.
• Do.
Samuel B. Home.
Do.
Do.
Do.
James M. Clark.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
W. L. A. Johnson.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION,
IX
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR
OFFICIALS—Concluded.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FACTORY INSPECTORS.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Date.
Jima, 1887.....................
August, 1888.................
August] 1890.................
August, 1891.................
September, 1892...........
September, 1893...........
September, 1894...........
September, 1895...........
September, 1896...........
August and Septem
ber, 1897.
September, 1898...........
August, 1899.................
October, 1900................
September, 1901...........
December, 1902...........
August, 1903.................
September, 1904...........
August, 1905.................
June, 1906.....................
June, 1907.....................
June, 1908.....................
June, 1909.....................
Convention held at—
President.
Philadelphia, Pa......... Rufus R. Wade..............
Boston, Mass................ .......do................................
Trenton, N. J.............. .......do................................
New York, N. Y .........
Cleveland, Ohio...........
Hartford, Conn............
Chicago. Ill................... John Franey...................
Philadelphia, Pa......... .......do................................
Providence, R. I .........
Toronto, Canada.........
Detroit, Mich............... Rufus R. Wade..............
Boston, Mass............... .......do...............................
Quebec, Canada..........
Indianapolis, Ind........
Niagara Falls, N. Y ...
Charleston, S. C...........
Montreal, Canada........ James Mitchell................
St. Louis, Mo............... Daniel H. McAbee.........
Detroit, Mich............... Edgar T. Davies.............
Columbus, Ohio.......... Malcolm J. McLead.......
Hartford, Conn............ John H. Morgan..............
Toronto, Canada......... George L. McLean.........
Rochester, N. Y .......... James T. Burke..............
Secretary-Treasurer.
Henry Dorn.
Do.
Do.
Mary A. O’Reilly.
Evan H. Davis.
Alzina P. Stevens.
Joseph L. Cox.
David F. Spees.
Do.
C. V. Hartzell.
Thos. Keity.
Do.
•
Do.
Do.
JOINT
MEETINGS
THE ASSOCIATION
OF CHIEFS OF
ANDFACTORY
OFFICIALS
OF BUREAUS
OF LABOR
ANDOFINTERNATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
INSPECTORS.
24
25
26
27
August, 1910.................
September, 1911...........
September, 1912_____
May, 1913......................
Hendersonville, N. C.,
and Columbia, S. C.
Lincoln, Nebr..............
Washington, D. C.......
Chicago, 111...................
J. Ellery Hudson............ E. J. Watson.
Louis Guyon................... W. W. Williams.
Edgar T. Davies.............
Do.
A. L. Garrett................... W. L. Mitchell.
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
Resulting from the Amalgamation
of the Association
andInspectors.
Officials of Bureaus of Labor and
the International
AssociationofofChiefs
Factory
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Date.
Convention held at—
June, 1914.....................
;Tnoe-.Tnly, 1915............
July, 1916......................
September, 1917.
June, 1918.....................
June, 1919.....................
July, 1920......................
May, 1921........'.............
May, 1922......................
Nashville, Tenn...........
Detroit, Mich...............
Buffalo, N. Y ..............
Asheville, N. C............
Des Moines, Iowa........
Madison, Wis...............
Seattle, Wash..............
New Orleans, La.........
Harrisburg, Pa............
President.
Secretary-Treasurer.
Barney Cohen................. W. L. Mitchell.
.......do................................ John T. Fitzpatrick.
James V. Cunningham..
Do.
Oscar Nelson...................
Do.
Edwin Mulready............ Linna E. Bresette.
C. H. Younger................
Do.
Geo. P. Hambrecht.......
Do.
Frank E. Hoffman.........
Do.
Frank E. Wood..............
Do.
BULLETIN O F THE
U . S. BU REAU
no. 323
OF
LABOR
S T A T IS T IC S
WASHINGTON
march, 1923
P R O C EED IN G S O F T H E N IN T H A N N U A L C O N V E N T IO N O F T H E ASSOCIA
T IO N O F G O V E R N M E N T A L LA B O R O FFIC IA LS O F T H E U N IT E D STATES
A N D C AN AD A, H AR R ISB UR G, P A ., M A Y 22 - 26 , 1922 .
MONDAY; MAY 22—EVENINGSESSION.
C. B. CONNELLEY, COMMISSIONER
PENNSYLVANIA
INDUSTRY,
PRESIDING.DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND
The convention was opened at 8 p. m. with prayer by Rev. Dr.
Bagnell and an address of welcome by the chairman.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF LABOR LAWS.
BY C. B. CONNELLEY, COMMISSIONER PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OP LABOR AND
INDUSTRY.
The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States declaring,
for the second time within a period of four years, the unconstitution
ality of Federal child labor legislation has a meaning for those charged
with the administration of labor laws. There are those, of course,
who think that the highest court in the land erred in its opinion, but
fortunately they are in the minority. The general feeling is that the
court’s action is not to be understood as a “sentence oi children to
labor,” but rather as pointing out the important principle that even
protective legislation passed with the best intent must be kept within
bounds. There is a real need to-day for proper respect for law.
The Federal child labor act of 1919 was intended to regulate the em
ployment of children under the age of 14 in any mill, cannery, work
shop, factory, or manufacturing establishment, or children under 16
years in any mine or quarry, bv imposing an excise tax of 10 per cent
upon the net annual profits of those employing such labor. It was
objected to in due form because it attempted to regulate an exclu
sively State function, in violation of the Federal Constitution and the
tenth amendment. It was defended on the ground that the tax was
to be considered as a mere excise tax levied by Congress under its
broad power of taxation, conferred by the Constitution. Mr. Chief
Justice Taft, whose stand as a former President of the United States
for protective legislation for children is well known, makes a very
clear statement of the point at issue, in delivering the unanimous opin
ion of the court invalidating the act. The Chief Justice asks, “ Does
this law impose a tax with only that incidental restraint and regulation
which a tax must inevitably involve, or does it regulate by the use of
the so-called tax as a penalty ? If a tax, it is clearly an exise: If it
1
2
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
were an excise on a commodity or other thing of value, we might not
be permitted under previous decisions of this court to infer solely
from its heavy burden that the act intends a prohibition instead of a
tax. But this act is more.” After analyzing the law further, the Chief
Justice continues, “In the light of these features of the act, a court
must be blind not to see that the so-called tax is imposed to stop the
employment of children within the age limits prescribed. Its pro
hibitory and regulatory effect and purpose are palpable. All others
can see and understand this. How can we properly shut our minds
to it ?” He says further, “ The good sought in unconstitutional legisla
tion is an insidious feature because it leads citizens and legislators of
good purpose to promote it without thought of the serious breach it
will make in the ark of our covenant, of the harm which will come
from breaking down recognized standards.”
Grant the validity of this law and all that Congress would need to do hereafter, in
seeking to take over to its control any of the great number of subjects of public interest
jurisdiction of which the States have never parted with and which are reserved to them
by the tenth amendment, would be to enact a detailed measure of complete regulation
of the subject and enforce it by a so-called tax upon departures from it. To give such
magic to the word “tax” would be to break down all constitutional limitations of the
powers of Congress and completely wipe out the sovereignty of the States.
In 1918 another Federal labor child law was set aside by the Su
preme Court on the ground of unconstitutionality. It will be remem
bered that this act prohibited the interstate transportation of com
modities in the production of which the labor of minors had been
employed. Here also the court praised the motive behind the leg
islation but condemned the method of enforcing it in unconstitu
tional ways.
It has been argued by the National Child Labor Committee, which
will be represented at this convention by Mr. Owen It. Loveioy, its
very capable general secretary, that “ Twice the people of the united
States have legislated against this jnation-wide, nation-weakening
evil of child labor and now that they have lost their second law in the
courts, as they did their first one, on the issue of unconstitutionality,
they must seriously consider the advisability of changing the Con
stitution.”
The American Federation of Labor has already taken the initiative
in conducting a national campaign with this en$ in view. June 14
has been set as the date for a full discussion of the child labor question
by the Federation. The constitutional amendment would certainly
be an effective method to bring about the abolition of child labor due
to lack of uniformity in the State laws on child labor, some being
inferior to the Federal law, and to the fact that there are still back
ward States which have no adequate protection for children.
In considering the question of constitutional amendment, however,
there is a very important point for the States to consider. It is a fact
that the States as States are a gradually diminishing factor in govern
ment. No less a person than Elihu Root is said to have sounded a
warning, about 10 years ago, that if the States hoped to withstand
the increasing encroachment of national regulation they must exercise
their “rights.” The fact that they are not exercising their rights, or
in other words, not giving the proper administration to the labor laws
that are on their statute books is evident by the extension of the idea
of national power by governmental commissions. The movement
ADMINISTRATION OF LABOR LAWS.
3
for national safety codes, an excellent step from the standpoint of
uniformity, is a dangerous thing if the States thereby lose their hold
on protecting the industries within their own borders.
The movement for self-government in industry characterized by
the selection of such men as ex-Postmaster General Will Hays as the
head of the movie industry, Franklin D. Roosevelt as the head of the
nation-wide organization of the building industry, and Judge Landis
as the head of organized baseball, is indicative of the fact that
industry is taking measures to protect itself against some forms of
governmental interference; at least, the trend is for self-government.
So the States must look to their rights and this means nothing more
nor less than to give full and sane enforcement to its labor laws.
One of the difficulties that we face in the State Governments was
well brought out by the attempted enforcement of the Federal child
labor law in the State of Pennsylvania. This is not cited in the spirit
of hostile criticism but to point out the inadequacy of the Pennsyl
vania child labor law, and yet we “ admit” that our law is a good one.
In the enforcement standard set up by the Federal Government in
regard to child labor legislation, Pennsylvania was ranked as number
13 among the States enforcing such legislation. Naturally we were
not pleased with such a rating, and upon investigation found that,
unknown to us, Federal child labor inspectors had been in our State,
and had unearthed a number of child labor violations.
To show the fallacy of the claim that the revenue to the Federal
Government would not have been very considerable from this form
of taxation, it may only be necessary to say that if the Government
had decided to go ahead it would have cost our manufacturers, just
from the partial survey that had been made, no less than $50,000,000.
In fairness to our manufacturers it ought to be said that as regards
these violations the fault lay not so much with the employers as with
the provisions and enforcement of the State child labor act. The viola
tions for the most part were in the mining districts, over which the
department of labor and industry, one of the three enforcing agencies,
had no jurisdiction. This can be cited as one of the weaknesses of
this State law—the division of responsibility in enforcement. For
example, enforcement of the law is given over to the State depart
ment of public instruction, the State department of labor and industry,
and the local police.
What is true of State child labor laws is of course true of all labor
laws. It is futile to enact protective legislation without providing
effective means for enforcement. The idea that the aggrieved work
man or a benevolent person will see to the enforcement of labor laws
ought to be thoroughly eradicated. The agency responsible for en
forcement should be clearly set forth in the Taw.
Child labor legislation in Pennsylvania is typical of the evolution
of the principle of placing responsibility for the administration of
labor laws. The act of 1848 provided a penalty of $50, one-half to
go to the person illegally employed and one-half to the State, “ to be
recovered in like manner as fines of like amount are recoverable by
law. ” This meant that it would be necessary to sue the employer.
The workman was afraid to sue and there were few philanthropists
who were willing to do so, so the law accomplished very little.
The act of 1849 provided that any owmer or employer who know
ingly or willfully employed any minor under the age of 13 should pay a
4
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
penalty of $50 for each offense, to be sued for and recovered by any
person, one-half going to the person suing and one-half to the county
in which the offense was committed. The act of 1855 provided for
a penalty of from $10 to $50, recoverable before any alderman or
justice of the peace, to be applied to the use of the public schools. The
comment made on this law is: “No provision is made for the enforce
ment of this act, the legislature having been unwilling to permit con
stables to proceed in the absence of complaints by private citizens,
and it remained practically a dead letter for some 35 years. ” It was
a big step forward for child labor legislation as well as for all labor laws
when, upon the creation of a factory inspection department the
attorney general of Pennsylvania, in an opinion to the factory in
spector, stated: “You are not required to institute such actions in
discriminately and literally upon the request of any citizens of this
Commonwealth. It is your right and duty to investigate complaints
and requests made to you and to ascertain that they are well founded
and made in good faitn before you comply with them.”
The present child labor act was enacted after the creation of the
department of labor and industry and, as pointed out, perhaps the
most glaring weakness of the act of 1915 is the matter of divided
responsibility in enforcement. It ought to be said that the act of
1915 is steadily being improved, both as to the clearness of its pro
visions and the method of enforcement, by the rulings of the indus
trial board. Up to date the board has made 37 specific rulings relating
to the act, among the most recent of which are the requirement of a
proof-of-age certificate for minors over 16 years of age applying for
employment, and the extension of the act to cover industrial home
work. At present the board is engaged with the problem of the bear
ing of the act on children in theatricals, with the idea of finding some
way of enforcing the act against a form of employment which has
been treated with the “hands off ” policy.
The most useless type of labor legislation is of course the “dangling”
kind which has no specific provision for enforcement by State or any
other authority. An example of this in Pennsylvania labor legisla
tion is an act of 1913 regulating the time of payment of wages. This
is identical with an act of 1887 providing for the semi-monthly
payment of wage workers. In the original act no provision was
made for its enforcement and it remained a dead letter until the pas
sage of an amendatory act in 1891 which made it the duty of the
factory inspector to bring action under the act. By a strange coin
cidence the act of 1913 goes back to the original act of 1887 and
makes no provision for tne administration by the very department
which was created in 1913 to have jurisdiction over the labor laws of
the Commonwealth.
To summarize: In order to secure the proper administration of
labor legislation it is clearly the duty of the States to pass their own
laws in the interests of their industries and workers, at least until the
Federal Constitution provides otherwise. The laws should make
specific provision for enforcement—if possible should prevent divided
responsibility in administration, and certainly should condemn the
“ dangling” type of legislation. Good faith in administration by the
State naturally leads to good faith in compliance on the part of in
dustry. This is fundamental to the proper respect for law.
PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.
BY PRANK B . W OOD, COMMISSIONER LOUISIANA B UR EAU
OP LABOR AN D INDUSTRIAf
STATISTICS.
I do not know that there is a better time than now for myself or some
one else to make clear the real business of this association, to tell
just what we stand for and what we wish to accomplish. In doing
that I am going to tell you some things that we do not stand for,
and that we do not advocate. The active membership of the organi
zation is composed of heads or employees of State, Federal and
Provincial governmental departments. It is true that we cooperate
in a way and affiliate with other organizations or civic bodies, but
that, you might say, is in a fraternal, and not in a real executive,
business way. This organization stands for everything that is truly
American. We advocate the enactment of sane and just laws, of
fair laws, to protect the worker and to secure high standards as to
working conditions and sanitation, and the reduction of hazards.
We are particularly interested in the enactment of legislation protect
ing innocent children and defenseless women. With the enact
ment of just laws, we are confronted with the perplexing problem of
their enforcement. We wish to be fair in the enforcement of our
laws. Sometimes I believe that we are just a little too lenient, but
with all that, our desire and our efforts, while looking to the protec
tion of the workers, are also to look out for the employer. The
employing interest is entitled to a certain amount of consideration.
We realize there are two sides to every question, and in the
enactment and enforcement of laws we must remember that the
employing interest is deserving of at least a fair consideration.
There is another and a third party—the public. For years it
was abused, overlooked, and forgotten, but it is now demanding
recognition. There is no use talking, the time of “the public be
damned” is past. We must consider its welfare and its interest.
In the enforcement of laws we wish to be absolutely fair. I can
speak only for myself, but I feel that I voice the sentiment of every
colaborer when I say that we are willing, yes more than willing,
to meet the issue in each and every situation squarely, to seek co
operation, to lay the cards on the table face up, and to play the game,
in order to accomplish our purpose. I have no hesitancy in saying
that, whether he be from the ranks of labor, from the ranks of the
employer, or from the public group, the man who assumes in any way
to impede us in our efforts or to hamper us in the discharge of our
sworn duties is a menace to his community, and un-American in
his principles. We ask for cooperation and that each one of you
meet us half way. Now, I want to say a little about what we do
not stand for. I make this statement to clarify a possible misunder
standing on the part of some people. This body of men and women
is not an organized labor union. Many of us come from the ranks
of labor, and possibly are members of organized labor. I am and have
been for 30 years such a member, and I carry a union card at all
times. It is unsullied and untarnished, and I am proud to carry it,
but in the performance of my official duties at home or in the delib
erations at our sessions here it has no business. The open shop,
the closed shop, or the so-called American plan, those things are all
5
6
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
rerything else, have a time and a
Another thing, this is a nonpolitical body. As an organization
it makes no difference with what political oody the members are
affiliated; that is a personal privilege, a God-given right to each man.
Politics are taboo. We do not permit them to be discussed on the
floor. They are another thing tnat has no business in our sessions.
This organization is nonsectarian. It is immaterial what your
religion is, what church you attend, or how you worship God. That
is your business. You can worship any way you wish. That is the
privilege of every man and woman. We do not allow these things
to enter into our deliberations, for if you want to destroy the success,
the real intent of the work of any organization on earth just inter
ject a few such controversial questions into your conferences and
deliberations, and the organization will cease to function.
EFFICIENCY OF AMERICAN LABOR.
BY ETHELBERT STEWART, U. S. COMMISSIONER OF LABOR STATISTICS.
Few statistical subjects are more discussed than the one used as
the title for this address; there is none upon which we know less.
On the one hand we hear much of the superiority of the Amer
ican workman; on the other, we hear much of the degeneration of
American labor, of loafing on the job, of jot) making, etc. When we
ask for proof, for figures, for output per man per hour or per day
taken from the records that are the basis of pay rolls, we are told,
“ Oh, I have no figures, but what I state is a matter of common
knowledge.”
Now, I believe there are certain rules of evidence under which
judges, particularly of courts of chancery, may take “ judicial notice”
of things which are not and need not be proven, upon the ground
that they are matters of common knowledge. For instance, state
ments in an almanac as to whether it was full moon or dark of the
moon in a certain place on a certain date, or the number of counties
in a State, may be accepted without proof as a matter of common
knowledge. But a statement as to whether the number of tons of
coal that the bituminous miners were taking out per day in a given
mine in 1913 exceeded the number of tons per day taken out in the
same mine in 1922 is not a matter of common knowledge when not
backed by figures from the output sheets, the time cost sheets, and
the pay roll, and can not be introduced as testimony even “for what
it is worth.” Not only is it worthless but there is growing up a very
strong suspicion that it has contributed a very large share to the
hatred ana bad blood that seems unfortunately to be on the increase
as between the employing and the employed portions of our popula
tion. No statistician would accept such testimony as relating to
output per man-hour. “ Common knowledge” can not be tabu
lated. It can not be worked up into an index number nor can
percentages of increase or decrease from year to year be worked out.
Labor cost per unit of production in any industry as expressed in
money, while interesting and economically important, is not illu
minating on the subject of labor efficiency. That the labor cost in
a pair of shoes to-day is two and one-fourth times what it was in
1913 may be entirely due to increase in wages; and the question as
to whether the output per man per hour in shoe factories has in
creased or decreased since 1913 can not be determined by the labor
cost per pair of shoes.
Again, total output per man-hour or day based upon all employees
is likely to be very misleading in those industries where a very con
siderable proportion of so-called common labor is employed. Out
put per man, all labor combined, does not indicate anything, or at
16697°—23—Bull, 323-----2
7
8
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
least does not indicate much as to the efficiency of American labor.
Common labor in the United States may be less efficient than it was
30 or 40 years ago, but it is no longer American. In such industries
as the iron and steel, coal mining, railroad construction, brick making,
and textile mills, and a great many other of our basic industries,
immigrant labor, of low-grade efficiency, was sought for and the indus
tries m consequence were overrun by races physically weak, as, for
example, the Italian, untrained in any industrial occupation, as was
practically all of the southwestern Europe immigration. These men
are physically weak. They have neither the immediate strength
nor the endurance to stand up under hard labor that the common
labor of 40 years ago possessed, and as a result of this inability of
immigrant labor to stand the work it did not prove cheap, and
machinery has largely taken the place of common labor.
In an article which was published in the Monthly L abor R eview
(pp. 1—11) for February, 1921,1 have examined critically the figures
which indicated that the output per man per hour in the bituminous
coal fields was s t e a d i l y decreasing. The fact is that the number of
noncoal getters—that is, laborers in the mine and on top of the mine
—had very greatly increased; in a number of cases the actual coal
getters had decreased. In the bituminous mines in 1917 the total
mcrease in men employed over 1916 was 7.5 per cent. The
underground employees, who represented 79 per cent of the total,
increased only 5 per cent, whereas the surface labor increased 21 per
cent. Not only that, but the 5 per cent increase in underground
employees was largely made up of workmen other than the actual
coal diggers. In Illinois in 1917 the actual miners—pick miners, ma
chine runners, and loaders—were 67.9 per cent of the total employees.
You will understand that these are tine men who get the coal. In
January, 1919, the per cent these men were of the total had fallen to 65.
When we consider the actual miner, therefore, the output per day
is not 3J tons, as indicated by dividing the output by the total em
ployees, common labor and all, but the average is well over 7 tons for
pick miners, and if we take the average for pick or hand mining and
machine mining together—that is to say, if we take the pick miners,
the machine runners, and the loaders—the average in good mines runs
up to 10 and 12 tons per day, or a ton and a half per one-man hour at
the face of the working; and the figures show a substantial increase
in output per one-man hour as between 1919 and 1921.
Another thing must not be forgotten when we speak of average
output per man. I once heard a governor of a State ask Susan S.
Anthony if she thought a woman had as much intelligence as a man.
Miss Anthony’s reply was, “ Which woman, which man?” The
output per man per hour depends so much upon the man and the con
ditions under which he labors that a person who simply wants to
rant and harp on inefficiency can make his selection, while the man
who wants to show that the American worker is overworked and is
producing more than a human being can or ought to be expected to
stand can also make his selection.
For instance, in 1919 in a coal mine in Illinois with a 42-inch seam, •
with an average output of 4.9 tons per day per pick miner, practically
10 per cent of the miners produced less than 3 tons a day; 21 per cent
produced more than 3 and less than 4 tons per day; 24 per cent
EFFICIENCY OF AMERICAN LABOR.
9
produced 4 but less than 5 tons per day; and 27 per cent produced 5
but less than 6 tons per day, while 2 men in that mine produced 10
tons of coal per day for the entire pay-roll period. In another mine,
with a 69-inch vein, the average was 9.6 tons per day. One man
produced less than 3 tons per day, 2 men produced less than 4 tons
per day, and 10 men produced 7 and under 8 tons per day, while
8 men produced 12 tons a day, 5 men produced 13 tons a day, and 7
men produced over 13 tons a day for the entire pay-roll period.
Incidentally, the day was an eight-hour day and it was a union mine,
where everybody is supposed to be reduced to a common level and no
man permitted to do more than any other man. In another mine, also
in Illinois, where the average was 7.9 tons per day, 41 men produced
the average, 45 men produced 9 tons each, 20 men produced 10 tons
each, and 8 men produced over 13 tons per day each.
Not only does this fact that there is no uniformity of output apply
as regards men in industry but it also applies as regards establish
ments in the industry and practically an industries. The average
output per man per day in the anthracite coal fields by establishments
ranges from 1.6 to 5.2 tons per day, the general average being 3 or
3J tons per man per day. In the coal statistics of this year compiled
by the Bureau of Labor Statistics we are trying to emphasize this
output per man per day and per hour.
Perhaps the most startling variation in output or seeming effi
ciency of labor is in the copper-mining industry. In 1918 the
Department of Labor requested the Geological Survey to ascertain
the relative productivity of labor in the production of copper ore,
with a view to closing down, if necessary, the mines that were the
least productive. This survey covered the labor employed in aptual
mining and did not take in the common labor around the mine.
The range was from 38.5 to 416.1 pounds per man per day in 1916
and from 30.1 to 371.8 pounds per man per day in 1917. Fifteen
and one-half per cent of the men employed in copper mining in
1917 produced 4.4 per cent of the total output, at the average .rate
of 30.1 pounds per man per day; 48.2 per cent of the men employed
in the industry produced 30.1 per cent of the total output of copper
produced by mines, at an average rate of 65.1 pounds per man per
day; 6.5 per cent of the total employees produced 5.5 per cent of
the output, at an average rate of 90.5 pounds per man per day;
15.6 per cent of the total employees produced 17.7 per cent of the
output, at an average rate of 120.5 pounds per man per day; 7.7 per
cent of the men produced 16.5 per cent of the output, at an average
production of 227.9 pounds per day; 6.4 per cent of the miners pro
duced 22.5 per cent of the output, at an average rate of 371.8 pounds
per day.
It is a curious fact that 15.5 per cent of the copper miners were
producing 30.1 pounds per day, while almost exactly the same per
centage, 15.6 per cent, were producing 120.5 pounds per day, or
almost exactly four times as much per man per day. This survey
in 1917 covered 1,006 mines and presents a very striking example of
the wide variation in productivity. One asks how a mine that gets
but 30.1 pounds per man per day can exist as against a mine securing
371 pounds per day, but with this economic problem we have nothing
to do at this time.
10
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The great trouble with men who wish to make out a case is that in
handling such figures as are here presented they try to make it appear
that the copper miner who produces 30 pounds a day is a loafer, is
“laying down” on his job, and is doing in fact less than one-tenth of
the work that he ought to do, because a man can produce 371 pounds
of copper per day, or do more than that, as in 1916, when he produced
416 pounds per day. As a matter of fact, the man who produced 30
pounds per day worked just as hard as and in many cases harder
than the man who produced 371 pounds per day.
As an example of group efficiency, all classes of labor being taken
into consideration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has compiled some
very interesting figures in the iron and steel industry. In the openhearth steel process in a certain group of plants from which returns
were received by the bureau 9,733 full-year workers—and by this
we mean that the part-time or floating labor in the open-hearth fur
naces reporting was reduced to full time—produced 10,524,552 tons
of open-hearth steel in 1913, being 1,081 tons per full-year worker.
In 1914 this had increased to 1,130 tons per full-year worker; in 1915
it was 1,339 tons; in 1916 it was 1,366 tons; m 1917 it was 1,279
tons; in 1918 it was 1,268 tons; and in 1919 it was 1,277 tons. Thus
the output per man per year was greater in 1919 than it was in 1913
or 1914, but not so great as in 1915 and 1916.
In the wire-drawing plants reporting, the tons produced per fullyear worker were 171 in 1913, 206 in 1914, 216 in 1915, 198 m 1916,
187 in 1917,171 in 1918, and 169 in 1919. In tubing and pipe making
the output per full-year worker was 101 tons in 1913, 98 tons in 1914,
107 tons in 1915, 98 tons in 1916, 89 tons in 1917, 83 tons in 1918,
and 85 tons in 1919. In sheet and tin-plate work the output per
full-year worker was 68 tons in 1913, 71 tons in 1914, 73 tons m 1915,
72 tons in 1916, 66 tons in 1917, 61 tons in 1918, and 61 tons in 1919.
Whatever of variation from year to year there is in these figures is
due to the fact that in 1917 and 1918 there were drawn from this
industry a great many of the higher-grade men, who went into the
war or into war production along the more technical manufacturing
lines, and owing to the artificial industrial boom of 1919 and 1920
these men did not return to this industry. There were, in conse
quence, drawn into this industry large numbers of people who not
only had never worked at the industry but had never worked at
anything along manufacturing lines. In 1919 and 1920 there was
another intake of nonindustrials, and it is only surprising that*the
output per man-year did not decrease to a greater extent.
We have the figures from 1913 to 1919 for a large segment of the
Bessemer steel industry on output per man per year for the total
labor group; that is to say, including common and all other labor.
In 1913 the output per man-year was 1,302 tons, in 1914 it was 1,303
tons, in 1915 it was 1,643 tons, in 1916 it was 1,624 tons, in 1917 it
was 1,403 tons, in 1918 it was 1,232 tons, and in 1919 it was 1,216
tons.
It is very interesting to compare these figures for total labor with
the output of key occupations along the same line. In a Bessemer
plant the producing crew—that is, the practically skilled men, taken
as whole—produced during one pay-roll period in May, 1915, 2.36
tons per man per hour. The key man—the steel pourer—produced
EFFICIENCY OF AMERICAN LABOR.
11
32 tons per hour, the rate to the pourer at that time being 98 cents
per 100 tons. In October, 1920, in the same plant, the output of
the producing crew employed at that time was 3.82 tons per
hour, while the steel pourer produced 60 tons per hour on the
average, with the equipment ana opportunity for production offered.
The rate at that time was $2.07 per 100 tons, as against 98 cents in
May, 1915. It would seem, therefore, that labor efficiency among
skilled men in the industry is not being reduced as the wage advances.
Taking another Bessemer plant, in March, 1914, steel pourers on
the pay roll produced 37.8 tons per man per hour, the rate being
88 cents per 100 tons. In May, 1916, with the same equipment and
with a rate of $1.32 per 100 tons, the output of the steel pourer was
44.3 tons per hour, while in March, 1920, m the same plant and with
a piece rate of $2.68 per 100 tons the output was 42.5 tons per man
per hour. In another plant in May, 1915, the output per steel pourer
was 70.5 tons per man per hour, at a rate of 84 cents per 100 tons. In
October, 1920, in the same plant the output was 77 tons per man per
hour, with a rate of $1.88 per 100 tons.
In a 10-inch bar mill the entire productive crew of 52 men produced
in a pay-roll period in 1915, 323 pounds of iron bars per man per hour.
In October, 1920, in the same mill, a crew of 51 men produced 515
pounds per man per hour. A 12-inch bar mill in 1915 with an entire
working crew—speaking now of skilled men, no repair labor or general
labor being included—of 51 men produced 401 pounds per man per
hour. The same mill produced in October, 1920, with 46 men in
the crew, 542 pounds of bar per man per hour. In another 12-inch
bar mill in the same plant, in 1915 the crew of 48 men produced 374
pounds per man per hour, and in October, 1920, the crew of 49 men
produced 452 pounds per man per hour. In an 8-inch bar mill m
1915 the output of the productive group was 166 pounds per man
hour.
It is interesting, however, to follow the more skilled men and the
real key men in one of these productive groups. In the 8-inch bar
mill just referred to, the rollers produced 2.35 tons per man-hour;
the finishers, of course, produced the same. The heaters produced
1.17 tons per man-hour. In a 9-inch bar mill of the same plant the
rollers produced 3.74 tons per man-hour, while the group output was
223 pounds per man-hour. In an 18-inch bar mill of the same plant
the rollers’ output was 5.14 tons per man-hour, and the heaters pro
duced 2.57 tons per man-hour. The output of the productive unit
of 86 men was 346 pounds per man-hour.
Some interesting statistics are available on the progressive pro
ductivity of labor m the blast furnaces. In the table and chart fol
lowing are given the number of employees, the total production of
coal, and the production per man per year in blast furnaces in the
United States from 1850 to 1920.
12
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN AND PRODUCTION OF BLAST FURNACES IN THE
UNITED STATES AND INDEX NUMBERS COMPUTED THEREFROM.
[ N
u
d
t o
m
b
e r
u c t i o n
o f
e m
f r o m
p
l o y
C
e n
e e s
s u
s
f r o m
C
r e p o r t s
e n
s u
1 8 5 0
s
t o
r e p o r t s
o f
y e a
1 8 9 0
d
f r o m
0 0
;
a n
r
s p e c i f i e d ,
r e p o r t s
o f
e x c e p t
A
m
f o r
e r i c a n
1 9 1 9 ,
I r o n
w
a n
h
i c h
d
S
i s
t e e l
a n
A
e s t i m
s s o c i a
a
t e :
t i o n
s
p
r o
1 8 9 9
1 9 2 0 .]
[ 1 8
5 0 =
1
t o n
=
2 , 2 4 0
p
o u n
1850............................................................
1860............................................................
1870............................................................
1880............................................................
1890............................................................
1899............................................................
1900............................................................
1901............................................................
1902............................................................
1903............................................................
1904............................................................
1905............................................................
1906............... ..........................................
1907............................................................
1908............................................................
1909............................................................
1910............................................................
1911............................................................
1912............................................................
1913............................................................
1914............................................................
1915............................................................
1916............................................................
1917............................................................
1918............................................................
1919............................................................
1920............................................................
s . ]
per man
Total production. Production
per year.
Employees.
Year.
d
Index
Number. number.
20,298
15,927
27,554
33,415
39,241
100
78
136
165
193
35,078
172
38,429
189
29,356
145
38,243
188
Tons.
504,245
881,749
1,832,876
3,375,911
8,845,185
13,620,703
13,789,242
15,878,354
Y7,821,307
18,009,252
16,497,033
22,992,380
25,307,191
25,781,361
15,936,018
25,795,471
27,303,567
23,649,547
29,726,937
30,966,152
23,332,244
29,916,213
39,434,797
38,647,397
39,054,644
31,015,364
36,925,987
Index
Index
number. Tons. number.
100
175
363
669
1,754
2,701
25
55
67
265
347
100
220
268
1,060
1,388
3,272
470
1,880
5,116
671
2,684
4,627
795
3,180
6,151
8 1 1
3,244
In 1850, with 20,298 employees, there were produced in the United
States 504,245 gross tons of pig iron, an average production of 25
tons per year per man. Forty years later, in 1890, we were pro
ducing 265 tons per man per year; in 1904, 470 tons per man per
year were produced; in 1909 we produced 671 tons per man; in 1914
we produced 795 tons per man; and in 1919 with 38,243 employees
we produced 31,015,364 tons, or 811 tons per man per year. In
other words, taking the year 1850 as 100, the index of employment
in 1919 was 188, or an increase in the number of employees in the
blast furnaces of 88 per cent. The index of output per man had
increased from 100 in 1850 to 3,244, or 3,144 per cent. This does not
mean per man under the same conditions in 1919 as in 1850. Machinery
and mechanical devices had entirely displaced men in many occupa
tions, and enormously augmented their power of production in others.
These figures measure the output of all the blast furnaces of the
country combined. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, however, has the
production per full-year worker from plants employing nearly half of
the total, and these figures show the output per man per year in 1913
as 1,012 tons; in 1914 it was 858 tons; in 1915 it was 1,129 tons;
in 1916 it was 1,179 tons; in 1917 it was 825 tons; in 1918 it was
964 tons; and in 1919 it was 875 tons. In each of these years it was
considerably higher in this selected group of blast furnaces than it
was in the country as a whole.
In Bulletin No. 225 of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
(pp. 68-146) are shown very elaborate statistics on the output per
man-hour in the sawmills of the country, together with the time and
wages cost per 1,000 board feet produced at a large number of mills.
EFFICIENCY OF AMEKICAN LABOR,
BLAST FURNACES IN THE UNITED STATES.
13
14
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
It is not my purpose to go into all this detail at this time. The
figures presented m the bulletin referred to are for the year 1915.
For the purpose of this address I have selected one establishment,
carrying the production through from the standing tree to the lumber
piled in the yard. The details will be found in the table following.
I will call your attention to the fact that the total sawmill labor in
producing 1,000 board feet of lumber equals 3.85 one-man hours, and
the total sawmill labor cost was $1.11 per thousand feet. The key
men here, the sawyers, produced 1,000 feet of lumber in seventy-six
one-hundredths of an hour at a cost of 22 cents, the edgers in iourtenths of an hour at a cost of 10 cents, and the trimmers in twentyseven one-hundredths of an hour at a cost of nearly 6^ cents.
PRODUCTIVITY AND COST OF LABOR FOR TREE-TO-LUMBER-PILE OPERATIONS IN
A REDWOOD MILL, 1915.1
Occupation, process, or machine.
Logging:
Foremen, scalers, general.............................................
Felling and log making.................................................
Skidding, yarding, and loading...............................
Transportation and unloading.....................................
Maintenance of transportation.....................................
Total, logging..............................................................
Log pond or yard..................................................................
Sawmill:
Foremen.........................................................................
Deck...........................*....................................................
Sawing-head, gang and resaw.....................................
Edging............................................................................
Trimming........................................................................
Refuse-slasher, hog, burner..........................................
Filing...............................................................................
Power and oiling............................................................
Repair............................................................................
Night watch and fire protection................................
Clean-up and miscellaneous.........................................
Total, sawmill............................................................
Sorting
.........................................................................................
Yard—Green lumber:
Foremen..........................................................................
Trucking ............................................ -........................
Piling...............................................................................
Total yard...................................................................
Total, tree to lumber pile..........................................
Cost per 1,000board feet
Output in
produced.
cost
board feet Wages
per
per
one-man
one-man
hour.
One-man Wages.
hour.
hours.
$0.3801
.2732
.3042
.3284
.2076
.2838
.2650
0.2880
4.6613
3.8656
.9063
1.2436
10.9648
.4124
$0.1095
1.2734
1.1730
.2976
.2582
3.1117
.1093
22,130
5,051
1,311
2,483
3,725
11,065
5,532
1,002
4,323
4,668
2,159
259
474
.6852
.3105
.2905
.2500
.2392
.2125
.5750
.2946
.3658
.2250
.1801
.2855
.2291
.0452
.1980
.7628
.4027
.2685
.0904
.1808
.9983
.2313
.2142
.4631
3.8553
2.1116
.0310
.0615
.2216
.1007
.0642
.0192
.1039
.2941
.0846
.0482
.0834
1.1124
.4838
22,130
4,442
483
427
58
.4259
.2218
.2008
.2072
.2693
.0452
.2251
2.0716
2.3419
19.6860
.0192
.0499
.4161
.4852
5.3024
3,472
215
259
1,103
804
91 !
2,425
i U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bui. No. 225: Wages and hours of labor in the lumber, millwork, and
furniture industries, 1915, pp. 77,78.
Unpublished statistics for the lumber industry in 1921, in the hands
of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and now in the course of preparation,
show considerable difference in the details, particularly as to the labor
cost per thousand board feet, but, taking it all in all, show an increase
in the efficiency of labor; that is to say, a reduction in the time cost
15
EFFICIENCY OF AMERICAN LABOR.
per thousand board feet. I submit herewith details from two States,
17 establishments in Alabama and 15 establishments in California.
In this table, however, only the direct productive sawmill labor is
included.
PRODUCTIVITY AND COST OF LABOR FOR SAWMILLS IN ALABAMA AND CALIFORNIA
IN 1921.
Occupation.
Labor cost.
One-man Board feet
per
hours per
1,000
one-man
Per 1,000
board feet. hour. Per hour. board
feet.
A
Doggers...................................................................................
Setters....................................................................................
Sawyers......., .........................................................................
Saw tailers.............................................................................
Edgermen... *........................................................................
Trimmers...............................................................................
Machine feeders.....................................................................
Laborers.................................................................................
Other employees...................................................................
All occupations..........................................................
0.3
.2
.3
.2
.2
.2
.5
9.2
3.8
14.9
0.2
.2
.2
.2
.2
.1
.1
4.1
3.4
8.7 ■
b
a
m
3,632
4,496
3,046
6,433
5,205
4.995
1.996
109
262
67
C
Doggers...................................................................................
Setters....................................................................................
Sawyers..................................................................................
Saw tailers.............................................................................
Edgermen..............................................................................
Trimmers............................................................................
Machine feeders.....................................................................
Laborers
.................................................................
Other employees...................................................................
All occupations..........................................................
l a
a l i f o r n
4,315
6,354
4,308
5,872
5,814
7,409
13,573
243
298
116
a
.
$0,191
.269
.559
.181
.309
.233
.203
.155
.253
.196
$0.06
.05
.17
.04
.06
.05
.10
1.43
.96
2.92
i a .
$0,466
.549
.753
.470
.614
.503
.479
.406
.523
.472
$0.09
.11
.15
.09
.12
.05
.05
1.66
1.78
4.11
In an investigation by the Taft Tariff Board in 1911, in textile
mills, men working on almost identical pieces of cloth were found
weaving all the way from 2.7 yards per hour to 3.5 yards per hour,
but here again the figures are not altogether indicative of American
labor. At the beginning of the World War only 36 per cent of the
employees of the woolen and worsted mills of the United States were
American born, and of these 27 per cent had worked in the industry
less than one year and 12 per cent one year and less than two years;
and taking all nationalities, 52 per cent of the males and 48 per cent
of the females had worked in the mills less than one year, while 54.5
per cent of the males and 45.5 per cent of the females had worked less
than one year in the occupations in which they were found at the time
of the investigation.
Some interesting figures are being brought out in the course of a
current investigation by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the ribbon
industry. The following table shows the average output per hour,
time cost per yard, and weaving cost per yard for two periods of
three weeks each in February and in April, 1920.
1 6
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
AVERAGE OUTPUT PER HOUR, TIME COST PER YARD, AND WEAVING COST PER
YARD IN THE RIBBON INDUSTRY, FEBRUARY AND APRIL, 1920.1
Kind of ribbon.
Satin-taffeta.....................................................
Satin..................................................................
Taffeta..............................................................
Width of
ribbon
(inches).
7
51
Period
covered
(1920).
/February...
\April............
/February...
1April............
/February...
\April............
Average Time cost Weaving
output per yard cost pel
per hour (minutes).
yard.
(yards).
1.25
1.4
1.023
1.043
1.137
1.095
47.4
42.9
58.8
57.4
52.6
54.7
$0.64
.688
.936
1.006
.78
.839
i This table refers to weaving only.
Between the two periods covered there was a strike for shorter hours
and higher rates of pay. The strike was successful. It is interesting,
therefore, to note that on a satin-taffeta ribbon the average output
per man per hour was 1.2 yards, that is to say, the time cost per yard
was 47 minutes, and the weaving cost 64 cents. After the strike, the
hours of the establishment having been reduced, the output per man
per hour on the same ribbon was 1.4 yards per hour or practically
43 minutes per yard. The weaving cost, however, had increased to
68.8 cents by reason of the increase in lyages.
In the investigation of wages and hours of labor in the boot and
shoe industry for 1916, published in Bulletin No. 232, the Bureau of
Labor Statistics secured the itemized time cost by operation in the
production of 100 pairs of shoes. This totaled 1 hour and 25f
minutes per pair of shoes one-man time. During the war that time
was considerably increased owing to the changed character of the
employees in the boot and shoe industry. Since the war, in another
factory, the statement was made that this time cost had been very
much reduced and that it now stands at a range of from 54 minutes
to 1 hour and 6 minutes.
I have been surprised at the amount of tune-cost material there is
in the possession of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.. No particular
stress has been put upon this point heretofore. It will be the policy
of the bureau now to collect this information wherever it can be done
with a reasonable expenditure of time. I want to call vour attention
to the fact that the Agricultural Department in its Office of Farm
Management and Farm Economics has given us the exact time cost
or one-man hours in theproduction of a bushel of wheat and various
other farm products. From the report of the Federal Trade Com
mission on commercial wheat-flour milling it is possible to deduce the
one-man-hour time in the production of a barrel of flour from the
wheat. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also has information upon
this point. The time required to convert a barrel of flour into loaves
of bread can be ascertained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
I will state at this point that a movement is on foot whereby
through the cooperation of the Babson Statistical Organization and
the Department of Labor more satisfactory figures on efficiency will
be secured in the near future. Without doubt this commission will
enter the field of the building trades and attempt to ascertain some
definite facts. Here again, as in the matter of copper-ore mining,
already referred to, the same amount of labor expended may produce
EFFICIENCY OF AMERICAN LABOR.
17
very different results when measured by the unit in the industry,
which may and does furnish a plausible basis for some very unfair
attacks upon American workers. You hear it said that before the
war a man would lay 1,500 bricks a day, that in Chicago you could
get 2,000 bricks laid per man per day, and that now 500 and 750 are
all you can get. The fact is, that any statement which does not go
beyond the number of bricks laid by a man in a day does not convey
any adequate information. It all depends upon whether a bricklayer
was working on an 8-inch wall, a 12-inch wall, a 16-inch wall, a 20-inch
wall, or a 24-inch wall, whether he was laying to a line and filling in
behind his own work or whether he was laying to a line and someone
else was filling in behind him, whether he was laying face brick or
building a dead wall. The same man might lay 1,500 or 1,800 bricks
one day and lay 400 the next day, and work harder on the 400 face
bricks, pointed mortar, than he did on the 1,500 bricks. In other
words, without some sort of a description of the work a thousand
bricks is not the unit of the bricklayer’s efficiency.
I remember when in the town of Hof, Germany,2 in 1911, where
the bricklayers were then paid 48 pfennigs an hour, amounting to
about 10 cents at that time, they told me that the union rate was
650 bricks in a day of 10 hours. They were careful to give me the
size of the brick and the kind of wall, which we would here call a
straightaway 16-inch wall. I was told that this was not a printed
rule of the union in Hof, though in Hamburg the bricklayers’ union
had a definite limit of 800 bricks per day. I asked the union official
in Hof how they regulated this output if it was not a written rule of
the union. I said to him, “ What would you do with a man who
laid more than 650 bricks in a day ?” His reply was, “ Oh, he would
drink his beer alone.” What the war did to the union rules
among the building trades in Germany I do not know, but I do know
that the statements made about output in the bricklaying trade in
the United States since the war, which have come to me, have never
been accompanied with definite data as to the width of the wall and
the kind of work being done, or with copies of production or time-cost
sheets that would comirm the statements made.
I a m w e ll a w a re t h a t in s o m e q u a rte rs o b je c tio n s w ill b e m a d e to
s u c h tim e -c o s t s tu d ie s a s w ill g iv e u s a n y r e a l in fo r m a tio n as to e ffi
c ie n c y . I k n o w t h a t a n y a tte m p t to k e e p tim e o n p ro cesses o r
o c c u p a tio n a l c o s t w ill m e e t w it h o p p o s itio n b y w o rk m e n . T h is is
b e c a u s e o f a m is a p p re h e n s io n t h a t th e p u rp o s e is to s p e e d u p , to g e t
a p a c e s e t t h a t i t w ill b e h a r d to k e e p , a n d th e n to d e m a n d t h a t p a c e
as a te s t o f e ffic ie n c y . U n fo r tu n a te ly , a n y tim e c o s t is im m e d ia te ly
a s s o c ia te d w it h “ T a y lo r s y s te m s ,” w it h “ p ro d u c tio n e n g in e e rin g ,”
a n d t h a t s p e lls a d r iv e to th e w o rk m e n .
T h e e s s e n tia l b a s is o f a s tu d y o f e ffic ie n c y is a tim e re c o rd , w h e th e r
o f m a c h in e s o r o f m e n . W it h t h a t s o rt o f e ffic ie n c y w h ic h see ks to
d riv e m e n , a n d h a s fo r its p u rp o s e u n re a s o n a b le s p e e d in g u p , i t is
n e ed le ss to s a y I h a v e n o s y m p a th y ; b u t fo r m a n y re a s o n s i t is as
im p o r ta n t in a n in d u s tr y to k n o w tn e tim e c o s t o f p ro d u c tio n as i t is
to k n o w th e la b o r c o s t o r th e m a te r ia l c o s t. T h e m e n s h o u ld b e
m e t f a ir ly a n d s q u a re ly o n th is p o in t, a n d fo r t h a t m a t te r o n a ll
2 The size of brick used in Hof, Germany, at that time was 12 centimeters wide, 7£ centimeters thick,
and 25 centimeters long. Bricks of the same size were used at Hamburg. They were referred to as the
Reichsforma or legalsize of brick.
18
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
p o in ts . T h e ir p a y is m e a s u re d b y th e ir tim e . T h e y k n o w e x a c tly
w h a t th e y g e t in w a g e s fo r a g iv e n a m o u n t o f tim e . T h e e m p lo y e rs
fa c to r y tim e is m e a s u re d b y p ro d u c t, a n d h e is e n title d to k n o w h o w
m u c h h e is g e ttin g fo r h is tim e . W o rk m e n k n o w w h a t is a n h o n e s t
d a y ’s w a g e f o r an* h o n e s t d a y ’s w o r k ; th e e m p lo y e r is e n title d to k n o w
w h a t is a n h o n e s t d a y ’s w o rk fo r a n h o n e s t d a y ’s w a g e . W o rk m e n
m e a s u re th e ir tim e b y a d e fin ite th in g , d o lla rs a n d c e n ts ; th e e m p lo y e r
is e n title d to a d e fin ite m e a s u re o f h is fa c to r y tim e , s u c h as a h u n d re d
p a irs o f sh o es, a th o u s a n d y a rd s o f c lo th , o r a th o u s a n d b ric k s in th e w a ll.
W e m u s t g o a t th is fr o m a p u r e ly s c ie n tific p o in t o f v ie w , a n d ta k e a
re c o rd o f w h a t th e w o rk e r a o e s , n o t to s p e e d h im u p a n d see h o w
m u c h h e c a n d o , b u t so t h a t a b u ild in g c o n tra c to r, fo r in s ta n c e , c a n
b e re a s o n a b ly s u re o f th e tim e c o s t as w e ll as th e w a g e c o s t o f a th o u
s a n d b ric k s in th e w a ll in ju s t th e s a m e w a y th a t h e is re a s o n a b ly
s u re o f g e ttin g te n h u n d re d b ric k s fo r th e p ric e o f a th o u s a n d .
I w o u ld lik e to s u g g e s t, i f a n y o f th e S ta te b u re a u s o f la b o r s ta tis
tic s o r in d u s tr ia l c o m m is s io n s a re n o w o r a re lik e ly so o n to ta k e u p
in v e s tig a tio n s w h e re u n its o f p ro d u c tio n c a n b e d e fin ite ly s ta te d , t h a t
th e y g e t in to u c h w it h th e B u re a u o f L a b o r S ta tis tic s o f th e U n ite d
S ta te s D e p a r tm e n t o f L a b o r a n d see i f a p la n c a n n o t b e w o rk e d o u t
b y w h ic h th e re w ill b e in c o rp o ra te d in th e s c h e d u le in q u irie s w h ic h
w ill d e v e lo p th e s e u n its o f tim e a n d la b o r c o s t.
TUESDA7 , MAY 23—MORNINGSESSION.
FRANK E. WOOD, PRESIDENT, PRESIDING.
Addresses of welcome were delivered by Mr. George Hoverter,
mayor of Harrisburg, and by Mr. William Wright, vice president of
the Harrisburg Chamber of Commerce, the president of the
association replying.
ROLL CALL AND REPORTS OF NEW LEGISLATION.
As the roll was called each delegate was requested to report briefly
as to labor legislation enacted since the last convention, in the State
or Province which he or she represented, or to submit such report
in writing. The delegates from some States reported that there had
been no labor legislation in their States since the last meeting, and
others failed to make any report. (For labor legislation in the United
States during 1921, see Bulletin No. 308 of the United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics.) A list of delegates appears on pages 157 and 158.
REPORT OF CONNECTICUT.
The following new legislation was enacted in Connecticut during 1921:
FACTORY, ETC., REGULATIONS— TOILETS.
Section 1. The commissioner of labor and factory inspection is authorized to
require every manufacturing, mechanical, and mercantile establishment to provide
adequate toilet accomodations, so arranged as to secure reasonable privacy, for both
sexes employed or engaged in any such establishment, which accommodations shall
be constructed inside such establishments when in the opinion of said commissioner
such inside construction is practicable. Such accommodations shall include adequate
fixtures, shall be maintained in good repair and in a clean and sanitary condition,
adequately ventilated with windows or suitable ventilators opening to the outside,
and provided with convenient means for artificial lighting. Such accommodations
shall be distinctly marked so as to indicate the sex for which the same is intended
for use, and when any such accommodations intqfided for use by any female adjoin
such accommodations intended for use by any male, the partition constructed between
such accommodations shall be solidly constructed from the floor to the ceiling.
Sec. 2. The owner of any building occupied by more than one of any such estab
lishments shall be required to furnish accommodations and the ventilation thereof,
subject to the provisions of this act, and the occupant of any building shall maintain
the same subject to the provisions of this act.
Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of labor and factory inspection
to examine and inquire into the compliance with this act in the establishments
described in this act, and in case of failure of the responsible person to comply with
the order of said commissioner within 90 days, to report all cases of such violation
to the prosecuting officer having jurisdiction thereof. The commissioner of labor
and factory inspection shall, on or before the 1st day of December of each year, make a
report to the governor of the number of such violations and the prosecutions instituted
thereon.
Sec. 4. Any person violating any provision of this act and any person writing
anything obscene or offensive or making any obscene or offensive drawing, picture
or mark in any such accommodation shall be fined not more than $50 for each offense.
(Acts of 1921, ch. 266.)
20
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
EMPLOYMENT OP CHILDREN— HOURS OP LABOR.
Section 1. No child under 16 years of age shall be employed, required or allowed to
work in any mill, cannery, workshop, factory or manufacturing establishment more
than 8 hours in any day or more than 6 days in any week, or after the hour of 6 o’clock
in the afternoon or before the hour of 6 in the morning.
Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the commissioner of labor and factory inspection
to examine and inquire into the employment of such children in the establishments
described in this act, and to investigate all complaints of violations thereof and to report
all cases of such violation to the prosecuting officer having jurisdiction thereof. The
commissioner of labor and factory inspection shall, on or before the 1st day of December
in each year, make a report to the governor of the number of such violations and of
the prosecutions instituted therefor.
S e c . 3. Every person who willfully employs or has in his employment or under
his charge any child in violation of the provisions of this act, and every parent or guard
ian who permits any such child to be so employed, shall be fined not more than $20
for each offense. A certificate of the age of a child, made as provided in section
5323 of the General Statutes, and amendments thereof, shall be conclusive evidence
of his age upon the trial of any person other than the parent or guardian for violation
of any provision of this act. (Acts of 1921, ch. 188.)
EMPLOYMENT OP WOMEN AND CHILDREN— NIGHT WORK.
Section 5303 of the General Statutes as amended by chapter 195 of the Public
Acts of 1919 is amended to read as follows: No person under 16 years of age shall be
employed in any manufacturing or mechanical establishment after 6 o ’clock in the
afternoon; and no such minor shall be employed in any mercantile establishment
after 6 o’clock in the afternoon on more than one day in each calendar week, except
during the period from the 17th to the 25th day of December of each year; and no
female shall be employed in any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establish
ment between the hours of 10 o’clock in the evening and 6 o’clock in the forenoon:
P r o v id e d , In event of war or other serious emergency, the governor may suspend
the limitations upon night work contained in this act as to any industries or
occupations as he may find such emergency demands.
Public bowling alleys shall be regarded as mercantile establishments within the
meaning of this act. (Acts of 1921, ch. 220.)
FACTORY, ETC., REGULATIONS— LAUNDRIES.
Section 1. A public laundry shall be regarded as a manufacturing establishment
within the provisions of the General Statutes. No laundry work shall be done in
any public laundry in a room used as a sleeping or a living room. No employer shall
permit any person to work in his public laundry who is affected with pulmonary
tuberculosis, scrofulous or venereal disease, or a communicable skin affection. (Acts
of 1921, ch. 227.)
HEATING OP LEASED BUILDINGS.
Section 1. When any building or part thereof is occupied as a home
o r place of
residence, or as an office or placif of business, either mercantile or otherwise, a tem
perature of less than 68° F. in such building or part thereof shall, for the purpose
of this act be deemed injurious to the health of the occupants thereof. (Acts of 1921,
ch. 130.)
INSPECTION OP STEAM BOILERS.
Section 1. Section 3064 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 3064. The commissioner of labor and factory inspection shall appoint a suit
able person to inspect boilers, who shall be a citizen of this State, shall have had not
less than five years’ practical experience with steam boilers as a steam engineer,
boiler maker, boiler inspector, or mechanical engineer, and who shall receive the
compensation of a deputy factory inspector.”
Sec. 2. Section 3065 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 3065. Such inspector shall see that all laws and regulations for the safety of,
steam boilers are enforced, and he shall, at least once in each year, carefully inspect,
internally and externally, while not under pressure, and during the same year inspect
externally while under pressure all steam boilers in use in this State except the fol
lowing: Boilers of railroad locomotives subject to inspection under the provisions
of Federal laws; portable boilers used in pumping, heating, steaming and drilling
in the open field; portable boilers used for agricultural purposes and in the construe-
REPORTS OF STATES ON NEW LEGISLATION,
21
tion and repair of public roads, railroads, and bridges; boilers on automobiles; boilers
on steam fire engines brought into the State for temporary use in checking conflagra
tions; boilers carrying a pressure of less than 15 pounds per square inch which are
equipped with safety devices; boilers under the jurisdiction of the United States;
boilers inspected under any city, town, or borough system of boiler inspection; and
any boiler inspected and insured by a company which is authorized to insure against
loss from the explosion of steam boilers in this State, which maintains a corps of steamboiler inspectors and which complies with the provisions of the General Statutes.”
S ec. 3. Section 3066 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 3066. If any boiler inspector finds that a boiler is defective he shall order
the owner, lessee, or user thereof to repair such boiler; and if such order is not com
plied with or if the boiler is dangerous, he shall remove the certificate pf inspection
and give written notice to such owner, lessee or user not to use the boiler until the
faulty condition is corrected and the boiler is approved by such inspector and the
certificate of inspection restored. An owner, lessee, or user may appeal from such
order of an inspector to the commissioner of labor and factory inspection who may,
after such further investigation as he may deem necessary, affirm, rescind, or modify
the order.”
Sec. 4. Section 3067 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows:
“Sec. 3067. The fee for an inspection of a boiler internally and externally while
not under pressure shall be $7.50; for an external inspection while under pressure,
$2.50; to be paid to the inspector by the owner, lessee, or user of the boiler: P ro v id e d ,
Not more than $10 shall be collected by such inspector for the inspection of any one
boiler during any year. The inspector shall, at the end of each month, pay to the
commissioner of labor and factory inspection all fees collected by him and said com
missioner shall, on or before the 10th day of each month, pay to the treasurer all
the fees which he may have received during the preceding month.”
S ec. 5. Section 3070 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows:
“ Sec. 3070. Such boiler inspector shall issue a, certificate of inspection for each
boiler internally inspected by him, stating the condition of the boiler and the amount
of pressure allowed. Such certificate shall be conspicuously posted under glass in
the room containing the boiler. It shall not be valid for more than 14 months from
its date nor after its removal by an inspector as provided in section 3 of this act.”
S e c . 6. In the examination and inspection of premises provided for in section 2340
and 2283 of the General Statutes, the officer making the inspection shall ascertain
whether there is a valid certificate of inspection posted as required in section 5 of this
act, and if there is no such certificate of inspection posted.he shall at once inform
the commissioner of labor and factory inspection. (Acts of 1921, ch. 347.)
POWERS AND DUTIES OP COMMISSIONER OP LABOR AND FACTORY INSPECTION.
Section 2324 of the General Statutes is amended to read as follows: The commis
sioner of labor and factory inspection shall collect information upon the subject of
labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, the earnings of laboring men and
women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral
prosperity and shall have power to summon and examine under oath such witnesses,
and may direct the production of, and examine or cause to be produced and examined,
such books, records, vouchers, memoranda, documents, letters, contracts or other
papers in relation thereto as he may find proper, and shall have the same powers in
reference thereto as are vested in magistrates in taking depositions; but for this pur
pose persons shall not be required to leave the vicinity of their residences or places
of business. (Acts of 1921, cn. 185.)
REPORT OF DELAWARE.
The Labor Commission of Delaware was successful in having but one of the three
laws it has to enforce strengthened by legislative enactment at the last session of the
general assembly. The sanitary law for female employees was amended by adding
transportation companies to the list of concerns amenable to the law, and also by
placing the responsibility for making necessary sanitary repairs upon the owners of
buildings.
A part-time school law, applying to school districts where 15 or more children are
employed was also passed in 1921. This law has been very helpful in keeping chil
dren in school, employers in many instances refusing to employ children subject to
22
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
the part-time school law. The instruction in Wilmington is given on Saturday morn
ings from 8 until 12 o’clock noon.
The Delaware workmen’s compensation law, the enforcement of which is directed
by the industrial accident board, was amended at the 1921 session of the legislature,
the chief change being the giving of jurisdiction to the industrial accident board in
cases where employers, upon application made to them by employees, shall refuse to
furnish reasonable surgical, medical, and hospital services, medicine and supplies.
The said board shall determine if additional services are necessary, and if so, the char
acter of services and supplies to be furnished. The charges for such additional service
shall not exceed the rates regularly charged to other individuals for like services and
supplies.
Other changes provide that if incapacity continues for four weeks or longer, com
pensation shall be computed from the date of incapacity; increase from $25 to $100
the maximum cost for medical services, medicines, and supplies; and provide for
specific compensation for injuries to hands and feet and phalanges thereof.
REPORT OF LOUISIANA.
The following laws affecting labor were passed at the extra session of the Legislature
of Louisiana in 1921: An act creating a building Contracts commission (to include one
representative from the ranks of labor); an act granting equal rights—civil and polit
ical—to women and men; an act requiring better sanitary conditions in hotels and
restaurants and providing for the enforcement thereof; an absentee voting bill; an
act creating State free employment bureaus under the supervision of the commissioner
of labor and industrial statistics; a law prohibiting the housing of negro and white
families in the same building; an act appropriating $4,000 for the bureau of labor
and industrial statistics, this having been provided for under an act of the legislature
of 1920, but no money having been set aside; a concurrent resolution for the appoint
ment of a committee of five, two from the senate and three from the house, to inquire
into the advisability of the State of Louisiana operating its own industrial insurance
and of the creation of a State industrial insurance commission to administer the same,
the recommendations of said committee to be submitted at the next regular session
of the legislature of the State.
REPORT OF MASSACHUSETTS.
Since the last convention there have been enacted laws authorizing the commis
sioner of labor and industries to appoint, for periods not exceeding 90 days, such
experts as may be necessary, such employment to be exempt from civil service; pro
hibiting employers from exempting themselves by means of special contract from
liability for industrial injuries to their employees; increasing the amount to be paid
for burial expenses under the workmen’s compensation law, from $100 to $150; pro
viding for an annual vacation of two weeks with pay for scrub women employed in the
statehouse, and increasing the retirement allowance for scrub women in the statehouse
service to $300 a year; extending public aid for mothers with dependent children to
include children from 14 to 16 years of age, where such aid is necessary in order to
keep the children in school; providing that communities that have established con
tinuation schools for working children shall maintain such schools until authorized
by the department of education to discontinue them.
REPORT OF MICHIGAN.
The 1921 legislative session enacted a bill providing for the consolidation of the
department of labor, the industrial accident board, the board of boiler rules, and the
industrial relations commission (the latter having been created by the 1919 session,
but never having functioned), thus creating a new department called the department
of labor and industry, which was organized July 1, 1921. The work of the depart
REPORTS OF STATES ON NEW LEGISLATION.
23
ment is organized into two divisions, viz., the compensation division, and the labor
division.
The 1921 session also amended the workmen’s compensation act, making that act
far better than it has been. One of the changes made brings all State, county, city,
village, and school districts under the provisions of the act. The matter of subcon
tractors has also been taken care of, the original contractor being made responsible for
the employees of the subcontractor, and provision made that where an employee is
employed by a contractor in this State he does not lose his compensation when the
injury is received outside of the State. The maximum time an injured man may
draw compensation is increased to 500 weeks. Also provision is made for more of the
administrative work to be done in the field where accidents occur. This provision has
greatly simplified the work, and is giving excellent satisfaction. This session also
provided for inclosed vestibules on locomotive engines.
REPORT OF PENNSYLVANIA.
In the bureau of inspection a new system of inspection has been adopted. A close
study of the working of the bureau about two years ago showed that the inspection
force of 100 women and men were not directed in their daily work, each inspector lay
ing out his or her own daily work each morning. After a study of systems inaugurated
by casualty insurance companies, a system patterned somewhat after the system of
inspection carried on in New York State was adopted, whereby the State was divided
into six districts, each district being governed by a supervising inspector and each
supervising inspector having allotted to his district a certain percentage of the total
number of inspectors. Each inspector has his own inspection district; it may be a
county or two counties, or, as in the larger cities, it may be a small portion of a city,
according to the congestion. The inspection districts are divided into blocks. A
block may embrace a half dozen city squares or it may embrace a small town or a
number of townships. The inspector fills out a block card and from that a history is
made on a history card. After a city is thus covered by inspection, the supervising
inspector is in a position, in directing the work of the inspectors, to cut out the nonessentials. In 1921 under the new system we made over 114,000 first and special
inspections, as compared witkli little over 60,000 first and second inspections made
the year before when each inspector laid out his own work.
We have our regular inspectors, the bulk of our inspectors being on what we term
general inspection work. Each inspector has to carry in his mind numerous laws,
there being over 30 codes; the provisions of each law, however, are simplified and made
clear for the inspector by what we term our safety standard or industrial board code.
The industrial board of the department of labor and industry has power second only to
that of the legislature. It has power to make the law, and to amend rules and regula
tions. The industrial board, through the directing efforts of the commissioner, has
largely overcome criticism on the part of the manufacturer. The framing of codes is
not done by the industrial board, the commissioner, as chairman of that board, having
named one member of the board as chairman of the code committee. That chairman
gets together representative men and women from all sides, and the finished code is
the production not only of the manufacturer, whom it affects in a way, but of the
employee and in fact of all interested. We are therefore in position to say to the manu
facturer when he protests against the severity of an order that the order is one he
helped to make. This method of formulating our codes has made ijt easy for the bureau
of inspection.
REPORT OF VIRGINIA.
There were 25 bills proposed by the Children’s Code Commission, sponsored by
various organizations, including all labor organizations and other progressive groups.
Eighteen of these bills were passed, including the bill regulating the placing of
16697°—23—Bull. 323-----3
24
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
children in homes and the compulsory school attendance law, but the most important
was the child labor law. The following are some of the important features of that
law: Fourteen years is the general age limit. Sixteen years is the age limit for
children employed in mines, excavations, quarries, and lumber yards; 16 years for
boys and 18 years for girls employed in cigar stores, concert halls, pool halls, bowling
alleys, and passenger and freight elevators; and 18 years for girls as telegraph mes
sengers and in street trades. The law limits employment in street trades for boys to
the period between 6 a. m. and 7 p. m. and requires employment certificates to be
issued by the school authorities and approved by the commissioner of labor. It
provides a jail sentence for the third and subsequent violations of this law.
The factory inspection law was amended and strengthened. The powers of the
commissioner of labor were enlarged. '
REPORT OF WASHINGTON.
Although the last session of the Legislature of the State of Washington did not pass
any new labor laws, yet the enactment of the administrative code may very properly
be considered under the heading of “new labor legislation, ” as certain of its provisions
deal specifically with this subject.
The administrative code consolidated a large number of independent, interlocking,
and overlapping commissions, boards, bureaus, and similar governmental agencies
into 10 departments. The bureau of labor, the industrial insurance department,
the State safety board, the State medical aid board, the State board of mining in
spectors, the industrial welfare commission, and the hotel inspector were merged into
the department of labor and industries.
The management of the department is under the director. The divisions of in
dustrial insurance, safety, and industrial relations are in charge of supervisors. The
powers and duties of the supervisor of industrial relations are as follows:
The director of labor and industries shall have the power, and it shall be his duty,
through and by means of the division of industrial relations:
1. To promote mediation in, conciliation concerning, and the adjustment of, in
dustrial disputes, in such manner and by such means as may be provided by law.
2. To study and keep in touch with problems of industrial relations, and, from
time to time, make public reports and recommendations to the legislature.
3. To, with the assistance of the industrial statistician, exercise all the powers and
perform all the duties in relation to collecting, assorting, and systematizing statistical
details relating to labor within the State, now vested in, and required to be performed
by, the secretary of state, and to report to and file with the secretary of state duly
certified copies of the statistical information collected, assorted, systematized, and
compiled, and in collecting, assorting, and systematizing such statistical information
to, as far as possible, conform to the plans and reports of the United States Department
of Labor.
_ 4. To, with the assistance of the industrial statistician, make such special investiga
tions and collect such special statistical information as may be needed for use by the
department or division of the State Government having need of industrial statistics.
5. To, with the assistance of the supervisor of women in industry, supervise the
administration and enforcement of all laws respecting the employment and relating
to the health, sanitary conditions, surroundings, hours of labor, and wages of women
and minors.
6. To exercise all the powers and perform all the duties, not specifically assigned
to any other division of the department of labor and industries, now vested in, and
required to be performed by, the commissioner of labor.
7. To exercise such other powers and perform such other duties as may be provided
by law.
At the present time the director has taken over the more important duties of this
office, especially as these refer to “mediation in, conciliation concerning, and the
adjustments of labor disputes. ”
The code provides for the appointment of a supervisor of women in industry. This
is both a new position and a new duty in the administration of labor laws concerning
REPORTS OF STATES ON NEW LEGISLATION.
25
women and minors. The supervisor maintains by constant travel a close personal
touch with woman workers throughout the State. The information thus obtained
furnishes one source of knowledge for use in determining apprenticeship schedules
and the general standards governing working conditions for women in industrial life.
One other change of importance is the ‘transferring of powers and duties of the old
industrial welfare commission to the new welfare committee, the powers and duties
of which are prescribed under the code as follows:
The director of labor and industries, the supervisor of industrial insurance, the super
visor of industrial relations, the industrial statistician, and the supervisor of women
in industry shall constitute a committee, of which the director shall be chairman, and
the supervisor of women in industry shall be executive secretary, which shall have
the power, and it shall be its duty:
1. To exercise all the powers and perform all the duties now vested in, and required
to be performed by, the industrial welfare commission.
During 1921 the welfare committee held public conferences to determine the min
imum wage for woman workers in all the main industries of the State. Orders were
made covering public housekeeping, laundries, telephones, and telegraphs, mercantile
establishments, and manufacturing. In addition a general order covering working
conditions for women and minors was issued. The standards set forth in the order cover
lighting; ventilation and temperature; floors; rest, cloak, and lunch rooms; seats;
toilets and wash rooms; carrying; maternity; and first aid.
Labor legislation can be considered from two viewpoints, the humanitarian and the
economic. It is a class of legislation extremely difficult to formulate, as our industrial
experience is often profoundly modified or changed before it can crystallize itself into
law; consequently in this field it is difficult to keep abreast of the times. The problem
of administering labor laws will always be as difficult as that of formulating the same.
This condition demands that administrative powers be broad, general, and flexible.
The powers and duties conferred by the administrative code upon the department of
labor and industries enables the director and his assistants to use reasonable discre
tion, and as questions decided by the department are in the main of direct interest to
labor, the creation of this department offers much that is new to those interested in
this aspect of labor legislation.
REPORT OF WISCONSIN.
Among the new accomplishments in the line of labor legislation in Wisconsin is a
modification of the home work law. In Wisconsin the old law permitted employers
to give out work to be done in the home and the only requirement was inspection by
either the commission or the health department to see that the home was a suitable
one. The new home work law prohibits any employer in the State from sending out
home work unless he has a permit so to do, and it permits the industrial commission
to issue such permits, and to adopt and enforce rules and regulations relating to their
issuance. The employer who is given a permit must comply with all the laws of the
State, including the minimum wage law, and failure so to do or to live up to the rules
and regulations of the commission is justification for revocation of the permit.
The Wisconsin Legislature also passed a law regulating the employment of children
under 16 years of age. No employer or newspaper is permitted to publish an advertise
ment during the school term for the employment of any child under 16 years of age,
during school hours which does not specifically state the minimum age of the child
desired, which must be above that required for a labor permit. Many modifications
were made in the workmen’s compensation law. Provision is made for a medical panel.
In Wisconsin an employer has the right to furnish medical attendance and it is now
provided that he must maintain a medical panel of physicians so as to give the injured
man an opportunity for a choice of his attending physician. The maximum upon which
compensation is based was increased from $22.50 to $26 per week, which means an in
crease of the maximum weekly compensation from $14.63 to $16.90.
26
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The old law provided for written notice and there is now a provision that whenever
actual notice is given to an employer or to any officer or manager or other person des
ignated by the employer, that shall constitute notice. A provision has been inserted
that the commission may refuse to accept the finding of the coroner or of the post
mortem examination directed by the coroner if reasonable effort is not made to give
notice thereof or if the autopsy was made for unauthorized purposes. The law now
permits the commission to cite parties to appear. If an employee because of fear of
losing his job hesitates about filing an application with the commission for a hearing
as to his right to compensation, the commission may cite the parties to appear before
it and make awards as in any other case.
Every policy of insurance governing compensation shall be a full coverage policy,
in order that there may be no possibility of finding at the time of the hearing that be
cause of certain exceptions in the policy it does not cover some particular part of
the hazard. Every policy is now a full coverage policy, unless the commission has
specifically granted the right to insure a part of the risk.
Any penalty which is imposed upon the employer in the nature of increased com
pensation for delay in obeying any order of the commission, must be paid by the em
ployer and not by the insurance carrier, except in those cases where the employer is
insolvent.
An act was passed adopting the Federal rehabilitation act and in addition pro
viding that in all cases of permanent disability where the injured man is entitled to
and is receiving rehabilitation training he shall be entittled to additional compensation
of $10 per week for a period not to exceed 20 weeks during such training.
A new minimum wage order increases the allowance from 22 to 25 cents per hour in
all cities of over 5,000 population. Provision is made for part-time school attendance in
vocational schools for all employed children under 16 years of age, the educational
requirements are increased from a seventh to an eighth grade education, and all
children over 16 years of age must attend vocational school at least 8 hours per week
until the expiration of the term or semester in which they arrive at the age of 18 years.
REPORT OF CANADA (ONTARIO).
The minimum wage law for women is in effect and is proving entirely successful,
meeting with the approval of both the employers and the employees.
The mothers’ allowance act is also in operation and under it there is being paid out
annually something over a million and a half dollars in pensions or allowances to
mothers of two or more children under 14 years of age—in most cases to widows. There
have been certain changes in the federal inspection act, factory inspection act, and
workmen’s compensation act.
The school attendance act has been put into effect in Ontario since the last meeting
of this body, and while there are many difficulties in connection with the working out
of this act it is proving successful and will be more successful as it is better understood.
The
The next order of business is the appointment
of committees. We have only two committees to appoint.
Committee on resolutions and thanks. —Mr. Ethelbert Stewart, Chair
man; Mr. John S. B. Davie; Miss Agnes L. Peterson.
A u diting committee .—-Mr. M. L. Shipman; Mr. F. J. Hartman; Miss
Alice K. McFarland.
The secretary of the association read a communication from Fran
cisco Varona, labor bureau, Manila, P. I., regretting that the Philip
pines could not be represented at the convention.
The report of the committee on constitution and by-laws was sub
mitted and discussed, amendments being made to articles 2 and 3.
C
h
a
i
r
m
a
n
.
TUESDAY, MAY 23—AFTERNOONSESSION.
LILLIE M. BARBOUR, SPECIAL INSPECTOR VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND
INDUSTRY, PRESIDING.
CHILD WELFARE.
THE CHILD PROBLEM IN THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
BY OWEN LOVEJOY, SECRETARY NATIONAL CHILD LABOR COMMITTEE.
I suppose if the United States Supreme Court had rendered its
decision in the matter of the Federal child labor law before this
program was arranged I might have been asked to discuss a different
subject. I am glad that it did not so happen, because one of the
facts that ought to be brought before all the people in this country
at the present time, whatever their opinion may be as to the effect of
this Federal law, or however they may venture to agree or disagree
with the decision of the Supreme Court, is the fact that while the
law was in effect it reached only a very small percentage of the child
labor in this country. There was serious danger, which we of the
National Child Labor Committee have felt in the last year or two,
of the public getting the idea that the whole problem had been solved.
We were constantly receiving; expressions of opinion from people who
were not well informed on the subject, to the effect that everything
had been done, that Congress had enacted a Federal law to protect
working children, and asking what was there to worry about as regards
the protection of child labor. Wasn’t it as dead an issue as slavery
or cannibalism? Under such circumstances it is important for us
now, when attention is so prominently brought to the subject of
Federal regulation, to keep before the people the fact that there is a
great promem of child employment entirely outside of any of the
phases of child labor that were mentioned in the Federal act.
In passing I might say that it is gratifying to all of us who are
interested, as every labor official is interested, in the welfare of these
children, to know that this Supreme Court decision has brought an
avalanche of publicity from newspapers all over the country. I
think it measures the growth of public sentiment in relation to the
employment of children to note the contrast between the reception
of that decision and of the one three years ago. True, there was a
widespread expression of interest three years ago,^ but nothing like
that which has occurred during the past 10 days, since the Supreme
Court declared this law unconstitutional. If this means that the
American people are more awake than they were three years ago,
if it means that they are more determined than ever before to see
that this particular kind of trustee is needed, we are glad that any
thing transpired that helped to bring to a focus an interest that was
widespread but that found rare expression.
The problem of the kind of child labor not contemplated in the
Federal child labor act must, I think, depend for solution upon State
laws, or local ordinances, or other local measures, as it represents a
27
28
a s s o c ia t io n o f g o v e r n m e n t a l l a b o r o f f ic ia l s .
very much larger number of children than were represented under the
Federal law. All children less than 14 years of age, all children
between 14 and 16 whose hours would be reduced from over 8 hours
to 8 hours a day, and children under 16 who would be excluded from
mines and forests, estimated at approximately 15 per cent of all the
child laborers in the country, were affected by the Federal act, and
the other 85 per cent were entirely outside of its jurisdiction. Part
of that 85 per cent I want to speak: about this afternoon. Of course
that part represents children in street trades, children in theatrical
engagements and in moving pictures, home work, domestic service,
and tne various forms of agriculture. By far the largest number were
and are employed in agricultural pursuits. This has been true for a
great many years, and of course is more emphatically true at the
>resent time because of the great reduction in the army of child
aborers in the manufacturing and mining pursuits.
Among the forms of agriculture that have received especial
attention in recent years, because of the peculiar nature of the work,
is the culture of the sugar beet, and we believe that conditions exist
in the cultivation of the sugar beet in various parts of the country
to-day that are as definite a reproach from the standpoint of decency
as were the conditions that prevailed in mines and factories in this
country 20 years ago. The sugar-beet industry is practically new.
in this country, but it has grown very rapidly. Some of us can
remember the time when all the sugar we got came either from sugar
cane or from maple trees. Now tne sugar-beet industry is a close
competitor to the cane sugar industry and the business is spreading
rapialy. It has been stated by one who professed to know that
Colorado and Michigan have been the leading States in the cultivation
of beets. Then come Iowa, Wyoming, western Kansas and Nebraska,
and Wisconsin, and in a smaller degree a number of other States.
The principal beet-sugar producing States are Colorado, California,
and Michigan. The beet area in each of these States is comparatively
small as compared with that of other agricultural products, but
sugar-beet raising is a very intensive kind of agriculture. There is
a large number of people employed in the area and also a tremendous
production in the more fertile parts of the sugar-beet territory.
{
There are a great many of us who spent our childhood on American
farms. The majority of the older people in this country spent their
childhood on farms and their feeling on the subject of child labor is
expressed by a class of people who generally appear before a State
legislature when a child labor bill is pending. These people say they
went to work when they were 8 years old and it did not hurt them,
but if you look ii^to their past history you will find that they went to
work on a farm. There are a great many children of 8 years of age
and over who do chores and like duties on farms and who are undoubt
edly learning habits of industry, frugality, and regularity, and not
being harmed, because the light duties they perform on the farm are
incidental to their educational work.
We are not against that kind of life on the old-fashioned typical
American farm, so long as school is not interfered with and sanitary
provision is made for the proper caring for p h e child. But in recent
years specialized kinds oi agriculture have developed which have
what we usually regard as factory conditions; instead of the children
working side by side with the father and mother on the farm we find
CHILD PROBLEM IN BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
29
them in gangs of 25, 50, and 100, working under the supervision of
what is virtually a slave driver. This slave driver’s chief interest is
in the amount of money the children can earn for a corporation.
There is thus presented an entirely different kind of problem from
the one that existed on the old-fashioned farm. Among the forms
of labor in agriculture that have undergone this change we may
mention the truck gardens all along the Atlantic seaboard, the great
onion fields in Ohio, many of the cotton fields in the South and in the
interior valleys of California, great asparagus beds in the Sacramento
Valley, cranberry farms in certain States, and especially the beetsugar fields.
The work in the beet-sugar field is performed very largely by hand.
It may be that you are all familiar with the practice in this industry,
but I will describe it as briefly as I can for the purpose of giving in
formation to those of you who may not have followed the develop
ment of this industry. It is new to most of us. I am a native of
Michigan. I left the State only a few years ago and when I left there
I had never heard of the sugar beet as being grown there. Now I go
back and find the State has come to regard that as one of its chief
industries, one of magnificent proportions and presenting a series of
problems. The plantations, for tne most part, cover large areas and
are rented out to hand workers, a certain number of acres being
farmed out to a family, the number depending usually on the number
of children in the family, because children can do certain kinds of
work in the beet field. It has thus come to pass that in many of the
beet-sugar areas approximately 50 per cent of all the labor is per
formed by children under 16 years of age. In Colorado, Michigan,
and Wisconsin, it has been found that of the children under 16 .years
of age employed in the beet fields approximately half are under 14
years, the average age of that half being 11 years. In other words,
approximately 25 per cent of the handwork in the sugar-beet field is
done by children whose average age is 11 years.
One of the serious phases of the problem is presented by the fact
that the work must be done when the beets are at the proper stage.
That is to say, the planting, weeding, and cultivating must be done
in the spring; there is a slack season for two months in the summer,
and then the late cultivation and harvesting must be done in the fall.
In Colorado the winter season is short, shorter than it is in Michigan.
In Michigan the beets have to grow fast because spring is later and
winter comes early. Work in Michigan begins about the end of
April and usually ends about the end of October. In Colorado it
begins about the same time or perhaps the middle of April and ends
sometimes at the end of November or the first of December. This
brings up the problem of the education of these children. If they
leave school on the first of April and get back to school on the first of
December, they have four months of possible schooling, the result
being that in a great many instances they do not go to school at all,
because in December when they get back to the village from which
they came the rest of the children have been in school for two or three
months, and their parents think it is not worth while to put them in
because they will be so tardy, or the children object to going in
because they do not like falling behind their class. The parents and
children also feel that since the children have to leave school about the
first of April anyway, what is the use ? It means buying new clothes
30
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
and in some States a new set of books, and it does not seem worth the
trouble. But whether these children enter school for the four months
or do not enter at all, their retardation in education is one of the
serious features of the situation. According to one report, it was
found that of 2,800 children 72 per cent were retarded from one to
eight years in their schooling.
Another serious feature that is presented by this phase of child
labor is the conditions under which they live. The planter, that is,
the owner of the -land, puts up the cheapest and most unsanitary
kind of living quarters, and families are there crowded together, the
conditions, both as to crowding and as to sanitation, being very
much worse than in many of our city tenements. It may be thought
that the work of these children is not hard, and at certain times of
the year it is not so hard. Early in the spring the children start in
at an easy gait, but if any of you have weeded onions, or have cut
cotton, or have done any other kind of handwork on the farm for
14 hours a day, 12 hours a day, or 11 hours a day during July or
August, or even in June, you know it is not what one would select
as a countrv outing for a holiday. We have had wonderful pictures
drawn of the splendid opportunities given to these families to get
out of their tenement-house quarters in the city into the open
country, out into the open woods, or out on the glorious plain where
the sun or moon shines all the time, and to spend the whole summer
practically in idleness and beautiful outdoor recreation. It is a
wonderful picture, but I would not want to be subjected to that
experience again, and neither would you if you had once had that
kind of experience. In some of the more fertile sections of some of
these States beets grow to a very creditable size, weighing two,
three, or four pounds, sometimes eight or nine pounds in the better
sections, and if they are pulled after a rain they are even heavier,
because some of the mud sticks to them. The farmer runs the plow
through the field and then the hand worker comes along and pulls
the beets, taps them, cutting the tops off with a knife or sharp
prong, and throws them into piles, which according to the contract
must be of a certain size and a certain distance apart, so that they
can be easily gathered up and carried aWay to the refinery. That
work is heavy work, a child of 10 or 11 years sometimes actually
lifting and handling tons of beets in a single day.
When any effort is made to protect the children in this industry
we are met by the statement that it is impossible for the beet-sugar
industry to furnish the country with the sweetening it needs unless
it can employ this kind of labor.
These children are mostly foreign children and that may be one
reason why the general public in America have not taken more
interest in them. A couple of years ago we made an investigation
of child labor in the cotton fields of the Imperial Yallev in California.
One paper came out against our report, saying that ft was not true
that children worked in the cotton fields. We had pictures of the
children, having taken photographs, and we got records and so on of
a great many little children nine or ten years of age working in the
Imperial Valley during the long summer days when the temperature
runs to 110 and 115 degrees in the shade, if there were any shade,
which there is not, and it looked to us like a real job. It was said
that if you eliminate the Japanese and the Mexicans, who have
CHILD PROBLEM IK BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
31
children there as thick as bees, there are no children working there;
that is to say, there are no native American children. That typifies
the attitude of a great many people all through the country towards
the whole trouble. The only reply to that is that if they come to
this country then they become a part of our destiny. It is not
alone in the interest of the child but also in the interest of our general
American welfare that we must see to it that these children have the
proper kind of protection. The State itself must become a super
parent, and see that the children receive from the State the pro
tection that they are unable to get from the domestic circle.
In Michigan three years ago when I studied the children's act I
found families had migrated into the beet-sugar fields of Michigan
from Detroit, Cleveland, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Passaic, New York,
the Kentucky mountains, and San Antonio, Tex. They are mostly
Russians. Families also came from the Provinces, and these were
Mexicans and Japanese, but there are fewer Japanese children than
Mexicans and Russians. These people were accustomed to the
nomadic life in their native country and so they took very naturally
to this kind of life in this country. Many of them were found
buying farms, paying for pianos, getting themselves well established
economically, on the labor of these little children. Many of them, of
course, are ground down by poverty so that they think it is a neces
sity to keep the children at work in order to keep the family together.
These conditions are before us and constitute one of the stubborn
problems that lie before the people in this country who are interested
m the protection and welfare of children. I am glad to present the
subject here to-day, because so far there is not a single State in the
Union that has passed any effective legislation to protect children.
One result is that the preponderance of illiteracy in America is in
rural communities. Another result is that the worst sanitary con
ditions in our country to-day are in rural communities, and we may
as well face the fact that one of the reasons why people of initiative
and enterprise are leaving the farms in such large numbers and the
younger generation is getting away from the farms as rapidly as it
can is because they do not get the social conveniences and oppor
tunities and civilized standards in those communities that they can
get even in some of the poorer parts of our great cities.
Something must be done. Just what shall be done I think is one
of the problems before these conferences of labor conventions. Is
there any way in which the labor of children in agriculture can be
brought under the jurisdiction of departments of labor in our various
commonwealths? Is there any way in which children can be
guaranteed a proper amount of schooling in spite of the fact that the
ocal phases of agriculture seem to require an extreme amount of
human activity at certain times of the year ? In Colorado they have
tried having a summer term of school during July and August, when
there is not so much to be done in the beet-sugar field, so as to allow f
the use of the children and still give them their schooling.
May I in closing suggest, tentatively perhaps, certain measures
that it seems to me we might advocate in the commonwealths where
this evil is particularly widespread:
First, that there shall be a minimum standard school term and that
children of school age shall be required to attend school through the
entire period that the schools are in session.
f
32
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
Second, that there shall be some effective means of administering
the law requiring school attendance.
Third, that there shall be humane and decent housing conditions,
with proper sanitary provisions.
Fourth, that no child under a certain age, which might be either 12,
13, or 14 years, shall be employed for hire or under contract or for the
assistance of his parents in this particular kind of work at any time,
and that the hours of labor of those under 16 years of age shall be
properly regulated.
These are only tentative suggestions, made for the purpose of dis
cussion which I hope may result. The problem is a big one, as I have
said. Labor organizations, educational agencies, medical societies,
all groups of people interested in child welfare, must face the prob
lem or it is going to become so serious that it will take a long and
difficult campaign of education to make any impression.
DISCUSSION.
Mr. B i e b e s h e i m e r . Do I understand that there is no State pro
tection for children in agriculture, no State law now?
Doctor L o v e j o y . S o far as I know, the only State that has any law
that specifically protects the child in agriculture is New York and
that law has a very limited application.
Mr. B i e b e s h e i m e r . D o you know that Ohio has quite a beet-sugar
industry, that we have five factories, five beet-sugar plants, that there
are about 25 counties where they raise sugar beets, and that we have
a law, passed last winter, that no child can work unless it has passed
the seventh grade or has a permit from the school board? Is that
not true ?
Doctor L o v e j o y . That is true in Ohio.
Mr. B i e b e s h e i m e r . Does not that protect the child, or wherein
does it not ?
Doctor L o v e j o y . I must apologize for having overlooked the State
of Ohio. I should say that its law protects the child if there is any
adequate means of administering the law. I do not know about that.
The law is new, having been passed just this past winter, and we
have not gone through a beet-sugar season since it was enacted. I
do not know if there is any legal machinery that is adequate for
enforcement.
Mr. B i e b e s h e i m e r . I wanted to call your attention to that.
Mr. D e n n i s o n . I would also remark to Doctor Lovejoy that for the
protection of the child who is employed on the farm Pennsylvania
also has a law. It is now required m Pennsylvania that any em
ployed child, in order to be excused from attendance at school dur
ing the time the public schools are in session, must secure a farm or
domestic service permit. In order to secure that permit the child
must be 14 years of age or over, and must have completed the work
of the first six grades, and the permit will be furnished only when the
school board considers conditions so urgent as to demand the services
of the minor.
Doctor L o v e j o y . There are a great many States that have laws
that protect the child against agricultural employment during the
time schools are in session.
CHILD PROBLEM IN BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
33
Mr. C l i f f o r d . The State of Washington has a law that makes it
necessary for a child under 14 years of age to get a permit from our
department, and also a permit from the superintendent of schools,
and then it becomes the duty of the supervisor to look after the con
ditions under which that child works.
Mr. S w e e t s e r . Does Dr. Lovejoy know, may I ask, of any indus
trial State where this condition exists and where no machinery exists
to enforce the statute ?
The C h a i r m a n . L think Doctor Lovejoy can answer that particular
question better than I can, but there is something that I want to call
your attention to and that is that when we refer to our child labor
legislation, State legislation, we seem to be discussing child labor
when school is actually in session. Let us forget about our compul
sory school attendance laws and go back to our vacation period and
see how far the law protects the child during school vacation.
Mrs. J o h n s o n . The State of Washington protects them through
the superior court judge and myself.
The C h a i r m a n . My experience in national inspection work has
taught me that there is not a State in our great Union that does not
need an amendment of some kind to its child labor legislation. There
is not a State that has the proper facilities for enforcing every section
of its law for the protection of children. Having visited in the last
four years practically every State in the Union 1 can safely say to
you from first-hand knowledge that violations of the present child
labor tax law were found in every State. Now there is a reason for
such a condition. We know some States have splendid laws, but
they do not have the necessary facilities for carrying on the work.
I hope while Doctor Lovejoy is here to answer all your questions that
you will go into the question of child labor legislation deeply, as he
has a broad knowledge of all of the State laws.
Mr. W i l c o x . I rise to second the remarks of the Chair. Let no
State take it for granted that it has all of the labor legislation that is
necessary to stamp out child labor. We are discussing the child
in the beet-sugar industry, and I ask if there is a representative of
any State where sugar beets are grown who is ready to stand on his
feet here and say that the laws of that State do not permit such child
labor or at least that children of that State are not actually employed
in the beet-sugar industry. I would like to find a State that has a
beet-sugar industry that says it is enforcing the law. We have in
Wisconsin a very considerable beet-sugar industry. On next Monday
our deputies will start out to make a survey of the situation. We
know the situation is bad, we know it requires legislation. We under
took at the last session to have legislation passed which would make
it possible for us to require thatr every producer of beet sugar pro
cure a permit, and to make rules and regulations for the handling of
the industry and for the employment of children in the industry, but
did not succeed. This fact ought not to be lost sight of: The sugarbeet grower, the sugar-beet manufacturer, does not employ these
children. He makes a contract with a man or a family to tend so
many acres of sugar beets, and to harvest the beets, and it is the
father and the mother of these little children, and not the sugar-beet
industry, who are making use of them for the handling of the sugar
beets. If there is any State department that expects to go out into
84
ASSOCIATION OS* GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
the beet fields, miles and miles in the country, and enforce the law
against the parents for keeping these children out of school in the
spring and to get them in a school with which they are not familiar,
in fan when scnool starts, I think it is misguided; I do not think it
can do it. I think the problem will have to be attacked with some
more drastic legislation than is on any statute book at present.
Mr. S t e w a r t . I want to take this opportunity of saying some
thing I have wanted to say for many years, not only at the meeting
of tms association but also at the meeting of the International Associa
tion of Industrial Accident Boards and Conmissions. It seems to
me that now is the time to say it. We are here in this association
to help each other. The trouble with the meetings of this associa
tion and other conventions has always been the smugness of the
various delegates with regard to their home situation. Maybe they
believe what they say; 1 don’t know. It has always seemed to me
as though they felt that they must stand up for their States in these
conventions or they would get a calling down at home. These meet
ings are in a way confidential. What you say is not going to be printed
in the report unless you wish it. I have shivered at every session of
this association that I have attended, and particularly at the sessions
of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and
Commissions, over the confounded smugness of the State officials who
get up and wave the flag and let the eagle scream over the situation in
their States, when I know they have the rottenest administration of a
rotten law of any State around them. Now, what is 'the use? We
come here to help each other, and why not admit the situation ?
Why not accept the situation and talk about the beet-sugar industry,
or any other, straight out from the shoulder. Our compulsory educa
tion laws are, of course, supposed to apply to the agricultural districts,
but we all know that our labor laws are not supposed to apply to
agriculture, and the minute you undertake to enforce them rigidly on
the farm you “get it in the neck.” Now we know that, and each one
of us knows it, and for God’s sake give up this smugness and talk
straight out from the shoulder.
Mr. S w e e t s e r . We all know that humility is the beginning of
wisdom; we all know too that if we had an army organized in each
State to discover and punish violators not only of the child labor law
but also of other laws, that it still would be said that there were
violations of the statutes taking place. When Dr. Lovejoy made
the statement here that our States should make laws to protect the
children in agriculture, it occurred to some of the delegates present
that there were certain statutes at the present time % at reached out
and accomplished, to some extent at least, that result. We know
that the compulsory school attendance law does not apply during
vacation, but some States where the compulsory school attendance
law is enforced have statutes which prohibit the employment of a
child under 14 years of age after six o’clock p. m. and before half-past
six in the morning. Now you may say to me that there is ample
time for the abuse of a child in spite of that law, and I will grant that
that is true, but I can not believe it is fair to say that any such State
tolerates an exceedingly bad child labor situation and refuses to take
any notice of it. In Massachusetts we have had our problems with
regard to the enforcement of the statute, the same as officials in
35
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and any other State have. We know, too, that
there is an occasional abuse of a child on the farm, but it is not wideand we ought to be honest enough to admit that fact too.
Wread,
e do not come here to tell you how well our laws are being enforced
when we make that statement either. It is perfectly proper here
for the delegates from any State that has a statkte that to some
extent at least takes care of the work Dr. Lovejoy is interested in to
make it known, so that the other can take it home to the various
commonwealths, and hold it up, to some extent at least, as a model
to others.
Now it was entirely with that in view that I asked Doctor Lovejoy
that question, and I am satisfied that, so far as he is concerned,
he will find no malice and no attempt to boast in it, and he will
find no reflection in it upon him or his work either.
Mr. B
. When I asked those questions before, I had
no desire to hold our State up as a criterion, either. Along with the
compulsory school education law we have a child labor law that
designates not only factories but also industries, and that specifies
the hours of the day wherein children of a certain age may work,
and you will find it is not perfect by any means. None of our laws
are perfect, but we invite you to Ohio to set us right.
Mr. N
. I would like to find out, so that we can help
you in the various States in that work, what the Federal inspectors
did in order to get the proper enforcement of such acts as were
on the statute books in the various States? Did you take it up
with the department or how did you go about it ?
Dr. L
. Since last Monday we have had no special law.
Previous to that time, since April 25, 1919, we had what was known
as the Federal child labor tax law. It was a taxing measure and
in consequence it was enforced by the officials of the Internal Revenue
Bureau and its collectors in the various States, with its group of
special inspectors located in Washington. We started out working
with the collectors of internal revenue and their deputies. They
decided in the beginning that it was a revenue measure and not
a labor law, and so we could not work with the State labor depart
ment. However, after about a year’s experience of cooperation and
training with the collectors we reached the conclusion that if we
wanted to accomplish anything from the Federal child labor tax
law it would be necessary to work with the labor departments, and
so for the past two years we have worked directly in cooperation
with the labor departments. That gave us an opportunity to
point out to the inspectors and the heads of the various State depart
ments the defects, as well as the limitation placed upon the Federal
inspectors.
Mr. H
. The word “international” in the title of this associa
tion is my excuse for telling what we are doing in Ontario. I have
no personal knowledge of conditions here, but in Ontario, during
the war, camps were organized, particularly in the southern portion.
It was found that housing conditions in the camps were not at all
satisfactory, and the result was that an amendment to the factory
act was passed, which is still in force, under which any agricultural
employer who has more than six farm workers at any one time
must obtain a permit before he opens his camp and must also keep
CHILD PROBLEM IN BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
ie b e s h e im e r
o r th r u p
o v e jo y
u d so n
36
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
his camp in accordance with the rules and regulations laid down.
These regulations, of course, include such matters as the floor in the
camp, the proper sanitary arrangement, and the hours of labor.
It was somewhat novel that an act of thisjrind should be desired by
the factory inspection department. The supervision over these
camps was previously in the hands of the Employment Service.
During the war we had our experience in the sugar-beet industry.
We organized on the patriotic basis. We organized camps totaling
two or three hundred workers, and boys coming from high schools
were housed in groups of 40 or 50 in a single camp by the military
authorities. The Y. M. C. A. cooperated in the matter of supervision
and the Government cooperated to the extent of paying half the cost
of supervising these camps. I happened to have charge of four or
five of these camps and I know of some of the difficulties connected
with the sugar-beet work. Of course, then it was patriotic; the
situation is changed entirely now. The boys could come around at
three or four o'clock in the afternoon and go in the fields, where they
were paid on a war basis. In the camps I was connected with
they grouped the boys; they were put into groups so that four or
five of the boys would make the maximum amount. That was
encouraging to the others and probably brought the best results in
the quantity of sugar beets cultivated. The problem of supervision
was settled in the way I have explained. The question was purely a
vacation question, as camps opened early in June for what is known
as the thinning process and plucking process and closed before
the opening of school in the fall. At the present time the sugar-beet
industry in Ontario is necessarily in the hands of workers who can
get right down to the work.
The C
. I want to say one thing before we proceed to
our next speaker. That is, we seem to fail to realize that the sugarbeet industry has become quite a big thing, and more than that,
that when an industry in the United States becomes so great that it
requires the exploitation of opr children to keep it on its feet it is
about time that we wake up to the situation and do something to
have legislation enacted to protect the children in that industry.
AD
(I
) . I want to say that I have been practically
a party to sending people from Illinois into Michigan to participate
in this beet-sugar industry. The picture portrayed by one of the
gentlemen who came into our office, of the outdoor life and health
to be found there, is really what led to sending the mothers and chil
dren out to that particular place. We did all in our power to put
all of a family in the same group and send them to their destination,
and what was the result? We had complaints of conditions that
existed; the United Charities were appealed to to send them back;
men who had brought their families tnere earned money enough to
keep them for a few months while they made their way back to Chi
cago to earn enough money to bring their families back. The
educational features are least thought of because the workers are in
another State. The Mexicans took up this work, but they spent their
money very freely when they earned it and were left there absolutely
stranded at the end of the season. Appeals were made to the council
in Chicago to see about getting them pack. The council took it up
with the San Antonio Railroad to see if it was not possible for these
h a ir m a n
eleg ate
l l in o is
CHILD PROBLEM IN BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY.
37
Mexicans to work their way back to the Mexican railroad and get
to some point on the Mexican border where they could get over.
When we knew conditions, of course we did not allow the situation
to go any further; but these agents had credentials from one manage
ment showing what a wonderful industry it was and the outdoor
life that these mothers and children could have.
A D
(P
) . I don’t know what the laws of
the different States are, but under the laws of the State of Pennsyl
vania I think there is a remedy. We have trouble around Pittsburgh
with child labor. I have had a lot of experience with it, having
been connected with the department of labor and industry. We
have laws in Pittsburgh and we think that they are observed. We
think we can not find much fault with them. Now, if you will read
the school code of the State of Pennsylvania you will find that a
child is compelled to go to school until he is 16 years of age. In
the State of Pennsylvania we have a school tax to provide a truant
officer. Surely, the attendance officers, as we call them, see that that
law is observed. The factory inspector can not do it. Factory
inspectors around Pittsburgh do well if they make a single inspection
of each plant in a year. They can not get around twice. We
haven’t enough of a force to do that. Where is your attendance
officer? He should know every child in his school district, and if a
child is not at school, whose duty is it to find out where that child is
but the attendance officer’s? Sometimes I am not altogether in
favor of the child labor laws, because I went to work when I was 11
years old and it didn’t hurt me at all. I found a child working in
a glass factory, who was a big husky boy, looking to be about 18 or
19, but he wasn’t 16. I couldn’t find a certificate for this boy and
I said, “Look here, where is your certificate to go to work? Did the
authorities give you a certificate ?” He said, “No, they gave me a
note.” I said, “A note isn’t a certificate; let me see it.” Now that
note explained that the boy was simple-minded and that he had not the
capacity for an education; his mother was a widow and had to take
in washing for a living. That boy was making $1.25 and $1.50 a
day in the glass factory. That was before we had this new arrange
ment as to issuing certificates, and I had to let the boy go and put
him out of the plant. We found many other cases. A great many
boys are smart enough to graduate from the public school at 13 years
of age. Suppose their parents are not able to send them to college,
what are you going to do with them? Let them run the streets?
My boys graduated at 13 and 14 years of age, five of them. I could
send them to college and did, but there are hundreds of parents
who are not able to send their children to college. What are we
going to do with these children ? That is the other side of the question.
There are always two sides to a question. It is not the best thing
for these children to let them run the streets. The remedy is with
your attendance officers; if they attend to their duties there will be
no children in your district working in factories. The factory in
spector should not be blamed for this condition; he is only able to
get around once a year.
I am speaking only of Pittsburgh. We have all nationalities;
we have all classes to deal with; but I can say one thing—in my
work in the last five or six months I have not found a child under
16 years of age working in our factories.
eleg ate
e n n s y l v a n ia
SHALL ISSUANCE AND REVOCATION OF EMPLOYMENT bERTTFICATES
BE UNDER THE CONTROL OF SCHOOL OR LABOR DEPARTMENT?
BY HENRY J. GIDEON, BUREAU OF COMPULSORY EDUCATION OF THE PHILADELPHIA
BOARD OF EDUCATION.
I hold to the view that employment certificates should be issued
by the educational authorities. This view is shared by men and
women who have devoted years of study to the problem of regulating
child labor, and is supported by the present practice in States whose
legislation is based upon years of experience and careful thought
as to the best methods of protecting employed children. The present
practice in the progressive States is a result of trial and error. In
the State of Pennsylvania, where the development of a system of
employment certification has progressed through many years, prob
ably along the same lines as in other States, the employment cer
tificate was originally a crude, legal paper issued by a notary public
and intended merely to identify the minor and show his age. Affi
davit of the parent was the only evidence of age required. False
affidavits were so notoriously common at that time as to render the
certificates worthless, and no improvement could be effected because
no one was responsible under the law for checking up and punishing
parents who swore falsely to their children’s ages. The notary
public had no interest other than the collection of the fees.
Later, the issuance of employment certificates was delegated to
the representatives of the bureau of factory inspection, which was
at that time imperfectly organized and certainly not prepared to
undertake the work. Employment certificates were issued from the
homes of the deputy factory inspectors. It was no uncommon sight
in those early days, especially in the industrial districts, for an
inspector, at the conclusion of his day’s work, to find his home
crowded with parents and children applying for certificates. These
officials made an honest but unsuccessful effort to carry out the
provisions of an imperfect law. It was not to be expected that
they would perform satisfactorily the work of issuing certificates,
because their evening duties were irksome and annoying and inter
fered with their recreation and social pleasures. Furthermore, the
nightly presence of parents and children was an unwarranted in
trusion on the privacy of their home life.
The enactment of the law, therefore, which transferred the issuance
of employment certificates to the public and private school authori
ties was hailed with delight by the deputy factory inspectors. This
method of issuance was an improvement over the former method,
but after a few years’ trial it was found to be unsatisfactory, partly
because of the defects inherent in the law itself, and partly because
responsibility for the issuance was too widely distributed.
Therefore, new legislation (the present child labor law), was enacted
providing for a system of employment certification free from the
defects of former practices and carefully designed to insure the
protection and promote the welfare of children in employment,
38
JURISDICTION AS TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
39
Responsibility for the administration of the system was vested in
the public-school officials.
You are probably well informed in regard to the purpose as well
as the methods of the systems of employment certification adopted
by New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and a number of other States.
The principles are the same in these systems, although the details
may vary. I mention the systems in these States to indicate what
I mean by the modern method of employment certification. What
are the aims of such a system, and what authority is best qualified
to accomplish these aims by being vested with the power to issue
employment certificates ?
'
In the issuance of employment certificates the first prerequisite is
of age. The best proof of age is a birth record, which must by
f>roof
aw be demanded, and if possible procured, before the employment
certificate is issued. If proof of age were the main consideration in
the issuance of an employment certificate, the health authorities
should certainly be designated as issuing officials, because these
officials have immediate access to records of birth. Even stronger
argument might be made in favor of delegating to the health authori
ties the issuance of employment certificates by pointing out? the
importance of the physical examination and the essential need of a
medical statement as to the health and physical fitness of the appli
cant for the employment contemplated. Proof of age and statement
as to health are important factors in employment certification, but
important though they be, they are secondary, or perhaps it should
be said complementary, to the main purpose of employment certifica
tion. With the furnishing of this information the official relation
ship of health officers to children entering employment begins and
ends. Furthermore, they have no official interest in the children's
school life, past or future, nor have they official concern in the suceess
or failure of the children after they enter their vocational career-. For
these reasons, the health authorities should not be designated by law
as the agency to issue employment certificates.
The modern system of employment certification provides that the
certificate be issued to a particular employer for the child named
and for a designated occupation. Some one may urge that since im
spection of minors in employment is intrusted to the factory inspector,
this official should also be authorized to issue employment certificates.
It should be remembered, however, that the issuance of employment
certificates and the inspection of minors in employment are closely
related but distinct official processes, which may be, but notmeCessarily should be, performed by the same official. Certainly the in
spector would have a fuller acquaintance with children employed in
his district if they were required to appear before him forf^erniits.
On the other hand, while a measure of inspection is necessary to
insure observance of the child labor law by employers, its importance
is not so great as might be supposed. The duties of factory in
spectors have become many-sided and numerous, as a result df labbr
legislation affecting the employment of adults. Coincident with the
extension of their duties in many other lines and as a result of rapidly
decreasing numbers of children in employment due to more stringent
16697°—23—Bull. 323— -4
^
v
40
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
child labor laws the factory inspectors’ contact with employed children
has been materially lessened.
Not so many years ago one of the most important duties of the
factory inspector was to “check up” on the employment of children.
To-day this duty is of vanishing importance and in many communi
ties is almost lost in the multiplicity of other duties which now devolve
upon the inspector.
A recent study of junior employment in the city of Philadelphia
revealed the interesting fact that of the 3,505 firms employing children
under 16 years of age, 2,750 firms employed but one child and 324 but
two children. There are in this city only 37 establishments employ
ing more than 25 children, and only 7 of these firms (including the
large department stores) employ from 100 to 139 children (the max
imum number). This wide distribution of children among so many
establishments makes the work of this phase of inspection so exceed
ingly difficult for factory inspectors that I am inclined to believe that
observance of the provisions of the law depends less upon rigid in
spection and more upon the enlightened conscience of the employer,
quickened by the intelligence of tne children who have been familiar
ized through the school, with their legal rights and privileges, This
appeal to the employers is especially strong where employed children
are kept in close contact with the school through attendance at
continuation schools.
My opinion is that while official representatives of the labor depart
ment can and actually do assist materially in the regulation of child
labor, through close attention to employed minors during their in
spection, and perhaps through the activities of special departments
devoted to children, their contact is, and should be, with the employer
and not with the child. Labor officials have had no previous educa
tional experience with children during their school life and are, there
fore, not equipped with information which would enable them to help
the children bridge the gap between the school and the job. I be
lieve that this coordination ,can best be done by those who have been
in close touch with the children during their years in school.
While considerations of age and health, as well as of the job, the
employer, and working conditions, are important in themselves
in the issuance of employment certificates, they are incidental to
the main purpose of the employment certificate, which is to authorize
the conditional release of the children from attendance at school.
The children for whom employment certificates are issued are within
the age limit of compulsory school attendance and are, therefore,
still under the educational authority. They belong to the school,
and when employment ceases, or employment conditions required
under the law are not observed, school authority should be asserted
and the children claimed for the classroom so long as they are of
compulsory school age. Logically, the same officials who are vested
by law with authority to require school attendance should also be
clothed with authority to grant exemptions from attendance (within
the limits imposed by law), including exemptions to enter employ
ment.
It would appear that the release of children from school attendance
for employment is a matter which concerns directly the parent and the
child, the employer, and the school, with the school assuming re
JURISDICTION AS TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
41
sponsibility for certifying the legal conditions upon which leave of
absence for employment is granted. The placing of this responsi
bility on the school has necessitated the extension of its present or
ganization to discharge its legal obligations. Logically, as well as
an aid to efficient administration, the issuance of employment certifi
cates should be placed in the attendance division, which is responsible
for the enrollment of children in school and their regular attendance
thereafter.
The extension of the attendance service to cover the release of chil
dren for employment would seem, therefore, to be a natural and nor
mal development of a system of accounting of children of compulsory
school age. There does not appear to be any valid reason why this
responsibility should be divided by delegating the issuance of em
ployment certificates to any agency outside of that which is intrusted
with the enforcement of the compulsory attendance law. This unity
of responsibility for attendance and exemption can be maintained, I
believe, without any impairment of the splendid cooperation of other
public agencies whose services are necessary as an aid to the proper
discharge of its duties toward employed minors. For example,
medical service is necessary to establish the physical fitness of a child
for employment, and in this respect the bureau of health should assist
by the assignment of physicians from its official staff. Similarly,
the representatives of the department of labor, who are called upon
to visit all establishments in the discharge of their duties, should
assist in the regulation of child labor by reporting to the school au
thorities, currently, the results of their findings.
Educational authorities, especially in the larger communities, have
established well-organized departments with trained personnel to
discharge their duties in regard to employment certification. The
organization of this service as a public school activity has had a truly
wonderful development in a comparatively few years and has had a
wholesome and far-reaching influence upon instruction in the schools.
Close contact of school officials with children in employment has
shown the need of a junior placement system and of the introduction
of a system of counseling for young people. To-day, practically
every well-organized high school has its vocational counselor, who
gives at least part time to this service. Courses in civics and in occu
pational studies have been introduced as a result of closer relation
ship between the school and industry. The contact of the school
with employment problems has awakened educational authorities
to a realization of their responsibilities toward the children in prepar
ing them to select wisely and intelligently their life work.
An accepted principle of social service discourages the handling of
family by more than one agency, because experience has shown that a
multiplicity of social service visitors in the home leads only to con
fusion and defeats the purpose of conceiving and executing a wellconsidered plan. In a larger sense, this principle has been applied
to the field of child welfare. More and more the opinion is growing
that the handling of problems where children only are considered
should be intrusted to one agency, and that agency should be public
education, since the importance of its service to children overshadows
that of all other agencies.
42
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
DISCUSSION.
The C
. I am going to ask Miss McFarland from Kansas
to lead the discussion.
Miss M F
. I may say I am from the department of labor,
that is, I am director of the work for women and children, and there
fore my view will perhaps be the opposite view from that of Mr.
Gideon; yet I must say that it is not entirely the opposite view. I do
believe in the schools having a very close connection with the issuing
of child-labor certificates; that is, I believe that perhaps the super
intendents of schools or their representatives, are the best agents for
issuing certificates. But I also believe that we should maintain a
connection with our labor department, our industrial work in the
State, by requiring that that work should be supervised by those
departments.
In Kansas we have a peculiar situation, which perhaps may be one
reason for my viewpoint. We have a compulsory attendance law
which has a lower standard than our child labor law, and our greatest
difficulty is in trying to keep our superintendents of high schools and
attendance officers up to the standard of our child-labor law. We
have superintendents of schools in Kansas who are determined not to
excuse children who do not have the education required by the childlabor law, because the educational requirements of the child-labor
law are higher than those of the compulsory attendance law, and that
peculiar situation forces the labor department of the State to fight
the battles for maintaining the educational standards of the State.
In Kansas we recognize, of course, the problem of the defective
child, the subnormal child; we know the problem has to be met and
our child-labor laws must meet it, and yet in spite of that fact the
tendency on the part of some of our school men is to lower the stand
ards. We feel that child labor is very largely an educational problem,
and we should reach it through our compulsory attendance law and
our educational standard, and yet we must not overlook the fact that
it is also an industrial task and that sometimes our best educators are
unfamiliar with industrial problems. Now, if we have men and
women in both fields who are trained, as they should be, in the broad
est and biggest sense, we might trust the child-labor certificate system
entirety to the hands of the school people, but we find in many cases
that they do not have that industrial viewpoint. They have no
knowledge of industrial hazards for children, are not familiar with
factories and workshops, and do not know where machinery or some
other condition is realty hazardous to children. Even under the school
laws they are letting children out of school and giving them certificates
to work in places which are extremely hazardous to children, and
unless those certificates pass through the hands of the department
which directs the work of women and children from the industrial
viewpoints, those children will be permitted to work there until an
inspector reaches them and requires that they be dismissed.
We have another peculiar situation in Kansas. Our largest
industrial city is a border city, and it and Kansas City, Mo., are
practically one city, in two different States, and we know that other
States have that same problem. It requires cooperation between the
two States, and yet I find that the school authorities in one State will
sometimes permit a child probably 14 years of age to work in a factory
h a ir m a n
c
a r la n d
JURISDICTION AS TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
43
the other wher$ we would recognize that the work is hazardous to
the life of a child. If the certificate does not go through our office
we would not know that that child was working in that factory.
When the certificate goes through our office we have a chance to
look after the child and to revoke the certificate. So I feel that
from the standpoint of industrial hazard the department of labor
has perhaps the better and more thorough knowledge. * I do not
mean that the school department could not gain that knowledge
and could not develop that viewpoint, but it has not been done,
and I feel that we will have to go slowly in turning that work over
to the school board until we are certain that both sides of the problem
will be considered.
The C
. I am going to ask Miss Schutz, from Minnesota,
to tell us something about that work.
Miss S
. I can tell very briefly what is being done in Minne
sota. The certificate is issued by the attendance department in
Minnesota, and then the record is sent to the industrial commission
and we pass on all the certificates issued. If we find in any particular
case that a child is working in a hazardous occupation or in a factory
where there might be danger, we send one of our factory inspectors
to look into the employment of that child, and very often the at
tendance department officer calls up and asks us if we won’t send
an inspector to find out what the employment is that is offered to
the child, or he will ask us to pass upon the employment before
the certificate is issued. So the records are always sent to our
office and certificates issued, and we are called upon frequently to
cooperate with the department of attendance in passing upon
the work offered to a child. I feel that the situation in Minne
sota is entirely satisfactory in that respect. Very few certificates
are being issued iff Minnesota. Employers do not want children
under the age of 16, largely because of our compensation law. We
have had one or two instances of giving the employer an employ
ment card pending the time when the certificate was issued. That
is, sometimes it would take a week or so looking up records for the
child and so an employment card would be issued pending the issuance
of a real certificate. In one case, during the period of time that
elapsed between the issuing of the card and of the working certificate
the boy was killed, and the question was, What was to be done
in a case like that—who was to pay for the loss of that boy ? That
brought the matter to a head in Minnesota, and in consequence
this particular department has discontinued the practice of allowing
a boy to go to work while awaiting the issuance of his certificate.
We really have had very little difficulty with the employment cer
tificate situation because of the compensation laws, but we have a
great deal of child labor in our rural districts which we do not touch
at all.
The C
. I am going to call on Mrs. Johnson, from the
State of Washington, to tell us something about the issuance of
certificates in that State.
Mrs. J
. We have very few certificates issued. We had
some last year—two boys, from 7 to 10 years, to work in a hotel as
pages. If minors work in any of the factories, the factory has to
report ho us on the work the first of every month on how many
in
h a ir m a n
ch utz
h a ir m a n
o h n so n
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
44
minors and apprentices they have. We have very little to report
on the child labor in our State. I believe there is very little in the
rural districts. There might be a little in the summer time during
the berry season or something like that. A child under 14 years
has to get a permit from the superintendent of schools, and then the
conditions under which the child works come under my supervision,
though either the director of labor or myself can issue that permit.
That is about as far as child labor goes in the State of Washington.
AD
. Did I understand, Mrs. Johnson, that the final
issuance of the employment certificate goes through the hands of the
representative of the department of labor ?
Mrs. J
. The final issuance, yes. The employing of a
child from 16 to 18, and the judges say now a child under 14, comes
under our care. Mr. Clifford or myself issues that permit. I am the
executive secretary and both our names are to be put on it; the secre
tary can sign for him if he isn’t there, but if he doesn’t sign it him
self my name must be on it.
The C
. D
I understand that when a child in some
section of the State other than your headquarters makes application
for an employment certificate the final issuing of the certificate is
postponed pending an investigation ?
Mrs. J
. If I can not go out personally the assistant super
visor in the district in which he applies sees if it is a fit place for that
child to work, and reports back to us before it is issued.
The C
. I am going to call on our president to tell us
something about the issuing of employment certificates in the State
of Louisiana.
Mr. W . My State issues certificates almost any way. The
form of certificate is all right, the wording is all right, everything would
be all right if everybody would live up to the law, but they will not
do it. We have exactly the same procedure as to evidence that the
other States have, but finally we accept almost anything. If we
can’t get the birth or baptismal record, the school record, or any
thing else, we will take the word of the parents. We know
parents who have falsified ages of their children, have used certificates
issued for older children, have tried to eliminate the date of birth, and
sometimes they have changed the age but didn’t change the date of
birth, and it is only the employer who is shrewd enough not to get
into the clutches of the law who looks into those things and finds them
and sends the certificates back. A judge, a notary, a member of
the State board of education, a justice of the peace, the depart
ment of labor or any of its attaches, in fact almost any man, can
administer the law. The law says that no one attached to a depart
ment store or enterprise hiring labor can issue certificates; yet not
long ago a Federal inspector who went to a box factory found that the
president of the box factory, who was the president of a bank, and
also a lawyer and notary public, was issuing a certificate to every
child entering the service. Some of you may not be confronted with
these conditions. The law on issuing child-labor certificates is just
about the loosest procedure we have.
The
I am going to ask Mr. Wilcox to give us the
experience of Wisconsin.
^
eleg a te
o h nso n
h a ir m a n
o
o h nso n
h a ir m a n
ood
C
h
a
i
r
m
a
n
.
JURISDICTION AS TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
45
M r. W
. The object about which interest in this subject
centers is of course the welfare of the child if it is going into industry,
and it occurs to me that you must determine several questions:
First, whether or not the child has had a sufficient education; second,
whether or not the child’s physical fitness permits of his entering
industry; and third, as to the welfare of the child after he gets into
industry.
We must all agree, I think, on that proposition, that that is what
we have to determine. I think I ought to say this, that out of
deference to the public interest the system ought to be uniform,
as uniform as possible. Any system which will best accomplish
all of these purposes I am ready to sanction, to give approval to.
In Wisconsin we have what is technically known as the adoption
of the child in industry by the labor department, the industrial
commission, and still we try not to forget that after all the one
person who is best informed as to the education of the child, the
condition of the child in school, and perhaps the conditions in the
home, is the school official. We never issue a permit unless we have
the approval of the school official. A child has to come to the
commission with the approval of the school authorities. We arrange
too for a physical examination of the child, though not in all cases,
because there are some small communities where we find that im
practical.
Mr. G
. We cut out the authority temporarily.
Mr. W
. We require as a condition of employment, t h a t t h e
child have his tonsils taken care of. Wherever we find a school
official who possesses what we call the right mind for the interests
of the child after he gets into industry, he is made the permit-issuing
officer in the community, but I question the effectiveness of any
system that does not nave some central authority. If you are
going to let every school official issue permits, you will have more
than 57 different varieties of employment that the child ought to
be (according to the school authorities) permitted to enter into.
And so we first require that the child have the approval of the
school authorities. You will be surprised what /a difference of
opinion there is. There will be a difference of opinion among labor
officials. I heard a gentleman here arguing awhile ago that a child
16 years of age or under ought to be permitted to enter into in
dustry, and, because he thought the child ought to be allowed to do
so, rather blinking at the law. As administering officers you know
that you have to l a y down certain rules, you have to fix some sort
of classification.
Our commission has the authority to determine the types of em
ployment which children are permitted to enter. No girl in our
State, by order of the commission, may have a permit to go into
the hotel industry. This is not a legislative act, it is an order of
the commission. We do not try to determine whether it is a good
or a bad hotel.
We say no child shall be permitted to go to work in a bowling
alley or the lumber industry. We determine the safety of the
working place and all that sort of thing. After all, when you have
reached the point where you say that this child ought to be per
mitted to enter industry you have to determine who is nearest the
il c o x
id e o n
il c o x
4$
ASSOOIATIOK OF GOVEBKMBKTAL LABOR, OFFICIALS.
ohijik in his, job. I thinkthat the school official; would have* /to
admit that a well-organized labor department is closer to the child
and in better position^ to determine whether or not he shall continue
in that particular industry, whether that employment is a safe
enrnloyuient, than, is the school authority.
;y
?,
Every State should keep in mind the interest of the child, and there
should be worked out a cooperative plan between school and labor
departments that will guarantee that these children are not exploited,
that'they are not dragged but of school into an industry for ulterior
purposes, that they have a reasonable amount of education, and that
the employment they are put into shall be the kind of employment
they ought to have.
With regard to the birth certificate or baptismal certificate, I
would like to say that in our State the school records have never
proven an adequate means of checking up a child's age. One child
who enters school on the first day of September may have a birthday
in Npvember when he will be 14 years of age. You sa}^ to him, 11Well,
how old are you?" He replies “I am 14 years." Another child
entering at the same time and whose birthday is also in November,
when you ask him “ How old are you ?'' says uI am 13."
Y‘We regard the birth certificate and baptismal certificate as the
most satisfactory. We find birth certificates can be had in substan
tially 'all cases. We find that over $0 per cent of the children em
ployed in our State on permits were actually born in other States,
only 10 per cent being born in the State bf Wisconsin. We have what
We call a bureau of vital statistics plan. You can go to the registrar of
any county and get the birth date of any child in that county. We
have on file in the city of Madison the reports from these registrars,
so that we have very easy access to the record of the child—the birth
certificate and the baptismal certificate. We state on the permit the
kind of employment the child is to be permitted to do and what he
may not do. Our compensation law is quite drastic. In case of
injury to a child employed without a permit the employer is liable in
treble the damages. The effect of that is to allow the child substan
tially the same* damages he would receive at common law. That
was tho law prior to t& enactment of the compensation law. These
damaged are paid not by the insurer of the risk but by the employer
Miriself, And this means that the employer is pretty careful; he does
not want to pay treble damages vety often.
<y
Mr. Coffey. I have charge, of the department of iabbr workrin
Philadelphia. I believe the proper place for the issuance apd revoca
tion Of 'certificates is with the school authorities. I have had soine
seven years' experience in Philadelphia, and I have found that plan
tB be most successful there. I further think that what we want is
MW Enforcement, not law violation. We have cases where an in
spector covers several counties. If you will tell me how he can look
after The issuance and revocatibn of certificates I rshall be verv glad
tb' be enlightened. However, the school authorities in every tfistrict
in this State have copies of the child, labor act showing the prohibited
emplbyinent for children under 16, and the prohibited employments
for children under 18 years of age and they also have copies of the
Orders issued from time to time by bur State industrial board. They
have those prohibitive acts before them. It is a small thing for them
JURISDICTION AS TO E M P L O Y M E N T CERTIFICATES.
47
to see what the act prohibits in the issuance of certificates. Ii any
c#ses come up which are questionable then it is a case of taking them
to the department of labor and industry and asking it to pass on
them,, There won't he many such cases, for if you will took over pur
child labor act in this State and the orders of the industrial board,
you will find the ground is, pretty well covered. However, from
time to time we do get requests from Mr. Gideon’s office to go into a
factory and look over conditions there and see whether an employ
ment certificate may be granted in a particular case.
In this State, and I presume in other States, if the employer
places a minor in a prohibited employment and that child is injured,
the case does not come under the compensation law. Every now
and then we find a case where that comes up. There was a case in
Chester in the shipbuilding industry during the war, where a minor
was hired as a rivet tender. He was killed, the parents brought suit,
and the insurance carrier disclaimed liability, saying, “This does not
come under our compensation law," and so it cost the company several
thousand dollars. Some years ago, in the paper-box industry, the
same condition arose. In a survey made a short time ago, we found
there were very few children under age employed, and that the man
ufacturer or employer is quite particular in this.
Mr. G id e o n . My position in the public schools of Philadelphia is
peculiar in that my relation to the parochial and the private schools
is exactly the same as my relation to the public schools. .That is,
as the issuing officer in Philadelphia, I bear the same relation to all
schools. Mr. Wilcox and I are not so far apart as it may appear,
because I was talking about issuing and he was talking about inspecT
tion. I thoroughly agree with him that inspection should be intrusted
largely to the department of labor, and I think it is time that the
people of this country should pay attention to their system of birth
registration. The system of birth registration in the United States,
and Pennsylvania is no exception, is very poor indeed. It is wholly
inadequate. If I were married and living in the State of Pennsyl
vania and had a child born into my family I would have to write’ to
Harrisburg for an official copy, a certified copy, of my child’s birth,
and pay a fee of 60 cents, in order to make sure that my family phy
sician ,aid not register my little ^irl as a boyy or my little white girl
as acol6red(£irl, or mhkesoirie other similar mis take. At the present
time we haven't any means of knowing, first, that the doctor has realty
registered the birth, and in the second place we haven't any means of
knowing that he has registered it right. In going through the register
of the bureau of vital statistics we find the source of errors; some
times the doctor doesn't register until a year afterwards. Because
of the mistakes in those records I believe one of the first things we
ought to do as labor officials is to demand a proper law for birth
registration, and I think that the law ought to provide not only for
registration but also for a record of the registration to be sent to the
family so that the family may know what is on the books. The
record that goes to the family could be kept as a record of the birth,
and used for presentation to the principal of the school when the child
enters the school and later for presentation to the issuing official when
application is made for an employment certificate; still later it could
be used when the boy or girl applies for a marriage license, and when
48
ASSOCIATION 0? GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
he or she comes to exercise the right of suffrage. So I believe one
of the first things we ought to do is to demand that that should be
done.
I think we might go farther than that; I think we might publish
every year in every State, through the bureau of vital statistics, a
comprehensive volume showing the names and addresses of and other
particulars about every child bom in the Commonwealth. It has been
urged that that would not be a proper thing to do because it would
show up certain cases of illegitimacy, but it seems to me that that
argument does not overcome the stronger argument for the publishing
of such a list. Let us get together and ask our State legislatures to
put the right kind of birth registration law on the statute books.
The Chairman . I am going to ask our friend, Doctor Lovejoy, for
a few remarks on this question.
Doctor L ovejoy . I should like to ask Mr. Gideon a question.
There are many States that have no vital statistics that are of value.
Many States have no continuation-school law, and many have no
compensation laws. I am interested in the rural children, the
children in agriculture, I think we all recognize the tremendous
improvement m this country in relation to child labor in factories
and other industrial establishments, and this has come about largely
through this body of workers or labor officials who administer the
law. For many years, in increasing measure, the law has been
improved. We have no protection of that kind, broadly speaking,
for the children in the country, in the little rural school districts.
I would like to ask Mr. Gideon how he would under the theory he
advanced in his paper, give the child in agriculture the same kind
of efficient comprehensive State protection that the child in industry
now receives through the labor departments of the various States?
Mr. Gideon . Mr. Dennison states that the children of Pennsylvania
are protected by an amendment to the school law, passed in the last
session of the legislature, requiring that exemption permits be granted
to children leaving school for employment in agriculture or in domestic
service. The two are included. If Mr. Dennison had gone farther
he would have told you that that protects the child so far as leaving
school is concerned; but that it goes no farther than that, because
our child labor law specifically exempts from its operation children
who are in domestic service and in farm labor. 1 believe that we
should strike from our child labor law that exempting phrase. If
,we did that, then the children on the farm would be placed upon
exactly the same basis as the children in the factory.
I want to say that in Philadelphia, in spite of all the efforts that
I can put forth every year we lose temporarily to the State of New
Jersey about 2,500 children for three or four months. I have no
power under the law to prevent that group of 2,500 or 3,000 Italian
children from going from the State during April or May, sometimes
earlier, onto the farms of New Jersey and remaining there, sometimes
under good conditions but usually under conditions such as Mr.
Lovejoy has described, and then returning in October or November.
There is no way by which we can reach those children. They leave
Philadelphia with their mothers and fathers and while they are in
the State of New Jersey they are no longer residents of Philadelphia.
Some of them go to Delaware also, but while they are in the State
JURISDICTION AS TO EMPLOYMENT CERTIFICATES.
40
of New Jersey the New Jersey officials say they are not New Jersey
children, they are Pennsylvania children, and that therefore they
have no jurisdiction over them. So that between the two of us the
children suffer and nothing is done. I doubt very much indeed
whether border sections of the State of Pennsylvania could be
adequately protected by an amendment to the law extending to the
children on the farm tne same protection that is now extended to
the children in industry, unless our neighboring States would do
likewise. If New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Ohio, and perhaps
West Virginia would pass legislation on the same basis for children
who engage in labor on the farm as for children engaged in industry,
then I suppose our Pennsylvania children would have adequate
protection, but they will not until that is done.
[On motion of Mr. Biebesheimer, seconded by Mr. Northrup, the
following committee was appointed by the president “ to codify the
various State laws and correlate them and point out our weak points ” :
Mr. Biebesheimer, chairman; Mr. Hall, Miss McFarland, Miss Rourke,
and Mr. Wilcox.]
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24—MORNINGSESSION.
FRED M. WILCOX, CHAIRMAN WISCONSIN INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, PRESIDING.
INSPECTION, SAFETY, AND SANITATION.
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION.
BY JOHN P. MEADE, DIRECTOR DIVISION OF INDUSTRIAL SAFETY, MASSACHUSETTS
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES.
The subject assigned to me involves a discussion of factory inspec
tion, and; is to be confined to specific problems connected with inspec
tion work. Many other duties of the ordinary industrial inspector can
have no mention here. In this topic we deal, however, with what is
the most important duty assigned by law to this official, for it touches
problems that deal with the conservation of human life, strength, and
energy. The details of inspection work as usually conducted in a large
industrial plant might be reduced to a recital of routine mechanical
operations. However, we can not leave our subject with only this
simple duty attended to. It is necessary, if we would adequately
describe efficient work of this type, to deal with those underlying and
controlling reasons that make "Factory inspection important to the
welfare of the community and workmen alike.
Factory inspection rests upon the principle that work places
should be made safe for employees. Its fundamental purpose is to
protect the life and health of workmen from hazards arising in con
nection with machinery and industrial processes. Although one of
the last nations to give adequate attention to the need of conserving
the human side of industry, the United States has made rapid prog
ress in the development of factory inspection within the last 10 years.
In a survey of industrial conditions in the city of Pittsburgh made in
1908 one of the leading figures in that movement gave expression to an
opinion which at that time stated concisely the attitude of the industries
of the United States toward workmen engaged in hazardous trades.
He said, “The Slavs from Austria-Hungary, the Latins from the
Mediterranean provinces, the Germans, or the British-born who
came to Pittsburgh to do the heavy work of manufacture came from
a region of law and order to a region of law-made anarchy, so far as
the hazards of industry are concerned. For there is scarcely a
country of modem Europe but has brought its statutes abreast of
industrial progress and wrought out for itself, as we have not, some
visible adjustment between civil rights, human needs, and the cease
less operations in which groups of men and powerful appliances join
in producing what the world wants.”
Among the problems created by the development of the industrial
system in, the United States is that of maintaining safety and health
in work places. The rapid and exacting nature of certain mechani
cal processes and the unwholesomeness of many industrial occupa
tions and environments have brought new risks to vitality and
health. The suffering caused to victims of industrial accidents and
the poverty ensuing m families where the head was stricken down
while engaged in his daily work combined to arouse the people in
this country to the need oi scientific treatment in providing for health
and safety in industry.
50
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION.
51
Conserving the life, health, and energy of our employees or wage
earners is not an individual question; it is a question requiring
social action and is now recognized as a legitimate function of gov
ernment. Gradually new principles bom of this experience found
their way into our industrial life. The theory advanced rapidly that
immunity from grave industrial hazards and protection against
occupational illness and disease were essential to the well-being of
our wage earners.
It was urged that the loss in time because of incapacity produced
by industrial injury should be made a charge upon the manufactured
product and this much of the burden carried by the consuming public.
Compensation laws spread rapidly throughout the country, recog
nizing this principle in part, and inspired interest in the work of
reducing human waste in industry. It was quickly learned that the
economic losses sustained in this respect constituted a serious tax
upon the productive labor power of the country.
It is well to quote interesting figures in this connection that we
may the more realize the gravity of this situation. We are told that
in 1919 there occurred in the industries of the United States about
23,000 fatal accidents and 575,000 nonfatal accidents causing four
weeks or more disability.
In June, 1921, Mr. Hoover’s committee on elimination of waste in
industry reported in its findings to the American Engineering Council
at St. Louis that this amount of incapacity represented an approxi
mate wage loss of $1,184,000,000. The total direct cost of industrial
accidents in the United States for the same year, including medical
aid and other legitimate charges, was not less than $1,014,000,000,
of which $349,000,000 was borne by employers and $665,000,000 by
employees and their dependents.
This report also stated that these approximate figures are actually
short of the amount, as they do not include other items of expense
incurred by workmen and not paid by employers or insurance com
panies. The opinion is expressed by these eminent authorities that
75 per cent of mis loss could be avoided.
That other important side of this problem, dealing with the con
ditions that give rise to occupational disease, must occupy an implace in the duties of the factory inspector. The economic
{>ortant
oss sustained through occupational disease can not be adequately
demonstrated in figures.
Disease hazards in industry may not always be as clearly defined
as those hazards responsible for industrial accidents. Doctor
Thompson reflects accurately on the relation of occupational diseases
in industrial injuries when he says:
A man’s hand lies upon the workbench, cut off by a revolving saw—nothing could
be more definite as to the relationship of cause and effect. He recovers from the
injury, and it is easy to determine the degree of his incapacity for future work. The
condition is self-limited and nonprogressive. With industrial diseases, on the other
hand, many complex factors arise. Is the mercurial poisoning of which he is the vic
tim likely to continue its destructive effects until the victim dies, or is he likely to
recover completely upon cessation of this hazardous work? Such are the types of
questions which constantly arise in connection with the occupational diseases and it
requires far more experience and judgment to solve them justly and accurately than it
does to determine the nature and extent of the great majority of industrial accidents.
Some industrial diseases and the effects of some industrial poisons it is true are as
definite in their results as are accidents, but their number is limited in comparison
52
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
with tli© vast number of cases of disease, often obscure, very slow in onset and chronic
in course, which affect many large classes of workmen. The misery and poverty
entailed by the partial disability produced by more insidious poisons or injurious
surroundings are much more difficult to estimate with accuracy.
Injuries sustained tlirough the inhalation of metallic, mineral, or
organic dusts often are more far reaching than the results of trau
matic amputations. The progressive inspector who fully realizes the
importance of his mission will sense the need of treating each side of
this question with adequate attention. This is the task that con
fronts the factory inspector wherever his field of activity may be.
In dealing with this problem no one should realize more than he that
being a mere agency does not measure up to his responsibility. He
must be more than an agency if he is to De successful in this work;
he must be an active influence.
Before the era of workmen’s compensation acts the use of the
police power to make work places free from industrial hazards was
exercised through statutes general in their character. Comparatively
easy was the task to have belts and pulleys adjacent to passageways
or work places of operators properly safeguarded. Projecting set
screws, defective couplings, inrunning gears, and sprocket wheels
evoked no discussion as to the apphcation of legal requirements.
Guarding machinery at the point of operation, however, was an
entirely different problem.
On this subject even experts might disagree. Such a condition
threatened seriously the purpose of tne movement to make industry
safe for the workman. The experience of years in the enforcement
of general statutory principles proved that technical experience in
the processes of industry was an essential element for the control of
factory hazards.
When the legislatures of the industrial States authorized the labor
departments to make rules and regulations for the preventing of
injuries to workmen it made possible the providing of safeguards to
hazardous conditions which could not be reached by general statutory
principles.
Standards prepared under the auspices of employers and workmen,
and usually approved by the highly trained safety engineer, now con
stitute the basis of rules and regulations adopted by labor depart
ments for the safeguarding of human life and energy.
The removal of dusts, gases, fumes, excessive heat, and other im
purities from factory workrooms is now recognized as essential to
protect the health pi employees. These hazards can be adequately
controlled by the installation and operation of efficient mechanical
exhaust systems. The need of such devices in printing offices, brush
factories, and in the buffing, grinding, and plating trades, in the
rubber industry, in the stereotype and electrotype foundries, and
in other industries too numerous to mention is now generally ac
knowledged.
No program of factory sanitation is now considered adequate or
complete that does not include clean, pure drinking water, provided
in each factory workroom, and washing and toilet facilities kept in a
proper and sanitary condition for the use of employees. Also,it must
include workrooms well ventilated and lighted, and suitable lockers
maintained in establishments where the nature of the employment
53
makes necessary complete change of clothing. Good health is often
the only asset of the workman, and any impairment of it might
prove as important as the loss of a finger by contact with the power
press, or loss of a limb with all of its serious consequences. Many
employers realize that vigorous health of workmen is essential in
manufacturing establishments.
Investigation has shown that impairment of the workman's health
is usually followed by a loss of efficiency. It is here that the compe
tent inspector becomes a valuable asset to both workman and em
ployer. He must be able to point out the type of exhaust system
necessary to dispose of fumes, dusts, and gases properly. He must
be familiar with the best methods of ventilation in workrooms and
be well qualified to advise in connection with general and local
lighting.
Ordinary factory inspection experience is not sufficient to attain
this result. Intensive training in the examination of causes under
lying industrial accidents ana occupational disease is necessary to
d.o inspection work properly. It provides an intimate knowledge
with the condition responsible for loss of human life and energy.
Inspectors derive the greatest benefit from this experience and
acquire technical knowledge which can be applied to conditions
found in their daily work. It enables them to speak with authority
on practical means for accident prevention. In Massachusetts this
plan works well. A description of the work in this State may prove
interesting. During the year ending November 30, 1921, 1,448 work
accidents were investigated by the inspectors of the department of
labor and industries. These were mainly injuries causing death or
or partial disability, including the loss of limbs, hands or
{>ermanent
eet, fingers or toes, or the sight of eyes. By this practice the de
partment checks up the inspection work and ascertains if machine
and factory hazards are controlled as the law directs. If an accident
is investigated in a plant where an inspection has not been made
during six months previous, this duty is attended to at the same
time. Careful examination of the facts in connection with occupa
tional accidents places an inexhaustible fund of valuable experience
at the disposal of safety organizations. Practical advice ana assist
ance can be given to employers and employees from inspectors who
examine the facts incidental to each accident experience. It is well
known that comparatively few accidents now occur on unguarded
machinery. In 1921 10,057 accidents, or less than 19 per cent of
the tabulatable accidents occurring in the industries of Massachusetts
were occasioned by contact with machinery, exceedingly few cases in
this group being traceable to unguarded machines.
Defective factory conditions, falling on slippery floors, stumbling
over objects in passageways, and cleaning machinery while in motion,
are potential factors in the causation or industrial injuries. While
these dangers are most effectively controlled through the means of
frequent factory inspection, the investigation of accidents em
phasizes the need of constant vigilance in grappling with them.
This statement is well supported by the Massachusetts experience.
From July 1, 1920, to June 30,1921, there were 155,554 accident refiled with the department of industrial accidents in that State,
8orts
tf these, 53,313 were tabulatable, which includes death, permanent
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION.
54
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
total, permanent partial, and temporary total disabilities. Death
resulted in 296 >of these cases, 6 involved permanent total disability,
while 1,371 were of a permanent partial nature and 51,640 were tem
porary totals.
;
Reduction of the accident rate in our industrial plants can be
accomplished only through giving more attention to the causes of
nonmeehanica! injuries. The factory inspector should be famfliar
with the accident causation in each industry, for his experience be*Comes a valuable asset to employers in maintaining a high degree of
safety in their establishments.
< *
In the large manufacturing districts of Massachusetts this routine
work has done much to impart vigor to the work of safety committees.
Their attendance at shop meetings and safety .councils enables the
contribution of valuable assistance from a wide field of experience.
The investigation of accidents to children between f14 ahddfi yearS of
age has beenmade a leading factor cfrithis iwark. t* -1 ! r ::}*'*
It has proved to be a strong factor in preventing exposure of the
child to hazardous work and is useful in securing compliance with
the requirements of the ceHificate lawi In the past year it was
necessary to issue 76 orders to employers who violated the statute
relative to prohibitive employment for^riMirsv -tod prosecution was
necessary in 35 cases where children werC permitted to work on
dangerous machinery.
i i
i :*Many of these violations of the law never would have been dis
covered were it not for the policy of investigating injury to children.
An interesting development in the experience acquired by this plan
is the opportunity for cooperation with directors of continuation
schools in teaching pupils the need of exercising due care in industry;
It is of interest to know that 24,0GQ:children, between the ages of
14 and 16 years, in the industrial establishments of Massachusetts are
now attending 47 continuation schools where the law provides they
must receive instruction at least four hours a week. In the large
industrial centers of the State where these schools are located chil
dren come for instruction from the work places in the manufacturing
plants.
.
They are instructed not to play on or around Elevators or in
proximity to hazardous machinery; of any itype. They are told not
to clean or oil machinery while it is in motion or to remove guards
from machinery under any circumstances5or to fail to secure firstaid treatment for all injuries, however slight* r
Splendid cooperation has been received from some hf the direc
tors of these schools in the work of emphasizing the importance of
these principles. It is the practice in many of these schools to as
certain the kind of work the child is engaged in, and if it is found to
be illegal in any respect action is taken to remedy the condition.
Inspectors of the department have been active in addressing pupils
in attendance at these schools and advising them with reference to
the factory hazards in Iheir locality. Efforts in this direction are
now achieving substantial results.
The accident statistics for Massachusetts for the year ending June
30, 1919, indicate that 10 children between 514 and 16 years ,of cage
were victims of fatal accidents, while 62 sustained permanent dis^
abling injuries. For the year ending June 30, 1921, 6 children of the
PKOBLEMS AND IMPOBTANCE OF FACTOBY INSPECTION.
55
same age group lost their lives because of accidents in industry, and
upon 13 were inflicted injuries of a permanently disabling type.
In the previous year 49,781 minors between 14 and 16 were em
ployed, and in the last-named period approximately 36,000. While
the number of minors in this age group in industry during 1921 is
approximately 25 per cent less than that of 1919, the fatal accident
rate has been reduced 50 per cent and the rate of permanent disabling
injuries reduced about 80 per cent. The substantial progress made
in reducing accidents to minors is due to the joint work of the con
tinuation school and the inspectors of the Department of Labor and
Industries of Massachusetts. From this experience inspectors are
able to give practical advice and assistance to employers in the reduc
tion of the accident rate. It enables danger points to be well known
and provides a definite program for the control of certain factors
conducive to occupational injury.
Equally productive of good results is the use of investigation in
the case of occupational diseases. In manufacturing establishments
where toxic substances are used uncontrolled fumes, gases, and dusts
constitute a menace to the health of the employees. Only through
careful investigation of instances where employees have been affected
by these hazards can actual results be achieved. In the year 1921,
96 cases of lead poisoning were investigated by the inspectors con
nected with the Department of Labor and Industries of Massachusetts.
It is interesting to note that 48 of these occurred in the painting
business and that nearly all owed their origin to the fact that work
men mixed and handled lead and oil or inhaled or swallowed the
dust of old paint which they scraped or rubbed down with sand
paper or pumice.
In the building trades, painters were often found working in
unfinished buildings where water and toilet facilities had not been
installed and no suitable facilities provided for washing and changing
work clothing. Frequently these workmen ate the noonday luncheon
without taking ordinary precautions against the possibility of lead
poisoning. Investigating lead poisoning in the rubber industry
determined the fact that this disease is frequently traceable to the
compounding room, where mechanical exhausts are not provided
to control the dust hazards. The use of litharge and urotropin with
out proper means to prevent exposure by the employee, frequently is
found to be a causative factor. Through investigation of lead poison
ing cases contracted in this manner the inspection force become
familiar with essential factors and derive constructive knowledge
for prevention work. No attempt can be made here to enumerate
the many types of hazards conducive to industrial disease. The
few mentioned indicate that simple means are often adequate for the
prevention of occupational injury. The inspector with vision, force,
and ability, who carefully examines the causes responsible for indus
trial injury, usually has unobstructed admission to the management
where the policies of the industry are defined. Work of this kind is
usually welcomed by progressive employers. Superintendents and
foremen willingly give time to an intelligent practical presentation
of the means by which accidents may be reduced in their plant.
An inspector equipped with the solid experience acquired from close
16697°— 23—Bull. 323----- 5
56
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
contact with these conditions in industry is usually well able to
solve problems found in the course of factory inspection.
It is impractical to formulate a uniform rule for making inspections.
There is such a wide range in size and capacity of establishments
in the same industry that such a plan is impossible. There are also
many different classes of industries, each having its own specific
dangers. Each establishment must be considered separately, and
the advice given necessarily will depend upon the character of the
operations and number of employees and conditions found in the
plant. Each industry has its own traditions and peculiar hazards.
Every inspection must be made with this point in view. The inspec
tor must be quick to perceive the good and bad conditions existing.
Mechanical dangers can not engage his attention exclusively. If
industry were combed clear of machinery hazards we would still
have serious industrial accidents. Most of the real hazards in
industry now arise from unsafe practices, and the inspector who
can detect careless methods and suggest safer ways of accomplishing
the result is the agency we^must look: to for the best type of factory
inspection work. His advice may be most useful when it is quite
outside the scope and the authority vested by the police power. He
must be familiar with safe methods of operation in plants similar to
the one he is required to inspect and must be thoroughly acquainted
with standards for the safeguarding of machinery.
Without this experience it is not possible to convince foremen or
mechanics that his recommendations are practical, unless first-hand
knowledge can be brought to bear on the subject.
In a furniture factory he learns that the woodworking machinery
includes the dominant machine hazard. In the metal trades the
power punch press is an important factor in the accident frequency
of the plant. In the foundries, blast furnaces and moveable cranes
and the pouring of molten metal become objects of his attention.
Calender rolls in the rubber industry come promptly to his mind and
his interest may quickly afterwards be centered on the compounding
room, where litharge, oxides of iron, urotropin, and other toxic sub
stances are frequently used.
He is usually skilled in the location of work places where danger
lurks. There should be no question as to his right to visit industrial
establishments for the proper discharge of his duties. In Massachu
setts inspectors are authorized by law to enter all buildings and parts
thereof used for industrial purposes, to examine the hazards con
nected with the machinery and processes of industry, the means of
escape from fire, the sanitary provisions for employees, the lighting,
and the means of ventilation. Inspectors are also empowered to
make investigations as to the employment of women and minors,
and to secure compliance with all other provisions of the law dealing
with the employment. Any person who hinders or delays such an
inspector or officer in the performance of his duties, or who refuses
to admit, or who locks out any inspector from a place he is authorized
to enter, or refuses to give the information which is required for the
proper enforcement of certain sections of the labor laws, is penalized
by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $200 or by imprisonment
for not more than two months, or by both such fines and imprisonment.
57
Seldom has it been necessary to invoke the penalty provided for this
purpose.
It is gratifying to state that inspectors of the Department of Labor
and Industries of Massachusetts have received respectful consideration
from employers and cooperation has been freely accorded them in
the performance of their duties. Our experience is that employers
fully realize the value of technical advice in the work of making their
establishments safe for their employees.
The first objective for the competent inspector is to get in touch at
once with that official in the plant who is invested with authority to
receive and act upon his recommendations. Usually, in the large
plants, some one is designated to accompany the inspector in the
examination of plant conditions. It may be the employment manager,
safety engineer, or master mechanic. The method of procedure must
be governed by circumstances in connection with the plant.
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION.
For instance, an inspection of a textile factory would not be the
same as that of the shoe factory or a foundry or a machine shop.
While many statutes of a general nature relating to the safety and
health of employees would apply in one as well as the other, there
are some laws that apply only in certain kinds of industrial estab
lishments and would have no application in others. Inspection
should be made in a systematic manner, going through the various
buildings or departments of an establishment in the regular order.
By this it is meant that advantages are gained frequently when doing
inspection work if the consecutive processes in the manufacture of
the product are followed consistently.
If minors are employed the employment and educational certificates
on file should be carefully examined. In the examination of the
employment certificate, which is the lawful permission for a child
between 14 and 16 years of age to be employed, the inspector should
see that the specific nature of the employment is stated and that the
child is not employed at trades prohibited by law or in occupations
forbidden by the statutes, or in proximity to hazardous machinery.
It is the duty of the inspector to see that certificates are promptly
returned to school authorities on termination of the employment.
He must also observe if a list of minors between 14 and 16 years of
age is posted near the principal entrance to the factory. Where
women and minors are employed, he must note if a legal time notice
is posted and hours of labor are properly inserted in accordance with
the statutes, and that women and minors are provided with suitable
seats if required by law.
In general, he then observes conditions relative to the safeguarding
of machinery and belts; the condition of floors; sees that exit doors
are not locked; that stairs are properly handrailed; if proper venti
lation is provided; if dusts, gases, and fumes which are injurious to
health are removed or rendered harmless in so far as it is practical
to do so. He must note if pure drinking water is provided, and if
his inspection is in a textile factory where humidifying systems are
in use, he must see that the amount of moisture does not exceed that
specified by law and that pure water is used in such systems.
The number, construction, and location of toilets must be noted
in order to ascertain if they are provided as the law requires, and he
58
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
must assure himself that washing facilities are provided and main
tained in accordance with the rules and regulations of the department.
In textile and cotton factories he must also see that specifications
regarding the construction of cloth and rates of compensation, when
employees are paid by the piece, are properly posted; see if the work
rooms are properly lighted and if there is adequate protection from
glare. He ascertains if a medical and surgical chest or a medical
room is provided in manufacturing establishments or in other places
of employment if required by law.
He notes if positive arrangements are provided on each floor at a
convenient point within the room in which machinery is located
whereby either the entire power supply on that floor may be cut off
as a whole or the one or more lines of shafting used in driving counter
shafts over machines or connected directly to machines may be cut
off independently.
Types of emergency stopping devices such as friction clutches,
motor stops, or engine stops must meet with his approval. The con
struction and materials for guards are carefully examined. They
must be suitable in connection with belts and pulleys so that spokes
will be guarded and that the section of pulley receiving belt will be ade
quately covered to prevent anyone being caught between belt and
pulley. Set screws on revolving parts, in running gears and sprocket
wheels, couplings and collars, dead ends of shafting, and all the wellknown mechanical dangers are carefully noted. Those other factory
hazards so often prolific in causing industrial injury, in which are
included defective stairs, obstructed passageways, and failure to
provide railings, occupy a prominent place in his inspection.
If the industry is one in which special rules and regulations have
been adopted for the safeguarding of workers against dangers existing
therein, great care must be exercised that the danger points are
noted thoroughly and correctly. In the briefest outline the functions
of the industrial inspector are herewith described. No reference is
made to boiler or elevator or building inspection, as the program
provides for separate discussion of these topics. The usual procedure
is for the department of labor and industries to issue orders upon
requisitions from the inspector, requiring proprietors of establish
ments to comply with provisions of the law.
When recommendations are conveyed it must be made perfectly
clear what each requirement is. Nothing will neutralize the effect
of the inspector’s personal contact with an establishment so quickly
as a formidable list of requirements that are not clearly understood.
To guard against these unfavorable developments, the safest practice
is to leave a copy with the safety engineer, master mechanic, or some
one invested with responsibility to make the changes required. The
easiest part of the inspector’s work is to issue recommendations; the
real work begins in securing compliance with them. We come now
to one of the practical problems of factory inspection and that is the
accurate timing of compliance visits. Unless great care is exercised
in the discharge of this duty the waste of much time and effort is
inevitable.
It is obvious that the time necessary for complying with statutory
requirements varies considerably. Construction work for the instal
lation of toilet and washing facilities in large mills may require several
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION.
59
months. Good judgment in timing reinspection visits under such
circumstances may result in saving time for valuable service in
hazardous workshops. The inspector who deals with this problem
effectively extends his activity into a larger area of the industrial
field and is of greater service to a department than one who occa
sionally displays spectacular brilliancy in some particular instance
and then willingly follows ordinary routine without special attention.
It is here that the efficiency of the inspector’s work is tested. The
growth of the movement to conserve health and safety in industry
is measured very largely by the amount of inspection work done. In
the past two years much attention has been given to this problem in
Massachusetts. During the year 1920, 33,925 visits in this connec
tion were made, resulting in the issuance of 19,073 orders. The total
number of compliances m the same period was 22,365. The record
of compliances exceeded the number of orders issued because of the
numerous orders outstanding from the previous 12 months. For the
year ending November 30, 1921, 34,589 inspections were made,
22,574 orders were issued, and 21,000 orders complied with. The
total number of outstanding orders at the close of business on Novem
ber 30, 1921, was 1,574.
If substantial progress is to be made, the constantly changing
operations in industry must be met with the application of rules and
regulations to prevent hazards to health ana energy. With the
number of inspectors in each industrial State below the minimum for
the accomplishment of the duties imposed by law, it is clear that
foresight, judgment, and good direction must be brought to bear
on the problem of saving time in connection with compliance visits.
Fixed rules to be applied mechanically will not result in success.
Much will depend upon the use made of each visit by the inspector.
If genuine difficulties exist, indicating that extension of time will be
necessary to secure compliance with a given order, a good under
standing as to the approximate period of time necessary should
be agreed upon. Difficulties in this connection will be surely experi
enced unless the authorized representative is consulted with. Too
much time is often wasted in dealing with subordinates who are not
familiar either with the requirements or purposes of the law. This
situation is particularly true in the case of large corporations.
It is in this side of the work that tact, ability, ana judgment must
be exercised by the inspector if successful results are to be accom
plished. The modern system of factory inspection depends very
largely upon the manner in which the work is done at this point.
Proper handling of negotiations in this connection often removes the
ordinary objection of legal interference in business details and man
agement. Cooperation from employers in complying readily with
the rules and regulations for the prevention of accidents and loss of
health will be measured very largely by the progress made in this direc
tion. The constant aim of authorities vested with powers of factory
inspection should be to cultivate this policy if lasting results are to be
achieved.
When this treatment fails to bring compliance with the legal
requirements of the statute, then prosecution must take place.
We now come to a feature of the work that deserves the best
thought and consideration. Where the requirements of the law are
60
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
willfully resisted, there is seldom any treatment more efficacious than
prompt application of the penalty through court action. The attitude
of some individuals in this connection, however, does not justify the
use of obtrusive methods in exercising authority delegated by the
statute to an inspector. Neither should it diminish regard for the
right of private citizens in the slightest degree. The doctrine of pun
ishment should be evoked only in the case of those who defy thelaw.
The ordinary employer is not in this class. His usual attitude is to
comply with the requirements of the statutes. The individual is
found, however, in every industrial State whose selfish greed subordi
nates human health and energy to the acquisition of personal wealth.
Commercialism of this kind is not a good asset for any community.
It breeds discord and promotes strife between workmen and employer.
The penalties provided for violation of the law dealing with industrial
health and saiety should fall swiftly and heavily upon offenders of
this type. The competent inspector will always remember that it is
his department that is in action when he is in the field. Upon him
ultimately rests the responsibility of success or failure. If he would
make his work in a plant durable he will endeavor to secure, as a
means of making permanent the duty of maintaining safe work places
in the establishment, the support oi the employer and employees in
the organization of a movement for the prevention of industrial
injury. Where these factors are joined together and a determined
effort made to reduce occupational accidents, improvement is inevi
table. The inspector who can point to plants organized on these lines
has rendered the highest type of service to industry . He has done
even more. He has instituted an enterprise the dividends of which
are the prevention of human suffering, the saving of human life, the
preservation of the home and family,
DISCUSSION.
The Chairman. Mr. Meade has outlined the ways in which orders
are made, and I want to know how you convince an employer that
the order is a just one.
Mr. H udson . We have a form that the inspector fills out. It is
something like this: He gives the date, the name of the firm, the
street, town, city, and so on. Then the first thing he looks up is
to see that the belting, shafting, machinery, gears, and engines are
safely guarded. Then he takes the elevators—Row they are operated,
whether they are passenger or freight elevators, whether the safety
catches are in good working order, and whether the hoist and moving
parts are well protected; then he sees whether the rooms are kept
clean and well ventilated, whether the water-closets are suitable and
sufficient in number, and whether the fire escapes are in good order.
When an inspector goes through a factory he generally has one of
the representatives of the firm go through with him, and if he finds
a place that is not guarded he simply shows it to the representative
of the firm, shows him the danger. That is about the only way
we can convince an employer that the condition is not right.
The Chairman. You will have to meet the inquiries of the em
ployer as to why you do this, and why you do that; why he should
not be relieved from compliance with this or that order. Now, you
must have an answer; you can not put an employer off by sitting
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OP FACTORY INSPECTION,
61
quiet; you must tell him the reason. I should like to ask what
answer the male inspectors make to the inquiry as to what they
know about the proper employment for women and the proper
employment for children. Who will answer that?
Mr. Bleach. I hold no brief to speak for our department, but
there being no one else here to explain our system in rennsylvania,
as an inspector I will say that wnen we issue an order as to ma
chinery, or under any regulation of the department, we have our
code specifying the individual treatment for the various items that
might come up in factory inspection calling for an order. It is
always explained to the employer that if-there is anything impracti
cable in the order, anything wmch would interfere with his operation,
or which he objects to in any way, there is no reason why he should
get into an argument with the inspector. The inspector will explain
to him the requirements of the industrial board, as interpreted to
him by his chief, and should the employer object it is explained to
him that he has the right of appeal to the industrial board. The
industrial board is made up of a representative of the employer, a
representative of the employees, and a representative of the public,
and in my 15 years’ experience I have not found one man who,
after having explained to him the fairness of the system, has
appealed to the industrial board. He has been assured oi his rights,
and having been assured that he will get fair treatment, he has
never yet taken advantage of it.
The Chairman. What answer, Mrs. Rourke, do you make to the
employers in your State as to your ability to determine whether or
not mechanical devices are what they ought to be, that you know
enough about machinery to point out the defects and indicate what
ought to be done, and that your judgment is as good as a man’s
judgment in that field?
Mrs. R ourke. In the first place, when I go into an establishment
I present my card. We have to start on the outside, though. We
have to see whether the doors open out or in; how many fire escapes
there are attached to the building; and that those fire escapes are not
obstructed so as to prevent employees from getting to safety. In
regard to machinery, we have to see that there are no projecting
set screws; they all have to be sunken-head set screws. We have to
see that all belts are properly, guarded, and that all elevators are
guarded. We see that there are gates or doors, and that they are
closed. There are many machines that look very harmless; for in
stance, the machine that turns the comer of a box. Thatddb$3Jhbt
look as if it would be dangerous, but yet it has to be gua¥d®dl;yh0^tise
a finger might be pinched in it. We have had c'^Wh^h^redf^has
taken off a part of a finger. We frequently get a ^dddo0eal90l our
information through what has happened. We folloWh^Yhe acci
dents reported and in that way we become familiar with the guarding
of machinery, and, of course, the longer you are in the work the more
you know about it.
You want to know how I go about getting the cooperation of the
employer. After going through the factory I come back to the
office and serve a notice, and in our State the employer must comply
with that notice within 30 days. Because of the few inspectors we
have, our commissioner makes use of a follow-up letter. If in 30
6 2
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
days the employer does not send in notice of his compliance with my
order a clerk sends out this follow-up letter. A duplicate goes with
it, and if the employer has complied with the order he sends in the
duplicate. If he has not sent in this duplicate within 30 days another
letter is sent, and then if he does not comply, there is another notice,
similar to the one I served, with a duplicate, mailed. If he does not
send in this second duplicate we go back and check it over, and in
that way we know whether the employer has complied with the notice
served. I have never felt that my work was in anvway a duplica
tion because I feel that men are particularly fitted for certain parts
of the work, and that women are peculiarly fitted to look after the
conditions surrounding the women and children. I should like to
have women look after the conditions under which women and
children are working, such as sanitation, ventilation, toilet facilities,
and so on. We have done that in our State in some cases. Where
the plant was a large one, the male inspector would inspect the
machinery, and go over the different facilities, and I would take up
conditions affecting women and children, such as the rest rooms, etc.
But as to complying with any notices that I have served, I will say for
the manufacturers of the State of Illinois that they have cooperated
and have always complied with any request I have made.
Mr. Biebesheimer. I believe that many of the worst evils in fac
tory inspection are brought about by the inefficiency of the inspector.
William Smith was a bartender. He carried his precinct in an elec
tion and the State went his way, and he was made a chief factory
inspector. Another fellow, a barber, was made a factory inspector
because he had once carried a ward in an election in some other com
munity. One fellow down in the southern part of Ohio had been a
farmer all his life, but he is now inspecting textile machinery, etc., in
Cleveland. If that fellow gave an order as to a plant that I owned
I should not feel much like obeying it. I believe that this organiza
tion might take some steps toward increasing the efficiency of the
inspector, such as insisting that he have a fundamental knowledge of
engineering matters, so that he can be of real service. We can not
succeed in anything unless we are of real service. I believe the
standard of efficiency of the ordinary inspector is going to play a large
in determining the fairness of any order that is issued, and I
Eart
elieve this matter is worthy of consideration.
Mr. Stewart. Perhaps this is a proper place to call attention
to the work on industrial codes. This association is asked to
send a representative to the safety codes committee, the International
Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions is asked
to send a representative, the manufacturers have a representative,
and the American Engineering Society and the National Safety Coun
cil have representatives, and recently the Department of Labor was
asked to supply representatives from the various industries affected
by these codes. It seems to me that we are going to get an answer
to your question in a standard code, one for ventilation, for instance.
If we can get these codes agreed to, get them adopted by the legisla
tures in the same or practically the same form, then we will have an
authority back of the general law which says the factory shallbeproperly ventilated. We will have an agreement by all the parties affected
as to what is proper ventilation. We will have an agreement by the
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OF FACTORY INSPECTION*.
63
parties affected as to what the electrical code shall be. These codes
are being written by experts, by experts from the manufacturers of
the machinery, from the users of the machinery (the employers), and
from the workmen themselves: A number of the codes have been
finished and a number are in process of construction, and this asso
ciation is a member of that general code-making machinery. We
haye Mr. Lloyd, of the Bureau of Standards, here with us. The
Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce has been, per
haps, the most actiye Government agency in this matter of standard
codes. It seems to me that the time has come when these standards
must either be written into the law, which is practically impossible,
or there must be an agreed standard sanctioned by the legislature,
which the inspector can show to the manufacturer, and of which he
can say, “All parties, yourself included, have agreed to this.” I
think we do not quite appreciate the importance of that standard
code work, and I would like to have you ask Mr. Lloyd to speak to us
about it.
Mr. Hall. I agree with Mr. Stewart regarding a standard code,
providing the code is made flexible enough to meet the requirements
of new machinery. It will have to be flexible enough to meet new
requirements, and the inspectors will have to be practical men, with
enough practical knowledge to see any danger there may be in the
new machinery. In that respect I agree with my friend from Ohio
that we should try to get people with practical experience. I also
want to point out the danger of having a standard code which will
tie us down, and probably class new machinery as dangerous because
it is not covered by the requirements of the standard code.
A Delegate (Massachusetts). The gentleman from Ohio, I think,
asks a very pertinent question as to the appointment of inspectors
in the department. I think it is very essential that we have good men
for inspectors, but as we get those good men we must train them.
We must have a school for inspectors. That is what we find in Mas
sachusetts. We have to take our inspectors from the civil service
list and we get fairly good men that way, but that is not enough.
You must train your inspectors and keep them trained continually,
and notify them from time to time, either at their meetings or by
communication, of the changes in conditions and of the dangers that
other inspectors have found, so that they may look for such dangers
and correct them.
Mr. Lloyd. I was very much interested in hearing Mr. Bleach tell
how questions which come up under factory inspection in Pennsyl
vania are settled through appeal to a board composed of representa
tives^ all parties in interest. Now, in the preparation of any safety
regulations under which the inspector acts it seems to me the same
prmciple should be applied. I understand it is applied in Pennsyl
vania, in the preparation of safety regulations. The board contains
representatives of employers, employees, and any other interested
parties, and no regulations are adopted until they have been fully
considered by such parties and public hearings had where all views
can be expressed.
Now, a series of national safety codes is being developed upon
these very same principles. The Bureau of Standards has perhaps
taken the most active part in a movement launched to accomplish
04
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
this purpose. Directly after the war, in 1919, we held a couple
of conferences there at which representatives of the various State
departments and commissions, representatives of the employers7
association and of employees, casualty insurance organizations, and
various associations of engineering societies and others interested
were present, and the subject of how such codes should be formulated
was very fully discussed. It was finally agreed by a large majority
of those present that the most consistent plan for formulating a
series of national industrial safety codes would be to use the machinery
which had been recently created by the American Engineering Stand
ards Committee. That is a committee organized by the National
Engineering Society, and since enlarged to take in a number of the
Government departments, manufacturers7 associations, and various
other groups, like the National Safety Council, which are interested
in the subject of standards and in other questions relating to engineer
ing. Now, the method of procedure in that committee is as follows:
If it is decided that a subject is worthy of being taken up, some organ
ization is appointed the sponsor, as they call it, for the work; that is
a managing body to see that the work is carried on and that the com
mittee gets down to work and to handle the thing as it goes along.
That sponsor may be a national association of any kind, sometimes
an engineering society and in other instances such a bureau as the
one I represent. In some cases the National Safety Council, or some
such body of national extent which is recognized as interested in the
matter and competent to handle it, is appointed. The sponsor or
ganizes a national committee with representatives from every interest
involved which cares to be represented. Those bodies are iully rep
resentative in character. The working committee, which is composed
of a smaller group, does the active work of formulating the code. It
is then given as wide criticism as possible, and the national committee,
known as a sectional committee, passes upon every point in such a
code that is questioned, and when the members agree upon what
ought to go into it the completed code is adopted by the American
Engineering Standards Committee as a national standard. Now,
that method of procedure insures that all viewpoints will be considered
in the formulation of the code, and that it will be the result of the
widest experience that it is possible to bring to bear upon it, and
when it is completed it will probably be the most satisfactory thing
of the kind that it is possible to get together. There are a number
of such codes now already prepared. There is one covering the subject
of grinding wheels, for instance. There is an industrial lighting code.
There is an electrical safety code. There is an elevator safety code,
and there are a number of others near completion which will be avail
able in the very near future, such as one on woodworking machinery,
one on power transmission machinery, and quite a number of others
which are in the initial stages and will be pushed to completion as soon
as possible. I feel that as fast as these codes become available they
will form the best thing of the kind that can be adopted by the various
State authorities to cover the various subjects in detail.
I should like to say a word bearing a little more directly on the
paper of the morning. I fully agree with the chairman in his remarks
regarding the duty of employers to see that proper machinery is used,
and that the machines are properly safeguarded. We have to bear
in mind, however, that employers, like the rest of us, are not perfect,
PROBLEMS AND IMPORTANCE OP FACTORY INSPECTION.
65
that they have not always been trained for the work they are doing,
and that they can not be depended upon to carry out properly all the
duties that devolve upon them. Now, since they frequently do not
have the proper education with reference to the safety side" of their
plant, it becomes necessary for the inspector to carry on what is
really educational work with them. He must be able to make up for
their delinquencies and to tell them what to do, and therefore it is
necessary for the inspector to know just what is necessary in the safe
guarding of machinery and in carrying out other safety features in an
industrial establishment. He must be able to tell the shop manager,
or whoever is in authority, just what needs to be done to make con
ditions right in his plant. The inspector who can not do that can not
get very far, in my estimation, in his work. If you have men who
seem to be competent it is still necessary, as has been said, to educate
them continually so that they can go out and tell other people what
must be done. The inspector must be familiar with the conditions
in any industry which he is inspecting, and with what can be done to
make those conditions right, and be able to explain them to the man in
charge. He must be familiar with the regulations which are in force
in his State, and with any codes that have been adopted.
I think the point which was just brought out, that codes can not
be universally applied, that perhaps you do not always take account
of the new conditions coming up, should be dealt with in your own
way where a code has been adopted by some administrative authority
rather than made a matter of statutory regulation, and then it is
always best to change the code. These safety codes necessarily need
revision from time to time. They can not be expected to be perma
nent. They must meet new conditions as they come up. It seems
to me the administrative authority must always reserve the right and
power to make exceptions to the rules and to apply them reasonably
to the conditions found in the factories. The mspector must keep
that in mind. He should be in position" to recommend such excep
tions to the commissioner of the State or whoever is the higher ad
ministrative authority under whom he works. By using a little
common sense, and being reasonable, I think such conditions as they
come up can always be satisfactorily covered. In the end the whole
thing comes down to the question of the competency and ability of
the inspector. I do not think we can dwell too strongly on that point,
or make too big an effort to secure in all of our States a method of
appointment, a method of training, and, above all, a salary which will
make it possible to have competent inspectors.
The Chairman. I want to call upon Mr. Eals, chairman of the
board of boiler examiners of the State of Pennsylvania. The con
vention would like to know, Mr. Eals, about the inspection of boilers,
what you do in the matter of inspection.
Mr. E als. In Pennsylvania we have the advantage at this time of
six years’ administration of the boiler code. Pennsylvania was the
first State to adopt the uniform boiler code of the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers. When the boiler code was first promul
gated in 1916, we prepared for it by determining the qualifications
of the inspectors by examination. We accepted, to some extent,
the fact that the inspectors in other States were qualified, and we
started with the inspection work. The code has been very successful
in Pennsylvania, measured by the operation of the boilers, the safety
6 6
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
of them, and the infrequent number of boiler failures or explosions.
We are always keen on uniformity. If a boiler is reasonably safe,
if it has passed inspection in other States, we consider it worthy of
approval in this State. Most of the inspections are made by in
spectors employed not by the department but by insurance com
panies, private inspectors, and so forth. The inspection of boilers
carries with it some responsibility. A boiler, perhaps, invites the
greatest catastrophe and hazard of any equipment in a factory,
a plant, or an establishment. The pressure carried on boilers is
expressed in units of pounds per inch; that is about as close to the
real pressure of a boiler as a penny compared with a Liberty bond
issue. The total load of power in any steam boiler of any size is
several hundred tons.
I understood that a few remarks were desired on boiler inspection
report forms. These forms are different from other forms. They
contemplate a complete report of the boiler or material in the boiler,
the rough dimensions of it, the mechanical investigation of the
material, the type of material, the construction, the capacity of the
boiler, the location, the use or purpose, and the safety of it. These
boiler inspection report forms are used by three or four important
classes in industry. First by the purchaser of the boiler, who desires
it for a certain duty and of a certain capacity; by the receiver of the
boiler; by the State administrative officials who approve or disap
prove the safety of the boiler. Boilers change hands, change location,
and a permanent record of the inspection report is, of course, neces
sary. Boilers are fairly durable, but they give out after a while.
They are different from machines and other equipment. As a
boiler reaches the age of 20, 25, or 30 years, the potential is adjusted
and revised downward, depending on the service the boiler has seen.
For the purpose of inspecting these boilers I think we have approved
somewhere around 650 inspectors. These men pass written examina
tions. They are qualified for a term of one year. Their qualifica
tions are renewed annually. We do that so as to keep in touch with
them, to keep in touch with the employers, and to have them on
our mailing list for revisions, rulings, and interpretations made by
the board from time to time. It is customary to inspect power
boilers twice internally and once externally each year. At each
inspection a report is submitted, as the internal inspections are made
semiannually while the boiler is in operation. These reports furnish
sufficient detailed information to calculate the safe working pres
sure and to determine what repairs can be made, sometimes what
repairs are necessary, whether the boiler is safe or unsafe for opera
tion, and whether the appliances and attachments are functioning
properly. A certificate for each power boiler is issued annually.
Now, with reference to elevator inspections. Elevator safety is
a very important matter in the department. About 1916 we started
to inspect elevators, that is, passenger and freight elevators outside
of the cities of the first and second classes, especially those cities
which do not have local laws and ordinances that are fairly well admin
istered. Elevator reports are somewhat different, being more
simple, because they deal only with the safety of the elevator; they
do not contemplate the structural data.
M r . Y o ung . D o you have a fee service for your inspection of
boilers?
PROBLEMS a n d i m p o r t a n c e o f f a c t o r y i n s p e c t i o n .
67
Mr. Eals. We have 30 or 40 approved inspectors who inspect,
on a fee basis, boilers not otherwise inspected. Their reports come
into the department, and they are privileged to impose a reasonable
fee, which is not fixed by law, depending on the convenience of the
boiler, the location of it, and the type and size, and so forth. There
are no fees collected in the State of Pennsylvania by the department
for elevator or boiler inspection. That is all gratis.
Mr. Walker. H ow do you prevent the boiler inspector from
collecting for the inspection of each boiler ?
Mr. E als. The fee is fixed by the inspectors; it is a matter of
competition between them, but it is not excessive. There are private
inspectors, and their inspection reports are accepted by the State.
They can inspect in any way they choose.
Mr. Walker. Do you make any restriction on the number of
inspections of a boiler that has not been insured ?
Mr. E als. Duplicate inspections are not necessary if a boiler has
been inspected by the insurance company.
Mr. Walker. H ow about a joint inspection?
Mr. Eals. They can arrange it; there is no objection to joint
inspection. I know of some boilers that are inspected by three
different inspectors, all making the inspection on the same day.
I should have mentioned that Allegheny County, Pennsylvania,
is not included in the remarks I have made, because there is a special
act of the legislature applying to Allegheny County. All power
boilers in Allegheny County are inspected, regardless of other inspec
tions, by State inspectors, but that is the only county that is handled
in that way.
Colonel B
. It was my privilege several years ago to make
an investigation of the system or method of carrying on factory in
spection in England. I was much impressed with the very high char
acter of the men who were employed by the British Government to
make inspection of factories and with the method of compensa
tion. The initial compensation which the inspector received was
small comparatively, hardly higher than the compensation paid by
the State. He started in at a fixed salary, but his compensation
increased $50 a year within the first grade. When he received his
promotion to the second grade he received a higher initial salary,
which also increased $50 a year ; then, in due time, he was promoted
into the third grade, providing he was capable of research and of
performing the work in the higher grade. In the State of New Jersey
at that time an inspector received a salary of $1,500, and if he stayed
there the balance of his natural life he would still receive $1,500,
which offered very little inducement for a man really to perfect
himself in this line of work. So in order to enable us to give effective
service, we introduced a bill in the legislature, dividing the inspec
torate into three grades. It provides for a competitive civil-service
examination, and the head of the department is to make his selection
from the civil-service list. In our State the appointive power may
select one of the three highest on the list for appointment to the lowest
grade. In this grade the inspector receives $1,500. At the end of
the fifth year, and this is the point I wish specifically to stress, he
is entitled, upon the recommendation of the commissioner of labor,
to take a second examination, a promotion examination, and if he
ryant
68
ASSOCIATION OF G O V ERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
is efficient and can pass this test he passes to a higher grade. That
grade is for five years, at the end of which—that is, at the end of ten
years of his official appointment—he is entitled to take a third ex
amination, the passing of which will place him in the highest grade.
That is as high as he can get as a factory inspector, but he may re
ceive a promotion to a position as a bureau chief, or to one of the
higher administrative positions in the department. These higher
positions in the department in New Jersey are all covered by civil
service. We make our promotions within our ranks. During the
past 12 years, in which we have had a civil-service administration,
promotions have been made from among the men in the depart
ment, instead of bringing in outside parties for the higher positions.
The men recognize two things in this method: First, tenure of office;
and second, that if they have been efficient and faithful in the service
for a period of time, they are entitled to recognition and promotion.
As a part of this method we have schools for factory inspectors.
Our policy is to have a lecture or a discussion on a particular subject
and then to have a written examination upon tne subject which
was considered the previous month. We also have a special exhibit
supplementing this work, a museum. In a reserved space in our
building we have substantially every dangerous type of machine
which is used in a factory. We have all the dangerous machines
fully set up and equipped with power and entirely safeguarded;
all the transmission machinery, cogs, gears, methods of shifting
power, protection of the motors and the belt lines—mechanical devices
of all types. We also show methods of illumination. We have in
our museum many standards of lighting, in fact 16 different types
of lighting. In connection with these things we show the different
types of safeguarding specified by the uniform code. We have there
a lull hospital equipment. We also have a cafeteria, so that if a
man wants to find out what he shall put in his plant cafeteria he
goes there and finds out the number of knives, forks, spoons, pots,
and everything that goes with an equipment of that type.
E i,cafeteria
equipment is complete in every detail. The Kiwanis
Club and the Chamber of Commerce have had their dinners there,
all cooked on our exhibit equipment. We have apparatus for elimi
nating dust, fumes, and excessive heat. In fact there are some
forty-odd exhibits there.
We have adopted a system which I think has great possibilities.
This is to divide our State into industrial sections, and to organize
a safety council for each particular section. For instance, we are
just about organizing safety councils in Newark, Jersey City, Camden
and Trenton. They are made up of manufacturers who are really
anxious and desirous of giving the workmen of their community
the benefit of the very best protection. These men are then formed
into executive councils of about nine men. The membership of these
organizations is made up from the various industries in each com
munity. We have added what we call factory chiefs. We have asked
each of the various managers to designate one of the higher grade
men, such as an assistant superintendent or some one of that charac
ter who is capable of carrying on this work, whose responsibility it
shall be to carry the work out in his plant. These men are designated
and listed as factory chiefs. The State gives them a badge on which
are the words, “ Factory Chief. Employee of the State, Department
PROBLEMS A ND IMPORTANCE OP FACTORY INSPECTION.
69
of Labor, State of New Jersey.” It gives them a little special recog
nition. This is the idea: When the factory inspector goes to the
plant he asks for the factory chief. He is the representative of
the firm, and also has this recognition of the State of New Jersey.
We have over 3,000 men in our State who have signified their intention
of cooperating in this matter by accepting the designation of factory
chief. These groups have educational meetings, usually six a year.
At these meetings we get the very best speakers obtainable on the
various subjects pertaining to factory and mill, protection of machin
ery, personal hygiene, ana the various ramifications of the industrial
which we are called upon to solve. These meetings have
Eroblem
een very well attended. Last September I went to Camden and called
the executive committee together, and I said, “ Last year we had seven
meetings. I think it is a little excessive; it seems to me it is almost
an imposition to call you men away from your usual occupations
to come here and attend these meetings. I think they ought to be
cut down.” It was a matter of very great personal pleasure to me
to have these men insist upon" having at least six meetings. They
said the meetings were so educational and so advantageous that they
did not want any of them cut out. Finally we compromised, and
we had six meetings in the city of Camden this past fiscal year.
We are trying to build up through this sytern cooperation in solving
such problems as first aid in industry. In our State we are required
to have fire drills in all buildings more than two stories in height,
and we are trying to see that this is done. Each firm designates a
particular worker to represent it in the matter of first aid, and
another worker to represent it as the chief of the factory fire depart
ment, or of the fire brigade. Through these things we are trying
to raise the morale throughout the plant, to stimulate a feeling of
obligation on the part of the workers to cooperate in making the
plant safe, to instill a desire in each and every one of the workers
to do his part to cut down expense and suffering due to careless
ness and to indifference to the regulations which are adopted for his
protection. It has worked out very nicely indeed. We are now
adopting a system of lectures for the first-aid work. We are especially
fortunate in having our clinics; we have five clinics presided over
by surgeons of an exceedingly high type and each one of these clinics
gives a course of lectures on the matter of first aid for the various
industries of the State. We had over two hundred members who
attended this first course of lectures. These lectures are followed
by an examination, and those who pass the examination are given
a certificate from the department of labor, which will give them
a little prestige in their plants. I think a great deal has been ac
complished by encouraging this first-aid work. First-aid equipment
is placed at various pomts of the plant, just as you would put in a
fire-fighting apparatus. This first-aid work becomes a matter of
pride with the employees, and the very best type of equipment is
of no use unless you have the proper cooperation on the part of the
workers. Proper precaution is taken immediately for the prevention
of infection. In an investigation of the facts and figures pertaining
to infection resulting from injury I found we had had 1,046 cases of
infection, and of these cases 8 were fatal. From an analysis of those
cases in all probability those eight lives might have been saved had
the proper measures been taken immediately to prevent infection.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24—AFTERNOONSESSION.
SEAMAN P. NORTHRUP, DIRECTOR NEW YORK BUREAU OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS,
PRESIDING.
EMPLOYMENT.
THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE AND ITS FUNCTIONS.
BY FRANCIS I. JONES, DIRECTOR GENERAL UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE.
Every war produces its quota of social, industrial, and economic
problems. This is due to the fact that war causes a disruption of
the normal social, commercial, and economic life of the country.
Immediate readjustment is essential to the very life of a nation.
This readjustment becomes necessary after the cessation of war, and
the period of time in which it takes place is usually called the re
construction period. During the reconstruction period, with the
contraction of abnormal indm J * 1 oduction incident to the manufacture of munitions of war
carrying on of war activities,
a condition is brought about whereby many industries are neces
sarily closed down and workers in those industries are let out. In
short, war workers become peace workers. Manufacture of imple
ments and munitions of war gives way to manufacture of products
more in keeping with the peace of the nation and the world.
The United States Employment Service, cooperating with the
State and municipal employment services, was confronted with the
gigantic task of diverting workers from war-time industries to peace
time industries. The country was unprepared for such a situation
as confronted it immediately after the close of the war. Unhappily,
no provision was made for the normal absorption of workers released
from war-production industries into peaceful pursuits. In the in
terests of economy, the United States Employment Service itself,
along with many other Governmental divisions, suffered a great
reduction, making the task of diverting war workers to peace-time
pursuits more difficult.
However, with the resources at its command, while small, the
United States Employment Service and the cooperating State and
municipal employment services rose to the occasion. In the direct
after-war period, the employment services—Federal, State, and
municipal—labored valiantly to relieve the unemployment situation,
and the results speak for themselves. After laboring hard during
the darkness of unemployment, we have emerged in the early sun
light of normal employment.
Industry is slowly but surely recovering from its paralysis. While
business has not yet returned to normal, it is, however, making
sure and steady progress and is unquestionably on the upward
swing.
There were some pessimists who had consigned the country to
the everlasting bow-wows, but there were the brave and the coura
geous who, while recognizing the great depression in industry, caus
70
U. S. E M P L O Y M E N T SEPVICE AND ITS FUNCTIONS.
71
ing an alarming condition of unemployment, never lost heart, know
ing that the “best country on God's green earth" would again right
itself.
There were other forces at work to lessen unemployment and
to stimulate industry. One of the most potential and influential
factors was the United States Employment Service in cooperation
with the State and municipal public employment services. It ex
erted itself in every direction to find jobs for the jobless. It en
couraged movements such as “Clean-up week," “Help the unem
ployed week," and other movements in cooperation with mayors
and public officials to aid the unemployed. The American workman
is not looking for charity, but does want an opportunity to work,
and the prime function of the United States, State, and municipal
employment services is to find jobs for men who want work.
The wonderful record made by the Public Employment Service
during the great wave of unemployment is little short of marvelous.
Experience has shown that under conditions of modern industry,
an efficient public employment service is a function of municipal,
State, and Federal Governments, not only for dealing with problems
of labor in times of peace, but for mobilizing and organizing the
manpower of the Nation during the stress of war.
The United States Employment Service favors legislation by
municipal, State, and Federal Governments to store up work on
public improvements, such as the erection of public buildings and
bridges, reclamation of public lands, and other public improvements,
just as the government of Egypt, under the direction of Joseph
stored up corn in the days of plenty, making provision for the cycle
of no corn and no work. When industry is humming and in need
of every available worker, governments should withhold appropria
tions for public enterprises, and when the cycle of unemployment
comes undertake their improvements, thereby providing employment
for the unemployed.
The public employment service not only finds jobs for the jobless,
but also keeps a watchful eye that they are not exploited and preyed
upon by unscrupulous private employment agencies that promise
jobs for an enrollment fee, when in fact they have no job to which
to direct the applicants.
With your permission I will cite an example. On February 24th
the following advertisement appeared in a Hartford, Conn., paper.
I received the advertisement the next day. It also appeared in
a paper in Lincoln, Nebr., and at other points in the country.
*W A R N IN G — U N EM PLO Y E D . —Don’t come to Muscle Shoals now. Possibili
ties are a large army of industrial workers, mechanics, machinists, carpenters, elec
tricians, painters, plumbers, stenographers, bookkeepers, timekeepers, etc., will be
needed in very near future. Send $1 and we will mail application blank and informa
tion, and every effort will be made to place you when work starts. This organization
has been investigated by Florence Chamber of Commerce.
M uscle S hoals E mployment B u r e a u ,
B o x 7 1 , F lo re n c e , A la .
I immediately got in touch with the Secretary of War, Mr. Weeks.
He said -he had turned the matter over to Maj. Gen. Lansing H.
Beach. I*was on the phone instantly and asked for an appointment.
I said, “General Beach, what I wanted to talk to you about was an
16697°—23—Bull. 323-— 6
72
ASSOCIATION OF GOVE R N M E N T A L LABOR OFFICIALS.
advertisement concerning Muscle Shoals. ” He invited me to set a
time for a meeting, and we met and discussed the matter. He asked
me to address a letter to him on the subject. Here is my letter, Mr.
Chairman, may I read it ? I want to say first, however, that this is
one instance in which our service saved to the workingmen of this
country more money thaji we asked, ves, double the amount of money
that we received, from Congress this year, and it is only one instance.
Muscle Shoals was greatly advertised by reason of the fact that Henry
Ford expected to get it, and there were three private employment
agents, one at Birmingham, Ala., one at Sheffield, Ala., and one at
Florence, Ala., who were sending out and asking for an enrollment fee,
two of them at $1, and one of them asking $2.
My letter is as follows:
Enclosed herewith find copies of advertisements appearing in the press throughout
the country by the General Employment Manager, P. O. Box 2272, Birmingham, Ala.,
and Muscle Shoals Employment Bureau, Box 71, Florence, Ala., advertising help
wanted for Muscle Shoals, and soliciting an enrollment fee of $1.
You will observe that the advertisements are alluring, and adroitly worded. From
the information we have there is no basis in fact for such advertisements. I am firmly
of the opinion that they are exploiting the people and preying upon the unemployed.
Measures should be taken at once to inform the public of the true facts concerning
Muscle Shoals. Should Muscle Shoals be developed, thereby affording opportunity
for jobs, the United States Employment Service of the United States Department of
Labor, in cooperation with the several States that are maintaining public employment
services, is in position to supply all men needed for Muscle Shoals, without any expense
to the applicant. It is the legitimate channel through which men should apply for
employment for Muscle Shoals when Muscle Shoals is in need of men.
May I have an expression from you as to the status of Muscle Shoals, and any sugges
tions that you may see fit to offer as to best how to inform the public as to the true con
ditions?
I received the following letter from Maj. Gen. Lansing H. Beach in
reply to my letter:
In reply to your letter of February 25, 1922, with which you inclose copies of adver
tisements from certain employment agencies, soliciting enrollment for employment
at Muscle Shoals, on a fee of $1 and in which you request information concerning the
status of the work at Muscle Shoals, I have to inform you that all Government opera
tions in that vicinity have been closed down for almost a year and there is no telling
when work will be resumed. It is not possible at this date to state whether the work
will be again taken up by the United States or whether it will be assigned to private
parties. The latter are certainly not taking steps in the present uncertainty to secure
labor, neither is the Government which has its own agencies and methods.
I share your opinion that these employment agencies are exploiting the people and
preying upon the unemployed, and that the most energetic measures should be taken
at once to inform the public of the true facts of the situation. I go so far as to suggest
that the matter be presented to the Department of Justice with a view to prosecution,
if it is found that a prosecution will hold under the circumstances.
That was given to the press and received widepublicity. I wrote
the employment agencies at Birmingham, Sheffield, ana Florence,
and warned them that unless they withdrew their advertisements
I would turn the matter over to the proper department in Wash
ington. I meant the Department of Justice. I got letters back
from them stating that they had returned the money and withdrawn
their advertisements. I believe that they would have reaped a rich
harvest, just as I told the Secretary of War.
The Farm Bureau Service is one of the big enterprises of ;the United
States Employment Service. In cooperation with county farm
agents, chambers of commerce, and other similar organizations it
recruits farm help to harvest the wonderful wheat crop of the West.
73
Last year it recruited men to harvest 29,000,000 acres of wheat, begin
ning m Texas, and as the grain ripened, the men moved along through
the great wheat belt and wound up the wheat harvest in North
Dakota. Its next field of operation is in the com belt. This service
has now come to be recognized as purely a Federal function. Before
the United States Employment Service took over the recruiting and
directing of the harvest hands, there was much confusion, as there was
no central directing head. The headquarters of the Farm Service is in
Kansas City, Mo., and it has a permanent branch service in Sioux City,
Iowa. During the season many temporary offices are opened in the
field. These offices are fed from the recruiting offices in the large
cities of the Middle West, and the men recruited are sent to the tempo
rary offices to be distributed according to the requirements of the
farmers. The Kansas City office has recently moved into more commodius quarters in order to meet better the demands made upon its
service.
One of the notable undertakings of the United States Employment
Service is the monthly industrial employment survey. The United
States is divided into nine districts, with a district director in charge
of each district, and connected with each district are many special
agents. These special agents are in close touch with every industrial
activity in their districts. They supply the information which is the
basis for the comment submitted by the district directors. Monthly
pay rolls are gathered from 1,428 firms, each employing over 500, in
the 14 basic industries. The comparative value of these data is
important as they indicate the rise and fall of employment in in
dustry, being gathered from the same firms each month. While
the number employed in this survey is shown to be less than two
millions and the survey shows only a trend in industry, yet it is a
fair index of industry as a whole. A press release for the purpose
of informing the public of the real conditions of the industry
is issued no later than the 6th of each month. On the 15th of each
month the Industrial Employment Survey Bulletin is published.
It contains a graphic chart showing the trend of employment nation
ally through changes in monthly pay rolls, and a comparative table
showing the increase and decrease in employment in the 14 groups,
and also shows the cities where employment has increased or de
creased. The current comment on the employment situation in 231
industrial centers is of great value as it reflects the actual industrial
situation existing in these centers.
U. s* E M P L O Y M E N T SERVICE AN D ITS FUNCTIONS.
The Secretary of Labor and the Director General have been carefully
considering plans for the improvement of the Industrial Employment
Survey Bulletin, and the plans include elaboration of the present
system of collecting facts and statistics so that a more perfect and
graphic picture of industrial conditions may be available to labor and
industry. This picture we desire shall be based upon facts and sta
tistics that will accurately portray exact conditions in every line of
industry. While these plans have not matured, they will be devel
oped constructively and as rapidly as funds will permit.
The United States Employment Service is extremely anxious to
effect closer cooperation with the State and municipal employment
services than now exists. It is the thought of the Secretary of Labor
and the Director General that this cooperation should be mutual and
74
ASSOCIATION OF G O V E R NMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
cordial. There are those who believe that the employment service
should be primarily and solely a function of the Federal Government.
From experience, I have become a firm believer in the principle that
the public employment service should function through the States
and municipalities, cooperating in matters of clearance, general
information, and interstate communications, through the United
States Employment Service. I believe that the public employment
service should be headed in each State by the proper executive
officer of the State employment service. Each State and city has
its own peculiar problems of employment. These problems can be
best understood, appreciated, and solved by State and municipal
officials, who are in constant touch with conditions in their respective
States and municipalities. These State and municipal officials, by
reason of their long and intimate experience with problems peculiar
to their own communities, naturally have a better grasp of the
situation than have Federal officials from other States or cities.
However, many of our States and municipalities, by reason of
financial and other conditions, are unable to appropriate moneys
for the maintenance of State and municipal employment services to
the extent of their own local requirements. Both States and munici
palities are confronted with the problem of clearing unemployed to
States and municipalities where employment can be obtained. They
are confronted with the problems of securing skilled workers peculiar
to and needed by the industries of their respective States or municipal
ities. As illustrative of this condition. New England factories in an v
industry may be operating full time while Middle West factories in the
same industry may be shut down. New England probably would have
a shortage and the Middle West a surplus of labor in this particular
industry. In order that normal industrial employment may obtain,
it becomes necessary to transfer those workers from the district where
unemployment prevails to the district where employment is available.
A central or Federal employment service is therefore necessary. It
functions in a cooperative manner between the State directors of
employment in the various States affected. In order that this
cooperation may become closer, more mutual and cordial, it is my
intention, if the appropriation becomes available, to allot to each
State 25 per cent of the amount appropriated by the State. This
allotment would enable the respective States to widen and increase
the activities of their respective employment bureaus. It would ena
ble them to establish closer contact not only with the United States
Employment Service at Washington but also with other States.
While our appropriation has been very limited, I have tried in a small
wav to carry this principle into operation through the Federal
.directors, and I wish to thank them for their hearty and splendid co
operation. It is my hope that in due course of time we will attain
this desirable objective, especially in the matter of the 25 per cent
allotment.
The employment problem is a problem that confronts the muni
cipality, the State, and the Union. It is one that demands earnest
cooperation and attention of all officials, whether they be municipal,
State, or Federal. I am sure that this spirit of friendly and mutual
cooperation is, strongly established in the hearts of all of them. We
will do our part and I am sure they will do their part. With this
tJ. S. E M P L O Y M E N T SEEVICE AND ITS FUNCTIONS.
*75
spirit and assurance of cooperation I am positive that a far greater
efficiency in the public employment service will be attained.
The success of any government, of any nation, of any people, rests
upon a satisfied and prosperous citizenship, and one of the essentials
to a satisfied and prosperous citizenship is satisfied and prosperous
workers. Therefore, the preparation of our future citizens—our boys
and girls—for the commercial and industrial pursuits or the profes
sions is essential. In this preparation vocational guidance and
placement work are necessary. In other words, our future citizens
must be guided in their quest for desirable and congenial occupations
or professions in which they can obtain steady and satisfactory em
ployment by trained and experienced workers.
The vast majority of the boys and girls in the United States over
compulsory school age, by reason of economic conditions, are com
pelled to become wage earners. The guidance and placement of
these children in useful and congenial occupations or professions are
essential to the welfare and prosperity of society and of industry, and
will be conducive to a better understanding between employer and
employee and a proper appreciation of the functions of our Govern
ment, either Federal, State, or municipal. The vast majority of
boys and girls at the beginning of their career as wage earners have
not completed their education or reached their maximum efficiency,
and many of them are in occupations without educational possibili
ties.
The junior division of the United States Employment Service deals
with the youth of the country, both sexes, between legal working age
and twenty-one years of age. Its purpose is to aid the schools in
assisting boys and girls to select and prepare for some definite occu
pation in which they may be efficient, productive, and constructive
workers, and to offer to employers the best possible facilities for the
selection of their junior employees. Moreover, the schools need a
channel through which a stream of information regarding the organi
zation requirements and changes in industry may constantly flow
back to them. Tne junior division provides such a channel.
As an employment agency the junior division has as its aim the
pooling of the junior labor supply at its source and the distribution of
it in such a manner that each individual will realize his best possi
bilities and contribute his utmost to the welfare of society. A junior
placement office, equipped with a personnel familiar with business
practice and trained to understand the needs alike of industry and
of boys and girls and the obligation of public education to both, does
this with an immediate effectiveness which no other agency offers.
The junior division functions through cooperation with public
school systems and other agencies in various cities throughout the
country. Local offices are usually established under the super
vision of an officer of the local educational system, who is appointed
Federal superintendent of guidance and placement in charge of
the office. In some cases they are established under the joint aus
pices of municipal or State employment services, as well as the
local school system and the junior'division. Their services, however,
are not limited to pupils just leaving school, but are extended to every
boy and girl who apply for work or advice.
76
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The present activities of the junior division, by reason of Govern
ment appropriation, are necessarily limited. With the funds avail
able, however, a number of local centers, equipped with the bestknown methods of junior guidance and placement, have been estab
lished and maintained by the junior division. Practically all of
these centers have been maintained in cooperation with the public
schools and also with other agencies. They are located at Pittsburgh,
Pa.; Gary, Ind.; Stockton, Calif.; South Bend, Ind.; Atlanta, Ga.;
Rockford, 111.; Worcester, Mass.; Jackson, Mich.; Jersey City, N. J.;
Minneapolis, Minn.; St. Paul, Minn.; Richmond, Ind.; Milwaukee,
Wis.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Providence, R. I.; and Wilmington, Del.
The field of vocational guidance and placement is comparatively
new. It is largely in its experimental stage. However, it is a field
which is sure to increase in interest and importance with a better reali
zation on the part of the public of the vital need of the work. As
junior work develops, its effect on the problems of adult employment
will become manifest. The program of the junior division is in
tended to lessen the future number of unemployables and drifters, to
reduce social unrest and labor turnover, and to instill in our youth,
during the formative period of life, correct habits of thought regard
ing their individual responsibility for the industrial welfare of the
country.
The United States Employment Service will gladly welcome coop
eration and suggestions for constructive development of its junior
work on the part of Federal directors, and the Director General will
be pleased to advise and consult with the Federal directors on this
most important problem.
THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE OF CANADA.
BY H. C. HUDSON, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT ONTARIO OFFICES, EMPLOYMENT
SERVICE OF CANADA.
The employment service of Canada, as at present constituted,
consists of 76 employment offices extending from the Atlantic to the
Pacific oceans. In addition six provincial and three interprovincial
clearing houses provide the necessary facilities for coordinating the
work of the local offices.
Under the terms of the employment coordination act, each
Province retains complete autonomy in the administration of the
employment offices within its boundaries, but, through uniform
records and clearance systems, is linked up with every Province in
the Dominion. The office of the director of the employment service
is located in Ottawa, where the work is divided into six main sec
tions: Inspection and clearance of western offices; professional and
juvenile services; statistics; administration and Dominion clearance;
research and publications; and inspection and clearance of eastern
offices.
The successful operation of the local provincial offices is materially
assisted by Federal Government enactments, under which compre
hensive information pertaining to the employment situation is
gathered at regular intervals from employers, trade-union secretaries,
and various municipal and governmental authorities. After it has
been carefully analyzed and tabulated, this information is made
available through the medium of a monthly publication appro
priately known as “Employment.”
No phase of public employment work has greater possibilities to
make or mar the success of the service than clearance—the transfer
of workers from one district to another. Absolute uniformity of
method, the maximum speed in the transmission of information, and
harmonious relationships between the officials concerned are essential
elements in the proper functioning of an employment clearance
system. The employment offices coordination act guarantees the
requisite similarity in method; the use of the long-distance telephone
and the telegraph insure speed in the distribution of information;
and the spirit of cooperation manifest throughout provincial and
Federal offices is nowhere more clearly evident than in clearance
work between the various offices of the Employment Service of
Canada. Incidentally, plans are being considered which may result
in the broadcasting of clearance items by wireless. If this method
proves practicable, it will have the double effect of speeding up
clearance work and of attracting considerable publicity to the service
and its methods.
77
78
ASSOCIATION OF G O V E R NMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
A typical clearance order, recently distributed through all of the
offices in Canada, is shown below:
Dominion Clearance.
Ottawa, January 9, 1922.
0-8368-Toronto.
MM.
18 experienced sheet and tin plate workers for sheet and tin plate mill.
1 hot mill black plate roller man.
3 sheet or tin mill doublers.
12 sheet or tin mill heaters.
2 black plate openers.
Wages range from $35 to $60 per week, 8-hour day, 40 to 45 hour week. Transpor
tation arranged. Board averages $10 per week. Admission requested.
Baldwin Steel Corporation, Asbridges Bay, Toronto.
It will be seen that the particulars shown indicate all the essential
conditions in connection with the order. The necessity of supplying
complete information is, of course, apparent when the possible
transfer of men over long distances is involved. Responses to this
particular order came from points 2,000 miles apart, with a result
that 10 of the 18 men required by the firm were secured in Canada,
and the balance, through the department of immigration, from the
United States. An order for airplane mechanics arid riggers brought
replies from the extreme east and west and from 10 intermediate
points.
It is interesting to note that the department of immigration will
not permit employers to bring workers into Canada until the employ
ment service has ascertained, through the clearance system, that
qualified workers can not be secured in the country.
Records in use in the employment service are drafted with the
single object of providing the maximum of information with the
minimum of clerical effort, and are constantly being subjected to
revision, where necessary. The daily report form, for example, as
required from each office, furnishes data under 15 different headings
relative to each individual application, and under 12 headings m
connection with the orders. It also supplies information on 6
supplementary points involved in the daily operation of the office.
In spite of this, the arrangement of the report is so compact that it
may be kept strictly up to date in the largest offices, where trans
actions totaling over 2,000 a day are not uncommon. With such
complete information at its disposal, the department of labor at
Ottawa is in a position to compile statistics which have the virtue
of being both timely and accurate.
The subdivision of work in the larger offices makes provision for
specialized efforts in the placement of juvenile, handicapped, technical*
industrial, commercial, and other groups of workers. In the Toronto
office, experts in mental and psychological subjects cooperate with
the director of the juvenile and handicap departments, examining
applicants and advising as to their industrial fitness. This coopera
tion has proved to be particularly effective in cases where men and
boys who are absolutely unemployable—from mental or physical
causes—have been removed from the labor market to institutions
where they are insured proper treatment and freedom from the buffetings of competitive commercial life. Employers appreciate this
phase of our efforts and it increases their confidence in the caliber of
the applicants obtainable through the service.
The cooperation of interested groups is assured for the employment
service through the medium of local, provincial, and Dominion
THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE OE CANADA.
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In order that the widest possible publicity may be given to the
fact that each local office is a unit in a Dominion-wide system, window
designs and newspaper advertising are rapidly being standardized.
The cost of advertising, like other maintenance charges in connection
with the operation of the offices, is shared jointly by provincial and
Federal Governments.
A reduced transportation rate is available to workers proceeding
to employment over a distance of 117 miles, in all cases where the
positions have been secured through the service. This concession
has been utilized by literally thousands of workers and has represented
a saving of hundreds of dollars which would otherwise have been
spent in the purchase of transportation at the regular rates. In
addition it has enabled many workers to accept positions at a dis
tance when they could not have done so if obliged to pay full fare.
Members of employment office staffs are selected solely on the basis
of their actual qualifications for employment work. They are keenly
interested in the success of the service, and are alive to the fact that
theirs is a service profession. Their aim is to satisfy the employer
by the selection of the man or woman best qualified to fill his require
ments; by so doing they also render the greatest possible service to
the applicant, and materially assist in the stabilization of industrial
conditions. In dealing with applicants and employers, superin
tendents and interviewers endeavor to preserve the human touch,
which is too frequently lacking in governmental activities. The
scarcity of complaints throughout the abnormal conditions of the
past two winters is an indication that their efforts in this connection
are appreciated.
The Employment Service of Canada is an infant in point of years,
but it is a lusty infant, and gives promise of developing to the point
where it will be considered indispensable to all those seeking work or
workers.
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VARIOUS METHODS USED BY STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.
BY CHARLES J. BOYD, GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT ILLINOIS FREE EMPLOYMENT OFFICES.
In addressing you on the subject of “ Various methods used by
State employment services,” I ieel that what is characteristic of
the Illinois Free Employment Service would be applicable, with
perhaps some slight variations, to other States operating free employ
ment offices, and for that reason I am confining my address to the
methods used by the Illinois service.
It may be of interest, however, before going into a description of
the methods used, to give you a brief outline of the organization of
the employment service in Illinois. The law creating free employ
ment offices in Illinois was passed by the general assembly in 1899,
and provided that one office be established in each city having a
population of not less than 50,000 and three in each bity having a
population of 1,000,000 or over. In accordance with the provisions
of this act, three offices were established in Chicago in 1899, and in
1901 an office was opened in Peoria.
In the year 1903, the act creating free employment offices in Illinois
was declared unconstitutional by the supreme court because of a
clause it contained which provided that applicants could not be
directed by our offices to places of employment where strikes or
lockouts existed. The State legislature was in session at the time
the decision was handed down and met the situation by passing a
new act eliminating the objectionable feature. In 1915 a clause
was added which reads: “ Full information shall be given applicants
regarding the existence of any strike or lockout in the establishment
of any employer seeking workers through the Illinois free employment
offices.”
In 1907 an office was opened in the city of East St. Louis and in
the year 1909 an office in Springfield. In 1913 the legislature further
amended the law, providing for free employment offices in two or
more contiguous cities or towns having an aggregate or combined
population of not less than 50,000, under the provisions of which an
office was opened at Rock Island-Moline in October, 1913, and another
at Rockford in November of the same year.
From May, 1918, to March, 1919, the Illinois Free Employment
Service was conducted in cooperation with the United States Employ
ment Service, and under the plan of cooperation offices were estab
lished in a number of cities. After this agreement expired, the offices
at Aurora, Bloomington, Danville, Decatur, and Joliet were retained
by the State of Illinois.
In the year 1921 an amendment to the act was passed by the
general assembly, which authorized the establishment of offices in
each city, village, or incorporated town with a population of not less
than 25,000 or where two or more contiguous cities, villages, or in
corporated towns have an aggregate population of not less than
25,000, and under this act an office was opened at Quincy in October,
1921, and an office at Cicero in February, 1922.
80
METHODS OF STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.
81
In connection with the Illinois Free Employment Service, a general
advisory board was created by the legislature in 1915, consisting of
five members, of whom two are representatives of employers, two
of organized labor, and the fifth member represents the public.
Notwithstanding, the board serves without compensation, aside from
traveling and other necessary expenses incidental to their duties,
the members have on all occasions given generously of their time and
energies in helping to promote the interests of the service. Their
function, as outlined by the law, is, among other things, to advise and
cooperate with the general superintendent in promoting the efficiency
of the service, to investigate the extent and cause of unemployment
and remedies therefor, and to devise and adopt the most effectual
means within their power to provide employment and to prevent
distress and involuntary idleness. For this purpose they are em
powered to cooperate with similar bureaus and commissions of other
States, with the Federal Employment Office in the Department'of
Labor, and with such municipal bureaus and exchanges as are now
in operation or may be created.
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As the activities of our board may properly be classed among the
methods used by State employment services, I think it would be well
to here recount some of the more important of these. Early in the
summer of 1921, the barometer of industrial conditions caused us to
view with alarm the steadily increasing number of applicants as
against the decreasing number of available opportunities, and the
situation was of such importance that it was deemed advisable to
hold a conference with the general advisory board in order to cope
with the situation. Director of Labor George B. Arnold, State Super
intendent W. C. Lewman, and myself met with the board, and the
consensus of opinion was that the volume of unemployment was
greatly increased, with the chances of tiding over the period of indus
trial depression lessened. The conference, therefore, resolved to call
a meeting, which was held in the City Club of Chicago, August 8, 1921,
invitations being sent to 30 organizations, including civic, social,
industrial, financial, trade-union, the American Legion, and others
interested in the unemployment problem.
At this conference attention was called to existing conditions and
that sufficient warning had been given, as evidenced by the data
compiled by the Illinois Free Employment Service, so that we should
prepare to meet the emergency. A permanent organization known
as The Chicago Conference on Unemployment resulted, and an
executive committee of 15 was selected.
Meetings of the conference were held from time to time, and com
mittees were appointed to consider the best method of discouraging
the influx of unemployed to Chicago; to consult with authorities
regarding such prevention; to consider what private and public work
might be made available; to consider the lodging-house situation,
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82
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
and to consult with municipal authorities concerning municipal
lodging houses; and a committee was also appointed to consider the
question of raising funds from public and private sources to meet the
added strain of relief demands during the winter.
These committees functioned very efficiently and a sum of money
was raised to establish a special procurement bureau in the Chicago
division of the Illinois Free Employment Service, the activities of
which were confined solely to the procuring of jobs. A canvass was
made of the entire city of Chicago, and the Woman’s City Club took
an active part by forming district organizations, where they main
tained headquarters for the securing of jobs. The bureau became
operative November 29, 1921, and was discontinued April 1, 1922.
The activities of some of the other committees appointed by the
Chicago Conference on Unemployment consisted of gathering data
on public works and projects which might be speeded up in order to
relieve the unemployment situation, and to give publicity to the
matter. This publicity program informed the people of Chicago,
including large industrial employers and employers of smaller num
bers of workers down to the householder who had need of workers
for odd jobs, what the State Free Employment Service was and how
to use it. Articles were prepared carrying to the specific constituency
the kind of information thought to be the most beneficial, and articles
were also prepared for church bulletins and bulletins of civic clubs
and organizations.
The churches of Chicago became interested and a Sunday was
designated as “ Unemployment Sunday/7 and special attention was
called to the needs of the unemployed and the necessity of relieving
the situation by having contemplated work or improvement done
while there was such a need for jobs. In this appeal the facilities of
the Illinois Free Employment Service were called to the attention of
the people, as our organization is a public service and was recognized
as the medium through which all jobs should be cleared, and it was
urged that all those who had work to be done should get in touch
with our service.
Early in the industrial depression the Chicago Association of Com
merce organized a committee on unemployment and was very active
in its efforts to help relieve the unemployment situation through the
creation of a sentiment whereby more jobs could be secured. It
very generously carried in its weekly publication, “Chicago Com
merce/’ a full-page advertisement of the Illinois Free Employment
Service, urging its 6,000 members to patronize our service, displaying a facsimile of our employers’ order blank, and requesting
them to use this blank in turning in all orders.
Uniformity in public employment organization is hardly to be
expected, as the laws creating these offices were enacted at different
times and are the result of diversified opinions. There are, however,
several things which all public employment offices should do in
order to function in the most efficient manner, and one of the most
important of these, in my opinion, is the necessity of knowing in
dustry’s requirements and keeping in touch with conditions sur
rounding industry. It is essential that we familiarize ourselves
with plant and working conditions, as quite often applicants will
elect to accept work under favorable working and sanitary sur
roundings in lieu of a higher wage and less favorable conditions.
METHODS OF STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.
83
Modern working conditions call for an environment of such character
that the worker may perform his duties to the best advantage, and
in our organization it is the practice for placement clerks to visit
industrial plants in order to find out these conditions and the needs
of the employers. These visits are usually made at the end of the
week when there are fewer applicants to be interviewed. Familiar
ity with the labor laws of the State is also essential in our work,
and these, as well as other matters of interest to the service, are
discussed at our regular monthly meeting of employees in order
to keep abreast of the time.
I am sure you will be interested in knowing something of our
central office m Chicago which occupies, with the exception of the
first floor, the entire four-story building at 116 North Dearborn
Street. This office is divided into three main departments—men's,
women's, and administrative departments—which occupy the
second, third, and fourth floors, respectively. In the men's depart
ment we have the clerical, mechanical, building trades and main
tenance, hotel and restaurant, janitors, porters and unskilled hotel
help, and miscellaneous divisions. The boys’ division is separated
from the men’s division in order to prevent any influence detrimental
to the boys' welfare which their associating with the men might
have.
We also have an agricultural division which is of more than
ordinary importance, and we have built up a large following among
the farming interests. It is not unusual for us to receive calls for
help within a radius of 100 miles of Chicago, and during the harvest
season we ship to the wheat fields of the Southwest, West, and
Northwest—in fact, at the beginning of the harvest we send persons
to the Southwest, who follow the season northward, working their
way from Oklahoma to Kansas, on through Nebraska, South Dakota,
and to other Northwestern wheat States. In stimulating this work
we employ various methods and in season circularize the farm district,
using posters, etc., in an effort to render the maximum of service
to the farming communities.
The handicap division operated by our service is one into which
the human element enters more than into any other division.
Industry is prone to look unfavorably upon the employment of
these unfortunate persons, and especially is this true since we have
had such a large surplus of physically fit persons looking for jobs.
However, by persistent efforts, we have gradually created a senti
ment whereby we are able to take care of large numbers of these
applicants. A great deal of patience is required successfully to
handle work of this kind, but we are well satisfied with the coopera
tion received from all sources and point with pride to the work
accomplished by this division.
The women and girls' department handles clerical help, factory
workers, hotel, restaurant, domestic and day workers, and the
same practices prevail in this department as in the men's; each has
a superintendent in charge, with a sufficient number of placement
clerks and other help to handle the work. We also have a suboffice
on the west side of Chicago, which handles unskilled labor exclusively,
and is situated in a locality where large numbers of transient la
borers congregate. This office has a large patronage. There is
84
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
another office located on the south side, in the thickly populated
colored district, which specializes in the placement oi both male
and female colored persons. These offices, as well as the various
divisions in our central office, are under the immediate supervision
of a general superintendent.
A layout of our central office shows that when an applicant enters
the men’s department he is directed to the registration desk, where
he secures an application card which he fills out. The registration
clerk thus ascertains what class of work the applicant desires, after
which he is referred to the proper division. The applicant then passes
down the center aisle and enters the division handling the class of
work he is seeking, and if there are no other applicants waiting
he immediately proceeds to the placement clerk’s desk, where he
presents his application card and is examined as to his qualifications
for the work for which he applies. If there is an opportunity for
work for which he is qualified, the placement clerk furnishes him
with a card of introduction to the employer. Notation is made on
the back of applicant’s card and the employer’s order, which are
clipped together until verification of placement can be made; this
is done either by telephone, return postal card, or by a follow-up
letter in the event the card is not returned by the employer. If,
on entering any of the various divisions there are applicants to be
interviewed, the last person takes his seat and moves up when there
are vacancies until he reaches the position nearest the placement
clerk. This method of handling applicants insures fairness. How
ever, the procedure may be varied at the discretion of the placement
clerk, as, for instance, if an applicant has previously registered and
the placement clerk has an opportunity for which he thinks he can
qualify, then preference is given to him on account of his priority.
The same procedure is practiced in the women’s department.
In order to operate a registration department on a systematic and
uniform basis, it is essential that applications be made on one kind
of form and, to insure permanency of record, in pen and ink. In our
service it is the practice to maintain two files for every registrant, one
alphabetical and the other according to occupation, which are later
filed in our permanent registration file. By this method we have a
check and a permanent record of every registrant, which can be easily
traced.
The registration department of an employment office might be
compared to the accounting department of a commercial organization.
It is an essential organization, an indispensable part of the service,
and hence care should be taken that the disposition of the cards is
accurate. If a commercial organization were to be asked about an
account or a statement rendered and were unable to give an answer,
our impression would be that there was something wrong with the
organization, and by the same token, if a patron of our service called
upon us for information regarding help, etc., and did not secure the
information, he would naturally think the Service was lacking in
efficiency and that not very much could be expected of it. For this
reason tne importance of tms department can not be overlooked.
When business is good and jobs are plentiful, the applicant looking
for a position can easily be furnished work, but in times of industrial
depression the ingenuity of the service is sometimes taxed to meet the
situation. A State free employment office is much like any other
METHODS OF STATE EMPLOYMENT SERVICES.
85
business, and in order to be successful business methods must be
practiced.
As favorable publicity is a large factor in any business, we are
constantly striving for this in our service, and among the “ various
methods used inState employment services” to secure publicity and
encourage business are employment of solicitors, sending out com
munications by mail, soliciting orders by telephone, and advertising
by various methods and mediums. We have received considerable
favorable publicity through news items calling attention to something
of special interest which transpired in connection with the service,
and in this publicity the press of the city of Chicago has generously
cooperated and its assistance is invaluable. Another method whicn
we employ is to advertise in The Employment Bulletin which is issued
by the Department of Labor under the supervision of the general
advisory board of the Illinois Free Employment Service. We also
find bulletin jobs which are difficult to fill and send special letters
to industries and individuals outlining qualifications of applicants,
in our efforts to secure positions for them, and in all of these we have
been uniformly successful.
The clearing of jobs is done to some extent in our service; as
an illustration, if there was a shortage of help at Joliet, which is
about 40 miles from Chicago, and we had a surplus of help, or vice
versa, we would circularize the opportunities in order to remedy the
situation.
As a stimulus to better efforts on the part of the placement clerks,
we get out a comparative 10-day statement of placements made by
the various divisions in our office. This shows the number of persons
placed by each division, has a gain and loss column, and gives us a
line on how work is progressing in each of these divisions. We find
that it acts *as an incentive to better efforts for the reason that if a
division shows a loss the person in charge will be more alert the next
10 days in order to keep out of the “loss” column.
Of course there are details of a minor character, which, as a whole,
go towards the efficiency of the employment service, but I have
touched only on what I consider some of the high spots in employ
ment office methods. As to reports, we have these daily from all of our
divisions; they are tabulated by a statistical clerk, and from them
the monthly report to the director of labor is made. We also submit
an identical monthly report, as do all of the State offices, to the gen
eral advisory board of the Illinois Free Employment Service, where
the statistics on the operation of the service are compiled. This de
partment also makes a monthly survey of industrial conditions, all
of which is published each month in The Employment Bulletin,
together with other matter of interest to industry.
While it is customary in most States to select employees for the
service through competitive tests, there is hardly any sort of examina
tion by which one may be judged as to his fitness for placement
work. One must possess a large amount of the human element in
order to be successful in this kind of work, and must be endowed
with more of the milk of human kindness than the ordinary person
possesses. An oral examination will bring out some of these quali
fications, but only time can tell if the applicant be fitted for a vocation
of this kind. Some employees of the service, such as stenographers,
statistical and filing clerks, etc., the nature of whose work does not
86
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
bring them in contact with the public, are more easily selected as to
fitness, but in the case of the placement clerk the task of proper selec
tion is more difficult. In all cases the State should offer some induce
ment in the shape of promotion in the service to look forward to, as
he would be more apt to make good if he had something of a material
nature as an incentive toward better efforts. A person possessing
the right characteristics could not help but become interested in this
kind of work, and would easily develop into an ideal public servant
in this field.
Employment work is quite interesting and of much educational
value from the fact that one is meeting all kind and conditions of
people, and in order to be successful one must learn jbhe requirements
of industry and be familiar with job analysis, so^that when an ap
plicant is placed the chance of turnover is reduced to a minimum.
A satisfied customer in employment work is as essential as a satisfied
customer in any business. This is one of the greatest assets and is the
best advertisement a public employment service could possibly
have, and in Illinois it is the goal towards which the service is con
stantly striving.
THE PRESIDENT’S CONFERENCE ON UNEMPLOYMENT.
BY OTTO T. MALLERY, MEMBER INDUSTRIAL BOARD, PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF
LABOR AND INDUSTRY.
The immediate results of the President's Conference on Unem
ployment, of October, 1921, are that:
1. Public opinion for the first time in American history was focused
on unemployment. The Federal Government had never before
sought to unite business men, workers, the States, and cities in an
organized effort to overcome unemployment.
2. Two out of every three cities of over 20,000 population carried
out the recommendation of the conference to form an emergency
unemployment committee headed by the mayor. These committees
improved local employment bureaus, stimulated 'public works,
influenced employer groups in rotating employment, etc., coordinated
existing private relief agencies, or started clean-up campaigns.
3. A central clearing house of information was set up in Washington
by the conference for the use of local emergency unemployment
committees. The clearing house continued in operation for eight
months after the conference and until the situation had greatly
improved. Information as to the most successful activities of any
local committee were passed on to others.
4. Industry assumed a share of the responsibility to the unem
ployed.
5. Sales of municipal bonds for public works broke all previous
records in the three months following the conference. Sales for the
year were nearly twice those of any previous year, totaling one and
two-fifths billions of dollars.
6. Congress appropriated $75,000,000 for roads, to be matched by
like amounts from the States. At the request of the conference
each governor stated the mileage his State could put under contract
within 90 days following the appropriation. The clearing house
committee of the conference secured the cooperation of Federal and
State agencies in getting the maximum amount under construction
in the shortest time.
7. A successful effort was made to do more municipal public work
in winter than heretofore.
8. Regional directors were named, covering the most important
industrial districts.
9. Through all these activities the conference developed a spirit of
organized resistance to the contagion of depression and helped to
substitute courage and action for the sense of helplessness usually
noted in bad times.
*
Having covered available emergency measures, the conference
addressed itself to a task new to American statesmanship—the
prevention and mitigation of future periods of unemployment. In
the last 50 years such periods have occurred about every 7 to 10
years.
16697°—23—Bull. 323---- 7
87
88
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
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89
THE PRESIDENT’S CONFERENCE ON UNEMPLOYMENT.
w
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Mr.
When I came into this service I found that if
you wanted to sell something or accomplish something you had to
render service. Employment bureaus came into disrepute during
the war. Now, let us be brutally frank. In Columbus during the
war a man who didn’t want to go to war, but who had political in
fluence, got a job in the employment service. He had been a deliverywagon driver for a laundry in Toledo. He got $3,000 a year during
the war as placement or employment manager for the Government.
After the war, when the appropriation
was dispensed with,
within a period of 10 days he took the job of janitor of the Toledo
Employment Office at $60 a month. Now that very thing prevailed
everywhere. The United States Employment Service to-day really
needs your sympathy, and the man who spoke to you needs every
ounce of cooperation that you can give him in order that the service
may be put on such--a basis that he can get something toward pro
viding the rest of us with an additional fund.
In Ohio another system was tried, and that was to get funds from
local organizations. For instance, the manufacturing group in certain
cities would contribute toward running a bureau there and the State
would contribute, and the city would contribute, and the social wel
fare organizations would contribute, but whenever an outside agency
takes a part in a Government agency that is not conducted by the
duly accredited representatives of the community, you will find that
it does not act in an advisory capacity but runs tfie whole concern.
.The first thing I did was to get rid of the welfare organization crowd
and go into that office and run it myself. They had in that office the
kind of persons that is the last thing you want in an employment
bureau.
Now, what we did there was this: We simply eliminated certain
offices; for instance, we abolished the office of placement secretary
and created one of placement clerk. We took on persons not for
what social service work they had done but for how much they under
stood of the problem of the factory. Now, as to how we get paid,
and how we pay more money, and how we get more money in Ohio,
the facts are simply these: We take the city’s money and split it up.
For instance, the telephone girl at Cleveland gets $50 a month from
the State and $50 from the city. She has a $100 job as a telephone
operator and I think you will agree that that is a good salary. The
superintendent, who formerly got $1,800, he being the highest priced
officer in Ohio, now gets $1,200 additional from the city, making it
possible to employ a $3,000 man. That is the method we pursued,
not only in Cleveland, but also in other towns in Ohio. We first
show the city that this is part of its work. State appropriations are
obtained just the same as you help the Federal Employment Bureau
to get money. For instance, we have a new mavor in Toledo; he
has not enough jobs for all the folks who want positions in the various
bureaus and departments of the city, and the applicants are sent over
to the employment service bureau and we get them jobs. When it
comes to appropriations by the legislature we say, “We can not get
c
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f u
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90
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
your friends jobs unless, you appropriate the funds whereby we can
run this office.” It all goes back to the legislature after all. For
instance, take the farm bureau. It has been run by farm bureau
county agents, farm agents. We do not do that. I write a letter to
every chairman in the 88 counties in Ohio asking that he appoint one
man in every village or hamlet in that county to be a special farm
representative to make applications for help or applications for work.
The trouble that we always have in getting appropriations is that the
rural legislator can not see the effect of any appropriation for
employment in the State. Now, I will have in every county and in
every village and hamlet in Ohio one man who will go to the legis
lature from the farming district, and say, “Now, Jim, vote for this
because it has been of some service to us.” Likewise we established
in Ohio a teachers' employment bureau. We have some 35,000
teachers, and the usual turnover among them is approximately
from four to five thousand teachers. The average fee paid private
employment agencies is 5 per cent of a year's salary. In Ohio we pay
a salary maximum of $2,000 for common school teachers, so you can
easily figure $50 per placement by private agents on approximately
5,000 teachers. I-figure that we will save the teachers in Ohio from
a quarter of a million to four hundred thousand dollars that would
ordinarily have been turned into the coffers of the private employ
ment agents. Do you mean to tell me that the force of four or five
thousand teachers who have been helped is not going to get appro
priations for us this winter? The same thing applies to Congress.
A congressman has a certain obligation to fulfill, and John Jones has
a boy for whom he wants a job; we place that boy in a job. Now that
congressman can not vote wrong on that, he can not possibly turn
down an appropriation from the Federal Government. It is just
simply the use of horse sense and the creating of propaganda. That
is how to get the money.
Mr.
So far as Pennsylvania is concerned, employment
efforts will not much longer be needed. During this past year
there has practically been a shortage of skilled people in every
section of the State. We have had many orders for bricklayers,
plasterers, and others in the building trades which we could not fill.
Unemployment in the skilled mechanical trades is rapidly declining.
In eastern Pennsylvania there is at the present time a shortage of
competent farm labor and we are not able to fill the orders for com
petent farm labor needed on the farms in that section. In all dis
tricts of the State there is rapidly approaching a shortage of com
petent common or unskilled labor.
Mrs.
Some years ago, when New York had the only
legal aid society in this country, many people came into the aid
office and complained of having paid fees •and then being sent to
jobs that did not exist. One day a woman complained against a
certain agency and we took hold of the case, but it is very difficult
to procure evidence in cases in which the job does not exist. The
wise and wily employment man sends his client to some place out
of town, and it is very difficult then to get the evidence. The man
was sent to jail, and immediately after that, or about the same time,
there was an investigation concerning these employment agencies,
which resulted in an amendment to our law providing for a very
P
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W
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.
TH E PRESIDENT'S CONFERENCE ON UNEM PLO YM EN T.
91
careful supervision of these agencies. That law is practically the
same to-day as it was when passed.
We must spread the knowledge of what the employment agent
does in order to get the necessary support from the public and from
the legislature, and I think all of these social service workers, and
all of the citizens, are your primary and essential agents in spreading
the knowledge of what the employment agency can and does do.
For many years I have used the public employment agency and I
have surprised hundreds of other women by explaining to them that
there is a public employment agency in New York City which they
can use. fey satisfying the employer you will spread the knowledge
of what use an employment agency can be and in that way get the
necessary sympathy and support from the public. The point that
has impressed me is what the employment agency can do for those
in private life if it has the appropriation, but we must go out and
educate the employers to the use of the agency.
[Col. Lewis T. Bryant, commissioner New Jersey Department of
Labor, showed motion pictures and supplemented them with
remarks.]
Mr. W ood. When I took over the office in our department which
I now occupy, all the employment agents were under the control of
the mayor of the city, and in no way connected with the State
department of labor, whereas they should be under the State depart
ment. I appeared before the legislature and presented my case,
and the result is that they are back under the jurisdiction of the
department. When I began to make inquiry as to the payment of
the license tax and the bond required of these employment agents
I found that some of them had been operating for 20 years and had
never paid any tax; out of the 26 bonds that I took over only two
were in force, and they were straight bonds and did not amount
to a row of pins. We have eliminated all that, I am glad to say.
I think such agents are the greatest menace that we have. They
are out for the money and don't care whether the party is qualified
for the job or not; they don’t care whether he can hold the job or
whether he is reliable; they are only interested in getting the last
dollar, and when they do that the poor victim can just take a walk.
I was so outspoken against these agents that I was severely criticized.
I have gone after them more strongly in each succeeding report, and
in my last report I appealed to the legislature to put them out of
business entirely. Since they have been placed under my jurisdiction,
during the last five years, we have succeeded in putting 22 of the
26 employment agencies out of business. A few*others, however, of a
better class, have been started. During the last two years we have
prosecuted and convicted five employment agents and put one of
them in jail for five months and we have another one in the clutches
of the law. I am going to do everything I can to put them out of
business in my State.
WEDNESDA Y, MA Y 24—EVENING SESSION.
C. B. CONNELLEY, COMMISSIONER PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND
INDUSTRY. PRESIDING.
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
CAN GOVERNMENTAL LABOR BUREAUS AFFECT THE CAUSES OF LABOR
UNREST?
BY MARY VAN KLEECK, DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT INDUSTRIAL STUDIES, RUSSELL SAGE
FOUNDATION, NEW YORK CITY.
In considering the relation of governmental labor bureaus to the
fundamental causes of industrial unrest, not very much either of
the activities of industrial commissions or of the conditions affecting
labor can be omitted. My part is merely to suggest the main outlines
of the present program and activities of State and Federal labor
bureaus against the background of present industrial unrest. This,
perhaps, will give us a picture of the opportunities which are now
ahead of governmental labor officials.
We may take first the negative side of the question. Some are
saying that labor bureaus have no effect upon the causes of industrial
unrest. Can an industrial commission, xor instance, create jobs if
none exist ? Can labor bureaus make employment secure ? Can
they prevent loss of wages and loss of time for the workmen who
want jobs and can not find them? Can they prevent the sickness
of wage earners? Can they mitigate the effects of monotonous
machinery upon the worker ? Can they guarantee adequate wages ?
Can they insure such efficient conduct of industry as shall result in
a production sufficient to yield adequate wages ? Can they create
the type of man in both groups, employers and workers, that will
be capable of some sort of cooperative relationship? Can they
influence legislatures to see the importance of this kind of govern
mental activity? Can they prevent the courts from issuing injunc
tions or declaring laws unconstitutional under conditions which set
back progress? In short, is a governmental labor bureau capable
of changing these fundamental conditions or must it merely accept
them as it finds them and do what it can through day to day adjust
ment of difficulties as they arise? These are the doubts of friends.
What do the eneinies and the critics of industrial commissions say ?
Do they not express doubts of this kind ? How can we intrust our
business or give power over our equipment and our employment
policy to a governmental department which, like other departments
of government, is subject continually to political considerations?
Think of what happens when a new political party comes into power.
It accuses its predecessor of extravagance and inefficiency. It then
declares that, in the interest of economy and efficiency, reorganiza
tion is necessary. The various positions in the department will be
renamed This will give opportunity to select a new force. Service
to the party will be one of the tests of ability to serve wage earners
92
LABOR BUREAUS AND CAUSES OE LABOR UNREST.
&3
through the department of labor. In order to apply the test they
take the precaution of getting an accurate statistical record of the
exact political affiliations of everyone on the staff. The return
from the chairman of some local party committee will determine
whether a person on the staff shall stay or shall be dropped through
discontinuance of the position.
Is the picture overdrawn? At least it is true that this is what
the enemies of labor legislation give as the reason for not intrusting
new powers to governmental labor bureaus. They claim that in
the game of so-called practical politics the running of a department
as a service to industry becomes no longer practical. No business
could be successful which turned out its manager after each election
because of the vote that he had happened to cast on election day.
Selections for important pieces of work in the public service should
be no more subject to irrelevant considerations than are the selections
in private business.
Political reasons are. also affecting the appointment of women,
now that women have the vote. This is a new development. Hith
erto if women were appointed at all, it was likely to be on the ground
of fitness rather than of party service. I know of one State where a
woman was appointed recently as the head of the State employment
service without having had any previous experience in any employ
ment office. Men in the service might have been eligible for promo
tion, but this woman who, incidentally, had loyally served her party
was appointed, with the explanation that the administration of an
employment service required the tact, the sympathy, and the insight
of a woman.
Women, as well as men, are repudiating this kind of action. They
say that fitness must be the qualification, and moreover, that there
must be specifications as to what constitutes fitness for any position.
It must be not merely fitness from the point of view of the administra
tion in power, but fitness in the task that is to be performed in the
public service. Without assurance that merit alone is to be con
sidered in making an appointment, those who are opposing labor
legislation will have some ground for contending that the legislature
should not be asked to pass laws or to give appropriations for their
administration.
From still another point of view a negative answer is given as to
the opportunity of labor bureaus to affect the fundamental causes of
unrest in industry. Consider specifically the recent strikes—the
coal strike that is yet unsettled; the textile strike in New England;
the railroad strikes and threats of strikes. To what extent have
governmental labor bureaus influenced the specific issues involved in
these strikes ? These issues are the recurrent questions of wages and
insecurity of employment, of increasing costs of living and of lack of
representation for labor in the government of industry. Back of
these questions, we realize more and more every day, are problems of
technical scientific management. In the soft coal industry, for in
stance, the basic condition of overdevelopment, which is a problem
for scientific management, creates for the miner a condition of inse
curity in employment and inadequacy of annual earnings.
In the textile industry of New England the 48-hour week has be
come the issue, and the spokesmen for employers contend that com
petition with southern manufacturers makes the 8-hour day for
94
ASSOCIATION
OF
GOVEEN MEN TAL LABOE OFFICIALS.
woman workers utterly impossible in New England. This, too, is a
fundamental problem of management, and as yet governmental bu
reaus have not given the public the exact information on which to base
judgment as to whether or not it is practicable to manage the textile
industry of New England with sufficiently low costs to consumers,
with healthful conditions for the workers, including the 8-hour
day, and with profits for investors. The information that is given
us is partisan. Yet the issue can not be settled satisfactorily through
a mere contest of power, but rather must be settled in accord with
the fundamentals of good management. And do not forget that in
the fundamentals of management the human beings who are em
ployed, their health and their ideals, are in themselves fundamental.
Even an automatic machine must be tended by a person, and its
output depends upon the steadiness of the workers’ attention day
after day. The human factor is quite as important a problem for
scientific study as any other aspect of industry. With issues like
these confronting the public to-day, how useful have the govern
mental labor bureaus been in supplying a basis for public opinion ?
Evidence is not lacking that they have been very useful. Through
labor laws in this country standards have been raised to a point de
cidedly higher than would have been possible without them. Con
sider, for instance, the statistical service of governmental bureaus.
For example, during the war it was the Bureau of Labor Statistics in
Washington which supplied the facts about cost of living, and this
gave the basis for adjustments of wages in the war industries. Un
doubtedly as a result of this experience during the war the cost of
living in relation to wages is receiving more consideration to-day than
it has in the past.
Consider also how labor legislation has reduced the hours of work
for women from 12 to 10 and then to 9, while some States have now
established 8 hours as the legal working day for women in industry.
Obviously, the labor movement has been the most important force
in reducing hours of labor. The shorter hours for women in the un
organized trades, however, are clearly traceable to public approval
of the shorter working day which has been expressed in labor legis
lation. Fortunately, also, the courts are upholding the constitu
tionality of these laws on the ground that they are necessary to pre
serve the health of women.
Again, the workmen’s compensation movement is a good illustra
tion of the way in which governmental labor bureaus can affect the
causes of industrial unrest. Formerly, when wage earners were inor killed through accidents, the economic burden had to be
I'ured
>orne by their families. The proposed remedy was the businesslike
suggestion that this burden should be distributed in accordance with
the principles of insurance, and by this means industry provides for
its inevitable risks.
In administering this law the service of the industrial commission
has gone far beyond the mere consideration of cases brought before it.
The effort of the commission has been not only to see that insurance
is paid to the vicrtims of accidents and to their dependents, but to try
to make industry safe so that there may be fewer accidents. Thus
the industrial commission has come to be not merely an enforcing
officer, but an adviser, giving information and helping employers to
apply it in their factories. In the safety movement in a number of
LABOR BUREAUS AND CAUSES OE LABOR UNREST.
95
States, the representatives of the industrial commission are welcomed
in industrial establishments as having the knowledge and the exper
ience of experts.
Do not let us be afraid of the word “ expert.” I looked up the word
in the dictionary the other day because 1 wished to find out why an
audience always applauds the speaker who maligns the expert. 1
decided that the applause must be due to lack of knowledge of the
dictionary definition. The definition of expert is, “ trained by prac
tice.” Most of the criticism of the expert that I have heard has been
on the ground that the expert knows nothing about practice. If,
however, we think of him as one who is trained by practice, we will
agree that an industrial commission or a State labor department must
be expert in order to render a service which can result only from years
of practical contact with the daily problems of employment and
working conditions.
There is no other way of doing good mediation work except through
a good mediator. So there is no other way of administering any
other activity of a State department of labor except through experts—
through those who are trained by practice in the work which they
have to perform. If any other consideration dictates an appointment,
then it is hopeless to expect an industrial commission to be an effec
tive instrument in industry.
Closely allied to the development of the function of the labor de
partment from the mere enforcement of a statute to a genuine cooper
ative service to industry is the growth of the idea of an industrial
commission; The essence of the commission plan is the making of
rules and regulations which are applied in day-to-day administration
in the workrooms where men and women are employed, rather than
expecting a legislature to be able to pass a statute which will determine
the equipment of workrooms in industries which the legislators may
never have seen. Curiously enough, the majority of States have not
yet had confidence enough to put this power of da^-to-day regulation
of working conditions into the hands of a commission.
It is a curious fact that we in the United States seem to have
implicit faith in a statute, but we are mortally afraid of the power of
administration. If we can pass a law which seems to say what we
think should be done, we are inclined to be confident that the thing
will be done. We have very much less confidence in giving responsi
bility to any man or group of men to determine, through inspection
and study, the best method of applying a general principle or a general
standard to a particular situation. It is probably this attitude of
mind which accounts for the reluctance to give industrial commissions
the power to develop as well as to enforce those standards which shall
insure healthful conditions for wage-earning men and women, and
yet it is obviously more practical for a commission to determine how
ventilation can be made good in a particular factory than for a legisla
ture to give specifications which will apply to all work places. It
should be sufficient for the legislature to charge its industrial com
mission with the power to require good ventilation.
Another and more fundamental advantage in the idea of the indus
trial commission is that it makes possible representation of the various
groups in industry between whose interests adjustments must be
made. Moreover, when given a general responsibility, instead of the
task of enforcement of specific details, they are more likely to think
96
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
about a large program for improving the standards of employment.
It is just because we do not think in terms of an adequate program
and because the imagination of the public is not captured by its
opportunity to remove some of the causes of industrial unrest that
State departments of labor do not receive adequate backing from the
public nor sufficient appropriations to carry on their work. We need
a larger vision, and the vision must begin with those of you who are
now doing the work, because no one else can see it so clearly; you
therefore become responsible for showing the people of your State
how large a task they have undertaken in their labor laws and how
large a return is possible in increased happiness and efficiency for the
wage earner.
In recounting the achievements of governmental labor bureaus, I
do not wish to omit the gains which have been made in withstanding
the temptation to make appointments because of political considera
tions instead of fitness. I shall use as an illustration a bureau in
Washington whose head through the years following its organization
steadily resisted any effort to assign any place in the bureau for any
reason other than the ability of the person to do the work well. I
refer to the Children’s Bureau under its director, Miss Julia C. Lathrop.
To-day the Children’s Bureau under its new chief and the Women’s
Bureau are both conducted in the same spirit, and it is cheering to
know that the women of the country, in so far as they have expressed
themselves in such organizations as the National League of Women
Voters, are insistent that these bureaus, which touch the interests of
women and children so directly, shall never be under suspicion of
making appointments for the advantage of any member of a party,
but shall be built up on the basis of finding for their staffs those wno
are best qualified to accomplish their purposes.
I cite these two bureaus, not because they are the only ones in
which the merit system of appointment has been scrupulously upheld,
but as illustrations of what I mean. They show also that the appoint
ing officer who is responsible for the administration of industrial
commissions and labor departments has it in his power to resist the
influence of those who seek good positions for the friends of the party.
If the influence should prove to be too strong for one administrator
to withstand, the most glorious defeat in one’s career in public life
would be to retire from the field in an effort to maintain the merit
system. Defeat on this issue, however, is not necessary if those who
are responsible for administering State departments of labor look
upon their work as an opportunity for public service. By making
the public also see their work in that light they are sure to get backing
in the long run for their efforts to serve the public honorably and
efficiently.
We can best illustrate the opportunity which governmental labor
bureaus have to affect the causes of industrial unrest by examining
some of the tasks which seem to be before industrial commissions
to-day. Let me begin with a very practical suggestion. We have
through a period of widespread unemployment. We have
Eassed
een giving a good deal of attention to it, and we have realized how
inadequate are the available statistics. Many of you know that at
the President’s conference on unemployment m Washington we were
in the position of having to decide by vote how many were unem
ployed in the country. Only a few States, Massachusetts, New York,
LABOR BUREAUS AND CAUSES 01? LABOR UNREST*
97
Wisconsin, and, more recently, Illinois, have been collecting statistics
regularly to show the trend of employment. Even these States,
however, are not exactly uniform in their methods of collection and
presentation of the data. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics is
also collecting this material for certain important industries, but with
an utterly inadequate appropriation. I would like to urge that in
every State plans be made for the collection of these statistics of
employment m cooperation with the Federal bureau.
As one activity of the committee on the business cycle, which was
appointed by Secretary Hoover as a result of the President’s confer
ence on unemployment, a committee is now at work, made up of
the men who are actually collecting these employment statistics in
State and Federal bureaus. They are pooling their experience and
formulating conclusions which should be the basis for a standard
plan. We hope that those of you who are in States where statistics
of employment are not now being collected will avail yourselves of
the services of this committee so that you may develop your plans
on the basis of their experience. We are hoping that through the
work of this committee, with the backing of various groups and organi
zations who are interested in using a statistical service, there will be
an enlargement of the work of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics
in cooperation with the States so that we may be in a position to
have a true national index of the trend of employment in this country.
This would not be an expensive task for any one State. After the
plan is once developed and the cooperation of employers secured, it
is very inexpensive to carry it on and to secure monthly the informa
tion necessary to show the course of employment in important
industries. This is an illustration of the work which a labor depart
ment can do if it is alive to its opportunities, even if it has only a small
appropriation. Statistics of employment are only one illustration of
the kmd of useful information which a statistical service can make
available. We have given thus far too little thought to the collection
of the basic facts which throw light on the causes of industrial unrest.
I should like to speak of another development in State and Federal
departments of labor, namely, the organization of bureaus for
women in industry which are established, not for the enforcement of
labor laws, but for investigation of the social questions involved in
women’s work, and for the development of standards which shall be
for the best interests both of the industry and of the women who are
employed. What, for instance, are the home responsibilities of
women in comparison with their wages ? What is the effect of long
hours of work upon the women and upon their homes ? How can
an employer organize his factory so as to establish the standards
which bring the best results for women at work ? This standardizing
service which women’s bureaus can give is urgently needed, and the
establishment of bureaus for this specific purpose will do much to
concentrate attention upon the subject of women in industry and the
procedure necessary and feasible to improve conditions.
We must all agree that we need a development of a national
employment service so that we shall not again be so poorly equipped
as we were during the past winter to deal with the problems of
unemployment. An employment service, however, is useful not
only m times of unemployment, but it can function even more
-effectively when there is an even balance of demand as between jobs
98
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL, LABOR OFFICIALS.
and workers. An employment service is needed under these normal
conditions in order to prevent the loss of time in transferring workers
from job to job. I dwell upon these activities which relate to unem
ployment because I believe that unemployment is a basic cause of
industrial unrest.
Let me speak now very hastily of the proposal that is now being
made in this country to prevent industrial unrest by prohibiting
strikes. That seems to me like trying to get rid of typhoid fever by
forbidding it, instead of by paying attention to the water supply.
Experiments are always useful, and therefore it is worth while to
discuss the actual experience of a State which undertakes to prohibit
strikes. In advance of the experiment, however, it is possible to
realize what responsibilities the Government assumes in the prohibition
of strikes. If the Government declares that there shall be no cessa
tion of work either by employee or by employer, it assumes respon
sibility for preventing unemployment. This brings it face to face
with the conduct of industry, because unemployment is a problem
of management. If the Government insists that a business shall be run
regularly, it probably can not enforce its mandate without assuming
the management of industry. So long as we believe in the private
control of industry, which is characteristic of this country, so long
must we accept the principle of adjustment of conditions of employ
ment by agreement between employer and worker. We nave
demonstrated that certain broad standards and principles can be
established by law and by administration, but upon that basis we
expect that the details which make up conditions of labor shaft be
determined by the free play of initiative on both sides. To prohibit
strikes necessarily prevents this free play of initiative. Unless we
are ready to assume as governmental function the minute regulation
and administration of all the factors in a business which determine
regularity of employment and wage rates, the prohibition of strikes
becomes merely a bottling up of grievances with all of the resultant
explosive force of repressed energy.
We had as a visitor in this country last fall a British employer, Mr.
Rowntree, whom some of you probably heard. He gave us this
analysis of what is necessary to relieve industrial unrest. He said
that there were three possible methods and only one of them would
work. The first was for the employer to run his business without
the interference of any one else and for the workers to accept his
management without protest. This has not worked in the past and
is not likely to work in the future. The second is for both sides to
organize and to protect their interests by maintaining a balance of
power. This is likely to be no more successful industrially than it
nas been politically. The third is to find out the causes of industrial
unrest and to deal with them effectively. These causes, he declared,
were fivefold. To employers he said, “If you provide only one of
these factors in contentment you can expect to remove only one-fifth
of the unrest in your plant. If you would deal adequately with
industrial unrest you must provide for all of them.” First, he said,
is the necessity for a living wage; second, security of employment
and protection against the risks of unemployment; third, hours of
work short enough to make possible leisure for citizenship, thus
determining the length of the working day not only by physiological
tests but by the right to leisure; fourth, a voice for labor in the
LABOR BUREAUS AND CAUSES OF LABOR UNREST.
99
control of the conditions which affect him in his industry; and fifth,
sharing in the profits over and above wages.
We may or may not accept this analysis as it stands, but the point
to bear in mind is that an analysis is necessary. Many factors enter
into industrial unrest. Indeed, its causes vary from industry to indus
try and even from shop to shop. The only intelligent procedure in
dealing with it is the method of Mine upon line, precept upon precept.”
In other words, it is only by constant vigilance, by having persons
who are increasingly intelligent and increasingly skilled in coopera
tion (for cooperation is a skilled trade), only by skill in interpretation
of the questions which cause friction, that difficulties in the relations
between employers and workers can be removed. Then also it is
necessary so to inform the public that it can throw its weight in the
direction of fundamental improvements which will lessen industrial
unrest.
The meaning of this for industrial commissions is that results will
be gained by a large view of the whole program, combined with
minute attention to the smallest tasks, in order that the administra
tion of the department in its every activity may meet constantly the
test of accomplishing results. Never was there a greater opportunity,
it seems to me, for an association like yours to see the task of its
members as a national service and to get the support of the public
in some truly fundamental action to improve conditions of labor.
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
BY W, M. LEISERSON, CHAIRMAN BOARD OF ARBITRATION, MEN’S AND BOYS* CLOTH
ING INDUSTRY, NEW YORK.
The work of mediation and arbitration, which is usually in
trusted by law to the State department of labor, has not received
the attention that other phases of your work have received.
I think that the work of mediation, conciliation, and arbitra
tion in the States has made very little progress indeed. No
doubt, in some of your States you will point to quite a number of
things that have been done, but, taking it all in all, the work is in a
very rudimentary state, and when you have a great strike, either
in times of prosperity when wage earners strike to push their wages
up to meet the cost of living, or in times of depression when wage
earners strike to hold up their wages, we find that your State depart
ments of labor, in their mediation and conciliation work, play a
very minor part. I think one reason for this is that the subject
has not received the scientific study that you have given to such
problems as safety, or child labor, or even employment work, and
that if you did study the question of mediation and conciliation,
which in my judgment is fundamental in all of your labor problems,
you could make the same progress with that as you have with your
safety work.
Now, I do not intend to tell you how to mediate and conciliate.
I do not intend to tell you how to settle industrial disputes. I have
had a job now for about three years settling industrial disputes and
hardly anything that I use in settling one dispute could I use in set
tling another. Every dispute has things that are entirely due to
its surrounding circumstances, and to lay down any rule that this
is the way to settle a dispute or that that is the way to settle a dis
pute is liable to lead you onto the wrong track. Most important
of all in settling disputes is the settler; that is to say, the person
you select to do the mediating and the conciliating work. On his
personality and on his knowledge will depend what will be accomand I propose to tell you what a mediator ought to know.
flished,
do not mean to say that I know these things, but I found out
what a mediator ought to know because in my own experience these
were just the things that I did not know and that 1 should have
known, and I propose now to show what a mediator ought to know
in order that he may be able to settle any dispute that may come
before him.
I said before that each dispute is liable to differ from every other
dispute, and I want to illustrate that to you. I had occasion about
a year and a half ago to arbitrate a dispute over a reduction in
wages. The employers found that they needed a reduction in wages
of about 15 per cent. The matter was left to arbitration. On inves
tigation, I round that the men and women in the industry were
not getting very high wages, but that, while those who were working
on piecework were producing enough to make the cost of the opera100
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
101
tion very reasonable, those who were working on week work pro
duced for the money they got so much less that the cost was prac
tically double what it was under the piecework system. I found
that 1 could reduce the cost of manufacturing to the employer, and
therefore to the consumer, by a very considerable amount without
touching the people’s wages, simply by ordering all of the week
workers to be transferred to piecework, if the employer so wished,
and that was done. When that was done, the union and the work
men came to me and said that I had done the most awful thing;
that if I had only consulted them, they would have preferred a 15
per cent cut in wages to that sort of thing. I did not hear the end
of it for about six months. Six months later, that very same union—
mind you, the same union, the same people who were complaining
against my decision—called a strike in six shops which were working
on the week-work system to force them to go onto piecework. They
had said that I had done absolutely the wrong thing in changing
workers over to piecework and yet here they called a strike for the
purpose of forcing the shops to go over onto piecework. I did
not lmow what to do; I did not know whether they meant it; but
by the time the case came to me both sides were tired out. Neither
was in a position to quit absolutely from the other, and I knew
that they wanted the thing settled in one way or another. The
men did not want to strike any more and the employers wanted it
settled any way at all. I did not know what to do, so I played a
trick that you can play about once in a thousand times. I said
to them, “Now, I am tired of this case; take it and settle it your
selves. You can strike; you can do anything you please. 1 am
tired of this. I do not lmow what to ao with this case.” They
had argued over and over for seven sessions, and the moment I
said that and they saw that I meant it, the representative of one
side came over, then the representative of the other side, and in 10
minutes they had the thing settled themselves. But that could be
done only when you know that both sides are tired of the strike and
that they are about equally matched. It could not be done under
any other circumstances. So, you see, the same people, the same
union or the same employers, under different circumstances will
take just the opposite point from you, and no general set rule can
tell you how to settle the strike.
What you do have to find out is the state of mind of both parties
at the particular time, and, in order to be able to appreciate the state
of mind of both parties to a strike, you should have certain informa
tion. As I have just said, there can be no set rule. Each strike has
to be settled in accordance with the circumstances of that particular
strike.
The next thing is to get away from the idea of righteousness.
Most people you hear discuss industrial disputes will tell you that, if
the employer would only deal righteously, or fairly, or justly with
his employee, or if the union would only be fair and honest and all
of that sort of thing. After you have been in this business awhile,
you will find that, on the whole, both sides want to do the fair and
just thing. The difficulty is to know what is fair and just. Let
me tell you this, that the more an employer or a wage earner feels
that he has righteousness on his side, that he is fighting for a principle,
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
and the more honest he is, the greater the conflict. You have more
trouble, more industrial disputes, more unrest, because one side or
the other is trying to put over what he honestly thinks is fair and
iust than for any other reason. If the parties will handle it as a
business proposition, and say what is the best thing to do under the
circumstances and forget about principles or righteousness and all of
the rest of it, then you can bring them together, but as long as one
side or the other has the idea that they are fighting for a great, moral
principle then you can’t do anything. You have to make them forget
the principle.
Let me illustrate that: I had occasion to arbitrate in the shirt
making industry. In that industry the work is piecework, and there
are two sets of piecework prices, one for cotton shirts and the other
for silk shirts. The prices for the silk shirts are naturally higher.
Along comes a bright textile manufacturer and he invents a new kind
of material, which he calls “English broadcloth” and which is 100 per
cent cotton but looks and feels like silk. Naturally, the employers
say, “Why, this is cotton, 100 per cent cotton,” and they want the
cotton price to hold for that, but the union people say, “Look at it.
It feels like silk, it looks like silk, and in all probability the employers
are selling it for silk,” and they want the silk prices on it. Now,
they are both honest and they are both fair, but they have different
points of view, as you and I would have different points of view if we
spent our lives on different sides of the industrial fence. You can’t
tell absolutely which is right and which is wrong in questions of this
kind, All that you can do is to find what the circumstances in the
case require, as the best kind of an adjustment to make.
The conciliator also has to know what an industrial dispute is. I
have said, in the first place, that each industrial dispute is different
from the other; in the second place, that it is not a question of fair
ness, or righteousness, or right or wrong issue. It is a question of
point of view. Every industrial dispute can be classified under one
of two heads: It is either a struggle over the division of the product
of industry or else it is a struggle for government and control of the
shop conditions in the industry^ In every strike you will find a great
many minor causes, like personal irritation, but when you look back
of it you will always find that either one side or the other is dissat
isfied with the way the products of the industry are being divided.
Here is a great cooperative enterprise. Employers and workers
together are producing in that industry. In the old days, we used
to produce on a farm practically everything that the family needed,
and the head of the family, whether it was the father or the mother,
did the dividing and divided all that was produced. Nowadays you
have a numerous family, fifteen or twenty thousand people under
one roof, working together, turning out a certain amount of wealth,
and it is difficult to say how much each one produces. The employer
says that a wage is not a fair one because the next man pays so and
so, or because the law of supply and demand says that it should be
so and so, or for some other reason, and the workman says that the
wage is not enough, because he can not support his family on it,
because the employer is getting too much out of it, or because of
some other reason, and we do not know who is right. You know
there was a time when we thought that a common laborer was worth
to society less than a professor, that the professors in the universities
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
103
ought to get more money than common laborers, and then the war
came on and things were changed. The common laborers got more
than the professors. In fact, m the clothing industry during 1919,
the period of prosperity after the war, if an employer offered one of
these people, who m the old days were practically sweatshop workers,
$50 a week when he went into a shop and asked for a job, this sweat
shop worker would say, “ What do you think I am, a college professor,
to work for $50 a week?” He wanted more, and who is to say that
he is not entitled to more ? We do not know, and because we do not
know it can not be a question of right or fairness. It is a question of
bargaining power; it is a question of general social opinion in the
community. As it is now, wage earners ordinarily can not send their
children to high school or to the university, and who is to say that
they are not right if they want enough wages to send their children
to high schools and universities? On that you have a question of
difference of opinion and your mediator can not say, even if he finds
a common laborer getting $100 a week, that that is wrong. All that
;he can say is that he wants to look into it and see how he can adjust
the matter. There is no question of right and wrong in these things.
As to the other question, shop control, we have laid down the prin
ciple in our Declaration of Independence that government derives
its just powers from the consent of the governed. We have that
principle in our municipal government, in our State and county gov
ernments—everywhere. That is the principal fundamental of our
life. Take the average workman who spends most of his waking
hours in a large industrial community. He reads notices posted up
on the wall—“ Rules and regulations of this shop.” These notices
are laws for him. He has a say in municipal ordinances, but in these
laws and regulations that have to do with his income, whether or
not, he shall work, whether he is discharged or disciplined, and every
thing else of real law for the workman, he has ordinarily no say, and
because he has learned in school that government derives its just
powers from the consent of the governed he wants to have some say
over shop control and shop discipline and shop laws. He says,
“Kules and regulations posted up by the employer to govern work
ingmen is un-American and we have got to have some say in the
making of those laws.” The workers do not use these words, but
if you get into the bottom of the dispute you will find that is what
they mean. Now, who is to say that they are not entitled to a say
in the making of these laws ? They do not want unreasonable laws
and the employers do not want unreasonable laws, but they are
always unreasonable from the point of view of the other side. The
employer thinks that the wage-earner's regulations are unreasonable
and the wage earner thinks that the employer's regulations are
unreasonable, and we do not know absolutely who is right. As in
the Parliaments of England, where the House of Lords wanted one
kind of regulation and the House of Commons wanted another kind
of regulation and they had mutual veto power and the law had to
pass both Houses, just so in settling industrial disputes you have to
get some of the opinion of the wage earner and some of the opinion of
the employer in order to make a working rule and order for the indus
try. In order to mediate or conciliate, you must understand that
they are either struggles over the distribution of wealth or they are
16697°—23—Bull. 323---- 8
104
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
struggles for government and control of shop conditions, and that
it is not a question of one side being right and the other being wrong.
Both have a right to their opinion, and all that you can do is to try
to take a little bit of both and find a way of getting a workable
compromise.
Now, industrial disputes that can be classified under these headings
are being settled every dav, and your mediator ought to know how
those things are being settled. First, the vast majority of industrial
settlements are individual settlements, the employer coming to an
individual settlement with the employee; these individual settle
ments are of two kinds. When the boss is in control, this happens:
A man was discharged the other day in a clothing factory in New York
for speaking disrespectfully to the boss. I made some inquiry about
it. 1 had the employer and the workman there and asked the
employer what had happened. He said, “ I went up to the cutting
room”—this man was a cutter—“ and I saw this man picking up a
bundle of goods and putting it down, and picking it up and putting
it down again. He wasn’t doing anything, so I said, ‘ What the hefl
are you doing?’ and he answered me back, ‘What the hell do you
think: I am doing?’ I won’t let anybody talk to me like that, so I
fired him.” I said to him, “ Don’t you think that you might have
expected that kind of an answer, when you addressed him in the way
you did?” He looked at me as if I were crazy. He says, “Ain’t I
the boss? Don’t I pay the wages?” Now, his notion was that
because he was the boss and he paid the wages nobody could speak
disrespectfully to him. In factories throughout the country indus
trial disputes, when the boss is in absolute control, are settled in
that way. The man is fired and that ends the dispute.
Last summer, in front of the house where I spend the summer in
the country, they were building a State road. A large firm of con
tractors had received the contract for the building of that road^
wherein it had estimated its labor cost at 80 cents an hour. At the
time that it was building the road in front of my house it was paying
these men 50 cents an hour, and one Saturday it told them, “ Monday
morning, you are going to get 30 cents an hour and if you don’t like
it you can get out” ; and the men had to go. That dispute over
wages was settled. The employer settled it as he thought was right.
Now, mind you, I am not condemning the employer. In all proba
bility, if I were in his place, I would do the same thing, and I won’t
say that all of you, but most of you, would do the same thing. It is
good business. It is bad business to pay more wages than the
market requires. On the other hand, from the point of view of
the workmen, it was unf air to get 30 cents an hour when the employer
got enough money to pay 80 cents. That is the way settlements are
being made every day when the boss is in control.
But don’t think that the working people are a bit better. It is just
the same thing when a shortage of labor comes and things are turned
around. When I was running the public employment office in Mil
waukee we had a job there for a machinist. The firm would pay 27J
cents an hour. The market rate at that time—not the union rate—
for a machinist was 42^ cents. A good, first-class machinist came into
my office who had been in the office for several days looking for work.
We had not sent him out on this job. Finally, he came up to the
desk and said, “ Why don’t you send me out on this job ? I need a
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
105
job.” I said, “ You are a first-class mechanic and you would not
work for 27£ cents. You can make 42J cents.” He said, “I have
been out of work so long, I’ve got to have a job. I will take this,
but then I will give them 27£ cents worth of work.” Now, when the
workman is ip. a position to settle the dispute from his side, that is
one way in which ne does it. He holds back on the work.
The other way you know about—the turnover. When the boss
is in control and there is a period of depression—a lot of unem
ployed—the workmen can’t do much, but during a time of prosperity
the workmen jump their jobs and they jump faster than they work.
More people are out of work than at work at this time, it appears,
because of the constant turnover of labor. That is the second way
in which the wage earner settles his individual dispute with the
employer.
Another way: In the city of Milwaukee the employers used to have
this habit: When workmen made good money on piecework and
produced a great deal, they cut the rate. Naturally, the good work
man would not stay. That was his way of settling it. To meet that
kind of treatment, when there was a shortage of labor, and the em
ployer could not do that sort of thing and the men were not so afraid
of being discharged, I found them registering on the punch-press
machines a great deal more work than they actually performed—
absolutely dishonest accounting of work—and that was prevalent
throughout the factory. That is one way in which the workmen
settles his dispute with the employer over wages when there is no
definite and fixed arrangement between the two of them to agree
upon what is a fair wage at the time.
You must also remember, or the mediator must, that a great many
disputes are settled by legislation. I remember when there were a
good many strikes against unsafe conditions in factories and against
insanitary conditions in factories. They are not necessary now,
because the law has settled those disputes, and the mediator must
remember that, because when he has a dispute to be settled he may
find that it has some relation to some law that may have already
settled that kind of a dispute. And so it is with regard to wages of
women. In those States where there is a minimum-wage law, a
strike for a fair minimum wage may not be necessary.
We come now to the kind of settlements that are collective rather
than individual. These disputes are settled by the employers as a
body and by the workmen as a body, rather than individually. First,
let us take the case of collective settlements, where the union gets in
control. When the employer is in absolute control for a period, it
usually leads to a reaction. The workmen organize a strong union,
and then they get control as a union, and what do they do? Some
of you may be familiar with what Samuel Untermyer showed up in
the case of the Jewish bakers in the city of New York. Now, in the
old days those bakery workmen worked under the rottenest condi
tions; 18 hours a day was common. When Roosevelt was governor
of the State of New York, he advocated a law to limit the hours to
10 a day. The law was passed, but it was declared unconstitutional.
These men worked in basement bakeries under the filthiest conditions,
and if they did not like it the boss said, “ You can get out of here.”
Low wages, long hours, insanitary conditions. And then the picture
changed. They could stand it just about so long, and now what do
106
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
they do ? Samuel Untermyer showed it up in the evidence. There
has been a great deal of introduction of machinery in the industry,
for kneading the bread, and so on. The union will not permit any
man to be fired, and every time a labor-saving machine comes in
the hours of labor are reduced. The men are now working from 5
to 7 hours a day, and their scale is $75 a week; but most of them
won’t work for less than $90, so the evidence shows. They won’t
take in any apprentices, and nobody is to be fired. They do another
thing: When they work 5 hours a day, they are through, and if there
is any bread in the ovens they go home and leave it there, and then
the hoss, his wife and daughter, and mother-in-law, and everybody,
have to come and work 10 or 12 hours to finish up the work. They
also have a habit or custom in the industry that a workman can take
bread home with him, and they interpret that to mean that a man
can take home as much as he can carry, and so he has his wife make
him a great, big bag, and he fills it up with bread, takes it home, and
sells it to the neighbors at less than the baker employer sells it. Now,
that is what a union does when it gets in absolute control—when it
is in the position that the employer was in before—and who shall
say that it is doing any worse than the employers did? Why
shouldn’t the men get $90 a week? The employers used to think
that $10 a week was enough, and there was no law to compel them to
pay more, and if we passed a law now to prevent the workman from
charging $90 a week, what is to prevent the employer from saying
that $10 is enough? No law can prevent the employer from paying
too little, and no law should prevent any workman from charging
too much. Then, take the working five hours a day. I talked to
one of these bakers. He said, “In the other industries the boss
usually goes home and plays golf at the end of five hours and lets
the workmen work. Why, we just turned the tables. We go home—
maybe we play golf or pinochle—and let the boss do the rest of the
work.” When the union gets into absolute control, it may settle
things in that way; but, just as you can see that while there is some
thing in the wage earner’s point of view—that after all he may be
right, or at least he may be as right as the employers who have undis
puted sway—still some sort of an adjustment has to be made by
which both employer and the workman will have some say in a case
like this, just so it is important to remember to do the same thing
when the employer has absolute sway. But th§re is collective set
tlement when the union is in absolute control and the employers are
not strong enough to organize an association to dispute it.
I will tell you of another case of a similar kind. A man came
into my office not long ago—he worked in a small contract shop—
and he said, “Can’t you help us out? The contractor where I work
beat me up, and the people in the shop fined the contractor $150,
and he won’t pay the $150 and they won’t go back to work. Can’t
you settle it for us?” “ Well,” I said, “ I don’t know, but can you
contractor up here?” He said, “I think so.” The next
fetay the
he brought up the contractor. Mind you, the charge was that
the contractor had beaten him up. The contractor came up with
a bandaged head and one eye pretty nearly gone. I said, “ Wxio did
you say did the beating?” Well, what happened was this: This
man, who is the leader of the union in the shop, got into an argu
ment with the contractor; all the people in the shop then got on top of
MEDIATION AND CON OIMATION.
107
the contractor and beat him up, and, on top of that they
fined him $150. That is no worse than what the contractor used to
do in the old days. The men learned it all from the contractor.
Now, that is what happens when the union has absolute control.
You have the opposite kind of collective settlement when the
employer has absolute control. Most of you know about the National
Erectors’ Association, the first organization in the building trades
that declared for the open shop. Now, that was a collective settle
ment. The employers got together and said, “Such and such are
the conditions under which all of us employers will employ you
workmen. It will be open shop, it will be such and such wages,
and it will be individual bargaining; every workman will deal indi
vidually wTith the employer.” You have the same, situation in
Detroit or wherever there is an open-shop organization. The em
ployer then dictates. He decides all of the shop conditions, not as
an individual, but collectively with all of his fellow employers.
The National Metal Trades Association does that and very many
others, and they do to the employee exactly what these union people
do to the employers when they have absolute control.
Now, we come to collective bargaining, which is joint control.
That is to say, having swung from one kind of settlement to other
ways of settlement, both begin to see that the best and most prac
tical way is to settle the matter jointly. Both sides then become
organized. They are in a position to prevent overpowering conduct
on either side, and they have to come to an effective compromise.
Now, you have that in two waws. You have it, first, when there is
a trade-union organization. But many employers have found a
trade-union organization coming into their plant, and, in order to
prevent it, they have organized their own unions, which they call
“works committees,” or “shop committees,” or “industrial councils,”
or what not. These unions may or may not be honest unions. Many
of them are honest unions—common unions—many more are dishon
est and fakes; but in every case it is a recognition that some sort of
collective dealing which equalizes the power on both sides is neces
sary, and more and more disputes throughout the country are being
settled by this method. Both sides organize and lay down the rules
fixing the times and conditions of employment, deciding on what is
the proper distribution, what the wage shall be, and also what rules
of discipline shall prevail—what is a just discharge, and so on.
Within recent years the development of these collective agreements—
joint control by employers ana workmen over conditions of employ
ment—has made it necessary to develop a judicial interpretation of
the laws that are made by this joint body of employers and work
men, and so we find arbitrators who interpret the agreements and
apply them to particular cases. In the common unions, many of
the shop committees or works council plans provide for arbitration,
and decisions have to be made. All of the decisions, whether under
trade agreements between employers and workmen or under works
council plans, are gradually building up a great body of industrial
common law, which shows the custom, the law in the industry that
both sides consider fair, the practice of the. industry and what both
sides have found practical. The mediator who is familiar with all
of that body of law is in a position to make suggestions which are
satisfactory to both sides and will lead to speedy settlement.
108
ASSOCIATION OS’ GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
Let me illustrate: Not long ago in the city of New York a case
came to me from the printing industry. A printer was discharged
on the ground of unsatisfactory work. He had worked 'for the
employer for some three years, but he was discharged on account of
unsatisfactory work. The people in the shop were going to strike,
but they put the question up to a joint arbitration committee, of
which I happened to be chosen the chairman. For about two months
this committee tried to settle the question. They agreed on all of
the facts. They agreed that the man had gotten careless in his work
and should be punished. They also agreed, however, that the firm
had contributed to his carelessness by careless management of the
The union was willing that the man should be punished by
Iilant.
osing about six weeks7 work; that is, his pension for six weeks, but
after that he should be reinstated. The employers on the arbitration
committee, however, said they would agree to censure the employer
for his negligence, but they would not agree to reinstate the man.
After they had fooled around with the case for about two months,
agreeing on all the facts, but not knowing what to do, they happened
to choose me as arbitrator. I had had dozens of similar cases in
another industry and knew the sort of agreements the people were
willing to make, and I suggested to them: “ Why not let the man be
discharged; make the statement that he wasn’t incompetent, merely
got careless, and, on the other hand, make the employer pay him two
weeks’ wages, during which he will have the chance to get another
job?” Both of them thought that that sort of a settlement was
perfectly satisfactory. I had gotten the idea out of practice in many
other cases, and by merely suggesting it the case was immediately
settled. If you could only make all of this body of common law—
the settlements between unions and employers or the decisions of
works councils—the equipment of your mediator, you could suggest
to employers and wage earners during strikes settlements which they
would be glad to make and which they would feel came not from an
impracticable outsider but were practical common law of the industry
everywhere.
I have outlined to you these different kinds of settlement—individ
ual, collective, and so on. At any time that a strike occurs in any
one of these States, or any one of these kind of settlements, your
mediator ought to know all about it and he ought to be familiar
with all of tins background of information.
In conclusion I want to say that it seems to me that, if your
State department organic act has even a phrase in it that you may
mediate or investigate strikes, if you will select a man, after you have
consulted with the chambers of commerce and trade-unions of the
State, so that both sides have confidence in him, and say to that man,
“Get familiar with this kind of information,” that man can settle
very many of your strikes and do a great deal to promote industrial
peace and order in the community. That man would not do what
most of your States do when they say, “We keep out of the strike
until we are called in.” I do not find that employers and wage
earners in a dispute resent someone coming in and making sugges
tions to them if he has information. Usually, after a strike happens,
both sides get a little scared, and if somebody comes in with informa
tion that looks as if it might work they are glad to have the informa
MEDIATION AND CONCILIATION.
109
tion. Usually, before a strike occurs, when there is talk of it, the
employer is afraid of what may happen and the union people are
afraid they will lose, and if, at the right moment, a man who knows
something about these things, who has the whole body of industrial
law at his command, offers a practical settlement botn sides will be
glad to take it. And further, where it is a large enterprise and the
public interest is vitally affected, a little hint by a man who knows
both sides and has all of the information, as, “All right; I can't
force you to settle this, but I represent this Commonwealth, and
if I can't force you to settle it, all I can do is to publish to the people
of this State what it seems to me is involved in this dispute,'' will
bring both the employer and employee to realize that they are not
the whole show; that there are a lot of other people involved in
the dispute as well. And so you see that the principal thing is not
that you should have law that tells you how to settle these disputes,
not that you should have a great department, but that you snould
have a man with equipment and personality and with the confidence
of both sides to undertake this work. With such a man very much
could be done, in my judgment, to eliminate a great deal of the
waste and misery that come from strikes.
THURSDAY, MAY 25—MORNINGSESSION.
FRANK E. WOOD, PRESIDENT, PRESIDING.
B U S IN E S S S E S S IO N .
REPORT OF AUDITING COMMITTEE.
[This report was accepted.]
The auditing committee has carefully inspected the records of the secretary-treas
urer and found the same neatly and accurately kept. The following report of our
investigation is respectfully submitteed:
Cash on hand...................................................................................1. $170. 33
Receipts............................................................................................ 250. 00
Receipts from interest.............................................. _........................ 6. 00
Total receipts, 1921-22............................................................. 426. 33
Disbursements................................................................................... 135. 48
Balance, cash on hand
290. 85
Respectfully submitted.
M. L. Shipman,
F. J. H artman,
Alice K. McF arland.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS.
]. Resolved , That the thanks of the ninth annual convention of the Association of
Governmental Labor Officials of the United States and Canada are due and are hereby
extended to the mayor of Harrisburg and to the Chamber of Commerce of sail city
for the elegant reception tendered to this association; to Commissioner C. B. Connelley of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, for the magnificent
preparation made for the convention and the accommodation provided for its con
venience; and to Mr. Fred J. Hartman, of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor
and Industry, for the able assistance rendered by him to the association and its officials.
2. Whereas, since the last convention it has pleased an all-wise Providence to
remove from our midst past President Edwin Mulready, a former commissioner of
labor and industries of Massachusetts; and
Whereas, he was always wise in counsel and fearless in action in all things that
tended to promote the interest of this association; therefore be it
Resolved , That the members of the ninth annual convention extend our sympathy
to his bereaved family; and be it further
Resolved , That this resolution be spread on the minutes of the convention and a
copy be sent to his bereaved family in Massachusetts.
3. Whereas, there is appearing in this country a type of labor which, while appar
ently agricultural, is being conducted in such a manner as effectually to factoryize
such labor, as for instance, the sugar beet and other intensified agriculture; and
Whereas, child labor is alleged to be used in such cases; therefore be it
Resolved , That it is the sense of this organization that this class of agricultural labor
ought not to be excepted from the provisions of the labor laws in such cases, and that
in the enactment of future labor laws or amendment of present ones legislators should
consider the advisability of covering agriculture with a view to protecting children
from long hours and extensive labor m any form or under any guise.
4. Resolved , That the officers and members of this association cooperate with the
Federal Department of Labor in urging the various States to supply promptly State
labor statistics on industrial accidents for compilation and publication by the Federal
Government for the general use and information of the public, without the delay that
has been heretofore occasioned.
110
BUSINESS SESSION.
Ill
5. Resolved, That the convention recommend that the Women’s Bureau at Wash
ington, D. be asked to make a study of seats for working women, with special
reference to posture.
6. Whereas, the success or failure of any convention depends in a large measure on
the program committee; be it
Resolved, That this convention extend to the program committee its sincere thanks
. for giving us a program of very high order.
[The report of this committee was adopted.]
ELECTION OF OFFICERS.
The election of officers resulted as follows:
President.—C. B. Connelley, commissioner department of labor and industry, Harris
burg, Pa.
First vice president.—John S. B. Davie, commissioner bureau of labor, Concord, N. H.
Second vice president.—Mrs. Delphine M. Johnson, supervisor of women in industry,
department of labor and industries, Olympia, Wash.
Third vice president.—L. T. Bryant, commissioner department of labor, Trenton,
Fourth vice president.—Mrs. Ethel L. Scott, director division of women and children,
bureau of labor and industrial statistics, Richmond, Va.
Fifth vice president.—H. C. Hudson, general superintendent, Ontario offices, Em
ployment Service of Canada, Toronto, Canada.
Secretary-treasurer.—Louise Schutz, chief division of women and children, indus
trial commission, St. Paul, Minn.
The following motions were agreed to by the association:
That at any time that membership is desired on the part of this
association upon any of the code committees, the president be author
ized to name the representative.
That it is the sense of this body that the executive board pay the
first obligations to Miss Bresette for her services to this body.
That the next annual convention be held at Richmond, Va.
The following were elected to honorary life membership in the asso
ciation: Past Presidents Hoffman, Hambrecht, and Wood, and Sec
retary-Treasurer Bresette.
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION.
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.
BY MRS. ROSALIE LOEW WHITNEY, MEMBER INDUSTRIAL BOARD, NEW YORK DEPART
MENT OP LABOR.
In New York State the labor law and the workmen’s compensation
law are administered by the same department, namely, the depart
ment of labor. The general scope of the labor law is defined in the
statute itself as follows: “It being the policy and intent of this chapter
that *11 places to which it applies shall be so constructed, equipped,
arranged, operated, and conducted in all respects as to provide rea
sonable and adequate protection to the lives, health, and safety of all
persons employed therein, and frequenting the same, and that the
board shall from time to time make such rules as will effectuate such
policy and intent. ” The places to which the law applies are, among
others, factories, mercantile establishments, bakeries and factories
for food products, mines, tunnels and quarries; there are also general
provisions as to hours of labor, payment of wages, public works, em
ployment of children and women, manufacturing in tenement houses,
and regulations of the use of explosives. The scope of the labor law
is amazingly enlarged by the fact that the industrial board has power
to make rules, which have all the force and effect of law, with regard
to the places mentioned and with regard to the construction, altera
tion, equipment, and maintenance of the same; the arrangement and
guarding of machinery and the storing and keeping of property;
methods of operation and the conduct of trades and occupations.
These rules may cover the matter of sanitation, and minimize and
guard against fire hazards, personal injuries, and disease. In addi
tion the board may of its own volition, when it finds that any indus
try, trade, or occupation involves elements of danger to the lives and
safety of persons employed therein, require special regulations for
their protection, making special rules to guard against such elements
of danger. Where a provision of the law or a rule of the board in
volves practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships, the law allows a
variation to be made, but only where the spirit of the provisions can
be observed and public safety secured.
Until 1921 the department was headed by a commission of five,
all of whom exercised all of the powers given by the law. It is easy
to see from the foregoing excerpts from the statute that the law is one
not only to be administered, but also involving legislative and judi
cial powers. In 1921 the labor law was codified and the department
reorganized, the purpose of the reorganization being to separate the
administrative from the judicial and legislative powers of the depart
ment.
Administrative work is of a different type than legislative and ju
dicial functions. In the very nature of things, administrative work
can best be conducted by one person and directed by one person. To
112
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.
113
place administration in one person has been the tendency in other
States. On the other hand, legislative or quasi-legislative and ju
dicial functions ought not to be carried out by one mind; indeed, in
New York some years ago, under a different form of the law, it was
held that the legislature could not delegate its powers to one person.
The form of organization provided by the 1921 law, was therefore, the
appointment of an administrative officer known as the industrial
commissioner and the appointment of an industrial board of three
persons, the former to be responsible for the administration of the law
and the administrative functions of the department and the latter to
have all the quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers. The making
of rules, which become part of the industrial code and have the force
and effect of law, is a judicial act which is in the hands of the indus
trial board. As far as the compensation law is concerned, the admin
istration is also in the hands of the industrial commissioner, and the
making of rules and final decisions of compensation cases are in the
hands of the members of the board.
The administrative work of the department can best be visualized
by a reference to the bureaus in the department. These are inspec
tion, workmen’s compensation, state insurance fund, industrial
relations, statistics and information, and industrial code. Judge
Seaman Northrup, who spoke to you yesterday, is director of the
bureau of industrial relations.
The three members of the board find that somewhat more than
half their time is devoted to compensation cases.
The compensation work is to me of most appealing interest and I am
glad to speak at some length on the New York statute. New York
believes it now has the most humane and progressive compensation
law in the country. The theory of compensation is well established
in thir country. It will be remembered that the first law of general
application was passed by New York in 1910, but this statute was
declared unconstitutional. The present compulsory law was passed
in 1913, going into effect in 1914, and the law has from year to year
been amended, always extending its benefits to larger groups, and with
greater benefits, and although the New York law has been heretofore
recognized as most liberal, it has during the last two sessions of the
legislature added provisions which justify my first declaration. I
should like to discuss the new provisions of the law and, in discuss
ing them, explain those features which I believe provide satisfactorily
for the needs it is intended to meet. These changes in the law go
into effect July 1.
The first important questio.n with regard to a compensation law is
the coverage. In New York this coverage has heretofore been
determined by the naming of specific employments, referred to in the
statute as groups. These groups have been added to from year to
year. An important addition, in 1918, was that of employments
not already enumerated “ in which there are engaged or employed four
or more workmen or operatives regularly,” except farm laborers and
domestic servants. There has always been and still is in the statute
a general provision that the employments named must be carried
on for pecuniary gain.
A change with regard to coverage just made in the statute by the
legislature is that these groups are rearranged according to the nature
of the industrial act, as, for instance, tne constructive group, the
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
installation group, the manufacturing group, and others; the manu
facturing group mentions, for instance, 263 articles the manufacture
of which is a hazardous employment. The exclusion of farmers and
domestic servants, except where these are covered by voluntary
insurance, and the “four or more workmen” group, are the same as
in tne previous statute. It is believed that tie present grouping is
more logical than the old form, and also that under the present system
there can be fewer questions as to coverage, especially as there is
another provision that a carrier may not deny coverage where it has
accepted a premium. The statute also somewhat extends the occu
pational diseases covered by the act and very greatly simplifies pro
cedure with regard to them. No change has been made in the clause
in the statute by which the first two weeks are not paid for nor as to
the maximum of $20 and the minimum of $8.
The methods of insurance are not changed. The provision for
insurance in the State fund, in a stock or mutual company, or by be
coming self-insurers is compulsory. The failure of employers to in
sure is a great misfortune to injured employees or the dependents of
employees killed. In New York, factory inspectors must report
whether the notice required by the compensation law is posted. In
the last year about 4,500 employers were reported by inspectors and
they were required to take out insurance. Every labor department
or bureau should assist to reduce this evil.
It has always been agreed by those interested in compensation that
the medical treatment to which the injured employee shall be entitled
is as important an element as the compensation paid to him. When
the New York statute was first passed there was a limit of 60 days’
medical treatment; later this was amended to provide that the com
mission might extend this period when it found it necessary to do so;
but the statute as now amended, reads distinctly that the employer
shall promptly provide for the injured employee medical, surgical, or
other attendance or treatment for the whole period during which the
same shall be necessary. It has always been the law that if an em
ployer failed to provide an employee with proper medical treatment
the injured employee might obtain his own medical treatment at the
expense of the employer, and this is not changed, but there is a new
provision that within 20 days following the first treatment the physi
cian shall furnish to the employer and to the industrial commissioner
a report of such injury and treatment or else his claim is not valid.
This is an added protection to the injured employee, as it brings his
injury to the attention of the employer from sources other than his
own notice.
Provision for permanent total disability remains unchanged in the
new statute ana consists of two-thirds of the average weekly wage,
with a maximum of $20 weekly during the continuance of such total
disability. Temporary total disability benefits shall be paid to the
employee during the existence of such disability bujuiot in excess of
$3,500.
Permanent partial disability benefits continue to be paid for the
same number of weeks as heretofore, but the arrangement in the
statute is simplified. This covers the permanent loss of a member or
eye, or part of a member or eye, or loss of use of the same. Loss of
hearing is now covered by the statute in New York for the first time.
The compensation with regard to loss of ability to use a hand is made
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.
115
more liberal in that it is provided that compensation for the loss of
two or more digits, or of one or more phalanges of two or more digits,
of a hand or foot may be proportioned to the loss of use of hand or
foot occasioned thereby, but shall not exceed the compensation for
the loss of a hand or foot. No change is made with regard to depend
ents in the case of death, except that dependents in a foreign country
shall be limited, where there is no surviving wife or children, to a sur
viving father or mother.
One of the most interesting amendments made to the statute at any
time was that made in 1921 regarding the payment of compensation.
The amendment referred to is that of section 25. In some States, I
understand, there is no provision for a hearing on compensation
claims. This has never been so in New York. All cases have always
had hearings. For the first four years all cases were heard before final
closing. Then the statute was amended to provide that employee
and employer or insurance carrier might enter into a written agree
ment, this to be subject to examination and approval by the commis
sion. The law was then amended to require that upon the filing of
such agreements the commission should notify all parties to be present
at a hearing to determine whether the agreements were in accordance
with the facts and the law.
Any type of agreement law is more or less unsatisfactory. It tends
to bring about the old bargaining attitude between employee and
employer or insurance company, instead of maintaining the more
definite and dignified attitude for the employee of a right provided
with definiteness by statute.
One of the big problems of workmen’s compensation laws has always
been to provide this certainty to the employee of the assistance
intended to be provided for him, and promptness in the payment of
the same, and at the same time to make provision for prompt hearing
and decision where there is any question of the right. It is not a
simple matter to provide both these conditions at once.
This idea was well worded by the governor of New York in his
message to the legislature in 1921, as follows:
In this connection I desire to call attention to what appears to me to be a serious
defect in the workmen ’s compensation law. It is essential to the just working of the
law that settlements be made promptly. The theory of the law is compensation to
tide the injured employee over the period of disability, the relation of the employer
and employee continuing at least during that period. It will promote better relations
between employer and employee to have these matters put upon that basis in fact
as well as theory, and to have them attended to as far as possible in the normal way
without the introduction of third parties. The introduction of the insurance carriers
shifts the responsibility from employer to carrier, with the result that the employee
has to look to administrative agencies of the State or to the third party carrier. There
results an unnecessary barrier and estrangement between employer and employee and
inevitable delay, often to the acute distress of the employee.
I recommend that the statute be amended so as to require the continuance of an
injured employee on the pay roll and the payment after the twTo weeks ’ waiting period,
of the two-thirds compensation required by law, unless the employer notifies, the
commission that the case will be contested, in which case the contest should be brought
on promptly for a hearing. In my opinion that change will remove the cause of many
delays, it will promote the automatic and harmonious operation of the law, and will
tend to remove some of those causes of estrangement between employer and employee,
who are fortunately beginning to learn that their interests are mutual.
I quote this at length because it seems to me so clearly to set
forth the spirit of what a workmen’s compensation law should be.
The amendment (section 25) which followed this recommendation of
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
the governor begins as follows: “The compensation herein provided
for shall be paid periodically and promptly in like manner as wages,
and as it accrues, and directly to the person entitled thereto without
waiting for an award by the industrial board, except in those cases
where the right to compensation is controverted by the employer.”
It is then provided that on the twenty-first day after the injury the
first compensation becomes due, and must be paid—the first 14 days
not being compensable unless the injury lasts more than 49 days.
On or before the twenty-fifth day (thus allowing four days) the em
ployer (or carrier) must file notice with the industrial commissioner
that such payment has been made and will be continued during dis
ability, and that he will notify the industrial commissioner upon the
cessation of such payments. A notice is at once sent to the injured
workman informing him of his rights under the law, and of his right
to a hearing at any time. In addition, upon notice that payments
have ceased, a notice is sent him of a hearing at which he is expected
to appear.
When the notice from an employer or insurance carrier states
that no payment is being made, but that, on the contrary, the claim
is controverted, it must also give the reason for such controversion.
Upon receipt of such a notice, a date for hearing is set at once. Thus
in either event the claimant has a hearing. These hearings are, in
the first instance, before officials known as referees. Either or any
party may ask for a review by the board, and the board also hears
many cases in the first instance, where these have become involved
as to fact, or raise new questions of law. By a further amendment
ip 1922, the legislature has removed the agreement provision altogether.
This dependence of the injured workman upon his statutory right of
compensation, with full opportunity for a nearing, certainly tends to
meet the objects of the law; namely, to preserve better relations
between employee and employer, and to give the former greater
certainty as to nis rights and expectations in case of injury.
The new statute continues the severe provisions of the law regard
ing nonpayment, allowing awards to be filed as judgments and
providing a punishment of imprisonment of one year or a fine of
$500, or both, for noninsurance. Needless to say, nonpayment is
more serious in case of noninsurance.
No change has been made in the provision requiring written notice
to be given by the injured employee within 30 days. The statute
continues the provision that the written notice may be excused if
the employer or his representative in charge of the work had actual
knowledge of the accident and if the failure to give notice has not
prejudiced the rights of the employer. Disputes of fact are frequent
over this point. Did the employee notify the employer? Did his
notification constitute a notice oi injury or accident, or did the em
ployee simply announce that he was not feeling well, without associat
ing it with injury? The interpretation of this provision, while
fair to the employer, has been liberal to the employee. The statutory
provision for filing a claim within a year has not changed. There
is no provision in the law or the cases for excusing failure to file a
claim. Any payment in advance by the employer or insurer, how
ever, makes it impossible for the employer to set up the defense
that the claim was not filed within a year. In actual practice many
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.
117
claims are lost by the injured employees through a failure to file the
claim within the proper time. Yet the general principles that a
man may not sleep indefinitely on his rights, and that the employer
is entitled to know the demands to be made upon him, require some
limitation. The duty lies heavily on commissions, employers, union
representatives, and others interested in the employee, to educate
the worker as to his obligations under the law.
An employee injured in the course of and by an act arising out
of his employment may be injured through the negligence of a person
other than his employer or fellow employee. In such a case, under
the New York law, an employee may elect to take compensation
from his employer (or employer's insurer) or may pursue his commonlaw remedy in the courts by an action for negligence against the
third person. The choice must be declare^ by the filing of a written
election to sue, together with a claim (a forin is provided), whereupon
the claim for compensation is kept alive until the law action is dis
posed of, and if less is recovered in the law courts than compensation
may give, the difference will be paid to the claimant by award of
the board. A frequent cause of misfortune to a claimant is the lack
of knowledge on the part of his attorney that he may not settle
such a third-party action except with consent of the employer.
It is, I believe, a principle common to all compensation laws that
other sources of income shall not affect the right of compensation.
Other sources of income are, however, a factor in determining de
pendency. Widows and children are not affected in their rights;
but other dependents, parents or grandparents, grandchildren, or
brothers or sisters, must show real dependency.
Perhaps the most important addition made by the 1922 legislature
was that regarding subcontractors. A contractor whose work would
be covered by the statute if he were doing the work himself is liable
for compensation to the employees of subcontractors, unless the
subcontractor has secured compensation as provided in this chapter.
This will result in contractors making sure that subcontractors are
insured, and will give protection to thousands of workmen heretofore
unprotected.
In the northern part of New York State timber cutting is an
important industry. Many injured men have found themselves
without compensation due to the fact that their employer was an
independent contractor and noninsured. The “contractor's section"
applies to the owner of timber making such independent contracts.
The same general principle applies, by the amendment, to any
hazardous work requiring a permit from any public department, by
providing that the same shall not be issued until proof is submitted
that compensation has been secured. These are far-reaching pro
visions.
The new law continues, of course, the State fund, and adds pro
visions concerning its administration that will make it more useful
in its purpose of regulating other insurance companies by competi
tion. These provisions are for the payment of its expenses directly
out of its premium instead of out of the State budget, its expenses,
however, to be approved in advance by the State board of estimate
and control. An advisory committee of nine members appointed
by the governor from among the employers insured in the State
fund, to serve without pay, shall consider the condition of the State
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
fund, its reserves, investments, and administration. This ought to,
and undoubtedly will, result in an understanding of the State fund
that will be very beneficial to the principle of State fund insurance.
One more change may be referred to: A division of the $1,000 paid
in death cases where there is no dependent, $500 each for the re
education fund and for the fund for those sustaining permanent total
disability after permanent partial disability.
The rehabilitation work thus provided for is carried on in con
junction with the Federal bureau, and is having the good results
to be expected. To my mind, the rehabilitation work, with greater
cooperation with the medical work, as well as with the administra
tion of the compensation payments, is the soul of compensation
work, and the broadest field, perhaps, next to prevention, that lies
before those who are interested in these questions. Employers and
carriers in New York appear to me not to realize that rehabilitation
work may be used by them as definite money savers, quite apart
from their use in rebuilding and maintaining morale and character.
Every one in this work can cite innumerable examples of the wonders
of rehabilitation work. No case has pleased me more than that of
a bricklayer who had an injury to the palm of his hand, because
of which he could not hold a trowel. For a year the insurance carrier
had paid compensation on a reduced earning capacity. At hearings
before me to continue this payment, I found that the man was
working as a drug store clerk, and was becoming more and more
restless at not returning to his own trade, while the company was
equally restive at being obliged to pay compensation. The medical
testimony was clear that the sore on the inner surface of the hand
would not allow of his regular work. I sent him to the rehabilitation
bureau to have a device made to raise the pressure from the scarred
area. This was not so simple as at first appeared, but with a second
attempt a satisfactory glove was evolved. The claimant then went
to a trade school until he became proficient in the use of the hand,
and in a few weeks he returned to his own trade, greatly to the
satisfaction of the man, the carrier, and the man’s union delegate.
All of this could have been done a year earlier. In another case,
that of the complete loss of a member, rehabilitation training within
a few months provided the injured man with a new trade at which
he will earn more than at his old trade. These are simple cases;
the annals of rehabilitation work are already full of much more
impressive examples.
But any compensation law, however well devised, has difficulties
of application. The Court of Appeals and the Appellate Division of
the Supreme Court of New York are constantly deciding questions.
The former has held that a hydroplane while on the water is of a
maritime nature. That, however, does not decide the following
case. A man was employed as general assistant in a lumber yard—
a se6ond-hand lumber yard. Among other duties, he wrecked build
ings, drove a wagon, and stacked lumber. His duties were all
plainly land duties. One day his employer sent him to load some
lumber from a dock into his wagon and fetch it to the yard. He
drove to the dock, and finding that the crew or others employed to
do the work had not vet unloaded the lumber, he drove his wagon
in under the crane and was severely injured while trying to ease the
descending lumber onto its proper place on the wagon. Did he
COMPENSATION LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK.
119
drive his wagon into admiralty jurisdiction? The employer claims
that he did. Unloading has been, under our decisions, maritime.
A teacher injured while performing a chemical experiment in the
course of her teaching was held not to be engaged in chemical work,
and the injury, therefore, not compensable, because her chief and
real work was teaching, the chemical experiment being merely inci
dental. If a man is employed to look after property belonging to
his employer and incidentally is sent by the employer to do some
work upon his own home, is this latter work incidental, and not
compensable if an injury occurs in its performance, because the
maintenance of the home by the employer is not carried on for
pecuniary gain?
The court of appeals has held that the watchman of a building
does not step out of his employment if he goes upon the street when
he hears pistol shots and is Killed by bullets intended for robbers not
on the property he is guarding. Is it equally certain that a girl
under 15 years of age employed in a factory does not step out of her
employment if she steps to a near-by machine which has nothing to
do with her own work, and is injured?
Any day’s work with compensation cases brings innumerable
questions difficult of solution. Those who are charged with the
administration of the law must bear in mind the intention of the
statute, namely, the protection of workmen in accidents arising out
of and in the course of their employment. The definition of each
and every word may raise some question, but the general tendency,
in New York State at least, is to broaden the application of the law
and to provide a benefit to those who may be covered by it.
Of all the questions that arise with regard to compensation,
medical treatment is the most important—even more important than
the payment of compensation, because the soundness of the work
man’s body is his chief asset, and, in addition, humanity demands
that the best possible medical care be given. In New York, and I
think largely everywhere, the workmen’s compensation law has
brought into use the best medical ability. The compensation law
also has developed medicine and medical practice, in that it has
a greater opportunity for the study of what has come to be
fiven
nown in industrial surgery as end results. New York has its own
medical department, and when necessary cases are sent to specialists
for examination and report. The medical aspect of the work is still a
field in which much improvement can be made. Certain classes of
cases have come to be recognized as most difficult of treatment. These
are, particularly, back injuries and neurosis cases. In the former,
every art and scientific method of the physician must be brought
into play for a complete examination. Yet physical examination
alone is not always enough. There are so many of these injuries
that give only subjective signs that it is often necessary to bring
into use social service and rehabilitation work. The man accus
tomed to heavy labor who has wrenched his back, and who has
made up his mind that he will never be able to do the same work
again, frequently becomes a difficult subject to handle. To find him
work that he admits he can do and gradually to accustom him to
heavy work and thus prove to him' that he is not disabled, is the
only complete method. In neurosis cases, care, time, and sympathy
16697°—23— Bull. 323--- 9
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
must all be used, together with the best medical advice and medical
treatment. It appears to me that the possible cure of neurosis
cases has had less consideration in compensation work than outside
of it.
I believe that every medical department connected with compen
sation work should have an eye specialist. Such serious injuries may
result from slight causes in eye cases that these ought all to be sub
jected to a trained eye man for observation at the earliest possible
moment.
Probably hernia cases are as difficult in other jurisdictions as in
New York. Whether the facts of an incident constitute an accident;
whether, if the employer or carrier does not furnish an operation, the
claimant may be compensated for the time that he remains out of
work waiting for this operation; the possibility of recurrence—all
these and many more questions make this a subject that takes up a
'large share of time. I am inclined to believe hernias should be con
sidered in the nature of occupational disease. This would be fairer
and no more expensive to the employer or carrier. There are innu
merable other medical questions; for instance, whether a claim for a
serious bum should not be finally adjudicated until at least two
years have passed, to see whether there may be any malignant
growths from keloids; as to the treatment of synovitis; how far the
medical department of a compensation division should guard against
infections. These all arise in the daily grind and require the best
wisdom of the man of science and the exercise of common sense by
the person administering or interpreting the law.
The two great principles of compensation are prompt and efficient
medical treatment necessary and prompt payment of compensation.
New York has effectively met both of these obligations and hopes
from further experience and from conferences such as this to learn
more and thus more completely to fulfill its duty and administer its
compensation law as a real help in the establishment of a better
understanding and the maintenance of better relations between those
two groups, to both of which we all belong, the employer and the
employee.
PROGRESS IN COMPENSATION LEGISLATION.
BY ROBERT E. LEE, CHAIRMAN MARYLAND STATE INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT COMMISSION.
I am largely indebted for what I shall read to you this afternoon
to the very excellent statistical reports that come from the United
States Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Mr. Ethelbert Stewart, to my
commission, which are a wonderful aid in the preparation of any
thing pertaining to the progress of labor legislation.
Compensation for industrial accidents was established in Germany
in 1884 and in Austria in 1887. The third country, Norway, followed,
in the year 1894. In 1893 the first report by the United States
Bureau of Labor devoted to the subject of workmen’s insurance was
published, under the title of “Compulsory insurance in Germany.”
Since that year developments in legislation providing for workmen’s
compensation for industrial accidents in Europe and America have
been rapid. It is conceded that no other subject for the benefit of
labor has made such progress. Fifty foreign countries and Provinces,
have now some form of workmen’s compensation for industrial acci
dents. In the United States 42 States have workmen’s compensa
tion laws. The courts of these States are no longer burdened with
differences as to fellow servants, assumed risk, and contributory
negligence, and the injured parties under the industrial accident
laws, commonly known as workmen’s compensation laws, are enabled
to receive their compensation when it is most needed, without the
delays occasioned by the necessary time required in suits and fre
quent appeals. Accident boards and commissions administering
the law represent a new development in American jurisprudence;
they are saving enormous sums, which under the common law were
paid to lawyers and witnesses. The work of these tribunals is now
recognized as a necessary concomitant of modern industrialism.
Under the common law the employee could recover only in the
event that he was injured through some negligent act of the em
ployer. This element is not a prerequisite to recovery under the
law as it exists to-day. Now an employee who receives an accidental
injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, and which
disables him for a longer period than the waiting period provided by
the act of his State, is assured of compensation, provided, however,
that his injury was not caused by his own willful misconduct or willful
intent to injure himself or another, or did not result solely from
intoxication. This great work, which is rapidly and generally
developing, practically revolutionizes the law of master ana servant
in so far as personal injuries are concerned.
Neither the German nor the British system has been adopted in
the United States, but the British act is administered under the
same principles of law as the American act. The words of the
British act, that an injury to be compensable must be the result
of an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employ
ment, have been adopted in nearly all American States.
121
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The workmen’s compensation law of Maryland became effective
November 1, 1914, and remained practically unchanged until 1920,
when the following amendments were passed by our legislature:
The waiting period was decreased from 14 days to 3 days, which
amendment has in one year increased the claims before the Maryland
commission 100 per cent; weekly compensation was increased from
50 to 66§ per cent of the average weekly wage; the maximum
weekly compensation was increased from $12 to $18; the minimum
weekly compensation was increased from $5 to $8, funeral benefits
from $75 to $125, death benefits from $4,250 to $5,000, and medical
aid from $150 to $300; and farm laborers, who had been barred
from the workmen’s compensation law prior to June 1, 1920, were
by the amendments of 1920, given the right through election of
the employers to come under the statute for industrial benefits.
The coverage section was broadened to cover, in addition to all
extrahazardous employments, all work of an extrahazardous nature.
Another progressive feature in the Maryland act, which I deem worth
mentioning, relates to aliens. The first Maryland law made no
provision lor aliens, but in 1916 our legislature provided that com
pensation should be allowed to alien dependents.
A number of States have State funds administered by accident
commissions. These funds have quite a part in the progress of
compensation law; having no idea of profit, they act as a balance
wheel, so to speak, to other insurance carriers in so far as rates are
concerned. The growth of the funds depends upon a lower cost to
the employer and the service rendered to employees and employers.
From year to year since the establishment of compensation for
industrial accidents in the various States, legislatures have amended
their statutes, the general trend of the amendments being to liberalize
the law and to increase the benefits, until it is recorded that quite
a number of States whose legislatures met this year made no change
in their laws bearing on this subject. Some statutes allow com
pensation to workmen who receive an “ injury,” while others specify
“ accidental injury ” as the foundation for a claim. It is held generally
that where the word “ accident” is omitted, workmen who suffer
from what is known as “occupational disease” are entitled to com
pensation, while on the other hand, it is decided where the word
“ accident” is used, those suffering disability occasioned by occupa
tional disease have no claim for compensation. Ohio and Minnesota
follow the British system, which specifically states which occupational
diseases shall be covered. Illinois covers occupational diseases arising
from some occupations.
The following four systems of claim procedure are in use in the
various compensation claim system States: Workman’s claim system;
voluntary agreement system; adjudication of cases on basis of
employer’s and insurer’s reports only; and the hearing system.
Of these I am proud to say that Maryland has the claim system
under which all parties in interest, particularly the injured workman,
are given an opportunity to represent their side of the case.
The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and
Commissions and other organizations have spent considerable time
in the formulation of a standard uniform accident report blank.
In 1911, a standard report form was worked out by the American
PROGRESS IN COMPENSATION LEGISLATION.
123
Association for Labor Legislation and revised by the committee on
statistics of the International Association of Industrial Accident
Boards and Commissions in 1915 and again in 1920, and this form is
now in use to a considerable extent in our country.
Industrial accident laws vary greatly as to whether medical treat
ment should be furnished by the carrier and the employer or by the
individual. The State of Washington provides a medical staff from
which the injured man may select a physician. If the injured party
returns to work, his medical treatment may be continued as long as
the medical aid board deems such treatment necessary. Public
sentiment for unlimited medical treatment is growing rapidly.
Statistics show that there is no provision at all for medical aid in
three States: six States have unlimited medical treament; while the
amounts provided for medical aid in other States range from $50 to
to $600.
The lack of uniformity in the provisions of the various State laws
is very evident in the revised chart of January 1, 1920, prepared by
the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. As shown by this chart
waiting periods vary from 3 to 14 days; death benefits, from $3,000
to $6,000; permanent total disability, in time, from 260 weeks in
some States to full period pf life in others; benefits from 50 per cent
to 66§ per cent of the average weekly wages; maximum compensa
tion from $10 weekly to $20 weekly; minimum compensation runs
from $3 to $10 weekly. The percentage of employees subject to the
act also varies considerably: California covers 76.2 per cent; Illinois,
55.4; Louisiana, 35.2; Massachusetts, 87.8; New Mexico, 30.7; Porto
Rico, 20.5. Maryland's percentage, as shown by the chart, 45.9, has
been increased by the amendments of 1920. Some acts are admin
istered by courts, some by commissions, and others by industrial acci
dent boards. The foregoing statistics tend to show that some
States are progressing more rapidly than others in their compensation
work.
The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and
Commissions has authorized the appointment of a committee to rec
ommend a uniform schedule of rates for permanent partial disability,
such rates being lacking in uniformity throughout compensation
jurisdictions.
With the administration of the compensation laws, many industrial
handicaps under which injured workmen labor have been brought
vividly to the attention of the public, and to-day are justly receiving
thoughtful consideration from those agencies having to do with the
progress of legislation which has for its purpose the equitable distri
bution of the costs of industrial accidents and disease.
We have legalized and largely standardized the payment of compen
sation for industrial accidents and in some cases for industrial diseases.
No longer do we hear any serious objection to reasonable compensasation Taws. But as progressive as this step has been, there is still
much to be done to hasten the day of industrial justice between em
ployer and employee.
It is fine to pay the injured during their disability, but it is more
important to prevent as far as is humanly possible the injury or
disease which causes compensation to be paid than to compensate foi
the injury done.
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
In the order of importance in caring for industrial workers we should
(1) prevent as far as possible the occurrence of industrial accidents;
(2) promptly and fairly compensate during disability, (3) rehabilitate
and reeducate as far as possible those permanently disabled as the
result of industrial accident.
When we shall have worked out scientifically a just and equitable
system of caring for the injured and diseased workers in industry we
shall have remedied a very inequitable and inhuman method of caring
for that industrial army upon whom so much depends for our peace,;
prosperity, and happiness.
THURSDAY, MAY 25—AFTERNOONSESSION.
M A R Y A N D E R S O N , D IR E CT O R W O M E N 'S BUREAU, U N IT E D ST A T E S D E P A R T M E N T OP
L A BO R , P R E SID IN G .
MINIMUM WAGE AND HOURS OF LABOR—OPEN FORUM.
The Chairman. It has afforded me great pleasure to be asked to
preside at the session this afternoon because the men and women
assembled in this meeting are those who stand as a wall of protection
to the men, women, ana children who toil in our land. You also
stand for the protection of the employer, because in performing the
d uties laid down by State legislation you are upholding the standards
which are set not only by legislation but by employers of vision who
realize that good conduct and conditions of employment are the road
to real efficiency. If all the employers were thinking along those
lines we would not need legislation in behalf of the workers, but there
is a great deal of hope in the knowledge that it is only a minority of
the employers who do not voluntarily join in the procession to better
standards of employment in industry.
Our discussion this afternoon, according to the program, is to be
devoted to minimum-wage legislation and hours of labor. This legis
lation concerns the women employees in the main, but it also has a
decided bearing upon the conditions of men’s employment. If a
large portion of our woman workers are allowed to be paid below a
living standard and to work long hours, then we will find that the
standards of men’s employment will be affected accordingly.
In the investigations conducted by the Women’s Bureau in five
States we have found a large portion of woman employees paid less
than the minimum standards set by minimum-wage commissions in
the various States. This condition is not for the best interests of the
woman worker herself nor of the community as a whole. The family
life of the Nation is affected to a very large degree by underpayment
of woman workers, because women are not only supporting them
selves, but in many instances are the sole support of a family con
sisting of younger brothers and sisters; the girl more often than the
boy turns over the unopened pay envelope to the family budget.
Under circumstances like these it has been decided by the courts that
a minimum-wage commission functioning under State authorities is a
necessary institution for the good of society.
In the same way it has been determined that hours of labor should
be limited for woman workers, and in States where there has been a
reasonable limitation for the good of the workers industrial strife has
not been so acute as in other States where no such legislation existed.
Because these questions so largely affect our whole Government and
its institutions it is fitting that the men and women intrusted by the
States with the enforcement and interpretation of such laws should
discuss these all-important subjects this afternoon.
Mr. Clifford. The chairman has referred to the manner in which
the minimum wage is fixed in the different States, and I can outline
125
126
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
to you briefly the manner in which it is fixed in the State of Washing
ton. It is the duty of the director of labor and industries to appoint
a committee of six, a conference committee, two representing the
employers, two the employees, and two the public, to hold a hearing,
at which hearing the director of the department is chairman.
Evidence is submitted by those interested in fixing the minimum
wage—by the employer, the employee, and the interested public.
After a hearing and the submission of evidence, first, to determine
the amount necessary to maintain a woman employed in the indus
try as to which the hearing is being held, and, second, the con
ditions under which she will work, the conferees hold a pri
vate session, a closed session, and consider the evidence and then
make a recommendation to the industrial welfare committee. The
industrial welfare committee in the State of Washington is composed
of the director of the department, the supervisor of industrial insur
ance, the statistician of the department, and the supervisor of women
in industry, who is the executive secretary of the commission. It is
the duty of the industrial welfare committee and it has the power to
fix the minimum wage, after considering the evidence submitted and
the recommendation of the conferees. In the State of Washington
during the past year we have held hearings and fixed the minimum
wage at $13.20 in most of the industries. In the hotel industry it is
$14.50 per week. As to piecework in the manufacturing industries
we have held that 75 per cent of the employees must earn $13.20 per
week and that 25 per cent may be termed as apprentices, and in that
manner we have fixed the apprenticeship schedules where piecework
is done.
We have had no serious objection to the minimum wage in the
State of Washington. It has been in force there for several years and
we believe that it is a splendid protection to the women. I believe
that in the States where the industries are opposed to the minimum
wage it is because they are not familiar with the benefit that the
women of the State derive from it.
I feel seriously as to the benefits which are derived from the mini
mum wage. I believe one of the big things this organization can
do is to go into the States where they have no minimum wage and
educate tie people in this respect.
Mrs. J ohnson. As Director Clifford has just said, we held five con
ferences last year and we suggested the minimum wage for all indus
tries, except public housekeeping, at $13.20. Public housekeeping is
$14.50. What we mean by public housekeeping is hotels and restau
rants. We set our minors^ minimum at $9 per week; our apprentice
schedules are $9 a week to begin with. The manufacturing industry
is classified by schedules, and the apprenticeship rates are as follows:
Schedule A—Three months at $9, three at $10, tnree at $11, and three
at $12; ScheduleB—Two months at $9, two at $10, two at $11,
and two at $12; Schedule C—Six weeks at $9, six at $10, six at $11,
and six at $12; Schedule D—One month at $9, one at $10, one at $11,
and one at $12; Schedule E—One week at $9, one at $10, one at $11,
and one at $12.
When an employer wants to employ apprentices he writes to the
supervisor of women in industry to determine the schedule in which
he belongs. He is then asked to report how many women he has in
M IN IM U M WAGE AND HOURS OF LABOR.
127
Jiis industry drawing a minimum wage and also how many appren
tices and minors, if any. If I do not understand his work I go to his
place of business and satisfy myself of the length of time it takes a
girl to learn the work in that industry, and I then determine the
schedule in which he belongs.
Our manufacturers complained that the married woman went to
work in the fall to earn enough money to buy a hat or a coat and took
up the employer’s time teaching her the trade, and as soon as she
got enough money she quit. They claimed that was a great loss to
them, so we set two months as the time for the apprentice to learn,
and after that she was to receive $9 a week. If a woman can not
earn more than $9 a week in two months the employer will not keep
her because she counts one on his 25 per cent of apprentices. I have
found in the industries where women have been operating 60 days
that they have gone far above the minimum wage. We request
these manufacturers to send in their piecework schedule. We go
over that carefully and see that it is high enough so that the girl can
reach the minimum wage. We keep close tab on apprentices.
The manufacturer has to report to me whenever I set a time for him
to report. If I say once a month he must send me a report, sworn to
before a notary public that the number of apprentices and minors
given therein is a true statement of those in his establishment. We
check up then, and once a year I request him to send me the names
and addresses of every girl in his employ. Then I know whether he
is continually taking on apprentices and letting them go, and at the
next conference if he complains of inefficient help we bring that up.
Up to date our division has collected $15,000 of back minimum
wages for the women in the State that should have been collected
three years ago under the commission, and we think that the mini
mum wage is the only system. Now, personally, I don’t believe in a
high minimum wage. In the first place it gets to be the maximum,
and the girl that is efficient is put down to the minimum to even up
the pay roll. In the next place there is no incentive for the women
to strive to be efficient.
Drug stores and other industries which want apprentices write to
us for permits, and when they get 25 per cent they have to return
before they get another. That is our system of keeping tab on ap
prentices in our State.
Mr. Young. Under your system is the employer liable to make the
minimum the maximum wage ?
Mr. Clifford. I will answer that question: There are a number of
industries that do make it the living wage.
Mr. Young. That, as a rule, has been the idea, that labor organi
zations make the minimum wage high enough to establish a living
wage because of the proneness to make the minimum the maximum.
The Chairman. I might say to Mr. Young that in the District of
Columbia where statistics have been kept as to whether the mini
mum wage tends to be the maximum wage, they have found, ac
cording to a report just issued, that there are now more women
being paid over the minimum wage than there were when the mini
mum wage was set. So that there, at least, there has been no
tendency toward making it a maximum, and I believe that is what
most everyone has found where correct statistics have been kept.
128
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The States have several different ways of determining a minimum
wage, and I am going to call on Mr. Wilcox to tell us just what they
do m Wisconsin.
Mr. Wilcox. The Wisconsin act provides that every employer
shall pay a woman an amount sufficient to enable her to live in
decency and comfort, and so the commission set about making a
survey of the State to find out how many women there were in
industry, the type of industry, the amount of wages they were being
paid, what it cost for board and living, for room, and for clothing.
We worked out a schedule and got prices from various institutions,
stores, and such like on this schedule of what a woman’s wearing
apparel should be to clothe her in decency and comfort. We carried
on a general survey and reached the conclusion finally that there
was no difference in substance in what it would cost a woman em
ployed in a store and one employed in a factory to live in decency
and comfort, and we promulgated our wage on that basis. Gur first
wage is 22 cents an hour and applied to all industries indiscriminately.
We fixed the rate by the hour deliberately. The woman who was
required to work no more than 8 hours per day had an opportunity
to do some of her sewing, her mending, her laundry, and various
things of that type, whereas the woman who was wording 10 hours a
day might be denied the opportunity for that sort of thing. We felt,
too, that the health of the woman who worked only 8 hours per day
would be sufficiently improved and her need of medical attendance,
her need to lay off the job a day now and then in order to recuperate,
would be so much less to that of the woman who was working 10
hours a day, that that should be taken into account. So we hit upon
22 cents an hour at that time. Our order was issued June 27, 1919,
and went into effect on August 1.
Our investigations were made by a woman in our own department,
but the material gathered was surveyed and adjusted and worked
over, and the hearings were conducted before a committee made up
of four representatives of the employers’ group, four of the employee's
group, and four representing the public. At the conclusion of the
hearings, which were very extensive, we formulated our order at a
joint session of the representatives of these various groups sitting
with the industrial commission, and the agreement was a unanimous
one.
In the original order we provided for an apprenticeship period of
6 months—at 18 cents an hour for the first 3 months, and 20 cents
an hour for the next 3 months, and at the end of that time the em
ployee was entitled to the full wage. If she could not make it the
employer was obligated to let her out. It sounds rather harsh.
After all, I take it that the woman who goes into industrial work,
who can not earn, after six months’ experience, a sufficient wage to
enable her to live in decency and comfort ought to. find an industry in
which she can earn it. We felt that six months in a particular occu
pation was all that ought to be required in order to make her selfsupporting.
The minimum wage has never been a maximum wage with us.
There isn’t any substance to this thought that the establishment of
a wage sufficient to enable a woman to live in decency and comfort
is ever going to be the maximum wage for any industry, save only
M IN IM U M WAGE AND HOURS OP LABOR.
129
as to the industry that prior to the establishment of the minimum
wage saw fit to pay all its employees less than the minimum wage.
The minimum wage never brought any woman’s wage down from the
higher level to the lower level. As a matter of fact, the industries in
our State raised the point that the establishment of the minimum
wage for the less efficient, for the beginner, and so forth, would crowd
the wage of the others up, because the employers had to maintain a
certain relationship between the one class of labor and the other. If
if had not been for the living wage in Wisconsin during this period
of depression, not only the women but also the men of Wisconsin
would have suffered greatly, for the women would have been doing
the men’s work, because their wages would have been lowered below
what a man would accept.
In the lumber industry we found that while our law provides that
the order shall be effective as to minors the same as it is for women, em
ployers were desirous of employing men at a wage which was less than
the minimum wage for women, and as they had opportunity to get
them, they said, “If we have to pay minors 22 cents per hour, the
thing for us to do is to let them out and keep on the adults.” They
claimed that that was what they would have to do because they
said they could get adults for less than 20 cents an hour.
In 1921 we increased the wage to 25 cents per hour. That seemed
to the employers to be a hardship at that particular time. They said,
‘‘Right now, when everything is going to smash, why do you increase
the wage” ? The fact remains that when you are fixing the minimum
wage for women you are fixing it according to what a woman has to
have while she works, and while you may mention some things as
to which the prices are lower, the things that enter into the upkeep
of the woman worker are right up where they were years back.
Miss M F
. Kansas has been the pioneer in legislation for
women, and we have just gone through a period which is rather puz
zling to us. The women’s work in Kansas was originally under the
industrial welfare commission, as it is in several of the minimum
wage States, but at the last session of the legislature the industrial
welfare commission was abolished, or rather its powers were trans
ferred to the court of industrial relations, which has recently been
established in Kansas. The representative opportunities under this
system were also swept away and all the work placed directly under
the administration of the members of the court; the office of director
of the woman’s work was established not by law, but by the action
of the court, within the court, and is known now as the division of
women and children. We have gone through a period of revision of
the orders. I may state that when this arrangement was made it was
claimed that it would be a means of strengthening the woman’s work,
that the authority of the court would be perhaps greater than the
authority of the former industrial welfare commission and thereby
the woman’s work would gain strength. The recent revision of our
orders, however, has not met with the approval of the director of
women’s work. We feel that our miminum wage in laundries and in
mercantile establishments was not raised to the point which can be
considered a living wage. The minimum was $7.50, but in our recent
revision $10.50 was set as the wage for mercantile establishments and
$11 as the wage for laundries. There was a decrease in the hours in
c
arland
130
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
laundries from 54 to 49J per week, so that the increase in wage in
laundries was considered above that in the mercantile establish
ments, as the hours for mercantile establishments were not decreased.
The factory wage remains at $11 per week and the hours were
increased from 48 to 49£ per week.
We have a strong fight in the State of Kansas with the employers’
association and it has been attacking the minimum wage legisla
tion for some time. It is claiming that our law requires that we
actually prove that a substantial number of workers in Kansas are
living in actual discomfort and in immoral conditions, due to inade
quate wage, and therefore that the court of industrial relations has
only emergency power to act when there is a very serious condition
that is threatening the pubic welfare and it is trying to hold up all
legislation on that ground. Of course we are claiming that our law
states clearly that wages must be adequate to live on, and therefore
it is not a question whether girls are actually living in discomfort
and insanitary and immoral surroundings, because their wages may
be supplemented by other means or they may be living at home,
and therefore being saved from the worst effect of low wages. We
have absolutely refused to consider the home basis for wages and
permit that to enter into our cost of living.
We made a cost-of-living survey during the summer of 1920, when
the cost of living was at the peak. We realized that the cost of living
probably would not stand as the basis for our minimum wage legis
lation, as so much time had elapsed before our orders were revised,
and yet we feel that the difference between the $16.93 or around that
which was agreed upon, as the result of our cost-of-living survey, and
the $10.50 which was set as the mercantile wage, was too great a
difference and did not represent the decline in the cost of living at
the time the survey was made.
Then we have also a wage survey, which was made in Kansas in
the summer of 1920 by the Federal Women’s Bureau and the industrial
welfare commission, and we are insisting that those two surveys
be considered as the basis for our minimum wage. But the trouble
has been that too much time elapsed between the carrying out of those
investigations and the setting of the wage, and it has given an oppor
tunity for discounting the results of the investigations, and a great
many arguments have been used to show that we should not base
our wage legislation at this time entirely upon these investigations.
Miss Von Glick. Would it not be a very valuable thing for this
association to-day to concentrate attention on the methods which are
being used in the various departments of work of the State depart
ments of labor, the methods of enforcement of minimum wage laws
and the results of those methods from their individual experience,
the methods that are being used in Washington State, Wisconsin, and
Washington, D. C., to be a valid check, for mstance, on the procedure
that has been outlined in Kansas and which is declared to be unsat
isfactory to the women’s department? Haven’t we through this
year gained a good deal of experience that is simply retained in the
minds of those who have been enforcing these laws, and wouldn’t it
be a very big step forward in the enforcement of labor laws if that
material could be gathered together ? I am not prepared to suggest
how it could be done, but it certainly is a step that this association
M IN IM U M WAGE AND HOURS OF LABOR.
131
could undertake, perhaps in this coining year, to make an investiga
tion into the methods of administering the minimum wage laws as a
start, another year to 20 on with the methods of enforcing laws regu
lating hours oi work, because of course, there is a big field for dis
cussion as to the best method of enforcement, and so on throughout
the whole question of factory inspection. I realize that your papers
very often emphasize methods, but what I am suggesting is that you
follow up with* a discussion and concentrate on methods with the
thorough study that would enable you to get more material than can
be given in a 10-minute contribution or discussion; this afternoon
has demonstrated that the material is in existence.
MINIMUM-WAGE ADMINISTRATION.
BY RET.
JOHN A .
RYAN,
D.
D .,
DIRECTOR NATIONAL CATHOLIC W ELFARE
W ASHIN G TO N, D. C.
COUNCIL,
A gathering of labor department officials is not, I assume, greatly
or particularly interested in minimum wage legislation from either
the social, the industrial, or the political aspect. Therefore, I shall
not discuss the subject formally from any such point of view. Some
of you are closely concerned with the administration of the law
because it exists on the statute books of the States which you serve.
It is not improbable that others in this convention will be interested
a year from now or a little later. At least, we who believe in minimum
wage legislation, hope so, because we hope that laws of this sort will
be enacted by some of the State legislatures which meet in 1923.
Utah has a minimum wage law which is of very little interest
to labor officials except in so far as they are charged with its en
forcement. In that State the wage is fixed by the legislature itself.
This is also true, in part, of the laws of Arizona and Arkansas. In
so far as the legislature fixes the minimum, the task of determining
the legal minimum wage obviously does not rest upon the labor
administration. In the majority of States, however, the legislature
merely declares that the workers shall not be paid less than living
wages, and authorizes the minimum wage commission to ascertain
just what a living wage is in the various industries, and then to put
its findings into effect by an administrative order. The minimum
wage commission is required, therefore, to translate a. general prin
ciple into concrete terms, into terms of dollars and cents.
Should the minimum wage be determined solely on the basis of
the cost of living, or should it make some allowance for the financial
condition of the industry? In the great majority of the laws already
enacted, it is stipulated that the wage shall be sufficient to enable
the worker to maintain herself in health and comfort, and no mention
is made of the effect which such a scale of wages will have upon the
industries to which the law applies. In the Massachusetts law,
however, the boards which fix the minimum are required to take
into account “ the financial condition of the occupation and the
probable effect thereon of any increase in the minimum wage paid. ”
According to the former principle, the minimum wage commission
is to keep before it merely the cost of decent living; according to
the Massachusetts principle, a real or apparent inability of an in
dustry to pay a wage equivalent to the cost of decent living must be
carefully considered. This factor may prevent, and as a matter
of fact has prevented, the commission from making the wage suf
ficiently high to constitute a reasonable living wage. Not only
for the sake of the workers themselves, but in the interest of easier
administration, it is to be hoped that this feature of the Massachusetts
law will soon be repealed, and that it will not find its way into the
law of any other State.
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M IN IM U M -W A G E ADMINISTRATION.
133
The standard according to which the wage is to be determined is, in
general, that of a “living wage. ’’ While the language used to define
the latter varies considerably in the different State laws, these dif
ferences are verbal rather than real. Substantially the same inter
pretation has been put upon all the definitions. In Kansas, the
wage must be “ adequate for maintenance,” and “ to supply the
necessary cost of living” ; in Minnesota, it is required to be “sufficient
to maintain the worker in health and to supply her with the necessary
comforts and conditions of reasonable life” ; in Wisconsin, the living
wage is one that suffices for “reasonable comfort, reasonable physical
well-being, decency, and moral well-being.” All the definitions
indicate tnat the living wage not only exceeds the bare cost of physi
cal subsistence, but must provide for physical well-being; reasonable
health, a certain elementary degree of comfort, and even some
provision of intellectual, moral, and religious welfare. At least,
they have been so interpreted both by minimum wage commissions
and the advisory boards or conferences by which the commissions
have been assisted in making wage determinations. While there
has been considerable difference of opinion concerning some of the
concrete items and goods that are necessary for the kind of living
contemplated by the law, there has been practical unanimity upon
the proposition that the worker is entitled to a wage that will supply
her moral and spiritual, as well as her physical, wants. This canon
of interpretation is as important for those charged with the adminis
tration of the law as it is for social theory and social well-being.
All but one of the minimum wage laws in this country are man
datory; that is, they require the employer to pay the specified legal
minimum under penalty of imprisonment, or a fine, or both. In
Massachusetts, no legal penalty is provided for disobeying the orders
of the minimum wage commission. The only sanction to the law
is publication in certain newspapers of the names of those employers
who refuse to comply with the recommendations of the commission.
Even this can be avoided if the employer is able to prove before a
court that acceptance of the commission’s recommendations would
prevent him from obtaining a reasonable profit. Wliile this method
of recommending wage rates with no means of enforcing them except
newspaper publicity and public opinion is obviouslv insufficient it
has effected a material increase in wages in many oi the submerged
trades of Massachusetts. At the recent session of the Massachusetts
Legislature, an effort was made to have the law rendered mandatory;
on the other hand, an attempt was made to repeal the law entirely;
as a consequence, the whole subject was referred to a legislative
commission which is to report its findings to the next session of
the legislature.
The minimum wage commissions or boards are variously consti
tuted. In some States they are identical with the industrial welfare
commissions which have charge of the administration of all labor laws.
In other States the commission is composed of persons who hold no
other State office. In a few cases the labor commissioner is chair
man of the minimum wage commission. It has been suggested that
the best arrangement would be to place the whole minimum wage
commission under the charge of the department of labor, as an
independent bureau, having at its head a special deputy commissioner
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ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
of labor. The other two members of the commission should rep
resent, respectively, the employers and the employees. In a com
mission thus composed the executive officer would give all his time
to the administration of the minimum wage law, would have access
to all the statistical material of the department of labor, and would
be able to direct most effectively the enforcement o£ the commission’s
orders.
All the minimum wage laws, except those which embody wage
rates fixed by legislature, require the commission to set up advisory
boards or conferences, composed in equal numbers of persons rep
resenting the employers, the employees, and the general public.
These advisory bodies investigate the cost of living, and reconjLmend
to the commission the rates of wages which they regard as sufficient
according to the standard set up by the law. Therefore, it is of the
greatest importance that the advisory boards should be made up of
competent and fair-minded persons. As a rule, the representatives
of the employers are selected by the employers themselves without
any great difficulty. The choice of representatives of the workers
is much more difficult, owing to the lack of organization. In this
situation the commission, particularly the member who represents
the workers, can be of great assistance. When it is at all possible,
the workers’ representatives on the advisory boards should be
selected at meetings of the workers themselves, and it is decidedly
worth while to expend considerable time and energy in organizing
such meetings.
In most States the commissions can not put into effect any wage
rates except those that have been recommended by the advisory
bodies. If the commission does not agree with the findings of the
advisory board, it can require the latter to reconsider the subject or
can organize a new board, but it can not put into effect wage
rates that have not been already recommended by an advisory
board. There is considerable ground for holding that the commission
should sometimes have the power to determine rates for itself,
particularly when the advisory board finds great difficulty in fixing
the rates or when only a bare majority of the board is able to agree.
In all cases it is desirable that the executive officer of the commission
should be a member of the advisory board, in addition to the three
groups representing, respectively, the general public, the employers,
and the employees.
One of the most important problems before the commissions has
been the scope of the wage awards. Two factors are involved here—
namely, various industries and various localities. In the smaller
towns and cities of a State the cost of living is not infrequently
somewhat lower than in the large centers; hence a wage that would
be adequate in the former would not suffice in the latter. Variation
of rates to meet this situation can usually be made without much
difficulty. The problem of various industries or occupations has
been met in different ways by different commissions.' Inasmuch as
the wage is to be determined by the cost of living rather than by
conditions within the industry, if would seem that the same rates
should apply in all industries. About the only exception to this
principle is presented by the additional outlay for clothing which
seems to be required in some occupations, such as stores and offices.
Although the extra outlay is really an occupational cost rather than
MINIMUM-WAGE ADMINISTRATION.
135
living cost, it should in all fairness be taken into account in fixing
the wage. Nevertheless, four of the States now have uniform rates
for all occupations. In at least one State, Minnesota, there are only
two sets oi occupational rates, one applying to stores and offices,
the other to factories, hotels, and laundries. From the point of
view of administration, as well as from other points of view, the
Massachusetts law is especially undesirable, inasmuch as it seems to
require a separate set of wage rates for every occupation. The
commission of that State has already investigated 24 occupations
and fixed minimum rates for 16. Yet these 16 do not include the
the textile industry, which has by far the greatest number of woman
workers in the State. The enormous amount of labor, time, and
expense required to set up advisory boards and enforce varying rates
in more than a score of occupations is as obvious as it is unnecessary.
Two sets of rates, following the twofold classification of occupations
made by the Minnesota commission, seem to be ample to meet what
ever differences in the cost of living exist in different occupations.
All the laws require a minimum wage rate to be put into operation
as a unit on a given date. While this requirement has probably
not caused any great degree of hardship, there may be cases in which
the rate could, with advantage, be imposed gradually. That is to
say, the minimum for each three months might be 50 cents less per
week than for the succeeding three months, the full rate being reached
at the end of a year. Probably, however, it is only in exceptionally
low-paid occupations that this arrangement would be necessary.
A more important improvement upon the existing legislation
would be a provision empowering the commissions to revise existing
rates of wages on their own authority. One of the most serious
defects in the administration of minimum wage legislation has been
the failure to adjust the existing rates to the changing cost of living.
During the war, most of the wage rates became too low long before
they were raised by the commissions; since the war, very few rates
have been revised downward. The reason is, undoubtedly, the
difficulty of organizing advisory boards to review existing rates.
The law should require the advisory boards to take up this task of
revision periodically, say once every five years. Any considerable
variations in the cost of living during the interval could be met by
the action of the commission. This would be a comparatively
simple matter, in view of the statistics on the cost of living which are
published periodically by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The administrative problems with regard to apprentices, minors,
and defective workers have been fairly well solved in some of the
States. The essential requisites of this situation are: A graduated
increase in the wage rates of both minors and apprentices which
corresponds with their increase in efficiency, thus neutralizing the
temptation of the employer to discriminate either in favor of or against
them; a liberal interpretation of the clause “physically defective,”
so as to include those who are notably defective mentally or economi
cally; a system of special permits or licenses for the employment of
apprentices and subnormal workers; and, finally, the maintenance of
a fixed proportion between the number of either of these classes on
the one hand and the number of experienced workers on the other
hand in any establishment.
a
16697°—23—Bull. 323----- 10
136
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
DISCUSSION.
Mr. Stewart. I want to call attention to one particular Doctor
Ryan mentioned, and that is the differentiating of wages on account
of so-called mental and physical deficiency. I suppose that a
recognition of that sort is necessary in extreme cases, hut we are
faced with this condition: Organizations are now working upon a
mental schedule to control occupations. There is an organized
movement to show that certain industries which have installed
automatic machinery are employing practically the feeble-minded—
that they are a great charity, doing a great public service, and hence that
not only should they not be required to pay the ordinary minimum
wage rates but as a matter of fact they ought to be subsidized. It
is true that certain industries have reached the point where no human
being with average brain power and ability could work at an occupa
tion therein for any length of time. It would simply drive him crazy
or he would become feeble-minded by virtue of the occupation. Cer
tain occupations do not require any brains and destroy any brain the
worker had to start with, and these industries are trying to capitalize
the automatic arrangements which they put in and which make people
stupid, by getting a reduction of wage on the basis of the stupidity of
the workers. It seems to me that we should be very careful how we
agree to that doctrine.
Mr. Davie. Why should not a woman who does the same work
as a man receive the same wages without any minimum wage ?
The Chairman. Well, I think that we all agree upon that question.
That is the ideal condition, but we are so far from that ideal at the
present time that we have to have a makeshift such as the minimum
wage law in order that we may advance more rapidly to the time
when there will be equality. I think there is one thing we have
not discussed very seriously this afternoon in connection with the
minimum wage, and that is the apprenticeship system' There has
been a tendency by some of the minimum wage commissions to fix
the apprenticeship period at A very long time. The minimum
wages are fixed mainly for the unskilled and semi-skilled trades, so
as to bring them up somewhere near a living standard. It takes
only a very few weeks to get into the swing of that kind of work;
and yet we have allowed as high as a year or more for apprenticeship.
If we persist in doing that we are going to get away from the very
fundamentals of the minimum wage by doing away with the actual
minimum and having the apprenticeship system overpower the
actual minimum wage system. While at the present time we are
fixing the minimum wage for the individual woman, I think that we
should also take into consideration that women have dependents
and that in many instances women are the sole support of the family;
we should look forward not only to equality of the wage but also to
a minimum wage based on the responsibility of the woman to others
besides herself. In other words, let us take into consideration the
same factors that we do when we consider man's wages, and perhaps
then we will come much nearer and quicker to equality in their wages.
Mrs. J ohnson. What would you suggest—first, to go after the
apprenticeship schedule i
MINIMUM-WAGE ADMINISTRATION.
137
The Chairman. We ought to take into consideration the question
of skill in the particular industry for which the apprenticeship period
is fixed. For instance, take a clerical position; it doesn’t take very
long to become a clerk, but we have a commission which has fixed one
year for this occupation. I think we ought to look forward to the
time when we shall fix the apprenticeship at the actual time that it
takes to learn the work. You talk to a man about fixing the minimum
wage and say to him, for instance, “ How long does it take a girl to
become a clerk?” “About two or three weeks.” When you get
him before the minimum wage board he will say that it takes a year.
The same thing applies in a laundry. In the minimum wage hearings
in the District of Columbia the board asked, “How long does it
take a woman to become actually competent in laundry work?”
“Oh,” they said, “ of course it differs; a shaker, the one who shakes
out the sheets or linen, it takes only a day or so, perhaps a few
hours, ” but when it‘came to fixing the apprenticeship period those
very laundrymen got up and said it took from three to nine months
to become a shaker in a laundry.
TH U R SD A Y, M A Y 25— E V E N IN G S E S S IO N
F. D. PATTERSON, CHIEF DIVISION OF HYGIENE AND ENGINEERING, PENNSYLVANIA
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY, PRESIDING.
R E H A B IL IT A T IO N A N D M E D IC A L S U P E R V IS IO N .
THE INDUSTRIAL CLINIC FOR THE REHABILITATION OF THE INJURED
IN INDUSTRY.
BY LEWIS T. BRYANT, COMMISSIONER OF LABOR OF NEW JERSEY.
The act under which the State of New Jersey is operating affords
the widest possible latitude to the rehabilitation commission and to
the construction placed upon the word “ Rehabilitation.” The com
mission has the greatest possible regard for the reeducation and
training of injured workers, but it has felt that the first step in the
rehabilitation program consists in reconstructing the injured worker
so as to secure the fullest possible return to health and usefulness.
In its judgment an ounce of physical rehabilitation is frequently
worth a pound of educational betterment. Obviously, if by means
of a surgical operation, medication, orthopedic treatment, or the
use of braces or other devices, a worker may be able to perform his
obligations in life better, some method for obtaining this treatment
should be the first concern of those having the obligation of his
rehabilitation.
In New Jersey the State has been divided into five industrial cen
ters, with an industrial building in each center, wherein is housed the
compensation hearing rooms, the rehabilitation clinic, the local office
of the rehabilitation examiners, and the public employment service.
These buildings are also used for local administration of the factory
inspection work, and the close cooperation of the local factory
inspector helps materially in securing a knowledge of the industries
best adapted for the employment of handicapped workers, and in
sures an approach to the management by an official having a personal
acquaintance therewith.
While under the act the facilities of the commission are extended
to all workers above 16 years of age, it was thought that its initial
activities should apply particularly to the workers coming within the
compensation schedule. The surgeon in charge of the industrial
clinic is also the medical and surgical adviser of the deputy commis
sioner of compensation holding court in that district, and this joint
relationship materially helps m properly determining the physical
problem of the handicap. The rehabilitation representative in the
court room also obtains a prompt contact with the worker and is in
a position to take up the problem with due regard to the compensa
tion payments.
The main office of the department of labor also forwards to the
rehabilitation examiners reports of accidents within their district
which would seem to be promising from a rehabilitation standpoint.
The rehabilitation representative spends a portion of each day in
the public employment office, and in this manner comes in contact
with another source of placement contact. Most of our public em
ployment offices are operated in conjunction with the local chambers
138
CLINIC FOR REHABILITATION OF INJURED IN INDUSTRY.
139
of commerce and are able to help materially in securing handicap
placements. A weekly bulletin is issued by practically each office,
which lists a number of unusual positions and is mailed to hundreds
of representative employers in each community. We are commenc
ing to place handicapped workers through these bulletins, and the
results so far have been exceedingly satisfactory.
The five clinics are each in charge of a chief of clinic, who is recom
mended by an advisory board composed of the leading surgeons of
the community and who has such nigh professional standing as to
warrant the cooperation and confidence of the medical profession.
Under this plan each handicapped worker, as well as each person
coming witnin the scope of the compensation law, is insured a com
plete examination by a physician of the highest skill. This examina
tion is frequently a determining factor in rehabilitation placement
for the reason that the man’s physical condition will permit of only
a limited fee. In the larger clinics, in addition to the chief of clinic,
a young doctor is constantly in attendance. Several expert masseurs
are employed, and they alternate throughout the several clinics, so
as to insure scientific massage.
Each clinic has a full orthopedic equipment, including bakers,
high-frequency machines, Burdick sun lamps, deep therapy lamps,
complete X-ray outfits, electric wall plates, a full set of McKenzie
functional reeducation apparatus, a gymnasium, including rowing
machine, a home bicycle trainer, rings, wall machines, punching bag,
and revolving wheel, and in the larger clinics a complete pathological
laboratory is maintained. An operating room is also provided, with
full sterilization, although, as a rule, only minor operations are per
formed, as the major operation cases are taken to the hospitals with
which our surgeons are connected. A fully equipped plaster room
is provided, including an Albee table, jury mast with tripod for spinal
extension, and an orthopedic chair for foot injuries. In two of the
clinics we have an electric eye-testing apparatus, and in one of the
clinics a full dental outfit. In our largest clinic we have, in addition
to our X-ray equipment, a fluoroscope and shadowgraph apparatus
for the reading of A-ray plates.
As an evidence of the volume and wide range of our activities the
report of the Newark clinic for the month of March is indicative:
Treatm ents.
^Baking and massage.. .
.... 559
Functional reeducation
.... 335
Heliotherapy.................
95
Surgical..........................
25
Plaster............................
8
Orthopedic.....................
16
Dressings.........................
62
Strapping........................
210
Dental.............................
Operation.......................
4
10
Medical...........................
Electrotherapy..............
.... 110
Total treatments
1,245
Examinations.................................................................................................. 264
X ray................................................................................................................ 28
Pathological............................................................................................................ 22
140
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
It is naturally a delicate problem for the State to carry on this
character of work, but every effort has been made to conduct the
clinics on a highly ethical standard. A survey of the hospitals of
the State demonstrated that they were not generally equipped for
this character of treatment, nor is it likely that they would have
the time to devote to these ambulatory cases. It certainly appears
that the orthopedic clinic supplements the activities of the hospitals
in a community and is of material assistance to the medical profession
generally.
In each of our clinics we have a large number of cases referred by
the practitioners of the city, and of course a charge is made for these
private patients, as well as a nominal charge to the insurance carriers
or employers for compensation cases. However, the primary object
of the clinical work is not so much the financial return obtained as it
is a guaranty that every injured citizen in the State is afforded an
opportunity to secure a character and quality of treatment which
mu in many cases entirely cure him of his injury or materially help
in returning him to usefulness. While the entire practicability of these
clinics was perhaps questioned in their beginning, they have now be
come a recognized institution of the State and a highly appreciated
adjunct to the general rehabilitation movement of New Jersey^
MEDICINE AND INDUSTRY.
BY JOHN A. LAPP, DIRECTOR DEPARTMENT OP SOCIAL ACTION OF THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC
WELFARE COUNCIL AND EDITOR OF “ THE NATION’S HEALTH.”
The natural state of man is in the open. Man is an outdoor animal.
His most natural employments are agriculture, hunting, and fishing.
In an outdoor environment his health is promoted and he is protected
against many dangers. This most natural condition of man’s em
ployment is, however, not the prevailing one in this country. Man
has been taken out of his natural environment and has been placed
in factories, mills, and mines; he has had placed in his hands strange
tools with which to work, and is oftentimes engaged in the operation
of complicated machinery; he is subjected not only to the ordinary
burdens of work which he would have outdoors, but in addition he
works at monotonous employment, often in unnatural positions, sur
rounded by foul atmosphere, sometimes by dangerous poisons; he is
surrounded sometimes by unhealthful dust and by deleterious sub
stances, acids, or poisons; he works in unnatural heat, in unsanitary
surroundings, under artificial light; he runs the constant risk of serious
accident; he is fatigued by his unnatural employment and becomes
for that reason a special prey of accident and disease. Clearly, the
purpose of those who control industry should be to make the environ
ment as nearly natural as may be possible.
We can not go back to pastoral employments. Under modern
conditions men must work in factories, mills, and mines. The only
way in which man’s estate can be improved, therefore, is not to wish
and long for a return of other days, but to attempt to adjust the
working environment to the men and women who work in industry
and to adjust the workers themselves, as far as possible, to the con
ditions of the new employment, so that their work may be an advan
tage and a blessing and not a physical wrecking and a curse.
It should be perfectly clear to every one that industry exists for
man and not man for industry. The first consideration everywhere
must be the human factor. Mere industrial success and money
making can not justify the physical destruction or deterioration of a
single man. It has already been pointed out that the problem of
adjustment deals with two things—the work itself and its environ
ment, and the human beings who are engaged therein. It is the
problem of industrial medicine, broadly conceived, to study and help
to make adjustments in these two respects. Industrial medicine
should concern itself with the place of employment. One of its prime
duties is to insure that workers have a fit place to work, with duo
reference to the physical weaknesses which are inherent in mankind.
Industrial medicme should determine the sanitary conditions under
which men work; it should see that the environment protects the
worker against the spread of disease and against conditions which
may weaken the morale of the workers. Industrial medicine should
loot closely to the problem of ventilation, whether in office or shop.
Mere guesswork should not be allowed to control in so important a
141
142
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
matter. Industrial medicine should establish standards of lighting,
so that the individual may be protected against the loss of efficiency,
and perhaps even the ability to work, through the deterioration of
eyesight caused by bad lighting conditions. Industrial medicine
must solve the problem of injurious dusts, gases, and acids. It is
reported by good authority that in ordinary times more than 4,000,000 men are employed in industries where injurious dusts damage the
health of the workers. Industrial medicine must study the problem
of heat, particularly in all industries where heat processes are a factor
in production. Industrial medicine must consider the whole question
of monotonous employment, fatigue, and posture required of workers
at work.
On the other hand, the worker himself comes in for study by
industrial medicine. All workers can not do all things with equal
safety. Some workers should be excluded from attempting to do
certain kinds of work, which may be dangerous to their physical
well-being. Children particularly need to have the unaccustomed
burdens of industry properly adjusted to their backs. Women in
industry present additional problems requiring more careful adjust
ment of the strains of industrial work than others. Workers must
also be protected against contagion, which may be disseminated-by
their fellow workers. All of this requires, in the first place, physical
examinations. I am aware that around this subject of physical exam
ination there has revolved much controversy, but I am persuaded that
these controversies are due to lack of understanding of the purpose of
physical examinations on the one hand and to an unfair use of physical
examinations on the other.
Physical examinations may be for two main purposes: First, to
exclude workers from an employment; and second, to adjust workers
to the jobs which they can do best, and which will not be injurious to
them. It is necessary in some employments to have a physical
examination for purposes of exclusion. Tests for color blindness are
essential for signal men; candidates must necessarily be excluded if
color blindness is found. Restaurant workers should be examined
for communicable diseases, and must be rigidly excluded if found to
be affected. Elevator operators should be excluded when a bad
heart condition is found. These are samples of the proper use of ex
clusion as the end of physical examination. In many instances, which
might be cited, exclusion is essential for the protection of the worker
himself, his fellow employees, and the general public. It is because
physical examinations have sometimes been used to exclude workers
for selfish purposes that discredit has been cast in some quarters upon
them. No one can possibly object to the legitimate use of physical
examinations for the purposes suggested above. But the prime pur
pose of physical examination is to adjust the worker to a position
which will be safe for him to fill, both for himself and others, and
which will enable him to develop the greatest amount of efficiency.
Scientifically carried out, such examinations would find a proper and
safe place to work for men with physical or mental handicaps. Phys
ical examination for this purpose is altogether too rare. Perhaps
it is rare because of the high qualifications needed in those who make
the physical examination and the occupational adjustments. Such
work involves much more than physical examination. It requires not
MEDICINE AND INDUSTRY.
143
only the skill of the doctor and the surgeon, but also the scientific
application of the principles of social work. The physician most
likely may have no experience in the phases outside of medicine in this
process of adjustment. Expert employment service and scientific
social work are necessary additions to his skill and must generally be
provided from other sources. Only in exceptional cases is the in
dustrial physician fitted to direct the whole process of physical
examination and occupational adjustment.
Are we measuring up in industrial medicine to the tasks set forth ?
Probably no one conversant wdth the facts would say that we have
made more than a crude beginning. Some score or more of great
leaders of medicine in industry have pointed the way, but their voice is
as that of one calling in the wilderness. We have comparatively
little of real industrial medicine, properly conceived. That which
passes for industrial medicine and surgery is in the main not indus
trial at all, but merely medicine and surgery given at an office or dis
pensary in a plant, perhaps paid for by the employer, but differing in
no respect from the medicine and surgery which the same physicians
would provide in their own private offices.
The bulk of industrial medicine and surgery arose out of the re
quirements placed upon industry by the workmen’s compensation
acts. When industry became responsible for payment for all acci
dents occurring, it was found advantageous financially to take care
of the wounds of industrial workers by employing a physician to come
into the factory for surgical or medical work. Some industries
found it advisable to employ physicians for several hours per day to
attend to minor injuries by giving immediate treatment, thus pre
venting worse conditions from developing, and to take care of in
juries so as to restore men to working capacity sooner than otherwise
would be the case. In either instance the dollar was the motive.
Industry was concerned with saving the money which it would other
wise have to pay in compensation or in increased insurance rates.
Many physicians and surgeons summoned into industry began to
full significance of medicine as related to industry and fil
S the
ial workers, and to enlarge their views to comprehend the whole
health of workers in industry. They have been the leaders in
attempting to make industry safe for the workers and the workers
safe for industry.
The beginnings thus made are bound to grow. Industrial medicine
has a great future. The industrial physician will by no means do
the whole job of promoting the physical well-being and safety of
workers, but he will be an important factor. Linked with him will
be the employment department, scientifically managed; the service
department, and the department of social welfare. All of these
departments, including the medical, will eventually be organized on
a mutual or cooperative basis. The function of industrial medicine
will not be supplied permanently by the employer; it will become a
cooperative enterprise of employer and employee, with perhaps the
public taking an active part for the good tnat may come to the
community. One of the serious weaknesses of industrial medicine
to-day is that it is not cooperative, and does not enlist the financial
interest of the employee. It can not receive the full moral support
of labor unless labor has a hand in its management and a burden in
144
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
its support. The industrial physician employed by the company
has become too much of a company man. Too many industrial
physicians take the point of view of the employer and have too little
conception of the point of view of the worker or of the labor union.
From observation covering some years, I am convinced that indus
trial physicians and surgeons, with many very brilliant exceptions,
are unsympathetic with labor and with labor unions. There can
be no permanent success with such an attitude. It is contrary to the
best conception of industrial medical work. Labor unions and
cooperative labor groups will fill a more important place in the
future than in the past. Industrial medicine must establish itself
on the solid ground of industrial peace by taking neither side, but by
establishing close communications with the human material with
which it must deal, both industrial workers and employers.
REHABILITATION AND THE PLACEMENT OP VOCATIONALLY
■ REHABILITATED PERSONS IN EMPLOYMENT.
BY CHARLES H. TAYLOR, EMPLOYMENT SERVICE, UNITED STATES VETERANS’ BUREAU.
From the point of view of the United States Veterans’ Bureau,
which is now administering the vocational rehabilitation act, approved
June 27, 1918, “To provide for vocational rehabilitation and return
to civil employment of disabled persons discharged from the military
or naval forces of the United States, and for other purposes,” suitable
or gainful employment is the supreme test of rehabilitation. In
other words, it is proof that the physically disabled and vocationally
handicapped veteran has been restored as nearly as possible to his
former vocational capacity. This applies also to the great task of
rehabilitating that vast army of industrial cripples which have not
as yet been counted.
1 am assuming that most of you are conversant with the work of
rehabilitation and will therefore dwell briefly but specifically on the
plans that are now being followed by the Veterans’ Bureau, taking
for my text, as it were, “ the trainee” and following him through
the various steps until employment is reached.
The first step is the determination of “ eligibility for training” under
the law and of the type of training.
The rehabilitation act passed June 27, 1918, sections 2, 3, and 6,
provides three classes of training.
The distinction between section 2 and section 3 training is that a
disabled ex-service person in section 2 training receives, in addition
to free instruction, support for himself and dependents during his
period of training, while a disabled ex-service person in section 3
training receives only free instruction and the compensation awarded
on account of his disability under Article III of the war risk insurance
act. Section 6 training is that training which is given to those dis
abled persons in hospitals who are not yet discharged from the serv
ice, provided the training arrangements are approved by the Veterans’
Bureau and the commanding officer of the hospital. A section 6
trainee receives only free instruction and his service pay.
As the law was originally enacted, three conditions of eligibility for
training under section 2 were established: First, the disability must
have been suffered in the service and have been incurred under cir
cumstances entitling the disabled person, after discharge, to com
pensation under Article III of the war risk insurance act; second,
the injury must have been such as to prevent him from “carrying
on” in a gainful occupation, from resuming his former occupation,
or from entering upon some other occupation successfully; third,
training must be feasible.
To insure training under section 3, a disabled man must be entitled
to compensation under Article III of the war risk insurance act and
must not be included in section 2.
In order to secure training under section 6, a disabled person must
not have been discharged from the service, and his training arrange
145
146
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
ments must be approved by the Veterans’ Bureau and the command
ing officer in the hospital in which he is located.
Four conditions of eligibility for training under section 2 were
established:
1. The disabled man must have been separated from the military
or naval forces of the United States under honorable conditions since
April 7, 1917.
2. He must have a disability that was incurred, increased, or aggra
vated while he was a member of such forces, or that is traceable, in
the opinion of the Veterans’ Bureau, to service in such forces.
3. His disability, in the opinion of the Veterans’ Bureau, must be
such as to cause him to be in need of vocational rehabilitation to
overcome the handicap of his disability.
4. Training must be feasible.
The second step is “ advisement and induction into training” of
veterans declared eligible for training under section 2 of the act and
constitutes 85 per cent of our load. A favorable decision being ren
dered, certification is forwarded to the subdistrict office that has
jurisdiction over the territory in which the ex-service person lives.
The subdistrict office, after receipt of this decision, immediately takes
steps to call the man into the office for a personal interview with
rehabilitation officers and medical advisers.
At this conference an individual training program is developed by
the rehabilitation officer. In developing this program the following
factors should be taken into consideration: First, trainee’s physical
and mental condition; second, education; third, prewar and post
war occupation; fourth, trainee’s personal desires, native ability, and
personality; fifth, dependency status. The recommendation for
training should be of such a nature that, first, it will not impair the
trainee’s physical condition while in training; second, it will, if possi
ble, buila upon his previous occupation experience; third, it will be
within the trainee’s mental scope; fourth, it will, so far as possible,
take into consideration the trainee’s personal wishes, but this should
not be a major factor in the final determination of training; and,
fifth, it will disturb his home (living) conditions as little as possible.
The training program is signed and agreed to by the applicant and
reviewed by the medical adviser, who approves each individual train
ing program as to feasibility for training, considered in the light of
the applicant’s physical handicap. If the program is approved as
to feasibility by the medical adviser, the applicant is ready to be
inducted into training.
The selection of the type of training—that is, whether institutional
or placement training—will depend upon the facts developed while
advising with the man in making out his training program.
The third step is usupervision,” the most important factor of the
work. While in training each trainee is assigned to a representative
of the bureau, whose duty it is to supervise the Training and to act as
guide and counselor during the period of training. The purpose of
this supervision is, first, to insure proper training and progress lead
ing toward the employment objective which has been selected; second,
to see that the trainee is on the job regularly and profiting by the
training into which he has been inducted; third, to see that the
institution or firm is furnishing the proper instruction for the man;
REHABILITATION AND PLACEM ENT.
147
and, fourth, to see that we are receiving full value in instruction for
the tuition paid.
The supervisor’s reports should be made in writing, to be filed in
the individual trainee’s folder, and the report should show: First,
what part of the training program has been completed since the last
report of the supervisor; second, the quality of work done by the
trainee during such period; third, whether the trainee is adapted to
the employment objective which has been selected; and, fourth,
whether training which he is receiving is in any way detrimental to
hisphysical disability.
This information is secured by personal interview with the trainee
at his place of training. It should be a record from the trainee’s
point of view as well as from the supervisor’s point of view. These
reports are made at regular intervals, every 15 or 30 days, depending
upon the place and the type of training.
The ultimate success oi“the rehabilitation work depends, first, upon
the proper initial advisement, and, second, upon close supervision
after induction into training. Regular supervision at frequent in
tervals will enable the rehabilitation officer to prevent a trainee from
becoming discouraged or making mistakes, or if the training is not
suitable it will be discovered early, and correction will be made before
he becomes so discouraged that he drops out of training and before
Government money has been wasted on a training program that is
not suitable.
In this connection a survey of 9,348 trainees in one district shows
that 74£ per cent are still in training for their original employment
objective, 20 per cent have had but one change, and 5£ per cent have
had more than one change since their original induction. When you
consider that many of the changes in employment objectives are
necessary because of the man’s physical handicap, the above figures
show an excellent record for that district. A survey of some 3,000
trainees in another district shows that 78 per cent of the men are still
in training for their original employment objective.
In supervising trainees it is frequently found that it is necessary to
interrupt the training program, either temporarily or permanently.
These interruptions may become necessary for various reasons:
First. Because of the physical condition of the trainee it may be
necessary for him to report to a hospital for care and treatment for
his war disability, and in such case temporary interruption can be
made for the man and arrangements made for him to continue his
training upon completion of his hospitalization. At all times the
physical welfare of the trainee should receive first consideration.
Second. Because of the trainee’s failure to profit by the opportu
nity offered him.
Third. For disciplinary reasons, where the trainee has violated
rules and regulations of the institution, and the offense has been of a
serious enough nature to suspend training. This may be a temporary
or permanent interruption, depending upon the circumstances in the
individual case.
Fourth. Because of the trainee’s lack of ability. In such cases
every effort should be made to secure new training facilities, where
the trainee’s ability will be sufficient to profit by the training recom
mended.
148
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
Fifth. In cases of institutional training, where continuous training
can not be arranged for through the summer vacation, arrangements
may be made to interrupt the training program temporarily during the
summer vacation period and the men mil be permitted to resume
the regular training at the opening of the fall term.
Close supervision of the trainee will disclose when the original
training program is not suitable or when a change in employment
objective or m the place of training is necessary. It may be that the
objective is suitable but the man is tailing to profit by training because
of some condition over which he has no control. In cases of this
kind it is advisable to change the place of training rather than to
continue him in training under unfavorable conditions.
In many instances where a man is in training in an industrial estab
lishment, the firm is paying him some nominal wage. From time to
time this amount may oe increased by the firm as the proficiency of
the trainee increases. This is one of the best evidences of progress
in training and should be accepted as one of the large factors m deter
mining rehabilitation. Where trainees are receiving a nominal wage
from the firm there will be a graduation of their maintainance allow
ance, reducing the amount they are receiving from the Government
by an amount approximately equal to that which they receive from
the firm.
As a measure of rehabilitation, the following conditions have been
established as a guide when training under section 2 will terminate:
(a) When the trainee has successfully completed the training out
lined for him; (6) when the trainee has met the requirements estab
lished for entrance into the employment for which he has been
trained, provided he has successfully completed the training out
lined for him, such training being sufficient to qualify him to meet
established requirements, or he desires to terminate training prior
to its successful completion; (c) when all reasonable efforts have
been exhausted to train the person to the point of employability;
(d) when a trainee accepts employment in preference to continuing
training, provided it is established by medical evidence that the
trainee^ disability is not increased nor aggravated as a result of such
employment; (e) when it is plainly apparent that the trainee is mani
festly, repeatedly, and continuously making no effort to avail him
self of the opportunity offered.
The fourth step is “handling of appeals.” In many instances the
decision of the rehabilitation division relative to termination of train
ing and rehabilitation will not be concurred in by the beneficiary
affected. In cases where the man does not concur in the decision
rendered in his case, he has the right to request that his case be
reviewed by the board of appeals in the district office. In case the
decision is still unfavorable, he may, as a last consideration, request
that a complete record of his case be forwarded to the central office
for final review and decision.
There are two general classes of appeals at the present time: First,
^he case of the man who has been denied section 2 training and given
only section 3 training. He appeals his case for further consideration,
requesting that section 2 training be granted. Second, the case of
the trainee who has been rehabilitated or who has permanently dis
continued or completed the course in section 3, who appeals for
further consideration and requests further training.
r e h a b il it a t io n a n d p l a c e m e n t .
149
The fifth and final step is ‘employment” and as stated in opening
this is the supreme test of the thoroughness with which the four
preceding steps have been followed out.
The Veterans’ Bureau, recognizing its responsibilities to disabled
ex-service men upon completion of their training, has created an
employment service whose object it is to provide employment
opportunities for trained disabled veterans in all fields of endeavor.
The rehabilitation division’s responsibility does not cease when the
trainee has been declared rehabilitated, for the full intent of the
law unquestionably places the additional responsibility of providing
employment for the man in a suitable or gainful occupation to the
fullest extent possible. The employment service also assumes the
responsibility for checking the efficiency of the rehabilitated trainee
on his job for the purpose of determining whether the training
received is sufficient to meet the standards required by employers.
The division has two problems that have a direct bearing upon
employment. The first of these problems is, that the division be
assured that the training received by trainees is of the standard
required by employers. When these standards have been reached,
the problem of securing suitable employment will be greatly aided
and the trainees will be able to go direct from training into employ
ment with no handicap. The second problem is that of securing
sufficient suitable employment opportunities, thus creating a desire
on the part of the trainees to be more promptly rehabilitated.
The duties of this service naturally divide into four major activities:
(a) Trades and industries; (b) agriculture ; (c) professional, arts and
sciences, and commercial; and (d) civil service. Each of these
activities has a representative in the central office organization at
Washington, D. C., who is experienced in employment work.
It is the duty of this service to make periodical surveys of industrial,
commercial, and professional fields of the entire country. The sur
veys will indicate possibilities of employment with special reference
to equalizing the numbers of trainees in vocations. This will in a
measure prevent overloading any vocation, thus insuring immediate
employment of the rehabilitated.
A summary of the duties of this division so far as they apply to
employment can be covered by two activities: 1. Providing employ
ment opportunities; 2. Following up after employment.
The organization of the employment service in the central office
does not contemplate actual contact with the individual trainee,
but rather confines itself to working out arrangements with large
employers whereby the trainees of the bureau are taken into their
organizations, upon rehabilitation. The actual contact with the
trainees and the placing of the men in suitable employment are
functions that are decentralized to district and subdistrict personnel
who are the contact representatives of the bureau and have direct
and continued contact with the trainees and prospective employers.
The employment service contacts with the field representatives
of the bureau are confined to acting as a clearing house for employ
ment opportunities and disseminating information relative to employ
ment, gathered by it, to the districts for their use.
This service is also the agency of the bureau through which con
tacts are formed with trade, industrial, commercial, professional,
150
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
and veterans7organizations. These contacts are made by attendance
at conventions, conferences, and meetings of the subsections of the
large organizations to present the problem of employment of rehabili
tated ex-service men and securing their active cooperation through
the utilization of their various agencies.
Some 15,000 men are being trained in agriculture by the bureau.
Approximately 50 per cent are receiving their training in agricultural
schools and colleges. The school authorities and supervisors of
agricultural training keep in close touch with the field of employment
and provide opportunities, months in advance, for men about to
complete training in their schools. In covering this field contacts
are made by the central office with many agencies whose activities
offer opportunities for meeting our employment needs. These agen
cies include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Lmor,
Civil Service Commission, Federal Board for Vocational Education,
national and local farm organizations, patriotic and other societies,
National and State agricultural conventions, meetings, fairs, etc.
The supervisors of agricultural training find it more difficult to
secure desirable employment for men in placement training or train
ing on the job. The contacts of these supervisors are many and
varied. Their best source of information as to employment oppor
tunities is through the county agents and county farm bureaus,
also advertisements in the local farm journals and in other publica
tions. The local organizations and services, and patriotic and other
local societies are assisting in furnishing opportunities for employ
ment. News notes in certain lines of the public press, including
the bureau’s field letter, are used. A number of men are going on
the land as owners or tenants, with the object of remaining there
after rehabilitation. As this part of the disabled veteran’s program
concludes his training, the responsibility for his immediate future
economic status depends partly on the training and not entirely on
the employment service.
In the commercial field, contacts are formed with organizations
such as the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., Commercial Travelers’
Association, and Accountants’ Association; in trade and industrial
lines, with labor organizations, large corporations, chambers of com
merce, and manufacturers’ associations. An endeavor is made to
cover all conferences held by the various activities mentioned.
All agencies of the Government are likewise utilized to secure open
ings for employment of trainees. Close contacts and definite work
ing arrangements have been made with the Civil Service Commis
sion, the executive departments, and the various bureaus, for taking
properly trained disabled ex-service men into their various activities.
It is the policy, wherever possible, to train our disabled men di
rectly into employment, this being accomplished in a great many
cases through the activities of *the training supervisors (working
from the subdistrict office), who are in direct and continuous contact
with the individual trainee.
It is the duty of the employment representative to interview his
contacts with reference to the men he has selected, and, wherever
practicable, to send the men direct to the employment representative
of the organization desiring their services, for a personal interview.
Surplus openings for employment will be reported from one office
REHABILITATION AND PLACEMENT.
%151
to another and a clearing house for such opportunities maintained
in the district office. The central office at Washington maintains a
clearing house of opportunities for the districts.
In closing, a few figures may be interesting and will indicate the
size of our problem to some extent:
Total registration...............................................................................................
Number of men who entered training..........................................................
Number of men now in training...................................................................
Number of men who have completed training.........................................
552, 366
150, 536
109, 805
11,250
Up to date, therefore, over half a million men have applied for
training and over 150,000 have entered training; that is, approxi
mately one out of every four who were registered has entered
training. One out of every five who were registered is still in training.
That suitable employment for the disabled can be found is not a new
problem or a new thought, and it is my belief that the rehabilitated
man is not disabled or crippled, because he is able to give a fair
service for a fair wage, in fact many crippled men have testified that
the handicap of public opinion is a greater obstacle than the loss of a
limb or the impairment of activity of any part of the body.
The rehabilitated man may be limited in his choice of occupations,
but if his skill is of the average marketable grade he is not handi
capped unless he is denied reasonable opportunity because in public
opinion he is still disabled.
The veterans of whom I speak became disabled in defense of our
country; they are the most precious of material—human beings—
and they must not be left on the scrap pile. They are our most
valuable natural resource, man power, and it is imperative that such
man power be reclaimed if this Nation is to continue to reclaim its
arid lands, replant its burned forests, or plow its fertile fields.
The rehabilitation of the disabled in war and the disabled in in
dustry is one of our social problems and must be attended to care
fully and efficiently. For years past we have been busy maiming
and killing and have forgotten to care for the disabled, hiding them
in humble homes or in charitable institutions, or anywhere, so long
as they were out of sight so that we might not be offended by looking
at them too often. But now, through the aid of common sense and a
far-seeing Government, we are able to send our disabled for a cruise
on the “ship of training” on the sea of rehabilitation, and finally
to land them over the gangplank of opportunity on the shore of
permanent employment, in order that they may become selfsupporting, self-respecting, independent citizens of this great country,
making a material contribution to the aggregate success, wealth, and
happiness of the human family.
16697°— 23— Bull. 323------ 11
THE NATIONAL PROGRAM OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION.
BY JOHN A. KRATZ, CHIEF INDUSTRIAL REHABILITATION DIVISION, FEDERAL BOARD FOR
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.
Status of vocational rehabilitation before the Federal act.—Before the
Federal act providing for promotion of the vocational rehabilitation
of persons disabled in industry or otherwise became a law in June, 1920,
several States had enacted rehabilitation legislation. Only five or six
of them had, however, actually begun the work. Three States antici
pating the Federal act, had in their acts provided for acceptance.
Except in two or three States, however, very little actual vocational
rehabilitation work was accomplished prior to the establishment of
the program by the Federal Government.
Progress since the Federal act became effective.—The work of the
Federal board during the first year and a half of its administration
of the act was devoted largely to promoting acceptance legislation
in the States, and to giving assistance to the States m setting up their
rehabilitation machinery.
To date 34 States have accepted the act, and I am confident from
information I have in hand that this number will be increased to 40
or 42 at the meeting of the State legislatures in the spring of 1923.
It may be said, therefore, that the vocational rehabilitation of per
sons disabled in industry or otherwise has been established oh a nation
wide basis.
Development of the program.—Despite post-war depression and
economy programs which have been inaugurated in practically all of
the States, there has been a very gratifying development and expan
sion of the rehabilitation program throughout the country. In
those States which have accepted the act the personnel handling
the work has reached the numbed of 125 persons, exclusive of steno
graphic and clerical help. This statement does not, however, give an
mdication of the actual number of persons now engaged in the
rehabilitation service, because the work of State staffs is supplemented
by the cooperation not only of workers in other State departments,
such as those of public health, welfare, instruction, labor, etc., but
also of representatives from many private agencies which are in a
position to lend assistance. As for the number of disabled persons
being served in the period between July 1 and November 15, 1922,
the roll of active cases increased 240 per cent, and there are indica
tions that the total number of persons now being served in the States
would number from 12,000 to 15,000. As the States develop the me
chanics of case procedure and extend their cooperative contacts,
the number of persons they can serve proportionate to their staffs
will be considerably increased. The volume of cases being handled
is constantly growing, and it is impossible at this time to hazard even
a guess as to when the peak load will be reached.
Vocational rehabilitation as contemplated under the Federal act. —The
Federal act promotes the vocational rehabilitation of persons dis-
152
NATIONAL PROGRAM OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION.
153
abled in industry and otherwise by providing State and national
cooperation. The States are directly responsible for the work and
receive allotments of money based on population. Expenditures
from these allotments must be matched by State expenditures used
for purposes which are legitimate under the Federal act. The Federal
Board for Vocational Education interprets the act and sets up policies
of administration. In the State administration is in the hands of the
State board for vocational education, which under the act must co
operate with the body that administers the workmen’s compensation
laws. In several States the State board has delegated the adminis
tration of the work to the labor or compensation department, but of
course has not relinquished its responsibility under the act.
The Federal act does not specify how rehabilitation is to be effected,
but the Federal board recognizes the following services as avenues to
rehabilitation: (1) service leading to physical reconstruction; (2)
service providing artificial appliances; (3) service providing suitable
work conditions for persons with disease tendencies; (4) service pro
viding opportunities for disabled persons to become established in
their own business; (5) service providing suitable placement; (6)
service providing training resulting in placement.
Federal or matched funds can not be used for physical rehabili
tation as such, for living maintenance, for purchase of teaching or
office equipment, or for building or land. Living maintenance for
persons being rehabilitated through training comes through such
sources as accident compensation, personal resources, loans, contri
butions from private sources, or State funds provided for that purStates which now have maintenance legislation are Minnesota,
Sose.
few York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin,
and Wyoming. The maintenance is provided through general State
appropriations or as additional compensation.
Cooperation by other State departments and private agencies.—Be
cause of variations in age, disability, education, experience, capacity,
and spirit, disabled persons must be dealt with individually, not in
groups. Frequently several kinds of services are necessary in the
rehabilitation of a single case. A recent case which came to my
attention was that of a young man who had lost his left leg a little
below the knee. When he came to the rehabilitation service it was
decided that it would be necessary to provide an artificial limb, and
he was thereupon taken to a person who was capable of making a
fitting. It was found, however, that the stump had been sloughing,
and that it was in no condition to take an artificial appliance. The
doctor recommended that an operation be performed m order to put
the stump in condition. Through the efforts of interested persons
and those wlio were cooperating, a private agency contributed funds,
not only for the operation but also for the cost of hospital expenses.
Henry-------- , aged 21, drifted into the office of the Social Service
Club of La Crosse one wintry night, clad in overalls, shirt, cap, and
shoes—nothing more. Blind in one eye, rapidly going blind in the
other, he presented a sorry sight. A meal and a bed in jail that night,
a few old clothes in the morning, and Henry went “looking” for a
job. At noon Henry had a smile and a job washing dishes at a near
by hotel—meals and $6 per week. Prospectsior the future: Washing
dishes and complete blindness eventually.
154
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
The case was reported to the rehabilitation department and later
investigated. A blood examination by an interested physician
showed a four plus Wassermann reaction. Arsphenamine treatments
at the free clinic at La Crosse were started and the latest reports
are that Henry’s eyesight has improved, and a complete recovery,
with an operation if necessary, is the prognosis at the present time.
In the course of events a heavy snowstorm played havoc with
telephone and telegraph wires in the locality, and there was a sudden
demand for men with some knowledge of wiring. Having had some
experience Henry applied for a job and was accepted, made good,
was retained after the temporary need for men had subsided, and
has stayed with the company since that time. His eyesight is
rapidly improving. His next step will be into the night class of the
vocational school at La Crosse, where he will receive technical train
ing in electricity. The possibilities which lie in store for him in
the near future are obvious. From a “four plus” Wassermann, near
blind, naked transient, to a comparatively healthy, self-supporting,
and what is more, self-respecting electrician, is a seemingly impossible
step, yet not an impossible one.
This case not only demonstrates the possibilities in rehabilitation,
but also clearly indicates the invaluable assistance that a local
cooperating agency can render. Henry has been held on the “ straight
and narrow” path—a material service that could not have been
performed by the limited force of the rehabilitation department.
It will be seen from the illustration which I have just given that
a State could never rehabilitate all its disabled persons if it depended
only on its official personnel. Cooperation with other agencies is
necessary.
This cooperation is secured either on an organized or unorganized
basis. That is to say, in the handling of practically every case some
help is needed from outside agencies, and this is secured by a request
from the rehabilitation department that certain services be rendered
by these outside agencies for the particular case involved. On the
other hand, cooperation on the organized basis is effected by means
of setting up relationships with other State departments, such as
compensation commission, public welfare, health, labor, public
instruction, agricultural extension, etc., or with private agencies, such
as State medical association, social agencies, Red Cross, Rotary,
Kiwanis, and Lion clubs, newspaper associations, societies for crip
pled children, parent-teacher organizations, Y. W. C. A., Y. M. C. A.,
chambers of commerce, city or charity officials, city and county
officials, church organizations, fraternal orders, federation of women’s
clubs, etc. In order to explain how organized cooperation is estab
lished, a plan used in several of the States is given, as follows:
Clearing agencies, to whom cases are referred for preliminary study
and recommendation, are established in communities. The function
of such clearing agencies is to save the rehabilitation service much
preliminary work which it would otherwise have to do. The services
which these agencies render are assistance in determining eligibility
and susceptibility, and in the making of preliminary tentative pro
grams of rehabilitation. Their work is supplemented by advisory
committees, usually consisting of four, five, or six members. A
typical committee consists, in a particular community, of the head
NATIONAL PROGRAM OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION.
155
of district nurses, the representative of vocational education, the
executive secretary of the Red Cross, the representative of the em
ployers’ association, the director of the bureau of community wel
fare, and the director of the State-city employment office.
Back of these committees, ready upon call, are the big busy people
of the community. Of course, the responsibility for final action in
a case and for determination of what it shall be is in the hands of the
State department of rehabilitation. Experience has shown that it is
not difficult to train people to know what the State can do under its
own legislation and that of the Federal act. It is the practice of
representatives in the rehabilitation service to sit regularly with these
committees.
The philosophy behind organized cooperation is sound, inasmuch
as rehabilitation is certainly a responsibility of the community. It is
only logical that the community should give every support and co
operation to the State department.
Special services given in some States.—For the most part, the
State laws, being acceptances of Federal legislation, are uniform in
the benefits extended to disabled persons. These are in the main
tuition in training, provision of instructional supplies, and all services
in connection with advisement, placement, and follow-up to a logical
conclusion, in a position of independent employment. In cases
where artificial appliances are necessary aids to vocational rehabilita
tion, the appliances may be provided.
In the State of New Jersey rehabilitation clinics are maintained for
the purpose of providing physical reconstruction or physical rehabili
tation to disabled persons who are in need of it. Of course, physical
rehabilitation is in many cases the only avenue through which vo
cational rehabilitation should be attempted. In those States in
which the law does not provide for it, other steps must be taken in
order that it be secured.
In Iowa there is a hospital law which provides disabled persons
with everything that is needed in the way of medical and surgical
treatment. In many of the States, of course, State-aided hospitals
are used, and in many instances the service is secured through the
charitable assistance of both individuals and organizations, as well as
of the medical fraternity in general.
Special studies.—In addition to the usual procedure in handling
cases, a number of States are making special studies on a more or less
scientific basis, thereby devising new ways and means for vocational
rehabilitation. Inasmuch as the blind oner one of the most trouble
some problems, much attention is being given to discovery of occupa
tions for the blind. Several of the States are engaged in investiga
tions which will lead to definite and helpful results. In one of the
States special study has been made of operations which are com
mon to a number of industries, such as, for instance, packing and
wrapping. This, of course, was for the purpose of determining occuin which handicapped persons may “ carry on.” Studies are
Eations
eing made, also, in other States, in connection with suitable em
ployment for persons with arrested tuberculosis, or tendencies to it.
In conclusion, I would say that the progress of the rehabilitation
work as carried on under cooperative arrangements between the
States and the Federal Government has been very gratifying indeed.
156
ASSOCIATION OE GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
Results and actual services rendered to disabled persons have far
exceeded our expectations, while the development of suitable machin
ery to enable the States to meet the problem has increased to a sur
prising degree, notwithstanding the conservatism and economies
which are being practiced in a number of our States. The rehabilita
tion of persons disabled in industry or otherwise has not only been
set up as a national problem, but has been definitely organized and
established as a social and educational endeavor, a service which will
inhere and grow in proportion as an enlightened public realizes the
benefits to be derived from the program and the responsibilities which
must be met.
A P P E N D IX .
Canada .
LIST OF DELEGATES AT CONVENTION.
H. C. Hudson, general superintendent Ontario offices, employment service of
Canada, Toronto.
C o n n e c t ic u t .
F. L. Hall, deputy factory inspector department of labor and factory inspection,
Williamstown.
John H. Quinlan, deputy factory inspector department of labor and factory in
spection, Meriden.
M. J. Kelley, deputy factory inspector department of labor and factory inspec
tion, Norwich.
J. J. Burke, deputy commissioner department of labor and factory inspection,
Hartford.
P. H. Connelley, deputy factory inspector department of labor and factory inspec
tion, Danbury.
George F. Costello, deputy factory inspector department of labor and industry,
Mystic.
W. E. Duncan, deputy commissioner department of-labor and factory inspection,
Hartford.
D elaw are.
Charles A. Hagner, chief child labor division, labor commission, Wilmington.
I l l in o is .
.
.
Linna E. Bresette, assistant director social action department, National Catholic
Welfare Council, Chicago.
Charles J. Boyd, general superintendent Chicago free employment offices, de
partment of labor, Chicago.
Iow a.
Mrs. Ellen M. Rourke, factory inspector bureau of labor statistics, Des Moines.
K ansa s.
Agnes E. Harrigan, inspector women’s work, industrial welfare commission,
Topeka.
Alice K. McFarland, director women’s work, industrial welfare commission,
Topeka.
L o u is ia n a .
Frank E. Wood, commissioner bureau of labor and industrial statistics, New
Orleans.
M a ssa c h u set ts.
E. Leroy Sweetser, commissioner department of labor and industries, Boston.
John P. Meade, director division of industrial safety, department of labor and in
dustries, Boston.
M ic h ig a n .
Carl Young, commissioner department of labor and industry, Lansing.
M in n e s o t a .
Henry MeColl, member industrial commission, St. Paul.
Louise Schutz, chief division of women and children, industrial commission, St.
Paul.
N e w H a m p s h ir e .
*
John S. B. Davie, commissioner bureau of labor, Concord.
N ew Jer sey .
L. T. Bryant, commissioner department of labor, Trenton.
N ew Y ork.
Seaman F. Northrup, director bureau of industrial relations, department of labor,
Albany.
Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, member industrial board, department of labor, New
York.
N o r t h Ca r o l in a .
M. L. Shipman, commissioner department of labor and printing, Raleigh.
157
158
ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTAL LABOR OFFICIALS.
O h io .
W. J. Biebesheimer, chief division of labor statistics, department of industrial rela
tions, Columbus.
O k l a h o m a .,
Mrs. Randolph Elliott, industrial secretary, Oklahoma City.
P e n n s y l v a n ia .
C. B. Connelley, commissioner department of labor and industry, Harrisburg.
Fred J. Hartman, secretary industrial board, department of labor and industry,
Harrisburg.
Robert J. Peters, director bureau of employment, department of labor and indus
try, Harrisburg.
S. S. Riddle, chief bureau of rehabilitation, department of labor and industry,
Harrisburg.
J. J. Coffey, supervising inspector bureau of inspection, department of labor and
industry, Philadelphia district.
Francis Feehan, supervising inspector bureau of inspection, department of labor
and industry, Pittsburgh district.
V ir g in ia .
John Hopkins Hall, jr., commissioner bureau of labor and industrial statistics,
Richmond.
Mrs. Ethel Scott, director division of women and children, bureau of labor and
industrial statistics, Richmond.
B. M. Blankinship, supervisor of industrial rehabilitation, Richmond.
Lillie M. Barbour, special inspector bureau of labor and industrial statistics,
Richmond.
W a s h in g t o n .
Edward Clifford, director department of labor and industries, Olympia.
Mrs. Delphine M. Johnson, supervisor of women in industry, department of labor
and industries, Olympia.
W is c o n s in .
Fred M. Wilcox, chairman industrial commission, Madison.
A. J. Altmeyer, secretary industrial commission, Madison.
W a s h i n g t o n , D. C.
H. R. Brown, Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture.
Francis I. Jones, director general United States Employment Service.
Mary Anderson, director Women's Bureau, United States Department of Labor.
Agnes L. Peterson, industrial supervisor Women’s Bureau, United States Depart
ment of Labor.
Ethelbert Stewart, United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics.
S ER IES O F B U LLE T IN S P U B LIS H ED BY T H E BU REAU O F LA B O R STATISTICS.
[The publication of the annual and special reports and of the bimonthly bulletin was
discontinued in July, 1912, and since that time a bulletin has been published at irregular
intervals. Each number contains matter devoted to one of a series of general subjects.
These bulletins are numbered consecutively, beginning with No. 101, and up to No. 236 they
also carry consecutive numbers under each series. Beginning with No. 237 the serial num
bering has been discontinued. A list of the series is given below. Under each is grouped
all the bulletins which contain material relating to the subject matter of that series. A
list of the reports and bulletins of the Bureau issued prior to July 1, 1912, will be furnished
on application. The bulletins marked thus * are out of print.]
Wholesale Prices.
*B ul. 114.
B u i. 149.
*B ul. 173.
*B ul. 181.
*B ul. 200.
B ui. 226.
B u i. 269.
B u i. 284.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1912.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1913.
In d ex num bers of w holesale prices in th e U n ited States and foreign countries.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1914.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1915.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1916.
W holesale prices, 1890 to 1919.
In d ex num bers of w holesale prices in the U n ited States an d foreign countries.
of B u lletin N o. 173.]
B ui. 296. W holesale prices, 1890 to 1920.
B ui. 320. W holesale prices, 1890 to 1921.
[Revision
Retail Prices and Cost of Living.
*B ul. 105. R etail prices, 1890 to 1911: Part I.
R etail prices, 1890 to 1911: P art II—General tables.
*B ul. 106. R etail prices, 1890 to June, 1912: Part I.
R etail prices, 1890 to June, 1912: Part II—General tables.
B u i. 108. R etail prices, 1890 to A ugust, 1912.
B u i. 110. R etail prices, 1890 to October, 1912.
B u i. 113. R etail prices, 1890 to D ecem ber, 1912.
B u i. 115. R etail prices, 1890 to February, 1913.
*B ul. 121. Sugar prices, from refiner to consum er.
B u i. 125. R etail prices, 1890 to A pril, 1913.
*B ul. 130. W heat an d flour prices, from farmer to consum er
B u i. 132. R etail prices, 1890 to June, 1913.
B u i. 136. R etail prices, 1890 to A ugust, 1913.
♦ Bill. 138. R etail prices, 1890 to October, 1913.
*B ul. 140. R etail prices, 1890 to D ecem ber, 1913.
B u i. 156. R etail prices, 1907 to D ecem ber, 1914.
B u i. 164. B utter prices, from producer to consum er.
B u i. 170. Foreign food prices as affected by th e war.
B u i. 184. R etail prices, 1907 to June, 1915.
B u i. 197. R etail prices, 1907 to D ecem ber, 1915.
B u i. 228. R etail prices, 1907 to D ecem ber, 1916.
B u i. 270. R etail prices, 1913 to 1919.
B u i. 300. R etail prices, 1913 to 1920.
B u i. 315. R etail prices, 1913 to 1921.
Wages and Hours of Labor.
f
B u i. 116. H ours, earnings, an d duration of em ploym ent of wage-earning w om en in selected industries
in th e D istrict of Colum bia.
*B ul. 118. Ten-hour m axim u m w orking-day for w om en and young persons.
B u i. 119. W orking hours of w om en in th e pea canneries of W isconsin.
*B ul. 128. W ages and hours of labor in th e cotton, w oolen, and silk industries, 1890 to 1912.
*B ul. 129. W ages and hours of labor in th e lum ber, m illw ork, and furniture industries, 1890 to 1912.
*B ul. 131. U n ion scale of w ages and hours of labor, 1907 to 1912.
*B ul. 134. W ages and hours of labor in the boot and shoe and hosiery and k n it goods industries, 1890
to 1912.
*B ul. 135. W ages and hours of labor in th e cigar and clothing industries, 1911 an d 1912.
B u i. 137. W ages and hours of labor in th e building and repairing of steam railroad cars, 1890 to 1912.
B u i. 143. U n ion scale of wages and hours of labor, M ay 15,1913.
B u i. 146. W ages and regularity of em ploym ent and standardization of piece rates in th e dress and
w aist in d u stry of N ew Y ork C ity.
*B ul. 147. W ages and regularity of em ploym ent in the cloak, suit, and skirt industry.
(i)
Wages and Hours of Labor—C oncluded.
*B ul. 150.
*B u l. 151.
B u i. 153.
*B ul. 154.
W ages and hours of labor in th e cotton, w oolen, and silk industries, 1907 to 1913.
W ages and hours oflabor in th e iron and s t ^ l industry in th e U n ited States, 1907 to 1912.
W ages and hours of labor in th e lum ber, m illw ork, and furniture industries, 1907 to 1913.
W ages and hours of labpr in th e boot and shoe and hosiery and underw ear industries, 1907
to 1913.
B u i. 160. H ours, earnings, and conditions of labor of w om en in Indiana m ercantile establishm ents
and garm ent factories.
B u i. 161. W ages and hours oflabor in th e clothing and cigar industries, 1911 to 1913.
B u i. 163. W ages and hours eft labor in th e building and repairing of steam railroad cars, 1907 to 1913.
B u i. 168. W ages and hours of labor in th e iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1918.
*B u l. 171. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflab or, M ay 1,1914.
B u i. 177. W ages and hours of labor in th e hosiery and underw ear industry, 1907 to 1914.
B u i. 178. W ages and hours oflabor in th e boot and shoe in d u stry, 1907 to 1914.
B u i. 187. W ages and hours oflab or in th e m e n ’s clothing industry, 1911 to 1914.
*B u l. 190. W ages and hours oflab or in th e cotton, w oolen, and silk industries, 1907 to 1914.
*B u l. 194. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflabor, M ay 1,1915.
B u i. 204. Street railw ay em ploym ent in th e U n ited States.
B u i. 214. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflabor, M ay 15,1916.
B u i. 218. W ages and hours oflabor in th e iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1915.
B u i. 221. H ours, fatigue, and health in B ritish m u n ition factories.
B u i. 225. W ages and hours of labor in th e lum ber, m illw ork, and furniture industries, 1915.
B u i. 232. W ages and hours of labor in th e boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1916
B u i. 238. W ages and hours oflabor in w oolen and w orsted goods m anufacturing, 1916.
B u i. 239. W ages and hours oflab or in cotton goods m anufacturing and finishing, 1916.
B u i. 245. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflabor, M ay 15,1917.
B u i. 252. W ages and hours of labor in th e slaughtering and m eat-packing industry, 1917.
B u i. 259. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflabor, M ay 15,1918.
B u i. 260. W ages and hours oflab or in th e boot and shoe industry, 1907 to 1918.
B u i. 261. W ages and hours oflab or in w oolen and w orsted goods m anufacturing, 1918.
B u i. 262. W ages and hours oflabor in cotton goods m anufacturing and finishing, 1918.
B u i. 265. Indu strial survey in selected industries in th e U n ited States, 1919. P relim inary report.
B u i. 274. U n ion scale of w ages and hours oflabor, M ay 15,1919.
B u i. 278. W ages and hours of labor in th e tJoot and shoe in d u stry, 1907-1920.
B u i. 279. H ours and earnings in anthracite and bitu m in ou s coal m ining.
B u i. 286. U n ion scale of w ages and hours of labor, M ay 15,1920.
B u i. 288. W ages and hours oflabor in cotton goods m anufacturing, 1920.
B u i. 289. W ages and hours oflab or in w oolen and w orsted goods m anufacturing, 1920.
B u i. 294. W ages and hours oflab or in the slaughtering and m eat-packing industry in U ll
B u i. 297. W ages and hours oflab or in th e petroleum industry.
B u i. 302. U n ion scale of w ages and hours of labor, M ay 15,1921.
B u i. 305. W ages and hours of labor in th e iron and steel industry, 1907 to 1920
B u i. 316. H ours and earnings in anthracite and b itum inous coal m ining.
B u i. 317. W ages and hours oflabor in lum ber m anufacturing, 1921.
Employment and Unemployment.
*B ul. 109. Statistics of unem ploym ent and th e w ork of em ploym ent offices.
B u i. 116. H ours, earnings, and duration of em ploym ent of wage-earning w om en n selected in d u s
tries in th e D istrict of C olum bia.
B u i. 172. U n em p loym en t in N ew Y ork C ity, N . Y .
*B u l. 182. U nem ploym ent am ong w om en in departm ent and other retail stores of B oston , Mass.
*B ul. 183. R egularity of em ploym ent in th e w om en's ready-tO|Wear garm ent industries.
B u i. 192. Proceedings of th e A m erican A ssociation of P u b lic E m p loym en t Offices.
*B ul. 195. U n em p loym en t in th e U n ited States.
B u i. 196 Proceedings of th e E m p loym en t M anagers’ Conference h eld at M inneapolis, January, 1916,
B u i. 202. Proceedings of th e conference of th e E m p loym en t M anagers’ A ssociation of B oston, Mass.,,
held M ay 10,1916.
B u i. 206. T he B ritish system oflabor exchanges.
B u i. 220. Proceedings of th e Fourth A nnual M eeting of th e Am erican A ssociation of P ublic E m p loy
m en t Offices, B uffalo, N . Y ., Ju ly 20 and 21, 1916.
B id . 223. E m p loym en t of w om en and juveniles in Great B ritain during the war.
*B u l. 227. Proceedings of the E m p loym en t M anagers’ Conference, Philadelphia, P a., A pril 2 and 3,1917.
B u i. 235. E m p loym en t system of th e L ake Carriers’ A ssociation.
B u i. 241. P ublic em ploym ent offices in th e U n ited States.
B u i. 247. Proceedings of E m p loym en t M anagers’ Conference, R ochester, N . Y ., M ay 9-11,1918
B u i. 310. Indu strial unem ploym ent: A statistical stu d y of its exten t and causes.
B u i. 311. Proceedings of th e N in th A nnual M eeting of th e International A ssociation of P u b lic E m p lo y
m en t Services, Septem ber 9-11, B uffalo, N Y .
(n)
Women in Industry.
B ui. 116. H ours, earnings, and duration of em ploym ent of wage-earning w om en in selected industries
in th e D istrict of Colum bia.
*B ul. 117. P rohibition of n ight work of young persons.
’•‘B ui. 118. Ten-hour m ax im u m working-day for w om en and young persons.
B ui. 119. W orking hours of w om en in the pea canneries of W isconsin.
’•‘B ui. 122. E m p loym en t of w om en in power laundries in M ilwaukee.
B ui. 160. H ours, earnings, and conditions of labor of w om en in Indiana m ercantile establishm ents
and garm ent factories.
*B ul. 167. M inim um -w age legislation in the U n ited States and foreign countries.
*B ul. 175. Sum m ary of the report on condition of w om an and child wage earners in th e U n ited States.
*B ul. 176. E ffect of m in im u m wage determ inations in Oregon.
*B ul. 180. The boot and shoe in d u stry in M assachusetts as a vocation for w om en.
B u i. 182. U n em p loym en t am ong w om en in departm ent and other retail stores of B oston, Mass.
B ui. 193. D ressm aking as a trade for w om en in M assachusetts.
B ui. 215. Industrial experience of trade-school girls in M assachusetts.
B ui. 217. E ffect of w orkm en’s com pensation law s in dim inishing the necessity of industrial em ploy
m en t of w om en and children.
B ui. 223. E m p loym en t of w om en and juveniles in Great B ritain during th e war.
B ui. 253. W om en in th e lead industry.
Workmen's Insurance and Compensation (including laws relating thereto).
B ui. 101.
B ui. 102.
B ui. 103.
B ui. 107.
*B ul. 126.
*B ul. 155.
*B ul. 185.
B u i. 203.
Care of tuberculosis wage earners in Germ any.
B ritish N ational Insurance A ct, 1911.
Sickness and accident insurance law of Sw itzerland.
L aw relating to insurance of salaried em ployees in G erm any.
W orkm en’s com pensation law s of th e U n ited States and foreign countries.
Com pensation for accidents to em ployees of th e U n ited States.
C om pensation legislation of 1914 and 1915.
W orkm en’s com pensation law s of th e U n ited States and foreign countries.
Bui. 210. Proceedings of the Third Annual Meeting of the International Association of Industrial
Accident Boards and Commissions.
B ui. 212. Proceedings of th e conference on social insurance called b y the International A ssociation
of Industrial A ccident Boards and C om m issions.
B ui. 217. E ffect of w orkm en’s com pensation law s in dim inishing th e n ecessity of industrial em ploy
m ent of w om en and children.
B u i. 240. Com parison of w orkm en’s com pensation law s of the U n ited States.
B ui. 243. W orkm en’s com pensation legislation in the U n ited States and foreign countries.
B ui. 248. Proceedings of the Fourth A nnual M eeting of the International A ssociation of Industrial
A ccident Boards and C om m issions.
B ui. 264. Proceedings of the F ifth A nnual M eeting of the International A ssociation of Industrial
A ccident Boards and C om m issions.
B ui. 272. W orkm en’s com pensation legislation of the U n ited States and Canada, 1919.
’•‘B ui. 273. Proceedings of the S ixth A nnual M eeting of the International A ssociation of Industrial
A ccident Boards and Com m issions.
B ui. 275. Com parison of w orkm en’s com pensation law s of the U n ited States and Canada.
B ui. 281. Proceedings of the Seventh A nnual M eeting of the Internationsl A ssociation of Industrial
A ccident Boards and Com m issions.
B ui. 301. Com parison of w orkm en’s com pensation insurance and adm inistration.
B ui. 312. N ational H ealth Insurance in Great Britain, 1911 to 1920. [In press.]
Industrial Accidents and Hygiene.
B ui. 104. L ead poisoning in potteries, tile works, and porcelain enam eled sanitary ware factories.
B u i. 120. H ygien e of the painters’ trade.
*B ul. 127. Dangers to workers from dust and fum es, and m ethods of protection.
B ui. 141. L ead poisoning in the sm eltin g and refining of lead.
’•‘B ui. 157. Industrial accident statistics.
B ui. 165. Lead poisoning in the m anufacture of storage batteries.
*B ul. 179. Industrial poisons used in the rubber industry.
B ui. 188. R eport of B ritish departm ental com m ittee on the danger in the use of lead in the painting
of buildings.
*B ul. 201. R eport of com m ittee on statistics and com pensation insurance cost of the International
A ssociation of Industrial A ccident Boards and C om m issions. [L im ited edition.]
B ui. 205. A nth rax as an occupational disease.
B ui. 207. Causes of death b y occupation.
B ui. 209. H ygiene of the printing trades.
*B uh 216. A ccidents and accident prevention in m achine building.
B u i. 219. Industrial poisons used or produced in the m anufacture of explosives.
(in)
Industrial Accidents and Hygiene— C oncluded.
B u i 221. H ours, fatigue, an d h ealth in B ritish m u n ition factories.
B u i. 230. Indu strial efficiency an d fatigue in B ritish m u n ition fctories.
B u i. 231. M ortality from respiratory diseases in d u sty trades.
*B ul. 234. Safety m ovem en t in the iron and steel in d u stry, 1907 to 1917.
B u i. 236. E ffect of the air ham m er on the hands of stonecutters.
B u i. 251. P reventable death in th e cotton m anufacturing industry.
B u i. 253. W om en in the lead industries.
B u i. 256. A ccidents an d accident prevention in m achine b uilding. R evision of B u i. 216.
B u i. 267. A n th rax as an occupational disease. [R evised.]
B u i. 276. Standardization of industrial accident statistics.
B u i. 280. Indu strial poisoning in m akin g coal-tar d yes an d d ye interm ediates.
B u i. 291. Carbon m onoxide poisoning. [In press.]
B u i. 293. T he problem of d u st p h th isis in th e granite stone industry.
B u i. 298. Causes an d prevention of accidents in the iron an d steel in d u stry, 191® to 1919.
B u i. 308. O ccupation hazards an d diagnostic signs a guide to im pairm ents to be looked for in haz
ardous occupations.
Conciliation and Arbitration (including strikes and lockouts).
*B u l. 124. C onciliation an d arbitration in th e b u ild in g trades of Greater N ew Y ork.
*B u l. 133. R eport of the in d u stria l cou n cil of th e B ritish B oard of Trade on its in q u iry in to in d u strial
agreem ents.
B u i. 139. M ichigan copper d istrict strik e.
B u i. 144. In d u str ia l cou rt of th e cloak, su it, an d skirt in d u stry of N ew Y ork C ity.
B u i. 145. C onciliation , arb itration , an d sa n ita tio n in th e dress an d w aist in d u stry of N ew Y ork
C ity.
B u i. 191. C ollective bargaining in th e an thracite in d u stry.
*B u l. 198. C ollective agreem ents in th e m en ’s cloth in g in d u stry.
B u i. 233. O peration of the In d u strial D isp u tes In v estig a tio n A ct of C anada.
B u i. 303. U se of F ederal pow er in settlem en t of railw ay labor d isp u tes.
Labor Laws of the United States (including decisions of courts relating to labor).
* B u l. 111. Labor legisla tio n of 1912.
*B u l. 112. D ecisions of courts an d op in ion s affecting labor, 1912.
*B u l. 148. Labor law s of the U n ited States, w ith decisions of courts relating thereto.
*B u l. 152. D ecisions of courts an d op in ion s affecting labor, 1913.
*B u l. 166. Labor legislation of 1914.
*B u l. 169. D ecisions of courts affecting labor, 1914.
* B u l. 186. Labor legislation of 1915.
*B u l. 189. D ecisions of courts affecting labor, 1915.
B u i. 211. Labor law s and their ad m in istration in the Pacific States.
*B u l. 213. Labor legislation of 1916.
B u i. 224. D ecisions of courts affecting labor, 1916.
B u i. 229. W age-paym ent legislation in the U n ited S tates.
B u i. 244. Labor legislation of 1917.
B u i. 246. D ecisions of courts affecting labor, 1917.
B u i. 257. Labor legislation of 1918.
B u i. 258. D ecisions of courts an d op inions affecting labor, 1918.
B u i. 277. Labor legislation of 1919.
B u i. 285. M inim um -w age legislation in the U n ited States.
B u i. 290. D ecisions of courts an d op inions affecting labor, 1919-1920.
B u i. 292. Labor legislation of 1920.
B u i. 308. Labor legislation of 1921.
B u i. 309. D ecisions of courts an d op inions affecting labor, 1921.
B u i. 321. Labor law s th at h ave been declared u n con stitu tion al.
B u i. 322. K ansas Court of In d u strial R elation s. [In press.]
Foreign Labor Laws.
Bui. 142. Administration of labor laws and factory inspection in certain European countries.
Vocational Education.
B u i. 145.
- *B u l. 147.
*B u l. 159.
B u i. 162.
B u i. 199.
B u i. 271.
C onciliation, arbitration, an d san itation in the dress an d w aist in d u stry of N ew York C ity.
W ages an d regularity of em p loym en t in th e cloak, su it, an d skirt in d u stry.
Short-unit courses for wage earners, an d a factory school exp erim en t.
V ocational education su rvey of R ichm ond, V a.
V ocational education su rvey of M inneapolis.
A d u lt working-class education (G reat B ritain an d th e U p ited S tates).
(IV)
Labor as Affected by the War.
B u i. 170.
B u i. 219.
B u i. 221.
B u i. 222.
B u i. 223.
B u i. 230.
B u i. 237.
B u i. 249.
Foreign food prices as affected b y the war.
In d u strial poisons used or produced in the m anufacture of explosives.
H ours, fatigue, and health in B ritish m u n ition factories.
W elfare w ork in B ritish m u n ition factories.
E m p lo ym en t of w om en and ju ven iles in Great B ritain during the war.
In d u strial efficiency and fatigue in B ritish m u n ition factories.
Indu strial unrest in Great B ritain.
In d u strial h ealth and efficiency. F inal report of B ritish H ealth of M unition W orkers
C om m ittee.
B u i. 255. Joint industrial councils in Great B ritain.
B u i. 283. H istory of th e Shipbuilding Labor A dju stm ent Board, 1917 to 1919.
B u i. 287. N ational W ar Labor Board.
Miscellaneous Series.
*B ul. 117.
*B ul. 118.
*B ul. 123.
*B ul. 158.
*B ul. 159.
*B ul. 167.
B u i. 170.
B u i. 174.
B u i. 208.
B u i. 222.
B u i. 242.
B u i. 250.
B u i. 254.
B u i. 263.
B u i. 266.
B u i. 268.
B u i. 271.
B u i. 282.
B u i. 295.
B u i. 299.
B u i. 313.
B u i. 314.
B u i. 318.
B u i. 319.
P rohibition of night work of young persons.
Ten-hour m axim u m w orking d ay for w om en and young persons.
E m ployers' welfare work.
G overnm ent aid to hom e ow ning and housing of w orking people in foreign countries.
Short-unit courses for w age earners and a factory school experim ent.
M inim um -w age legislation in th e U n ited S tates and foreign countries.
Foreign food prices as affected b y th e war.
Subject in d ex of th e publications of th e U n ited States B ureau of Labor Statistics up to
M ay 1,1915.
Profit sharing in th e U n ited States.
W elfare work in B ritish m u n ition factories.
Food situ ation in central Europe, 1917.
W elfare work for em ployees in industrial establishm ents in th e U n ited States.
International labor legislation and th e society of nations.
H ousing b y em ployers in th e U n ited States.
Proceedings of Seventh A nnual C onvention of G overnm ental Labor Officials of th e U nited
States and Canada.
H istorical su rvey of international action affecting labor.
A d u lt working-class education in Great B ritain and th e U n ited States.
M utual relief associations am ong G overnm ent em ployees in W ashington, D . C.
B uildin g operations in rep resentative cities in 1920.
Personnel research agencies. A guide to organized research in em ploym ent, m anagem ent,
industrial relations, training, and working conditions.
Consum ers' cooperative societies in th e U nited States in 1920.
Cooperative credit societies in A m erica and in foreign countries.
B uildin g perm its in the principal cities of the U nited States.
T he B ureau of Labor Statistics: Its history, activities, and organization.
(▼ )
SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS ISSUED BYTHE BUREAU OF LABORSTATISTICS.
Descriptions of occupations, prepared for the United States Employment Service, 1918-19.
Boots and shoes, harness and saddlery, and tanning.
Cane-sugar refining and flour m illing.
Coal and water gas, paint and varnish, paper, printing trades, and rubber goods.
Electrical manufacturing, distribution, and maintenance.
Glass.
H otels and restaurants.
Logging camps and sawm ills.
Medicinal manufacturing.
Metal working, building and general construction, railroad transportation, and shipbuilding.
Mines and mining.
Office em ployees.
Slaughtering and m eat packing.
Street railways.
♦ Textiles and clothing.
♦ Water transportation.
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(VI)
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@FedFRASER