of the activities of the Department of Labor. In his report for the year 1923, Secretary Davis thus speaks of the objects for which the department was created:

"The fundamental act creating the Department of Labor primarily requires this department '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.'*** Either accidentally or by design, the Department of Labor has control of matters involving solely and exclusively personal or human rights, affecting the welfare and happiness of men, women and children everywhere. Its responsibilities are measured by its opportunities for good or evil, and the Secretary and the Assistant Secretaries, who act for and in his behalf, are called upon to decide personally and promptly great and momentous questions without the power to delegate the authority. The time of the Second Assistant Secretary is devoted almost exclusively to immigration matters, while the Secretary and First Assistant are employed in the solution of problems equally as perplexing and equally as important arising in connection with the other activities of the department."

The department has sometimes failed to accomplish all it hoped for, or all that was hoped for by the people, but it has brought about a much better condition of affairs between labor and the employment of labor than existed before it was organized under the act of Congress.

The seal as adopted by the department contains the following: Or. on a fesse gules, between an anvil in chief and a plough in base proper, a pulley, a lever and an inclined plane argent. Crest: An eagle displayed proper. Above the seal, placed circularly, the words: "DEPARTMENT OF LABOR," and below in similar manner the words: "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," all inclosed within a circle. The implements (pulley, fulcrum and inclined plane) represented in this design are symbolical of the three fundamental principles of mechanics. The application of these principles to mechanical industry is signified by the anvil and hammer, and to agricultural industry by the plough. The colors are gold and red, the former denoting purity and sterling worth and the latter hardiness and valor.

ROSTER OF SECRETARIES OF LABOR

WILLIAM BAUCHOP WILSON, of Pennsylvania.
From March 5, 1913, to March 5, 1921.

JOHN J. DAVIS, of Indiana.

From March 5, 1921.

BIOGRAPHIES OF SECRETARIES OF LABOR

WILLIAM BAUCHOP WILSON

ILLIAM BAUCHOP WILSON-Secretary of Labor from March 5, 1913, to March 5, 1921. Born in Blantyre, Scotland, April 2, 1862. Son of Adam and Helen Nelson (Bauchop) Wilson. Married, June 7, 1883, Agnes Williamson.

1907-Member national House of Representatives.
1913-Secretary Department of Labor.

Secretary Wilson was of that good, old Scottish blood from which so many of the best citizens of America sprang. In 1870 he came to this country with his parents, who settled in Arnot, Tioga county, Pennsylvania. The next year, as a boy, he began working in the coal mines. That was his occupation for many years.

He was among the most earnest of the organization of the coal miners, given much time and study to the business itself and to what might advance the working miners. He was an ardent union man and stood high with his fellow-workers. From 1900 to 1907 he was secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America. In 1907 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat and re-elected two years later. In Congress he was urgent in advocating every measure that was intended to better, before the laws, the conditions of those who labor for a living, yet was never extreme. When Mr. Woodrow Wilson became President he called Mr. Wilson from his seat in the House of Representatives to take a place in his cabinet as Secretary of the newly created Department of Labor. This office he held during the two terms of President Wilson.

JAMES J. DAVIS

[AMES J. DAVIS-Secretary of Labor from March 5, 1921. Born in Tredegar, Wales, October 27, 1873. Married, in 1914, Miss Jean Rodenbaugh.

1898-City Clerk of Elwood, Indiana.
1892-Recorder of Deeds.

1921-Secretary of Labor.

The life story of Secretary Davis is almost a romance in itself. At the edge of eleven years an assistant to a puddler in a steel mill; at the age of forty-eight a cabinet minister. The "mill boy of the slashes" became Henry Clay, the wonderful orator, the "great commoner"; the "bobbin boy," of Massachusetts, became Nathaniel Banks, Speaker of the national House of Representatives and the wise and patriotic statesman; the "cobbler" of Massachusetts became Henry Wilson, Vice President of the nation; the "rail-splitter," of Illinois, became Abraham Lincoln, the immortal. What other country affords such opportunities? The Secretary of Labor came from a family of puddlers. His grandfather, David, went to Russia and assisted in building blast furnaces in that country. Later he came to the United States on the same business and helped in the building of the first blast furnace in Maryland. His father came to this country and worked as a puddler to earn the passage money of his wife and six children. He first located at Pittsburgh but later removed to Sharon.

The Secretary was but ten years old when he came with his mother across the ocean to join the father at Sharon. There he soon went to work. His first employment was that of driving cows twice a day to and from pasture. For this he received one dollar and twenty-five cents per month. This was a small beginning, but it was a start in industry. At eleven years of age he began work in a nail factory for fifty cents per day. From this he graduated into a rolling mill as puddler's helper. By the time he reached sixteen years of age he was a finished puddler, capable of managing a furnace. Of this part of his life he said:

Once a puddler, I joined the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers became, in short, a union man. A rule of the association provides that any one on ceasing to be a worker in iron, steel or tin forfeits his membership.

A resolution, however, was adopted in behalf of Mahlan M. Garland and myself, under which both of us were permitted to remain in the organization. Mr. Garland had formerly been a puddler and served six years in Congress, dying not long ago in office. I still have my union card and so long as I pay my dues will be a member in good standing.

From Sharon he went first to Pittsburgh, and then to Elwood, Indiana, where he found a place in a tin mill. He took an active part in the labor union at Elwood and was made chairman of the organization.