GENERAL REMARKS. In view of the facts presented in the foregoing report, the opinion of the bureau as to the inadequacy of available means, expressed in the last annual report, is abundantly confirmed. It is on this account that the personnel of the clerks' offices has been unable to provide for the pressing demands by candidates for citizenship, to the financial loss in fees of the Government and to the production of a situation in our four largest cities which nearly approaches a public scandal, and to the heavy cost, delay, and disillusionment, if not disgust, of large bodies of our alien population. For the same reason the efficiency of the service, both in Washington and in the outside field, has been seriously impaired, resulting in a "turnover" in the employees unexampled in any preceding year and large enough to have wrecked any private enterprise subjected to a like strain. This poverty of resources, too, has occurred during a year when the demands upon the service have far surpassed those of any preceding year, for in addition to more than 50,000 military naturalizations, which pay nothing in the way of financial compensation for the clerical and administrative work involved and the material used, there was, even of those who could be accommodated through methods involving a sacrifice of due vigilance and care, an increase of 50 per cent in naturalizations. This Government can not afford at any time, least of all at this time, upon a plea of economy, when an unexpended surplus is shown, to disappoint those who seek American citizenship in good faith, and thus furnish material ripe to the misuse and perversion to revolutionary ideals which have of late been so assiduously, both covertly and in the open, propagated in the United States. In determining the amount of an appropriation one should not lose sight of the fact, for the bureau believes it to be a fact, that insufficient pay tends directly to lower efficiency of the individual unit and resultant increase in numbers, a condition which, whether justified by the actual facts or not, has been the occasion recently of such clamorous outcry against the executive departments. The bureau does not imply, for it is not true, that its higher grade clerks and officers "lie down on their jobs" if underpaid. It has constant evidence to the contrary. They resign. Their skill and efficiency, acquired by years of hard, intelligent service, are thus lost. When such a "gap in the ranks occurs, it can not be filled except rarely, and the inevitable result is either several employees to do the same service, not so well and at much greater cost, or the permanent loss of efficiency. The bureau again urges adequate, not extravagant, appropriations to dispose of its duties and with confidence assigns the foregoing report as justification for such increases as the department may approve. Respectfully, RICHD. K. CAMPBELL, Commissioner of Naturalization. Hon. W. B. WILSON, SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE WOMEN'S BUREAU FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1920. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, WOMEN'S BUREAU, Washington, August 14, 1920. SIR: The second annual report of the Women's Bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920, is submitted herewith: The Women's Bureau was established as the "Woman in Industry Service" in July, 1918, during the war emergency to serve as a policy forming and advisory body whose special duty, in the words of the Secretary of Labor, was to "develop in the industries of the country policies and methods which will result in the most effective use of women's services in production for the war, while at the same time preventing their employment under injurious conditions. Its large and very necessary aim will be to focus attention on the national importance of the conditions of women's work as influencing industrial standards and as affecting the welfare of the entire Nation." As the coming of peace showed no decrease in the need for a clear policy and definite information about the conditions under which women should be employed in the industries of the country, the "Woman in Industry Service" was continued for the fiscal year 1920 through the appropriation by Congress of $40,000 "to enable the Secretary of Labor to continue the investigations touching women in industry." This means of continuation, however, did not provide a permanent future for the service, as the granting of the appropriation was dependent entirely upon Congress, the work of the service being classed as a special activity, and the service itself not having been made statutory and therefore permanent. 66 On June 5, 1920, however, after hearings had been held by a joint committee of the Senate and House, at which many people testified to the need and the demand for a permanent bureau in the Department of Labor to deal with questions relative to the employment of women, a bill was passed by Congress establishing a Women's Bureau in the Department of Labor to formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The said bureau shall have authority to investigate and report to said Department of Labor upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of women in industry." The purpose of the Women's Bureau now is the same as that for which it was originally organized, and as it was stated in the first annual report of the Director of the Woman in Industry Service: 1. To consider all general policies with respect to women in industry and to advise the Secretary of Labor as to the policies which should be pursued. 2. To keep informed of the work of the several divisions of the department in so far as they relate to women in industry and to advise with the divisions on all such work. |