ployers. This amalgamated representation of interests that are at times in serious conflict proved unsatisfactory, and an executive department the same in principle as that which had for nearly half a century been urged in the interest of wage earners was demanded with greater popular emphasis than before, and after 10 years, the Department of Commerce and Labor being transformed into the Department of Commerce, the present Department of Labor was created by the act of Congress of March 4, 1913, entitled 'An act to create a Department of Labor.'

"All functions relating more especially to the business side of industrial problems were by that act assigned to the Department of Commerce; the Department of Labor was more especially charged with those that relate to the welfare of wage earners.'

ORGANIC ACT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR.

Formal organization of the Department of Labor began with the date of its creation, March 4, 1913, under the following organic act approved that day:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby created an executive department in the Government to be called the Department of Labor, with a Secretary of Labor, who shall be the head thereof, to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and who shall receive a salary of $12,000 per annum, and whose tenure of office shall be like that of the heads of the other executive departments; and section one hundred and fifty-eight of the Revised Statutes is hereby amended to include such department, and the provisions of title four of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto, are hereby made applicable to said department; and the Department of Commerce and Labor shall hereafter be called the Department of Commerce, and the Secretary thereof shall be called the Secretary of Commerce, and the act creating the said Department of Commerce and Labor is hereby amended accordingly. The purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment. The said Secretary shall cause a seal of office to be made for the said department of such device as the President shall approve and judicial notice shall be taken of the said seal.

SEC. 2. That there shall be in said department an Assistant Secretary of Labor, to be appointed by the President, who shall receive a salary of $5,000 a year. He shall perform such duties as shall be prescribed by the Secretary or required by law. There shall also be one chief clerk and a disbursing clerk, and such other clerical assistants, inspectors, and special agents as may from time to time be provided for by Congress. The Auditor for the State and Other Departments shall receive and examine all accounts of salaries and incidental expenses of the office of the Secretary of Labor and of all bureaus and offices under his direction, and all accounts relating to all other business within the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, and certify the balances arising thereon to the division of bookkeeping and warrants and send forthwith a copy of each certificate to the Secretary of Labor.

SEC. 3. That the following-named offices, bureaus, divisions, and branches of the public service now and heretofore under the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and all that pertains to the same, known as the Commissioner General of Immigration, the commissioners of immigration, the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, the Division of Information, the Division of Naturalization, and the Immigration Service at large, the Bureau of Labor, the Children's Bureau, and the Commissioner of Labor, be, and the same hereby are, transferred from the

Department of Commerce and Labor to the Department of Labor, and the same shall hereafter remain under the jurisdiction and supervision of the last-named department. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization is hereby divided into two bureaus, to be known hereafter as the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization, and the titles Chief Division of Naturalization and Assistant Chief shall be Commissioner of Naturalization and Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization. The Commissioner of Naturalization or, in his absence, the Deputy Commissioner of Naturalization shall be the administrative officer in charge of the Bureau of Naturalization and of the administration of the naturalization laws under the immediate direction of the Secretary of Labor, to whom he shall report directly upon all naturalization matters annually and as otherwise required, and the appointments of these two officers shall be made in the same manner as appointments to competitive classified civil-service positions. The Bureau of Labor shall hereafter be known as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor shall hereafter be known as the Commissioner of Labor Statistics; and all the powers and duties heretofore possessed by the Commissioner of Labor shall be retained and exercised by the Commissioner of Labor Statistics; and the administration of the act of May thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight, granting to certain employees of the United States the right to receive from it compensation for injuries sustained in the course of their employment. SEC. 4. That the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the direction of the Secretary of Labor, shall collect, collate, and report at least once each year, or oftener if necessary, full and complete statistics of the conditions of labor and the products and distribution of the products of the same, and to this end said Secretary shall have power to employ any or either of the bureaus provided for his department and to rearrange such statistical work and to distribute or consolidate the same as may be deemed desirable in the public interests; and said Secretary shall also have authority to call upon other departments of the Government for statistical data and results obtained by them; and said Secretary of Labor may collate, arrange, and publish such statistical information so obtained in such manner as to him may seem wise.

SEC. 5. That the official records and papers now on file in and pertaining exclusively to the business of any bureau, office, department, or branch of the public service in this act transferred to the Department of Labor, together with the furniture now in use in such bureau, office, department, or branch of the public service, shall be, and hereby are, transferred to the Department of Labor.

SEC. 6. That the Secretary of Labor shall have charge in the buildings or premises occupied by or appropriated to the Department of Labor, of the library, furniture, fixtures, records, and other property pertaining to it or hereafter acquired for use in its business; he shall be allowed to expend for periodicals and the purposes of the library and for rental of appropriate quarters for the accomodation of the Department of Labor within the District of Columbia, and for all other incidental expenses, such sums as Congress may provide from time to time: Provided, however, That where any office, bureau, or branch of the public service transferred to the Department of Labor by this act is occupying rented buildings or premises, it may still continue to do so until other suitable quarters are provided for its use: And provided further, That all officers, clerks, and employees now employed in any of the bureaus, offices, departments, or branches of the public service in this act transferred to the Department of Labor are each and all hereby transferred to said department at their present grades and salaries, except where otherwise provided in this act: And provided further, That all laws prescribing the work and defining the duties of the several bureaus, offices, departments, or branches of the public service by this act transferred to and made a part of the Department of Labor shall, so far as the same are not in conflict with the provisions of this act, remain in full force and effect, to be executed under the direction of the Secretary of Labor.

SEC. 7. That there shall be a Solicitor of the Department of Justice for the Department of Labor, whose salary shall be $5,000 per annum.

SEC. 8. That the Secretary of Labor shall have power to act as mediator and to appoint commissioners of conciliation in labor disputes whenever in his judgment the interests of industrial peace may require it to be done; and all duties performed and all power and authority now possessed or exercised by the head of any executive department in and over any bureau, office, officer, board, branch, or division of the public service by this act transferred to the Department of Labor, or any business arising therefrom or pertaining thereto, or in relation to the duties performed by and authority conferred by law upon such bureau, officer, office, board, branch, or division of the public service, whether of an appellate or revisory character or otherwise, shall hereafter be vested in and exercised by the head of the said Department of Labor.

SEC. 9. That the Secretary of Labor shall annually, at the close of each fiscal year, make a report in writing to Congress, giving an account of all moneys received and disbursed by him and his department and describing the work done by the department. He shall also, from time to time, make such special investigations and reports as he may be required to do by the President, or by Congress, or which he himself may deem necessary.

SEC. 10. That the Secretary of Labor shall investigate and report to Congress a plan of coordination of the activities, duties, and powers of the office of the Secretary of Labor with the activities, duties, and powers of the present bureaus, commissions, and departments, so far as they relate to labor and its conditions, in order to harmonize and unify such activities, duties, and powers, with a view to further legislation to further define the duties and powers of such Department of Labor.

SEC. 11. That this act shall take effect March fourth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

GENERAL POLICIES.

The policies pursued by the Department from the time of its creation under the above act were described in the Fourth Annual Report (pp. 132, 133) as follows:

"The Department of Labor was created in the interest of the wage earners of the United States. This is expressly declared by the organic act. The purpose of the Department of Labor,' as that act reads in its first section, 'shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.'

"There is, of course, no authority in that declaration to foster, promote, or develop for wage earners any special privileges; but the inference is irresistible that Congress did intend to conserve their just interests by means of an executive department especially devoted to their welfare.

"Organized and unorganized labor.-Nor is there any implication that the wage earners in whose behalf this Department was created consist of such only as are associated together in labor unions. It was created in the interest of the welfare of all the wage earners of the United States, whether organized or unorganized.

'Inasmuch, however, as it is ordinarily only through organization that the many in any class or of any interest can become articulate with reference to their common needs and aspirations, the Department of Labor is usually under a necessity of turning to the labor organizations that exist and such as may come into existence for

definite and trustworthy advice on the sentiments of the wage-earning classes regarding their common welfare. Freely as conferences with unorganized wage earners are welcome, official intercourse with individuals as such has practical limits which organization alone can remove. Manifestly, then, the Department of Labor must invite the confidence and encourage the cooperation of responsible labor organizations and their accredited officers and committees if it is to subserve its prescribed purpose through an intelligent and effective administration of its authorized functions.

"Fairness to all interests.-While the Department of Labor sustains friendly relations with labor organizations, as in the interest of all wage earners and of the general welfare it ought to do, nevertheless this attitude must not be exclusive. Similar relations with unorganized wage earners, and also with employers and their organizations to the extent to which they themselves permit, are likewise a duty of the department.

"The great guiding purpose, however the purpose that should govern the department at every turn and be understood and acquiesced in by everybody-is the purpose prescribed in terms by the organic act, namely, promotion of the welfare of the wage earners of the United States.

"In the execution of that purpose the element of fairness to every interest is of equal importance, and the Department has, in fact, made fairness between wage earner and wage earner, between wage earner and employer, between employer and employer, and between each and the public as a whole the supreme motive and purpose of its activities. The act of its creation is construed by it not only as a law for promoting the welfare of the wage earners of the United States by improving their working conditions and advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, but as a command for doing so in harmony with the welfare of all industrial classes and all legitimate interests and by methods tending to foster industrial peace through progressively nearer realizations of the highest ideals. of industrial justice."

These principles were originally laid down in times of peace. The war, however, has shown us no necessity for deviating from them, even in times of great emergency. It has, on the other hand, accentuated their fundamental wisdom and the necessity for strict adherence to them. They will probably never be more deeply needed than in the immediate future.

The whole world is face to face with the most difficult peace-time problem it has ever had to deal with. The wastage of war has been tremendous. There has been not only the loss of millions of lives and the permanent disability of other millions of people but also an extraordinary destruction of the material resources of the world. The power of replacement of the things destroyed has been seriously impeded by the conditions that constitute the aftermath of war. Industry has been disarranged by the processes of readjustment to the needs of peace, and commerce has been handicapped by insufficient shipping facilities, rates of foreign exchange, and domestic uncertainty. Many countries are without stable government, and financial infla

tion in all the commercial countries of the world has played havoc with the relative values of money, wages, and commodities.

The effect of these things has been reflected in the high cost of living and the consequent demand for higher wage rates to meet the increasing burden of the family budget. Yet increases in the wage rate do not always give relief. There are but two ways by which the general standard of living of the wage earner can be improved. One is by increased productivity, making more material available for wages. The other is by taking the means of increased compensation out of the profits of the employer. If wages are increased and profits remain the same, the burden is passed on to the consuming public in the form of an increased cost of living and comes back to the wage worker himself. No portion of improved living standards can come out of the profits of the employers unless there is profiteering.

And what gives the opportunity for profiteering? The very conditions that we are confronted with to-day-the destructive agencies of war, the disarrangement of industry and commerce, and the unrest and high nervous tension of our people, resulting in a shortage of supply as compared with demand. The whole world is interested in returning to the highest productive efficiency, having due regard to the health, safety, and opportunities for rest, recreation, and improvement of those who toil. The more productive we are the sooner we shall replace the wastage of war, return to normal price levels, and abolish opportunities for profiteering. There can be no profiteering where the production is ample to meet the needs of the people of the world if there is a free flow of material from producer to consumer. It is only where the production is not sufficient for the needs of the people, or, when sufficient, where artificial obstructions impede proper distribution, that there is any possibility of profiteering. Anything that restricts the highest efficiency commensurate with the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the workers tends to retard the progress of the country as a whole.

For that reason we are all interested in the maintenance of industrial peace. But as this Department declared in its first annual report, there can be no permanent industrial peace that is not based upon industrial justice. Just as international wrongs may accumulate to the point where war is necessary to bring relief, so industrial wrongs may provoke industrial conflict as an alternative to further endurance of the wrongs imposed. Nor is it permissible that either side to an industrial controversy be the sole judge of what constitutes justice. The means must exist by which all men may know that justice has been secured. An imaginary wrong has all the force and effect of reality until it is shown that it is only imaginary. We have found ways of regulating all the other relations of mankind. Surely human intelligence can devise some acceptable method of adjusting the relationship between employer and employee fairly.