sentative of employers, wageworkers, and the general public. This council made many recommendations, nearly all of which were adopted and put in operation either in their original form or with necessary modifications. The general plan involved a reorganization of the existing subdivisions of the Department of Labor so as to improve their suitability for war-emergency purposes. It also provided for additional subdivisions of the Department and for methods by which they could be brought into proper administrative relations with bureaus in other departments as well as those in the Department of Labor. In carrying this general plan into effect frequent departures from specific recommendations of the Advisory Council were made, but the recommendations were closely adhered to in principle.23

The National War Labor Board.

Upon the advice of the Advisory Council, the Secretary called a joint conference of employers and wageworkers, represented by five delegates from the National Industrial Conference Board (employers) and five from the American Federation of Labor (wageworkers), inviting each set of delegates to choose a chairman to preside on alternate days. This conference unanimously recommended the creation of a National War Labor Board. The Secretary of Labor thereupon appointed such a board, and the action of the conference and the Secretary's appointments were approved and proclaimed by the President. Thereafter and until June 30, 1919, that joint board functioned in the Department of Labor to the general satisfaction of all interests concerned.24

War Labor Policies Board.

The organization problems considered by the Advisory Council included one with reference to regulating certain relations of subdivisions of the Department of Labor to subdivisions of other departments. For instance, for fixing wages and determining working conditions there were adjustment boards and agencies in nearly every production branch of the Government. As their work frequently conflicted it was extremely desirable that their varying policies be unified so that they might function harmoniously in the adjustment of labor disputes. To harmonize these discordant agencies the Advisory Council recommended and the Secretary of Labor organized the War Labor Policies Board.

23 Department Reports of 1918, pp. 95-98. Ex-Gov. John Lind, of Minnesota was the chairman of this council.

24 This is the board of which ex-President Taft and Hon. Frank P. Walsh were "joint chairmen." See Department Reports, 1918, pp. 99-111; 1919, pp. 120-132 and 1161-1298.

Its function was to reconcile interdepartmental differences as to, administration with reference to labor matters and to recommend to the Secretary unified labor policies for harmonizing the industrial activities of separate branches of the Government. Although it was created by the Secretary of Labor and operated under his direction, it included representatives of the War Department, the Navy Department, the Department of Agriculture, the United States Shipping Board, the Emergency Fleet Corporation, the Fuel Administration, the Food Administration, the Railroad Administration, and the War Industries Board, as well as the Department of Labor.25

Woman in Industry Service.

The Advisory Council included among its recommendations a plan for the special consideration of such labor problems as involve women, but lack of funds made it impossible to carry out the plan until the beginning of the fiscal year after which it was proposed. When organized, this service was charged with the duty of developing standards and policies to insure effective employment of women while conserving their health and welfare, to keep in close touch with the other subdivisions of the Department of Labor, each of which has a relation to women in industry, and to coordinate such work in other Federal departments. Its aim was to unite in the active carrying out of a consistent and rounded program by all the agencies which touch various phases of the problem of women wage earners. At the outset it was confronted by problems involved in a rapidly increasing reliance upon the work of women as a reserve labor force when men were being withdrawn for military service at the rate of a quarter of a million a month. This rapid increase in the employment of women constituted a peculiar war problem. Fundamentally, however, the purpose of the Department of Labor in its relation to women in industry is identical in peace and in war, and while the problems of women in industry during the war differed in form from similar problems in time of peace, the fundamental tasks were so much alike that the experience gained in dealing with them during the war offered a basis for postwar organization. This service was therefore continued by Congress upon the recommendation of the Department from the beginning of the fiscal year 1920 as the Women's Bureau.2

26

This is the board of which Felix Frankfurter, as Assistant to the Secretary of Labor, was chairman. See Department Reports of 1918, pp. 115-118; 1919, pp. 135-139. Department Reports of 1917, pp. 71-74; 1918, pp. 118-124; 1919, pp. 139-159 and

1131-1159.

Information and Education Service.

A more immediate and extensive diffusion of informative and educational matter than could be effected through the statistical bureau of the Department becoming imperative in the emergency of war, the Information and Education Service was established in July, 1918. Its function was to assemble and give proper publicity to war activities of the Department during the war period and to stimulate public sentiment with reference to the utilization of labor in production. Besides the multifarious routine work in which this service engaged, it was instrumental in procuring a valuable report, through the Gundlach commission of employers, on the attitude of European employers toward adjustments of labor disputes, the views of European working groups and their leaders, and methods and plans of European Governments for allaying labor unrest. It also brought about, under the direction of the Secretary of Labor, the Conference of Governors and Mayors, which was held at the White House in the spring of 1919.27

The work of this service included a News Division, whereby material was supplied to the 5,000 largest newspapers, special feature stories to the Sunday newspapers, and material to prominent magazine writers who used it for stories produced in their own way; an Information Division, which sent public speakers to business, labor, and civic organizations; an Industrial Plants Division, which operated exclusively among workers in factories and other industrial plants to familiarize them with war policies of the Government and to promote the sale of Liberty bonds; and an Economics Division, which prepared material furnished by the other three divisions, thereby serving as a check on the work and to prevent the various divisions from overlapping. The Economics Division issued various reports, the most important, The Economics of Construction, being the most complete study of the construction industry ever issued by any governmental or private agency.

The home-building campaign was carried on by the Information and Education Service through its Economics Division. At the close of the war the country was confronted by absolute stagnation in the building trades. At the same time there was a great shortage of dwellings. Considering these conditions, and also the fact that the building industry stimulates every other industry-it being almost impossible to build and furnish a house without making demands upon almost every other line of business-the Department of Labor authorized the Information and Education Service to institute a campaign for both public and private construction.

Department Reports of 1918, pp. 129-132; 1919. pp. 171-186 and 1091-1129. The director general of this service was Roger W. Babson.

In consequence of this campaign, public works throughout the country which had been held in abeyance were begun and completed; private interests also were encouraged to begin building. The home-building campaign was promoted not only by means of publicity but also through conferences with interests controlling materials, with banks controlling money, and with labor unions. Unfortunately, some real-estate interests in a few cities twisted the campaign into a home-buying campaign, with a view to promoting the purchase of homes already built. But these instances were few, and on the whole the campaign was far-reaching and effective in promoting construction. Had the Department been permitted to continue its work there would now be fewer complaints of houseshortage. By building their own homes wageworkers would be creating homes for themselves, saving money, and stimulating employment. They would also be conserving good order.

When the home-building campaign was begun the cost of building was 25 per cent more than before the war. There was also a downward tendency in some prices, a decline which was predicted also in building lines. This operated as a check upon the movement. Some of the best economists of the country were, therefore, requested to analyze the situation with care and report. These men came to the unanimous conclusion that whatever might happen to other commodities, the cost of the cement, bricks, lumber, and labor required for building would increase rather than decrease during 1919 and 1920. The Department of Labor announced this conclusion through the Information and Education Service. It was criticized for it, but subsequent events have fully justified its course. Instead of decreasing in price, building materials have continually risen, until now it costs about 50 per cent more to build a house than when the home-building campaign was begun. As it was a mistake to infer that building materials would decline in price, so it was a mistake to suppose that an era of home-building would increase the prices of homes, as some of the opposition implied. House rentals and prices increase with an inadequate rather than with an adequate supply. It is to be regretted that a continuance of the home-building campaign was prevented by circumstances over which the Department had no control.

United States Training Service.

Among the instructions of the President to the Secretary of Labor directing him to form a war labor administration was one calling for "a satisfactory method and administration for training of workers" and "an agency for dilution of skilled labor as and when needed." The United States Training Service (at first called the Training and

Dilution Service) was accordingly instituted in July, 1918. Its organization and activities are described in the annual reports of the two years of its existence, during which it stimulated industrial training.28 Among the most valuable contributions to the practical literature of industry are its series of bulletins, which comprises the following: "How to start a training department in a factory," "British methods of training workers in war industries," "Training employees for better production," "Training labor for peace time," "Labor turnover and industrial training," "Industrial training and foreign trade," "Some advantages of industrial training," "Efficient training in a large plant," "How training departments have bettered production," "Industrial training in representative industries," "Training in industrial plants," "Training workers in the women's cloak and skirt industry," "Training in the rubber industry," "Training in the shoe industry," "Courses of instruction in piano making," and "Foremanship training courses." This service found that "labor wants an open way to self-development, a real opportunity for selfadvancement, and that through a system of practical industrial training, intensive but thorough, lies more of such opportunity than in any of the present accepted types of education." For lack of appropriations this valuable industrial service was abandoned with the close of the fiscal year 1919.29

Investigation and Inspection Service.

The object of this war service was to make quick investigations of acute industrial situations, reporting the facts promptly to such other subdivisions of the Department as were authorized to deal with the subject matter. It did not make investigations upon its own initiative, but only upon authoritative requests. Such requests came from the Office of the Secretary, the Division of Conciliation, the Employment Service, the Division of Negro Economics, the Bureau of Immigration, the Training Service, the Woman in Industry Service, and the Working Conditions Service. Extensive investigations were made also for the War Industries Board and the Ordnance Department of the Army. With the close of the fiscal year 1919 the Investigation and Inspection Service was discontinued.30

Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation.

War emergencies necessitated and Congress authorized the establishment of this agency for building houses for industrial workers and providing for their transportation. To fulfill contracts, war in

28 Department Reports of 1918, pp. 125-129; 1919, pp. 163-171.

29 Department Reports of 1919, pp. 168 and 171.

30 Department Reports of 1918, pp. 124-125; 1919, pp. 159-163.