REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF LABOR. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, BUREAU OF LABOR, Washington, January 11, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a detailed report of the work of this Bureau during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. The report is made in two parts. The first part relates to the laws under which the Bureau was established and under which it carries on its work, while the second part relates specifically to the work of the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BUREAU. The Bureau of Labor was originally established as a bureau of the Department of the Interior by an act approved June 27, 1884. This act provided that the "Commissioner shall collect information on the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual, and moral prosperity." In obedience to this law, the Bureau was organized in January, 1885, and shortly thereafter, on February 4, 1885, the policy of the office was declared, in a letter addressed by the Commissioner of Labor to the honorable Secretary of the Interior, as follows: It should be remembered that a bureau of labor can not solve industrial or social problems, nor can it bring direct returns in a material way to the citizens of the country; but its work must be classed among educational efforts, and by judicious investigations and the fearless publication thereof, it may and should enable the people to comprehend more clearly and more fully many of the problems which now vex them. Four years after its organization as a bureau of the Department of the Interior, during which time it had issued four annual reports covering the information collected and collated, as required by the organic act, the Congress established a Department of Labor, independent of any of the executive departments. The act establishing the Department of Labor was approved June 13, 1888, and providedThat there shall be at the seat of Government a Department of Labor, the general design and duties of which shall be to acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States useful information on subjects connected with labor, in the most general and comprehensive sense of that word, and especially upon 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. The act defined the organization of the Department and the duties of the Commissioner, and further provided SEC. 7. That the Commissioner of Labor, in accordance with the general design and duties referred to in section one of this act, is especially charged to ascertain, at as early a date as possible, and whenever industrial changes shall make it essential, the cost of producing articles at the time dutiable in the United States, in leading countries where such articles are produced, by fully specified units of production, and under a classification showing the different elements of cost, or approximate cost, of such articles of production, including the wages paid in such industries per day, week, month, or year, or by the piece; and hours employed per day; and the profits of the manufacturers and producers of such articles; and the comparative cost of living, and the kind of living. "It shall be the duty of the commissioner also to ascertain and report as to the effect of the customs laws, and the effect thereon of the state of the currency, in the United States, on the agricultural industry, especially as to its effect on mortgage indebtedness of farmers;" and what articles are controlled by trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor and what effect said trusts, or other combinations of capital, business operations, or labor have on production and prices. He shall also establish a system of reports by which, at intervals of not less than two years, he can report the general conditions so far as production is concerned, of the leading industries of the country. The Commissioner of Labor is also specially charged to investigate the causes of, and facts relating to, all controversies and disputes between employers and employees as they may occur, and which may tend to interfere with the welfare of the people of the different States, and report thereon to Congress. The Commissioner of Labor shall also obtain such information upon the various subjects committed to him as he may deem desirable from different foreign nations, and what, if any, convict-made goods are imported into this country, and if so, from whence. SEC. 8. That the Commissioner of Labor shall annually make a report in writing to the President and Congress, of the information collected and collated by him, and containing such recommendations as he may deem calculated to promote the efficiency of the department. He is also authorized to make special reports on particular subjects whenever required to do so by the President or either House of Congress, or when he shall think the subject in his charge requires it. He shall, on or before the fifteenth day of December in each year, make a report in detail to Congress of all moneys expended under his direction during the preceding fiscal year. SEC. 9. That all laws and parts of laws relating to the Bureau of Labor created under the act of Congress approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, so far as the same are applicable and not in conflict with this act, and only so far, are continued in full force and effect, and the Commissioner of Labor appointed under said act, approved June twenty-seventh, eighteen hundred and eighty-four, and all clerks and employees in the Bureau of Labor authorized to be appointed by said act or subsequent acts, shall continue in office and employment as if appointed under the provisions of this act, and until a Commissioner of Labor, other officer, clerks, and employees are appointed and qualified as herein required and provided; and the Bureau of Labor, as now organized and existing, shall continue its work as the Department of Labor until the Department of Labor shall be organized in accordance with this act; and the library, records, and all property now in use by the said Bureau of Labor are hereby transferred to the custody of the Department of Labor hereby created, and on the organization of the Department of Labor on the basis of this act the functions of the Bureau of Labor shall cease. Under this act the Department of Labor issued 14 annual reports of the information collected and collated in accordance with the organic act, 9 special reports, and a number of miscellaneous reports, many of which were made in compliance with the special direction of Congress. Since November, 1895, the Bureau has also published a bimonthly bulletin, in accordance with a law approved March 2 of the same year, as follows: The Commissioner of Labor is hereby authorized to prepare and publish a bulletin of the Department of Labor, as to the condition of labor in this and other countries, condensations of State and foreign labor reports, facts as to conditions of employment, and such other facts as may be deemed of value to the industrial interests of the country, and there shall be printed one edition of not exceeding ten thousand copies of each issue of said bulletin for distribution by the Department of Labor. In accordance with the plan adopted the Bulletin has at least four regular departments of information, as follows: First. The results of original investigations conducted by the Bureau or its agents and experts. Second. A digest of State labor reports. Third. A digest of foreign labor and statistical documents. Fourth. The reproduction of current decisions of courts interpreting labor laws or passing upon any subject which involves the relations of employer and employee; and the reproduction at the end of each year of new laws that affect the interests of the working people, whether enacted by Congress or by State legislatures. Under the act approved February 14, 1903, establishing a new executive department, to be known as the Department of Commerce and Labor, it was provided that, among other offices, the existing Department of Labor be placed under the jurisdiction and supervision of the new Department, this provision to take effect and be in force July 1, 1903. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the former Department of Labor, on July 1, 1903, became a bureau of the Department of Commerce and Labor. Inasmuch as no provision was made for any change in its general design and duties, its work has been carried on along practically the same lines as formerly. OPERATIONS DURING THE FISCAL YEAR 1911. PUBLICATIONS. During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, the Bureau published, in addition to the six bimonthly Bulletins, Nos. 89 to 94, its Twentyfourth Annual Report, relating to Workmen's Insurance and Compensation Systems in Europe, and its Fourth Report on Hawaii, a report on the industrial and commercial conditions in the Territory, which is made regularly at intervals of five years. In addition, eight volumes of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child WageEarners in the United States (S. Doc. No. 645, 61st Cong., 2d sess.) were issued. These volumes embody a portion of the results of an investigation of this subject made in compliance with an act of Congress, and their titles are as follows: Volume I. Cotton Textile Industry. Volume II. Men's Ready-Made Clothing. Volume III. Glass Industry. Volume IV. Silk Industry. Volume V. Wage-Earning Women in Stores and Factories. Volume VI. The Beginnings of Child-Labor Legislation in Certain States: A Comparative Study. Volume VII. Conditions under which Children Leave School to go to Work. Since the close of the fiscal year additional volumes have been issued as follows: Volume X. History of Women in Trade Unions. Volume XI. Employment of Women in the Metal Trades. The Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, which relates to Industrial Education in the United States, and which was transmitted early in June, 1911, has also been printed and distributed. In addition to these reports, which have been published and distributed, the Bureau transmitted Volumes IX, XIII, XV, and XVI of the Report on Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States and Volume I of the Report on Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry in the United States. |